AP World History Sui, Tang, and Song Dynasties – Flashcards

A ritual prostration in which subordinates knelt before the emperor and touched their foreheads to the ground--tributary system

A Buddhist monk who disobeyed the emperor's orders not to travel beyond Chinese borders into central Asia--his destination was India, the homeland of Buddhism; while studying the Sanskrit language, he noticed that Chinese writings on Buddhism contained many teachings that were confusing or even contradictory to those of Indian Buddhist texts--he decided to travel to India, visit the holy sites of Buddhism, and study with the most knowledgeable Buddhist teachers and sages to learn about Buddhism from the purest sources; he arrived in India in 630; he lived there for more than 12 years, visiting the holy sites of Buddhism and devoting himself to the study of languages and Buddhist doctrine, especially at Nalanda, the center of advanced Buddhist education in India; he also amassed a huge collection of relics and images as well as 657 books, all of which he packed into 527 crates and transported back to China to advance the understanding of Buddhism in his native land; when he returned, news of his efforts had reached the imperial court, and even though he had violated the ban on travel, he received a hero's welcome and an audience with the emperor; until his death in 664, he spent his remaining years translating Buddhist treatises into Chinese and clarifying their doctrines; his efforts helped to popularize Buddhism throughout China

The founder of the Sui Dynasty; in the late sixth century, he embarked on a series of military campaigns that brought all of China under centralized rule (for the first time since the Han dynasty); he imposed tight political discipline on his state (in northern China) and then extended his rule to the rest of China; he began his rise to power when a Turkish ruler appointed him duke of Sui in northern China; in 580 his patron died, leaving a seven-year-old son ass his heir; he installed the boy as ruler but forced his abdication one year later, claiming the throne and the Mandate of Heaven for himself; during the next decade he sent military expeditions into central Asia and southern China

Founded by Yang Jian; brought China under centralized imperial rule for the first time since the Han dynasty; succeeded by the Tan dynasty; by 589 ruled all of China; emperors placed enormous demands on their subjects in the course of building a strong, centralized government; they ordered the construction of palaces and granaries, carried out extensive repairs on walls, dispatched military forces to central Asia and Korea, levied high taxes, and demanded compulsory labor services; greatest contribution was the Grand Canal; military reverses in Korea prompted discontented subjects to revolt against their rule; during the late 610s, rebellions broke out in northern China when Sui Yangdi sought additional resources for his Korean campaign; in 618 a disgruntled minister assassinated the emperor and brought the dynasty to an end

Flows east; wheat

Flows east; rice; where the "riches" were

The second emperor of the Sui Dynasty; completed work on the canal to facilitate trade between northern and southern China

The greatest contribution of the Sui Dynasty; one of the world's largest water-works projects before modern times; completed by Sui Yangdi; facilitated trade between northern and southern China, particularly to make the abundant supplies of rice and other food crops from the Yangtze River valley available to residents of northern regions--unlocked trade in China; a series of artificial water-ways that ultimately reached from Hangzhou in the south to the imperial capital of Chang'an in the west to a terminus near modern Beijing in the north; connected and extended canals dug in the Han dynasty; when completed, it extended almost 2,000 kilometers and reportedly was forty paces wide, with roads running parallel to the waterway on either side; expensive to construct; integrated the economies of northern and southern China, thereby establishing an economic foundation for political and cultural unity; served as the principal trade route until railroads

Founder of the Song Dynasty; began his career asa junior military officer serving one of the most powerful warlords in northern China; he had a repuation for honesty and effectiveness, and in 960 his troops proclaimed him emperor; during the next several years, he and his army subjected the warlords to their authority and consolidated Song control throughout China; he then persuaded his generals to retire honorably to a life of leisure so that they would not seek to displace him, and he set about organizing a centralized administration that placed military forces under tight supervision; he regarded all state officials, even minor functionaries in distant provinces, as servants of the imperial government

