Tang (618-907 AD)

 

The Tang dynasty was founded by Tang Taizong.  Wu Zhao was an empress and she held the real power while weak emperors sat on the throne and she eventually kicked them out and assumed the title of empress. The population nearly doubled and china had become the most populous country in the world also the most advanced. The population boomed because of the agricultural improvements enabled china’s farmers to produce more food. This was necessary to feed rapidly expanding population in the cities. It was advanced because artisans and scholars made important technological advances. Some of these advances were a movable type printer which could arrange blocks of individual characters in a frame to make up a page for printing. This helped because it made transactions much easier. Poetry was also produced as well as advancements in sailing technology which included the invention of the magnetic compass. They also developed gunpowder which led to the creation of explosive weapons for example bombs, grenades small rockets and cannons. This helped their military which probably led to the reconquering of northern and western lands that china had lost. Advances in arithmetic an algebra were also made. During the Tang dynasty the central government of china was further strengthened. The network of roads and canals begun by the Sui was expanded. This helped with trade which helped the economy. Also it helps with unemployment because people need to do the job of expanding. The civil service examination begun by the Han dynasty was revived and expanded. It restored bureaucracy and this helped because now the government would be more educated therefore make smarter decisions. The down side of this decision was that only the elite group of scholar-officials would pass the test. To become a scholar-official a good education was necessary and a good education was a lot of money so many moderately wealthy families shared china’s government. China resulted in part from advances in farming and their flourish in foreign trade. Chinese merchants established trading colonies around Southeast Asia. To meet the rising costs of the government, tang rulers imposed crushing taxes in the mid-700s and this helped their decline because it brought hardships to the people and the taxes weren't enough and they failed to cover the costs of military expansion and new building programs. They also struggled to control their empire, they spread themselves too thin. Border attacks were happening more frequently in fact Muslim armies defeated the Chinese at the battle of Talas. With the crushing taxes and the lack of control internal rebellions broke out. The Chinese rebels burned down the capital and murdered the last emperor, a child. After the fall of the last emperor the dynasty fell to rival warlords who divided china into separate kingdoms.