East AsiaDuring the years between 1000 and 1400 the East Asian region saw extensive changes and developments regarding the nature of the elites who governed their respective countries. In China, the culture of examination developed, Japan saw the emergence of the Samurai, Korea saw the growth of the Yangban, and Vietnam settled for a system of tribute to China. Each of the respective countries grew and developed independently and for the most part were able to distance themselves from China and begin to form their own national identity along with their own system of ruling elites. In China there is a clear beginning for the new political elite that was born from the transition from the Tang to Song dynasties culminating in 960. The Zhao brothers, who are the leaders of the revolution and the only ones capable of consolidating power, know that they are only men who are militarily strong and realize they need a system that will help keep them from losing power. As a result, they turn their attention away from the landed aristocracy, which had previously ruled China and had been significantly weakened in the fighting, and focus their attention on creating a new political structure for the development of government officials. The Zhao brothers establish the Confucian Examination System (CES), which is no longer based on recommendation but is based on merit. Provincial exams are held every three years and the number of people who pass the final exam (Jinshi) is around 100-150 out of the original 100,000. A new elite now formed around this examination system, the Literati. With the onset of the CES began a steady decline of military power in China and the emergence of the Literati. During the Mongol invasion the exams we... middle of paper......seize power. Overall, major transformations in East Asia's political power structure took place during this period. There are two things that tie all the changes in the region together: the desire of the emerging dynasties to legitimize and consolidate their power and China, mainly in the form of the Confucian examination system. The emergence of so many new dynasties in this period inherently leads to new political systems to govern new dynasties. The CES was also born in China, in the countries that adopt it, it directly initiates the affirmation of the Confucian scholar as a political official and creates a whole culture around the exams themselves. The final unifying trait among all the changes is that they all remain individual to their respective nations, sometimes borrowing heavily from China but imprinting on them at the same time their own cultural identity..