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Imperial China (589-1368 AD)
The Sui Dynasty (519-618 AD)
• Sui Wen-ti (dies 605 AD): Founder,
Chinese-Turkic General
• Yang-ti (605-618 AD)
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Restores Confucianism
Loses Nomad Support
Defeat by Nomads and Korea
Peasants and Generals Rise
Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD)
Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD)
• Centralized Government: Military
Affairs, Censorate, Council of State
• Centralized Land: Emperor owns all land;
land users owe labor and grain taxes.
Nobles embezzle land
• Confucian system but Noble dominance
Wu Zhao (626-ca 706 AD)
Wu Zhao (626-ca 706 AD)
• Originally a concubine to Emperor Taizong
• Then marries his heir, Emperor Gaozong
(649-683 AD)
• He has a stroke (660 AD); she takes over
• Emperor Ruizong (683-90)--Her Son, she
Rules Over Him
• Founds own ‘Zhou’ dynasty after she tires
of him, rules in own name (690-705 AD)
Emperor Xuan Zong (713-756
AD)
• Census + Canal
• Rules from Chang’an
– 30 square miles
– over 1 million people
– Largest city on Earth in 8th century
Tang Imperialism
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War on Nomads
Nomad vs. Nomad
Defensive Fortifications
Tributary States
– Absorbed Chinese Culture
• Country collapses in last decades due to
warlords
Tang Culture
• Secular vs. Buddhists
• Golden Age of Buddhism / Tiantai Sect
– Maitreya Devotion--Buddha of Future
– Pure Land Buddhism
– Zen Buddhism
• Secular Confucian Scholars
– Li Bo (701-762 AD): BEER!!!!!
– Du Fu (712-770 AD): Life = PAIN
The Song Dynasty (960-1279
AD)
Song Dynasty
• Agricultural Revolution
– Aristocrats in Decline
– New Methods and Crops
• Better Rice
• Fertilizers
• Tea and Cotton
– Rise of District Magistrates
– Rise of Scholar Gentry
Commercial Revolution of the
Song
• Emergence of the Yangzi Basin
• New Technologies:
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Coal and Iron-Smelting
Printing with Carved Blocks and Seals
Abacus
Gunpowder
Textiles
Porcelains
Commercial Revolution of the
Song
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Rise of Money (copper and Silver)
Rising Trade
Vastly Growing Cities
Trade is Regional, some international
Aristocracy to Autocracy
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Growing Central Power
Triple Tang Revenues
Aristocracy Fading
Rising Examination System
– Rising Scholar Gentry
Song Culture
• Philosophy:
– Zhu Xi (1130-1200 AD) and NeoConfucianism
• Poetry
– Su Dungpo (1037-1101): Poet and Official
• 2700 Poems, 800 Letters
• Tang and Lyric styles
• Painting and Calligraphy; No Room For
Error
The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368
AD)
The Mongol World Empire (13th14th Century AD)
• Mongols = 3.5 million Horse Nomad
Polytheists
• Temujin -- Genghis Khan (1167-1227 AD)
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Unites Mongol Tribes
Organizes by 10 / 100 / 1000
Recruits Specialists From Conquests
Religiously Tolerant
The Khanates
• Empire of the Great Khan - Ögedei Khan
• Mongol homeland (present day
Mongolia, including Karakorum) - Tolui
Khan
• Chagatai Khanate - Chagatai Khan,
(Central Asia and northern Iran)
• Khanate of the Golden Horde (Russian
Steppes)
Mongol Rule in China
• Beijing -- 1227 AD
• 1241--North all taken
• Kublai Khan (1260-1294 AD)
– 1271--Yuan Dynasty Proclaimed
• Bureaucracy or Horse Pasture?
• 400,000 Mongols in China
– Mongols form upper ruling class
Foreign Contacts and China
• Mongols are Cosmopolitan
• Marco Polo?: Il Milione / The Travels of
Marco Polo
• Religious Contacts
• Conservatism of the Chinese
• Yuan Era Opera and Drama
Fall of the Yuan
• Regencies, Child Emperors and Weak
Emperors
• 10 Emperors in 1294-1368
• Ukhaatu Khan Flees: 1368 AD