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19 - State formation in China from the Sui through the Song dynasties

from Part V - State formations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 May 2015

Benjamin Z. Kedar
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Merry E. Wiesner-Hanks
Affiliation:
University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee
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Summary

The short-lived Sui dynasty (581-618) and the succeeding Tang dynasty (618-907) were products of the political consolidation achieved in North China by the foreign-ruled Northern Wei (386-534). The reunification of China under the Sui and Tang dynasties was the catalyst for the formation of a common East Asian civilization and the shaping of East Asia's political order. Although the Tang dynasty survived, the An Lushan Rebellion had devastated North China and permanently crippled the authority of the central government. The post-rebellion transformation of Chinese government, society, and economy constituted one of the key watersheds in Chinese history. The Song emperors, mindful of the disunity fostered by military leaders since the An Lushan Rebellion, championed civil governance. Wang Anshi's New Policies pitched China into a half-century of incessant partisan struggle in which the reform measures were repeatedly done and undone.
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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2015

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References

Further reading

Adshead, S. A. M. T'ang China: The Rise of the East in World History. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.Google Scholar
Beckwith, Christopher. Empires of the Silk Road: A History of Central Eurasia from the Bronze Age to the Present. Princeton University Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bol, Peter K. Neo-Confucianism in History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Area Center, 2008.Google Scholar
Elman, Benjamin A. A Cultural History of Civil Examinations in Late Imperial China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Hartwell, Robert M. “Demographic, Political, and Social Transformations of China, 750–1550,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 42.2 (1982): 365442.Google Scholar
Holcombe, Charles. The Genesis of East Asia, 221 B.C.A.D. 907. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Hymes, Robert P. and Schirokauer, Conrad, eds. Ordering the World: Approaches to State and Society in Sung Dynasty China. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Kuhn, Dieter. The Age of Confucian Rule: The Song Transformation of China. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Lewis, Mark Edward. China's Cosmopolitan Empire: The Tang Dynasty. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Mote, Frederick W. Imperial China, 900–1800. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Rossabi, Morris, ed. China among Equals: The Middle Kingdom and its Neighbors, 10th–14th Centuries. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Sen, Tansen. Buddhism, Diplomacy, and Trade: The Realignment of Sino–Indian Relations, 600–1400. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawai'i Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Smith, Paul J. Taxing Heaven's Storehouse: Horses, Bureaucrats, and the Destruction of the Sichuan Tea Industry, 1074–1224. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Council on East Asian Studies, 1991.Google Scholar
Smith, Paul J., and von Glahn, Richard, eds. The Song–Yuan–Ming Transition in Chinese History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 2003.Google Scholar
Wright, Arthur F. The Sui Dynasty. New York: Knopf, 1978.Google Scholar

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