Chapter 8


Chapter 8 summary

Chapter 8 was all about the "Golden Age" for China. What created the "Golden Age"? It was when the Tang and Song dynasty renewed unity. During this time China was filled of arts and lit, poetry,  landscape painting,  ceramics, and the Song dynasty rising to Neo-Confucianism.

The Chinese built the Great Wall, and this is what they used to keep nomads out. However, the Chinese ended up forming relationships with these nomadic people. This then led onto what was known as the "tribute system." If foreigners wanted access to get to China, they had to send a delegation to the Chinese court, and from there they would hold a series of rituals bowings and prostrations, and present their tribute to the Chinese people

 The Song dynasty was huge, and the capital was in Hangzhou. This was home to over a million people. Women in the Song dynasty did not think of this era as the " Golden Age." The things women dealt with were; foot binding and males and females separate in every domain of life. This part always gets on my nerves because foot binding is just pointless and stupid to me. Also, The Chinese strongly disapproved of the free choice marriages in Korea as well as women singing and dancing.

The Vietnamese followed most of  Chinese culture. They adopted Confucianism, Daoism, administrative techniques, and the examination system. Vietnam gave women a little but more independence within in social and economic life. Also, Japan was another country that took some of the Chinese values and traditions, but still was a bit more independent on their own, and women had a little bit more freedom.

Regardless, it seems like China really did not give any type of freedom to their women.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

chapter 9

Chapter 9 Islam Islam was the new birth of religion during this era. I learned that the Quran was the  Holy book of Islam like the bible and that  Umma refers to a  community of all muslims and that their  faith now determined their membership in the community. The people of Islam were taxed if they did not convert. Muhammad came from Mecca to Medina. The followers of Muhammad practiced his words, and lived by example. 5 Pillars of ISLAM 1. Faith 2. Prayer 3. Charity 4. Fasting 5. Pilgrimage to Mecca
Read more

Chapter 5 Blog

In this chapter what I thought was interesting was the section about "The Making of Roman Slavery". It said that even poor households usually had at least one or two female slaves, and they had to participate in domestic work and sexual services. Strayer also mentioned that it was a bad thing to become a slave, but a good thing to own one, which sounded so evil. Even though some slaves were released by their owners, they still could not becone citizens nor gain political rights. Strayer said that slavery was a "defining element of Roman society". I found it interesting how the Italian heartland of the Roman empire had about 2 and 3 million slaves, which represented 33-40 percent of the population. Wealthy Romans could own thousands of slaves, which I thought was crazy to read because I could only imagine one person owning hundreds or thousands of slaves to themselves. The crazy part was that it stated that even "modest people" owned at least two to three ...
Read more

Chapter 11

Mongols Who were the Mongols? They were pastoral nomads who disdained farming while entering their economic lives around animals. The Mongols left a mark on the historical development of the Afro Eurasian Empire.  The Mogol empire was huge. They conquered, defeated, and exploited people. An individual who was important within the Mongols was  Marco Polo. He  claimed that the Mongols maintained 10,000 stations in all regions and 200,000 horses. The Mongols religion was more of an acquiring type of thing. They were interested in learning others religions and traditions, they were very open-minded. The Mongol people came up with innovations. For example; horse harnesses, saddles, iron stirrups, forms of armor, and swords. Black Death was also mentioned in this chapter.  This plague claimed thousands of humans causing a contraction in population 70-90% affected. The Mongols invaded Northern China began in 1209 and went on until 1279.  Mongols were also in Persia ...
Read more