The Han Dynasty (simplified Chinese: 汉
The emperor was at
朝; traditional Chinese: 漢朝; pinyin: Hàn Cháo; Wade-
Giles: Han Ch'ao, Old Chinese: ŋ̥ānh ḍhaw; 206 BCE–
220 CE) was the second imperial dynasty of China,
preceded by the Qin Dynasty (221–206 BCE) and
succeeded by the Three Kingdoms (220–265 CE). It
was founded by the peasant rebel leader Liu
Bang, known posthumously as Emperor Gaozu of Han.
It was briefly interrupted by the Xin Dynasty (9–23 CE)
of the former regent Wang Mang. This interregnum
separates the Han into two periods: the Western Han
(206 BCE–9 CE) and Eastern Han (25–220 CE).
Spanning over four centuries, the period of the Han
Dynasty is considered a golden age in Chinese history.
[1]
To this day, China's majority ethnic group refers to
itself as the "Han people".[2] The Han Empire was
divided into areas directly controlled by the central
government, known as commanderies, and a number
of semi-autonomous kingdoms. These kingdoms
gradually lost all vestiges of their independence,
particularly following theRebellion of the Seven States.
The Xiongnu, a nomadic confederation of Central
Asian tribes[3] which dominated the eastern Eurasian
Steppe, defeated the Han in battle in 200 BCE.
Following the defeat a political marriage alliance was
negotiated in which the Han became the de
facto inferior partner. When, despite the treaty, the
Xiongnu continued to raid Han borders, Emperor Wu
of Han (r. 141–87 BCE) launched several military
campaigns against them, which eventually forced the
Xiongnu to accept vassal status as Han tributaries.
These campaigns expanded Han sovereignty into
the Tarim Basin of Central Asia, and helped establish
the vast trade network known as the Silk Road, which
reached as far as the Mediterranean world. Han forces
managed to divide the Xiongnu into two competing
nations, the Southern and Northern Xiongnu, and
forced the Northern Xiongnu across the Ili River.
Despite this victory, the territories north of Han's
borders were quickly overrun by the
nomadic Xianbei Confederation. After 92 CE, the
palace eunuchs increasingly involved themselves in
court politics, engaging in violent power struggles
between the various consort clans of the empresses
and empress dowagers, causing Han's ultimate
downfall. Imperial authority was also seriously
challenged by massive Daoist religious societies which
instigated the Yellow Turban Rebellion and the Five
Pecks of Rice Rebellion. Following the death
of Emperor Ling (r. 168–189 CE), the palace eunuchs
suffered wholesale massacre by military officers,
allowing warlords to divide the empire. When Cao Pi,
King of Wei, usurped the throne from Emperor Xian,
the Han Dynasty was ended. The Han Dynasty was
an age of economic prosperity, and saw a significant
growth of the money economy first established during
the Zhou Dynasty (c. 1050–256 BCE). The
coinage issued by the central government mint in 119
BCE remained the standard coinage of China until
the Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE). To pay for its military
campaigns and the settlement of newly conquered
frontier territories, the governmentnationalized the
private salt and iron industries in 117 BCE. These
government monopolies were repealed during Eastern
Han, and the lost revenue was recouped through
heavily taxing private entrepreneurs.
the pinnacle of Han society. He presided over the Han
government, but shared power with both the nobility and
appointed ministers who came largely from the
scholarly gentry class. From the reign of Emperor Wu
onward, the Chinese court officially
sponsored Confucianism in education and court politics,
synthesized with thecosmology of later scholars such
as Dong Zhongshu. This policy endured until the fall of
the Qing Dynasty in 1911 CE. Science and technology
during Han saw significant advances,
includingpapermaking, the nautical steering rudder, the
use of negative numbers in mathematics, the raised-relief
map, the hydraulic-powered armillary
sphere for astronomy, and a seismometer employing
an inverted pendulum.
End of the Han
A Chinese crossbow mechanism with a buttplate from
either the late Warring States Period or the early Han
Dynasty; made of bronze and inlaid with silver The
partisan prohibitions were repealed during the Yellow
Turban Rebellion and Five Pecks of Rice Rebellion in 184
CE, largely because the court did not want to continue to
alienate a significant portion of the gentry class who
might otherwise join the rebellions.[74] The Yellow Turbans
and Five-Pecks-of-Rice adherents belonged to two
different hierarchical Daoist religious societies led by faith
healers Zhang Jiao (d. 184 CE) and Zhang Lu (d. 216 CE),
respectively. Zhang Lu's rebellion, in modern
northernSichuan and southern Shanxi, was not quelled
until 215 CE.[75] Zhang Jiao's massive rebellion across
eight provinces was annihilated by Han forces within a
year, however the following decades saw much smaller
recurrent uprisings.[76] Although the Yellow Turbans were
defeated, many generals appointed during the crisis
never disbanded their assembled militia forces and used
these troops to amass power outside of the collapsing
imperial authority.[77] General-in-Chief He Jin (d. 189 CE),
half-brother to Empress He (d. 189 CE), plotted with Yuan
Shao (d. 202 CE) to overthrow the eunuchs by having
several generals march to the outskirts of the capital.
There, in a written petition to Empress He, they
demanded the eunuchs' execution.[79] After a period of
hesitation, Empress He consented. When the eunuchs
discovered this, however, they had her brother He Miao
(何苗) rescind the order.[80] The eunuchs assassinated He
Jin on September 22, 189 CE. Yuan Shao then besieged
Luoyang's Northern Palace while his brother Yuan
Shu (d. 199 CE) besieged the Southern Palace. On
September 25 both palaces were breached and
approximately two thousand eunuchs were killed.
[81]
Zhang Rang had previously fled with Emperor
Shao (r. 189 CE) and his brother Liu Xie—the
futureEmperor Xian of Han (r. 189–220 CE). While being
pursued by the Yuan brothers, Zhang committed suicide
by jumping into the Yellow River.[82] General Dong
Zhuo (d. 192 CE) found the young emperor and his
brother wandering in the countryside. He escorted them
safely back to the capital and was made Minister of
Works, taking control of Luoyang and forcing Yuan Shao
to flee.[83] After Dong Zhuo demoted Emperor Shao and
promoted his brother Liu Xie as Emperor Xian, Yuan Shao
led a coalition of former officials and officers against
Dong, who burned Luoyang to the ground and resettled
the court at Chang'an in May 191 CE. Dong Zhuo later
poisoned Emperor Shao.[84] Dong was killed by his
adopted son Lü Bu (d. 198 CE) in a plot hatched
by Wang Yun (d. 192 CE).[85] Emperor Xian fled from
Chang'an in 195 CE to the ruins of Luoyang. Xian was
persuaded by Cao Cao (155–220 CE), then Governor of
Yan Province in modern western Shandong and
eastern Henan, to move the capital to Xuchang in 196
CE. Yuan Shao challenged Cao Cao for control over the
emperor. Yuan's power was greatly diminished after
Cao defeated him at the Battle of Guandu in 200 CE.
After Yuan died, Cao killed Yuan Shao's son Yuan
Tan (173–205 CE), who had fought with his brothers
over the family inheritance.[87] His brothers Yuan
Shang and Yuan Xi were killed in 207 CE by Gongsun
Kang (d. 221 CE), who sent their heads to Cao Cao.[87]
After Cao's defeat at the naval Battle of Red Cliffs in
208 CE, China was divided into three spheres of
influence, with Cao Cao dominating the north, Sun
Quan (182–252 CE) dominating the south, and Liu
Bei (161–223 CE) dominating the west.[88] Cao Cao
died in March 220 CE. By December his son Cao
Pi (187–226 CE) had Emperor Xian relinquish the
throne to him and is known posthumously as Emperor
Wen of Wei. This formally ended the Han Dynasty and
initiated an age of conflict between three states: Cao
Wei, Eastern Wu, and Shu Han.[89]
Social class
In the hierarchical social order, the emperor was at
the apex of Han society and government. However the
emperor was often a minor, ruled over by
a regent such as the empress dowager or one of her
male relatives.[90] Ranked immediately below the
emperor were the kings who were of the
same Liu family clan.[91] The rest of society,
including nobles lower than kings and all commoners
excluding slaves belonged to one of twenty ranks
(ershi gongcheng 二十公乘).Two Han-dynasty red-and-
black lacquerwares, one a bowl, the other a tray;
usually only wealthy officials, nobles, and merchants
could afford domestic luxury items like lacquerwares,
which were common commodities produced by skilled
artisans and craftsmen.[92]Each successive rank gave
its holder greater pensions and legal privileges. The
highest rank, of full marquess, came with a state
pension and a territorial fiefdom. Holders of the rank
immediately below, that of ordinary marquess,
received a pension, but had no territorial rule.
[93]
Officials who served in government belonged to the
wider commoner social class and were ranked just
below nobles in social prestige. The highest
government officials could be enfeoffed as
marquesses.[94] By the Eastern Han period, local elites
of unattached scholars, teachers, students, and
government officials began to identify themselves as
members of a larger, nationwide gentry classwith
shared similar values and a commitment to
mainstream scholarship.[95] When the government
became noticeably corrupt in mid-to-late Eastern Han,
many gentrymen even considered the cultivation of
morally-grounded personal relationships more
important than serving in public office.[96]The farmer,
or specifically the small landowner-cultivator, was
ranked just below scholars and officials in the social
hierarchy. Other agricultural cultivators were of a
lower status, such as tenants, wage laborers, and in rare
cases slaves.[97] Artisans and craftsmen had a legal
andsocioeconomic status between that of owner-
cultivator farmers and common merchants.[98] State-
registered merchants, who were forced by law to wear
white-colored clothes and pay high commercial taxes,
were considered by the gentry as social parasites with a
contemptible status.[99]These were often petty
shopkeepers of urban marketplaces; merchants such as
industrialists and itinerant traders working between a
network of cities could avoid registering as merchants
and were often wealthier and more powerful than the vast
majority of government officials.[100]Wealthy landowners,
such as nobles and officials, often provided lodging for
retainers who provided valuable work or duties,
sometimes including fighting bandits or riding into battle.
Unlike slaves, retainers could come and go from their
master's home as they pleased.[101]Medical physicians, pig
breeders, and butchers had a fairly high social status,
while occultist diviners, runners, and messengers had low
status.[102]
[edit]Law and order
Han scholars such as Jia Yi (201–169 BCE) portrayed the
previous Qin Dynasty as a brutal regime. However,
archaeological evidence
from Zhangjiashan and Shuihudi reveal that many of
the statutes in the Han law code compiled by
ChancellorXiao He (d. 193 BCE) were derived from Qin
law.[Various cases for rape, physical abuse
and murder were prosecuted in court. Women, although
usually having less rights by custom, were allowed to
level civil and criminal charges against men.[128] While
suspects were jailed, convicted criminals were never
imprisoned. Instead, punishments were commonly
monetary fines, periods of forced hard labor for convicts,
and the penalty of death by beheading.[129] Early Han
punishments of torturous mutilation were borrowed from
Qin law. A series of reforms abolished mutilation
punishments with progressively less-severe beatings by
the bastinado.Acting as a judge in lawsuits was one of
many duties of the Magistrates of counties and
Administrators of commanderies. Complex, high profile or
unresolved cases were often deferred to the Minister of
Justice in the capital or even the emperor.[131] In each Han
county was several districts, each overseen by a chief of
police. Order in the cities was maintained by government
officers in the marketplaces and constables in the
neighborhoods.[132]
Religion, cosmology, and metaphysics
Families throughout Han China made ritual sacrifices of
animals and foodstuffs to deities, spirits,
andancestors at temples and shrines, in the belief that
these items could be utilized by those in the spiritual
realm.[139] It was thought that each person had a two-part
soul: the spirit-soul (hun 魂) which journeyed to the
afterlife paradise of immortals (xian), and the body-soul
(po 魄) which remained in its grave or tomb on earth and
was only reunited with the spirit-soul through a ritual
ceremony.[140] In addition to his many other roles, the
emperor acted as the highest priest in the land who made
sacrifices to Heaven, the main deities known as the Five
Powers, and the spirits (shen 神) of mountains and rivers.
[141]
It was believed that the three realms of Heaven,
Earth, and Mankind were linked by natural cycles
of yin and yang and the five phases.[142] If the emperor
did not behave according to proper ritual, ethics, and
morals, he could disrupt the fine balance of these
cosmological cycles and cause calamities such as
earthquakes, floods, droughts, epidemics, and swarms
of locusts.[143]It was believed that immortality could be
achieved if one reached the lands of the Queen
Mother of the Westor Mount Penglai.[144] Han-
era Daoists assembled into small groups of hermits
who attempted to achieve immortality through
breathing exercises, sexual techniques and use
of medical elixirs.[145] By the 2nd century CE, Daoists
formed large hierarchical religious societies such as
the Way of the Five Pecks of Rice. Its followers
believed that the sage-philosopher Laozi (fl. 6th
century BCE) was a holy prophet who would
offer salvation and good health if his devout followers
would confess their sins, ban the worship
ofunclean gods who accepted meat sacrifices and
chant sections of the Daodejing.[146]Buddhism first
entered China during the Eastern Han and was first
mentioned in 65 CE.[147] Liu Ying (d. 71 CE), a half-
brother to Emperor Ming of Han (r. 57–75 CE), was one
of its earliest Chinese adherents, although Chinese
Buddhism at this point was heavily associated
with Huang-Lao Daoism.[148] China's first known
Buddhist temple, the White Horse Temple, was
erected during Ming's reign.[149] Important Buddhist
canons were translated into Chinese during the 2nd
century CE, including the Sutra of Forty-two
Chapters, Perfection of Wisdom, Shurangama Sutra,
and Pratyutpanna Sutra.[150]
Central government
A pottery model of a palace from a Han-dynasty tomb;
the entrances to the emperor's palaces were strictly
guarded by the Minister of the Guards; if it was found
that a commoner, official, or noble entered without
explicit permission via a tally system, they were liable
for execution.[151]In Han government, the emperor was
the supreme judge and lawgiver, the commander-in-
chief of the armed forces and sole designator of
official nominees appointed to the top posts in central
and local administrations; those who earned a600-
shi salary-rank or higher.[152] Theoretically, there were
no limits to his power. However, state organs with
competing interests and institutions such as the court
conference (tingyi 廷議)—where ministers were
convened to reach majority consensuson an issue—
pressured the emperor to accept the advice of his
ministers on policy decisions.[153] If the emperor
rejected a court conference decision, he risked
alienating his high ministers. Nevertheless, emperors
sometimes did reject the majority opinion reached at
court conferences.[154]Below the emperor were
his cabinet members known as the Three Excellencies.
These were the Chancellor/Minister over the Masses,
Imperial Counselor/Excellency of Works, and Grand
Commandant/Grand Marshal.[155]The Chancellor,
whose title was changed to Minister over the Masses
in 8 BCE, was chiefly responsible for drafting
the government budget. The Chancellor's other duties
included managing provincial registers for land and
population, leading court conferences, acting as judge
in lawsuits and recommending nominees for high office.
