Transcript Inner and East Asia - Sonoma Valley High School

Inner and East Asia 600-1200
Early Tang Empire 618-755
• Built by the Sui, Grand Canal
links Yellow and Yangzi rivers.
• Li Shimin (Tang) expands
westward = Turkic cultural,
religious and military influence
• Inner Asian horses, camels and
clothing from the Silk Road
• Horsemanship combined with
armored infantry & crossbow.
• Mahayana Buddhism and
emphasis on bodhisattva &
combining of local gods.
Uighur and Tibetan Empires 600-907
• Turkic-speaking Uighurs and
Tibetans built large rival
states along the Silk Road
(map 10.1).
• Religious art from N. India
and mixture of East Asian
and Islamic dress.
• Tibetans adopt architectural
and artistic styles from
India.
• Buddhist pilgrims connect
India and China
Fall of the Tang Empire 879-907
• Fear of ‘barbarians’ =
attacks on foreign residents.
• Oppressive landlords &
dependence on warlords
leads to rebellions.
• Destroyed Buddhism as a
‘foreign evil’
• Belief that women in
politics = danger to
Confucianism
• Neo-Confucianism = new
‘religion’
Neo-Confucian Influence
• Challenge to Buddhism
• Scholarly and cosmic
emphasis on‘sagehood’.
• Civil Service examinations
• Govt ‘Meritocracy’
• Evidence in Korea, Japan
and Vietnam.
• Role of Women
The Song Empire 960-1279
Song achievements:
Song weaknesses:
– Su Song’s Celestial Clock
– They feared foreigners and
– Gunpowder in explosive
barbarians, though most of
shells
achievements in technology,
– First seafaring compass.
observation, math, astronomy
– Junks (stern rudder &
& economics came from India
watertight bulkheads).
& West Asia during the Tang.
– Produced steel of
unprecedented strength by
– Cut off from Inner & West Asia
using waterwheel-driven
they relied on sea trade.
bellows to superheat iron.
– Needed an army four times as
– Modern urban planning
large (though they occupied
(waste removal, water
diversion, fire prevention,
half the area) as the Tang.
leisure activities).
– Treatment of women worsened
– Moveable type and the
as the loss of Buddhism was
resulting spread of knowledge
replaced by neo-Confucianism.
– Pioneered paper money and
credit (flying money).
Trade and Exchange
• Chang’an = metropolitan
‘Mecca’ due to tributary
system and roads/canals
• Exports (silk & ‘china’) for
precious metals and luxury
items.
• Sea trade connects China
with Red Sea and Persian
Gulf.
• Cosmopolitan empire due
to ‘breadth and diversity’