china summary flashcards
Before the Qin dynasty
Zhou dynasty -> Split into states who constantly fought (the warring states period)
Confucianism
Founded by Confucius - stressed harmony in relationships, devoting lives to parents and elders, and getting high education.
Daoism
Founded by Laozi - believed that people could do little to influence events, wanted humans to be one with nature, because nature was orderly
Legalism
Powerful government can restore peace, harsh punishment and rich reward, believed in controlling ideas (burning books for examaple)
Bureacracy
Many levels of power - all decisions made by officials rather than elected peoples.
Analects
The beliefs of confucius recorded into a book
Filial Piety
People should respect their parents and elders greatly. Children honor their parents after their deaths.
Yin and Yang
Belief that there are too forces of nature acting with and against each other. (Yin is the passive, Yang is the positive)
Autocracy
Government with unlimited power
Mandate of Heaven/Dynastic Cycle
Heaven granted a king the right to rule. If the king was a tyrant, the people would naturally revolt, and the new ruler would claim the mandate. (there was always a honeymoon period before corruption happened AGAIN)
Mongols
Nomads from the steppe, united by Genghis Khan.
Great Wall
Build to keep the mongols and xiongnu out of China, and to control the silk road.
Sui dynasty
Grand canal was built, civil service exam established
Grand canal
1000 mile canal linking the yellow and yangtze rivers
Tang dynasty
China’s golden age of art and poetry, conquered land north and west, improved trade, law, agriculture, and extended roads.
Golden age
China’s tang and song dynasties, in which everything flourished (literature and art mostly), and things such as gunpowder, type, compass, and paper money were invented.
Civil service exam
An exam which was used to select government officials. This meant that many rich people held high positions, as they could afford education.
Song dynasty
Most of the inventions of the golden age took place here. They were driven south of the yellow river by mongols, yet ocean trade flourished.
Gentry
The high and educated class
The great mongol empire
The clans of nomads in Mongolia were united by Genghis khan, who by organization and strategic means conquered the majority of asia and europe.
Yuan dynasty
Founded by Kublai Khan, Silk trade BOOMED, as well as foreign affairs, because everything was under mongol control.
Silk Road
Trade route between China and europe. Traded silk, porcelain, ideas, and many of the Song dynasty inventions
Ming dynasty
Hongwu drove out the mongols, and improved a lot of farming. His son Yonglo sent Zhenghe out on 7 voyages around the world, and built the forbidden city. Religious diversity boomed.
Han dynasty
Buddhism was introduced in China, and the Silk road was established. (also possibly the civil service exam)
Chinese Isolationism
Confucianist beliefs were against commerce. Educated peoples in China did not like the europeans, so they isolated.
