East Asian Civilizations

Tang Dynasty 618 – 907 AD After the Huns finished off the Han Dynasty in 220 AD, there was civil war and unrest until 589 when the Sui Dynasty held power for about 30years, which is nothing in Chinese history. The Tang represent the next great Dynasty in Chinese history. It was created by a father/son team, Li yYan and Li Shimin. They lived under Sui rule but the son, Li Shimin urged his father to lead a revolt, which he successfully did. Eight years later, the son forced the father to step down and give the throne to him. Treacherous kid then changed his name to Tang Taizong. This is the beginning of the Tang Dynasty. Tang conquered most of what is now China and force the states of Korea, Vietnam and Tibet to become tributary states. That is they are supposedly independent, but not really. Tang rebuilt the bureaucracy, suppressed civil unrest, instituted land reform by breaking up large estates of disloyal aristocrats and giving the land to the peasants. He built canals, encouraged trade and

Song Dynasty By 960, the Tang Dynasty was in decline for the usual reasons, what are they?, so a scholarly general took over and created the Song Dynasty. The Song were continually invaded by outsiders but they also ruled over a golden age of art and commerce. The Tang and Song Dynasty both had a stable society based on a social order of Gentry (wealthy landowners), Peasants and Merchants. This wealth of the Tang and Song led to artistic development in calligraphy, poety, painting and statuary. The themes of balance and harmony are consistent in the art of both dynasties. Obviously this reflects Buddhist thinking along with the Confucian ideals of order.

Balance and Harmony in Chinese Art

Mongol Rule in China After the conquest of China by Genghis Khan in the 1200’s the Mongols ruled with a light hand. As long as they paid their tribute the Mongol rulers didn’t care much what they did. The sons and grandsons of Genghis Khan created a Pax Mongolica (what is this?) this allowed for trade to expand. The Silk Road became a busy highway to the west and many other cultures mixed with the Mongolian and Chinese cultures. in 1271, Marco Polo left Venice to travel to the Asian kingdoms. Like the travels of Mansa Musa and Lewis and Clark, this is a journey everyone should study.

Marco Polo Marco Polo left Venice and for the next 17 years he traveled in the far east. He was the first westerner to go this great distance and his journal of the travels and of the glories of the court of Kubla Khan still stand their ground as one of the great adventure stories. We should all be so brave. The problem is that this eventually led to greater foreign influence on the Mongol court and eventually to European conquest of Asia.

Ming Dynasty The Ming Dynasty eventually took over from the Mongols, who declined because of the usual reasons, what are they?. Zhu Yuanazhang, a peasant led an army that created the Ming Dynasty. The Mings ruled effectively and for a long time. They restored the economy by trading with the Europeans The greatest achievemtent of the Ming was undoubtedly the voyages of Zheng He. Zheng traveled with a huge navy of hundreds of ships and 25,000 men. Between 1405 and 1433 he explored Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and the East Coast of Africa. He established Chinese merchant colonies in Africa. In 1433, when Zheng died, the Emperor freaked out and banned anymore expeditions. Historian have always speculated what would have happened if the Chinese had continued exploring. The West coast of the New World would have been an obvious destination.

Korea Korea is a peninsula that starts in China and juts into the Sea of Japan. This places them between two nations that have always exerted enormous influence, if not control, over Korean life. The Korean language is not based in Chinese, which means that the original Stone Age settlers never intermingled with the Chinese. This was partially because Korea has such a rugged geography. Most the peninsula is dominated by mountains and being so far north, the weather is difficult. The Shilla Dynasty united Korea for the first time in 668 and ruled until 918. They were followed by the Koryo from 918 to 1392 and the Choson from 1392 to The obvious influences on Korea are Chinese Buddhism, Chinese arts and eventually Confucianism. They developed a distinctive alphabet and language which allowed them to keep their identity in the face of Chinese and Japanese invasions.

Japan

Japan is a volcanic rock. In this they may resemble the Greeks above all. The Japanese, like the Greeks, had to trade for survival. The difference is that the Greeks tolerated the foreign influences where the Japanese tried periodically to rid the country of foreign ideas. This led to a long history of starts and stops in Japanese history. Japan was originally settled by clans or Uji. The Yamato were the strongest of the original clans and dominated Honshu, the biggest island. They set up Japans only dynasty that lasted 1000 years. Because the Japanese have been so isolated over the centuries they also developed a national religion, Shinto that is generally not practiced outside of Japan on a large scale.

China and Japan China and Japan have a long standing and complex relationship. They share many cultural ideas. They are huge trading partners. Oh, and they periodically try to kill each other. The Japanese under Prince Shotoku of the Yamato clan ordered some of his subjects to go to China to see if they could learn anything from them. This set a pattern for the Japanese throughout their history. They would engage in selective borrowing of the most important ideas of other countries. They imported Chinese ideas of government, bureaucracy and law based on the government of the Tang. They adopted Buddhism, the art of tea, gardens and music from the Tang.

Japanese Feudalism