| A | B |
|---|
| usurp | illegally take over |
| dowry | payment to the bridegroom or his family from the bride's family in an arranged marriage |
| tributary state | independent states that give money or tribute to another state |
| land reform | redistribution of land |
| gentry | wealthy landowning class in China |
| pagoda | a type of architecture that developed in China in which the eaves of the roof curve up on the corners |
| Sui Dynasty | Dynasty during which China was reunified after a long period of chaos following the fall of the Han Dynasty |
| Wendi | First Emperor of the Sui Dynasty |
| Yangdi | emperor who undid his father’s accomplishments by raising taxes and increasing forced conscriptions into the Chinese army |
| Grand Canal | a man-made waterway connecting the Huang He to the Yangtze River |
| Wu | a great Chinese leader during the Tang Dynasty who helped make stricter standards for the civil service system |
| Tang | the Chinese dynasty from 600s to 900s that was geographically nearly as large as the Han dynasty |
| Song | the Chinese dynasty from 900s to 1200s that marked a 2nd Golden Age |
| Tang Taizhong | the most admired Emperor of China |
| Genghis Khan | the Mongol leader who united all the Mongols under his rule |
| Pax Mongolica | peace under Mongol rule |
| Kublai Khan | the Mongol leader who finally conquered the Southern Song dynasty |
| Marco Polo | Italian merchant who lived in China during the rule of the Mongols |
| Yuan Dynasty | Kublai Khan’s Mongol Dynasty |
| Ming Dynasty | the Chinese dynasty to follow the Mongol rule |
| Zheng He | Chinese admiral of the Ming dynasty |
| abacus | instrument used in China to make mathematical calculations |
| steppes | dry grasslands |
| celadon | a porcelain with an unusual blue-green glaze |
| literacy rate | percentage of people who can read or write |
| hangul | an alphabet using symbols to represent the sounds of spoken Korean |
| Silla | 1st dynasty to unite Korea which became a tributary state of China but preserved their independence |
| Koryo | 2nd dynasty of Korea during which Buddhism became very influential |
| Choson | 3rd dynasty of Korea after Mongols were expelled in which Korea based its government on Confucian principles and refined their writing by creating an alphabet |
| ring of fire | region of the Pacific ocean prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions |
| archipelago | chain of islands |
| tsunami | killer tidal waves set off by earthquakes |
| Shinto | worship of the forces of nature |
| selective borrowing | adopting some ideas and culture from another civilization |
| Yamato clan | Japan’s first and only dynasty who claim direct descent from the Sun Goddess |
| Lady Murasaki | author of Tale of Genji |
| Tale of Genji | the world’s first full length novel |
| kana | Japanese writing that used phoenetic symbols representing syllables |
| shogun | a supreme military commander in Japan |
| daimyo | great Japanese warrior lords who were vassals to the shogun |
| samurai | Japanese lesser lords who were the fighting aristocracy (knights) |
| bushido | a Japanese warrior’s code of values |
| kabuki | a form of drama in Japan based on Noh plays |
| haiku | a Japanese type of poetry with only three lines |
| Zen Buddhism | form of Buddhism that became very popular among warriors and artists in Japan |
| Seppuku | ritual suicide among the Samurai |
| centralized feudalism | Japan kept the outward form of feudal society but imposed central government control |
| Tokugawa | shogunate that ruled Japan after a violent period that followed Mongol invasions rule lasted until 1868 |
