History

Tang & Song: Golden Ages

The Tang (618 – 907) and Song (960 – 1279) dynasties are usually held up as China's cultural and economic high water marks.

Character	Pinyin	Dynasty
	Táng	618 – 907
	Sòng	960 – 1279

Tang (唐) — cosmopolitan poetry

Tang China was outward-looking. Its capital Chang'an (today's Xi'an) was the largest city in the world, full of merchants, monks, and diplomats from across Asia. Tang is most remembered for poetry — the era produced 李白 (Lǐ Bái) and 杜甫 (Dù Fǔ), still the two most read poets in Chinese literature. Buddhism, which had arrived from India centuries earlier, reached its full flourishing here.

Song (宋) — technology & art

The Song dynasty was less militarily expansive but technologically dazzling. Three of the "Four Great Inventions" of ancient China were perfected or invented under the Song:

Movable-type printing (~1040, four centuries before Gutenberg)
The magnetic compass for navigation
Gunpowder used in warfare

(The fourth great invention, paper, was earlier — under the Han.) Song-era painting and porcelain are still considered classics of those arts.

Quiz

Pick the best answer for each question. You get feedback right away.

Two of China’s most famous poets — Li Bai and Du Fu — lived during which dynasty?
Movable-type printing, the magnetic compass, and military gunpowder were all developed under the:
Which of the "Four Great Inventions" was NOT a Song innovation?