Chapter 13: The Resurgence of Empire in East Asia

What happened after the Han Dynasty?

After the Han dynasty, it took a long time for China to restore its strong centralized government. Regional powers such as nomadic groups and warlords tried to exercise power and control all of the China, but ultimately failed. During the late sixth century, Yang Jian controlled all of China under one centralized government (just one emperor holding most of power and controlling a large area of land, and everyone reports to this emperor) through military campaigns, which established the Sui dynasty. Despite the Sui dynasty only lasting for 30 years, imperial rule lasted throughout the Tang, and Song dynasties, but improved and transformed, which led these empires to last for even longer and allowed China to become even more powerful.

Sui Dynasty (589-618 CE)

• In pursuit of building a strong centralized government, they ordered the construction of palaces and granaries, including the Grand Canal that were built with the help of forced labour (they made people work, which angered them and led to wide discontent), carried out extensive repairs on defense walls, and imposed high taxes.

• It fell in 618 CE when Sui Yangdi was assassinated because his massive construction projects relied on high taxes and forced labor, which people didn't like

Grand Canal

• Helped support trade between north and south by moving abundant supplies of rice and other food crops from the Yangzi river valley to residents of northern regions.

• An artificial waterway had to be made to help transport goods from north to south since most Chinese rivers flow west to east.

• The canal was connected to the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south.

• It was 2,000 kilometers long and had roads on either side.

Tang Taizong (627-649 CE)

• Strong ruler who built a capital at Chang'an

• Restored law and order, since banditry ended during his reign

• Low taxes and prices, but peasants still needed to pay rent for their land and were forced to do labour and work on public projects

Tang Dynasty Accomplishments (618-907 CE)

• More effective implementation of earlier Sui policies

• Maintained an effective transportation and communications network (extensive postal services, and could communicate quickly using relay teams of human runners, roads, and horses)

• Distributed land based on the equal-field system

• Relied on bureaucracy based on merit

• Through military expansion, the Tang Dynasty ruled over Manchuria, Korea, Vietnam, Tibet

• China's the Middle Kingdom, so they established tributary relationships with other neighboring lands and people and the subordinate states would recognize the Chinese emperor as superior or as their overlords and deliver gifts.

• Subordinate states would perform kowtow, where tributes would kneel before the emperor and touch their foreheads to the ground

Equal Field System

• 20% of land is hereditary ownership

• 80% of land is redistributed based on family size, land fertility, and need

• More people = more land, so everyone had enough land to farm

• Worked well until the eighth century because of corruption and loss of land when Buddhist monasteries acquired the land

Bureaucracy of Merit

• Imperial civil service examination are based on the Confucian educational curriculum

• Made educational opportunity widely available

• System remained strong until early twentieth century

Tang Decline

• Emperor neglected public affairs and was obsessed with music

• In 755 CE, An Lushan, former military commander started a rebellion and captured the capital Chang'an and Louyang, rebellion was crushed by 763 by Tang forces

• Nomadic Turkish people (Uighurs) were brought in by Tang commanders because they were unable to defeat rebellious forced by themselves and the Uighurs took over Chang'an and Luoyang

• After that, it was hard for the Tang imperial house to regain control because over time they had to keep giving more power to regional military commanders and the last emperor gave up his throne in 907 CE

Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE)

• Restored centralized imperial rule after many warlords controlled China

• Neglected and mistrusted military affairs, and instead emphasized civil administration, industry, education, and the arts

Song Taizu (960-976 CE)

• Former military leader, who was made emperor by troops and controlled the warlords and brought all of China under Song control

• Treated all state officials as servants of the imperial government and rewarded them

• Expanded the bureaucracy based on merit by creating more opportunities for people to take civil service exams and get a Confucian education

• Sometimes placed bureaucrats in charge of military forces

Song Weaknesses

• As the number of bureaucrats increased, their rewards increased, which strained the imperial treasury

• This meant they had to raise taxes to keep up with the demands of the bureaucracy, which made peasants angry and led to two peasant rebellions in the twelfth century

• It was hard to reform the bureaucracy after it was established

• The bureaucrats that were put in charge of military forces lacked military education, so they were unable to suppress nomadic attacks

• Nomadic Jurchen conquerers took over northern China and established the Jin Empire and took over Kaifeng, and southern China became the new Song Dynasty and the dynasty moved its capital to Hangzhou

• Dynasty ended when Mongol forces made southern China part of their empire

Champa Rice

Vietnamese fast-ripening rice that could be harvested twice per year, expanded food supply, also drought-resistant

New Agricultural Techniques

• Increased use of heavy iron plows

• Harnessed oxen and water buffalos which prepared land for cultivation

• Fertilized soil with manure and composted organic matter

• Organized extensive irrigation systems such as reservoirs, dikes, dams, canals, pumps, and waterwheels, which helped people grow crops on terraced mountainsides

Population Growth

Rapid expansion of the Chinese population due to increased agricultural production and the food being well-distributed through transportation networks; 45 to 115 million between 600 and 1200 C.E.

