UCLA CHIN 50

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Tang Taizong

Son of Gaozu, overthrew the Sui Dynasty, ruled extensively as a talented military leader.

Empress Wu/Wu Zetian

• Former concubine of of Gaozong, Taizong’s successor, that Gaozong elevated to role of empress

• Once elevated, she quickly worked to oust any rivals and opponents, and took full charge once Gaozong suffered a stroke, and deposed both her sons

• Also declared herself as emperor of new Zhou dynasty

Tang Xuanzong

• His reign was the high point of Tang culture, and he invested greatly in state ceremonies and court life, but was also careful in affairs of state, curbing power of imperial relatives and Buddhist monasteries

• He ordered a new census and reformed equal-field system, and restructured defence establishment

Yang Guifei

• Xuanzong’s great love who lacked sound political sense and was amused by military governor An Lushan, leading Xuanzong to shower An Lushan with favors and allowing him to amass troops

• An Lushan then rebelled, marching to the two capitals of Luoyang and Chang’an, compelling Xuanzong to flee west where the troops accompanying him forced a mutiny so that Yang Guifei would be strangled; Xuangzong, depressed by turn of events, abdicated in favor of his son

Du You

• From eminent aristocratic fam, submitted his Tongdian, a history of Chinese institutions that read as a plea to fix the imperial institution (from eunuchs) and decided that government should base itself on new ideas, not old classical Confucian institutions described in literature

  • Du You wanted forward-thinking to fix the government

Han Yu

• Du Yous contemporary that thought that Confucian Classics were basis of education and good writing; concerned about weakness of central government, but thought that rejuvenation of Confucain learning would bolster state, and submitted a memorial to throne protesting against emperor’s veneration of a relic of the Buddha

  • Argues that Buddhism was a barbaric cult

  • Wanted to imitate past to regain central control

Huang Chao

• Leader of largest bandit gang during decline of Tang dynasty who took Chang’an and set up government, then sacked Luoyang

Chan Buddhism

• Aka Zen Buddhism, became very popular among educated elite, and rejected authority of sutras and stated superiority of mind-to-mind transmission of Buddhist truth through series of patriarchs

• Buddhistm also came under suspicion as foreign in late Tang, with court initiated massive suppression of Buddhism for four years, but by the time orders were rescinded, 250k had returned to lay life, and many monasteries and chapels had been demolished or returned to other purpose

Dunhuang

Far NW edge of China, where silk road across desert began, but deeply influenced by Tang bureaucracy

An Lushan Rebellion

• Xuanzong’s great love Yan Guifei who lacked sound political sense and was amused by military governor An Lushan, leading Xuanzong to shower An Lushan with favors and allowing him to amass troops

• An Lushan then rebelled, marching to the two capitals of Luoyang and Chang’an, compelling Xuanzong to flee west where the troops accompanying him forced a mutiny so that Yang Guifei would be strangled; Xuangzong, depressed by turn of events, abdicated in favor of his son

Zhao Kuangyin/Song Taizu

• General first able to defeat most rivals in the north, first emperor of Song dynasty

  • Was elevated to emperor by troops, and by the time of his death, most of south had submitted to Song

• He was able to put end to military rule by retiring his own commanders on generous pensions and replacing military governors with civil officials

  • Transferred best units of regional army to palace army, and put army under civilian control to prevent coup, and regularly rotated officers

Wang Anshi

• Was supported by emperor shenzong, who wanted military glory

• Was man behind the New Policies, which was a whole host of restructuring of bureaucracy, and the amount he wanted to do quickly antagonized bureaucracy

  • He responded by trying to bring his own men into bureaucracy through revising the entry examinations for office, incensing critics and resulting in intense factional struggle

  • Was eventually ousted by those who opposed him, and after Shenzong’s death factional hostility persisted 

    • Because no legitimate means to resolve political conflicts existed, disputes between officials frequently escalated

Sima Guang

• Denounced Wang Anshi and his New Policies as un-Confucian

• Served as prime minister and wrote a narrative history of China covering more than 1300 years from late Zhou to founding of Song (Zizhi Tongjian)

Hong Xiuquan

Leader of the Taiping Rebellion, declaring himself king and aiming for radical spiritual and social reforms.

