East Asian History Vocabulary

Vocabulary flashcards covering Japanese and Chinese history topics including government structures, social classes, theater, and exams.

Analects

Standard works of Confucius read by young students to learn poetry and essay composition, preparing them to take the civil service exams and become scholar gentry.

Bakufu

"Tent government", a temporary military government replacement for the emperor's rule, established by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Bunraku

A form of theater that was puppet theater, where characters told a story with music and acted it out with puppets.

Civil service exams

Examinations restored by the Ming dynasty that tested if students were ready to become scholar gentry, requiring participants to spend 3 days and 2 nights in a prison writing essays.

Daimyo

Powerful territorial lords who ruled most of Japan from their vast hereditary landholdings, maintaining governments staffed by military subordinates, independent judiciaries, schools, and paper money.

Alternate attendance

A policy instituted by the shogun requiring daimyo to maintain their families at Edo and spend every other year at the Tokugawa court so the shogun could keep an eye on them and prevent alliances against him.

Dutch learning

Studies pursued by Japanese scholars who learned Dutch to communicate with foreigners, bringing considerable knowledge of the outside world to Japan and playing a significant role in Japanese intellectual life.

Eunuch

Servants given great trust by Hongwu under the belief that they couldn't generate families and would not build power bases that would challenge imperial authority.