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Sui,Tang & Song Dynasties

The Sui dynasty lasted from 580 AD to 618. During the Song period, Confucianism was extensively dogmatised, with the achievement of a state-wide moral code and thus the first establishment of a cohesive Chinese civilisation.

Sui, Tang & Song Dynasties

 
 

    After the disunity and chaos of the 'three kingdoms' period General Yang Chien rose to power and reunited China under Emperor Weng, the first emperor of the Sui dynasty. The Sui dynasty lasted from 580 AD to 618.

    Weng reduced taxes and labour requirements due from the peasantry- partly through a careful census which placed many on the tax register previously omitted, lightened military service requirements and introduced reforms abolishing some of the more extreme elements of the penal code.

    Under the second Sui Emperor Yang Ti, officials were chosen via a written examination system introduced in 606, a system still in use up to the 20th Century. The Imperial or 'Great' Canal was built under Yang Ti, a huge civil engineering project linking the Yangtze, Yellow and Huai rivers, requiring the conscription of up to two million workers. Yang Ti's regime became increasingly oppressive- for example demanding ten years' worth of tax in advance-, and following a series of disastrous wars fought against neighbouring states and peasant risings Yang Ti was assassinated in an army coup.

    One of the successful rebel army officers, Li Shih Min installed his father as emperor, founding the Tang dynasty. After ten years eliminating his rivals Li Shih Min forced his father to abdicate and took the throne himself as the emperor T'ai Tsung.

    Under the Tangs, China witnessed her first major flowering, and also her one and only empress, the famed Empress Wu (683-705). Politically, the frontiers were secured via a system of autonomous military districts, and 88 Asiatic peoples ultimately recognised Chinese sovereignty. Agrarian and judicial reforms were introduced, canals built and an effective centralised bureaucratic and communication system implemented. The Han-lin academy was established in 725 for the training of the highest officials.

    The Tang era is most famous for its flowering of Chinese culture, especially its lyrical poetry. Notable poets of this period include Wang Wei, Li Po, Tu Fu. Nearly fifty thousand poems by more than two thousand poets are included in the Collection of Tang Poetry. During the Tang period, Buddhism spread through China , influencing much literature, painting and sculpture.
    By the eighth century, however, the Tang Empire was in decline following military setbacks and uprisings, the west of the empire was invaded by the Tufan kingdom during the ninth century and the empire effectively dissolved into the 'Period of the Five Dynasties', where a succession of warlord- often barbarian- figures ruled the North of China, and the South split into ten separate, warring kingdoms.
    War weary, China was finally reunited by General Chao Kuang Yin under the Song dynasty. The first or 'Northern' Song dynasty (960-1127) established a degree of external stability by the payment of tribute to surrounding barbarian states, and internally, under Shen Tsung, by a reorganisation of the military structure, centralising control of the army and separating military from civil functions, thus clipping the wings of the generals and warlords. The Northern Song dynasty finally came to an end when Northern China was successfully invaded by the Jurchen tribes who established the Ch'in Empire.

    The second or 'Southern' Song dynasty continued, albeit precariously, by the payment of tribute, and retained its independence for a further 150 years. Despite the precarious existence of the empire, a second period of cultural and economic flowering occurred in the Southern Song era. Among the more notable achievements of the Chinese in this period are the inventions of saltpetre, gunpowder, fireworks, printing and porcelain. Prose writing bloomed with notable examples of historical, geographical and encyclopaedic works- as well as the essay literary form- emerging from this period, and academies of painting were founded.

    During the Song period, Confucianism was extensively dogmatised, with the achievement of a state-wide moral code and thus the first establishment of a cohesive Chinese civilisation.