A Chinese History Quiz

[Knight-Dragon]

Well, it's been a very long time since I last posted a quiz. So to complement Vrylakas' recent one, here's mine. 12 questions; from memory, so the answers might be off by a little.

1) The Mongols overran Xixia and also the Jin empire in North China relatively quickly. However, they would take about a generation to conquer the last of the three feuding kingdoms within China proper, the Southern Song. Why and in the end, how?

2) The Ming dynasty originally had its capital at Nanjing, which is in the Lower Yangzi, which in turn was the original power base of the Hongwu emperor when he founded the dynasty. Why was the capital eventually moved to Beijing later? Answered

3) The Manchus organized their military assets in the form of Banners. What were these and how many? Answered

4) When, how and why Buddhism took root in China, the only foreign religion to pervasively permeat all levels of the Chinese polity? Semi-answered

5) Why was the Tang so powerful militarily (at least in the beginning)?

6) Which was the first European power to sign a treaty with China? What treaty was this? Answered

7) Why and how did the Qin dynasty manage to unify the Chinese and form the first great Chinese empire? Answered

8) How did the Silk Road begin?

9) Who or what was Xixia (or Hsi-hsia)? Answered

10) Why did the Sui collapse?

11) The first emperor of the Song was a general in the preceding Eastern Zhou dynasty. How did he become emperor and consolidate imperial rule? Answered

12) The Song would make a major devastating error during the waning days of their arch-enemy, the Qidan Liao (which would be repeated again later ). What was this error? Answered

Good luck!

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
4) When, how and why Buddhism took root in China, the only foreign religion to pervasively permeat all levels of the Chinese polity?

IIRC, 4th century BC? Whenever it happened, monks from India spread the teaching to southeastern china, whence it was adopted and spread further afield by the chinese themselves. I don't remember much about why it was adopted; It was not counter to already predominant beliefs, yet added new layers of concepts about the afterlife and purpose that had appeal.

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
7) Why and how did the Qin dynasty manage to unify the Chinese and form the first great Chinese empire?

I used to know this, but sadly have long since forgotten...

 

[Kublai-Khan]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
Well, it's been a very long time since I last posted a quiz. So to complement Vrylakas' recent one, here's mine. 12 questions; from memory, so the answers might be off by a little.

1) The Mongols overran Xixia and also the Jin empire in North China relatively quickly. However, they would take about a generation to conquer the last of the three feuding kingdoms within China proper, the Southern Song. Why and in the end, how?

2) The Ming dynasty originally had its capital at Nanjing, which is in the Lower Yangzi, which in turn was the original power base of the Hongwu emperor when he founded the dynasty. Why was the capital eventually moved to Beijing later?

3) The Manchus organized their military assets in the form of Banners. What were these and how many?

4) When, how and why Buddhism took root in China, the only foreign religion to pervasively permeat all levels of the Chinese polity?

5) Why was the Tang so powerful militarily (at least in the beginning)?

6) Which was the first European power to sign a treaty with China? What treaty was this?

7) Why and how did the Qin dynasty manage to unify the Chinese and form the first great Chinese empire?

8) How did the Silk Road begin?

9) Who or what was Xixia (or Hsi-hsia)?

10) Why did the Sui collapse?

11) The first emperor of the Song was a general in the preceding Eastern Zhou dynasty. How did he become emperor and consolidate imperial rule?

12) The Song would make a major devastating error during the waning days of their arch-enemy, the Qidan Liao (which would be repeated again later ). What was this error?

Good luck!

2)It was moved because it allowed them to keep an eye better over the mongols and stepp barbarians.

6)Portugal, I guess.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Sodak
4) When, how and why Buddhism took root in China, the only foreign religion to pervasively permeat all levels of the Chinese polity?

IIRC, 4th century BC? Whenever it happened, monks from India spread the teaching to southeastern china, whence it was adopted and spread further afield by the chinese themselves. I don't remember much about why it was adopted; It was not counter to already predominant beliefs, yet added new layers of concepts about the afterlife and purpose that had appeal.

Nope, not the 4th century BC. It was much later. Actually I wasn't too sure myself why way did Buddhism spread within China but that wasn't the answer I am looking for.

7) Why and how did the Qin dynasty manage to unify the Chinese and form the first great Chinese empire?

I used to know this, but sadly have long since forgotten...

Then this'll be a good time to refresh your memory.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Kublai-Khan
2) The Ming dynasty originally had its capital at Nanjing, which is in the Lower Yangzi, which in turn was the original power base of the Hongwu emperor when he founded the dynasty. Why was the capital eventually moved to Beijing later?

2)It was moved because it allowed them to keep an eye better over the mongols and stepp barbarians.

That was one of the benefits of moving the capital to Beijing, but not the actual cause.

6) Which was the first European power to sign a treaty with China? What treaty was this?

6)Portugal, I guess.

Nope. It was the only European power recognized as a potential threat, right fr the point of contact, by the Chinese.

 

[Kublai-Khan]

Chinese names are very difficult to remember!

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Kublai-Khan
Chinese names are very difficult to remember!

This comment is in relation to? Anyways, I think European surnames are as hard to remember. Esp East European ones.....

 

[Kublai-Khan]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
This comment is in relation to? Anyways, I think European surnames are as hard to remember. Esp East European ones.....

Excuse me, it was a logical gap.

I bought a short book during my vacation about the history of China from the beginning to the consolidation of the qin dinasty.
And I remember most of the historical events but none of the names.

Anyway, this was like 5 months ago.

I would look at it just to remember the names but it would be cheating.
I thnk that it would be a good idea to reread it.



I guess that it is a matter of getting used to the names.

