The Resurgence of

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The Resurgence of Empire in the East
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The Sui Dynasty (589-618)

• Regional kingdoms succeed collapse of Han dynasty
  (220-589 Decentralized/Dark Age)
• Buddhist Emperor Wendi Sui
• Wendi Sui consolidates control of China,
  initiates Sui Dynasty
• Wendi won popular support by lowering taxes and
  establishing a cheap food supply.
• Brought back scholar-gentry and imperial exam

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Suis Fall

• Yangdi, Wendis son, succeeded his father to the
  Throne.
• Attempted to conquer Korea (failed)
• Defeated by central Asian Nomads (Turkic)
• Massive building projects
• Military labor -Grand Canal!!!
• Conscripted labor -Great Wall reconstruction
• (6 million workers!)

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The Grand Canal

• Intended to promote trade between north and south
  China
• Most Chinese rivers flow west-east
• Linked network of earlier canals
• 1240 miles
• Roads on either bank
• Succeeded only by railroad traffic in 20th
  century
• Longest canal or artificial river in the world
  today!

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The Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE)

• Wide discontent over conscripted labor in Sui
  dynasty
• Military failures in Korea prompt rebellion
• Emperor assassinated in 618
• Tang Dynasty initiated

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• The Sui and Tang dynasties, 589-907 CE

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Tang Taizong

• Second emperor of Tang dynasty (r. 627-649 CE)
• Murdered two brothers, thrust father aside to
  take throne
• Strong ruler
• Built capital at Changan
• Law and order
• Taxes, prices low
• More effective implementation of earlier Sui
  policies

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Major Achievements of Tang Dynasty

• Transportation and communications
• Extensive postal, courier services
• Became the golden age of literature in China
• Emperor Xuanzongs splendor in Changan
• Welcoming of foreign faiths (not conversion)
• Equal-field System
• 20 of land hereditary ownership
• 80 redistributed according to formula
• Family size, land fertility
• Worked well until 8th century
• Corruption, loss of land to Buddhist monasteries,
  aristocratic land accumulation

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Bureaucracy of Merit

• Imperial civil service examinations
• Confucian educational curriculum
• Some bribery, nepotism
• But most advance through merit
• Built loyalty to the dynasty
• System remains strong until early 20th century

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Tang Military Expansion and Foreign Relations

• Manchuria, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet
• One of the largest expansions of China in its
  history
• Paid Central Asian Nomads to defend boarder
  (repair G.Wall)
• Established tributary relationships
• Gifts
• China as Middle Kingdom
• The kowtow ritual

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Tang Decline

• Governmental neglect Emperor obsessed with
  music, favorite concubine
• Anti-Buddhist Backlash (by Conf. Daoists)
• Loss of tax revenues and inability to feed people
  in times of famine (Govt weakness)
• Nomadic Turkish Uighur (WEE-goor) mercenaries
  invited to suppress rebellion, sacked Changan
  and Luoyang as payment
• Nomadic raids and invasions continued
• Tang decline continues, rebellions in 9th
  century, last emperor abdicates 907

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The Song Dynasty, 960-1279 C.E.
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Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE)Never matched Tang
military or political strength

• Emphasis on administration, industry, education,
  the arts
• Military not emphasized
• Direction of first emperor, Song Taizu (r.
  960-976 CE)
• Former military leader
• Made emperor by troops
• Instituted policy of imperial favor for civil
  servants, expanded meritocracy

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Song Strengths

• Population increase approached 100 mil.
• Rice production doubled due to opening new lands
  to cultivation in the south (Grand Canal)
• Improved tool use and fertilizers new rice
  strains from Vietnam
• Tax relief for farmers and credit to open new
  farms
• Early song Emperors appoint bureaucrats based on
  merit
• Excel at Manufacturing (gunpowder, bombs,
  moveable type print, water-power mills, iron,
  steel) more per capita manufacturing than anyone
  else!

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Song Weaknesses

• Lack of military might (Fight with other means)
• Size of bureaucracy heavy drain on economy
• Two peasant rebellions in 12th c.
• Internal inertia prevents reform of bureaucracy
• Civil service leadership of military
• Lacked military training
• Unable to contain nomadic attacks
• Jurchen (a Tungusic people (Siberian) who
  inhabited the region of Manchuria) conquer,
  founding the Jin Empire, forcing Song dynasty to
  Hangzhou, southern China (Southern Song)

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The Song Dynasty, 960-1279 C.E.
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Agricultural Economies of the Tang and Song
Dynasties

