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Was at SF's Asian Art Museum today. Pretty good but this isn't about that. While looking at placards I suddenly had the idea of applying my idea of thinking "what else was happening at this time?" to try to anchor diverse events together. Partly for general anchoring, partly to see if I could actually learn Chinese dynastic history at all this time. This is still half-assed, I'm typing largely to learn by typing as much as to be interesting, but anyway.
Dates usually approximate:
Xia: 2000-1600
Shang: 1600-1000, Bronze Age
Zhou: 1000-400? Iron Age?
chaos. Confucius, Buddha, Jain (Mahavira).
Qin: 221-206, well into Hellenistic and rise of Rome
Han: 200 BC - 220 CE. From pre-civil war Roman Republic to a bit after the decline of post-Antonine Rome (death of Marcus Aurelius 180, and this already after plagues; murder of Commodus 193.) I knew Rome and Han China had traded via intermediaries a lot (cf. Gandharan Greco-Buddhist art), this helps refinorce that.
chaos
Tang, 600-900. Dark Ages + Charlemagne, paired with an extensive high point of China.
chaos
Song, late 900 to late 1200s, High Middle Ages. Like Rome/Han, this is a nice pairing -- Song was a great time.
Yuan (Mongols) 1270s to 1360s. Mongols in Europe's abysmal 14th century. Hmm, this would also be the kamikaze period for Japan, and Zheng He's treasure fleet.
Ming: 1368-1644, late medieval to early modern. 1493 told me how half the silver of Potosi went to buy good from China in lieu of decent Ming monetary policy.
Qing (Manchu) 1644-1910 or so.
Japan:
Jomon, -- to 300 BC, Hellenistic
Yayoi, 300-300, Hellenistic to early late antiquity.
Kofun: 300-500. Buddhism to Japan around 550, like Christianity spreading through Dark Age Europe.
Korea: Joseon, 1392-1910.
Middle Ages: Dark Ages or whatever you want to call them, 500-1000. High Middle Ages, 1000-1300 (end of viking raids, monetization, industrialization, Ars Magica 1220, a renaissance.) Late medieval, 1300-1500 (14th-15th centuries, what Crowley was getting away from, famine, Black Death, Hundred Year's War, then Guttenberg in 1450s.)
1500+ modernity, or apparently "the classical period" if you're French. Columbus was 1492 so that makes sense, Americas make 'medieval' totally go out the window. So does printing.
Side bonus: in looking up Chinese dynasties, I was trying to skip past minor short lived dynasties. But some Liao dynasty lasted longer than either segment of the Song! Turned out to be a northern kingdom, Mongolia + northern China. Not Han, but Khitan, and highly egalitarian for women, who were taught to hunt, managed herds and households, and sometimes had government or military posts. Dowager empresses seemed to lead armies pretty often.
Dates usually approximate:
Xia: 2000-1600
Shang: 1600-1000, Bronze Age
Zhou: 1000-400? Iron Age?
chaos. Confucius, Buddha, Jain (Mahavira).
Qin: 221-206, well into Hellenistic and rise of Rome
Han: 200 BC - 220 CE. From pre-civil war Roman Republic to a bit after the decline of post-Antonine Rome (death of Marcus Aurelius 180, and this already after plagues; murder of Commodus 193.) I knew Rome and Han China had traded via intermediaries a lot (cf. Gandharan Greco-Buddhist art), this helps refinorce that.
chaos
Tang, 600-900. Dark Ages + Charlemagne, paired with an extensive high point of China.
chaos
Song, late 900 to late 1200s, High Middle Ages. Like Rome/Han, this is a nice pairing -- Song was a great time.
Yuan (Mongols) 1270s to 1360s. Mongols in Europe's abysmal 14th century. Hmm, this would also be the kamikaze period for Japan, and Zheng He's treasure fleet.
Ming: 1368-1644, late medieval to early modern. 1493 told me how half the silver of Potosi went to buy good from China in lieu of decent Ming monetary policy.
Qing (Manchu) 1644-1910 or so.
Japan:
Jomon, -- to 300 BC, Hellenistic
Yayoi, 300-300, Hellenistic to early late antiquity.
Kofun: 300-500. Buddhism to Japan around 550, like Christianity spreading through Dark Age Europe.
Korea: Joseon, 1392-1910.
Middle Ages: Dark Ages or whatever you want to call them, 500-1000. High Middle Ages, 1000-1300 (end of viking raids, monetization, industrialization, Ars Magica 1220, a renaissance.) Late medieval, 1300-1500 (14th-15th centuries, what Crowley was getting away from, famine, Black Death, Hundred Year's War, then Guttenberg in 1450s.)
1500+ modernity, or apparently "the classical period" if you're French. Columbus was 1492 so that makes sense, Americas make 'medieval' totally go out the window. So does printing.
Side bonus: in looking up Chinese dynasties, I was trying to skip past minor short lived dynasties. But some Liao dynasty lasted longer than either segment of the Song! Turned out to be a northern kingdom, Mongolia + northern China. Not Han, but Khitan, and highly egalitarian for women, who were taught to hunt, managed herds and households, and sometimes had government or military posts. Dowager empresses seemed to lead armies pretty often.