Taiping Rebellion

A massive civil war in southern China initiated by Hong Xiuquan, resulting in millions of deaths.

Opium Wars

Conflicts between Britain and China resulting from China's attempts to suppress opium trade, leading to treaties favoring the British.

Cultural Revolution

A campaign launched by Mao Zedong to enforce communism by removing capitalist elements from Chinese society.

Great Leap Forward

Campaign led by Mao to rapidly transform China into a socialist society through collectivization, which resulted in widespread famine.

Mao Zedong Thought

A political theory developed by Mao Zedong, emphasizing peasant-led revolution and communism.

Tiananmen Incident

Student protests in Tiananmen Square for democracy, violently suppressed by government troops.

Three Gorges Dam

Largest hydroelectric power station in the world, built on Yangzi River, requiring relocation and the alteration of the river's ecology.

Xuanzang

Monk that passed thru Turfan and went to India

Turks

• Were major eurasian power, though they did not have set succession rules, but were very militaristically powerful, and China tried to pursue diplomacy, though China eventually wrested control of Inner Mongolia from the Turks, as seen thru their control of the Tarim Basin

Uyghurs

• After Tang pulled back from Tarim Basin due to the An Lushan rebellion, Uyghurs took over the area

• An Lushan rebellion was put down with help of Uyghurs, but also had to be paid off richly to stop them from plundering Luoyang, and later on had to be paid off with huge quantities of silk for a pittance of horses

Tibetans

• Briefly had control of Tarim Basin, and emerged as major power as secondary state along Tang borders

Goguryeo and Silla

• Taizong attempted to conquer Goguryeo, but failed; tried again with alliance with Silla, but control of Goguryeo went ot Silla not China, though Silla became strong ally of Tang

Arab merchants

• Trade, beyond the silk road, boomed in maritime due to Arab merchants

Salt Commission

• When the government abolished the equal-field system and substituted it with a twice-yearly tax on actual land-holding, but discovered that it could earn significant money by charging taxes on salt sold to licensed merchant distributors, thus placing a monopoly on salt and selling it

• Post-rebellion, Tang also gave up on market control, leading to greater local and regional trade

Buddhist Monasteries

Their huge tracts of land became useful for monetary enterprises like mills and oil presses, and with income earned they often expanded into money-lending or pawn-broking businesses, making them an economic force in local communities

city of Chang’an

• A magnificent capital laid out in a square grid with walls of pounded earth, and a palace in the North s.t. the emperor could face S to his subjects

• There were 108 wards, each enclosed by wall, certain blocks were set aside for markets, great S gate opened up to extremely broad avenue, with the city coming to be a place that many officials sought to live in

• Educated men in Tang engage din wide range of arts and learning, with COnfucian scholarship flourishing (like writing of histories)

• Confucian texts and principles were not looked upon as incompatible with Buddhism and Daoism, all educated men wrote poems, and scholars became esteemed for their calligraphy

  • Due to the jinshi, the Tang produced many of China’s greatest poets

Civil service examination system in Tang

• Empress Wu elevated system for recruitment of men to office, allowing for highly talented men of unconnected backgrounds to rise within the system, with Confucian values, despite only 20-30 men passing per year

• Had two main tests, mingjing and jinshi, though the latter became more prestigious

• Tang also set up schools to teach the Confucian education, including the five classics

Mulian

Buddhist who journeyed to netherworld to save mother who was suffering harrowing punishments led to popular ghost festival where food was put out to feed hungry ghosts

Woodblock printing

Need for repeated prints of things led to rise of woodblock printing, which was much more efficient

Song Taizong

• Younger bro of Taizu, and dismantled military provinces, and appointed attendants in charge of judicial, fiscal, military, and transportation matters

Song Huizong

• Talented painter and calligrapher emperor that built up imperial art collection, though his apparent aesthetic interests led to the fall of the court

  • The Jurchens came and raided Kaifeng, then set siege to the city a year later, taking captives including Huizong and his successor

Yue Fei

A general who tried to regain the north after the fall of the Song dynasty and its retreat to the S

Su Shi/Su Dongpo

• Denounced Wang Anshi and his New Policies as un-Confucian

Su Song

• Well-known literati who took keen interest in scientific and technical matters, had interest in astronomy and published five maps of up-to-date information on starts

