Transcript The Sui-Tang-Song Dynasties

The Sui, T’ang, and Song
Dynasties
The Chinese Renaissance
The Sui Dynasty
After the collapse of the Han Dynasty
in 220 CE, China endured three and a
half centuries of contraction and
disorder before unification returned
under the Sui.
The short-lived Sui Dynasty
(598-618 CE) restored order and
paved the way for the success of the
T’ang Dynasty.
The Sui Dynasty
In the early 580’s, Sui
Wendi, a Chinese
nobleman and general,
created a marriage alliance
between his daughter and
the ruler of the Northern
Zhou empire.
Wendi then seized the
throne of his son-in-law
(who died) and proclaimed
himself emperor.
The Sui Dynasty
Wendi quickly moved to get the
support of the local nomadic tribal
leaders and after he had that, in 589
CE, his armies attacked and defeated
the weak Chen kingdom which
controlled southern China.
Wendi united the Zhou and Chen
kingdoms creating the first united
China since the fall of the Han, three
and a half centuries earlier.
The Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty
A Buddhist known for his frugality and
tireless work to rebuild a great China,
Sui Wendi had widespread support
because he lowered taxes, he had the
foresight to build granaries throughout
the major cities of the empire, and had
the Great Wall repaired.
It has also been said he had the fewest
concubines of any Chinese emperor (2)
because he loved and respected his
wife so much.
The Sui Dynasty
By storing excess food
and creating a reserve,
the Sui were prepared
to ride out floods and
droughts (anything
that could cause
famine).
It was said enough
food was stored to last
50 years.
The Sui Dynasty
Wealthy and poor farmers each
contributed a portion of their crop to
the granaries.
Surpluses were brought to market to
help keep prices affordable.
The Sui Dynasty
In 604, Wendi
was murdered by
his son Yangdi.
Yangdi carried on
most of the
policies of his
father.
The Sui Dynasty
He supported Confucian educations
for the nobility and he restored the
examination system for entrance into
the bureaucracy.
Yangdi is most noted for large
construction projects, including the
building of his capital city, Luoyang,
and the Grand Canal, linking the
Yangzi and Huang He (Yellow )
Rivers.
The Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty
The Grand Canal is not as well known
as the Great Wall but it is every bit as
impressive an accomplishment.
The Sui Dynasty
By connecting two large east/west
river systems the canal facilitated
trade between northern and southern
China.
It was the world’s largest waterworks
project before modern times,
extending over 1100 miles, with
roads running alongside.
The Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty
Food was easily transported across
the empire, especially rice from the
Yangzi River Valley.
The Grand Canal not only linked the
economies of northern and southern
China, it created the basis for political
and cultural unity as well.
The Canal was the major conduit of
international trade until railroads were
built in the late 19th century.
The Sui Dynasty
Luoyang (Yangdi’s capital): During the
Sui and T’ang dynasties the city had
over 1m people.
The Sui Dynasty
Luoyang was the
home of Lao Tsu
(Daoism) and the
first Buddhist
temple in China
(the fabled White
Horse Temple).
The Sui Dynasty
Yangdi’s oppression, his fondness for
extravagance and luxury, his building
projects, and his repeated and
unsuccessful military attempts to
conquer Korea made him very
unpopular.
He was assassinated by his own
ministers in 618 (ending the Sui
dynasty after only 20 years).
The Sui Dynasty
The Sui were the first postclassical
dynasty in China.
They were important because they
reestablished a strong, centralized
state in China .
The Sui also undertook a series of new
conquests, pressing into Vietnam, the
Island of Taiwan, and westward into
the Turkish lands of central Asia.
The T’ang
With the
assassination of
Yangdi, China might
have fallen back into
political chaos if it
hadn’t been for the
political savvy of one
of his officials, Li
Yuan, the Duke of
T’ang.
The T’ang
The T’ang emperors and nobility
descended from the nomadic Turks
and Chinese officials who lived in
northern China after the Han era.
They upheld Confucian values, but
were heavily influenced by central
Asian cultures promoting Buddhism
and a strong military organization.
The T’ang
The T’ang moved their imperial
capital to Chang’an (near the old Qin
capital of Qin Shi Huangdi). Today’s
Xi’an.
The T’ang
Chang’an (means “Perpetual Peace”)
was at the end of the Silk Road. At 2
million people, it was the world’s
largest city.
The T’ang
The T’ang
Li Yuan, together with his son Tang
Taizong (teye-zohng), built a strong
foundation for their dynasty by
extending China’s borders and
placating the nomadic people who
had long threatened Chinese stability.
They moved in every direction but
east, eventually extending China’s
borders beyond the Han.
The T’ang
Li Yuan
Tang Taizong
The T’ang
They brilliantly played one nomadic
group off of another to gain control,
and they completed repairs to the
Great Wall begun by the Sui.
The T’ang military forces were
formidable, and as they pushed into
central Asia, they forced the Turks
further westward (setting in motion
the Turkish advance towards the
Middle East).
The T’ang
The T’ang also formed protectorates
over Tibet, Vietnam, and they
defeated kingdoms on the Korean
peninsula (and Korea remained a
loyal vassal state to China until the
19th century—known as Silla).
Japan even paid tribute to the T’ang.
