Abacus: The earliest form of calculator, which used movable beads strung along parallel wires within a frame.
Block printing: An early printing process in which a negative, or reverse, image was carved out of wood.
Bureaucracy: A network of officials who run a government.
Calligraphy: The art of lettering, or in China, the art of writing Chinese characters.
Concubine: A woman whose role toward her husband is like that of a wife, but without the social and legal status of a wife.
Famine: A food shortage caused by crop failures.
Grid: A network of evenly spaced lines that intersect one another at right angles.
Mandate: Authority or permission.
Movable-type printing: An advanced printing process using pre-cast pieces of metal type.
Novel: An extended, usually book-length, work of fiction.
Prose: Written narrative, as opposed to poetry.
Sect: A small group within a larger religion.
Shaman: A holy man who enters a state of trance in which (in the view of believers) he contacts the supernatural world.
Came concerned about the destructive effect a new religion was having. Just as Romans feared Christianity's challenge to their ancient religion, the Chinese believed that Buddhism was undermining the old-fashioned Con-fucian belief system.
Based on the teachings of the philosopher Confucius (551-479 b. c.), perhaps the most important figure in all of Chinese history, Confucianism emphasized basic virtues such as loyalty to family, respect for elders, hard work and study, and obedience to rulers. By contrast, Buddhism, which began to take hold in the 300s, urged followers to concentrate on inner peace and enlightenment rather than social concerns. In fact Buddhism was no more nontraditional than Taoism (DOW-izm), a mystical Chinese belief system founded on the ideas of Lao-tzu (low-DZU; c. 500s b. c.). Though Taoism emerged from within China rather than outside, it too had once been perceived as a threat by Confucianists.
Taoism had gained acceptance in the mid-second century, and now gradually the Chinese began to accept Buddhism—particularly a variety called Mahayana (mah-huh-YAH-nuh) or "Great Vehicle." Mahayana held that by achieving enlightenment, a person could become a Buddha, meaning that there was not just one Buddha but many. Meanwhile, another sect, Chan—better known by its Japanese name, Zen—merged Buddhism with a Taoist-like mysticism.
As it turned out, this period between dynasties was a time of great intellectual as well as spiritual development in China. The era saw progress in the study of medicine, the first use of coal for heat, the first appearance of kites, and the writing of the first encyclopedias. No wonder writers of the later T'ang dynasty would look back with longing to this period, which they immortalized in a novel called The Romance of the Three Kingdoms.
World History
