Tang Dynasty 618-907 C.E

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Dynasty 618-907 C.E

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Dynasty • Summary: • Second Classical Chinese Age • Very similar to the Han Dynasty • Confucianism again dominates govt leaders • Confucian Civil Service Exams used to hire administrators for the Chinese government locally, regionally and nationally • Extended its influence throughout East Asia (Japan and Korea) • Re-built the new capital at Xi’an

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Expansion • Powerful military state • extended the boundaries of China through Siberia • Korea in the east • Vietnam in the South. • extended a corridor of control along the Silk Road well into modern-day Afghanistan

Sui, Tang and Song China Empress Wu 625-705 AD • Only female ruler of China • Cruel but effective ruler • Had to fight the Confucian social belief that women should serve men • Encouraged women to be more vocal and demand better treatment from their family

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Economy • Reestablished the safety of the Silk Road. • Silk Road trade with Middle East and Constantinople • New Inventions: • Printing press using moveable print • Porcelain used for dishes and decoratives • Gunpowder originally for fireworks but eventually for weapons • Mechanical clocks

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Religion/Philosophy • Liberal attitude towards all religions at first. • 1st big spread of Buddhism in China • Later during the Tang, Confucianism becomes more aggressive in fighting Buddhist influence in China

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Social Life • Trade brings people from all over the world to China; especially in cities • Cities have a great social life with live music and drama • Tang people loved poetry and landscape painting • Confucian social hierarchy dominates

Sui, Tang and Song China Tea • Tea comes into China from Southeast Asia • Tea and Horse Trade Route to Tibet increases tea availability in China

Sui, Tang and Song China Foot-Binding in Tang China (from Susan Pojer's presentation) • Broken toes by 3 years of age. • Size 5 ½ shoe on the right

Sui, Tang and Song China The Results of Foot-Binding

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Xuanzong (The Profound Emperor) and Consort Yang

Sui, Tang and Song China Mistress Yang and the An Lushan Rebellion755-763 • Emperor fell in love with a young concubine named Yang Guifei, • The Emperor wasted money and time on Yang and neglected his duties making others jealous and harming China • Yang told the Emperor to hire her friends to rule which made situation worse • One of these was a general named An Lushan, who quickly accumulated power. • An Lushan eventually decided that he would make a pretty good emperor, and launched a rebellion. • The emperor was forced to flee the capital, and on the way, the palace guard strangled Tang and threw her corpse in a ditch. • the rebellion pretty much shattered centralized Tang control, and for the remaining 150 years of the dynasty, the country slowly disintegrated

Sui, Tang and Song China An original Limerick • The Emperor Xuanzong • fell in love with a concubine named Yang • But she had a man on the side • To take over the empire – he tried • Which led to the next dynasty - named Song

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Poetry • The Tang dynasty is often referred to as China's golden age. • And Tang poets are perhaps the best known and most revered of all Chinese literary figures. Wang Wei 699 - 761Li Bo 701 - 762Du Fu 721 - 770

Sui, Tang and Song China Tang Poetry Combines 3 Strands of Chinese thought • Buddhism emphasized the impermanence of life, • Daoism emphasized abandonment to the Way found in nature. • Confucianism stressed moral responsibility and service to the state. • "Three Teachings" informed the thought and behavior of emperors and Chinese Confucian scholars

Sui, Tang and Song China • Almost all Chinese poems are written in couplets. • Every two lines form a separate statement. • Tang poetry was usually done in 4 couplet poems • Poetry is often done in calligraphy and on landscape paintings

Sui, Tang and Song China "On the River"by Du Fu • On the river, every day these heavy rains--bleak, bleak, autumn in Ching-ch'u • High winds strip the leaves from the trees; through the long night I hug my fur robe. • I recall my official record, keep looking in the mirror, recall my comings and goings, leaning alone in an upper room. • In these perilous times I long to serve my sovereign--old and feeble as I am, I can't stop thinking of it!

Sui, Tang and Song China "I Stand Alone"by Du Fu • A single bird of prey beyond the sky. a pair of white gulls between riverbanks. Hovering wind tossed, ready to strike; the pair, at their ease, roaming to and fro. And the dew is also full on the grasses, spiders' filaments still not drawn in. Instigations in nature approach men's affairs-- I stand alone in thousands of sources of worry

Sui, Tang and Song China Transition Period between Tang and Song • 907 - 960 saw the fragmentation of China into five northern dynasties and ten southern kingdoms until Song unified all of China again

Tang Dynasty 618-907 C.E