Holcombe Topics

 It is hard to believe that we are half way through the semester this week. Only seven more weeks to go and I will be going to Taiwan! Although we have been focusing on the text for our class Holcombe: A History of East Asia since the beginning of the semester, I feel like I am just starting to wrap my head around the information now. One of the things I was most surprised by in this class is the scope of history that one needs to be versed in just to comprehend the basis of East Asian Civilization.
      The information that has stuck out most to me from Holcombe is that of the dynasties, particularly the Qin and Tang Dynasties. I have attached a timeline below that resembles the one in the book. I liked this photo because it represents the dynasty timeline colorfully and pictorially.

      

      Holcombe refers to the Tang dynasty as the Italian Renaissance of the western world. It is represented in the text as a colorful period of enlightenment and as a golden age. I was able to see some remnants of this dynasty's spirit when we went to the Carnegie last weekend. The pottery from the era was colorful, glazed, and beautiful. This era occurred from 600 to 900 B.C which is about one-hundred years longer than the European Renaissance lasted.    

   







      The dynasty that I found most captivating in Holcombe was the Qin. We learned very early on in our class of how unpopular the Qin emperor was in China. However, I find it fascinating that an empire that lasted only about eighty years could imprint onto China some of the extraordinary world wonders that it did. As a westerner one of the first things that come to my mind when I think of China is The Great Wall and the Terra-cotta army of soldiers. Ironically, both byproducts of the extremely short lived Qin Dynasty.