CChinese hinese SSocietyociety

What’s the Connection?In the last section, you learned

about the rise and fall of the Sui,Tang, and Song dynasties. Duringthose dynasties, China’s economybegan to grow again. Chineseinventors developed many newtechnologies, and Chinese artists and writers produced new works that are still admired today.

Focusing on the • The Tang dynasty strengthened

China’s economy by supportingfarming and trade. (page 417)

• The Chinese developed newtechnologies, such as steelmakingand printing. (page 418)

• During the Tang and the Songdynasties, China enjoyed a goldenage of art and literature. (page 420)

Locating PlacesChangan (CHAHNG•AHN)

Meeting PeopleLi Bo (LEE BOH)Duo Fu (DWAW FOO)

Building Your Vocabularyporcelain (POHR•suh• luhn)calligraphy (kuh•LIH•gruh• fee)

Reading Strategy Organizing Information Complete achart like the one below describing thenew technologies developed in Chinaduring the Middle Ages.

A.D. 618Tang dynastytakes power

A.D. 868Chinese printworld’s firstcomplete book

c. 1150Chinese sailorsare the first touse compass

Changan

Hangzhou

416 CHAPTER 12 China in the Middle Ages

A.D. 600 A.D. 900 1200A.D. 600 A.D. 900 1200

New Technologies

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CHAPTER 12 China in the Middle Ages 417

A Growing EconomyThe Tang dynasty strengthened China’s

economy by supporting farming and trade.

Reading Focus Do you know anyone who drinks tea

or wears silk clothing? Both of these goods were first

produced in China. Read to learn how farming changed

under the Tang dynasty.

When the Han dynasty in China col-lapsed in the A.D. 200s, it was a disaster forChina’s economy. As fighting began, citieswere damaged and farms were burned.Artisans made fewer goods, farmers grewfewer crops, and merchants had less totrade. Under the Tang dynasty, these prob-lems were solved.

Why Did Farming Improve? When the Tangrulers took power in A.D. 618, they broughtpeace to the countryside and gave more landto farmers. As a result, farmers were able to make many advances. They improved

irrigation and introduced new ways ofgrowing their crops. Farmers also developednew kinds of rice, which grew well in poorsoil, produced more per acre, grew faster,and were resistant to disease.

These changes helped farmers growmore and more rice. China’s farmers alsobegan to grow tea, which became a popu-lar drink. They made improvements inother crops as well. With more food avail-able, the number of people in Chinagreatly increased. At the same time, morepeople moved southward, where ricegrew abundantly in the Chang Jiang valley.

China’s Trade Grows Tang rulers also hadroads and waterways built. These changesmade travel within and outside of Chinamuch easier. Chinese merchants were ableto increase trade with people in other partsof Asia. The Silk Road, now under Tangcontrol, once again bustled with activity.

A worker holds a tray of silkworms eatingmulberry leaves.Eventually the wormswill spin cocoons.Workers then collectand unravel the cocoonsto make silk thread.Why do you think silk isstill expensive today?

Silk, shown here being harvested, remained an important trade itemfor the Chinese. How did Tang rulers help increase trade?

(l)Keren Su/CORBIS, (r)Philadelphia Free Library/AKG, Berlin/SuperStock

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One of the items traded by the Chinese wassilk fabric. This product gave the road itsname and was popular in markets to thewest of China. In addition, China tradedtea, steel, paper, and porcelain. Porcelain(POHR • suh • luhn) is made of fine clay andbaked at high temperatures. In return, othercountries sent China products such as gold,silver, precious stones, and fine woods.

Other trade routes were also estab-lished. Roads linked China to central Asia,India, and southwest Asia. In addition, theTang opened new ports along China’s coastto boost trade.

Cause and Effect How didthe new kinds of rice developed in China help itspopulation grow?

New Technology The Chinese developed new technolo-

gies, such as steelmaking and printing.

Reading Focus This book is made of paper with letters

printed on the paper by a machine. Read to learn how

printing was first invented in China during the Tang

dynasty.

During the Tang and Song dynasties,new inventions changed China’s society. Intime, these discoveries spread to other partsof the world.

China Discovers Coal and Steel For mostof China’s history, people burned wood toheat their homes and cook their food. By

418418

The Tang capital city of Changan may have had a population of one millionpeople at its peak. The city had large blocks that included houses, businesses,and temples set along straight streets. Its layout inspired the design of manylater cities. The area containing the royal palace, shown below, was borderedby parklands. What improvements to agriculture allowed China’s populationto grow during the Tang dynasty?

