Introduction
From the time of Adam, human history has seen many things getting up and down. We are actually in the process of evolution, which we cannot neglect, as our ancestors had a high life expectancy, but now it is shorter, and the living standards have changed with time. If we see a development process, it is not something that nearly started with the invention of Rostow’s development stages but from early ages, humans have tried to shift from Marble to clay and till. Yet, we all are improvising our lives individually, and international governments are working on it. There is the fact that government initiatives influence the matter of individuals. If the state is improving the economy and having good sustainable political conditions, it will impact an individual’s social life.
This is not something that is just in one place, but it is a historical fact we have seen in history, like when Rome flourished with its economy. It impacted Rome; they gained much stability by introducing metal coin currency and giving the world an opportunity for a new kind of mode of exchange. So, to analyze the strength of the government and its rule, we must analyze its economic, political, and social structure to understand its development level. We will discuss three famous dynasties of the Chinese region regarding these three perspectives and analyze their rule strength with their performance.
Dynasty is a term used for a family that has continuity in the succession of their rule in the same region or expansion of the region, mostly because the princely and royal families count in it. It has some unique characteristics in that they circulate the rule in the family even the high officials are mostly family members and they do not compromise anyway. In this assignment, we will briefly discuss the Sui, Tang, and Song Dynasties. We will briefly discuss each of the following to analyze the economic social and political changes.
The Sui Dynasty
The Sui Dynasty was famous for unifying South and North China after Han rule and sustaining the morality of China, and it was at the time of Han Chinese. In this, all ethnic values were adopted and practiced in the time of Hans by joining all nomadic minorities by ethnicity. The rule was founded by Emperor Wen of Sui who capitalized the Chang’an at that time which had changed in name with a period or after the emperor’s name. They had Buddhism as the state religion and they tried every step to spread it all over China.
If we look at the economy of the Sui dynasty, it looks stable according to the facts and their developmental approach. The most interesting thing is that they never had economic inequality, and everyone got an equal share. They improved the agriculture area, by developing departments for improving the economy at the government level including ministries. The unity of the empire created a golden age for the Chinese, who could introduce coinage as a mode of exchange and standardize it in each sector. They surplus agricultural productivity and storm the idea of a rapid population increase for the labor force.
Politics influenced development because of merit. They were focusing on holding out offices using the potential personnel who could lead in better ways, also the situation of law and order was much improved because they ended the different severe punishments and made law equality for everyone and we can see the minister’s trial in their history but they have weak narration according to the historians. Most historians compared the Sui Dynasty with the Qin Dynasty because of their similar characteristics in unifying China, but their influence was shorter than that of the Qin Dynasty. The most recommendable and memorial structure of the Sui Dynasty was the Grand Canal, which included the fortification of the Great Wall when Turks were trying to invade China(Xiong, 2006).
The Tang Dynasty
The Tang Dynasty is a successor of the Sui Dynasty in which ten kingdoms and five dynasties were involved to complete the ruling cycle of this one dynasty. It is considered to be the high point of China’s growth when they succeeded in ruling over China and the advancement of culture seen during their regime as truly dominant. They had the same capital Chang’ a which was upheld by the Sui Dynasty and became the most popular city of that time with regard to their development. It was founded by the Li family, who seized the power of the Sui Dynasty during the period of civil war; it influenced the cultures of countries like Japan, Vietnam, and Korea. The period of this dynasty included a lot of progress in each dimension of development also they improvised and promoted Buddhism around China.
Politically, this dynasty implies the same structure as the Sui Dynasty. Still, they added some scholar-officials and standardized examination procedures to appoint military and civil services. They improved the justice system for the public and made things better to save the arena from civil instability.
The culture had the main impact on social change, and it flourished rapidly in the closed region of that time. Also, historians say that it was the best era for Chinese poetry and literature. Even the paintings of that time were still masterpieces that were mostly used to interpret the society of that time. In the sector of education, geography history compilation was at its peak, and today, we can easily understand the concepts of those times. Chinese were more focused on art from the start and used it well to portray history.
It was a time of great innovation and technology, in which we see wood blocking and printing. Also, the usage of heavy metal invaded society, which improved the industry in many ways(Rettino, 2013).
The Song Dynasty
The Song Dynasty was a divided era of Chinese history in which there were Southern Song and Northern Song. Still, both had a temporary conflict that ended over time and opened the gate for social, political, and economic development. It was founded by Emperor Taizu Song and was divided between the Liao and Xia dynasties.
If we look at economic terms and development, Song was the first in the world to introduce banknotes and paper stamp money that had never been used before by any country. They had control of the sea resources, improvising a standing navy for the first time. The population doubled during that time when there was a large labor force, and development was at its peak from an economic perspective.
The political administration was also better but distracted due to the development of new cities and trade openings in the larger roots. It was opening the gateway to the silk trade route. The official was used to be hired by scholarly capacity and local identities.
Social life was vibrant during that time and technology flourished in a way in which subjects like mathematics and engineering were at a peak. Also, moveable type printing became popular with the invasion of philosophical quotes. Civil services examinations existed and were continued in the Song Dynasty more prominently which produced namely scholars and philosophers of government at that time(Wang, 2003).
References
Rettino, M. (2013, October 4). Tang Dynasty – Archaeologies of the Weird. Retrieved February 8, 2018, from https://matthewrettino.wordpress.com/tag/tang-dynasty/
Wang, R. (2003). Images of Women in Chinese Thought and Culture: Writings from the Pre-Qin Period Through the Song Dynasty. Hackett Publishing.
Xiong, V. C. (2006). Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty: His Life, Times, and Legacy. SUNY Press.
