617-1644: Social Class System and the Economy: Chronology

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 617-1644

IMPORTANT EVENTS OF 617-1644

617

• General Li Yaun is sent by Emperor Yang to put down a peasant rebellion in Taiyuan, but he turns against the Chinese ruler.

618

• Li Yaun declares an end to the Sui dynasty and establishes the Tang dynasty.

626

• Li Shimin, later known as the Tang emperor Taizong (Grand Ancestor), captures the Chinese capital, Chang’an, and forces his father to abdicate. During his reign he subjugates the Eastern Turks. He rules China until 649. The Tang rulers continue the “equal field” system of providing equal shares of agricultural land to the taxpaying peasants.

637-648

• Taizong undertakes military campaigns to wrest the Tarim Basin from the Western Turks. A military encounter occurs between Tibet, which came under Chinese suzerainty during his reign, and India.

649

• Tang emperor Gaozong (High Ancestor), the successor of Taizong, comes to the throne and crushes a coalition of kingdoms—made up of Koguryu (north Korea), Pakche (southwest Korea), and Japan—with assistance from the kingdom of Silla (southeast Korea). Hence, a unified Korea under Silla remains a loyal vassal of the Tang dynasty.

683

• Emperor Gaozong dies.

690-705

• Empress Wu, who has ruled through several puppet emperors after Gaozong’s death, assumes the title for herself. Though denounced as a usurper and condemned by Chinese historians, she is a capable and effective ruler.

705

• A palace coup d’etat removes Empress Wu.

712-756

• Tang emperor Xuangzong (Mysterious Ancestor), who is also known as Minghuang (Brilliant Emperor), comes to the throne. His reign signifies the second flourishing of the dynasty. During Xuangzong’s rule, Chief Minister Li Linfu becomes a virtual dictator. Upon the minister’s death in 752, Yang Guozhong, a much less capable man and a cousin of the beautiful royal concubine Yang Guifei, takes his place. The dominance of the Yang family in the court causes great discontent among the civil administrators and generals, and this discord eventually ends the brilliance of the dynasty.

755

• An Lushan, a general of Turkish descent who commanded a Chinese army along the frontier, rebels and forces the court to flee to Sichuan. Along the way, loyal soldiers of Xuangzong force the emperor to have Yang Guifei strangled. Xuangzong then abdicates.

758

• The Tang ruler enforces the traditional government monopoly on the sale of salt.

780

• Tang emperor Dezong (Brilliant Ancestor) comes to the throne. The Tang government abandons the “equal field” system and adopts the “Double Tax” system, which levies taxes twice a year on the amount of land held by peasant households.

800*

• Paper money is invented and used by the merchant class. Known as “flying money” because it is issued at one place and can be cashed at another site as if it can “fly” from place to place, it is in fact a draft rather than real currency. A businessman can put his money in the capital and obtain a paper document that he can then exchange for cash in other places. The money is usually backed by copper.

806

• Tang emperor Xianzong (Virtuous Ancestor) takes the throne. He is a vigorous ruler who tries to foster institutional renewal and attempts to recover central power.

812

• The government takes over the control of paper money and uses it for collecting local taxes and revenues. Exchange certificates redeemable in commodities such as salt and tea are also issued.

820

• Xianzong is murdered by the eunuchs, whose influence and power in palace politics grows in the 820s and 830s. An attempted coup against the eunuchs fails in 835.

840

• Tang emperor Wuzong (Militant Ancestor) comes to the throne. He is best known for his severe persecution of the Buddhist establishment. During his reign monastic lands and wealth are confiscated, monks and nuns are forced to resume lay life, and slaves and dependents of the Buddhist temples are released.

884

• The Huang Chao Rebellion, which has raged for ten years in northern China, finally succeeds in breaking the dynasty. The Tang gives up its attempt to control all of China Proper. The dynasty is virtually destroyed, and an array of regional states is established. A former supporter of Huang Chao later usurps the throne, thus officially ending the dynasty in 907.

907

• The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (also known as Period of Disunity) begins. Usurping generals found the Later Liang (907-923), Later Tang (923-936), Later Jin (936-946), Later Han (946-951), and Later Zhou (951-960) dynasties in brief succession in North China. Meanwhile, in Central and South China, ten states are established by regional commanders. The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period is characterized by regional militarism and a greater “barbarian” influence in North China.

947-1125

• The Liao Empire is established by the Khitan (Qidan) tribes, a branch of the Mongol peoples.

