(Please note that this lecture will be modified)

• A.Time of Troubles - 220-581 - one of the longest periods of disunity in China
• B.Sui Dynasty - 581-618
• C.Tang Dynasty - 618-907
• D.Southern Song Dynasty - 1127-1279

• A.reunited China after the long period of troubles, 220-618
• B.made China an empire again, after it had fragmented (sound familiar?)
• C.used technology to unite the empire
  • 1.recontstruction of the Great Wall (that had been built under the Ch'in; only man-made structure visible from space!)
  • 2.rebuilt huge canal system which came to be known as Great Canal
  • 3.these served to unite North and South in China
    • a.North had traditionally been political center of China
    • b.South had been economic center, along the Yangtze River
    • c.1400 miles long canal now unites them
    • d.these were far more impressive than anything in Europe, larger than any Roman projects as well
  • 4.paid the price in huge loss of life, money, and support for both huge projects and the dynasty
  • 5.used unity to expand the frontiers of the empire
  • 6. Like Ch'in, a brutal dynasty that unified China
  • 7. brought down by northern invasions and rising anger over taxes, brutaltity

• A.Tang very successful in expansion
  • 1. largest version of China up that point
  • 2.the suzerainty system, basically a tribute system
  • 3.successes could mean some peace at home through unification
• B. Desire for land reform, giving peasants more land and taking it away from noble lords
  • 1. Relieved heavy burdens placed on peasents during Time if Troubles and Sui Dynasty
  • 2.provided larger tax base for empire
  • 3.provided more support from peasantry
  • 4.took power from nobility, lessened their threat
• C. Expansion of the bureacuracy possible through basically peaceful times

• A.center of politics had to move south since the north was under power of nomadic tribes
• B.China was smaller then than in any time of the previous two dynasties
• C.Irony of the Song dynasty
  • 1.smaller, lost power in North
  • 2.yet tremendous change in economic and cultural sectors
    • a.economy grew due to better trade, new quick-growing strain of rice, maritime and industrial technology, creation of a sea-based trade system (which would not last), etc.
    • b. Unusual for China, which is usually an inward looking society
    • c. better canal system also improved trade
    • d.led to population growth and more widespread wealth than earlier periods
    • e. total population of 100 million, several cities of 1/2 million or more
  • 3.also a period of great cultural innovation:
    • a.printing (and papermaking)
    • b.therefore printing of texts of religions
    • c.rise of art of calligraphy
    • d.rise of painting (which went along with calligraphy)
    • e.rise of poetry

• A.Civil Service system, based on Confucian idea of rule by the capable
  • 1. Appears during Han, fully developed by Sui and Tang
  • 2.would last until 1905!
  • 3.tests took in three levels, jobs based on those scores
  • 4.tests had originally been made up of sciences (math, geography, etc.) plus Confucianism
  • 5.became symply that of confucianism, though, which set up only those well-educated to take the test
• B.a governmental system based on merit, based on social and moral ethics!
  • 1.yet also a governmental system based on ideals rather than concrete knowledge
  • 2.importance of nepotism in bureaucracy - helping out the family as a paramount concern