AP World Chapter 12 Notes

Reunification and Renaissance in Chinese Civilization: The Era of the Tang and Song Dynasties Chapter Thesis
I. Rebuilding the Imperial Edifice in the Sui-Tang Era
Sui Excesses and Collapse
The Emergence of the Tang and the Restoration of the Empire
Rebuilding the World’s Largest and Most Pervasive
Bureaucracy
Institutionalizing Meritocracy: The Growing Importance of the Examination System
State and Religion in the Tang and Song Eras
The Anti-Buddhist Backlash
II. Tang Decline and the Rise of the Song
The Founding of the Song Dynasty
Song Politics: Settling for Partial Restoration
The Revival of Confucian Thought
Roots of Decline: Attempts at Reform
Reaction and Disaster: The Flight to the South
III. Tang and Song Prosperity: The Basis of a Golden Age
A New Phase of Intercontinental Commercial Expansion by Land and Sea
Expanding Agrarian Production and Life in the Country

Family and Society in the Tang and Song Eras
The Neo-Confucian Assertion of Male Dominance
Invention, Artistic creativity, and China’s Global impact

Scholarly Refinement and Artistic Accomplishment
Questions:

Centralized control and a strong military brought long periods of peace, during which the ruling elites promoted technological innovation, agrarian expansion, and commercial enterprise at both home and overseas.
Yang Jian secured his power base by winning the support of neighboring nomadic military commanders allowing his to reunite the traditional core areas of Chinese civilization for the first time in over three and a half centuries.
His son the Yangdi emperor, who murdered his father to reach the throne, extended conquests and drove back nomadic intruders in the north [P]
Milder legal code [P]
Devoted resources to upgrading Confucian education [PC]
Restore exam system [PC]
Yangdi fond of luxury and extravagant construction projects [PI]
Forcibly conscripted hundreds of thousands of peasants to build palaces, a new capital city at Luoyang and series of great canals to link various parts of empire[SPIE]
Failed to bring Korea back under Chinese rule [P]
Failures in Korean campaigns between 611 and 614 and Turkic nomads in 615 set in motion widespread revolts throughout empire
Yangdi assassinated by his own ministers in 618 [SP]
Li Yuan, the Duke of Tang, was loyal supporter of Sui ruler for many years [P]
Convinced only rebellion could save family and empire [SP]
With his second son, Tang Taizhong, Li Yuan laid basis for the golden age of the Tang [P]
Conquered as far as present-day Afghanistan [P]
Many nomadic people had to submit to Tang rule [P]
Completed repairs begun by the Sui on the northern walls and created frontier armies [P]
Sons of Turkic tribal leaders sent to the capital as hostages to guarantee good behavior [SP]
Also educated in Chinese ways [SP]
Extended to parts of Tibet in the west, red rier valley homeland of the Vietnamese in the south and Manchuria in the north [P]
Yangzi river basin and much of south fully integrated with north china for the first time since the Han [P]
In 668, under Gaozong, Korea overrun by Chinese armies and vassal kingdom called Silla was established [P]
In mater of decades, Tang built empire far larger than early Han empire or borders of present day china [P]
From time of Yangdi, fortunes of scholar-gentry improved [SP]
Tang used scholar-gentry bureaucrats to offset power of the aristocracy [P]
Political power in China shared by succession of imperial families and the bureaucrats of the civil service system [P]
Bureaucracy reached from the imperial palace to the sub prefecture, or district level, roughly equal to an American country [P]
One secretariat drafted imperial decrees; a second monitored reports of regional and provincial officials and petitions of local notables [P]
Executive department, divided into six ministries- including war, justice, and public works- ran empire on day-to-day basis [P]
Powerful Bureau of Censors who kept track of officials at all levels and report their misdeeds or failings [P]
Very large staff to run imperial household, including palaces in new capital at Chang’an [P]
In Tang and Song era numbers of the educated scholar-gentry rose
Exam system greatly expanded and pattern of advancement in civil service much more regularized [P]
Many exams administered by the Ministry of Rites to students form government schools or those recommended by distinguished scholars [SP]
Those who passed the most difficult exams earned title of jinshi [P]
Success in exams won candidates special social status- certain types of clothing and exempt from corporal punishment [SP]
Gained access to higher level of material comfort [S]
Birth and family connections continued to be important in securing high office [SP]
Central administration dominated by small number of established families [SP]
Increasing state patronage for Confucian learning threatened old aristocratic families and Buddhist monastic orders [PC]
In centuries after the fall of the Han, Buddhist sects proliferated in china [C]
Salvationist pure land strain of Mahayana Buddhism won widespread conversions as seemed to provide refuge from age of war and turmoil [C]
Members of elite classes attracted to the Chan variant of Buddhism, or Zen with stress on meditation and appreciation of natural and artistic beauty [PC]
Early Tang rulers continued to patronize Buddhism while trying to promote education in Confucian classics [PC]
Empress Wu tried to elevate Buddhism to status of state religion [PC
Commissioned many Buddhist paintings and sculptures, some two to three stories high [C]
Some carved out of rock in caves near her capital at Luoyang [CI]
By mid 9th century, nearly 50,000 monasteries and hundreds of thousands of Buddhist monks and nuns in China [C]
Daoist monks tried to counter Buddhism’s appeals by stressing magical and predictive powers [C]
Confucian scholar-administrators convinced Tang rulers that large Buddhist monastic posed economic challenge to imperial order [PCE
Monastic lands and resources not taxed [PCE]
