A Look at Our Global History and What We have Learned

For this assignment, I chose the "Shogatsu" table. Shogatsu is the the Japanese New Year, and it seemed to be an appropriate holiday to post about in conjunction with what we have been learning about in the past few weeks, especially with the discussion of the development of both eastern Asia and Southeastern Asian states. The Japanese new years is perhaps the most important holiday that Japan celebrates. It involves parties attempting to forget the troubles and struggles faced in the previous year (a little ironic for history, no?). This is a long held tradition in the Japanese culture that started when Japan officially moved to the Gregorian calendar. What we have been studying, the post-classical era is an era that involves the evolution of cultures and the establishment of the foundations of traditions, as shogatsu is a great example of this evolution and establishment happening in a more current time frame (the late 1800s, when Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar).

A Personal Analysis of Review: 13-17

While reviewing for the test today, most of the question that I had gotten wrong or just not entirely correct fell into a few simple categories. The first category is Frankish and Germanic tribes and leaders, I seem to have these all mangled inside my head, so I have to get them straight. The second general category that I saw fall through no the review game was societal interactions. I seem to confuse turks and mongols, and their invasions and influences on the Islamic empire.

In order to review and grasp a better understanding of these concepts, I am going to start by resolving names, most likely by mnemonic devises in my head, then I am going to read the chapter and try to answer the interactive open ended questions on the book's websites, which have helped me to interact with the information in past exams, they also force a more critical reading of the material and tend (for me anyway) to lead to a greater understanding of the material.

Let's Examine "The Rule"...

4. Monasteries that kept to Benedict's Rule could be useful for many reasons. Those who join the monastery are committed to learning and their religion, and this could provide knowledge, help to increase literacy and preserve records and make advances in the literary and theological fields. Whats more, monasteries provided the stability to surrounding villages that could ease peoples fears and insecurities, which is incredibly important to helping build stable and lasting societies. The quiet, highly ascetic lifestyle that the monks had to live with incredible structure, such as "not to murmur", "Not to love much or excessive laughter." This pretty much only left learning, which the monks were prescribed to do "from the Calendars of October... let the brethren devote themselves to reading till the end of the second hour."

5. The Rule tells us about the societies in which it flourished. The strict laws and rigid outline that were provided by The Rule tell us about the lack of prevailing government and any strict from of enforced law. This loose administration shows through in the laws by providing incredibly strict outlines and structures for the day, as well as strict propriety and rule that were key to the structures of Medieval European societies. It also shows the lacking strength of the economy by stressing manual labor and the importance of respecting space, property and seniority. This can be seen in the need the Rule  stresses in manual labor "on coming out in the morning, let them let them labor at whatever is necessary from the first until about the fourth hour."

A View of Societies in the Indian Ocean Basin

A short showme displaying the societies that developed in the Indian Ocean Basin. http://www.showme.com/sh/?i=106833

An Analysis of Indian Poetry

After reading some examples of post-Indian poetry, it is time for a little reflection. Unlike the Chinese poetry,Indian poetry is much more vague, and the details it reflexes about Indian society are limited. Although the poems do give details about the position of human spirituality in Indian society, they do not give the same details about the interplay of peoples in the Indian society that the Chinese poems gave, but they do still reflect elements that could be considered crucial in understanding Indian society and literature.

Poetry of the Past: Tang and Song Poetry

Upon reading poems from the Tang and Song dynasties, I must say that I enjoyed them. The way the poems are written it is usually very clear what the point of the poem is and what emotion is being portrayed of concealed. Even though my favoritism lies with the poetry of the Tang dynasty, I enjoyed the  perspective gained by reading the poetry of both the Song and Tang dynasties.

