HIST 122
Spring 2014
Dr. Hutton
NVC
Weekly Assignment #11
Due: Thurs., 5/15
Read Tignor, Chapters 9 and 10, pp. 348-352, 382-389 and 401-408 (2nd ed. pp. 397-402, 437446 and 459-468), & answer these questions:
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What ideas and practices of Chinese culture influenced Korea during the Tang Dynasty?
What were the achievements of and challenges to the Koryo Dynasty?
What beliefs did the Japanese follow before Chinese influence in the Tang dynasty?
How did Prince Shotoku restructure the Japanese government and society?
How did the Japanese emperors combine Buddhism and Shinto?
What made the Song Dynasty so powerful? What problems could it never overcome?
What were the three most important developments of the Chinese commercial revolution?
Who were the new elites of the Song dynasty? What was the Song attitude towards
“barbarians”?
Why was the Heian court in Japan weak? What was the difference between the Heian court
and rural warrior elites?
What was the subject of Murasaki Shikibu’s “The Tale of Genji”? How was it different from
literature written by Japanese men?
What were the main cultural influences on Southeast Asia?
What made the Mongol society into an empire? How did Chinggis Khan mold them
together?
What factors led to the Mongol conquest of China? How did the Mongols rule China?
What effect did the Mongol conquest have on the Muslim kingdoms of Southwest Asia?
What were the cultural spheres of the world of Afro-Eurasia between 1000 and 1300?
How did these cultural blocs contrast with the Americas and sub-Saharan Africa?
How were trade, migration, and conflict transforming Afro-Eurasia by 1300?
Read “The Tale of Heike” on the course website and answer these questions:
18. What connections tied the samurai together? How did Minamoto Yoritomo change the
government of Japan?
19. When Yoshinaka was outnumbered by the enemy (Tadayori’s forces), what did he do?
What did his retainer (or vassal) Kanehira do?
20. Who was Tomoe? Why did Yoshinaka send her away?
21. What reason did Kanehira use to convince Yoshinaka to leave the battle? How did Kanehira
die?
22. What does this story suggest about samurai values?