1. Spread of Chinese Civilization
Japan, Korea, Vietnam

2. What played a major role in the transmission of Chinese civilization to Japan, Korea, and Vietnam?
Buddhism
An Indian religion filtered through Chinese civ, and then transported to J,K,V
Also provided a link between Japan and Korea

3. How was East Asia different from other societies in terms of cross-cultural interaction?
Japan and Korea almost exclusively interacted with China
Isolated from wider international contacts, even though they attempted to establish some autonomy
In other societies, cross-cultural interaction was persistent with large consequences

4. When were the Taika, Nara, and Heian periods
When were the Taika, Nara, and Heian periods? What equivalent dynasty is occurring in China?
Taika ( )
Nara ( )
Heian ( )
Sui in China

5. Describe the Taika reforms. What groups attempted to halt the reforms?
Central goal: remake the Japanese monarch into an absolutist Chinese-style emperor
Intended to create a professional bureaucracy
Create a peasant conscript army
Aristocracy and the Buddhist monks
Dominated the emperor and the capital
Monks led street demonstrations
Almost took over the throne

6. How did the aristocrats and common people adjust to Chinese influence?
Aristocrats struggled to do so
Challenged the influence
Argued for a return to Japanese ways
Commoners largely influenced by Buddhism
When to monks when sick or needed luck
Meshed the Buddhist deities with Kami
Even commoners showed displeasure by reworking Buddhism into a distinctly Japanese form
Reflected the failure of the Taika reforms

7. What happens due to the failure of the Taika reforms?
Leads to a decrease in power from the emperor
First went aristocratic families
Later shifted to the local lords in the provinces
As this shift happens, those who wanted to strengthen indigenous traditions gained the upper hand

8. How did the emperor react to the Buddhist challenge?
Fled and established a new capital city at Heian (Kyoto)
Forbade the Buddhists to build monasteries
Established monasteries in the hills around Heian
Abandoned the Taika reforms
Restored the great aristocratic families
The reforms were meant to curb their power
Kept the elaborate ranking system in which the aristocrats were divided
Broke with Chinese precedent by determining rank mostly by birth
(Korea)
Aristocrats had already taken over most positions in the central gov
Now they also could build rural estates
Gave up the conscript army
Local leaders organized milita forces instead

9. What was a key aspect of life at the court in Heian?
Created a closed world of luxury and aesthetic delights
Lived in accordance with codes of polite behavior
Social status key
Love affairs and gossip

10. What was the architectural layout of the Heian court?
Complex of palaces and gardens
Unpainted wood
Sliding panels, matted floors, wooden walkways
Fish ponds, artificial lakes with water falls, fine gardens

11. How did the need to express literary verse change the written language
How did the need to express literary verse change the written language? What does this lead to?
Simplified the borrowed Chinese script
Increase in poetry and literary works
Most celebrated- Lady Murasaki’s The Tale of Genji
First novel ever
Captures the charms of court life

12. What family gains large influence over the imperial throne?
Fujiwara
How did they gain power?
Packed the upper administration
Married into the imperial family
Used the wealth and influence of their office to build large estates
Provided a stable financial base for their growing power
Had to compete with the Buddhist monasteries

13. How did the provincial families gain power?
Pursued land, like the Buddhists and aristocrats
Origins:
Aristocratic
Land owners
Estate managers
Local state officials
Controlled land and resources, and denied them to Heian
Gradually carved out tiny kingdoms
Ruled from small fortresses

14. What was the role of the bushi?
Warrior leaders of the provincial estates
Administered law
Supervised public works projects
Collected revenue
Failure of the court to build conscription armies allowed the bushi to concentrate power
Build up their own armies

15. What was the role of the samurai?
Mounted troops loyal to the bushi
Not the high court or aristocrats
Increasingly called in to protect the emperor and his retainers
Keep peace in the capital
With bandits and Buddhists being armed, the court and high officials hired the provincial lords and their samurai to serve as bodyguards

16. Describe the warrior culture of the samurai and bushi.
Battle locations and times were negotiated before hand
Battle increasingly depended on the duels of the great champions
Warrior code develops that stressed family honor and death rather than retreat or defeat
Beaten or disgraced warrior turned to ritual suicide to restore their family’s honor
Known as seppuku, disembowelment
Chaotic battles that tilted on the performance of a few champions on each side
No chivalry yet

17. How was the role of the peasants changed? How did they cope with this?
Rise of the samurai quashed all hope of a free peasantry
Reduced to serfs over the next few centuries
Bound to the land, treated as property
Separated by rigid class barriers by the warrior elite
Physically set off by the different dress
Prohibitions against carrying swords or riding horses
Turned to Buddhism and the pure land sect
Offered heaven for those who lived well on earth
Colorful figures made the teaching comprehensible and appealing
Shrines became pilgrimage destinations

