welcome to AP World History my dear pupils we're going to begin right in the beginning and talk about developments in East Asia from 1200 to 1450 and it was China who arguably possessed the biggest popsicle of power in that time and oh baby it was a tasty one so if you're ready to get them brain cows milked Song Dynasty style well let's get to it so we'll begin this course around the year 1200 and we'll start by getting acquainted with the song dynasty in China and the truth is China 's kind of the biggest deal there was in the ancient and post-classical World okay so first we're going to focus on how the Song Dynasty maintained and Justified its power all right stop what in the fresh heck do those words mean well it means we're going to talk about how song rulers stayed in charge and how they convinced everyone that they should stay in charge after all if there was only one popsicle of power in song China then song rulers wanted to make sure that they licked that puppy clean so how did they do it well I got two ways you need to know but before I tell you what they are you might want to get that clicky finger out and check out my AP World heimler review guide It's got everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your exam inmate including whole unit review videos that are not here on YouTube no guides to follow along practice questions in AP Style full practice exam it is the fastest way to study so check out the link in the description and now back to how song rulers maintained and Justified their power first song rulers carried over a Revival of Confucianism from the previous Tong Dynasty now Confucianism became the official Chinese State philosophy way back during the Han Dynasty about 200 BCE basically this philosophy taught that human society was hierarchical by nature which is to say Society was composed of unequal relationships fathers were greater than Sons husbands greater than wives rulers greater than subjects you get the idea so in order to make this kind of society work properly the greater entity should treat the lesser entities with concern and benevolence while the Lesser entity should drink a tall glass of shut the heck up and obey their superiors and if everyone lived according to their roles well which is nice and one of the key ideas in this whole system was filial piety which was the practice of honoring one's ancestors and parents this was emphasized by Chinese rules because hey if people could learn how to honor their deceased grandpappies and their living parents well that served us a pretty good training to honor the Emperor as well so you know bonus anyway those confusion ideals work to keep ancient Chinese Society working for a long time but once the Han Dynasty fell Confucianism fell along with it and their cultural Harmony fractured until it sounded more like [Music] not pretty but starting with a Tong Dynasty the one right before the Song Dynasty Confucianism experienced a Revival and that Revival was carried into song Rule now because this was a new implementation of an old philosophy we call it neo-confucianism Neo meaning new and Confucianism meaning you know Confucianism and one thing that made it new is the influence of Buddhist and Taoist philosophical ideas so don't miss what I just said because this is 100 showing up on your test the Revival of Confucianism demonstrates historical continuity between ancient China and the song period but it also illustrates Innovation Tong and song rulers didn't just Jam the old crusty version of Confucianism into their society they changed it to suit their contemporary purpose anyway back to the point song rulers use this hierarchical view of society to maintain and justify their rules again they were the ones in charge and if everyone just deferred to their rightful leadership in Chinese Society would flourish hey that sounds great for the people on top of the hierarchical pile but maybe not so great for those on the bottom case in point women in song China now under the system of Confucianism women were relegated to the subordinate position in the hierarchy men didn't want to make their own sandwiches so the best candidate in their eyes was the women so for example under song rule women's legal rights were restricted poor woman's property became her husband's and if she was widowed or divorced she was forbidden to remarry but maybe the most dramatic example of female subordination of the Song Dynasty was the practice of foot binding here are the feet of young girls were broken and bound up tightly for a period of time until their feet were much smaller than they were to begin this often meant that women had trouble walking or in some cases they couldn't walk at all and to be clear this practice was especially prevalent among the more Elite members of society because it was kind of a status symbol for elite men like if your wife couldn't walk she couldn't very well perform manual labor or household labor and that meant you were wealthy enough to hire servants to do the rest okay now the second Way song rulers maintained and justify their power was with the increasing use of an imperial bureaucracy now a bureaucracy in case that's not a word that you and your friends throw around casually at the lunch table is a governmental entity that carries out the will of the emperor so the emperor lives over here and he's all like widowed women can't get remarried but China's a big honking place with a metric butt load of people so how is the Emperor gonna make sure everyone in these places obeys oh that's what the bureaucracy is for is made up of tens of thousands of government officials Fanning out across China to make sure everyone was obeying the emperor's dictator okay now during the Song Dynasty the Imperial bureaucracy grew in scope and thus helped them to maintain their rules and how did it do that well in order to get a good job in the bureaucracy eligible men had to take and pass a civil service examination this exam was heavily based on Confucian Classics and that did two things to help song rulers maintain and justify their power first it meant that the bureaucracy was only staffed with the most qualified member so that means bureaucratic jobs were awarded by Merit and not based on who you knew which is kind of how they did things back in the Han Dynasty hey you want a job I got a guy so this system helped song rulers to maintain their rule because the best men got the jobs and thus increased the competency and efficiency of bureaucratic taxes okay now because song China was kind of a big deal on the world stage during this time it probably is not going to surprise you to know that it had significant cultural influence on various states around it and here I'm going to mention three of them first let's visit our friends in Korea right here on China's Northeastern border the Korean Empires were pretty much much independent politically but they were able to do that because they maintained a tributary relationship with the big boys in China what that means is that from time to time Korean officials would visit the song Court acknowledged that China was the awesomest and then fall prostrate on the floor before the emperor acknowledging that his power popsicle was the biggest and most delicious of all as long as that kind of tribute was paid China and Korea were able to maintain friendly political and economic relationships now because of this close relationship some aspects of Chinese culture were adopted by the Korean for example the Korean Court used a similar Civil Service examination to staff their bureaucracy additionally Korea adopted many confusion principles which organized their family structures and went even further than China in