HIST-UA 157 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Foot Binding, Silk Road, Trebuchet
Document Summary
What does foot binding suggest about the status of women in song dynasty. In song china, foot binding was thought of as beautiful. Foot binding was a status symbol (men would get props for having foot bound wives) It was a sign of social division/higher class (foot binding meant the family was rich enough to not have the daughter work) The power of women, however, deteriorated and they were seen more as objects. Tang dynasty invented the mechanical clock: this helped organization, and they could organize trade, it would help with scheduling activity, the clock helped unify the dynasty. Song dynasty created gunpowder (900: gunpowder was first used in fireworks, 1300"s: mongols brought gunpowder to the west through the silk road, 1600"s: guns and artillery start. How did the mongols build such a large empire? (u8d9) They used their technology, like the horses, saddle/stirrup, trebuchet, bows/arrows/archers. Their army could operate well on the flat steppes.
