NYU Marco Polo Travels Through the World Discussion

This week we have:

• a secondary source material that provides a good overview, ‘Chine Under the Song, Yuan, and Ming Dynasties’ by Ralph et. al.
• and a document that contains primary sources, ‘Peasant Life in Tang and Song Chine’ by Stearns et. al.

Please choose one question from Part 1 and answer the question in Part 2. Your answer needs to be 250-300 words in total. Please ask one question to your friends or comment on 2 friends’ posts. The due date is on Friday at 5 pm.

Part 1:

• Please read the secondary source by Ralph et. al. carefully and pay attention to the dates of the Tang and Song poems in ‘Peasant Life in Tang and Song Chine’. What do the poems suggest about the material standards of the peasants? What do we learn about these poems about the Tang and Song Chine?
• How would you describe the relationship between the peasants and the government in Tang and Song Chine?
• How does Marco Polo describe Hangzhou? How was the city? How important was the commerce in Hangzhou?

Part 2:

• Last week we have read about Ghana and Baghdad, this week we are reading about Hangzhou. Please pay attention to the time frame of these writings and compare and contrast the features of these cities. Then, think about the general modern image/understanding of ‘middle ages.’ (you can think of movies with ‘dark ages’ themes) Does this image work for these cities that we have been reading for two weeks? Why or why not?