Chapter 10 From the Tang to the Mongols: The Flowering of Traditional China

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Chapter 10From the Tang to the Mongols The
Flowering of Traditional China
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• China after the Han (220-581)
• Division and civil war
• Nomads from the Gobi Desert
• Decline of Confucian principles
• Buddhism
• The Sui (581-618)
• Yang Jian (Yang Chien)
• Daoism and Buddhism
• Sui Yangdi (Sui Yang Ti)
• Collapse of the Sui
• Grand Canal
• Connects Yellow and Yangtze Rivers

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Changan under the Sui and the Tang 1. Chang'an
was not only the capital of the Tang Empire, it
was also the eastern terminus of the trade routes
from central Asia and the western point of
deposit for the Grand Canal. With a population
drawn from all over Asia, the city and it suburbs
had a population of 1,960,186. Surrounding the
city were walls that formed a rectangle of
slightly over five by six miles. The city was
laid out in broad thoroughfares running east-west
and north-south. These formed 110 blocks, each
of which was an administrative unit. From the
southern gate ran a 500 foot wide thoroughfare to
the governmental headquarters at the Imperial
City where the Imperial Palace was located. The
road divided the city administratively into
eastern and western sections, each with its own
marketplace operated by the government. (John K.
Fairbank, Edwin O. Reischauer, and Albert M.
Craig, East Asia Tradition and Transformation,
pp. 105-106) Question 1. How does Chang'an
compare as a capital city to that of Rome and
Athens?
Changan under the Sui and the Tang
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Grand canal at Wuxi
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China under the Tang 1. After several centuries
of internal division, China was united under the
Sui dynasty (581-618). The capital was
re-established at Chang'an and expansion began
anew. Most significant during this period was
the connecting older canals and constructing new
ones. First, Chang'an was tied by canal to the
union of the Wei and Yellow Rivers one hundred
miles away. This was followed by extending the
canal to link the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. The
Grand Canal, when completed in 610, extended over
1400 miles. The new canal facilitated the
movement of grain and commodities from the
rice-rich southern provinces to the densely
populated north. The canal also served as a
means for communication, movement of troops, and
inspection of the empire. 2. The Sui collapsed
in part due to three failed campaigns to subdue
the Korean kingdom of Koguryo. When the Sui
emperor was murdered in 618, General Li Yaun
founded the new dynasty of the Tang (618-907).
Soon they began expansion, securing the heartland
by subduing the nomadic tribes beyond the Great
Wall. The northwest was pacified and renamed
Xinjiang ("new region") while the Tibetan kingdom
was brought under Tang control. Tribute also
came from rulers beyond the frontier. The
southern provinces below the Yangtze were fully
assimilated into the Tang Empire. 3. The Sui had
divided their country into a uniform system of
districts grouped in prefectures. The Tang
altered the system by grouping the prefectures
into provinces. 4. In the middle of the eighth
century, Tang foreign policy collapsed as Chinese
armies were defeated in central Asia and the
southwest. As the emperor's power disintegrated,
generals began to rebel. By 907 the Tang had
dissolved and China entered the Era of the Five
Dynasties featuring barracks emperors until 960
with the initiation of the Sung dynasty.
Question 1. How did the Tang reshape China?
China under the Tang
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• The Tang (618-907)
• Li Yuan
• Tang Taizong (Tang Tai-tsung)
• Expansion
• Cultural growth
• Buddhism
• Xuanzong (Husan Tsung), 712-756
• Yang Guifei (Yang Kuei-fei)
• Uighers
• The Song (960-1279)
• Song Taizu (Sung Tai-tsu)
• Collapse
• Mongols, 1279

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Statues of traitors to Song dynasty in Hangzhou
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• Political Structures Triumph of Confucianism
• Civil service examinations
• Grand council
• Department of State Affairs
• Army
• Bureaucracy
• Confucianism
• Song examination system
• Three levels
• Xiu cai, received talents
• Zhu ren, elevated men
• Zhin shi, presented scholar
• Relatives

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• Local government
• District governed by a magistrate
• Village governed by council of elders
• Economy and Society
• Tang reduced power of the nobility
• Zhun tian, equal field
• Land manipulation and opening new lands
• Commercial Revolution
• Urban economy and Flying money
• Steel
• Gunpowder
• Long distance trade and the Silk Road
• Importation of Buddhism
• Social classes

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• Daily life
• Forms of entertainment
• Transportation
• New Foods
• Peasants
• village
• family
• male superiority
• Women
• Wu Zhao, (625?-706?)

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Asia under the Mongols 1. The Mongols were a
nomadic people originating in the southern
grasslands of China. They primarily raised
horses and herded sheep. Their organization was
in clans and related clans to tribes. The
unification of the tribes came under Temujin
(1206-1227) in the late twelfth and early
thirteenth centuries. Through the tribe of his
wife, Temuchin, Temujin allied with the Ch'in
ruling north China. In 1206 a meeting of the
tribes in the Gobi Desert elected Temujin their
great khan ("ruler"). Genghis Khan was the
unquestioned leader. The army, never more than
130,000, was recruited from the Uigher Turks, the
Manchus, and other nomadic people divided into
myriads of 10,000 with subdivisions of 1,000,
100, and 10. They were superior horsemen
possessing a powerful compound bow, needed
supplies, and remounts. Tactics utilizing
cavalry and siege warfare were less effective in
tropical terrain and hilly regions than in the
arid Mongol heartland. 2. The empire of Genghis
Khan was concentrated on the steppes. He brought
under control the lands north of the Great Wall,
the western Muslim states on the steppes, and
eastern Russia. Genghis (assassinated in 1227)
divided the empire among his four sons and
eventually the khanates became independent in
central Asia was the Khanate of Chaghadai in
Russia the Khanate of Kipchak (Golden Horde) in
Persia the Khanate of Persia (Il-Khans) and in
Mongolia to southern China the Khanate of the
Great Kahn. 3. The capital of the Khanate of the
Great Khan was moved from Karakorum to Khanbaligh
(modern Beijing) in 1264 (Beijing was captured in
1227). The summer palace was at Shang-tu. 4.
Chosen in 1260 as the great khan was Khubilai
(1260-1294) grandson of Ghengis. He adopted the
Chinese dynastic name of Yuan. Only about
400,000 Mongols lived in China during the Yaun
period. 5. The Mongols conquered Tibet, Korea,
Sung China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Burma, Persia,
Mesopotamia, and Syria. In 1260, they were
stopped in Palestine by the Egyptians.The
Japanese also halted their expansion in 1274 and
1281. Undeterred, Khubilai Khan in 1281 sent an
army of nearly 150,000 to Japan but again failed
to subdue it. Critical to the failure was a
massive typhoon that destroyed the entire Mongol
fleet. In 1293 the Khan's forces failed against
Java. 6. Marco Polo accompanied his father and
uncle to Asia in 1271. From 1275 to 1292, he
served at the court of Khubilai Khan. The Polos
were allowed to leave China in 1292, accompanying
the bride for the Khan of Persia. They sailed
from Hangzhow to India and then to Hormuz where
they continued over land to Tabriz and on to
Constantinople and Venice, arriving in
1295. Questions 1. How was the military
structure of the Mongols conducive to military
success? What were the tactics? 2. What
weaknesses existed in the khanate system?
Asia under the Mongols
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• The Mongol Empire
• Genghis Khan, Universal Ruler
• Fire lance
• Karakorum
• Separate khnates
• Khubliai Khan (1260-1294)
• Khanbaliq (Beijing)
• Yaun dynasty
• Expansion
• Government
• Prosperity
• Weaknesses
• Zhu Yuanzhang (Chu Yuan-chang)

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Temple of Heaven in Beijing
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Chinese tourists climbing over Ming tomb figures
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• The Ming (Bright) Dynasty (1369-1644)
• Ming Hongwu (1369-1402)
• Districts, scholar gentry
• Li-jia (Li-chia)
• Yongle (1402-1424)
• Seven naval expeditions
• Admiral Zhenghe (Cheng Ho)

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Models of traditional Chinese single-mast sailing
vessels
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• Rise and Decline of Buddhism and Daoism
• Common people and the ruling class
• New sects in Buddhism
• Chan
• Pure Land
• White Lotus
• Equating dharma (law) with Dao (the Way)
• Corruption
• Temples and monasteries destroyed
• Denial of Confucian teachings
• Competition from Manechaeanism and Islam

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• Neo Confucianism
• Revival following decline of Buddhism and Daoism
• Alteration
• Unite Buddhism and Daoism with Confucianism
• Zhu Xi (Chu His)
• Social ethics
• Wang Yangming
• Chinese Culture
• Literature
• paper and moveable type
• ink rubbings and woodblock
• Poetry, drama and prose fiction
• Art
• Buddhism and Daoist painting and sculpture
• ceramics