Throughout history, the reasons people share their emotions changes. Some dynasties oppressed the feelings of their citizens, while others encouraged the sharing and expression of life and culture. To me the poetry from both of these dynasties is an outpouring of emotion and culture. In poetry from both dynasties, the moon seems to appear as an emotional symbol of unity, while drinking is often associated with loneliness and nature, especially in the symbolic lines of Li Bai's poetry. Strong connections with nature also seem to be a motif throughout the poetry of both dynasties. However, Song poetry was much shorter than the poetry of the Tang, but was often much more morbid, focusing less on the unity of the world through nature, and much more centered around suffering. Often in Song poetry it appears that the author feels a pull towards death or a lost one whom they very dearly cherished. Song poetry also seems to carry some discontent towards the government and ruling bureaucracies at the time, while Tang poetry is much more about personal loneliness and grief.

Indirectly poems always reflect upon the person that wrote them, but not always on the societies from which they were written. In the case of Tang and Song poetry however, I think that the poems are an accurate reflection of the societies that they came from. Poetry from the both the Tang and Song dynasty is rich with themes and symbols that are reoccurring, such as the moon, alcohol and family. Through these poems we can see the strong aspects of Chinese society. Smart children, polite young children inquiring about a journey, drinking with the moon and the unity the moon brings to all those who are separated. These could very well have been feelings that the people of Song and Tang (post-clasical) China fostered and lived with. I think that this poetry could absolutely be used to reflect upon as well as gather knowledge of Tang and Song Chinese culture from. Literature is a rich source of information, and poetry helps to add another dimension to this literature, a dimension of emotion that can been seem from the eyes of the author, and I think that is important when learning about a culture and its traditions.

A Short Video: The Expansion of Islam

The link below is just a short ShowMe presentation on the expansion of Islam throughout the Middle East, Northern Africa and modern-day Spain. Enjoy!


Spread of Islam ShowMe (Click Here)

A Movement to Christianity Through Constantine and Prince Vladimir

The conversion to Christianity from other classical era religions was a common motif through societies in the post-classical era. The conversions of both Constantine and Price Vladimir go to show this. Both Price Vladimir and Constantine chose to convert to Christianity, but were their motives similar? Or were they two unrelated events?

According to legend Constantine converted when he saw a vision going into battle telling him to hail God as the high power, which he did. When his army won the battle he converted and declared himself a Christian. He then issued the "Edict of Milan," which allowed Christianity within the empire, making Roman law neutral to the Christian religion. But is that really the story? Although there is a lot we don't know about Constantine, we do know that his mother was a Christian, and that perhaps he just converted after having a personal awakening, religious battles not included (although we will never know).

Prince Vladimir is a different story though. His legend states that he sent emissaries around Eurasia to observe religions, and that they had been overwhelmed by the beauty of the Hagia Sophia and the mass that took place in it. Assured by the reports of splendor, Vladimir converted to this new, beautiful religion. But there is another story behind Vladimir as well. Vladimir, having a well known reputation for being drunken and having a store of girls, was least likely to be given the hand in marriage of princess Anna. To improve his image, he converted to Christianity as a move to gain Anna's hand in marriage.

So were these conversions similar movements in history or not? In my opinion, they were not. For all practical purposes, it appears that Prince Vladimir converted out of his own self want, and then to make the gesture more grand, encouraged his subjects to follow his example. Constantine, on the other hand, converted because of what appears to have been a personal awakening, not a political agenda. But were the effects of these movements on their empires different? I don't think so. Both Russia and Byzantine accepted Christianity as a religion because of these movements, and in Russia it was strongly encouraged. These movements ultimately lead to the spread of Byzantine influence and culture into Russia. This movement of culture had a great influence on the culture of Russia, which strongly resonated aspects of the Byzantine empire.

A Comparison: Byzantine Architecture

While perusing the internet observing Byzantine architecture, I noticed a few patterns. The most predominant of these was the reappearing themes was sloping. Throughout all periods of Persian architecture, slopes and large walls were a recurrent themes. Although churches were large and elaborate coated with gold and ornate decorations, they weren't overly dissimilar to other buildings. Among buildings that were larger and along the shore, they tended to be much blocky-er, but retained their slopes roofs, an overall motif throughout Persian architecture. Some of the Persian architecture also seems to have been influenced by Perian architecture, such as large and elaborate domes.