I have a eastern european surname

 

[Knight-Dragon]

If you'd notice, I never once mention any Chinese person's name in my questions or require any in the answers. I'm asking some pretty general broad-range questions.

 

[Archbob]

7) Simple, they conquered the other 6 kingdoms and finally united china. The first qin was the first "emperor", before that, they were all "kings".

 

[Archbob]

11) This one is actually a famous story in chinese history "chen qiao bin bian" or others call it "huang pao jia shin" . Basically because the Later Zhou emperor was still a kid at this time and the people under General Song(Zhao quan ying) knew that they would no get credit if they fought for a kid so they threw a dragon robe on General Song and he became king.

Now the next story "Taking powers from officials during a whine banquet"

 

[Richard III]

Re: Question 4, it was closer to the fifth and sixth century AD. Chinese travellers reached India, learned about Bhuddism and mistook it for a variant of Taoism. Effectively, China adopted Bhuddism because the first Chinese to encounter it believed it wasn't foreign at all.

It was only after translations of the Tripitaka and other works were made that the differences began to emerge clearly enough to force Chinese thinkers to adopt and modify the religon to create a distinct Chinese strain of Bhuddism.

I just finished writing a chunk of a book on Chinese printing, and those guys sure printed the hell out of Bhuddist scriptures. Bhuddism isn't very concise, is it?

Counter questions:

Who invented movable type printing in China, how many years before Gutenberg did he invent it, and what did he make the typeset out of?

R.III

 

[mcdh]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon
[B
12) The Song would make a major devastating error during the waning days of their arch-enemy, the Qidan Liao (which would be repeated again later ). What was this error?
[/B]

Song allied with Jin and destroyed Liao, but Jin got most of the Jin's lands. Later Song made the same mistake to ally with Mongols against Jin. And finally the Mongols conqured Song and built Yuan Dynasty.

 

[mcdh]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon

2) The Ming dynasty originally had its capital at Nanjing, which is in the Lower Yangzi, which in turn was the original power base of the Hongwu emperor when he founded the dynasty. Why was the capital eventually moved to Beijing later?

After Hongwu Emperor died, his grandson inherited the empire and became the emperor. However, the Price Zhu Di, who garisoned at Beijing to watch on the Mongols, rebelled and later defeated the new emperor. So Zhu Di became the third emporor of Ming, and had capital at Beijing, which was his base.

Another advantage of having beijing as capital was to watch on the Mongols, which was mentioned by Kublai-khan. Also, because most of the army was stationed at northern border, Zhu Di wouldn't trust any generals to lead those army. It was better for the emporor himself to be nearby to keep an eye on the generals, rather than thousands miles away.

 

[mcdh]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon

3) The Manchus organized their military assets in the form of Banners. What were these and how many?

Manchus divided their people into banners, and each banner was both an army unit and an administrative unit. There were originally four banners, and later four more were added.

 

[mcdh]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon

6) Which was the first European power to sign a treaty with China? What treaty was this?

My guess is Russian, the treaty of Nibuchu (Nerchinsk)?

 

[mcdh]

Originally posted by Knight-Dragon

9) Who or what was Xixia (or Hsi-hsia)?

Xixia was a country of Dangxiang people, at the northwest of Song, (in today's Gansu province.) Xixia, Liao, and Song fought each other for many years. Xixia was conqured by the Mongols.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Fallen Angel Lord
7)Why and how did the Qin dynasty manage to unify the Chinese and form the first great Chinese empire?

Simple, they conquered the other 6 kingdoms and finally united china. The first qin was the first "emperor", before that, they were all "kings".

I am querying what were the causes behind it. Why the Qin and not the Chu e.g. (which was very much larger and more populous)?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Fallen Angel Lord
11) The first emperor of the Song was a general in the preceding Eastern Zhou dynasty. How did he become emperor and consolidate imperial rule?

This one is actually a famous story in chinese history "chen qiao bin bian" or others call it "huang pao jia shin" . Basically because the Later Zhou emperor was still a kid at this time and the people under General Song(Zhao quan ying) knew that they would no get credit if they fought for a kid so they threw a dragon robe on General Song and he became king.

Now the next story "Taking powers from officials during a whine banquet"

Yup, that's about it. General Zhao was woken up one morning while on the campaign trail by his officers, donned with the imperial robe and practically forced to be emperor.

Realizing his own precarious rise to power, he later persuaded his officers (who were now powerful lords of the land) to retire with riches and left him to consolidate his power unchallenged.

The theme of the Song had always being strong civilian control over the military; hence its military weakness vis-a-vis the surrounding barbarian kingdoms. The Song purposely weakened the frontier forces so as not to risk the rise of a potential rebellion threat fr there (bearing in mind the example fr An Lushan's {a frontier commander} rebellion during the peak of the Tang).

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Richard III
4) When, how and why Buddhism took root in China, the only foreign religion to pervasively permeat all levels of the Chinese polity?

Re: Question 4, it was closer to the fifth and sixth century AD. Chinese travellers reached India, learned about Bhuddism and mistook it for a variant of Taoism. Effectively, China adopted Bhuddism because the first Chinese to encounter it believed it wasn't foreign at all.

It was only after translations of the Tripitaka and other works were made that the differences began to emerge clearly enough to force Chinese thinkers to adopt and modify the religon to create a distinct Chinese strain of Bhuddism.

The dates are correct. But I didn't know about the mistake part. Not really the answer I'm thinking of.

To clarify my question, why Buddhism found such a receptive audience in China at this time.

I just finished writing a chunk of a book on Chinese printing, and those guys sure printed the hell out of Bhuddist scriptures. Bhuddism isn't very concise, is it?

They still print them much nowadays.