Lesson 1: China Reunites

China Rebuilds Its Empire

GQ: How did China rebuild its empire after years of war?

• People of Korea decided to free themselves for China’s rule

The Sui

• AD 581: Chinese General Wendi

  • Declared himself emperor and set up new dynasty

  • Son Yandi became emperor after

    • Wanted to expand territory → Defeated badly by the Koreans

    • Repaired great wall

  • The Grand Canal

    • Connected the Huang He and Chang Jiang

    • Made it easier to ship rice and other products between Northern and Southern China

• Farmers had to pay higher taxes and help build wall → also paid for luxurious life

  • Farmers revolted and Yandi was killed (End of the Sui dynasty)

The Tang Dynasty

• AD 618: one of Yandi’s generals took over China

  • Made himself emperor and created new dynasty

• AD 618 - AD 907

• Worked to restore strong central government

  • Reforms

• Taizhong Emperor

  • Civil service examinations

  • Gave land to farmers and brought peace

• Late AD 600s: Empress Wu ruled

  • Only woman in Chinese history to rule the country on her own

  • Powerful leader

Growth and Trade

• Expanded rule westward to Tibet

• Increased trade with other parts of Asia and forced neighboring states to pay tribute

  • China cities became wealthy

• Chandan: Tang capital became world’s largest city

• Large market squares

• Merchants sold goods across all of Asia

• Mid-AD 700s: Growing challenges in their rule

  • Turkish nomads drove Tang armies out of central Asia, won control over the Silk Road

  • Trade and economy suffered

• Farmer revolts weakened the Tang

• Tang rulers hired Uighurs

  • Turkish speaking people in northwest to fight the farmers

• Tang rule fell in AD 907

The Song Dynasty

• After the fall of Tang, military leaders ruled China

• AD 960: General became emperor and founded the Song

• AD 960 - AD 1279

• Challenges:

  • Not enough military forces to protect entire empire

  • Moved government south to the city of Hangzhou

GQ: How did the Grand Canal help China’s economy

Buddhism in China

GQ: Why did Buddhism become popular in Tang China?

• AD 100s: Traders/missionaries from India bring Buddhism to China

• War from decline of Han dynasty

  • Buddhism ended suffering by teaching people

  • Many Chinese sought peace and comfort

How Did Tang Rulers View Buddhism?

• Early Tang rulers: did no practice Buddhism, did not interfere with those who followed

  • Approved of building new Buddhist temples/shrines

• Monasteries: Areas of life, work, and worship

  • Men: Monks

  • Women: Nuns

  • Helped local people run schools and provide food shelters

• Large part of population opposed the religion

  • Believed temples/monasteries had grown too wealthy from the donations

  • Monks/nuns weakened respect for family life, they weren’t allowed to marry

• Tang officials: feared growing influence

  • Enemy to China’s Confucian traditions

• AD 845: Tang government destroyed monasteries/temples

  • Never recovered in China

Buddhism in Korea

• AD 220 (Fall of Han Dynasty): Korea breaks free from Chinese rule

• Divides into 3 distinct kingdoms

• AD 300s: Chinese Buddhists bring religion to Korea

• AD 660: Korea unites into one country

• Spread to nearby islands of Japan

• AD 552: Korean king sent missionaries to emperor of Japan to spread religion

GQ: How did Buddhist monks and nuns help the Chinese?

Revival of Confucian Ideas

GQ: How did Confucian ideas shape China’s government?

• Civil service exams

• Fall of Han dynasty: civil service exams no longer in place, Confucianism went into decline

• Tang and Song rulers revived Confucianism

Neo-Confucianism

• Tang and Song dynasty

• Used to combat the growing influence of Buddhism

• Teachings:

  • People should be concerned about the world as well as afterlife

• Included Buddhist and Daoist beliefs

The Civil Service

• Tang and Song rulers saw Neo-Confucianism and civil service exams as a way to strengthen government

  • Run by educated people = less likely to become corrupt/weak

• Only men allowed to take texts; exams favor the rich (tutor paying)

• Boys ages of 4 began learning to write Chinese language to prepare

• Only 1/5 boys passed the tests

• Did not pass: found jobs in teaching/helping government workers (not given government jobs)

GQ: How did the civil service examinations affect Chinese society?

