Ch. 12 Summary (China)
•Important developments took place in tech
•Political turmoil followed the fall of the Han
•The empires bureaucratic apparatus collapsed
•The scholars-gentry class lost ground to landed families
•Non-Chinese nomads ruled much of China
•A foreign religion, Buddhism, replaced Confucianism
•There was economic, tech, intellectual and urban decline
•New dynasties, Sui and Tang, brought restoration of Chinese
civilization
•Political unity returned as nomads and nobility were brought
under state control and the bureaucracy was rebuilt
•The Song dynasty continued revival; their era restored the
scholar-gentry and Confucian order
Summarize the effects of the renaissance of
Confucianism during the Tang-Song era
• The renaissance restored the imperial gov.
• Particularly the establishment of a centralized bureaucracy
• The bureau was responsible for the maintenance of the examination
system and education system
• The development of public works
• The admin. of all levels of local gov.
• The development of neo-Confucianism occurred at the cost of effective
military: China became vulnerable to outside attack
• Its development also placed an increasing emphasis on traditional Chinese
philosophy at the expense of outside influence and innovation
• The attack on Buddhism, for one, diminished Chinese willingness to accept
foreign ideas
• The renaissance had a negative influence on the status of women and also
diminished Chinese innovation in commerce with the outside world
Generalize the proposition that the Tang-Song era was at
the same time both innovative and conservative
• Chinese followed tradition by restoring the emphasis on an imperial
centralized gov. that relied on a trained scholar-gentry class
• The restoration of Confucianism as the central ideology of the state was
accomplished by the persecution of Buddhism
• There was also a heavy emphasis on a social structure of the interlocking
hierarchies associated with Confucianism
• Aspects stressed
Role of the scholar-gentry, agricultural reform benefitting the peasantry, lack
of status for merchants, male-dominated households and the
development of art forms dependent on nature and Confucian themes of
harmony
• Increased sophistication in market organization and commercial practices
(paper money, credit), tech sophistication (military use of gunpowder, the
compass, movable type, the abacus, new engineering