1. Chapter 11 Central and Eastern Asia 400-1200
By Gabriel Flores, Jules Guab, Abi Kibreab

2. The Sui and Tang Empires, 581-755 Reunification Under the Sui and Tang
The Sui Empire reunified China and established a government based on Confucianism but heavily influenced by Buddhism.
The Sui’s rapid decline and fall may have been due to its having spent large amounts of resources on a number of ambitious construction, canal, irrigation, and military projects.
The Tang Empire was established in 618.
The Tang state carried out a program of territorial expansion, avoided over-centralization, and combined Turkic influence with Chinese Confucian traditions

3. B. Buddhism and the Tang Empire
The Tang emperors legitimized their control by using the Buddhist idea that kings are spiritual agents who bring their subjects into a Buddhist realm.
In return for their assistance, they received tax exemptions,land, and gifts.
Mahayana Buddhist beliefs were flexible, encouraged the adaptation of local deities into a Mahayana pantheon, and encouraged the translation of Buddhist texts into local languages.

4. C. To Chang’an by land and sea
Chang’an was the destination of ambassadors from other states sent to China under the tributary system. The city had over a million residents, most of them living outside the city walls.
Foreigners in Chang’an lived in special compounds. Roads and canals, including the Grand Canal, brought people and goods to the city.
Islamic and Jewish merchants from Western Asia came to China via the Indian Ocean trade routes.
Large Chinese commercial ships carried large amounts of goods. Bubonic plague was also brought from West Asia to China along the sea routes

5. D. Tang Integration
Tang China combined Central Asian influences with Chinese culture, bringing polo, grape wine, tea, and spices. In trade, China lost its monopoly on silk, but began to produce its own cotton, tea, and sugar.
Tang roads, river transport, and canals facilitated a tremendous growth in trade.
Tang China exported more than it imported, with high quality silks and porcelain being among its most desired products.

6. II. Fractured Power in Central Asia and China, to 907
Reaction and Repression
In the late ninth century the Tang Empire broke the power of the Buddhist monasteries, because it was bad for the economy and family system and Confucian ideology was reasserted.
Buddhism also had been used to legitimize women’s participation in politics. The most significant example of this is the career of Wu Zhao.
When Buddhism was repressed, Confucian scholars concocted accounts that painted highly critical portraits of influential women in Chinese history.
The crackdown on Buddhism also brought the destruction of many Buddhist cultural artifacts.

7. B. The End of the Tang Empire
The Tang order was destroyed by the forces that were essential to its creation and maintenance. The campaigns of expansion in the seventh century left the empire large and powerful but dependent on local military commanders and a complex tax collection system.
The Tang drive westward across Central Asia was stopped by a combined army of Arabs, Turks, and Tibetans in 751, at the battle of Talas River near Tashkent.
The most devastating uprise was the Huang Chao rebellion of , begun by a disgruntled member of the gentry. The ruthless and violent rebellion, attracted poor farmers and tenants who could protect themselves from their local bosses.

8. C. The Uigur and Tibetan Empires in Central Asia
After the fall of the Han Empire, Turkic peoples began moving south and west, through Mongolia, then on to Central Asia, on the long migration that eventually brought them to Anatolia.
Within about a century, however, much of Central Asia was under control of a new Turkic group, the Uigurs.
Under the Uigurs, Central Asia’s greatest cities of Bukhara, Samarkand, and Tashkent enjoyed literate culture which ties to both the Islamic world and China.

9. III. The Emergence of East Asia, to 1200 The Liao and Jin Challenge
In the Liao and other northern empires, significant numbers of people were nomadic or moved from place to place as the seasons changed. The rulers of these empires acknowledged the various economies and social structures of diverse peoples and made no attempt to create a single elite culture.
They encouraged their Chinese elites to use their own languages.
As a consequence of it, Buddhism was far more powerful than Confucianism in the northern states, where rulers depended on their roles as bodhisattvas or Buddhist kings to legitimate their power.

10. B. Song Industries
In 1088, an engineer named Su Song constructed a huge mechanical clock that told the time, day of the month, and told the movements of the moon.
Song inventors improved compasses, making it more suitable while travelling the ocean.
The use and mining of iron was high, as iron was used for making weapons and armor for the military. Iron was also used in bridges and small buildings.
The military was professionally trained, educated, and paid regularly.

11. C. Economy and Society
Civil service examinations (introduced in the Tang) were changed, making civilians without prestigious backgrounds have a better chance of working in the government.
A cheaper and easier way of printing, called the Movable Type, paved way of more texts being made, and techniques being spread.
New credit system introduced called “flying money”, and government issued cash were also introduced, which led to inflation.
Woman had declined status in this period, and could not own property.

12. D. Essential Partners: Korea, Japan, and Vietnam
Between all of the country's, rice was used mostly throughout, as it fit Confucian social ideas.
Korea absorbed Confucianism and Buddhism, and spread it to Japan.
In the mid-600s, Japanese rulers implemented reforms based of the Tang government.
The elites of Annam (what the Chinese called early Vietnam) modeled their culture on the culture of Chinese elites.