Web Explorations

[Skip Breadcrumb Navigation]

Home

Student Resources

Chapter 12: Reunification and Renaissance in Chinese Civilization: The Era of the Tang and Song Dynasties

Web Explorations

This activity contains 6 questions.

The Empress Wu Zetian

This site evaluates place in Chinese history of reign of Empress Wu Zetian of the Tang Dynasty.

http://womeninworldhistory.com/heroine6.html

Questions for exploration.

What was the status of women during the Tang Dynasty? What aspect of traditional court politics in the pre-modern world did Wu's political struggles exemplify? In what ways did she seek to raise the status of women? According to this essay, the Empress Wu's rule was both constructive and tyrannical. What was an example of each of these aspects of her administration?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

Chinese Poetry

This site explores Chinese poetry’s revelations about Chinese society.

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/chinese_poetry.html#1

Questions for exploration.

How does the poetry of Po Chu-I and Su Tung-po offer critical judgments on the often-vaunted Chinese imperial state? How does the poetry of Fu Husuan and Mei Yao Ch'en illuminate the status of women in Chinese society? What images do they evoke to show the emotional sterility Chinese women might face in the home and the labor they were expected to perform without complaint. What Chinese folk belief does Mei Yao Ch'en draw upon to show that not all husbands were, at least after their wife's death, ignorant of the value of the love offered them by their wives.

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

China: Ancient Arts and Sciences: An Exhibit at the Franklin Institute

This site explores the arts and sciences of China.

http://sln.fi.edu/tfi/info/current/china.html

Questions for further exploration:

Scholars maintain that, from 600 AD until 1500 AD, China was the world's most technologically advanced society. What are the bases of this claim? Why is it also true that ancient Chinese crafts were equally advanced? What place did the natural world have in the development of Chinese craft-working?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

The Restoration of the Chinese Empire under the Tang

This site explores the Chinese Empire and its restoration.

http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/imperial2.html

Questions for exploration.

One of the achievements of the Tang administrative order was that it attempted to broaden the base of power. How did the Tang attempt to broaden and liberalize the bureaucracy nonetheless ultimately serve to concentrate power in the hands of a few? What role did the neo-Confucian philosophy of Zhu Xi, so liberal and humanistic, become a means of supporting a rigid of political hierarchy?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

The Tang Chinese Imperial City of Chang’an

These sites discuss the nature of the design and function of the Tang Dynasty capital city.

http://www.pitt.edu/~asian/week-10/week-10.html,
http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~arch343/lecture8.html and
http://academic.brooklyn.cuny.edu/core9/phalsall/images/changan.gif (city map)

Questions for exploration.

Scroll down to the section treating the Imperial City. What principles governed the planning of the city of Chang’an? How was it oriented in terms of the four cardinal directions? How was the city laid out in terms of its inhabitants (merchants, Emperors, etc.)? How were the people of the city regulated and served by the municipal administration?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

The Exoticism of the Tang

This site discusses the influence of foreign trade on Tang culture and the place of foreigners in Chinese society.

http://www.silk-road.com/artl/tang.shtml

Questions for further exploration:

How did the great opportunities for foreign trade and foreign visitors during the Tang dynasty enrich Chinese culture? Give specific examples of this process. How did the Chinese then regard and treat foreigners? What developments hastened a change in Chinese policy toward them?

To create paragraphs in your essay response, type at the beginning of the paragraph, and at the end.

The Submit Answers for Grading feature requires scripting to function. Your browser either does not support scripting or you have turned scripting off.

So, the Submit Answers for Grading button below will not work.

The following Submit Answers for Grading button is provided in its place and will clear your answers:
The Clear Answers and Start Over feature requires scripting to function. Your browser either does not support scripting or you have turned scripting off.

So, the Clear Answers and Start Over button below will not work.

The following Clear Answers button is provided in its place and will clear your answers: