Deck 9: China: Imperial Unification and Perfecting the Moral Order, 722 B.C.E-618 C.E

Question 1

The quotation, "If Your Majesty says, 'How may I profit my kingdom,' the great officers will say, 'How may we profit our families'," is attributed to:

A) Confucius
B) Mencius
C) King Hui of Liang
D) Lao Tzu

Answer 1

B

Question 2

All of the following is true of the Chinese historian Sima Qian EXCEPT:

A) He followed in his father's profession.
B) He was determined to relay the truth about events and people no matter the cost.
C) He chose castration over death so he could finish writing his history.
D) He condemned a court favorite by calling him an ineffective administrator and a coward.

Answer 2

D

Question 3

The following statements are true of Confucianism EXCEPT:

A) From the time of the Han Dynasty, Mencius's interpretation of Confucianism has been predominant.
B) Confucianism was firmly planted in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam as well.
C) Confucianism has been a strong influence on the governmental and bureaucratic systems of China.
D) Confucian ideology has been uniformly practical, never straying into abstractions.

Answer 3

D

Question 4

From the time of the Han, the position of Chinese women was affected by all of the following EXCEPT:

A) The imposition of Legalistic works, which depicted women as weak and in need of strong male supervision.
B) The emphasis on filial piety in the new Confucian curriculum.
C) A society that was generally becoming increasingly hierarchical and patriarchal.
D) A belief that women's education should center on the domestic virtues.

Question 5

Many of the brilliant innovations of Chinese intellectual and cultural history arose:

A) During the political and social turmoil of the late Zhou era.
B) During the powerful and peaceful span of the Han dynasty.
C) Out of the Legalistic approach of the Sui dynasty.
D) From the drive toward empire.

Question 6

In the view of Han Fei and Li Si:

A) The sole duty of the royal court and the emperor was to protect and assure the well-being of the populace.
B) Soldiers are the lowest ranked members of society, with Confucian scholars at the top of the hierarchy, followed by peasants, then artisans, and finally military personnel.
C) The state was all-important, and all subjects must serve the state through productive activities.
D) Everyone can be led to virtue by the good example of leaders and a strict, but gentle, firmness.

Question 7

The periods of the Former Han dynasty and the Latter Han dynasty were separated by:

A) A brief period when the Xiongnu captured the capital, Chang'an.
B) A period of civil war when there was no official emperor.
C) The rule of Wang Mang, a relative of the Han family who seized power.
D) The "Red Eyebrow" revolt.

Question 8

The Northern Wei and the Sui dynasties:

A) Were formed by members of Mongolian peoples known as the Toba.
B) Were members of lineages originating in eastern China.
C) Kept themselves separate from common Chinese families.
D) Were reluctant to take advantage of new military tactics.

Question 9

All of the statements below are true of the Daoist works attributed to Laozi EXCEPT:

A) There are similarities between it and Deutero-Isaiah.
B) There are similarities between it and the Zoroastrian reformers.
C) There are similarities between it and the Upanishad writers.
D) There are similarities between it and the works of Han Fei.

Question 10

All of the following were Chinese technologies EXCEPT:

A) The stirrup.
B) The compass.
C) The horse collar.
D) Double-level corkscrews.

Question 11

The work of Zhuang Zhou is an example of:

A) The Daoist tradition.
B) The Confucian tradition.
C) The Legalist tradition.
D) The impact of Christianity on China.

Question 12

The Tang dynasty:

A) Was the first foreign dynasty in a millennium.
B) Increased the size of China to its largest extent in history.
C) Was founded by a 16-year-old who placed his father on the throne for a few years.
D) Gave Daoists many privileges at the expense of Confucian and Buddhist scholars.

Question 13

The basic structure inherent in Confucianism is:

A) Egalitarian.
B) Hierarchical.
C) Based on the writings of the Han Emperor Wudi.
D) Flexible.

Question 14

The state that emerged triumphant from the Period of Warring States was:

A) The Zhou
B) The Latter Zhou
C) The Former Han
D) The Qin

Question 15

By the year 2 CE, the population of China had reached:

A) About 200 million.
B) Just under 60 million.
C) Almost 5 million.
D) Approximately 130 million.

