Studying for Chapter 13-17

I am having individual trouble with especially the category of India and the Byzantine empire. I need to read the parts about the religions for India and China because I did not know the questions concerning the Bhakti Movement, the Chen/ Zen Buddhism, and missi dominici. I also need to study the government because I did not remember the questions about submission, the "theme" system, Abbasid, and bureacracy.

The Rule monasteries

4. I do not believe
the monasteries would be very helpful as an institution because their strict rules and regulations would teach the younger people to be terrified of life, and anything enjoyable. It would make their lives miserable and depress them for the remainder of their life. Their rigid rules would make it very easy to maintain a controlled environment, however, it would destroy the basic joys that humans a meant to enjoy.



5. The Rule indicates that the time in Europe was very scary and unsafe to live in. The idea that rigid rules that do not allow people to enjoy life and that they are all horrible and only God is good shows that people in that time period were terrified of life after death. This shows that death was prevalent and the idea of dieing the next day was a very real possibility.

Indian Poetry

I enjoyed these poems because they were easy to read and understand. I also believe these poems represented the Indian culture extremely well. The different poems show different relogions and differetpnt beliefs that were rampart across India. They also mention the caste system more than one since that was such a huge part of Indian culture. The poems are mostly about food, love and religion which were all important parts of society.

Song and Tand Poetry

I enjoyed these poems very much and saw many similarities betwwen them. For example ost of theoems from both dynasties were about family or nature. Hoever, the Song dynasty poems also included a lot about silk. These easily can be used as clues to discovering the past because people expressed bits about their culture through their art. So this could obviously be a way to represent the dnasty. I believe the poems reflected the dynasties very well because the Song were more based on economy while the Tang focused on Buddhist ideas.

Constantine and Prince Vladimir

The conversion of Prince Vladimir and Constantine to Christianity was very important for influencong both of their empires. In this way both leaders are smilar because of their support in changing the society. Constantine was the bridge that brought Christianity to popularity and allowed it to be practiced openly. He began to incorporate religion into many aspects of life and made Christianity very powerful. Prince Vladimir also acted as a bridge as he brought Byzantine culture into Russia. His conversion to Christianity linked the Russian empire to the Byzantine, and with Vladimir's help, a lot of Byxantine culture flowed into Russia forming a society that was a mix of the two. The fact that both Constantine and Vladimir both acted as link to another cultural aspect that they morphed into their corresponding empires.

Byzantine architecture

Some trends of architecture from the time of the Byzantine empire were archs on the lower levels and then either sharp pointed roofs or dome roofs. Another distinctive characteristic were very tall, thin towers. Most of these architecture methods seem decorative because of the wonderful craftmenship; however, the archs and pointed roofs show very clever structure to keep the buildings long lasting. There seems to be a lot of influence into American architecture which include most of the Byzantine empire characteristics. Domes and archs, of course are consistent throughout American architecture.

Documents on Constantinople

Document 1 is written by Benjamin of Tudela who is a traveling rabbi. He writes about how wonderful Constantinople and how he admires it but then in the end he describes how horribly the Jews were treated. The document,however still has a positive connotation to it.
Document 2 is written by Robert of Clari who describes about Constantinople's capture and how amazed the captors were.
Document 3 Nicetas Choniates and this document describes how the Latin people destroyed the entire city uncaring of what was important. This may not be a very credible source because it seems very exaggerated and only comes from one point of view. This seems to have been written for the general public.
Document 4 is a map of Constantinople which does not seem very credible because it is not drawn to scale and shows a very tiny city with large buildings. This map might have been drawn to show Constantinople's incredible protection with natural barriers surrounding the city with water and with man-made walls and many watch towers.
Document 5 shows the new forms of architecture cated by Constantine. This document is a photo of the inside of Saint Sophia.
Document 6 is written George Acropolites who describes the Michael the 8th Palaeologus who comes to Constantinople to find a new ruler of the city. The document depicts his route into the city and all his religious affiliations in the city and presenting the patriarch with the throne.
Document 7 has an unknown author and describes all the great things the Phonecians have accomplished and discusses Constantinople for its trading port.
The most reliable source seems to be Document 1 which was written by the traveling rabbi named Benjamin of Tudela. This document best describes the treatment of the people in the city and all of the religious buildings and the other architecture in the city. This document is written to the general public and seems to be most credible in describing the city.

