stearns japan reading

8/8/2019 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



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



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

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