18. What was the name of the first Japanese period from this section?
Taika
What was the goal of the Taika reforms?
Turn the Japanese emperor into a Chinese-style absolute emperor
After the failing of the Taika, where do they move the capital to?
Kyoto
The abandonment of what part of the Taika reforms give the provincial landlords more power?
Conscription army

19. What family gains power over the emperor?
Fujiwara
What is the bushi?
Warrior leaders of the provincial estates
What clan takes over power at Kamakura?
Minamoto
What is the bakufu?
Military government
What family rules Japan from 1336 until 1573
Ashikaga

20. How did the provincial families gain more power?
Fujiwara and other families depended on alliances with regional lords
Support them in rival disputes
Packed the court bureaucracy by 11th/12th cent.
By mid-12th cent, led t open feuding between:
Taira
Minamoto

21. How did the battle between the two families play out?
Taira originally gain upper hand
Controlled emperor and dominated court
Turned into open warfare in 1180s
Minamoto commanders + network of alliances=win
Taira’s attempt to grab power in the capital -> end of links with rural notables
Gempei Wars last five years in Honshu
Hurt the peasants
Ravaged the farmlands
Fought against each other and better trained samurai
By 1185, Taira was destroyed

22. What was the original political structure of the Minamoto
Minamoto establishes the bakufu- military gov’t
Switched capital to Kamakura
Preserved emperor
Real power with Minamoto and their samurai
Beginning of the feudal age

23. How did Yoritomo weaken the Kamakura regime?
Obsessed about being overthrown by his kin
Murdered or exiled close relatives-> Yoshitsune, major reason for their military victory
Fear of spies led to paranoia in elite life under the first Kamakura shogun (military leader of the bakufu)
Measures he adopted left him without an able heir

24. What happened after the death of Yoritomo?
A scramble of the bushi lords to build up their own power, increase land
The Hojo soon dominate Kamakura
Left Minamoto as in charge
Three-tiered system
Hojo- really in charge
Minamoto shogun- manipulated by Hojo
Emperor in Kyoto- owned by Minamoto

25. How does this get even more complicated?
Rise of Ashikaga Takuaji in early 14th century
Overthrew the Kamakura regime
Establishes the Ashikaga Shogunate ( )
Emperor refuses to recognize Ashikaga
Driven from Kyoto to Yoshino
Fight against the Ashikaga and the puppet emperor
Eventually destroyed by Ashik

26. How does Japan devolve into violence?
All these wars undermined both the emperor and the shogunate
Leaves the bushi vassals free to:
Crush local rivals
Seize the lands of:
Peasants
Old aristocrats
Other warlords
Court aristocracy wiped out
Lands acquired given to samurai

27. How did civil war break out?
Collapse of central authority leads to civil war ( )
Rival Ashikaga heirs get warlords to support claims
Samurai flock to different rivals in Kyoto
All out warfare in the streets
Kyoto is destroyed within a few years
Shogunate self-destructs
Japan was then divided into 300 little kingdoms
Rulers known as daimyo rather than bushi

28. How did the peasants show their displeasure?
Peasants drawn into combat
Poorly fed and badly trained
Major source of growing misery
Looted and pillaged as they marches
Sporadically rose up in hopeless, brutal revolts
Idea that Japan was devolving into barbarism

29. How did commerce develop under the daimyos?
Encouraged peasants to produce highly marketable goods
Silk, hemp, paper, dye, oils
Daimyos competed to attract merchants to their castle towns
Soon, wealthy merchant class emerges
Guild organizations for artisans and merchants
Social solidarity and group protection

30. What type of artwork did this era have in Japan
What type of artwork did this era have in Japan? How was it influenced by Zen Buddhism?
Monochrome ink sketches
Screen and scroll paintings
Capture natural beauty of Japan
Some with glimpses into Japanese life
Zen ideas present in architecture
Golden and Silver Pavilions
Designed to blend into natural settings
Ryoanji Temple
Influence of Shinto and Zen clear in such gardens
Tea ceremony lent to composure and introspection

31. What laid the basis for the lasting unification of Japan?
Economic and cultural growth of the warlord/daimyo era
Improved admin within each of the daimyo domains
Commercial and artisan classes helped build a unified economy
Potent allies of political leaders who wanted to unify Japan
Unified system of currency and weights & measures
Legal and admin systems in each domain could connect to provide good bureaucracy for a unified Japan

32. Who are the Koguryo? How did they increase sinification?
Tribal group on the north of peninsula who created an independent state
At war with two southern rivals, Silla and Paekche
Contacts between the Koguryo and the northern China groups (post-Han) resulted in the first wave of Sinification

33. How else did Koguryo implement Chinese culture? Who didn’t like them?
Attempted the writing style
Korean not good for it
Koguryo king imposed a unified law code
Patterned after the Han
Established universities to master Confucian classics and Chinese history
Tried to create a Chinese-style bureaucracy
Nobility did not support him- why would they?

