Asia Flashcards
Han China
(206 BCE - 220 CE)
During this time period paper was invented (PAPYRUS: made out of animal skin, sheep or cow)
The Han dynasty
- PARCHMENT (Made out of leaves etc) (Used in Europe) - They had easy access to cheap writing materials - They move eastward through the islamic world towards europe, this helps the islamic world in terms of writing early - After 300 years of the Han dynasty, China broke into 3 different regions. Goes into disunity for 300 ears
Confuciusm
Confucianism
Confucius (551-479 BCE) -His ideas were made relevant throughout the time of China - The painting of Confucious, is not perfect, bc the clothing - Not a technically a religion, more a philosophy. About how society should would paint what people and fashion was like at the time - Human beings are fundamentally good, and then we mess up at times. - The goal of Confucianism is to perfect humanism. Perfect human virtue - Humans are improvable - Also teaching on how to worship the gods - Ancestral: Worship the ancestors, and the family members that came before you - But Confuciusm is more concerned with THIS WORLD, and what is currently happening. How we relate with each other. How to be a good son. And how to be a good father. How to be a good loser. How to be a good citizen. Harmony with other human beings
SOTERIOLOGICAL: Religions that are more focused on the afterlife.
Analects
-Official state philosophy for the Han Dynasty, but when that dynasty ended in 220. The door was open to more religions.
Taoism
Laozi (500s BCE)
- Lived the same time around Confucius - Conf. is based on harmony w other humans and society - Taoism is based on harmony w the Tao (The way, the path, the road, the route) - Taoism is a religion, but does not have a god. Human like god figure or what ever - Its based on the writing of Laozi, called the TAO TE CHING Safe: A wise man -Leozi tried to leave, but then the border guard recognized that he was a SAGE. He was leaving because no one was getting his preaching. The border guard asked him to write down his wisdom before he left. And the few sheets of paper he wrote ended up being the TAO TE CHING. He was on his water buffalo when he was fleeing China.
WU WEI: Action through in-action (no action)
- If people are doing Taoism right. Then they naturally are good, and don't need to try. - Never comes as quite popular as Confucianism, but it persists
Buddihsm
Begins in india; enters China c100 CE
Very Soteriological religion
It was more popular in China, but began in India
GUATAMA BUDDHA (500s BCE) His father never let him experienced any suffering
Never witnessed someone dying
When he was 29. left the palace walls, and then he found people dying. People sick. People starving etc.
Buddhism, in his writings. Suffering comes from a LACK OF HAVING
Buddhism, aims to teach people how to overcome that suffering
through meditation, you can become enlightened. Released from suffering
Buddhism does believe in reincarnation (re-birth)
Idea is that you will be re born over again. As you progress towards enlightened
In buddhism, being born again means you SUFFER again and you DIE again. But once you reached enlightenment. Then the cycle of re-birth will end. And your suffering will end
Four Noble Truths
Four Noble Truths
1: The things in this world are not satisfying
2: Clinging to the unsatisfying things of this world, will lead to suffering, rebirth, re-death
3: Letting go of the things of this world, will help end the cycle
4: The way to achieve, is through the way of meditation and enlightenment
In the Buddhist monasteries, they pray for the end of cycles etc.
The Buddhist monasteries in china had about 300,000 monks and nuns in China around the 8th century
The Buddhist ends up being portrayed as the early manifestation of a god that is beyond human understanding
What is an Avatar?
A representation of a god seen on earth
Overtime the Buddha shifts from being the first human to be enlightened to the avatar of a god on earth
Bodhisattvas
BODHISATTVAS
Anyone who has reached enlightenment. Ending the cycle of rebirth etc. BUT, they choose to remain on earth to help other people reach enlightenment
They had special powers to allow them to do their “Helping”
In a way they’re KIND of like christian saints. But they have powers of their own, unlike Christian saints represent power, but their power comes from christ
AVALOKITESVARA
Comes from India
Would take on different forms to help people
Budhisattvas of passion, he is willing to go great lengths and change forms to change people. But if necessary, even though he was a boy, he could turn into a female
Overtime in China, he became known and popular solely based on that female form. This leads to a name change. The name changes to GUANSHIYIN
GUANSHIYIN
When Buddhism reaches China (100)
Guanshiyin: Comes to mean that perceiving the sounds of the world
The sounds that are being perceived are the cries of the world, the cries for help
Guanshiyin would take on whatever form is necessary to help, is known as a female
Her head breaks from all the cries that she was listening to, the Buddha came and provides her with 8 extra heads.
Then her arms break from helping all of the people, and the buddha comes and provides her with 1000 more arms
She is then reintroduced back into India in this female form and the male form, Avalokitesuora gets replaced and fades away
Sui Dynasty (589-618 CE)
(589-618 CE)
- The Han dynasty collapsed in 220, people are ruled by local lords and governors.
- In 581, Sui reunites China and the Emperor used Buddhism as a source for cultural unity
- The Sui Dynasty reunites China (after the Han Dynasty)
- The Sui emperor embraces Buddhism
- An attempt to invade Korea utterly failed and he is overthrown by a General which leads to the Tang Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
TANG DYNASTY 618 - 907 CE
Chang’an (Capital) (Largest that China will be for about 1000 years)
Rule about 50 million people
8 years after the overthrow, in 626, the general’s son seizes power as Emperor TAIZONG.
