Compare And Contrast Tang And Song Dynasties

The Sui, Tang, and Song dynasties were historical Chinese Empires. The Sui Empire ruled from 581 to 618 A.D after the fall of the Han dynasty (Skaff, 2012, p5.). The Tang Empire, on its part, ruled China from 618 to 907 A.D after defeating Emperor Yang, the last Sui Empire (Skaff, 2012, p5). After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, the next half century in China experienced the division of the country into several kingdoms. In 960 A.D., the Song dynasty came into power and reunified China. It lasted from 960 to 1279 (Adas et al., 2007, p3). The paper analyzes the significant political, economic, and social changes that occurred during the three dynasties. It intends to prove that although the Tang Dynasty is known as the period of enlightenment and development, it is the Song Dynasty that contributed the most economically, socially, and politically to China's development.
The Major Changes in the Sui Dynasty
Political Structures During the Sui Dynasty era, Emperor Wen established the centralized government system (Skaff, 2012). The system
The Empire perfected the imperial system of examination (Edwards, 2009). Emperor Li Yuan appointed qualified officers to run government affairs. These agents also acted as an intermediary between the government and citizens at grass root levels (Edwards, 2009). The Dynasty also initiated the ‘Dao' and ‘Fu' organization structures to fragment the political districts. The government divided the national empire into fifteen legislative districts known as ‘Dao' and several subordinate political districts known as ‘Fu' (Edwards, 2009). However after Anshi rebellion that occurred between 755 and 763, there was the rise of the military governors known as the jiedushi (Edwards, 2009, p9.). They challenged the power of the dynasty's central government, and the Empire turned to them for protection and assistance in running government affairs (Edwards,