From the divided Southern and Northern Dynasties and the Gupta age through the Sui and Tang empires to the founding of the Song — the age when an East Asian world sharing law codes, Buddhism, Confucianism and Chinese characters took shape, and Korea and Japan built their states on its model
Alexey Komarov · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Source
| Element | China (Sui–Tang) | Korea | Japan |
|---|---|---|---|
| Law codes | Kaihuang code; Tang lü, ling, ge, shi | Goguryeo (373), Silla (520) | Taihō Code (701) |
| Central government | Three Departments, Six Ministries | Silla Jipsabu; Balhae 3 depts, 6 ministries | Two Offices, Eight Ministries |
| Recruiting officials | Civil exams (Sui, c. 587) | Dokseo Sampumgwa (788); Goryeo exams (958) | Inherited court rank for nobles |
| Land and tax | Equal fields, zu-yong-diao → two-tax (780) | Silla office land and adult-male land | Handen shūju; so-yō-chō |
| Military | Militia (fubing) → paid troops, jiedushi | Silla Nine Oaths Units, Ten Garrisons | Provincial militia (gundan) |
| Confucian schools | Directorate of Education; exams for foreigners | Taehak, Gukhak, Balhae Jujagam | Daigaku-ryō |
| Arrival of Buddhism | From India via Central Asia (1st c.) | Goguryeo 372 (Former Qin), Baekje 384 | From Baekje (552, or 538) |
| Buddhist culture | Xuanzang’s pilgrimage; Longmen caves | Woncheuk, Hyecho; Seokguram | Great Buddha of Tōdai-ji (752) |
| Capital planning | Chang’an — grid streets, Zhuque Avenue | Balhae Upper Capital (Sanggyeong) | Heijō-kyō (710), Heian-kyō (794) |
| Writing | Chinese characters, Classical Chinese | Classical Chinese; idu and hyangchal | Man’yōgana → kana |
| Foreign relations | Tribute and investiture; jimi rule | Silla and Balhae invested by Tang | Envoys to Sui and Tang (630–894) |
| Exchange of people and goods | Silla quarters and temples in Shandong | Students at Tang court; Jang Bogo | Ennin’s diary of his Tang pilgrimage |
Through the long division of the Wei, Jin and Southern and Northern Dynasties, great families who passed office down through the Nine-Rank system led society and created an aristocratic culture of “pure conversation”, Daoism and Buddhism, calligraphy, painting and literature.
Chandragupta I founded the Gupta dynasty in the Ganges valley and reunited northern India. Hinduism took shape, and Sanskrit literature, Gupta-style art and mathematics flourished in India’s classical age.
King Sosurim adopted Buddhism through the monk Sundo from Former Qin, founded the Taehak academy and issued a law code.
The Northern Wei, founded by the Tuoba clan of the Xianbei, destroyed the Northern Liang in 439, ending the strife of the Sixteen Kingdoms and uniting north China. The age of the Southern and Northern Dynasties began.
Emperor Xiaowen of Northern Wei introduced the equal-field system and, after moving the capital to Luoyang in 494, replaced Xianbei dress, speech and surnames with Chinese ones and encouraged marriage with Han Chinese families.
King Seong sent the envoy Norisachigye with Buddhist images and sutras to Wa; Baekje culture strongly influenced the formation of Japan’s Asuka culture.
Emperor Wen of Sui (Yang Jian) founded the Sui in 581 and reunified China after some 300 years by destroying the southern Chen in 589. He was the first to choose officials by examination.
Sui, having reunified China, invaded Goguryeo four times and failed every time; the campaigns helped bring Sui down.
In 605–610 Emperor Yang of Sui completed the Grand Canal linking the Yellow River with the Huai and the Yangtze and north to Zhuo Commandery (today’s Beijing), joining the economy of the south to the political centre in the north.
Goguryeo forces under Eulji Mundeok routed a Sui strike force at the Salsu (Cheongcheon) River.
Amid the collapse of Sui, Li Yuan (Emperor Gaozu) rose at Taiyuan, took Chang’an and founded the Tang in 618. In 626 his son Li Shimin (Taizong) took over after the Xuanwu Gate Incident.
Emperor Taizong of Tang set up the Three Departments and Six Ministries, the codes of law, statute, regulation and ordinance, and the equal-field, zu-yong-diao and militia systems, and governed with an open ear to remonstrance — a period of stability known as the Reign of Zhenguan.
The Tang monk Xuanzang defied a travel ban and set out for India in 629; after studying at Nalanda he returned to Chang’an in 645 with some 650 scriptures and left the travel account Great Tang Records on the Western Regions.