China was the greatest empire in the
world and controlled the world as
they knew it.
The T’ang
Tang Taizong receiving the
ambassador from Tibet.
The T’ang
Even though the T’ang were influenced
by their central Asian roots, they
identified with Chinese culture, and
valued the scholar-gentry tradition
based on knowledge and an
appreciation of Confucianism.
An effective and efficient bureaucracy
was developed (along the Han model)
to govern over the ever increasing size
of China.
This structure endured for 1,000 years.
The T’ang
The Chinese scholar-gentry bureaucrat
occupied a position at the top of
Chinese society, for he possessed
prestige, wealth, and power.
Because of the difficulty of mastering
the classical Chinese writing style, only a
tiny fraction of the population was fully
literate, and government officials were
selected from this small group of highly
educated scholars.
The T’ang
An ambitious young man would
pursue an arduous course of study in
the Chinese classics in preparation for
the civil service examination.
These exams required thorough
knowledge of the Confucian canon,
plus the ability to write essays on
moral issues and current affairs and
poems in a variety of formal styles.
The T’ang
The candidate had to
develop talent and worldly
sophistication, as well as
his erudition, to become a
successful well-rounded
literatus (man of letters).
If he passed the
examination, there was
virtually only one career
open to him, and that was
to enter government
service.
The T’ang
During the T’ang era, the numbers of
the educated scholar-gentry rose far
above those of the Han era, and the
examination system was greatly
expanded.
The Chinese under the T’ang
connected merit to position more
than any of their predecessors (which
isn’t to say wealth/connections didn’t
also get you a job).
The T’ang
Under the auspices of the Ministry of
Rites, scores on Confucian exams
determined the level of government
service you could attain.
The highest offices went to a very
select group known as the jinshi, men
who passed the most rigorous exam
on philosophy and legal classics.
The T’ang
Students taking the Confucian exams.
If you earned the
title of jinshi, your
name was
announced
throughout the
empire, and you
were immediately
made a dignitary.
You had the right to
wear special clothes
and were exempted
from corporal
punishments.
The T’ang
The T’ang
The peasant was not only the
backbone of the Chinese economy,
he was the muscle of Chinese power:
he grew the food, and he also fought
the battles.
In war, as on the farm, his equipment
improved as Chinese culture
advanced.
The T’ang
A farmer who was conscripted for war
had little hope of resuming a normal
life, and being captured was no
guarantee of survival.
Victorious generals (and nomadic
leaders) liked to enhance their
reputation for ferocity and to chill the
hearts of future enemies by the mass
execution of prisoners.
The T’ang
With any luck a soldier might become
a farmer again, but not necessarily on
his own land.
The T’ang established military colonies
on unstable frontiers and seed, plows,
and oxen were provided by the state.
There the semiprofessional farmersoldiers were expected to protect their
farms and families (and the state)
against all invaders.
The T’ang
T’ang rulers
conscripted
thousands of
farmer’s sons to
extend the rule of
the emperor into
the remotest parts
of the continent
(often by
intermarrying with
the “barbarians”).
The T’ang
A simple soldier of the T’ang wore
hide armor and sometimes
breastplates made of wood, felt , or
paper—the best soldiers were
provided with iron-plate armor,
sometimes gilded, or with fine chain
mail recently introduced from the
Iranian west.
The T’ang
The T’ang
This soldier had a bow made of
mulberry wood or the palmyra palm
and steel tipped arrows.
The best swords were made of steel
and were exceptionally tough (from a
process learned in India), and their
shagreen (sharkskin)-wrapped hilts
were decorated with gold, silver, or
rhinoceros horn.
The T’ang
For the privileged classes, military life
offered excitement and danger under
exotic skies.
Aristocratic young Chinese officers,
armed with their new weapons and
clothed in brocaded gowns and hats
of marten fur, left their wives and
sweethearts to fight the nomads on
the edge of the Gobi Desert.
The T’ang
But death on the battlefield was
usually preferred to the lot of the
captured, who were almost always
condemned to slavery.
Despite occasional attempts by
humane emperors to abolish the
commerce in slaves, the institution of
slavery was never effectively
challenged.
The T’ang
Prisoners of war were only one
source of supply…great numbers
were Hua men (northern barbarians)
and some sold themselves into
slavery to pay a family debt.
Thousands of nomads captured by
the T’ang became state horseherders, groomsmen, falconers, and
outriders to the carriages of Chinese
noblemen.
The T’ang
A few of them—expert potters,
weavers, or musicians—might
become the gifts of the emperor to
great vassals.
Unskilled captives were herded into
feverish jungles, where they died in
droves working to make the land
habitable for their Chinese masters.
The T’ang
Many female slaves were entertainers;
the Chinese counterparts to the
Japanese geishas.
These women learned popular arts
under rigid discipline; the most
successful of them were not only
beautiful and talented but also gifted in
witty repartee.
Some attracted the devotion of eminent
personages…
The T’ang
More is known about slaves and
peasants than about the merchant
class (which for a long time wasn’t
even acknowledged).
Traders and merchants had always
been looked upon with distrust and
disdain by the privileged; the few
merchants mentioned in Chinese
literature were usually foreigners.
The T’ang
Merchants were allowed only a small,
carefully supervised role in the
transfer of everyday commodities.