He could appoint officials below the salary-rank of 600-
shi.[156]The Imperial Counselor's chief duty was to conduct
disciplinary procedures for officials. He shared similar
duties with the Chancellor, such as receiving annual
provincial reports. However, when his title was changed
to Excellency of Works in 8 BCE, his chief duty became
oversight of public works projects.[157]The Grand
Commandant, whose title was changed to Grand Marshal
in 119 BCE before reverting back to Grand Commandant
in 51 CE, was the irregularly-posted commander of the
military and then regent during Western Han. In Eastern
Han he was chiefly a civil official who shared many of the
same censorial powers as the other two ExcellenciesAt
the beginning of the Han Dynasty, every male commoner
aged twenty-three was liable for conscriptioninto the
military. The minimum age for the military draft was
reduced to twenty after Emperor Zhao's (r. 87–74 BCE)
reign.[183] Conscripts underwent one year of training and
one year of service as non-professional soldiers. The year
of training was served in one of three branches of the
armed forces: infantry, cavalry ornavy.[184] The year of
active service was served either on their frontier, in a
king's court or under the Minister of the Guards in the
capital
Writing materials
Typical ancient Chinese writing materials
were bronzewares and animal bones. By the beginning of
the Han Dynasty, the chief writing materials were clay
tablets, silk cloth, and rolled scrolls made
from bamboostrips sewn together with hempen string;
these were passed through drilled holes and secured with
clay stamps.[214]The oldest known Chinese piece of hard,
hempen wrapping paper dates to the 2nd century BCE.
The standard papermaking process was invented by Cai
Lun (50–121 CE) in 105 CE.[215] The oldest known surviving
piece of paper with writing on it was found in the ruins of
a Han watchtower that had been abandoned in 110 CE,
in Inner Mongolia.[216]
emperor Wen and the founding of the Sui Dynasty.
When the Northern Zhou Dynasty defeated the Northern
Qi Dynasty in 577 CE, this was the culminating moment
and ultimate advantage for the northern Chinese to face
south. The southern dynasties had lost hope in
conquering the north, and the situation of conquest from
north-to-south was only delayed in 523 with civil war.The
Sui Dynasty began when Emperor Wen's daughter
became the Empress Dowager of Northern Zhou, with her
stepson as the new emperor. After crushing an army
mutiny in the eastern provinces as the prime minister of
Zhou, Wendi took the throne by force and claimed himself
to be emperor. In a bloody purge, Wendi had fifty-nine
princes of the Zhou royal family eliminated, yet
nonetheless was known as the 'Cultured Emperor' (581 -
604 CE).[3] He abolished the anti-Han policies of Zhou and
reclaimed his Han surname of Yang. Having won the
support of the Confucian scholars that had powered
previous Han dynasties (abandoning the nepotism and
corruption of the nine-rank system), Wendi initiated a
series of reforms aimed at strengthening his empire for
the war that would reunify China.In his campaign for
southern conquest, Wendi assembled thousands of boats
to confront the naval forces of the Chen Dynasty on
the Yangtze River. The largest of these ships were very
tall, having five layered decks, the capacity of holding
800 passengers, and were outfitted with six 50-foot-
long booms that were used to swing and damage
enemy ships, or to pin them down so that Sui marine
troops could use grapple-and-board techniques.
[4]
Besides employing Xianbei and Chinese ethnicities
for the fight against Chen, Wendi also employed the
service of aborigines from southeastern Sichuan,
peoples that Sui had recently conquered.[3]In 588 CE,
the Sui had amassed 518,000 troops along the
northern bank of the Yangtze River, stretching from
Sichuan to the Pacific Ocean.[5] The Chen Dynasty was
meanwhile collapsing, and could not withstand such
an assault. By 589 CE, Sui troops entered Jiankang
(Nanjing) and the last emperor of the southern Chen
dynasty surrendered. The city was razed to the
ground, while Sui troops escorted Chen nobles back
north, where the northern aristocrats became
fascinated with everything the south had to provide
culturally and intellectually.Although Wendi was
famous for bankrupting the state treasury with
warfare and construction projects, he made many
improvements to infrastructure during his early reign.
He established granaries as sources of food and as a
means to regulate market prices from the taxation of
crops, much like the earlier Han Dynasty.
Yangdi
Yangdi gained the throne after his father's death
(possibly by murder). He further extended the empire,
but, unlike his father, he did not seek to gain support
from the nomads. Instead, he restored Confucian
education and the Confucian examination system for
bureaucrats. By supporting educational reforms, he
lost the support of nomads. He also started many
expensive construction projects such as the Grand
Canal of China. This combined with his failed invasions
into Korea (with Chinese casualties exceeding well
over 2 million in all the wars combined), invasions into
China from Turkic nomads, and his growing life of
decadent luxury at the expense of the peasantry, he
lost public support and was assassinated by his own
ministers.
Both Wendi and Yangdi sent military expeditions
into Vietnam as well, as northern Vietnam had been
incorporated into the Chinese empire over 600 years
earlier during the Han Dynasty (202 BC - 220 CE).
However, the ancient Kingdom of Champa in southern
Vietnam became a major contestant to Chinese
invasions to its north. These invasions became known
as the Linyi-Champa Campaign (602-605 CE).
According to Ebrey, Walthall, and
Palais:The Hanoi area [that the Han and Jin dynasties
had held] was easily recovered from the local ruler in
602, and a few years later the Sui army pushed
farther south. When the army was attacked by troops
on war elephants from Champa (in southern Vietnam),
Sui feigned retreat and dug pits to trap the elephants.
The Sui army lured the Champan troops to attack,
then used crossbows against the elephants, causing
them to turn around and trample their own army.
Although Sui troops were victorious, many succumbed
to disease, as northern soldiers did not have immunity
to tropical diseasessuch as malaria.[6]
Fall
Eventually the resentment for the emperor increased and
the wars, coupled with revolts and assassinations, led to
the fall of the Sui Dynasty. One great accomplishment
was rebuilding the Great Wall of China, but along with
other large projects, strained the economy and angered
the resentful workforce employed. During the last few
years of the Sui Dynasty, the rebellion that rose against it
took many of China's able-bodied men from rural farms
and other occupations, which damaged the agricultural
base and the economy further.[7] Men would deliberately
break their limbs in order to avoid military conscription,
calling the practice "propitious paws" and "fortunate
feet."[7] In the year 642, Emperor Taizong of Tang made
an effort to eradicate this practice by issuing a decree of
a stiffer punishment for those who were found to
deliberately injure and heal themselves.[7]Although the Sui
Dynasty was a fairly short one (580-618 A.D.), a lot was
accomplished during the time period. The Grand Canal
was one of the main accomplishments. It was extended
north from the Hangzhou region across the Yangzi to
Yangzhou and then northwest to the region of Louyang.
The eventual fall of the Sui dynasty was due to the many
losses in Southern Manchuria and North Korea. It was
after these defeats and losses that the country was left in
ruins and rebels soon took control of the government.
Emperor Yang was assassinated in 618. He had gone
South after being defeated by Korea and was killed by his
advisors. Meanwhile, in the North, aristocrat Li Yuan held
an uprising where he ended up ascending the throne to
become Emperor Tang Gao Zu. This was the start of the
next dynasty, Tang, which was also one of the most
famous dynasties.
Buddhism
Buddhism was popular during the Six Dynasties period
that preceded the Sui dynasty, spreading from India
through Kushan Afghanistan into China during the
Late Han period. Buddhism gained prominence during the
period, when central political control was limited.
Buddhism created a unifying cultural force that uplifted
the people out of war and into the Sui Dynasty. In many
ways, Buddhism was responsible for the rebirth of culture
in China under the Sui Dynasty.
The Emperor Wen and his empress had converted to
Buddhism to legitimate imperial authority over China and
the conquest of Chen. Wendi presented himself as
a Cakravartinking, a Buddhist monarch that would use
military force to defend the Buddhist faith, much like the
notion of Jihad in Islam.[3] In the year 601 CE, Emperor
Wen had relics of the Buddha distributed to temples
throughout China, with edicts that expressed his goals,
"all the people within the four seas may, without
exception, develop enlightenment and together cultivate
fortunate karma, bringing it to pass that present
existences will lead to happy future lives, that the
sustained creation of good causation will carry us one and
all up to wondrous enlightenment".[3] Ultimately, this act
was an imitation of the
ancient Mauryan Emperor Ashoka of India.[3]
History of Tang
The Li family belonged to the northwest military
aristocracy prevalent during the reign of the Sui
emperors.[7][8] The mothers of both Emperor Yang of
Sui (r. 604-617) and the founding emperor of Tang
were sisters, making these two emperors of different
dynasties firstcousins.[1] Li Yuan (later to become
Emperor Gaozu of Tang, r. 618-626) was the Duke of
Tang and former governor of Taiyuan when other
government officials were fighting off bandit leaders in
the collapse of the Sui Empire, caused in part by
a failed Korean campaign.[7][9]With prestige and
military experience, he later rose in rebellion along
with his son Li Shimin(later Emperor Taizong, r. 626-
649) and his equally militant daughter Princess
Pingyang (d. 623) who raised her own troops and
commanded them.[10] In 617, Li Yuan
occupied Chang'anand acted as regent over a puppet
child emperor of the Sui, relegating Emperor Yang to
the position of Taishang Huang, or retired
emperor/father of the present emperor.[10] With the
news of Emperor Yang's murder by his general Yuwen
Huaji (d. 619), on June 18, 618, Li Yuan declared
himself the emperor of a new dynasty, the Tang.[10]
[11]
Li Yuan ruled until 626 before being forcefully
deposed by his son Li Shimin, Prince of Qin. Li Shimin
had commanded troops since the age of 18, had
prowess with a bow, sword, lance, and was known for
his effective cavalry charges.[1][12] Fighting a
numerically superior army, he defeated Dou
Jiande (573-621) at Luoyang in the Battle of Hulao on
May 28, 621.[13][14] In a violent elimination of royal
family due to fear of assassination, Li Shimin
ambushed and killed two of his brothers, Li Yuanji (b.
603) and Crown Prince Li Jiancheng (b. 589) in
the Incident at Xuanwu Gate on July 2, 626.[15] Shortly
thereafter, his father abdicated in his favor and Li
Shimin ascended the throne. He is conventionally
known by his temple name Taizong (唐太宗). Although
killing two brothers and deposing his father
contradicted the Confucian value of filial piety,
[15]
Taizong showed himself to be a capable leader who
listened to the advice of the wisest members of his
council.[1] In 628, Emperor Taizong held a Buddhist
memorial service for the casualties of war, and in 629
had Buddhist monasteries erected at the sites of
major battles so that monks could pray for the fallen
on both sides of the fight.[16] This was during
the campaign against Eastern Tujue,
a Göktürk khanate that was destroyed after the
capture of Jiali Khan Ashini Duobi by the famed Tang
military officer Li Jing (571-649), who later became
aChancellor of the Tang Dynasty. With this victory, the
Turks accepted Taizong as their Khagan, or Great
Khan (天可汗), in addition to his rule as the Son of
Heaven.[17][18]
Religion and politics
From the outset, religion played a role in Tang politics.
In his bid for power, Li Yuan had attracted a following
by claiming descent from the Daoist sage Laozi (fl. 6th
century BC).[37] People bidding for office would have
monks from Buddhist temples pray for them in public
in return for cash donations or gifts if the person was
to be selected. Before the persecution of Buddhism in
the 9th century, Buddhism and Daoism were accepted
side by side, and Emperor Xuanzong of Tang (r. 712-
756) invited monks and clerics of both religions to his
court.[38] At the same time Xuanzong exalted the ancient
Laozi by granting him grand titles, wrote commentary on
the Daoist Laozi, set up a school to prepare candidates for
examinations on Daoist scriptures, and called upon the
Indian monk Vajrabodhi (671-741) to perform Tantric rites
to avert a drought in the year 726.[38] In 742 Emperor
Xuanzong personally held the incense burner during the
ceremony of theCeylonese monk Amoghavajra (705-774)
reciting "mystical incantations to secure the victory of
Tang forces."[38] While religion played a role in politics,
politics also played a role in religion. In the year 714,
Emperor Xuanzong forbade shops and vendors in the city
of Chang'an to sell copied Buddhist sutras, instead giving
the Buddhist clergy of the monasteries the sole right to
distribute sutras to the laity.[39] In the previous year of
713, Emperor Xuanzong had liquidated the highly
lucrative Inexhaustible Treasury, which was run by a
prominent Buddhist monastery in Chang'an. This
monastery collected vast amounts of money, silk, and
treasures through multitudes of anonymous people's
repentances, leaving the donations on the monastery's
premise.[40] Although the monastery was generous in
donations, Emperor Xuanzong issued a decree abolishing
their treasury on grounds that their banking practices
were fraudulent, collected their riches, and distributed the
wealth to various other Buddhist monasteries, Daoist
abbeys, and to repair statues, halls, and bridges in the
city.[40]
Trade and spread of culture
Through use of the land trade along the Silk Road and
maritime trade by sail at sea, the Tang were able to gain
many new technologies, cultural practices, rare luxury,
and contemporary items. From the Middle East, India,
Persia, and Central Asia the Tang were able to acquire
new ideas in fashion, new types of ceramics, and
improved silver-smithing.[91] The Chinese also gradually
adopted the foreign concept of stools and chairs as
seating, whereas the Chinese beforehand always sat on
mats placed on the floor.[92] To the Middle East, the
Islamic world coveted and purchased in bulk Chinese
goods such as silks, lacquerwares, and porcelain wares.
[93]
Songs, dances, and musical instruments from foreign
regions became popular in China during the Tang
Dynasty.[94][95]These musical instruments
included oboes, flutes, and small
lacquered drums from Kucha in the Tarim Basin,
andpercussion instruments from India such as cymbals.
[94]
At the court there were nine musical ensembles
(expanded from seven in the Sui Dynasty) representing
music from throughout Asia.[96]There was great contact
and interest in India as a hub for Buddhist knowledge,
with famous travelers such asXuanzang (d. 664) visiting
the South Asian subcontinent. After a 17-year long trip,
Xuanzang managed to bring back valuable Sanskrit texts
to be translated into Chinese. There was also a Turkic–
Chinese dictionary available for serious scholars and
students, while Turkic folksongs gave inspiration to some
Chinese poetry.[97][98] In the interior of China, trade was
facilitated by the Grand Canal and the Tang government's
rationalization of the greater canal system that reduced
costs of transporting grain and other commodities.[99] The
state also managed roughly 32,100 km (19,900 mi)
of postal service routes by horse or boat
Rise of Xuanzong
There were many prominent women at court during
and after Wu's reign, including Shangguan
Wan'er (664-710), a female poet, writer, and trusted
official in charge of Wu's private office.[137] In 706 the
wife of Emperor Zhongzong of Tang, Empress Wei (d.
