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Civil service examinations showed the high level learning of the Chinese and were stressed
especially during the Tang era. The exams paved the way to maintain imperial order because
it determines who is fit to become part of the bureaucracy, whose jobs are to restore
Chinese unity. So, exams=>unity! The civil service exams that was administered by the
Ministry of Rites were important not only for determining who can run the administration,
but to also organize social status. Those who passed the most difficult exam got to
wear expensive cloths and were exempted from corporal punishment.
The Abbasid Empire's intellectual achievements were sought out through the Muslims. Islamic
learning mainly focused on science and mathematics. Muslims searched for meaning of scientific
method, geometry, and algebra theories as well as medicine and anatomy. Thanks to Muslim
scholars, Mediterranean, Middle East, and Indian intellectual information was preserved
and dispersed. Many Muslims were also great travelers; transmitting numerical systems
and ideas throughout the world that would soon contribute to the Scientific Revolution.
Just like the Tang, universities or schools of study were built. Both the Tang and Abbasid
prove to have a high learning ability. Students were taught Confucian classics because
organizational principles for effective administration. Neo-Confucianism
was the revival of Confucian thought in the Song era, an ideology revived by the scholar-gentry,
or appointed educated officials. Confucianism greatly stressed the reading of books to acquire
knowledge and virtue. This influenced the increase of libraries, philosophy schools,
and academics devoted to classical texts. Confucian teachers wrote literature and painted
landscapes. The Tang-Song era showed how a big part of Chinese culture, Confucianism,
impacted its intellectual life or achievements. The Abbasid had culture-inspired education
just like Tang China. The use of Persian writing and literature was developed and Islam pushed
the building of religious schools. Geometry/math and architecture skills were used for the
building of mosques. Some Islamic theologians like al-Ghazali tried to fuse Greek and Quranic
Muslims' scientific thinking would occur.
The Umayyads had very little amount of intellectual achievements.
Umayyads relied on conquered peoples' ideas for intellectual endeavor. Warfare or fighting
was a reoccurring theme in the Umayyad empire (mainly with the rulers and the Muslims).
The Song Dynasty supported agrarian growth and irrigation systems. Agrarian expansion
was accompanied with state-regulated irrigation and embankment systems, as well as canals.
Many tools for agriculture were made such as the wheelbarrow and manures.
The Abbasid era was the golden age of technology for the Islamic World. Like the Song Dynasty,
irrigation systems were visible, though irrigation and agriculture was not up to level as Song.
Though Song was not China's golden age of technology, many projects and repairs that
were started by previous generations were accomplished during the Song dynasty and the
Song continued the use of previous inventions like the flying money from the Tang Dynasty.
Warfare projects including explosive powder were used along with compasses, block printing,
and the abacus. Astronomy, constellations, hospitals, and
map information improved. The Abbasids spent more time on improvement rather than invention.
Like the Song dynasty, agriculture and expansion was one of the main themes of the Umayyad era.
Damascus was the luxurious capital of the
Umayyads. Muslims were looked down upon by the Umayyads, causing them to be unenlightened
and limited to expansion and religious knowledge, until the Abbasid era.