Tang and Song Dynasties
Reunification and Renaissance in
Chinese Civilization
SUI ERA –
TH
6
CENTURY CE
• Marked return to strong dynastic control in
China
• Wendi seized son-in-law’s throne
– Supported by neighboring nomadic commanders
– Reunited core areas of China after three and a half
centuries
– Won widespread support
• Yangdi seized the throne by murdering his
father
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extended father’s conquests
Pushed back northern invaders
legal and educational reforms
weakness for luxury
unpopular wars
Assassinated by his own ministers in 618
TANG DYNASTY
• Importance of Li Yuan: Founded Golden Age
• Expanded Chinese territory: larger than Han
• Rebuilt the bureaucracy
– Revived the scholar-gentry
– Confucian exams
– Ideological basis for centralized government
Religion in Tang and Song Empires
• Tang Dynasty and Buddhism
– Buddhism had royal patronage and widespread
conversion
– Emperors began limiting the flow of land and
resources to monasteries
– Buddhists were persecuted
• Focus on Confucianism threatened old
aristocratic families and Buddhism
Decline of the Tang
• Empress Wei tried to establish a second dynasty
– Overthrown by a palace revolt led by another prince
• Emperor Xuanzong (713-756) marked the peak
of Tang dynasty
– Initially supported political and economic reforms
– His later actions increased economic distress,
discontent, and military weakness
– Rebellion against the Tang failed, but weakened the
dynasty
• Tang made alliances with northern nomads
• Many provincial governors became independent
rulers
• 9th century – Succession of revolts led by
peasants
• 907 – Last Tang emperor was forced to resign
Founding of the Song Dynasty
• 960 – Strong military commander emerged to
reunite China under a single dynasty
– Emperor Taizu founded the Song, which
lasted for three centuries
• Never matches the Tang Dynasty in political or
military strength
– In part, this was because the Song changed Chinese
systems to ensure that they wouldn’t fall like the
Tang had
• Promoted interests of scholar-gentry
– Civil service exams were fully routinized
– Bureaucracy soon had too many well-paid officials
with little to do
• Revival of Confucian ideas and values (NeoConfucianism)
– Reinforced class, age, and gender distinctions
– Hostility towards Buddhism
– Stifled critical thinking and innovation
Song Decline
• Nomadic groups carved out
kingdoms on the northern border
• Peasant taxation increased
• Armies were large but commanders weren’t the
best possible leaders
• 1070s and 1080s – Introduced sweeping reforms
in an effort to keep the empire from collapsing
• Neo-Confucianists came to power and reversed
the previous policies
• Northern nomads began taking more Song land
– Songs had to flee to the south
• Empire survived for another century and a half
Contributions of the Tang and Song
• Construction
– Canal building (Grand Canal)
• Helped transport goods and collect taxes
• 1200 miles long, 40 paces wide, with tree lined highways
on each side
• Commercial Expansion
– Conquests and canals promoted commercial
expansion
– Tang control in Asia helped reopen and protect the
Silk Roads between China and Persia
• Increased international contacts
• China imported luxury products and exported
manufactured goods
– Chinese merchants began taking goods to others
instead of waiting for the goods to come to them
• Chinese junks
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There were market quarters in every city
Increase in forms of credit available
Use of paper money
Surge in urban growth
• Expanding agrarian production
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People moved south to fertile river valleys
Supported by rulers of both dynasties
State created irrigation and embankment systems
New seeds and methods increased production
• Aristocratic lands were divided up amongst free
farmers
Family and Society during the Tang
and Song Era
• Position of women initially improved
– Tang women could exercise considerable power at
the highest levels of Chinese society
• Patriarchal society encouraged by Confucius
remained
• Elaborate system of arranged marriages
– Divorce was allowed by mutual consent
• Position of women declined under the Song
(neo-Confucians)
• Foot binding
Inventions and the Arts
• New tools, production techniques, and weapons
spread to other civilizations and fundamentally
changed the course of human development
• Inventions
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Banks and paper money
Dams, dikes, and bridges
Explosive powder and weapons
Compasses
Abacus
Printing with moveable type
• Arts
– Scholar-gentry was responsible for most artistic and
literary creativity
– Confucian and Buddhist art and poetry were
important
– Tang – Short stories and poems
– Song – Landscape paintings