State Building in SONG CHINA [AP World History Review—Unit 1, Topic 1]

00:06:32
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wc1YgOeVEwI

Resumo

TLDRThe video discusses China's history from 1200 to 1450, focusing on the Song Dynasty's formation and influence in world history. The Song Dynasty emerged after Zhao Kuangyin unified China, bringing a robust state structure with six departments and a civil service exam influenced by Confucian ideals. China's economy flourished, evolving into a commercial society with extensive trade across Afro-Eurasia and the pioneering of paper money. Technological innovation peaked with the discovery of gunpowder. China's culture also impacted neighboring regions such as Japan and absorbed influences like Mahayana Buddhism from Vietnam. The video wraps by emphasizing China's strong population, agricultural base, and unified governance as factors leading to its status as the wealthiest and most unified empire, while humorously warning viewers not to mess with China.

Conclusões

  • 🇨🇳 The Song Dynasty unified China under Zhao Kuangyin, creating a lasting empire.
  • 🏛️ A sophisticated state structure was established, influenced by Confucian ideals.
  • 🧧 Confucianism provided a hierarchical model for Chinese society and governance.
  • 🛡️ The civil service exam shifted power to scholarly leaders within the bureaucracy.
  • 🌐 Chinese merchants led long-distance trade, commercializing society.
  • 🏭 China's manufacturing innovation during this period, especially in iron, was significant.
  • 💴 Paper money transformed China's economy, addressing coin shortages.
  • 💥 Gunpowder was a major, though initially non-military, Chinese innovation.
  • 🏯 China's influence extended to Japan, especially in architecture and culture.
  • 🙏 Mahayana Buddhism, a Vietnamese import, became significant in China.
  • 🌿 China's rich culture and innovation made it a dominant power globally.
  • ⚠️ A key takeaway: China was a powerful and influential global player.

Linha do tempo

  • 00:00:00 - 00:06:32

    The video begins by exploring the historical significance of China between 1200 and 1450, highlighting its power and influence during the Song Dynasty. It explains how Zhoa Kuangyin unified regional kingdoms into this dynasty and how the Song rulers established a long-lasting state structure with organized departments overseen by the Censorate. Confucianism played a significant role in government organization and society's hierarchical structure. The revival of the civil service exam shifted power towards scholarly leaders, influencing governmental and societal roles. China's engagement in trade across Afro-Eurasia led to a more commercialized society, with manufacturing focusing on distant markets rather than local consumption, exemplified by their significant iron production.

Mapa mental

Mind Map

Perguntas frequentes

  • Who was Zhao Kuangyin?

    Zhao Kuangyin was the ruler who unified regional kingdoms in China and established the Song Dynasty.

  • What are some key achievements of the Song Dynasty?

    The Song Dynasty achieved a strong state structure, revived the civil service exam, expanded commerce, and advanced in manufacturing and technology such as the invention of gunpowder.

  • How did Confucianism influence the Song Dynasty?

    Confucianism provided a hierarchical framework for society and government, influencing how the Song Dynasty structured its bureaucracy and civil service exams.

  • What role did merchants play in Song China?

    Merchants were crucial in the long-distance trade across Afro-Eurasia, helping to commercialize Chinese society and expand its economic influence.

  • How did Song China contribute to technological innovations?

    Technological innovations in Song China included the widespread use of paper money and the invention of gunpowder.

  • How did China's culture influence neighboring regions?

    China's culture, particularly during the Song Dynasty, influenced nearby regions such as Japan, as seen in architecture and cultural practices.

  • What is Mahayana Buddhism?

    Mahayana Buddhism is a form of Buddhism that developed in Vietnam and spread to China, incorporating many deities and religious elements like heavens and hells.

  • How did Buddhism arrive in China?

    Buddhism was brought to China from India, and various trade routes facilitated the introduction of new forms like Mahayana Buddhism.

  • What is the Song Dynasty's significance in terms of commerce?

    The Song Dynasty was pivotal in transitioning China into a commercialized society, producing goods for trade and expanding iron production.

  • Why is the Song Dynasty compared to Texas in the video?

    The video humorously compares China to Texas to emphasize China's significant influence and power in world history during the Song Dynasty.

