China: Interactions with Neighbors WHAP/Napp

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“For a thousand years China held Annam (northern Vietnam) as a colony. The Han dynasty conquered Annam and incorporated the area as a province of China in 111 B.C.E. It remained part of China until 939 C.E., when, not long after the collapse of the Tang, the Vietnamese rebel Ngo Quyen declared himself the king of the independent state of Dai Viet.

During and after Chinese colonization, the Vietnamese were locked in a love-hate relationship with Chinese culture and politics. Chinese scholars and officials, many of them fleeing imperial policies in China, brought to Vietnam their own ideographic script, Confucian ethical principles, and the Confucian literary classics. The Vietnamese adopted them all. Buddhism also arrived in Vietnam by way of China. The rest of Southeast Asia absorbed Buddhism in its Theravada form from India; Vietnam adopted Mahayana Buddhism as it had developed in China, after about the fifth century C.E. These cultural innovations appealed primarily to the Vietnamese upper-class aristocracy. At the level of practical technology, the Chinese also introduced a number of valuable agricultural innovations: the construction of a huge network of dams and waterworks that protect against monsoon flooding every year; the use of human excrement as fertilizer; market gardening; and intensive pig farming.

Although they adopted many Chinese customs, the Vietnamese resented foreign hegemony [influence or control] by the colossus to its north. For example, the two Trung sisters led a military revolt in 39 C.E., succeeded in evicting the Chinese, ruled jointly over Vietnam for two years, but committed suicide when their revolt was crushed. They are revered in Vietnam to this day. Leaders of numerous, less dramatic revolts against China are also viewed as national heroes, yet paradoxically, the most profound adoption of Chinese administrative reforms occurred in the fifteenth century, when Vietnam was independent. As a result of Chinese direct rule in the earlier period and Chinese power and proximity during later periods of Vietnamese independence, the country became a Confucian state, with an examination system, an intellectually elitist administration somewhat aloof from the masses, and an intense desire for independence from China.”

~ The World’s History

1- What was Annam and when was it incorporated as a province of China? ______

2- How did Ngo Quyen change Annam? ______

3- How did Chinese culture and politics influence Vietnam? ______

4- What appealed primarily to the Vietnamese upper-class aristocracy? ______

5- What did the Vietnamese resent? ______

6- Why do the Vietnamese considered the Trung sisters national heroes? ______

7- How did China’s power and proximity influence Vietnam? ______

  1. China and its Neighbors [Korea, Vietnam, and Japan]
  1. Korea and China
  1. Temporary Chinese conquest of northern Korea during the Han dynasty
  2. Chinese cultural influences, particularly in the form of Buddhism
  3. But early Korean states were bitter rivals with one another
  4. The Silla Kingdom
  1. In 7th century, allied with Tang dynasty to bring some political unity
  2. Sharp military resistance from Koreans persuaded Chinese to withdraw in 688 but tributary relationship developed
  3. Korean scholars, monks, and aristocrats regularly traveled to China
  4. Capital city of Kumsong was modeled on Chinese capital of Chang’an
  1. Impact on Korean Women
a) Efforts to plant Confucian values and Chinese culture in Korea had a negative impact on Korean women, particularly after 1300
  1. Korea remained Korean and after 688, the country’s political independence, though periodically threatened, was largely intact
  2. A Chinese-style examination system never assumed prominence [Birth mattered]
  3. In the 1400s, developed a phonetic alphabet, known as hangul
  1. Vietnam and Korea
1. As in Korea, the elite borrowed heavily from China
2. Pressure of Chinese presence generated periodic rebellions
  1. In 39 CE, a short-lived but long-remembered uprising launched by two sisters, daughters of a local leader deposed by Chinese
a) Trung Trac, whose husband had been executed, sought to avenge death but rebellion crushed - sisters committed suicide
3. Weakening of Tang dynasty in the early tenth century CE finally enabled a particularly large rebellion to establish Vietnam as a separate state
4. More so than in Korea, a Chinese-based examination system in Vietnam functioned to undermine an established aristocracy, to provide a measure of social mobility
5. But beyond the elite, there remained much that was uniquely Vietnamese
  1. A greater role for women in social and economic life
  1. Japan and China
1. Japan’s extensive borrowing from Chinese civilization was voluntary
2. High point of borrowing took place during 7th to 9th centuries CE
3. Prince Shotoku Taishi (572-622) launched a series of missions to China
4. In Seventeen Article Constitution, Japanese ruler was proclaimed as a Chinese-style emperor and Buddhism and Confucianism encouraged
5. Two capital cities, Nara and then Heian (Kyoto) modeled on Chang’an
6. However, the Japanese did not adopt the examination system – birth mattered
7. Way of the warrior, bushido, samurai and a celebration of military virtues contrasted sharply with China’s emphasis on intellectual achievements
8. Buddhism took hold but did not replace Shinto, Japanese animism
9. Women escaped most oppressive features of Chinese culture but Japanese women lost status in twelfth century not due to Confucianism but rise of a warrior culture
  1. China also learned from neighborsdrought-resistant rice from VietnamBut Buddhism was the only large-scale cultural borrowing

