Tang and Song Dynasty

​ Tang and Song Dynasty

​Terms & Names

• flying cash/flying paper

• foot-binding

• Grand Canal

• junks

• moveable type

• Song dynasty

• Tang dynasty

• Genghis Khan

• Kublai Khan

• Marco Polo

• Pax Mongolica

• Tang Taizong 

• movable type

​After the Han Dynasty collapsed in a.d. 220, no emperor was strong enough to hold China together. Over the next 350 years, more than 30 local dynasties rose and fell. Finally, by 589, an emperor named Wendi had united northern and southern China once again. He restored a strong central government. Under the next two dynasties, the Tang and the Song, China experienced a prolonged golden age. It became the richest, most powerful, and most advanced country in the world.

​The Tang Dynasty ruled for nearly 300 years (618–907). The Tang emperor who began these achievements was Tang Taizong. His brilliant reign lasted from 626 to 649.

Multiple Choice

Who began the Tang Dynasty?

• Confucius

• Ceasar

• Chang

• Taizong

​Tang & Song Dynasty history at a glance

Under the Tang (618 - 907 CE) and Song (960 - 1279) dynasties, advances in technology, agriculture, and science increased China’s wealth and population. A “Golden Age” was created in China that would continue into the Song dynasty. Politically, both the Tang and Song dynasties:

–– Rebuilt the Great Wall of China.

–– Tang rulers used the idea of tributary states to build their empire in Eastern Asia and instituted a system of land reform to redistribute land to the peasants in exchange for taxes.

–– The Tang dynasty was larger than the Song dynasty with the capital at Chang’an (present-day Xi’an).

–– The Song dynasty (Southern) made Hangzhou the capital and economic center of China.

Economically, both the Tang and Song dynasties:

–– Created stability and security leading to economic growth, including expanding trade along the Silk Roads and in the Indian Ocean.

◦◦ Demand for luxury goods such as silk, porcelain, and tea led to the growth of interregional trade (Middle East and India).

◦◦ Ideas, including Buddhism, spread along the Silk Roads.

◦◦ Became a great sea power with innovations such as larger and improved ships design (junks and lateen sails), magnetic compass, and astrolabe.

​Tang & Song Dynasty history at a glance (continued)

–– Developed paper money (flying paper), gunpowder, and block printing (movable type)

–– The Tang dynasty completed the Grand Canal begun under the Sui dynasty to encourage trade and

transportation.

–– During the Song dynasty, the Yangtze River region became the economic center of China. Rice cultivation improved with new fast-ripening rice strains from Vietnam (Champa rice).

Multiple Select

What three things did China create during this period?

• Block Printing

• Papyrus

• Paper Money

• Gunpowder

​After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, rival warlords divided China into separate kingdoms. Then, in 960, an able general named Taizu reunited China and proclaimed himself the first Song emperor. The Song established a capital at Kaifeng and restored centralized government control. To manage their empire, they enlarged the government bureaucracy. In addition, they reformed the civil service examination system.

​During the Tang and Song dynasties, China’s population nearly doubled, soaring to 100 million. By the Song era, China had at least ten cities with a population of 1 million each. China had become the most populous country in the world. It also had become the most advanced.

Artisans and scholars made important technological advances during the Tang and Song eras. Among the most important inventions were movable type and gunpowder. With movable type, a printer could arrange blocks of individual characters in a frame to make up a page for printing. Previously, printers had carved the words of a whole page into one large block. The development of gunpowder, in time, led to the creation of explosive weapons such as bombs, grenades, small rockets, and cannons. Other important inventions of this period include porcelain, the mechanical clock, paper money, and the use of the magnetic compass for sailing.

​Junk (ship) Is an ancient Chinese sailing ship design that is still in use today. Junks were used as seagoing vessels as early as the 2nd century AD and developed rapidly during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). They evolved in the later dynasties, and were used throughout Asia for extensive ocean voyages.

Chinese merchants relied increasingly on ocean trade. Chinese advances in sailing technology,

including use of the magnetic compass, made it possible for sea trade to expand.

​With inventions such as the magnetic compass China became a sea power. The Indian Ocean Maritime System And its ocean  trade routes connected Southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and East Africa, beginning at least as early as the third century BCE. This vast international web of routes linked all of those areas as well as East Asia (particularly China).

Multiple Choice

What does this image show?

• That European ships were much bigger than Chinese ships

• That Chinese ships were much bigger than European ships

• The size of African ships compared to Chinese ships

• This is Maui's ship.  He was a wave finder. 

Multiple Choice

Which of the following is a valid statement supported by the information from the map?

• Indian Ocean trade routes hindered the growth of Africa cities.

• Indian Ocean trade routes connected East Africa to India and the Middle East.

•  Indian Ocean trade routes prevented cultural contact between East Africa and Persia.

• Indian Ocean trade routes promoted migration between East Africa and Arabia.

​During Tang and Song times, the power of the old aristocratic families began to fade. A new, much larger upper class emerged, made up of scholar-officials and their families. Such a class of powerful, well-to-do people is called the gentry. The gentry attained their status through education and civil service positions rather than through land ownership.

​Women had always been subservient to men in Chinese society. Their status further declined during the Tang and Song periods. This was especially true among the upper classes in cities.

One sign of the changing status of women was the new custom of binding the feet of upper-class girls. When a girl was very young, her feet were bound tightly with cloth, which eventually broke the arch and curled all but the big toe under. This produced what was admiringly called a “lily-foot.” Women with bound feet were crippled for life. To others in society, such a woman reflected the wealth and prestige of her husband, who could afford such a beautiful but impractical wife.