Period Of Prosperity: The New Dynasties In Ancient China

Regarded as China’s golden age, the Tang Dynasty was a period when China’s culture thrived. There was a multitude of religions during this time, especially in the capital, but the main beliefs were Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism. In addition to the abundant culture, the Tang dynasty government was increasingly powerful. Written examinations for government officials were becoming common, ensuring that officials were well-educated. The location of the capital at Chang’an, a large trade center, also contributed to the success of the dynasty. Chang’an was, in the words of S.A.M Adshead, “A magnet alike for politics, economy, society and intellect. It was the centre of the world order.” Additionally, the Tang dynasty witnessed the first Empress

Long ago in the ancient times of Chinese history there were dynasties. Of the dynasties there was one among the others that was referred to as the golden age for China known as the Tang Dynasty. It is during this Dynasty a rebellion occurred that will forever hurt the Dynasty that leads to its own fall. This rebellion was led by a man named An Lushan that will become known as the An Lushan Rebellion. But even then, the Tang Dynasty had a rich society, economy and government up until its fall.

Throughout the development of Chinese history, dynasties or ruling families, have had major effects on China’s social, political and economic systems. For instance, several notable dynasties include the Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasty. Nevertheless, the sentiment favoring a certain dynasty led to debate between individuals. Thus, several individuals avouch that the Han dynasty had the most profound impact on the development of China, while others argue that it was the Qin dynasty who had a greater effect.

The Tang and Song Empires were two very powerful empires that ruled China after the Han and Sui Dynasties. The Han Dynasty left China fragmented for centuries, and the Sui Dynasty reunified China until the Turks from Inner Asia assassinated the son who ruled. The Tang filled the political vacuum in 618 with emperor Li Shimin (r. 626-649) who extended his power into westward Inner Asia. The Tang kept many Sui governing practices but avoided overcentralization with giving nobles, gentry, and religious establishments power. The Tang Empire fell after the An Lushan and Huang Chao rebellions that left the society homeless, a refugee, or a migrant worker. The empire fell in 907 after a warlord terminated their line. However, the Song Empire had arisen in 960 and paid tribute to the Liao, who controlled the north. The Song Empire aligned with the Jurchens, who ended up creating the Jin Empire, to destroy the Liao capital. The Song Empire was betrayed by the Jurchens and ended up having to pay tribute to them, which some historians refer to as the “Southern Song” period (1127-1279). The Song Empire declined in the year 1126. The Tang and the Song had a variety of economic, political, and social accomplishments, some that they shared, and some that they didn’t. Both the Tang and the Song increased the use of trade, had a change of size of their empires, and had major advancements in technology. Although, the Tang and the Song differed with the growth of Song’s population and its

The Han Dynasty fell because of a rebellion. The people were tired of the tax raises. They didn’t like that they were forced to help build the Great Wall. They definitely didn’t like the property policies; having their land easily taken from them and given to someone richer. The Mauryan Dynasty fell because they kept devaluing the currency; making everything too expensive and it cause inflation. The Gupta Dynasty fell because it was continuously invaded by the White Hun’s. It disintegrated along regional fault lines. After the Gupta Dynasty fell smaller kingdoms were created and dominated India until the Mughal

This began the Tang Dynasty. The Tang armies extended the empire’s reach to the Afghanistan and Tang also repaired the great wall of China.

The stability and reliability of political authority in China, namely a centralized monarchy, differed from Rome’s so-called republic, which provoked rebellion and political chaos due to the local authorities’ focus on expansion and lack of control in the empire. Political stability was dominant feature throughout most of classical China, although times of warring, namely the Era of Warring States (5th to 3rd c. CE) and the Age of Division (3rd to 6th c. CE), did exist. However, the success of the dynastic structure of Chinese governments has been constant for almost the entirety of Chinese history, and brief periods of conflict are insignificant in comparison. The contrast in political leadership is illustrated by how supreme authority was

The traits that define a successful time period in late Imperial China are necessary expansion, unifying the people, and the construction of an effective and incorrupt political structure. The effects of meeting these criteria is sustained influence in following Chinese time periods both short term and long term, as other rulers will benefit from what their predecessors have accomplished, or try to imitate successful policies. As a team, the Kangxi emperor and his successor, the Yongzheng emperor, were able to achieve all of the goals for a prosperous period in Chinese history. Although it was a relatively short period, the Kangxi and Yongzheng emperor’s times on the Qing throne were extremely complementary, and ultimately came together to form the most successful time period in late Imperial China.

