Chapter 8 pt 1 Flashcards
scholar-gentry
A new social class that arose after the wealth of the Tang and Song Eras. They controlled mots of the land and provided the most civil workers. They replaced the old landed aristocracy as political and economic elites
dowry
Money, goods or property given from a girl’s family when she married. Women except for Wu Zhao (Empress Wu) had little value in society. They were costly in this way, and left the family once married. The female kids were killed during famine and sold by the poor.
Sui Yangdi
The second emperor of the Sui dynasty (581-618) that was established 300 years after the fall of the Han dynasty. He completed the Grand Canal connecting two great rivers of China, linking the N and S for rice trade. He was an asshole; he used forced labor to build it, issued high taxes, lived extravagantly and failed military campaigns.
Tang Xuanzang
A famous emperor of the Tang Dynasty (618-907). He loved a commoner’s daughter, holding 100 dancers in his court for her and horsemen that went 1000s of miles to get fresh fruit for her. The emperor’s general wanted someone held accountable for the war and strife in the country, so the emperor decidedly hanged his girlfriend. Oh well.
This Era changed from the Sui’s, leading to carefully selected officials, evenly distributed property, an expansion of NW China to Tibet, and diplomatic relations with SE Asia.
Uighurs
When in the 700s the Tang dynasty was weakened to rebellion, the rulers hired these northern Turkic-speaking tribesmen to fight for them.
The empire continued to fall, ending in 907.
Marco Polo
An Italian merchant visiting the Song capital of Hangzhou in the late 1200s. He mustn’t have been annoyed by pool parties, because he said it was so pleasurable one might think it paradise.
Hangzhou
A city in southern China, belonging to the economically and culturally prosperous Song dynasty (960-1279), who were forced to withdraw south due to invasion by Northern neighbors. They never regained control there, and the Mongols eventually took China in the 1200s.
After the long civil war period and up to the Song Era, China regained many of the workings of the Han dynasty. Land was ruled by aristocrats who had serfs and slaves; the Song dynasty helped get peasants their land back, and an abundance of food due to improved farming techniques.
khanate
Territories owned by the ruling khan’s heirs. In 1206 Temujin was elected Genghis Khan, conquering most of the Eurasian landmass. In 1227 when he died, going with Mongol custom, the empire was then divided to the heirs.
After this conquering continued, by 1258 they had Persia and Baghdad, and discovered gunpowder and the firelance (cannon using spears) when attacking the Song dynasty (1260s). By the 1300s the firelance evolved into hand cannons and cannons, and foreigners hired by Mongol rulers introduced it to Europe.
neo-Confucianism
A new doctrine serving as a Confucian response to Buddhism & Daoism, saying the world is real, and fulfillment comes from acting in it, not withdrawal. There is the material world and spiritual world, each human is linked to the Supreme Ultimate, and their goal was to reach beyond the materialism to the Supreme Ultimate by carefully examining moral principles of the universe.
Buddhism came from merchants and missionaries from India, and both doctrines were common on the ruling class for skepticism towards Confucianism after the Han dynasty fell. Buddhist officials became elected (though criticized) and Buddhist monasteries owned 1000s of acres of land, becoming corrupt. When they did, temples and monasteries were burned, driving them out.
porcelain
A ceramic made of fine clay and baked at very high temperatures. Tang artisans mastered the making of porcelain, and it was described to be transparent like glass.
Ceramics and landscape painting reached a high point during the Song and Ming eras, where Chinese artists painted nature on the mountains to find the Dao (way) in nature, portraying ideas of it rather than accurately. They left out parts because they believed one could not know nature, painting “hidden forms”. People were painted small and insignificant in these, living in nature rather than dominating it.
Genghis Khan
Meaning “strong ruler,” was elected in the Gobi desert above China. (1206) His name was Temujin, who prior united the Mongol clans. He conquered most of the Eurasian landmass, making the Mongol Empire. Karakorum was the capital, and Mongol armies patrolled throughout. Dying in 1227, his empire was divided to his heirs.
Kublai Khan
A grandson of Genghis Khan, he completed the conquest of the Song (1279), creating the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty. The capital was Khanbaliq, modern day Beijing. Under him the mongols tried to gain Vietnam and the Japanese Java and Sumatra, but successfully ruled China.
The Mongols ruled using Chinese systems. They were culturally different, having their own land and laws were considered a different class. The Chinese grew to love them due to the stable prosperity they brought them. This Empire fell to the Ming dynasty.
Li Bo
A popular poet of the Tang Era, a free spirit, his writing focused on nature.
Duo Fu
The 2nd famous poet of the Tang, a serious Confucian he wrote about the social injustice and plight of the poor.
Mongolia
Today between Russia and China, is where the pastoral clans-people Mongols lived.
