Taizong as Leader
- his reign is often called the golden age in Chinese imperial history.
- considered by the Confucianists as a model ruler –
- presented himself as a humble servant of civil government
- employed a succession of capable ministers
- an adviser, Wei Zheng a Confucian moralist was willing to criticize Taizong.
Style of Reign & Activity
- He preserved many features of his father’s government
- he took a personal interest in the careers of those appointed to provincial posts
- and dispatched commissioners to check on the quality of their work.
- he made revisions to the law codes and the severity of punishments was reduced.
- he continued to support the “equal field system (registration & redistribution) of his father.
- he instituted a system of state schools and colleges -
- one school was for children of the imperial family and those of the highest officials.
- many students came to Chang’an to study
- a variety of scholarly projects were sponsored, especially the writing of the dynastic histories.
- the examinations were held on a regular basis
- the majority of officials continued to come from the great clans
- the highest position now tended to go to those who had passed one of the literary examinations.
- he was careful to avoid alienating the Buddhist community.
- in 629 he ordered the building of 7 monasteries
- later he passed measures to control corruption in the Buddhist church (sangha)
- In 637 he promulgated an edict criticising the prominent position of Buddhism
- decreed the Daoist clergy would take precedence over Buddhist monks and nuns.
- also issued a legal code which contained a section regulating the Buddhist clergy and restricting their participation in secular life.
- in the year before he died, he gave audience to the famous Buddhist pilgrim Xuanzang.
Xiangzang
- he left China secretly in 626 and had travelled overland to India to collect Buddhist texts.
- he returned to China in 645 he was received by Taizong
- he brought back knowledge of a foreign country.
Taizong - Later Period
- in 637 Taizong’s mentor Wei Zheng criticized him for being arrogant & wasteful.
- this change in the behaviour of the emperor was due to:
- a) the death of his father the retired emperor in 635 and
- b) death of the empress who had been his close confidant, in the following year.
- later Taizong engaged in
- a) extravagant building projects and
- b) an expensive foreign policy.
Military Activities
- after he had seized the throne the eastern Turks had invaded China
- they had come within 75 miles of Chang’an.
- he was forced to bribe them to withdraw.
- But in 628, the eastern Turks were divided by an internal feud.
- Taizong gained the support of the Turk’s enemies and
- two years later Taizong and his new allies inflicted serious damage on them.
Results
- Xieli, the leader of the Turks was taken prisoner
- the eastern Turks were forced to resettled on Chinese territory.
- Taizong became “the heavenly khaghan.”
- this began a tremendous expansion of Chinese power in Central Asia.
- with the eastern Turks his allies, Taizong was able to
- a) split the western Turks and
- b) to recover the influence which the Han had once exerted in the Western Regions.
- the western Turks were reduced to vassals of China and
- this advanced the Chinese Empire to the borders of Persia.
- he engaged in small battles against the Tuyuhun,
- they were a Xianbei people pressured from a newly unified Tibet.
Last Military Campaign
- his last military campaign directed against Koguryo
- the Koguryo had once been part of the Han empire
- now, began to menace the south Korean state of Silla, China’s faithful tributary.
- threat of a unified Korea prompted him into action
- in 645, he led an invasion of Koguryo
- had to withdraw with the onset of the Korean winter
- the following year a similar situation happened
- a larger campaign took place in 649 but Taizong died.
Difficulties at Court
- early he had named Li Chengqian, his eldest son as his heir.
- But complaints were made to him that his son was a homosexual
- there was a faction that supported the younger son, Li Tai.
- both sons attempted plots against each other and against Taizong himself.
- the succession went to Li Zhi, his 9th son, who was to reign as the Gaozong emperor.
Emperor Gaozong
- came to the throne as a 20 years old,
- reigned until 683.
- suffered ill health
- from 660 his consort, the Empress Wu, was the effective ruler.
- succeeded by two of his sons
- the empress continued to control affairs
- in 690, she usurped the throne and
- established the Zhou dynasty
- Gaozong began his reign cautiously
- relied on advice from his father’s ministers, especially his uncle Zhangsun Wuji,
- the government ran well and smoothly.
- reforms continued to be introduced.
- the court was driven by factional fighting,
- these in-court battles were vendettas from succession disputes.
- Zhangsun Wuji continued to pursue those who had supported Li Tai and
- this situation was exploited by Wu Zhao, who later became the Empress Wu.
Wu Zhao
- born in 627 into a merchant family a newly-emerging mercantile class.
