The Tang-Song Transition

I. The Rebellion of An Lushan

II. Aftermath:

A. Military Governors

B. Economic:

1. abandoning the equal field system. Return to free buying and selling of land

2. Growth of trade

C. Political: rise of eunuchs

D. Stronger neighbors: Tibet, Uighurs

E. Intellectual and cultural flowering:

Confucian revival

Poetry

History writing

E. Final Collapse of Tang

III. Five Dynasties

Military governors, differences between north and south

IV. Song and Liao

A. Kaifeng and the early Song

1. Inability to subdue Khitans (Liao dynasty)

2. High point of exam system

3. Factional strife—Wang Anshi

C. Loss of North China to the Jurchen (Jin dynasty)

V. Naito Hypothesis: Tang-Song transition as the major divide in the imperial period (early imperial— late imperial)