• Confucians began to
adopt it.
• “Neo-Confucianism”
developed.
• A social and ethical
philosophy, not a
religious belief, that
combines rational
thought with the
metaphysics of Daoism
and Buddhism.
• Popular in Japan, Korea,
and Vietnam.
• Developed the system of printing in the 7th century.
• “wood-block printing”, carved blocks of wood that were inked and
pressed against paper.
• The invention of printing was linked with the spread of Buddhism,
through written text.
• Landscape
painting flourished
during this period.
Based on
Daoism’s
emphasis on
nature.
• Masculine identity
came to be defined
in terms of
painting,
calligraphy,
scholarship, and
poetry.
• Expanded good paying bureaucratic job, which made education
important in Chinese culture.
• Needed to pass extremely rigorous civil service examination.
• Serving in the bureaucracy was highly respected.
•
•
•
•
Song China had growing urban centers.
Hangzhou was home to one million people.
The cultural center of southern China.
Trade brought diversity, including a thriving community of
Arabs.
• Developed a process
of converting coal to
coke.
• Coke has fewer
impurities than in
coal.
• Chinese could make
metal that was
stronger, leading to
better plows,
weapons, and bridges.
• Discovered
gunpowder in
the 9th
century.
• Technology
spread along
the Silk Road.
• Triggered the
development
of cannons in
Europe.
•
•
•
•
Tang:
Introduced the “equal-field
system” (8th century).
Ensure that all families had
land to cultivate.
Wanted to take control away
from the landed aristocracy.
The aristocracy bribed
government officials to keep
their land.
•
Agricultural
Improvements:
1. Used manure (human
and animal) to enrich
the soil.
2. Built irrigation systems;
ditches, water wheels,
pumps, and terraces.
3. New heavy plows
pulled by water buffalo
or oxen allowed
unusable land to be
cultivated.
•
•
•
•
Fast-ripening rice (champa rice) added to surpluses.
Native to northern Vietnam.
Allowed farmers to grow two crops a year.
Contributed to the doubling of the Chinese population during
the Tang and Song dynasties
•
•
•
Did away with government labor tax.
Paid people to work on public projects.
Increased money in circulation, promoting economic
growth.
• Global trade declined after collapse of the Roman and
Han Empires.
• Arab merchants from the Abbasid Empire revived the
land and sea routes of the Silk Road.
•
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Technology/trade items from China:
Compass
Paper
Printing
Gunpowder
Porcelain
Tea
Silk
• Developed a new financial system.
• Merchants deposited “paper money” in one location and
withdraw the same amount at another location.
• Abacuses were used to calculate transactions.
• System became the model for the modern banking system.
• The
transformation
of southern
China from a
subsistence
economy to an
export-oriented
economy was
due to the
Indian Ocean
trade.
• Song China went through “proto-industrialization,” meaning a
phase that precedes and enables full industrialization.
• Two goods led the way; porcelain and silk.
•
•
Urban areas grew in prominence.
Song Dynasty was the most urban civilization in
the world.
• Expanding the bureaucracy opened up well-paying jobs to
lower class men.
• Created new social class, the “scholar gentry.”
• Educated in Confucian philosophy, they became the most
influential social class in China.
• Scholar gentry
considered
merchants the
lowest class.
• Didn’t produce
anything.
• Simply profited
from the
exchange of
others’ labor.
• Women’s lives were more restricted in the Song
dynasty than in the Tang dynasty due to the revival of
Confucianism.
• Small feet was a
sign of beauty.
• “Foot binding”,
a girl had feet
tightly wrapped,
to deform bones.
• A social status,
not prevalent
among peasants.
That concludes Song and Tang
Dynasties.
Any questions before the quiz on the next
slide?