chapter 4

Question 1

shogun

Answer 1

was a hereditary military dictator in Japan during the period from 1185 to 1868 (with exceptions). In this period, the shoguns were the de facto rulers of the country;

Question 2

Daimyo

Answer 2

(in feudal Japan) one of the great lords who were vassals of the shogun.

Question 3

seppuku

Answer 3

metathesized in English as harakiri (腹切り, “abdomen/belly cutting”), is a form of Japanese ritual suicide by disembowelment. It was originally reserved for samurai.

Question 4

samurai

Answer 4

a member of a powerful military caste in feudal Japan, especially a member of the class of military retainers of the daimyos.

Question 5

longboat

Answer 5

large boat that may be launched from a sailing ship.

another term for longship.

Question 6

steppe

Answer 6

a large area of flat unforested grassland in southeastern Europe or Siberia.

Question 7

Rus

Answer 7

Originally, the name Rus’ (Русь, Rus) referred to the people, regions, and medieval states (ninth to twelfth centuries) of the Kievan Rus’.

Question 8

slavs

Answer 8

a member of a group of peoples in central and eastern Europe speaking Slavic languages.

Question 9

principality of kiev

Answer 9

was a Ruthenian state in the regions of central Ukraine around the city of Kiev that existed after the fragmentation of the Kievan Rus’ in the early 12th century.

Question 10

Leif Ericson

Answer 10

A Norwegian explorer of about the year 1000. He is said to have discovered a place in North America called Vinland

Question 11

Vinland sagas

Answer 11

The Vinland Sagas are two Icelandic texts written separate of each other in the early thirteenth century; The Saga of the Greenlanders (Grænlendinga Saga) and The Saga of Eric the Red

Question 12

Danelaw

Answer 12

The Danelaw, as recorded in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, is a historical name given to the part of England in which the laws of the Danes held sway and dominated those of the Anglo-Saxons. Danelaw contrasts West Saxon law and Mercian law.

Question 13

silk road

Answer 13

an ancient caravan route that linked Xian in central China with the eastern Mediterranean. It was established during the period of Roman rule in Europe and took its name from the silk that was brought to the west from China.

Question 14

epitaphs

Answer 14

phrase or statement written in memory of a person who has died, especially as an inscription on a tombstone.

Question 15

foot-binding

Answer 15

Foot binding (also known as “lotus feet”) was the custom of applying painfully tight binding to the feet of young girls to prevent further growth. The practice possibly originated among upper-class court dancers during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period in Imperial China (10th or 11th century), then became popular during the Song dynasty and eventually spread to all social classe

Question 16

civil service exam

Answer 16

the permanent professional branches of a government’s administration, excluding military and judicial branches and elected politicians.

Question 17

paper money

Answer 17

money in the form of banknotes.

Question 18

movable type

Answer 18

Movable type is the system and technology of printing and typography that uses movable components to reproduce the elements of a document usually on the medium of paper which was first invented in ancient China

Question 19

Neo-confucianism

Answer 19

a movement in religious philosophy derived from Confucianism in China around ad 1000 in response to the ideas of Taoism and Buddhism.

Question 20

Buddhism

Answer 20

a widespread Asian religion or philosophy, founded by Siddartha Gautama in northeastern India in the 5th century bc.

Question 21

Zen

Answer 21

Zen is a school of Mahayana Buddhism that originated in China during the Tang dynasty as Chán. It was strongly influenced by Taoism, and developed as a distinguished Chinese style of Buddhism