Asia During Post-Classical
Period
(600-1450)
Chapter 10
China
• 220- Fall of Han
• Political defragmentation
• 580’s- rise of Sui Dynasty
– Reunites China
• Short-lived, falls apart in 618
Sui Dynasty
• Strengthened defenses against nomads
• Govt. established granaries to store food
• Confucian legal system
– Scholarly gentry class
• Buddhism grows in popularity
• Big Accomplishment: Grand Canal
– Over 1200 miles long
– Links north with agricultural lands of the south
Sui Dynasty
• Military campaigns in Korea
– Conscripted a massive army
– Unsuccessful
– Drains the economy
Sui Dynasty
• 2 rulers:
– Wendi
– Yangdi
• Yangdi’s wars and luxurious lifestyle put a strain
on China
– High taxes to pay for construction
– Conscripted labor
• Yangdi retreated to palaces
– Many thought he was going mad
– Assassinated in 618
• End of dynasty
Tang
• Tang Dynasty (618-907)
– Reunites China
– Military campaigns in Korea, Vietnam, Tibet,
Manchuria
– Fortifies Great Wall, frontier armies
– Confucianism
Tang Dynasty
• Tang begins decline:
– Internal power struggles
– Inefficient rule
– Rebellions by borderland peoples
• Dynasty ends in 907
– China enters period of fragmentation
Song Dynasty
• Song (960-1296)
– Scholarly gentry in bureaucracy
– Neo-Confucianism
•
•
•
•
Personal morality is highest goal
The ed. elite are most fit to govern
Hostility toward foreign ideas
Women inferior to men
– Professional military
• 1 million man army
• gunpowder
Song Dynasty
• Song began decline:
– Borderland peoples rebel
– Loss of territory in north
• forced to relocate capital to Hangzhou in Southern
China
– Military= economic drain
• Mongols take advantage of weakness
– Conquer China in 1270’s and create the Yuan
Dynasty
• More on the Yuan in Chapter 12
Tang and Song
A Golden Age
• Thriving Economy:
– Grand Canal
– Military to defend Silk
Roads
– Junks for maritime
trade
• Massive ships with
compasses, gunpowder
rockets for defense
– Paper money, banking
Tang and Song
A Golden Age
• Cities grow= population over 100 million
• Agriculture grows in importance
– Champa Rice
– Broke up large estates to increase free
peasantry
Tang and Song
A Golden Age
• Culture
– Patriarchal
– Neo-Confucianism
during Song meant
decline in status of
women
• Foot binding
• Men allowed multiple
wives/concubines
• Women excluded from
ed.
Tang and Song Culture
– Buddhism grows in popularity
• Patronized by Tang
– Backlash by Confucians, attacks on monasteries &
shrines
• Mahayana popular among masses
– Allowed them to incorporate their own deities
• Chan popular with nobility
– Could afford to meditate and surround themselves with
beauty of natural world
Tang and Song Culture
• A time of invention, art, creativity
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Engineering
Gunpowder started to be used for weaponry
Paper Money
Kites
Tea Drinking became an elaborate ritual
Compasses
Moveable type (adopted from Korea)
Landscape paintings common
Symbolism in art
• Poems often accompanied the art
Japan
Japan
• Geography
– Archipelago
– Mountainous terrain
• Early inhabitants
around 20,000 yrs.
ago
– Originally, hundreds of
independent kingships
Japan
• 600’s-Yamato state began to consolidate power
– Government centered in Nara
• Nara period
• Institute Taika Reforms to emulate China
– Confucianism
– Centralized government
• Emperor, but he had very little power
– Chinese-styled architecture
– Buddhism became popular (spread from Korea)
• Mixed with Shinto
Culture of Japan
• Shinto- “Way of the gods”
– Native religion of Japan
– Polytheistic, kami
• Emperor believed to be descendant of Sun
Goddess (Amaterasu)
• Believed Japan was a divine creation and
protected by the gods
Heian Japan
794-1185
• 794: court moved from Nara to Heian
(Kyoto)
– Fujiwara family dominated
– Marriages to keep control
• Development of unique Japanese culture
– Elaborate court life
– Emphasis on aesthetics
– Court intrigues and love affairs
– Tale of Genji
Heian Japan
• Gender and Family:
– Marriage used to consolidate power among
ruling families
• Intermarriage common
– Men allowed multiple wives & concubines
– Women were allowed to inherit property
– Men and women occupied different spaces in
society
Rise of Warrior Class
• Aristocrats focus on court life, forget about
warrior class
• Local strongmen build up their own
powerbase
– Daimyo
– Supported by warriors (Samurai)
• Rise in power of warrior class= decline of
imperial power
Rise of Feudalism in Japan
• Fujiwara family began to lose power
– 1180’s= Gempei Wars
• Rival families fight to be in control
– Minamoto family wins, establishes a military
government with himself as Shogun
• Emperor still existed, but had no power
– Minamoto Shogunate (1192-1330’s)
» Also known as Kamakura Shogunate
– Ashikaga Shogunate established in 1336-1573
– Tokugawa Shogunate established in 1603-1868
Feudalism in Japan
• Developed about the same time as
feudalism in Europe
• Shogun distributed land to daimyo in
return for military support (samurai)
• Code of Bushido
– Loyalty, courage, honor
– Ritualistic suicide for dishonor (seppuku)