1. China = Tang and Song Dynasties
East Asia 600 – 1200
China = Tang and Song Dynasties
Japan = Feudalism

2. China between 600 - 1200 Chang’an - capital Huangzhou - capital
Song Dynasty, China
Chang’an - capital
Huangzhou - capital

3. Big Picture Changes
Changes include an increase and concentration of wealth in China
Intensification of cross-cultural exchanges
Innovations in transportation and commerce
Influence of pastoral, nomadic culture of Central Asia

4. What were caravanserais and what impact might they have had on what regions?
“In the east, in days gone by, when the hazards of travel were many and the comforts were few, travelers often banded together in caravans for protection. Stopping places for the caravans were called caravanserais…and they were a place to sit around a fire at night and exchange stories…In the day, travelers…might see each other only as silhouettes wavering in the heat haze. At night, under the starry sky, they could come together again…to the travelers, the caravanserais were a cheerful source of news, companionship and entertainment.”
Source: Nawab Pasnak

5. Sui Dynasty 589 - 618 reunites China builds Grand Canal
connects Yangzi and Huang He Rivers
will facilitate internal trade between northern and southern China
will facilitate political and cultural unity, allowing Chinese hegemony during later Tang era

6. Tang Dynasty
Tang emperors and nobles descended from the Turks. Significance of influence of Central Asian culture:
Buddhism
strong military tradition - horses
Capital - Chang’an - cosmopolitan - one of the largest cities
Tang Era - one of the greatest eras of Chinese history
How did they come to rule? experts at horse warfare which included the use of the stirrup in military expeditions

7. Tang Government Ruled over Turkic tribes in the north
tribes became vassals of Tang rulers
daughters of Turkic leaders married off to Tang rulers
sons of Turkic leaders sent to Chang’an to “study” became hostages
Extended rule over Korea and Vietnam
Korean kingdoms defeated in war - Silla kingdom - becomes a tributary state - China’s vassal - woodblock printing invented in China but Koreans advanced printing by inventing movable type printing which impacts China - Confucianism and Buddhism introduced to Korea from China
Vietnam also became a tributary state - loyal vassal to China - Champa rice introduced to China from Vietnam and Confucianism and Buddhism introduced to Vietnam from China
Ambassadors of tributary states had to perform the kowtow ceremony (a deep bow before the Chinese emperor in which the forehead touched the ground)

8. Tang Government Emperor aristocrats scholar-gentry class merchants
peasants
Early Tang emperors worked with Buddhist scholars so the scholar-gentry bureaucrats fell out of favor with the government. That will change towards the end of Tang rule as Confucianism becomes the philosophy of rulers once more.

9. Xuanzang (shuanjang) Chinese Buddhist monk and traveler
Popularized Buddhism in China when he travelled to India in 645 C.E. and brought back hundreds of Buddhist texts
Buddhist monasteries and temples could not be taxed

10. Decline of Tang Neglectful, inefficient emperors
rebellions from peasants
Uighurs, nomads, attack Chang’an
emperors granted more and more power to regional military commanders.

11. Song Era 960 - 1127 Northern Song 1127 - 1279 Southern Song
The scholar-gentry class continued to make up the emperor’s bureaucracy.
A civil service examination based on Confucianism continued to be given in order to select the civil servants.
Capital cities were trading cities and government centers.

12. Commerce and Industry of the Song era
steel
gunpowder
movable type printing
large ships called junks
small compass suitable for navigation
credit - “flying money” - paper could be redeemed for coins
Commercial transactions were facilitated by the use of paper money, a Chinese innovation in the 11th c.
Government will print too much leading to inflation
Champa rice from Vietnam (originally from India) will sustain large population. First brought to China as a tribute gift to the Song Court.

13. Ideology of the Song Era Neo-Confucianism
Neo-Confucianism was the ideology of the Song era.
Neo-Confucianists promoted formal education.
Neo-Confucianists emphasized traditions that reinforced class, age and gender distinctions.
Neo-Confucianists emphasized a male-dominated hierarchy.

14. Status of women
The practice of foot binding began during the Song era.
It spread only among elite women.
It was a sign of female subordination during the late Song period. It restricted women by making it difficult and painful to go too far away from their home.

15. Japan
Environment:
Japan is mountainous and in earlier times was heavily forested. Only 11 percent of its land area was suitable for cultivation.

16. Taika Reforms What Japan borrowed from China:
Borrowed ideas from China received through their embassies in Chang’an
Included:
a legal code
Confucianism
reverence for Buddhism
Impact on Japan: create a centralized government

17. Taika reforms What Japan did not borrow from China:
Mandate of Heaven = Japanese dynasty never changed
Emperors all came from the one and only dynasty of Japan and were not as powerful as Chinese emperors as Shinto leaders held tremendous power.
Religion: Indigenous belief: Shintoism

18. Japan - status of women: Higher than other places for elite women
Influence of Confucianism = lowers women’s status in Japan
Elite women lived in isolation so they dedicated their time to Buddhism and poetry, diaries and...here comes first novel:
1021 C.E.

19. Heian Period of Japanese History
Capital moved to Heian – Kyoto
Era is characterized by a flourishing of artistic works from the aristocracy at court like poetry and paintings
Period after the Taika Reforms but before Feudalism and the rule of shoguns.

20. Heian Era:
Fujiwara family controlled and protected the emperor - they were priests, bureaucrats and warriors
Pursuit of an aesthetic life of poetry and art leads them to leave the day-to-day activities of local governing and collecting taxes to the warriors - by 1100’s warriors had become wealthy and powerful
Feudalism follows =

21. Kamakura Shogunate begins 1185
Feudal Japan
Kamakura Shogunate begins 1185