Category: Biblical Timeline Poster

Viracocha became the eighth Inca ruler around 1410. He is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History at 1390 AD. From the Incan city of Cuzco, he expanded the empire’s border and even pushed south into the Lake Titicaca region. He took his name from the Incan creator god Viracocha after he appeared to the king in a vision. He abdicated in favor of his son Pachacuti after he fled from an enemy attack on the city of Cuzco.

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The Sapa Inca

Before he adopted the name Viracocha, the eight Inca ruler was named Hatun Topa Inca or High Royal Inca. He was the youngest son of Yawar Waqaq whose reign was marked by many rebellions. His father and a brother named Pahuac Gualpa was killed by members of his own army because of his unpopularity. After the king was killed, the council of elders elected the young prince Hatun Topa as Sapa Inca (The Great Lord) around 1410.

Hatun Topa Inca started his reign by conquering the town of Calca and parts of the Urubamba Valley. He captured the eastern part of the Cuzco Valley and folded into his realm the Muyna and Pinagua people. After their capture, the Inca army was free to push south and conquer the Canchos. Hatun Topa Inca and his army even reached the Titicaca Basin, but they were not successful in conquering the Qulla people who lived there. He was forced to sue for peace and had to return to Cuzco.

He stayed at the Temple of Viracocha in Raqchi when he returned from war. It was said that he received a vision from Viracocha himself that was why he adopted the god’s name in addition to his title as Inca or Lord.

Flight and Humiliation

The rest of his reign was just as rough as his father’s as his relatives were unhappy with his promotion as the king of their people. He also elevated Viracocha as the most important among the Inca gods and this act did not sit well with the followers of Inti, the Peruvian sun god.

In 1438, the Chanca people rose up and threatened to attack the city of Cuzco. The Chanca army’s strength was equal to that of the Inca, so in his fear, Viracocha and his heir fled to his favorite villa located far from the city. Two of his sons, however, remained in Cuzco and led the defense of the city. They defeated the Chanca army, and their heroic efforts (and Viracocha’s escape) spelled the end of the king’s reign. Viracocha was later forced to abdicate as the Inca king. His heir, whom he escaped with, was killed by his own brother. Inca Cusi Yupanqui, one of his sons who led the defense of Cuzco, was proclaimed as the new Sapa Inca by his generals. He later adopted the name Pachacuti Inca and went on to become the Inca’s greatest king.

After they established their kingdom in the city of Cuzco, the Incas quickly expanded within the Central Andes around 1300 which is where it is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History. During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, the Incas created alliances with neighboring peoples and sent out their armies to expand their territory. Because of the rapid expansion, the Inca Empire at its peak extended from present-day Quito in Ecuador in the north and into Santiago in Chile in the south.

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The Children of the Sun

In the beginning, it is said that the Sun God Inti saw that the humans quarrelled among themselves and that sometimes they ate human flesh. The Sun God, along with the Creator God Viracocha, decided to create the siblings Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo so they could try and civilize the people. They created the couple along with their brothers and sisters either in Pacariqtambo or in Lake Titicaca. Although they had siblings, the couple were the ones who ruled the first Incas.

They emerged out of the cave where they were created and travelled north to find the place where they should live. Before they left, the gods gave Manco Capac a golden staff so he could test whether the place was fit for them to live in. When they arrived in the Cuzco Valley, the golden staff sank on the ground which meant that it was their promised land. The Incas built their first city on the place where the staff sank and then called it Cuzco.

Inca Expansion

The Inca came up with a centralized form of government around 1200. They were ruled by a very powerful king. In the native Quechua language, their kingdom was called Tawantinsuyu or “The Four Quarters United.” By 1300, the Incas had formed alliances with neighboring peoples, but they did not hesitate to use violence or intimidation if the tribes within the Valley of Cuzco did not submit to them.

In 1350, they started to expand outside the Valley of Cuzco. They folded into their empire the areas around the Lake Titicaca. Around this time, they conquered the areas east of the Valley of Cuzco. They also ventured north and conquered the areas along the Urubamba River. The Inca army later invaded the Apurimac River area and built a suspension bridge that allowed them to cross the canyon leading up to the city of Andahuaylas. Then they ventured further west and conquered the war-like Chanka people.

Driven by his concern for the poverty-stricken peasants, the eleventh-century bureaucrat Wang Anshi pioneered state reforms to improve their lives during the reign of the Song Dynasty. His life and his groundbreaking socialist reforms were chronicled in the Bible Timeline Poster with World History between his birth in AD 1021 and until his death in 1086.

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Early Life: A Portrait of a Bureaucrat

Wang Anshi was a Chinese poet, essayist, philosopher, and bureaucrat who tried to implement sweeping and radical reforms in Song Dynasty China. He was born in 1021 in the city of Linchuan, Jiangxi Province. Although his father worked as a government worker, he remained in a low clerical post as he did not pass the civil service exams. Wang Anshi passed the civil service exams with flying colors by ranking fourth overall in 1042 and served in the local government of the Jiangnan region (which Jiangxi was part of) afterward.

This experience allowed him to observe the problems the peasants and local administrators encountered with the Song bureaucracy, such as the heavy taxes imposed upon the peasants and the exploitation they experienced under the rich landowners and corrupt (as well as inept) government officials.

He was unable to do anything about the issues he noticed, so he started to write essays and poems about the injustice the peasants experienced. Wang Anshi’s essays and poems later reached the Song capital of Kaifeng. The central government officials offered him a promotion after they read about his insights. For unknown reasons, however, he declined these offers many times. In 1059/1060, he returned to the capital and worked for the Finance Commission; he also submitted to then Emperor Renzong his “Ten Thousand Word Memorial” (Wanyan Shu) which contained his insights on the Song government’s shortcomings.

For Wang Anshi, the Song bureaucracy lacked talented men who were supposed to fill in the administrative posts. He suggested that the government itself invest in the cultivation of talented young men who would serve the people, appoint them based on individual competence, and provide evaluations on their performance. The reforms he suggested were ignored by the Song administrators for some years. Emperor Yingzong (Renzong’s successor) also died in 1067, so that Wang Anshi was largely forgotten thereafter. He also took some time off to grieve for his mother who died in the same year, but a year later, the new Emperor Shengzong summoned him to work at the elite Hanlin Academy. He later met Emperor Shengzong and impressed him enough that he attained a high administrative post in the central government as a Chief Councillor.

Wang Anshi did not go without his share of enemies. Some of the most formidable were conservatives Ouyang Xiu, Sima Guang, and Su Dongpo. He finally fell out of favor in 1074 when his reform programs did not work out. He left the palace in the same year to settle in Jiangning. Emperor Shengzong died in 1085. His death was followed by Wang Anshi one year later.

Wang Anshi’s Reforms

Wang Anshi formulated political and economic reforms during the reign of Emperor Shengzong which included:

1. Low-interest loan (also called the “Green Shoots loan”) grants to poverty-stricken peasants that would prevent them from taking out high-interest ones from private lenders and loan sharks. He also suggested this loan program to the emperor in order to help raise government revenues that the government officials would collect after a given time. This loan program, however, backfired when drought set in and ruined the crops which made the farmers unable to pay their debts and the taxes they owed the government. Wang Anshi’s situation worsened when the government failed to stop the officials who were in charge of revenue collection from charging higher interest rates.
2. The implementation of a land survey to compute the tax a peasant should pay based on his land’s actual production.
3. The decree that the peasants should pay money for taxes instead of unpaid labor (corvée).
4. The decree that the number of professional soldiers in service of the Song be reduced to save the government money and the establishment of the baojia system (the use of community-based law enforcement officers).
5. The launch of a public school system which aimed to educate the children of the poor.
6. The transformation of the civil service exams from tests on the memorization of poetry (which was deemed useless and impractical by Wang Anshi) to more practical tests on government and economic affairs.

The mess that was the Fourth Crusade ended in violence and humiliation, so Pope Innocent was eager to launch a new one. The plans for a Fifth Crusade started in 1213. It was begun in 1215 during the Fourth Council of the Lateran. The first batch of Crusaders landed in the Holy Land two years later, but the war later shifted to the Egyptian city of Damietta. Inadequate preparations and poor leadership led to the massive and embarrassing failure of the Fifth Crusade in 1221. It is recorded on the Biblical Timeline with World History around that time.

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New Players for an Old Goal

When news of Constantinople’s destruction at the hands of the Crusaders reached him in 1204, Pope Innocent III was horrified. More than that, he was angry and embarrassed as the Fourth Crusade was his project. The Crusaders of 1204 never reached Jerusalem which was their original goal. Their only achievement (if it was indeed one) was the establishment of the unstable Latin Empire of Constantinople.

So it was only natural for Pope Innocent III to desire the redemption of the idea of the Crusades after the bloody mess of 1204. As early as 1213 and at the height of the Crusade against the Albigensian heretics, he laid out the plans for the Fifth Crusade. Two years later, he summoned hundreds of bishops, archbishops, and abbots to discuss the Fifth Crusade at the Fourth Council of the Lateran (November 1215). They were also joined by some European noblemen.

Pope Innocent III did his best to prevent the repeat of the Fourth Crusade. In the Council, he insisted that all Crusaders should fulfill their vows and forbade them from leaving the war without a good reason. To ensure the success of the coming war, he commanded them to refrain from trading weapons or materials with Muslims. He also allowed priests to pardon the sins the Crusaders confessed before they left.

Unfortunately, Pope Innocent III was not meant to see the fruits of his labor as he died in 1216. Pope Honorius III succeeded him, and he took over the project by requiring cardinals to give a part of their incomes to fund the Crusade. The Fifth Crusade started officially in 1217 when Rhineland, Frisian, and English knights travelled down to France and Spain. They made their way into Portugal where they helped the locals capture a Muslim fortress and then sailed off to the city of Acre in the Holy Land.

They arrived in Acre in spring of 1218. They joined the troops of King Andrew II of Hungary and Duke Leopold of Austria who arrived in 1217. Together, they besieged the fortress built by the Ayyubid Sultan al-Adil (brother of Saladin), but nothing came of it. King Andrew felt that he had already fulfilled his vow, so he returned to Hungary in 1218. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II also promised to join the Fifth Crusade, but he only sent his soldiers to the Holy Land as his uncles threatened his hold on the German throne.

The Detour in Egypt

In 1218, King John of Jerusalem decided to weaken the Ayyubid rulers first by attacking Egypt. Their target was the city of Damietta on the banks of the Nile River, and it was ruled by Sultan al-Adil’s son, al-Kamil. The choice seemed like a big mistake as Damietta was heavily fortified and protected by a large chain to prevent ships from sailing too near the city. The Crusaders’ only hope was to block the ships that brought food to the people inside it. They later destroyed the chain that protected Damietta and scaled its tower, but they failed to enter the city itself. Many became discouraged with the lack of developments with the siege, and some made plans to go home. But their chances improved when additional Crusaders arrived to swell their ranks. Sultan al-Adil also died in 1218 so that the city was left in chaos.

An Egyptian nobleman took advantage of the Sultan’s death and rebelled against al-Adil’s heir, al-Kamil. The new sultan was forced to leave Damietta because of the rebellion. The Crusaders responded by blocking the ships that brought in the people’s food. The city’s defenders held out, but many of the people starved to death.

Al-Kamil finally put down the rebellion, and he came back to Damietta to lead its defence. Francis of Assisi also arrived to preach to the Crusaders, and he was later invited by al-Kamil to his court to preach. The sultan listened to him and treated him with politeness, but did not convert to Christianity. Disappointed, Francis returned to the Crusaders and remained with them until they finally conquered Damietta in November of 1218. Their victory was an empty one as most of the city’s inhabitants had died of starvation from the blockade. Francis of Assisi was horrified at what he saw, and he persuaded the Crusaders to refrain from more bloodshed.

Another Failure

The Crusaders spent the year 1219 in Damietta, but their situation did not improve. Francis was forced to leave Egypt. He travelled to the Holy Land before he returned to Europe. In 1221, a papal legate named Pelagius rejected the peace Sultan al-Kamil offered. Instead, he convinced the Crusaders to attack Cairo, but this strategy was bound to fail. Al-Kamil knew Egypt, and he decided to cut off the important supply routes of the Crusaders while they travelled to Cairo. The Crusaders were already short on food, water, and other supplies, so this blockade was a big blow to their plans.

He also opened the gates of the dam so that the Nile overflowed. Unable to continue to Cairo because of the flood, the Crusaders were forced to accept the peace al-Kamil offered in 1221. Many of them went home to Europe in the same year. The dismal ending of the Fifth Crusade was blamed largely on the papal legate Pelagius. Pope Honorius took some of the blame as well, but he was also disappointed in Emperor Frederick when he failed to show up and lead the Crusaders.

Pope

Pope Adrian IV reigned as pope from 1154 until 1159 which is where he is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History. His short reign was stormy as he started it right in the middle of the conflict between the Norman King William of Sicily and Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa of Germany. He also had to deal with the rebellion of the reformist Arnold of Brescia.

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Early Life and Rise to Prominence

Pope Adrian IV was born Nicholas Breakspear around 1100. He came from a family of modest means in the city of St. Albans, Hertfordshire County. His father was a clerk named Robert, and he was a cousin to the future Cardinal Boso who also became his biographer. Nicholas became a monk at the abbey of St. Albans during his youth but left it to study in Paris in 1125. After his stay in Paris, he travelled to Provence in southern France and worked as a clerk at the Church in Saint James Melgorium in Maguelone. He also studied in Arles, and later served at the monastery of Saint Rufus in Avignon where he became a canon regular and prior.

He became an abbot around 1137 or 1145, but his reformist beliefs clashed with the beliefs of the monks. This did not escape the notice of Pope Eugene III who ordained him as bishop and then as cardinal of Albano in Italy in 1150. He became a Eugene III’s papal legate to Norway in 1152 where he helped reconcile the sons of the murdered Norwegian king Harald Gilla Christe. Nicholas created the Diocese of Hamar in Hedmark county, made Trondheim a metropolitan bishopric, and initiated reforms that endeared him to the Norwegian Christians. He also travelled to Sweden where he made Gamla Uppsala a metropolitan bishopric. He also introduced the payment of Peter’s pence to Scandinavia which was a tax sent by English Christians to the pope to help support the poor pilgrims who lived in the Schola Saxonum.

Election as Pope and Struggles

Meanwhile, Pope Eugene III had died in 1153 in Rome, and Pope Anastasius IV succeeded him. The new pope lasted only a year and seven months in the office until he, too, died in 1154. Nicholas had returned a couple of months before the death of Pope Anastasius IV, so the cardinals elected him as pope on December 4, 1154. They held his consecration at St Peter’s the next day, and he adopted Adrian IV as his papal name.

But the new Pope Adrian IV inherited the problems of Pope Eugene III and Anastasius IV with the Norman King William of Sicily, Frederick Barbarossa of Germany, and the nobles who fought each other for the domination of Italy. The reformer Arnold of Brescia also clashed with the pope when he advocated poverty within the church. But he was banished from Rome by Adrian and then excommunicated as punishment. The Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa did Pope Adrian IV a favor when he captured Arnold of Brescia and brought him back to Rome to be executed.

This was just the start of Adrian’s problems with Frederick Barbarossa when both men refused to submit to each other during the German king’s coronation as Holy Roman Emperor in Sutri. Pope Adrian refused to crown him as Holy Roman Emperor for his defiance. But Frederick finally relented. He was crowned at Saint Peter’s on the 18th of June, 1155. His coronation ended when the Romans rioted so that he, along with Pope Adrian and his guards, had to flee to Tivoli to escape their enemies.

Adrian came with Frederick to Germany as Italy was still unstable at that time. But he returned some time later and recognized the Norman King William of Sicily as ruler of a large part of southern Italy in exchange for a yearly tribute. The Holy Roman Emperor was unhappy with the turn of events in Italy. A misunderstanding between the papal legates and Frederick’s chancellor in the diet of Besancon in 1157 also worsened the relationship between the two. Adrian tried to patch things up with Frederick in 1158. However, he died of quinsy on September 1, 1959, in the town of Anagni before their relationship could improve.

The Mongols practiced shamanism in their homeland, but they were also tolerant of other religions. In fact, many of them practiced Nestorian Christianity, Buddhism, and Taoism in the past. The great Genghis Khan’s conquest of Central Asia and Iran opened the door for their conversion to Islam. The Mongols later embraced Islam when they pushed further into Western Asia. Their conversion to Islam is recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History during 1235 AD.

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From Shamanism to Islam

The Mongols (just like other Turkic peoples) believed in and worshipped the Sky God Tengri. They believed that their Khan (supreme leader or king) was Tengri’s representative on earth. The Mongol khans were tolerant of people who practiced other religions, but they also demanded respect from those that they ruled.

Nestorian Christianity and Tibetan Buddhism had arrived in Mongolia many years before. The Franciscan missionary William of Rubruck himself visited the Mongolian capital in 1254. He saw churches and temples in the city. The Mongols would later convert to Islam after they conquered a large part of Central and Western Asia.

In 1258, a large army led by Hulagu Khan marched into Baghdad and demanded the submission of the Abbasid caliph al-Musta’sim. He refused to submit, and it resulted in the disastrous Siege of Baghdad in 1258. Many of Baghdad’s people were killed in the siege, and from then on, the Mongols ruled a large part of West Asia. When Hulagu died, the Ilkhans (subordinate khans) took over and ruled Persia. Meanwhile, two other Mongol khanates such as the Golden Horde and the White Horde ruled other areas.

Berke, Genghis Khan’s grandson, was said to be the first of the Mongol rulers who converted to Islam. Another Ilkhan Mongol ruler named Ghazan converted to Islam in 1295. All Ilkhan rulers of Persia from then on were Muslims. Ghazan conquered Aleppo four years later, but they were defeated by the Mamluks in Syria during 1303.

Relations between the Mongols and the Muslims improved when the Mongols of the Golden Horde converted to Islam with the help of the Mamluk ruler. Some of them also travelled to Egypt in the early years of the fourteenth century and converted to Islam. Later on, all three of the Mongol khanates embraced Islam except for the Yuan Dynasty of China who practiced Buddhism. The Mongols who stayed in their homeland remained as worshipers of Tengri, while others remained as Christians or Buddhists.

The Oghuz Turks

The Turkic groups of people that emerged from Central Asia during the Medieval Period were a force to be reckoned with wherever they went. These hardy nomads streamed out of their homelands in Central Asia and Southern Siberia and initially lived in the frontiers of major empires of the medieval period, such as the Han, Tang, Persian, Abbasid, and Byzantine. From the Central Asian steppes, they reached the frontiers of the Middle East and Eastern Europe where they proceeded to carve empires of their own through their mighty warriors. The Sultan became Muslim during 1000 AD where it is listed on the Biblical Timeline with World History.

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Some of the most resilient groups of Turkic people were the Oghuz Turks (later known as Western Turks) whose first known homeland was in the area of the Altai Mountains in present-day Western Mongolia. They left the Altai Mountain area during the eighth century and settled in Transoxiana, an area located in parts of present-day Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan. This area was later called Bilad-al-Turk or the “land of the Turks” by medieval Arab geographers. The land on which the Oghuz Turks settled on bordered the domain of the Ghaznavid Empire to the west. A warrior named Tughril (a chieftain of the Oghuz Turks who descended from a leader named Seljuk) rose from his people’s nomadic heritage and paved the way for his descendants to build a distinctly Central Asian and Muslim empire of their own.

Tughril: The Seljuk Sultan

Before they made contact with Arabs, Persians, and other Central Asian peoples, the ancient Turkic people of Central and Northern Asia practiced shamanism and worshiped the sky god Tengri. The Uyghurs of Central Asia, another Turkic people, converted to Manichaeism in the eighth century, while others converted to Buddhism during the domination of the Tang. The Oghuz were surrounded by Muslim empires when they settled in Transoxania, so it was only a matter of time before they started to absorb the teachings of Islam and become Muslims themselves.

The Oghuz Turk warrior Tughril (or Togrul) was the grandson of a man named Seljuk and he first rose as the chieftain of his tribe in 1016 while his people were still in Central Asia. While Sultan Mahmud al-Ghazni was conquering territories in northwestern India, Tughril also carried out expeditions with his own warriors to conquer the whole Oxus region. When Mahmud died in 1030, Tughril took advantage of the opportunity and led his warriors into the western portion of the Ghaznavid empire to conquer it. Eight years later, he fought his way with his brother Chaghri and their troops into the Ghaznavid capital Nishapur, deposed its ruler, and declared himself the Muslim sultan of the Seljuk Turks. Tughril would lead his warriors twenty years later into the eastern frontier of the Byzantine empire and launch the first of the many Seljuk Turk raids on the declining state. He received a portion of the Byzantine empire’s eastern frontier as a ransom for the captives and paved the way for the entrance of the Turkic people into Europe.

In AD 960, a former soldier named Zhao Khuangyin rebelled and declared himself the ruler of the new Northern Song Dynasty. This dynasty’s rule ended 319 years later after the fall of the Southern Song. This chaotic yet prosperous period in China’s history appeared in the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History between AD 960 and 1279.

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Reunification Under Emperor Taizu of Song

In his youth, the first Song emperor Zhao Khuangyin (Taizu of Song) worked as a mounted archer in the service of the military governor Guo Wei of the Later Han Dynasty. He became a prominent palace guard after he helped Guo Wei dissolve the Later Han and create the Later Zhou Dynasty (951-960). When Emperor Guo Wei (Taizu) died, Zhao Kuangyin worked for his successor, the Emperor Shizong. He distinguished himself in the Later Zhou court after he and his troop defeated the combined Liao and Northern Han armies. He was promoted to a military governor in 960 during the reign of the empress dowager of the Later Zhou. However, her unpopularity with the military led the troops to rebel against her rule and declare Zhao Khuangyin as the emperor instead.

The court had no choice but to depose the Empress and proclaim Zhao Khuangyin as Emperor when he reached the Later Zhou capital of Kaifeng. Zhao Khuangyin declared himself the emperor of the new Song Dynasty, and he adopted the name Taizu of Song after he dissolved the Later Zhou Dynasty. He was brilliant on the battlefield, but he had something special that other military leaders lacked: political savvy.

Emperor Taizu strengthened his rule by propagating the belief that his proclamation as the emperor had been prophesied since his childhood. In a bid to curb the power of military commanders, he compelled them to retire in return for the grant of the best lands in the countryside. By doing so, Emperor Taizu removed the threat of rebellions led by the powerful military commanders during his reign. It allowed him to focus on conquering the neighboring states with a reformed military behind him.

The Song Dynasty Under Emperor Taizong

Emperor Taizu conquered three of the weaker states to his south during his reign but failed to take the other three plus the stronger Northern Han kingdom. He died in 976 and the unfinished task of conquering the remaining states fell to his younger brother, Song Taizong, who acceded the throne in 979. The second Song emperor conquered the Northern Han in the same year and showed his shrewdness when he asked the Northern Han ruler to abdicate in return for his safety and the security of his estate. With the collapse of the Northern Han, it was up to the Song and the Khitan Liao Dynasty to master the greater part of China.

The Liao was just as formidable as their southern neighbor, but the Khitan troops routed the Song army led by Taizong in the Battle of the Gaoliang River in 979. The defeat endangered his position as emperor. It did not help that rumors of him poisoning his older brother and usurping the throne from the rightful heir circulated in the imperial court. For many of his subjects, Taizong had lost the Mandate of Heaven. He was perfectly aware of his vulnerability to deposition.

When the emperor returned to Kaifeng, he decided to tie up loose ends and get rid of other claimants to the throne once and for all. Taizong summoned one of the princes to his presence and made it clear that he would not be able to leave the palace alive, so the prince went into another room and killed himself. The other claimants to the throne died over the years. The rumors that he had a hand in their deaths also circulated in the court.

In 986, he launched another campaign against the Liao. However, this second attempt was also a dismal failure. He knew that this second defeat could undo his position. He was able to hold onto the throne when he curbed the powers of the high-ranking military officers and relied heavily on the well-educated bureaucrats in his court who were promoted through the civil service exams. In return for their loyalty, the Emperor rewarded these bureaucrats with promotions and relied on them for the rest of his reign.

The Song’s Unexpected Prosperity

Before his death in 997, Emperor Taizong had named his third son, Zhengzong, as the next emperor of the Song dynasty. This son was elevated to the role of his father’s successor because Taizong felt that he was not a great threat to him. However, his passive nature was not particularly useful for the empire when the Liao conducted devastating raids on China’s northern frontier. By 1005, Zhengzong was forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty (Treaty of Chanyuan) which made the Liao not only their equals but turned the Song into a tributary state to the Khitans.