• Led team to compile new illustrated material medica

Shen Gua

Widely traveled, as he was from official family, and designed drainage and embankment systems and served as financial expert skilled at calculating effect of currency policies, had massive range of misc interests, argued that sun and moon were spherical

Wen Tianxiang

Most famous literati-turned-general continued to fight even when there was little chance of driving out Mongols, withdrawing further and further south, hoping to keep Mongols from two Song princes loyalists rallied behind

Li Qingzhao

Famed female poet of Song

Cheng Yi + Cheng Hao

• Two brothers who developed metaphysical theories on workings of cosmos

Hong Mai

Official that was a sympathetic witness to local religions

Zhu Xi

• Immensely learned in teachings of predecessors, served as official while also writing many books

• Considered himself as follower of Chen brothers, and actively developed institutional basis of revived Confucianism and helped establish academies as private gathering places for teachers and disciples

• His insistence that his interpretations were correct offended many, and his teachings were banned for a few decades after his death, only to then receive unprecedented political support

Siege of Xiangyang

• Second time around Mongols came, they set siege to Xiangyang, a city on the Han river in Hubei recognized as the key to control in Yangzi valley

• Lasted five years, with no lack of dedicated chinese military leaders and officials, but they were poorly coordinated, and with a child emperor, the highest officials were caught up opposing each others’ plans

Civil service examination system in Song

• Led to emergence of scholar-elite class, and the greatly expanded civil service examination system led to great efforts put into perfecting examinations as tool for discovering most qualified candidates

• The system ended the dominance of north in officialdom

• Prestige of success in exams was extraordinarily high, and men who entered gov service without passing most prestigious exams were often forced to undesired positions will little chance of rising

• Given the (hereditary) incentives, more and more men attempted the civil service examinations

• Once one son was in the service, it was easier to get others to follow

Gunpowder

• Above led to development of gunpowder, but military advancements in tech were usually temporary bc enemies would capture craftsmen and force them to produce comparable weapons and tools

Paper money

• Massive increase in trade due to population increase and many farmers having side hustles in small-scale productions led to great demand for currency, leading to paper money

  • Was trustable because they could trade in paper money for silver

• Increase of interregional trading led to more specialized and organized merchant contracts and partnerships

Han as a term for Chinese people

• Came from northerner term describing Chinese subjects and picked up by Chinese literati

Four Books

Zhu Xi’s commentaries on the Analects, Mencius, Doctrine of the Mean, and Great Learning

Landscape Painting

Spurred perhaps by importance of nature in Daoism and neo-Confucianism, landscape painting was highly prized by the Chinese

Neo-Confucianism

That the Song dynasty could not reach the territorial power of its predecessors despite its advancements in other areas disturbed thinkers, and stimulated determination to revitalize Confucianism

Abaoji

• Was leader of Khitan tribe that united the Khitans as the Tang dynasty disintegrated and proclaimed Khitan (aka Liao) dynasty as successor to Tang, setting aside traditional Khitan custom of electing chiefs for limited terms, adopting family name Yelu and marrying exclusively with aristocratic Xiao clan, and setting his son up to be his successor

• Built walled Supreme Capital in northern Inner Mongolia, and expanded realm into modern Mongolia, eastern Bohai, and territory S of Great Wall, then reached for Kaifeng, looting it

Chinggis/Genghis Khan

• Great khan of Mongolian tribes and created massive army and draconian laws to reduce internal disorder, and ordered adaption of Uyghur script for mongol

• His death created a crisis, and empire ended up being divided into four sections, each governed by one of the lines of his descendants

Ogodei

One of Chinggis’ sons, crushed Jin and became ruler of north China and wrested control of Sichuan from Song

Yelu Chucai

• Sinified Khitan that convinced Ogodei that greater wealth could be gained by taxing farmers (rather than turning the entirety of northern China into pastureland), though this did not last long, with Yelu’s rivals convincing Ogodei that it was more lucrative to let Central Asian Muslim merchants bid against each other for license to collect taxes