Taizong created the Tang Code (Taken from the Han Dynasty) (Based on confuciusm)
EQUAL-FIELD SYSTEM (tax system)
-Every 3 years, there was a census. All the citizens in the Tang empire, it asked questions like how many children, land, cavalry, average crop produced etc.
- They were divided into 9 categories based on their wealth
- Those 9 categories, depending which you were in (income brackets), you were given a certain amount of land and owed a certain amount of tax
- Taizong also made confuciusm the basis of the educational system
- The top 5% of gov systems were reserved for men who passed the civil service exams. You had to know confucius really well, and you had to be able to give the facts regarding passages by confucious.
- You also had to demonstrate your poetry skills
- How you would control flooding, what you would do if there was a food shortage, and how you would control a rebellious army
Emperor Wu (r 685-705)
Emp Wu was a female, and rejected the title the “Emperess”
Only woman to rule China in its 2000 plus history
Originally, she was the concubine of the Emp
(Was one of the concubine but was the previous’ emps favourite, she married the emp, had children, when the emp died she acted as the regent)
REGENT: She ruled in place of her son until he grows up
She exiled her son so she could rule China, and she was now the sole emperor of China. And no longer the “Regent”
She emphasized Buddhism
SUTRA: The type of buddhism she emphasized, this buddhist predicted that a kingdom ruled by a woman would turn into a paradise
in 690, she established the ZHOU DYNASTY (690-705)
(This dynasty does not continue after is no longer the emp) Her son changed it back to TANG
She was overthrown by a coup in the palace (She was killed, 80 yrs old)
After the coup, everything goes back to the TANG DYNASTY
Wu expanded the Civil service exams to a broader class of people
Wu also provided a lot of food and economic relief for the poor
She was criticized for the way she obtained power
She also requently eliminated her rivals
She had 12 branches of the imperial family massacred
Wu’s actions to expand the civil service, and helping the poor allows her to maintain her power. So people are loyal to her because of these actions
Decline of the Tang
751: defeated by the Abbasids at the Talas River
755: Mutiny by the army
- First period from 618-755, they have a great deal of success
- But starting from 755-907, it takes about 150 yrs for the Dynasty to fall
- In 751, in modern day Kazakhstan, the Tang dynasty went there to fight the Abbasid empire. And they lose (At TALAS)
- Even though they lost, the people didnt pay much attention to it. The people were paying more attention to a palace dilemma. The General was having an affair with the emperors favourite concubine, YANG (Consort Yang)
- In 755, the General leads a MUTINY. Not very successfully, but the Tang empire never really recovers after this mutiny (Mutiny : Uprising)
- The equal field tax system fails
- As a result higher taxes were instilled
- But when they did that, this lead to the population being very unhappy
- Eventhough the Tang China empire was struggling, it was still stronger than most of it neighbours
- about 90yrs later in 841, the new emperor WUZONG. He tried to collect tax from the 300,000 Buddhist and nun exempts. Monks under the age of 50, had to return to society and get normal paying jobs. However this doesnt last because he died in 846 (5 yrs later)
- After this, no emp was able to solve the Tang Dynasty tax revenue crisis
- 907, the last Tang emp is deposed
- in 960 (53 yr period of disunity) its finished
Woodblock Printing
- First printing in the world
- 8th century Buddhist monks
- Used painted wooden blocks
- Essentially carved around shapes and it was stamped
- Overtime, monks used glue to combine sheets of paper to create BOOKS
- In 868, the DIAMON SUTRA. This type of sermon, a spiritual text. Is the earliest surviving text. It is buddhist
- During the Tang dynasty, almost everything that was printed was religious
Five Dynasties Period
907-960
- China broke up into many different regional centres
- 5 of them end up being the largest and most important
- in 960, a dynasty takes over and reunites China again (Song)
Song Dynasty
960-1276
- Capital was KAIFENG
- Northern China
- Througout this 300 yr period, this is a period of civlillian rule
- Was a MERITOCRACY (Power by who are capable, not heredity) Power not in hands of Generals, but governmental officials
Northern Song and Jurchens
960-1127
- Khitan
- This empire had trouble keeping peace with Nomads called the Khitan
- The Khitan have always reigned in the Song territory, farm land, trade routes etc.
- To fight this Khitans threat, the song formed an alliance with the JURCHENS 1125
JURCHENS
The Jin Dynasty
- THis is a more friendlier group of Nomads, and had a better relationship w the song empire
- The Jurchens had originally been a subject of the Khitan
- 1125, the Jin Dynasty and the Song Empire defeat the Khitan Enemy
- In 1127, the Jin dynasty, however, attack the Song Dynasty. And they capture the song capital of KAIFENG
- The Jurchens had a supererior cavalry
- People on horses tend to win over people fighting on foot
- Song had very large walled cities, the jurchens used GUNPOWDER
Gunpowder
- Invented in China
- The Jurchens used this againts the CHinese
- Primarily the Chinese have been using gunpowder for fireworks
- But then they realized that they can use it for weaponry
- The most basic use was putting bags of powder on the end of arrows ant it will blow upon impact
- The jurchens actually used flamethrowers powered by gunpowder
- Potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulfur
- PORCELIN would spray