One of the founders of the Tang Empire and its second emperor (r. 626-649). He led the expansion of the empire into Central Asia. 

 A system in which, from the time of the

Han Empire, countries in East and Southeast Asia not under

the direct control of empires based in China nevertheless

enrolled as tributary states, acknowledging the superiority

of the emperors in China in exchange for trading rights or

strategic alliance

Empire unifying China and part of Central

Asia, founded 618 and ended 907. The Tang emperors

presided over a magnificent court at their capital,

Chang’an

The 1,100-mile (1,700-kilometer) waterway

linking the Yellow and the Yangzi Rivers. It was begun in 

the Han period and completed during the Sui Empire.

 A bacterial disease of fleas that can be

transmitted by flea bites to rodents and humans; humans 

in late stages of the illness can spread the bacteria by 

coughing. Because of its very high mortality rate and the

difficulty of preventing its spread, major outbreaks have

created crises in many parts of the world

A group of Turkic-speakers who controlled their

own centralized empire from 744 to 840 in Mongolia and

Central Asia.

Country centered on the high, mountain-bounded

plateau north of India. Tibetan political power occasionally

extended farther to the north and west between the seventh

and thirteen centuries

Empire in central and southern China (960–

1126) while the Liao people controlled the north. Empire 

in southern China (1127–1279; the “Southern Song”) while

the Jin people controlled the north. Distinguished for its

advances in technology, medicine, astronomy, and mathematics

A very large flatbottom sailing ship produced in the

Tang, Ming, and Song Empires, specially designed for longdistance commercial travel.

A mixture of saltpeter, sulfur, and charcoal, in

various proportions. The formula, brought to China in the

400s or 500s, was first used to make fumigators to keep away

insect pests and evil spirits. In later centuries it was used to

make explosives and grenades and to propel cannonballs,

shot, and bullets

Term used to describe new approaches

to understanding classic Confucian texts that became the

basic ruling philosophy of China from the Song period to

the twentieth century

The Japanese word for a branch of Mahayana

Buddhism based on highly disciplined meditation. It is

known in Sanskrit as dhyana, in Chinese as chan, and in

Korean as son.

Type in which each individual character is cast

on a separate piece of metal. It replaced woodblock printing, allowing for the arrangement of individual letters and

other characters on a page, rather than requiring the carving

of entire pages at a time. It may have been invented in Korea

in the thirteenth century

Korean kingdom founded in 918 and destroyed by a

Mongol invasion in 1259.

Aristocratic family that dominated the Japanese

imperial court between the ninth and twelfth centuries.

The first of Japan’s decentralized

military governments.