Standing Female Attendant. Set of decorative belt plaques. Dish in the shape of a leaf. Phoenix headed amphora. Seated Buddha Vairocana. Horse and rider. Wine cup with two ducks. Textile with floral medallion. Citation Department of Asian Art. See on MetPublications Whitfield, Susan. Second Century B. Second—First Century B. Related Essays Han Dynasty B.
Central and North Asia, — A. China, — A. Himalayan Region, — A. Japan, — A. Korea, — A. Patricia Buckley Ebrey. China Condensed: Years of History and Culture. Ong Siew Chey. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present. The Ming Dynasty ruled China from to A.
Known for its trade expansion to the outside world that established cultural ties with the West, the Ming Dynasty is also remembered for its drama, literature and world-renowned The Han Dynasty ruled China from B. Though tainted by deadly dramas within the royal court, it is also known for its promotion of Confucianism as the state religion and opening the Silk Road trade route to Europe, The Shang Dynasty is the earliest ruling dynasty of China to be established in recorded history, though other dynasties predated it.
The Shang ruled from to B. They were known for their advances in math, astronomy, artwork and The Qin Dynasty established the first empire in China, starting with efforts in B. The empire existed only briefly from to B. In , peasants digging a well near the city of Xian, in Shaanxi province, China, stumbled upon a cache of life-size, terracotta figures of soldiers at what was later determined to be the burial complex of the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shi Huang B.
The Qing Dynasty was the final imperial dynasty in China, lasting from to It was an era noted for its initial prosperity and tumultuous final years, and for being only the second time that China was not ruled by the Han people.
Born Zhu Yuanzhang in and orphaned at age 16, the man who would found the Ming dynasty survived by begging before becoming a novice at a Buddhist monastery. When his monastery was burned down a few years later during a conflict It is a matter of life and death, a road either to safety or to ruin.
Hence it is a subject of inquiry which can on no account be neglected. The Great Wall of China is an ancient series of walls and fortifications, totaling more than 13, miles in length, located in northern China.
Perhaps the most recognizable symbol of China and its long and vivid history, the Great Wall was originally conceived by Emperor Qin Live TV. This Day In History. History Vault. Beginning of the Tang Dynasty At the beginning of the sixth century A. Recommended for you. Han Yu — —who Arthur F.
Although his contemporaries found him crude and obnoxious, he foreshadowed the later persecution of Buddhism in the Tang, as well as the revival of Confucian theory with the rise of Neo-Confucianism of the Song dynasty.
Nonetheless, Chan Buddhism gained popularity amongst the educated elite. The Tang dynasty also officially recognized various foreign religions. In , the Nestorian Stele was created in order to honor the achievements of their community in China. The stele contains a long inscription in Chinese with Syriac glosses, composed by the cleric Adam, probably the metropolitan of Beth Sinaye. A Christian monastery was established in Shaanxi province where the Daqin Pagoda still stands, and inside the pagoda there is Christian-themed artwork.
Although the religion largely died out after the Tang, it was revived in China following the Mongol invasions of the 13th century.
From the outset, religion played a role in Tang politics. People bidding for office would have monks from Buddhist temples pray for them in public in return for cash donations or gifts if the person was selected. Before the persecution of Buddhism in the 9th century, Buddhism and Taoism were accepted side by side, and Emperor Xuanzong r. At the same time Xuanzong exalted the ancient Laozi by granting him grand titles and writing commentary on him, set up a school to prepare candidates for examinations on Taoist scriptures, and called upon the Indian monk Vajrabodhi — to perform Tantric rites to avert a drought in the year While religion played a role in politics, politics also played a role in religion.
Although the monastery was generous in donations, Emperor Xuanzong issued a decree abolishing their treasury on grounds that their banking practices were fraudulent. He collected their riches and distributed the wealth to various other Buddhist monasteries and Taoist abbeys, and used it to repair statues, halls, and bridges in the city.
Scholar-officials, also known as the Chinese literati , were civil servants appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day governance, and came into special prominence during the Tang dynasty.
The first half of the Tang dynasty was largely a period of progress and stability. The scholar-officials were schooled in calligraphy and Confucian texts. Since only a limited number could become court or local officials, the majority of scholar-officials stayed in villages or cities as social leaders. As a class, these scholars claimed to represent morality and virtue. The district magistrate, who by regulation was not allowed to serve in his home district, depended on local scholars for advice and for carrying out projects, giving them power to benefit themselves and their clients.
