CHAPTER 8: LESSON 2 THE FLOWERING OF CHINESE CULTURE

THE CIVIL SERVICE SYSTEM  The Sui and Tang rulers used examinations to find good candidates for public office aristocrat  Only an aristocrat, a member of a wealthy and influential family, could afford to study for the civil service exams  Preparing for the tests took years and meant traveling to special schools in the capital  Later on, during the Song dynasty, nearly half the civil servants came from classes other than the aristocracy  Doing your job well led to promotions and those who did poorly were demoted or even fired meritocracy  This system is called a meritocracy mandate  Chinese believed that each emperor received from heaven a mandate, or order to govern  Emperor had absolute power in theory, but actually shared his power with wealthy, landowning families

THE BIRTH OF A NEW ECONOMY  To manage government business efficiently, official inspectors, tax collectors, and messengers needed to travel throughout the empire  Tang and Song dynasties built extensive systems of roads and waterways  Spurred trade and encouraged the spread of ideas within China hostels  Relay hostels, or inns, with horses and food for traveling were in use along main roads  Mounted messengers and foot runners carried government mail  Roads made it possible to move grain, tea, and other goods  Government also improved canals and waterways for the growing numbers of sailboats, hand –driven paddle- wheel boats, and rowing ships that used them  Sponsored hostels along the rivers and extended the canal system

NEW CROPS AND FARMING METHODS  Roads and waterways promoted trade throughout China  Travelers introduced a new, fast-ripening rice  Farmers could plant two or sometimes even three crops of this rice each year instead of just one  Government officials taught farmers to build irrigation ditches and dams with pumps driven by human, water, or wind power  A population shift resulted from this boom in agriculture  The population of southern China grew steadily  Mongol invasions in the north forced many to flee to the south surplus  Sold the surplus, or extra food, to people in other regions using the new roads and waterways

A THRIVING MERCHANT CLASS junks  Merchants transported products inexpensively in Chinese sailing ships called junks cash  Made copper coins with holes in the center and strung on a string called a cash (1000 coins= 1 cash) paper currency  In 1024, the Song government used an engraved metal plate to print the world’s first paper currency money economy  This encouraged a money economy to develop  Merchants tended to live in cities and towns, where trading activity was greatest  Cities grew in size as rural workers flocked to the cities to fill jobs related to trade