Changan’s Royal PalaceChangan’s Royal Palace

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Connecting to the Past1. Why do you think Pi Sheng used clay

to make his characters?

2. In what instance would woodblockprinting have been a better methodto use than movable type?

Printing When the Chinese inventedmovable type, they improved the artof printing. A Chinese authordescribed the work of Pi Sheng:

“He took sticky clay and cut in itcharacters as thin as the edge of acopper coin. Each character formed asit were a single type. He baked themin the fire to make them hard. He hadpreviously prepared an iron plate andhe had covered this plate with amixture of pine resin, wax, and paperashes. When he wished to print, hetook an iron frame and set it on theiron plate. In this he placed the type,set close together. When the framewas full, the whole made one solidblock of type.”

—Shên Kua, Dream Pool Jottings

Composing stick

Movable type block

The DiamondSutra is theearliest knownprinted book.

the time of the Tang dynasty, wood wasbecoming scarce in China. However, theChinese had discovered that coal could beused to heat things, and soon a coal-miningindustry developed.

The Chinese used coal to heat furnaces tohigh temperatures, which led to another dis-covery. When iron was produced in hot fur-naces heated by coal, the molten iron mixedwith carbon from the coal. This created anew, stronger metal known today as steel.

The Chinese used steel to make manythings. They made armor, swords, and hel-mets for their army, but they also madestoves, farm tools, drills, steel chain, andeven steel nails and sewing needles.

The Printing Process Another Chineseinvention was a method for printing books.Before printing, books had to be copied byhand. As a result, few books were made,and they were very expensive. The Chinesebegan printing in the A.D. 600s. They usedblocks of wood on which they cut the char-acters of an entire page. Ink was placed overthe wooden block. Then paper was laid onthe block to make a print. Cutting the blocktook a long time. When they were com-pleted, however, the woodblocks could beused again and again to make many copies.

The Chinese soon began printingbooks. The earliest known printed bookdates from about A.D. 868. It is a Buddhistbook called the Diamond Sutra. The inven-tion of printing was very important. Ithelped to spread ideas more rapidly.

In the A.D. 1000s, a Chinese printernamed Pi Sheng (BEE SHUHNG) inventedmovable type for printing. With movabletype, each character is a separate piece. Thepieces can be moved around to make sen-tences and used again and again. Pi Shengmade his pieces from clay and put themtogether to produce book pages. However,

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416-422 Ch12 S2-824133 3/15/04 6:42 AM Page 419

because written Chinese has so many char-acters, woodblock printing was easier andquicker than using movable type.

Other Chinese Inventions The Chinesemade gunpowder for use in explosives. Oneweapon was the fire lance, an ancestor of thegun. It used gunpowder and helped makethe Chinese army a strong force. The Chinesealso used gunpowder to make fireworks.

The Chinese also built large ships withrudders and sails. About 1150, Chinese sailorsbegan using the compass to help them findtheir way. This let ships sail farther from land.

Analyze Why was theinvention of printing so important?

Art and Literature During the Tang and the Song dynasties,

China enjoyed a golden age of art and literature.

Reading Focus If you were to choose one poem to

read to the class, which poem would it be? Below, you

will read a poem that is a Chinese favorite.

The Tang and Song eras were a goldenage for Chinese culture. The invention ofprinting helped to spread Chinese ideasand artwork. Chinese rulers actively sup-ported art and literature, and invited artistsand poets to live and work in the capitalcity of Changan (CHAHNG •AHN).

What Was Tang Poetry Like? Chinesewriters best expressed themselves in poems.In fact, the Tang dynasty is viewed as thegreat age of poetry in China. Some Tangpoems celebrated the beauty of nature, thethrill of seasons changing, and the joy ofhaving a good friend. Other Tang poemsexpressed sadness for the shortness of lifeand mourned the cruelty of friends parting.

Li Bo (LEE BOH) was one of the mostpopular poets of the Tang era. His poemsoften centered on nature. The poem below byLi Bo is probably the best-known poem inChina. For centuries, Chinese schoolchildrenhave had to memorize it. Its title is “StillNight Thoughts.”

Moonlight in front of my bed—I took it for frost on the ground! I lift my eyes to watch the

mountain moon,lower them and dream of home.

