Reunification and Renaissance in China

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Reunification and Renaissance in China
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Era of Division 220-589 CE

•       New series of nomadic invasions and
  regional wars for imperial power
•       Bureaucratic apparatus disappeared
•       Buddhism eclipsed Confucian teachings
•       Great Wall divided between kingdoms
  usually poorly defended
•       Trade and city life declined, technology
  stagnated

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Rise of the Sui

• 580s initial rise of the Sui dynasty
• Wendi- marriage between his daughter and ruler of
  northern Zhou- then seized the throne of his
  son-in-law and took won support of nomadic
  military commanders
• Extended the empire across northern China and in
  589 conquered the Chen kingdom
• Won widespread support by lowering taxes,
  establishing granaries

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Sui Excesses and Collapse

•       Wendis son Yangdi (who murdered his
  father to reach the throne) extended conquests
  and drove back invaders
•       Legal and educational reforms promoted the
  scholar-gentry but at the expense of great
  aristocratic families and military commanders
•       Yangdis extravagant lifestyle and use of
  subjects as labor
•       611-614- Korea campaign- failed
•       Soon widespread revolts across empire
•       618- Yangdi assassinated by one of his own
  ministers

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The emergence of the Tang and the Restoration of
the Empire

•      Li Yuan, Duke of Tang- one of Yangdis
  loyal officials
•       623 Li Yuan emerged victorious after
  five-year struggle after Yangdis death
•       Conquered deep into central Asia- this
  meant that nomadic invaders had to submit to Tang
  rule
•       Created frontier armies (from Turkic
  peoples- sent sons to live in the cities)
•       Extended further into parts of Vietnam and
  Korea- they built an empire bigger than the
  boundaries of modern-day China

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Rebuilding the Bureaucracy

•       Increase in power of scholar-gentry-
  decrease in power of aristocratic families so
  from the Tang-era onward political power in China
  shared by imperial families and the bureaucrats
  of the civil service system
•       Changan- new capital
•       Bureaucracy reached county levels

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The Growing Importance of the Examination System

•       Patronized academies to train state
  officials and educate them in Confucian classics,
  which were thought to teach moral and
  organizational principles- Ministry of Rites
  administered the examinations
•       Jinshi- those who passed exams on the
  philosophical and legal classics and Chinese
  literature
•       Birth and family position still very
  important- upper levels of power still dominated
  by aristocracy- fathers to sons

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State Religion in the Tang-Song Era

•       Increasing state patronage for Confucian
  learning threatened old aristocratic families and
  Buddhist monastic orders
•       Buddhism proliferated in China after the
  fall of the Han. Masses adopted pure land strain
  of Mahayana Buddhism which provided refuge from
  turmoil and war, while elite attracted to Zen
  Buddhism with its stress on meditation and
  natural beauty- goal to escape cycle of rebirth
•       Early Tang rulers patronized Buddhism
  while promoting Confucian classics studies
•       Empress Wu (Tang ruler from 690-705 CE)
  supported Buddhist establishment heavily- even
  tried to elevate it to a state religion

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Anti-Buddhist Backlash

•       Daoist monks tried to counter Buddhism by
  stressing their own magical and predictive powers
•       Confucian scholar-administrators- campaign
  against Buddhist monastic lands because they
  werent taxed- this was most damaging
•       By mid-8th century state fears of Buddhist
  wealth and power led to measures to limit the
  flow of land and resources to the monastic
  orders. Emperor Wuzong (r. 841-847) open
  persecution of Buddhists
•       Confucianism emerged again as the central
  ideology of Chinese civilization for most of the
  period from the 9th- 20th century
•       Buddhism had opposite experience in
  mainland southeast Asia, Tibet, and parts of
  Central Asia

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Tang Decline and the Rise of the Song

•   After Empress Wu, Empress Wei tried to control
  the country and placed her child on the throne
  but her attempt was thwarted by a prince who
  became emperor Xuanzong (r. 713 756) marked the
  peak of the Tang power and the high point of
  Chinese civilization under the dynasty
•       Xuanzong started out strong but then
  became disinterested and the empire waned- he
  became infatuated with Yang Guifei (a young woman
  from the harem of an imperial prince) after the
  death of his second wife- their romance famous
  for further weakening the empire. She became a
  royal concubine and moved her greedy relatives
  into power. Economic distress coupled with anger
  over the state affairs led to An Lushan leading a
  revolt in 755 with the intention of establishing
  a new Tang dynasty

