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It became the largest city in the world for its
day as well as the largest in area of any walled Chinese city. Under the Tang
Dynasty it was the most cosmopolitan city. -
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Wendi established the “Three Department” system with Six Ministries:
Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Public Works. -
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Over a million men
undertook the construction. Working at an exhausting pace, it was completed
in 20 days costing many lives.
Both Wendi and Yangdi extended control over portions of the Silk Road. -
The canal was 40 paces
across and 2000 km long creating an interconnecting transportation system
which aided administrative tasks, defense movements, and movement of
agricultural and trade goods. It also established a link between northern and
southern China making the two territories economically interdependent. -
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Gaozong brought Lady Wu out of retirement from a Buddhist nunnery. Through
ruthless scheming, she became Empress Wu. -
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Empress Wu was given informal power as regent.
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Empress Wu held power as regent through the reigns of
her two sons: Zhonzong and Ruizong. -
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Chan Buddhism introduced and became popular, known as Zen Buddhism in
Japan -
strengthened prestige of court by reducing
corruption, abolished the death penalty, pursued vigorous foreign policy,
established the Hanlin Academy for the arts which long survived his dynasty:
some of the greatest poets (Li Biao and Du Fu ) and greatest painters (Wang
Wei and Wu Tao-tzu) flourished during his reign, and invited teachers of newly
introduced Tantric school of Buddhism. -
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Palace troops strangle Yang Guifei as source of their troubles and Xuanzong
abdicated to his son. This story became the subject of poems, paintings, and
plays. -
Many temples and monasteries were closed, their wealth
confiscated by the government, a quarter of a million monks and nuns returned
to secular life. This persecution cut China off from contact with Central Asia
and India where Buddhism then declined in favor of Islam and other religions.
Only Pure Land and Chan schools continued; the other schools did not
survive. -
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Explosive weapons are used for the first time, initially by the defending armies
of the Song and later adapted by the Mongols. -
The second attempt was
aborted by a typhoon’s destruction of the fleet which the Japanese regarded as
the godly intervention of the Kamikaze or divine wind.
Mongol rule throughout was maintained by military occupation. The Mongols
resisted assimilation into Chinese culture by retaining the Mongol language
and yearly summer visits to Mongolia. -
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The second attempt was
aborted by a typhoon’s destruction of the fleet which the Japanese regarded as
the godly intervention of the Kamikaze or divine wind.
Mongol rule throughout was maintained by military occupation. The Mongols
resisted assimilation into Chinese culture by retaining the Mongol language
and yearly summer visits to Mongolia. -
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The Mongols rebuilt the Grand Canal and extended it to Beijing.
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He neither captured or defeated the
Mongol emperor who fled to Mongolia. The Ming dynasty was never able to
defeat the Mongol; thus were unable to expand their empire into inner Asia. It could be described as ordinary, favoring the common man.
Taizu had policies that favored the poor over the rich: he confiscated great
estates, and then the state rented these lands to the landless. He abolished
slavery and heavily taxed the rich. -
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This included collecting tribute. This
marked the only time China was the dominant maritime power. -
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Peasant uprising in which a Christian
convert called himself the Son of Heaven, identified himself as the younger
brother of Christ, collected a huge following, and attempted to overthrow the
Qing Dynasty. -
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