Spring and Autumn period (770-476 B.C.)

563-483 B.C. Accepted dates of current Buddha’s life (Lopez:16)

Warring States period (475-221 B.C.)

Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.)

Han Dynasty (206 B.C-220 C.E.)

Three Kingdoms (220-265)

Jin Dynasty (265-420)

300's First references to "Qidan" people (who would become the Liao) i! n Chinese sources

406 Kumarajiva translates the Lotus Sutra into Chinese; this is the translation commonly used today (Conference)

Period of Disunion (420-588)

424-535 Bodhidharma came to China (Foulk:152)

538-597 Life of Zhi-I, the “grand architect” of Tiantai Buddhism (Gregory: 6)

587 The beginning of the examination system (Conference)

581-617 Tiantai Buddhism rose to prominence (Gregory: 5)

591 Hangzhou receives a new perimeter wall ! (Heng:141)

Tang Dynasty

(618-907)

618-626 Gao-zu’s court (Bol: 39), Tiantai loses favor (Gregory: 5)

638-713 Hui-neng, 6th Patriarch distributed teachings of Chan Buddhism (Chang:127)

648 Qidans accept the rule of the Tang dynasty. (Barfield: 168)

695 The Qitan fall out of Tang control. (Barfield: 168)

711-782 Chan-jan attempts to revive Tiantai Buddhism(Gregory: 5)

738-839 Cheng-kuan teachs “universal independece” as highest teaching of Hua-yen (Gregory: 8)

740 The Qitan fall under Tang control again, followed by an unsuccesful rebellion in 745. (Barfield: 168)

742 86,000 families living in Hangzhou (just 15,400 in Sui period, 125yrs ago) (Heng:141)

755-63 An Lu-Shan rebellion

768-824 Life of Han Yu, who championed guwen, or “ancient” literary style (Yoshikawa:8)

779-831 Yuan Zhen wrote “Ying Ying’s story” of the “Chuanqi” genre (Conf. 4/19)

794-1185 Heian Period- founders of Tiandai and Shingon Buddhism schools rewarded by imperial support (Lopez: 10)

821-22 Tang and Tibetan rulers negotiated a treaty based on diplomatic parity (Tao:67)

835 Ban on privately (illegally) printed calendars (Chia: 16)

840 Tibetan King closed monasteries (Lopez:10)

841-846 Hui-Chang era, harsh suppression of the Buddhist monastic institution that was initiated by imperial decree (Foulk: 158)
-Note that Bol dates this oppression from 842-845 (Bol: 22)

843 T’ang attacks northern Uighurs on the Chinese frontier (Barfield: 165)

844 Tibetan King assassinated for closing monasteries, end of Tibetan monarchy (Lopez:10)

845 Buddhism as an organized institution was almost eliminated in China (Lecture 2/14)

868 The 'Diamond Sutra is the first known important document reproduced by using wood-block printing (Gernet: 333)

Five Dynasties Period (map)

(907-960)

907-1125 Period of the Liao Dynasty to the north of “China” proper

907 Abaoji (becomes Emperor Taizu of the) declares himself “emperor” of the Qidans, now the Liao empire; transformed a confederation of Qidan tribes into a powerful state (see Barfield, 169)

907-60 Period of the Five Dynasties

908 The first post-Tang examinations are administered and continue under the various five dynasties

916 Lu Wenjin, Jin official, killed his governor and took his army to Liao allegiance (Standen:66)

---Abaoji defeats many surrounding Turkic tribes

920 Qitan create a script similar to Chinese to record their language.

936 Shi Jingtang gives Liao Deguang/Taizong 16 prefectures in exchange for wiping out Later Tang. M

---Shi Jingtang founds Later Jin as a client state to Liao-but the relationship eventually! sours.

