Transcript Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government

Introduction
Sui Dynasty 589-618
Reunification
Tang Dynasty 618-907
High point in poetry
Influenced Japan, Korea, Vietnam
Song Dynasty 960-1279
Most brilliant age in philosophy since Zhou
Yuan Dynasty 1279-1368
Empire
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Move to Reunification
After confusion of Six Dynasties period
Push for re-creation of centralized bureaucratic empire
modeled on earlier Han state
First steps taken by Northern Wei 386-534
Northern Sino-Turkic state
Moved court to Luoyang
Made Chinese the language of the court
Adopted Chinese dress and surnames
Imposed new land tax
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Sui Dynasty 589-618
Sui Wendi - d. 605
General of mixed Chinese-Turkish ancestry
Unification and reestablishment of centralized
bureaucratic government
Great Wall rebuilt
Grand Canal constructed
Linked Yellow and Yangtze Rivers
Similar to earlier Qin
Short-lived military dynasties restored order
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Tang Dynasty 618-907
First Tang emperor - former Sui provincial
governor
Retook Sui capital and renamed it Chang’an
Emperor reconciled conflicting sets of interests
Bureaucratic government centralized under him
Concessions to the aristocrats
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Tax system
“Equal field system”
Exemptions
Aristocrats as high officials
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Governmental Structure
Organization under three organs
Military Affairs - supervised armies
Censorate - watchdog functions
Council of State - met daily with emperor
• Secretariat - drafted policies
• Chancellery - reviewed policies
• State Affairs - carried out policies
 Six Ministries - core of central government
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Empress Wu 626-706
Originally concubine for the second emperor
Became empress of third Tang emperor
Poisoned or eliminated all rivals
Regent for her son for seven years
Deposed him and ruled as emperor herself
Only woman in Chinese history to hold title
Moved court to Luoyang
Fervent Buddhist and built temples
Scholars of the North Gate
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Chang’an of Xuan-Zong
Xuan-Zong - r. 713-756
Reformed government finances
Grand Canal repaired
New census
Splendor of Chang’an
Population of one million
Trading center
Great walls enclosed thirty square miles
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Tang Empire
Territorial expansion and contraction
Threats from Tibetans, Turks, Mongols
Four tier policy to protect borders
Sent armies if all else failed
Alliances with nomads against nomads
Border defense, including Great Wall
Bring enemy into empire as tributary state
• Significance of embassies
• Access to Tang culture and technology
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Rebellion and Decline
Problems with Manchurians, Tibetans, Arabs
An Lushan Rebellion
Order restored with aid of Uighur Turks
Land reform
Equal field system eliminated
Replaced with fixed quota on each province
More wars
Bandits and warlords
Collapse in 907
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Tang Culture
Cosmopolitan because of its openness
Flow of Indian art and philosophies
Widespread commercial contacts
New religions - Nestorian Christianity,
Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Judaism, Islam
Central Asian music and musical instruments
Golden age of Buddhism in China
Spread of temples and monasteries
Temples served as schools, inns, bathhouses
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Buddhist Sects
Tiantai sect was principal in early Tang
Maitreya - a Buddha of the future
Will appear and create a paradise on earth
Amitabha - Lord of the Pure Land
Salvation by reliance on Amitabha
Chan (Zen in Japan)
Buddha was a human teacher
Enlightenment by each individual’s efforts
Regimen of physical labor and meditation
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Secular Scholarship
Tang culture marked the reappearance of secular
scholarship and letters
Scholarly-bureaucratic complex emerged
Expansive production of poetry
Official history of the previous dynasty
Compilation of dictionaries
Commentaries on Confucian classics
Ghost stories and tales of adventures
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Li Bo - 701-762
Un-Buddhist, Daoist?
Swordsman and carouser
“Bring on the Wine” “Drinking Alone in the
Moonlight”
Poetry is clear, powerful, passionate
Sensitive to beauty
Sense of fantasy
Life is brief and universe is large
Along with Du Fu - greatest poets
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Du Fu - 712-770
Un-Buddhist, Stoic in nature?