—Li Bo,“Still Night Thoughts”

Another favorite poet of that time wasDuo Fu (DWAW FOO). He was a poor civilservant who had a hard life. Civil war swept

Li BoIn the following poem, Li Bo writes aboutparting from a friend.“Green hills sloping from the northern wall,white water rounding the eastern city: onceparted from this place the lone weed tumbles ten thousand miles.Drifting clouds—a traveler’s thoughts;setting sun—an oldfriend’s heart.Wave hands and letus take leave now,hsiao-hsiao ourhesitant horsesneighing.”

—Li Bo,“Seeing a

Friend Off”

How are drifting clouds like a traveler’sthoughts?

Li Bo

420 CHAPTER 12 China in the Middle AgesThe Art Archive/British Library

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CHAPTER 12 China in the Middle Ages 421

China, and food was hard to find. Duo Funearly died of starvation. His problemsopened his eyes to the sufferings of the com-mon people.

As a result, Duo Fu’s poems often werevery serious. They frequently dealt withissues such as social injustice and the prob-lems of the poor. Duo Fu wrote the poembelow after a rebellion left the capital city inruins. It is called “Spring Landscape.”

Rivers and mountains survivebroken countries.

Spring returns. The city grows lush again.

Blossoms scatter tears thinking ofus, and this

Separation in a bird’s cry startles the heart.

Beacon-fires have burned through three months.

By now, letters are worth ten thousand in gold.

. . . . . . . . . .

—Duo Fu,“Spring Landscape”

Painting in Song China The painting oflandscapes became widespread during theSong dynasty. However, Chinese artistsdid not try to make exact pictures of thelandscapes they were painting. Instead,they wished to portray the “idea” of themountains, lakes, and other features oftheir landscapes. Also, empty spaces wereleft in the paintings on purpose. This isbecause of the Daoist belief that a per-son cannot know the whole truth aboutsomething.

Daoist beliefs also can be seen in theway people are portrayed. They are tiny fig-ures, fishing in small boats or wanderingup a hillside trail. In other words, the peo-ple are living in, but not controlling, nature.They are only a part of the harmony of thenatural setting.

Chinese painters often wrote poetry ontheir works. They used a brush and ink towrite beautiful characters called calligraphy(kuh •LIH •gruh • fee).

Chinese Porcelain During the Tang period,Chinese artisans perfected the making ofporcelain. Because porcelain later came from

Ink and watercolor drawing on silk

This Chinese landscape was painted inthe 1100s. How were Daoist beliefsdepicted in landscapes painted duringthe Song dynasty?

Chinese calligraphy

(l)The Art Archive/National Peace Museum Taiwan, (c)Naomi Duguid/Asia Access, (r)Private Collection/Bridgeman Art Library

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Reading SummaryReview the • During the Tang dynasty, both

farming and trade flourished,and the empire grew much larger than ever before.

• Many important inventions were developed in China duringthe Tang and Song dynasties,including steel, printing, and gunpowder.

• Chinese literature and arts,including poetry, landscape painting, and porcelain making,reached new heights during theTang and Song dynasties.

1. What products were traded byChina along the Silk Road?

2. What were some of the subjectsof Tang poetry?

Critical Thinking3. Organizing Information Draw

a chart to describe the newtechnologies developed in China.

4. Summarize Describe thechanges to Chinese agricultureduring the Tang dynasty.

5. Contrast How do the twoforms of printing invented bythe Chinese differ?

6. Evaluate Which invention ofthe Tang and Song dynasties do you think has been mostimportant? Explain.

7. Creative Writing Read thepoem “Still Night Thoughts”by Li Bo again. Then write ashort, four-stanza poem similar to Li Bo’s about theview from your bedroom orkitchen window.

What Did You Learn?

Homework Helper Need help with the material in this section? Visit jat.glencoe.com

422 CHAPTER 12 China in the Middle Ages

Printing

Metalworking

Weapons

Sailing

These porcelain figures from the Tang dynasty show travelers on horseback. What is porcelain sometimes called today?

Ceramic figuresfrom Tangdynasty tomb

Tang dynastybottle

China to the West, people today sometimescall porcelain by the name “china.”

Porcelain can be made into plates, cups,figurines, and vases. In A.D. 851 an Arab trav-eler described the quality of Tang porcelain:“There is in China a very fine clay fromwhich are made vases. . . . Water in these

vases is visible through them, and yet theyare made of clay.”

The technology for making porcelainspread to other parts of the world. It finallyreached Europe in the 1700s.

Identify What did Duo Fuoften write about?

(l)The British Museum/Topham-HIP/The Image Works, (c)Laurie Platt Winfrey, (r)Seattle Art Museum/CORBIS

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