1. T’ang Dynasty
The second of the four greatest dynasties, the T'ang
combined aggressive military and economic expansion with
political stability and creative achievement. Traffic along
the Silk Road was brisk with both import and export trade.
Among its notable artistic contributions were sophisticated
figure painting, tricolored ceramic tomb figurines, and
exquisite porcelain. A significant development of this
period is the use of rare, cobalt blue glazes. The T'ang
revered both horses and camels, figures of which were
placed in the burials of the royalty and aristocracy, along
with gold and silver ornaments.
618-907 CE
2. Basic Theme: Recovery
After the collapse of the Han Dynasty, the Period of Six
Dynasties arises (220-589 CE)
Scholar-Gentry declines…rise of landed nobility; hence,
less emphasis on learning and merit positions; more focus
on older traditions
Non-Chinese nomads control much of China: division
Buddhism introduced to China…replaces Confucianism
with focus on spiritual life and self-renewal
SUI DYNASTY (589-618 CE)
Emperor Wendi: Lowers tax burden, ensures stable food
supplies through establishment of granaries (storage)
Emperor Yangdi: Legal code reformed; scholar-gentry
restored to authority; yet…public works projects (Grand
Canal) and military campaigns (Korea) deplete treasury;
3. T’ang Dynasty Emerges: Government
Chang’an: The Imperial City
1 million people, including foreigners
who were traders and merchants…
cosmopolitan in nature
30 square miles
Restoration of Confucian Ideals:
Civil Service Exams
Supported by government schools
Limited to terms of 3 years
Moved to different districts
Reduced power of great families
4. Government: Administration
Military based on local militia loyal to Emperor; not
mercenaries
Revenue system – based on land tax
Government monopoly on salt, tea, and liquor
Rebuilt road and canal network with post stations
Theme: Consolidation Under T’ang
Empire expands into Southeast Asia, Tibet, Korea
Continued restoration of scholar-gentry as basis for proper,
stable governance through Confucian ideals: continued
restoration-improvement of civil service exams…adds second
level of examination for lower-level government positions.
While technically based on merit, government positions
5. Culture
Golden Age of Art and Literature
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/dynasty-tang.cfm
Art
Glazes on Pottery
Focused on Human Figure
Monochromatic: Use of one color
with varied shading
6. Dish in the Shape
of a Leaf
Night Shining
White
7. Porcelain
Porcelain was first made in China in the 6th and 7th centuries CE from porcelain
clay (known as kaolin, after the Gaoling Mountains of southeastern China). Chinese
potters mixed the kaolin clay with a powder ground from a stone called baidunzi, a
rock that contains feldspar, a glassy mineral. It is fired at very high temperatures
above 2372°F (1300°C), which causes the surface of the clay to
melt and become smooth as glass.
Early porcelains were undecorated and were used by the Imperial court and
exported as far as the Middle East. Blue and white porcelain is painted with blue
paint made from cobalt and then covered with a clear glaze, which can withstand the
high temperatures of the kiln. Other kinds of porcelain are painted after the object
has been fired in the kiln.
The word "porcelain" comes from an Italian word porcellana or "little female
pig," the Italian name for small white cowrie shells. The first Italian travelers to China
saw beautiful Chinese porcelains and thought that these ceramics were made from
ground-up sea shells. The name has remained, however,
even though they are not made from shells.
8. Glazed Porcelain
Stoneware Vase:
Cobalt blue glaze
Stoneware
with green
glaze
Stoneware with abstract
floral motif Earthenware
with polychrome
glaze
9. The range of subjects of T’ang poetry is diverse. Some reflect the
social situations and conflicts at that time, revealing the darkness
of feudal society; some sing the praises of just wars and express
patriotic thought; some depict the beauty of the homeland; in
addition, some describe personal aspirations and encounters,
affection, friendship as well as joys and sorrows of life. In a word,
neither the natural phenomena, nor the political movement,
working life, social customs or personal feelings could skip the
eyesight of the insightful poets, which became their themes for
writing
To Friend Tan-Chiu
Poetry flourished as a
My friend is lodging high in the Eastern Range,
reflection of society and Dearly loving the beauty of valleys and hills.
culture: a sign of the political At green Spring he lies in the empty woods,
stability of the era And is still asleep when the sun shines on high.
A pine-tree wind dusts his sleeves and coat;
Poetry often reflected the A pebbly stream cleans his heart and ears.
human relationship to nature I envy you, who far from strife and talk
Are high-propped on a pillow of blue cloud.