- she came from the north east
- the north-western aristocracy had played a major role in the rise of the Sui and the Tang.
- neither class nor regional affiliation played a significant role in her rise or her policies
- had been a concubine in Taizong’s harem.
- Gaozong started an affair with her
- in 652 she bore him a son.
- then she began to intrigue against Gaozong’s consort, the Empress Wang,
- she incriminated the empress in the death of her new-born daughter.
- In 655, having her son declared heir apparent, she disposed of her enemies, first the former empress and then Zhangsun Wuji, who had opposed her rise to power.
- In 660, when Gaozong suffered a stroke, the empress made herself ruler.
As a Ruler
- she was a shrewd ruler
- she continued many of the policies and practices of her predecessors.
- some of her actions displayed her selfishness and irrational behaviour:
- a) she announced Luoyang as a second capital
- transferred the court periodically between the two capitals.
- this cause great disruption and was economically expensive.
- she relocated it at Luoyang in 683.
- there was a sound economic reason for the transfer.
- Chang’an’s area could not produce the amount of grain to feed the court and garrison, -
- transporting the grain up the Yellow River was extremely expensive.
- Luoyang was favourable situated at the end of the water route to the south
- b) in 666, when she decided to hold the feng and shan sacrifices on Taishan,.
- these costly ceremonies had not been performed since the Han period.
- c) gave patronage to Buddhism and in particular her
- commissioned the work on the cave temples at Longmen.
- ordered a large number of statues were carved in her likeness.
Outside Issues
- in 676 a resistance movement in the southern state of Silla, forced the Chinese to withdraw.
- Silla eventually became China’s most dependable tributary state.
- a more pressing threat was the rise of Tibet.
- since the start of the 7th century Tibet had emerged as a unified state. \
- from 620 to 649, Tibet started to send tribute to China.
- Tibet began to expand into the territory of the Tuyuhun pastoralists
- it moved into parts of Sichuan and the Tarim basin.
- Tibetan power expanded into modern Qinghai and Sichuan.
The Reign of Empress Wu (690-705)
- Gaozong died in 683 and he
- was succeeded by his third son Zhongzong
- within three months the Empress Wu, compelled his abdication in favour of his brother
- the brother remained on the throne for six years.
- in 684 Li Jingye led a revolt of those families which had been disgraced
- he was quickly defeated.
- the empress dowager used the revolt as a pretext or excuse to purge her opponents at court. - she formed a secret police and conducted a reign of terror, her as a mass murderer.
- in 690 she usurped the throne and established a new dynasty, the Zhou.
Relation to Buddhism
- the Buddhist clergy now hailed her as the incarnation of the Maitreya Buddha.
- she was presented with three petitions, to ascend the throne
- she greatly favoured the Buddhist community
- this led her to approve the construction of the Mingtang or Hall of Light.
- it was very expensive to build and it was used for wild religious rites
- it was supervised by the abbott, Xue Huaiyi, the lover of the Empress .
- falling out of out of favour he took revenge by burning down the building.
- later the Empress began to show more concern for Confucianism.
Crisis with the Khitan
- the most serious crisis was a new tribal confederation, headed by the Khitan
- they spoke a language which was ancestral to Mongolian,
- they were pastoral nomads who lived in Manchuria
- in 605 the Khitan had been severely chastised for a raid into Chinese territory
- consequently they became vassals of the Chinese.
- 695 they rebelled against Chinese for mismanaging their administration and
- they gained a dramatic victory over Chinese forces near the site of modern Beijing.
- this stirred up trouble, with the Turks invading Gansu
- the Tibetans were threatening the Chinese hold on Central Asia.
- she reacted with a mix of diplomacy and force
- she formed an alliance with the Turks and defeated the Khitan in battle.
Last Years of Her Reign
- the Empress Wu was losing influence.
- her extravagant spending spree had emptied the treasury.
- she raised taxes,
- it exposed the seriousness of her fiscal problems
- her behaviour continued to cause scandals.
- from 697 she became in love with the Zhang brothers
- they paraded around in fancy costumes and overrode the authority of senior ministers.
Results of Scandals
- the Turks again invaded China in 698,
- she found it difficult to gain support.
- she had to deal with an issue that she had always avoided – that of succession.
- she agreed the throne would revert to her son Zhongzong, whom she had set aside in 684.
- in 705 a plot was fabricated by her senior officials,
- they succeeded in the killing of the Zhang brothers
- they forced the Empress to abdicate - she later died that year.
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