Question 16

All of the following were important schools of Buddhism in China EXCEPT:

A) Amida
B) Tiantai
C) Chan
D) Zen

Question 17

Which of the following most accurately lists the persons in the order of their birth?

A) Laozi, Han Fei, the First Emperor, Confucius, Mencius.
B) The First Emperor, Han Fei, Confucius, Mencius, Laozi.
C) Laozi, Confucius, Mencius, Han Fei, the First Emperor.
D) Laozi, Confucius, Han Fei, Mencius, the First Emperor.

Question 18

All of the following statements about the Dao are true EXCEPT:

A) Most Chinese philosophical schools accepted the concept of the Dao as the ordering principle of the universe.
B) Confucians generally believe that study and self-cultivation can put individuals in tune with the Dao.
C) Followers of the Daoist tradition attributed to Laozi the belief that Confucianism obscures understanding of the Dao.
D) There are records of intense debates between Laozi and Confucius.

Question 19

Problems that arose during the Latter Han dynasty included all EXCEPT:

A) Peasants were burdened by excessive labor requirements.
B) Agricultural productivity declined because borderlands were lost.
C) A nomadic group called the Huns pressed against the northern border.
D) Internal strife within the royal family diminished Han control of outlying regions.

Question 20

The most severe philosophical school that emerged during the Warring States period was:

A) Legalism.
B) Maoism.
C) Crypto-Confucianism.
D) Shaolinism.

Question 21

The correct order for the events or eras listed below is:

A) Spring and Autumn periods; Warring States period; Former Han dynasty; Sui dynasty.
B) Warring States period; Sui dynasty; Spring and Autumn periods; Former Han dynasty.
C) Sui dynasty; Former Han dynasty; Warring States period; Spring and Autumn periods.
D) Spring and Autumn periods; Former Han dynasty; Sui dynasty; Warring States period.

Question 22

In the opinion of the text writer, what was the longest lasting impact of the rule of the First Emperor?

A) He had brought order China through the implementation of harsh penalties for non-obedience.
B) He had established the fundamental pattern for Chinese imperial government.
C) He had standardized Chinese writing so that people across the empire could communicate.
D) He had created the roadways and canals that unified the Chinese mainland.

Question 23

The philosophical system known as "the Han Synthesis":

A) Is basically Confucianism divorced from the idea of reciprocity.
B) Is now viewed by scholars as less straightforward than previously believed.
C) Sets out the proper role of bureaucrats and commoners, but does not address the expectations of the emperor.
D) Shows a philosophical growth away from superstitious notions like the "Mandate of Heaven."

Question 24

As a member of the growing shi class of well-to-do, educated commoners and lower aristocracy, Confucius _____________.

A) Easily found employment in his native state of Lu and far beyond.
B) Argued that whatever the shi class maintained to be moral was actually moral.
C) Advocated the "well-field" system as a means of ensuring crop surpluses and equality among peasant cultivators.
D) Sought a position as political adviser to the courts of several states, but was largely unsuccessful.

Question 25

The emphasis on filial piety as a central virtue was strengthened by

A) Acceptance of a hereditary imperial line
B) Changes to inheritance law
C) Restrictions on women's freedoms
D) Preference for boy children

Question 26

Mencius used water as a metaphor to illustrate:

A) The destructive power of untrammeled emotions to flood one's life.
B) The impossibility of stepping into the same river twice.
C) The tendency of a person's nature to freeze in place, like a block of ice.
D) The importance of allowing behavior to flow naturally, and not be blocked by artificial constructions.

Question 27

The Mengzi is written in more of a narrative form than the Analects and is supplemented by:

A) Sample calligraphy in order to perfect the characters of Chinese writing.
B) Parables and stories.
C) Aphorisms and pithy sayings that distill Confucian philosophy.
D) Commands from the gods that reinforce its directives.

Question 28

The Legalists argued that all subjects must serve the state through productive activities, and that the highest priorities of the state were agriculture and _________.

A) Construction projects
B) Fostering philosophical speculation
C) Military service
D) The silk industry

Question 29

The Confucian Dao, dealing with the particulars of this world, differed from the Daoist Dao in that ___________.

A) It is beyond all dualities and unifies them in a great oscillating whole.
B) It could be named.
C) It was more similar to the relationship between atman and Brahman in Indian philosophy.
D) Pointed out a "way" that would ultimately lead to suffering.

