stearns japan reading

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AP World History

Key Terms/Concepts – Stearns Reading on Japan

♦  When did Japan begin to borrow from Chinese culture?! 

What were the main elements it borrowed?

Japan: The Imperial Age

♦  What were the Taika Reforms? (646 CE)

!  Goals

!  Why didn’t they fully succeed?

♦  What influence did Buddhist monks have in early Japanese politics?

!  Why did the emperor establish a new capital at Heian (today, Kyoto)?

!  What ultimately happened to the Taika reforms?

•  What effect did this ultimately have on the power of the emperor at court vs.

aristocrats out in the countryside?

♦  Describe the life lived by the emperor and his courtiers in Heian.

!  What was most valued?

!  How did the simplification of the written script assist in this cultural flowering?

•  Lady Murasaki’s Tale of Genji 

•  Role of women at court and in the arts?

♦  How did the Fujiwara clan take power in the mid-9th

century CE?

!  What effect did this have on the emperor’s true power?

♦  Who were the bushi?

!  Where did their power come from?

•  Samurai

o  Seppuku

o   Bushido (chivalric warrior code) 

o  What effect did the rise of the samurai have on the Japanesepeasantry? 

!  What effect did this have on the power of the aristocratic elite families at court like

the Fujiwara clan? 

5th and 6 th centuries CE

revamp imper ial administration along Chinese lines (court scholars learned Chinese); tried to create Conufcia

bureaucrac

clans quickly realized how to get own members appointed to gov--used to enrich themselves;

resistance of aristocratic families and Buddhst monastic orders

a century after reforms were introduced, monks had grown so p

that court essentially lived in fear of them; almost suceeded in

over b/c one monk schemed to marry empress Koken, but em

advisors knew they couldn't let women rule and had to check

influence of monastic orders at court-->moved capital to He

top right corner of page

aristocrats in country side had more power 

abandoned them, but some had lasting impact on court (i.e. Chinese

Buddhism also stuck--Japan becomes more Buddhist

pursuit of beauty and social interaction; ultracivilized; closed world of luxury/aesthetic delights

since men @ court had to use Chinese characters, women wrote more

li terature, etc.

helped w/ literature;

compatible w/ spoken

married into Yamato family, but increasinglyunable to

countryside, so emperor became more of a figureh

local warlords who dominated the provinces;

local enforcers; not much training, but very effective; worked for the bushi

if you dishonred your lord, you ritually disemboweled yourself w/ a special kni fe; provies insight into v

society as a whole through an exteme--honor /how you carry yourself is VERY important

etimes forced to be samurai; attacked

amurai; reduced to the status of serfs/

roperty of the local l ord; turned to

dhism in salvationist pure land sect

fered promise of bliss in heaven for 

se who lived upright lives on earth) to the left

less and less power 

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Era of Warrior Dominance

♦  What effect did the political factionalism, civil war and weakening of the emperor’s powerhave on China’s cultural influence in Japan? 

!  Did a scholar-gentry ever develop? 

!  What happened to Buddhism? (Zen) 

♦  Kamakura Shogunate (rule by Minamoto clan) (1185-1333) = FEUDAL ERA 

!  Shogunate = bakufu (military government) 

!  Shogun

!  How much power did the emperor have? 

♦  Ashikaga Shogunate (1336-1573) = STILL FEUDAL ERA 

!  Overthrew Kamakura Shogunate 

!  Complete collapse of central government authority – civil war 

!  Then provincial warlords created mini-kingdoms 

•   Bushi now called daimyos

♦  How did warfare change during the Feudal Era? 

!  Role of samurai 

!  Role of peasants 

♦  Why was economic growth still possible during the Feudal Era of political fragmentation? 

!  Comparisons with other societies we’ve studied? 

!  Guilds 

♦  What happened to women’s status during the Feudal Era?  

!  Merchants/artisans 

!  Warrior elites 

♦  Arts and Religion 

!  Zen Buddhism 

•  Revival of contact with China 

•  Appreciation of nature and simplicity 

as Jap imperial power decline, so did releveance of Chinese instututions/precedents; also, Tang decling so China

state of turmoil , so i t the Chinese model seemed less relevent

no, because stifled by reassertion of asriocratic power; imperial bureaucracy never m

till very popular (?)

protects emperor and rules on behalf of emperor/his position/his status; all other bushi suposed to be obedient to

shogun, but that didn't happen/emperor stil l didn't have real power (rested instead of Minamoto and their samurai)

samurai now given plots of land and were made into a professionalized fighting force

increased tax burden (got to keep less of what they made); samurai didn't care much about peasants and were

very absentee landlords b/c they were loyal to the daimyo, not peasants

daimyos recognized that they'd need $ to keep

states going in the long run, so they tried to s

vilage life w/ tax collections, support of irrig

systems/other public works, and the building

rural communities. i ncentives to c cupy unoc

areas; new tools; peasants ecouraged to produ

like silk , hemp, dyes, etc. (highly marketble

potential source of houseold income)

medieval europe had

sefs and guilds

organizations for artisans and merchants that helped provide social solidtarity

and group protection in a time of political berakdown and insecurity

fair degree of indepdence in merchant/artisan families; articipated

in guild organizations and business management and the fact that

their positions were sometimes inherited by their daughters

women considered trophies of war; no long educated; confiend

citadels where their relations.clans were based; when clans we

attacked, to get abducted was a dishonor and would have to k

selves; no ptential for having relationship before marriages on simplicity/discipline

special appeal to warrior 

/secured it a place i n the

s in an era of strice and

destruction

went back to china for Buddhist thigs, which led to a revival of Chinese influence

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Korea: Between China and Japan

♦  Early conquest and colonization by China (during reign of Han Wudi) – 109 BCE  

!  Served as conduit for Chinese culture to Japan 

♦  Establishment of 3 Kingdoms: Koguryo, Silla and Paekche (after Han Dynasty collapse) 

!  Adoption of Chinese customs (Sinification) continued 

•  Buddhism 

•  Writing 

•  Law Code 

•  Confucian universities 

•  Creation of scholar-bureaucrat class – did this work?

♦  Comparison with Japan? 

♦  Conquest by Tang Dynasty (668 CE) 

!  Left Silla Dynasty in place as vassals 

•  Korea kept independence and borders until 20th c. (except Mongols briefly) 

•  Continued Sinification 

♦  Tribute system 

!  Kowtow 

!  Why was the tribute system a good deal for subject peoples?  

!  Period famous for its pottery – some of the most prized in the world today  

people didn't want to lose power, so had to wa

till powerful dynasty emerged some centuries

later