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Tang TaizongThe Tang Dynasty's second emperor, Tang Taizong, became emperor by killing two of his brothers and pushed his father aside. He was a Confucaian ruler who provided a stable government and built the capital at Chang'an. When he got into power stealing stopped, and prices stayed low, especially the price of rice.
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ExpansionThe Tang empire took over Manchuria (in the north), they also conquered the northern part of Vietnam, they went as far west as the Aral sea.
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An Shi Rebellion An Lushan was a respected military commander who started this rebellion because the emperor was not taking care of the dynasty. He captured the capital, Chang'an, he also captured the secondary capital, Luoyang.
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An LushanAn Lushan was murdered by a soldier.
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UighursTang forces succeeded in taking over again, but An Lushans rebellions weakened the Tang. The commanders had to invite nomadic Turks the, Uighurs, to bring an army into China to expell An Lushans "people" from the capital. In return for their services they wanted to sack the capitals after they finished the job.
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KhitanThe Khitans were seminomadic people from Manchuria. They ruled from northern Korea to Mongolia. From the Song they demanded and received payments and gifts promising that they would not invsde the Song.
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Southern SongThe Jurchen people conquered the Khitans and took over northern China. They captured the Song capital, and established the Jin empire. So the Song empire moved south to their new capital Hangzhou, this is kown as the Southern Song.
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SongThe Mongols ended the Southern Song dynasty and added it to their empire.
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Equal Field SystemAfter the An Shi rebellion the equal-field system never fully worked again. Its purpose was to make sure that land was distributed equally.
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Huang Chao RebellionHuang Chao was a military commander who stole from the wealthy and gave to the poor. To try to control the rebels, the Tang emperors began giving more and more power to regional and military commanders.
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Song TaizuSong Taizu was a junior military official and served a powerful warlord before he became emperor. He was honest and effective. He got all warlords under his control and pushed them into retirement so he would not have rivals. He admired anyone who worked for the government and if they did they got generous salaries, the administration grew and this led to financial problems.
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Tang DynastyIn 618 Sui Yangdi was killed, the last emperor of the Sui, and the Tang dynasty was started. The most important emperor was Tang Taizong. They relied on a strict bureaucracy of merit and had many transportation and communication networks. It became weakened because of careless leadership and rebellions, and it eventually fell.
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Song Taizu was the founder of the dynasty, it was not as strong as the Tang. It was weak in economy, had military problems, and had external pressures.