As far as the influence of Byzantine architecture on American architecture, it seems to have influenced early American architecture much more than later American architecture. Some historical churches and cathedrals throughout America are clearly visible in large steeples. The domes that were recurrent throughout our government buildings, such as the state building and capitol building, both of which have large and ornately decorated domes.

The Everlasting War on Biased Information

One of the crucial elements in the battle for information is making sure that the information you find is valid. Today we looked over 7 documents about the city of Constantinople. Here is a brief analysis of the documents:

Document 1:

It appears that the first document, written by Rabbi Benjamir, was intended as a historical document. It went into great detail about the city of Constantinople, and about King Manuel. It is this impression that leads me to believe that the document might be written from the viewpoint of someone close to the government within the city, as was written with an air of flattery. However, it appears to be a reliable source by a Rabbi who was interested in documenting the splendor of the city.

Document 2:

 Document two does not seem as reliable as document one was. It tends to exaggerate on  details, and seems to have been written from an outsider of the city for the sole reason of displaying the grandeur of the city in writing, so it could be known to people in the future. Document 2 was written by Robert of Clari, and seems of be an account of the height of Constantinople. 

Document 3:

Document 3 was written by Nicetas, and is clearly written by an outsider of the city looking from a perspective of someone thoroughly opposed to Latin rule. The passage explains how the Latin people had ruined the city, and brought it down into a wasted civilization of liars and corruption. The document was written by someone with a clear bias towards the inhabitants of Constantinople, perhaps by a foreign tribe. The document is not a reliable source of information at all.

Document 4:

Document 4 was a painted map of Constantinople and the areas around it. The map, which shows the structures of Constantinople towering over those of neighboring cities. The document, by its nature was most likely devised by a person from within the empire for a historical purpose, perhaps commissioned by a ruler of government official for the documentation of Constantine. The Document may be reliable in some ways, but the inaccurate cartography the denoted the maps of the era denotes that the map should not be used as a measure of size in comparison to the land and sea/straights around Constantinople.

Document 5:

The 5th is unique in that it is modern photograph, and therefore incredibly reliable. The motive behind the photographer who appears to have been of a foreign nation was most likely taking pictures of the Chapel (now a Mosque) as documentation of the incredible architecture of the ancient city. By its nature, it is a very reliable resource to document Constantinople, but gives a very limited view.

Document 6:

Document 6 seemed to emphasize the importance of religion and glorify its effect and influences. The document was written by Acropolis, who from the context of the passage would appear to be a religious official of the time in the city of Constantinople. The effect of the passage seems to be to bring people to religion or convince them of the power of religion. Although an interesting document, it seems to be a little biased and again to give a  limitless scope of Constantinople. 

Document 7:

Document 7 appears to be a document detailing the privileges that would be received by the Venetians in return for the soldiers that they contributed towards the Byzantium army. It was written by Chysobull, who from the passage seems to be an official of the government. It appears that the document was written as a historical document and appears to be accurate, but has room for exaggerations and biases. 

I think the most credible document was document number one. Written by a rabbi from a very factual perspective, it gives a wide perspective of Constantinople and offers viewpoints that can help us gain thorough insight into Constantinople. It was also written in a historical aspect and gives clear insight that seems to be relatively free of wild exaggerations and enhancement, which gives a view free of overwhelming biases, which leads to clarity and accuracy in the document.

Review: Mapping, a Collaborative Experience

3 things that went well:

• We were able to transfer cities to the map relatively easily, although it did take two of us
• Once we picked our goods, we were able to agree the routes they traveled with ease
• My partner and I were able to communicate and be on the same page well enough during the outage to get what we wanted to into the map (like methods of transport)

3 things I wan't happy with:

• I wasn't happy with how crowded my week was, I don't think my stress was very helpful to my partner
• I think we could have thought of a better way to transfer the map to the larger paper
• I wasn't quite happy with the layout of the map, but we didn't really plan it well enough ahead of time, but, ya get out what ya put in.

What was hard/ difficult?

