The document summarizes the Sui and Tang dynasties of China, the Silla dynasty of Korea, and Japan's Kofun, Asuka, and Nara periods. It describes the political developments and cultural influences of these time periods, including: 1) The Sui dynasty reunified China and established the Grand Canal, while the Tang dynasty expanded the empire and standardized the bureaucracy, before weakening due to the An Lushan rebellion. 2) The Silla dynasty unified the Korean peninsular with Tang China and adopted Chinese political structures, but aristocratic rule weakened it over time. 3) In Japan, the Nara period saw the establishment of a permanent capital modeled on Chang

1. Sui and Tang Dynasties of China, the
Silla Dynasty of Korea, and the
Kofun, Asuka, and Nara Periods of
Japan

2. Sui and Tang Dynasties
Sui: CE 581-617
Tang: CE 618-906

3. Sui Dynasty
● Reunified China
○ From North to South, reunified by Yang Jian,
known as
Wendi, claimed Han descent but was probably
Xianbei
○ Built a large fleet along the Yangzi, conquered
Nanjing in 3 months
○ Established the capital in Chang’an
○ Wendi was a devout Buddhist, modeled himself
after Indian king Ashoka
● Reestablished civil service examinations
○ Men were nominated from each prefecture
○ Nominees were given written examinations
including such skills as poetry compostion
○ Nine Rank system was abolished
● The Grand Canal, linking the Yellow and the
Yangzi rivers, was built
● Conquered Vietnam, struggled to win wars in
Korea
○ Struggles in Korea lead to the humiliation of Sui
emperor Yangdi, leading to collapse

4. Tang Dynasty
● Founded by Li Yuan, a Sui governor and his son
○ Known by the names Gaozu and Taizong
● Taizong
○ Violent beginnings (executes brothers, forces father to
abdicate)
○ New legal code that he ordered regularly revised,
influencing
future dynasties and surrounding countries like Japan,
Korea, and Vietnam
● Continued the practice of trade missions and
intermarriage to deal with a new threat, the Turks
○ Tributary system: China is the “father” and the surrounding
nations are the “sons,” symbolized by the “kowtow” or a
series of bows accompanied by tribute
○ Korea, Vietnam, and Mongolia all recognized China as a
central power
○ Fought wars in Korea, allying themselves with the Silla
dynasty to gain some control
○ Established the largest Chinese empire to date

5. ● Retained capital at Chang’an, the largest capital in
Chinese history at this point
○ Built a second capital at Luoyang
○ Chang’an becomes the model for many capital cities
around East Asia
○ Welcomed foreign envoys, merchants and many
religions were practiced in the capitals
■ Trade on the Silk Road expanded, bringing
these envoys and merchants in
● Expanded their borders and influenced the
surrounding countries
● Buddhism becomes central to Tang life
○ Taizong held memories for war dead and built
monasteries at famous battlegrounds
○ Buddhists ran schools, provided lodging, were given
land and became landlords
○ New, China specific, sutras and stories begin to
develop
■ Chan (Zen in Japan) Buddhism becomes
popular among Tang elites
○ In the late Tang era, opposition to Buddhism grew and
many monasteries, temples and shrines were closed
down
● Wet Rice cultivation is discovered around 800 CE,
leading to population growth

6. ● Both Sui and Tang Dynasties, despite looking to
the Han Dynasty, retained Northern influences
○ Volunteer farmer-soldiers, modified equal-field
system, developed equestrian
● However, both dynasties sought Confucian
learning over militarism
○ Tang: two civil service exams, mingjing covering
Confucian classics and jinshi covering less
knowledge and more literary skill, both tests
covered literacy, calligraphy, history, philosophy
and poetry
○ Establishes a meaningful meritocracy, and limits
the influence of family connections while also
better educating the bureaucrats
○ Officials were not allowed to serve in their
homelands in an attempt to limit corruption

