Tang and Song Achievements
By Olivia Gennaro
Achievements
Advances in Agriculture
Cities and Trade
Arts and Inventions
Advances in Agriculture
•
•
Chinese farming had gotten
better and better during the Song
dynasty. Most of the improvement
happened because of new
artificial watering techniques. One
of these new techniques was that
some farmers dug underground
wells. A new irrigation invention
was the dragon pump.
This invention made it possible
for one person to do the work of
several people. The dragon pump
was a light moveable pump that
helped farmers scoop water and
put it into a irrigation canal. With
these new inventions and ideas
farmers made more complex
irrigations systems.
home
Advances in Agriculture
(continued)
• During the Song dynasty
farming elevated.
• Wild land that ran along next
to the Chang Jiang River
converted into farm land.
• Farms also started to
produce more because of the
discovery of a new type of
fast-ripening rice.
• This new type of rice made it
possible for farmers to grow
twice the amount of rice in
the time that they would
normally grow one crop of
the other type of rice.
home
Advances in Agriculture
(continued)
• Chinese farmers also
learned haw to grow
other crops like
cotton easily.
• They used cotton so
that they could make
clothing and other
textiles.
home
Cities and Trade
•
•
•
•
•
home
The cities in China were cramped and
active. The capital and the largest city
in China during the tang dynasty was
Chang’an, a colossal flowing trade
center.
This community was filled with more
than one million people, it was the
largest city in the world at the time.
Chang’an had a mixture of different
cultures like, China, Korea, Persia,
Arabia, and Europe.
Not only was it known for its mixture
of many different cultures, but for its
religious and philosophical center, not
just for Buddhists and Daoists but also
for Asian Christians to.
During the song dynasty cities kept on
growing. A bunch of cities, along with
the northern Song dynasty’s capital,
Kaifeng, contained about one million
and a dozen more cities had about half
a million people in them.
Cities and Trade (continued)
•
Trade just went along
with China’s cities, this trade
put together with China’s
agricultural base gave china
more money than ever. Most
of the trade went on in china
itself. Traders used rivers to
ship goods on ships and
barges.
•
The Grand Canal was a
bunch of waterways linked to
major cities, carried a large
amount of trade goods,
mostly farm articles.
Developments started being
made during the Sui dynasty,
but during the Tang dynasty
it was renovated and
extended. The Grand Canal
home
helped the Chinese to move
materials and crops from
Cities and Trade (continued)
silver
•
•
wool
silk
gold
•
•
•
glass
•
home
The Chinese people also passed
on trade to other lands and to
other people.
During the Tang dynasty they
mostly passed trade onto India
and southwest Asia but, traders
from china also went to Korea
and Japan in the east.
The Chinese gave things like
tea, spices, rice, silk, and jade.
The one that they gave that was
the most important was the silk.
Silk was so important to the
Chinese people that they tried
to keep the way they made it a
secret.
They took in different kinds of
food, plants, wool, glass, gold,
and silver.
Cities and Trade (continued)
•
•
•
•
•
•
During the Song dynasty sea
trade became more important
because china open their ports to
foreign traders.
The sea trade routes connected
china to many other countries.
Also during this time china also
formulated another beneficial
product called porcelain, a thin
beautiful type of pottery.
All this going on helped create a
strong economy.
Because of the strong economy
merchants started to become
members of the Chinese society
during the song dynasty.
Also because of the large amount of
trade and wealth the song dynasty
invented the worlds first system of
paper money in the 900s.
home
Arts and Inventions
• This poem is by Li Bo. It is
about what you might feel
like at night when you are
home sick. It is call “Quiet
Night Thoughts”
“ Before my bed
There is bright moonlight
So that it seems
Like frost on the ground:
Lifting my head
I watch the bright moon,
Lowering my head
I dream that I’m home”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
home
•
When China’s economy was
getting richer, culture got richer
too. By culture I mean in literature,
art, and in science.
The Tang dynasty had some of
Chinas greatest artists and poets. O
ne of those was Wu Daozi, who
painted murals that famed Buddhism
and nature.
Li Bo and Du Fu wrote poetry that
readers enjoy for their beauty.
During the song dynasty there was a
man named Li Qinghai and she was
probably Chinas greatest female
poet.
She once said that the purpose of
poetry was to capture a single
moment in time.
both the tang and song dynasty
made outstanding figures in clay. In
the Tang dynasty they made figure
of horses showing that they are very
strong.
In the Song dynasty artists made
porcelain items covered In a light
Arts and Inventions
(continued)
•
•
•
•
•
During the Song and Tang
dynasty some of the most
important inventions in history
were created.
Some of these inventions from
the Tang and Song dynasties
motivated events around the
world.
The invention of paper spurred
another invention, Woodblock
printing. It was a form of
printing in which the whole page
is craved into a block of wood.
The printer puts the ink to the
block and pushes paper against
the block.
The first printed book in the
world was made in china and it
was printed like this, in 868.
home
Arts and Inventions
(continued)
• The Tang dynasty had
home
another great invention
and that was gunpowder,
a mixture of powders
use in guns and
explosives.
• The first thing it was
used for was fireworks,
but later it grew into
being used for small
bombs and rockets.
• Farther in time
gunpowder was used to
make explosives,
firearms and cannons.
• This invention changed
how wars were fought
and altered the coarse
•
•
•
•
•
Arts and Inventions
(continued)
One of the best inventions of all
from the tang dynasty would be
the magnetic compass.
It is an instrument that uses
the earths magnetic field to
snow direction which made
traveling easier and better.
This invention made it easier to
find direction than ever before.
People like explorers, navigators
of trading ships and warships
used it.
It has help change the coarse of
history by helping some of the
most important sailors survive
their long voyage across the
ocean and discover new places.
home
Arts and Inventions
(continued)
• During the song dynasty also
came up with many vital
inventions. Like, movable type
which is a set of letter of
characters used to print
books. This is not like block
printing because it does not
use blocks. Movable type can
be rearranged to make new
lines of text and different
pages.
• The song dynasty also
introduced the idea of paper
money. People were used to
using coins made from
bronze, silver, and gold.
Paper money was far lighter
and easier to use. As trade
got more popular and a lot of
people in china got richer
paper money became more
The End
I hope you actually learned
something.