LI BAI (701-762
CE)
10. Technology
Cast iron Coal as fuel
Crossbow Waterwheels
Gunpowder Paper Currency
Compass Wheelbarrow
Porcelain Wallpaper
11. Religion:
Introduction - Rejection of Buddhism…
Restoration of Confucianism
Less focus on material, physical things….more on spirituality
Zen Buddhism…focus on meditation
Buddhism temporarily become state religion…but…discontent begins to
take shape as Buddhism…
Has foreign origins
Suggests removal from society while Confucianism encourages
engagement
Tax exempt status of Buddhist monasteries
845 CE: Emperor Wuzong orders destruction of Buddhist temples
and monasteries; monks and nuns must abandon completive
Buddhist lives; Buddhism never fully recovers its status in Chinese
society
12.
13. Collapse
Revenue base began to erode
Imperial land grants to notables who avoided taxes
Upper levels of government begin to be filled with
imperial relations without civil service
Population grew more quickly than land and money
could support
Began outlawing contact with other ethnicities
Regional governors use disorder to seize greater
authority; nomadic non-Chinese destabilize regional
and central governments; empire increasingly
divided
Military increasingly staffed with mercenaries
15. Beginnings
Follows Five
Dynasty Period and
later Zhou Period
General Guo Wei
rival of Later Zhou
conquered middle
Yangzi region of Chu
Kingdom of Shu of
Sichuan
16. Government
Issued paper currency credited
growth of commerce
Civil Service recruited for higher posts
from educated who passed three
levels of imperial examinations
Personal Property assessed for
Taxation
Trained Militia and supplied with Arms
Strengthen Loyalty and Quality of
Army
17. Government
Government Schools
Open to anyone of
ability
Allowed others a chance at office
holding
Paid Mongols and others in silk
and other goods as a way to
pacify would be attackers
18. Culture
Song Poetry
Wáng Ānshí
Zeng Gong
Paintings focusing on Landscapes
Harmony between humans and
nature
Patronized by Rich Urban Merchants
Popularization of Vernacular
Language
23. Technology
Improved Ships with
Farming water-tight
Techniques – compartments
Irrigation, Waterwheels
fertilization, Incline Planes
metal tools and Canal Locks
proto-
machines Gunpowder
Mortars
24. Depletion of Empire
Shrank in size,
gave up land
including Taipei,
Abandoned Tibet
Manchuria in Khitan
control
Vietnam and Korea
more independent
25. Collapse of Northern Song
Alliance with Jurchen against
Khitan
Unimpressed with Song’s
military abilities
Captured capital of Kaifeng 1126
Treaty with Jurchen fixed border
at Huai River
Pay annual tribute
26.
27. Collapse of Southern Song
Attacks by Jurchen and Mongols
Attacks by Jurchen take over
Northern China
Song establish Southern Song
Dynasty
Including Chinghis and Kubilai
Khan
Mongols eventually take over Song
China and establish Yuan Dyansty
Military concentrated along capitals, northern and northwestern frontiers. Cavalrymen had to provide their own horses and equipment – most striking force. Armed with crossbows, lances, and swords. http://www.galen-frysinger.ws/china/tangdynasty12.jpg
Beginning in the Tang dynasty, the primary subject matter of Chinese painting was the landscape , known as shanshui (mountain-water) painting. In these landscapes, usually monochromatic and sparse, the purpose was not to reproduce exactly the appearance of nature but rather to grasp an emotion or atmosphere so as to catch the "rhythm" of nature.