Question 30

The Emperor Cheng:

A) Practiced a lenient policy regarding scholars and intellectuals, promoting a renaissance of learning in his domains.
B) Left the disciplining of his opponents to the rulers of the individual states of his empire.
C) Openly wished he could hire Confucius, or a Confucian student, as his principal advisor.
D) Demanded that any literature not officially sanctioned by his government be destroyed.

Question 31

Once the First Emperor died, Minister Li Si ______.

A) Kept his death a secret in order to rule as regent for the monarch's son.
B) Presided over an elaborate bonfire of Cheng's body, over a pile of his favorite Confucian books.
C) Took power in his place, executing the members of the monarch's immediate family.
D) Ordered the demolition of the Great Wall that had proved so costly to the empire's subjects.

Question 32

In order to defend the empire's northern and western boundaries and trade routes, Wudi did all of the following except:

A) Extend the Great Wall begun by the Qin.
B) Encourage people to move to areas along the northern and western borders of the empire.
C) Made diplomatic efforts, offering nomadic raiders food and other necessary supplies.
D) Launched an invasion of Siberia.

Question 33

Throughout the Three Kingdoms period in the ____________ and afterward, the aim of reconstituting the empire was always present.

A) First century CE
B) Third century CE
C) First century BCE
D) Seventh century CE

Question 34

Around the beginning of the first century CE the first attempts at saddles with straps for supporting a rider's feet began to appear in _________.

A) The Western Roman Empire
B) Central China
C) Northern India
D) Southeast Asia

Question 35

For a period in the late seventh and early eighth centuries CE __________ became the established state religion, under the remarkable Empress Wu Zetian.

A) Buddhism
B) Confucianism
C) Legalism
D) Christianity

Question 36

By the time of the late Han, China's old aristocracy had largely died out, its place at the top of the social hierarchy assumed by the so-called _________.

A) Mou-distributors
B) Merchant-oligarchy
C) Proto-porcelains
D) Scholar-gentry

Question 37

Among the innovations that made China the world leader in agricultural productivity until the eighteenth century CE was the fengche, a ____________.

A) Specially bred form of draft animal.
B) Hand-cranked winnowing machine that separated the chaff from the grain.
C) Foot-powered chain pump for irrigation.
D) System of crop rotation that ensured that the topsoil would be preserved.

Question 38

The chief treatise on government in the Han era, the Huainan zi, characterized the emperor as:

A) The first among equal regional administrators.
B) A leader who was responsible to the people who had elected him.
C) An intermediary between heaven, humankind, and earth.
D) A philosopher whose primary duty was to produce a poem every year.

Question 39

The male and female members of the _______ family pioneered the writing of dynastic history in the first century CE with the Hanshu (The History of the Former Han).

A) Ban
B) Han
C) Wu
D) Kong

Question 40

An influential _________ school in China was the Tiantai, centered on the scripture of the Lotus Sutra.

A) Confucian
B) Mencian
C) Daoist
D) Buddhist

Question 41

The three disciplines related to the emergence of the Chinese concept of aesthetics were painting, poetry, and _________.

A) Astronomy
B) Philosophy
C) Calligraphy
D) Music

Question 42

Yang Zhu taught this since life was short and death inevitable, people should _________

A) Take what enjoyment they can while they can.
B) Retire to a farm and practice the "well-field" system.
C) Practice self-denial and become itinerant teachers.
D) Perpetuate their memory by having as many children as possible.

Question 43

Mo Di taught that the only humane way to approach the world was to regard _______

A) All Confucian philosophy as an impediment to material progress.
B) Animals as the reincarnated spirits of one's ancestors and refrain from eating them.
C) Non-Chinese as potentially more enlightened, even though they lived across the Wall.
D) All people as members of one's own family.

Question 44

The historical Confucius is an elusive figure, but he appears to have been born to the Kong family in _____________.

A) 651 BCE
B) 851 BCE
C) 551 BCE
D) 351 BCE

Question 45

Confucius presented his teachings in the Lunyu or __________, arguing that human society was a perfectable moral order.

A) Analects
B) The Book of Mencius
C) The Art of War
D) Admonitions for Women

Question 46

Confucius described ___________ as "what you would not want for yourself, do not do to others."

