Post Classical China
Song Dynasty
Post Classical China
 Sui, Tang, Song
 In Rome—political fragmentation
 China regained unity under Sui Dynasty (589-618)
 Great Canal system –”an engineering feat without parallel in
the world of its time”
 Linked China north and south economically and enabled
prosperity
Tang and Song
 Tang 618-907
 Song 960-1279
 Renewed unity
 “Gold Age” of Chinese Achievement
 Neoconfucianism—Confucianism incorporating insights of
Buddhism and Daoism
 Politically— created 6 ministries (finance, personnel, rites,
army, justice, public works)
China’s “Mona Lisa”:
Beijing Qingming scroll
What does this scroll tell you about China
during the Song Dynasty?
Golden Age
 Exam System—reinstated and further entrenched
 Ability to print books
 Placing numbers on exams not names—also, people were
searched when taking the exam- prevent cheating
 Basing system on merit- a challenge to aristocracy (usually
found a way around it anyway)
Great inventions
 Paper
 Printing
 Gunpowder
 Compass
Song Economic Revolution
 Made China “by far the richest, most skilled, and most populous
country on earth”
 Endured GREAT population Growth
 From 60 million during Tang to 120 million by 1200.
 Why would this be—must have to do with food production.
 Remarkable achievements in agricultural production, particularly the
adoption of a fast ripening and drought resistant strain of rice from
Vietnam
 MOST IMPORTANT: producing for the market, rather than for local
consumption became a very widespread phenomenon.
 Paper money contributed to Chinese commercialization
Urbanization
 China became the most urbanized country in the world
 Marco Polo would describe Hangzhou (city): “beyond dispute
the finest and noblest city in the world”
 Supplying cities with food—thanks to network of canals,
rivers, lakes.
 Cheap transportation: “world’s most populous trading area”
Iron Production
 Industrial production soared
 Supplied metal for coins, armor, arrowheads, tools,
construction, bells in Buddhist monasteries
Women in Song Dynasty
 LESS THAN GOLDEN AGE
 Turning point in history of Chinese patriarchy
 During Tang Steppe nomads had introduced a life that
favored females (women rode horses, participated in social
life)—however by Song Dynasty a restored Confucianism
 Tightened patriarchal restrictions on women
 Restored earlier Han images of female submission and
passivity
Sima Guang on Women
 “The boy leads the girl, the girl follows the boy’ the duty of
husbands to be resolute and wives to be docile begins with
this”
 Women were distraction to men’s pursuit of a contemplative
life
Foot binding
 Began to spread during Tang
 Elite families at first
 New images of female beauty and eroticism that emphasized small
size, delicacy, and reticence
 In other ways there was progress for women– property rights
expanded
 Women were educated more– for the sake of educating their sons.
 Thus tightened and gave women opportunities
China’s Many Interactions
 How did China view its nomadic neighbors—visa versa
 China is NOT self contained
 China’s most enduring interaction with foreigners lay to the north—nomadic
pastoral peoples of the steppes
 They traded, were raided
 Nomads also saw China as a threat
 The Great Wall was built in their face
 Prevented trading at some times
 Sometimes the Chinese sent military campaigns directed at nomads
 The Chinese needed nomad’s horses
 Skins, furs, hides were also valuable to Chinese
 Pastoral Nomads also controlled parts of the Silk Road
The Tribute System
 Way of Chinese managing relationships with surrounding
people
 “A set of practices that required non Chinese authorities to
acknowledge Chinese superiority and their own subordinate
place in a Chinese centered world order.”
 Kowtow—series of ritual bowings and prostrations and
present their tribute to emperor
 What did they get in exchange: access to trade
Tribute with Xiongnu
 In reality– the Xiongnu were just as powerful
 Xiongnu had the power to devastate China
 Chinese promised Xiongnu grain, wine, silk as “gifts”
 In reality, tribute in reverse or “protection money”
 In return- Xiongnu would refuse military incursions into China
 The Chinese were not always able to dictate the terms of the
tribute system
 Unlike the people of Southern China who absorbed Chinese culture,
northern nomads maintained own culture
Tribute: Korea, Vietnam, Japan
 Newly emerging states of Korea, Vietnam, and Japan.
 Unlike northern nomads, these cultures were sedentary and
agricultural
 Unlike people in SOUTHERN China, these people were
influenced by China but NEVER became Chinese
KOREA
Korea and China
 Resisted Chinese political control
 Participated in China’s tribute system
 Leaders embraced connection with China
 Wanted to become a “miniature China”
 To Korea from China:
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Luxury goods
Ceremonial clothing
Silk
Teas
Confucian and Buddhist texts
Artwork
Korean students went to China—studied Confucianism, natural sciences, the arts
Confucian schools were set up in Korea
HOW DO YOU THINK CHINESE CULTURE IMPACTED WOMEN IN KOREA?
KOREA
 KOREA remained Korean
 688—Political independence
 Chinese influence was mostly towards the elite
 Buddhism though was a great impact
Vietnam
 Like Korea, the elite culture of Vietnam borrowed heavily
from China
 Adopted Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism, administrative
techniques, exam system, artistic and literary styles
 Vietnam achieved political independence
 Participated in tribute system
Differences with Vietnam
 The Vietnamese heartland was incorporated into China for
over 1000 years.
 Chinese regarded Vietnamese as Southern Barbarians
 Chinese saw them as another rice producing area
 Elite were educated in Chinese culture
 Some rebellions to go against Chinese rule/influence
 Took to the 10th century for Vietnam to rebel as a separate
state
Vietnam as a separate state
 Emperors like China
 Claimed the Mandate of Heaven
 Chinese court rituals
 More so than Korean—Chinese based exam system in
Vietnam
 Merit based scholar gentry class
 Vietnamese remained committed to Chinese culture
Vietnam
 Beyond the elite there remained much that was uniquely
Vietnamese
 i.e. cockfighting
 Greater role of women in social and economic life
 Female Buddha
 Language
Japan
 Unlike Korea and Vietnam, the Japanese islands were
physical separated from China by 100 miles of Ocean
 Thus Japan’s vey extensive borrowing from Chinese
civilization was voluntary –not under threat
 Began to develop a centralized bureaucratic state like
China
 Japan—not the same bureaucratic system
 Japan would become decentralized
 Would become feudalistic
 Shinto was never replaced by Buddhism
 Marriages were made and broken often
 DEVELOPED MORE DISTINCT due to geographic
location
 Separate from China physically