ap world china

Song Dynasty

China's golden age - a very productive and successful dynasty . A Chinese dynasty that ruled the country during one of its most brilliant cultural epochs.

Confucianism

The system of ethics, education, and statesmanship taught by Confucius and his disciples, stressing love for humanity, ancestor worship, reverence for parents, and harmony in thought and conduct.

Filial Piety

respect and honor for elder family members

Imperial Bureaucracy

a Chinese organization in which appointed officials enforced/carried out the policies of the empire.

Neo-Confucianism

a revival of Confucian teachings during the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty and a subsequent synthesis of Confucianism with aspects of Buddhism and Taoism.

Champa rice

quick-maturing, very resistant rice that allows 2 harvests in one growing season. Improved the speed of growing rice

Grand Canal

Man-made waterway that became the main transportation artery for the political and military center of the north and the economic center of the south.

Steel & Iron Production

Process improvements in the manufacture of iron and steel made them more economical, and increased the quality and variety of iron and steel available for use in industrial machinery, ships, buildings, bridges, railroads, and more.

Scholar Gentry

A term used to describe members of China's landowning families, reflecting their wealth from the land and the privilege that they derived as government officials.

White Lotus Society

Secret religious society dedicated to overthrow of Yuan dynasty in China; typical of peasant resistance to Mongol rule.

MONGOLS

Ghengis Khan

Mongol leader Genghis Khan (1162-1227) rose from humble beginnings to establish the largest land empire in history. After uniting the nomadic tribes of the Mongolian plateau, he conquered huge chunks of central Asia and China.

Short Bow & Horse

The practice of herding as the primary economic activity of a society that emerged in parts of Africa and Eurasia.

Grand Council

The top of the government

Khanates

The states ruled by a khan; the four units into which Chinggis divided the Mongol Empire.

Kublai Khan

Kublai Khan was the grandson of Genghis Khan, and he inherited a large swathe of Genghis' massive territorial conquests. Kublai Khan established his capital at Beijing and proceeded to conquer and unify the rest of (what was at the time) China.

Yuan Dynasty

dynasty established by Mongol nomads that ruled portions and eventually all of China from the early 13th century to 1368.

Golden Horde

the western part of the Mongol empire, which flourished from the mid-13th century to the end of the 14th century. The people of the Golden Horde were a mixture of Turks and Mongols, with the latter generally constituting the aristocracy.

Marco Polo

a Venetian trader and explorer, who was one of the first westerners, along with his uncle and his father, to travel along the Silk Road in China. He visited the leader of the Mongol dynasty, who was at the time Kublai Khan, and recorded the stories of his travels in II Milione.

Pax Mongolica

"Mongolian peace." a period of relative stability in Eurasia under the Mongol Empire during the 13th and 14th centuries.

Bubonic Plague

was one of the most feared diseases of the 14th century. This gruesome disease spread through infected rats that came off ships when they docked. The name Black Death came from the swollen glands in a person's neck, armpits and thighs that turned black.

TRADE

Indian Ocean Trade

The world's largest sea based network of communication and exchange before 1500 C.E., Indian Ocean commerce stretched from southern China to eastern Africa and included not only the exchange of luxury goods and bulk goods but also the exchange of ideas and crops.

Silk Road

The Silk Road was a vast trade network connecting Eurasia and North Africa via land and sea routes. The Silk Road earned its name from Chinese silk, a highly valued commodity that merchants transported along these trade networks. Advances in technology and increased political stability caused an increase in trade.

Trans-Saharan Trade

From the seventh to the eleventh century, trans-Saharan trade linked the Mediterranean economies that demanded gold—and could supply salt—to the sub-Saharan economies, where gold was abundant.

Monsoon Winds

alterating wind currents that blew eastward across the Indian Ocean in the summer and westward in the winter, Facilitating trade.

Spice Islands

In the 16th century, the Moluccas were nicknamed the "Spice Islands". This was due to the large number of aromatic plants that grew on this archipelago. Subsequently, the islands were an important strategic base for the highly profitable spice trade. Nutmeg and cloves largely drove the spice trade.

Ibn-Battuta

Arab Scholar, Merchant public official and traveler who discovered Arab Muslim societies in East Africa.

Marco Polo (with Silk road)

a Venetian trader and explorer, who was one of the first westerners, along with his uncle and his father, to travel along the Silk Road in China.

Zheng He

Great Chinese admiral (1371-1433) who commanded a fleet of more than 300 ships in a series of voyages of contact and exploration that began in 1405.