States & Cultures in East Asia

States & Cultures in East Asia

Pointy feet, ritual suicide, & zen 

Fall of the Tang Dynasty

• In 800, Tang in decline

• Less control from the central government = economic growth

• China in 5 different dynasties with the Song reigning supreme

New Rulers

• Song = south of the Great Wall

• Khitan = north of the Great Wall

• Wet field rice cultivation in Song

• Population and trade increase

  • A few cities with more than 100,000 people

Farming in Song 

• From self-sufficiency to selling surpluses

• Profits led to affording luxury goods

• Need for interregional transportation

• Opportunities to find other work if they chose

Inventions

• Paper money - what are the benefits?

• Compass

• Gunpowder

• Watertight bulkheads 

Khitans

• Jealous of the Song’s success

• Song had a bigger population but a weaker military

• Peace treaty with the Khitans

Jin Dynasty

• Khitans destroyed by the Jin in the 12th century

• Want to conquer the Song as well

• Jin capture the Song emperor, but his son escapes

• Hangzhou

Scholar-Official Class

• Civil-service exam to be a scholar & government official

• Memorizing Chinese history, poetry, & policy issues to pass

• 30-years-old

Printing

• Trend of better educated elite

• Whole page blocks in the 9th century

• Moveable type in the 11th century

• Creation of encyclopedias

Confucianism

• Some scholars straying away from Buddhism

• Confucianism holds all the answers

• Beginning of Neo-Confucianism 

Women

• Families tried to keep the women home

• Choose spouses for children

• Winning over the mother-in-law & bearing a son

• Midwives & wet nurses

• Concubines 

• Feet binding 

Korea

• Goryeo Dynasty 932-1392

• Founded by Wang Geon & the society was deeply aristocratic

• Civil service exams keep the elite in power

• Serf-slave class

• “Only if there is no evidence of lowborn status for 8 generations in one’s official household registration may one receive a position in government”

Japan

• The Fujiwara family ruled Japan

• Emperors were highly educated

• Nobles lived a refined life of leisure

• Those with a place in court tried to never leave the capital

• Japanese script was developed for less formal works

Japanese Women 

• Japanese script led to more literate women 

• Women educated in the arts & letters obtained better jobs

• Could inherit property

Warrior Elite

• Samurai 

• Lived according to Bushido

• Practiced seppuku

Japanese Feudal System & Zen

• Lords gave land to monasteries or the royal family

• Flourishing of Zen

• Rejecting the Buddhist sutras

• Mind-to-mind transmission of Buddhist truth