Tang+and+Song

What do we know about where this was created? What have we learned about this topic? Society that may be relevant? || Tang China revived the bureaucracy and made professionalization more strict. Regardless, the bureaucracy was influenced more by rank than ability since bureaucrats, who gained an aristocratic status, were able to entrench positions within their families. || Who is the intended audience? How might they receive this? – quotes to support your claims? || The intended audience is the government. Using the letter as an plea for a "special favor" from a noble shows how people relied on endorsement from recognized individuals than their own abilities. The government would most likely downplay the issue and defend the honor of their system and the individuals. || What is the purpose of this document? Read between the lines, support claims with a quote || Using the letter as an plea for a "special favor" from a noble shows how people relied on endorsement from recognized individuals than their own abilities. Niu Su, the author who published this letter, is using the letter as an expose of the practices of the recognized scholar-gentry entrenching positions. || Support with quotes || I am a decent individual whose "talent [does] not compare with other men" and I'm a low status position as "officer of the guard." I'm far from home "thousands of miles away" and the position guarantees that I will retire at an old age and not live comfortably. Being from "the same native place" and being a man of honor and compassion, please help me by "[bestowing] your special favour on me," so that I may rise in the ranks. || How does this relate to the big picture? What can it tell us as historians? Relate to ESPIRIT if possible || This exemplifies the practice of endorsement over examination. As historians, we can tell that the Tang dynasty placed emphasis on professionalization but that was undermined by the scholar-gentry's status and power within the bureaucracy. It also shows a shift within the power from an old, true aristocracy into the scholar-gentry aristocracy, which, if they bear no other resemblance, was power and recognition, ||
 * 1. Apparts on Ties that Bind: Path to Power**
 * Author – Who created this? What do we know about the author? What might influence their opinions? || Author of the letter is a low level official who was born into a poor family. Due to his low score in examinations, he was given a low position far from home and he doesn't have the potential nor prospects of gaining a higher position. As a poor fellow, he knows that he needs the endorsement of a higher official or noble to get a better life. He knows this higher official is an esteemed individual who comes from his home province, so he tries to appeal to his kindness and status. ||
 * Place – Where and when was it created - || Tang China, after the rival of the bureaucracy and even stricter examinations. ||
 * Prior Knowledge
 * Audience
 * Reason for Creation
 * The Main Idea
 * Significance

2. Tang and Song ESPIRIT
 * || Tang || Song || Shared ||
 * E || * **Wendi** of the Sui Dynasty
 * Lowered taxes and built granaries
 * communal granary that everyone contributed to
 * fought off famine and high food
 * Strengthened by **Yangdi**, his son and successor
 * Monastic lands were not taxed
 * Included their workers
 * Anti-Buddhism instated taxes on monastic orders and took land from them
 * During Emperor **Wuzong**
 * Reopened Silk Road
 * Yangdi conscripted peasants to build palaces, a new capital, and various public works