7. Tang Elites
● Despite abolishment of the Nine-Rank System, the most
prominent families
in China retained control over official appointments
○ Intermarriage retained connections between the great
families
○ Moved to Luoyang to focus on political careers
● Empress Wu
○ Consort to Emperor Gaozong, eliminated rival empresses
and consorts through
intrigue and controlled the Emperor though his illness,
eventually murdering her youngest child to claim the
throne.
○ Encouraged new blood in the civil service exams to weaken
rivals and earn loyalty
■ Leads to a new level of upward mobility
○ Drawn to Buddhism, patron of the Longmen cave temples
● Emperor Xuanzong
○ Took power away from the monasteries
○ Rebalanced the equal-field system
○ Patron of the arts, Daoism, and Buddhism
○ Enamored with the famous consort Yang Guifei

8. An Lushan’s
Rebellion
● Yang Guifei was allowed to put friends into
positions of power, including the general An
Lushan
● He rebelled with an army of Khitans from
Manchuria and forced the court to flee the
capital and the Emperor to execute Yang Guifei
or face a mutiny
● The Tang brought in Uighur soldiers, who were
rebels from Turkish lands, to fight off the
Khitans, who then occupied the capital and
forced
the Tang to “trade” them silk

9. ● Many rebels were pardoned and given positions
in the government
● Weakened central control lead to a rise in
threatening states outside of China, the collapse
of the equal-field system and less income in
taxes
○ To combat this lack of income, salt and tea were
monopolized
○ Trade flourished in this weakened control of the
economy
○ “Flying money” or a system of bank notes was
established
● Soon eunuchs gained control over the court,
much like in the Han Dynasty
● By 860, the government had lost control to
military governors and power devolved to the
local level
○ This period is known as the Ten Kingdoms period

10. Dunhuang
Documents
● Discovered in 1900, a sealed cave in Dunhuang
contained thousands of documents from 1000
CE and earlier
● Cave contained sutras, bills of sale, contracts,
calendars, primers, forms, lists of families, etc.
● Documents show the everyday life of citizens in
the Tang Dynasty
○ Not enough land for the equal-field system, even
with redistributions every three years
○ Many rented their land to others while working
other owner’s fields
○ Monasteries were major landholders, and the
tenants were serf-like
● Some of the earliest printed works in China were
in this cave, with a copy of the Diamond Sutra
dated from 868CE
○ Printing was done with carved blocks, not
movable type

11. Silla Dynasty

12. Unification
● The Koguryo (or Goguryeo) invaded the Sui
Dynasty in China in 589, sparking retaliation
from the Chinese
○ 5 invasions by the Sui and 4 invasions by the
Tang led to an alliance between the Tang and the
Silla to conquer the Paekche (or Baekje, closely
aligned with Japan), which was divided into 5
Chinese military commands
○ A succession crisis erupted in Koguryo,
weakening the kingdom and allowing the Tang
and the Silla to divide and conquer. The Tang
kept Liaodong, while the Sill gained most of
central and eastern Korea
● After the fall of the Koguryo, the Silla and Tang
turned on each other, forcing the Tang out the
Korean peninsula, and leading to cool relations
for a hundred years

13. Government in Silla
Korea
● After uniting Korea, the Silla adopted a
bureaucratic model similar to Tang China, even
adopting a similar layout for their capital
Geyonju (Kyongju)
● After dividing the country into provinces and
districts for administrative purposes, the Silla
created 5 capitals to allow for a more
centralized bureaucracy, though aristocrats still
favored the main capital
● Their military did not resemble the Tang though,
favoring a similar arrangement to the Xianbei

14. Life in Silla Korea ● Silla Korea was dominated by the
aristocracy
○ A council of notables checked royal power, and
civil service exams could only be taken by
noblemen
○ The top five grades of offices in the bureaucracy
were dominated by the three royal clans (Silla,
Paekche, and Koguryo), known as “True Bone”
families, who could not be demoted to commoner
status and could not marry outside their class
○ Aristocrats could still own slaves, though the rate
of slavery was less than previous eras and less
than the next dynasty
○ Three family lines were responsible for the
marriage of kings and queens (Kim, Pak, and Sok
lines)
○ Lower ranks of aristocrats were allowed into the
“True Bone” system towards the end of the Silla
dynasty, but were still excluded from the higher
ranks and were quick to abandon the capital with
the rise of the new dynasty

