The Tang Dynasty

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North and South topography and climate
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The Culturally-divided China

• The Northern and Southern Dynasties saw the
  society and culture in north and south grow their
  own ways
• There were differences in rulers, races, customs,
  manners, climates, topography, landscape, food
  productions, elite culturebut also convergence
  of interests

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Cultural differences

• Southerners
• Aristocrats were lax and liberal
• indulged in witty conversation, wine, poetry,
  calligraphy, painting, and philosophical
  discourses
• Sought individual interest, value, and
  expression developed an aesthetic approach to
  life

• Northerners
• Aristocrats were rigid and conservative
• set store by Confucian learning and strived to
  gain mastery of the classics and histories.
• held fast to the Confucian tradition
• Valued family ethics, and rituals

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Differences in Buddhism

• North
• translation Kumarajiva was leading translator
• Buddhist art huge sculptures made in cave
  temples
• Yungang Cave (1)
• Yungang Cave (2)
• South
• Integration signification (sinicization) of
  Buddhism
• Construction monasteries were widely built

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Sculptures in Yungang Cave
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Further Differences

• South and southerners
• Rulers were overbearing
• Lower civil society lacked rites and music, nor
  law
• Language was intelligible
• Poor social and political orders
• Women tended to be immoral
• Conversations were circuitous and evasive
  criticism avoided
• People expressed sad mood when departing

• North and northerners
• Rulers tried to be refined and law-abiding
• Ritual, music, and laws flourished
• Interpersonal relationship was much stressed
• Conversations and expressions of criticism were
  more direct
• People expressed happy mood when departing

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• Women were active
• took charge of family affairs, entered into
  lawsuit, straightened out disagreements, and paid
  calls to seek favor
• Rode carriages, wore fancy silk robe, and visited
  government officials to seek offices for their
  sons
• Sought justice for their husbands

• Women were sedentary
• Did not go out calling
• Not encouraged to see their rations
• Even poor husbands were concerned about their
  external appearance
• Husbands rode expensive carriages and dress
  themselves up at the expense of wives and children

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The Unified China Tang Dynasty

• Tang (618-906) A unified empire after the
  short-lived Sui (581-618) dynasty, whose founder,
  Li Yuan, unified China and ended the Northern and
  Southern Dynasties (the Period of Disunion)

Li Yuan, founder of the Tang Dynasty
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• Li Yuan was the founder, and his son Li Shimin
  brought the empire into peace and stability.
• Li Shimin, or Emperor Taizong (r.627-649)
• Vanquished the Eastern Turks, who, after being
  defeated, accepted Tang leadership and recognized
  Taizong as their Khagan (Khan)
• Established a sophisticated bureaucratic system
  that linked imperial court and all regions under
  the empire
• Instituted the Equal Field system to
  consolidate tax revenues and the fubing militia
  system
• Used officials steeped in Confucian learning set
  up school and examination systems

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• Taizongs rule is characterized by
• Openness to civilian talents and foreigners
• Legitimization of the Li family
• Pragmatic diplomacy (to Tibet, Korean States, and
  Japan)
• Elevation of Daoism
• Patronage of Buddhism
• Creation of a particular court style
• Cosmopolitanization of Tang capital Changan
• Creation of an innovated Chinese World Order of
  the Sinosphere

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• Gaozong and Empress Wu
• Imperial expansion central Asia, north Korea
• Promoted the Civil Service Examinations system
• Reasserted and extended the Daoist affiliation
  with the dynasty
• A Daoist magus Ye Fashan was called to court
• Wrote a preface to fascicles of Daoist canon
• Laozi (Lao-tzu) was awarded a deitys name
  Taishang xuanyuan huangdi, or Supreme Emperor of
  the Mysterious
• Gaozongs daughter, Princess Taiping, was given
  Daoist ordination
• The Daode jing (Tao-te ching) was made a
  compulsory subject in the civil service
  examinations

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Chinas Dominance in Asia

• Chinas extraordinary leadership from 581-755
  made the advance of China a dominant power in
  Asia
• Wendi, Yangdi of the Sui
• Gaozu (r. 618-627), Taizong (r.627-649), Gaozong
  (r.649-683), Emperor Wu (690-705), and Xuanzong
  (712-755)

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• Legacy of their rules
• Check-and-balance political system
• Effective decision-making process and control of
  violence
• The best ordered state in the world
• Cosmopolitan receptivity, social pluralism
• Strong economy and wealthy state supported by the
  Grand Canal
• Civil service examination

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• Emperor Taizong
• Conquered Eastern Turks and controlled Western
  Turks
• Claimed unchallenged mastery in Central Asia
• Emperor Gaozong and Empress Wu
• Conquered Koguryo in 688
• Dealt with Khitan and Tibetan
• Made examinations a prestigious fast-track to
  the higher offices

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Emperor Xuanzong

• Most glorious epoch of the Tang (712-755)
• Most prosperous age
• Most affluent families and society
• Reformed equal-field system, increased
  agricultural productivity
• Prices of goods were stable
• Benevolent rule
• Reduced the number of capital punishment
• Multiplied tax exemptions
• Expanded school system
• Improved health care system

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Xuanzong as a Talented Monarch

• A musician, poet, calligrapher
• Known for establishing the Pear Garden Troupethe
  beginning of local opera
• Kept a troupe of dancing horses
• Honored the three teachings, patronized Tantric
  Buddhism
• Established a new academy for poets

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Rebellion and Restoration

• Causes Xuanzongs obsession with Yang Guifei and
  trust in An Lushan political struggle between An
  Lushan and prime minister
• The An Lushan Rebellion
• Rebels sacked and ruined the capital
• Emperor fled to Sichuan
• Yang Guifei was strangled, and the minister slain
• north China laid waste
• Xianzong restored and rebuilt the empire (805-860)

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Restoration and Rebellion

• Failing attempt to recover economy
• Suppression of Buddhism and other foreign faiths
• Manichaeanism, Zoroastrianism, and Nestorian
  Christianity (Judaism, Islam)
• Large-scale rebellions in the south
• Foreign threat Nanzhao, Tibet
• Huang Chao Rebellion
• Changan ruined again

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Manjusri of Mt. Wutai, Tang Dynasty
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The Fall of the Tang

• Turks helped imperial forces to recover Changan
  first but ruined it later
• Warrior Zhu Wen seized control of the capital,
  reduced it to a wasteland
• Zhu Wen moved the capital to Luoyang, forced the
  last emperor to abdicate, assumed the throne, and
  founded his own dynastybeginning of the Five
  Dynasties