The Tang Dynasty ruled for close to 300 years (618-907). Their first emperor was Tang Taizong (626-649). The empire expanded. Taizong's armies conquered the western and northern lands. In 668 China had expanded its rule over to Korea. The Chinese leader in this time was an empress named Wu Zhao. She was the first and only woman ever to become empress in china. She became the empress around 690. In order to strengthen the Chinese government, they expanded road networks and canals created by the Sui's. This expansion helped to unite the empire and promote foreign trade which lead to improvements in agriculture. To manage their large empire, The rulers had to restore China's bureaucracy. In order to do that they expanded the civil service examination system begun by the Han dynasty. The people who passed the difficult exams became apart of a group of scholar-officials. Exams like these were, supposed to be open to all men, including commoners. Although, only the wealthy could afford the years of education required to pass the exam. Men with political power could get into high power jobs without taking the exams. As the examination system became more important, there was an increase in social mobility. Meaning people can move up in social classes. increasing costs of the government resulted in rulers making high taxes. These taxes were not able to be paid by most families. Even with the high taxes the Chinese government still did not have enough money to cover the cost needed to expand the military. In 751, Muslim armies defeated the Chinese at "The Battle of Talas." Then, border attacks and citizen rebellions. Which slowly crumbled the power of the government. In 907, Chinese rebels burned the Tang capital and murdered the last Tang emperor which sadly was a child.
Tang Dynasty
