Spread of Civilizations in East Asia: 500 - 1650

Two Golden Ages of China: The Tang and the Song

The Sui DynastyAD 589- 618

• The Han Empire (210 BC-Ad 220) like the Roman Empire, collapsed

• The Sui Dynasty AD 589-618 unified China for the first time in 400 years

• Emperor Wendi• Capital was at Changan• Wendi and Yangdi were harsh rulers• Forced peasant to fight in army or work on public works

projects-(corvee)• Wen Di was Buddhist , encouraged Confucianism and

Daoism too• Continued building Grand Canal• Rebuilt Great Wall

Tang DynastyAD 618 - 907

• Emperor Taizong in 626

• Buddhism spread• Learning,arts

flourished• Farm production

expanded • Technology improved• Invaders assimilated

Tang Dynasty: Building an Empire

• Brilliant general, government reformer, historian, master of calligraphy

• China’s most admired emperor

Emperor Tang Taizong

Tang Dynasty: Building an Empire

Tang Dynasty: Government & Economy

• most extensive empire in Chinese history

• Rebuilt Han bureaucracy• Upheld Confucian ideals • perfected civil service exams• Recruited Confucian scholars• Government officials had

highest status in society• Set up schools to prepare

male students for the exams • Developed flexible law code

Empress Wu

Emperor Receives A Civil Service Candidate

Tang Dynasty: Government & Economy

• gave land to peasants; (equal field system)

• weakened power of large land owners

• some peasants gained wealth

• Increased government revenues & power

• Scholars became new ruling elite

• Emperors directly controlled army

Tang Dynasty: Government & Economy

• Canals encouraged internal trade & transportation (military & trade)

• Grand Canal linked the Huang He to the Yangzi

• Food grown in the south could be shipped to the capital in the north

The Grand Canal• longest

waterway ever dug by human labor

• Designed to transport military

• 1200 miles; still used today

Tang Dynasty Decline AD 907

• Emperors lost territories in Central Asia to Arabs

• Corruption, high taxes, drought, famine, & rebellions

• Mandate of Heaven revoked

• 907, rebel leader overthrew last Tang emperor

• 50 years pass before next dynasty

The Song Dynasty:AD 960-1279

• Tai Zu founded after 50 years of civil war & reunited much of China

• Faced constant threats from Mongolians & Manchurians

• Forced to establish new capital in south at Hangzhou -south of Huang He -ruled for another 150 years

Song Dynasty

• Bureaucrats selected according to scores they obtained on civil-service exams -meritocracy

• Zen Buddhism became popular

• Power of merchant class rose –increased trade

• New strains of rice allowed double output

Tang & Song Golden Age

• Wealth• Culture• Foreign Trade• Paper Money• Porcelain

Technology of Tang & Song

• Gunpowder• Block printing• Movable type

More Advances

• small pox vaccine in the 10th century.

• Spinning wheel• Arches • Gunpowder –

combination of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal

• block printing – characters carved onto a

wooden block then inked and pressed onto a sheet of paper

• Sailing ship – the junk• mechanical clocks

Song Golden Age

• Wealth and culture dominated East Asia• Farming shifted from wheat fields of the north to rice

paddies of Yangzi in south• New strains of rice & Improved irrigation=two crops per

year• Created surplus; allowed more people to pursue

commerce, learning or arts

Prosperity Under the Song

• Cities grew• Foreign trade flourished• Merchants from India,

Persia, & Arabia • Paper money

City Life During the Song Dynasty

Qing Ming Festival

Group of seated female musicians, Tang dynasty (618–906), late 7th century

Night-Shining White, Tang dynasty (618–906), ca. 750

Chinese Society During Tang & Song

• Well-ordered• Highly stratified• Gentry• Peasantry-relied on

each other not government

• Merchants at the bottom

Emperor and aristocratic families at the top

Song Dynasty: Women

• Higher status than later periods

• Girls are “small happiness”

• Footbinding custom emerges

• “Golden Lillies”

Song Dynasty: Arts & Literature

• Wealthy people bought books, paintings, and other art to decorate homes

Song Dynasty: Landscape Painting

• Reaches a high point• Artists would meditate for

days on a landscape, capture mood, and then paint from memory

• Painting done with brushes and ink on silk

• Stress harmony of nature• Influence of Buddhism

declines • Influence of Daoism

grows

Song Dynasty: Other Arts

• Indian Stupa becomes Chinese pagoda

• Buddha statue

Porcelain

Literature• Poetry• Philosophy• Religion• History

Poetry • Human emotions

• Nature• Individuals

place in universe

Down the blue mountain in the evening, Moonlight was my homeward escort. Looking back, I saw my path Lie in levels of deep shadow.... I was passing the farm-house of a friend, When his children called from a gate of thorn And led me twining through jade bamboos Where green vines caught and held my clothes. And I was glad of a chance to rest And glad of a chance to drink with my friend.... We sang to the tune of the wind in the pines; And we finished our songs as the stars went down, When, I being drunk and my friend more than happy, Between us we forgot the world.

Li Bo

The Mongols

How did Genghis Khan conquer and create the largest empire ever known?