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•       Revolt crushed but at a high cost - Tang
  had allied themselves with nomadic peoples in the
  north, delegated resources and political power to
  regional commanders who remained loyal to the
  dynasty. Nomads took advantage of the situation.
  Regional powers began acting independently.
  Succession of revolts in the 9th century.
• 907 last emperor of Tang dynasty forced to resign

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The Founding of the Song Dynasty

•       960- military commander Zhao Kuangyin
  emerged to reunite China under single dynasty
  (educated man) He was renamed emperor Taizu and
  founded Song dynasty
• Routed out all rivals except one- northern Liao
  dynasty which had been founded in 907 by the
  nomadic Khitan peoples from Manchuria- plagued
  the dynasty- in 1004 Song forced to pay tribute
  to keep it from raiding the Song domains

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Song Politics Settling for Partial Restoration

•       Song never matched Tang in political or
  military strength. Military subordinate to
  civilian administrators. Military commanders
  rotated to keep them from building up a base
• Strong promotion of Confucian scholar-gentry.
  Routinized civil service exams. Bureaucracy
  bloated with well-paid officials with nothing to
  do

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The Revival of Confucian Thought

•       Revival of Confucian thought dominated
  intellectual life. Study of classical texts. New
  schools of philosophy
•       Zhu Xi- prominent thinker who stressed the
  importance of applying philosophical principles
  to everyday life and action (neo-Confucians)-
  cultivating personal morality the highest goal-
  hostility to outside influence- eventually
  stifled innovation and critical thinking of the
  elite. Emphasis on rank, obligation, deference.
  Importance of upholding the patriarch in Chinese
  household.

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Roots of Decline Attempts at Reform

•       Mid-11th century Tangut tribes (originally
  from Tibet) had established a kingdom Xi Xia.
  Song had to pay tribute and this drained
  resources from the empire.
•       Cost of army to ward off invaders
  burdensome (but size of army much greater than
  counterparts in Japan and western Europe).
  Emphasis on scholar-gentry meant no good military
  commanders
•       1070s and 1080s Wang Anshi (a chief
  minister of the Song Shenzong emperor) tried to
  ward off impending collapse by introducing
  reforms but his reforms depended on support from
  the Shenzong emperor but he died in 1085 and
  Anshi lost support

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Reaction and Disaster The Flight to the South

•       Economic conditions worsened and peasant
  unrest increased
•       1115 nomadic contender the Jurchens
  overthrew the Liao dynasty of the Khitans and
  established the Jin kingdom. Soon the Jin annexed
  most of the Yellow River basin and forced the
  Song to flee south
•       Song capital transferred to Hangzhou-
  Southern Song dynasty (1127-1279). Politically
  nothing much but culturally one of the most
  glorious in history.

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Golden Age of Prosperity

•       Grand Canal-constructed by Yangdi and
  nearly 1200 miles long- ran North to South and
  linked north China plain to Yangtze river basin.
  This made south become major food-producing area
  of the empire
•       Commerical expansion- Tang control of
  Central Asia reopened the silk roads China
  mainly exporting manufactured goods and imported
  luxury goods, such as aromatic woods and spices.
  Chinese junks the best ships in the world at the
  time (along with the Arab dhows). Banks, money,
  guilds

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City and Rural Growth

•       The World's Most Splendid Cities -
  Changan- nearly 2 million inhabitants and the
  largest in the world. Roughly 10 percent of pop.
  living in urban cities. Hangzhou- size, beauty,
  sophistication
•       Expanding Agrarian Production and Life in
  the Country- state-regulated irrigation systems
  and settlement of unsettled areas improved
  methods increased yield of peasant production
  policies aimed at breaking the great estates of
  the old aristocracy

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Family Life

•       family organization largely resembled old
  family organization male-dominated hierarchy
  promoted by Confucianism women subordinate but
  some elite women had access to power and divorce
  was allowed as were "complementary husbands"

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Gender Relations

• Neo-Confucian Assertion of Male Dominance -
  overall condition of women worsened,
  neo-Confucian thinkers stressed female role as
  homemaker and mother and bearer of sons,
  advocated confining women in contrast, men were
  out and about footbinding- late Song era- lower
  class slower to adopt practice because needed
  mobile women as workers

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Invention and Creativity

• - technological advances- grand canal, dikes,
  dams, bridges, explosive powder domestically-
  chairs, tea drinking across empire, coal others-
  compass for navigation, moveable type by Bi
  Sheng, high level of literacy, abacus

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Scholarly Achievement

•       Scholarly Refinement and Artistic
  Accomplishment - generalists not specialists
  Tang best remembered for its Confucian teachers
  and scholar-administrators Heavy focus in
  literature on common life Li Bo most famous poet
  of Tang era Song era- intense interest in nature
  in art