Discuss the events that took place in China during the third cycle of expansion and contraction.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

After the collapse of the Han Dynastyin 220 CE, China enduredthree and a half centuries of contraction and disorder before reunification returned under the Sui. The short-livedSui Dynasty (598–618 CE) restored order and paved theway for the success of the Tang, which established one ofthe most successful agrarian civilizations of all. The Suiundertook extensive infrastructure construction, includingthe construction of the Grand Canal, the largest hydrologicalproject attempted to this point in world history.

The Tang Dynasty (618–907 CE) turned China intoprobably the wealthiest and most powerful state on Earth.The second emperor, Tang Taizong (r. 626–649), continuedthe work of improving China’s transportation and communicationsinfrastructure. Good roads, government-ownedinns and postal stations, and an effective courier systemunited China as never before. A genuine attempt was madeto redistribute land more equitably to the peasants by allotting fields according to fertility and the family’s needs.Like the early Han, the Tang also attempted to ensure asteady supply of educated and ethical government officialsby supporting an examination system based on knowledgeof Confucianism. The Tang then used their armies andadministrators to become an expansionist imperial statethat at its peak controlled almost 4.5 million square miles(11.7 million square kilometers) of East and Central Asianterritory.

In contrast to most imperial administrations, theTang government actively supported agriculturalinnovation, particularly in thesouth of the country, which becamethe economic hubof China. TheChinesepopulation increased as a result, and rapid urbanizationfollowed. By the tenth century Tang China was the mosturbanized agrarian civilization ever seen. Chang’an, thecapital, home to 2 million residents, was the largest city onthe planet. Craft innovation flourished in the workshops ofthese great cities, contributing to a surging market economy.Trade on the Silk Roads revived, and foreign merchantsestablished a substantial presence in many Chinesecities. Virtually every known religion of Afro-Eurasia waspracticed somewhere in the country. The vast, cosmopolitan, flourishing civilization dominated the eastern half ofthe Afro-Eurasian world zone at the same time that the western half was being influenced culturally and politicallyby the expanding realm of Islam. Tang collapse, aproduct of complacent rule by the later emperors, broughtto an end this extraordinary chapter in the history of agrariancivilizations. But undertheir successors the Song Dynasty, China came close to anindustrial revolution that, had it been sustained, might haveradically altered the history of the modern world.