Deck 12: Contrasting Patterns in India, China, and Inner Asia, 600-1600 C.E

Question 1

In 1280 Khubilai Khan proclaimed the _________ dynasty.

A) Yuan
B) Ming
C) Xia
D) Han

Answer 1

A

Question 2

The need for bureaucratic and socioeconomic reform spurred the Song official ________________ to propose a series of initiatives aimed at increasing state control over the economy and reducing the power of local interests.

A) Ouyang Xiu
B) Su Dongpo
C) Sima Guang
D) Wang Anshi

Answer 2

D

Question 3

With the arrival of the Song dynasty, China would become a religious civilization in which its people reemphasized the indigenous traditions of _______________________, with elements of Buddhism on a more reduced level.

A) Mazdaism and Zurvanism
B) Confucianism and Daoism
C) Jainism and Asceticism
D) Legalism and Maoism

Answer 3

B

Question 4

The most momentous invention to emerge from the Song era was:

A) Calligraphy
B) Porcelain.
C) Gunpowder.
D) Lacquer ware.

Question 5

After several centuries of southward expansion by Muslim sultanates in north and central India, a new Hindu state emerged in 1336 with the founding of the city of ____________ or "City of Victory."

A) Vijayanagar
B) Srivijaya
C) Kadaram
D) Mabappalam

Question 6

"Neo-Confucianism" was the name given to the new synthesis of official beliefs blending the ideas of:

A) Confucianism, Daoism, and Hinduism
B) Confucianism, Daoism, and Islam
C) Confucianism, Hinduism, and Islam
D) Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism

Question 7

___________________ is the man credited with founding the Muslim state of Delhi, which would later survive under the name of the "Sultanate of Delhi."

A) Ghengis Khan
B) Sultan Raziya
C) Mahmud of Ghazna
D) Muhammad of Ghur

Question 8

Like the Tang, the Song instituted a strong central government based on _______ rather than heredity.

A) obeisance
B) hierarchy
C) merit
D) nepotism

Question 9

The following was a characteristic feature of Tang poetry:

A) anisometric verse
B) blank verse
C) alliterative verse
D) five-character eight-line regulated verse

Question 10

The widow of a ruler in a monarchical or imperial system in which succession is normally through the male line is referred to as a(n) _______________.

A) Lady-in-waiting
B) Concubine
C) Empress dowager
D) Heir apparent

Question 11

In 1398, one of the last great invasions of central Asian nomads under the leadership of ______, descended on northern India and southwest Asia.

A) Sultan Raziya
B) Timur
C) Genghis Khan
D) Guru Nanak

Question 12

The unification of various Mongol groups under ________, also known as Genghis Khan, led a steady invasion on China which, under his grandson Khubilai Khan, would ultimately bring an end to the Song Dynasty.

A) Yesugei Baghatur
B) Temujin
C) Belgutei
D) Timur-i-Lang

Question 13

While China boasted some of the world's largest cities, more than 85 percent of the country remained rural from the period from the Song to the Ming, with the __________________ at the top of the local structure of power and influence, a hierarchy reinforced by an array of sumptuary laws.

A) scholar-gentry
B) military leaders
C) religious leaders
D) wealthy merchant class

Question 14

Which of the following is not true of Sikhism?

A) It eventually became a peaceful non-confrontational faith.
B) It came about as an interchange between Muslim and Hindu religious traditions.
C) It emphasized a direct emotional experience with the divine.
D) It has been at odds with various Indian governments, even to the present.

Question 15

At the height of the __________ dynasty, Buddhist influence at the imperial court made China a Buddhist empire.

A) Qin
B) Shang
C) Tang
D) Xin

Question 16

While China fortified its borders and reinstated political systems that had been dismantled by the Mongols, it also had to contend with a sharp drop in population due to warfare and the lingering effects of ______________ that ravaged the country in the 1340s.

A) syphilis
B) bubonic plague
C) yellow fever
D) leprosy

Question 17

The "____________," a nickname given to Zhu, took the imperial name of "Hongwu" and spent much of his time driving the remaining Mongols out of his empire.

A) Pig Emperor
B) Lion Emperor
C) Peace-Loving Emperor
D) Philosopher Emperor

Question 18

The ______________ was a select group of senior officials who served as an advisory board to the Ming emperor on all imperial matters.

