+ Ancient China & Japan Rulers and Inventions

+ Ancient Rulers of China Originally taken over by the Shang in 1700 B.C., but by 1122 B.C. dynasties began ruling over the people. One of the most notorious (well known) groups were the Mongols led by Genghis Kahn and later his grandson Kublai Kahn. Eventually there was so much power among them they were defeated through battles. Emporer Zhu Yuanzhang won the Yunnan province and unified China. His grandson eventually took over and rebuilt the Yuan capital and renamed it Beijing. (The palace constructed here was known as the Forbidden City) Eventually the Manchu from NE China came in and took over China and ruled until 1911.

+ Inventions 2700 B.C., silk cloth-for years they kept the secret of how to make silk from other countries so they were able to keep most of the profits; it was carried thousands of miles to Europe and SW Asia on the ….SILK ROAD! 2700 B.C., system of writing-used pictograms to represent objects or ideas and eventually they were simplified into characters…there are about 50,000 characters in the Chinese written language (used by both the Japanese and Koreans also) 1000 A.D., gunpowder-used for fireworks in warfare and eventually it was used in weaponry 618 A.D., Porcelain-aka “China” which originated from a special kind of clay called kaolin; they kept the method a secret also

+ Ancient Japan Majority of the land was covered in hunter gatherers and skilled fisherman that lived along the eastern coast from 10,000 to 300 B.C. Originally organized in kingdoms called clans (people who come from a common ancestor) which were each led by a chief. Eventually the Yamato clan became the most powerful and established a government that ruled for hundreds of years.

+ Inventions Borrowed ideas from Korea and China and began forging tools and weapons out of bronze and iron, but most importantly learned how to grow rice The Japanese also adopted China’s writing system, calendar and system of centralized government One of the biggest things to come out of Japan was a novel, The Tale of Genji. It was written by Lady Murasaki and described life in the imperial court. 1100s, Feudal System-everyone was divided into estates. A samurai’s responsibility was to protect the aristocrats, and in turn their families became part of a distinct social class 1192, Shogunate-warrior government where the shogun held most of the country’s power, but they encountered lots of fighting

+ He did what?!?! 1543, Tokugawa Shogunate came in right after Europeans showed up on the scene. By 1614, they had actually converted some 300,000 Japanese to Catholicism. By the late 1630s, he heard that the Spanish were already in the Philippines and he didn’t want them to do the same in Japan, so he ordered all Christians to leave. He even told them if they left and tried to return, they would be killed. He banned all European trade to keep their influence out and began a 200 year period of isolationism (establishing methods of doing things in your own country apart from other methods that might already exist in other countries)