ID's for Chapters 3.2 + 3.4 India / China

• Unchanging, all-powerful force

• Very complex; different gods together form Brahman

The Preserver

The Destroyer

• The female divine

• Believed to be ruthless against evil

• Vedas are sacred texts that were recorded in for hundreds of years

• Upanishads are questions about questions related to Hinduism

• Representations of Hindu beliefs

• Revered by people

• An essential self

• Can be viewed in different ways; as being the same as Brahman or as being of the same nature as Brahman, but still different from Brahman

• Union with Brahman

• This is the ultimate goal of existence

• The rebirth of a soul in another form

• Allows people to work towards moksha in different lifetimes

• Both the action and the result

• A person will come closer to achieving moksha by obeying the law of karma

• The religious and moral duties of an individual

• Can vary due to a person's gender, age, and role in society

• Nonviolence

• All people/things are part of Brahman and deserve to be respected

• Everyone should follow this rule

• A religion founded in eastern Asia that is still practiced today

• Emphasized meditation, self-denial, and ahimsa

• People considered impure

• It was feared that these people would spread pollution

• This thinking is now outlawed

• China’s isolation made them think they were in the center of the world, and the only source of civilization

• Zhongguo is “Middle Kingdom” as they thought they were the kingdom in the center

• Fine windblown yellow soil

• When loess settles to the river bottom it raises the water level

• China’s first dynasty

• Were mainly in the Yellow River valley and were there until 1122 B.C.

• Groups of families that claim a common ancestor

• Nobles loyal to the Shang dynasty governed most of the land and were part of clans

Produced goods for nobles

Organized trade

The majority of the people that led grueling lives

• The divine right to rule

• Meant to treat the people well

• The rise and fall of dynasties

• If a dynasty provided a good government, it adhered by the mandate of heaven

• local lords governed their own lands but owed military service

• other forms of support to the ruler

• Chief among them

• A supreme being

• A practice mistakenly named

• When Chinese people offered gifts to their ancestors spirits

• Western form of the name Kong Fuzi

• He wrote sayings that offered advice for living a good and honorable life

• A short collection of Confucius’s work

• Made by his students

• ruler to subject

• parent to child

• husband to wife

• elder brother to younger brother

• friend to friend

• the universe reflects a delicate balance

• the well-being of the universe depended on harmony

• not concerned with bringing order to human affairs

• The founder is known as Laozi and much of his life is unknown

• The founder of Daoism

• Lived at the time of Confucius

• Way of the universe

• Look beyond it to be Dao

• Daoists emphasized yielding

• Rejecting a world of conflict and strife

• Transform ordinary metals into gold

• These experiences led to advance is science

• Social groups into which people are born

• It is hard to change from one caste to another

• The rules of a caste depended on the level

• ruler’s responsibility to provide good government

• people would be respectful and loyal subjects

• Brutal deserts

• High mountain ranges

• Thick rainforests

• Pacific ocean

The path one must follow to achieve nirvana

1. Life is full of pain, suffering, and sorrow

2. Suffering is rooted in evil

3. The only cure for suffering is to overcome desire

4. The way to overcome desire is to follow the eightfold path

• Social - People didn’t associate with others in different castes

• Economic - Certain castes had more money than others

• The law of karma determined a person’s caste

• If they couldn’t reach a higher caste in one life, they could reach a higher caste in a future life