710), convinced her husband to staff government
offices with his sister and her daughters, and in 709
requested that he grant women the right to bequeath
hereditary privileges to their sons (which before was a
male right only).[138] Empress Wei eventually poisoned
Zhongzong, whereupon she placed his fifteen year old
son upon the throne in 710.[38] Two weeks later, Li
Longji (the later Emperor Xuanzong) entered the
palace with a few followers and slew Empress Wei and
her faction.[38] He then installed his father Emperor
Ruizong (r. 710-712) on the throne.[38] Just as Emperor
Zhongzong was dominated by Empress Wei, so too
was Ruizong dominated by Princess Taiping.[139] This
was finally ended when Princess Taiping's coup failed
in 712 (she later hanged herself in 713) and Emperor
Ruizong abdicated to Emperor Xuanzong.[38][138]
During the 44 year reign of Emperor Xuanzong, the
Tang Dynasty was brought to its height, a golden age,
a period of low economic inflation, as well as a toning
down of the excessively lavish lifestyle of the imperial
court.[99][136] Seen as a progressive and benevolent
ruler, Xuanzong even abolished the death penalty in
the year 747, and all executions had to be approved
beforehand by the emperor himself (which was
relatively few, considering that there were only 24
executions in the year 730 alone).[140] Xuanzong
bowed to the consensus of his ministers on policy
decisions and made efforts to fairly staff government
ministries with different political factions.[139] His
staunch Confucian chancellor Zhang Jiuling (673-740)
worked to reduce deflation and increase the money
supply by upholding the use of private coinage,
although his aristocratic and technocratic successor Li
Linfu (d. 753) favored government monopoly over the
issuance of coinage.[141]After 737 most of Xuanzong's
confidence rested in his long-standing chancellor Li
Linfu, who championed a more aggressive foreign
policy employing non-Chinese generals. This policy
ultimately created the conditions for a massive
rebellion against Xuanzong.
An Shi Rebellion and catastrophe
The Tang Empire was at its height of power up until
the middle of the 8th century, when the An Shi
Rebellion (December 16, 755 - February 17, 763)
destroyed the prosperity of the empire. An
Lushan was a half-Sogdian, half-Turk Tang
commander since 744, had experience fighting
the Khitans of Manchuriawith a victory in 744,[51]
[143]
yet most of his campaigns against the Khitans
were unsuccessful.[144] He was given great
responsibility in Hebei, which allowed him to rebel
with an army of more than one hundred thousand
troops.[51] After capturing Luoyang, he named himself
emperor of a new, but short-lived, Yan Dynasty.
[143]
Despite early victories scored by Tang
General Guo Ziyi (697-781), the newly recruited troops
of the army at the capital were no match for An
Lushan's die-hard frontier veterans, so the court fled
Chang'an.[51] While the heir apparent raised troops
in Shanxi and Xuanzong fled toSichuan province, they
called upon the help of the Uyghur Turks in 756.[145] The
Uyghur khanMoyanchur was greatly excited at this
prospect, and married his own daughter to the Chinese
diplomatic envoy once he arrived, receiving in turn a
Chinese princess as his bride.[145] The Uyghurs helped
recapture the Tang capital from the rebels, but they
refused to leave until the Tang paid them an enormous
sum of tribute in silk.[51][145]Even Abbasid Arabs assisted
the Tang in putting down An Lushan's rebellion.[145]
[146]
The Tibetans took hold of the opportunity and raided
many areas under Chinese control, and even after the
Tibetan Empire had fallen apart in 842 (and the Uyghurs
soon after) the Tang were in no position to reconquer
Central Asia after 763.[51][147] So significant was this loss
that half a century later jinshi examination candidates
were required to write an essay on the causes of the
Tang's decline.[148] Although An Lushan was killed by one
of his eunuchs in 757,[145] this time of troubles and
widespread insurrection continued until rebel Shi
Siming was killed by his own son in 763.[145]One of the
legacies that the Tang government left since 710 was the
gradual rise of regional military governors, the jiedushi,
who slowly came to challenge the power of the central
government.[52] After the An Shi Rebellion, the
autonomous power and authority accumulated by the
jiedushi in Hebei went beyond the central government's
control. After a series of rebellions between 781 and 784
in today's Hebei, Shandong,Hubei and Henan provinces,
the government had to officially acknowledge the
jiedushi's hereditary ruling without accreditation. The
Tang government relied on these governors and their
armies for protection and to suppress locals that would
take up arms against the government. In return, the
central government would acknowledge the rights of
these governors to maintain their army, collect taxes and
even to pass on their title to heirs.[51][149] As time passed,
these military governors slowly phased out the
prominence of civil officials drafted by exams, and
became more autonomous from central authority.[51] The
rule of these powerful military governors lasted until 960,
when a new civil order under the Song Dynasty was
established. Also, the abandonment of the equal-field
system meant that people could buy and sell land freely.
Many poor fell into debt because of this, forced to sell
their land to the wealthy, which led to the exponential
growth of large estates.[51] With the breakdown of the land
allocation system after 755, the central Chinese state
barely interfered in agricultural management and acted
merely as tax collector for roughly a millennium, save a
few instances such as the Song's failed land
nationalization during the 13th century war with
the Mongols.[150]With the central government collapsing in
authority over the various regions of the empire, it was
recorded in 845 that bandits and river pirates in parties of
100 or more began plundering settlements along the
Yangtze River with little resistance.[151] In 858, enormous
floods along the Grand Canal inundated vast tracts of land
and terrain of the North China Plain, which drowned tens
of thousands of people in the process.[151]The Chinese
belief in the Mandate of Heaven granted to the ailing
Tang was also challenged when natural calamities
occurred, forcing many to believe the Heavens were
displeased and that the Tang had lost their right to
rule. Then in 873 a disastrous harvest shook the
foundations of the empire; in some areas only half of
all agricultural produce was gathered, and tens of
thousands faced famine and starvation.[151] In the
earlier period of the Tang, the central government was
able to meet crises in the harvest, as it was recorded
from 714-719 that the Tang government responded
effectively to natural disasters by extending the price-
regulationgranary system throughout the country.
[151]
The central government was able then to build a
large surplus stock of foods to ward off the rising
danger of famine and increased agricultural
productivity through land reclamation.[99][151] In the 9th
century, however, the Tang government was nearly
helpless in dealing with any calamity.
Literature
The Tang period was a golden age of Chinese
literature and art. There are over 48,900 poems
penned by some 2,200 Tang authors that have
survived until modern times.[184][185] Perfecting one's
skills in the composition of poetry became a required
study for those wishing to pass imperial examinations,
[186]
while poetry was also heavily competitive; poetry
contests amongst esteemed guests at banquets and
courtiers of elite social gatherings was common in the
Tang period.[187]Poetry styles that were popular in the
Tang included gushi and jintishi, with the renowned
Tang poetLi Bai (701-762) famous for the former style,
and Tang poets like Wang Wei (701-761) and Cui
Hao(704-754) famous for their use of the latter. Jintishi
poetry, or regulated verse, is in the form of eight-
line stanzas or seven characters per line with a fixed
pattern of tones that required the second and third
couplets to be antithetical (although the antithesis is
often lost in translation to other languages).[188] Tang
poems in particular remain the most popular out of
every historical era of China. This great emulation of
Tang era poetry began in the Song Dynasty; in that
period, Yan Yu (嚴羽; active 1194-1245) asserted that
he was the first to designate the poetry of the High
Tang (c. 713-766) era as the orthodox material with
"canonical status within the classical poetic
tradition."[189]Yan Yu reserved the position of highest
esteem among all Tang poets for Du Fu (712-770),
[189]
who was not viewed as such in his own era, and
was branded by his peers as an anti-traditional rebel.
[190]
There were other important literary forms besides
poetry during the Tang period. There was Duan
Chengshi's (d. 863) Miscellaneous Morsels from
Youyang, an entertaining collection of foreign legends
and hearsay, reports on natural phenomena,
short anecdotes, mythical and mundane tales, as well
as notes on various subjects. The exact literary
category or classification that Duan's large informal
narrative would fit into is still debated amongst
scholars and historians.[191]Short story fiction and tales
were also popular during the Tang, one of the more
famous ones being Yingying's Biography by Yuan
Zhen (779-831), which was widely circulated in his
own time and by the Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368)
became the basis for plays in Chinese opera.[192]
[193]
Timothy C. Wong places this story within the wider
context of Tang love tales, which often share the plot
designs of quick passion, inescapable societal pressure
leading to the abandonment of romance, followed by a
period of melancholy.[194] Wong states that this scheme
lacks the undying vows and total self-commitment to love
found in Western romances such as Romeo and Juliet, but
that underlying traditional Chinese values of
inseparableness of self from one's environment (including
human society) served to create the necessary fictional
device of romantic tension.[195]There were
large encyclopedias published in the Tang. The Yiwen
Leiju encyclopedia was compiled in 624 by the chief
editor Ouyang Xun (557-641) as well as Linghu
Defen (582-666) and Chen Shuda (d. 635). The
encyclopedia Treatise on Astrology of the Kaiyuan
Era was fully compiled in 729 by Gautama Siddha (fl. 8th
century), an ethnic Indian astronomer, astrologer, and
scholar born in the capital Chang'an.Chinese
geographers such as Jia Dan wrote accurate descriptions
of places far abroad. In his work written between 785 and
805, he described the sea route going into the mouth of
the Persian Gulf, and that the medieval Iranians (whom he
called the people of Luo-He-Yi) had erected 'ornamental
pillars' in the sea that acted as lighthouse beacons for
ships that might go astray.[197] Confirming Jia's reports
about lighthouses in the Persian Gulf, Arabic writers a
century after Jia wrote of the same structures, writers
such as al-Mas'udi and al-Muqaddasi. The Tang Dynasty
Chinese diplomat Wang Xuance traveled
to Magadha(modern northeastern India) during the 7th
century.[198] Afterwards he wrote the book Zhang Tianzhu
Guotu(Illustrated Accounts of Central India), which
included a wealth of geographical information.[199]Many
histories of previous dynasties were compiled between
636 and 659 by court officials during and shortly after the
reign of Emperor Taizong of Tang. These included
the Book of Liang, Book of Chen, Book of Northern
Qi, Book of Zhou, Book of Sui, Book of Jin, History of
Northern Dynasties and the History of Southern
Dynasties. Although not included in the official Twenty-
Four Histories, the Tongdian and Tang Huiyao were
nonetheless valuable written historical works of the Tang
period. The Shitong written by Liu Zhiji in 710 was a
meta-history, as it covered the history of Chinese
historiography in past centuries until his time. The Great
Tang Records on the Western Regions, compiled byBianji,
recounted the journey of Xuanzang, the Tang era's most
renowned Buddhist monk.The Classical Prose
Movement was spurred large in part by the writings of
Tang authors Liu Zongyuan (773-819) and Han Yu (768-
824). This new prose style broke away from the poetry
tradition of the 'piantiwen' style begun in the ancient Han
Dynasty. Although writers of the Classical Prose
Movement imitated 'piantiwen', they criticized it for its
often vague content and lack of colloquial language,
focusing more on clarity and precision to make their
writing more direct.[200] This guwen (archaic prose) style
can be traced back to Han Yu, and would become largely
associated with orthodox Neo-Confucianism.[201]
[edit]Religion and philosophy
Since ancient times, the Chinese believed in a folk
religion that incorporated many deities. The Chinese
believed that the afterlife was a reality parallel to the
living world, complete with its own bureaucracy and
afterlife currency needed by dead ancestors.[202] This is
reflected in many short stories written in the Tang
about people accidentally winding up in the realm of
the dead, only to come back and report their
experiences.[202]Buddhism, originating in India around
the time of Confucius, continued to flourish during the
Tang period and was adopted by the imperial family,
becoming thoroughly sinicized and a permanent part
of Chinese traditional culture. In an age before Neo-
Confucianism and figures such as Zhu Xi (1130-1200),
Buddhism had begun to flourish in China during
the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and became the
dominant ideology during the prosperous Tang.
Buddhist monasteries played an integral role in
Chinese society, offering lodging for travelers in
remote areas, schools for children throughout the
country, and a place for urban literati to stage social
events and gatherings such as going-away parties.
[203]
Buddhist monasteries were also engaged in the
economy, since their land property and serfs gave
them enough revenues to set up mills, oil presses, and
other enterprises.[204][205][206] Although the monasteries
retained 'serfs', these monastery dependents could
actually own property and employ others to help them
in their work, including their own slaves.[207]
The prominent status of Buddhism in Chinese culture
began to decline as the dynasty and central
government declined as well during the late 8th
century to 9th century.
Buddhist convents and temples that were exempt
from state taxes beforehand were targeted by the
state for taxation. In 845 Emperor Wuzong of
Tang finally shut down 4,600 Buddhist monasteries
along with 40,000 temples and shrines, forcing
260,000 Buddhist monks and nuns to return
to secular life;[27][208] this episode would later be
dubbed one of the Four Buddhist Persecutions in
China. Although the ban would be lifted just a few
years after, Buddhism never regained its once
dominant status in Chinese culture.[27][208][209][210]This
situation also came about through new revival of
interest in native Chinese philosophies, such as
Confucianism and Daoism. Han Yu (786-824)—who
Arthur F. Wright stated was a "brilliant polemicist and
ardent xenophobe"—was one of the first men of the
Tang to denounce Buddhism.[211] Although his
contemporaries found him crude and obnoxious, he
would foreshadow the later persecution of Buddhism
in the Tang, as well as the revival of Confucian theory
with the rise of Neo-Confucianism of the Song
Dynasty.[211] Nonetheless, Chán Buddhismgained
popularity amongst the educated elite.[27] There were
also many famous Chan monks from the Tang era,
such as Mazu Daoyi,Baizhang, and Huangbo Xiyun.
The sect of Pure Land Buddhism initiated by the
Chinese monk Huiyuan (334-416) was also just as
popular as Chan Buddhism during the Tang.
[212]
Rivaling Buddhism was Daoism, a native Chinese
philosophical and religious belief system that found its
roots in the book of the Daodejing (attributed
to Laozi in the 6th century BC) and the Zhuangzi. The
ruling Li family of the Tang Dynasty actually claimed
descent from the ancient Laozi.[214] On numerous
occasions where Tang princes would become crown
prince or Tang princesses taking vows as Daoist
priestesses, their lavish former mansions would be
converted into Daoist abbeys and places of worship.
[214]
Many Daoists were associated with alchemy in their
pursuits to find an elixir of immortality and a means to
create gold from concocted mixtures of many other
elements.[215] Although they never achieved their goals in
either of these futile pursuits, they did contribute to the
discovery of new metal alloys, porcelain products, and
new dyes.[215] The historian Joseph Needham labeled the
work of the Daoist alchemists as "proto-science rather
than pseudo-science."[215] However, the close connection
between Daoism and alchemy, which
some sinologists have asserted, is refuted by Nathan
Sivin, who states that alchemy was just as prominent (if
not more so) in the secular sphere and practiced more
often by laymen.[216]The Tang Dynasty also officially
recognized various foreign religions. The Assyrian Church
of the East, otherwise known as the Nestorian Christian
Church, was given recognition by the Tang court. In 781,
the Nestorian Stele was created in order to honor the
achievements of their community in China. A Christian
monastery was established in Shaanxi province where
the Daqin Pagoda still stands, and inside the pagoda
there is Christian-themed artwork. Although the religion
largely died out after the Tang, it was revived in China
following the Mongol invasions of the 13th century.[217]
Woodblock printing
Woodblock printing made the written word available to
vastly greater audiences. One of the world's oldest
surviving printed documents is a miniature
Buddhist dharani sutraunearthed at Xi'an in 1974 and
dated roughly from 650 to 670.[239] The Diamond Sutra is
the first full-length book printed at regular size, complete
with illustrations embedded with the text and dated
precisely to 868.[240][241] Among the earliest documents to
be printed were Buddhist texts as well as calendars, the
latter essential for calculating and marking which days
were auspicious and which days were not.[242] With so
many books coming into circulation for the general public,
literacy rates could improve, along with the lower classes
being able to obtain cheaper sources of study. Therefore,
there was more lower class people seen entering the
Imperial Examinations and passing them by the later
Song Dynasty.[33][243][244] Although the later Bi
Sheng's movable type printing in the 11th century was
innovative for his period, woodblock printing that became
widespread in the Tang would remain the
dominant printing type in China until the more
advanced printing press from Europe became widely
accepted and used in East Asia.[245] The first use of
the playing card during the Tang Dynasty was an auxiliary
invention of the new age of printing.
