The Asian World, 400-1500

China Reunified

Sui Dynasty

The Fall of the Han dynasty, 220 CE

Civil War and political chaos

New political unity, 581 CE

Sui Yangi, the second emperor of the dynasty

The greatest, and most cruel of the Sui dynasty

completed the Grand Canal which connected

the Yellow river and the Yangtze

He used forced labor to build the Canal

He led an extravagant and luxurious lifestyle

The Tang Dynasty

The new family replaced the Sui

The family ruled for almost 300 years, from

618-907

They instituted reforms: examination for holding office, stable economy by giving land to peasants

Expanded territory to the borders of

Tibet, north of the Himalaya

Korea and other people groups offered tribute

Tang Xuanzang, his love of a

commoner, and extravagant gifts

Bloody Revolt led by the emperor’s

general

The death of his love

Weakness and rebellionsUighurs

Collapse in 907

The Song Dynasty, 960-1279

Northern incursion into China

The moving of the imperial court to Hangzhou, further

South

During the 1200s the Mongols to the north built a massive

empire. They controlled all of China after they overthrew the

Song

Government and the Economy

Confucian ideals are the cement of Chinese culture

during this time

The economy grew in size and complexity

During Civil War, aristocratic families took control of the

land

Technology and Trade

The development of steel, mixing cast iron and wrought

iron in blast furnace

Gunpowder was developed during the Tang dynasty

Chinese Society

Marco Polo, Italian merchant and traveler, described Hangzhou as a “paradise” and full of

many “pleasures”

Entertainment: playing cards, chess, and block

printing

scholar-gentry, replaced the old aristocracy

Wu Zhao, Empress Wu

The role of woman and female infants

dowry (money, goods, or property) given from the girl’s parents to the

husband

Poor families often sold their daughters for

marriage

The Mongols and China

The Mongol Empire

A pastoral people loosely organized

into clans in Mongolia and the

Gobi

Temujin was elected “Genghis Khan”—

Strong Ruler—in the 1160s

Unification of tribal groups on

the Eurasian landmass

Mongols spread east and west,

creating the largest land

empire in history

Genghis Khan died in 1227

According to Mongol custom, the territory

was divided

Khanates—Separate territories controlled by

one of his sons

The Mongols attacked the Persians, the

Abbasids, and the Song dynasty

Kublai Khan led the conquest of the Song

He founded what would later be called “Beijing”

The Mongols

encountered gunpowder, fire-lances, and other weapons

which they incorporated

Mongol expansion into Vietnam, Java, Sumatra, and Japan

The Mongols adapted to the

Chinese political system

The Mongols brought prosperity and

stability to China

The Mongols fell victim to the same problems all other

dynasties had: finances, foreign

conquest, corruption, and

internal instability

A commoner led an army and

overthrew the Mongols

Religion and Government

The spread of Buddhist thought by merchants and

missionaries from India

Early Tang rulers lent their support to Buddhism

Buddhism was criticized by many people

Control of many monastic lands

Neo-Confucianism

Not the old political philosophy, but was a response to Buddhism

and Daoism

Division between physical and spiritual

One can leave the physical through careful examination of the moral

principles.

Early Japan and Korea

The Geography of Japan

Japan is a chain of many islands

Four main islands:

Hokkaido, the main island of Honshu

Two smaller islands of Kyushu and Shikoku

Mountains cover Japan

volcanos, fertile soil, and earthquakes

Because of their geographical isolation, an

independent culture developed

The Rise of the Japanese State

The ancient Japanese settled in the Yamato Plain near the cities Osaka and Kyoto

Society was made up of clans

Class division: rulers and commoners—

farmers, artisans, and servants

Chinese Influences

Shotoku Taishi, a Yamato prince, unified the various clans to fight back against the invading

Chinese

He sent people to study the Chinese government

the Chinese model

A Strong Centralized government

He limited the power of the aristocracy

He divided the territory into districts

All farm land belonged to the state

Taxes went to the government, not the local aristocrats

The Nara Period

After Taishi’s death, power went to the

Fujiwara clan

The capital was moved to Nara

The emperor was called the “son of Heaven”

The power of the government

decentralized

The Heian Period

The capital was moved from Nara to

Heian

Figurehead government

Continued Decentralization

Military Force as a means of Justice

Samurai—”those who serve”

Fought on horseback, wore armor, sword,

and bow

Bushido

”The Way of the Warrior”—the strict

warrior code

The Kamakura Shogunate

By the twelfth century, civil war emerged amongst the

wealthy aristocratic families

The new system of government was called the

shogunate

Minamoto Yoitomo—created a new

centralized government lead by a knew leader called a

shogun

A strong government,

though they faced strong challenges

—invasion by Mongols

Defeated by a typhoon on the

sea No other foreign invasion occurred in Japan until America

attacked in 1945

Collapse of Central RuleLocal power in the hands of the aristocracy, daimyo:

“great names”

The samurai helped solidified power into the

hands of the noble families

Chaos and civil war erupted—and all the land

was ruled by independent lords

Life in Early Japan

Early Japan was a farming culture based on rice

Foreign trade developed with Korea and China

Shipped raw materials, paintings, swords

In return, silk, porcelain, books, and copper coins

Early in Japan, women had equal rightsRight to own and inherit property

Women could divorce and remarry if abandonedLater practices led to the receding of these rights