State also denied labor power because it could not tax or conscript peasants who worked on monastic estates [PCE]
By mid 9th century, state fears of Buddhist wealth and power led to measures to limit flow of land and resources to monastic orders [PC]
Under Wuzong(r. 841-847), restrictions grew into open persecution of Buddhism [PC]
Thousands of monasteries and shrines destroyed, and hundreds of thousands monks and nuns forced to abandon monastic orders [PC]
Zen and pure land sects continued to attract adherents [C]
Confucianism emerged as central ideology for most of the period from the 9th century to early 20th century [PC]
Buddhism left mark on the arts, language, and thinking about heaven charity, and law [PC]
Buddhism continued to spread on civilizations of mainland southeast Asia, Tibet and parts of central Asia [C]
Motives behind the mid-9th century Tang assault on the Buddhist monastic order were symptomatic of a general weakening of imperial control that had begun almost a century earlier.
Son of empress Wu poisoned by his wife Empress Wei who was thwarted by the Xuanzong emperor (r. 713-756) [P]
Initially took strong interest in political and economic reforms, then devoted to patronizing the arts and enjoying pleasures like music [C]
After death of second wife became infatuated with Yang Guifei, young woman from harem of one of the imperial princes [PS]
Used her growing power to pack upper levels of the government with her greedy relatives [PS]
Xuanzong’s neglect of state affairs resulted in economic distress also led to chronic military weaknesses [PE]
In 755, crisis came to a head when a general of nomadic origins named An Lushan, led a widely supported revolt with aim of founding a new dynasty [P]
Revolt was crushed but early in the rebellion, Xuanzong’s retreating and demoralized troops mutinied, first killing several members of the Yang family and then forcing the emperor to have Yang Guifei executed [P]
Tang had sought alliances with nomadic people living in the north border [P]
In the late 8th and 9th century, nomads used political divisions to gain entry into and assert control over large areas of the north China plain
Worsening economic conditions let to revolts in the 9th century some led by peasants [PE]
By 907, when last Tang emperor resigned, China appeared to be entering another phase of nomadic dominance, political division and social strife [PS]
In 960, Zhao Kuangyin established far-flung reputation as honest and able of generals of the last five dynasties [PS]
Renamed Emperor Taizu, routed all his rivals except one, founding the song dynasty [P]
One rival was the northern Liao dynasty founded in 907 by nomadic Khitan peoples from Manchuria [P]
Plagued dynasty from its earliest years to its eventual destruction by the Mongols in the late 13th century [P]
In 1004, the song forced by military defeats at the hands of the Khitans to sign series of humiliating treaties with their smaller northern neighbors [P]
The Khitans, had been highly sinified, or influenced by Chinese culture, during century of rule in north China [PC]
Saw Song empire as culturally superior [C]
Song never matched Tang in political or military strength [P]
Military was subordinated to the civilian administrators of the scholar-gentry class [PS]
Only civil officials allowed to be governors [P]
Military commanders rotated to prevent them from building up a power base [P]
Early Song rulers strongly promoted interests of the Confucian scholar-gentry [P]
Civil service exams given every 3 years at 3 levels: district, provincial and imperial [P]
Passed far more candidates and bureaucracy soon became bloated with well paid officials [SP]
New academies devoted to study of classical texts [C]
Sought to prove superiority of indigenous thought systems [C]
Zhu xi stressed importance of applying philosophical principles to everyday life and action [C]
Neo-Confucians, or revivers of ancient Confucian teachings, believed that cultivating personal morality was the highest goal for all humans [C]
Hostility to foreign philosophical systems such as Buddhism [C]
Neo-Confucian emphasis on rank, obligation, deference, and traditional rituals reinforced class, age, and gender distinctions [C]
Believed historical experience was the best guide for future [C]
By mid 11th century, Tangut tribes, originally form Tibet, established a kingdom named Xi Xia to the southwest of the Khitan kingdom of Liao [P]
Tribute Song had to pay was great drain on resources [PE]
Army nearly 1 million [P]
At the court and among ruling classes, painting and poetry were cultivated while horseback riding and hunting went out of fashion [PC
In the 1070s and early 1080s, Wang Anshi, chief minister of the song Shenzong emperor, tried to ward off impending collapse of dynasty by introducing sweeping reforms [P]
Wang tried to correct grave defects in the imperial order [P]
Introduced cheap loans and government-assisted irrigation projects and taxed landlord and scholarly classes [PE]
Used increased revenue to establish well trained mercenary forces
Wang even tried to reorganize university education and exam system [PC]
Stressed analytical thinking rather then rote memorization of the classics [C]
In 1085, the emperor died and his successor favored the conservative cliques that had long opposed Wang’s changes [P]
Neo-Confucians came to power, ended reform, and reversed many of Wang’s initiatives [P]
In 1115, the Jurchens overthrew the Liao dynasty of the Khitans and established the Jin kingdom north of the Song [P]
The Jurchens annexed most of the Yellow River basin and forced song to flee to the south [P]
With the Yangzi River basin as their anchor and capital transferred to Hangzhou, Song survived for another century and a half [P]
The Southern Song dynasty (1167-1279) was culturally one of the most glorious in Chinese history [C]
Yangdi’s Grand Canal was intended to facilitate control over the southern regions by courts, bureaucracies and armies centered in ancient imperial centers in the north.