A) Grand Sect
B) Grand Tribunal
C) Grand Council
D) Grand Secretariat

Question 19

Tang efforts to control military outposts along the Silk Road brought the empire into conflict with ______________ by the early eighth century.

A) Vietnamese expansion
B) Hindu expansion
C) Arab expansion
D) Mongol expansion

Question 20

The most extraordinary example of the contradictory Tang trends towards both greater restrictiveness and wider latitude in personal behavior was the Tang Empress ____________.

A) Ningzong
B) Wu Zetian
C) Kangxi
D) Huizong of Yuan

Question 21

Hongwu sought to streamline his newly reconstituted bureaucracy by concentrating power and governmental functions around __________________.

A) foreigners
B) religious leaders
C) the emperor
D) the scholar-gentry

Question 22

Under the Yuan Dynasty, China became part of a much larger empire, and its culture was widely diffused throughout Eurasia, most notably through the accounts of:

A) Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta
B) Niccolò de' Conti
C) Ruy González de Clavijo
D) Vasco da Gama, Nicolau Coelho, and Bartolomeu Dias

Question 23

Ming Emperor Yongle, having inherited a country well on its way to economic recovery, took advantage of this increase in prosperity to launch China's first and last great ___________________ under the command of his childhood friend and imperial eunuch, Zheng He, from 1405 to 1433.

A) land armies
B) religious crusades
C) naval expeditions
D) Silk Road missionaries

Question 24

Many of these technical advances revolved around the development of luxury items, and the most notable among them was the invention of true ___________.

A) glass
B) porcelain
C) alloys
D) glazing mixes

Question 25

The political center of the Indian subcontinent shifted south and, by the latter part of the ninth century, the ________ state had consolidated its hegemony over southern India and its control of the trade with southeast Asia.

A) Pandya
B) Chola
C) Chalukya
D) Odda

Question 26

Which of the following was a characteristic of Mongol rule in China?

A) reduction in the size of the army
B) low taxes
C) relative religious tolerance
D) efficient imperial administration

Question 27

The ________ Yuan dynasty pulled China into an empire spanning all of Eurasia from Korea to the interior of Poland, and probing as far as Hungary, Java, and Japan.

A) peaceful
B) culturally stagnant
C) short-lived
D) long-lived

Question 28

Neo-Confucianism holds that one cannot sit passively and wait for enlightenment, as the Buddhists do, but must actively "seek truth through facts" in order to understand the relationships of form (li) and substance (qi) as they govern the constitution of the totality of the universe or "_________________."

A) Supreme Being
B) Supreme Understanding
C) Supreme Command
D) Supreme Ultimate

Question 29

Neo-Confucianism resulted from a synthetic social and political formation, a pattern in which:

A) Two different traditions evolve with little or no common ground.
B) One tradition rejects the beliefs of another as mere 'superstitions'.
C) The most durable opposing elements of two traditions merge into a compatible whole.
D) Two different traditions battle through rival leaders, until one emerges triumphant.

Question 30

After his visit to Harsha's kingdom, Xuan Zang pronounced it:

A) Well run, wealthy, and justly administered.
B) Dangerously unaware of the rising power of the Arabs in the Sind.
C) Too diverse and spread out to be administered effectively.
D) A police state characterized by ubiquitous 'rock edicts'.

Question 31

A new Hindu state emerged in 1336 with the founding of the city of ___________, which was deemed fabulously wealthy by the first Portuguese traders in the sixteenth century.

A) Tanjore
B) Delhi
C) Ghazna
D) Vijayanagar

Question 32

The Qutb, built next to Delhi's first mosque, is said to still be the world's largest _________.

A) Madrasa
B) Palace
C) Buddha statue
D) Minaret

Question 33

The northern sultanates, such as the regime of Ala-ud-din of the Tughluqs, supported their economies through __________.

A) Sponsoring extensive trade networks with Chinese traders.
B) Creating government-run and -operated kilns for porcelain production.
C) Heavy taxation, including the jizya tax on non-Muslims
D) Easing restrictions on the immigration of Hindus into their domains.

Question 34

The development of Sikhism resulted, in great measure, from the:

A) Synthetic goals of Tughluq rulers.
B) Presence of refugees from Mongol raids in the Muslim sultanates.
C) Developing Neo-Confucian consensus in Song China.
D) Persecution of Sufi mystics by Hindu rulers in the northern sultanates.

Question 35

Debates on Neo-Confucianism in China centered on ___________.

