Summary: An Lushan Rebellion

An Lushan rebellion: Happened during peak of Tang culture in the first half of the eighth century during Xuanzong’s rule. Recently appointed military governor of non-Chinese origin, An Lushan, earns favor of Yang Guifei; Xuanzong’s beloved wife, as a result, earns favor of Xuanzong, who grants An Lushan favors, primarily allowing him to place 160,000 troops near the North and Northeastern frontier. An Lushan launches a rebellion in 755, storms Luoyang and Chang’an. Xuanzong flees but is betrayed by his troops and is forced to have Yang Guifei strangled. Defeated, Xuanzong abdicates the throne to his son.
The An Lushan rebellion brought an end to the Tang Dynasty expansion and period of prosperity, resulting in an era of decline and
economic strife.
Dukkha: the first component of the Buddhist Four Noble Truths. Dukkha is the first step of the Truths, it represents suffering as the nature of our existence in sickness, poverty, pain, and short-lived happiness. The more we expose ourselves to the world, the more exposed we are to pain. Dukkha ties individuals to the world, where attachment is suffering. Dukkha arises from desire. The five aggregates are our burden, but at the same time they provide us with the indispensable soil of wisdom. To bring suffering to an end we have to turn our attention around and see into the nature of the aggregate. Matter, sensation, mind, mental constraint, consciousness 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Noble Truths compose of:
2: Samudaya: arising from Dukkha: suffering is caused by attachment and desire.
3: Nirodha: Nirvana: Eliminating attachment and desire frees us from suffering. The stage of Enlightenment
4: Maggha: the Path to the end of suffering
Ling: amidst a period of commercial revolution where there was an influx of the southern population in response to the Northern invasion by barbarians, uncertainty and anxiety was prevalent among the people, as a response, they began to follow Ling, the practical religion, based upon the notion of effectiveness: where people worshipped deities that alleviated them of their fears. Merchant: Wu Xian Catalpa Boy: Zi Tong: civil service examinations Tian Hao/Mazu: Heavenly Consort: seafaring people Zhang Wang: King Zhang: Private entrepreneurs
Tang Taizong: Assassinated brothers and their sons in order to ascend to the throne after forcing father to abdicate.
Becomes second emperor of early Tang dynasty after the fall of the Sui, made sweeping reforms throughout the bureaucracy by utilizing and expanding the Sui’s utilization of the examination system among other Sui initiatives. As a result, the bureaucracy became overtly Confucian. Even though his beginnings were quite violent and ruthless, he ends up being a wise leader who picked advisors who he could confide in The tang strengthened the empire by standardizing and codifying the institutions of political control. Building on what the Sui developed, the legal precedents the Tang perfected set a precedent for succeeding dynasties.
Zhu Xi: Confucian revivalist during the Song Dynasty; authored the book of Family rituals. Explained principles of the world and explained why there is evil in the world. It is the principle governing Qi: some people have more bad chi, or degrade the chi.
Zhu Xi deplored Karma, citing that it is an impediment to enlightenment, that when one does good for others, it is a self-serving
practice.
Family rituals: during the period of Song economic revolution, Zhu Xi has anxieties that women were becoming more and more powerful in society. While men were studying for the Examination, women became ‘businesspeople‘, managing household affairs and even family business. Guiding everyday aspects of life such as: housework, marriage, filial piety, divorce, widowing, and so forth, Zhu Xi asserted that following these rituals would improve a woman’s Li in order to make them better people.
Wang Yang Ming: Opposed Zhu Xi’s thoughts that moral principles could only be understood and realized through careful and rational investigation of events and things, which generally required devotion to the study of the classics and other books. To him, universal principles existed in every person’s mind. People could discover them by clearing their minds of obstructions such as material desires and allowing their inborn knowledge of the good to surface. He argued that moral action results spontaneously from the extension or realization of knowledge. True knowing is not abstract intellectualization but is inseparable from experience; one does not understand filial piety if one does not practice it, any more than one understands pain without experiencing it. Knowing right from wrong leads to taking right action, as one is compelled to act upon what one truly knows. Believed moral knowledge is innate within the mind, sagehood exists inside everyone. Self-cultivation can be practiced anytime and anywhere. Real learning is all around you. Wanted people to concentrate on fundamental MORAL TRUTHS that even ordinary uneducated people could understand.
Kublai Khan: Grandson of Ghengis Khan, first significant non-Chinese ruler to rule the Chinese empire.
Made Beijing the biggest capital the world had ever seen and unified China. Developed public works and increased canal system to transport agriculture goods. Introduced paper currency. Provided welfare for the poor by relieving their tax obligations. Asked advisors for opinions. Relied on one of his wives for advice as well. Religiously tolerant. Encouraged reading of Confucian Classics. Improved merchants’ status and trade in China. Was a patron of the arts and was a civilized cultured ruler.
Ming Taizu: Founder of the Ming Dynasty, of peasant origin himself, Taizu sympathized with the peasantry of his dynasty and publicly punished court officials to set a precedent. He was the first emperor in the era to come from an impoverished background. He is a very polarizing figure in Chinese history. On one hand, he helped solve a lot of china's problems. On the other hand, people despised him because of his violent nature, and the fact that he left many headaches for his successors to deal
with.
Matteo Ricci: Italian Jesuit priest born in Italy in 1552, arrived in Macao in 1583 and learned the Chinese language and text in order to garner the respect of the Chinese and as a result. Ricci and other Jesuits accepted in the late Ming Court as foreign literati. H Born in Italy in 1552. His major goal in china was to convert them to Christianity, which he ultimately failed to do. His most important significance to Chinese history was bringing in western ideas to China.

Defense
Officials attempted to advise the emperor to do what was necessary for the empire and to preserve his rule.
Officials expressed concern when the Emperor expressed cynicism and rejection of their concerns for the welfare of the empire as neglect could fuel peasant discontent toward the State because of its inability to aid them during times of disaster.
Officials sought to protect the Emperor from potential conspiracy
As the most talented of China, because of their ability to attain high ranks in the bureaucracy through the Examination system, officials were qualified to create just laws and should have been heeded by the emperor.
When the emperor had the palace army train on palace grounds in an attempt to display sovereign might, he commissioned several eunuchs as officers and soldiers. Eunuchs’ notoriety for conniving caused us to express concern that keeping armed forces close to palace grounds placed the empire at risk for revolt, and made the emperor susceptible to overthrow.
Palace ladies such as Lady Cheng negatively influenced the emperor. In the case of Cheng, she was promoted to power only second of the empress, and thus held intimate knowledge of his rule.
Ti Yong Dichotomy: Ti (essence), Yong (application), a formula that maintained Chinese culture as the essence, and applied Western learning to solving practical problems.