Tang and Song Achievements 7.3.2 7.3.5. Inventions of Tang and Song China.

Tang and Song Achievements

7.3.27.3.5

Inventions of Tang and Song China

Advances in Agriculture

• Main Idea 1:– Advances in agriculture led to increased

trade and population growth.

Agriculture: farming, crop growing


• Chinese civilization has always been based on agriculture.

• In the north, farmers grew wheat, barley, and other grains. The south was ideal for growing rice.

Wheat Barley

Rice


– Farmers dug underground wells.– A new kind of pump allowed one person to do the work of

many.

A water wheel pump


A water-wheel pump. It is an irrigation machine that was invented in the Tang Dynasty. It was widely used in Mountain Areas of South China. It was improved during the Song Dynasty and is still used in some parts of China today.

The dragon backbone pump helped Chinese farmers.

A Chinese farmer waters his rice field.


• Farms became more productive and their population grew and trade was increased.

Chinese Cities & Trade

• China’s capital city, Chang’an, was a bustling trade center.

Science and Technology

• mathematics flourished• adopted the use of algebra

and the concept of zero




• During theTang dynasty:

• Silk Road.

• During the Song dynasty: sea trade

Chinese Arts & Inventions

Tang Emperor Taizong, in a later copy of a Tang painting by Yen Li-pen


• Artists wrote poems, painted, sculpted in clay, and made porcelain items.

A porcelain vase



• Woodblock printing was invented. Entire pages were carved into a block of wood, covered with ink, and pressed onto paper to create copies.


• Gunpowder was a very important invention of the Tang dynasty.

– Gunpowder was originally used to make fireworks & signals.

The Chinese used gunpowder to make weapons like you see here.


• The magnetic compass was perfected during the Tang dynasty.

– The compass allowed sailors and merchants to travel vast distances.


• The Song dynasty brought about the inventions of movable type and paper money.

600-1450 Religious

-Confucianism is widely accepted/practiced and co-exists with Buddhism.

-Daoists get jealous of Buddhism’s foothold in China and burn down their temples stunting its growth a bit.

The Confucian Revival

• At least Confucianism made a major comeback during the Song period

– Long lost texts were recovered, new schools and libraries were opened

– Many new thinkers emerged to interpret the meanings of Confucius’ teachings

• This application developed into Neo-Confucianism– A hostility developed to foreign ideas and

innovations (isolationism)– The emphasis on rank, obligation and

deference reinforced class, gender and age divisions

– Social harmony would be maintained, according to Neo-Cs, as long as men and women performed their tasks appropriately (man as patriarch, woman as subordinate)

Tang and Song Achievements 7.3.2 7.3.5. Inventions of Tang and Song China.

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