A) The validity of the Daoist teachings.
B) The degree to which a female ruler like the Empress Wu could be accommodated.
C) The interpretations and approaches to understanding its core teachings.
D) Whether Confucius' descendants were actually related to him.

Question 36

Tang rulers opened diplomatic relations with __________, which in 645 announced the Taika (Great Reform), a wholesale adoption of Tang imperial institutions, record keeping, and Buddhism.

A) Korea
B) Japan
C) Vietnam
D) Persia

Question 37

Entry into the Tang government's bureaucratic service was possible only after:

A) Demonstrating military skill against a veteran soldier.
B) The death of one's father, who had served in that capacity.
C) The candidate's rejection of Mencius' well-field system as an ideal goal.
D) Passing a series of examinations.

Question 38

In the eighth century, Tang armies experienced a series of defeats at the hands of all of the following except:

A) Mongols
B) Arabs
C) Tibetans
D) Koreans

Question 39

With the coming of the Song dynasty, China would become a religious civilization in which people reemphasized the indigenous traditions of Confucianism and __________.

A) Buddhism
B) Shinto
C) Daoism
D) Nestorian Christianity

Question 40

The official Wang Anshi (1021-1086) proposed all of the following reforms EXCEPT:

A) The abolition of forced labor.
B) Greatly increasing the number of bureaucratic positions to aid clan heads.
C) State licensing of both agricultural and commercial enterprises.
D) Creating a system of government pawnshops to loan money at reduced rates.

Question 41

Mongol armies had all of the following advantages over their opponents EXCEPT:

A) Their successful tactics of feigned retreat.
B) Their skill and horsemanship and archery.
C) Their ability to fire arrows at pursuers while galloping away from them.
D) Their surveillance and intelligence networks within the Song bureaucracy.

Question 42

By 1368, a coalition led by Zhu Yuanzhang, who was both a soldier and a ____________, had driven the Mongols from their capital and proclaimed a new dynastic line, the Ming.

A) Landscape painter
B) Gunpowder manufacturer
C) Descendant of the last Song emperor
D) Buddhist monk

Question 43

One of Hongwu's first steps in reshaping the government was to create the ______________, a select group of officials who served as an advisory board to the emperor on all imperial matters.

A) Parliament
B) Red Chamber
C) Grand Secretariat
D) Central Committee

Question 44

If a promising young man attained the rank of shengyuan, he was enabled to __________ and to draw a small stipend.

A) Challenge a decision by the emperor.
B) Attend a government-sponsored academy.
C) Exempt his extended family from taxation.
D) Be married to the daughter of a colleague in the scholar-gentry.

Question 45

Neo-Confucianism holds that one cannot sit passively and wait for enlightenment, as the Buddhists do, but must __________.

A) Attend an approved Neo-Confucian academy for further instruction.
B) Serve in the army for a period of time in order to experience 'real life'.
C) Manage a piece of property according to Mencian principles and at a profit.
D) Actively 'seek truth through facts'.

Question 46

The Water Margin (or All Men Are Brothers) is a representative example of a:

A) Neo-Daoist philosophical treatise
B) Yuan poetry collection, updating the Book of Odes
C) Multiauthored adventure novel
D) Scroll painting

Question 47

Among the scurrilous accusations made against Empress Wu was that she had:

A) Murdered a group of Buddhist monks who had requested refugee status.
B) Murdered her child in her quest to achieve political power.
C) Dressed as a man to disguise her true identity in the presence of foreigners.
D) Secretly married one of the rebels conspiring against her.

Question 48

Sikhism could be described in all of the following ways except:

A) A faith that emphasized a direct emotional experience with the divine.
B) An attempt to combine elements of Hinduism and Islam.
C) An offshoot of Islam created by the prophet Muhammad's grandson.
D) A faith that was persecuted by both Hindus and Muslims.

Question 49

According to the Chachnama, Ibn Qasim died after:

A) He challenged the leader of a Hindu kingdom in the Sind to single combat and lost.
B) He blasphemed the Muslim God and converted to Christianity.
C) He was sewn up into a stifling raw leather sheath by his cousin's order.
D) He set out on a pilgrimage to Mecca and disappeared in a sandstorm.

Question 50

The Harshacarita is:

A) An account of Harsha Vardhana's court by the Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Xuan Zang.
B) A biography of Harsha Vardhana by the poet Bana.
C) A play composed by Harsha Vardhana about his adored wife.
D) A critical study of the harsh rule of a Gupta monarch.

