Tang Dynasty

The Tang Dynasty (618 C.E.-907 C.E.) followed the brief Sui Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty reunifies China. The first Tang emperor, Li Yuan, was a general under the Sui Dynasty. Him and his son, Li Shimin, crushed all rivals and established the Tang Dynasty. 8 years later, Li Shimin forced his aging father to step down and took the throne himself, taking the name Tang Taizong. He was a brilliant general, government reformer, historian, and master of the calligraphy brush. He would become China's most admired emperor.

Chinese armies forced the neighboring lands of Vietnam, Tibet, and Korea to become tributary states. That is, while these states remained self-governing, their rulers had to acknowledge Chinese supremacy and send regular tribute to the Tang emperor. At the same time, students from Korea and Japan traveled to the Tang capital to learn about Chinese government, law and arts.

Tang rulers helped restore the Han system of uniform government throughout China. They rebuilt bureaucracy and enlarged the civil service system to recruit talented officials trained in Confucian philosophy. They also set up schools to prepare male students for the exams and developed a flexible new law code. Tang emperors instituted a system of land reform in which they broke up large agricultural holdings and redistributed the land to peasants. This policy strengthened the central government by weakening the power of large landowners. It also increased government revenues, since the peasants who farmed their own land would be able to pay taxes.

The Tang Dynasty was the Golden Age of Poetry thanks to Li-Po and his bro Du Fu.

The Tang Dynasty eventually weakened due to corruption, high taxes, drought, famine, rebellions, and they lost territories to Arab invaders (907 C.E.).