Final Exam Study Guide WOH1023 1 Han Dynasty the Han Dynasty arose after 60 years of unrest following the collapse of the Qin Dynasty It was founded by a peasant born rebel Liu Band later known as Emperor Gaozu He Dynasty experienced unprecedented economic prosperity and growth of money and the economy Technological advancements included papermaking steering rudder seismometer and the use of negative numbers in mathematics Dynastic authority extended into southern China central Asia and the Korean peninsula The Dynasty was seen as the Golden Age of Chinese History and the origin of Han in Chinese culture and identity The Han Dynasty made the people 2 Wu Di Emperor Wu Di 140 87 BCE was known as the Martial Emperor and was the most successful military commander of the Han Dynasty Between 133 and 124 BCE he confronted and defeated Xiongnu Huns and expelled them from Western China Confucianism became the official religion of China during his reign but Daoism Buddhism and ancestor worship continued to be practiced 3 Wushu 5th century BCE is also known as Kung Fu It is a general term given to fighting styles developed in China The earliest examples include Shoubo Shang Dynasty and Jiao Di Qin Dynasty It also includes weapons training including the use of the sword bow spear and others The primary emphasis is placed on physical and spiritual development through exercise meditation and mastery of stances There is an estimated 2 500 forms of martial arts practiced in China alone 4 Imperial Examination System the Imperial Examination System began formally by Sui in 605 CE but was no fully established until during the Tang Dynasty It was intended as a means of selecting talented government officials Theoretically it was open to all Chinese regardless of wealth or position Exams were held at local provincial national and imperial levels The last exam would be conducted in the presence of the Emperor himself Candidates were tested on military skills math literacy and Confucian philosophy This program would continue until 1905 5 Three Kingdoms the Three Kingdoms Period lasted from 184 to 280 CE It involved a period of civil war following the collapse of the Han Dynasty This period featured a struggle between Cao Cao Wei Liu Bei Shu and Sub Quan Wu In 208 Liu and Sun briefly allied to defeat the larger Cao army at the Battle of Red Cliffs This was the 1 largest naval battle in Chinese history In 263 Wei overran the Shu kingdom but was then conquered by former subordinate Sima Yi the founder of the Jin Dynasty The year 280 saw the period end with Wu s submission to Jin authority This was an extremely bloody period in Chinese history but was later romanticized in literature and opera 6 Heian Japan lasted between 794 and 1185 CE The period began after Emperor Kammu moved his court from Nara to Heian kyo Kyoto The period was marked by heavy influence of Taoism and Buddhism from China as well as the Golden Age of Japanese culture and literature The country was nominally ruled by the Imperial Court but real power was exercised by the Fujiwara later Taira class The period was also marked by the rise of the Japanese warrior class or Samurai 7 Genji Monogatari 1120 1140 is a famous illustrated hand scroll of the Japanese literature classic The Tale of Genji from the 12th century The surviving sections represent only a small portion of the original work It is the earliest text of the work and the earliest surviving work in the Yamato e tradition of narrative illustrated scrolls which continues to impact Japanese art It consisted of two designs Pictures that were painted on a scroll with text and a number of paintings that accompanied passages that were joined together in a scroll The first known was produced in the late ninth or tenth century 8 Byzantine Empire the origins of the great civilization can be traced to 330 AD When the Roman emperor Constantine I dedicated a new Rome on the site of the ancient Greek colony of Byzantium Though the western half of the Roman Empire crumbled and fell in 476 the eastern half survived for 1 000 more years spawning a rich tradition of art literature and learning and serving as a military buffer between the states of Europe and the threat of invasion from Asia The Byzantine Empire finally fell in 1453 after an Ottoman stormed Constantinople during the reign of Constantine XI 9 Justinian 482 565 he is said to have restored the Roman Empire to ancient limits and to have reunited East and West In 532 came the Nika Riots an outburst of political turmoil that went as far as to elect a rival emperor He constructed a vast line of walls along the eastern and southeastern frontier of the empire It was as legislator that Justinian gained his fame He collected and codified all the principal imperial statutes His writings were all primarily published during the 6th century CE 10 Hagia Sophia 532 Hagia Sophia is a church in Constantinople now Istanbul and was first dedicated in 360 by Emperor Constantius son of the city s founder Emperor Constantine Hagia Sophia served as 2 the cathedra or bishop s seat of the city The church was rebuilt in 532 after being destroyed twice before once being during the Nika Revolt in 532 The central dome was often interpreted by contemporaries as the dome of heaven itself Today it is a museum with the original mosaics having been restored by the Turkish government 11 Muhammad Muhammad was the prophet of Islam When he married Khadija his status was elevated in Meccan society After about fifteen or twenty years of marriage Muhammad used to have visions and hear mysterious voices He sought solitude in a cave on Mount Hira on the outskirts of Mecca When Muhammad was about forty years old he was visited by an angel telling him he was a messenger of God and to begin proclaiming God s message He gathered some followers including his cousin Ali Abu Talib The rich and powerful merchants saw his religious revolution as a threat to business which was protected by the Meccan pantheon of gods and goddesses The ruling elite ganged up on him and started to persecute he and his followers Today Muhammad is seen as the perfect believer and take his actions and sayings as a model of ideal conduct 12 13 Islam the Golden Age of Islam lasted during the 8th and 13th centuries Baghdad Cairo Cordoba and Damascus became the centers of education and science Muslim Christian and Jewish scholars preserved studied and expanded upon ancient Greek Latin and Indian texts During