Golden Ages of China
Jenya Christensen and Claire Odegaard
Tang Dynasty
Society
Arts flourished in the Tang dynasty. Poets like Li Po,Tu Fu and Wang Wei were famous.
Invaders adopted civilization. The government built Bureaucracy. Tang Taizong* enlarged the civil service system. Masters trained and recruited Confucian philosophers. Land reforms were built. The government broke up large land holdings and gave it to peasants. Each Adult male got equal land for paying tax. This was the beginning of communism. Schools for males were made. The schools prepared for exams and made a flexible new law code. Armies forced neighboring lands, Vietnam,Tibet and Korea to become tributary states. Turkey tried and failed to invade
*Tang Taizong was a brilliant general,government reformer and the most admired emperor
Geography
Song Dynasty
Society
The Song dynasty was very wealth. This was partially because of the open border policy. The surplus of rice lead to foreign trade. Merchants arrived from,India, Persia and Arabia. Merchants had lowest status. To improve trade government issued paper money. The government was a huge bureaucracy supervised by an aristocratic court. Learning, arts and Gentry Value Education were important in the Song dynasty.They adopted two string fiddle. Peasants worked the land. Several cities over 1,000,000 people. The tallest building highest was 360 feet tall.
Geography
Foot BInding
Foot binding was originally for wealthy. It caught on, every girl did it with an expect peasants who needed to work. Women couldn’t walk without help. Went with Confusions ideals, that women need to stay in the house. Popular dances were made. Silk shoes with lotus flowers were worn. Mothers' goals for daughters was a good marriage.They would started to bind feet at 5 or 6 years old. The process included folding toes under foot to the arch. The front of foot steeply angled. This would forced bones into different positions. This practice was officially banned in 1911.
Work Cited
- 000-1450 CE: China's Golden Age: The Song, the Mongols, and the Ming Voyages | Central Themes and Key Points | Asia for Educators | Columbia University. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2015, from http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/kpct/kp_song.htm
- Tang Dynasty — The Golden Age. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2015, from http://www.ushistory.org/civ/9d.asp
- Song dynasty | Chinese history. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2015, from http://www.britannica.com/topic/Song-dynasty
- McClung Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved December 18, 2015, from http://mcclungmuseum.utk.edu/exhibits/foot-binding/