Video
From Castle to Palace: Samurai Architecture
Learn about samurai castles.
Please note: Special public hours – 10 AM to 5 PM – on Thursday, May 9
Video
Learn about samurai castles.
Artwork
Dancer, approx. 618–700. China Tang dynasty (618–906). Painted earthenware. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60P305.
Artwork
Central Asian wine peddler, approx. 618–906. China, Henan province. Molded and sculpted earthenware figure with three-color glaze. The Avery Brundage Collection, B60P521.
Background Information
Buddhism was founded in northern India in the sixth century BCE. Most historians believe it was introduced to China in approximately the second century by means of monks and traders along the Silk Road.
Background Information
The region bordering the Yellow River, which runs more than 3,400 miles from the Himalayan Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, has long been considered the cradle of Chinese civilization. These vast, fertile plains encouraged the rise of agriculture and the development of neolithic cultures (New Stone Age, roughly 6000-2000 BCE). Archeological discoveries made over the past few decades have revealed that early societies also flourished to the south, along the Yangzi River, as well as sites in the far northeast. These finds indicate that Chinese civilization arose through the gradual blending of several regional cultures.
Background Information
Balinese stories are continually told and retold. Tales such as the Ramayana are mainly spread through storytelling, shadow plays, masked dance, chants, and other theatrical genres. Learn more.
Background Information
During the Muromachi period (1338–1573) the vogue for Chinese art, especially among the Ashikaga shoguns, who ruled as the military leaders of Japan during this period, led to the development of new architectural environments in which to display collections of tea-related objects. Learn more.
Background Information
The Han Dynasty is one of the great dynasties in Chinese history, encompassing nearly four hundred years of expansion and consolidation which coincided with the period of the Roman republic and empire in the West.
Activity
Students will become members of the “literati/scholar” class by demonstrating their understanding of Chinese history, philosophy, and poetry. They will also display high achievement in the “Three Perfections”: calligraphy, painting, and poetry. This project is designed to be a creative alternative to daily or weekly assignments which might otherwise be assembled in a notebook or binder at the end of the 7th-grade Medieval China unit.
Background Information
Scholars often refer to the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties as the “medieval” period of China. The civilizations of the Tang (618–907) and Song (960–1279) dynasties of China were among the most advanced civilizations in the world at the time. Discoveries in the realms of science, art, philosophy, and technology—combined with a curiosity about the world around them—provided the men and women of this period with a worldview and level of sophistication that in many ways were unrivaled until much later times, even in China itself.