Urbanization

• Chang'an was world's most populous city and had two million residents

• Hangzhou had more than one million

• Commercialized agricultural economy

• Bountiful harvests made rice cheap, so farmers could start using their land to plant rice and vegetables since they didn't need to grow rice for themselves anymore, which allowed them to sell their rice and vegetables on the market and make money

Patriarchal Social Structures

• Worshipping ancestors became more important and elaborate through elaborate grave rituals and gatherings in honor of deceased ancestors

• Foot binding involved the tight wrapping of young girls' feet with cloth that didn't allow the feet to grow and made them curved, which led to increased control by male family members

Wu Zhao (626-706 CE) Lady Emperor

Strengthened civil service system

Porcelain

Chinese craft workers discovered techniques of producing high quality porcelain, which was lighter, thinner, and adaptable to more uses than pottery. Aesthetically pleasing utensil and work of art. Diffused rapidly and was exported in vast quantities during the Tang and Song dynasties

Increase of iron and steel production

• Use of coke, not coal, in furnaces, which produced superior grades of metal that helped make weaponry and new agricultural tools, and diffused to lands beyond China

• Large scale manufacturers and home-based artisans produced enough iron and steel to make armor needed for war, all the coins needed for trade and taxation, and many of the tools needed for agriculture

• Production increased tenfold between the early ninth and the early twelfth centuries

Gunpowder

By the eleventh century, military officials had fashioned primitive bombs

Printing

• Wood block to moveable type by mid-eleventh century

• Still continued to use wooden blocks for texts in the Chinese language, since the moveable type was inconvenient

• Made it easier to produce texts quickly, cheaply, and in huge quantities

Naval technology

Chinese ships were navigated with the help of the magnetic compass and their long distance travels helped to diffuse the compass to mariners throughout the Indian Ocean basin, the compass helped facilitate sea-based trade among various regions

Financial instruments

A shortage of copper coins that served as a money for most transactions led to letters of credit known as flying cash, where a merchant can deposit goods or cash at one place, the government would give them a paper note, and then the merchant could take that paper note and exchange it back into coins or goods, which helped trade grow across long distances and made it so that merchants did not have to carry large bags of coins during travel (much safer and easier)

Paper money

Wealthy merchants used printed paper money that clients could redeem for merchandise, but sometimes merchants could not honor the notes, which led to public unrest. Government gives the money value. The government started issuing its own money in 1024 in Sichuan province.

Commercialization of economy

China was able to produce more goods than what they needed for survival and they sold the excess goods on the world market

Establishment of Buddhism

• After collapse of the Han dynasty, the Confucian tradition suffered a loss of credibility and declined because warlords and nomadic invasions defeated the rationale of Confucianism, which was to provide honest, effective government and maintain public order. Confucian ideals failed to prevent war and invasion

• Dunhuang, city on Silk Road, transmits Mahayana Buddhism to China

• Buddhism attracted Chinese interest because its high standards of morality (during a time of war and corruption, it was comforting) its intellectual sophistication (deep and thoughtful, great for philosophers), and its promise of salvation (ordinary people wanted suffering to end)

• Wealthy converts donated lots of land for monasteries, and those monasteries cultivated crops and donated produce to poor

Conflicts with Chinese traditions

• Buddhism: text based (Buddhist teachings), Confucianism: text based (Confucian teachings), Daoism: not text based

• Buddhism places an emphasis on metaphysics, while Confucianism places an emphasis on ethics and politics

• Buddhism focuses on ascetic ideal (living with very little, no luxury or indulgence and isolation) and Confucianism is family-centered, focuses on procreation (having children to honor ancestors) and filial piety (deep respect for ones parents and ancestors)

Buddhism and Daoism

• Buddhists adapted ideology to Chinese climate by using Daoist vocabulary (dharma translated as dao, nirvana translated as wuwei)

