Ancient Arab and Chinese Dynasties Vocab

Question 1

Blue-green landscape

Answer 1

a mode of painting landscapes that was established by the Tang dynasty. Sometimes outlined in gold, the brightly colored pigments incorporated minerals that were used in alchemical practices searching for an elixir of immortality. More than just a representation of the natural world, therefore, the paintings also embodied the magical properties associated with the imagined realms of the immortals.

Question 2

Calligraphy

Answer 2

a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary practice can be defined as “the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner”.

Question 3

Confucianism

Answer 3

Obeying your elders and social superiors is the utmost civic virtue; maintaining morality, respect, and activism is what keeps a society functioning.

Question 4

Daoism

Answer 4

Human beings must obey the unyielding will of the universe. Rather than involve themselves in the complex workings of the state, they urged detachment, self-sufficiency, and deliberate ignorance of worldly things. The dao = the way.

Question 5

Ding

Answer 5

a ritual vessel for cooked food with a round body and three legs. It was used throughout the Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han periods.

Question 6

Dynasty

Answer 6

a succession of people from the same family; a line of hereditary rulers of a country.

Question 7

Emperor

Answer 7

a sovereign ruler of great power and rank, especially one ruling an empire.

Question 8

Fengjian

Answer 8

establishment policy; an ancient governance system where rulership of land fiefs was decentralized to local officials.

Question 9

Gong

Answer 9

Artisans and craftspeople; one of the four occupations.

Question 10

Jade

Answer 10

a greenish-blue gemstone used for ornaments and jewelry. Highly valued in ancient China. Holding it was also believed to aid in curing anxiety or nervousness.

Question 11

Lacquer

Answer 11

a type of hard and usually shiny coating or finish applied to materials such as wood or metal. It is most often made from resin extracted from trees and waxes and has been in use since antiquity.

Question 12

Legalism

Answer 12

The state’s operations are more important than personal liberty, and adherence to the law is the most important thing. Apply and uphold the law by any means necessary.

Question 13

Lost-wax method

Answer 13

the process by which a duplicate sculpture is cast from an original sculpture. Intricate works can be achieved by this method but the method has not been fully understood.

Question 14

Mandate of Heaven

Answer 14

a Chinese political ideology that was used in ancient and imperial China to legitimize the rule of the King or Emperor of China. According to this doctrine, heaven bestows its delegation on a virtuous ruler; as exemplified by harmonious or chaotic natural phenomena.

Question 15

Monochrome

Answer 15

refers to solely using one hue, such as black and white, in an image. This type of printing, then, refers to only printing with two colors, while grayscale printing uses varying shades of gray.

Question 16

Nong

Answer 16

Peasant farmers; one of the four occupations

Question 17

Oracle bones (chiaku-wen)

Answer 17

bone-and-shell script; the first Chinese writing system developed by the Shang. Often inscribed on the bones of cattle or tortoise shells.

Question 18

Peasant

Answer 18

a poor farmer of low social status who owns or rents a small piece of land for cultivation (chiefly in historical use or with reference to subsistence farming in poorer countries).

Question 19

Piece-mold method

Answer 19

a technique used for casting bronzes. After a desired vessel was fashioned from clay, it was covered with an additional layer of clay that, when dried, was carefully cut away in matching vertical sections (usually three or four) to create the casting molds.

Question 20

Porcelain

Answer 20

a hard but delicate, shiny, white substance made by heating a special type of clay to a high temperature, used to make cups, plates, decorations.

Question 21

Sancai

Answer 21

a versatile type of decoration on Chinese pottery using glazes or slip, predominantly in the three colors of brown, green, and a creamy off-white. It is particularly associated with the Tang dynasty and its tomb figures, appearing around 700.

Question 22

Scholar

Answer 22

a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. They can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a terminal degree, such as a master’s degree or a doctorate.

Question 23

Shang

Answer 23

Merchants and traders; one of the four occupations

Question 24

Shang Dynasty

Answer 24

also known as the Yin dynasty, was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and followed by the Western Zhou dynasty.

Question 25

Shi

Answer 25

Nobles, scholars, and officials; one of the four occupations

Question 26

Silk

Answer 26

a fine, strong, soft lustrous fiber produced by silkworms in making cocoons and collected to make thread and fabric. It is also spun by some insect larvae and by most spiders.

Question 27

Terracotta

Answer 27

a term used in some contexts for earthenware. It is a clay-based non-vitreous ceramic, fired at relatively low temperatures.

Question 28

Warring States period

Answer 28

An era in ancient Chinese history characterized by warfare, disunity, and military reforms and consolidation. Over 250 years of in-fighting were ended by the first Qin unification.

Question 29

Well-field system

Answer 29

communal land redistribution method existing between the ninth century BCE to around the Warring States period. Each unit of the well-field system was divided between eight peasant families. Each family had its own outlying field around a central shared field, and all the families jointly worked a ninth central plot for their lord.

Question 30

Xia Dynasty

Answer 30

the first dynasty of imperial China. According to tradition, this dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great. In traditional historiography, it was later succeeded by the Shang dynasty.

Question 31

Zhou Dynasty

Answer 31

This dynasty was a royal dynasty of China that followed the Shang dynasty. Having lasted 789 years, this dynasty was the longest dynastic regime in Chinese history.

Question 32

Acupuncture

Answer 32

a technique for balancing the flow of energy or life force — known as chi or qi (chee) — believed to flow through pathways (meridians) in your body. By inserting needles into specific points along these meridians, its practitioners believe that your energy flow will re-balance.