• There wasn't a lot of information available about the silk road during the time period we were researching, and that made finding the routes/ predicting the routes difficult

Collaboration:

• This might have been one of the greatest collaborative experiences of my life. My partner and I were in harmony the whole project, and were able to find enough time to work together after school, even with the power out. Although the map might be a little rough around the edges, it is a project I would gladly turn in. When the power went out we were able to divide the work seamlessly (which worked out well for our respective situations). I think collaboration defiantly helped quite a bit with this project.

Re-do time:

• If I had to do the project over again, I would probably start by planning the map better and maybe enlarging it using a more specific method. I would also choose more exotic products, depending on the information available. 

A Compare and Contrast: The Teachings of Jesus and Other Classical Era Teachings

Take a look at the compare and contrast chart below and notice the differences and similarities between different schools of thought. 

For a larger view, click on this link.

Compare/ Contrast Teachings Chart

The Cause of an Empire

We know empires lead to vast political change, expansive trade networks, complex social classes and extravagant legends. But what is it that causes an empire? Why do empires form? Let's take a look at some examples from China, India and Rome to see how empires in history have formed.

The first thing that allows an empire to be able to be formed is the lack of a strong political system and the vulnerabilities these leave open in who controls the region. In India, the withdraw of Alexander the Great from the Punjab gave an opportunity to Chandragupta Maurya to expand and conquer India and parts of Bactria. In China, the fall of the Zhou dynasty left China in "the warring states," a time of political limbo until the Qin dynasty asserted itself and began taking over other Chinese states in order to bring China under a unified rule. Finally, in Rome, unrest in the cities and a huge gap between the social classes caused urban poor to join armies with generals who held their own agendas. It was in this way that Julius Caesar came to power and established a centeralized government.

That is not why empires form though. Empires form because of centralized rule and conquest. In India, Chandragupta Maurya brought much of India into a centralized rule, and the Mauryan empire later took and controlled even more of India. Both centralized rule and conquest were present in the development of the Mauryan empire. In China, Qin Shihuangdi declared himself first emperor of the Qin dynasty after he brought Chinese states into a strict centralized government built on legalist fundamentals by conquering them. Finally, in Rome, the Roman empire grew to include all the land around the Mediterranean sea. Julius Caesar brought Rome on the path to a strong centralized government, and the Roman empire was finally brought together as an empire under Augustus, who also conquered land in Anatolia and northern Africa.

It is centralized rule and conquest that cause an empire to form, but the lack of a strong political or military force is what helps the rulers who engineer these empire come to power.

Wikipedia vs. Textbook: The Ultimate Showdown

One of the most prominent sticking points in high-tech education so far, is Wikipedia. Is it reliable, especially when compared to textbooks? Is one better than the other? More efficient for teaching? Let's look at a little case study, looking at Buddhism in both Wikipedia and the text book. What did we find? For one, both Wikipedia and the text book had the same information, but that's not to say they are the same at all.
The book, although it broached all the major concepts and important facts, was concise to say the least. The Wikipedia page included background, detailed facts about beliefs held by Buddhists, the history, origin and the goals of Buddhism. In short, the book provides facts about Buddhism in context to historical development, which may be useful for a test. Wikipedia, on the other hand, provides detailed information and perspective from the present, which is incredibly useful in building opinions and connections to the world we live in today.
Now, does one work better or teach better than the other? I don't think so. I think both are good sources of information and perspective, but in different contexts and for different reasons. Because of this, I don't think their usefulness in the classroom and be compared and one placed above the other. Personally, I don't carry a preference one way or the other about which I would rather use. I think they are both education and beneficial to understand the rapidly changing world that we live in.
The bottom line is, I don't really think a class based on either one or the other is really the way to go, I think using both together to compare and contrast a historical aspect's effect on history and its effect on the present is the best way to learn about and interact with the knowledge presented to us.

A Comparison: The Bhagavad Gita, Zarathustra and Confucious

Along with rapid political development and the unification of large areas into one perceived "nationality," during the Classical Era, the expansion of thought was also rapidly evolving across societies from purely ceremonial and mechanical religions into something deeper. With that in mind, I would like to look at and compare three major thought groups and theologies from the Classical Period; The Bhagavad Gita (Buddhism), the teachings of Zarathustra (Zoroastrianism), and the thoughts of Confucius.

