The Tang dynasty

Question 1

Early Tang (618–626)

Answer 1

• When Gaozu became emperor (reigned 618–626), he was still only one among the contenders for control of the empire of the Sui
• the Tang had to contend with three principal rival forces: the Sui remnants commanded by Wang Shichong at Luoyang, the rebel Li Mi in Henan, the rebel Dou Jiande in Hebei, and Yuwen Huaji, who had assassinated the previous Sui emperor Yangdi and now led the remnants of the Sui’s southern armies.
• At the end of 621 Dou’s partisans in the northeast again rebelled under Liu Heita and recaptured most of the northeast. He was finally defeated by a Tang army under the crown prince Jiancheng at the beginning of 623.
• Liu Wuzhou in far northern Shanxi, who had been a constant threat since 619, was finally defeated and killed by his former Turkish allies in 622.
• After a decade of war and disorder, the empire was completely pacified and unified under the Tang house
• structure of the new central administration resembled that of Wendi’s time, with its ministries, boards, courts, and directorates.
• Gaozu also continued the pattern of local administration established under the Sui and maintained the strict control exercised by the central government over provincial appointments.
• Local government in early Tang times had a considerable degree of independence, but each prefecture was in direct contact with the central ministries.
• Land distribution followed the equal-allocation system used under the northern dynasties and the Sui.
• tax system based on this land allocation system was also much the same as that under the Sui and preceding dynasties.

Question 2

The period of Tang power (626–755)

Answer 2

• Two of Gaozu’s sons were rivals for the succession: the crown prince Jiancheng and Li Shimin
• In a military coup, Li Shimin murdered Jiancheng and another of his brothers and forced his father to abdicate in his favour. He succeeded to the throne in 626 and is known by his temple name, Taizong.
• The reign of Taizong (626–649), known traditionally as the “era of good government of Zhenguan,” was not notable for innovations in administration.
• use of the examination system on a large scale
• centralized form of government through prefectures and counties staffed by members of a unified bureaucracy
• country was divided into 10 provinces, which were not permanent administrative units but “circuits” for occasional regional inspections of the local administrations
• empress Wuhou managed in 655 to have the legitimate empress, Wang, deposed and herself appointed in her place.
• her success was largely the result of her skill in intrigue, her dominant personality, and her utter ruthlessness.
• bureaucracy was rapidly inflated to a far-greater size than in Taizong’s time
• When Gaozong died in 683, he was succeeded by the young Zhongzong, but Wuhou was made empress dowager and immediately took control over the central administration.
• Xuanzong’s reign (712–756) was the high point of the Tang dynasty.
• After 720 a large-scale re-registration of the population greatly increased the number of taxpayers and restored state control over vast numbers of unregistered families.
• growth in the power of the military commanders.

Question 3

Late Tang (755–907)

Answer 3

• rebellion of An Lushan in 755 marked the beginning of a new period
• An Lushan himself was murdered by a subordinate early in 757, but the rebellion was continued, first by his son and then by one of his generals, Shi Siming, and his son Shi Chaoyi; it was not finally suppressed until 763.
• Hebei was divided into four new provinces, leadership was decided within each province, and the central government in its appointments merely approved faits accomplis
• In northern China (apart from the semiautonomous provinces of the northeast, which were a special category) most provincial governments were military, their institutions closely modeled on those set up on the northern frontier under Xuanzong
• In central and southern China, however, the provincial government developed into a new organ of the civil bureaucracy.
• Under Xianzong (reigned 805–820) the Tang regained a great deal of its power.
• restoration of central authority involved more than military dominance. It was backed by a series of institutional measures designed to strengthen the power of the prefects and county magistrates, as against their provincial governors, by restoring to them the right of direct access to central government and giving them some measure of control over the military forces quartered within their jurisdiction.
• balance of power within the central government had also been considerably changed

Question 4

Cultural developments

Answer 4

• Tang emperors officially supported Daoism because of their claim to be descended from Laozi, but Buddhism continued to enjoy great favour and lavish imperial patronage through most of the period.
• In 843–845 the emperor Wuzong, a fanatical Daoist, proceeded to suppress Buddhism.
• A monastic community was free of all obligations to the state. It was able to hold property without the process of division by inheritance that made the long-term preservation of individual and family fortunes almost impossible in Tang times.
• In literature the greatest glory of the Tang period was its poetry.

Question 5

Social change

Answer 5

• By the late Tang period a series of social changes had begun that did not reach their culmination until the 11th century. The most important of these was the change in the nature of the ruling class
• Although the old aristocracy retained a grip on political power until very late in the dynasty, its exclusiveness and hierarchical pretensions were rapidly breaking down. It was finally extinguished as a separate group in the Wudai (Five Dynasties) period (907–960), when the old strongholds of aristocracy in the northeast and northwest became centres of bitter military and political struggles.
• there was a return to semiservile relationships at the base of the social pyramid.
• new provincial officials and local elites were able to establish their fortunes as local landowning gentry largely because after 763 the government ceased to enforce the system of state-supervised land allocation
• 8th and 9th centuries were a period of growth and prosperity
• Tang times there had been only two great metropolitan markets, in Chang’an and Luoyang. Now every provincial capital became the centre of a large consumer population of officials and military, and the provincial courts provided a market for both staple foodstuffs and luxury manufactures.
• increasing use of money and silver also affected official finance and accounting.
• In the late Tang many officials began to invest their money (and official funds entrusted to them) in commercial activities.