| Term | Definition |
|---|
| abacus | Chinese calculator, made with numerous wooden beads on connected dowels |
| Bubonic Plague | often called the Black Death or just 'the Plague'; it traveled along the silk roads from Mongolia to Europe & caused the deaths of millions |
| Chagatai Khanate | Mongol empire in Central Asia between the Il-khanate in Persia & the Yuan Dynasty in China |
| champa rice | fast ripening rice acquired from the southern Vietnamese kingdom of Champa |
| Chang'an | capital city of the Sui & T'ang Dynasties |
| Civil Service Examination | a series of tests designed to identify the most intelligent people for government positions |
| eunuch | a castrated male; eunuchs were often used to help run the Ming Dynasty |
| foot binding | painful process of wrapping Chinese girls feet to make them very small |
| Genghis Khan | the great Mongol conqueror |
| Golden Horde | Mongol Khanate that conquered Russia and demanded excessive tribute |
| Grand Canal | man made waterway connecting the Yellow & Yangtze Rivers |
| Great Khan | Mongol empire that included China & Mongolia |
| Il Khanate | Mongol empire that ruled over Iran (Persia) & the Middle East |
| junk | a Chinese boat used for trade |
| Khanate | Mongolian kingdom |
| Kublai Khan | grandson of Genghis Khan, Emperor of the Yuan Dynasty |
| magnetic compass | navigation tool invented during the Song Dynasty; allowed merchants to sail far from shore and not get lost |
| Marco Polo | Italian adventurer & explorer who visited and lived in the court of Kublai Khan; wrote travel journals that were later published |
| Ming Dynasty | Dynasty in China that replaced the Yuan (1368-1644) |
| Mongols | nomadic, pastoral tribe living in the steppes of Central Asia to the north west of China |
| moveable type | printing innovation where individual characters can be rearranged to print different documents |
| Neoconfucianism | term that describes the resurgence of Confucianism and the influence of Confucian scholars during the T'ang Dynasty; a unification of Daoist or Buddhist metaphysics with Confucian pragmatism |
| Pax Mongolica | 13th & 14th century peace and stability of Eurasia provided by Mongol conquest and subsequent rule |
| Scholar gentry | the educated upper classes in China |
| Song Dynasty | Dynasty in China that replaced the T'ang (960-1279) |
| steppe | vast, plain-like grasslands (of Central Asia); home of the Mongols & other pastoral societies; not good for agriculture |
| sternpost rudder | steering device attached to the stern of a ship; used extensively in Song Dynasty junks |
| Sui Dynasty | first Dynasty to unify China since the fall of the Han (581-618) |
| T'ang Dynasty | Dynasty in China that replaced the Sui (618-907) |
| Tributary system | agreement among nations whereby weaker kingdoms give money to the stronger kingdom in exchange for peace |
| Yuan Dynasty | Dynasty in China set up by the Mongols under the leadership of Kublai Khan, replaced the Song (1279-1368) |
| Zheng He | Ming Dynasty eunuch who sailed fleets of ships into the Indian Ocean and beyond |
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