Transcript K1-early modern Asia for the Samurai

Recovery in China:
Ming Centralization
• Yuan dynasty collapsed 1368, Mongols depart
• Emperor Hongwu: Ming (“Brilliant”) dynasty, 1368-1644
• administration:reestablished and reformed Confucian education
• political power:
rule by Emperor through emissaries called Mandarins
eunuchs (new civil servants)
could not build hereditary power base
• Cultural revival
• eradicated Mongol legacy by promoting traditional Chinese culture
• Emperor Yongle: 23,000-roll Encyclopedia (1577) of all knowledge
•
public regulation:
clothing
familial behavior
•
economics/ritual:
village shrine
water regulation
political ritual - tribute
social ritual – village shrine
Chinese and European
voyages of exploration, 1405-1498
contact:
Admiral Zheng He
seven massive naval expeditions, 1405-33
demonstrated strength of Ming dynasty
The Unification of Japan
Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1867)
→ Tokugawa Ieyasu (r. 1600-1616)
bakufu government
→ feudal Japan
shogun
large landholders with private
armies – the daimyo
figurehead Emperor
constant civil war:
sengoku, “country at war”
Control of Daimyo
→ 260 powerful territorial lords
→ Shogun ‘controls’ them in a variety of ways:
“alternate attendance” at Edo (Tokyo)
marriage, socializing of daimyo families
→ from 1630s, shoguns ‘close’ country
travel, import of books forbidden
policy strictly maintained for 200 years
Growth in Japan
→ peace and prosperity
→ agricultural improvements
→ population growth moderate
35
30
→ end of war results in
unemployed warriors:
daimyo, samurai
and status changed
bureaucrats, scholars
→ wealthy urban classes emerge
25
20
15
10
5
0
1600
1700
1850
Floating Worlds (ukiyo)
• urban culture:
stratified
commercial, co modified
entertainment, pleasure industries
• change from bushido ethic of stoicism
• Uniquely expressed in Japan
• Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693), The Life of a Man Who Lived for Love
• Kabuki theatre
歌舞伎
• Bunraku puppet theatre
• Geisha [recommended: Memoirs of a Geisha]
A Long History of Christian Contact
• Jesuit Francis Xavier in Japan, 1549
remarkable success among daimyo
why? attraction to belief
possibility of trade
political/military advantage in civil conflict
• Government backlash
fear of foreign intrusion
Confucians, Buddhists resent Christian absolutism
• Anti-Christian campaign 1587-1639
restricted Christianity
executed staunch Christians
•
If you like this period: remember Shusaku Endo The Samurai
Dutch Learning – and why the Dutch?
sakoku
→ once the country ‘closed’
→ Dutch at Nagasaki principal contact with world
→ ban on foreign books lifted in 1720
→ in the meantime, Japanese scholars studied Dutch to
approach European science, medicine, art
rangaku
accommodation/adaptation
‘Loan’ words
gairaigo
originally from China and Korea
16C Portugal and Dutch
now, primarily English
‘language that comes from outside’
Dutch
Bier
Glas
Hoos
Kok
Kop
Siroop
Japanese
biiru
garasu
hōsu
kōhī
koppu
shiroppu
English
beer
glass (pane)
hose
coffee
cup
syrup
Portuguese
Japanese
English
Botão
Carta
Pão
Tempêro
Tobaco
botan
karuta
pan
tempura
tabako
button
playing cards
bread
tempura
tobacco
In Portugal:
Tempêro could be meatless meal on Fridays
Seasoning?
Entirely meatless meal
Forget accommodation, don’t even resist,
Ignore
In the east, two very different powers could afford to focus
inward: Chinese Empire
Japan