marginalizing the role of women however to be fair much of the Chinese Cultural influence here applied mostly to the elite members of Korean Society okay second let's go visit Hyun Japan right over here don't miss what's obvious that Japan is separated from China by a big honking chunk of ocean even so China still influenced Japanese culture but the big point to remember here is that whatever cultural traits the Japanese adopted they did so voluntarily and not because like Korea there was is always the looming threat of being invaded so you know that's nice anyway the biggest chunk of Japan's cultural borrowing from China occurred before our time period that we're dealing with here it was around the 7th and 9th century CE and during that time they attended a large-scale overhaul of their power structure and organized it according to what they observed in China's imperial bureaucracy and then later on Chinese Buddhism took root among the Japanese Elite as well as the Chinese writing system so whatever Japan found useful about Chinese society and politics they used and adopted and whatever they thought was a turd they flushed and third we need to visit our friends in the Kingdom of Vietnam right here now because Vietnam had its hind Parts shoved squarely against China's Southern border it had a similar relationship with China as we saw in Korea now Vietnam was also basically independent politically but they still participated in the China is the best tributary system additionally Elite members of Vietnam Society adopted Confucianism Buddhism Chinese literary techniques and the Civil Service examination system however despite the Vietnamese adoption of Confucianism women in Vietnam were not nearly as marginalized as they were in China you can see evidence of a higher view of women by the fact that several of their nature did these were female and they conceived of a female version of the Buddha who if I know anything ain't gonna be making nobody's sandwiches more to the point Vietnam never adopted foot binding and for that matter neither did Korea or Japan okay now I've mentioned Buddhism in China a couple of times already but let's stop dancing around it and look that puppy Square in the face now Buddhism has a belief system originated in South Asia right over here but it had spread to China by the time of the Han Dynasty basically the whole of Buddhism is summarized in its Four Noble Truths life is suffering we suffer because we crave we see suffering when we cease craving and the Eightfold Path leads to the cessation of suffering and craving and basically the Eightfold Path outlines the principles and practices that a Buddhist must follow most notably a moral lifestyle and a practice of meditation additionally Buddhism carried over several features from the dominant religion of South Asia namely Hinduism features like Karma and rebirth so it's a very simplified explanation of Buddhism in its original form but once it began to spread significant changes occur first you need to know Terra Vada Buddhism which originated here in Sri Lanka and it was pretty close to the original form of Buddhism with an emphasis on escaping the cycle of birth and death however here Buddhist practice was mainly restricted to monks who devoted their entire lives to you know monkey and therefore this kind of Buddhism was only available to a select few however as Buddhism spread from there into East Asia it changed again and this region gave birth to another branch called Mahayana Buddhism and the main difference here is that the Mahayana Branch emphasized that Buddhist teachings were available to all and not just to select few additionally Mahayana Buddhism emphasized compassion and made the Buddha into a kind of God or at least you know an object of devotion but then as Buddhism spread over here into Tibet yet another Innovation took place and it was known as Tibetan Buddhists again it had all the same basic doctrines as the others but its practitioners emphasized more mystical practices like lying prostrate and elaborate imaginings of deity so the point is although the Song Dynasty made it their policy to emphasize more traditional Chinese ideas like Confucianism Buddhism continued to play a significant role in their society and even more to the point the Chinese developed their own distinct version of Buddhism known as Chan Buddhism okay now finally we need to talk about the prodigious amounts of boom boom China was raking in during this period which is to say we need to talk about the song economy and baby that economy was humming however the song rulers were not completely responsible for that magnificent Prosperity because that Trend began in the Dynasty before namely the tong Dynasty anyway how did they do it well I got four ways you should know first was the widespread commercialization of the economy basically that just means that China produced more Goods than they needed to survive and then sold the excess on the World Market and in order to become that land-based Tony Stark that they were song officials moved more and more toward the use of paper money which resulted in related practices of using credit and promissory notes and all that meant that China was thoroughly commercialized and then they could focus on building that indestructible flying suit they always want okay second China's home industry is producing Iron and Steel exploded during this period by the 11th century both large-scale manufacturers and home-based Artisans were producing enough Iron and Steel to create all the suits of armor needed for war all the coins needed for trading Taxation and many of the tools needed for agriculture and speaking of Agriculture the third cause of China's economic Prosperity was Innovations in agriculture in addition to the widespread use of iron plows and rakes one of the most significant agricultural Innovations was the introduction of Champa rice which came to China via the Champa Kingdom in Vietnam look I know you're not used to getting excited about rice but dang this stuff was awesome for example it was drought resistant and it could be harvested not once but twice a year effectively doubling the agricultural output so what who cares you care because China was the most populous state in the world at that time and what does that mean metric butt loads of mouth holes to feed because Chomper rice came into stuffed those mouth holes full with plenty left over that led to a population explosion y'all and as a general law of the universe more food equals more babies and finally fourth Transportation Innovations also contributed to the prosperity to the song economy they expanded the Grand Canal which linked the yellow and young sea rivers and made trade among different regions much cheaper you know as far as canals go this one's pretty Grand but in addition to that several other Innovations and transportations were made during this time as well for example the Perfection of the magnetic compass which improved navigation on the water and further facilitated sea-based trade among various regions and then there were new ship building techniques for example song Engineers improved the design of the massive trade ships called junks by creating water type bulkheads and Stern mounted Rudders which made navigation more accurate which in turn led to more trade among various regions and that led to even more economic prosperity in the Song Dynasty Okay click here to keep reviewing other topics you need to know for unit one and if you're feeling spicy you might want to click right here and grab my AP World heimler review guide which has everything you need to get an A in your class and a five on your examination so I'll catch you on the flip-flop I'm the route