Classical Era Strengths and Accomplishments Holding Empires together took political and technologica

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Classical EraStrengths and AccomplishmentsHoldin
g Empires together took political and
technological innovation

• Greeks including Hellenistic Era
• Romans
• Qin-Han
• Mauryan - Gupta

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Need for ship of statePlato The Republic

• Prehistoric to Ancient
• sedentary
• Towns and then cities to city states
• Complex systems develop
• Empires smaller and accomplished through conquest
  and knowledge of metullurgy
• Zhou and Egypt more isolated and used community
  and more complex social and political systems to
  unite
• Indus and Fertile Crescent used advancements in
  military tactics and as organizing principles
  (grid for city, city-states)

• Classical
• Tendency in early era to establish cities then
  had to maintain and supply the cities
• Had to connect the areas
• New styles of governance
• Growth of Bureacracies
• Roads and standarization
• Needed stronger educational base (university
  system, scholarly gentry, Greek tutors)
• Increased literacy and information storage
• Monumental style for cities
• Later smaller farms grow to large
• Class struggle and some rural vs. urban conflict
• Some peasant or agrarian reform
• Increased use of slaves
• Some peasant and slave revolt
• Tributary states or provinces
• Inclusive and syncretic styles (Romanization,
  Sinification, Indianitation, Hellenization)
• New philosophies
• At first Legalism into Confucianism and
  meritocracy
• Christianity

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MetaphorA ship, to have a safe and successful
journey

• needs an expert navigator at the helm, a captain
  who knows the capacities of the vessel,
  geography, meteorology, water currents,
  navigational astronomy, supplies management, and
  good communication with all parts of the ship and
  other matters.
• An ignorant and untrained person at the helm of a
  ship would endanger vessel, cargo, crew, and
  passengers alike.
• Similarly, Plato suggests, the ship of state
  needs expert governors at the helm, governors who
  are well informed about such things as law,
  economics, sociology, military strategy, history,
  and other relevant subjects.
• Ignorant and incompetent governors can be and
  have been disasters for citizens and states.

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Empires

• Hegemony simply means dominance over others
• In the context of empires in can mean
  political/economic/cultural dominance
• How do they dominate
• Inclusive
• Exclusive
• Aristocracy vs. citizenship
• Enslavement
• Does not always mean ownership or becoming
  property
• Can be economic enslavement such as tribute or
  repayment of debt
• What type of new political structures are
  established to create and later maintain the
  empire?
• Does the culture present have to be destroyed or
  can it be incorporated into the new culture?
• How well is it done so that a large army does not
  suck dry the empires resources?

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Qin- Han221 BCE 206 BCE 206 220 CE

• Qin leader, the first emperor, Shi Huangdi,
  centralizes authority
• Eliminates conflicts
• New techniques in warfare
• Standardized language and writing
• Circular copper coin with square hole
• Measurements and axial length standardized so
  roads made same width and carts made same ruts
• Began new system of roads and irrigation canals
• Creates a new type of bureacracy or governmental
  worker using people who are knowledgeable and
  have not just inherited the position
• Some military men
• Censorate
• Standardizes weights, language
• Wudi
• Wang Meng

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Classical China. In 221 b.c.e. two centuries of
internecine rivalrythe Warring States
periodended with the rise to centralized power
of the Qin dynasty, but internal revolt and
external pressures on the borders precipitated
further civil war. The Han dynasty emerged as the
new rulers in 202 b.c.e. They refortified the
northern walls, and extended imperial control far
to the south and west, deep into central Asia
along the silk route, defining a Chinese
territorial extent that has been asserted down to
the present day.
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The Qin-Han Dynasty

• Military Power and Mobilization
• Qin defeated regional states by 221 B.C.E.
• Armed forces essential to Qin success
• Defeated Koreans and Xiongnu (Huns)
• Mass mobilization of men for public works
  including Great Wall of China
• 700,000 workers used to create capital city
• Qin Shi Huangdi tomb included 7,000 life-size
  figures of soldiers

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The Qin Dynasty

• Competing Ideologies of Empire cont.
• Struggle between Legalism and Confucianism
• Qin rejected Confucian respect for the past
• Ordered Confucian texts burned
• Rejected personal ties as basis of government in
  favor of bureaucracy with defined rules
• Economic Power
• Public works intended to improve economy
• Canal and river transport systems
• Irrigation in Sichuan for grain production
• Acquisition of areas rich in iron ore and two
  ironworking facilities