Founder of the Tang Dynasty

The second and most important Tang emperor; he was both ambitious and ruthless: in making his way to the imperial throne, he murdered two of his brothers and pushed his father aside; once on the throne, however, he displayed a high sense of duty and strove conscientiously to provide an effective, stable government; he built a splendid capital at Chang'an, and he saw himself as a Confucian ruler who heeded the interests of his subjects; contemporaries reported that banditry ended during his reign, that the price of rice remained low, and that taxes levied on peasants amounted to only one-fortieth of the annual harvest--a 2.5% tax rate--although required rent payments and compulsory labor services meant that the effective rate of taxation was somewhat higher--these reports suggest that China enjoyed an era of unusual stability and prosperity during the reign of Tang Taizong

Founded by Li Yuan; succeeded the Sui Dynasty; survived for almost 300 years (618-907 CE), and rulers organized China into a powerful, productive, and prosperous society; most famous emperor: Tang Taizong; Three policies help to explain the success of the early part of the dynasty: maintenance of a well-articulated transportation and communications network, distribution of land according to the principles of the equal-field system, and reliance on a bureaucracy based on merit--all three policies originated in the Sui Dynasty, but ____rulers applied them more systematically and effectively than their predecessors had; rulers maintained an extensive communications network based on roads, horses, and sometimes human runners; along the main routes, officials maintained inns, postal stations, and stables, which provided rest and refreshment for travelers, couriers, and their mounts; using couriers traveling by horse, the ____court could communicate with the most distant cities in the empire in about eight days; utilized the equal-field system; cut taxes; along with Song, considered the "Golden Age" of China; became very good at transportation and communication--first time China starts to pull itself together--a closer knit empire is better; built taverns--places to stop and rest while traveling--trade explodes; meritocracy--idea that you get what you deserve, regardless of your background--gets you into the bureaucracy--social mobility in dynasty bc of meritocracy; used Tribute system, but not as much as Song; falls apart because of corruption etc.

Dynasty that succeeds the Tang Dynasty; the Golden Age of Chinese literature and arts; along with the Tang, considered the Golden Age of China; weak (politically) from the beginning; population increases from 40 million-->150 million; increase in agricultural surplus leads to population growth--leads to urbanization (move to city); golden age of technology--created gunpowder--they used them for fireworks; perfected compass using magnets--leads to jump in sea trade; printing press is created; changed way of making iron--if they used coke instead of coal to burn, it was hotter--allowed iron to be thinner, less brittle; created porcelain; started using paper one--becomes a question of confidence in gov (confidence that it's worth something); ideal man is intellectual, not a great warrior

System that governed the allocation of agricultural land; its purpose was to ensure an equitable distribution of land and to avoid concentration of landed property that had caused social problems during the Han Dynasty; the system allotted land to individuals and their fammilies according to the land's fertility and the recipients' needs; about one-fifth of the land becae the hereditary possession of the recipients, and the rest remained available for redistribution when the original recipients' needs and circumstances changed; brought down by corruption; give land to peasants, allowing families to grow their own food, pay less taxes--if peasants have the land, the warlords (aristocrats) don't

The idea that you get what you deserve regardless of your background--gets you into the bureaucracy--social mobility in Tang Dynasty bc of meritocracy

Turkish peoples--invited by the Tang Dynasty to help stop the rebellion--as payment, they let them sack two of their cities (one was the capital)

Warlike love of one's country--I love my country, my country is better than yours and I will prove/show it through violent means

Largest city in the world at that time; located at the end of the Grand Canal in the south; pop. 1 million; intensive urbanization

One of the Tang Dynasty's foremost military commanders; he mounted a rebellion and captured the capital at Chang'an, as well as the secondary capital at Luoyang; his revolt was short-lived--he was assassinated in 757 and in 763 Tang forces had suppressed his army and recovered their capitals; but the rebellion left the dynasty in a gravely weakened state

Capital of Tang Dynasty

A seminomadic people from Manchuria who ruled a vast empire stretching from northern Korea to Mongolia from the early tenth through the early twelfth century; during the first half of the Song dynasty, they demanded and received large tribute payments of silk and silver fro mthe Song state to the south