• Largest empire ever to exist, spanning the entire Asian continent from the Pacific Ocean to modern-day Hungary in Europe.

• visionary leadership • superior organizational skills• the swiftest and most resilient cavalry ever

known• army of superb archers (the "devil's horsemen"

in Western sources)• Asian states were politically weak• and, of course, havoc and devastation

Mongolian Artifacts

Mongolian ewer

Legacy of Genghis & Mongols• cultural & artistic

development • courtly way of life • Pax Mongolica• Divided into four main

branches – the Yuan

Dynasty( (The Great Khan)

– the Chaghatay Khanate in Central Asia (ca. 1227–1363)

– the Golden Horde in southern Russia extending into Europe (ca. 1227–1502)

– Ilkhanid Dynasty in Greater Iran (1256–1353)

Mongol Rule• Transformed themselves from

nomadic tribal people into rulers• Quickly learned how to administer

their vast empire • Adopted system of administration

of the conquered states• Some Mongols in the top positions

but allowed former local officials to run everyday affairs

• Khanates were connected through an intricate network that crisscrossed the continent

• Horses made swift communication possible, carrying written messages through a relay system of stations.

• A letter sent by the emperor in Beijing and carried by an envoy wearing his paiza, or passport, could reach the Ilkhanid capital Tabriz, some 5,000 miles away, in about a month

Legacy of Pax Mongolica

• Active trade • transfer and resettlement of artists and

craftsmen along the main routes • New influences integrated with established local

artistic traditions• By the middle of the thirteenth century, the

Mongols had formed the largest contiguous empire in the world, uniting Chinese, Islamic, Iranian, Central Asian, and nomadic cultures within an overarching Mongol sensibility

The Mongols/Yuan Dynasty

• Mongols overrun Songs to become the only “foreign” dynasty to rule China

The Mongols in China: Kublai Khan1214-1294

• Grandson of Genghis Khan

• Becomes emperor in 1279 or 1271 after 40 years of conflict with Song

• Buddhism state religion• Welcomes foreigners to

his court• Hires Marco Polo for 17

years.

Mongol/Yuan Rule

• Not oppressive• Allowed people to live

as before if they paid regular tribute

• At first, abolished civil-service but then reinstated it

• Turks and Persians run it

Mongol Rule

• Strict hierarchy developed:1. Tax-free Mongols

2. Non-Chinese civil Servants

3. Northern Chinese

4. Southern Chinese

• Intelligentsia ignored

Mongol Religion

• Kublai Khan retained shamanism

• Chinese beliefs unaffected by Yuan rule

• Buddhist monasteries increased

Mongolian Shamanism Ceremony

Pax Mongolia1200-1300’s

• Mongols controlled The Silk Road

• Provided protection• Trade flourished

Mongol Passport

13th century

China Under Mongol Rule

• After subduing Northern and then Southern China (Songs) Kublai Khan ruled from his capital (today’s Beijing) all of China and Korea, Tibet, and Vietnam

Mongol Yuan Dynasty

• Kublai initially resists Mongol assimilation

• Only Mongols allowed in military and high government jobs

• Too few Mongols to control vast empire

• Uneasy mix of Chinese and foreign ways develop

• Kublai reverses adapts Chinese name for dynasty- Yuan

• Welcomes outsiders to his court (Marco Polo)

Marco Polo1254-1324

• 17 years old when he went with his uncle and dad (merchants) across Persia and Central Asia to reach China when he was 21

• Kublai Khan who hired him to stay for 17 years

• Returned to Venice when he was 41 (1295)

• Captured and imprisoned • Wrote Divisament dou

Monde about the wonders of China

Ming Dynasty: Restoration of Chinese Rule

• Chinese took advantage of chaos during late Yuan rule to rebel against the Mongols

• Rebel leader and founder of Ming Dynasty, Hong Wu, named his dynasty “brilliant”

How did the Ming govern China?

• Reintroduced the civil-Service Exam

• Emperors very powerful, ruled as despots

• Brief period of overseas exploration although later Ming emperors prohibited foreign trade

Ming Belief System• Rebirth of Confucianism• Combined belief in Daoism, Confucianism

and Buddhism

Confucius, Buddha, and Lao-Tse tasting from a pot of vinegar, meant to symbolize the essence of life. Confucius believed that life was sour, and required rules and regulations to correct the impropriety of the people who lived it; he makes a sour face in reaction to the vinegar. Buddha believed that life was suffering, and that the path to enlightenment lay with the elimination of our earthly desires; his face is stern and contemplative. Lao-Tse, who believed that life – is by nature imperfect, confusing, and complex – was sweet and beautiful, is smiling.

Daily Life under the Ming

• Rebuilt bridges, canals, roads, temples, shrines, and the walls of 500 cities

• At first reduced taxes, improved trade & agriculture

• Later, heavy taxation and careless government produced peasant rebellion and civil war

How did this dynasty help China?

• Secured borders of China to prevent foreign invasion• Gained control of Korea, Mongolia, parts of Central and

Southeast Asia• Eliminated Mongol influences and revived traditional

Chinese values and practices like Confucian principles.

Ming China

Zheng He

Voyages of Zheng He