History sung
Emperor Taizu of Song (r. 960–976) unified China through
conquering other lands during his reign, ending the
upheaval of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period.
In Kaifeng, he established a strong central government
over the empire. He ensured administrative stability by
promoting the civil service examinationsystem of drafting
state bureaucrats by skill and merit (instead
of aristocratic or military position) and promoted projects
that ensured efficiency in communication throughout the
empire. One such project was the creation
by cartographers of detailed maps of each province
and city which were then collected in a large atlas.
[7]
He also promoted groundbreaking science and
technological innovations by supporting such works as
the astronomical clock tower designed and built by
the engineer Zhang Sixun.[8]The Song court
maintained diplomatic relations with Chola
India, Fatimid Egypt, Srivijayan Indonesia, the Kara-
Khanid Khanate of Central Asia, and other countries
that were also trade partners.[9][10][11][12]However, it was
China's closest neighboring states which would have
the greatest impact on its domestic and foreign policy.
From its inception under Taizu, the Song Dynasty
alternated between warfare and diplomacy with the
ethnic Khitans of the Liao Dynasty in the northeast
and with the Tangutsof the Western Xia Dynasty in the
northwest. The Song Dynasty used military force in an
attempt to quell the Liao Dynasty and recapture
the Sixteen Prefectures, a territory under Khitan
control that was traditionally considered to be part of
the Chinese domain.[13] However, Song forces were
repulsed by the Liao forces who engaged in
aggressive yearly campaigns into northern Song
territory until 1005 when the signing of the Shanyuan
Treaty ended these northern border clashes. The
Chinese were forced to provide tribute to the Khitans,
although paying this tribute did little damage to the
overall Song economy since the Khitans were heavily
dependent upon importing massive amounts of goods
from the Song Dynasty.[14] More significantly, the Song
state recognized the Liao state as its diplomatic equal.
[15]
The Song Dynasty managed to win several military
victories over the Tanguts in the early 11th century,
culminating in a campaign led by the polymath
scientist, general, and statesman Shen Kuo (1031–
1095).[16] However, this campaign was ultimately a
failure due to a rival military officer of Shen disobeying
direct orders, and the territory gained from the
Western Xia was eventually lost.[17] There was also a
significant war fought against the Lý
Dynasty of Vietnam from 1075 to 1077 over a border
dispute and the Song's severing of commercial
relations with the Đại Việt kingdom.[18] After Lý forces
inflicted heavy damages in a raid on Guangxi, the
Song commander Guo Kui (1022–1088) penetrated as
far as Thăng Long (modern Hanoi).[19] However, heavy
losses on both sides prompted the Lý commander
Thường Kiệt (1019–1105) to make peace overtures,
allowing both sides to withdraw from the war effort;
captured territories held by both Song and Lý were
mutually exchanged in 1082, along with prisoners of
war.[20]
During the 11th century, political rivalries thoroughly
divided members of the court due to the ministers'
differing approaches, opinions, and policies regarding
the handling of the Song's complex society and
thriving economy. The idealist Chancellor, Fan
Zhongyan (989–1052), was the first to receive a
heated political backlash when he attempted to make
such reforms as improving the recruitment system of
officials, increasing the salaries for minor officials, and
establishing sponsorship programs to allow a wider
range of people to be well educated and eligible for
state service.[21] After Fan was forced to step down
from his office, Wang Anshi (1021–1086) became
Chancellor of the imperial court. With the backing
of Emperor Shenzong (1067–1085), Wang Anshi severely
criticized the educational system and state bureaucracy.
Seeking to resolve what he saw as state corruption and
negligence, Wang implemented a series of reforms called
the New Policies. These involved land tax reform, the
establishment of several government monopolies, the
support of local militias, and the creation of higher
standards for the Imperial examination to make it more
practical for men skilled in statecraft to pass.[22]The
reforms created political factions in the court. Wang
Anshi's New Policies Group (Xin Fa), also known as the
'Reformers', were opposed by the ministers in the
'Conservative' faction led by the historian and
Chancellor Sima Guang (1019–1086).[23] As one faction
supplanted another in the majority position of the court
ministers, it would demote rival officials and exile them to
govern remote frontier regions of the empire.[22] One of
the prominent victims of the political rivalry, the famous
poet and statesman Su Shi (1037–1101), was jailed and
eventually exiled for criticizing Wang's reforms.
While the central Song court remained politically divided
and focused upon its internal affairs, alarming new events
to the north in the Liao state finally came to its attention.
The Jurchen, a subject tribe within the Liao empire,
rebelled against the Liao and formed their own state,
the Jin Dynasty (1115–1234).[24] The Song official Tong
Guan (1054–1126) advised Emperor Huizong (1100–1125)
to form an alliance with the Jurchens, and their joint
military campaign toppled and completely conquered the
Liao Dynasty by 1125. However, the poor performance
and military weakness of the Song army was observed by
the Jurchens who immediately broke the alliance with the
Song, launching an invasion into Song territory in 1125
and another in 1127; in this latter invasion, the Jurchens
captured not only the Song capital at Kaifeng, but the
retired emperor Huizong, his successor Qinzong, and
most of the Imperial court.[24] This took place in the year
of Jingkang (Chinese 靖康) and it is known as
the Humiliation of Jingkang (Chinese 靖康之恥). The
remaining Song forces regrouped under the self-
proclaimed Emperor Gaozong (1127–1162), and withdrew
south of theYangtze River to establish the Song Dynasty's
new capital at Lin'an (in modern Hangzhou). The Jurchen
conquest of northern China and shift of capitals from
Kaifeng to Lin'an was the dividing line between the
Northern Song Dynasty and Southern Song Dynast
Society and culture
The Song Dynasty was an era of administrative
sophistication and complex social organization. Some of
the largest cities in the world were found in China during
this period (Kaifeng and Hangzhou had populations of
over a million).[1][48] People enjoyed various social clubs
and entertainment in the cities, and there were many
schools and temples to provide the people with education
and religious services.[1] The Song government supported
multiple forms of social welfare programs, including the
establishment of retirement homes, public clinics,
and pauper's graveyards.[1] The Song Dynasty supported
a widespread postal servicethat was modeled on the
earlier Han Dynasty (202 BC – AD 220) postal system to
provide swift communication throughout the empire.
[49]
The central government employed thousands of
postal workers of various ranks and responsibilities to
provide service for post offices and larger postal
stations.[50] In rural areas, farming peasants
either owned their own plots of land, paid rents
as tenant farmers, or were serfs on large estates.[51]
Although women were on a lower social tier than men
(according to Confucian ethics), they enjoyed many
social and legal privileges and wielded considerable
power at home and in their own small businesses. As
Song society became more and more prosperous and
parents on the bride's side of the family provided
larger dowries for her marriage, women naturally
gained many new legal rights in ownership of
property.[52]They were also equal in status to men
in inheriting family property.[53] There were many
notable and well-educated women and it was a
common practice for women to educate their sons
during their earliest youth.[54][55] The mother of the
scientist, general, diplomat, and statesman Shen Kuo
taught him essentials of military strategy.[55] There
were also exceptional women writers and poets such
as Li Qingzhao (1084–1151), who became famous
even in her lifetime.[52]
Religion in China during this period had a great
effect on people's lives, beliefs and daily activities,
and Chinese literature on spirituality was popular.
[56]
The major deities
of Daoism and Buddhism,ancestral spirits and the
many deities of Chinese folk religion were worshiped
with sacrificial offerings. Tansen Sen asserts that
more Buddhist monks from India traveled to China
during the Song than in the previous Tang
Dynasty (618–907).[57] With many ethnic foreigners
traveling to China to conduct trade or live
permanently, there came many foreign religions;
religious minorities in China included Middle Eastern
Muslims, the Kaifeng Jews, and Persian Manichaeans.
[58][59]
The populace engaged in a vibrant social and
domestic life, enjoying such public festivals as
theLantern Festival or the Qingming Festival. There
were entertainment quarters in the cities provided a
constant array of amusements. There were
puppeteers, acrobats, theater actors, sword
swallowers, snake charmers, storytellers, singers and
musicians, prostitutes, and places to relax including
tea houses, restaurants, and organized banquets.[1][60]
[61]
People attended social clubs in large numbers;
there were tea clubs, exotic food
clubs, antiquarian and art collectors' clubs, horse-
loving clubs, poetry clubs and music clubs.[1] Like
regional cooking and cuisines in the Song, the era was
known for its regional varieties of performing arts
styles as well.[62]Theatrical drama was very popular
amongst the elite and general populace,
although Classical Chinese—not the vernacular
language—was spoken by actors on stage.[63][64] The
four largest drama theatres in Kaifeng could hold
audiences of several thousand each.[65] There were
also notable domestic pastimes, as people at home
enjoyed activities such as the go and xiangqi board
games.
Law, justice, and forensic science
The Song judicial system retained most of the legal
code of the earlier Tang Dynasty, the basis oftraditional
Chinese law up until the modern era.[82] Roving sheriffs
maintained law and order in the municipal jurisdictions
and occasionally ventured into the countryside.[83] Official
magistrates overseeing court cases were not only
expected to be well-versed in written law but also to
promote morality in society.[82] Magistrates such as the
famed Bao Qingtian (999–1062) embodied the upright,
moral judge who upheld justice and never failed to live up
to his principles. Song judges specified the guilty person
or party in a criminal act and meted out punishments
accordingly, often in the form of caning.[82][84] A guilty
individual or parties brought to court for a criminal or civil
offense were not viewed as wholly innocent until proven
otherwise, while even accusers were viewed with a high
level of suspicion by the judge.[84] Due to costly court
expenses and immediate jailing of those accused of
criminal offenses, people in the Song preferred to settle
disputes and quarrels privately, without the court's
interference.[84]Shen Kuo's Dream Pool Essays argued
against traditional Chinese beliefs in anatomy (such as his
argument for two throat valves instead of three); this
perhaps spurred the interest in the performance of post-
mortem autopsies in China during the 12th century.[85]
[86]
The physician and judge known as Song Ci (1186–
1249) wrote a pioneering work of forensic science on the
examination of corpses in order to determine cause of
death (strangulation, poisoning, drowning, blows, etc.)
and to prove whether death resulted from murder,
suicide, or accidental death.[87] Song Ci stressed the
importance of proper coroner's conduct during autopsies
and the accurate recording of the inquest of each autopsy
by official clerks.[88]
Arts, literature, and philosophy
The visual arts during the Song Dynasty were heightened
by new developments such as advances in landscape and
portrait painting. The gentry elite engaged in the arts as
accepted pastimes of the cultured scholar-official,
including painting, composing poetry, and
writing calligraphy.[107] The poet and statesman Su Shi and
his associate Mi Fu (1051–1107) enjoyed antiquarian
affairs, often borrowing or buying art pieces to study and
copy.[21] Poetry and literature profited from the rising
popularity and development of the ci poetry form.
Enormous encyclopedic volumes were compiled, such as
works of historiography and dozens of treatises on
technical subjects. This included theuniversal history text
of the Zizhi Tongjian, compiled into 1000 volumes of 9.4
million written Chinese characters. The genre of
Chinese travel literature also became popular with the
writings of the geographer Fan Chengda (1126–1193) and
Su Shi, the latter of whom wrote the 'daytrip essay'
known as Record of Stone Bell Mountain that
used persuasive writing to argue for a philosophical point.
[108]
Although an early form of the local
geographic gazetteer existed in China since the 1st
century, the matured form known as "treatise on a place",
or fangzhi, replaced the old "map guide", or tujing, during
the Song Dynasty.[109]
The imperial courts of the emperor's palace were filled
with his entourage of court painters, calligraphers, poets,
and storytellers. Emperor Huizong was a renowned artist
as well as a patron of the arts. A prime example of a
highly venerated court painter was Zhang
Zeduan (1085–1145) who painted an
enormous panoramic painting, Along the River During
the Qingming Festival. Emperor Gaozong of
Song initiated a massive art project during his reign,
known as the Eighteen Songs of a Nomad Flute from
the life story of Cai Wenji (b. 177). This art project was
a diplomatic gesture to the Jin Dynasty while he
negotiated for the release of his mother from Jurchen
captivity in the north.
In philosophy, Chinese Buddhism had waned in
influence but it retained its hold on the arts and on the
charities of monasteries. Buddhism had a profound
influence upon the budding movement of Neo-
Confucianism, led by Cheng Yi (1033–1107) and Zhu
Xi (1130–1200).[111] Mahayana Buddhism influenced
Fan Zhongyan and Wang Anshi through its concept
of ethical universalism,[112] while
Buddhist metaphysics had a deep impact upon the
pre–Neo-Confucian doctrine of Cheng Yi.[111] The
philosophical work of Cheng Yi in turn influenced Zhu
Xi. Although his writings were not accepted by his
contemporary peers, Zhu's commentary and emphasis
upon the Confucian classics of the Four Booksas an
introductory corpus to Confucian learning formed the
basis of the Neo-Confucian doctrine. By the year 1241,
under the sponsorship of Emperor Lizong, Zhu Xi's
Four Books and his commentary on them became
standard requirements of study for students
attempting to pass the civil service examinations.
[113]
The East Asian countries of Japan and Korea also
adopted Zhu Xi's teaching, known as the Shushigaku
(朱子学, School of Zhu Xi) of Japan, and in Korea the
Jujahak (주자학). Buddhism's continuing influence can
be seen in painted artwork such as Lin
Tinggui's Luohan Laundering. However, the ideology
was highly criticized and even scorned by some. The
statesman and historian Ouyang Xiu(1007–1072)
called the religion a "curse" that could only be
remedied by uprooting it from Chinese culture and
replacing it with Confucian discourse.[114] Buddhism
would not see a true revival in Chinese society until
the Mongol rule of the Yuan Dynasty, with Kublai
Khan's sponsorship of Tibetan Buddhismand Drogön
Chögyal Phagpa as the leading lama.
The Christian sect of Nestorianism—which had entered
China in the Tang era—would also be revived in China
under Mongol rule.[115]
movable type printing
The innovation of movable type printing was made by
the artisan Bi Sheng (990–1051), first described by the
scientist and statesman Shen Kuo in his Dream Pool
Essays of 1088.[181][182]The collection of Bi Sheng's
original clay-fired typeface was passed on to one of
Shen Kuo's nephews, and was carefully preserved.[182]
[183]
Movable type enhanced the already widespread
use of woodblock methods of printing thousands of
documents and volumes of written literature,
consumed eagerly by an increasingly literate public.