The imperial examinations were a civil service examination system to select scholar-officials for the state bureaucracy in imperial China. Although there were imperial exams as early as the Han dynasty, the system became the major path to office only in the mid-Tang dynasty, and remained so until its abolition in Since the exams were based on knowledge of the classics and literary style, not technical expertise, successful candidates, and even those who failed, were generalists who shared a common language and culture.
This common culture helped to unify the empire and the ideal of achievement by merit gave legitimacy to imperial rule.
Imperial exam results: Candidates gathering around the wall where the results are posted. The increased reliance on the exam system was in part responsible for the Tang dynasty shifting from a military aristocracy to a gentry class of scholar-bureaucrats.
The entire premise of the scholarly meritocracy was based on mastery of the Confucian classics. This had important effects on Chinese society. Theoretically, this system would result in a highly meritocratic ruling class, with the best students running the country.
The examinations gave many people the opportunity to pursue political power and honor, and thus encouraged serious pursuit of formal education. Since the system did not formally discriminate based on social status, it provided an avenue for upward social mobility regardless of age or social class. Once their political futures were secured by success in the examinations, high-ranking officials were often tempted to corruption and abuse of power.
Moreover, the relatively low status of military professionals in Confucian society discouraged similar efficiency and meritocracy within the military. Shown without curtains or other furnishings. Up until that point, the rulers of the Tang dynasty were all male members of the Li family. Wu Zetian was exceptional; a woman not of the Li family, she came to occupy the seat of the emperor in an official manner in , and even before that she had begun to stretch her power within the imperial courts behind the scenes.
In , Wu Zetian graduated forty-four candidates with the jinshi degree, and during one seven-year period the annual average of exam takers graduated with a jinshi degree was greater than fifty-eight persons per year.
Wu lavished favors on the newly graduated jinshi degree-holders, increasing the prestige associated with this path of attaining a government career. Wu thus developed a nucleus of elite bureaucrats useful from the perspective of control by the central government.
After the difficult suppression of the An Lushan Rebellion, the jiedushi increased their powers and accelerated the disintegration of the Tang dynasty. The Tang dynasty, established in CE, after experiencing its golden age entered its long decline, beginning with the An Lushan Rebellion by Sogdian general An Lushan. The rebellion and subsequent disorder resulted in a huge loss of life and large-scale destruction. It significantly weakened the Tang dynasty and led to the loss of the Western Regions.
The power of the jiedushi, or provincial military governors, increased greatly after imperial troops crushed the rebels, taking administrative power away from the scholar-officials. The discipline of these generals also decayed as their power increased and the resentment of common people against the incapacity of the government grew, and their grievances exploded into several rebellions during the mid-9th century. Eventually the jiedushi ushered in the political division of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, a period marked by continuous infighting among the rival kingdoms, dynasties, and regional regimes established by rival jiedushi.
Many impoverished farmers, tax-burdened landowners, and merchants, as well as many large salt smuggling operations, formed the base of the anti-government rebellions of this period. The An Lushan Rebellion and its aftermath greatly weakened the centralized bureaucracy of the Tang dynasty, especially in regards to its perimeters. Indeed, some were even given their own garrisons to command. Political and economic control of the northeast region became intermittent or was lost, and the emperor became a sort of puppet, set to do the bidding of the strongest garrison.
Furthermore, the Tang government also lost most of its control over the Western Regions due to troop withdrawal to central China to attempt to crush the rebellion and deal with subsequent disturbances. Continued military and economic weakness resulted in further erosions of Tang territorial control during the ensuing years, particularly in regard to the Uighur and Tibetan empires.
By Chinese control over the Tarim Basin area was completely lost. The political decline was paralleled by economic decline, including large Tang governmental debt to Uighur money lenders.
In addition to being politically and economically detrimental to the empire, the An Lushan Rebellion also affected the intellectual culture of the Tang dynasty. Many intellectuals had their careers interrupted, giving them time to ponder the causes of the unrest.
Some lost faith in themselves, concluding that a lack of moral seriousness in intellectual culture had been the cause of the rebellion. Although the rebellion was defeated by the Tang, the dynasty never recovered from that crucial blow, weakening it for future military powers to take over. There were also groups of bandits, the size of small armies, that ravaged the countryside in the last years of the Tang.
These bandits smuggled illicit salt, ambushed merchants and convoys, and even besieged several walled cities. Zhu Wen, originally a salt smuggler who had served under the rebel Huang, surrendered to Tang forces.
For helping to defeat Huang, he was granted a series of rapid military promotions. In the Tang dynasty was ended when Zhu Wen, now a military governor, deposed the last emperor of Tang, Emperor Ai of Tang, and took the throne for himself.
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