960

• General Zhao Kuangyin overthrows the Later Zhou emperor and founds the Song dynasty. Known to history as Emperor Taizu (Grand Progenitor), he succeeds in establishing a lasting dynasty that controls China until 1279. By the time of his death in 976 he rules all of China, except for two states. His success lies primarily in his military reforms that weaken or strip the power of local military commanders. The breakdown of regional militarism, however, also leads to military weakness, which becomes a fatal problem for the dynasty. The Song court also orders new land surveys to correct tax inequities and institute graduated taxes based on the productivity of farms.

976

• Song emperor Taizong (Grand Ancestor) begins his reign, which lasts until 997.

978-979

• Taizong incorporates the last two independent regional states into the empire.

1004

• The Song government agrees to pay the Qidan Liao (a northern-bordering “barbarian” state established by a group of Mongols) an annual sum of three hundred thousand units of silver and silk.

1023

• The Song court establishes an office to issue banknotes of various denominations, which are supported by cash deposits. Issued by the government bank, the paper money has on it an announcement to the effect that it is good only for three years. This office is the first governmental reserve bank in the world.

1038

• The Tangut tribes of Tibet establish the Xi Xia kingdom in northwestern China, which lasts until 1227.

1044

• Unable to confront the Xi Xia militarily, the Song again resorts to appeasement and pays an annual sum to them.

1067

• Song emperor Shenzong (Inspired Ancestor) takes the throne.
• Wang Anshi is appointed chief councilor; he initiates a series of economic, military, and educational reforms, which are vigorously opposed by the traditionalists.

1070*

• Cash payments begin to make up a major portion of imperial tax revenues, and the income garnered from monopolies and commercial taxes exceeds agricultural receipts.

1085

• Shenzong dies; the traditionalists regain power and defeat Wang’s reforms.

1100

• Song emperor Huizong (Excellent Ancestor) comes to the throne.

1100*

• China has fifty-two large urban prefectures of more than one hundred thousand house-holds each.

1107

• Banknotes are printed in at least six different colors.

1115

• The Jurchen (Nuzhen) tribes from Manchuria rebel against the Liao and establish the Jin (Golden) Empire. The Song allies with the Jin against the Liao in 1125, hoping to regain sixteen prefectures lost to the Liao two centuries earlier. The Jin destroys the Liao and seizes the Song capital, Kaifeng; captures emperor Huizong; and pursues the Song armies across the Yangzi River in 1126.

1125

• Emperor Huizong dies.

1127

• Song emperor Gaozong (High Ancestor), a son of Huizong, restores the dynasty in the south, with its capital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. He rules until 1162. The Song empire after 1127 is therefore known as the Southern Song (1127-1279), as opposed to the Northern Song (960-1125).

1130s

• General Yue Fei leads the resistance against the Jin armies in an attempt to recapture northern China. A peace faction, led by Qinkuai, controls the court, executes Yue Fei, and signs a treaty with the Jin in 1141. The Song becomes a vassal state of the Jin and agrees to pay an annual sum of three hundred thousand units of silk and silver.

1167

• Temujin is born. He is given the title Genghis Khan (Universal Ruler) at a meeting of the Mongol tribes on the Kerulen River in 1206.

1200*

• Tax income in cash surpasses that garnered through the collection of grains and tex-tiles; the government begins using silver, gold, and other metals to supplement its copper coinage.

1211-1215

• Genghis Khan campaigns against the Jin and destroys its capital south of Beijing; the Jin is forced to move its capital to Kaifeng, in Henan Province.

1227

• Genghis Khan’s army of about 129,000 men destroys the Xi Xia kingdom.
• Genghis Khan dies. He has, however, established the basis of his Eurasian empire.

1234

• The Jin dynasty is ended by the Mongols.

1260

• Kublai Khan, a grandson of Genghis, becomes the Great Khan. He adopts the Chinese dynastic name of Yuan (The First Beginning) for his empire in 1271. He also constructs roads and expands the postal-station system to assist in improving domestic commerce.

1271

• Marco Polo leaves Venice for China with his father and uncle, who are Venetian mer-chants.

1274

• Kublai Khan dispatches a military expedition against Japan.

1278

• Marco Polo begins his service in Kublai Khan’s court.

1279

• The Song is finally destroyed by the Yuan.
• The Yuan court begins to recall all mediums of exchange and to issue silk notes, a form of paper money backed by bundles of silk. This unified currency circulates throughout the Mongol empire, and by 1294 it is used as far abroad as Persia.

1281

• Kublai Khan sends a second, more massive, expedition against Japan. A strong typhoon, referred to by the Japanese as a Kamikaze (divine wind), blows the Mongol fleet off course and saves Japan from the invasion; the Khan’s fleet also attacks Java (Indonesia) in 1281 and 1292.