Question 51

Ruler of the Delhi Sultanate between 1236 and 1240, the sultan Raziya:

A) Defeated the Rajputs, allegedly killing 100,000 soldiers.
B) Was the son of an enslaved palace guard who overthrew the previous sultan.
C) Executed the members of his extended family, the Khalijis, upon accession to the throne.
D) Was a woman who dispensed with the veil and wore male attire on the battlefield.

Question 52

Perhaps the most remarkable ruler of the Tughluq rulers between 1320 and 1413 was Muhammad Ibn Tughluq, nicknamed:

A) Muhammad the Bloody
B) Muhammad the Calligrapher
C) Muhammad the Just
D) Muhammad the Devout

Question 53

Neo-Confucianism was formed through the intermingling of several philosophies, including all of the following EXCEPT"

A) Buddhism
B) Confucianism
C) Hinduism
D) Daoism

Question 54

The Tang capital of Chang'an grew into perhaps the largest city in the world, containing as many as __________ inhabitants.

A) 1 million
B) 500,000
C) 5 million
D) 2 million

Question 55

In 845, despite official Tang sponsorship, the government forcibly seized all _________ holdings, although followers were allowed to continue their religious practices.

A) Hindu
B) Buddhist
C) Confucian
D) Muslim

Question 56

Initially brought to China from __________, tea quickly established itself as the beverage of choice during the Tang era and vied with silk for supremacy as a cash crop.

A) Southeast Asia
B) The Middle East
C) Japan
D) India

Question 57

Li Bai (701-762) and Du Fu (ca. 721-770) were famous ______________ in the Tang period.

A) Warriors
B) Painters
C) Poets
D) Philosophers

Question 58

With a professional army of more than 1.5 million men, the Song emperors:

A) Found it easy to dominate the entirety of East and Central Asia.
B) Nevertheless found it difficult to overpower invading nomadic groups.
C) Ruined their economy paying out dividends and retirement benefits to veterans.
D) Expanded into Jin territory and established a new capital at Kaifeng.

Question 59

Temujin gave himself the title 'Genghis Khan' ('__________') of the united Mongol confederation.

A) Universal Ruler
B) Real Emperor of China
C) Beloved of the Gods
D) Philosopher-King

Question 60

Gunpowder was originally used as:

A) A propellant for the launching of 'fire arrows'.
B) An agent for fireworks displays during religious festivals.
C) A propellant for bullets through rifle muskets.
D) A medicine for skin irritations.

Question 61

Khubilai Khan proclaimed the Yuan dynasty in __________.

A) 1368
B) 1127
C) 1280
D) 1450

Question 62

The most famous travel accounts of the Yuan era, those of the Venetian Marco Polo and ___________, who lived and traveled throughout the Mongol Empire, are testament to the powerful impact of Mongol rule on ease of travel.

A) Ibn Battuta
B) Xuan Zang
C) Rabban Sauma
D) Zhu Yuanzhang

Question 63

The voyages of Zheng He led to an exchange of gifts, including a giraffe, between the emperor Yongle and the king of Malindi in modern __________.

A) Sumatra
B) Somalia
C) Sri Lanka
D) Kenya

Question 64

An array of sumptuary laws and a court-directed protocol of ____________ signified to which of the nine official grades a member of the scholar-gentry belonged.

A) The number of litter carriers per official
B) Buttons worn on the hats of officials
C) The number of wives allowed to each official
D) Hair length appropriate for particular audiences with the emperor

Question 65

The practice of binding girls' feet, in order to make their feet tinier and their marriage prospects more viable, originated in the ___________ period.

A) Yuan
B) Ming
C) Tang
D) Song

Question 66

Elegant white and celadon (a shade of __________) porcelain vessels were manufactured in great numbers in Song China, often in government-sponsored and -run kilns.

A) Blue
B) Green
C) Yellow
D) Red

Question 67

Ruling as empress dowager and as regent for her son after the death of her husband in 684, Empress Wu declared ___________ the state religion.

A) Buddhism
B) Confucianism
C) Sufism
D) Islam

Question 68

In the Song period, China:

A) Was integrated into a Buddhist culture sphere that made it more cosmopolitan.
B) Attempted to replicate the Sikh synthesis in its own cultural tradition.
C) Turned inward and broke off contacts with the Buddhist world.
D) Integrated its military, drawing on the expertise of Mongol warriors.