Lesson 2: Chinese Society

Economic Growth

• Fall of the Han dynasty cripple economy of China

  • Poor harvest and fewer products

  • Economy recovered after the Tang dynasty

Farming Improvements

• Gave more land to farmers

• Improved irrigation methods → Increased growth of crops

• Tea = popular drink

• More food = increased population

Why did China’s Trade Grow

• Built roads and waterways

• Silk road reopened and thrived

• Silk fabric

  • One of the goods traded. In high demand in areas west of China

• Traded tea, steel, paper, and porcelain

• Other countries sent gold, silver, precious stones, and fine woods to China

• Opened new seaports along China’s coast to increase trade

Technological Advances

Coal and Steel

• Use of fuel and metal

• Developed coal-mining industry

• Used coal to heat furnaces

  • Iron produced in furnaces could be mixed with carbon to create steel

  • Ld to different products such as nails and sewing needles

The Invention of Printing

• Paper

• Method for printing books

• Buddhist monks began woodblock printing in AD 600s

• More efficient

• Earliest known printed book: Diamond Sutra AD 868

• AD 1000s: Pi Sheng invents movable type

  • Pieces can be arranged over and over → solved the problem of not being able to make changes to a page

• Paper currency

  • Money needed for traders to carry out business

  • Could not make enough copper coins to support the empire

• AD 1024: (Song dynasty)

  • Chinese began to print world’s first paper money

Gunpowder and Ships

• Created during the Tang dynasty

• Used in explosives and weapons

• Helped make China’s army a powerful fighting force

• Gunpowder also to make fireworks

• Ships:

  • Helped to increase long-distance trade

  • AD 1150: magnetic compass used to help Chinese sailors navigate their ships and sail farther

    • Able to sail to southeast asia, india

• Inventions had effect on Europe

• Printing: made possible to publish books in larger quantities

• Gunpowder: changed how wars were fought

• Magnetic compass: allowed Europeans to explore the world

Literature and the Arts

GQ: Why were the Tang and Song dynasties a golden age of literature and the arts

• Invention of woodblock printing → literature more available

• Art: landscape paintings

An Age of Poetry

• Tang dynasty: great age of poetry in China

• Daoist appreciation expressed

  • Nature and Life

• Li Bo

  • Wrote poems about nature

  • Chinese poet

• Du Fu

  • Poor civil servant

  • Civil war, scarce food

  • Wrote of issues of the poor and unfairness

Landscape Painting

• Song dynasty: many artist painted landscapes

• Portrayed “idea” of mountains, lakes, etc.

  • Reflects Daoist belief: person cannot know the whole truth about something

  • Humans: shown as very small figures compared to nature → idea that humans can not control nature

• Calligraphy

Porcelain

• Ceramic made of fine clay baked at very high temperatures

• Sometimes called “china”

  • Came from China to the West

• Can be made into figurines, vases, cups, and plates

• Methods spread for making porcelain to other parts of the world

• Reached Europe in the AD 1700s

Lesson 3: The Mongols in China

Mongol Expansion

• Enemies from the north

• First non-chinese people to rule all of China

Who Were the Mongols?

• Came from Mongolia

• Lived in yurts (moveable tents)

• Raised horses, sheep, and yaks

• Made up of clans loosely joined together

• Nomadic living

• Horseback riders

  • Developed fighting skills. Accurately shoot from a distance

Genghis Khan

• AD 1206: Elected Temujin (Genghis Khan) as ruler of the Mongols

• Set out to unify

• 100,000 trained warriors (units)

• Steppes: wide, grassy plains that stretch from the Black Sea to northern China

• First conquered other people of the steppes

• Brought money to the Mongol treasury

• AD 1211: Mongols on horseback invaded China

• Invaded kingdoms west and controlled parts of the Silk Road

• Cruel fighting and terror

  • Violent acts meant to cause fear

  • Attacked, looted, and burned cities

  • People surrendered without even fighting

Empire Builders

• AD 1227: Genghis Khan dies

  • Each area ruled by one of his sons

• AD 1258: captured Muslim city (Baghdad)

• Muslim leaders in Egypt stopped Mongol advance in AD 1260

• Rule stretched from the Pacific Ocean to eastern Europe and Siberia to Himalayas

• Grew wealthy because they taxed products traded on the roads

• Stability between Europe and Asia

• Adopted belief and customs form conquered cultures

  • Arab, Persian, and Turkish ways

• Learned from the Chinese

  • Gunpowder →  how to use as an explosive

  • Adopted it to bring more terror

GQ: How were the Mongols influenced by their opponents?