Dish in the Shape of a Leaf , Tang dynasty (618–906), late 7th–early 8th century China Silver with parcel gilding Night-Shining White , Tang dynasty (618–906), 8th century Attributed to Han Gan (Chinese, active 742–56) China Handscroll; ink on paper
Phoenix-headed ewer , Tang dynasty (618–906), late 7th–first half of 8th century China Earthenware with three-color Floral medallions , Tang dynasty (618–906), late 8th–early 9th century China Silk, Weft-faced compound twill
Seated Buddha , Tang dynasty (618–906), ca. 650 China Dry lacquer with traces of gilt and polychrome pigments Standing court lady , Tang dynasty (618–906), mid-7th century China Earthenware with pigment
Classical poetry reached its zenith during the Tang Dynasty (A.D. 618-907). The early Tang period was best known for its lushi (regulated verse), an eight-line poem with five or seven words in each line; zi (verse following strict rules of prosody); and jueju (truncated verse), a four-line poem with five or seven words in each line. The two best-known poets of the period were Li Bai (701-762) and Du Fu (712-770). Li Bai was known for the romanticism of his poetry; Du Fu was seen as a Confucian moralist with a strict sense of duty toward society. Later Tang poets developed greater realism and social criticism and refined the art of narration. One of the best known of the later Tang poets was Bai Juyi (772-846), whose poems were an inspired and critical comment on the society of his time. Called the Poet Immortal , Li Bai is often regarded, along with Du Fu, as one of the two greatest poets in China's literary history. Approximately 1,100 of his poems remain today. The Western world was introduced to Li Bai's works through the very liberal translations of Japanese versions of his poems made by Ezra Pound. Li Bai is best known for the extravagant imagination and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for liquor. Like Du Fu, he spent much of his life travelling, although in his case it was because his wealth allowed him to, rather than because his poverty forced him. He is said to have drowned in the Yangtze River, having fallen from his boat while drunkenly trying to embrace the reflection of the moon. Du Fu or Tu Fu (712–770) was a prominent Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. Along with Li Bai (Li Po), he is frequently called the greatest of the Chinese poets. His own greatest ambition was to help his country by becoming a successful civil servant, but he proved unable to make the necessary accommodations. His life, like the whole country, was devastated by the An Lushan Rebellion of 755, and the last 15 years of his life were a time of almost constant unrest. Initially unpopular, his works came to be hugely influential in both Chinese and Japanese culture. He has been called Poet-Historian and the Poet-Sage by Chinese critics, while the range of his work has allowed him to be introduced to Western readers as "the Chinese Virgil, Horace, Ovid, Shakespeare, Milton, Burns, Wordsworth, Béranger, Hugo or Baudelaire". (Hung p. 1).
In addition to his political achievements, Wang Anshi was a noted poet. He wrote poems in the shi form, modelled on those of Du Fu . He was traditionally classed as one of the Eight Great Prose Masters of the Tang and Song Zeng Gong ( 曾鞏 ; style name: Zigu 子固 ; 1019 - 1083 ) was a scholar and historian of the Song Dynasty in China. He was one of the supporters of the New Classical Prose Movement 新古文運動 and is regarded as founder of one of the eight great schools of thought of the Tang and Song dynasties ( 唐宋八大家 ). Zeng Gong was born in Nanfeng 南豐 , Jianchang 建昌 (modern Nanfeng , Jiangxi province). He is said to have wrote Liu lun 六論 when he was only twelve. After the work was praised by Ouyang Xiu , one of the intellectual leaders of the era, Zeng Gong became widely known among literary circles. At the age of eighteen, (in 1037 ) he moved to Yushan county 玉山縣 (in modern Jiangxi) to accompany his father Zeng Yizhan 曾易占 , who had been appointed magistrate there. Whilst in Yushan, he travelled extensively in its hinterlands and wrote You Xinzhou Yushan xiaoyan ji ( 遊信州玉山小岩記 ). The work was divided into five sections. The first describes the geography of Yushan, followed by sections on the caves, rocks etc. Zeng's youthful descriptions show his vivid imagination and literary talent. In his twenties, Zeng Gong travelled widely throughout China, befriending the would be reformer Wang Anshi and later recommending him to Ouyang Xiu. Su Shi ( Simplified Chinese : 苏轼 , Traditional Chinese : 蘇軾 ; pinyin : Sū Shì) ( 1037 - 1101 ) was a writer , poet , artist , calligrapher and statesman of the Song Dynasty , one of the major poets of the Song era. His zi or courtesy name is Zizhan ( 子瞻 ) and his hao or pseudonym Dongpo Jushi ( 東坡居士 , i.e., Resident of Dongpo), and he is often referred to as Su Dongpo ( Simplified Chinese : 苏东坡 , Traditional Chinese : 蘇東坡 ; pinyin : Sū DōngPō).
http://www.metmuseum.org/Works_of_art/director/images/as1973.120.1.L.jpg Summer Mountains , Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), 11th century Attributed to Qu Ding (Chinese, act. ca. 1023–ca. 1056); Inscribed by Qianlong, Emperor of China (Chinese, 1710–1798, r. 1736–1795); Formerly Attributed to Yan Wengui (Chinese, 970–1030) China
Chinese Song dynasty Henan jar China Song Dynasty ceramic 9 in. wide http://www.asianart.com/exhibitions/aany2005/pitcher/1.jpg
Glazed Clay Jar, Song Dynasty (960-1279), Victoria and Albert Museum, London.This deceptively simple form achieves its extraordinary beauty through its subtle variations of warm to cool colors and the dynamic contrast between the bulk of the body of the jar and its diminutive handles. http://instructional1.calstatela.edu/laa/defining_1.html