This is Post- Classical China AP World- Sui, Tang, Song

Tang Dynasty 618-907 CE Golden age of Imperial China Cosmopolitan society Buddhism continued to Rise (BELIEF CHANGE) Founder: Li Yuan (dynastic duke of Tang) Expanded and Consolidated Empire Civil Service Exams were used to recruit government officials based on merit not aristocracy. Established mints and a new form of currency that remained the standard Established a new legal system (codes, statutes, regulations and Ordinances) Same legal system later influences Japan, Korea, Vietnam

Shift in Leadership Emperor Gaozong (649-683)- court becomes dominated by one of the most remarkable women in Chinese History: Wu Zetain (Wu Zhao) Becomes Gaozong’s legitimate Empress, takes over central government after he suffered a stroke. Rules in her own name!!!!!! (Women’s leadership- CHANGE) Turned to Buddhism for legitimacy (attacked for it!!!)

Policies and Economy Extended borders and placated nomadic tribes (played off each other) Rebuilt bureaucracy of Han- officials came from scholar-gentry class (civil service exam) Established a tribute system with neighboring kingdoms Equal-field system: restricted inheritance of land (improved peasant life!) Used Grand Canal (by Sui) to connect rivers in trade routes. City of Chang’an- largest in the world because of Silk Road

Decline of Tang 755-763 uprisings caused by a neglectful Emperor, caused Tang to lose grip on frontier areas in the north. Invasions by nomadic Turks More power given to regional military commanders Last Tang abdicated in 907

Copper and Ceramics

Transition Years Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Tumultuous period of Chinese history name for the five successive short-lived dynasties (none reigned more than 16 years) and ten major kingdoms that existed from the fall of the tang in 907 to the succession of the Song dynasty in 960.

Song Dynasty 960-1279 CE During the Song period, the Chinese made a number of technological innovations, many of them based on information that had been brought to China from West Asia during the cosmopolitan Tang Era. Song inventors improved the compass, making it suitable for seafaring. In shipbuilding, the Song introduced the sternpost rudder and watertight bulkheads. These innovations were later adopted in the Persian Gulf. WHO???

The Song also had a standing, professionally trained, regularly paid military. Iron and coal were important strategic resources for the Song military. The Song produced large amounts of high-grade iron and steel for weapons, armor, and defensive works. The Song also developed and used gunpowder weapons in their wars.

Song thinkers developed a sophisticated Neo-Confucian philosophy, a syncretic belief system, mixing together Buddhism and Confucianism. The civil service examination system, introduced in the Tang, reached its mature form in the Song. The examination broke the domination of the hereditary aristocracy by allowing men to be chosen for government service on the basis of merit. However, men from poor families were unlikely to be able to devote the necessary time and resources to studying for the rigorous examinations.

With the invention of moveable type, the Song government was able to mass-produce authorized preparation texts for examination-takers. Printing also contributed to the spreading of new agricultural technology and thus helped to increase agricultural production and spur population growth in South China. What does printing also spread??????

During the Song period, China’s population rose to 100 million During the Song period, China’s population rose to 100 million. Population growth and economic/ agricultural growth fed the rise of large, crowded, but very well-managed cities like Hangzhou. (better farm tools, fertilizer, and champa rice) The Song period saw the wide use of an interregional credit system called flying money and the introduction of government-issued paper money. The paper money caused inflation and was later withdrawn.

*The Song government was not able to control the market economy as closely as previous governments had done. Certain government functions, including tax collection, were privatized, and the treasury came under pressure. Efforts to raise taxes caused two major peasant rebellions. *Women’s status declined during the Song period. Women were entirely subordinated to men and lost their rights to own and manage property; remarriage was forbidden. (CHANGE to WOMEN) Painfully bound feet became a mandatory status symbol for elite women. Working class women and women from non-Han peoples of southern China did not bind their feet and had more independence than elite Han Chinese women did.