1. Tang Dynasty C.E
Sui, Tang and Song China

2. Tang Dynasty Summary: Second Classical Chinese Age
Very similar to the Han Dynasty
Confucianism again dominates govt leaders
Confucian Civil Service Exams used to hire administrators for the Chinese government locally, regionally and nationally
Extended its influence throughout East Asia (Japan and Korea)
Re-built the new capital at Xi’an
The Han Synthesis term refers to the emphasis on Legalism, but with a touch of Confucianism. The Han dynasty recorded Confucius’s teachings (The Analects) and put a big emphasis on the family.
Founded the Imperial University
Required examinations to become bureaucrat (civil service system)
Soldiers dropped to lowest status.
Confucianists at work; Daoists at home.
The Han tried to replace literature, including Confucius’s writings, lost during the Qin Dynasty. Created new works of literature and music. Scroll painting began during this time. Iron was now used for plows and weapons. Acupuncture was invented. Invented a crude seismic sensing tool, so they could send troops and food to the scene of an earthquake!
Inventions include: paper (105 CE), sternpost rudder on ships, water mill, wheelbarrow, furrowed cultivation
Show map for Silk Road trade. It brought Chinese together into one civilization, creating a common culture. Economically, it brought much wealth to the Han, as they exported much more than they imported.
Wudi’s public schools taught Confucianism. Grand School in capital. In 100 years, 30,000 studied there.
Sui, Tang and Song China

3. Tang Expansion Powerful military state
extended the boundaries of China through Siberia
Korea in the east
Vietnam in the South.
extended a corridor of control along the Silk Road well into modern-day Afghanistan
Sui, Tang and Song China

4. Empress Wu 625-705 AD Only female ruler of China
Cruel but effective ruler
Had to fight the Confucian social belief that women should serve men
Encouraged women to be more vocal and demand better treatment from their family
Sui, Tang and Song China

5. Tang Economy Reestablished the safety of the Silk Road.
Silk Road trade with Middle East and Constantinople
New Inventions:
Printing press using moveable print
Porcelain used for dishes and decoratives
Gunpowder originally for fireworks but eventually for weapons
Mechanical clocks
Sui, Tang and Song China

6. Tang Religion/Philosophy
Liberal attitude towards all religions at first.
1st big spread of Buddhism in China
Later during the Tang, Confucianism becomes more aggressive in fighting Buddhist influence in China
Sui, Tang and Song China

7. Tang Social Life
Trade brings people from all over the world to China; especially in cities
Cities have a great social life with live music and drama
Tang people loved poetry and landscape painting
Confucian social hierarchy dominates
The Han Synthesis term refers to the emphasis on Legalism, but with a touch of Confucianism. The Han dynasty recorded Confucius’s teachings (The Analects) and put a big emphasis on the family.
Founded the Imperial University
Required examinations to become bureaucrat (civil service system)
Soldiers dropped to lowest status.
Confucianists at work; Daoists at home.
The Han tried to replace literature, including Confucius’s writings, lost during the Qin Dynasty. Created new works of literature and music. Scroll painting began during this time. Iron was now used for plows and weapons. Acupuncture was invented. Invented a crude seismic sensing tool, so they could send troops and food to the scene of an earthquake!
Inventions include: paper (105 CE), sternpost rudder on ships, water mill, wheelbarrow, furrowed cultivation
Show map for Silk Road trade. It brought Chinese together into one civilization, creating a common culture. Economically, it brought much wealth to the Han, as they exported much more than they imported.
Wudi’s public schools taught Confucianism. Grand School in capital. In 100 years, 30,000 studied there.
Sui, Tang and Song China

8. Tea Tea comes into China from Southeast Asia
Tea and Horse Trade Route to Tibet increases tea availability in China
Sui, Tang and Song China

9. Foot-Binding in Tang China (from Susan Pojer's presentation)
Broken toes by 3 years of age.
The Han Synthesis term refers to the emphasis on Legalism, but with a touch of Confucianism. The Han dynasty recorded Confucius’s teachings (The Analects) and put a big emphasis on the family.
Founded the Imperial University
Required examinations to become bureaucrat (civil service system)
Soldiers dropped to lowest status.
Confucianists at work; Daoists at home.
The Han tried to replace literature, including Confucius’s writings, lost during the Qin Dynasty. Created new works of literature and music. Scroll painting began during this time. Iron was now used for plows and weapons. Acupuncture was invented. Invented a crude seismic sensing tool, so they could send troops and food to the scene of an earthquake!
Inventions include: paper (105 CE), sternpost rudder on ships, water mill, wheelbarrow, furrowed cultivation
Show map for Silk Road trade. It brought Chinese together into one civilization, creating a common culture. Economically, it brought much wealth to the Han, as they exported much more than they imported.
Wudi’s public schools taught Confucianism. Grand School in capital. In 100 years, 30,000 studied there.
Size 5 ½ shoe on the right
Sui, Tang and Song China

