Summary Of Xuanzang's 'Monasteries And Monarchs'

Before this assignment I never knew anything about Asian history until I got to this class and received this assignment. I can’t believe how much Asian history influenced the way we as Americans look at history now. In Steward Gordon’s When Asia Was The World, I found the story of Xuanzang very interesting. Xuanzang was a Buddhist monk who traveled all over to learn more about Buddhism until he became confused and decided to go to the center of Buddhism, along the way he faced many difficulties, he decided to go back to China and share what he had learned.

The Silk Roads were land-based trade routes that linked Eurasia. The Silk Road contact led to people being exposed to unfamiliar diseases. They weren't really immune to the diseases and had very little effective methods of dealing with them. The spread of some particularly virulent epidemic diseases lead to death on a larger scale. A prime example of this occurred in the fourteenth century, when the Black Death swept away nearly one-third of the population in Europe, China, and the Middle East. The Black Death identified variously with bubonic plague, anthrax, or a package of epidemic diseases. In the long run, the exchange of diseases gave Europeans a certain advantage when, after 1500, they confronted the peoples of the Western Hemisphere,

Emperor K’ang-hsi was one of the greatest Chinese emperors of all time. Ruling from 1662 to 1722 he was also one of the longest ruling emperors in Chinese history and for that matter the world. K’ang-hsi brought China to long-term stability and relative wealth after years of war and chaos. Jonathan Spence writes from the eyes of K’ang-hsi getting his information from K’ang-hsi’s own writings. Though a little biased towards himself this book still provides important insight into his mind. Emperor of China is divided into six parts; In Motion, Ruling, Thinking, Growing Old, Sons, and Valedictory.

If you heard of the silk road then you would know that it isn’t a silk road.The Silk Road was a long and hard journey because they had to go through mountains and desserts just to meet one person and sometimes it was for nothing. They traded for horses because Wu-Ti thought they were heavenly. Wu-Ti thought they were strong and good for the wars. Also, the people from the silk road traded things such as, siverly, spices, and gunpowder. The chinese also traded bronze,iron,and paper.inally, they sold luxury items. They didn’t need to trade for them. They bought goods for the empire. They didn’t need luxury items they were just to have a style they wanted their home to be or it was just jewelry. It could have also been clothing. The Silk Road

The classical civilizations of the 600 BCE-600 CE period were characterized by large empires rising out of the earlier city states. Rulers/military officials extended their influence through conquered new and nearby lands, expanding of land and increasing availability and variability of resources as they added more people and wealth; China, under the Han dynasty, was no exception to this trend. To illustrate, the Silk Road, a trading route interconnecting Europe, Asia, and North Africa/Middle East was named after China’s main cash crop, silk, which was prized for its soft smoothness and durability, in Rome, the Middle East, and other civilizations. This meant that merchants had a large impact in and outside China. The big silk trade also led

Timothy Brook’s book, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China is a detailed account of the three centuries of the Ming Dynasty in China. The book allows an opportunity to view this prominent time period of Chinese history. Confusions of Pleasure not only chronicles the economic development during the Ming dynasty, but also the resulting cultural and social changes that transform the gentry and merchant class. Brook’s insights highlight the divide between the Ming dynasty’s idealized beliefs, and the realities of its economic expansion and its effects. Brook describes this gap through the use of several first hand accounts of individuals with various social statuses.

Long distance trade and intense interaction between major centers of population because of which contact among different human communities was increased through seaborne and land routes trade. Along with traded goods some hidden animals like rats that contains disease helped travelling of diseases through Silk Road. This led to transfer of contiguous and unfamiliar diseases from one part to another that is why Silk Road was considered perfect transmitter of diseases.

Recently I had the unique opportunity of interviewing the world's time traveling sensation, Mr. John Reeves history buff. Reeves had just returned from his latest trip in time to the Song Dynasty and had many interesting stories to tell. John said “I traveled to the Song Dynasty when it was the year 1270 so that I could view the culture fully developed and at peace.”

Long distance trading had made it possible for people from different cultures to interact. Silk roads were one of the famous trade routes that were used in the ancient time. It stretched from China to central Asia and westward. It merged into one big series of routes. Traders traveled segments of the route, passing their goods on to others who took them further along the road, and in turn, passed them on again. The effect of long-distance exchanges altered the political geography of Afro-Eurasia. The Middle East became a commercial middle ground between the Mediterranean and Indian. The horse-riding nomads of Inner Eurasia made long-distance trade possible. Kushan empire in Afghanistan and the Indus River basin embraced a large and diverse

The Silk Roads were prized trade routes that ran from Chang’an, China to Rome. They were active from 220 B.C.E. to around 1453 C.E. An abundance of empires and cities contributed to the large mass of trade that occurred across the routes. Regions that supplied items were the Roman Empire, China, Siberia and Central Asia, India, Middle East, and the Mediterranean. Elements provided through trade were glassware, jewelry, artistic items, perfumes, oils, spices, metals, and of course, silk. Material items were not the only thing traded, religions were also made extremely easy to spread since there was such easy access to people.

In order to cross mountain passes, travelers “built characteristic bridges and plank roads along cliffs by perforating holes on mountains” . To stay warm, they could fashion protective clothing out of one of the items they were trading: silk . These innovations may not have been the most effective methods compared to modern times, but they worked enough to make mountain paths on the Silk Road a viable option for travel through the treacherous

He traveled across Mesopotamia, at times taking the Persian Royal Road. After weeks of traveling, the merchant arrived in the Roman controlled Antioch. Exhausted, he traded his wares at the market for some exotic food, such as grapes and olives. The Chinese silk robe then passed into the hands of a Roman governor in the region, who decided that this lovely azure robe would make the perfect appeasement gift for the emperor. He paid three gold denarii for the robe and sent it to Rome. Thus, the silk robe traveled all the way from Chang’an to

The Silk Road was a trade path that linked china in the east with Persia and Europe in the west. Much of the terrain was harsh having to cross deserts or mountains. Merchants would travel from oasis to oasis to get across deserts. Most of the trade was made by middle men and changed hands many times, before reaching its destination.

From 500 BCE to 1000 CE, the Silk Roads served as a vessel for safer trade routes of various goods and promulgation of religious ideals across distant lands. However the continuous use of these routes also opened the door for the possibility of disease and epidemics to spread throughout the lands and drastically affect the economy of those settlements connected by the silk roads.

He discovered that he actually needed to travel to India to truly find out the “right” way to worship. As he sets off to his journey he had some problems going to India. Banditry and disruption outside the main core areas of china, the government which was the Tang, forbade commoners to travel to the West. To make sure people couldn’t make it to the West he emperor setted up towers. At first Xuanzang had someone help him find his way to India, but later in the journey that person ditch Xuanzang. Xuanzang had no idea where to go from there because he never been to India before. At this time the journey to India took a long time. Xuanzang was doing pretty well at not getting caught until he made it to the 5th tower. The guard disobey the emperor orders and let Xuanzang go. Xuanzang made it passed one more tower until reaching tower 7 where the King had caught him. It seemed like the King did not treat Xuanzang like a prisoner. It actually seems like the emperor actually worshiped Xuanzang for his knowledge of Buddhism. Xuanzang founded out that the only way to actually hurt the emperor was to not accept his food. The emperor realized that he should let Xuanzang go on in his journey to the West. He actually supported him by giving him some silk and helpers for the trip to the West. Xuanzang made