Rice, Rulers and Warriors
1Under the Tang dynasty (618–907), China's capital, Chang'an, was one of the largest cities in the world. The Grand Canal carried rice and other goods from the wet, warm south to the drier north. The government chose many officials through exams on the writings of Confucius, and printers carved whole pages into wooden blocks to print books.
2The Song dynasty (960–1279) brought deep changes in farming and trade. In the early 1000s the government handed out seed of Champa rice, an early-ripening rice from what is now Vietnam. In parts of the warm south, farmers could now grow two crops of rice a year on the same field. They sold extra rice in market towns, and more people worked as craftsmen, shopkeepers and boatmen. Song China made fine porcelain for sale abroad, used gunpowder in weapons, and in the 1020s became the first government to print paper money. Cheaper printed books helped many more young men study for the exams.
3In 1206 Genghis Khan united the Mongol peoples. Mongol armies fought in northern China from 1211 to 1234, and many farms and cities there were destroyed. His grandson Kublai Khan founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271 and finished conquering the Song in 1279. Under one Mongol empire, merchants could travel the Silk Road more safely. Kublai kept many Chinese ways of governing, but he gave the highest posts mostly to Mongols and other non-Chinese. After floods, famine and revolts, a Chinese rebel leader drove out the Yuan and founded the Ming dynasty in 1368.
4Japan borrowed much from Tang China, including Chinese writing and Buddhism. Its new capital of 794, Heian-kyō (later called Kyoto), copied Chang'an's grid of straight streets. Over time, power slipped from the emperor's court to warrior families. After winning a war in 1185, Minamoto Yoritomo set up a warrior government at Kamakura, and in 1192 he received the title of shogun, the top military commander. The emperor kept his title and his role in ceremonies. Samurai served their lords in return for land and were expected to be loyal and fearless. In 1191 the monk Eisai returned from Song China and spread Zen Buddhism, which stresses strict self-discipline and meditation, and the custom of drinking powdered tea. Zen became popular among many samurai.