Asia During Post-Classical Period

(600-1450)Chapter 10

China

• 220- Fall of Han

• Political defragmentation

• 580’s- rise of Sui Dynasty– Reunites China

• Short-lived, falls apart in 618

Sui Dynasty

• Strengthened defenses against nomads• Govt. established granaries to store food• Confucian legal system

– Scholarly gentry class

• Buddhism grows in popularity

• Big Accomplishment: Grand Canal– Over 1200 miles long– Links north with agricultural lands of the south

Sui Dynasty

• Military campaigns in Korea– Conscripted a massive army– Unsuccessful– Drains the economy

Sui Dynasty

• 2 rulers:– Wendi– Yangdi

• Yangdi’s wars and luxurious lifestyle put a strain on China– High taxes to pay for construction– Conscripted labor

• Yangdi retreated to palaces– Many thought he was going mad

– Assassinated in 618• End of dynasty

Tang

• Tang Dynasty (618-907)– Reunites China– Military campaigns in Korea, Vietnam, Tibet,

Manchuria– Fortifies Great Wall, frontier armies– Confucianism

Tang Dynasty

• Tang begins decline:– Internal power struggles– Inefficient rule– Rebellions by borderland peoples

• Dynasty ends in 907– China enters period of fragmentation

Song Dynasty

• Song (960-1296)– Scholarly gentry in bureaucracy– Neo-Confucianism

• Personal morality is highest goal• The ed. elite are most fit to govern• Hostility toward foreign ideas• Women inferior to men

– Professional military• 1 million man army• gunpowder

Song Dynasty

• Song began decline:– Borderland peoples rebel– Loss of territory in north

• forced to relocate capital to Hangzhou in Southern China

– Military= economic drain

• Mongols take advantage of weakness– Conquer China in 1270’s and create the Yuan

Dynasty• More on the Yuan in Chapter 12

Tang and SongA Golden Age

• Thriving Economy:– Grand Canal– Military to defend Silk

Roads– Junks for maritime

trade• Massive ships with

compasses, gunpowder rockets for defense

– Paper money, banking

Tang and SongA Golden Age

• Cities grow= population over 100 million

• Agriculture grows in importance– Champa Rice– Broke up large estates to increase free

peasantry

Tang and SongA Golden Age

• Culture– Patriarchal – Neo-Confucianism

during Song meant decline in status of women

• Foot binding• Men allowed multiple

wives/concubines• Women excluded from

ed.

Tang and Song Culture

– Buddhism grows in popularity• Patronized by Tang

– Backlash by Confucians, attacks on monasteries & shrines

• Mahayana popular among masses– Allowed them to incorporate their own deities

• Chan popular with nobility– Could afford to meditate and surround themselves with

beauty of natural world

Tang and Song Culture

• A time of invention, art, creativity– Engineering– Gunpowder started to be used for weaponry– Paper Money– Kites– Tea Drinking became an elaborate ritual– Compasses– Moveable type (adopted from Korea)– Landscape paintings common– Symbolism in art

• Poems often accompanied the art

Japan

Japan

• Geography– Archipelago– Mountainous terrain

• Early inhabitants around 20,000 yrs. ago– Originally, hundreds of

independent kingships

Japan

• 600’s-Yamato state began to consolidate power– Government centered in Nara

• Nara period

• Institute Taika Reforms to emulate China– Confucianism– Centralized government

• Emperor, but he had very little power

– Chinese-styled architecture– Buddhism became popular (spread from Korea)

• Mixed with Shinto

Culture of Japan

• Shinto- “Way of the gods”– Native religion of Japan– Polytheistic, kami

• Emperor believed to be descendant of Sun Goddess (Amaterasu)

• Believed Japan was a divine creation and protected by the gods

Heian Japan794-1185

• 794: court moved from Nara to Heian (Kyoto)– Fujiwara family dominated– Marriages to keep control

• Development of unique Japanese culture– Elaborate court life– Emphasis on aesthetics– Court intrigues and love affairs– Tale of Genji

Heian Japan

• Gender and Family:– Marriage used to consolidate power among

ruling families• Intermarriage common

– Men allowed multiple wives & concubines– Women were allowed to inherit property– Men and women occupied different spaces in

society

Rise of Warrior Class

• Aristocrats focus on court life, forget about warrior class

• Local strongmen build up their own powerbase– Daimyo– Supported by warriors (Samurai)

• Rise in power of warrior class= decline of imperial power

Rise of Feudalism in Japan

• Fujiwara family began to lose power– 1180’s= Gempei Wars

• Rival families fight to be in control

– Minamoto family wins, establishes a military government with himself as Shogun

• Emperor still existed, but had no power– Minamoto Shogunate (1192-1330’s)

» Also known as Kamakura Shogunate

– Ashikaga Shogunate established in 1336-1573– Tokugawa Shogunate established in 1603-1868

Feudalism in Japan

• Developed about the same time as feudalism in Europe

• Shogun distributed land to daimyo in return for military support (samurai)

• Code of Bushido– Loyalty, courage, honor– Ritualistic suicide for dishonor (seppuku)