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... assimilated Western literary trends and contributed to the development of modern Korean literary forms. During World War II, the progress of Korean literature was blocked by a Japanese ban on native culture. After the Korean War, however, new writers emerged who drew their inspiration from contemporary trends in world literature, and there was a surge of literary activity. Beginning in the 12 th century the samurai, provincial warriors who resembled medieval European knights, began to assume power, though the emperor continued to hold authority in theory. The samurai often managed the estates of aristocrats, and sometimes they held land in their own right.
Rivalry between two warrior clans -- the Taira and the Minamoto -- led to the Heidi War (1159 - 60). The Taira won, but a revolt begun in 1180 ended in 1185 with the victory of the Minamoto. Yoritomo Minamoto then established a new government at Kamakura, and in 1192 he was named shogun, or chief military commander, by the imperial court. He was authorized to appoint military governors (shut) in the provinces and land stewards (jim) on many private estates.
His administrative organization, called the baku (camp government), served as a model for a series of later regimes. The Kamakura shogunate successfully repelled Mongol invasions in 1274 and in 1281. It was overthrown by a domestic revolt in 1333, and Takauji Ashikaga established a new regime. A dispute between rival families over the succession to the shogunate led to the On War (1467 - 77).
Centralized control disappeared as the country was plunged into civil wars that lasted until the late 1500 s. During this period, warrior leaders fought each other for land and vassals. The emperor and shogun became politically insignificant. Local lords known as daimyo divided the country into feudal domains. Their vassals served both as warriors and as government officials.
The daimyo taxed the peasantry, who made up the bulk of the population. Meanwhile, Japan was developing trade contacts with the outside world. Official trade missions to China began in 1404. Japanese traders were active along the coasts of Korea and China, especially during the 16 th century. Japanese adventurers and pirates also operated in Eastern Asian waters, some reaching Siam (now Thailand) and the Philippines.
Later in the feudal period, the first Europeans arrived in Japan, known to them as Xipangu from the tales of Marco Polo. Portuguese traders came first, in 1543, followed by Spanish, English, and Dutch traders. In the hope of attracting European trade, some daimyo in Kyushu encouraged conversions to Christianity. The first Christian missionary in Japan was the Jesuit priest Francis Xavier. He preached in Japan only two years (1549 - 51), but the Christian missionary movement enjoyed great success in Japan for the next three decades. Mongol Empire, realm ruled by the great Mongol khans in the 13 th and 14 th centuries; uniting almost all of western and eastern Asia, it was one of the largest land empires in history.
The original homeland of the Mongols, situated in the eastern zone of the Asian steppe, was bounded by the Da Hinggan Ling (Greater Khingan Range) on the east, the Altay and Tian Shan mountains on the west, the Silk River and the mountain ranges by Lake Baikal on the north, and the southern extent of the Gobi Desert on the south. Today this region comprises approximately the Inner Mongolia (Nei Mongol) Autonomous Region of China, Mongolia, and the southern fringes of Siberia. Consisting for the most part of fertile prairies and wooded mountains in the north, the Gobi Desert in the central zone, and vast grasslands in the south, the entire region lies about 1000 m (about 3000 ft) above sea level. With the exception of the northernmost extremities, it is extremely arid. In this environment Mongolian-speaking tribes developed a pastoral economy based on the sheep and the horse, the latter supplemented by the camel in the most arid regions. Certain commodities, such as grain, textiles, tea, and metals, were obtained through trade with the adjacent agricultural civilization of China.
Other than tending the flocks, hunting was the foremost occupation. The way of life was nomadic and social organization tribal. Tribal warfare was endemic, and individuals of great personal prowess moved easily to positions of leadership. The political-military hierarchy of the tribe was bound together by personal bonds of mutual protection and loyalty extending downward from the chieftain, to subordinate chiefs, to individual warriors. The first flowering of the Mongol Empire occurred in the 13 th century. At a convocation of tribes in 1206, the powerful conqueror Temujin, then master of almost all of Mongolia, was proclaimed universal ruler with the title Genghis Khan, or Great Khan.
The city of Karakorum was designated his capital. Genghis's army, although not particularly large for its day, was distinguished by its superb horsemanship and expert archery, the discipline and control of its aristocratic leaders, and the khan's own brilliant military strategy and tactics. The neighboring Chinese Empire and the Central Asian states, both militarily weak and fragmented, inevitably surrendered, as did the decaying Arab-Turkish society of the Middle East, to the Mongol hordes racing over Asia. It was thus a foregone conclusion that the empire Genghis subsequently welded together should achieve a degree of centralization and power unprecedented among the earlier domains of Mongol-speaking tribes.
Genghis presided by virtue of self-asserted divine right, acknowledging as his only superior authority, the Great Yasa, an imperial code that he drew up and that remained the permanent basis for Mongol rule. Genghis's vast empire stretched from the China Sea to the Dnieper River and from the Persian Gulf virtually all the way to the Arctic Ocean. After the death of Genghis, his empire in accordance with tribal custom was divided among the sons of his primary wife and their heirs. The khanate of East Asia was ruled directly by the third son, Ogadai, who succeeded Genghis as the great khan. The khanate included Outer Mongolia, Manchuria, Korea, much territory in China, Tibet, and the northern fringes of Indochina. Although Ogadai was in turn succeeded by his son and his grandson, the next great leader of the khanate was his nephew, Mangu Khan.
Together with his brother Kublai Khan, Mangu Khan succeeded in conquering nearly all of China. In 1279 Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, defeated the Southern Song dynasty, bringing the remainder of China under his control. Kublai transferred the capital to Beijing, which he called Khanbalik. There he ruled as emperor of the Chinese Yuan (Yan) dynasty as well as great khan of the Mongols. Rather than attempting to amalgamate the sedentary agricultural society into tribal units, he successfully followed the bureaucratic system through which Chinese dynasties since the Tang (T'ang) had ruled. The Mongols carefully guarded, however, their cultural identity and ruling-class prerogatives; Chinese talent was systematically excluded from positions of authority, and discriminatory social and legal codes were followed.
The Mongol emperors following Kublai succumbed to the decadent life of the Chinese court and became intrigued with the teachings of Tibetan Buddhism. When disaster struck with flooding of the Huang He (Yellow River) and severe famine in northern China during the middle decades of the 14 th century, the Mongol leadership was unable to meet the administrative challenge. In 1368, while the Mongols' Asian empire was torn by internal dissension, the great khans in China were replaced by the Ming, a native dynasty. Bibliography:
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Research essay sample on Kublai Khan Great Khan