The finest and most expensive
goods—glassware, drugs, gold and
incense—were brought to the
imperial court by vassals of the ruler
in the form of “tribute.”
The T’ang
For basic products vital to the
economy—salt, iron, wine and tea—
imperial agents took charge of their
production and distribution.
Historians don’t know much about
shopkeepers or the people who sold
products produced by farms or
workshops for the common man.
The T’ang
In the great public markets of cities
like Chang’an, merchants sold objects
made of bronze, leather, silk and
wood, and were entertained by street
acrobats, storytellers, and all sorts of
strolling foreigners—Persian gem
dealers, Turkish pawnbrokers, and
many others.
The T’ang
A market scene from Chang’an:
The T’ang
There were shops specializing in
herbs and medicines, cakes and
sweetmeats.
There were places for relaxation with
cups of tea or wine.
The product most sought after by a
city dweller was millet, the grass
cereal that had been the stable of the
Chinese diet since ancient times
(Confucius existed mostly on millet
cakes and dried beef).
The T’ang
Millet:
The T’ang
Wheat and barley cakes became
popular with the T’ang, and even a
poor man might augment his meal
with beans, turnips and melons,
flavor it with onion, ginger or basil,
and top it off with peaches, plums, or
persimmons.
A moderately well-off man might add
some pork or chicken to the menu.
The T’ang
For settlers in the south, rice became
the staple, and was supplemented by
taro root, grown—like rice—in
flooded fields.
Subtropical orchards supplied
tangerines and oranges, bananas,
coconuts and stewed frogs.
The T’ang developed a taste for all
kinds of pickles and preserves, as
well as fermented sauces and
relishes.
The T’ang
Added to Chinese cuisine under the
T’ang were spinach and pistachio nuts
from Persia, dill from Indonesia, and
almonds from Turkestan.
T’ang gastronomic sophistication
included understanding the properties
of various kinds of native mushrooms,
eating dumplings shaped and flavored
like 24 different flowers, and a kind of
ice cream—a chilled mixture of milk,
rice, and camphor.
The T’ang
The Chinese equivalent to the popular
beers and wines of the West were
fermented products of home-grown
cereals, especially millet and rice.
But there were also more exotic
drinks: grape wine for fashionable
parties, fermented coconut milk for
exiles in tropical jungles, and palm
toddies (totties) in the south where
malaria and poisoned arrows were
always a threat.
The T’ang
It was during the T’ang era that a nonalcoholic beverage, a close relative of
the camellia, was picked in the warm
south and brewed in water for a hot,
strengthening drink…tea.
Initially the drink of southern
“barbarians,” tea quickly caught on in
northern China, especially among the
elites, where blue and white porcelain
teacups were made for connoisseurs.
The T’ang
By the Ninth Century, the T’ang had
created a series of formalities and
even a cult of tea preparation and
drinking (which eventually went to
Japan where it still exists).
The T’ang
Beauty and formality were seen in the
clothing of the T’ang.
The elite wore silk while commoners
made fine fabrics out of hemp, ramie,
and even banana.
The basic costume, as it had been for
a thousand years, consisted of a twopiece outfit—a long tunic usually
belted or sashed, topped by a jacket.
The T’ang
The design was the
same for all classes,
but the fabric and
the details were
what differentiated
the wearer’s social
position.
The T’ang
Chinese men were
especially proud of
their shoes, which
separated them from
the barefooted
“barbarians.”
Peasants wore
sandals of straw while
the elites wore fine
cloth slippers of heavy
damask or brocade.
The T’ang
Elite ladies of the T’ang period were
proud to appear in public wearing the
latest Turkish or Persian styles.
The T’ang
During the Han period and continuing
well into the T’ang period, clothing
influences from the northern nomads
included underwear, leather trousers,
leather shoes, and leather belts.
Hair styles for men during the T’ang
period included the top-knot or
wearing a gauze cap stiffened with
lacquer.
The T’ang
Upper class men and women wore
gold and gems on their heads—even
men required elaborate hairpins to
hold their topknots in place and the
women balanced tinkling golden
crowns decorated with pearls and
precious stones.
The T’ang
Upper-class women owned little
compartmentalized boxes with mirrors,
which was where they kept their
cosmetics.
These included rouge for their lips and
cheeks, colored with safflower or
cinnabar, white lead or rice powder for
their faces and shoulders, and blue or
green grease to create false eyebrows.
Eyebrows were shaped as “distant
mountains” and fashionable foreheads
were painted yellow.
The T’ang
In T’ang China, just as it had been for
2,000 years, peasant and king alike
lived in the same style of house…
essentially an exaggerated manor
house made of wood with a courtyard
that has a gate in its south wall (the
direction of holiness), several outbuildings in the yard and a garden
behind.
The T’ang
It was the T’ang who created the
architectural feature considered
“typically” Chinese…the upwardly
curved eves of the roof.
The T’ang
By the Ninth Century, homes of the
elite in Chang’an were equipped with
baths, heaters, mechanical fans,
artificial fountains, and ice-cooled
rooms.
Villas of some aristocrats boasted
what was called “automatic rain,”
similar to a modern shower.
The T’ang
One T’ang emperor had a large hall of
the palace completely air-conditioned,
where guests sat on stone benches
that were cooled from within as they
sipped iced drinks.
