three- eld system    in medieval agriculture, the practice of dividing 
the arable land into three  elds so that one could lie fallow while 
the others were planted in winter grains and spring crops.
three kingdoms    Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla, rivals but all under 
varying degrees of Chinese in uence, which together controlled vir-
tually all of Korea from the fourth to the seventh centuries.
three obediences    the traditional duties of Japanese women, in per-
manent subservience: child to father, wife to husband, and widow 
to son.
tithe    a tenth of one’s harvest or income; paid by medieval peasants 
to the village church.
Tongmenghui    the political organization—“Revolutionary Alliance”—
formed by Sun Yat-sen in 1905, which united various revolutionary 
factions and ultimately toppled the Manchu dynasty.
To r ah     the body of law in Hebrew Scripture, contained in the 
Pentateuch (the  rst  ve books of the Hebrew Bible).
totalitarian state    a state characterized by government control over 
all aspects of economic, social, political, cultural, and intellectual 
life, the subordination of the individual to the state, and insistence 
that the masses be actively involved in the regime’s goals.
total war    warfare in which all of a nation’s resources, including civil-
ians at home as well as soldiers in the  eld, are mobilized for the 
war e ort.
trade union    an association of workers in the same trade, formed to 
help members secure better wages, bene ts, and working conditions.
transubstantiation    a doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church that 
teaches that during the eucharist the substance of the bread and 
wine is miraculously transformed into the body and blood of Jesus.
trench warfare    warfare in which the opposing forces attack and 
counterattack from a relatively permanent system of trenches pro-
tected by barbed wire; characteristic of World War I.
tribunes of the plebs    beginning in 494 b.c.e., Roman o  cials who 
were given the power to protect plebeians against arrest by patrician 
magistrates.
tribute system    an important element of Chinese foreign policy, by 
which neighboring states paid for the privilege of access to Chinese 
markets, received legitimation and agreed not to harbor enemies of 
the Chinese Empire.
Truman Doctrine    the doctrine, enunciated by Harry Truman in 
1947, that the United States would provide economic aid to coun-
tries that said they were threatened by Communist expansion.
twice-born    the males of the higher castes in traditional Indian soci-
ety, who underwent an initiation ceremony at puberty.
tyrant/tyranny    in an ancient Greek polis (or an Italian city-state 
during the Renaissance), a ruler who came to power in an unconsti-
tutional way and ruled without being subject to the law.
uhuru    “freedom” (Swahili), and so a key slogan in the African inde-
pendence movements, especially in Kenya.
uji    a clan in early Japanese tribal society.
ulama    a convocation of leading Muslim scholars, the earliest of 
which shortly a er the death of Muhammad drew up a law code, 
called the Shari’a, based largely on the Qur’an and the sayings of the 
Prophet, to provide believers with a set of prescriptions to regulate 
their daily lives.
umma    the Muslim community, as a whole.
uncertainty principle    a principle in quantum mechanics, posited 
by Heisenberg, that holds that one cannot determine the path of an 
electron because the very act of observing the electron would a ect 
its location.
unconditional surrender  complete, unquali ed surrender of a nation.
uninterrupted revolution    the goal of the Great Proletarian Cultural 
Revolution launched by Mao Zedong in 1966.
State Confucianism    the integration of Confucian doctrine with 
Legalist practice under the Han dynasty in China, which became 
the basis of Chinese political thought until the modern era.
Stoicism
    a philosophy founded by Zeno in the fourth century b.c.e. 
that taught that happiness could be obtained by accepting one’s lot 
and living in harmony with the will of God, thereby achieving inner 
peace.
stupa    originally a stone tower holding relics of the Buddha, more 
generally a place for devotion, o en architecturally impressive and 
surmounted with a spire.
subinfeudation    the practice in which a lord’s greatest vassals subdi-
vided their  efs and had vassals of their own, and those vassals, in 
turn, subdivided their  efs and so on down to simple knights whose 
 efs were too small to subdivide.
Sublime Porte  the o  ce of the grand vezir in the Ottoman Empire.
sudras    the classes that represented the great bulk of the Indian 
population from ancient time, mostly peasants, artisans or manual 
laborers; ranked below brahmins, kshatriyas, and vaisyas, but above 
the pariahs.
su rage    the right to vote.
su ragists    those who advocate the extension of the right to vote 
(su rage), especially to women.
Sufism    a mystical school of Islam, noted for its music, dance, 
and poetry, which became prominent in about the thirteenth 
century.
sultan    “holder of power,” a title commonly used by Muslim rulers in 
the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and elsewhere; still in use in parts of 
Asia, sometimes for regional authorities.
Sunni    the largest tradition of Islam, from which the Shi’ites split 
soon a er the death of Muhammad, in a disagreement over the 
succession.
Supreme Ultimate    according to Neo-Confucianists, a transcendent 
world, distinct from the material world in which humans live, but 
to which humans may aspire; a set of abstract principles, roughly 
equivalent to the Dao.
surplus value    in Marxism, the di erence between a product’s real 
value and the wages of the worker who produced the product.
Swahili    a mixed African-Arabian culture that developed by the 
twel h century along the east coast of Africa; also, the national 
language of Kenya and Tanzania.
syncretism    the combining of di erent forms of belief or practice, as, 
for example, when two gods are regarded as di erent forms of the 
same underlying divine force and are fused together.
Taika reforms    the seventh-century “great change” reforms that 
established the centralized Japanese state.
taille    a French tax on land or property, developed by King Louis XI 
in the   eenth century as the  nancial basis of the monarchy. It 
was largely paid by the peasantry; the nobility and the clergy were 
exempt.
Tantr is m    a mystical Buddhist sect, which emphasized the importance 
of magical symbols and ritual in seeking a path to enlightenment.
tari s    duties (taxes) imposed on imported goods; usually imposed 
both to raise revenue and to discourage imports and protect 
domestic industries.
tetrarchy    rule by four; the system of government established by 
Diocletian (284–305) in which the Roman Empire was divided into 
two parts, each ruled by an “Augustus” assisted by a “Caesar.”
theocracy    a government based on a divine authority.
 eravada    a school of Buddhism that stresses personal behavior and 
the quest for understanding as a means of release from the wheel of 
life, rather than the intercession of bodhisattvas; predominant in Sri 
Lanka and Southeast Asia.
Glossary    799