Tang and Song Achievements
7.3.2
7.3.5
Inventions of Tang and Song China
Advances in Agriculture
• Main Idea 1:
– Advances in agriculture led to increased
trade and population growth.
Agriculture: farming, crop growing
Advances in Agriculture
• Chinese civilization has always been based on
agriculture.
• In the north, farmers grew wheat, barley, and
other grains. The south was ideal for growing
rice.
Wheat
Barley
Rice
Advances in Agriculture
– Farmers dug underground wells.
– A new kind of pump allowed one person to do the work of
many.
A water wheel pump
Advances in Agriculture
A water-wheel pump. It is an irrigation machine that was invented in the Tang
Dynasty. It was widely used in Mountain Areas of South China. It was improved
during the Song Dynasty and is still used in some parts of China today.
The dragon
backbone pump
helped Chinese
farmers.
A Chinese
farmer
waters his
rice field.
Advances in Agriculture
• Farms became more productive and their
population grew and trade was increased.
Chinese Cities & Trade
• China’s capital city, Chang’an, was a bustling
trade center.
Science and Technology
• mathematics flourished
• adopted the use of algebra
and the concept of zero
Chinese Cities & Trade
Chinese Cities & Trade
Chinese Cities & Trade
• During theTang dynasty:
• Silk Road.
• During the Song dynasty:
sea trade
Chinese Arts & Inventions
Tang Emperor Taizong, in a later copy
of a Tang painting by Yen Li-pen
Chinese Arts & Inventions
• Artists wrote poems,
painted, sculpted in
clay, and made
porcelain items.
A porcelain vase
Chinese Arts & Inventions
Chinese Arts & Inventions
• Woodblock printing was invented. Entire pages
were carved into a block of wood, covered with
ink, and pressed onto paper to create copies.
Chinese Arts & Inventions
• Gunpowder was a very important invention
of the Tang dynasty.
– Gunpowder was originally used to make
fireworks & signals.
The Chinese used gunpowder
to make weapons like you see
here.
Chinese Arts & Inventions
• The magnetic compass was perfected
during the Tang dynasty.
– The compass allowed sailors and merchants
to travel vast distances.
Chinese Arts & Inventions
• The Song dynasty
brought about the
inventions of movable
type and paper
money.
600-1450 Religious
 -Confucianism is widely accepted/practiced
and co-exists with Buddhism.
-Daoists get jealous of Buddhism’s foothold
in China and burn down their temples
stunting its growth a bit.
The Confucian Revival
•
•
At least Confucianism made a major comeback
during the Song period
– Long lost texts were recovered, new schools
and libraries were opened
– Many new thinkers emerged to interpret the
meanings of Confucius’ teachings
This application developed into Neo-Confucianism
– A hostility developed to foreign ideas and
innovations (isolationism)
– The emphasis on rank, obligation and deference
reinforced class, gender and age divisions
– Social harmony would be maintained, according
to Neo-Cs, as long as men and women
performed their tasks appropriately (man as
patriarch, woman as subordinate)