  • Merchants quickly gained reputation and came to be hated

Khubilai

• Ruled prefecture of Hebei, prior to ruling all of China, and even knew some spoken Chinese, and transferred capital from Mongolia to Beijing and adopted Chinese name ‘Yuan’ for his dynasty, then set siege to Xiangyang for five years

  • By the time Mongols conquered Song, there was a longer a pan-Asian Mongol empire, as most of the mongol successor states were hostile to each other

Zhong Kui

• Mischievous demon who ate other demons LMAOO

Zhao Mengfu

Talented painter and calligrapher enrolled in imperial Academy of Hangzhou, and was recruited by Khubulai to be scholar of the Mongolian court

William of Rubruck

• Flemish friar who went Karakorum, Mongolian capital and took communion in a Nestorian church

Marco Polo

• Found ethnic animosity of Mongol-ruled China intense

• The Venetian was warmly received by Khubilai and was also awed by wealth and splendor of Chinese cities

Mongol Empire

• Did not really adopt Chinese ways, though Mongol rulers developed taste for material fruits of Chinese civilization, they purposely avoided many Chinese social and political practices, conducting business in Mongol and spending summers in mongol

• Mongol soldiers in China were privileged group that lived relatively separately from Chinese military garrisons and were discouraged from marrying Chinese

• Widespread rebellion in S China brought Yuan dynasty down, and Mongols did not melt into Chinese population the way the Xianbei had, with many fleeing northward to steppe and resuming nomadic tribal life

• To Mongolians, N and S China were so dif that they were dif ethnic categories

• All inner asian states made law distinctions based on ethnic classifications, favoring their own people as a way to maintain political dominance

  • This affected areas including taxation, which was defined by traditional practice, and each ethnic group was judged and sentenced according to its own legal traditions

  • Other ethnic based laws were clearly meant to tamp down Chinese dissent

• Mongols registered hereditary statuses by occupation, and forced them to provide unpaid services needed by state according to rotational quotas, leading many families to leave these statuses to avoid this unfavorable situation

Dual governance

Distinct Khitan and Chinese areas, preserving language and traditions, with cultural elite becoming adept in both Khitan and Chinese ways

Kaifeng

• Fell to Jurchen siege engines, and Jurchens looted the city

Khitans

• Placed large importance in the sun and gold, but also adopted Buddhism

• Abaoji created Chinese-like script, and introduced examination system like that of Tang for only Chinese subjects to fill lower-level posts

Tanguts (Xi Xia)

• Spoke language related to Tibetan but saw themselves as distinct people, and had distinct regional military governor and given title Duke of Xia, eventually controlling Silk Route

• Tangut script was created and somewhat resembles Chinese characters

Jurchens (Jin)

• Acquired much land north of Yangzi river after sensing Song weakness post-treaty, though having acquired so much land and power so quickly, they defaulted to Khitans’ dual gov and employed former Liao officials

• Moved capital from central Manchuria to Beijing and then Kaifeng, making greater use of Chinese political institutions and employed more Chinese officials, maintaining trade monopolies and copied monetary system

• Settles bulk of Jurchen in north China to maintain control over Chinese population, and those who did settle had privileged access to high posts, but tended to adopt Chinese language and dress, with Jurchen commanders who objected to trend of assimilation assassinating Jin emperor, and succeeding emperor sought to revitalize Jurchen heritage

• To empower Jurchen heritage, they looked to Conufican texts, though the empire as a whole faced environmental and economic setbacks

• By the end of Jin Dynasty, most Jurcehn living in China proper were essentially Chinese and considered “Han” by the mongols

Mongols (during Yuan)

• Did not really adopt Chinese ways, though Mongol rulers developed taste for material fruits of Chinese civilization, they purposely avoided many Chinese social and political practices, conducting business in Mongol and spending summers in mongol

• Mongol soldiers in China were privileged group that lived relatively separately from Chinese military garrisons and were discouraged from marrying Chinese

• Widespread rebellion in S China brought Yuan dynasty down, and Mongols did not melt into Chinese population the way the Xianbei had, with many fleeing northward to steppe and resuming nomadic tribal life

Yuan Dynasty Drama

• Was established during Jin and Yuan periods, with over 600 Jin dramas preserved, with most plays being in four acts

  • Mongol rulers were patrons of theatre, though the development of the field likely owes something to changed career prospects of literati