It was said he had a whirling fan that
sprayed water behind the royal throne
from which blew a cool artificial
breeze.
The T’ang
The typical house of a wealthy T’ang
family was decorated with furniture
and accessories made of wood,
metal, lacquer, glass, and ceramics.
Wooden articles included spoons and
chopsticks of fine-grained jujube,
writing brushes of bamboo, and
perhaps a harp of paulownia wood.
The T’ang
The family probably owned a bronze
mirror, its back inlaid with amber and
turquoise; ewers and goblets of
hammered gold and silver; and dishes
made of fine porcelain or blown glass.
The favored colors were the colors of
the best jade: white, pale blue, or
green.
The T’ang
The T’ang enjoyed sports (they played a
game similar to football), parlor games,
music and dancing, and the great seasonal
and ceremonial festivals that marked
special occasions like the new year or the
emperor’s birthday.
The T’ang
Music and dancing formed the core of
most entertainments—especially those
of the great palace-shows which
celebrated an emperor’s birthday.
On one in the Eighth Century, a troop
of 100 dancing horses adorned with
rich silks and precious stones danced
with tossing heads to popular music
played by the palace orchestra.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z
K23_kJMRss
The T’ang
Dancing was inseparable
from life, religion, and all
ceremonial acts.
The most popular for the
wealthy was to watch
Sogdian (today’s
Uzbekistan) twirling
girls; they performed on
the tops of large rolling
balls while dressed in
costumes of green
pantaloons and crimson
robes.
The T’ang
https://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=ErJ7UmT74
hU
The T’ang elite enjoyed
the game of polo, which
had recently come from
Persia, and polo players
preferred Persian horses
(as did soldiers and the
emperor).
The T’ang
Persian horses
augmented the
emperor’s royal
herd of Mongolian
ponies and were
so glamorous, they
were known as
“dragon horses” or
“horses of
heaven.”
The T’ang
Less active sports included board and
table games, some of which were
related to the modern Parcheesi and
Backgammon.
Playing cards are thought to be an
invention of the T’ang.
The T’ang and Song
The T’ang (618-907) and the Song
(960-1279) dynasties have long been
regarded as the “golden age” of
Chinese arts and literature.
These dynasties set standards of
excellence in poetry, music,
landscape painting, architecture, and
ceramics.
The T’ang and Song
T’ang Dynasty (618-907)
T’ang Dynasty
Herder’s Horse
The 13 Emperors
(Tang Taizong had
this painted as a
warning to his son. It
shows Tang with 12
emperors going back
to the Han dynasty.
The T’ang and Song
The Wild Goose Pagoda in Chang’an
(Xi’an), built in 652.
The T’ang and Song
Song Dynasty (960-1279)
The T’ang and Song
The Liuhe
Pagoda of
Hangzhou,
built in 1165
during the
Song Dynasty.
The T’ang
When the T’ang reunified China in the
Seventh Century, they reestablished a
strong central government and huge
bureaucracy…and reestablished a state
religious philosophy built around
Confucianism.
But Confucianism was now
complimented by Buddhism and
Daoism. To the T’ang, these were
known as the Three Doctrines.
The T’ang
Some thought all three were basically
the same, especially concerning the
spiritual destiny of man…but the
emphasis was different in each one.
Confucianism was conservative (like the
state religion of ancient Rome) and
emphasized man’s duties to his fellow
man and to his gods.
The T’ang
Confucianism stressed the importance
of ancient ritual in determining man’s
fate.
An explosion of scholarship among
the elites gave rise to NeoConfucianism, an effort to revive
Confucian thinking while
incorporating into it some insights
from Buddhism and Daoism.
The T’ang
If a man asked “What must I do
among other men in this everyday
world?” Confucianism’s answer was
“Rely on the wisdom of the ancient
sages, correctly interpreted.”
Meaning: be a responsible citizen
aware of your duties to your
civilization and of your relationship to
the eternal powers that preserve you.
The T’ang
Daoism stressed the search for
immortality through man’s
understanding of nature.
Even emperors, who served as
heads of the official Confucian cult,
honored Daoist books and practices.
The T’ang
One example was
the emperor
Xuanzong (Hsuan
Tsung) who was so
inspired by Daoist
principles concerning
the sanctity of life,
he tried to abolish
capital punishment
and the harsh
treatment of
animals.
The T’ang
Emperor Xuanzong even established
an official examination in Taoist
philosophy for the title of “Master of
Mystic Studies.”
Daoist legend says that once while
burning incense at his private altar,
he was wafted up to Heaven.
The T’ang
If a man asked, “What is my place in
nature?” Daoism would say “You are
a part of it, and must understand its
subtle ways.”
From this came Chinese technologies
in the natural sciences, an awareness
of the idleness of ambition, and a
vision of eternity seen in wild places,
gardens, in painting and poetry.
The T’ang
Related to the Daoist vision of
immortality was the Buddhist doctrine
of salvation.
It maintained that salvation lay in
one’s understanding that ordinary
experiences were all merely illusion
(like living in the Matrix).
This caused thousands of men to
leave the everyday world for the
serenity of monastic life and Buddhist
monasteries filled the land.
