The Sui Dynasty: The Tang Dynasty

Emperor K’ang-hsi was one of the greatest Chinese emperors of all time. Ruling from 1662 to 1722 he was also one of the longest ruling emperors in Chinese history and for that matter the world. K’ang-hsi brought China to long-term stability and relative wealth after years of war and chaos. Jonathan Spence writes from the eyes of K’ang-hsi getting his information from K’ang-hsi’s own writings. Though a little biased towards himself this book still provides important insight into his mind. Emperor of China is divided into six parts; In Motion, Ruling, Thinking, Growing Old, Sons, and Valedictory.

Qin Shi Huang (or Shi Huangdi) was the First Emperor of a unified China, who ruled from 246 BCE to 210 BCE. In his 35-year reign, he managed to create magnificent and enormous construction projects. He also caused both incredible cultural and intellectual growth, and much destruction within China.

Following the collapse of the Han Dynasty in 220, China declined into an elongated term of division. China was divided and in a time of war, with a lack of leadership. It was only in the Sui Dynasty (589-618) reunited North and South China as one. The Tang (618-906) and Song (960 - 1279) Dynasties that followed created the “Golden Ages of China”. Although the Tang and Song Dynasties existed in a similar time and had a similar economy, there are also many differences between the influential dynasties such as certain aspects of their society and politics.

The Sui dynasty was founded by Yang Jian. Jian was a member of a respected aristocratic family in northern China. (Duiker & Spielvogel, 2009) Yang Jian turned to Daoism and Buddhism to unify the empire. Jian founded monasteries for both

For the Sui dynasty, I would rate it a five out of five because even tho it only lasted 369 years, it was ruled by one person

3. A. One perspective on buddhists adopted by the Tang Dynasty officials was that one of

He left his brother and took a long journey to Chang’an to learn more about Buddhism. He stopped at many different monasteries across China. He felt like all the teachings were the same from his own monastery but their doctrines were different. Xuanzang felt confused by some of the things he had learned. This caused him to travel west to bring back books from the center of Buddhism, which is India. Throughout his journey he faced many hardships that would try to prevent him from what he was trying to do. His biggest hardship would be that he was making an illegal journey. Xuangzang traveled by night with help by other Buddhist monks. He did eventually get caught; however he got caught by another Buddhist who allowed him to continue on his journey. In the next fourteen years he became a teacher every place he went. He settled in a monastery located in the eastern Ganges valley, during that time he studied and copied scriptures and listened to oral teachings. He stayed there for five years. He then continued his journey and went elsewhere. Overall he traveled 15,000 miles within the areas of Buddhism. Xuangzang was asked by an emperor to become a high official but he declined several times and would rather stay a Buddhist monk. Xuanzang then went back home to find out his brother was still a practicing Buddhism. In Gordon’s When Asia Was The World, “Xuanzang spent the rest of his life supervising a team of translators and

There was many dynasties and empires to come about between 200 BCE and 600 CE. One specific dynasty was the Han dynasty. This dynasty was involved in the unification of China. This dynasty was formed by Lia Bang and lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE, with an interruption phase from 9 CE to 23 CE.The Han dynasty was between decentralized and centralized. Han Wudi was the greatest emperor of this dynasty, who pursued centralization and expansion. There was constant attacks from Xiongnu nomads of C. Asia; however, Han Wudi briefly came to control Xiongnu. Wang Mang, the regent for a two year old emperor, took power himself. He tried to redistribute land, but the wealthier people that did not want to get some of their land taken away assassinated him. In the later Han dynasty, emperors manage with struggles to control resentment. Another succession to come about was the Roman empire. The Roman empire started out as a republic, but soon Julius Caesar Seized Rome in 49 B.C.E. Julius Caesar centralized control but was eventually assassinated in 44 B.C.E. After Julius came Octavian, who ran a monarchy that was disguised as a republic. Octavian continued expansion and integration of the empire. There was an extreme amount of poor people; in fact, one third of the population was in slavery. One of the only things that was attempted was giving them bread and circuses to distract them. There was no policy developed for them. The Roman empire went through many rulers. Although these

Founded in 618 A.D. by former Sui general, Li Yuan, later known as Emperor Gaozu, the Tang dynasty started with a six year reunification battle for control. He established a state with a capital at Chang’an that retained most Sui practices such as the tribute system along with Civil Service examinations with additional embellishments. The Civil Service Exam was a major improvement from preceding dynasties since officials had to have a scholarly knowledge of Confucianism to work in governance opposed to the previous favoritism in electing positions. In addition, another powerful ruler, Empress Wu, improved the period as she was the only woman to ever rule China and did so in a manner that ruthlessly established her capability to rule, establishing a precedent for feminism to arise. Other notable achievements of this time include the construction of the Grand Canal, inventions of gunpowder as well as printing on wooden blocks, and most importantly territorial expansion. Along with territorial expansion came economic benefits to

Yang Jian was one of the many emperors in China that enjoyed power and influenced many great accomplishments

Particular that of the Sui Empire and Emperor Yang, who ruled from 606 to 618, whom is known from the completion of the Grand Canal, the reconstruction of the great wall and his greatest territorial expansion. The Sui dynasty was extremely short, but in terms of culture, it represented a transition between the preceding ages that led to many cultural developments. Many of these developments were later expanded and consolidated during the Tang dynasty. Developments such as the Great Wall of China, the Great Canal and the political system, which was initial change by the Tang’s except of the highest level of hierarchy. Additional cultural advances of the Sui dynasty included religion and literature, specifically those examples Buddhism and

The first of the three is Emperor Wen, whose personal name was Yang Jian and was also known as the Kai Huang Emperor. He reigned between 581 and 604 AD. Emperor Wen was the father-in-law of the previous emperor of Northern Zhou. Upon his death, Emperor Wen seized the throne and established the Sui Dynasty. Emperor Wen was born in 541 AD, and died in 604 AD. He is known for reunifying and reorganizing China after 300 years of instability. He conquered southern China, which was divided into numerous small kingdoms. In addition, he broke the power of the Turks in the northern part of the country.

Sui Dynasty is a great time period for Buddhist art, because emperor Wen(Yang Jian) unified China

Xuanzang's work, the Great Tang Records on the Western Regions, is the longest and most detailed account of the countries of Central and South Asia that has been bestowed upon posterity by a Chinese Buddhist pilgrim. While his main purpose was to obtain Buddhist books and to receive instruction on Buddhism while in India, he ended up doing much more. He has preserved the records of political and social aspects of the lands he visited.

Sui Dynasty (589 – 618 CE) was a short lived Imperial Chinese dynasty, preceded by the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It unified China for the first time after nearly four centuries of north-south division. It was followed by the Tang Dynasty. Founded by Emperor Wen of Sui, the capital was Chang’an. His reign saw the reunification of Southern and Northern China and the construction of the Grand Canal, connecting the Yellow and Yangtze River for easy trading. The canal was used to carry rice and other agricultural products. Wendi was the first emperor to build a centralized government, created legal codes (social security);