Chapters 5 & 8 China China is the oldest continuous civilization in the world. Agriculture began in China in the Yellow River Valley. Wheat was the first staple crop. Rice would later be the staple in the south. China was the most isolated of the early Asian civilizations. Shang period (1750 BC 1027 BC). Zhou period (1027 BC 221 BC) Political: China was not unified. It was divided into small warring states ruled by kings and a landowning warrior class. Kings ruled thanks to the mandate of heaven. The monarch was known as the Son of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven is God's approval of the ruler. It is demonstrated by political success, peace, and prosperity. Political failure, invasions, natural disasters, corruption, and famine are signs that the mandate of heaven has been lost. Civil wars and invasions are usually followed by a new dynasty, and the dynastic cycle begins again. Religious: Zhou China had no priestly class, no organized, statesponsored religion or defined set of religious beliefs, and no notion of a personal God. They believed in gods or spirits associated with forces of nature. There is spiritual energy in everyone and everything, as well as duality. Traditional practices included medicine (acupuncture), divination, feng shui, and ancestor veneration. 1
2
Intellectual: In Chinese writing each character stands for a word. It is still the system used today. Chinese writing was developed for administrative purposes and for divination. The oldest examples of Chinese writing are found on oracle bones. In the Warring States or Zhou period, Confucianism arose in China. It would become China's dominant value system. Confucius (Kong Fuzi 551 BC 479 BC) was the most influential philosopher in Chinese history, but his ideas would only become important centuries after his death. He was not a prophet or religious figure, and he had nothing to say about divine matters. He wrote about political order and harmony at a time when China was divided during the Warring States period. Family is the basic unit of society. Everyone must fulfill his/her duties as a child, spouse, and parent. The family hierarchy is based on age and gender. Wives must obey and respect their husbands, and the younger must obey and respect the elder. Filial piety: feeling of honor and respect which a child owes a parent. Parents must care for their children, and children must respect, obey, and honor their parents. A harmonious, orderly society should be modelled on the family, with the emperor playing the role of the father, and his subjects playing the role of children. Everyone has an assigned place in the hierarchy, which is based on intelligence and education. It is therefore somewhat flexible. Confucian hierarchy: emperor, bureaucracy (educated administrative class), peasants and artisans, and merchants. Merchants are at the bottom because they don't produce anything, and making money is the lowliest and most vulgar occupation. 3
Daoism Daoism is a religion and philosophy which arose in the 6th century BC, based on the ideas of Laozi. There is no evidence he existed, and Daoism had no influence outside of China. Dao "the path" is a philosophy for how to live your life. It ignores social and political questions. The path teaches acceptance and to seek inner peace and to avoid violence and struggle. It incorporates the belief in the yin and yang, the dual nature of everything in the universe. Daoism also incorporated traditional Chinese magical practices and beliefs in spirits, and thus influenced traditional Chinese medicine and architecture. 4
Classical China China was unified as a single empire by Shi Huangdi, "first emperor," who founded the Qin Dynasty (221 BC 207 BC). Qin is the source for the English word "China." The Chinese call China the Middle Kingdom. The first emperor was known for being tyrannical and cruel. He turned China into a land of free peasants with small farms, after breaking up the large estates of the nobles. Peasants paid taxes and provided their labor to the state. He began the construction of the Great Wall to keep out pastoral invaders from the North. He standardized China's written language. He was buried in his capital of Chang'an surrounded by an enormous army of clay warriors. Han Dynasty (206 BC AD 220) China remained unified with the rise of the Han Dynasty. They were the classical rulers of China, and set the pattern for Chinese history and culture. Han became the name for Chinese ethnicity. P The emperor held absolute power as the Son of Heaven. Confucianism, which justifies imperial rule, became China's official ideology. Education was focused on Confucian philosophy. The emperor ruled with a large bureaucracy. Bureaucrats were examined in Confucian philosophy in order to be hired or promoted. The army consisted of conscripted peasants. China's greatest threat during this period was the Xiongnu, a pastoral Central Asian people. The Han Dynasty expanded into Central Asia in order to defend China from this threat. 5
S Merchants had a low status, unlike in Rome. Most people were peasants. Wealthier landowners dominated the bureaucracy. They were known as the scholar gentry. T China developed the most advanced metal working skills. Steel and paper were both invented. Water mills were built to provide power. Silk (derived from the cocoon of the silkworm) became a major manufactured good and an important export. It was exported to the Roman Empire along the Silk Road. Han China increasingly suffered from official corruption, fighting within the imperial family, peasant uprisings against abusive landlords, and regional fragmentation. Han China was also, as a result, vulnerable to northern invaders. It fell to invasions by Huns and Turks. China was then divided into several states, some of which were dominated by the invading tribes. China was able to reunify in the future, unlike Rome, and its civilization endured. China's invaders continued governing the successor states in the traditional Chinese manner. The Confucian value system encouraged obedience to the emperor, and bureaucratic administration survived in the successor states. Christianity, on the other hand, did not have a political dimension, and it banned emperor worship. Also, Roman emperors' power was limited by the military, the Senate, and laws, unlike China. 6
7
8
9
10
11