HIST 270: China
STUDY GUIDE
S. Austin
CHAPTER SIX
China Among Equals: Song, Liao, Xia, and Jin
GLOSSARY
Look up the following terms in a dictionary or encyclopedia if you do not know them.
Irredentist
Silk road
IDENTIFICATION
Briefly identify the meaning and significance of the follow terms:
Liao _________________________________________________________________________
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Xia _________________________________________________________________________
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Scholar-Official ______________________________________________________________
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Civil Service Exam ____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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Wang Anshi __________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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HIST 270: China
STUDY GUIDE
S. Austin
Jurchen ______________________________________________________________________
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Tong Guan ___________________________________________________________________
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Hangzhou ___________________________________________________________________
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Zhu Xi ______________________________________________________________________
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Learning of the Way (Daoxue) __________________________________________________
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STUDY GUIDE
S. Austin
MULTIPLE CHOICE
Select the best answer.
1. When Marco Polo arrived in China he was overwhelmed by the overseas trade, specifically he
wrote glowingly of the Chinese
a. pepper trade
b. tea trade
c. silk trade
d. copper trade
e. tomato trade
2. Confucian scholars bemoaned the indemnities paid to the Liao and Xia as humiliating
a. however, they actually helped the Chinese economy by stimulating trade.
b. and harmful to the Chinese economy.
c. consumed more than 25% of government revenues.
d. and caused silver coinage to flow out of China proper.
e. and resigned from government service in protest.
3. Which of the following was not a significant change during the Song dynasty
a. population growth
b. creation of world's first paper money
c. joint-stock companies established that separated management from owners
d. cosmopolitanism leads to more freedom of religion
e. printing press lowers the cost of books
4. The Confucian revival of the Song dynasty has been labeled Neo-Confucianism by Western
scholars of Chinese intellectual history. The institutional basis for the perpetuation of NeoConfucian philosophy during the Song was primarily the
a. Civil Service Exam system.
b. government schools established in the capital and provinces.
c. private academies such as the White Deer Grotto Academy.
d. Buddhist monasteries.
5. How did Song dynasty thinkers reconcile the Mencian doctrine that human nature is good with
the reality of human evil?
a. Song thinkers rejected Mencius in favor of Xun Zi.
b. Society or poverty corrupts the good human nature.
c. The good human nature is corrupted by more or less impure qi.
d. Evil is a separate li (principle) of the Taiji (supreme ultimate) and thus good and evil are
always in motion.
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HIST 270: China
STUDY GUIDE
S. Austin
6. How did the Song dynasty prevent exam graders from showing bias towards their own students?
a. clerks recopied each exam so that the handwriting could not be recognized.
b. exam graders were prohibited from being teachers.
c. teachers were forbidden to grade their own students' exams.
d. exams used only objective questions
e. They were not able to prevent bias; students paid a lot of money to study with the graders
7. Tried his hand at everything from mathematics, geography, economics, engineering, medicine,
divination, and archeology.
a. Shen Gua
b. Su Shi
c. Hu Shi
d. Zhu Xi
e. Kong Fuzi
8. Which of the following best characterizes the Liao dynasty government?
a. Dual form of administration
b. tribal councils elect chiefs for limited terms
c. Emperor at the top of a large bureaucracy.
d. Tribal chiefs formed a federation
e. Abandoned traditional practiced and governed wholly on the Chinese model
9. Which of the following people would most likely be considered one of the gentry during the Song
dynasty?
a. Hong Siwon holds about 150 acres of land, most of which he rents out to farmers who
pay him about 50% of the harvest. He also has about 50 soldiers who provide protection.
b. Li Hongzhang is a military officer. He commands 1000 men and has achieved glory in
defending the dynasty against the Xi Xia invaders.
c. Wang Zhe founded the Celestial Realization sect and taught that Daoism, Confucianism,
and Buddhism were all three of equal value and stressed nourishing both one s nature and
one s life force.
d. Hu Shi finally received the jinshi at age 52 and was appointed to a low level position in the
ministry of finance.
10. Realizing that government income was ultimately linked to the prosperity of farming families, he
instituted measures he thought would help them, such as low cost loans and replacing labor service
with a tax.
a. Wang Anshi
b. Zhu Xi
c. Tong Guan
d. Shen Gua
e. Abaoji
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HIST 270: China
STUDY GUIDE
S. Austin
MATCHING
Match the following people with the appropriate description
___ 1. Abaoji
A. He retired or rotated his own generals and
assigned civil officials to supervise them.
___ 2. Fan Zhongyen
B. Adopted the dynastic name of Xia
___ 3. Marco Polo
C. Most prominent of the Neo-Confucian
thinkers, he extended the Cheng brothers’ ideas
in many directions.
___ 4. Shen Gua
D. A Song dynasty reformer, he issued several
decrees known as the “New Policies.”
___ 5. Su Shi
E. First eunuch in Song times to be a member
of the highest policy-forming organ in the
government.
___ 6. Tong Guan
F. Wrote glowingly of paintings done by
scholars, who could imbue their paintings with
ideas.
___ 7. Wang Anshi
G. Duty of the Scholar-Official is “to be the first
in worrying about the world’s troubles and last
in enjoying its pleasures.”
___ 8. Yuanhao
H. Chinese polymath during the Song
___ 9. Zhao Kuanyin (Taizu)
I. Wrote glowingly about the Chinese pepper
trade.
___ 10. Zhu Xi
J. Unified several Khitan tribes into a federation
and secured control of the steppe.
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STUDY GUIDE
S. Austin
SHORT ANSWER
Answer the following questions.
1. Why was Song unable to defeat the Liao? __________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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2. How was the Liao able to maintain tribal organization and resist sinification? ______________
_____________________________________________________________________________
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3. What allowed for the population growth during the Song Dynasty? ______________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
4. List the significant changes brought about by the expansion of the food supply and population
growth during the Song dynasty.
A. __________________________________________________________
B. __________________________________________________________
C. __________________________________________________________
D. __________________________________________________________
E. __________________________________________________________
5. What impact did the indemnities paid to the “northern barbarians” have on the Chinese
economy? _____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
6. What technological advance perfected by the Chinese allowed the Song to have a thriving
overseas trade? _________________________________________________________________
7. What were your chances of passing the civil service exam by the end of the dynasty? Explain.
______________________________________________________________________________
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HIST 270: China
STUDY GUIDE
S. Austin
8. Explain the reasons behind the social mobility (upward and downward) during the Song.
______________________________________________________________________________
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9. Identify two significant reason contributing to factional strife during Song.
______________________________________________________________________________
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10. What was “neo” about neo-Confucianism? ________________________________________
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