946-7 Qidan armies overwhelm Jin armies and briefly capture Kaifeng, but lose most of the territory because of local rebellion and political dispute (Barfield, 173)

947 Taizong (Deguang) adopts name of the Great Liao and begins assuming Chinese customs, rites.

953-1009 Life of Dowager Empress Xiao, a powerful Qitan Empress who led invasions of the N. Song (Lau:180)

960 Chan school of Buddhism is dominant

Northern Song Dynasty (map)

(960-1125)

960 Zhao Guangyin, better known as Emperor Song Taizu, overthrows the weak emperor of the Lattern Zhou and establishes the Song dynasty.
(Text:553-58)

960-63 Taizu sets up the system of multiple capitals in the N. Sung, with Kaifeng as the main capital, first Song examinations begin

961-1017 Life of Zhen Peng-nian, who wrote a history about avoiding nepotism (Bol:70)

964-1032 Life of Zun-shi, a proponent of Tiantai Buddhism (Gregory: 5)

963-979 Song armies conquer independent kingdoms, reunifying (approximately) the territory once held by the Tang. Expedience attributed to strength of army inherited from the Tang.

967-1028 Life of the poet Lin Bu, who was said to have preferred cranes to children. (Sturman 38)

971 Numerous printed editions of a “complete” Buddhism canon (Foulk:151)

974 Old History of the Five Dynasties completed (Standen:74)

974 First exchange of letters between local officials across Song! /Liao border.

975 The first palace examination

976 Taizong succeeds his brother as Emperor. All emperors following are his descendants, not Taizu's.

977 Taizong sets precedent of appointing jinshi degree holders to positions that had the possibility of promotion; created greater accessibility to high positions among non-elites (see Bol)

978 Wuyue territory relinquished wealth and land to Song (Heng:143)

---Imperial palace library founded with eighty thousand volumes. (Gernet 336)

979 Taiz ong leads first northern campaign, wipes out Northern Han, pushes into 16 prefectures but siege is broken at Youzhou (Beijing) by large Qitan army.

---Mote and Lau disagree a lot about how “disastrous” this actually was.

---Taizong is wounded but gets away.

---N. Han had provided a buffer between Song and Liao—its removal put them pretty constantly at odds.

980 Birth of the Ch'an master Hsueh-t'ou Ch'uang-hsien, to whom the "Blue Cliff Collection" ; of Gongans is attributed. (Foulk: 28) -d. 1052

982-1031 reign of Liao Shengzong. Ascends throne at 7; his mother (Dowager Empress Xiao) is regent. Signs Shanyuan treaty with Song Zhenzong.

984 Imperial court recognizes the historical existence of the 5 Dynasties (Tao:72)

986 Taizong mounts a second, though more minor and less successful, campaign against Liao. (Barfield: 174)

987-1053 Liu Yong is the early Song lyricist (Conf. 3/29)

988 The ! first Liao examination

992 Candidates' names are covered in the palace examinations for the sake of anonymity

996-1002 Zun-shi’s society, about 100 members (Gregory:14)

996-1027 Ascendancy of Fujiwara Michinaga in Japan, lots of cultural flourishing etc.

---Pure Land Buddhism gaining momentum in Japan at this point

998 Edict that forbade private reprints of the Confucian classics, only through Kaifeng (Cherniack, 41

1000-1090 Guo Xi (painter)

1000-1030 “Ho me Mountain” vs. “Off Mountain” controversy in Tiantai Buddhism

---“nature inclusion” (Home) vs. “nature origination” (off)

---former is closer to traditional Tiantai, latter has more in common w/ Chan

1004 Song-Liao ongoing war (Lecture 2/7),

---Chan and Tiantai Buddhism are in conflict.

