Hist 387_10 The Sui (589 - 618) and Tang Dynasties (618 - 907)

The Sui Dynasty

After centuries of disunity following the relative stabile rule of the Tuoba-Wei the first emperor of the Sui dynasty, Yang Jian (r. 581-604) a general of Chinese and Turk descent,  unified the country again. Sui Wendi is often compared to Qin Shihuangdi: 

- His short rule followed strict legalist ideas.
- He was known as a workaholic who tended to loose his temper easily.
- With his eagerness to consolidate power, he first unified the north, then the south of the country.

Map of the Sui territory

Political strategies under Sui Wendi

In the process of unification of north and south Wendi used several strategies to facilitate power consolidation:

• Buddhism
  - He used the religion to create unity as a base for his rule. Imitating the Indian King Ashoka (r. 209 - 232 BCE.) Wendi created a national network of monasteries in order to gain recognition as a model ruler of compassion and wisdom.
• Law code
  - The installation of a law code created a certain level of equality for all areas of the re-united territory and levels of society.
• Tax system
  - He restored the tax system, and re-established a central government oriented at the Han administration which laid the foundation for the institutions that were further developed in the Tang:

  The government was headed by the emperor. Three Dukes and Three Instructors functioned as his advisers, but their positions were less powerful than those of the The Three Ministers heading the next level of bureaucracy, the Chancellor, the Bureau of State Affairs, and the Imperial Secretariat were more influential than the Dukes and Instructors.

  The Bureau of State Affairs had six ministries as subdivisions:

  •  Personnel

  •  Revenues

  •  Rites

  •  Military

  •  Justice

  •  Public Works

  In addition the Censorate was founded and several offices of inspection as well as the “University” (guozijian) for the sons of the aristocratic elite were established.

• Building cctivities:

  Like Qin Shihuangdi, Sui Wendi became famous for his building activities.
  - He reinforced the Great Wall and built impressive palaces.
  - The capital was established according to cosmological principles in Chang’an (then called Daxing), the city which later during the Tang became the biggest city of the world.
  - Wendi envisioned to link the waterways of northern and central China, a project that was finally executed and finished by his son (whom he had married to a southern woman!!).

• Examination system
  In order to recruit capable and reliable officials from all areas of the country he demanded that every circuit should send three candidates to the official examinations (starting in 587).
  
  Most famous quote: "I may be the son of heaven, but I have no freedom!" (referring to the strict rule of his wife, a well-educated, puritan lady of the northern artistocracy.
  

Sui Yangdi's rule

Yang Guang, the second emperor of the Sui (Emperor Yangdi, r. 604-167) like his father became famous for building activities.
- He established his capital in the city of Luoyang, and he linked pre-existing waterways to the Grand Canal which connected the Northern plains of the Yellow River and the Southern rice producing areas close to the Yangzi River.  With a width of 40m and a length of 2.500 km it later became a water transportation system and supply network that remained unmatched in Chinese history. It helped to fill the grain storages throughout the country.

Map of the Grand Canal

On the Grand Canal

Buddhist caves from the Sui Dynasty

The Fall of the Sui Dynasty

-The 29 years of the reign of the Sui ended when again military campaigns against Vietnam, at the northern border and against Korea resulted in discontent and rebellion within the Chinese population. Yangdi’s was killed in battle and finally Li Yuan, a general related to the imperial clan of the Sui and also of mixed Chinese and Turk ancestry, was the successful winner among the contenders for power.

- One of the few emperors who found himself in a conflict between his loyalty to the previous dynasty and his conviction that a new rule was inevitable, he founded the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The Tang Dynasty (618-907): The Golden, Cosmopolitan Age of Chinese Civilization and the Final Period of ' Rule of the Aristocrats'

• Due to the praise in traditional Chinese historiography to this day the Tang remains the very symbol of Chinese high culture:
  - Military expansion and political grandeur,
  - the cosmopolitan capital of Chang’an, which was the biggest city in the world at the time, where all luxuries known were available,
  - and a centralized state with institutions that should prevail and influence the political order of the neighboring states of Vietnam, Korea, and Japan, contributed to the legacy of the Tang.

 Map of Tang China

- Although Li Yuan, the founder of the Tang, was a popular emperor, his rule was short: It only lasted from 618 to 626. His popularity was based on his habit not to kill his defeated opponents. Instead he tried to integrate them into his political system and had mercy for the soldiers of his enemies. [He acted somewhat similar to the Zhou kings of antiquity who integrated members of the former ruling house of the Shang into their political system.]

Tang emperor Taizong (r. 626-649)

Li Yuan's sons, the Tang princes, competed for the succession to the throne while their father was still in power.

Blackmailing and jealousy between the three brothers led to a barbaric act committed by Li Shimin: The second son and most successful military leader in the family killed his older brother and heir apparent as well as their younger brothers. Subsequently, Li Yuan abdicated and left the throne to Li Shimin.

Successful as he was, Chinese historiography describes Li Shimin as a man of education. He was well read in the Confucian Classics, historiographical sources, had practiced calligraphy, and was a devout Buddhist.
Once in power he seems to have tried to change the records of the palace historians in order to avoid that the beginning of his rule would be associated with the murder of his brothers forever. In this he was not entirely successful.  