First, lets look at the Bhagavad Gita, the main document on which this post is based. It talks about the caste system, and more directly about the importance of being a brave and noble warrior in order to achieve honor. These teachings of nobility and honesty, are key to the caste system, stating that one who runs from battle is not noble of carrying the caste of kshatriya. Some of these teachings are very close to the teachings of Zarathustra. Although Zarathustra did not focus on anything that would be able to be related to the caste system, he did teach of an afterlife, in much the same ways that Buddhism taught people to seek to become removed from the cycle of reincarnation by performing caste duties,  Zarathustra's teaching preach of living a wholesome and honest life, and that in return when the forces of good win over the forces of evil, those who lived good and moral lives will have their souls moved to a heavenly paradise.

The teachings of Buddhism and the Bhagavad Gita called for renunciation and to go through life without purpose, while the teachings of Zarathustra called for individuals to participate in and enjoy their lives. This way the two teachings present a huge deviation from one another.

The teachings of Confucius, on the other hand, stressed the importance of not being involved in religion, as he believed it was beyond understanding. This proposes a clear divide between the thinking of Zarathustra and the Bhagavad Gita, as both greatly center around a religious aspect. However, both the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and Confucius tell us that who holds government positions is important. Confucius believed that highly educated, good and thoughtful people should be placed in government, while the Bhagavad Gita focuses on the importance of the caste in both government and fighting, and how one must work to maintain his caste's expectations. In these respects, the teachings of the Bhagavad Gita and Confucius are very much in tune with one another.

How to Grade a Blog? My Thoughts and Opinions

There is not doubt, it's a tricky question: how do you grade a blog? Do you grade grammar and spelling, or do you look to the facts presented and what has been written? Who should do the grading, and what should be the requirement. I think to answer this question we need to look to what a blog is. As far as I am concerned, a blog should be your personal feelings expressed and displayed, but also supported with evidence. Personality and opinion should be the one thing that comes through after reading a blog, You should be able to read a post and know how that person feels about the topic they were blogging about.

What about mechanics though? Should grammar even matter, what about spelling? Surely that should count for something with the spell check button right there! If there is anything that we have learned from the upcoming generation of technology, its that unformatted and unstructured information can be more efficient if used properly. Should this be true for blogs? I don't think so. I think a blog post should be well edited and written. Spelling and mechanics should count, but not carry as much weight as the personality and factual context within the post.

Who should grade the blog? Personally, I think that collaboration and peer communication is a great thing, but posting a comment on a blog just doesn't fulfill that requirement. I think a grade should be determined by the teacher, and that after they are graded we should critique as a whole, go look though friends posts and see what they are missing, be it length, context, personality or relevance. This would help future blog posts receive a higher grade.

How to break down the grading? This is always a key question. Based on what I have written about in this post, I think that the following should be used as a grading mechanism:

• Personality and personal opinion is clear in post - 1 pt 

• relevant information is posted and all factual information is correct - 1 pt  

• Writing mechanics are well developed for the post - .5 pt  

• Thoughts and expressions are clear and post is easily understood - .5 pt

As you can see, the personality of the post receives more weight than the mechanics, but factual information and clarity of the post are still important and count toward the final grade of the post.

A Modern Day Lesson from Confucius

"Book I. 5          The Master said, “In guiding a state of a thousand chariots, approach your duties with reverence and be trustworthy in what you say; avoid excesses in expenditure and love your fellow men; employ the labor of the common people only in the right seasons.” "

Although the quote above might seem like nothing more than simple morals,  it actually holds quite an interesting concept for government: simplicity. It's no secret, our government is as ornate, elaborate and complex as it gets. Just this year we repeated the horror of the Bill Clinton days as we contemplated another government shutdown, in which we would lose all non-essential government branches, and then over the summer we all crossed our fingers in hopes of resolving the debt ceiling crisis, and muttered under our breaths when the credit rating of the United States dropped from AAA to AA+ in August. Simply put, our government is a mess, and Confucius can tell us why. In his quote he says:

"Avoid excess in expenditure... ."

