Reunification and Renaissance:
 Tang and Song dynasties rule from the 600’s to the
1200’s
 The sophistication of the Chinese culture was made
evident in the major cities, such as Hangzhou (later
becomes the capital of the Song dynasty)
 The geographic location of Hangzhou helped it
prosper economically  located on the Yangtze
River and on the East China Sea, merchants and
artisans can easily trade
 Hangzhou is home to around 1.5 million people and
is known for its wealth and cleanliness
 The city offer many attractions: dining, message
parlors, juggling acts, circuses, and plays
 For the most part, the elite classes were the only
ones who enjoyed these cities
 Centralized control of the government and military
might brought periods of peace which allowed the
Chinese to improve: agriculture, trading, and
technology
Rebuilding the Sui-Tang Era
 Toward the end of the 500’s, there is a revival in the
dynastic cycle, and the Tang come to power
 Initially, it was assumed the Tang dynasty would be
another “splinter state”
 Wendi (wealthy nobleman) marries off his daughter
to a provincial in the north
 Wendi eventually assumed much of the power that
the northern Zhou ruler had and claims himself
“emperor”
 He gains support, and in 589 the Sui armies over ran
a divided Chen kingdom in the south  first time
that “core areas” of China had been united in 350
years
 Wendi gains widespread support through lowering
taxes and establishing granaries
Collapse of the Sui Dynasty
 After Wendi dies, his son (Yangdi) takes over the
dynasty
 Yangdi murders his father to get to the throne
 He continues his father’s conquests and
continues pushing back the northern Mongols
 Yangdi brings legal and education reform:
1. Brings back civil service examinations
2. Upgrades Confucian education
 Yangdi is over-extravagant in his taste  he
conscripts hundreds of thousands of peasants to
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build palaces, a new capital city at Loyang, and
various canals
His demands exhaust the peasant class, but he
continued to lead his angry and exhausted subjects
into a war thats aim was to bring back Korea under
Chinese control
Military failures for Korea and defensive battles
caused violent revolts all throughout the empire
Provincial governors regain control over their
regions on the north China plan  this led to a
crumbling Sui dynasty
Yangdi is assassinated by his own administration in
618
Emergence of the Tang and Restoration of the
Empire:
 Li Yuan, once a supporter of Yangdi, restored
the empire after 618
 After Yangdi grew irrational as a leader, Li Yuan
was convinced by his advisors and family that
rebellion was the only way to save the empire
and his own family
 Alongside Li Yuan’s 2nd son, the two build the
foundations of the Tang dynasty
 Tang armies expand as far west as Afghanistan
 Tang people completed the construction of the
Great Wall of China
 In 668, under the Tang emperor Kaozong,
Chinese military forces take back Korea  the
Chinese rename it “Silla” and design it as a
“vassal state”
Rebuilding the Bureacracy:
 In order for the Tang dynasty to restore Chinese
unity, they realize they need to rebuild the
bureaucracy
 The Tang emphasize the importance of the
scholar-gentry and Confucian theology
 As the emphasis on a scholar-gentry increases,
those who previously held the authority began
losing it (aristocrats)
 The Tang bureaucracy reaches all the way from
the Imperial level to the “town” level