Tang+and+Song+Dynasties


 * __Primary Source Analysis__**

__Document: Ties That Bind: Paths to Power__

He’s appealing to a high official in order to “lick” his way into the imperial bureaucracy, which means his intent was clearly to persuade using other means/ give himself more favorable attributes. = bias || And in the Imperial bureaucracy during the Tang and Song Eras || What do we know about where this was created? What have we learned about this topic? Society that may be relevant? || The Song/Tang empires focused on bureaucracy, a shift in politics, because of previous lack causing war and separation. This new system allowed for people to achieve higher class, and the use of a testing system gave the officials a way to indicate which and which is not worthy. Usually a person in the higher class status as a politician would weedle their relatives into the system as well, but other than that the system was rigid and provided plenty of benefits to those who achieve it. || Who is the intended audience? How might they receive this? – quotes to support your claims? || The audience is a higher up official in the imperial bureaucracy, the nephew of the prime minister. He is General Li and had taken down rivaling armies, quenching rebellions. And they might receive this with praise, and sympathy Because Wu Bao tries to show General Li that he is worthy, and great, and that he is not worth his time: “you have made use of your outstanding talents … you high ability … he unites might forces” Wu Bao makes it clear that he admires him, to an extent and wants to gain his favor, which is when his kairotic moment comes and he says “I am but poorly fit” General Li can interpret this in several ways but one most possible one is that he sympathizes with Wu Bao and clears obligated to leak him into a job || What is the purpose of this document? Read between the lines, support claims with a quote || Wu Bao’s job commission is about to end, and soon he will not have a job. Plus he isn’t as smart as many other men who have taken the tests and pass. He is “but poorly fit to be selected for an official post” and he even begs General Li to “grant [him] some small salary, and a share however slight in your deeds of merit” || Support with quotes || The main idea of this text specifically shows the way people meedle with the political system in order to get a higher up job. It can be considered corrupt, but it also shows how there were different ways to gaining power, and not all men had to be smart and be able to be tested academically and pass. But basically the main idea of Wu Bao’s letter is to gain power through asking/begging/appealing to a higher official to hand him a job. “if by your boundless favor I could take part in this triumphal progress, even as a member of the rear-most company, the day would live engraved on my memory” shows the featured idea of gaining this power in return for x and because y is not so much qualified. || How does this relate to the big picture? What can it tell us as historians? Relate to ESPIRIT if possible || This goes back to politics, and social classes. The letter was addressed to a high official, which shows there was some sort of outside system to get people into the bureaucracy though it may not necessarily be right. It shows that the political structure wasn’t even that rigid, because people still weedled themselves in, but it also shows a development, a reason for political decline, as seen through many other civilization, and that is through corrupt practices of gaining power. If General Li chooses to accept, then whose to say officials just like him have not either? There are many ways to power during this Chinese Tang dynasty, and asking for it was one of those ways. ||
 * Author – Who created this? What do we know about the author? What might influence their opinions? || A Tang Author: Wu Bao
 * **Place** – Where and when was it created - || Created during the Tang Dynasty
 * **Prior Knowledge**
 * **Audience**
 * **Reason for Creation**
 * **The Main Idea**
 * **Significance**

· Established garnaries – held grain · Large land owners and poor peasants were taxed alike · Taxed portion of their crops to keep ganaries filled · Surplus of crops were brought to the market · Silk road routes were reopened and more protected · Paper money/ banks reduced robbery · Xuanzong let empire fall into economic distress _______________________________________ ||  · Bureaucracy flourished · Many bureaucrats to have high pay with little to do · Scholar-gentry classs very economically secure · Urbanization the prreasants started to flee to the south were agriculture was favored ______________________________ ||  · Chinese would trade overseas instead of having other people come to them; traded in ships called junks · Chinese cities would be filled with shops ________________________________ || 6 sections of ministries were split into government power expanding and being powerful ||  elected officials = governors weakened government b/c govoners were from another part of the coutnry military/leaders from too much power regional powers gain too much authority district - provincial -- imperial || same bureaucracy same ministry of rites except that the bureaucracy in the song was less strict causing curved jinshi infiltrating the system || science and literature > omnk yixing //Diamond Sutra// first chinese book made with a printing press known for the Tang Poems > based on history and fansiful stories || confucian ideals and principles studies taughtdaoism and cofucianism over buddhism
 *  · Wendi won support by lowering taxes
 * revived BUR > ministry of rites >jinshi >empower scholar gentry class
 * dugong -> wooden timbers show architectural styles

