Chapter 11—The East Asian Rimlands: Early Japan, Korea, and Vietnam
ESSAY
1.
What role did geography play in Japan's early development? How did it influence its
social, religious, and political institutions? By comparing and contrasting Great Britain and Japan, can
you make any generalizations about the development of insular societies?
2.
What is the relationship between the major agricultural regions in Japan and its
political development and historical evolution?
3.
What were the probable ethnic roots of the Japanese people? What traditional ideas
about Japanese origins were devised in Japan to explain its founding? Are the latter compatible with
the former? Why or why not?
4.
How was the Japanese aristocracy able to suppress the centralization of the Japanese
government? How does this contrast with the governmental system of China? What were the
advantages and disadvantages of Japan having a governmental system in which the emperor reigns and
the shogun rules?
5.
"Japan borrowed from China, but only selectively." Discuss with examples.
6.
Compare and contrast the Heian era of Japan with the period of the Kamakura
shogunate. What changed, and why?
7.
What were the possible reasons why Japan failed to adopt the Confucian-based civil
service examination system?
8.
It can be argued that the symbol of medieval China is the scholar-gentry while in
Japan it is the samurai warrior. How do you account for the difference between the two societies?
9.
Can the term "feudal" be accurately applied to the medieval Japanese society? How
does Japanese "feudalism" compare with that of Europe between 800 and 1500? Compare and contrast
the status and function of the medieval Japanese samurai warrior with that of the medieval European
knight.
10.
Discuss the relationship between Japanese Shinto and Buddhism, regarding the
apparent compatibility for many Japanese during the era from 1000 to 1500.
11.
What were the major developments in early Japanese literature, art, and architecture?
What is meant by the statement "Tea and zen have the same flavor"?
12.
Trace the development of government in Korea from the era of the three kingdoms
through the establishment of the post-Yuan Yi Dynasty. How did local and Chinese ideas and
institutions influence this development?
13.
How has Vietnam's resistance to attempted conquest been a primary determinative
factor in the development of Vietnamese culture? How has the strong Vietnamese sense of cultural
distinctiveness made them resistant to assimilation by China?
14.
and con.
"China was the paradigm of all East Asian societies." Using examples, discuss, pro
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Instructions: Identify the following terms.
Hokkaido, Honshu, Kyushu, and Shikoku
Pacific Current
Asian and Pacific tectonic plates
Izanagi and Izanami
Amaterasu
Nihon Shoki
Jomon and Yayoi cultures
Jimmu
Yamato plain and Yamato clan
uji
Ainu
Shotoku Taishi
Taika reforms
Fujiwara clan
Nara
Heian
"land of Wa"
samurai
Bushido
shoen
Minamoto Yoritomo
Kamakura shogunate
bakufu
shogun
kamikaze/"divine wind"
Mongol invasions
daimyo
Kyoto
Ashikaga era
Onin War
genin and eta
kami
Shinto
Pure Land sect/Jodo
Zen/Chan
satori and zazen
haiku
No
Murasaki Shikibu"s The Tale of Genji
bonsai
"linked verse"
"guardian kings"
the tea ceremony
Koguryo, Paekche and Silla
Koryo dynasty
chonmin
Yi Song-gye
the Trung Sisters
Annam and Champa
Dai Viet