The T’ang
Among the masses, this salvationist
strain of Mahayana Buddhism (known
as pure land ) won thousands of
converts to Buddhism because of its
belief in a heaven type after-life that
was open to all (not just the
wealthy/powerful).
The T’ang
The T’ang Dynasty was the height of
the Buddhist age of China, and those
elites that were Buddhists gravitated
towards a strain known as Ch’an (Zen
in Japanese).
Both the words Zen (Japanese) and
Ch'an (Chinese) come from the
Sanskrit word Dhyana, meaning
"meditation.“
The T’ang
Ch’an/Zen Buddhism focuses on
attaining enlightenment (bodhi)
through meditation as Prince
Gautama did.
It teaches that all human beings have
the Buddha-nature, or the potential
to attain enlightenment within them,
but the Buddha-nature has been
clouded by ignorance.
The T’ang
To overcome this ignorance,
Ch’an/Zen rejected the study of
scriptures, religious rites, devotional
practices, and good works in favor of
meditation leading to a sudden
breakthrough of insight and
awareness of ultimate reality.
Training in the Ch’an/Zen path is
usually undertaken by a disciple
under the guidance of a master.
The T’ang
A Ch’an student and his master.
The T’ang
As Ch’an developed in China, it was
influenced by Daoist concepts.
This is especially apparent in the
Ch'an emphasis on spontaneity and
naturalness in all things, which
significantly influenced Chinese
painting, writing, and other arts.
The T’ang
The T’ang
The great city of Chang’an fell into
ruins after the collapse of the Han,
and during the ‘Age of Division’
northern barbarians grazed their
flocks in the city and suburbs.
But the T’ang revived the city and it
rivaled Baghdad, Alexandria,
Constantinople, or Rome in their
greatest days.
The T’ang
The city was laid out in beautiful
symmetry—a model of the land of the
gods, designed as a paradise on
earth.
The city was structured in accordance
with the divine plan, in the form of a
rectangle oriented according to the
cardinal directions.
The T’ang
The grid was subdivided into smaller
squares with major streets leading to
ceremonial gateways, named in
accordance with the symbolism of the
Five Elements (Wood, Earth, Fire,
Water, and Metal).
The T’ang
The T’ang
The gateways faced the four sacred
mountains, the most important of
them facing the south, the holy
direction symbolized by Yang, red,
and summer—the special direction of
the Son of Heaven himself.
The T’ang
Chang’an stretched about six miles
east to west and about five miles
north to south and was protected by
a wall 17.5 feet high.
The T’ang
The basic grid consisted of 25 broad
streets flanked by drainage ditches
and fruit trees.
All of the chief north-south streets
were 480 feet wide (Fifth Avenue in
NYC is only 100 feet wide).
The city had several canals which
connected to the Wei River, so goods
were easily brought from all over the
empire.
The T’ang
There were many
magnificent
buildings, both
public and private.
These included the
residences of the
great nobles,
fantastically large
and extravagantly
furnished.
The T’ang
Syrians, Jews, Arabs, Persians,
Koreans, Tibetans, and Japanese all
lived side by side with the Chinese of
Chang’an.
At one time, there were 64 Buddhist
monasteries, 27 Buddhist nunneries,
10 Taoist monasteries and six Taoist
nunneries, four Zoroastrian temples
(chiefly for the Persian expatriates),
and a Nestorian Christian church.
The T’ang
In 636, Nestorian Christians from
Syria were allowed to build a church
and hold Christian services barely six
hundred years after the founding of
Christianity and less than three
hundred years after Christianity had
become the state religion of Rome.
The T’ang
The Great
Mosque of
Chang’an, built
during the reign
of Emperor
Xuanzong
(r. 713-756).
The T’ang
It was said that
people lived and
worked in such
peace and
contentment
that there was
virtually no
crime and doors
were not locked
at night.
The T’ang
The foreigners not only brought in
new religions, but new clothes,
cuisine, literature, and music as well.
The imperial court itself had several
performing troupes gathered from
surrounding nations permanently
installed at the court.
The T’ang
The palace enclosure was a city in
itself, called “Great Luminous Palace.”
It was built on a majestic height
called “Dragon Head Plain,” from
which it overlooked the rest of the
city.
You approached the complex from a
bluish stone paved road that curved
like a dragon’s tail.
The T’ang
The T’ang
To the T’ang, a journey to Chang’an
was a holy pilgrimage. This was the
city of the king, the “Son of Heaven,”
and the ascent to the palace on its
dragon hill—like a paradise on the
summit of a holy mountain—was an
enactment of the journey of the
human soul to the mountain of the
gods.
The T’ang
When the T’ang dynasty ended (in
904 CE after a quarter century of civil
war), the great mansions and palaces
were ravaged by arson and pillage.
They were dismantled and their
timbers were floated downstream to
the new capital of Loyang (Louyang).
Massive walls were demolished;
beautiful water parks were allowed to
silt up.
The T’ang
For generations afterward, the site of
the once great capital provided a
theme of melancholy reflection by
poets on the transience of human
glory.
The T’ang
According to Confucian beliefs, having
a woman rule would be as unnatural as
having a “hen crow like a rooster at
daybreak.”
But during the most glorious years of
the T’ang dynasty, a woman did rule
and she ruled very successfully.