A) The Lex Talionis
B) The Golden Rule
C) The Way
D) Reciprocity

Question 47

The _________ was, according to Confucius, the "superior man" or "gentleman" who behaves in accordance with the highest ethical and moral standards.

A) Fuzi
B) Junzi
C) Tao Te Ching
D) Renxu

Question 48

According to Mencius, a ruler who abused or neglected his subjects upset the social order and ______________.

A) The natural tendency of people toward revolt.
B) The natural tendency of people toward self-enlightenment.
C) The natural tendency of people toward good.
D) The natural tendency of people toward social advancement.

Question 49

Since __________ like Han Fei and Li Si believed that compliance on small matters led to compliance on larger ones, they imposed harsh punishments for even the tiniest infractions.

A) Legalists
B) Daoists
C) Buddhists
D) Wudists

Question 50

A classic tale that expresses an aspect of Daoist thought is the story of the philosopher Zhuang Zhou, who awoke from a dream unsure of _______________

A) Whether everything was an illusion created as a sort of "matrix".
B) Whether he had dreamed he was a butterfly or whether he was a butterfly dreaming he was Zhuang Zhou.
C) Whether it was wise to contemplate on opposites and paradoxes.
D) Whether the symbols contained in a dream provided insight into the subconscious.

Question 51

In 221 BCE, the Qin ruler _______ proclaimed himself Qin Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of the Qin.

A) Li Si
B) Wang Meng
C) Cheng
D) Xunzi

Question 52

Among the projects initiated by the First Emperor were all of the following except:

A) The building of the Great Wall
B) The standardization of weights, measures, and coinage
C) The provision of a copy of the Analects to every young boy in the empire
D) The construction of a mammoth tomb complex for himself at Xi'an

Question 53

Unlike earlier rulers, the Han leader Liu Bang, who had taken the reign name Gaozu (r. 202-195 BCE), had been a(n) _________.

A) Peasant
B) Aristocrat
C) Descendant of Confucius
D) Legalist

Question 54

Wudi drove his armies into central Asia, where he established a lucrative trade with the peoples there, and again into northern ________ and Korea, extending Han rule into those areas.

A) Burma
B) Japan
C) Vietnam
D) Malaysia

Question 55

The ________ proved so effective that by the fifth century CE the armies of all the Chinese states had adopted and refined the technology, paving the way for the Sui reunification in 589.

A) Gunpowder
B) Proto-porcelain
C) Armillary sphere
D) Stirrup

Question 56

By the second century CE, bolts of silk with standardized designs were _________.

A) Designed for strictly domestic consumption
B) Produced for export, particularly to Persia and Rome
C) Encoded with messages advocating land redistribution
D) Produced by hand, with no machinery to aid to the process

Question 57

The Tang continued the policy of land redistribution begun during the brief Sui dynasty by allotting each peasant family a tract of 100 mou, _________ of which was inheritable, while the remainder reverted to the state for redistribution.

A) One-third
B) Two-thirds
C) One-half
D) One-fifth

Question 58

The __________ was the name given to a series of overland trade routes that connected eastern and western Eurasia, beginning at the end of the fourth century BCE.

A) Porcelain Path
B) Dao, or Way
C) Silk Road
D) Iron Express

Question 59

Although some elite women achieved prominence in intellectual pursuits, like the _______ Ban Zhao (48-116 CE), women's education centered primarily on cultivating the domestic virtues of devotion and obedience.

A) Historian
B) Courtesan
C) Empress
D) Silk merchant

Question 60

___________ (145-86 BCE) offended the powerful Emperor Wudi in his histories by exonerating a general whom the emperor and the court had accused of cowardice.

A) Ban Gu
B) Hui Neng
C) Xuan Zang
D) Sima Qian

Question 61

The travels of Xuan Zang (596-664 CE) to ________ were later immortalized in the popular collection of fabulous tales called A Journey to the West.

A) India
B) Persia
C) Egypt
D) Rome

Question 62

In 134 CE, Zhang Heng devised what was perhaps the world's first practical ___________.

A) Bicycle
B) Water-powered loom
C) Lacquer for porcelain
D) Earthquake detector

Question 63

While scholars agree that women's roles deteriorated in some respects, there were also times when they exercised considerable freedom and influence, such as during the ________ period.

A) Warring States
B) Qin
C) Sui
D) Tang