We can separate Tang Period into five-part. Tang (618-690), Later Zhou of Empress Wu (690-705), Tang restored (705-755), An Lushan Rebellion (755-863) and Late Tang period (763-907). A lot of people think the glory of China’s Tang Dynasty is a cliché. Why is that? Compared with the political divisions and military unrest in those four centuries, the ruling Li family and loyal officials, at least for the elite, have created an extraordinary period of stability and prosperity. There are many ways to tell whether the dynasty was successful or not. The expansion of power in the provinces allowed the courts in the Tang dynasty to levy sufficient tax revenues with generous cultural support and material expansion. The patronage of religion, the prosperity of the dynasty has made the Tang Dynasty a word known brilliant dynasty and created an unexpected prosperity of the Tang Dynasty’s culture.

China is one of ancient countries still remained on earth, and this country has almost Five thousand years history. During this time period, China had been repeating unified and separated, and wars were never stopped. Everytime China unified as a one country the new dynasty is formed and there are almost twenty dynasties has formed. And some of dynasty could divided with south and north and many small kingdoms. Tang dynasty is one of significant dynasty and widely influenced in Chinese history, because this is one of dynasty that are rich and powerful. Even today, most of chinese people like to call themselves as “Tang People 唐人“. when we ask chinese people anything about the Tang dynasty, people would speak out with several different

The Han dynasty had many issues such as the invasions of the Huns and the Huns threatening the Chinese Empire, which was expanding from the north. China fought for years in order to gain sovereignty in the north and the northwest. Another issue was the death of the first emperor because it created a dash for the throne at that time, (Wang Mang took the throne in AD 9 then killed shortly after in AD 23). Kuang Wu Ti was ruler after Wang and he provided peace to the people of China. He also had success in recovering territories that were lost earlier. Later in the Han period things went bad and it was “plagued with evil” (Chinese Cultural), as different dictators came to power one after another. The empire was then broken up into three different kingdoms of Wei, Shu Han, and Wu. These continued to stand until invaders in north overran them. After that only the Northern Wei Dynasty survived, which was in power from 386 till 534. The disunity ended in 581 because of a general that unified China into the Sui

During the years 1851-1866 there was massive civil war, or as some would consider it, a rebellion in China. This period of turmoil “was not only the most destructive war of the nineteenth century, but likely the bloodiest civil war of all time.” (Platt, 2012) The ruling government was the Qing dynasty, who had been in power since the mid 1600’s. There were widespread problems throughout the country including natural disasters such as “droughts, famines, and floods.” (Robert Worden, 1988) There were a substantial number of lower class citizens who were unhappy with their living conditions and with the Manchu rulers of the Qing dynasty. There was a large gap in economic status between the lower class and the wealthy members of the government. This social tension along with China being defeated militarily by France and Britain lead to a citizen uprising in the region of south China. Known as the Taiping Rebellion, this large scale revolt was fought in “an attempt to create a new Han Chinese dynasty that would unite Christianity and Confucianism.” (Black, 2013) The Taiping Rebellion impacted Chinese history in two main ways: the Chinese lower class learned to fight for social change, which lead to other rebellions, and, at the same time, the war showcased the Chinese government’s intolerance for and ability to thwart societal change.

Dynasties that followed the Tang Dynasty’s collapse were not strong. Only in 1368; a hundred years later when the Ming Dynasty emerged did the power start to strengthen because they ruled without detrimental threats or issues. Qing Dynasty was the last imperial dynasty of China. During the Qing ruling; China was a booming and unwavering country (Ancient Facts, 2017).

In 1911, the world’s oldest monarch, China, collapsed. It had a 4000 year old monarchy composing of more than 400,000,000 kings over time. The disaster was followed by a revolution against the foreign intruders, Manchu, who had ruled China for more than 200 years. During the reign of the Qing dynasty, China had become one of the weaker nations in the world. The Chinese revolution started because of the poor regulations and decision makings of the Qing government in the 19th Century.

Rhoads Murphey describes the history of China history is on the succession of dynasties that ruled it over a period of time until around 1912 when Republic of china was formed before rising to the current People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949. In China, a dynasty was made up of Kings or emperors that came from the same family. They ruled in succession where a king could be inherited by his son or his immediate relatives. Although china’s history is majorly regarded on the basis of dynastic ruling, other small kingdoms were established that ruled different part of china. For example, in 200AD, the fall of great Han dynasty triggered formation of smaller kingdoms all over the china which were later united by a short lived Sui Dynasty that reigned between 580 and 618 AD.