The advancement of printing had a deep impact on
education and the scholar-official class, since more
books could be made faster while mass-produced,
printed books were cheaper in comparison to
laborious handwritten copies.[67][71]The enhancement of
widespread printing and print culture in the Song period
was thus a directcatalyst in the rise of social mobility and
expansion of the educated class of scholar elites, the
latter which expanded dramatically in size from the 11th
to 13th centuries.[67][184]The movable type invented by Bi
Sheng was ultimately trumped by the use of woodblock
printing due to the limitations of the enormous Chinese
character writing system, yet movable type printing
continued to be used and was improved in later periods.
The Yuan Dynasty scholar-official Wang Zhen (fl. 1290–
1333) implemented a faster typesetting process,
improved Bi's baked-clay movable type character set with
a wooden one, and experimented with tin-metal movable
type.[185] The wealthy printing patron Hua Sui (1439–1513)
of the Ming Dynasty established China's first metal
movable type (using bronze) in 1490.[186] In 1638
the Beijing Gazette switched their printing process from
woodblock to movable type printing.[187] Yet it was during
the Qing Dynasty that massive printing projects began to
employ movable type printing. This includes the printing
of sixty-six copies of a 5,020 volume long encyclopedia in
1725, the Gujin Tushu Jicheng (Complete Collection of
Illustrations and Writings from the Earliest to Current
Times), which necessitated the crafting of 250,000
movable type characters cast in bronze.[188] By the 19th
century the European style printing press replaced the old
Chinese methods of movable type, while traditional
woodblock printing in modern East Asia is used sparsely
and for aesthetic reasons.
Structural engineering and architecture
Architecture during the Song period reached new heights
of sophistication. Authors such as Yu Hao andShen
Kuo wrote books outlining the field of architectural
layouts, craftsmanship, and structural engineeringin the
10th and 11th centuries, respectively. Shen Kuo
preserved the written dialogues of Yu Hao when
describing technical issues such as slanting struts built
into pagoda towers for diagonal wind bracing.[194]Shen Kuo
also preserved Yu's specified dimensions and units of
measurement for various building types.[195] The
architect Li Jie (1065–1110), who published the Yingzao
Fashi ('Treatise on Architectural Methods') in 1103,
greatly expanded upon the works of Yu Hao and compiled
the standard building codes used by the central
government agencies and by craftsmen throughout the
empire.[196] He addressed the standard methods of
construction, design, and applications of moats and
fortifications, stonework, greater woodwork, lesser
woodwork, wood-carving, turning and drilling, sawing,
bamboo work, tiling, wall building, painting and
decoration, brickwork, glazed tile making, and provided
proportions for mortar formulas inmasonry.[197][198] In his
book, Li provided detailed and vivid illustrations of
architectural components and cross-sections of buildings.
These illustrations displayed various applications
of corbel brackets, cantileverarms, mortise and
tenon work of tie beams and cross beams, and diagrams
showing the various building types of halls in graded
sizes.[199] He also outlined the standard units of
measurement and standard dimensional measurements
of all building components described and illustrated in his
book.[200]
Grandiose building projects were supported by the
government, including the erection of towering
Buddhist Chinese pagodas and the construction of
enormous bridges (wood or stone, trestle or
segmental arch bridge). Many of the pagoda towers
built during the Song period were erected at heights
that exceeded ten stories. Some of the most famous
are the Iron Pagoda built in 1049 during the Northern
Song and the Liuhe Pagoda built in 1165 during the
Southern Song, although there were many others. The
tallest is the Liaodi Pagoda of Hebei built in the year
1055, towering 84 m (280 ft) in total height. Some of
the bridges reached lengths of 1,220 m (4,000 ft),
with many being wide enough to allow two lanes of
cart traffic simultaneously over a waterway or ravine.
[201]
The government also oversaw construction of their
own administrative offices, palace apartments, city
fortifications, ancestral temples, and Buddhist
temples.[202]The professions of the architect,
craftsman, carpenter, and structural engineer were
not seen as professionally equal to that of a Confucian
scholar-official. Architectural knowledge had been
passed down orally for thousands of years in China, in
many cases from a father craftsman to his son.
Structural engineering and architecture schools were
known to have existed during the Song period; one
prestigious engineering school was headed by the
renowned bridge-builder Cai Xiang (1012–1067) in
medieval Fujian province.[203]Besides existing buildings
and technical literature of building manuals, Song
Dynasty artwork portrayingcityscapes and other
buildings aid modern-day scholars in their attempts to
reconstruct and realize the nuances of Song
architecture. Song Dynasty artists such as Li
Cheng, Fan Kuan, Guo Xi, Zhang Zeduan,Emperor
Huizong of Song, and Ma Lin painted close-up
depictions of buildings as well as large expanses of
cityscapes featuring arched bridges, halls
and pavilions, pagoda towers, and distinct Chinese
city walls. The scientist and statesman Shen Kuo was
known for his criticism of artwork relating to
architecture, saying that it was more important for an
artist to capture a holistic view of a landscape than it
was to focus on the angles and corners of buildings.
[204]
For example, Shen criticized the work of the
painter Li Cheng for failing to observe the principle of
"seeing the small from the viewpoint of the large" in
portraying buildings.[204]There were also pyramidal
tomb structures in the Song era, such as the Song
imperial tombs located in Gongxian, Henan province.
[205]
About 100 km (62 mi) from Gongxian is another
Song Dynasty tomb at Baisha, which features
"elaborate facsimiles in brick of Chinese timber frame
construction, from door lintels to pillars and pedestals
to bracket sets, that adorn interior walls."[205] The two
large chambers of the Baisha tomb also feature
conical-shaped roofs.[206] Flanking the avenues leading
to these tombs are lines of Song Dynasty stone
statues of officials, tomb guardians, animals, and
mythological creatures.
Founding of the Dynasty
From the beginning of his reign (1260), Kublai Khan
had adopted many customs from earlier Chinese
dynasties, such as era names and bureaucracy. After
winning the war against Ariq Böke, Kublai Khan began
his reign over his realm with greater aspirations and
self-confidence — in 1266 he ordered the construction of
his new capital at the site that is now the modern city
of Beijing. The city had been called Zhongdu (Chinese: 中
都, lit. "Central Capital") during the Jin Dynasty, and in
1272 it came to be known as Dadu (Chinese: 大都; Wade-
Giles: Ta-tu, "Great Capital") in Chinese, Daidu to the
Mongols, and Khanbalikh ("City of the Khans") to the
Turks.[10] In 1271 he established the Yuan Dynasty, which
would proceed to be the first non-Han dynasty to rule all
of China. Its official title, Da Yuan (Chinese: 大元, "Great
Yuan"), originates from I Ching, "大哉乾元" (dà zāi qián
yuán). Yuan is the first dynasty in China to use Da
(Chinese: 大, "Great") in its official title.[11] In 1272, Dadu
officially became the capital of the Yuan Dynasty.In the
early 1270s, Kublai began his massive drive against
the Southern Song. By 1273, Kublai had blockaded
the Yangzi River with his navy and besieged Xiangyang,
the last obstacle in his way to capture the rich Yangzi
River basin. In 1275, a Song force of 130,000 troops
under Chancellor Jia Sidao was defeated by the Yuan
force. By 1276, most of the Southern Song territory had
been captured by Yuan forces. In 1279, the Yuan army led
by the Chinese general Zhang Hongfan had crushed the
last Song resistance in Battle of Yamen, which marks the
end of the Southern Song and the onset of all of China
under the Yuan. Yuan Dynasty is traditionally given credit
for reuniting China after several hundred years since the
late Tang Dynasty.After the founding of the dynasty,
Kublai Khan was put under pressure by many of his
advisers to further expand the sphere of influence of the
Yuan through the traditional Sinocentric tributary system.
However, the attempts to establish such tributary
relationships were rebuffed and expeditions
to Japan (twice), Dai Viet (twice during Kublai's rule[12]),
and Java, would later met with less success.
Nevertheless, Dai Viet and Champa later recognized the
supremacy of the Yuan. Kublai established a puppet state
in Myanmar, which caused anarchy in the area, also many
problems came to the area.
Rule of Kublai Khan
Unlike his predecessors, whose rule usually involved
widespread plunder, Kublai Khan tried to warm to and
seek support from the populace. Many reforms were
made during Kublai Khan's reign.Kublai Khan began to
serve as a true emperor, reforming much of China and its
institutions, a process that would take decades to
complete. For example, he consolidated his rule by
centralizing the government of China — making himself
(unlike his predecessors) an absolute monarch. He
reformed many other governmental and economic
institutions, especially the tax system. Kublai Khan sought
to govern China through traditional institutions,[13] and
also recognized that in order to rule China he needed to
employ Han Chinese advisers and officials, though he
never relied totally on Chinese advisers.[14] Yet, the Hans
were discriminated against politically. Almost all
important central posts were monopolized by Mongols,
who also preferred employing non-Hans from other parts
of the Mongol domain in those positions for which no
Mongol could be found. Hans were more often employed
in non-Chinese regions of the empire[citation needed]. In
essence, society was divided into four classes in order of
privilege: Mongols, "Color-eyed" (Central Asians, mostly
Uyghurs and Tibetans), Han (Han Chinese in northern
China, Khitans, and Jurchens), and Southerners (Han
Chinese within Southern Song and other ethnic
groups). During his lifetime, Kublai Khan built the
capital of the Yuan, Dadu, which is present-day
Beijing, and made Shangdu (Chinese: 上都, "Upper
Capital", known to Marco Polo as Xanadu) the summer
capital. He also improved the agriculture of China,
extending the Grand Canal, highways and public
granaries. Marco Polo described his rule as
benevolent: relieving the populace of taxes in times of
hardship; building hospitals and orphanages;
distributing food among the abjectly poor. He also
promoted science and religion, and strongly supported
the Silk Road trade network, allowing the contacts
between Chinese technologies and the western
ones.He issued paper banknotes known as Chao (鈔)
in 1273. The Yuan bureaucrats made paper bills from
the mulberry bark paper. Yuan was the first dynasty in
China to use paper currency as the predominant
circulating medium.While he had claimed nominal
supremacy over the rest of the Mongol Empire, his
interest was clearly in China, along with the areas in
its traditional Sinocentric tributary system. From the
beginning of his reign, the other three khanates of the
Mongol Empire became de facto independent and only
one recognized him as Khagan. By the time of Kublai
Khan’s death in 1294, the Mongol Empire had broken
up into four separate khanates, with Yuan Dynasty
being one of them. The temple name given for him is
Shizu (Chinese: 世祖).
Early rulers after Kublai
Succession was a problem for the Yuan Dynasty, later
causing much strife and internal struggle. This
emerged as early as the end of Kublai's reign. Kublai
originally named his eldest son, Zhenjin (Chinese: 真金
) as the Crown Prince (Chinese: 皇太子) — but he died
before Kublai in 1285. Thus, Zhenjin's son ruled
asTemür Khan for approximately 10 years following
Kublai's death (between 1294 and 1307). Temür Khan
decided to maintain and continue much of the work
begun by his grandfather. He also made peace with
the western Mongol khanates as well as the
neighboring countries such as Vietnam, which
recognized his nominal suzerainty and paid tributes
for a few decades. However, the corruption in the
Yuan Dynasty began during the reign of Temür
Khan.Külüg Khan became Khagan of the Yuan after
the death of Temür Khan. Unlike his predecessor, he
did not continue Kublai's work, but largely rejected it.
During his short reign (1307 to 1311), Yuan fell into
financial difficulties, partly due to bad decisions made
by Külüg. By the time he died, China was in severe
debt and the Yuan Dynasty faced popular
discontent.The fourth Yuan emperor, Buyantu
Khan was a competent emperor. He was the first
among the Yuan emperors who actively supported and
adopted the mainstream Chinese culture after the
reign of Kublai, to the discontent of some Mongol elite.
He had been mentored by Li Meng,
a Confucian academic. He made many reforms,
including the liquidation of the Department of State
Affairs (Chinese: 尚書省), which resulted in the
execution of 5 of the highest ranking officials. Starting
in 1313 imperial examinations were reintroduced for
prospective officials, testing their knowledge on
significant historical works. Also, he codified much of the
law, as well as publishing or translating a number of
Chinese books and works.Gegeen Khan, Buyantu Khan's
son and successor, continued his father's policies to
reform the government based on the Confucian
principles, with the help of his newly appointed
grand chancellor Baiju. During his reign, the Da Yuan
Tong Zhi (Chinese: 大元通制, "the comprehensive
institutions of the Great Yuan"), a huge collection of codes
and regulations of the Yuan Dynasty began by his father,
was formally promulgated.
Downfall
The last years of the Yuan Dynasty were marked by
struggle, famine, and bitterness among the populace. The
dynasty was, significantly, one of the shortest-lived
dynasties in the history of China, covering just a century,
1271 to 1368. In time, Kublai Khan's successors lost all
influence on other Mongol lands across Asia, while the
Mongols beyond the Middle Kingdom saw them as too
Chinese. Gradually, they lost influence in China as well.
