Transcript Spread of Civilizations in East Asia

Spread of Civilizations in East
Asia: 500 - 1650
Two Golden Ages of China: The Tang and the
Song
The Sui Dynasty
AD 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 Dynasty
AD 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
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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
Emperor and aristocratic
families at the top
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Well-ordered
Highly stratified
Gentry
Peasantry-relied on
each other not
government
• Merchants at the
bottom
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
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Poetry
Philosophy
Religion
History
Poetry
Li Bo
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.
• Human
emotions
• Nature
• Individuals
place in
universe
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
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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 Khan
1214-1294
• 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
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Strict hierarchy
developed:
1. Tax-free Mongols
2. Non-Chinese civil
Servants
3. Northern Chinese
4. Southern Chinese
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Intelligentsia ignored
Mongol Religion
• Kublai Khan retained
shamanism
• Chinese beliefs
unaffected by Yuan
rule
• Buddhist monasteries
increased
Mongolian Shamanism Ceremony
Pax Mongolia
1200-1300’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 dynastyYuan
• Welcomes outsiders to his
court (Marco Polo)
Marco Polo
1254-1324
• 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