Similarities Between Tang And Song Dynasty

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At the end of the disunited and chaotic environment led by the Han dynasty, China entered an era of preeminence in 589 C.E. This wave of China’s self restructuring followed a similar pattern as the country experienced in the 3rd century B.C.E. under the Qin (221 – 206 B.C.E.) and early Han (202 B.C.E. – 220 C.E.) (Judge & Langdon, 2012). Between 589 and 1279, China went through the phases of reunification, triumph, turmoil and resurgence and the key sequential contributors to each of these phases were the Sui dynasty, the Tang dynasty and the Song dynasty. The Sui dynasty was a short lived (29 years) yet a transformational period in this era that spanned from 589 to 618 marking the beginning of the restoration and reunification process of…show more content…
Taizong came to power at the age of 26 by killing his two older brothers and forcing his father to abdicate the throne. Taizong became a legendary hero of the time among the people as he accomplished political success by forcing northern Nomads to become his vassals, by invading Central Asia and conquering Turkistan. He also contributed to the social and economic success by promoting education and religious toleration, patronizing the arts and revitalizing the civil service. Another successful contributor to the Tang dynasty in the political and socio-economic perspective was one of Taizong’s former concubines Wu Zhao who ruled as Empress Wu where she ruled from 660 to 705 (indirectly as a regent and directly as an empress) becoming the first and only women to bear the title of Emperor/Empress (Lu, 2014). While most Confucian historians (predominantly male) considered her as ingrate opportunist, her contributions promoted economic and political prosperity by her granting of various tax relief, improving the civil service, fomenting and championing military expansion, and decreasing the power of old nobility. After the death of Empress Wu, one of her grandsons claimed the rule as Emperor Xuanzong who reigned from 713 to 756. For the first 38…show more content…
Among them, the Song dynasty founded by a Chinese general Zhao Kuangyen began to reunify China in 960. Zhao overthrew the 5 dynasties of the north and was proclaimed the Emperor by his troops who urged this motion and pledged complete allegiance to him. The song dynasty lasted for 319 years (960 to 1279) where it went through 167 years (960 to 1127) of resurgence and reunification process and 152 years (1127 to 1279) on divisive movements. While the Song dynasty was not able to reclaim the size; power; or military success of the Tang dynasty, it provided a substantially vital political and socio-economic infusion to the empire. Between 960 and 976, Zhao Kuangyen ruled the empire as Emperor Taizu. Taizu made substantial political contributions by restoring and strengthening the civil service, establishing and promoting professional governance, banning court eunuchs from high state offices to prevent conflict, reduced the influence of nobles and warlords to centralize the army, and established a succession plan where instead of his son, his brother succeeded him and who then completed the assimilation of south china consolidating the empirical rule. However, after failing to conquer the northern provinces from the Khaitans in 1004, the Song dynasty concentrated in internal
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