Songtsen Gampo, who had united the Tibetan plateau, married the Tang Princess Wencheng in 641. He ruled from Lhasa and brought Buddhism and a Tibetan script to his realm.
In 645 Prince Naka no Ōe and Nakatomi no Kamatari overthrew the overbearing Soga clan and began reforms, modelled on Tang law codes, to build a centralised state under the sovereign (tennō).
Emperor Taizong of Tang took the Liaodong fortresses, but Ansi held out for 88 days and forced him to withdraw.
Kim Chun-chu travelled to Tang and concluded a military alliance with Emperor Taizong: once Baekje and Goguryeo fell, Silla would have the land south of Pyongyang.
A Wa fleet sent to aid the Baekje rebels was crushed by the Silla–Tang allies at the mouth of the Baek River; 400 ships burned.
Allied Silla and Tang forces took Pyongyang and King Bojang surrendered, ending Goguryeo.
Silla drove out the Tang armies that sought to rule the peninsula and unified the land south of a line from the Taedong River to Wonsan Bay.
Wu Zetian, empress of Tang Gaozong, made herself emperor in 690 and renamed the dynasty Zhou. The only woman to reign as emperor in Chinese history, she promoted new officials chosen by examination.
Dae Jo-yeong, a former Goguryeo general, founded a kingdom at Mount Dongmo. It was later called "the flourishing land in the East".
In 710 Japan moved its capital to Heijō-kyō (Nara), laid out after Tang Chang’an, opening the Nara period. It was governed under the Taihō Code and took in Tang culture through envoys to the Tang court.
The Silla monk Hyecho sailed to India, toured the five Indian kingdoms and Central Asia, and returned to Tang to write the Wang ocheonchukguk jeon.
King Mun made peace with Tang and adopted its institutions, creating the Three Departments and Six Ministries; he used the era name Daeheung and opened the Silla Road.
The rebellion launched in 755 by the military governor An Lushan and his lieutenant Shi Siming lasted until 763. The Tang lost and regained Chang’an, but afterwards declined as regional governors entrenched themselves and the codified order collapsed.
In 780, under Emperor Dezong of Tang and on the advice of the chief minister Yang Yan, the per-head zu-yong-diao tax was replaced by the two-tax system, levied in summer and autumn according to the land and property each household actually held.
Emperor Kanmu moved the capital to Heian-kyō (Kyoto) in 794, opening the Heian period. After embassies to the Tang stopped in 894, a distinctly Japanese “national style” culture developed, written in the kana syllabaries.
With King Heungdeok’s leave, Jang Bogo founded the Cheonghae garrison on Wando, cleared the seas of pirates and dominated trade among Silla, Tang and Japan.
The peasant revolt launched in 875 by the salt smuggler Huang Chao swept across China; it took Chang’an in 880 and was put down in 884, but it effectively destroyed the Tang.
In 907 the military governor Zhu Wen ended the Tang and founded the Later Liang. Until 960 five dynasties followed one another in the north while ten kingdoms rose in the south and elsewhere.
Yelü Abaoji united the Khitan tribes and proclaimed himself emperor in 916. Destroying Balhae in 926 and gaining the Sixteen Prefectures in 936, the Khitan became the great power of the north.
The Khitan ruler Yelü Abaoji invaded Balhae and besieged its capital Hol-han-seong (Sanggyeong); the last king, Dae In-seon, surrendered.
On the advice of Shuang Ji, a naturalized official from Later Zhou, Gwangjong held Goryeo’s first civil service examination to recruit Confucian-educated officials.
Zhao Kuangyin (Emperor Taizu), a Later Zhou general, founded the Song in the Chenqiao mutiny of 960, took military power from the governors into imperial hands and favoured civil officials chosen by examination. China proper was reunified in 979.
Second Tang emperor whose 645 invasion of Goguryeo stalled at Ansi Fortress
Thirtieth king of Silla, who destroyed Goguryeo, expelled Tang and completed unification
Goguryeo general who lured the Sui strike force inland and destroyed it at the Salsu River
Founder of the Later Liang (r. 907–912); a former lieutenant of Huang Chao who went over to Tang and became a military governor, he ended the Tang in 907. Given the name Zhu Quanzhong by the Tang
Founder of the Khitan Liao state, who destroyed Balhae in 926 and died on the way home
Gupta king (r. c. 380–c. 415) who extended the empire to western India and brought it to its height; Kalidasa and others flourished at his court
Seventeenth king of Goguryeo, who adopted Buddhism, founded the Taehak and issued a law code
Northern Wei emperor (r. 471–499) who introduced the equal-field system, moved the capital to Luoyang and replaced Xianbei dress, speech and surnames with Chinese ones
Twenty-sixth king of Baekje, who moved the capital to Sabi and died at Gwansan Fortress