Religion in Early Japan

Early worship of spirits called kami who lived in

trees, rivers, streams, and mountains

Ancestor spirits

A religion developed called Shinto— “the Sacred Way”

Incorporated into state government

Buddhism brought to Japan by missionaries

Zen, a sect of Buddhism, developed

in Japan

Enlightenment through self-discipline, adoption

by the Samurai

The Emergence of Korea

A small peninsula which is closest to China and Japan

Strongly influenced by China

Conflict between governments and

aristocracy—similar pattern as Japan

Mongol invasion in the thirteenth

century

Kublai Khan forced the Korean people to build their ships

Yi Song-gye seized military control

and established an independent state

India After the Guptas

Buddhism was initially popular among Indians

Overtime people argued over how to follow Buddha’s teachings

*Theravada—the original teachings of Buddha called

“the teachings of the elders”

Not a religion but a way of life

The Decline of Buddhism

*Mahayana—A view in which Nirvana could be achieved

through devotion to the Buddha

Theravada teachings were too strict

Through Mahayana Buddhists, Buddhism becomes a religion

Buddha is not a wise man but a divine figure

reincarnation

Neither sect remains popular in India for long

Theravada declined and Mahayana became

absorbed into Hinduism—Buddha is just another god

Buddhism spreads to China, Korea, Southeast

Asia, and Japan by missionaries

The Eastward Expansion of Islam

In the early eighth century, Islam became popular in what is now modern day Pakistan and bangladesh

Islam expanded into the region when the Gupta

Empire collapsed

They developed in the region, eventually forming

the *Ghazni—an Islamic state in present day

Afghanistan

*Mahmud of Ghazni, son of the founder, took control of the new

state in 997

Ambitious, he began to attack the neighboring Hindu

kingdoms

His empire stretched from the upper Indus Valley to as far as

the Indian Ocean

A resistance was led by the *Rajputs, Hindu warriors

The Hindu’s could not stop the invaders advances

By 1200, Muslim power stretched across all of

northern India

The Muslim state became known as the *Sultanate of

Delhi

By the 14th century, they extended the power to the

*Deccan Plateau

The Impact of Timur Lenk

By the Late 14th century, the Sultanate began to

decline

Timur Lenk, a Mongol leader based in

Samarkand, expanded into India

He occupied Mesopotamia, Persia, the Caspian Sea,

and the Pamir Mountains

After his death in 1405, a new

nomadic tribe arose and threatened

India—*the Moguls

Islam and Indian SocietyThe many Muslim rulers were intolerant of other faiths

They usually used peaceful means to try and convert

people to Islam

uneasy tolerance

developed

Temple Architecture

From the 700s on, Indian architects built monumental Hindu

temples

A central shrine surrounded by a tower, a hall for

worshippers

A blending of Islamic and Hindu culture

Civilization in Southeast Asia

The Land and People of Southeast

Asia

Geographical location: mainland

region—*Malay Peninsula

*Archipelago, a chain of islands

part of present day Indonesia and the

Philippines

Ancient mariners called these lands the

“golden islands”

Southeast Asia is a melting pot of races,

cultures, and religions

People in these regions were often

cut off from one another due to

geography

few regions are unified by a single government due to

geographical barriers

These barriers encouraged the development of distinct cultures,

religious practices, and languages

Originally ruled by China, by the 10th century the Vietnamese

overthrew Chinese rule

Though independent, they remained influenced by China

They called themselves the Dai Viet

Developed a strong centralized government

Adopted Confucianism

Vietnam

Angkor

In modern day Cambodia, the kingdom was

formed by *Jayavarman

He united the Khmer people

Angkor was conquered by Thai in

1432

Thailand

The Thai lived on the frontier of China, and as

they moved further south, they conquered the

Angkor

They set up their own capital at Ayutthaya

They adopted Buddhism and Indian political

practices blended with their native culture

Burma The Thai were threatened from the west by the

Burman people who had migrated from the highlands of Tibet

A pastoral people, they adopted farming in

Southeast Asia

They converted to Buddhism and adopted

Indian political institutions

The Malay World

In the Malay Peninsula and the Indonesian

Archipelago, a different pattern emerged

The people of the different islands largely defended

from Malay

Trade was a major influence on the

development of the regions

The state of Srivijaya near the Strait of Malacca

The kingdom of Sailendra emerged on

eastern Java

Influenced by India, they depended on trade to

maintain their kingdom

In the late 13th century, the kingdom of

Majapahit was founded

This kingdom controlled most of the archipelago

By the 15th century, a new state emerged

After the Muslim conquest, Muslim merchants settled in

the region

By 1400, the Islamic state of Melaka developed leading to the near total conversion of

the region to Islam

Economic Forces

The states of Southeast Asia can be

divided into two groups: *agricultural

societies based on farming and *trading societies dependent

on trade

Trade expanded even further after the

Muslim conquest

Culture and ReligionChinese and Indian culture

and religion influenced different regions

The most visible evidence of this is architecture

The temple of Angkor Wat is the most famous example

Hindu and Buddhist ideas moved into Southeast Asia in

1000 CE

New religious beliefs were blended with the old religious practices

Uniting the Hindu gods with the local deities

Buddhism had little impact until Theravada

Buddhism arrived. It taught that people did

not need priests or rulers—an appealing concept