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Civilizations of Asia
Notes
I.
The Golden Ages of Medieval China (500s – 1200s)
A. Religion in China
1. The Buddhist Religion
•Began in _________ in about _________ B.C.
•Based on the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, also known as the _________, who was a prince
of _________.
•Much like _________ and _________ who will later follow him, we know that the _________
was a _________, he lived his life preaching his _________, and he died leaving behind many
followers of his ideas who passed them on.
2. Buddhist Beliefs
•Most Buddhists want to achieve “_________” or an _________, in which they are thought to have
an understanding of _________ and the world that does not include _________ or _________.
•Buddhist believe that they will be “_________” or _________ over and over again until they
reach true _________.
•When they reach _________, they are “_________” from the earthly world. Their physical
_________ dies, and their _________ or spirit is allowed to live on free of the body.
3. Buddhist Ideas You May Know
•_________: negative actions have consequences.
•_________: a state of meditation, or quieting your mind.
B. China’s 3 Medieval Dynasties
*Dynasty – A series of _________ from the same _________.
1. The Sui Dynasty
•580 – 618 A.D.
•Came to power after the _________ dynasty.
•First _________ to rebuild and expand the Great Wall of China.
•United _________ and _________ China for the first time in centuries.
2. The Tang Dynasty
•618-906 A.D.
•Came to power after the _________ Dynasty.
•Controlled the _________ _________ trade route.
•Great period of _________ and achievement for _________.
3. The Song Dynasty
•960-1279 A.D.
•Came to power after a time of _________ among different groups after the fall of the Tang
Dynasty.
•Made improvements to _________, agriculture, arts, _________ and learning.
C. China Under the Sui Dynasty
1. Uniting China
•Military general Wendi declares himself emperor of _________ after massacring almost 60 royal
_________ to gain power. He is the founder of the _________ _________.
•His son, Yangdi takes over after his fathers death, and _________ the _________ and _________
portions of China for the first time in hundreds of years.
2. Rebuilding China
•The emperors of the _________ _________ start the _________ of _________ _________
_________ _________ _________ (used for defense).
•The Great Wall began being built _________ of years earlier, but was not well built in all areas,
and was not very large at this point.
•They also begin building the _________ _________ _________ _________, which would link the
_________ and _________ in order to move grain from one place to the other.
3. The Fall of the Sui
•Even though the Sui _________ China and reminded people of how great China used to be and
still could be, the Sui’s heavily _________ the people to fund projects throughout the nation.
•Eventually, the Chinese people _________ against the Sui’s, which ended the _________.
D. China Under the Tang Dynasty
1. The Golden Age of China
•The Tang rule China during an almost _________ year “__________________”, meaning a time
of great _________, success, _________, power and achievement.
•China grows in _________, it’s capital city Chang’an, in the Northern part of China, was the
world’s _________ city of the time.
•For residents of Chang’ an, there was a variety of _________, entertainment, fine goods to buy
and even tall walls for _________.
2. Tang Taizong
•Known as the _________ dynasty’s greatest ruler.
•Began his _________ career at only _________ years old.
•Ruled from 626 to 649 A.D.
•Was a scholar and a _________ as well as a master of calligraphy and the art of beautiful
_________.
•Grew tired of _________ later on in his time as emperor and began studying the teaching of
_________.
•Changed the _________ of _________ to match _________ ideas.
3. Confucius Ideas and the Tangs
•_________ lived from 551 B.C. – 497 B.C. (long before the Tang’s)
•Was an _________ Chinese _________.
•Believed in treating others with _________, putting _________ before all else, respecting
_________, acting morally, _________, obeying the _________, and most importantly, _________.
•As the Tang’s studied the ancient teachings, they began to train _________ officials with
Confucius teachings, and and even began respecting the peasant _________ who worked the land
by granting them more _________ to own.
4. The Great Wall and The Grand Canal
•The _________ _________ of _________ continued to be rebuilt and expanded during the
_________ Dynasty.
•Today, the wall is over _________ miles long. It is only 3,000 miles from one side of the USA, to
the other.
•The _________ _________, started under the Sui Dynasty, was a _________ that linked the
Huang River to the Chang River.
•Millions of workers took part in the _________ of the Grand Canal.
•It is over 1,000 miles long, and is still, to this day, the _________ canal ever built.
