The story in Genesis 38 about the salvation of the line of Judah by Tamar inspires the Widow and the Unjust Judge parable. The widow in the parable evokes the oppression experienced by the widow Tamar, who was the victim of Judah’s failure as head of family to implement the levirate duty to reestablish her dead husband’s estate. The Pharisee and the Tax Collector parable depicts a Pharisee extolling his own virtue who would not be “acquitted of his sins,” and a tax collector who berates himself for his sinfulness who would “be exalted.” In the background is Judah’s acknowledgment that Tamar had been more righteous than he because he had not compelled his son Shelah to fulfill the levirate requirement, a neglect that, in turn, prompted her to prostitute herself with Judah to attain a much desired child.

One of the biggest questions in the study of China’s history is related to the impact of the Mongol conquest. The Mongols governed through multiple languages, and ruled ethnically and culturally distinct groups, in part through the adoption and adaptation of Chinese institutions. The reign of Qubilai Khan (1260–1294) laid the foundations of Mongol rule as the Yuan dynasty, establishing government administration that incorporated steppe patrimonialism emphasizing kinship and loyalty with Chinese bureaucracy. The Yuan capital, Dadu, the site of modern Beijing, was a planned political center that reflected the steppe origins of Mongol rulers as well as Chinese urban design. The Mongol conquest influenced artistic expression in a variety of ways, simultaneously continuing earlier traditions and introducing new ones. Both painters and poets left a rich legacy that can be used to reconstruct the multicultural and multiethnic world of Yuan cultural life. Regional differences mattered, especially the distinction between north and south following the loss of the north to the Jurchen in 1127. After the Mongol conquest, north and south were reunified, and Neo-Confucianism was adopted as orthodoxy by the Yuan government, clearly visible in the approved interpretations of the Classics for the examinations when they were restored in 1315.