--- the "Jingde Chuandeng Lu" was compiled by Tao-yuan and published, which is a record of the transmission of the flame. (Foulk 150)

---The god Zitong is honored by the Northern Sung emperor

1004-5 “Submission of the barbarians” to the Song (Tao:73) M*

1004-07 Jingde era, Flame histories in circulation (Foulk: 154)

1005 The Northern Sung sign the Shan-yuan treaty with the Liao dynasty. Under the terms of the treaty, the Sung delivered every year 200,000 bolts of silk and 100,000 ounces of silver to the Liao in exchange for the Liao recognizing the Sung’s northern border. (Barfield 174) M*

---The treaty with the Liao shared features with the Tang/Tibetan treaties of the 8th and 9th centuries. (Standen 72)

1007-1072 Life of Ou-yang Xiu, writer, intellectual, statesman, and all around "man of the age"

---oversaw writing of official history of previous dynasty

---founded Neo-confucianism movement characterized by less scholarly and more natural reading of Shiji, Doctrine of the Mean (Zhong-yong)
Works: Remarks on Poetry (Shi-hua), commentary on Classic of Poetry (Text:553-58)
(Text:688) patron on the model of Han Yu-(Yoshikawa:8) master of guwen style-

1007 -Song established a State Letters Bureau to handle exchange of state letters with Qitans and educate ambassadors of diplomatic precedents and practic! es (Tao:69)

---Candidates names are covered in the departmental level examinations

1007-91 Life of Chang Fang-p’ing, who wrote Hymn to the Song

1008 Lu Zhen’s journey to Liao

1009 Founding of Ly dynasty in Vietnam, and the “great viet”.

1010-20 Qitan military campaigns vs. Korea , with no real success (Barfield: 176)

1012-1100 Eastern palace complex grows as imperial portraits are moved from Buddhist and Daoist monasteries to the palace, consolidation

1015 Exam papers are copied at the departmental level for further anonymity

1018-79 Life of Wentong (painter), famous for his painting, "Bamboo," which he painted in 1070.

1019-86 Life of Sima Guang; leader of the conservative party. He wrote the General Mirror for the Aid of Government (Zichi Tongjian)

1021-86 Life of Wang Anshi, who began a series of reforms that favored the lower classes and which provoked violence from wealthy land owners and merchants. In power from 1068-76. New laws.

024 First instance of banknotes in Sichuan; helped economic growth; appropriated by Mongols.

1033-1107 Life of Cheng I, a very important Neo-confucian philosopher of Northern Song who heavily influenced Chu Hsi (Gregory: 15, Bol: 31)

1037-1101 Life of Su Shi (Su Dong-po), famous poet, literatus, and statesman who spent much of his life in exile due to opposition to Wang Anshi and others. He favored separation of politics and private values (Text: 553-58) (Yoshikawa: 8)

---master of guwenguwen style-(Yoshikawa:22)

---Huang Ting-jian, (one of Su Shi's disciple) was a Buddhist lay practitioner, statesman, literatus and had a building named after him at Pei-shan (Foulk:187)

1038 Tanguts declare empire of Great Xia aka Xi Xia. Tangut king, now emperor, is Zhao Yuanho. Tanguts are no longer a Song vassal state.

1038-1227 Reign of the Western Xia (Xi Xia; Tangut Empire) (covered area from southern Mongolia and through the Han provinces of Shanxi, Shenx! i, and Gansu. Song paid tribute to them as well! . Also s inified.

1038-42 Declaration of Tangut independence prompts First Song-Tangut war.

1041-48 Ch’ing-li period- open discussions of foreign affairs and collective decision-making contributed to successful solutions to foreign policy problems (Tao:81)

1042 Second treaty between Song and Liao; The Northern Sung increase their payments to the Liao as a result of the Liao helping the Sung to stave off the Tangut. The payments are increased to 300,000 bolts of silk and 200,000 ounces of silver a year. Despite this, the Liao still had financial difficulty. (Barfield 177)

1069-1085 - Wang An-shih’s New Laws (Gernet 307)

---“New Leaves” farm loan program, revisions to tax code and other “radical” reforms alarm conservatives, and factional divides form that will long outlive Wang himself.

---Government sells ordination certificates.

---Less direct court support for Buddhist monasteries.

