Tang and Song Poetry :)

              Tang poetry and Song poetry have very different structures and are based upon different topics, but are also similar in many ways. Tang poetry is definitely more focused on simplicity and consisting of poems that not necessarily have a crucial moral or meaning, but that revolve around a simple topic, like being drunk while gazing at the moon, as Li Bai describes in his poem. I dislike this kind of poetry because, quite frankly, I find it sort of pointless. Most of the poems are focused on ideas like love, friendship, and nature, oh yah….and alcohol. These poems seem like something someone would memorize or just read in monotone, not what poetry should really be like, in my opinion. I love poetry and I just did not think that these poets did a good job at doing poems justice, which is wrong to say because, technically, poetry is about expressing oneself freely, however one may wish.. so basically, I'm a hypocrite.

                The Song poetry, on the other hand, definitely incorporates more emotion throughout their poetry. It had more of a sing-song feel to it with more rhymes and, at points, seemed more energetic than the Tang poetry. I really loved the poem, “Song by the River, “by Su Shi because it was a very romantic poem that would definitely be relatable to many young lovers or hopeless romantics out there. It almost reminded me of lyrics from Taylor Swift songs (MY FAVORITE), except more ancient and less clever and catchy. (But I don’t blame them because it’s hard to live up to her J). Both the Tang and Song poetry portray alcohol as an obvious factor in their poetry and both use nature, like the moon especially, a lot within their writings. I definitely preferred Song poetry because I thought that it had more meaning and substance than that of the Tang and I thought that both of these societies were well reflected by the Poets of their civilizations.

Expansion of Islam

This is the link to my map! Show me was being annoying so when I tried to add more stuff on it it wouldn't save but I'll show you the little change I made to it in class tomorrow!

Link : http://www.showme.com/sh/?i=92166

Prince Vladimir v. Constantine's conversions

Prince Vladimir of Kiev and Constantinople both used their power in government to popularize their conversions to different religions. Prince Vladimir’s decided to concert to Orthodox Christianity around 989 and made it mandatory for his people to do as he did. Interestingly enough, he was not the best person to idolize due to his lack of appropriate behaviors. According to reports, Prince Vladimir definitely had an affinity for some Bud-Lights here and there and also kept a harem of hundred of girls, not exactly the type of person I’d want to look up to. Although he wasn’t the most morally strict human on the planet, his conversion cause Byzantine influences to spread hastily throughout most of Russia. Byzantine culture and religion were advocated in these distant lands because Byzantine teachers founded schools in the north and priests also went around promoting the religion.  Prince Vladimir did not like Judaism or Islam and therefore sponsored Orthodox Christianity and, over time, the Russian Orthodox Church grew and so did the influence of the Byzantine culture.

In 312, Constantine sparked a different conversion earlier in history when he experienced a vision which impressed him upon the power of the Christian God who assisted him in defeating his rivals. Therefore, he established the Edict of Milan, allowing Christians from the Roman Empire the freedom to practice their faith openly. He converted to Christianity, and later around 380 C.E., Theodosius made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire.

Both Prince Vladimir of Kiev and Constantine, the sole Roman emperor, definitely used their high positions in society and government as a way to cause their subjects to covert along with them. This, in the end, made these conversions monumental because it had a huge impact on society by spreading different cultures into more distant lands. Priests, teachers, and missionaries acted as an aid to both conversions because they advocated the religions in lands where the rulers had less control over there people.

The Byzantine Empire Architecture

After observing and analyzing the Byzantine Empire’s architecture I made note of several trends that became apparent after looking at the images. First of all, it becomes evident that they focused much of what they built based religion. There Christian roots shined through because Jesus and various disciples were illustrated in the background along with crosses multiple times, most of time it appeared as though they were praying. Also, domes became a recurring architectural structure throughout the Byzantine Empire because the pictures show many domes on top of buildings. Buildings were also depicted as if they were stretched within vicinity of the sky, giving the architecture a heavenly feel because its connection with God was close, literally. In addition to this, bright colors were clearly the shades of choice for the Byzantine Empire because they caught attention very easily and even, the colors like red resemble power, wealth, and also control. These colors made this type of architecture distinctive because it was so eye catching. Also, the Byzantine Empire obviously felt a need to flaunt their wealth by showing it through the extravagant decorations within the interior of buildings and did not appreciate simplicity or the whole “less is more” idea when embellishing their buildings. Mosaics were very popular and common along with massive walls that occupied a large amount of the Byzantine architecture.  I think that their architecture, although seems like it was mostly focused on being decorative and beautiful, it also served purpose and was functional to them because they were useful. All these aspects definitely made this type of architecture different from that of other societies.

