1. Imperial China vs. Feudal Japan
Compare/Contrast

2. Political
Ming: centralized bureaucracy; revived the civil service exam
Qing: foreign rulers; continued civil service system
Confucian ideas present throughout both dynasties
Selective borrowing DID NOT include the civil service system
Hostage system
Feudal political system set up under the shoguns

3. Religious
Neo-Confucianism – we start to see the veneration of Confucius as a godlike figure
Zen Buddhism
Reinforced the Bushido values of mental discipline and self discipline
Christianity threatens shogun rule/feudal system

4. Intellectual Communism begins to enter Chinese thinking in late 1800s
European influences enter Chinese thinking
contradict Confucian ideals
Communism begins to enter Chinese thinking in late 1800s
Qing - “the self strengthening movement”
Feared western expansion throughout feudal era – became the reason for the Meiji Restoration at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate

5. Cultural Renovations of Great Wall & Grand Canal Literature
Imperial Palace
Porcelain ceramics
Ming most famous
Qing is imitative
Literature – social fiction
Beijing Opera
Literature
Heian period novels
Selective borrowing of art & architecture from China
Haiku pottery
No and Kabuki theater

6. Economic Trade with Japan and Europe
Zheng He voyages of exploration
Portuguese traders
Peasant unrest due to high taxes, poor crop yield due to harsh climate, & disease led to downfall of the Ming
Qing lowered taxes to appease people & expanded trade along the Silk Road
Trade with Japan and Europe
Merchants at the bottom of the social hierarchy, but they become rich during the Tokugawa shogunate due to lack of internal struggles

7. Social Elaborate court life helped develop the feudal system
Confucian social norms
Ming saw outsiders as barbarians
Chinese were discriminated against by the Manchu during the Qing
Women were kept inferior through social practices (binding of feet)
Elaborate court life helped develop the feudal system
Feudal social system – rigid class system
Bushido defined samurai way of life
Eta were discriminated against