The Tang and Song Dynasties
•China expanded and prospered under the Tang and Song dynasties
•Tang emperors restored the Han system of uniform government throughout China
•They rebuilt bureaucracy and enlarged the civil service system.
Set up schools and developed a new law code.
•Distributed land to peasants which increased government revenues
•Chinese wealth and culture dominated East Asia when its armies did not.
•Economy and foreign trade flourished. Chinese built better ships, irrigation methods improved and population grew.

Gentry wealthy landowners.
valued scholarship more than physical labor
Peasants lived on what they produced.
lived in self-sufficient villages that managed their own affairs
Merchants gained their social status because they gained their riches from the labor of others
Status of Women had great authority and ran family affairs.
Footbinding reinforced their social status.
Three Levels of Chinese Society:

Achievements of Arts and Literature
•Poetry was the most respected form of Chinese literature
•poems reflected on the shortness of life and the immensity of the universe
•Li Bo, Du Fu, and Li Qingzhao were among the greatest
Chinese poets.
• painting and calligraphy were essential skills for the scholargentry. Landscape painting and vivid, realistic portraits of
Chinese emperors triumphed during the Song dynasty.

• Genghiz Khan – Became supreme ruler of all Mongols.
• The Mongols were skilled and trained warrior horsemen that traveled with little food.
• Against China and its walled cities, they used new weapons of warefare, such as cannons.
• They allowed conquered peoples to live the way they wanted, as long as they paid regular tribute.
• Trade increased and conquered areas became mixed with foreign ways.

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Kublai Khan – Grandson of Genghiz Khan, toppled the Song emperor in 1279.
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Reserved jobs in the military and government for Mongols or non-Chinese officials.
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Tolerant of all religions.
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Traded with Europe Chinese products, such as gunpowder and porcelain.
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In 1271, Marco Polo left Italy, arrived in
China, and was impressed by how advanced it was.

• Zhu Yuanzhang – forged the rebel army that defeated the Mongols.
• 1368 – The Ming dynasty was founded.
• Farmers were able to support the growing population.
• Chinese arts and literature continued to grow.
• Zhang He – traveled abroad to promote trade and to collect tribute from lesser powers across the “western seas.”
• 1433 – the emperor banned the building of seagoing ships because it cost too much money.

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A mountainous peninsula south from the Asian mainland.
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Most people live along the western plains, a major farming region.
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It is separated from China by the Yalu
River.
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Many cultural and technological influences were from China.
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Korea served as cultural bridge linking
China and Japan.

• Between 300 and 600 A.D. three kingdoms in
Korea warred with each other or China.
• Korea only had three dynasties.
• It became a tributary state under China and adapted to its society during the Shilla.
• During the Koryo dynasty, Buddhism reached greatest influence.
• Scholars were influenced by the Chinese in poems, paintings, and inventions.
• 1200s to 1350s – Mongols occupied Korea.
• 1392 – Chosen dynasty set up by Korean general
Yi Song-gye.
• 1443 – King Sejong decided to replace Chinese writing with hangul – an alphabet using symbols to represent sounds of spoken Korean.
• 1590s – Japan tried to invade Asian mainland through Korea, but took their skill artisans instead.

•Japan is located on an archipelago, or a chain of islands.
•Surrounding seas have protected and isolated Japan.
•Most people settled in narrow river valleys along the coastal plains.
•A mild climate and sufficient rainfall helped farmers make of the land.

• Japanese society was divided into clans. The Yamato clan dominated Honshu, the largest Japanese island and set up
Japan’s first and only dynasty.
•The worship of the forces of nature became known as Shinto. Shinto never evolved into an international religion, but its traditions have survived to the present day.
•The Korean bridge helped influenced Japan’s culture.
•Japan kept some Chinese ways but discarded or modified others.

•A blend of cultures that occurred from 794 to
1185.
•Men studied Chinese while women were still forbidden to learn the language.
•Heian women produced the most important works of Japanese literature.
•Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu were two of the best known Heian writers.

• 1274 - Kublai Khan launched an invasion from Korea.
• 1281 – Mongols landed an even larger invasion force, but was destroyed by a typhoon.
• 1603 – Tokugawa Ieyasu founded the Tokugawa shogunate, which ruled peacefully until 1868.
• Centralized feudalism – kept outward forms of feudal society, but imposed central government.
• New laws fixed the old social older and upheld a strict moral code.

• Zen was a Buddhist sect from China in Japan.
• It emphasized mediation, devotion to one’s duty, and reverence for nature.
• Zen monks were great scholars.