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Chapter VIII:
The Asian World
• The Sui, Tang, Song and Dynasties (literature
emphasis)
• China fell into chaos after the Han dynasty
ended in 220.
• The Sui dynasty was set up…short lived,
however it did unify China under the
emperor’s authority
• Built the Grand Canal (linked the Yellow and
Yangtze Rivers….making it easier to ship rice)
Tang
• Preceded by the Sui dynasty
• Lasted 618 to 907
• Restored the civil service exams for recruiting government
workers (bureaucrats)
• Tried to stabilize the economy by giving land to the
peasants to break up the power of the huge landowners.
• Literature flourished because printing was invented
• Tang Xuanzang is remembered for his devotion to a
commoners daughter
• Duo Fu and Li Bo=two of the most popular poets in the tang
Era
Song
• 960-1279
• Period of economic and cultural achievement.
• In the Tong and Song Eras, the old landed
aristocracy was replaced by scholar-gentry
• Marco Polo= an Italian merchant who visited
China in the late 1200’s
• Song dynasty
• Overthrown by the Mongols
Advances
• The weakening of the huge landowner’s power by the
Song created an abundance of food
• Chinese began to make steel (for swords and sickles)
• Introduction of cotton (clothes)
• Gunpowder was invented during the Tang dynasty
• Woodblock printing was invented during Tang.
• Long distance trade …Silk Road
• Was at the heart of the Chinese state government from
the Song dynasty to the 20th century
Japan/ Samurai
• Bushido= a code based on loyalty to the
samurai’s lord
• Kami= the spirits worshipped by early
Japanese people that were believed to live in
trees, rivers and mountains
• Daimyo= “great names”, the heads of
Japanese noble families
Mongols
• During the 1200’s, the Mongols (nomadic people of the
Gobi desert)built a vast empire…overthrew the Song
dynasty and created the Mongol dynasty in China
• In 1206, Temujin was elected Genghis Khan after which
he devoted himself to conquest, establishing the
Mongol empire
• Led by Genghis Khan
• Brought much of the Eurasian landmass under a single
rule, creating the largest land empire in history
• Kublai Khan=grandson of Genghis Khan established the
Yuan dynasty in China
Muslim Tolerance of Hindus in India
• They realized there were simply too many
Hindus to convert them all