Silk Road Project

Three things that I believe went well for this project were that me and my partner worked well together and tried to the best of our abilities to make the map as neat and detailed as we could. Another thing I thought went well was how my group scaled our map and that it made it much easier to trace the smaller map onto the large paper afterward. And the last thing thst I thought went well was that this project gave me a real idea of how large and difficult to travel on these roads would have been for merchants and all of the problems they had to overcome. Three things that i disliked about this project was that me and my partner drastically ran low on time by the last day and tried our best but were not able to make the map look as neat as we could have. Another thing I disliked was that I could not find a good map of the Roman empire in correspondence to the Silk Road, and was not able to accurately depict it on the map. The last thing I disliked about this project was how little information about the exports the book had but it was easy to find additional information on the internet. I believe collaboration was very good between me and my partner. I believe the only difficult part of this project was the short amount of time to make the maps we had and if I coild redo tuis project i would bring the map home over the weekendand work on making it more detailed and neat.

Classic Philosophies

All of these teachings indicate that you should live as a morally good person.
Zoroastrianism- believed that individuals determined their fate and that yu should enjoy the world but in moderation and be choose the good path in life.
Confucian- believed the six main attributesa person should have are kindness, respect, wisdom, honesty, trust and family obligation.
Doaist - believed you should be one with nature and the cosmos and that an eternal pronciple governed everything in the world
Buddhism- believed that all life involves suffering because of desire and you can rid yourself of suffering by ridding yourself of desire by disciplining your life.
Hinduism- believed that if you met your caste system requirments you would be rewarded. However you should also be obedient in moral laws and enjoy the pleasures of life.
Socrates- believed that honor and honesty were the most important things about a man.
Jesus of course believd that everyperson should love and pray for one another wven if they are enemies. Those who are righteous and good will recieve evrything in the afterlife.
This believe in salvation in the afterlife was also present in Buddhism, where if you flfilled your soul you would reach nirvana; Hinduism, where all people of any social class would be rewarded equally in the afterlife; and Zoroastrianism, where your soul would be judged and sent either to heaven or away with the god of evil, Angra Mainyu.
Many of these beliefs and teachers were not religiously influenced like Socrates, Confucius and Daoism however all of these techings believed in a similar thing, that moral good character is the best thing someone can have.

Empires form

Empires form due to civil war or warring areas in a panic and desperate for unification. In China they had been in a Period of Warring States for many years. During this time Legalist beliefs were forming and the man who eventually came to power took this philosophy and created a large empire of Western China with it. China nad no centralized government and an empire is always formed when there is nothing previously in place before it because it sets up ona whole new idea. This proves true again in India when the empire comes oit from the turmoil Alexander of Macedon left it in. Alexander left India withiut any kind of government so a total ruler stepped up to take complete control forming the first successful empire in India. Yhis happened again when a group of nomadic herders caled the Kushan people who conquered many regional kingdoms and brought them together. This shows that to form an empire a man must simply conquer a lot of small powerless areas in turmoil without strong governments and form a unified area. In Rome, again, when there was a period of weak government and rebelling farmers a man came to power and unified the entire area of Rome. The government that had previously controlled Rome was not fit to run a large empire and it had collapsed so Julius Caesar quickly took advantage and formed an empire from a broken government.

