 Take out your class notes!

Today’s LEQs: What came after the Han Dynasty? What changed and continued?

 After Han Dynasty (220 CE), China fell into period of disunity  Not as traumatic (or permanent) as the fall of Rome (Western half)  Uncertainty and disorder paved way for Buddhism  China reunified under Sui Dynasty

 Founded by Wendi  Utilized legalism  Focused on building projects (utilized labor taxes):  Reinforced Great Wall  Built Grand Canal  South grew drought- resistant champa rice (diffused from modern Vietnam)

 Restored Confucian exam system & bureaucracy  Launched expensive military campaigns but often unsuccessful (i.e. Korea)  Second emperor, Yang Di, assassinated by his own ministers in 618 CE

 Military man, Gao Zu, restored order and declared himself new emperor  China became grew larger than ever before  Continued use of Tribute System as means of “controlling” neighbors  Activity: Compare the Tribute System in THEORY vs. Tribute System in PRACTICE (Use pages )

 Tang economy very strong due to advanced infrastructure (roads, waterways, canals) and trade  Grand Canal: continued to stimulate trade  Silk industry made China exceptionally wealthy (although no longer a monopoly – secret got out some time between Han and Sui Dynasties)

 Confucian exam system was back, but Buddhism’s hold was strong  Many Tang rulers had strong Northern nomadic roots and were devout Buddhists  Mahayana (Buddha = a god)  Empress Wu patronized Buddhism

 Tang Dynasty Buddhism raised the status of women during that Dynasty  Nomadic pastoralist influence also allowed women more freedom

 Support of Buddhism aroused the envy of Confucian and Daoist rivals  Attacked religion as alien and barbaric  Confucian leaders emphasized economic loss ▪ Monasteries not taxed ▪ Couldn’t conscript peasants working on monastic estates for labor tax  845 CE – Emperor began persecution of Buddhists;  Weakening centralized contro; Tang Dynasty declined by 906CE

 In 960 a new military commander reunited China  Military focus on subduing strong northern nomadic pastoralists beyond the Great Wall

 Culturally and economically impressive  Steady population growth  Urbanization – largest cities on earth at that time!  Commercial Revolution (paper money, banking, and credit)  Port of Canton (Guangzhou) became world’s busiest trade center

 Confucianism restored: Neo- Confucianism  Sought to prove the superiority of Chinese thought systems over foreign ones (Buddhism)  In reality, it blended in Buddhist and Daoist ideas (sneaky, sneaky!)

 Well educated men expected to excel in many fields – spent evenings writing songs and poems  Art celebrated the beauty of the natural world and often included poetry  Enjoying art was an event!

 Used to justify subordination of women  Neo-Confucians attacked Buddhists for promoting independence for women in monasteries as nuns  Women excluded from education  Chinese subjugation of women was most obvious in foot-binding (lasts right up until early 20 th century)

 On a maximum of five sentence strips, explain how China influenced your assigned region and/or how the outside world influenced China  Korea, Vietnam, Japan, Nomads to the North, Eurasia, “Outside World” influences China

 “If Chinese economic growth and technological achievements significantly shaped the Eurasian world of the third- wave era, that pattern of interaction was surly not a one-way street, for China too was changed by its engagement with a wider world.”