15. ● Chinese writing spread to Korea during this period
● After relations between the Tang and the Silla
warmed up, annual embassies were sent to the
Tang capital with many return trips, promoting
Chinese thought and technology in Korea
○ Buddhism had spread to Korea in the Three
Kingdoms period, largely replacing the traditional
Animism and Shamanism in Korea
○ in the Silla Dynasty, Korean Buddhist monks
would travel to China to bring back the latest
teachings on Buddhism, ultimately becoming the
state religion in Silla Korea
○ Among the sects that came to Korea is the Seon
or Son sect, known as Chan Buddhism in China
and Zen Buddhism in Japan
○ Buddhism was the primary vehicle for
transmission of Chinese thought during Silla
Korea
● A Chinese-style civil examination began in 7th
century Korea, though not as equalizing as China’s
● Poetry as popular among the elites

16. The Fall of the Silla
● The united Silla Dynasty lasted for around 200
years, before the weak central control of the
government in Kyongju became apparent
● Instability began in the aristocracy as early as
the late 8th century, and soon the throne itself
was unstable, going to whatever aristocrat
could hold onto his claim
● Rebellions from within, and threats from the
Parhae outside of the Korean peninsula
weakened the government, which finally
collapsed into warlordism in the late 9th century

17. The Parhae
● Silla’s main rival after unification
● A sparsely populated territory north of the Silla
that controlled some Modern Korean territory
and ruled over some Korean peoples
● Their rulers may have been part of the former
ruling Koguryo house
● They modeled their capital and elite dress after
the Tang
● Kept strong ties with Japan, significantly cooler
ties with the Tang and the Silla
○ Though they still sent students to study in
Chang’an, sometimes alongside Silla students

18. Nara Period

19. Nara Period:
710-794 CE
● After three generations of rule from Fujiwara, the capital
moves north to Nara, on the island of Honshu
○ Modeled after Chang’an in China
○ Japan’s first permanent capital
○ Also home to early Japanese emperors
● MInisters occupied houses in varying distances from the
palace, depending on rank
● Nobility sponsored the building of Buddhist temples
● Bureaucracy grew with each new ruler, modeled after Tang
China
● Shomu: rebuilt the palace and supported the construction of
the Todaiji temple for
his line, expanded his rule through military and diplomatic
avenues
● As Confucianism gains sway, fewer rights are granted to
women, Shotoku, daughter
of Shomu, was the last female ruler in Japan for over a
thousand years
● The end of the Nara Period comes after Empress Shotoku
appointed a Buddhist priest to the position of Prime Minister,
and attempted to abdicate in his favor. When she died, her
heir Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to escape Buddhist
influence

20. Prince Shotoku,
Soga Clan, and
Buddhism in Japan
● Prince Shotoku, along with the Soga clan(later
removed from power by the Fujiwara clan), was
instrumental in promoting Buddhism in Japan
○ Created the “17 Injunctions,” embodying Confucian and
Buddhist thought
■ Among other things, meat eating became
restricted due to Buddhist influence
○ Gave many expostions on various sutras before
Buddhism really took off in Japan
○ Shitennoji in Osaka became the site of his worship as
royal protector of Buddhism, and inspired many
Japanese Buddhists in the following generations
● Todaiji, supported by Emperor Shomu, who was
instrumental in Buddhism’s establishment in Japan,,
housed the Cosmic (Vairocana) Buddha
○ A Indian Buddhist Monk and thousands of people
attended the dedication ceremony for this statue
● Buddhism became the religion of the state,
impressing aristocrats with
○ Sutras
○ Priesthood
○ Statues, processions and the karmic merit earned from
them
● Buddhism in this period primarily merged with
native Shinto beliefs

21. Cult of Guanyin
● Also known as Avalokitesvara in Sanskrit,
Kannon in Japanese,
and Gwaneum in Korean
● A Mahayana Buddhist cult worshipping the
Bodhisattva
(buddha-to-be who remains in the world to help
others to
salvation) of Compassion and Mercy
● Pray the Lotus Sutra
● Male Bodhisattva often depicted as female
● Often depicted with the Pure Land Buddha
Amida

22. Rural Life in Early Japan
● Rice was cultivated using extensive methods,
clearing fields for
growth until water and fertilizer ran out, then
moving to a new
field
● Population did not grow as quickly as later,
more productive
methods take hold
● Each cultivator received enough land to pay
taxes, no more, and
kept secret fields to survive, were
also forced to serve the state in
corvee labor or military service
○ Families were not closely attached
to the land