The reigns of the later Yuan emperors were short and
were marked by intrigues and rivalries. Uninterested in
administration, they were separated from both the army
and the populace. China was torn by dissension and
unrest; outlaws ravaged the country without interference
from the weakening Yuan armies.Regardless of the merits
of his reign, Shidebala (Emperor Yingzong) ruled for only
two years (1321 to 1323); his rule ended in a coup at the
hands of five princes. They placed Yesün Temür (or
Taidingdi) on the throne, and, after an unsuccessful
attempt to calm the princes, he also succumbed
to regicide. When Yesün Temür died in Shangdu in
1328, Tugh Temür was recalled to Dadu by
the Qipchaq commander El Temür. He was installed as
the emperor (Emperor Wenzong) in Dadu while Yesün
Temür's son Ragibagh succeeded to the throne in
Shangdu with the support of Yesün Temür's favorite
retainer Dawlat Shah. Gaining support from princes and
officers in Northern China and some other parts of the
dynasty, Dadu-based Tugh Temür eventually won the civil
war against Ragibagh in 1329. Afterwards, Tugh Temür
abdicated in favour of his brother Kusala who was backed
by Chagatai Khan Eljigidey and announced Dadu's intent
to welcome him. However, Kusala suddenly died only 4
days after a banquet with Tugh Temür. He was
supposedly killed with poison by El Temür, and Tugh
Temür then remounted the throne. Tugh Temür also sent
delegates to the western Mongol khanates in order to be
accepted as the suzerain of Mongol world. He gave
Eljigidey the imperial seal and precious gifts and sent 3
Chingisid princes to Ilkhanate and Golden Horde. Western
khanates responded favorably and sent tribute missions
to the Yuan emperor.[15] However, he was mainly a puppet
of the powerful official El Temür during his latter three-
year reign. El Temür purged pro-Kusala officials and
brought power to warlords, whose despotic rule clearly
marked the decline of the dynasty.Due to the fact that
the bureaucracy was dominated by El Temür, Tugh Temür
is known for his cultural contribution instead. He adopted
many measures honoring Confucianism and
promoting Chinese cultural values. His most concrete
effort to patronize Chinese learning was his founding of
the Academy of the Pavilion of the Star of Literature
(Chinese: 奎章閣學士院), first established in the spring
of 1329, and was designed to undertake "a number of
tasks relating to the transmission of Confucian high
culture to the Mongolian imperial establishment". The
academy was responsible for compiling and publishing
a number of books, but its most important
achievement was its compilation of a vast
institutionalcompendium named Jingshi Dadian
(Chinese: 經世大典). He supported Zhu Xi's Neo-
Confucianism and also devoted himself
in Buddhism.After the death of Tugh Temür in 1332
and subsequently the death of Rinchinbal (Emperor
Ningzong) in the end of the same year, the 13-year-
old Toghun Temür (Emperor Huizong), the last of the
nine successors of Kublai Khan, was summoned back
from Guangxi and succeeded to the throne after El
Temür's death. Nevertheless, Bayan became another
powerful official as El Temür was in the beginning of
his long reign. As Toghun Temür grew, he came to
disapprove of Bayan's autocratic rule. In 1340 he
allied himself with Bayan's nephew Toghtogha, who
was in discord with Bayan, and banished Bayan by
coup. With the dismissal of Bayan, Toghtogha seized
the power of the court. His first administration clearly
exhibited fresh new spirit. He also gave a few early
signs of a new and positive direction in central
government. One of his successful projects was to
finish the long-stalled official histories of
the Liao, Jin and Song dynasties, which were
eventually completed in 1345. Yet, Toghtogha
resigned his office with the approval of Toghun Temür,
which marked the end of his first administration, and
he was not called back until 1349.From the late 1340s
onwards, people in the countryside suffered from
frequent natural disasters such as droughts, floods
and the resulting famines, and the government's lack
of effective policy led to a loss of popular support. In
1351, the Red Turban Rebellion started and grew into
a nationwide uprising. In 1354, when Toghtogha led a
large army to crush the Red Turban rebels, Toghun
Temür suddenly dismissed him for fear of betrayal.
This resulted in Toghun Temür's restoration of power
on the one hand and a rapid weakening of the central
government on the other. He had no choice but to rely
on local warlords' military power, and gradually lost
his interest in politics and ceased to intervene in
political struggles. He fled north to Shangdu from
Dadu (present-day Beijing) in 1368 after the approach
of the forces of the Míng Dynasty (1368–1644),
founded by Zhu Yuanzhang in the south. He had tried
to regain Dadu, which eventually failed; he died
in Yingchang (located in present-day Inner Mongolia)
two years later (1370). Yingchang was seized by the
Ming shortly after his death.Basalawarmi established a
separate pocket of resistance to the Ming
in Yunnan and Guizhou, but his forces were decisively
defeated by the Ming in 1381.
.Social classes
Although the traditional Chinese elite were not given
their share of power, the Mongolians and
the Semuren(various allied groups from
Central Asia and the western end of the
empire) remained strangers to the Chinese
culture. This dichotomy gave the Yuan regime a
strong colonial coloration.[19]
The Mongol Empire employed many foreigners
throughout all of its history. Kublai codified the hierarchy
of reliability by dividing the population of the Yuan
Dynasty into the following classes:
 Mongols
 Semuren, including Uyghurs, immigrants from the
west and some clans of Central Asia
 North Chinese, Kitans, Jurchens and Koreans
 Southerners, or all subjects of the former Song
Dynasty
Partner merchants and non-Mongol overseers were
usually either immigrants or local ethnic groups. Thus, in
China they were Uighurs, Turkestani and Persian Muslims,
and Christians. Foreigners from outside the Mongol
Empire entirely, such as the Polo family were everywhere
welcomed.
Founding(Ming)
Revolt and rebel rivalry
The Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) ruled before
the establishment of the Ming Dynasty. Alongside
institutionalized ethnic discrimination against Han
Chinese that stirred resentment and rebellion, other
explanations for the Yuan's demise included overtaxing
areas hard-hit byinflation, and massive flooding of
the Yellow River as a result of the abandonment of
irrigation projects.[6] Consequently, agriculture and the
economy were in shambles and rebellion broke out
among the hundreds of thousands of peasants called
upon to work on repairing the dykes of the Yellow River.[6]
A number of Han Chinese groups revolted, including
the Red Turbans in 1351. The Red Turbans were affiliated
with the White Lotus, a Buddhist secret society. Zhu
Yuanzhang was a penniless peasant and Buddhist monk
who joined the Red Turbans in 1352, but soon gained a
reputation after marrying the foster daughter of a rebel
commander.[7] In 1356 Zhu's rebel force captured the city
of Nanjing,[8] which he would later establish as the capital
of the Ming Dynasty.Zhu Yuanzhang cemented his power
in the south by eliminating his arch rival and rebel
leader Chen Youliangin the Battle of Lake Poyang in 1363.
After the dynastic head of the Red Turbans suspiciously
died in 1367 while a guest of Zhu, the latter made his
imperial ambitions known by sending an army toward the
Yuan capital Dadu (present-day Beijing) in 1368.[9] The
last Yuan emperor fled north to Shangdu and Zhu
declared the founding of the Ming Dynasty after razing
the Yuan palaces in Dadu to the ground;[9] the city was
renamed Beiping in the same year.[10]Instead of the
traditional way of naming a dynasty after the first ruler's
home district, Zhu's choice of 'Ming' or 'Brilliant' for his
dynasty followed a Mongol precedent of an uplifting title.
[8]
Zhu Yuanzhang also took Hongwu, or 'Vastly Martial,' as
his reign title. Although the White Lotus had enabled his
rise to power, Hongwu later denied that he had ever been
a member of their organization and suppressed the
religious movement after he became emperor.[8][11]
Illegal trade, piracy, and war with Japan
In 1479, the vice president of the Ministry of War
burned the court records documenting Zheng He's
voyages; it was one of many events signalling China's
shift to an inward foreign policy.[100] Shipbuilding laws
were implemented that restricted vessels to a small
size; the concurrent decline of the Ming navy allowed
the growth of piracy along China's coasts.[101] Japanese
pirates—or wokou—began staging raids on Chinese
ships and coastal communities, although much of the
piracy was carried out by native Chinese.[101]Instead of
mounting a counterattack, Ming authorities chose to
shut down coastal facilities and starve the pirates out;
all foreign trade was to be conducted by the state
under the guise of formal tribute missions.[101] These
policies were known as the hai jin laws, which enacted
a strict ban on private maritime activity until the laws'
formal abolishment in 1567.[100] In this period
government-managed overseas trade with Japan was
carried out exclusively at the seaport of Ningbo, trade
with thePhilippines exclusively at Fuzhou, and trade
with Indonesia exclusively at Guangzhou.[117] Even
then the Japanese were only allowed into port once
every ten years and were allowed to bring a maximum
of three hundred men on two ships; these laws
encouraged many Chinese merchants to engage in
widespread illegal trade and smuggling.[117]The low
point in relations between Ming China and Japan
occurred during the rule of the great Japanese
warlord Hideyoshi, who in 1592 announced he was
going to conquer China. In two campaigns that are
known collectively as the Imjin War, the Japanese
fought with the Korean and Ming armies. Both sides
won victories in the war, which was fought almost
entirely in Korea and the surrounding waters. Decisive
battles were won by Ming and Korean forces, and with
Hideyoshi's death in 1598, the Japanese gave up their
last Korean bases and retreated to Japan. However,
the victory came at an enormous cost to the Ming
government's treasury: some 26,000,000 ounces of
silver.[118]
Trade and contact with Europe
Although Jorge Álvares was the first to land on Lintin
Island in the Pearl River Delta in May of 1513, it
was Rafael Perestrello—a cousin of the
famed Christopher Columbus—who became the first
European explorer to land on the southern coast of
mainland China and trade in Guangzhou in 1516,
commanding a Portuguese vessel with a crew from a
Malaysian junk that had sailed fromMalacca.[119][120]
[121]
The Portuguese sent a large subsequent
expedition in 1517 to enter port at Guangzhou and
open formal trade relations with Chinese authorities.
[119]
During this expedition the Portuguese attempted
to send an inland delegation in the name of Manuel I
of Portugal to the court of the Ming emperor Zhengde;
instead the diplomatic mission languished in a Chinese
jail and died there.[119] After the death of Zhengde in
April 1521, the conservative faction at court that was
against expanding commercial relations ordered that
the Portuguese conquest of Malacca—a loyal vassal to
the Ming—was grounds enough to reject the
Portuguese embassy.[122] Simão de Andrade, brother to
ambassador Fernão Pires de Andrade, had also stirred
Chinese speculation that the Portuguese were kidnapping
Chinese children to eat them; Simão had purchased
kidnapped children as slaves who were later found
in Diu, India.[123] In 1521, Ming Dynasty naval forces
fought and repulsed Portuguese ships at Tuen Mun, where
some of the first breech-loading culverins were
introduced to China.[124]Despite initial hostilities, by 1549
the Portuguese were sending annual trade missions
to Shangchuan Island.[119] In 1557 the Portuguese
managed to convince the Ming court to agree on a legal
port treaty that would establish Macau as an official
Portuguese trade colony on the coasts of the South China
Sea.[119] The Portuguese friar Gaspar da Cruz (c. 1520 -
February 5, 1570) traveled to Guangzhou in 1556 and
wrote the first complete book on China and the Ming
Dynasty that was published in Europe (fifteen days after
his death); it included information on its geography,
provinces, royalty, official class, bureaucracy, shipping,
architecture, farming, craftsmanship, merchant affairs,
clothing, religious and social customs, music and
instruments, writing, education, and justice.[125]From
China the major exports were silk and porcelain.
The Dutch East India Company alone handled the trade of
6 million porcelain items from China to Europe between
the years 1602 to 1682.[126] Antonio de Morga (1559-
1636), a Spanish official in Manila, listed an extensive
inventory of goods that were traded by Ming China at the
turn of the 17th century, noting there were "rarities
which, did I refer to them all, I would never finish, nor
have sufficient paper for it".[127] After noting the variety of
silk goods traded to Europeans, Ebrey writes of the
considerable size of commercial transactions:In one case
a galleon to the Spanish territories in the New World
carried over 50,000 pairs of silk stockings. In return China
imported mostly silver from Peruvian and Mexican mines,
transported via Manila. Chinese merchants were active in
these trading ventures, and many emigrated to such
places as the Philippines and Borneo to take advantage of
the new commercial opportunities.[117]After the Chinese
had banned direct trade by Chinese merchants with
Japan, the Portuguese filled this commercial vacuum as
intermediaries between China and Japan.[128] The
Portuguese bought Chinese silk and sold it to the
Japanese in return for Japanese-mined silver; since silver
was more highly valued in China, the Portuguese could
then use Japanese silver to buy even larger stocks of
Chinese silk.[128]However, by 1573—after the Spanish
established a trading base in Manila—the Portuguese
intermediary trade was trumped by the prime source of
incoming silver to China from the Spanish Americas.[129]
[130]
Although the bulk of imports to China were silver, the
Chinese also purchased New World crops from theSpanish
Empire. This included sweet potatoes, maize,
and peanuts, foods that could be cultivated in lands
where traditional Chinese staple crops—wheat, millet, and
rice—couldn't grow, hence facilitating a rise in the
population of China.[117][131] In the Song Dynasty (960-
1279), rice had become the major staple crop of the poor;
[132]
after sweet potatoes were introduced to China around
1560, it gradually became the traditional food of the
lower classes
Fall of the Ming Dynasty
Shanhaiguan along the Great Wall, the gate where the
Manchus were repeatedly repelled before being finally
let through by Wu Sangui in 1644.
A remarkable tribal leader named Nurhaci (r. 1616-
1626), starting with just a small tribe, rapidly gained
control over all the Manchurian tribes. During the
Japanese invasions of Korea (1592–1598), he offered
to lead his tribes in support of the Ming and Joseon
army. This offer was declined, but he was granted
honorific Ming titles for his gesture.[149] Recognizing
the weakness of Ming authority north of their border,
he took control over all of the other unrelated tribes
surrounding his homeland.[149] In 1610 he broke
relations with the Ming court; in 1618 he demanded
the Ming pay tribute to him to redress the seven
grievances which he documented and sent to the Ming
court. This was effectively a declaration of war as the
Ming were not about to pay money to a former
tributary.Under the brilliant commander Yuan
Chonghuan (1584-1630), the Ming were able to fight
off the Manchus repeatedly, notably in 1626 at the
Battle of Ningyuan (in which Nurhaci was mortally
wounded) and in 1628. Under Yuan's command the
Ming had securely fortified the Shanhai pass, thus
blocking the Manchus from crossing the pass to attack
Beijing. Using knowledge of European firearms that he
might have acquired from his cook, Yuan was able to
stave off Nurhaci's advances along the Liao River.
[150] Although he was named field marshal of all the
northeastern forces in 1628, he was executed in 1630
on trumped-up charges of colluding with the Manchus
as they staged their raids.[151] Succeeding generals
proved unable to eliminate the Manchu threat.
Unable to attack the heart of Ming directly, the
Manchu instead bided their time, developing their own
artillery and gathering allies. They were able to enlist
Ming government officials and generals as their
strategic advisors. A large part of the Ming Army
deserted to the Manchu banner. In 1632, they had
conquered much of Inner Mongolia,[150] resulting in a
large scale recruitment of Mongol troops under the
Manchu banner and the securing of an additional
route into the Ming heartland.By 1636, the Manchu
ruler Huang Taiji renamed his dynasty from the "Latter
Jin" to "Qing" at Shenyang, which had fallen to the
Manchu in 1621 and was made their capital in 1625.
[152][153] Huang Taiji also adopted the Chinese
imperial title huangdi, took the reign title Chongde
("Revering Virtue"), and changed the ethnic name of
his people from Jurchen to Manchu.[153][154] In 1638
the Manchu defeated and conquered Ming China's
traditional ally Joseon with an army of 100,000 troops.
Shortly after the Koreans renounced their long-held
loyalty to the Ming Dynasty.[154]
Rebellion, invasion, collapse
The Shunzhi Emperor (1644-1661), proclaimed the
ruler of China on October 8, 1644.
A peasant soldier named Li Zicheng (1606-1645)
mutinied with his fellow soldiers in western Shaanxi in
the early 1630s after the government failed to ship
much-needed supplies there.[146] In 1634 he was
captured by a Ming general and released only on the
terms that he return to service.[155] The agreement
soon broke down when a local magistrate had thirty-
six of his fellow rebels executed; Li's troops retaliated
by killing the officials and continued to lead a rebellion
based in Rongyang, central Henan province by 1635.[156]
By the 1640s, an ex-soldier and rival to Li—Zhang
Xianzhong (1606-1647)—had created a firm rebel base in
Chengdu, Sichuan, while Li's center of power was in Hubei
with extended influence over Shaanxi and Henan.[156]
In 1640, masses of Chinese peasants who were starving,
unable to pay their taxes, and no longer in fear of the
frequently defeated Chinese army, began to form into
huge bands of rebels. The Chinese military, caught
between fruitless efforts to defeat the Manchu raiders
from the north and huge peasant revolts in the provinces,
essentially fell apart. Unpaid and unfed, the army was
defeated by Li Zicheng—now self-styled as the Prince of
Shun—and deserted the capital without much of a fight.