The T’ang
She was Wu Zetian, the only woman
in Chinese history to rule as
emperor (b. 625; r. 690-705).
The T’ang
The T’ang dynasty was a time of
relative freedom for women…and Wu
was born into a wealthy and powerful
aristocratic family (of Sui lineage).
The daughter of an important
general, she was taught to read and
write, she read the Confucian
Classics, and she played music.
By 13, she was known for her wit,
intelligence, and beauty and was
recruited to the Emperor’s court.
The T’ang
She soon became a favorite concubine of
the second emperor, Tai Tsung, but
when he died in 649, she was sent (with
all the other court concubines) to a
Buddhist nunnery … in Chinese society,
once a woman had served the emperor,
she could never marry another man.
Luckily for Wu (who was 24), the new
emperor (Tsung’s son Kao Tsung)
wanted her back in the palace.
The T’ang
Within a few years, she had provided
the new emperor with several sons.
But five years into their relationship
(660), he suffered a crippling stroke
so Wu took over the administrative
duties of the court.
The T’ang
The court was a dangerous place so
Wu created a secret police force to
spy on any opposition, and it is said
she was ruthless towards anyone who
opposed her.
When her husband died (several years
later), she was able to out maneuver
her eldest sons and she placed her
youngest (and weakest) son on the
throne.
But she was always the real power.
The T’ang
In 690 (at the age of 65) her son
“resigned” (she actually had him
deposed) and she became Emperor
herself, the first and only woman ever
to occupy that office in Chinese history.
The T’ang
Under Empress Wu
(r. 690-705),
Buddhism reached
the height of its
importance in China.
She unsuccessfully
tried to make
Buddhism the state
religion.
The T’ang
Chinese historians tend to vilify
Empress Wu and she was painted as a
usurper who was both physically cruel
and erotically wanton; she first came to
prominence, it was hinted, because she
was willing to gratify certain
of the emperor’s more unusual sexual
appetites. “With a heart like a serpent
and a nature like that of a wolf,” one
contemporary summed up, “she favored
evil sycophants and destroyed good and
loyal officials.”
The T’ang
A small sampling of
the empress’s other
crimes followed:
“She killed her
sister, butchered
her elder brothers,
murdered the ruler,
poisoned her
mother. She is
hated by gods and
men alike.”
The T’ang
But Empress Wu was perhaps one of
the most able and brilliant of the
Chinese emperors, and she had a
profound influence on Chinese
culture.
She oversaw the greatest expansion
of T'ang military power and recruited
her government heavily from the civil
service examinations.
The T’ang
Among her accomplishments,
Empress Wu raised the status of
women, had hundreds of Buddhist
monasteries built, and encouraged
the arts.
Under her rule great works of art
such as Buddhist statuary, mounted
dolls playing musical instruments,
gold and silverworks, ceramics and
glassware were produced.
The T’ang
Buddhist carvings in rock walls
commissioned by Empress Wu.
The T’ang
She was the first emperor of China to
assume a Buddhist title, "Divine
Empress Who Rules the Universe."
She also promoted Taoism.
In 666 AD, while she reigned in the
place of her incapacitated husband,
Lao Tzu was officially recognized as
the “Most High Emperor of Mystic
Origin.”
The T’ang
In order to challenge Confucian
beliefs about women, Wu started a
campaign to elevate the position of
women.
She had scholars write biographies of
famous women, and raised the
position of her mother’s clan by
giving them high political posts.
She said the ideal ruler was one who
ruled like a mother over her children.
The T’ang
She reportedly had her own harem of
men and ruled until 705 when she
died (at the age of 80).
The T'ang reached its military height
during the reign of Empress Wu; after
she died, the empire soon fell into a
series of court schemes and intrigues
(like that of Empress Wei) which
severely weakened the central
government.
The T’ang
For a brief period,
during the reign of
Xuanzong (Hsuantsung)(685-762 r. 713756), the government
revived.
Xuanzong was the
grandson of Empress
Wu and considered
one of the greatest of
the T’ang emperors.
The T’ang
As the “Son of Heaven,” Xuanzong
epitomized the worldly sophistication
and social responsibility of the
Confucian tradition.
It was said he was a man of strong
personality, impressive appearance,
and exemplary manners.
The T’ang
He was skilled in the manly arts of
horsemanship, archery, polo-playing,
and martial arts (said to be one of the
best in the country), and he was
learned in the “noble” arts of
calligraphy, astronomy, and music.
He was an accomplished performer
on several instruments and gave
discourses on music theory.
The T’ang
In Chang’an, he founded academies
to study music and dance and he had
his own company of actors living at
the palace.
His abilities in poetry and visual art
were also said to be among the finest
in the country.
The T’ang
He also took a keen interest in
scientific and technological problems;
among other achievements, his reign
is noted for the building of an iron
suspension bridge over the Yellow
River (Huang He), its bamboo cables
held on the banks by cast-iron
supports in the shape of oxen, and
for the construction of a waterpowered astronomical clock that
revised the Chinese calendar.
The T’ang
Xuanzong was also a humane man—he
decreed the abolition of capital
punishment and he founded a hospital
for the sick and maimed beggars of the
capital city.
Twenty years into his reign a courtier
noted that he was getting thin…”Let my
figure be lean” he said “but all under
Heaven must be fat.”