• Developed Vietnamese fast-ripening rice, 2 crops
  per year
• Technology iron plows, use of draft animals
  (North - Oxen, South Water Buffaloes)
• Soil fertilization, improved irrigation
• Water wheels, canals
• Terrace farming

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Population Growth

• Result of increased agricultural production
• Effective food distribution system
• Transportation networks built under Tang and Song
  dynasties

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Strict Social Hierarchy
Gentry Wealthy landowners, focused on Confucian
ideals, focus on civil service
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Urbanization

• Changan (currently Xi'an) worlds most populous
  city 2 million residents
• Southern Song capital Hangzhou over 1 million

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Patriarchal Social Structures

• Increased emphasis on ancestor worship
• Elaborate grave rituals
• Extended family gatherings in honor of deceased
  ancestors
• Footbinding gains popularity
• Increased control by male family members

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Footbinding
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Foot-Binding

• The Quest for Beauty and Status

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The History of Foot-Binding

• The practice was popular by the
• 12th century
• There are two stories as to how this tradition
  began
• Foot-Binding was made illegal soon after the
  Chinese Revolution in 1911

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The Foot-Binding Ritual

• Began between the ages of
• 3 and 11
• Was performed by the girls
• mother or another female relative
• Foot-binding usually took place in the fall and
  winter so the girl would feel less pain

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The Foot-Binding Steps

• 1. The girls toenails would be cut
• 2. Her feet would be soaked in hot water
• 3. Except for the big toe, all of her toes would
  be broken and folded under the foot
• 4. Her feet would be wrapped tightly in silk or
  cotton bandages
• 5. Every few days, the bandages would be taken
  off, the feet cleaned, and the feet wrapped even
  more tightly

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Wrapping Bound Feet
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Bound Feet
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Bound Feet
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Why Were Feet Bound?

• Wealth
• Status
• Beauty
• Marriage

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Beauty

• A three-inch-long foot,
• called a golden lotus,
• was considered beautiful
• Feet this size would be able to fit into the
  delicate and beautiful shoes made for bound feet

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Marriage, Status, and Wealth

• Having bound feet made it difficult to walk, and
  so a man who had a wife with bound feet looked as
  if he had so much money and status that his wife
  did not need to work

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Technology and Industry

• Porcelain (Chinaware)
• Increase of iron production due to use of coke,
  not coal, in furnaces
• Agricultural tools, weaponry
• Gunpowder invented
• Earlier printing techniques refined
• Moveable type by mid-11th century
• Yet complex Chinese ideographs make wood block
  technique easier
• Naval technology
• compass

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Emergence of a Market Economy

• Letters of credit developed to deal with copper
  coin shortages
• Promissory notes, checks also used
• Development of independently produced paper money
• Not as stable, riots when not honored
• Government claims monopoly on money production in
  11th century

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China and the Hemispheric Economy

• Increasingly cosmopolitan nature of Chinese
  cities
• Chinese silk opens up trade routes, but increases
  local demands for imported luxury goods

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Cultural Change in Tang and Song China

• Declining confidence in Confucianism after
  collapse of Han dynasty
• Increasing popularity of Buddhism
• Christianity, Manichaeism, Zoroastrianism, Islam
  also appear
• Clientele primarily foreign merchant class

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Dunhuang

• Mahayana Buddhism especially popular at Dunhuang
  in western China (Gansu province), 600-1000 CE
• Cave temples
• Buddhist temples, libraries
• Economic success as converts donate land holdings
• Increase popularity through donations of
  agricultural produce to the poor

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Conflicts with Chinese Culture

• Buddhism
• Text-based (Buddhist teachings)
• Emphasis on Metaphysics
• Ascetic ideal
• Celibacy
• Isolation

• Confucianism
• Text-based (Confucian teachings)
• Daoism not text-based
• Emphasis on ethics, politics
• Family-centered
• Procreation
• Filial piety

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Neo-Confucianism

• Song dynasty refrains from persecuting Buddhists,
  but favors Confucians
• Neo-Confucians influenced by Buddhist thought
• Syncretic blend of both faiths

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Chan (Zen) Buddhism

• Buddhists adapt ideology to Chinese climate
• Dharma translated as dao
• Nirvana translated as wuwei
• Accommodated family lifestyle
• one son in monastery for ten generations of
  salvation
• Limited emphasis on textual study, meditation
  instead

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Persecution of Buddhists

• Daoist/Confucian persecution supported in late
  Tang dynasty
• 840s begins systematic closure of Buddhist
  temples, expulsions
• Zoroastrians, Christians, Manicheans as well
• Economic motive seizure of large monastic
  landholdings
• Limits growth but does not eradicate faiths