1295

• Marco Polo returns to Venice. His account of China, in the Description of the World, provides the Western world with its first written record of Chinese geography, economic life, and government institutions.

1300*

• The Yuan resumes the civil service examination system, which ceased in the north after 1237 and in the south after 1274.

1340s

• The Yellow River floods and changes its course, affecting millions of Chinese inhabitants of the region.

1352

• The Red Turbans, who wear red headdresses and are mostly followers of the White Lotus Society, a sect of Tian Tai Buddhism, rebel. They believe in the coming of Maitreya, whom they believe will eliminate all suffering and injustice.

1368

• The Mongol court flees to Mongolia. Zhu Yuanzhang, known to history as Taizu (Grand Progenitor), establishes the Ming (Brilliant) dynasty with its capital at Nanjing. Zhu joins the Red Turbans, later becomes a military commander, and enjoys the support of the southern gentry, who play a vital role in establishing the new regime. By the end of his reign, in 1398, the Ming control China; dominate the frontier region from Xinjiang to Inner Mongolia, and northern Manchuria; and make Korea, as well as other Central and Southeast Asian nations, tributary states.

1368-1424

• The Chinese experience a vigorous military resurgence. After suppressing a plot attributed to his chief minister, Taizu abolishes the Imperial Secretariat, the central administrative organ of past dynasties. Thus, the emperor’s rule becomes personal and direct, contributing to Ming despotism. Population registers record an estimated total of 60 million people, who reside on 129 million acres of arable land.

1375

• The Ming court creates the “Valuable Note of Great Ming.” This banknote is issued in only one denomination for almost two hundred years, during which time it is the legal currency. Because of inflation, its worth is significantly devalued by the end of the Ming era in the mid seventeenth century.

1393

• The Ming government issues a comprehensive body of administrative and criminal laws, known as the “Yongle Dadian” (Grand Law Codes of Yongle).

1403

• The emperor Yongle (Perpetual Happiness), the fourth son of Taizu, comes to power after a devastating civil war against his nephew, Taizu’s grandson, who had inherited the throne in Nanjing. During his reign Yongle leads five expeditions against the Mongols and incorporates Annam (Vietnam) into the Ming empire.

1405-1433

• Seven great maritime expeditions are sent out by imperial order. Led by a Muslim eunuch and admiral named Zheng He, the primary objective is to incorporate Asian states to the south and southeast into the tribute system. The fleets not only visit vast regions of south-eastern Asia but also sail to the Indian Ocean, Arabia, and the east coast of Africa. These expeditions exhibit the political and military assertiveness of the Ming dynasty.

1420

• Yongle moves the capital to Beijing, which symbolizes the preoccupation of the Ming with its defenses against the Mongols and other Inner Asian “barbarians.” He rebuilds the city on a more extensive plan than that of the Mongols. The Early Middle period (1425-1505) of the Ming dynasty enjoys a period of peace, stability, and prosperity.

146OS-147OS

• The Chinese military experiences a resurgence in power.

1487

• The Chinese begin strengthening and extending the Great Wall.

1506-1590*

• The Ming dynasty enters a period in which China suffers from inadequate imperial leadership; the Grand Secretariat and the eunuchs wield immense power.

1512

• Peasants in the central province of Sichuan revolt against unfair taxation.

1572

• Wanli (Ten Thousand Years) begins his reign as emperor. His Chief Grand Secretary, Zhang Juzheng, introduces the Single Whip Reform, a new tax system that combines and simplifies many taxes into monetary payments.

1592

• Japan invades Korea. The Ming court fulfills its suzerain duty to Korea by sending troops to attack Pyongyang. They are defeated by the Japanese. The military campaigns against the Japanese drain the resources of the regime.

1600

• Approximately 150 million people live in China.

1624

• Wei Zhongxian, a eunuch, takes over the government and persecutes members of the Dong/in (Eastern Forest) movement, who are mostly dismissed scholar-officials who condemn philosophical eclecticism, factionalism, and the eunuchs’ control of government.

1628*

• A famine ravages the Shaanxi province. Li Zicheng, an unemployed postal attendant, joins a growing group of bandits, and soon his forces hold much of Hubei, Henan, and Shaanxi.

1630S

• Zhang Xianzhong, another rebel and Li’s major rival, leads raids throughout North China.

1644

• Li Zicheng seizes Beijing, and the last Ming emperor commits suicide, thus ending the 276-year-long dynasty. Zhang Xianzhong invades Sichuan and sets up a government there.

* Denotes Circa Date