10. The Results of Foot-Binding
The Han Synthesis term refers to the emphasis on Legalism, but with a touch of Confucianism. The Han dynasty recorded Confucius’s teachings (The Analects) and put a big emphasis on the family.
Founded the Imperial University
Required examinations to become bureaucrat (civil service system)
Soldiers dropped to lowest status.
Confucianists at work; Daoists at home.
The Han tried to replace literature, including Confucius’s writings, lost during the Qin Dynasty. Created new works of literature and music. Scroll painting began during this time. Iron was now used for plows and weapons. Acupuncture was invented. Invented a crude seismic sensing tool, so they could send troops and food to the scene of an earthquake!
Inventions include: paper (105 CE), sternpost rudder on ships, water mill, wheelbarrow, furrowed cultivation
Show map for Silk Road trade. It brought Chinese together into one civilization, creating a common culture. Economically, it brought much wealth to the Han, as they exported much more than they imported.
Wudi’s public schools taught Confucianism. Grand School in capital. In 100 years, 30,000 studied there.
Sui, Tang and Song China

11. Tang Xuanzong (The Profound Emperor) and Consort Yang
Sui, Tang and Song China

12. Mistress Yang and the An Lushan Rebellion 755-763
Emperor fell in love with a young concubine named Yang Guifei,
The Emperor wasted money and time on Yang and neglected his duties making others jealous and harming China
Yang told the Emperor to hire her friends to rule which made situation worse
One of these was a general named An Lushan, who quickly accumulated power.
An Lushan eventually decided that he would make a pretty good emperor, and launched a rebellion.
The emperor was forced to flee the capital, and on the way, the palace guard strangled Tang and threw her corpse in a ditch.
the rebellion pretty much shattered centralized Yang control, and for the remaining 150 years of the dynasty, the country slowly disintegrated
Sui, Tang and Song China

13. An original Limerick The Emperor Xuanzong
fell in love with a concubine named Yang
But she had a man on the side
To take over the empire – he tried
Which led to the next dynasty - named Song
Sui, Tang and Song China

14. Tang Poetry
The Tang dynasty is often referred to as China's golden age.
And Tang poets are perhaps the best known and most revered of all Chinese literary figures.
Wang Wei Li Bo Du Fu
Sui, Tang and Song China

15. Tang Poetry Combines 3 Strands of Chinese thought
Buddhism emphasized the impermanence of life,
Daoism emphasized abandonment to the Way found in nature.
Confucianism stressed moral responsibility and service to the state.
"Three Teachings" informed the thought and behavior of emperors and Chinese Confucian scholars
Sui, Tang and Song China

16. Almost all Chinese poems are written in couplets.
Every two lines form a separate statement.
Tang poetry was usually done in 4 couplet poems
Poetry is often done in calligraphy and on landscape paintings
Sui, Tang and Song China

17. "On the River" by Du Fu
On the river, every day these heavy rains-- bleak, bleak, autumn in Ching-ch'u
High winds strip the leaves from the trees; through the long night I hug my fur robe.
I recall my official record, keep looking in the mirror, recall my comings and goings, leaning alone in an upper room.
In these perilous times I long to serve my sovereign-- old and feeble as I am, I can't stop thinking of it!
Sui, Tang and Song China

18. "I Stand Alone" by Du Fu
A single bird of prey beyond the sky. a pair of white gulls between riverbanks.
Hovering wind tossed, ready to strike; the pair, at their ease, roaming to and fro.
And the dew is also full on the grasses, spiders' filaments still not drawn in.
Instigations in nature approach men's affairs-- I stand alone in thousands of sources of worry
Sui, Tang and Song China

19. Transition Period between Tang and Song
saw the fragmentation of China into five northern dynasties and ten southern kingdoms until Song unified all of China again
Sui, Tang and Song China