Clearly, this is something that our government has overlooked.  This quote puts forth many concepts that would be directly useful to our government and politicians.

1. "Approach your duties with reverence..."
It would be a lie if I were to say that the government does not do its job. Our government does its job every day, and we see the results of that every day. But it would not be a stretch to say that perhaps our government could use a little more reverence. Politics has become nothing more than match between who can hold out the longest. Our government could use a new approach, one that emphasizes modesty and agreeing on a solution, even if it's not the one you wanted the most. Respect and dignity, all implied with reverence, are both things that our government could use today to help solve out nations extensive problems.

2. "...be trustworthy in what you say..."
It is as if our government has become one big conspiracy theory to the media. Focusing on more forward and trustworthy administration tactics could help our struggling nation return to a booming economy, instead of the mud slinging and media frenzy that have become the main source of information for the public.

3. "...Employ the labor of common people only in the right seasons."
Our modern world is one that is broke and war-torn. Maybe if we though more about the common people we were sending to the front lines every day, we would be more reluctant to jump into war and think more about what could be done to resolve the problem. Instead, we focus on building the better weapons and forcing other countries to back down. That's not to say that we don't need wars to battle threats like terrorism and the mistreatment of people around the world, but perhaps more discretion in war could be a good thing.

Finally, the concept I started this post on, excess spending. It is perhaps our biggest problem, and one that needs fixing. If we were to listen to Confucius and spend what we needed in government and politics, the world would be a better place. There would be less poverty and social class division, and the common man would be able to succeed in politics, as opposed to only the wealthy and powerful.

If our government were to examine and try to implement these concepts, the world in which we live would change greatly. It's not that our government isn't trying, it's that too many of the odds are against us, and it's not hard to see why in the fast paced and modern society in which we live. So maybe the best thing to do would be go back to a different time and take a lesson from Confucius.

Was Alexander the Great Really that Great?

History is littered with greatness, invention and incredible courage. For Example, Cyrus the first Persian King and founder of the Achaemenid dynasty might have deserved to earn this title. While supporting and helping his people, he established the Persian empire, the largest empire the world had seen (at that time). Cyrus also instituted great policies of tolerance and allowed conquered lands to maintain their religions and cultures. After building and leading this great society for years, we was killed in battle fighting for the Persian empire. After his death, Cyrus was buried in a tomb that was surprisingly austere for someone of such great stature and accomplishment. We can then look at Darius, another great ruler of the Persian empire. Darius, a great ruler, expanded and strengthened the Persian empire. Despite his conquering, Darius's true impact was in his management and administration of the Persian empire. Throughout his rule, he maintained and incredible policy of tolerance and built a new Persian capital at Persepolis. He commissioned the Royal Road and developed a carrier service to help run his growing empire. Both Darius and Cyrus showed a great capacity to organized and conquer, but whats more they were excellent administrators of the Persian empire and deserved to be called "great."


It cannot be denied that Alexander the Great did great things. He conquered an incredible number of people and had an excellent mind for military strategy. There is more to being "great," however, than conquering millions of people. Alexander, unlike Cyrus and Darius, was not all that great of an administrator. Although he had thrown around some ideas to administer his rapidly growing empire, he never officiated anything that would be substantial or help his peoples. While Darius and Cyrus both created and administered and empire, Alexander only conquered an empire. Alexander also had a great deal of personal flaws. Along with being an arguably aggressive alcoholic, he also seemed to be rather weak willed. He burned down the city of Persepolis on the whim of a Greek woman and killed one of his friends in an argument. Theses are not qualities you would expect a strong leader and ruler to show, and I think having deep personal demons such as these should disqualify his title of "the Great." Alexander might have done great things, but he was not a great man. 

Alexander the Great, Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tonynetone/2511707733/, 

Photo Licensed under Creative Commons public Domain