During a drought in 723CE, he stood on
a mat for three days, exposed to the
open sky, and prayed to the Heavens
for water.
The T’ang
During the 44 years of his rule,
Chang’an became an incredibly
wealthy city and was the centerpiece
of Chinese culture.
The T’ang and Song
During the later years of his reign,
Xuanzong became more and more
oppressive and extravagant (and less
interested in running his empire).
The lonely old emperor (aged 60)
doted upon Yang Guifei, a beautiful
young woman from the harem of one
of the imperial princes (his own
son)...a tragic love story.
She was considered one of the four
most beautiful women of ancient
China.
The T’ang and Song
Yang Guifei had the
emperor place
relatives of hers in key
offices, causing
widespread corruption
and discontentment.
Xuanzong spent all his
time in search of
pleasure and
neglected the court as
well as politics.
The T’ang and Song
The emperor’s neglect of his state
duties led to a military uprising that
took eight years to put down.
The T’ang dynasty was saved but
before it was over, the emperor
watched as Yang was executed (she
jumped over a cliff). The emperor
was 77, Yang was 36).
He was never the same and less than
a year later he gave up the throne to
his son.
The T’ang
The end of the dynasty came on
March 17, 905…a festival day in the
official almanac.
On this holiday a great banquet was
prepared in the imperial park of
Loyang, the ancient capital of the
divine kings of Chou, now the eastern
capital of the T’ang.
The host was Chu Ch’uan-chung, allpowerful warlord and protector of his
most-honored guest, the 15 year
Emperor Li Tsu.
The T’ang
Pre-eminent among the silk-clad
guests were the nine brothers of the
young monarch.
Wine was served, then the nine
young princes, possible heirs to the
throne, were seized by Chu’s men,
hanged and thrown into the lake.
Two years later, the 17 year-old
emperor formally abdicated to Chu.
A year later, he was executed.
The T’ang and Song
Politically, the T’ang and Song built a
state structure that lasted over 1000
years.
Six major ministries—personnel,
finance, rites, army, justice, and
public works—were accompanied by a
Censorate, an agency that watched
over the rest of the government,
checking on the character and
competency of public officials.
The T’ang and Song
To staff the bureaucracy, the
examination system was made more
elaborate…to prevent cheating on
exams, students were searched when
entering the examination hall and
numbers, rather than their names,
were put on the exams.
Schools and colleges expanded to
prepare candidates, which became a
feature of upper-class life.
The T’ang and Song
Underlying the cultural and political
achievements of the T’ang/Song was
an economic revolution that made
China the richest, most
technologically advanced, and
populated country on earth.
The most obvious sign of this
prosperity was the enormous
population growth.
The T’ang and Song
T’ang China had 50-60 million
people…Song China had over 120
million by the year 1200.
The Chinese had remarkable
achievements in agricultural
production, especially the adoption of
a fast-growing and drought-resistant
strain of rice from Vietnam.
The Song
China became the most urbanized
country, with dozens of Chinese cities
in excess of 100,000 people.
The Song capital of Hangzhou had
more than 1,000,000 people.
There were specialized markets for
meat, herbs, vegetables, books, rice,
and much more as troupes of actors
performed for the crowds.
The Song
Hangzhou:
The Song
Restaurants advertised their
offerings—sweet bean soup, pickled
dates, juicy lungs, meat pies, pig’s
feet.
Inns developed to serve different
types of clients.
Inns that only served wine, a practice
known as “hitting the cup,” were
regarded as “unfit for polite
company.”
The Song
“Luxuriant inns,” marked by red
lanterns, featured prostitutes, and “the
wine chambers were equipped with
beds.”
The Song
Specialized agencies managed
elaborate dinner parties for the
wealthy, complete with a Perfume
and Medicine Office to “help sober up
the guests.”
Numerous clubs provided
companionship for poets, Buddhists,
physical fitness enthusiasts,
fisherman, horse lovers, antique
collectors, etc.
The Song
Schools for
musicians offered
thirteen different
courses.
It’s no wonder that
in the late 13th
century Marco Polo
remarked that
Hangzhou was
“beyond dispute the
finest and noblest
city in the world.”
The Song
Zhao Kuangyin (also known as
Emperor Taizu) founded the Song
dynasty.
It was Taizu who reunited most of
China after the fragmentation and
rebellion between the fall of the T’ang
(907) and the establishment of the
Song Empire.
He was a general, made emperor by
his soldiers in 960 A.D.
The Song
Emperor Taizu.
The Song
Another reason that his dynasty
lasted longer was that he did not try
to fight the Khitans to the north (a
nomadic peoples living in Manchuria).
The Song
Taizu focused on conquering the
southern half of China.
The southern kingdoms, while
economically and culturally advanced,
did not have strong militaries and
were relatively easy to defeat.
The Song
In order to maintain peace with the
Khitans, the Song were forced to pay
them annual tributes.
These annual tributes were more cost
effective than maintaining a military
that could hold the Khitans back.
The Song
Supplying Hangzhou and other major
cities with food was made possible by
the immense network of internal
waterways—canals, lakes, rivers—
stretching almost 30,000 miles.
Waterways created cheap and
efficient transportation binding the
country together and creating the
“world’s most populous trading area.”
