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Welcome back.
Our journey brought us to the end of the Northern and Southern dynasties.
As the Sui dynasty unified the empire once more, China entered the Medieval period.
Unlike the so-called Dark Ages of the West, however,
Medieval China was remarkably prosperous, ripe with cultural development.
Dragons, paintings, Zen Buddhism, these world-renowned aspects of China
took on their recognizable forms in these 700 years.
Naturally, such a strong visual identity would also influence the art of cinema.
As a result, films set in this period often look "exotically Chinese" to a foreign audience.
It's the Chinese equivalent of knights and castles, if you will.
Naturally, such fascinating visuals come with a whole host of stories and history.
And we are going to take a look at just that.
These are the cinematic themes and visuals of Ancient China - Part III.
[ Part One ]
Thanks to its emperor being a dumbass, the Sui dynasty lasted only 38 years.
Its reign was so brief that stories set in this period often leak into the following dynasty.
Referred to as the "Sui-Tang" period,
the Sui dynasty is but a prelude to the Majestic Tang dynasty.
Welcome to the Tang dynasty,
an era of silk clothing and ink paintings, wine, music, ceramics, and poetry.
The deep color of ancient times gave way to a vibrant palette.
It is the image that comes to mind when you think of China outside of war.
It's peaceful, it's exciting.
It's also, to modern eyes, feminine.
Why? Because of the female emperor.
Oh, and there's that other chick-- We'll get to her in a bit.
If you ask someone to name a Tang dynasty emperor,
there's a good chance their first answer is Wu Zetian, the only female emperor in Chinese history.
Wu Zetian began her political life as an imperial concubine of little significance.
But when her royal husband kicked the bucket, his son, the new emperor, married her.
Scandalous!
From there, she'd become his queen, gaining control of the court,
and eventually crowning herself emperor of China.
Despite her usurpation causing chaos in court,
interestingly, civilian life was good under her rule.
To diminish the power of nobilities, she reformed the imperial exam,
allowing men of all classes to become officials,
thus increasing social mobility.
Many Tang officials came from a grassroots background,
The meritocracy is one of the many aspects that made this dynasty feel very progressive.
Wu Zetian had the beauty, the cunning, the ambition,
and best of all, the leadership.
Needless to say, Chinese people today are enamored with this girl boss.
Numerous shows were made about her legendary intrigue.
"I am also a human"
"I can do what they can do"
"I can even do what they cannot"
Better still, Wu Zetian was but one capable emperor out of many in this dynasty.
Thus, China entered the second golden age,
characterized by a flamboyant, wealthy aesthetic,
See its iconic dress, the vibrant color, and the loose collar.
Compared to the uptight style of the Han dynasty,
you can see why people would think this is more fashionable and sexy.
Tang China was also very cosmopolitan.
Traders and scholars would gather in major cities.
Goods from all around the world were sold in China.
In films, this translates to Byzantine envoys, Japanese embassies, and Turkic dancers.
It is truly the most appropriate setting for the multicultural travelogue:
Journey to the West.
Speaking of Journey to the West, Buddhism really took off during the Tang dynasty.
As a result, the era is frequently depicted with a Buddhist flare,
reflecting the impressive murals and monuments of the era.
I think many of you would agree that every frame I'm showing feels definitively Chinese.
It's no exaggeration to say that a large part of the Chinese identity
was shaped by the Tang dynasty.
It certainly did feel that way for Disney,
as the makeup and clothing found in Mulan were clearly influenced by Tang fashion.
That's the power of a culture.
Even if you don't know about the Tang dynasty,
you still know it without knowing it.
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Her violent usurpation overshadowed her good deeds.
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[ Part Two ]
Man, coming off the highs of Wu Zetian,
Yang Guifei just seems so... lame.
Yes, I know I'm being opinionated, but like... let me explain.
Yang Guifei is one of the four great beauties of China,
and arguably the most popular one.
She was the concubine of emperor Tang Xuanzong, and... that's really all you need to know.
Unlike the other three beauties, who all made personal sacrifices for the greater good,
Yang Guifei's only contribution was being blamed for corrupting the Tang dynasty.
The emperor, as depicted in pop culture, loved her more than he loved the country.
His neglect of China led to a massive rebellion.
Yang Guifei was executed to appease the people.
Yeah, she's the Chinese archetype for Helen of Troy.
The misogyny is palpable.
Nevertheless, Yang Guifei is the other reason,
if not the main reason, for the feminine dynasty perception.
In fact, she defined the dynasty's beauty standard... sort of.
You see, in a poem by Song dynasty writer Su Shi, he wrote
"Short, tall, fat, and skinny can all be beautiful."
"Who can dislike Yang Guifei and Zhao Feiyan?"
Clearly, he meant beauty comes in all shapes and sizes.
But because he used Yang Guifei as an example, people think that she must be the "fat" one.
This perception is further reinforced by Tang paintings,
in which women were drawn with round faces.
