Religion, based on Four Noble Truths, associated with Siddhartha Gautama (563--483 B.C.E.), or the Buddha; its adherents desired to eliminate all distracting passion and reach nirvana.
Buddhism
Japanese puppet theater.
Bunraku
Religion emerging from Middle East in the first century C.E. holding Jesus to be the son of God who sacrificed himself on behalf of mankind.
Christianity
Philosophy, based on the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Kong Fuzi (551-479 B.C.E.), or Confucius, that emphasizes order, the role of the gentleman, obligation to society, and reciprocity.
Confucianism
Powerful territorial lords in early modern Japan.
Daimyo
European knowledge that reached Tokugawa Japan.
Dutch learning
Term for centers of urban culture in Japan under the Tokugawa shogunate.
Floating Worlds
Group founded by Ignatius Loyola in 1540 that maintained high educational standards and served worldwide as missionaries.
Jesuits
Japanese theater in which actors were free to improvise and embellish the words.
Kabuki
Manchurians who conquered China, putting an end to the Ming dynasty and founding the Qing dynasty (1644-1911).
Manchus
Chinese belief that the emperors ruled through the mandate, or approval, of heaven contingent on their ability to look after the welfare of the population.
Mandate of Heaven
Chinese dynasty (1368-1644) founded by Hongwu and known for its cultural brilliance.
Ming
Only city in Japan open to the outside world where only Dutch merchants were permitted to trade.
Nagasaki
Philosophy that attempted to merge certain basic elements of Confucian and Buddhist thought; most important of the early Neo-Confucianists was the Chinese thinker Zhu Xi (1130-1200).
Neo-Confucianism
System of social organization in which males dominate the family and where public institutions, descent, and succession are traced through the male line.
Patriarchy
Chinese dynasty (1644-1911) that reached its peak during the reigns of Kangxi and Qianlong.
Qing
Civil servants, selected through rigorous examinations and schooled in Confucian texts and calligraphy, who governed the Chinese empire of the Qing dynasty.
Scholar-Bureaucrats
Indigenous Japanese religion that emphasizes purity, clan loyalty, and the divinity of the emperor.
Shintoism
Japanese military leader who ruled in place of the emperor.
Shogun
Last shogunate in Japanese history (1600-1867); it was founded by Tokugawa Ieyasu who was notable for unifying Japan.
Tokugawa
Japanese word for the "floating worlds," a Buddhist term for the insignificance of the world that came to represent the urban centers in Tokugawa Japan.
Ukiyo
Chinese Ming emperor (r. 1572-1620) whose refusal to meet with officials hurried the decline of Ming dynasty.
Wanli
Neo-Confucian Chinese philosopher (1130-1200).
Zhu Xi