TANG DYNASTY
• Arose in China around 618
AD
– May be the greatest period
in Chinese history
• Founder of the dynasty was
Taizong
– Considered to be greatest
emperor to rule China
– Brilliant general and
government reformer
Divided
government
functions between
six ministries: state
revenue, public
works, defense,
justice, personnel,
and religious affairs
Reorganized local
administration
Expanded civil
service system
started by the Hans
Founded a
university to
prepare students
for civil service
exams
Implemented flexible new
law code and restructured
judicial system to include
courts of appeal
Expanded Chinese territory
by conquering Tibet—
thereby opening door for
trade with the West
Built new
capital city at
Chang’an and
engaged in
many public
works projects
END OF THE TANG DYNASTY
• After Taizong’s death in 649, a long
line of good emperors extended his
work
– But after 760, the Tang Dynasty
would produce no more great
rulers
• Chinese power steadily
declined as a result
• Last Tang ruler and his family
were killed during a civil war
and Chang’an was burnt to
the ground
– 907 AD
CHANG’AN
• Planned city
– 30 miles square
– Held population of nearly one
million people
• Another two million lived in
suburbs
• Largest city in the world
• Crowded with markets and temples
– But was a government center
before all else
• Government buildings and
emperor’s palace complex
occupied several square miles
on the northern side of the
city
TANG BUREAUCRACY
• Bureaucracy was huge but performed its job
honestly and efficiently
• Why?
– Board of Censors
• Spied on bureaucrats to make sure
everyone did their job correctly
• Acted as court of appeals for anyone who
felt they had not been treated fairly
– Educational system
• Promotion based exclusively on merit
• Weeded out the weak and mediocre
• Only the best and brightest made it into
the bureaucracy
– And only the best and brightest of
them were promoted
Tang bureaucrat
RESPONSIBLITY
• Power of government was immense
– Every urban neighborhood had its
gates locked at midnight
• National urban curfew designed
to reduce crime
– Peasants organized into “collective
guarantee groups”
• Members had to police
themselves and make sure their
neighbors behaved themselves
– Or else whole group would
be punished
• Responsibility, not freedom, was
keynote of Tang government
SONG DYNASTY
Song Dynasty founded in
960 by Zhao Kuangyin
Would last until 1279
Did not accomplish
anything noteworthy in
the area of politics and
military achievements
SONG SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS
• During Song Dynasty the Chinese
invented
– The compass
• Revolutionized navigation
– The printing press
• Used block printing
• Not movable type
– Gunpowder
• Used primarily for
entertainment purposes
– Fireworks
• Chinese doctors took the pulse of
patients to aid them in their diagnosis
and inoculated patients against
smallpox
ACUPUNCTURE
Chinese doctors developed
acupuncture
It is the practice of inserting needles in
precise locations of the body to
anesthetize patients for surgery
Western doctors are still not sure how
it works
it might block transmission of
pain signals to the brain
it might also cause body to
manufacture its own anesthesia
PROBLEMS
• Growing population
– Over 100 million under the Songs
– Combined with increased taxes
resulted in the impoverishment
of peasantry
• Inflation
– Provoked by deficit spending by
Songs
– Military budget gobbled up 80%
of all revenue every year
• Forcing government to borrow
to pay for other things
• Used to support one million
man standing army
DECLINE IN THE STATUS OF WOMEN I
• Growth of concubinage
among upper class
– When married man’s
mistresses live under
same roof as his
legal wife
• And their children
have the same
rights as his
legitimate
children
DECLINE IN THE STATUS OF WOMEN II
• Footbinding
– Feet of young girls are tightly wrapped
in linen strips
• Remained bound in this manner
for ten years
– Result is the “lily foot”
– Men liked this
• It showed off the fact that they
were so wealthy that their wives
did have to work
• They also saw the walk produced
by this mutilation as sexually
exciting
• Women were mutilated to satisfy the
egos and desires of men
GENGHIZ KHAN
• Mongols were originally a nomadic
tribe of feuding clans from the
Gobi Desert
– Who united them was Genghiz
Khan (“Lord of All Men”)
• Born Temujin in 1167
– Son of a minor clan chieftain
– Father was murdered and
Temujin and a few friends
forced into the desert on their
own
– But they returned after a few
years, killed Temujin’s father
murderers, and took control of
clan
MONGOL EMPIRE
Genghis Khan then united
all the Mongol tribes of the
Gobi Desert under his
authority
He then forged them into a
mighty horseback army and
used them to create an
immense empire that stretched
from Chine in the east to
Eastern Europe in the west
KEY TO GENGHIZ KHAN’S SUCCESS
• Mongols believed the key to his
success was that he had
supernatural powers
• More realistically, he had all the
qualities common to Mongols
and then some extra ones
– Tremendous physical
strength, endurance, and
