 When and how have you used
mnemonic devices in the
past? Think of a few examples
and be ready to share. 
 Also, take out your class
notes!
Today’s LEQs: What came after the Han
Dynasty? What changed and continued? What
were the primary causes and consequences of
expanded trade and communication during
this time period?

With the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE,
China fell into a period of disunity
 Not as traumatic (or permanent) as the fall of
Rome for Western Europe
 Uncertainty and disorder provided fertile ground
for Buddhism, which gained large numbers of
converts
 Between 589-618 CE, China reunified under the
Sui Dynasty
 Utilized legalism to restore order

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Focus on building
projects: rebuilding
the Great Wall to
protect from nomadic
invasions
Building 1,200 mile
long Grand Canal –
linked Yellow and
Yangzi rivers
Created on huge
economic zone in
North and South China
(which grew droughtresistant Champa rice
diffused from modern
Vietnam)



Restored Confucian exam system &
bureaucracy
Utilized labor taxes to forcibly extract work
from peasants
Emperor assassinated by his own ministers in
618 CE; Looked like China would spiral chaos
again, but wait…


Military man restored order and became new
emperor, claiming the Mandate of Heaven
China became larger than ever before:
 Rulers extend China’s influence to parts of Central
Asia, Mongolia, Manchuria, Tibet, etc.
 Like the Han Dynasty, the Tang forced many of its
neighbors into a Tribute System, in which other
rulers acknowledged the superiority of China in
exchange for a formal relationship and trade
 Silk Roads trade was controlled

Activity: Two Sentence Summary – Compare the
Tribute System in THEORY vs. Tribute System in
PRACTICE (Use pages 387-389)

Tang economy was very strong due to
advanced infrastructure (roads, waterways,
canals) and trade
 Grand Canal: continued to stimulate trade

Silk industry made China exceptionally
wealthy (although no longer a monopoly –
secret got out some time between Han and
Sui Dyansties)
Tang rulers were cultural patrons – Golden Age
of China (comparable to Europe’s Renaissance)
 The Tang exerted a strong artistic and religious
influence over Korea and Japan
 Tang monarchs expanded and reworked the
imperial bureaucracy

 Revived scholar-gentry elite
 Bureaucracy reached from imperial palace down to
district level
 Bureaucracy was divided into 6 ministries: war, justic,
public works, etc.

Jigsaw Activity: China’s Influence – A Two Way
Street?


On a maximum of five sentence strips,
explain how China influenced your assigned
region and/or how the outside world
influenced China
Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Nomads to the
North, Eurasia, “Outside World” influences
China


In your notes, respond to this quote with
evidence and support from Tuesday’s group
activity. You may want to refer back to the
pictures you took of your classmates’
summaries. Be ready to share!
“If Chinese economic growth and
technological achievements significantly
shaped the Eurasian world of the third-wave
era, that pattern of interaction was surly not a
one-way street, for China too was changed by
its engagement with a wider world.”


Confucian exam system was back,
but Buddhism’s hold was strong
Many Tang rulers had strong
Northern nomadic roots and were
devout Buddhists
 Mahayana (Buddha = a god); Chan
(Zen) variant of Buddhism stressed
meditation and appreciation of
natural beauty. Both spread into
Japan and Korea as well

Empress Wu patronized Buddhism
(China’s only empress!)

Support of Buddhism aroused the envy of Confucian and
Daoist rivals
 Attacked religion as alien and barbaric
 Confucian leaders emphasized economic loss
▪ Monasteries not taxed
▪ Couldn’t conscript peasants working on monastic estates for labor
tax
 845 CE – Emperor began persecution of Buddhists;

destroyed monasteries, shrines, and forced monks and
nuns to return to civilian lives
Weakening centralized control after attacks on Buddhism;
Tang Dynasty declined by 906CE
In 960 a new
military
commander
reunited China
 Military focus on
subduing strong
northern nomadic
pastoralists
beyond the Great
Wall


Culturally and economically impressive
 Steady population growth
 Urbanization – largest cities on earth at that time!
 Commercial Revolution (paper money, banking,
and credit)
 Port of Canton (Guangzhou) became world’s
busiest trade center
 Tried to redistribute land more equitably among
the peasantry (unsuccessfully)



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Compasses
Paper
Gunpowder
Paper Money
Banks
“Flying Money” = credit
Restaurants
Moveable Type (600 years before Europe!)
Junk Ship

Confucianism restored: NeoConfucianism
 Sought to prove the superiority of Chinese
thought systems over foreign ones
(Buddhism)
 In reality, it blended in Buddhist and Daoist
ideas (sneaky, sneaky!)
Well educated
men expected to
excel in many
fields – spent
evenings writing
songs and poems
 Art celebrated the
beauty of the
natural world and
often included
poetry
 Enjoying art was
an event!

Tang Dynasty Buddhism raised the status of women
during that Dynasty
 Nomadic pastoralist influence also allowed women
more freedom

Used to justify subordination of women;
reinforced virginity for unmarried women,
fidelity for wives, and chastity for widows
 Men, however, could have pre-marital sex and
take on concubines without scandal
 Neo-Confucians attacked Buddhists for
promoting independence for women in
monasteries as nuns
 Women excluded from education
 Chinese subjugation of women was most
obvious in foot-binding (lasts right up until early
20th century)
