SUI DYNASTY

Only lasted two emperors; short-lived

Wendi: first emperor of Sui Dynasty who united northern and southern China after the rising and
falling 30 local dynasties after the collapse of the Han Dynasty
Grand Canal
- More than 1 000-miles waterway
- Greatest accomplishment of Sui emperors
- Connected the Huang He and Chang Jiang
- Provided a vital route for trade between northern cities and the southern rice-producing region
of the Chang delta
Overworking and overtaxing leading to revolts
- Half of the workers died on toiling five years to dig the Grand Canal and Great Wall
- Endless labor turned the people against the Sui Dynasty
- A member of the imperial court assassinated the second Sui emperor
Built a strong foundation for the achievements of Tang Dynasty
TANG DYNASTY
Ruled for neary 300 years
Sui Dynasty built a strong foundation for the achievements of Tang Dynasty
Tang Taizong (Li Shimin)
- General who restored China to its glory
- To seize the throne, he killed his brothers and forced his father (first Tang emperor) to step
aside
- Taizong: Great Ancestor
- His military campaigns extended Chinas borders: North Manchuria; South Vietnam; West
Aral Sea
- Reformed the government organization and law code with the aid of his advisers at home
- Expansion of empire: armies reconquered the northern and western lands that China had lost
since the decline of Han Dynasty
Wu Zhao
- Ruler during the campaign in Korea where Chinas influence was extended
- At the age of 13, Wu Zhao arrived at the court of Tang Taizong to become one of his secondary
wives
- After Taizongs death, she became a favored wife of his son and successor
- She soon above rival wives and became the empress (Emperors chief wife)
- She virtually ruled China on behalf of his sickly husband
- She took the throne at 65 after two sons took the throne and frustrated her for lack of ability
- Lost power at 80
- She held the real power while weak emperors sat on the throne
- Only woman to assume the title of emperor in China
Tang rulers strengthened the central government of China and expanded the network and canals
began by the Sui and promoted foreign trade and improvements in agriculture
-incomplete
SONG DYNASTY
After the fall of the Tang Dynasty, rival warlords divided China into separate kingdoms
Taizu
- Reunited China
- Proclaimed himself as the first Song emperor
Lasted about three centuries (like Tang Dynasty)
China remained stable powerful, and prosperous despite the Song ruling a small empire
Song armies did not regain the western lands lost and the northern lands lost to nomadic tribes
during the Tang dynasty
Song emperors tried to buy peace with their northern enemies by paying hefty annual tributes of
silver, silk, and tea, but failed to stop the threat from the north

 The Jurchen
- Group of Manchurian people who conquered northern China to establish Jin Empire
- Forced the Song to retreat south across the Huang He. Thus, Song only ruled southern China
The Song established a grand new capital at Hangzhou (a coastal city south of the Chang Jiang)
Rapid economic growth was seen despite the military troubles
- South had become the economic heartland of China
- Merchants in southern cities grew rich from the trade with Chinese in the north, nomads of
Central Asia, and people of western Asia and Europe
AN ERA OF PROSPERITY AND INNOVATION
China had become the most populous and advanced country in the world
Science and Technology
- Movable type: a printer could arrange blocks of individual characters in a frame to make up a
page for printing
- Gunpowder: creation of explosive weapons (bombs, grenades, small rockets, cannons)
- Mechanical clock
- Paper Money
- Magnetic compass
- Negative numbers (Mathematics)
Agriculture
- Farming
- Improvement of cultivation of rice
- Import of new variety of fast-ripening rice from Vietnam (allowed to harvest two rice crops
rather than one)
- Distribution of seedlings throughout the country
- Agricultural improvements enabled Chinas farmers to produce more food to feed the rapidly
expanding populations in the cities
Trade and Foreign Contacts
- Chinese merchants relied on ocean trade because China lost control over Silk Roads which
connects China to the West
- Chinese advances in sailing technology (use of magnetic compass)
-incomplete
GOLDEN AGE OF POETRY AND ART
Li Bo: wrote about lifes pleasures
Tu Fu: praised orderliness and Confucian virtues; about war and hardships of soldiers
- Captured by rebels to Chang-an (capitay city) then sent his family to Fuzhou for safety
Chinese Paintings shows Daoist influence
Artists emphasized the beauty of natural landscapes and objects such as a single branch or flower
Artists used black ink instead of bright colors because Black is ten colors
CHANGES IN CHINESE SOCIETY
Levels of Society
- Old aristocratic families began to fade and a new upper class emerged
- Gentry: scholar-officials and their families; powerful, well-to-do people who gained their status
through education and civil service position (rather than land ownership)
- Middle Class: merchants, shopkeepers, skilled artisans, minor officials, etc.
- Bottom: laborers, soldiers, servants
- Peasants: largest class who lived by the countryside and who toiled for wealthy landowners as
they had for centuries
The Status of Women
- A womans work was deemed less important to the familys prosperity and status
- Peasant women worked in the fields and helped produce their familys food and income
- New custom of binding feet of upper-class girls (When a girl was very young, her feet were
bound tightly with cloth which eventually broke the arch and curled all but the big toe under;
lily-foot)

To others in society, a woman reflected the wealth and prestige of her husband, who could
afford such a beautiful but impractical wife