[157] Li's forces were allowed into the city when the gates
were treacherously opened from within.[157] On May 26,
1644, Beijing fell to a rebel army led by Li Zicheng; during
the turmoil, the last Ming emperor hanged himself on a
tree in the imperial garden outside the Forbidden City.
[157]
Seizing opportunity, the Manchus crossed the Great Wall
after the Ming border general Wu Sangui (1612-1678)
opened the gates at Shanhai Pass. This occurred shortly
after he learned about the fate of the capital and an army
of Li Zicheng marching towards him; weighing his options
of alliance, he decided to side with the Manchus.[158] The
Manchu army under the Manchu Prince Dorgon (1612-
1650) and Wu Sangui approached Beijing after the army
sent by Li was destroyed at Shanhaiguan; the Prince of
Shun's army fled the capital on the fourth of June.[159]
On June 6 the Manchus and Wu entered the capital and
proclaimed the young Shunzhi Emperor ruler of China.
[159] After being forced out of Xi'an by the Manchus,
chased along the Han River to Wuchang, and finally along
the northern border of Jiangxi province, Li Zicheng died
there in the summer of 1645, thus ending the Shun
Dynasty.[159] One report says his death was a suicide;
another states that he was beaten to death by peasants
after he was caught stealing their food.[159] Zhang
Xianzhong was killed in January of 1647 by Manchu troops
after he fled Chengdu and employed scorched earth
policy.[160]Scattered Ming remnants still existed after
1644, including those of Koxinga. Despite the loss of
Beijing and the death of the emperor, Ming power was by
no means totally destroyed. Nanjing, Fujian, Guangdong,
Shanxi, and Yunnan were all strongholds of Ming
resistance. However, there were several pretenders for
the Ming throne, and their forces were divided. Each
bastion of resistance was individually defeated by the
Qing until 1662, when the last real hopes of a Ming revival
died with the Yongli emperor, Zhu Youlang. Despite the
Ming defeat, smaller loyalist movements continued until
the proclamation of the Republic of China.
Literature and arts
A Ming Dynasty red lacquer box with intricate carving of
people in the countryside, surrounded by a floral border
design.
Further information: Ming Dynasty painting As in earlier
dynasties, the Ming Dynasty saw a flourishing in the arts,
whether it was painting, poetry, music, literature, or
dramatic theater. Carved designs in lacquer wares and
designs glazed onto porcelain wares displayed intricate
scenes similar in complexity to those in painting. These
items could be found in the homes of the wealthy,
alongside embroidered silks and wares in jade, ivory,
and cloisonné.[203] The houses of the rich were also
furnished with rosewood furniture and feathery
latticework. The writing materials in a scholar's private
study, including elaborately carved brush holders
made of stone or wood, were all designed and
arranged ritually to give an aesthetic appeal.[203]
Connoisseurship in the late Ming period centered
around these items of refined artistic taste, which
provided work for art dealers and even underground
scammers who made phony imitations of originals and
false attributions to works of art.[203] This was noted
even by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci while staying in
Nanjing, writing that Chinese scam artists were
ingenious when it came to making forgeries of artwork
and made huge profits.[204] However, there were
guides to help the wary new connoisseur; in Liu Tong's
(d. 1637) book printed in 1635, he told his readers
various ways to spot a fake and authentic pieces of
art.[205] He revealed that a Xuande era (1426-1435)
bronzework could be authenticated if one knew how to
judge its sheen; porcelain wares from the Yongle era
(1402-1424) could be judged authentic by their
thickness.[206]
Lofty Mount Lu, by Shen Zhou, 1467.
There was a great amount of literary achievement in
the Ming Dynasty. Xu Xiake (1587-1641), a travel
literature author, published his Travel Diaries in
404,000 written characters, with information on
everything from local geography to mineralogy.[207]
[208] The first reference to the publishing of private
newspapers in Beijing was in 1582; by 1638 the
Beijing Gazette switched from using woodblock print
to movable type printing.[209] The new literary field
of the moral guide to business ethics was developed
by the late Ming period, for the readership of the
merchant class.[210] Although short story fiction was
popular as far back as the Tang Dynasty (618-907),
[211] and the work of contemporaneous authors such
as Xu Guangqi, Xu Xiake, and Song Yingxing were
often technical and encyclopedic, the Ming era
witnessed the development of the novel. While the
gentry elite were educated enough to fully
comprehend the language of Classical Chinese, those
with rudimentary education—such as women in
educated families, merchants, and shop clerks—
became a large, potential audience for literature and
performing arts that employed Vernacular Chinese.
[212] The Jin Ping Mei—published in 1610—is
considered by some to be the fifth great novel of pre-
modern China, in reference to the Four Great Classical
Novels. Two of these novels, the Water Margin and
Journey to the West were products of the Ming
Dynasty. To complement the work of novels, the
theater scripts of playwrights were equally
imaginative. One of the most famous plays in Chinese
history, The Peony Pavilion, was written by the Ming
playwright Tang Xianzu (1550-1616), with its first
performance at the Pavilion of Prince Teng in 1598.
In contrast to Xu Xiake, who focused on technical
aspects in his travel literature, the Chinese poet and
official Yuan Hongdao (1568-1610) used travel
literature to express his desires for individualism as
well as autonomy from and frustration with Confucian
court politics.[213] Yuan desired to free himself from
the ethical compromises which were inseparable from the
career of a scholar-official.[214] This anti-official
sentiment in Yuan's travel literature and poetry was
actually following in the tradition of the Song Dynasty
poet and official Su Shi (1037-1101).[214] Yuan Hongdao
and his two brothers—Yuan Zongdao (1560-1600) and
Yuan Zhongdao (1570-1623)—were the founders of the
Gong'an School of letters.[215] This highly individualistic
school of poetry and prose was criticized by the Confucian
establishment for its association with intense sensual
lyricism, which was also apparent in Ming vernacular
novels such as the Jin Ping Mei.[215] Yet even gentry and
scholar-officials were affected by the new popular
romantic literature, seeking courtesans as soulmates to
reenact the heroic love stories which arranged marriages
often could not provide or accommodate.[216]Painting of
flowers, a butterfly, and rock sculpture by Chen Hongshou
(1598-1652); small leaf album paintings like this one first
became popular in the Song Dynasty.There were many
famous visual artists in the Ming period, including Ni Zan,
Shen Zhou, Tang Yin, Wen Zhengming, Qiu Ying, Dong
Qichang, and many others. They drew upon the
techniques, styles, and complexity in painting achieved
by their Song and Yuan predecessors, but added some
new techniques and styles. Well-known Ming artists could
make a living simply by painting, due to the high costs
they demanded for their artworks and the great demand
by the highly cultured community to collect precious
works of art.[217] The artist Qiu Ying was once paid 2.8
kg (100 oz) of silver to paint a long handscroll for the
occasion of an eightieth birthday celebration for the
mother of a wealthy patron.[217] Renowned artists often
gathered an entourage of followers, some who were
amateurs who painted while pursuing an official career
and others who were full-time painters.[217]
Beyond painters, some potters also became renowned for
their artwork, such as He Chaozong in the early 17th
century for his style of white porcelain sculpture. The
major production centers for porcelain items in the Ming
Dynasty were Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province and Dehua in
Fujian province. The Dehua porcelain factories catored to
European tastes by creating Chinese export porcelain by
the 16th century. In The Ceramic Trade in Asia, Chuimei
Ho estimates that about 16% of late Ming era Chinese
ceramic exports were sent to Europe while the rest were
destined for Japan and South East Asia.[126]
[edit]Religion
Chinese glazed stoneware statue of a Daoist deity, from
the Ming Dynasty, 16th century.
For thousands of years the beliefs in ancestor worship and
practices of the ancestral cult were key features of
Chinese civilization. The Chinese believed in a host of
deities in what is termed as Chinese folk religion. Other
religious denominations in the Ming included the ancient
native ideology of Daoism (Taoism) and foreign originated
Buddhism, although distinct Chinese Buddhism had long
since developed.Christianity had existed in China since at
least the Tang Dynasty (618-907), yet the late Ming
period saw the first arrival of Jesuit missionaries from
Europe such as Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault. There
were also other denominations including the Dominicans
and Franciscans.Ricci worked with the Chinese
mathematician, astronomer, and agronomist Xu Guangqi
to translate the Greek mathematical work Euclid's
Elements into Chinese for the first time in 1607. The
Chinese were impressed with European knowledge in
astronomy, calendrical science, mathematics,
hydraulics, and geography. Most European monks
presented themselves more as educated elites than
religious figures, in an effort to gain trust and
admiration from the Chinese.[218] However, most
Chinese were suspicious and even outright critical of
Christianity due to Chinese beliefs and practices that
did not coincide with the Christian faith.[218] The
highpoint of this contention was the Nanjing Religious
Incident of 1616-1622, a temporary triumph of the
Confucian traditionalists when Western missionaries
and science were rejected in favor of the belief that
Western science derived from a superior Chinese
model; this was soon rejected in favor of once again
staffing the Imperial Astronomical Board with Western
missionaries learned in science.[219]Besides
Christianity, the Kaifeng Jews had a long history in
China; Ricci discovered this when he was contacted by
one of them in Beijing and learned of their history in
China.[220] Islam in China had existed since the early
7th century during the Tang Dynasty; during the Ming
Dynasty there were several prominent figures—
including Zheng He—who were Muslim. The Hongwu
Emperor also employed Muslim commanders in his
army, such as Chang Yuqun, Lan Yu, Ding Dexing, and
Mu Ying.[221]
]Philosophy
Wang Yangming's Confucianism
During the Ming Dynasty, the doctrines of the Song
Dynasty scholar-official Zhu Xi (1130-1200) and Neo-
Confucianism were embraced by the court and the
Chinese literati at large. However, total conformity to
a single mode of thought was never a reality in the
intellectual sphere of society. There were some in the
Ming who—like Su Shi (1037-1101) of the Song—were
rebels at heart and were not abashed to criticize the
mainstream dogmatic modes of thought. Leading a
new strand of Confucian teaching and philosophy was
the scholar-official Wang Yangming (1472-1529),
whose critics said that his teachings were
contaminated by Chan Buddhism.[222]In analyzing
Zhu Xi's concept of "the extension of knowledge" (i.e.
gaining understanding through careful and rational
investigation of things and events; Chinese: 理學, or 格
物致知), Wang realized that universal principles were
concepts espoused in the minds of all.[223] Breaking
from the mold, Wang said that anyone, no matter
what socioeconomic status or background, could
become as wise as the ancient sages Confucius and
Mencius, and that the writings of the latter two were
not the source of truth, but merely guides that could
have flaws if carefully examined.[224] In Wang's mind,
a peasant who had many experiences and drew
natural truths from these was more wise than an
official who had carefully studied the Classics but had
not experienced the real world in order to observe
what was true.[224]
Conservative reaction
A Ming Dynasty print drawing of Confucius on his way
to the Zhou Dynasty capital of Luoyang.
Conservative Confucian officials were wary of Wang's
philosophical interpretation of the Confucian classics,
the increasing number of his disciples while still in
office, and his overall socially-rebellious message.[222] To
curb his political influence he was often sent out to deal
with military affairs and rebellions far away from the
capital.[222] Yet his ideas penetrated mainstream
Chinese thought, and spurred new interest in Daoism and
Buddhism.[222] Furthermore, people began to question
the validity of the social hierarchy and the idea that the
scholar was above the farmer.[222] Wang Yangming's
disciple and salt-mine worker Wang Gen gave lectures to
commoners about pursuing education to improve their
lives, while his follower He Xinyin 何心隱 challenged the
elevation and emphasis of the family in Chinese society.
[222] His contemporary Li Zhi 李贄 (1527-1602) even
taught that women were the intellectual equals of men
and should be given a better education; both Li and He
eventually died in prison, jailed on charges of spreading
"dangerous ideas".[225] Yet these "dangerous ideas" of
educating women had long been embraced with mothers
giving their children primary education,[226] as well as
courtesans who were as literate and similarly trained in
calligraphy, painting, and poetry as their male hosts.
[227]In opposition to the liberal views of Wang Yangming
were the conservative officials in the censorate—a
governmental institution with the right and responsibility
to speak out against malfeasance and abuse of power—
and the senior officials of the Donglin Academy, which
was reestablished in 1604.[228] These conservatives
wanted a revival of orthodox Confucian ethics.