•It was built to supply the capital of _________ at the time, Chang’an, in the _________ with
_________ being grown in the _________.
E. China Under the Song Dynsasty
1. Changes in Government
•The _________ Dynasty took control of China _________ years after the _________ of the
_________ Dynasty.
•In the 50 year period where no Dynasty ruled, there was much _________ and _________.
•The _________ took power, but with less _________ under their control than the Tangs had
before them.
•They moved the _________ city of _________ to a better location for them.
•They enforced a _________ _________ for hiring government officials.
•Merit System – A _________ of _________ people based on their _________.
•Officials had to pass _________ to prove they had the _________ to do the job they were being
hired for.
•Before the _________ _________, officials came from _________ and _________ families. They
were allowed to keep their jobs for _________, even if they did not do a good job.
•The new _________ _________ greatly improves the Chinese _________.
2. Changes in Agriculture
•During the Song Dynasty, new types of _________ were developed.
•New _________ methods (ways of getting water from a natural source to a farm on land) were
developed.
•With new types of _________, and better ways to get _________ to rice farms, peasant _________
were able to produce two crops of rice per year, instead of just one.
•Because _________ got _________, and _________ became more plentiful, more people were
able to stop _________ and choose to do other jobs, instead. Many studied the _________.
3. Learning and The Arts
•The Songs invented a new way to _________ _________, which made them _________
_________, allowing more people to learn to _________ and _________.
•The _________ were usually supported and _________ throughout China.
•Besides traditional paintings and sculpture, _________ and _________ were also encouraged.
•During the Song Dynasty, some of the first landscape _________ of China were created.
•Song rulers also found value in objects made from _________ (a type of ceramic). Even today,
people still refer to porcelain as “_________” because that’s where it was first made.
•The Chinese also valued _________.
•Silk comes from the cocoons of caterpillars, called _________.
•For a long time, the Chinese were the only people who knew how to make _________, and people
from the rest of the world were willing to pay very high _________ for it.
4. Trade and The Silk Road
•Because of the _________ items created in China, like _________, _________ and even
_________, that people in the rest of the world were willing to pay high prices for, _________ was
important in China.
•The most common _________ route(s) in and out of Asia was known as “_________ __________
________” especially because of the valuable _________ that became one of its most famous trade
goods.
•The _________ _________ was not a single road. It was a long chain of _________ trade
_________ across Central Asia. It stretched about _________ miles from China to the
Mediterranean Sea.
•For hundreds of years, people with their camels, horses and donkeys carried their precious
_________ braving desert _________, cold and rocky _________ and even _________ along the
way.
II.
The Mongols: Conquering China (1206-1370)
A. Who Are the Mongols?
•Started as _________ from the plains Central _________ north of _________ where some of the
earliest _________ life is known to have existed.
•For a long time, they were many hundreds of small _________, until they were eventually
_________ under one common _________.
•By the 1200s they were fierce _________ and their own military force (_________).
•Wanted their own _________.
B. Mongol Territory
•Eventually, _________ took over enough land to control all of
_________, as well as _________, _________ and parts of
_________ as well.
C. Mongol Leaders
1. Genghis Khan
•United smaller Mongol _________ in northern Asia before taking
over _________.
•Conquered all of _________ China by 1215 A.D.
•Was not able to conquer the _________ Song _________ during his lifetime because the Song’s
were too _________.
2. Kublai Khan
•Genghis Khan’s _________.
•Came to power in 1259 A.D.
•Took him only 20 years to _________ the Song Dynasty.
•Declared himself _________ of China.
•Made the capital of his new empire _________ (which is still the capital of China today).
•Named his new dynasty Yuan, which means “_________” because he thought _________ rule
would last in China for _________ of years to come.
D. The End of the Mongols
•The _________ got rid of all traces of the old _________ Dynasty _________ and government
officials.
•Government positions were given to _________ before they were given to existing Chinese
people.
•Mongols kept their own _________ and _________ instead of taking on the existing Chinese
customs.
•Under Kublai Khan, China did well, especially with _________, which was welcomed by Kublai
Khan.
•Kublai Khan, however, was China’s only _________ Mongol ruler. After his _________, there
were no other successful _________ rulers.
•In 1368, a Chinese _________, upset with life in China under the Khans, led an uprising that
_________ the Khan rulers and ended Mongol _________ in China.