- 220-589 CE: name the period of political disorder and chaotic warfare that followed the Qin-Han era
- Bi Sheng: the artisan responsible for the development of movable type
- confucian scholar-gentry elite: the intellectual school responsible for the production of the most literary and artistic works in the Tang-Song era
- Empress Wu: the tang ruler who attempted to make buddhism the state religion
- Hangzhou: the capital of the southern song dynasty
- jinshi: the title earned by those who passed the chinese literature exams
- Li Bo: an oustanding poet of the Tang era
- Li Yuan: the founder of the Tang Dynasty
- members of the elite class: people that were more attracted to Chan buddhism
- Mongols: group responsible for the fall of the southern song dynasty in 1279
- Sui Dynasty (580s): the dynasty that ended the period of political chaos after the fall of the Qin-Han
- the legalist assumption: confucian school of thought that wang ashin attempted to reform the song government
- the ruling political elite: did landscape painting in the song era
- Wendi: the man responsible for the creation of the sui dynasty
- Zhao Kuangyin or Taizu: the founder of the song dynasty
- Zhu Xi: the most prominent of the neo-confucians during the song era