The Tang and Song eras were time of major population balance within China, new patterns of trade and commerce, renewed urban expansion, novel forms of artistic and literary expression, and series of technological innovations [C]
The great increase of the Chinese population in the southern regions made it necessary to improve communications [SP] Rice growing areas in the south were fast becoming the major food producing areas of the empire which surpassed the north in both crop production and population [ICE]
Yangdi’s Grand Canal was intended to facilitate control over the southern regions by courts however was used to transport capital revenue in form of grain [PE]
The canal system was an engineering achievement impressive as the northern wall [IC]
The extension of Tang control deep into central Asia reopened the overland silk routes between China and Persia [PE]
Horses, Persian rugs, and tapestries passed to China along these routes, while fine silk textiles, porcelain, and paper were exported to the centers of Islamic civilization [E]
Chinese merchants and sailors carried Chinese trade overseas with the use of junks, these ships allowed dominance of the Asian seas east of the Malayan peninsula [IE]
The Tang was the first to use paper money with what was called the flying money which greatly reduced the danger of robbery [CE]
The expansion of commerce and artisan production complemented by surge in urban growth [PCE]
The expansion of Chinese settlement and agricultural production was promoted by the rulers of both dynasties as state regulated irrigation and embankment advanced agrarian expansion [PCE]
Inventions and improved methods increased the yields of peasant holdings [SCE]
The dynasties aimed at breaking up the great estates of the old aristocracy and distributing land among free peasants which was essential to a prosperous social order and to eliminate the threat of aristocracy [SP]
Settlements also increased in size and elegance. Curved roofs were reserved for people with high ranks and gentry families with muted colors, wood and bamboo construction [SC]
Extended family households were preferred, male dominated hierarchy promoted by Confucius held at all class levels [SC]
Harsh punishments were set for those who disrespect those in power [SPC]
Over the centuries, elaborate process of forging marriage alliance developed as go-betweens [SP]
Women remained subordinate to men but had greater opportunities for personal expression showed by empresses Wu and Yang Guifei
The Tang and the Song allowed divorce by mutual consent of both husband and wife which suggest that Chinese wives had more defenses against capricious behavior by their husbands [SC]
The assertion of male dominance was especially pronounced in the thinking of the Neo Confucian philosophers, who, became a major force in the later Song period. They stressed woman’s role of homemaker and bearer of sons.
Neo Confucians attacked the Buddhists for promoting career alternatives for women, they also drafted laws that favored men. They also excluded women from the sort of education that would allow the m to rise to positions of political power.
Invention of new tools, production techniques, and weapons, gradually spread to other civilizations and fundamentally changed the course of human development.[C]
Paper money, the building of dikes and dams, along with bridge building were pioneered in China [CI]
Technological advances such as explosive powder was used greatly in warfare to fend off many invaders [PIC]
Inventions such as the compass, movable type, and paper greatly influenced many other civilizations [C]
Confucian thinkers valued skillful writing and painting, and educated people were expected to practice these arts [SC]
Talented and well trained amateurs wrote most of the poem and music [C]
Story literature was focused on the lives of the common people, popular beliefs in witchcraft and demons, ill fated romances and even detective stories were popular in poems [C]
This intense interest in nature came hand in hand with landscape paintings of the Song era [C]
Paintings are symbolic such as symbols of dragon and bamboo shoots all have hidden messages in them [C]
BP: How did Yang Jian establish control over the traditional core areas of Asia previously dominated by nomadic people?
D: How did the spread of paper money affect trade and overall economy during this period?
S: The manipulated and improved past examination system from Han china differed in what aspects?
C: How was Confucianism different in this era?
CP: Was urbanization in China influenced by that in the Middle East and other key areas of civilization?