Developments in East Asia: Multiple-Choice, Short-Answer, and Essay Questions

[Hangzhou, China, has] ten principal markets. . . . [They] are all squares of half a mile to the side, and along their front passes the main street, which is 40 paces in width, and runs straight from end to end of the city, crossing many bridges of easy and commodious [convenient] approach. . . . So also parallel to this great street, but at the back of the market places, there runs a very large canal, on the bank of which towards the squares are built great houses of stone, in which the merchants from India and other foreign parts store their wares, to be handy for the markets. In each of the squares is held a market three days in the week, frequented by 40,000 or 50,000 persons.

Marco Polo, The Travels of Marco Polo, c. 1300

"The Moral Nature

Being upright and modest, reserved and quiet, correct and dignified, sincere and honest: these constitute the moral nature of a woman. Being filial and respectful, humane and perspicacious [shrewd, wise], loving and warm, meek and gentle: these represent the complete development of the moral nature. The moral nature of being innate in our endowment, it becomes transformed and fulfilled through practice. It is not something that comes from the outside but is actually rooted in our very selves.

Cultivation of the Self

. . . Now if the self is not cultivated, then virtue will not be established. If one's virtue is not established, rarely can one be an influence for good in the family—how much less in the wider world. Therefore, the wife is one who follows her husband. The way of husband and wife is the principle of the strong and the weak. In the past, the reason why enlightened monarchs were careful about establishing marriage was that they valued the way of procreation and perpetuation. [The rise and fall of the state is intimately linked to the prosperity or decline of the family.]"

Empress Xu, Instructions for the Inner Quarters, c. 1420

To contextualize is to look at an event, development, or process in history within the situation, or context, in which it occurs. After you place events in context, you begin to see themes and patterns emerge in history. Historians use these themes and patterns to understand the interactions of laws, institutions, culture, events, and people.

For example, one way to understand the Song Dynasty's success from 960 to 1279 is to place its political, social, and economic development in the context of what came before and after it. In the context of what came before, the imperial bureaucracy represents a political continuity, since the bureaucratic system had been in place in earlier dynasties as well. However, its modification under the Song to allow more upward mobility represents a change. Similarly, considering the Song imperial bureaucracy in the economic context of what came after, you might gain insights into causation. That is, the cost of supporting the bureaucracy drained China of its wealth, which in turn helped create problems that led to the decline of the Song Dynasty. Contextualizing also promotes understanding of comparisons among different cultures and time periods.

Explain how the passage below provides context for the spread of Buddhism in China in light of other developments of the time.

In 629, a Chinese Buddhist monk named Xuanzang left China to go on a pilgrimage to India, the birthplace of Buddhism. He traveled west on the Silk Roads to Central Asia, then south and east to India, which he reached in 630. Along the way and in India he met many Buddhist monks and visited Buddhist shrines. In order to gain more insight into Buddhism, he studied for years in Buddhist monasteries and at Nalanda University in Bihar, India—a famous center of Buddhist knowledge. After 17 years away, Xuanzang finally returned to China, where people greeted him as a celebrity. He brought back many Buddhist texts, which he spent the rest of his life translating into Chinese. These writings were highly instrumental in the growth of Buddhist scholarship in China.