East Asia Flashcards
Meritocracy
People with certain skills and intelligence are of a higher power and standing in society rather than wealth and social class. To ensure smart and talented people where leading the government by going through an examination system to get the most qualified rulers
Confucian Beliefs
Respect
Ancestors received the most respect, women showed respect to their husbands and fathers.
Confucian Beliefs
Filial Piety
Those who are above you can do no wrong. Must obey your parents and ancestors to bring honor to your family
Confucian Beliefs
Ancestor Veneration
Ancestors>Father>Wife(women were subordinate to men)>Children. To emphasize idea of respect for ancestors
Confucian Beliefs
Patriarchy
Men were stronger and protectors. They were more important and made a functional society, can only own businesses and own land
Daoism
Daoism was the idea about your own journey, much like Buddhism. Connecting with nature to achieve balance. There is zero order unlike confucianism, so it never became a ruling structure since there would be no law.
Daoism and it’s impact on society
Impact on science was the creation of gunpowder, medicine was acupuncture, and art was the nature scenes, paintings, and poetry.
Buddhisms Core Beliefs
To find the middle path, a balance between too much and too little. To end suffering is to end all desire in oneself in order to reach nirvana. To learn all of life’s lessons.
Theravada Buddhism
Monks lived in monasteries and received food from followers or donators. Focused on meditation and reading from Buddhist texts. There were no gods or deities. It required one to go live in isolation which did not appeal to nobles who could not give up everything.
Mahayana Buddhism
Less ascetic= middle way. Appealed to merchants, the wealthy, poor and women to escape the patriarchy. Reach nirvana by following sutras and donating money to build temples.
Tibetan Buddhism
Asceticism is prominent. Monks lived in monasteries and an emphasis on a teacher (lama) student relationship, learning about the tantra (deeper understanding of the world gained through study). Ultimate teacher (dalai Lama). Deities not gods. Based on important principles. Lamas were Bodhisattvas
Chan/Zen Buddhism
Salvation was about meditation and studying, meaning you don’t have to give up anything to be a buddhist which appealed to the wealthy.
Pure Land Buddhism
personal salvation through Amitabha Buddha so no learning was required. It appealed to the poor since they didn’t have to pay for education. When you die, you go to the pure lands where attaining enlightenment is easier like a waiting room.
Buddhisms Impact on Society in East Asia
Impact on Family
Scholars reach enlightenment through meditation and study. Education expands and spreads through temple schools and is how they bring their family honor and grace. Boys and girls leave family and join monasteries and is a threat to filial piety. Celibacy is a threat to ancestor veneration. Women can become nuns which is a threat to the patriarchy.
Buddhisms Impact on Society in East Asia
Impact on the State
Wealthy give land to monasteries which means less taxes. Food production decreases as less people work.
Neo-Confucianism
Foot Binding
Foot binding was used as a status symbol where women would break their feet into 3-5 inches. It was used to make sure women couldn’t run away
Neo-confucianism
Extremes
Blamed Buddhism as a reason for the downfall of the Tang dynasty, so they hunted them down and sometimes killed them, causing them to go to Korea, Japan and Vietnam. Highly patriarchal, filial piety, and women were on the outskirts and behind men. If you have a disobedient child, a student, teacher, siblings, you can behead them in public.
Neo-confucianism
Decline
Expensive lifestyle lead to their decline. Run by weak nobles and military. Song dynasty lose half their territory, so they declined from losing money, agriculture, their splitted military, and poor military.
Chinas influence on Vietnam
Adopt the idea of Confucian education for leaders, examination system, top down pyramid structure for the bureaucracy. Accepts filial piety but rejects strong patriarchy of Confucianism. Also had a lot of agriculture influence since that was one of china’s standpoints. Confucian academies to educate vietnam’s bureaucrats, nobles, royals, and elders.
Chinas influence on Japan
Adopts idea of confucian education, examination system, and bureaucracy. Accept filial piety, but rejects harsh confucian patriarchy. Women can have property, own business, get divorced. In chinese society, nobody was asked to give up their life, but Japan had samurai who would for their country. Parents are right 80-90% of the time while Chinese parents are right 100%. Adopt Chinese characters to their own spoken language.
Chinas influence on Korea
Adopt Confucian education. Had a chinese character sistem, but Korean ruler later invented a writing system to replace the chinese characters in his country.
Financial Improvement (Song Dynasty)
Equal field systems redistribution allows taxation of land based on need. Learnt how to smelt. Iron and steel production caused better tools. More specialized labor like traders, bridge builders. Trade expanded, specialized and expanded agriculture, meaning more need for money. Turned to copper coins, but changed it to flying cahs= letters of credit by bank similar to Sakks in islam
Labor systems (song dynasty)
Peasant labor- affordable iron tools helped to increase production as more people were able to buy tools. This helped in the expansion of agriculture as well as cotton, blankets, clothes, tea. Active peasant labor because of the large population. Artisans where skilled workers.
Artisan Production
Traded silk along the silk roads. Everybody wanted silk and porcelain, so it was heavily sought after and a sign of wealth. Guilds- groups of people- worked on a specific craft. Charge the most for silk and porcelain.