1070s-1150s Li Tang (painter; becomes head of S. Song painting academy! )

1073 New of Five Dynasties completed, edited Old History to emphasize passing clear moral judgments (Standen:74)

1074-6 Peaceful renegotiation of Shan-yuan treaty (Standen:73, Tao:76)

1080 Jianzhou has one government school in each county (Neo-confucian stronghold) (Chia, 18)

1081-82 Second Song-Tangut War; Song offensives against Xia

1084 Publication of the Zizhi Dongjian, or “General Mirror for the Aid of Government,” by Sima Guang--a “universal history” based on the material from the Xin Wudai Shi [New History of ! the Five Dynasties], written in 1073, which in turn was a moralistic rewriting of the Jiu Wudai Shi [Old History of the Five Dynasties], written in 974; moralistic tones; highly influential.

1085- Sima Guang recalled to the government. He begins to dismantle the changes of Wang An-shih

---Hangzhou is the most populous city south of the Yangzi river.

1086-1093 - Anti-reformists movement

1087 The Liao declare many areas lost to bandits and local warlords (Barfield: 177)

1089 The zhuke degree is abolished; only the jinshi is offered at the highest level

1092-1159 Life of, Chang Jiu-cheng, eventually excoriated by Zhu Xi, who accused him of being a Buddhist (Gregory: 15)

1093 the ‘purge’ (Bol:70) dissenting officials exiled from capital, sons could not take tests, office holders in these groups drops off

1095-1170 Miao-zong is the successor of Da-hui (Gregory: 17)

100-1126 - The reign of Emperor Huizong, the supposed painter of the famous, "Auspicious Cranes"

---He was a Daoist. (Sturman 34)

---Passes anti-Buddhist measure in 1100.

---Founded a famous institute of painting in 1104. The school followed the style of the painter Huang Quan.

---He had a massive collection of paintings and Calligraphy that was destroyed by the Jurchen invasion. (Gernet 338)

1101-26 Reign of 8th Song emperor Huizong (Zhao Ji); begins many building projects

1102 Another ‘purge’ (Bol:70! )

1108-66 Zheng Qiao; literati

1112 Auspicious crane sighting

1114 Jurchens begin attacks on the Qidan Liao empire

1115-1234 Jurchen (Jin) dynasty; Jurchens rebel against Qidan overlords and declaretheir own Chinese-style empire, the Jin.

1119-1126 Zhang Zeduan (painter; supposed painter of the Qingming Shanghe tu)

1120 Jurchen-Song alliance (Gernet:356), Jurchen take Liao capital (Lecture 2/7)

1122 Song-Jin armies combine against the Liao (Gernet:356)

1126 After conquering the Liao, Jin invade North China and conquer most of it, taking Kaifeng and forcing the collapse of the Northern Song.

Southern Song Dynasty (map)

(1127-1279)

Gaozong (1127-1162)

1127 Song prince establishes Southern Song (south of Yangzi river)
-capital at Hangzhou
-river warfleet effective barrier to the ! Jin

1130 Zhong Xiang, military leader/magician, leads peasant uprising.

1130-1200 Life of Zhu Xi; philosopher, canonical Neo-Confucian
---Outline and Digest of the General Mirror (Tongjian Kangmu)

1132 Supposed first experiments of using gunpowder to propel objects through a tube.

1132 God Zitong given title by S. Song Emperor (Conf. 4/26)

1135-49 Rule of 3rd Jurchen (Jin) Emperor Tan; eliminated po-chi-lieh tribal council

1137 Jurchen attack on Mongols; against Khabul Khan

1137-1213 Life of Lou Yue (Heng:128)

1138 Gaozong declares Hangzhou his “temporary residence” (Heng:139, Conf. 3/24)

1140's Dahui Zonggao is active.

---New Gongan practice links to lay literati.
1140s Dahui Zonggao active (founder of Chan Buddhism line of Gongan). (Gregory, 5). Very prominent Buddhist figure.

