Medieval East Asia

A condensed, point-by-point summary of the module, for reviewing right before a test or exam.

1. The Tang Dynasty: Founding and Golden Age (618-756). The Tang dynasty (618-907) opened a golden age of empire, from Taizong's model reign to Xuanzong's cosmopolitan court.
2. Cosmopolitan Tang: Examinations, the Silk Road, and Chang'an. Tang China built a meritocratic exam system and made Chang'an the world's most cosmopolitan capital.
3. The An Lushan Rebellion and the Fall of the Tang (755-907). The An Lushan Rebellion (755-763) shattered Tang central power, and the dynasty finally fell in 907.
4. The Song Dynasty: Reunification, Reform, and the Loss of the North. Song China reunified in 960, then split into Northern and Southern Song before falling to the Mongols in 1279.
5. The Song Economic and Technological Revolution. Song China pioneered paper money, gunpowder weapons, movable type, and a commercial and urban revolution.
6. Heian Japan: A Court Built on the Tang Model. Heian-kyo, founded in 794 on the Tang model, became the seat of a refined Fujiwara-dominated court culture.
7. The Rise of the Samurai and the Founding of the Kamakura Shogunate. Provincial warriors rose through the Genpei War, and Minamoto no Yoritomo founded the Kamakura shogunate in 1192.
8. The Mongol Invasions, the Fall of Kamakura, and the Age of Sengoku. Mongol invasions, fiscal crisis, and civil war carried Japan from Kamakura's fall to the Sengoku age of the samurai.