Download Emergence of East Asia to 1200 CE After Tang, Liao Empire (916

Emergence of East Asia to 1200 CE
After Tang,
Liao Empire (916-1121)
Nomads and settled agriculturalists
Kings and Confucian rulers: Portrayed as Buddhist monarchs, nomadic leaders
From Kitan ethnic group
Strong military-forced Song Dynasty to give annual payments of cash and silk for peace
Cut Chinese off from Central Asia
Jin Empire:
Song helped Jurchens of Northeast Asia to defeat Liao and establish Jin Empire
Jurchens turned on Song and drove Song out of Northern and Central China in 1127
Song reigned in South China as Southern Song Empire (1127-1279)
Song Dynasty:
Seafaring people and strengthened contacts with Korea, Japan, and Southeast Asia
Did not look North and West for relations because of strong Buddhist tradition in those
areas
Technological innovations (from West Asia)
-Math
-Astronomy
-Calendar making
Su Song = engineer (1088)
-developed huge chain-driven mechanical clock
(time of day and day of month)
-indicated movements of moon and certain stars and planets
Improved compass – made suitable for seafaring
Shipbuilding: introduced sternpost rudder
Watertight bulkheads (seawall and a wall within the hull of a ship)
--Later adopted in Persian Gulf
Standing, professionally trained, paid military
Iron and coal = strategic resources
High-grade iron and steel = weapons, armor, defensive works
Used gunpowder
Economy and Society:
Civilian officials
Higher value on civil pursuits than on military affairs
Song thinkers = Neo-Confucian philosophy – humans are essentially good and reasonable
Certain Buddhist sects like Zen Buddhism still popular
Civil Service Exam – reached mature form in Song Dynasty
System based on merit
Rigorous exam. Open to all men, but really only possible for wealthy men to take and
pass the exam
Moveable type: Led to mass production of preparation texts for exam takers
New agricultural technology = Increase production and spur population growth in
Southern China
Song Period: 100 million people in China
Population growth and economic growth – fed to rise of large, crowded, well-managed
cities like Hongzhou
Interregional credit system – flying money
Introduced paper money (government issued)
Caused inflation and later withdrawn
Government not able to control market economy as closely as other governments
Certain government functions privatized like tax collection
Merchant elite thrived in cities
Wealth derived from trade rather than land
Women’s status = decreased: Subordinate. Lost rights to own and manage property.
Remarriage forbidden
Foot-binding became mandatory and status symbol for elite women
Working class women did not bind feet. Non-Han women of Southern did not bind feet.
More independence than elite of Han Chinese women
New Kingdoms in East Asia:
Korea:
Hereditary elite absorbed Confucianism and Buddhism from China and passed along to
Japan
Several small Korean Kingdoms united first by Silla in 668 and then by Koryo in 900s
Woodblock printing (early 700s)
Invented moveable type – passed along to Song China
Japan:
Islands and mountainous terrain
Hundreds of small states – unified: Perhaps by horse-riding warrior from Korea in 4th or
5th Centuries.
Unified state established government at Yamoto on Honshu Island
Mid-7th Century- Japanese rulers:
Political reforms
Established centralized government
Legal code
Architecture
National histories
City-planning
--Based on Tang Empire
Japanese did not copy exactly – adapted to needs of Japan and maintained own concept
of emperorship
-No Mandate of Heaven concept: Rulers were always from the same family
-Did not build walls around cities for protection
-Emperors seldom had any real political power
Shinto Religion (native religion) – survived along imported Buddhist religion
Women of aristocracy became royal consorts
Linked court with kinsmen
Women were lonely with a lot of free time = writing, poetry, diaries, novels
Constitution developed in 604: Influenced political thought in Japan for centuries
-Empress Siuko – woman from immigrant aristocratic family
(Husband died in 592 and she took over
Major Buddhist center – perhaps surpassing China
Heian Period: 794-1185
Fujiwara Clan dominated Japanese government
Aesthetic refinement of its aristocracy
Elevation of civil officials above warriors
By 1000s, warrior clans became wealthy and powerful
-Kamakura Shogunate – took control
-Capital = Kamakura in eastern Honshu
Vietnam:
Similar geographic proximity and irrigated wet-rice agriculture – similar to Southern
China = integration
Economic and cultural assimilation took place = Tang and Song
Annam elite (Northern Vietnam) – modeled culture on Chinese
When Tang fell, Annam established independent state called Dai Viet
Southern Vietnam- Kingdom of Champa influenced by Malay, Indian, and Chinese
culture
Cultivated relationship with Song – exported rice to China
(type of rice was grown very fast)
East Asian countries = common Confucian hierarchy but women’s status varied from
country to country
Foot-binding not common outside of China
In Annam, Before Confucianism introduced, women had higher status than in China
Nowhere in East Asia was education of women considered valuable or even desirable
Rice-growing = suitable for Confucian ideology.
--Need total cooperation of large kin groups