courage
– He was also a natural
politician, a military genius,
and had a remarkable talent
for organization
MONGOL ARMY
• His army was strange-looking but
very powerful
– Mongol warriors literally lived
backs of their shaggy ponies
• Could travel for weeks
– Also used version of
compound bow
• Could kill a man from a
distance of ¼ of a mile
• Most common tactic was to
encircle an enemy
– Weaken him with volleys of
arrows
– Then form into columns and
charge
GENGHIZ KHAN’S CONQUESTS
• First attacked Song China in 1206
– Defeated Song’s million man
army and forced them into the
south
– Did not follow but instead
turned west and conquered
everything up to and including
Persia
• Sent raiding parties into
Russia and Middle East
• But died suddenly in 1227
CREATION OF AN EMPIRE
• Mongols returned to Gobi Desert
to select new leader
– And then continued their
conquests: Russia, Middle
East, and parts of Eastern
Europe (Hungary and Poland)
• In 1279, Genghiz Khan’s
grandson, Kublai Khan, returned
to southern China, finished off
the Songs, and took over the rest
of the country
Kublai Khan
Khanate of the
Great Khan
Khanate of the
Golden Horde
Chagatai
Khanate
Ilkhanate
Following example of
Genghiz Khan, the Mongols
divided their empire into
four units, called khanates
Largest and most important
Khanate was the Khanate of
the Great Khan, which included
the Gobi Desert, China and
Korea
First of ten rulers was Kublai
Khan. Together, they were
known as the Yuan Dynasty
KUBLAI KHAN’S CHINA
Marco Polo
• We know quite a bit about the China
of Kublai Khan thanks to the journal of
Marco Polo
– Italian traveler who lived there for
12 years
• Mongols kept the Tang administrative
system
– But suspended the civil service
exam system and gave top jobs to
Mongols, Persians, and Europeans
• Caused extreme resentment
among educated Chinese
MONGOLS VS CHINESE
• Mongol rule was never popular in
China and the Mongols were
never socially accepted by
educated Chinese
– Did not wear Chinese clothes
– Ate mutton and drank mare’s
milk instead of Chinese cuisine
– Generally illiterate and put no
value on education
– Had no last names
– Hated to bathe
• Mongols simply refused to
assimilate into Chinese society
END OF THE YUAN DYNASTY
Zhu Yuanzhang
• Only shrewd leadership and brute force
could keep the Mongols in power in
China
– Never lost the knack for brute force
but khans after Kublai Khan were
lacking in shrewd leadership
– Mongols therefore fought losing
battle to stay in power
• Also began to increasingly fight
among themselves
• Finally defeated and expelled by revolt
led by Zhu Yuanzhang
– Who then founded Ming Dynasty
THE END
• Same pattern appeared in other
khanates as well
– Mongols gradually lost control
– Started fighting among
themselves
– Were ultimately defeated and
expelled
– Returned to the Gobi Desert
and their old nomadic lifestyle
• Did not leave much of a legacy
JAPAN
Japan was never a
Chinese possession
but it did have
contacts with the
mainland for a long
time and it did
copy Chinese
cultural models
until around 900
AD
Japanese
writing system
was based on
the Chinese
system and the
island was
governed by a
succession of
dynasties, just
like China
AFTER 900 AD
• In the capital city of
Kyoto, the aristocratic
families who lived
there and served at the
emperor’s court
cultivated a delicate
and sensitive lifestyle
– Emphasized refined
poetry, art, and
graceful manners
BUSHIDO
• Out in the countryside,
local strongmen (bushi or
samurai) developed a more
violent lifestyle known as
bushido
– Since they were
warriors, bushido
stressed military virtues
• Such a courage,
pride, and loyalty
• And especially
stressed honor
HONOR
• Led hard and simple lives, rejected
wealth and comfort, and were
prepared for death at any time
• Samurai preferred death to any
form of dishonor
– Preferred execution on the
battlefield to the dishonor of
living with defeat
– Even developed special suicide
ritual to cleanse one’s name of
dishonor
• Called seppuku
SHOGUN
• Shogun was expected to perfectly
embody bushido values
• Shoguns were originally military
commanders appointed by the
emperor from samurai clan leaders
– But as the power of the emperor
weakened after 1200, shoguns
became the real rulers of Japan
• Long civil war erupted as
various samurai clan leaders
struggled to seize and hold
this powerful position
– 1200-1600 AD
TOKUGAWA IEYASU
• Powerful samurai clan
leader named Tokugawa
Ieyasu seized position of
shogun in 1603
– Held it for the rest of his
life and then passed the
position to his son
• Founded the
Tokugawa Dynasty
which controlled the
position of shogun
from 1603 to 1868
TOKUGAWA JAPAN
• Tokugawa shoguns generally provided
just and efficient government
– But they became increasingly
conservative and hostile to
outside influences over time
• Expelled all foreign merchants
and missionaries and cut Japan
off from the rest of the world
• Distinctive Japanese temperament
developed during this period of
isolation
– Combined artistic sensitivity and
ritualized manners of Kyoto
aristocracy with bushido sense of
honor and duty