Nomadic people who, in the early twelfth century, conquered the Khitan, overran northern China, captured the Song capital at Kaifeng, and proclaimed the establishment of the Jin empire; the Song empire moved its capital to the prosperous port city of Hangzhou and survived only in southern China--the _______controlled northern China during the Song dynasty

Enabled cultivators to harvest two crops per year--increase in agricultural surplus

The capital of the southern Song dynasty

Perhaps the most popular poet of the Tang era; he took the social life of these Chinesse cities as one of his principal themes; he mostly wrote light, pleasing verse celebrating life, freindship, and especially wine

The practice of tightly wrapping young girls' feet with strips of cloth that prevented natural growth of the bones and resulted in tiny, malformed, curved feet--result of strengthened patriarchal authority; never became universal in China, but many wealthy families and sometimes also peasant families bound the feet of their daughters to enhance their attractiveness and gain increased control over the girls' behavior; spread widely during the Song era

The daughter of a scholar-official who, at the age of thirteen, became a concubine at the court of Tang Taizong, where she attracted notice because of her intelligence, wit and beauty; After Taizon's death, she became the concubine and later the wife of his successor; in 660 the emperor suffered a debilitating stroke, and she seized the opportunity to direct affairs as administrator of the court; in 690 she went further and claimed the imperial title for herself; she organized a secret police force to monitor dissident factions, and she ordered brutal punishment for those who stood in her way; she strengthened the civil service system asa way of undercutting aristocratic families that ight attempt to displace her; she also generously patronized Buddhists, who returned the favor by composing treatises seeking to legitimize her rule; she was a Pureland Buddhist; she held on to her rule until she was 80; she was the only woman in Chinese history to claim the imperial title and rule as emperor

Letters of credit that came into common use during the early Tang dynasty; they enabled merchants to deposit goods or cash at one location and draw the equivalent in cash or goods elsewhere in China

Pledged payment of a given summ of money at a later date

Entitled the bearer to draw funds against cash deposited with bankers

A city in western China that, by the fourth century CE, had a sizable Buddhist community; between about 600 and 1000 CE, Buddhists built hundreds of cave temples in the vicinity of Dunhuang and decorated them with murals depicting events in the lives of the Buddha and the bodhisattvas who played prominent roles in Mahayana Buddhism; they also assembled libraries of religious literature and operated scriptoria to produce Buddhist texts

Placed little emphasis on written texts but held intuition and sudden flashes of insight in high regard--___Buddhists made a place for Daoist values in Chinese Buddhism

Held out the prospect of personal salvation for those who devoted themselves to the Buddha; Empress Wu Zhao was a _______Buddhist

Confucianism in the Song dynasty; studied the classic works of their tradition, but they also became familiear with the writings of Buddhists; they found much to admire in Buddhist thought; Buddhism not only offered a tradition of logical thought and argumentation but also dealt with issues, such as the nature of the soul and the individual's relationship with the cosmos, not systematically explored by Confucian thinkers

The most important representative of Song neo-Confucianism; He maintained a deep commitment of Confucian values emphasizing proper personal behavior and social harmony; among his writings was an influential treatise entitled Family Rituals that provided detailed instructions for weddings, funerals, veneration of ancestors, and other family ceremoies; he considered it a matter of the highest importance that individuals play their proper roles both in their family and in the larger society; he became fascinated with the philosophical and speculative features of Buddhist thought; he argued in good Confucian fashion for the observance of high moral standards, and he believed that academic and philosophical investigations were important for practical affairs; he concentrated his efforts on abstract and abstruse issues of more theoretical than practical significance; he wrote extensively on metaphysical themes such as the nature of reality; he argued iin a manner reminiscent of Plato that two elements accounted for all physical being: li, a principle somewhat similar to Plato's Forms of Ideas that defines the essence of the being, and qi, its material form; forms basis of civil service exam