Notes on The Worlds of East Asia and Southeast Asia Study Notes

I. The Worlds of East Asia: China and Its Neighbors

A. China before the Mongol Takeover
- Song dynasty (960-1279 C.E.)
- Inherited stable political rule from previous dynasties and much older cultural and political traditions, such as filial piety and Confucianism
  -“Golden Age” of arts, literature, poetry, landscape painting, ceramics
- Adopted large bureaucratic structure from earlier dynasties to maintain and justify its rule (these lasted until the 20th century)
Key implications and elaborations
- Exam system was re-established and extended
- Ability to print books led to more students studying and testing → more schools opened and exams made more rigorous
- Candidates included upper class men and some commoners sponsored by their villages
- Passing the exam and placement in a government position brought honor to one’s community and family; social mobility
China’s economic revolution (Song Dynasty)
- Song China was the most wealthy and urbanized country in the world
- Agricultural production and adoption of fast-growing and drought-resistant Champa rice from Vietnam
- Population growth: from P{9th}=60 imes 10^6 (9th c.) to P{1200}=120 imes 10^6 by 1200
- Hangzhou home to more than one million people; dozens of other Chinese cities had >100,000 people
- Marco Polo (13th century) impressed by Chinese wealth and urbanization
Song China’s proto-industrial and technological innovation
- Produced most proto-industrial goods globally: metallurgy, industrial growth and homes fueled by coal → air pollution
- Invention of woodblock and movable type printing → world’s first printed books and widely available
- Invention of gunpowder → revolution in military affairs
- DQ: What is the importance of movable type?
- Most commercialized country in the world; continued reliance on free peasant and artisanal labor
- Specialty crops and goods made for market consumption
- Transportation innovations: internal waterways network (~30,000 miles) linked markets, including the Grand Canal
- Fueled by paper money, letters of credit, promissory notes
Gender and social structure in Song China
- Confucianism maintained women as subordinate to men and the maintenance of separate spheres in daily life
- Tightening patriarchy: women’s economic roles taken over by men (weaving)
- Foot binding: adopted by elite families as an idea of femininity changed - small size, frailty
- Increasing rights for women: control of own dowries; inheritance of property; education of women (so they could educate their sons)
B. Korea and Japan: Creating New Civilizations
- Korea politically independent but remained a tributary state of China
- Influence of Confucian values and Chinese culture
- Korean court’s adoption (after 1300) of Chinese family models, filial piety, female behavior, especially elites
- Free choice marriages and female inheritance of property declined; defunct Korean customs
- Chinese exam system did not take hold in Korea
- Buddhism spread from China and permeated Korea
- Development of Hangul (Korean writing) after mid-1400s, replacing Chinese characters in Korean life
Japan’s reception of Chinese culture
- Japan selectively borrowed Chinese cultural elements (7th–9th cent.)
- Centralized Chinese imperial bureaucratic state model was appealing but a decentralized imperial political system emerged
- Competing aristocratic families controlled the land, supported by samurai following the bushido code (warrior culture)
- How could aristocratic families AND the Samurai resist the central government?
- Chinese Buddhism schools took hold and influenced Japanese art, architecture, medicine, and views of the afterlife
- Some Shinto elements adapted into Japanese Buddhism
- Chinese characters joined with a Japanese phonetic system
- Japanese women were not subjected to oppressive Chinese Confucian culture at first but were later subjected to oppressive Japanese warrior culture

II. The Worlds of Southeast Asia

Question to consider: What were the cultural and political effects of Southeast Asia’s encounters with other civilizations?
A. Vietnam: Living in the Shadow of China
- Ruled by China between 111 B.C.E. and 939 C.E.
- Chose to remain in a tributary system post-independence
- Vietnam’s elite culture borrowed heavily from China: Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism
- Elements of elite culture borrowed:
- Title of emperor and Mandate of Heaven
- Court rituals and merit-based Chinese exam system
- Artistic and literary traditions
- Popular culture remained distinctly Vietnamese:
- Vietnamese religion and language
- Female nature deities and a female Buddha
- Creation of chu nom (Vietnamese script) → created independent national literature and female education
- Larger role for women in social and economic life
B. Maritime Southeast Asia: Commerce, Religion, and State Building
- Hindu and Buddhist influences in Southeast Asian islands
- Srivijaya dominated the Strait of Melaka from 670-1025 ext{ C.E.}
- Srivijaya’s economy:
- Supply of gold, trade in sought-after spices
- Taxes levied on passenger ships funded a small bureaucracy and military/naval security forces
- Monarch employed Indian advisers/officials, imported Indian political ideas and Buddhist religious concepts; Indigenous beliefs maintained alongside
- Srivijaya became a major Buddhist center with schools attracting thousands from Asia
Madjapahit and Champa
- Majapahit - largest of kingdoms blending Hindu-Javanese culture (present-day Indonesia and Malaya)
- Hinduism entrenched in Champa kingdom (present-day southern Vietnam)
- Angkor Wat - Khmer kingdom, largest religious structure in the world at that time, borrowed heavily from Hinduism (later used by Buddhists too)
- Southeast Asia’s cultural landscape ca. 1200 C.E.