China - Chapter 14:ii - [Image source:

A northern official named Yang Jian unified China by conquering both the north and the south. [Image source:

Yang Jian took the title Emperor Wen when he founded the Sui dynasty. [Image source:

Emperor Wen renewed many of the goals and traditions of the Han dynasty. [Image source:

He rebuilt the Han capital of Changan. [Image source:

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Emperor Wen rebuilt the Great Wall of China. [Image source:

Emperor Wen constructed a Grand Canal to link southern and Northern China. [Image source: g/geofo/xyunhe1.jpg]

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Most of these projects were done using corvee labour, which made him very unpopular with the peasantry. [Image source:

Eventually, peasant revolts destabilized the Sui government. [Image source:

The rebellious lord Li Yuan seized control from the Sui dynasty and proclaimed himself emperor of China. [Image source:

Li Yuan established the Tang dynasty, which lasted from 618 to 907 A.D. [Image source:

Tai Cong, a son of Li Yuan, was the military genius behind the early Tang expansion. [Image source:

Aside from being a gifted military leader, Tai Cong was also a shrewd administrator. [Image source:

Candidates for government service had to pass a series of civil service examinations. [Image source:

These tests measured the degree to which a scholar had mastered the Confucian Classics. [Image source:

The Tang bureaucracy became a meritocracy – a system where people are chosen and promoted based on talent and performance. [Image source:

Tang rulers built roads and improved navigation, which made governing the empire easier. These roads increased trade and brought prosperity. [Image source:

Camel caravans carried the wealth of the Orient to markets in the West along the Silk Road. [Image source:

Foreign products and ideas, such as Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam came to China along the Silk Road. [Image source:

Buddhism became very popular in China during the Tang dynasty. [Image source: _china/Feature/images/fj.jpg]

Empress Wu, the wife of Gaozong, virtually ruled China during the last-half of the 600s A.D. [Image source: aching/311/week10/wuzetian.htm]

Empress Wu expanded the bureaucracy and strengthened the military. [Image source: chinese-armour.freewebspace.com/images/tang_armoured_troops3.jpg ]

Later emperors, such as Xuanzang, became great patrons of the arts. [Image source:

Tang artisans were most renowned for their ceramics, especially a fine translucent pottery known in the West as “china.” [Image source:

Du Fu and Li Bo, two of China’s greatest poets, flourished during the Tang. [Image source:

Though a country be sundered, hills and rivers endure; And spring comes green again to trees and grasses Where petals have been shed like tears And lonely birds have sung their grief.... After the war-fires of three months, One message from home is worth a ton of gold.... I stroke my white hair. It has grown too thin To hold the hairpins any more. A SPRING VIEW

Tang scholars compiled dictionaries and encyclopedias, and produced histories of China. [Image source:

Buddhist monks developed a technique of block printing, which facilitated the production of books. [Image source:

Wars with Turkish and Tibetan neighbors, as well as rebellions in famine-stricken provinces, plagued the Tang dynasty after 755 A.D. [Image source:

The Tang dynasty finally collapsed in 907 A.D. [Image source:

Between 907 and 960 A.D. China was ruled by a succession of military dynasties. [Image source:

The Song dynasty was founded when General Zhao Kuangyin seized the throne and crowned himself emperor. [Image source:

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Song scholars developed an official state- philosophy called neo- Confucianism. [Image source:

Eventually a wealthy elite of Confucian scholars known as mandarins came to control the state bureaucracy. [Image source:

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Song rulers used state revenues to fund irrigation projects and canals. [Image source:

Urban centers prospered as farming, trade, and commerce thrived. [Image source: con/manufac/bridge.gif]

Hangzhou, the capital of Song China, had over one million residents. [Image source:

Song artists were renowned for their landscape paintings. [Image source:

Inventors developed tools that made it possible for Song sailors to navigate out of the sight of land. [Image source:

Gunpowder was first used in fireworks at this time. [Image source:

The Mongols conquered north China in 1234 A.D. [Image source:

The remnant of the Song dynasty that survived in southern China eventually fell in 1279 A.D. [Image source:

The Mongols established the Yűan dynasty in the 1200s A.D. [Image source:

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Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis Khan, ruled China from 1260 to 1294 A.D. [Image source:

The highest positions in the Yuan court were given to Mongols or foreigners. [Image source:

Marco Polo visited the court of Kublai Khan and wrote about his travels in the Orient. [Image source:

Route of Marco Polo, circa [Image source:

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Under the Mongols, trade between China, Europe, and Southwest Asia flourished. [Image source:

On more than one occasion the Mongols attempted to invade and conquer the island empire of Japan. [Image source:

Kublai Khan was succeeded by a series of weak rulers. [Image source:

In 1368 A.D. a Buddhist Monk led a rebellion which succeeded in overthrowing the Yűan dynasty. [Image source: