World History Test chapters 3 & 4

Identify the most important virtues in Confucianism

Reverent attitude of children to their parents extolled by Confucius.

Explain how Confucius viewed class distinctions in Chinese society

Said people should respect their leaders, high standards for leaders saying they must behave, have customs and rituals, and love wisdom. Only one with family ethics and personal restraint could rule.

Know the ideas stressed by Confucius

Do not do to others what you would not want done to yourself.

Understand why Jains' had such radical nonviolent ideas

He asserted that human beings, animals, plants, and even inanimate objects all have living souls enmeshed in matter, accumulated through the workings of karma.

Understand the basic unit of society according to Confucianism

family

Define nirvana

(in Buddhism) a transcendent state in which there is neither suffering, desire, nor sense of self, and the subject is released from the effects of karma and the cycle of death and rebirth. It represents the final goal of Buddhism.

Explain the concept of yin and yang and where these concepts are found

A concept of complementary poles, one of which represents the feminine, dark, and receptive, and the other the masculine, bright, and assertive. Yin and yang are complementary poles rather than distinct entities or opposing forces. The movement of yin and yang accounts for the transition from day to night and from summer to winter.

Identify the head of Aryan tribal groups

At the head of each Aryan tribe was a chief, or raja (RAH-juh), who led his followers in battle and ruled them in peacetime. The warriors in the tribe elected the chief for his military skills. Next in importance to the chief was the priest.

sutras

Buddha's teachings that were written down in the second or first century BCE.

Describe the philosophy of Laozi

In the philosophy of the Laozi, the people would be better off if they knew less, gave up tools, renounced writing, stopped envying their neighbors, and lost their desire to travel or engage in war.

How do the personal stories and ideas of Mahavira and Siddhartha compare, and how did their experiences influence their respective religions?

Mahavira, left home to become a wandering holy man. For twelve years he traveled through the Ganges Valley until he found enlightenment and became a "completed soul." Mahavira taught his doctrines for about thirty years, founding a disciplined order of monks and gaining the support of many lay followers, male and female.Mahavira accepted the Brahmanic doctrines of karma and rebirth but developed these ideas in new directions, founding the religion referred to as Jainism. He asserted that human beings, animals, plants, and even inanimate objects all have living souls enmeshed in matter, accumulated through the workings of karma. Siddhartha, he left home to become a wandering ascetic. He traveled south to the kingdom of Magadha, where he studied with yoga masters, but later took up extreme asceticism. According to tradition, while meditating under a bo tree at Bodh Gaya, he reached enlightenment. After several weeks of meditation, he preached his first sermon, urging a "middle way" between asceticism and worldly life. For the next forty-five years, the Buddha traveled through the Ganges Valley, propounding his ideas, refuting his adversaries, and attracting followers. Probably because he refused to recognize the divine authority of the Vedas and dismissed sacrifices, he attracted followers mostly from among merchants, artisans, and farmers, rather than Brahmins.The Buddha's message that pain and suffering are inescapable parts of life; suffering and anxiety are caused by human desires and attachments; people can understand and triumph over these weaknesses; and the triumph is made possible by following a simple code of conduct.

Understand the beliefs of Mencius and Xunzi; describe how Xunzi differed from Confucius and Mencius

Mencius also discussed other issues in moral philosophy, arguing strongly, for instance, that human nature is fundamentally good, as everyone is born with the capacity to recognize what is right and act on it. Xunzi, argued that people are born selfish and that only through education and ritual do they learn to put moral principle above their own interest. In his view, much of what is desirable is not inborn but must be taught.

Identify the powerful kingdom in southern India

One particular kingdom, Magadha, had become much more powerful than any of the other states in the Ganges plain.

Understand the philosophy of Legalism and the dynasty that used it

Political theorists who emphasized the need for rigorous laws and laid the basis for China's later bureaucratic government. In the fourth century B.C.E. the state of Qin radically reformed itself along Legalist lines.

Identify the founder of Buddhism as well as the core ideas including the language used by Buddha

Siddhartha Gautama, also called Shakyamun=founder. The Buddha's message that pain and suffering are inescapable parts of life; suffering and anxiety are caused by human desires and attachments; people can understand and triumph over these weaknesses; and the triumph is made possible by following a simple code of conduct.

Describe the institution of slavery in India

Slavery was a feature of early social life in India. People captured in battle often became slaves, but captives could also be ransomed by their families. Later, slavery was less connected with warfare and became more of an economic and social institution. At birth, slave children automatically became the slaves of their parents' masters. Indian slaves could be bought, used as collateral, or given away.

Explain the "untouchables"

That simply meant that they belonged to no caste. In time, some of them became "untouchables" because they were "impure." They were scorned because they earned their living by performing such "polluting" jobs as slaughtering animals and dressing skins.

Know the different levels of the caste system and the people within those groups; understand the origin

The Indian system of dividing society into hereditary groups whose members interacted primarily within the group, and especially married within the group. These strata, or varnas, were Brahmin (priests), Kshatriya (warriors and officials), Vaishya (merchants), and Shudra (peasants and laborers). The caste system thus allowed the numerically outnumbered Aryans to maintain dominance over their subjects and not be culturally absorbed by them.

Define the following: dharma

The Sanskrit word for moral law, central to both Buddhist and Hindu teachings.

Understand the significance of the Upanishads

The Upanishads (oo-PAH-nih-shadz), composed between 750 B.C.E. and 500 B.C.E., record speculations about the mystical meaning of sacrificial rites and about cosmological questions of man's relationship to the universe. They document a gradual shift from the mythical worldview of the early Vedic Age to a deeply philosophical one. Associated with this shift was a movement toward asceticism (uh-SEH-tuh-sihz-uhm) — severe self-discipline and self-denial. The Upanishads gave the Brahmins a high status to which the poor and lowly could aspire in a future life.

Understand the ultimate goal of Hinduism and the central beliefs

The bedrock of Hinduism is the belief that the Vedas are sacred revelations and that a specific caste system is implicitly prescribed in them. Hinduism is a guide to life, the goal of which is to reach union with brahman, the unchanging ultimate reality. There are four steps in this search, progressing from study of the Vedas in youth to complete asceticism in old age. In their quest for brahman, people are to observe dharma (DAHR-muh), the moral law.

Eightfold path

The code of conduct set forth by the Buddha in his first sermon, beginning with "right conduct" and ending with "right contemplation."

Describe the Aryans and the meaning of the term

The dominant people in north India after the decline of the Indus Valley civilization; they spoke an early form of Sanskrit.Named for the Vedas, a large and significant body of ancient sacred works written in Sanskrit, this period witnessed the Indo-Aryan development of the caste system and the Brahmanic religion and the writing of the great epics that represent the earliest form of Indian literature.

Define the Rigveda

The earliest collection of Indian hymns, ritual texts, and philosophical treatises, it is the central source of information on early Aryans.

Explain what was expected of subjects under Legalism

The laws of the Legalists were designed as much to constrain officials as to regulate the common people.

Know what happened to Lord Shang and Han Feizi

They were executed by the emperor

Know the founder of Jainism and its central elements

Vardhamana Mahavira is the founder. Indian religion whose followers consider all life sacred and avoid destroying other life.

Define junzi

a word for gentleman

Identify the major concepts of Confucianism

behave properly to one another, know your place, respect people above and below you

Describe the five cardinal relationships

between ruler and subject; between father and son; between husband and wife; between elder brother and younger brother; and between friend and friend.

Explain the Bhagavad Gita and the role of the main character

offers guidance on the most serious problem facing a Hindu — how to live in the world and yet honor dharma and thus achieve release from the wheel of life.

Explain moksha

release from the wheel of life.

Define asceticism

severe self-discipline and avoidance of all forms of indulgence, typically for religious reasons

Describe how the Qin Dynasty used Legalism.

the Qin king created counties and appointed officials to govern them according to the laws he decreed at court. To increase the population, Qin recruited migrants from other states. To encourage farmers to work hard and improve their land, they were allowed to buy and sell it. Ordinary farmers were then freed from serf-like obligations to the local nobility, but direct control by the state could be even more onerous. Taxes and labor service obligations were heavy. Travel required a permit, and vagrants could be forced into penal labor service. All families were grouped into mutual responsibility groups of five and ten families; whenever anyone in the group committed a crime, all the others were equally liable unless they reported it. The laws of the Legalists were designed as much to constrain officials as to regulate the common people. The third-century-B.C.E. tomb of a Qin official has yielded statutes detailing the rules for keeping accounts, supervising subordinates, managing penal labor, conducting investigations, and many other responsibilities of officials. Infractions were generally punishable through the imposition of fines.

Understand how Aryans were able to clear the jungle along the Ganges

the introduction of iron around 1000 B.C.E., probably by diffusion from Mesopotamia.

Understand the role of women in ancient India

the roles of women in Aryan society probably were more subordinate than were the roles of women in local Dravidian groups, many of which were matrilineal (tracing descent through females). But even in Aryan society women were treated somewhat more favorably than in later Indian society. In epics such as the Ramayana, women are often portrayed as forceful personalities, able to achieve their goals both by using feminine ploys to cajole men and by direct action