1- How did the Silla Kingdom unite Korea? ______

2- What role did China play in the unification of Korea? ______

3- Provide two examples of Chinese influence in Korea. ______

4- What did Korea never adopt from China? ______

5- Why did Korea not adopt it? ______

6- Who were the Trac sisters and why were they significant? ______

7- What factor(s) allowed Vietnam to gain independence from China? ______

8- What did the Vietnamese adopt from China? ______

9- How did the adoption of this Chinese influence impact Vietnam? ______

10- What did the Vietnamese not adopt from China? ______

11- How did Japan’s interaction with China differ from Vietnam’s and Korea’s interactions? ______

12- Who was Prince Shotoku and how did he change Japan? ______

13- Identify several Chinese influences on Japan. ______

14- Why do historians refer to Japan’s selective borrowing? ______

15- How did Japanese culture differ from Chinese culture? ______

16- What was bushido? ______

17- What ultimately lowered the status of women in Japan? ______

18- How was China influenced by other regions? ______

Thesis Practice: Comparative

Compare and contrast the impact of cultural borrowing from China on TWO of the following regions:

Korea

Vietnam

Japan

Thesis: ______

1. On which countries did China exert the strongest cultural and political influence?
(A) Burma, Japan, and Korea
(B) Vietnam, Cambodia, and India
(C) Japan, Korea, and Vietnam
(D) Pakistan, India, and Japan
(E) The Philippines, Thailand, and Bangladesh
2. Which of the following is an accurate statement about women in China in the post-classical period?
(A) The position of women was equal to that of men.
(B) Neo-Confucianism promoted women’s equality.
(C) Upper-class women enjoyed more rights than lower-class women.
(D) Women of the lower classes tended to be freer from restrictions than those from the upper classes.
(E) The practice of foot-binding was outlawed.
3. Despite extensive modeling of the Chinese imperial system, how did Japanese civilization hew [adhere] to established tradition in the postclassical era?
(A) Aristocrats doubled as military officers.
(B) Strict codes of behavior governed noble classes in court life at the imperial center.
(C) Examination systems were not a part of the selection process for the imperial elite.
(D) Poetry was a highly valued art form among the elite.
(E) A capital city served as the nerve center of the empire. / 4. The first united Korean nation, 500s C.E., was
(A) Koryo
(B) Yi
(C) Nara
(D) Silla
(E) Jomon
5. Both the wearing of corsets in Europe in the nineteenth century and the custom of footbinding in China were designed
(A) For use among lower-class women.
(B) To deny women status in their respective society.
(C) To restrict women to work in the fields.
(D) To restrict women’s freedom of activity.
(E) To make women unattractive.
6. Which of the following most often characterizes a meritocracy?
(A) A well-defined tribute system with a method of recordkeeping
(B) Increasing use of civil service exams to fill government positions
(C) Clear rules of succession for leadership transitions
(D) Establishment and publication of a uniform system of law
7. Which of the following was an important long-term demographic impact of the spread of rice varieties in East Asia during the period circa 600 C.E. to 1200 C.E.?
(A) A decrease in the size of East Asian cities outside the rice-growing area
(B) The large-scale settlement of nomadic central Asians into farming communities
(C) A rapid increase of East Asian populations
(D) The movement of large numbers of East Asians from cities to farms

Analytical Question: In what different ways did Korea, Vietnam, and Japan experience and respond to Chinese influence?