• One son in monastery would benefit whole family for ten generations

Chan Buddhism

• Buddhists of the Chan school (Zen) placed little emphasis on written texts but held intuition and sudden flashes of insight in high regard (believed enlightenment could come from sudden insight not years of study)

• Syncretic faith: Buddhism with Chinese characteristics

• Buddhists of the Chan school made a place for Daoist values in Chinese Buddhism

• Chan (or Zen) was a popular Buddhist sect

Persecution

• During the late Tang dynasty, Daoist and Confucian critics teamed up in the imperial court which cause Tang emperors to order the closure of monasteries and forced Buddhists and others that followed foreign religions to leave but they were unable to take away the land the Buddhist monasteries were occupying

• Tang policy did not eradicate foreign faiths

• Buddhism survived because of popularity

Neo-Confucianism

• Early Confucianism focused on practical issues of politics and morality

• Confucians began to draw inspiration from Buddhism in areas of logic and metaphysics

• Song dynasty refrained from persecuting Buddhists, but favored Confucians

• Neo-Confucians influenced by Buddhist thought, rejected Buddhist religious teachings and adapted Buddhist themes and reasoning to Confucian interests and values

• Zhu Xi (1130-1200 CE) was the most prominent Neo-Confucian scholar

Silla Dynasty

• Tang armies conquered much of Korea

• Silla and Tang authorities did not want to get into a costly conflict, so they agreed on a compromise: Chinese forces would withdraw from Korea and the Silla king would recognize the Chinese emperor as their overlord

• Korea became a vassal state under China, but Korea was highly independent

• Korea entered into a tributary relationship with China and delivered gifts and performed kowtow to the Chinese emperor

• Korea received gifts that were more valuable than they tributes they sent and Korean merchants could trade and students could study in China because of the tributary relationship

China's influence in Korea

• China's influence on Korean culture was pervasive because Koreans adopted their culture since China was a powerful neighbor, so this ensured that Korea reflected the influence of Chinese political and cultural traditions

• Korean royal officials observed the workings of the Chinese court and bureaucracy and then organized the Korean court on similar lines

• Built lavish capital in Kumsong based on Chang'an

• Some scholars from Korea studied Chinese thought and literature took copies of Chinese writings back to Korea

• Korean elites and aristocrats liked Confucian teachings, while Chan Buddhism won peasants and commoners

• Aristocrats and royal houses dominated Korean society more than China

• Korea never established a bureaucracy based on merit so the ruling classes had all the power

China and Vietnam

• Viet people adopted Chinese agricultural methods and irrigation systems and Chinese schools and administrative techniques

• Viet studied Confucian texts and took examinations based on a Chinese-style education

• Entered into tributary relationships with China

• Mounted a series of revolts against Tang authority and Vietnam gained independence when the Tang fell

• Buddhism had a large following in Vietnam

• Many Vietnamese retained their religious traditions and women played more prominent roles in Vietnam than China

Nara Japan (710-794 CE)

• Built a new capital (Nara) in 710 CE modeled on Chang'an

• Imperial house modeled on that of Tang, instituted a Chinese style bureaucracy, implemented an equal-field system, provided official support for Confucianism and Buddhism

• Adopted Confucian and Buddhist traditions from China but continued to observe the rites of Shinto

Heian Japan (794-1185 CE)

• Moved to new capital Heian (modern day Kyoto) in 794 CE

• Japanese emperors as ceremonial figureheads and symbols of authority

• Effective power in the hands of Fujiwara family and emperor did not rule which explains the longevity of the imperial house

• Chinese learning dominated Japanese education and political thought

• Japanese writing reflected Chinese influence since scholars borrowed many Chinese characters and used them to represent Japanese words

• Aristocratic Japanese women made notable contributions to Japanese literature like the Tale of Genji composed by Murasaki Shikibu

Decline of Heian Japan

• Equal field-system began to fail

• Aristocratic clans accumulated most land

• Taira and Minamoto, the two most powerful clans, engaged in wars

• Clan leader of Minamoto claimed title shogun, military governor, ruled in Kamakura

Period of decentralization

Kamakura (1185-1333 CE) and Muromachi (1336-1573 CE) periods where lords wielded effective power and authority in local regions where they controlled land and economic affairs

Samurai

• Professional warriors of provincial lords

• Valued loyalty, military talent, and discipline

• Observed samurai code called bushido

• Freed of obligations to feed, clothe, and house themselves and their families, so they devoted themselves to hunting, riding, archery, and martial arts