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Post-Classical China PART I:
The Sui 581–618 AD and Tang (618-907)
Dynasties
4
250 × 272 - www2.lhric.org
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This packet will include the civilizations of China:
 The Sui and Tang Dynasties
Reunification and Renaissance in Chinese Civilization
Sui
 The short dynasty between the Han and the Tang; built the Grand Canal
 Grand Canal
o The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) waterway linking the Yellow and
the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in the Han period and completed
during the Sui Empire. (p. 277)
 The rise of the sui dynasty in the early 580s appeared to be another factional
struggle of the sort that occurred repeatedly after the fall of the Han Dynasty
 China was reunited under the ruler Wendi (Yang Jian by birth). He reunited
the traditional core areas of Chinese civilization for the first time in over
three and a half centuries.
 He lowered taxes and established granaries throughout his domains.
 Large landholders and poor peasants alike were taxed a portion of their crop
to keep the granaries filled.
 Wendi was murdered  by his son Yangdi. Yangdi extended his father’s
conquests and rove back the nomadic intruders who threatened the northern
frontiers of the empire.
 Yangdi
o Devoted resources to Confucian education.
o He restored the exam system for creating the Chinese bureaucracy
o This helped create the scholar-gentry class.
o He conscripted peasants to build luxury palaces because he loved
extravagance
o He led his people into exhausting and unsuccessful wars against
Korea.
o Provincial governors declared themselves independent, bandits
raided at will; nomads seized large sections of northern China.
o Yangdi was assassinated by his own ministers in 618
 CHINA DID NOT FALL INTO DISSARY
Tang and Song Dynasties:
 Li Yuan laid the foundation for Tang resurgence
 He had been a loyal supporter of the Sui ruler
 Tang armies conquered deep into Central Asia (to present day Afghanistan),
Korea and part of Vietnam
 Many nomads had to submit to Tang rule
Political:
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Tang monarchs expanded the imperial bureaucracy. A revived scholar gentry
elite and reworked Confucian ideology played central roles in the process.
Tang needed loyal and educated officials to govern the vast empire they put
together.
Scholar- gentry class was used to offset the power of the aristocracy. From
the Tang era onward, a succession of imperial families and bureaucrats of the
civil service system shared political power in China. Members of the
hereditary aristocracy continued to occupy administrative positions, but he
scholar gentry class staffed most of the posts in the executive ministries that
oversaw a huge bureaucracy.
New capital was now Chang-an
The Exam System:
o Tang emperors patronized academies to train state officials and
educate them in Confucian classics.
o Taught moral and organizational principles essential to effective
administrators.
o GREAT increase in educated scholar-gentry class - greater than during
the Han Dynasty.
o The political realm more than any previous political system, the
Chinese connected merit as measured by tested skills with authority
and status.
 Jinshi: Title granted to students who passed the most difficult
Chinese exam on all of Chinese literature; became immediate
dignitaries and eligible for high office.
 Their names were announced throughout the empire,
and their families’ positions were secured by the
prospect of high office that was opened up by their
success.
o NEVERTHELESS, birth and family connections continued to be
important in securing high office. Merit and ambition counted for
something but birth and family influence often counted for a good deal
more.
Religion
 Patronage to Confucian learning threatened old aristocratic families and
Buddhist monastic orders.
 After the fall of the Han Buddha devotion proliferated.
 Pure Land Buddhism won widespread conversions. Emphasized salvation
aspects of Chinese Buddhism; popular among masses of Chinese society.
 Members of the elite practiced Chan Buddhism: stressed meditation and
appreciation of natural and artistic beauty; popular with elite.
 Empress Wu (690-705) great proponent of Buddhism- tried to make it a
state religion. Commissioned paintings and sculptures.
 Backlash: Confucian and Daoists rivaled Buddhism.
o They attacked it as alien because of its Indian origin.
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o By mid 9th century, state fears of Buddhist wealth and power led to
measures to limit the flow of land and resources to the monastic
orders. Buddhist monastic orders never against would have the
political influence and wealth they had during the first centuries of
Tang rule. Daoist and Confucian subjects dominated art.
o COFUCIANISM EMERGED as the central ideology of Chinese
civilization for most of the period from the 9th century to 20th century
o Buddhism left its mark on art, language, and thinking but it ceased to
be a dominant influence.
Economy:
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China experienced relative stability
The Tang (and continued into the Song) created extensive transportation and
communication networks, including the Grand Canal (started under Sui).
Post-Classical China saw the innovation of paper money and letters of credit.
This all led to increased trade and was stimulated by increased trade along
the Silk Roads.
The power of the dynasties in the Post Classical Era was based on trade and
expansion. Urban centers became the hub of Chinese culture and areas of
cultural and economic expression and exchange.
Tang developed the capital city of Chang’an, which was a main link along the
Silk Road trade route.
o City center was multinational and multireligious
The Tang also began a tributary system with Vietnam, Korea, and Tibet.
o Tribute System an important element of Chinese foreign policy, by
which neighboring states paid for the privilege of access to Chinese
markets, received legitimization and agreed not to harbor enemies of
the Chinese Empire. Significant because it shows that China was not
secluded and independent country. The tribute system worked both
ways between China and the neighboring states.
o
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SOCIAL
POLITICAL
ECONOMIC
ENVIRONMENTAL
Vocabulary
Sui
Yangdi
Grand Canal
Tang
Li Yuan
Definition
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The Exam
System
Jinshi
Pure Land
Buddhism
Chan
Buddhism:
Empress Wu
Tribute
System