This peace treaty was an embarrassment to Zhengzong and just like his father; it put his position as China’s emperor in danger. The absence of war was strangely beneficial to the Song in the long run, and Zhengzong occupied himself with managing his increasingly prosperous empire. China became wealthier during Zhengzong and his son Renzong’s reign while the money they saved went to infrastructure and education instead of the soldiers’ salaries during wartime. Education was prioritized, and Chinese inventions such as wood block printing made the mass production of books and paper money possible during the golden age of the Song dynasty.

Against the Western Xia Kingdom and the Great Jin Dynasty of the Jurchens

During the tumultuous twilight years of the Tang Dynasty, a group of Tibetan people called the Tanguts wrested the western frontier garrisons from the Tang soldiers and started to carve out a kingdom of their own called the Xi Xia or Western Xia. It flourished as a state during the eleventh century, and by 1038, the Emperor Li Yuanhao of the Western Xia felt that his kingdom had reached equal status to the Song. He wrote to Emperor Renzong and asked for the said recognition, but the emperor only ignored him. Renzong’s own father had bowed down to the “barbarian” Liao many years before. The emperor simply could not handle another humiliation from a people he considered as “barbarians.” The Song emperor’s refusal to acknowledge their equal status pushed the insulted Western Xia king to send his army to invade western China.

His troops carefully chipped away at China’s western territories during a six-year period until Song Renzong was forced to pay Li Yuanhao an annual tribute to get him to stop. The war against the Tanguts forced the Song to recognize that they had been lulled into a false sense of security during the years of peace with the Liao Dynasty. The emperor then decided to reform the Song army from the ground up. One of the best things that came out of this military reform initiated by the Song was the invention of gunpowder. Although it brought them humiliation, the peace that the Song bought from the Western Xia allowed them to train for the next war—this time, with another group of nomads from the north: the Jurchen.

The Jurchens were a Tungusic people that migrated from their homeland somewhere in the present-day region of Manchuria. They became a military threat to the Liao in the early eleventh century after the Wanyan tribe united opposing Jurchen tribes. In the early eleventh century, they started to build a state just like the neighboring Khitan Liao. Aguda (later named Emperor of Taizu of the Great Jin), the ambitious leader of the Wanyan tribe of the Jurchen, craved the recognition of the Song (just like the Western Xia king). He knew that the neighboring Liao was also a force to be reckoned with at that time. To this end, he sent a letter to the Liao emperor demanding to be recognized as his equal and enclosed was an equally outrageous tribute request.

Naturally, the Liao emperor refused to honor either the recognition Aguda wanted or the request for the annual tribute payment to the Jurchen. The rejection angered the Jurchen king, so he sent envoys to the Song emperor Huizong and offered him a military alliance against the Liao. The Jurchen also promised to return the Sixteen Prefectures wrested by the Liao from China back in the tenth century if the Song would agree to this alliance. The inexperienced Song emperor accepted the offer, and together, they attacked the Liao capital of Shangjing, deposed its emperor, and forced thousands of Khitans to flee west. By 1125, the Liao Dynasty had ended, and in its place was the powerful Great Jin Dynasty of the Jurchen people.

Huizong had overestimated the goodwill of the Jurchen. After the conquest of the Liao, they refused to return the Sixteen Prefectures Aguda promised to Huizong when he asked for the Song support. Instead, the Jin dynasty soldiers spilled out of their kingdom and attacked Kaifeng, the Song capital. They were so formidable that Huizong needed to fake a stroke just to escape from his responsibilities as military commander of his empire. The task of facing the Jurchen fell to his son, Qinzong, who had to be strong-armed by palace eunuchs so he would be proclaimed as his father’s successor.

When the Jurchen breached the city, they started to loot, kill, and rape the terrified inhabitants of the Song capital of Kaifeng. They later cornered both emperors in the imperial palace and took them north as captives. Many of the survivors of Kaifeng’s destruction fled south and tried to rebuild their fallen empire in Lin’an (modern Hangzhou). They named it Southern Song, but it did not reach the glory of the former Song Empire which was now in the hands of the Great Jin dynasty of the Jurchen.

The most well-known religions for China around 800 AD were Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. They are recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History during that time.

Confucianism

Confucius (Latin for Kongzi/Kongqiu), the founder of Confucianism, was born around 551 BC during the tumultuous years of the Spring and Autumn Period (771-476 BC). He was born to a noble family in Qufu, the capital of the war-torn and poverty-stricken state of Lu (present-day Shandong). He served as a shi (retainer) in various departments in the state of Lu until its fall in 249 BC when it was invaded by the state of Chu. The influence of the shi faded as the wars continued, so Confucius retired from his government post and immersed himself in scholarly work.

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His wisdom was so sought after that he gained many followers as years passed. Five classic Chinese texts were later credited as his work. These include the:

1. Book of Odes (a collection of poetry)
2. Book of Documents (another collection of poetry)
3. Spring and Autumn Annals (chronicles of the state of Lu)
4. Book of Changes (collection of divination texts and treatises)
5. Analects (condensed philosophy of Confucius)

In his teachings, Confucius emphasized man’s relationship in society and how he should behave harmoniously within it. He prized nobility in character and emphasized the importance of rituals (such as ancestor worship) in uniting people within a society. For Confucius, respect for others was very important. However, this respect depended on the person’s rank in the family and in the society. Confucianism stressed the importance of filial piety, which was the deepest form of respect especially reserved for emperors, fathers, and older brothers. Filial piety, however, meant that high-ranking persons should act in ways that made them worthy of respect. This ideology only went through an explosive growth after Confucius’ death. It was later adopted as a state cult with the emperor at its head.