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Rolagem automática:
  • 00:00:00
    Hi everyone and welcome back to Heimler’s History.
  • 00:00:01
    In this video we begin our exploration proper of AP World History.
  • 00:00:05
    And what better place to begin than figuring out what was going on in China during 1200-1450.
  • 00:00:09
    Let’s get to it.
  • 00:00:10
    In terms of World History, China had always been kind of a big deal.
  • 00:00:13
    For all sorts of reasons that will become clear in this video, China was kind of like
  • 00:00:17
    the Texas of the ancient world: DOn’t mess with China.
  • 00:00:20
    By 1000CE China is still the world’s preeminent power.
  • 00:00:24
    In 960, CHina was split into regional kingdoms as the power of the Tang Dynasty was gradually
  • 00:00:29
    waning.
  • 00:00:30
    Now let me introduce you to Zhoa Kuangyin.
  • 00:00:32
    He was the ruler of one of those kingdoms and took it upon himself to gather them all
  • 00:00:35
    up into a unified dynastic empire known as the Song Dynasty, which remained in China
  • 00:00:40
    from 960-1279.
  • 00:00:41
    And when it comes to state-building, the Song rulers knew what they were doing.
  • 00:00:45
    Building on the innovations of Tang rulers, the Song emperors built a state structure
  • 00:00:49
    that would last for another thousand years.
  • 00:00:52
    They divided oversight of the state into six departments: personnel, finance, rites, army,
  • 00:00:59
    justice, and public works.
  • 00:01:00
    And then overseeing all of these departments was the Censorate who made sure no one in
  • 00:01:04
    these bureaucratic departments was behaving like a turd.
  • 00:01:07
    And if they were behaving like a turd, they got flushed.
  • 00:01:09
    One of the things that helped organize the government was Confucianism, which is one
  • 00:01:14
    of the great continuities of Chinese culture over the years.
  • 00:01:19
    According to the COnfucian understanding of the world, reality is fundamentally hierarchical.
  • 00:01:25
    Everyone has their place, and society only works if everyone behaves rightly in their
  • 00:01:29
    place.
  • 00:01:30
    The people were subject to rulers.
  • 00:01:32
    Women were subject to their husbands.
  • 00:01:33
    Children were subject to their fathers.
  • 00:01:35
    This way of seeing the world meant that the government was structured accordingly.
  • 00:01:36
    One of the major achievements of the Song government, deeply influenced by Confucian
  • 00:01:39
    ideals, was the revival and expansion of the civil service exam.
  • 00:01:42
    This was a test that you had to pass if you hoped to work in the imperial bureaucracy.
  • 00:01:46
    And a major part of that exam was being well versed in Confucian ideals.
  • 00:01:50
    And the implementation of that exam had the effect of shifting power from a hereditary
  • 00:01:55
    form of aristocracy to a new class of scholarly leaders.
  • 00:01:58
    Now with such a highly organized government, the Chinese could focus on what every empire
  • 00:02:02
    wants to focus on: the accumulation of the boom boom.
  • 00:02:06
    Chinese merchants participated heavily in the robust system of long distance trade across
  • 00:02:10
    Afro-Eurasia.
  • 00:02:11
    Okay, stop.
  • 00:02:12
    What is Afro-Eurasia?
  • 00:02:13
    Despite what it sounds like, it’s not Eurasia with a seventies-style haircut.
  • 00:02:16
    It’s referring to the African, European, and Asian landmass, which, when we’re talking
  • 00:02:20
    about World History, we often treat as an interconnected whole.
  • 00:02:23
    So as I was saying, Chinese merchants crisscrossed Afro-Eurasia carrying goods to be bought and
  • 00:02:29
    sold en masse.
  • 00:02:31
    The result of this trade was an increasingly commercialized Chinese society.
  • 00:02:35
    And what that means is this.
  • 00:02:36
    For most of world history before this, people largely produced goods for their own use,
  • 00:02:39
    or at least for use in their home region.
  • 00:02:43
    Now, Chinese manufacturers began producing goods not for local consumption but for distant
  • 00:02:50
    markets.
  • 00:02:51
    As such, Chinese manufacturing flourished during this period.
  • 00:02:54
    For example, China’s production of iron around 1200 rivaled Europe’s iron production
  • 00:02:59
    in the 18th century.
  • 00:03:00
    But I get ahead of myself.
  • 00:03:01
    By the 11th century…
  • 00:03:03
    Okay, stop again.
  • 00:03:04
    When I say the 11th century, I mean the 1000s.
  • 00:03:06
    The 12th century is the 1100s.
  • 00:03:08
    The 13th century is the 1200s.
  • 00:03:11
    We good?
  • 00:03:12
    Okay, back to iron production.
  • 00:03:13