Friend of Li Bo
Life of hardship
Failed metropolitan exams, poverty
Captured by An Lushan rebels
Poetry is less lyrical and more allusive than Li Bo
More compassion for human suffering
Humans are short-lived and nature endures
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Song Dynasty 960-1279
Reunified China in 960
Northern Song 960-1127
• Capital at Kaifeng
Southern Song 1127-1279
• Capital at Hangzhou
Continued changes begun in Tang era in
economy, state, society and culture
These changes help explain why China did not
lapse into disunity after eventual collapse
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Agricultural Revolution
Aristocracy weakened
Farmers could buy and sell land
Taxes paid in money
Conscription disappeared
Changes in technology
New early-ripening rice - double cropping
Water control projects
Tea, cotton
Appearance of scholar-gentry class
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Commercial Revolution
Song economy reached new prosperity
Emergence of Yangzi basin
New technology and innovations
Coal and iron-smelting industry
Printing
Abacus, gunpowder, textiles, porcelains
Letters of credit and paper money
Trade
Urbanization - Kaifeng, Hangzhou
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Song Government
Age of autocracy
Emperors had direct personal control over
more offices than Tang predecessors
Central government better funded
• Monopolies on salt, wine, tea
• Commerce as vital source of revenues
Disappearance of the aristocracy
• Officials were commoners
• Mostly products of the examination system
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Examination System
50% of officials selected by examinations
Structure of examination process
Regional to Metropolitan to Palace
Nature of examinations
Memorize Confucian classics
Interpret selected passages
Write in literary style
Compose poems on given themes
Propose solutions based on Confucianism
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Song Culture
Preconditions for rich Song culture
Rising economy, more schools, higher literacy, spread
of printing
More narrowly Chinese than Tang
Song culture less aristocratic and Buddhist
Greatest age in pottery and porcelains
Great age in history
Sima Guang 1019-1086
Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government
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Song Philosophy
Second only to Zhou in philosophy
Zhu Xi - 1130-1200
Studied Confucianism, Buddhism, Daoism
Joined Confucianism to certain Buddhist and native
metaphysical elements
Deepening its social and political ethics
His Confucianism the standard for examinations
Made religion or metaphysics serve philosophy
“Great ultimate” and “quiet sitting”
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Song Poetry and Painting
Poetry some of China’s best
Su Dungpo - 1037-1101
• Painter, calligrapher, wrote commentaries
• Social control through morality
Painting and calligraphy equally appreciated
Varied types of painting
Landscape was crowning achievement
• Small human figures in vast natural universe
• Vision of an inner reality
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Rise of the Mongol Empire
Mongols a nomadic people north of China
Yurts, clans, shamans
Extraordinary horsemen
Temujin - 1167-1227
Genghis Khan (Jenghiz or Chinggis)
• United Mongol tribes
• Reorganized military forces
 Nomadic cavalry and compound bow
 Pledges of personal loyalty
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Mongol Expansion
Great Khans in China
Genghis Khan captured Beijing in 1227
Originally mainly interested in plunder
New dynasty in 1271 - Yuan
Southern China falls in 1279
Chagatai Khans in Central Asia
Golden Horde in Russia
Ilkhans in Persia
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Yuan Dynasty 1271-1368
Kublai Khan
Grandson of Genghis Khan
Moved capital from Karakorum to Beijing
Founded Yuan dynasty in 1271
Mixture of cultural elements
Chinese custom of hereditary succession
Beijing - Cambulac - “the city of the khan”
• Chinese segregated in adjoining walled city
Summer palace at Shangdu (Xanadu)
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Yuan Governmental Structure
Civil administration highly centralized
Move towards absolutism
Military service a monopoly of Mongols
Classification in appointing civil officials
Highest - Mongols
Second - Persians, Turks, other non-Chinese
Third - northern Chinese
Lowest - southern Chinese
Mongols took an easier examination
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Foreign Impact and Culture
Diplomacy and trade brought contact
Persia and Arab world especially important
Arab communities in Gunagzhou
Camel caravans carrying silk
Printing, gunpowder spread to western Asia
Marco Polo
Served Kublai Khan as official, 1275-1292
A Description of the World
Increased European interest in geography
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Religion and the Mongols
Mongol toleration of religions
Nestorian Christianity
Mother of Kublai Khan was Nestorian
Papal missions
Tibetan Buddhism most favored
Chinese Buddhism also flourished
Islam made greatest gains
Established in Central Asia and western China
Confucianism regarded as religion
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Decline of the Yuan Dynasty
Rapid decline after Kublai Khan
Different khanates separated by religion and
culture
Mongols thought Great Khans too Chinese
Chinese viewed Yuan as foreign oppressors
Heavy taxes
Corrupt officials
White Lotus and other rebellions
Rise of warlords and eventual collapse
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