Taoism

Lao-tzu (Laozi) was the name of a semi-legendary figure who founded Taoism in the sixth century. His name means ‘old man’ or ‘old master’. Little was known about his early life except that he worked in a Chinese archive before he (just like Confucius) decided that it was time to retire. According to tradition, he traveled west by riding a water buffalo but failed to pay the toll when he reached the city gates. He decided to pay the gatekeeper by dictating the classic Taoist text, the Tao Te Ching (The Classic of the Way and its Power). The gatekeeper accepted his wisdom as payment and allowed him as well as his water buffalo to pass. According to legend, Lao-tzu later became immortal.

Apart from Confucianism, Taoism was one of China’s homegrown religions/philosophies. For the Taoists, the heart of everything is the Tao, an indescribable ‘thing’ from which everything came from (the Mother of All Things). Taoism emphasized passivity, and that a person should live in harmony with the Tao. His masterpiece, the book Tao Te Ching, dealt with death, emptiness, knowledge, and the government.

Buddhism

Siddharta Gautama, the man who would later be known as the Buddha, was born in the city of Lumbini in present-day Nepal in 623 BC. He was born premature, and astrologers prophesied that the boy would either conquer the world in the future or completely reject it. His father wanted Siddharta to conquer the world, so he kept the child inside their palace to protect him from evil. Siddharta grew up in opulence and safety, but in all these, he found no satisfaction, so he left the security of his palace at the age of 29.

Outside his gilded cage, Siddharta saw that people suffered from so many things. He resolved to find a solution to these issues. He renounced all kinds of pleasure by starving himself while meditating for five years. He did not want to stop that and decided to try a middle ground, which he found while sitting and meditating under a bodhi tree. He achieved enlightenment when he discovered the principles of karma or rebirth and man’s release from suffering. Enlightened, he became known as the Buddha. He proceeded to wander in his country where he gained many followers. Buddha did not consider himself a god and neither did he endorse one. For him, the ultimate goal was to be enlightened and to be free from suffering that is caused by unfulfilled desires or by ignorance.

Religion in China

During the dominance of the semi-legendary Xia Dynasty (around 2100-1700 BC), the ancient Chinese practiced divination and veneration of deceased ancestors. They believed in an afterlife, so they buried grave goods that ranged from basic to luxurious with their dead ancestors. The Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC) continued the ancestor worship practiced by their predecessors and carried out pyroscapulimancy (the burning of ox shoulder bones for divination).

The concept of ‘heaven’ first appeared in China when the Zhou (1046-256 BC) overthrew the Shang. They used the ‘Mandate of Heaven” to justify the removal of the Shang. The chaotic Spring and Autumn Period (771 to 476 BC) saw the rise of China’s native religions: Confucianism and Taoism. But between the two religions, Confucianism had a larger impact on Chinese society and government. Its teachings were adopted by the Han Dynasty (206 BC–220 AD) in their administration. Knowledge of Confucian classics were also  used to tests the candidates in civil service exams.

Buddhism arrived in China during the first century AD, but it took another 500 years before it was fully embraced by the Chinese. The Tang (618-906 AD) imperial court and many of the common people adopted Buddhism as their religion. However, its dominance in China would be extinguished in 845 during the time of the Great Persecution under Emperor Wuzong of Tang. Other religions, such as Christianity and Zoroastrianism did not escape the persecution. Buddhism itself would never be dominant in China in the years that followed. Confucianism, however, experienced a revival in 1000 AD.

Background: The Heian Period (794-1185)

In 784 AD, the Heavenly Emperor Kammu (781-806) decided to shake off the influence of the powerful Fujiwara family in his court in the city of Nara. So he ordered for a new capital to be built northwest of the old city. The royal palace in his new capital, Nagaoka, was finished in just six months. Kammu Tenno moved there with his family in the same year. But he could not escape the Fujiwara clan as many of his court’s highest officials descended from the clan and the emperor himself was married to a daughter of the Fujiwara family. This later led to the Classical Age of Japanese Literature that was largely influenced by the Chinese as recorded on the Biblical Timeline Poster with World History around 800 AD.

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Kammu Tenno remained in Nagaoka for ten years, but his stay there was less than peaceful. As an unsuccessful coup d’etat and deaths hounded his court. The possibility of going back to Nara was out of the question, so he decided it was high time to move to a new capital. He moved the court to the neighboring city of Yamashiro-no-Kuni and renamed in Heian-Kyo or Tranquility and Peace Capital (present-day Kyoto). When Emperor Kammu died in 806 AD, three of his sons ruled and abdicated in succession until the throne passed to his grandson, Ninmyo Tenno, in 833 AD.

