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599-649.
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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| 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 alliances. |
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| 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 in many countries. |
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| A group of Turkic-speakers who controlled their own centralized empire from 744 to 840 in Mongolia and Central Asia. |
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| Country centered on the high, mountain-bounded plateau north of India. Tibetan political power occasionally extended farther to the north and west between the 7th and 13th centuries. |
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| 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. |
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| A very large flatbottom sailing ship produced in the Tang and Song Empires, specially designed for long-distance commercial travel. |
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| 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. |
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| Term used to describe the new approaches to understanding classic Confucian texts that became the basic ruling philosophy of China from the Song period to the 20 century. |
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| 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. |
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| 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. |
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| Korean kingdom founded in 918 and destroyed by a Mongol invasion in 1259. |
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| Aristocratic family that dominated the Japanese imperial court between the 9th and 12th centuries. |
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| The first of Japan's decentralized military governments. (1185-1333). |
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| Quick-maturing rice that can allow two harvests in one growing season. Originally introduced into Champa from India, it was later sent to China as a tribute gift by the Champa state. |
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