                I feel as though in some ways the Byzantine Empire’s architecture is reflected in American architecture, however only in certain places. The dome feature of the Byzantine Empire is repeated throughout the United States, especially in some of the government offices like the Massachusetts State House located right here in Boston. It has a giant gold dome resting on the top of the building, which tourists are always immediately astonished by, which the Byzantine people always tried to accomplish by making their buildings overly lavish. Also, within more religious places like churches, Americans use the same decorating techniques and mosaics to depict Jesus and cover the walls. On the other hand, Americans sometimes prefer simpler and more functional architecture to build like their homes that’s main purpose is more focused on serving a use instead of just being eye-appealing.

Analyzing the credibility of different sources of evidence

Document 1 was written by Benjamin from Tudela, who describes what he sees and experiences as a traveler throughout the city of Constantinople. After reading all of the different evidences provided in this chapter, this document was the most credible because it is not biased at all, unlike most of the others. It is merely a collection of the author’s observations. It had a more impartial outlook than the other passages. I think that he wrote this as either a journal entry or it was part of some sort of diary.

Document 2 was written by Robert of Clari who makes it quite evident that he is a supporter of Constantinople and repeatedly advocates the city and its positive attributions. It talks about the extravagant palaces, riches, and churches that Constantinople has and the beauty of the city. I think that the author meant this document to be as another entry in a journal that a normal tourist would have kept and written in habitually.

Document 3 is written by Nicetas Chroniates who writes about the Latin’s new method of plundering Constantinople with a series of historical recordings what had occurred. It is very obvious that Chroniates did not have an affinity for these Latin people and looked down upon them. I think he probably wrote this passage for a rival, adversary, or enemy of the Latin people or just as a historical recollection that consisted of a biased point of view.

Document 4 portrays an illustrated map of Constantinople and how the magnificent city was enclosed by a wall that served as a protective barrier. I think that it was used not only as a map which showed off Constantinople’s wealth and beauty, but also as a way for other people to know where, in relation to other societies, this city was located and ways to make routes to get there or leave there.

Document 5 is a picture that depicts the interior of Saint Sophia, which is a beautiful, elegant, well-built, and decorated building. I think that is purpose was to be a beautiful work of art that exemplified the beauty or ornate structure of the church.

Document 6 was written by George Acropolites and it discussed the Thanksgiving celebration and religious holidays/traditions of Constantinople. I think it could have possibly just been written in a journal or diary as a way to describe the impact religion had on this particular society.

Document 7 was written by Chrysobull who talked about the trade that occurred between Constantinople and other cities. It displays a positive opinion on Constantinople because it portrays the city as very munificent to other societies. I think that the author was definitely from Constantinople and was advocating the city and its trade as a way to tune in the public to the successfulness of this city’s interactions with others.

The Silk Road Project

I thought that this project on the Silk Road was actually a very cool project because although it was very time consuming, I learned basically everything there is to know about the Silk Road. I thought that the research portion of the project went exceptionally well because the book was very helpful and had an in-depth portion which made everything a lot clearer. Also, Wikipanion proved to be a very beneficial source. In addition to this, the way we decided to organize our map went very well because everything was grouped based on empires and the way certain products, diseases, and religions flowed throughout the Silk Road. Making our map to scale and labeling every section of the map with physical barriers and oceans came out great on our map and everything was easily distinguishable. Lastly, our map turned out to be very eye-appealing and colorful which I was definitely excited about! On the other hand, I wasn’t really happy with how we were limited for time because of the power outage!! It became very tiring trying to draw and write in the candle light (even though our Yankee candles were smelt amazing).  Also, I was a bit annoyed with the ridiculous amount of time it required to make it perfect and draw in every last detail. I was a bit hesitant to trust the information from wikipanion because I wasn’t able to completely confide in the information since random people could have edited it. At times, it became frustrating to try and fit all of the information on the map because there was so much to describe about how things flowed and which empires did what, so at times we had to try and cram every last word in. Lastly, our poster might have become a bit hard to follow because of arrows pointing to different descriptions so I wish we had made it a little more clear.

 It was definitely difficult to do this project in the pitch black and also trying to schedule time with my partner that could work for the both us because I had work and Sabrina had practice during certain hours. My collaboration with Sabrina was a success because we both are hard-working individuals and perfectionists so we understood one another. Also, we live literally within one minute of each other since we are neighbors so we can get together very easily and asking for rides wasn’t difficult because I could just walk over when I needed to, which was very convenient.  If I had to do this project again, I would probably have focused less on trying to cram every possible detail onto the map because doing that was overly time-consuming and partially unnecessary! L Other than this, I thought that our project was great and I am really proud of what we created.