Li Shimin is also described as a tireless worker and after a few years of trying to gain fame for himself as a model ruler according to Confucian standards, he fell back into the behaviour of the Sui emperors and started extensive building activities. It was under his rule that the capital Chang’an became the famous metropolis it was to remain throughout history.

Map of Tang Chang'an

The layout of Tang Chang'an was a rectangular grid, with streets running in North-South and East-West direction in equal distance to each other.

Residential quarters and the two central markets
- the western international market with its offers of commodities from the silkroad, its hostels, restaurants, and brothels,
- and the eastern market which offered local products and supplied the households of the officials with everyday goods such as clothing and food as well as paper, brushes, ink, as well as the winehouses and courtesan quarters etc.-
were arranged in walled quarters.

Opening hours of the markets were regulated and a market overseer controlled the prices. There was a nightly curfew and residents who did not return to their wards in time faced closed ward gates. When caught they were punished severely. Exemptions from the curfew were made only for physicians on their way to a patient as well as for members of the Buddhist clergy.

The Tang government

In the Tang the system of centralized government institutions became more elaborate than that of the Sui. Based on the Sui model the Censorate became even more powerful than before by having the right of reporting directly to the emperor and remonstrate with the emperor when the officials felt it to be necessary.

Foreign envoys were frequent visitors to the Tang court. They came from Japan, Persia, Byzanz, the Korean state of Silla, and the Sassanids.

- The Tang Emperors were patrons of institutions of higher education, like the Hanlin Academy, the most influential academy of China which was founded in the Tang.
- Editions of the Classics were established as the basic knowledge for the participation in the examination system with written exams. [The exams were aiming at a high level of objectivity in grading: Every student was given a number and his exam papers were copied by a clerk and marked with the assigned number. After the papers were graded, numbers and names were matched again before the results were announced publicly. ] This system became established in the Tang, was further developed in the Song (906-1279) and remained throughout Chinese, Korean, and Japanese history the most important selection process for the appointment of officials. But in this early stage only about 10 % of the officials were recruited for office in accordance with their merits. 90% were recommended for an official position.

The Tang Law Code

Based on the law code established by the Sui rulers, the Tang law code was revised and supplemented, a process that would be continued every 10 to 15 years during the Tang.
The law code became so prominent among neighboring states, that Vietnam, Korea, and Japan used it as a model for their own purposes.

The code left little discretion for the magistrate. Yet it remained a combination of Confucian and legalist ideas: Punishments varied according to social status, age, sex, and mental and physical condition of the violators.

-1. Imperial relatives and high officials were privileged.
-2. Commoners
-3. 'inferior people' bondsmen and slaves

Reasons for leniency in punishment:

1. pregnancy
2. deafness / blindness
3. vision limited to one eye
4. tumors
5. muteness
6. being a dwarf
7. deformations of the spine

The Position of Women in the Tang

Women of the upper classes enjoyed considerable liberties in Tang society. They were involved through their clan membership in political decisions: Wu Zetian, originally consort of Tang emperor Gaozong (r. 650-683) became the (only) empress of China (r. 690-705). Though she was treated with scorn by the Confucian officials, she managed to conduct a rather successful land reform. With a skill and ruthlessnes that matched her male predecessors well she consolidated her power successfully. Her reforms preapred the reign of Emperor Xuanzong which should become the celebrated "Golden Age".

Empress Wu set up a reform program of 12 steps:

1. strengthening agriculture
2. strengthening sericulture
3. reducing taxes and labor service obligations
4 . putting a halt to military expansionist campaigns
5 . employing the 'rule by virtue of the Way' (daode)
6 . abolishing lavish adornments in construction projects
7 . abolishing construction projects that used labor service wasteful
8 . demand of study of the Daodejing by imperial princes and dukes
9 . extending the mourning period for a mother to three years
10 . facilitating memoranda to be sent directly to the throne
11. better salaries for municipal officials above rank 8
12. promotion of officials who had served for a long period

Women at the time engaged in writing poetry, they also rode horses, played polo, and traveled.


Tang ladies dressed in the fashion of Yang Guifei

Wu Zetian supported Buddhism on a large scale. Just like many emperors before her she became a patron of Buddhist temples. The Buddhist statutes of Longmen and the famous caves of Dunhuang are a testimony for the tremendous acceptance Buddhism received.

Reliquary from the underground palace of Famen Temple; gilded silver, decorated with the Buddhist protective deities of the four directions (h 23,5 cm, w. 20,2 cm, w. 699 g).

This bowl and other precious objects were found in the underground palace of the Famen temple pagoda which was destroyed during an earthquake were donations made by Tang emperors when the temple was built.


'Secret-color' (mise) Porcelain

The Tang was the period when due to Central Asian influence, or better, the due to the influence of skilled artisans on the silkroad, objects made from gold and silver like the reliquary shown above became popular.

Map of the silkroads

The silkroad functioned as a route of exchange for goods and ideas were ex- and imported. Buddhist scripts and iconography in the arts came from India and the states along the silkroad, spices, and medicines came from India, polo, glass and silver objects were imported from Persia, horses and furs came from Central Asia.

China's exports via the silkroad consisted of silk, porcelain, and artisans who mastered papermaking and metalworks.

Yang Guifei mounting her horse




Yang Guifei dancing for the emperor

Dancing horse of the Tang


Foreign hunter

Orchestra on the back of a Tang camel

Silver plate with a golden Qilin, symbol of virtue