World History

Unit 3: The World in Transition

Chapter 12: Civilizations of East Asia

27. Thu, Dec 5, 2013

The Mongols didn't have it all their way. The Mameluks of Egypt managed to defeat a Mongol garrison force and thus reclaim the Holy Land. And the Mongols twice attempted to invade Japan, and were in both instances thwarted by typhoons. With this kamikaze ("divine wind") coming to their aid, it is perhaps unsurprising that the Japanese felt that they had special favor with the gods.

Perhaps this feeling of divine favor contributed to Japan's weirdly dual culture, which in some ways persists to this day: Japan had and has an insularity and uniqueness of culture unlike any other major nation in the world, while at the same time Japan has also been deeply enamored of other cultures. Thus the Japanese have oscillated between importing overseas culture wholesale and trying to keep all foreign influence out.

• Returning to our theme of geography, what natural factors draw Japan inward, and what compel it to look outward? How did the Japanese manage to balance these two drives?
• Feudal Japan also had a dual system of governance, where the emperor held authority but no power, and the shogun had power but no authority save through the emperor. What might be the advantages and disadvantages of such a power structure?
• Fascinatingly, Korea managed to isolate itself even more succesfully than Japan in some ways, becoming known as "the Hermit Kingdom." What might have encouraged and enabled the Koreans to draw in on themselves?
• The Mongols had influence, if not outright rule, as far south as Indonesia; the Chinese, the book tells us, essentially dominated northern Vietnam; Hinduism and Buddhism spread far and wide (Buddhism in particular ranging from Afghanistan to Japan to the Indonesian isles). Does this connectivity surprise you? Are there echoes of this in our globalized world today?

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