The Tang Dynasty ruled China from 618-907 CE. It was a period of expansion and cultural flourishing similar to the Han Dynasty. Confucianism was dominant in government and civil service exams were used to select administrators. The Tang extended Chinese influence into Korea, Japan, and along the Silk Road through Central Asia. However, the empire grew weak due to conflicts like the An Lushan Rebellion sparked by the emperor's obsession with a concubine, Yang Guifei. This led to political and economic decline until the Song Dynasty reunified China.

1. Tang Dynasty 618-907 C.E
Sui, Tang and Song

2. Tang Dynasty
Summary:
Second Classical Chinese Age
Very similar to the Han Dynasty
Confucianism again dominates govt leaders
Confucian Civil Service Exams used to hire
administrators for the Chinese government
locally, regionally and nationally
Extended its influence throughout East Asia
(Japan and Korea)
Re-built the new capital at Xi’an
Sui, Tang and Song

3. Tang Expansion
• Powerful military state
• extended the boundaries of China
through Siberia
• Korea in the east
• Vietnam in the South.
• extended a corridor of control
along the Silk Road well into
modern-day Afghanistan
Sui, Tang and Song

4. Empress Wu 625-705 AD
• Only female ruler of
China
• Cruel but effective ruler
• Had to fight the
Confucian social belief
that women should
serve men
• Encouraged women to
be more vocal and
demand better
treatment from their
family
Sui, Tang and Song

5. Tang Economy
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Reestablished the safety of the Silk
Road.
Silk Road trade with Middle East and
Constantinople
New Inventions:
Printing press using moveable print
Porcelain used for dishes and
decoratives
Gunpowder originally for fireworks but
eventually for weapons
Mechanical clocks
Sui, Tang and Song

6. Tang Religion/Philosophy
Liberal attitude towards all
religions at first.
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1st big spread of Buddhism in
China
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Later during the Tang,
Confucianism becomes more
aggressive in fighting
Buddhist influence in China
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Sui, Tang and Song

7. Tang Social Life
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Trade brings people from all
over the world to China;
especially in cities
Cities have a great social
life with live music and
drama
Tang people loved poetry
and landscape painting
Confucian social hierarchy
dominates
Sui, Tang and Song

8. Tea
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Tea comes into
China from
Southeast Asia
Tea and Horse
Trade Route to
Tibet increases tea
availability in China
Sui, Tang and Song

9. Foot-Binding in Tang
China
(from Susan Pojer's presentation)
• Broken toes by 3 years of age.
• Size 5 ½ shoe
on the right
Sui, Tang and Song

10. The Results of Foot-Binding
Sui, Tang and Song

11. Tang Xuanzong (The Profound Emperor) and
Consort Yang
Sui, Tang and Song

12. Mistress Yang and
the An Lushan Rebellion 755-763
• Emperor fell in love with a young concubine named
Yang Guifei,
• The Emperor wasted money and time on Yang and
neglected his duties making others jealous and
harming China
• Yang told the Emperor to hire her friends to rule which
made situation worse
• One of these was a general named An Lushan, who
quickly accumulated power.
• An Lushan eventually decided that he would make a
pretty good emperor, and launched a rebellion.
• The emperor was forced to flee the capital, and on the
way, the palace guard strangled Tang and threw her
corpse in a ditch.
• the rebellion pretty much shattered centralized Tang
control, and for the remaining 150 years of the dynasty,
the country slowly disintegrated
Sui, Tang and Song

13. An original Limerick
The Emperor Xuanzong
fell in love with a concubine named
Yang
But she had a man on the side
To take over the empire – he tried
Which led to the next dynasty named Song
Sui, Tang and Song

14. Tang Poetry
• The Tang dynasty is often
referred to as China's golden
age.
• And Tang poets are perhaps
the best known and most
revered of all Chinese literary
figures.
Wang Wei 699 - 761
Li Bo 701 - 762
Du Fu 721 - 770
Sui, Tang and Song

15. Tang Poetry Combines 3
Strands of Chinese thought
• Buddhism emphasized the impermanence
of life,
• Daoism emphasized abandonment to the
Way found in nature.
• Confucianism stressed moral
responsibility and service to the state.
• "Three Teachings" informed the thought
and behavior of emperors and Chinese
Confucian scholars
Sui, Tang and Song

16. • Almost all Chinese poems are
written in couplets.
• Every two lines form a separate
statement.
• Tang poetry was usually done in 4
couplet poems
• Poetry is often done in calligraphy
and on landscape paintings
Sui, Tang and Song

17. "On the River"
by Du Fu
• On the river, every day these heavy rains-bleak, bleak, autumn in Ching-ch'u
• High winds strip the leaves from the trees;
through the long night I hug my fur robe.
•
I recall my official record, keep looking in the
mirror,
recall my comings and goings, leaning alone
in an upper room.
• In these perilous times I long to serve my
sovereign-old and feeble as I am, I can't stop thinking of
it!
Sui, Tang and Song

18. "I Stand Alone"
by Du Fu
• A single bird of prey beyond the sky.
a pair of white gulls between riverbanks.
Hovering wind tossed, ready to strike;
the pair, at their ease, roaming to and fro.
And the dew is also full on the grasses,
spiders' filaments still not drawn in.
Instigations in nature approach men's affairs-I stand alone in thousands of sources of
worry
Sui, Tang and Song

19. Transition Period between
Tang and Song
• 907 - 960 saw the fragmentation of China
into five northern dynasties and ten southern
kingdoms until Song unified all of China
again
Sui, Tang and Song