 * **Emperor Li Yuan** and **Taizon** continued the policies || * Higher paid bureaucrats
 * Scholar-gentry and aristocracy were ecnomically secured || * Grand canal helped trade thrive
 * Urbanization: expansion of commerce and artisan production
 * Supervised markets
 * **Junks**
 * **Flying money** and deposit stores
 * Increased international trade ||
 * S || * Rise of the scholar-gentry
 * Weakened the old aristocracy by empowering the bureaucracy
 * Women could countrol power
 * **Empress Wu**, **Empress Wei** and Emperor Xuanzong's wife **Yang Guifei** || * Attempts by **Wang Anshi** to reform **jinshi** education
 * Neo-Confucianism strengthened stratification, gender roles and age roles like the case system in Hinduism
 * Restricted women to the household
 * Foot-binding
 * **Complimentary husband**
 * Polygamous men but monogamous wives and widows || * Peasants < Merchants < Working class < lower nobility < jinshi < royal family
 * Favored the scholar-gentry system
 * Social mobility primarily came from family ties
 * Restrictions in clothing and architecture due to class
 * Pagoda and Dugong
 * Laws to protect women
 * Ancestral worship
 * Matchmakers, **go-betweens** ||
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Summary: After the Six Dynasties Era, a period of political discord throughout China, the land was finally reunited again under the **Sui** empire led by **Wendi** and his successor **Yangdi**. Under the son, the bureaucracy of China was restored and the economy prospered until Yangdi's failed attempts to recapture Korea. His defeats led to the rise of the Tang dynasty under **Li Yuan**, who with his son **Tang Taizong**, began the golden age of the Tang. The Tang empire continued many of the Sui policies: Tang armies spread the domain of China beyond the limits of the Han (Tibet, Manchuria, Vietnam), repaired the Great Wall, conquered Korea and established Silla (638), etc. One of the most important continuations was empowering the bureaucracy. The scholar-gentry bureaucrats (**jinshi**) were made incredibly powerful and made the bureaucracy more sophisticated with divisions of the executive department and examinations by the **Ministry of Rites**. In order to create the bureaucracy, the Sui and Tang revived Confucian teachings that threatened the entrenched Mahayana Buddhism that spread throughout the Eastern world during the Six Dynasties. Two variations of Buddhism were practiced, **pure land** and **Zen** (Zen was practiced mainly by the elites), and with their influence, several leaders like Taizong and **Empress Wu** supported Buddhism to great lengths. However, Buddhist success gained the animosity of Daoists and Confucians who then led anti-Buddhism propaganda so that **Emperor Wuzong** openly persecuted monastic orders. The Tang fell due to civil strife: Empress Wei's attempt to seize power led to the disastrous reign of **Xuanzong** and **Yuan Guifei** whose greedy family led to revolts that withered away Tang Empire. Combined with nomadic incursions and dissident regional rulers, the last Tang emperor was forced to resign by the 907. In 960, the Song Dynasty was founded by **Zhao Kuangyin** a.k.a. **Emperor Taizu** who reunited the majority of Tang lands. However, the nomadic (**Khitan** people) incursions of the late Tang empire had created to the north the **Liao dynasty** (f. 907) and the inability to conquer the Liao dynasty contributes to the Mongol conquering of the Song and subordination of the Song by Manchurians. The Song continued many of the Tang policies, except infused with paranoia. Imperial policies were weaker, designed with many restrictions, such having only civil official as governors, to limit the consolidation of power. As a continuation of the anti-Buddhist propagation, a new philosophy was championed by Confucians like **Zhu Xi** to accommodate the times. **Neo-Confucianism** emphasized the traditional Confucian emphases on family ties, social roles, and the Son of Han complex. Neo-Confucianism also had a great impact of women: a patriarchal society was established in which women were subordinated to men -- **exemplified by foot-binding** -- despite having rights like favorable inheritance and divorce laws. As an intellectual impetus, the rival of learning due to //Confucianism// allowed the Chinese to develop incredible engineering abilities, captured by the **Great Canal,** and to innovate revolutionary inventions like **gunpowder**, naval **compasses**, and movable type, embodied by the **//Diamond Sutra//**//. Confucianism// also held the jinshi in high regards to cultural enlightenment. Poetry, like that of **Li Bo**, was expected of the gentry, and so were other arts such as paintings inspired by nature. Aside from the social and political sectors, the economy greatly expanded. The Tang finished the Great Canal started by the Sui and effectively connected the Northern and Southern parts of the empire.With the revival of the Silk Road trade route, trade within and outside of China flourished; the Great Canal provided internal trade while **junks** and the Silk Road allowed the Chinese to export vast quantities of commodities. The vast increase of commerce led to increasing sophistication. Government regulated the markets while artisan guilds and merchants proliferated and developed systems like **flying money** and **deposit stores**. Ultimately, the Song fell due to similar reasons to the Tang. A new nomadic power, the **Tangut** kingdom of **Xi Xia,** created great strains on the Song. To pay the tributes, fundings were pulled from military endeavors to cultural pursuits. Despite reforms like that of **Wang Anshi**, the economic conditions of the Song fell to the point when the **Jurchens** (who conquered the Liao) were able to easily conquer the northern provinces midst internal discord.