This led to people thinking that the dynasty preferred women who are...
let's say, big and beautiful.
Of course, Su Shi was born some hundreds of years after Yang Guifei.
The whole thing is a misconception.
But the myth had become so pervasive, film adaptations have to account for this.
Thus, films depicting Tang dynasty women would often show off their...
boobs,
alluding to the curves, while still adhering to modern beauty standards.
Except... this isn't even a Tang dynasty movie.
We'll come back to this in a bit.
Anyway, beauty did not kill the empire. Factionalism did.
It would be more accurate to blame Yang Guifei for installing her relatives into the government,
partially responsible for the internal divisions, resulting in the infamous An Lushan rebellion.
Though the rebellion didn't topple the dynasty immediately, a slow death was followed.
China fractured once more.
So began the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period,
a period that's even messier than it sounds.
To put it simply, Northern China was *sort of* unified,
but went through five dynasties in less than a century.
Southern China was *sort of* fractured into ten states,
none of which were strong enough to unify the land.
Oh, and there was the Liao dynasty, too. More on them in a bit.
Much like how the Sui dynasty is seen as a prelude,
This era is often depicted as an appendix to Tang.
This is why Curse of the Golden Flower is often misidentified as a Tang dynasty film.
It's the same sexy glamor, but now in a war-torn China.
As individual states only lasted a decade or so, there wasn't much identity to speak of.
The cultural heritage of Tang China gradually waned.
So ends China's second golden age.
[ Part Three ]
Amusingly, the Song dynasty also gets lumped together with Tang.
Unlike Sui-Tang, however, the term "Tang-Song" pits the two dynasties as equals,
at least, in terms of artistic achievements.
The Song dynasty is often defined by what it wasn't:
It wasn't the dominating force like Han or Tang.
The Liao dynasty, established by the Kithan people had grown increasingly powerful.
To ensure peace, the weaker Song dynasty
had to pay tribute to Liao and other Northern empires.
That was seen as humiliating.
To be clear, while they are often depicted as barbarians in Chinese pop culture,
These empires were Chinese.
The people saw themselves as Chinese, and historians also agree.
But the Han Chinese bias runs deep,
so movies and histories focus almost solely on the Song dynasty.
For the above reasons, Song stories often have a somber tone.
Tragedies and heroic sacrifices are common themes, reflecting a dynasty perpetually in peril.
Water Margin is one such story.
In the novel, the corrupt Song government turned a band of warriors into outlaws.
Their rise and fall became the foundation for Wuxia literature.
Similarly, the Generals of the Yang Family recounts the deeds of a military family
who protected Song China's Northern border.
Their greatest enemy, however, isn't the Liao empire,
but the corrupt officials within the Song government.
There is, of course, the true story of Yue Fei,
a general who fought for Song China for decades, only to be sent to death by the government.
The reason varied between interpretations.
One popular view is that Yue Fei held too much power over the military.
The moment he ceased to be useful, he was backstabbed.
All of these stories showed how the dynasty was seen as corrupt and bleak.
It was a time when things were not right.
It's a shame, because this dynasty had a lot of good things going on.
Simply put, the Song dynasty was weak
because the government shifted its focus from the military to arts and culture.
The dynasty saw the maturing of the iconic Chinese landscape painting genre.
That sense of scale against the Taoist tranquility
form the aesthetic of which modern artists continue to strive for.
The most iconic painting, however, isn't even a landscape.
It's a five-meter-long scroll depicting the capital.
This bustling urban scene is also something we see often in Tang-Song movies,
If the Tang dynasty had the best female fashion, then the Song dynasty was for all you pretty boys.
With the adoption of neo-confucianism, the ostentatious colors of Tang was no more.
Song fashion was modest and clean.
The visual simplicity is timeless.
Poetry entered a silver age.
Literature, ceramics, and other art forms,
as well as science and engineering saw a great deal of development as well.
Its aesthetic and identity are just as strong as the Tang dynasty.
Hence the Tang-Song period.
Despite the bruised ego, the Song dynasty was nevertheless a stable and even wealthy period.
While lacking in military might, it was strong in civil affairs.
Without stability, without offering people security,
there would never be such a flourishing art scene.
Clearly, the dynasty was doing something right.
At last, it didn't matter if you were weak or strong
because-- oh sh*t the Mongols!
[ Afterword ]
And so, another 700 years had passed.
China went from a place you heard of to a place you can instantly recognize.
So much had happened, I didn't even have time to talk about Journey to the West in detail,
or discuss the Japanese adaptation of Yang Guifei.
Japan has a myth about her escaping to Japan.
Yeah, like Jesus.
(what?)
With that, our journey is nearing its end.
Join us next time, as we explore the final 650 years of dynastic China,
in which China was first ruled by the Mongols,
then the Han Chinese,
then the Machurians,
and then the colonizers came.
Oof.
Let's see how the late dynastic China shaped our contemporary beliefs and culture.
See you next time.