Mr.

O’Flanagan Taipei Fuhsing Private School AP World History

1.1 East Asia Notes (China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam) 1200-1450 CE

Lesson Objectives:
★ (Governance) Explain the systems of government employed by the Chinese ______________ and
how they developed over time
★ (Cultural Developments and Interactions) Explain the effects of Chinese cultural ______________ on
East Asia over time.
★ (Economic Systems) Explain the effect of ________________ on the Chinese economy over time.

Background of East Asia

● Early Dynasties of China

○ Shang (first official dynasty of China)
○ Zhou (Mandate of Heaven, oracle bones, ancestor worship)
○ Qin (Legalism)
○ Han (Confucianism, Civil Service Exams)
○ Sui (Built the Grand Canal)
○ Tang (Civil Service Exams, Buddhism spread out of China, Scholar-Gentry)

Song Dynasty (960-1279 CE)

Founder: Song Taizu

Song’s Accomplishments:
- Expanded bureaucracy -> more positions in gov
- Expanded educational opportunities and civil service exam opportunities to lower status men

Song’s Problems
- Expanded too big -> had to pay too many workers, draining taxes
- Politicians controlled military they had little knowledge of

Song Dynasty Cities Song Dynasty Tax Policy

- Growing urban cities - Decreased labor requirement and paid labor
- Marco polo visited and noted abundant silk to in public projects

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 Metal, Gunpowder, and Guns Song’s Foreign Trade
- Iron and steel production increased - Silk Road trade increased
- Used smelting - Created flying cash (model for modern
- Wanted to achieve eternal life -> developed banking): deposit money in Bank A and get it
gunpowder and first gun back at Bank B (prevented bandits from
stealing)
- Traded porcelain, silk

Canal
- Ship grain in China
- Made China good for trade
- Fed soldiers

Song Dynasty Inventions Song Cultural Developments

- Guns, gunpowder - Most illiterate, but privileged classes had
- Paper money access to literature
- Flying cash - Landscape painting
- Magnetic compass
- Improved rudder
- Junk: chinese boat
- Woodblock printing
-

Social Structures in China

● Most were farmers, living in rural areas

● Larger cities  taverns, restaurants, markets, theaters
● Trade brought people as far as Italy
Social Classes
1. Aristocracy = landowners who inherited their wealth
2. Scholar Gentry = passed the civil service test and worked for the government
3. Farmers, artisans, craftsmen
4. Merchants = considered the lowest class because they didn’t produce anything new (just sold other’s
products)

Role of Women

- Patriarchal society
- Foot binding

Religious Diversity in China

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 Daosim/Taoism - Laozi: Chinese thinker
- Believed natural order was important (not family and government like
Confucius), find balance
- Stressed nature
- Tao de Ching: book of Lao’s beliefs saying that universal force, Dao, guided all
things

Confucianism - Not a religion but ethical system

- Believed that social order, harmony, and good government could be restored
- 5 relationships

Neo-Confucianism - Blend of Confucianism and Buddhism (Syncretism: blending of two

religions/beliefs)
- Not a religion
- More popular in Japan, Korea, Vietnam

Buddhism/Zen - Founder: Indian prince Siddhartha Gautama

Buddhism - Zen Buddhism: combination of Buddhism and Taoism beliefs

Song Move Their Capital

● Why do the Song move their capital so many times?

○ Nomadic threats, eg. Mongols, -> moved capital three times
○ End of Song: Mongols conquered and established own Yuan Dynasty

Japan Korea Vietnam

- Became troubled by - Was tributary state of - Negative relationship with

China’s growing influence
- Prince Shotoku Taishi
invited Chinese laborers to
share knowledge
- Japanese nobility sent to
study Buddhism,
Confucianism
Japanese Feudalism
- Japan had been feudal
society (non-centralized)
- Had serfs, samurai
(knights), Daimyo
(landowner)
China (paid money)
- Sinification: modeled cities,
gov, religion, writing
system, civil service exam
(though poor could not
participate)
China
- Sinification was not
welcomed
- Traded with China for silk
in turn for tortoise shells,
ivory, peacock feather,
pearls
- Taught Chinese but
developed own language
after Chinese characters