34. How did Korean divisions lead to Chinese conquerors?
The three Korean kingdoms weakened each out without unifying
Internal strife left Korea vulnerable to outside attacks
Tang could not successfully defeat the Koguryo
Decided to strike an alliance with the Silla
Defeated Paechke and Koguryo

35. How did China rule the peninsula?
They didn’t- they had the Silla do it
Originally, quarreled over how to divide the peninsula
Fought Silla, could not win
Uprisings in peninsula
Tang gave up the peninsula in return for regular tribute payments and Silla’s submission as a vassal
Silla independent rulers
Kept these boundaries and independence until 20th century

36. What was the timeline of Korean dynasties until 1392?
Silla (668-9th century)
Koryo ( )

37. How did Korea interact with China
How did Korea interact with China? What did this relationship show about Korea?
Sent embassies and tribute to the Tang court
Collected Chinese texts
Noted the latest fashion
Their regular attendance was a sign of their prominent and enduring participation in the tribute system
The Chinese emperors were content to receive tribute
Offered tribute in the form of splendid gifts
Acknowledged the superiority of the Son of Heaven by their willingness to kowtow

38. Who dominated interaction with China in Korea?
Aristocrats
Divided into ranks
Didn’t intermarry or socialize with one another
Filled most of the posts in the bureaucracy
Dominated social and economic life
Most trade with China and Japan was to provide the aristocrats with:
Fancy clothes
Special teas
Scrolls
Art
Korea exported mostly raw materials
Timber
Copper
Mined by near-slaves in horrible conditions

39. What led to the fall of both the Silla and Koryo?
Uprisings by the common people and “low born”
Against a class supremely devoted to their own well-being
Combined with quarrels between the aristocratic households and outside invasions

40. What was Vietnam’s relationship with China?
Had a culture before China
Gave them a strong sense of themselves as a distinct ppl with a common heritage
Did not want to see that overwhelmed by China
Well aware of the benefits they derived from:
Superior tech
Political organization
Ideas
Gratitude was tempered by the fear of losing their own identity

41. How did the Viets unite the area?
After the Qin raids, the Viet rulers defeated the feudal lords in the Red River valley
Intermarried and blended with the Mon-Khmer and Tai- speaking peoples who occupied the Red River
Crucial to the formation of the Vietnamese as an ethnic group

42. How did the Han approach the Viets?
The Han tried to incorporate south China into their empire
Came into conflict with the Viets
Initially settled for vassal status and tribute payment
By 111 BC, the Han thought it best to conquer them outright
Garrisoned the Red River valley with Chinese troops
S-G co-opted the local lords and encouraged them to adopt Chinese culture
The Viet realized they could learn from China, and cooperated
China began introducing key elements of their own culture into the south

43. What factors made it easier for Vietnam to revolt?
The fragility toe links that bound them to China
Distance and mountains created harsh conditions for Chinese admin to make expeditions
Only a few Chinese lived in the Red River
Chinese control depended on the strength of the ruling dynasty
When there was political turmoil or nomadic incursions, Vietnam took advantage to assert their independence

44. How did Vietnam expand?
Refused to settle in the highlands on the Red River (malaria)
Main adversaries were Chams and Khmers
Occupied the low lands to the south that Vietnam wanted
Launched periodic expeditions to retaliate for raids
Regularly traded with the hill dwellers for forest products
Tended to minimize their cultural exchange with the “nude savages”
Moved south, using their:
Larger population
Superior bureaucratic
Military organization
Fostered by China

45. Clashed with the Khmers
From the 11th to 18th century, they fought a long series of successful wars against the Chams
Eventually drove them into the highlands
Clashed with the Khmers
Had moved into the Mekong delta
Power had declined since the great temple of Angkor Wat was built
Provided no match
Occupied much of the upper delta of the Mekong

46. How did Vietnam fracture?
As armies and colonists moved further south from Hanoi, found it difficult to control the fighters in the frontier
As the southerners intermarried and adopted some of the customs of the Chams and Khmers, differences developed between the north and south
North saw the south as being less energetic and slower in speech and movement
Regional military commanders in the south grew less responsive
Slower in sending taxes
Bickering turned to violent clashes
By the end of the 16th century, the Nguyen had emerged to challenge the Trinh family in the North