Answer a few questions regarding China Culture is for a Humanities class
Chapter20 Study Guide
1) Define: shogun and samurai
2) Who unified the country of Japan and isolated it from outside world?
3) Define Shinto
4) This painter (name him) became known for his large paintings on folding screens and
sliding doors in the palaces and castles of nobles and warlords. Also know that the
paintings in the picture below were created by this artist.
5) Who is considered the most important Zen master of the past 500 years?
6) Who painted The Great Wave of Kanagawa? What type printing technique is employed
here?
7) What is the name and location (country) of this architecture? During which period was it
built?
*Also know it is an example of castle architecture.
8) Which religion is the Todai-ji Temple associated with? Know its location (country)
9) What are Japanese gardens conductive of?
10) Define Haiku
11) Which form of poetry has been the most popular in Japan and also influential in the
West?
12) Modern Japanese literature dates from the beginning of which emperor’s reign? and what
year?
13) The fiction of modern Japan reflects a strong concern with __________.
14) What are the names of the two types of Japanese music for theater? And in which
centuries were each of them developed?
15) What is the name of a contemporary cinematic development in Japan which denotes
highly sophisticated animated films?
16) What is a geisha? And what is a popular western misconception of geishas?
Chapter19 Studyguide
1) Who were the mandarins?
2) Which group of Christians brought western knowledge to China? What did this generate?
3) What is the political system of China since 1949.
4) What has allowed an economic growth in the last decades in China, including
modernization and an emergence into the network of world trade despite the political
system that dominates in the region?
5) What is the national examination system?
6) What are the four traditional formats of Chinese painting?
7) What was the most important subject in Chinese paintings after the thirteenth century
until the nineteenth century?
8) What is the purpose of the empty areas/negative spaces of the Chinese compositions?
9) How were the Poet-artists who used brushwork to express their understanding of
humankind and nature called?
10) Who was described as the “poet of the brush.?
11) Who composed this composition titled Poet on a Mountaintop? what painting format is it
(from the 4 you mentioned before)? What is the calligraphy at the upper left of the
painting?
Note: the answer to the last question is in a different page but same chapter.
12) Who painted Reminiscences of the Qin-Huai River and what is the technique employed
by the artist?
13) What is often considered the highest form of art by the Chinese?
14) What is the technique used in this example of Chinese porcelain? (“Jar with Dragon”)
15) Which porcelain painting technique became the dominant one? know that this jar is an
example of that
16) Under the rule of the so-called Yongle Emperor how was the palace enclosure where the
emperor and his court lived was called? and how was it approached?
17) Describe the usage of traditional poetry during the the Ming dynasty.
18) What was the most innovative literary development of the Qing dynasty ?
19) What is the title of the most important Chinese literary text of the eighteenth century
due to its apt reflection of the political, religious, economic, and aesthetic element of
mid-Qing elite life?
20) Briefly describe what is Hsin-wen?
21) In the Beijing Opera musical form, what are the four major categories in which the
performers role are divided? And who performed these roles (males or females)?
22) With the foundation of the Chinese communist party in 1949, what was an important role
of music?
23) What is the name of this instrument?