Mongol Conquest of China

GQ: How did the Mongols rule the Chinese?

• AD 1260: Kublai (Grandson of Genghis Khan) continued conquest of China

• AD 1264: made Khanbaliq new capital

Mongols and Chinese

• Finished conquering southern china in AD 1279

  • End of Song dynasty and declared himself emperor

• Start Yuan dynasty

  • 100 years (kublai only ruled for 30 of them

• Culture: practiced Buddhism (encouraged other religions)

• Reached height of Chinese power under Mongol rule

  • Foreigners drawn to capital city

• Won support of many Chinese

• Learned from the Chinese

  • Gunpowder →  how to use as an explosive

  • Adopted it to bring more terror

GQ: How were the Mongols influenced by their opponents?

• Reached height of Chinese power under Mongol rule

  • Foreigners drawn to capital city

• Won support of many Chinese

• Did not use civil service exams

  • Government jobs open to non-chinese people

Marco Polo

• One of the most famous European travelers to reach China

• Came from Venice, Italy

• Lived in Khanbaliq during Kublai Khan reign

• Wrote books of his adventures

• Privileged resident of China

Trade and Empire

• Built ships to expand sea trade

• Traded tea, silk, and porcelain in exchange for silver, carpets, cotton, and spices

• Mongols advanced into Vietnam and northern Korea

  • Korea remained in power because they agreed to Mongol control

• Mongols forced Koreans to build warships → used to invade Japan

  • Fails: storms destroyed fleet

Lesson 4: The Ming Dynasty

The Ming Dynasty

• Mongol power in China began to decline due to weak emperors

The Rise of the Ming

• AD 1368: Zhu Yuanzhang (military officer)

  • Reunited country

  • Set up capital at Nanjing

• Hong Wu “military emperor”

• Harsh leader

  • Trusted few people

• Yong Le (son) became emperor after Hong Wu died

• Imperial City: center of area

  • Forbidden City

    • Only top government allowed to enter this area

    • Beautiful gardens

• Home of the Chinese Emperor

How Did the Ming Change China?

• Brought back civil service examinations to carry out decisions of the emperor

• Census: Count of people in China

  • Responsibility to the officials

  • Helped identify the people who owed taxes

• Chinese economy began to grow

  • Canals, farms, roads, forests

  • Agriculture thrived

• Repaired and expanded The Grand Canal

  • Allowed merchants to ship rice, etc.

  • Introduced new types of rice to southeast Asia that grew faster

• Silk industry: Farmers encouraged to grow cotton and weaving cloth, most Chinese wore this material

Arts and Literature

• Arts flourished

  • Wealthy merchants; printed books and trips to the theater

• Novels: The Romance of the Three Kingdoms

• Tried to make their stories more storytellers like

• Chinese dramas returned to the stage

Chinese Exploration

• Emperors wanted to know more about the world outside of China

• Set out on the sea to trade with other kingdoms and expand Chinese power

• Leader of travel: Zheng He

  • Impressive voyages with lots of ships and warriors

The Travels of Zheng He

• First fleet to Southeast Asia

• Continued to Africa

• Brought distant animals and artifacts back to China that fascinated the emperor

• Complains that the trips cost too much

• Merchant: unworthy and selfish occupation

• After Zheng He dies: Confucian officials stopped voyages

Arrival of the Europeans

• AD 1514: ships from Portugal arrived in southern China and was first direct contact with China and Europe after Marco Polo

• Portuguese wanted to trade with China and convert China to Christianity

• Chinese thought of the Portuguese as uncivilized people

• Local officials refused to trade with the Portuguese

  • Hoped they would go away

• AD 1600: Portuguese built trading post at Macao (southern China)

  • Carried goods between China and Japan

• Did not convince many Chinese to accept Christianity

The Fall of the Ming

• Ming dynasty begins to weaken

  • Dishonest offices

  • Heavy taxes on farmers

    • Began to revolt

• Manchus (people from the north): Prepared to invade China

  • Captured Beijing

  • AD 1644: Set up new dynasty known as the Qin