Deck 9: B: China and the World East Asian Connections 500-1300

Question 1

In what ways did Korea,Vietnam,and Japan develop cultural traditions distinctive from Chinese culture?

Answer 1

•Chinese influence was deeper in elite culture,while popular culture reflected distinctive traditions.
•All three developed their own writing systems,which were used by the non-elite and women.
•Vietnamese popular culture featured cockfighting and chewing betel nuts.
•Women's lives were not as restricted by Confucianism.
•Popular religion thrived (veneration of the kami in Japan,female nature deities in Vietnam).
•In Japan,a distinctive samurai culture emerged that emphasized military virtues.
•Courtly culture (tanka)was practiced in Japan.

Question 2

What were the primary factors behind the decline of Buddhism in China?

Answer 2

•A perception that the Buddhist establishment challenged imperial authority
•A deepening resentment of the enormous wealth of the Buddhist establishment
•The foreign origin of Buddhism,which offended some Confucian and Daoist thinkers
•The celibacy of monks and their withdrawal from society,which undermined the Confucian-based family system of Chinese tradition
•A growing resentment of foreign culture after 800 C.E. ,particularly among China's literate classes
•A series of imperial decrees between 841 and 845 C.E.that ordered some 260,000 monks and nuns to return to secular life,the result of which meant that thousands of monasteries,temples,and shrines were destroyed or turned to public use

Question 3

In China,during the first millennium of the Common Era,what accounts for the initial resistance to Buddhism and the later persecution its practitioners?

Answer 3

•Its foreign origins led Buddhism to be labeled a barbarian religion.
•Indian worldviews expressed in Buddhism were at odds with Chinese understandings of the world.
•Buddhism's ideal of a secluded and monastic life for monks and nuns was viewed as undermining Chinese family values.
•Buddhism's concern with individual salvation and enlightenment was viewed as selfish and in conflict with the social orientation of Confucianism.
•The abstract and philosophical nature of Buddhism ran counter to the concrete,"this-worldly" concerns of Confucianism.
•Buddhist conception of time as infinite conflicted with Chinese understanding of time in terms of finite family generations or dynastic cycles.
•The tax-exempt wealth of Buddhist monasteries incited resentment.

Question 4

How did the lives of elite women differ from the lives of women from the lower classes in China during the Song dynasty?

Question 5

Explain how,in theory,the Chinese tribute system worked.

Question 6

In what ways did Japanese women enjoy greater freedom than their counterparts in Korea despite the arrival of Confucian thought in Japan in the seventh century?

Question 7

How do the exchanges between different societies within Eurasia between 500 and 1300 illustrate how ideas and practices were modified as they spread?

Question 8

What were the chief economic accomplishments of the Tang and Song dynasties?

Question 9

In what respects was China's relationship with the northern nomads one of mutual dependence?