Important People Places, Things from HIS 382 Lecture Materials

 

Lecture 1-2

Taklimakan: great desert of Central Asia that occupies the central part of the China’s Tarim Basin. The desert area extends about 600 miles long, 260 miles at its greatest width, and has a total area of approximately 105,000 square miles. The Taklimakan desert is flanked by the Tian Shan mountains in the north, the Kunlun mountains in the south, and the Pamirs in the west (Encyclopedia Britannica).

 

Kashgar (Kashi): oasis city in the Uighur Autonomous Region of China’s Xinjiang province, located at the western end of the Tarim Basin near the foot on the Pamir mountains.

 

 

 

Lecture 1-3

 

Alexander the Great (356 - 332 BCE): king of Macedonia who overthrew the Persian empire and led a series on military and political conquests through Central Asia and northern India.

 

Qin (221–206 BCE): dynasty that established the first great Chinese empire.

 

Han (206 BCE– 220 CE): China’s second great dynasty, and the period during which the Silk Road was fully established.

 

Tang (618–907): the third great unified Chinese dynasty, which early on encouraged trade and cultural contact with other peoples along the Silk Road, but would turn from this cosmopolitan attitude after the An Lushan Rebellion of 755.

 

Yuan (1206–1368): the Chinese dynasty founded by the nomadic Mongols. The Yuan dynasty was part of a Mongol empire that reached throughout most of Asia to eastern Europe.

 

Lecture 2-1

 

Mandate of Heaven: the ancient Chinese political belief that Heaven gave the ruler (the Son of Heaven) the authority to govern universally (“all under Heaven”), as long as that ruler governs justly.

 

Lecture 3-1

 

Han Wudi (r. 141-87 BCE): The “Martial Emperor," who both brought Confucianism into the court and greatly expanded territorial boundaries.

 

Dong Zhongshu (c. 179-c. 104 BCE): Scholar at the court of Han Wudi, who described in his writing the central tenets of Statecraft Confucianism by emphasizing the interactive moral relationship of Man and Heaven.

 

 

Lecture 3-2

 

Xiongnu: several nomadic peoples who at the end of the 3rd century BCE joined in tribal alliances and so were able to control a large part of Central Asia for more than 500 years. Successive Chinese imperial courts’ battles with the Xiongnu led to the Chinese exploration and conquest of Central Asia.  Many scholars contend that the Xiongnu were the “Huns,” who terrorized the Roman empire through the 5th century; however, this matter requires further study.

 

Maodun (Modun) (d. 174 BCE): the steppe leader who in 209 BCE rallied various tribes (collectively know as the Xiongnu) into a powerful federation to challenge the Han dynasty’s control of China’s northern frontier.

 

Zhang Qian (d. 133 BCE): envoy of Han Wudi’s court who opened the first Silk Road exchanges between the Han and the Western Region, and brought back China’s first detailed knowledge of Central Asia and its peoples after several extended trips.

 

Bacteria (ca. 1500 BCE- 1st cent. CE): the Greek name for the ancient kingdom located in what is now northern Afghanistan, southern Uzbekistan, and Tajikistan. The Chinese name for the kingdom was the “Great Xia (Da Xia).”

 

Yuezhi: Chinese name for the ancient Central Asian people from the Tarim Basin region.  Zhang Qian sought out these people as possible allies against the expanding Xiongnu empire.  From these peoples came the founders of the Kushan empire.

 

Xuanzang (602-664): Chinese Buddhist monk, who during the early Tang dynasty traveled to India in search of Buddhist scriptures. Upon returning to China he translated more than a thousand rolls of Buddhist sutras (teachings) from Sanskrit.  Xuanzang also wrote an account of his journey, which would become a celebrated description of central Asia at the Chinese court.

 

Lecture 4-1

 

Changan: Modern Xian in central China.  Changan was the capital of both the Western Han (206 BCE- 8 CE) and the early Tang dynasty.

 

Dunhuang (4th-14th century): a trading center and site of Buddhist monastic center, Dunhuang also hosts 492 caves carved in a gravel cliff that are full of wall paintings and painted sculptures.

 

Northern Wei Dynasty (386-535): dynasty established in north China by the Xian Bei, a nomadic tribal group.

 

Six Dynasties (317-589): a series of kingdoms established by descendents of the Han elite driven out of the north in the aftermath of the Han dynasty’s collapse.

 

Turfan: oasis town located in the east of the province, and on the northern border of the Taklamakan Desert to the south of the Tian Shan Mountains.

 

Karakhoja (Gaochang): trading city and site of Chinese military garrison, located to the east of modern-day Turfan.  The garrison was established in the early Han dynasty, but fell in and out of Chinese control through the Tang dynasty.

 

Samarkand: major trading oasis town at the center of the area once called Sogdiana, the leading Silk Road trading power from the 3rd century until the Mongol invasion of the region in the 13th century.

 

Lecture 4-2

 

Hindu Kush: the high mountain range on the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

 

Gandhara: name of an ancient kingdom and its capital in eastern Afghanistan.