Wikipedia versus the textbook

I believe that wikipedia did a better job of giving a full detailed explanation of the religions Buddhiss, Jainism, and Hinduism. Wikipedia gave very detailed explanations on every aspect of the religion while the book simply gave direct simple explanations in just a few sentences. The book did not go into nearly as much detail as wikipedia did but the book did have some benefits such as being clear and concise on the main points of the religion. This brief explanation allowed it to be easier to learn a broader knowledge of the religion but did not let you know specifics. I prefer to be taught by the textbook because it covers a brief explanation of almost everything important in history without weighing us down with too many unnesecary details. However, it is then good to have the internet and wikipedia to have if we need to know more details on a certain section such as this exercise of exploring these religions.

Bhagavad Gita

In the Bhagavad Gita the soldiers of the Indian caste system were taught of the invulnerability of their soul. The writings claim that the soul of these people can never be destroyed, damaged, or harmed by anything, even death. Death, whether victorious in battle or in defeat, will grant your soul entrance to heaven. The duties of the soldiers in the caste system is to give their lives for their people and they will not have sinned. This contrasts to other philosophies such as Zarathustra and Confuciansim. Zarathustra taught its followers to enjoy what the world provided and good deeds and good thoughts were encouraged. However this does not provide the belief in a heaven after death. Similarly, Confucianism believes in the morality of man and righteousness as well as obligation to society, but it does not present a heaven or afterlife. The caste systems share the idea with Confucianism that they owe themselves to society.

Criteria for blogs

I believe the three points for a blog would be content, length, and quality of writing. The cintent should, of course be relevant to the topic and include important facts from either what we've gone over in class or what is in the book. The length should be at least five sentences but not so long that it is time consuming for Mr. Whitten to read. The quality of writing should include grammar and spelling as well as full sentences, however it should not be so elaborate writing that it is difficult or complicated. If any one of these parts are missing they drop the number. If there is a post at least containing one of theae posts they should get a 1 and if they have all of them the stident should recieve a 3. If the post is completely unrelated and shorter than 5 sentences they should recieve a zero, even if they have correct grammar or spelling. Students should write their honest thoughts and opinions and not feel pressured by the knowledge that other students are reading their posts. So I believe it should not be necessary for students to read each others posts.

Confuscius Leadership

Book XII. 14       Tzu-chang asked about government. The Master said, "Over daily routine do not show weariness, and when there is action to be taken, give your best."

 
This selection says about government that sometimes the very rough times are the times you must try the hardest and not show your weariness. This selection would be helpful to the U.S. governement because it emphasizes that when "action must be taken, give your best," which means you must try your hardest when it is necessary. Government officials sometimes forget this in the daily grind of the present recession. It is difficult for them everyday and it is obvious that the government is getting tired and slightly desperate in some situations, such as in trying to find a good healthcare plan for everyone in the country and finding jobs for those who are unemployed. Out of obvious desperation the government just cut almost half of the post office workers to save money in the government. This is why the governement should hear this selection because it will remind them that through these tough times they must do their best even though it is tiring.

Alexander the Great

"Alexander the Great" is a slightly ostentatsious title for the conquerer from Macedonia. Alexander was a brilliant leader and an extremely clever and risky military leader even at a very young age. All of these qualitites should allow him the title "Alexander the Great," however I believe many leaders throughout history have had these exact same qualities. I understand that the feat Alexander achieved was extraodinary considering his frequently outnumbered troops and his extremely young age, but many military leders throughout the ages have done this and more. According to the text in our book, Alexandra conquered the empire of Persia and was also the leader of Greece and Macedonia as well as the parts of India that he later conquered. However he was not the prosperous king of this empire for many years and in that time he did burn the capital of Persia to the ground. His people loved him dearly but his troops did end up rallying against him and refused to continue into India even though this violated his orders. Alexander the Great was an extraordinary leader, but so was George Washington, Cyrus of the Persian Empire, Hammurabi, or Abraham Lincoln. There have also been other great conquestors such as Pizarro, Napolean, or even Hitler who all have conquered large parts of the world. But no one in the world added a complimentary adjective to the end of their name. Alexander was in fact a fantastic leader, but there is no reason that he deserves a suffix of this nature to his name when our own first founding President does not recieve one.