Developments in East Asia, 1200–1450 – Comprehensive Bullet-Point Notes

Chinese Dynasties: Chronological Background

Founded by Confucius during Zhou period; codified as state orthodoxy under the Han.
Central ethical pillars:
- Filial piety (respect for parents/elders).
- Five hierarchical relationships (ruler–subject, father–son, husband–wife, elder–younger, friend–friend).
- Emphasis on ritual propriety & merit.
Long-term significance: provided philosophical basis for bureaucracy, education, patriarchy, tributary ritual, and later Neo-Confucian synthesis.

Continuity, innovation, diversity = guiding AP World theme.
Song state maintained legitimacy through:
- Confucian ideology.
- Highly structured imperial bureaucracy chosen by civil-service examinations (meritocracy).
- Scholar-gentry class expanded via state-sponsored academies.
Emperor Taizu (founder of Song) personally enlarged exam access → creation of a vast literati elite.

Timeline of synthesis:
1. Buddhism enters China (Han).
2. Peaks during Tang → intellectual engagement with Daoism & Confucian classics.
3. Instability in Five Dynasties period encourages moral/philosophical re-evaluation.
4. Zhu Xi (1130-1200\,CE) systematizes Neo-Confucianism → metaphysics of li (principle) & qi (matter).
Song rulers favor a “native” ideology → Neo-Confucianism becomes civil-service curriculum cornerstone and administrative glue.

Technologies inherited by Song: magnetic compass, printing (woodblock), cartography, improved paper, gunpowder, medical texts, expansive road + canal grid.

Champa rice (from Vietnam): drought-resistant, double-cropping ⇒ production time cut in half, cultivable in new terrains.
Iron & later steel farm tools = higher yields.
Result: population more than doubled; labor freed for crafts & trade.

Households produced silk, porcelain, metal goods for market rather than self-sufficiency.
State encouraged workshops around urban hubs.

Grand Canal (extended since Sui): linked Yellow & Yangtze basins → world’s most populous commercial corridor.
New canal-lock systems and larger cargo junks.

Shift from corvée labor → paid wage labor on public projects.
Sophisticated monetization:
- Government-issued paper money, first true fiat currency.
- Growing banking/credit instruments.
- Taxes now collected in cash, enabling a fiscal state.

Maritime: South China Sea & Indian Ocean using magnetic-compass-guided junks.
Terrestrial: Silk Roads caravans.
Key export technologies/products: silk, porcelain, paper maps, printed books, gunpowder weapons.

Traveled farther than any other Chinese commodity; sometimes functioned as currency.
Revenues financed further R&D.
Drew women into paid labor (spinning, weaving, inspection).

Irrigation + Champa rice + iron tools → ↑ food supply.
Surplus + paper money + banking → commercialization.
Grand Canal + redesigned ships → expanding trade networks.
Commercialization → urbanization (e.g., Hangzhou, Kaifeng) which in turn demanded rural food imports, closing a production–consumption loop.

Ideological basis: Confucian hierarchy → “Middle Kingdom” (China) as patriarch; surrounding states as deferential “children.”
Key features:
- Ritual kowtow (three kneelings, nine prostrations).
- Lavish gifts both ways ⇒ aptly labeled “tribute–trade.”
- Mutual (often voluntary) agreements; not necessarily based on conquest.
Major tributaries: Korea, Vietnam, Champa, Khotan, Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia.
Comparative frame:
- Unlike Aztec tribute (coercive, violence-backed, impossible quotas), Chinese tribute more symbolic & commercially reciprocal.

Pre-Song: Chan Buddhism, rice/pottery techniques, Han-style architecture & dress, Chinese script.
Song era: true-view landscape painting, porcelain (Qingbai glaze), Neo-Confucian ethics, use of Chinese characters in historiography, adoption of civil-service model.

Pre-Song: Buddhism, kanji, astrology, Tang tea culture, music, Taika governmental reforms.
Song influences: Vajrayana elements, Neo-Confucian study within monasteries, tocha tea-tasting competitions, continued script adaptation.

China imposed culture during occupations; Tang irrigation spurred population.
Strong Buddhist preference (women’s elevated status) led to Confucian resistance.
Post-Tang independence (939\,CE); Song influences: civil-service exams replace local lord rule, Mahayana temples, Confucian daily etiquette, classical Chinese literacy.

Arrives via Silk Roads 6^{th} century CE.
Gains popularity under Tang, faces late-Tang suppression.
Syncretism with Daoism → Chan (Zen); later fuses with Confucianism → Neo-Confucianism.

Four Noble Truths: suffering (dukkha); cause = desire; cessation possible; Eightfold Path leads to nirvana.
Eightfold Path: right view, intention, speech, action, livelihood, effort, mindfulness, concentration.

Theravada: SE Asia (Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand); monk-centered, enlightenment ends reincarnation.
Mahayana: East Asia (China → Chan, Japan → Zen, Korea → Sŏn, Vietnam → Thien); bodhisattva ideal; aim to lead others to awakening.
Vajrayana (Tantric/Tibetan): Himalayan plateau, Mongolia; ritual “fast-track” to nirvana in one lifetime.

Origin/impact of filial piety & Confucian social hierarchy.
Significance of Neo-Confucianism in Song governance & education.
Technological innovations: Champa rice, Grand Canal enhancements, compass, printing, gunpowder, porcelain, canal locks.
Tribute–trade system vs. coercive tribute (Aztec).
Commercialization & urbanization feedback loops; role of tax-for-labor switch.
Diffusion of Chinese culture & Buddhism into Korea, Japan, Vietnam; persistence into modern era.
Comparative features of Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana Buddhism.