 

Kushan: the kingdom founded after the division of Bactria in the 2nd century BCE by the conquering Yuezhi people. Kushan rulers became wealthy and powerful from centuries of trade with the west, particularly during the Roman empire. After the rise of the Sasanian dynasty (224–651 CE) in Iran, Kushan power and influence declined (Encyclopedia Britannica).

 

Kanishka (c. 78 CE- 144): Kushan ruler, who raised the Kushan kingdom to its height of regional influence.

 

Asoka (c. 272 BCE-232 BCE): great Indian ruler of the Maurya Empire, who promoted Buddhism throughout his realm after his earliest campaigns of military conquest.

 

2nd Graded Quiz Monday 2/6

Lecture 5-1

 

Zoroaster (Zarathrustra) (fl. between1400-1000 BCE): the ancient Persian prophet, who wrote of a good spirit (Ormuzd) and an opposing evil spirit (Ahriman or Angra Mainyu).

 

 

Ardashir (226-241): the early Sassanian ruler, under whom Zoroastrianism briefly served as the state religion of the Sassanian empire (224- 651).

 

 

Lecture 5-2

 

Nestorius (? - ca.451): popular Christian leader, who garnered a large following in Constantinople. In 431 Nestorius was condemned by the Council of Ephesus for teaching that divine and human persons remained separate in the incarnate Christ.

 

Mani (216-277): Born to Parthian (Persian) parents in ancient Iraq and died in prison, following his arrest under orders from the Sassanian religious establishment

. Mani contended that two natures existed in all things: light (spirit) and darkness (matter).

 

Lecture 6-1

 

Gautama Siddhartha (ca. 563-483 BC): the professed founder of Buddhism

, who was born a prince near modern-day border of northern India and Nepal.

 

Dharma: the teachings of the Buddha.

 

Sangha: community of believers in Buddhism.

 

Theravada (“Lesser Vehicle” or Hinayana): school of Buddhism that predominated in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia with a stronger focus on good works in the community.

 

Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”): school of Buddhism that spread in East Asia with a strong focus on self-cultivation and faith.

 

King Asoka (c. 272 BCE-232 BCE): third monarch of the Indian Mauryan dynasty (321
to 185 BCE), who converted to Buddhism after a series of wars of conquest. 

 

Lecture 6-2

 

Avalokitesvara: the male Bodhisattva, famed for his mercy, which shifted gradually to female form Guanyin when Buddhism settled in China.

 

Lecture 7-1

 

Mecca: ancient trade city, located today in Saudi Arabia 50 miles inland from the Red Sea, which flourished as a site of pre-Islamic and Islamic pilgrimage.

 

 Muhammad bin Abdullah (ca. 570-632): merchant born in Mecca, who would compile the earliest teachings of the Islamic faith.

 

Lecture 8-1

(no new terms)

 

Lecture 8-2

(no new terms)

 

Lecture 9-1

Genghis Khan (1167-1227): steppe leader who was recognized as the first supreme ruler of the Mongol people from 1206-1227.

 

Ogodei (r. 1229-41): Mongol leader who inherited largest part of father's empire while his three brothers ruled Turkestan, Russia, and Persia. His armies nearly advanced into Western Europe at his death in 1241.

 

Khubilai Khan (1215-94): the supreme Mongol leader, who moved the capital from Mongolia to Beijing in 1264.

 

Lecture 10-1

 

Timur (Tamerlane) (1336–1405): Turkic-Mongol founder of the Timurid Empire (1370–1405) in Central Asia, which survived until 1506.

 

Lecture 10-2

 

Zhu Yuanzhang (r. 1368-98): founder of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644).

 

Zheng He (1371-1433): admiral in charge of the Star Fleet voyages.

 

 

Lecture 11-1

Funan (fl. 3rd cent.): pre-Angkor Indianized kingdom located around the Mekong delta, probably established by Mon-Khmer settlers.  At its height of trading power, Funan extended as far south as Malaysia and as far west as Burma.

 

Zhenla (ca. 550-715): early Khmer state. Originally a vassal state of Funan, Zhenla emerged as a competing trading power, and eventually controlled an area that is now northern Cambodia and southern Laos.

 

Sri Vijaya (3rd cent. – ca. 1400): ancient Malay kingdom on the island of Sumatra, which influenced much of the Malay Archipelago.

 

Majapahit (1293 – 1525): Indianized kingdom in eastern Java and ruled much of the southern Malay Peninsula, Borneo, Sumatra, Bali, and the Philippines.

 

Lecture 12-1

 

(No new terms)

 

Lecture 13-1

 

Bugis: a maritime trading people originally from Sulawesi (Celebes) in the Indonesian archipelago.

 

Lecture 13-2

 

Marco Polo (1254?-1324): Venetian trader and adventurer, who traveled between Europe and Asia from 1271 to1295.

 

Ibn Battuta (1304-1377): a Moroccan student of Islamic law, who in 1325 set out on a trip to visit and seek work in almost the entire Muslim world.

 

Lecture 14-1

(no new terms)

 

Lecture 14-2

 

Manila Galleon:  the twice annual voyages of vessels laden with silver from South American mines via Acapulco (Mexico) to Manila, capital of the Spanish colonial Philippines.