Unit 1 - Asia (State Building) 1200 - 1450 Flashcards
Song Dynasty
The Song dynasty was an imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 960 to 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song, who usurped the throne of the Later Zhou dynasty and went on to conquer the rest of the Ten Kingdoms, ending the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. They were later defeated by the Mongols.
How did the Song Dynasty maintain and justify it’s power?
In order to maintain power in the Song Dynasty, Confucianism experienced a revival. However, the Song rulers innovated the idea of Confucianism, with Neo-Confucianism. The dynasty expanded its bureaucracy (a body of non-elected government officials that carry out the emperor’s will) based on meritocracy through civil service exams, heavily based on Confucian classics. However, women also faced legal and social restrictions, including limited access to education and the practice of foot binding.
How did Song Dynasty’s economy rise?
Song China experienced economic prosperity, characterized by commercialization, paper money, increased steel and iron manufacturing, agricultural innovations like Champa rice, and infrastructure improvements such as the Grand Canal expansion, new ship building techniques, and new navigation inventions.
Confucianism
Confucianism is an ancient Chinese belief system, which focuses on the importance of personal ethics and morality, made by Confucius. Confucianism emphasized filial piety (the practice of honoring one’s ancestors and parents), hierarchical societal structures between man, women, and rulers, and the mandate of heaven, which stated that the right to rule comes from heaven itself. Neo-Confucianism is similar, but has the influence of Buddhist and Daoist ideas.China had their own form of buddhism called Chan Buddhism.
Buddhism
Buddhism originated in India, coming to China with the Han Dynasty. Buddhism has no higher power, but rather buddhist beliefs are the four noble truths: Life is suffering, we suffer because we crave, we cease suffering when we cease craving the eightfold paths lead to the cessation of suffering and craving. The Eightfold Path outlines the principles and practices a Buddhist must follow, such as meditation and moral lifestyle. When Buddhism spread, many changes took place. There was Theravada Buddhism, similar to the original but reserved for monks. Mahayana Buddhism, also similar to Theravada but said Buddhism was for everyone, not just monks. Tibetan Buddhism was the same, just added more mystical practices. In order to make Buddhist teachings intelligible to the Chinese population, merchants and monks explained them in terms of Chinese Daoism, indigenous to Asia.
Hinduism
Dominant polytheistic belief system (many gods) in India. The ultimate goal of the belief system was to reunite the individual’s soul to the pervasive world soul known as Brahman. Involved reincarnation to achieve this. Provided the conditions for a unified culture in India with a caste system, where if you did well in one life you get reincarnated to a higher caste in your next life. Was harder to spread because it was an ethnic religion.
Hindu Caste System
the Brahmins (priestly class), the Kshatriyas (rulers, administrators and warriors; also called Rajanyas), the Vaishyas (artisans, merchants, tradesmen and farmers), and the Shudras (labouring classes).
Islam
Religion founded by the prophet Muhammed in the Arabian Peninsula, stating salvation is found in righteous actions like almsgiving, prayer, and fasting. Spread quickly after he died. In parts of Asia and North Africa, it became the religion of the elite (Dar-al Islam, house of islam) because of Muslims in India. Islam was mainly divided into two groups, Shia and Sunni, with their main conflicting belief about who was Muhammed’s successor. Shia believed Muhammed’s successor must be a blood relative, but Sunni believed successors can be elected by the people.
Changes in Religion in Southeast Asia
Hinduism had the Bhakti Movement, a religious movement which encourages believers to worship one particular god in the Hindu pantheon of gods. Rejected the hindu case system, encouraged all people of all social statuses to join, also emphasized mystical experiences. Islam had a subcategory of it called Sufism, a new and emerging form of Islam that emphasized mystical experiences, something more spiritual Buddhism had become more exclusive as well regarding who could worship it. All of these factors allowed Buddhism to spread more easily.
Judaism
Ethnic religion of the jews, originated in the middle east, monotheistic religion.
Christianity
Established by Jewish prophet, was meant to be the savior for Jewish people. When the roman empire adopted christianity it became a major religion. Didn’t spread as much as Islam because Muhammed and his followers were merchants, but Christianity detested gaining a lot of wealth.
Rise of Islamic states
**Abbasid Caliphate **- Ethnically Arab empire who came to power during the Golden age of islam around mid 8th century. During 1200 past the golden age, the empire started to fragment and lose power, and several new islamic empires began to rise in its place, largely made up of Turkish people instead of Arab (which is really surprising). Ethnically Arab empire who came to power during the Golden age of islam around mid 8th century. During 1200 past the golden age, the empire started to fragment and lose power, and several new islamic empires began to rise in its place, largely made up of Turkish people instead of Arab (which is really surprising). Fell to power by the Mongols in the Sack/Siege of Baghdad in 1258, where Baghdad (Abbasid Capital) was surrounded by a major Mongol force commanded by the non-Muslim Hülegü
Seljuk Empire - Pastoral Turkish people in Central Asia, brought in by Abbasids as military force, claiming most of the political power while working as an Abbasid military.
**Mamluk Sultanate **- Empire in Egypt that was able to rise to power when the Ayyubid Sultanate used a group of enslaved turkish warriors called Mamluks who seized power when the ruler of the Ayyubid Sultanate died.
Delhi Sultanate - medieval Islamic empire in South Asia medieval Islamic empire in South Asia. A major military contribution of the Delhi Sultanate was their successful campaigns repelling the Mongol Empire’s invasions of India, which could have been devastating for the Indian subcontinent, like the Mongol invasions of China, Persia and Europe. Their military was strong.
Continuity from old to new muslim empires
Both old and new muslim empires had Military in charge of administration, implemented sharia law (code of law established in the quran)
How Islam spread
Spread in South Asia and Eurasia through military expansion, merchant activity (trade) since most of North Africa was Muslim merchants who stimulated trade throughout Africa. Muslim Missionaries, a large branch of them called Sufis, were also able to spread Islam across the world.
Technological Innovations in islamic Empires
Improvement to mathematics, Nasir al-din al-tusi, invented trigonometry to better understand planets and stars and how they move. The house of wisdom, a library established that had books on mathematics, literature, Greek philosophy, translated into Arabic and made extensive commentaries on them, allowing these teachings to be preserved forever.