Although the royal family still held the crown, the influential Fujiwara family slowly gained ground in the court through their favorite method: marrying off Fujiwara daughters to Japanese emperors. In the middle of the ninth century, the nobleman Fujiwara no Yoshifusa arranged the marriage of his daughter Akirakeiko to Emperor Montoku (whose mother also came from the Fujiwara clan). Montoku died in 858 AD, and the couple’s son, the eight-year-old Seiwa, acceded the throne. The ambitious Fujiwara no Yoshifusa took advantage of this and declared himself as the child’s sessho (regent)—a role which he passed on to his adopted son, Fujiwara no Mototsune when he died in 872 AD. Emperor Seiwa came of age that year too, but Mototsune later forced him to abdicate in favor of Yozie, the emperor’s young son.

The Fujiwara clan continued to dominate the royal court for the next 300 years as Regents. While the emperors remained, they were nothing more than idle symbols of authority. Governance was modeled after Sui and Tang China, wherein ministers and other officials oversaw the administration of bureaus. The Heian Period was considered as the Golden Age of Japan, and the Fujiwara clan became the gatekeepers not only in politics but also in the realm of religion and the arts. The Fujiwara clan itself produced one of Japan’s greatest novelists, Lady Fujiwara Takako or better known by her pen name as Lady Murasaki Shikibu, the writer of the Tale of Genji. Literature, religion, and politics were largely influenced by the Chinese during the early years of the Heian Period. Japan cut ties with China as the years progressed, and politics, as well as other aspects of courtly life, became more Japanese.

The Golden Age, however, only applied to courtly life as poverty caused by high taxes and poor administration was widespread outside the walls of Heian. The Fujiwara clan’s domination of Japanese politics ended in the late twelfth century when their alliance with the Minamoto clan was defeated by the prominent samurai clan of the Taira in the Genpei War (later immortalized in the epic Tale of Heike or Heike Monogatari).

Golden Age of Japanese Literature

Poetry

Characteristics

• Choka5-7-5-7-5-7 syllables per line and ends in 5-7-7
• Long unrhymed poems of undefined length.
• Considered as Japan’s most intricate form of poetry.
• TankaFixed 5-7-5-7-7 syllables per line
• Short poems with a total of 31 syllables.

The sole form of poetry approved by the Heian court.

The Tang Dynasty was in a state of decline when Japan’s Heian Period was at its height. However, its influence on Japanese politics, arts, and literature was a testament to the dynasty’s greatness. During the early years of the ninth century, many Japanese poets wrote kanshi (Japanese poems that were written in kanji or Chinese characters). While the native Japanese poems called waka (also known as Yamato-uta) were largely forgotten or swept out of public life. Some of the most popular early ninth century poems, particularly the four seasons poetry, were also influenced by the Tang predecessor, the Six Dynasties.The choka form of waka disappeared during the same period, but another form of poetry called the tanka later rose and dominated the Heian court.

During the middle of the ninth century, Chinese influence on poetry had waned, and the native waka made a comeback. Its reappearance was credited to the imperial ladies who held poetry contests or uta uwase within their kokyu (apartments of the imperial consorts); the ladies were also credited with the rise in popularity of the byobu uta or poetry painted on folding screens.

Renowned Heian Period Poets

* Ono no Takamura (802-853) – poems included in the Kokin Wakashu.
* Ariwara no Narihira (825-880) – contributed poems to the Kokin Wakashu and Gosen Wakashu.
* Ki no Tomonori (850-904 – renowned Waka poet and compiler of the Kokin Wakashu.
* Fujiwara no Shunzei (1114-1204) – esteemed waka poet and compiler of the Senzai Wakashu.

Anthologies Compiled During the Heian Period

* Kokin Wakashu (905)
* Gosen Wakashu (951)
* Shui Wakashu (1006)
* Goshui Wakashu (1087)
* Kin’yo Wakashu (1126)
* Shika Wakashu (1157)
* Senzai Wakashu (1188)

Narrative Prose

Apart from poetry, the Heian Period was also the time when narrative prose rose to prominence and it includes genres such as:
* Poem tale (uta monogatari)
* Literary Diary (nikki bungaku)
* Romance
* Miscellany
* Historical tale

Few of the works of the Heian Period writers survived into the modern times. Those that did expressed the influence of the Chinese in a different way. Men during Heian era were taught the Chinese language and writing, but women were taught in Japanese and had to adapt their writing to the phonetic syllabary called kana (Japanese script based on Chinese writing system). Perhaps no other Japanese writer of the Heian Period was more popular than Lady Murasaki Shikibu, and her main work, The Tale of Genji (Genji Monogatari). She showed the influence of the Chinese when she wrote it using the kana.

Just like in poetry, the noblewomen were at the forefront of the growth in Japanese narrative prose in the Heian Period. Sei Shonagon, a noblewoman in service of Empress Teishi, was one of the most renowned after she wrote about witty insights on the imperial court and collected them in the classic miscellany, Makura no Soshi (The Pillow Book). Another noble lady who went by the name of ‘Michitsuna’s mother’ wrote the popular memoir, the Kagero nikki (Kagero Diary), which chronicled her life and her relationship with her husband, the courtier Fujiwara no Kaneie.