1140's-50's Chu Hsi studied Classical texts with his father and Buddhist texts with his father's friends

1141 Southern Song sign a peace treaty with the Jin (Conf. 3/24)

c. 1143 Meng Yuanlao writes the Dongjing Menghua Lu treatise on Kaifeng

1147 Peace treaty between Mongols and Jurchen; Jurchen to pay subsidy and repeal troops; seen as way of dealing with the Mongols, not necessarily defeat of Jurchen

---The "Dongjin Menglau" is written idealizing the old capital of Kai-feng

1149-61 Rule of 4th Jurchen (Jin) Emperor Liang; height of centralization; ended system of dual administration in 1150; transferred capital in 1153 to more southe! rn Chinese city and adopted more culturally Chi! nese for ms of government (Barfield, 181)

1153 Jin transfer capital from Harbin to Peking/Kaifeng and begins new building projects (Gernet:358, Conf`. 3/24)

1060-1225 Ma Yuan (painter)

1160's - Zitong starts to communicate through spirit writing to Lui

1161 Jurchens ally with Tartars to defeat Mongols.

--- Jurchen emperor assassinated after unsuccessful campaign vs. Song (Barfield:181)

1161-89 Rule of 5th Jurchen (Jin) Emperor Yung (Wun-lu); tried to reverse si! nocentric policies of predecessor, which is not successful.

1168-1190’s Life of Liu Ansheng, medium to whom Wenchang revealed Book of Transformations in 1181 (Lecture 4/25)

1168 earliest reference to Zitong as Wenchang, associated with an asterism (Conf. 4/26)

1160's-70's Zhu Xi writes his most prolific works

1170 Wenchang becomes known as patron deity of exams (Conf. 4/26)

1179 Zhu Xi is the prefect of Nankang

1181 Book of Transformations of Wenchang revealed

1185-1333 Kamakura Period in Japan- military dictators (shoguns) patronized Buddhist sects (Lopez: 10)

1194 Chu Hsi retired to Lianyang

1195 Ban of Daoxue works as model exam essays (Chia: 32)

1195-6 - Zhu Xi's writtings are banned

1197-1274 Wang Po was a Neo-confucian and textual critic (Cherniack: 55)

1198 Kereyid, Mongol, and Jurchen forces ally to defeat Tartars.

1200 - The death of Zhu Xi, with approximately five hundred followers

1200 Birth of Dogen, whose teachings became the foundation for the Soto school of Ch'an Buddhism. (Foulk 25) d. 1253

1202 Lu Yu was a S. Song poet (Yoshikawa:34-5)

1206 Genghiz Khan declares himself leader of the Mongols (Text:553-58)

1209 - Zhu Xi is awarded a posthumous title

1213-75 Reformist minister Jia Sitao; sought to limit landholdings and create “public lands”; by end of Ningzong’s reign approx. 20% lower Yangzi public lands.

1214 Jin transfer capital to Kaifeng (Gernet:358) M

1218 Western Liao destroyed by Genghis Khan M

1227 – Fall of the Xi Xia to the Mongols under Genghis Khan

1234 Genghis Khan forces conquer Jin (N. China) (Text:553-58, Conf. 3/24)

---Emperor of Jurchen “Jin” empire commits suicide to prevent capture by the Mongols. (Barfield 182)

---Military expeditions by the S. Song in the North fail.

1235 - "Wonders of the Capital" written about Hangzhou.

1250's-70's - Zitong temples begin to appear in South-East China.

1260 Khubilai became Khan (Text:553-58)

1264 - Birth of the prominent Chan master Chung-feng Ming-pen, who wrote "Extensive Record of Chung-feng." (Foulk 21) d. 1325

1270 - Zhu Xi's Conversations with Master Chu is compiled

1278-9 Final Song resistance crushed off coast of Guang-dong (Text:553-58, Conf. 3/24)

1279 - Fall of the Southern Sung to Mongol invaders