|| China's Renassance -> rebith of europe lol Dx civil service exams to develop intellectual link between political power canals - new trading routes and revival of texts

|| confucianism = political power budhhism = peasent appeal = civil appeal || neo-cofucianism -> new form of religious > revivial of ancient texts and cofucianism teaching merged buddhism and daoism || With each dynasty there's a difference in continuity based o nthe religios period between each dynasty More buddhist and Daoist and Confucianism than Christians and Muslims Buddhism show simliarities between each dynasty, travel through time || more people assasinated rather than inherit naturally more tribal connection such as the liao dynasty in Manchuria b/c rivalry in the Song Dynasty openly presucuted buddhist religion introduction with nomads gave military power to take away chinese power in constant conflicts Neo-cconfucianism was leading religion put more focus on chinese culture created links between the dominance of china rather than open to outside traditions neo confucianism kept sending stuff out rather than bringing things in || architecture repreasetned social mobiloity gunpowder and the stretch of the great canal fireworkds odometer advancement in navigational technology pagodas represented the higher class movabnle press = flying money = economic increase || developed more gunpowder, abacus to colelct tax - flying money printing press coal kites || dikes and dams junks as ships wheelbarrow to show moreconomic popurtunity ||
 * Buddhism was attacked by confucist and daoist b/c religious fights
 * ||  || Removed power such as Wendi = marriage
 * Metal working - shows bronze and skill in metalwork = prevalance in buddhism

There are overt differences between each dynasty, such as different political behaviors, expansionist ideals, and religious identification, but that is what makes each dynasty work. The Tang dynasty (618-907) can often be associated with the revival of the Scholar-Gentry system, the period of expansion into nomadic lands, and the change back into Confucianism and not Buddhism. The Song dynasty on the other hand (960-1279) can be associated with the development of Flying Money, the advocating of Neo-confucianism, and a decline in the bureaucracy. In the Tang, they focused more on expanding boundaries west, and east, into Korean borders and also into Afghanistan. This expansion not only weakened the power centrally, but also gave rise to a functioning provincial government that compounded with the declining system of political power had brought disorder into the central authority and caused the Tang to fall. But because of this, the succeeding dynasty, the Song, felt as though it was necessary to remove power from local military leaders, thus creating a more central government, or so they thought. It is also important to note that it was during the Tang dynasty that re-introduced the scholar-gentry system, aka a bureaucratic system by which the Chinese can utilize. The difference though between the Tang and the Song in this category is that the Song had been too lenient in their claims for power. The Tang had less scholar-gentry jinshi than the Song, resulting in more reverence and more stable government jobs, but the Song had way too many jinshi working as political leaders, which resulted in the use of elected officials from foreign regions, creating less stable local authority and central authority, which contributed to the downfall by the Mongol Leader. But when we look back on fundamentally similar traits between the Tang and the Song, we can see the continuity of Confucianism as the dominant religion, and also similar social hierarchy and classifications between intellectual rebirth. Confucianism had started to displace much of Buddhist appeal, partially because of the rise of the scholar-gentry system, which need an advocate against civil disobedience. And the development of confucinist thoughts can be tracked from the Tang straight into the Song where it was reverted into Neo-Confucinism, the belief of confucinism except there was more pivotal focus on the Chinese culture and the belief that Chinese systems were the best and most ideal way of survival. There was also the similar belief that social standards for classes were to ranked between age, class, and gender. There was no fundamental change between the social classification, and neither was there a change in continuity of intellectual rebirth which during both dynasties emphasized on the architectural structures and advocating of enter the political system through studying and recitation and practice of medicine, art, and political examples. Continuities and basic discontinuities had been some of the most practical way to influence the Chinese dynasties.