Ch13 - Sinification of Japan, Korea, Vietnam

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