Transcript Document

The Resurgence of Empire in East
Asia
Chapter 14
I: Imperial Restoration: the Sui Dynasty
• Post-Han: regional kingdoms
• Late 500s: one kingdom reunified through military
campaigns -> Sui dynasty (589-618 CE)
• High demands on citizens: construction projects
(Grand Canal – facilitated trade between north
and south), military, taxes
• -> hostility and rebellion, assassination
of emperor
I: Tang Dynasty
• Rebel leader seized Chang’an -> Tang Dynasty (618907 CE)
• Stability and prosperity: less banditry, lower prices,
lower taxes
• 3 policies:
– Maintenance of transportation
and communication networks:
canal, roads (horses and human
runners, inns, postal stations,
stables – 8 days)
I: Tang Dynasty
• 3 policies (cont.)
– Equal-field system: to avoid land accumulation by rich,
land allotments based on needs;
• worked for 100 years, and then problems (pop. Strain,
hoarding, Buddhists)
– Merit-based bureaucracy: Confucian education and
civil service exams (equal opportunities)
I: Tang Dynasty
• Military Expansion: north (Manchuria and Korea),
south (Vietnam), west (Tibet, Aral Sea)
• Foreign Relations: tributary overlords, required
gifts and kowtow, and gave gifts and authority in
return; but, not real rule
I: Tang Dynasty
• Decline:
– Mid-700s: casual, careless leaders
– 755: Chang’an conquered by rebellious military leader
– 763: recovered, but weakened
– Failed equal-field system + insufficient
tax revenue to support gov’t + invasion
of Uighur Turks + rebellion + regional
military leaders gained power = collapse
I: Song Dynasty
• Post-Tang: ruled by warlords until reunification ->
Song Dynasty (960-1279)
• Not very powerful, emphasis on civil
administration, industry, education, and the arts
• Paid bureaucrats and officials very well
• Expansion of merit-based bureaucracy
I: Song Dynasty
• 2 problems:
– financial: lots of money required to pay high salaries ->
high taxes -> rebellions
– Military: scholar-bureaucrats didn’t know how to
command military -> nomadic societies on borders
flourished, pushing boundaries further south
(Southern Song)
II: Economic Development of Tang and
Song
• China becomes an economic powerhouse through
agricultural, technological, industrial, and
commercial developments
II: Agricultural Developments
• Fast-ripening rice (from Vietnam): 2 crops/year =
more food
• Technology: heavy iron plows, draft animals
(oxen, water buffalo), fertilizer, irrigation systems
with pumps (-> more land)
• Results: population growth, urbanization (esp.
Chang’an), commercial agricultural economy
(regional specialization)
II: Agricultural Developments
• Results: increasing wealth -> increased patriarchy
(ancestor veneration, footbinding)
• But, Empress Wu Zhao: factions formed against
her because she was un-Confucian -> secret police
and brutal punishments, strengthened civil
service, legitimized by Buddhists, organized
military campaigns
II: Technological and Industrial
Developments
• More food -> more craftsmen
• Porcelain: “fine China,” long-distance trade item
• Metallurgy: iron and steel -> stronger and more
useful (weapons, tools, construction)
• Gunpowder: accidental; military leaders made
flamethrowers and bombs
II: Technological and Industrial
Developments
• Other inventions/innovations:
• Printing:block printing->moveable type->more texts
• Naval technology: increased LD trade (esp. for
spices); better ships (iron nails, bulkheads,
canvas/bamboo sails, rudders, magnetic compass)
• Many of these inventions diffused to other areas
II: The Emergence of a Market
Economy
• Economic growth + regional specialization =>
goods for sale on the open market
• Economic developments: letters of credit, paper
money (at first by merchants, latter gov’t)
• Trade: revival of silk roads (+ porcelain and
lacquerware), merchant communities in port
cities, demand for foreign goods
increased
III: Cultural Change in Tang and Song
China
• Foreign interactions -> change
• Buddhism: Confucianism lost credibility after fall
of Han -> foreign religions established
communities in China
• Mahayana Buddhism spread via silk roads
from central Asia
• Attraction: moral standards, intellectual
sophistication, promise of salvation
III: Buddhism in China
• Plus, monasteries provided food, lent money,
maintained schools
• Very different from Chinese traditions: focus on
text, metaphysics, ascetic ideal (celibacy)
• So, tailored Buddhism to Chinese: used Daoist
terms (dao, wuwei), validated family life
• Schools of Buddhism: Chan/Zen
(less texts), Pure Land
(personal salvation)
III: Buddhism in China
• Hostility to Buddhism:
– Confucianists: anti-celibacy, foreignness, wasteful
monasteries
– Daoists: lost adherents
• Persecution: Late Tang, closed monasteries,
expelled Buddhists, seized property
III: Neo-Confucianism
• Song emperors supported native traditions
• Buddhism had influence on Confucianism -> NeoConfucianism (metaphysical)
• Still emphasized proper behavior, social harmony,
ritual
• Influenced future of East Asian
thought (phil., pol., moral)
and spread to other areas
IV: Chinese Influence in East Asia
• Influenced neighbors politically and culturally
through military invasion, economic ties
• Korea: Tang invasion, Silla Kingdom fought back:
compromise –> Tang vassal state, owing tribute
and kowtow in exchange for gifts and trade
– Political influence: court, bureaucracy, capital city,
scholars to China, but, not merit-based
IV: Chinese Influence in Vietnam
• Conquered in Tang invasion
• Tributary relationship, but resentment -> revolts
and independence
• Influences: agricultural methods, Confucian
schools, administrative techniques (bureaucracy),
Buddhism
• But, retained religion, not as
patriarchal
IV: Early Japan
• 35,000 ya: settled by NE Asian nomads
• Migrants from Koreas brought rice, bronze and
iron, and horses
• Politically: small states ruled by aristocrats
• Nara Japan (710-794): tried to centralize (Chinese
influence), court with bureaucracy, equal-field
system, Buddhism (but, Shinto, too),
capital = Nara
IV: Early Japan
• Heian Japan (794-1185): ceremonial emperor
(symbolic, not powerful) – Fujiwara family really held
power
• Chinese language became important: literature (e.g.,
The Tale of Genji), records, even in Japanese writing
• Decline: equal-field system fell apart, aristocrats
accumulated lots of land in estates
– Minimoto: powerful clan, whose leader
-> shogun (but did not overthrow the
emperor)
IV: Early Japan
• Medieval Japan: between Nara/Heian
and modern times (c. 1500)
• Decentralized with provincial lords (daimyo) ruling
local regions through control of land and economy
-> less Chinese influence
– Daimyo divided land among lesser samurai who gave
land to peasants
– Value of military talent and discipline ->
importance of the samurai (served
provincial lords; followed Code of Bushido)