DURING THE MIDDLE AGES

DYNASTIES IN CHINA

Tang Dynasty• China’s territory extended farther east, north, and south• MORE contact with India and the Middle East• Thank you Silk Road• Cultures blended (Foreigners from Turkey, India, Iran, Japan, Korea, and Malaysia moved to the city)• Buddhism spread (Imperial family adopted this religion)• Aristocrats to Career Officials• Government supported Confucian scholars

Tang Dynasty

Song Dynasty• Reunified China from the Tang Dynasty• China’s Industrial Revolution began• Gunpowder was one of the significant inventions of this era• Renewed interest in Confucianism• Decline in Buddhism because it was “foreign” and not offering “practical” guidelines to politics and other problems• Neo-Confucianism began and tried to offer answers to political problems Buddhism and Taoism could not solve

Song Dynasty

Mongol Dynasty• Ruled over China and stretched from Eastern Europe to Korea• Genghis Khan –first military ruler• Involved in trade in China and re-established sea trade with the Arabian Penninsula• Kublai Khan met and traded with Marco Polo, a European Explorer• Neo-Confucianism dominated

Mongol Dynasty

Ming Dynasty• Expanded the navy and army to include one million troops• 7 naval expeditions through the Indian Ocean and South East Asia were led and influenced trade• Confucian elites held the power in government and in commercial trade.

Ming Dynasty

GREAT INNOVATIONS

Tea• First brought to Europe through China• Tea plant originated in Southeast Asia• Tea trade became a major cause of the First Opium War between China and Great Britain

Manufacturing of Paper• Developed in China by a court official• First person to make paper from wood pulp, the modern method of making paper

Wood-block Printing• Allowed multiple images or text to be printed by carefully arranged wooden blocks• Major influence on the development of the modern printing press

Compass• Invented by Chinese scientists to allow them to navigate water and land

Gunpowder• First chemical explosive in recorded history and was first discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists• First used in fireworks but then used for military purposes