What indigenous influence remained central to Japanese cultural development?
Shinto religion
What were the Taika reforms? What was the result of it?
attempt to make Japanese monarch into a Chinese-style emperor; failed at a professional bureaucracy and peasant army; restored aristocratic power, local leaders
How were the Japanese scholars influenced by the Chinese?
language, court etiquette, temples, art
What religion did the Japanese mesh with the kami (nature spirits)?
Buddhism
What two social classes opposed Chinese/Confucian influence in Japan? How did the Japanese emperor try to offset them?
Buddhists and aristocracy
Moved capital from Nara to Heian (Kyoto)
The court life during the Heian period focused on aesthetic delights and behavior. What was the literature like?
Verse writing (poems)
The Tale of Genji: told of mannered Japanese society
What was the role of women in Japan?
creative role: music, poems, scheming, power struggle
Who was the Fujiwara family?
aristocratic family that assisted in the decline of imperial rule
How did the elite families live?
carved out mini-states with bushi (warrior leaders)
self-sufficient
Why was it impossible for a Japanese free peasantry? What did the peasantry turn to?
peasants became serfs
rigid class barriers (to the warrior elite)
pure land Buddhism
What were some of the signs that Chinese influence was declining?
no heavenly mandate or centralized power
no scholar-gentry b/c of aristocracy
Buddhism transformed
Tang Dynasty decline
What were the Gempei Wars?
war between provincial families (Taira and Minamoto) that marked the beginning of the Feudal Age/bakufu (military government); Kamakura capital
Who were the shoguns?
military leaders of the bakufu
As the Kamakura regime weakened, where did the actual power lay?
Hojo family > Minamoto family > puppet emperor
What happened as a result of defeating the "real" emperor at Yoshino?
power of warlords grew,
decline of court aristocracy, peasantry, competitors
How did the Ashikaga shogunate self-destruct? What happened as a result?
rival heirs fought at Kyoto
300 mini-kingdoms, daimyo (post-bushi)
Society under the daimyo (300 mini-states) was chaotic, but in what ways did the economy develop?
tax collection, irrigation, migration incentives, new tools/animals/crops, guilds
What was the role of women during the warrior states period? After?
primogeniture, disinheritance
merchant and artisan women had independence
What happened to the arts?
Zen Buddhism
Shintoism
simplistic views, gracefulness, elaborate rituals, tea
What groups of people did the Koreans descend from that differentiate them from China?
Machurian and Siberian
How did Chinese influence begin in Korea?
conquest of Choson (earliest kingdom) by Han
What group of tribal people resisted Chinese rule and created an independent state? Who was its rivals?
Koguryo kingdom (north)
Silla and Paekche kingdoms (SE, SW)
How was early Korea influenced by China? ... Sinification
Buddhism
language, education, attempt at bureaucracy (opposed
How did the Tang Dynasty influence Silla?
mini-Tang kingdom; sent emissaries and tribute; peace with China, learning, art, manufactured goods, Confucian examination system
What were the lives of the Korean elite/aristocracy like?
dominated imperial government
artistic and entertainment pursuits (no meritocracy)
Buddhism
advanced technology, porcelain
How did Chinese influence end in Korea?
Silla alliance with Tang; defeated Koguryo and Paekche
Silla became a tribute state; independent Korea
What was the main cause for the decline of the Koryo kingdom? How was it renewed?
commoners revolt (against "elite civilization")
aristocratic families quarrel; outside invasions
Yi Dynasty (aristocratic power after Mongol invasion)
How did the Vietnamese first come into contact with the Chinese?
Qin raids; Viet-Chinese trade established
Who did the Vietnamese conquer that made them a "distinct ethnic group?
Red River Valley peoples (Khmers, Tais, south)
How did Vietnamese culture differ from Chinese culture?
language, nuclear family (immediate), women independence, dress, etiquette, Buddhism, art, literature
How were the Vietnamese influenced by the Chinese?
Qin conquered, Han influenced
bureaucracy, schooling, agricultural techniques, military organization
What were some "roots of resistance" to Sinification in Vietnam?
aristocratic and peasant revolts (Trung sisters)
failure to assimilate peasantry
Chinese growing disdain for Vietnamese customs
What allowed the Vietnamese to win independence from China? What influences lived on?
strong sense of identity/united resistance
distances and barriers, few garrisons, Tang Dynasty collapse; free until French invasion
bureaucracy, Chinese-style palaces and imperial rule, civil exams, Confucian education
How was the role of the scholar-gentry in Vietnam different from those in China?
identified with peasantry; looked out for local interests and served as leaders in village uprisings; Buddhists more respected
Who did the Vietnamese defeat as the migrated south into the Red River Valley? How did they accomplish this?
Chams and Khmers
Chinese-style military organization and bureaucracy
high population
What characterized the division between the peoples of Vietnam?
southern people - less responsive b/c of distance
Nguyen (north) vs Trinh (south); fought to unite Vietnam under one monarch