Conservatives such as Gu Xiancheng (1550-1612) argued
against Wang Yangming's idea of innate moral
knowledge, stating that this was simply a legitimization
for unscrupulous behavior such as greedy pursuits and
personal gain.[228] These two strands of Confucian
thought created factionalism amongst ministers of state,
who—like the old days of Wang Anshi and Sima Guang in
the Song Dynasty—used any opportunity to impeach
members of the other faction from court
Science and technology
The puddling process of smelting iron ore to make pig
iron and then wrought iron, with the right illustration
displaying men working a blast furnace, from the
Tiangong Kaiwu encyclopedia, 1637.Compared to the
flourishing of science and technology in the Song
Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty perhaps saw fewer
advancements in science and technology compared to
the pace of discovery in the Western world. In fact, key
advances in Chinese science in the late Ming were
spurred by contact with Europe. In 1626 Johann Adam
Schall von Bell wrote the first Chinese treatise on the
telescope, the Yuanjingshuo (Far Seeing Optic Glass); in
1634 the last Ming emperor Chongzhen acquired the
telescope of the late Johann Schreck (1576-1630).[237]
The heliocentric model of the solar system was rejected
by the Catholic missionaries in China, but Johannes Kepler
and Galileo Galilei's ideas slowly trickled into China
starting with the Polish Jesuit Michael Boym (1612-1659)
in 1627, Adam Schall von Bell's treatise in 1640, and
finally Joseph Edkins, Alex Wylie, and John Fryer in the
19th century.[238] Catholic Jesuits in China would
promote Copernican theory at court, yet at the same time
embrace the Ptolemaic system in their writing; it was not
until 1865 that Catholic missionaries in China sponsored
the heliocentric model as their Protestant peers did.[239]
Although Shen Kuo (1031-1095) and Guo Shoujing (1231-
1316) had laid the basis for trigonometry in China,
another important work in Chinese trigonometry
would not be published again until 1607 with the
efforts of Xu Guangqi and Matteo Ricci.[240] Ironically,
some inventions which had their origins in ancient
China were reintroduced to China from Europe during
the late Ming; for example, the field mill.[241]The
Chinese calendar was in need of reform since it
inadequately measured the solar year at 365¼ days,
giving an error of 10 min and 14 sec a year or roughly
a full day every 128 years.[242] Although the Ming
had adopted Guo Shoujing's Shoushi calendar of 1281,
which was just as accurate as the Gregorian Calendar,
the Ming Directorate of Astronomy failed to
periodically readjust it; this was perhaps due to their
lack of expertise since their offices had become
hereditary in the Ming and the Statutes of the Ming
prohibited private involvement in astronomy.[243] A
sixth-generation descendant of Emperor Hongxi, the
"Prince" Zhu Zaiyu (1536-1611), submitted a proposal
to fix the calendar in 1595, but the ultra-conservative
astronomical commission rejected it.[242][243] It
should be noted that this was the same Zhu Zaiyu
who discovered the system of tuning known as equal
temperament, a discovery made simultaneously by
Simon Stevin (1548-1620) in Europe.[244] In addition
to publishing his works on music, he was able to
publish his findings on the calendar in 1597.[243] A
year earlier, the memorial of Xing Yunlu suggesting a
calendrical improvement was shot down by the
Supervisor of the Astronomical Bureau due to the law
banning private practice of astronomy; Xing would
later serve with Xu Guangqi in reforming the calendar
(Chinese: 崇禎歷書) in 1629 according to Western
standards.[243]Portrait ofMatteo Ricci by Yu Wenhui,
Latinized as Emmanuel Pereira, dated the year of
Ricci's death, 1610
When the Ming founder Hongwu came upon the
mechanical devices housed in the Yuan Dynasty's
palace at Khanbaliq—such as fountains with balls
dancing on their jets, self-operating tiger automata,
dragon-headed devices that spouted mists of
perfume, and mechanical clocks in the tradition of Yi
Xing (683-727) and Su Song (1020-1101)—he
associated all of them with the decadence of Mongol
rule and had them destroyed.[245] This was described
in full length by the Divisional Director of the Ministry
of Works, Xiao Xun, who also carefully preserved
details on the architecture and layout of the Yuan
Dynasty palace.[245] Later, European Jesuits such as
Matteo Ricci and Nicolas Trigault would briefly
mention indigenous Chinese clockworks that featured
drive wheels.[246] However, both Ricci and Trigault
were quick to point out that 16th century European
clockworks were far more advanced than the common
time keeping devices in China, which they listed as
water clocks, incense clocks, and "other
instruments...with wheels rotated by sand as if by
water." (Chinese: 沙漏)[247] Chinese records—namely
the Yuan Shi (Chinese: 元史)—describe the 'five-
wheeled sand clock', a mechanism pioneered by Zhan
Xiyuan (fl. 1360-1380) which featured the scoop wheel
of Su Song's earlier astronomical clock and a
stationary dial face over which a pointer circulated,
similar to European models of the time.[248] This
sand-driven wheel clock was improved upon by Zhou
Shuxue (fl. 1530-1558) who added a fourth large gear
wheel, changed gear ratios, and widened the orifice for
collecting sand grains since he criticized the earlier model
for clogging up too often.[249]The Chinese were intrigued
with European technology, but so were visiting Europeans
of Chinese technology. In 1584, Abraham Ortelius (1527-
1598) featured in his atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum the
peculiar Chinese innovation of mounting masts and sails
onto carriages, just like Chinese ships.[250] Gonzales de
Mendoza also mentioned this a year later—noting even
the designs of them on Chinese silken robes—while
Gerardus Mercator (1512-1594) featured them in his
atlas, John Milton (1608-1674) in one of his famous
poems, and Andreas Everardus van Braam Houckgeest
(1739-1801) in the writings of his travel diary in
China.Bodhisattva Manjusri in Blanc-de-Chine, by He
Chaozong, 17th century; Song Yingxing devoted an entire
section of his book to the ceramics industry in the making
of porcelain items like this.[252]The encyclopedist Song
Yingxing (1587-1666) documented a wide array of
technologies, metallurgic and industrial processes in his
Tiangong Kaiwu (Chinese: 天工開物) encyclopedia of 1637.
This includes mechanical and hydraulic powered devices
for agriculture and irrigation,[253] nautical technology
such as vessel types and snorkeling gear for pearl divers,
[254][255][256] the annual processes of sericulture and
weaving with the loom,[257] metallurgic processes such
as the crucible technique and quenching,[258]
manufacturing processes such as for roasting iron pyrite
in converting sulphide to oxide in sulfur used in
gunpowder compositions—illustrating how ore was piled
up with coal briquettes in an earthen furnace with a still-
head that sent over sulfur as vapor that would solidify and
crystallize[259]—and the use of gunpowder weapons such
as a naval mine ignited by use of a rip-cord and steel flint
wheel.[260]
Focusing on agriculture in his Nongzheng Quanshu, the
agronomist Xu Guangqi (1562-1633) took an interest in
irrigation, fertilizers, famine relief, economic and textile
crops, and empirical observation of the elements that
gave insight into early understandings of chemistry.[261]
There were many advances and new designs in gunpowder
weapons during the beginning of the dynasty, but by the mid
to late Ming the Chinese began to frequently employ
European-style artillery and firearms.[262] The
Huolongjing, compiled by Jiao Yu and Liu Ji sometime
before the latter's death on May 16, 1375 (with a preface
added by Jiao in 1412),[263] featured many types of cutting-
edge gunpowder weaponry for the time. This includes
hollow, gunpowder-filled exploding cannonballs,[264] land
mines that used a complex trigger mechanism of falling
weights, pins, and a steel wheellock to ignite the train of
fuses,[265] naval mines,[266] fin-mounted winged rockets
for aerodynamic control,[267] multistage rockets propelled
by booster rockets before igniting a swarm of smaller
rockets issuing forth from the end of the missile (shaped like
a dragon's head),[268] and hand cannons that had up to ten
barrels.[269]Li Shizhen (1518-1593)—one of the most
renowned pharmacologists and physicians in Chinese history
—belonged to the late Ming period. In 1587, he completed
the first draft of his Bencao Gangmu, which detailed the
usage of over 1,800 medicinal drugs. Although it
purportedly was invented by a Daoist hermit from Mount
Emei in the late 10th century, the process of inoculation
for smallpox patients was in widespread use in China by
the reign of the Longqing Emperor (r. 1567-1572), long
before it was applied anywhere else.[270] In regards to
oral hygiene, the ancient Egyptians had a primitive
toothbrush of a twig frayed at the end, but the Chinese
were the first to invent the modern bristle toothbrush in
1498, although it used stiff pig hair.[271]
History dinastiyang qing
Formation of the Manchu StateAn Italian map showing
the "Kingdom of the Nǚzhēn" or the "Jin Tartars", who
"are have occupied and are at present ruling China",
north of Liaodong and Korea, published in 1682The
Dynasty was founded not by the Han who form the
majority of the Chinese population, but the Manchus,
who are today an ethnic minority of China. The
Manchus are descended from Jurchens (Ch: 女真, Man:
Jušen), a Tungusic people who lived around the region
now comprising the Chinese provinces of Heilongjiang,
Jilin and Liaoning and the Russian province of
Primorsky Krai. What was to become the Manchu state
was founded by Nurhaci, the chieftain of a minor
Jurchen tribe in Jianzhou, in the early 17th century.
Originally a vassal of the Ming emperors, Nurhaci in
1582 embarked on an inter-tribal feud that escalated
into a campaign to unify the Jianzhou Jurchen tribes.
By 1616 he had sufficiently consolidated Jianzhou
region to proclaim himself Khan of "Great Jin" in
reference to the previous Jurchen dynasty. Historians
refer to this pre-Qing entity as "Later Jin" to
distinguish it from the first Jin Dynasty. Two years
later Nurhaci announced Seven Grievances and openly
renounced the sovereignty of Ming overlordship in
order to complete the unification of those Jurchen
tribes still allied with the Ming emperor. After a series
of successful battles he relocated his capital from
Hetu Ala to successively bigger captured Ming cities in
the province of Liaodong, first Liaoyang (Man: dergi
hecen) in 1621 and again in 1625 to Shenyang (later
renamed Shengjing; Ch: 盛京; Man:
Mukden).Relocating his court from Jianzhou to
Liaodong provided Nurhaci a bigger power base in
terms of human and material resources;
geographically it also brought him in close contact
with the Mongol domains on the plains of Mongolia.
Although by this time the once-united Mongol nation
under Genghis Khan had long fragmented into
individual and at times hostile tribes, these disunited
tribes still presented a serious security threat to the
Ming borders. Nurhaci's policy towards the Mongols
was to seek their friendship and cooperation, thus
securing the Jurchens' western front from a potential
enemy. Furthermore, the Mongols proved a useful ally
in the war, lending the Jurchens their traditional
expertise as cavalry archers. To cement this new
alliance Nurhaci initiated a policy of inter-marriages
between Jurchen and those Mongolian nobility
compliant to Jurchen leadership, while those who
resisted were met with military action. This is a typical
example of Nurhaci's many initiatives that eventually
became official Qing government policy. Some of
Nurhaci's other important contributions include ordering
the creation of a written Manchu script based on
Mongolian script (Their ancestral Jurchen language
already had a Jurchen script, which was derived from
Khitan script which was derived from Chinese), and the
creation of the civil and military administrative system
that eventually evolved into the Manchu Banners the
defining element of Manchu identity, thus laying
foundation for transforming the loosely knitted Jurchen
tribes into a nation.Qing Dynasty era brush container
Nurhaci's unbroken series of military successes came to
an end in January 1626 when he was dealt his first major
military defeat by general Yuan Chonghuan while laying
siege to the Ming city of Ningyuan. He died a few months
later[1] and was succeeded by his eighth son Hung Taiji
who emerged after a short political struggle amongst
other potential contenders as the new Khan. Although he
was an experienced general and the commander of two
Banners at the time of his succession, Hung Taiji's reign
did not start well on the military front. The Jurchens
suffered yet another defeat in 1627 at the hands of Yuan
Chonghuan. As before, this defeat was the result of the
superior firepower of the Ming forces' newly acquired
Portuguese cannons. To redress the technological and
numerical disparity Hung Taiji in 1634 created his own
artillery corps (Ch: 重军, Man: ujen chooha) from amongst
his existing Han troops who cast their own cannons from
European design with the help of captured Chinese
artisans. In 1635 the Manchu's Mongolian allies were fully
incorporated into a separate Banner hierarchy under
direct Manchu command. Hong Taiji then proceeded in
1636 to invade Korea for the second time. This was
followed by the creation of the first (two) Han Banners in
1637 (which eventually increased to eight in 1642).
Together these military reforms enabled Hung Taiji to
resoundingly defeat Ming forces in a series of battles from
1640 to 1642 for the territories of Songshan (松山) and
Jingzhou (锦州). This final victory resulted in the surrender
of many of the Mings' most battle hardened troops and
the complete permanent withdrawal of remaining Ming
forces from lands north of the Great Wall.
On the civil front, Hung Taiji, on the advice of surrendered
Ming officials, set up a rudimentary bureaucratic system
based on the Ming model of government. Hung Taiji's
bureaucracy was staffed with an unprecedented number
of Han Chinese, many of them newly surrendered Ming
officials. However, the Jurchens' continued dominance in
government was ensured by an ethnic quota for top
bureaucratic appointments. Hung Taiji's reign also saw a
fundamental change of policy towards his Han Chinese
subjects. Whereas under Nurhaci all captured Han
Chinese were seen as a potential fifth column for the Ming
Dynasty and treated as chattel— including those who
eventually held important government posts– Hung Taiji
in contrast incorporated them into the Jurchen "nation" as
full if not first class citizens, who were also obligated to
provide military service and by 1648 less than one-sixth
of the bannermen were of Manchu ancestry.[2] This
change of policy not only increased Hung Taiji's power
base and reduced his military dependence on those
banners not under his personal control, it also greatly
encouraged other Han Chinese subjects of the Ming
Dynasty to surrender and accept Jurchen rule when they
were defeated militarily. Through these and other
measures Hung Taiji was able to centralize power unto
the office of the Khan, which in the long run prevented Longyu issued the Imperial Edict bringing about the
the Jurchen federation from fragmenting after his abdication of the child emperor Puyi.The collapse of the
death.One of the defining events of Hung Taiji's reign Qing dynasty in 1912 brought an end to over 2,000 years
was the official adoption of the name "Manchu" (Ch: 滿 of imperial China and began an extended period of
州; Man: Manju ) for all Jurchen people in November instability of warlord factionalism. Obvious political and
1635. And when the imperial seal of the Yuan economic backwardness combined with widespread
emperors was presented to Hung Taiji by Ejei Khan the criticism of Chinese culture led to questioning and doubt
son of Lingdan Khan, the last grand-Khan of the about the future. China's turbulent history since the
Mongols, Hung Taiji in 1636 renamed the state from overthrow of the Qing may be understood at least in part
"Later Jin" to "Great Qing" and elevated his position as an attempt to understand and recover significant
from Khan to Emperor, suggesting imperial ambitions aspects of historic Chinese culture and integrate them
beyond unifying Manchu territories. Some sources with influential new ideas that have emerged within the
suggested that the name "Qing" was chosen in last century. In the 1930s, Imperial
reaction to that of the Ming Dynasty (明) which Japan invaded Manchuria (Manchus homeland) and
consists of the Chinese characters for sun (日) and founded Manchukuo in 1934, with Puyi, as the nominal
moon (月), which are associated with the fire element. regent and emperor. After the invasion by the Soviet
The character Qing (清) is composed of the water (水) Union, Manchukuo collapsed in 1945.
radical and the character for blue-green (青), which
are both associated with the water element. Others
suggested that the name change went a long way to
rehabilitate the Manchu state in the eyes of the Ming-
era Han Chinese, who, being heavily influenced by a
Neo-Confucian education system, had regarded the
former Jurchen Jin dynasty as foreign invaders.
all of the dynasty
By the early twentieth century, mass civil disorder had
begun and continuously grown. Empress Dowager
Cixiand the Guangxu emperor both died in 1908,
leaving a relatively powerless and unstable central
authority. Puyi, the eldest son of Zaifeng, Prince Chun,
was appointed successor at age two, leaving Zaifeng
with the regency. This was followed by the dismissal
of General Yuan Shikai from his former positions of
power. In mid 1911 Zaifeng created the "Imperial
Family Cabinet", a ruling council of the Imperial
Government almost entirely consisting of Aisin
Gioro relatives. This brought a wide range of negative
opinions from senior officials like Zhang
Zhidong.The Wuchang Uprising succeeded on October
10, 1911, and was followed by a proclamation of a
separate central government, the Republic of China,
in Nanjing with Sun Yat-sen as its provisional head.
Numerous provinces began "separating" from Qing
control. Seeing a desperate situation unfold, the Qing
government brought an unwilling Yuan Shikai back to
military power, taking control of his Beiyang Army,
with the initial goal of crushing the revolutionaries.
After taking the position of Prime Minister (內閣總理大
臣) and creating his own cabinet, Yuan went as far as
to ask for the removal of Zaifeng from the regency.
This removal later proceeded with directions
from Empress Dowager Longyu.With Zaifeng gone,
Yuan Shi-kai and his Beiyang commanders effectively
dominated Qing politics. He reasoned that going to
war would be unreasonable and costly, especially
when noting that the Qing Government had a goal for
constitutional monarchy. Similarly, Sun Yat-sen's
government wanted a Republican constitutional
reform, both aiming for the benefit of China's
economy and populace. With permission from
Empress Dowager Longyu, Yuan began negotiating
with Sun Yat-sen, who decided that his goal had been
achieved in forming a republic, and that therefore he
could allow Yuan to step into the position of President
of the Republic. In 1912, after rounds of negotiations,