    By the 11th century, CHina’s iron industry, according to their meticulous records, was
  • 00:03:17
    producing 32,000 suits of armor and 16 million iron arrowheads, ANNUALLY.
  • 00:03:23
    And because Chinese commerce was expanding rapidly during this time, it also transformed
  • 00:03:28
    the role of money.
  • 00:03:29
    As the economy grew, there was not enough precious metal available for minting coins
  • 00:03:32
    to keep up with the demand.
  • 00:03:34
    And this led to the introduction of paper money, which soon became more popular than
  • 00:03:37
    minted coins.
  • 00:03:38
    And I’ve always wondered: who was the first guy to try to buy a bunch of stuff with paper?
  • 00:03:42
    All right, that’ll be four thousand gold coins.
  • 00:03:44
    Well, I don’t got no gold coins, but what I do have is this piece of paper.
  • 00:03:47
    Ima fight you.
  • 00:03:48
    Also during this period of technological innovation, the Chinese invented a new kind of boom boom
  • 00:03:52
    for the world: gunpowder.
  • 00:03:53
    It was actually an accidental discovery by some Daoist alchemists who were trying to
  • 00:03:57
    discover the elixir of immortality.
  • 00:04:00
    And one day when that mixture blew up in their faces, they knew they had discovered something
  • 00:04:04
    explosive.
  • 00:04:05
    Now despite what you may think, the CHinese didn’t immediately apply the use of gunpowder
  • 00:04:07
    to military contexts.
  • 00:04:09
    The first application was fireworks and pyrotechnic displays for the imperial court.
  • 00:04:15
    But eventually Song military leaders got wise, and realized as they watched the colorful
  • 00:04:18
    explosions in the sky, wait a minute, I wonder if we can use that stuff that blows up in
  • 00:04:23
    the sky to blow people up.
  • 00:04:25
    And, spoiler alert: the answer is yes, turns out they found a way to blow a lot of people
  • 00:04:29
    up with it.
  • 00:04:30
    And because China was sort of the grand poo-bah of this era, we should expect that their culture
  • 00:04:35
    and ideals would influence neighboring regions.
  • 00:04:36
    And wouldn’t you know it?
  • 00:04:37
    They did.
  • 00:04:38
    Let’s take Japan as an example.
  • 00:04:39
    Japan, being in close proximity to China, was always contending with the growing influence
  • 00:04:43
    of CHinese culture.
  • 00:04:44
    And the Japanese worked hard to form their own identity in order to keep from getting
  • 00:04:48
    swallowed whole by Chinese influence.
  • 00:04:50
    Even so, China’s influence was all over Japanese culture.
  • 00:04:53
    For example, here’s a picture of the architecture in Japan’s capital city, Heian.
  • 00:04:58
    And here’s a picture of the architecture in China’s capital city, Chang’an.
  • 00:05:01
    I’m just kidding.
  • 00:05:03
    THAT’S Heian, and THAT’S Chang’an.
  • 00:05:04
    How did you not catch that?
  • 00:05:06
    The point is, as much as the Japanese tried to resist China’s influence, if you were
  • 00:05:09
    standing in Heian, it’d be hard to tell, at least according to the architecture, whether
  • 00:05:12
    you were in Japan or China.
  • 00:05:14
    Now let’s briefly talk religion.
  • 00:05:16
    Because China was at the crossroads of major trade highways, there was a significant fusion
  • 00:05:20
    of religion and cultural influences.
  • 00:05:22
    As such, China not only influenced other regions, but was itself influenced.
  • 00:05:27
    Maybe one of the most significant influences was Buddhism.
  • 00:05:30
    Buddhism, of course, came to China from India.
  • 00:05:32
    But new forms of Buddhism found their way into China along trade routes.
  • 00:05:36
    A Vietnamese form of Buddhism known as Mahayana Buddhism was among the most significant.
  • 00:05:41
    Now Buddhism in its original form was strictly atheistic.
  • 00:05:44
    But the Mahayana form of it had transformed into a religion consisting of many deities,
  • 00:05:49
    veneration of relics, and multiple heavens and hells.
  • 00:05:52
    And as merchants from Vietnam carried this new form of Buddhism into China, it found
  • 00:05:56
    many willing converts.
  • 00:05:57
    Okay, so to sum everything up: China’s huge population PLUS their strong agricultural
  • 00:06:02
    base PLUS their innovations in manufacturing made Song China the wealthiest empire on the
  • 00:06:07
    planet.
  • 00:06:08
    But a common language PLUS Confucian ideals PLUS a culture with deep roots made China
  • 00:06:13
    the most unified nation on the planet.
  • 00:06:15
    And probably the biggest take-away from all of this is: Don’t mess with China.
Etiquetas
  • Song Dynasty
  • China
  • world history
  • Confucianism
  • trade
  • commerce
  • Buddhism
  • gunpowder
  • culture
  • Zhao Kuangyin