The Song
Industrial production was unmatched
by anyone in the world.
By the 11th century, China’s iron
industry had large-scale production
facilities that employed thousands of
men and provided the government
over 32,000 suits of armor and 16
million arrowheads a year (plus metal
for coins, tools, construction, and bells
for Buddhist monasteries).
The Song
The Iron Pagoda in
Kaifeng was built in
1049 (it’s actually
brick, not iron).
At 13 stories (187 ft),
it has an inner stone
spiral staircase, over
1600 intricate
carvings, and 104
bells that ring in the
wind.
The Song
Inventions in printing, both woodblock
and movable type, generated the
world’s first printed books (500 years
before Gutenberg).
By 1000, relatively cheap books on
religious, agricultural, historical,
mathematical, and medicinal topics
became widely available.
The Song
Chinese navigational and shipbuilding
technologies led the world (invention
of the compass).
Their ships contained as many as four
decks, six masts, and a dozen sails.
The Song
The ships were guided by a stern
post rudder and had water-tight
compartments.
These ships could carry 500 men
(European caravels carried 30-40).
European ships on the other hand
used muscle power and an inefficient
steering oar.
The Song
A Song warship.
The Song
The Chinese invention of gunpowder
in the 8th century (originally to treat
skin diseases and fumigate insects),
would within a few centuries
revolutionize warfare.
By the 13th century, the Chinese shot
gunpowder-filled bamboo tubes of
arrows.
They soon discovered these tubes
could launch themselves, creating the
world’s first true rockets.
The Song
13th century Chinese “fire-arrows.”
The Song
Advances were also made in
medicine, as the first autopsy was
performed in about 1145 AD on the
body of a Southern Chinese captive.
The Song
Amazingly, almost all of Chinese
production was for the market, not for
local consumption (China had the
world’s most highly commercialized
society).
Cheap transportation allowed peasants
to grow specialized crops for sale,
while they bought rice or other staples
on the market.
The Song
Government demand for taxes paid in
cash rather than in kind required the
peasants to sell something in order to
meet their obligations.
The growing use of paper money and
financial instruments like letters of
credit (“flying money”) and promissory
notes added to this commercialization.
All this made Song China inventive and
extremely wealthy.
The Song
While they were the most
technologically and culturally
advanced people in the world at the
time, the Song were not militarily
powerful.
Part of the reason for this may be
because Confucianism held the
military in very low regard.
The Song
Confucianism did not recognize the
military as being part of the four
official classes of occupations: the shi
(scholar-gentry), the nong (peasant
farmers), the gong (artisans and
craftsmen) and the shang (merchants
and traders); therefore, the military
consisted of either the poor,
uneducated peasants, mercenaries or
allies.
The Song
Diplomacy was the favored form of
dealing with enemies.
This prolonged period of paying tribute
to enemies, rather than being militarily
strong enough to defeat them, left the
Song susceptible to attack from others.
This weakness allowed for two nonChinese kingdoms to exist to the north
of the Song. They were the Liao and
the Western Xia (the Tangut who were
T’ang and created their own kingdom
when the T’ang dynasty disintegrated).
The Song
The Song
All three of these kingdoms favored
diplomacy over military aggression.
By 1125 A.D., a group called the Jin
were able to conquer the Liao and
the Song, along with part of the
territory of the Western Xia.
A brother of the Song emperor fled
south, and declared himself emperor.
His dynasty is generally known as the
Southern Song.
The Song
The “golden age” of the Song dynasty
was probably less than “golden” for
many of the country’s women.
Under the influence of steppe
nomads, whose women led less
restricted lives, elite women of the
T’ang era, at least in the north, had a
social life with greater freedom than
in classical times.
The Song
Paintings and
statues show
aristocratic
women riding
horses, while the
Queen Mother of
the West, a Daoist
deity, was widely
worshipped by
women.
The Song
By the Song dynasty, Confucianism
and rapid economic growth seemed
to tighten patriarchal restrictions on
women and restore the earlier Han
dynasty images of female submission
and passivity.
Confucian writers highlighted the
subordination of women and the need
to keep men and women separate in
every domain of life.
The Song
A Song dynasty historian wrote “The
boy leads the girl, the girl follows the
boy; the duty of husbands is to be
resolute and wives to be docile begins
with this.”
Women were frequently looked at as
a distraction to men’s pursuit of a
contemplative and introspective life.
The Song
The remarriage of widows, though
legally permissible, was increasingly
condemned, for “to walk through two
courtyards is a source of shame for a
woman.”
One of the worst expressions of this
tightening patriarchy was in
footbinding.
The Song
Apparently beginning with dancers
and courtesans in the 10th or 11th
century, this practice involved the
tight wrapping of young girl’s feet,
usually breaking bones and causing
intense pain.
The Song
Footbinding spread among elite
families and later even to the general
population.
It was associated with Song images of
feminine beauty and eroticism that
emphasized small size, delicacy, and
reticence (silence/reserve).
It is also believed that small feet made
it very hard for a woman to run away
from her husband and his family.
The Song
It certainly served to keep women
restricted to the “inner quarters,”
where Confucian tradition said they
belonged.
Many mothers forced this painful
procedure on their daughters,
probably to help them compete with
concubines for the attention of their
husbands.
The Song
Footbinding in China.