Zhu Yuanzhang/Ming Taizu/Hongwu

• First commoner to become emperor in 1500 years, was shrewd, hardworking, and ruthless, joined Red Turbans and became commander of troops, eventually capturing Nanjing

  • Used Nanjing as base for campaigns against other local strongmen, and gradually became supreme in SE, then sent army north toward Yuan capital in Beijing, and Mongol leader did not abdicate and instead fled

• He retained Nanjing as capital, making Ming first dynasty controlling N and S China from city S of Yangzi River 

• Cut government expenses wherever he could, and was very strict with officials, forcing them to kneel when they spoke to him

• Continued Yuan use of hereditary obligations, including army in hereditary obligations, and set aside 10% of land for military colony land

• Issued hortatory admonitions for village heads to read aloud to the neighbors, as urged them behave with filial piety towards parents and neighbors

• Taizu did not extend sympathies to commercial and scholarly elites, with inordinately high tax rates imposed on rich and culture region around Suzhou, with thousands of wealthy families from SE forced to settle elsewhere, esp Nanjing

• Ceased holding civil service examination for more than decade, and edited Mencius

• Began suspecting that others were plotting against him, executing almost 70k in pointless investigation, and put himself through huge piles of paperwork, not able to trust 

• Taizu’s efforts organize his gov around unpaid service caused downstream issues, with unpaid soldiers deserting, and military land changing hands illegally

  • However, funds were so low, they had to levy extra-legal ones to keep basic services going, and ordinary households were often devastated by the burden

Yongle/Chengzu

• Taizu’s fourth son, a forceful military man, led campaigns to NE to fight Mongols, and moved main capital Beijing, demoting Nanjing to secondary

  • Beijing was yet again arranged in boxes

Eunuchs in Ming

• While Taizu forbade eunuchs from learning to read or write, within decades, eunuchs were not merely managing huge imperial workshops, but also playing major roles in both military and civil matters, with own bureaucracy parallel to civil service bureaucracy

Hideyoshi

Leader of recently unified Japan attacked Joseon Korea and Ming, at great cost, forced a Japanese retreat

Wang Yangming

• philosopher-official who advocated join admin by both local leaders and Chinese official for gradual sinification in SW frontier

• Also challenged Zhu Xi’s philosophies, objected to Zhu Xi’s teachings that understanding of moral principles were something that could be understood and realized only through careful and rational investigation of events and things, and instead thought that truth could be found within oneself

  • By clearing one’s mind of obstructions, they could discover universal principles

• His thinkings gained wide notice and a century after his death, Wang’s followers took Confucain thought in many new directions

Li Zhi

Rethought philosophical basis of feelings, passions, and the self, and was a fierce critic of hypocrisy who saw little value in conforming to conventional patterns of behavior

Tang Xianzu

Author of play scripts of love stories and social satires, wrote The Peony Pavilion

Feng Menglong

Writer and editor who created collections of vernacular short stories populated by various characters

Zheng He

Loyal Muslim eunuch of Chengzu who set on expedition to enroll trading partners into Ming diplomatic system, going as far as the east coast of Africa

Matteo Ricci

• Italian missionary who commented on exceedingly large numbers of books in circulation and ridiculously low prices

• Accepted in late Ming court circles due to late Ming’s openness as foreign literati

Jingdezhen

Town where kilns produced enough porcelain to supply the whole country

Civil Service Examinations in Ming

• Reversing Yuan policies, Ming gov again made this the main route to office and thus central feature of literati life

• Instituted provincial quotas to guarantee representation of all provinces

• Candidates were expected to demonstrate mastery of Four Books as interpreted by Zhu Xi, and examinations became divorced from literary trends due to the rigidity of the testing

• Becoming one of the selected gave the man entrance to be community leader and into educated circles, and most reduced, these men could be tutors for wealthy families

• Again, like Song, a relatively small number of land owning families had disproportionate large share of the high degrees generation after generation

Eight-legged essay

Formal 8 part style that emphasized reasoning by analogy and pairing statements

Great Wall

A young Ming emperor foolishly led army into Mongol terrority, allowing himself to be captured and his courtiers slaughtered, and a century later the Ming, no more successful in defending itself against the raids of the Mongol Altan Khan, invested heavily in reconstruction of Great Wall

