A Sui general rebelled, took Chang'an, and in 618 declared himself emperor of a new dynasty named for his family title. Who was he?

A Tang visitor enters a capital where merchants, clerics, and envoys from India, Persia, Arabia, Korea, and Japan crowd the streets. Which city is being described?

A general led troops against Tang rulers in 755; the revolt was crushed by 763 but badly weakened imperial authority. Who led it?

The last Tang emperor was a puppet after a warlord seized court politics; in 907 that warlord ended Tang rule and founded Later Liang. Who was he?

A Later Zhou general was proclaimed emperor in 960 and made the civil bureaucracy stronger than the army. Which ruler founded the Song dynasty?

After the Song court survived in the south for more than a century, whose armies brought all of China under Mongol rule by 1279?

A young man studies classical texts, policy writing, and poetry for years before sitting a Song state examination. What is he competing for?

Civil service candidates memorized older teachings and practiced policy essays and poetry. Which tradition supplied the core texts they had to know?

Song emperors worried that commanders had too much influence after earlier wars. What was one purpose of expanding written examinations?

An examinee's paper in Song China might be copied by clerks and identified by a number instead of his name. What problem was this meant to reduce?

In Song China, passing high-level examinations gave a scholar prestige and political clout through service in office. What group did successful candidates join?

Thousands studied for examinations, and the state needed many inexpensive books. Which technology best supported that study?

A craftsman made one reusable page surface, inked its raised characters, and pressed paper onto it. Which method is this?

Instead of making one page surface at a time, an inventor used separate baked-clay characters that could be rearranged. Who first created this?

During sieges, Song engineers fixed fire-producing packets to arrows or launched bombs from catapults. Which technology was being used?

A military manual of 1044 described the first true formula for a fire-producing mixture and how to produce it at scale. Which text was it?

A small magnetized needle fixed in a protective case made navigation safer beyond coasts and rivers. Which device was perfected for Song sea travel?

A Song ship with internal walls could keep cargo protected and stay afloat better if one section leaked. What feature does this describe?

Which Song official designed a chain-driven, water-powered tower that tracked time, moon phases, and star positions?

Song farmers adopted a fast-ripening, drought-resistant rice from a kingdom on the coast of what is now central and southern Vietnam. What was this rice called?

Between 750 and 1100, China's population rose from about 50 million to about 100 million. Which change helped make that growth possible?

Large merchants in late Tang and Song times preferred paper notes for big transactions. What practical problem did the notes solve?

A Song farmer sells surplus crop at a nearby market, then buys charcoal, tea, oil, and wine. What larger economic change does this show?

Song merchants moved bulk rice and other goods more cheaply by water, while one major canal linked the North to the Yangzi region. Which canal was it?

Which urban pattern fits Song capitals better than the older Tang plan of tightly controlled market wards?

By about 1150, massive Song ships reached the Malabar Coast and the Red Sea. Which product was part of that export trade?

In large Song cities, merchants selling the same kind of product organized to arrange sales and sometimes set prices. What were these organizations?

Zhu Xi and other Song thinkers built a new synthesis of classical teaching after debates with Buddhist ideas. What is this movement commonly called?

A later stereotype treats one painful practice as ancient and constant, but historians place its start in Song society. Which practice is it?

Some Song scholar-artists rejected court painters' exact realism and made painting and calligraphy a forum for what purpose?