Pettine's World History

Their efforts promoted a flowering of Chinese culture during the expansionary T'ang period, when China was the largest state in the world, and during the ensuing economic prosperity of the Sung.

Their unpredictable cruelty, oppression and conscription of labor for the canal, led to a rebellion that ended the dynasty; nevertheless, the Sui emperors deserve much credit for later T'ang successes.

Their unpredictable cruelty, oppression and conscription of labor for the canal, led to a rebellion that ended the dynasty; nevertheless, the Sui emperors deserve much credit for later T'ang successes.

Their unpredictable cruelty, oppression and conscription of labor for the canal, led to a rebellion that ended the dynasty; nevertheless, the Sui emperors deserve much credit for later T'ang successes.

The first three emperors subjugated Turkish Central Asia, made Tibet a dependency, and conquered Annam (North Vietnam).

T'ang rulers perfected a highly centralized government, utilizing a complex bureaucracy organized in specialized councils, boards, and ministries, all responsible directly to the emperor. Local government functioned under fifteen provincial governors, aided by subordinates down to the district level. Military commanders supervised tribute collections in semi-autonomous conquered territories. Office-holders throughout the Empire were, by the eighth century, usually degree-holders from government schools and universities, who had qualified by passing the regularly scheduled examinations. These scholar-bureaucrats were steeped in Confucian conservatism but were more efficient than the remaining minority of aristocratic hereditary officials. One notable T'ang institution was a nationalized land register, designed to check the growth of large estates, guarantee land to peasants, and relate their land tenure to both their taxes and their militia service. Until well into the eighth century, when abuses began to show, the system worked to merge the interests of state and people.

Economic productivity, both agricultural and industrial, rose steadily during the early T'ang period. The introduction of tea and wet rice from Annam turned the Yangtse area into a vast irrigated food bank and the economic base for T'ang power. More food and rising population brought increasing manufactures. Chinese techniques in the newly discovered craft of paper-making, along with iron-casting, porcelain production, and silk processing, improved tremendously and spread west through the Middle East.        Foreign trade and influence increased significantly under the T'ang emperors in a development that would continue through the Sung era. Chinese control in Central Asia reopened the old overland silk route; but as porcelains became the most profitable exports and could not be easily transported by caravan, they swelled the volume of sea trade through southeast Asia. Most of this trade left from southern ports, particularly from Canton, where more than 100,000 aliens - Hindus, Persians, Arabs, and Malays - handled the goods. Foreign merchants were equally visible at Ch'ang-an, the T'ang capital and eastern terminus of the silk route.

In the early T'ang era, women had been considered equal enough socially to play polo with the men. By the eighth century, however, T'ang legal codes had imposed severe punishments for wifely disobedience or infidelity to husbands. New laws also limited womens' rights to divorce, inheritance of property, and remarriage as widows. Women were still active in the arts and literature but were excluded from civil examinations for public service. Although some wielded influence and power at royal courts, many were confined to harems, a practice without precedent in Chinese traditions and probably borrowed from Islam in the late T'ang era. These obvious regressions were only partially balanced by the continued high status and authority of older women within the families.

Even as the T'ang dynasty was ending, it prepared the way for the Sung. South China, under T'ang rule, had developed a strong economy that could not be contained within the rigid T'ang system. The T'ang collapse permitted a commercial expansion that in turn generated much of the Sung's remarkable cultural achievement.

A rapidly changing social scene and the political debate over Wang An-shih's reforms led to philosophical dissension during the Sung era. Most reformers claimed that their proposals were based upon Confucian principles, but they were nevertheless strongly opposed by the majority of Confucian scholars, who were part of the established bureaucracy. Although Buddhist and Taoist spokesmen supported few standard arguments in the debate, their general opposition to government gave them many opportunities to increase the confusion. Thus the fragile compromise between Buddhism and Confucianism, achieved during the T'ang period, was placed under severe strain. Ultimately, these problems were resolved by a new compromise known as Neo-Confucianism, which was to become the intellectual foundation for Chinese thought until the twentieth century.