Silver in Ming

• Gov failed to meet need for coinage, control counterfeit coins, or enforce use of its poorly back paper, and eventually gave up paper money and minting coins, and uncoined silver came to circulate as main form of money and gov collected most taxes silver

  • Shift to silver aided revival of commercial economy, esp. due to influx of silver from Japan and Philippines to expand money supply

Chaste widows

• Women with husbands who died young went back to live with parents as chaste/faithful widows, which was celebrated by Ming Neo-Confucian

• Sometimes wrote poems within established poetic style but also developed distinctively feminine voices

Romance of the Three Kingdoms (Sanguo zhi)

Martial exploits of rivals for power at end of Han

Journey to the West (Xiyou ji)

• Fantastic account of Buddhist pilgrim to india in Tang times accompanied by monkey with magical powers

Plum in the Golden Vase (Jinpingmei)

Erotic tale of lustful merchang, wife, and concubines

Water Margin (Bandits of the Marsh/Shuihu zhuan)

• Band of outlaws during Song

“community compacts”

Local associations promoted by scholars in Song dynasty for purposes of moral renewal, where members had to agree to correct each other’s fault and offer assistance in times of difficulty, with expulsion being sanction for anyone who failed to cooperate

Nurhaci

• Accomplished creation of Manchu state over 30 years, by prospering from close military and trade contacts with Ming, had phonetic script created for Manchu language, and invented banner system

• When conditions in Ming China deteriorated, Nurhaci renounced fealty to Ming and declared establishment of Later Jin dynasty and then attacked Ming territory in Liaodong area and promised opportunities for those who surrendered

• All those in areas under his subjection were forced to adopt the queue

Kangxi

• Started rule at age 15, patronize Chinese literati, and made efforts to induce prominent literati to join gov, but also saw to it that bannermen dominated the gov

  • While regular prefectural and county posts in China proper went mostly to Chinese, the highest supervisory levels went to Manchus

• Familiarized himself with Chinese literati culture, but also hospitable to Western missionaries, tolerating them so long as converts continued to perform ancestral rites, though his hospitality was rejected when catholic missionary insisted on papal authority and expulsion of missionaries occurred

Yongzheng

• Curbed military power of Manchu aristocracy and tightened central control over civil bureaucracy, and put particular effort into trying to set state finances on sound footing, substituting new public levies for patchwork of taxes and fees from Ming

  • Also banned hereditary servile status, legally emancipating members of various local demeaned casts

Qianlong

• Benefitted from his father’s fiscal reforms and often ran large surplus, and recognized that ability to hold empire together rested on ability to speak in political and religious idioms of those he ruled, learning to speak Mongolian fluently

• Was large patron of Lamaist Buddhism

• Was concerned in preserving Manchu history and culture

• Any hint of anti-Manchu activity brough quick and forceful action, and he orchestrated a huge literary inquisition, collecting thousands of books and scrutinizing for slighting references to previous Manchus, and destroying books that had such descriptions

Wu Sangui

• A general who was charged with guarding E most pass of Great Wall, defected to Manchus  and helped them cross the wall, defeat rebels, and rid N China of bandits

Zheng Chenggong/Koxinga

• Ming loyalist pirate and trader attacked Taiwan and drove out Dutch, and great number of Chinese immigrated there while he and his sons ruled, finally qing sent naval expedition to defeat these forces

Zhu Da/Bada Shanren

Member of Ming imperial clan who took up personal of Buddhist monk to avoid being involved with new gov, and his paintings of birds, fish, etc. evoke sense of crazy energy

Lord George Macartney

Cousin of King and ambassador to Russia was sent as envoy to Qianlong, and sized up Chinese, saying that Chinese were ill-prepared for war with European powers, while Qianlong dismissed the British envoy

Heshen

• Handsome imperial bodyguard that Qianlong was obsessed with towards the end of his rule that was promoted to posts normally held by most experience officials and Heshen blatantly abused power and siphoned money from imperial treasuries to himself

White Lotus Rebllion

Towards the end of Qianlong’s rule, not even the White Lotus rebels could be defeated, with officers sent to fight them prolonging the conflict to line their own pockets.