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Centralization by Han

• A Confucian Bureaucracy
• Liu Bang, first Han, was commoner who chose
  educated men with Confucian principles
• History became more important
• Established elite academy to teach Confucianism
  as part of requirement that knowledge of
  Confucius is necessary for promotion in
  bureaucracy
• Consolidated legal system
• Established principles for the conduct of women
  Administrative Power
• Empire divided into forty commanderies
• Each administered by three officials to insure
  that no one leader could develop power base to
  challenge the emperor
• Chinese had invented something brand new rule by
  merit.
• 165 BC, the Han instituted the first examination
  primarily concerned Confucius, the Five Classics,
  and moral questions
• admission into government service was possible
  only through this examination
• Standardization of weights, measures, etc
• New city at Chang-an
• Used bureaucracy instead of personal ties
• Rejected military and merchants for government
  and instead shifted to the land owners or gentry
  and established a school which focused on
  Confucian values
• Created scholarly-gentry bureaucracy
• Influenced role of women as quality of offspring
• Opportune marriages became a factor

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The Han Dynasty

• Military Power and Diplomacy
• Han as militaristic as Qin had been
• Army of 300,000 to one million
• Campaigns to the west for silk markets and access
  to Bactrian horses
• Foreign relations by tributary system
• Payments and obedience to Chinese government in
  return for gifts from emperor to tribal leaders

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Han Dynasty - Fluctuations in Administrative Power

• An Interregnum 9-23 C.E.
• Death of child emperor Ping led to attempt of
  regent Wang Mang to create new dynasty
• Failure and restoration of Han created
  distinction between earlier and later Han
• Flooding and course changes of the Yellow River
  disrupted daily and economic life
• Invasions of Xiongnu and rebellion of Red Turbans
  in 23 C.E. opened door for return of Han
• A Weakened Han Dynasty 23-220 C.E.
• Han weakness enabled barbarians to live inside
  the Great Wall, serve in army, and intermarry
  with Chinese
• Led to sinicization of barbarians
• Southern movement of population enriched
  merchants rather than emperor
• Han failed to force local administrators to send
  tax revenues to central government
• Peasant Revolt and the Fall of the Han
• Yellow Turban revolt in 184 C.E. broke out
  simultaneously in sixteen places
• Four factions within government sought dynastic
  power
• Child emperor
• Bureaucrats, advisors, palace guard, and regent
• Court eunuchs
• Women of the court

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Disintegration and Reunification

• Ecology and Culture
• China split into three governments that reflected
  geographic features
• North suited to wheat south to rice culture
• Chinese culture endured imperial division
  people of the Han refers to culture
• Western dynasty became more Chinese over time
• Buddhism Reaches China
• Entered during Han Dynasty
• Foreignness contributed to its success
• Anti-priestly stance and presence in trading
  communities made it acceptable to merchants
• Mixed with Confucianism and Daoism to bring
  innovations to Chinese culture

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Wudi164 BCE -

• Confucianism became dominant in the civil service
  while Legalist rivals continued to hold positions
  there. Examinations for China's 130,000 or so
  civil service positions tested an applicant's
  knowledge of Confucian ideology, knowledge of
  ancient writings and rules of social grace rather
  than technical expertise.
• Theoretically these examinations were open to all
  citizens, but in reality they were open only to
  those with adequate respectability, which
  excluded artisans, merchants and others of lesser
  status than the gentry - no doubt a lot of people
  who could have served China well.
• Ever-Level Graineries storage of excess grain
  to be redistributed during times of famine

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The 138126 BC travels of Zhang Qian to the West,
Mogao Caves, 618712 AD mural.
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Travelers

• Zhang Quin
• 138 BCE defeats the Xiongnu
• They pay tribute and allow passage
• Opens the Silk Road
• (1) a string of oases and towns offering shelter,
  food, and water to travelers
• (2) guard stations to warn merchants of dangers
  en route
• (3) interpreters and translators
• (4) guides and camel grooms
• (5) capital to fund the caravans
• (6) written or oral descriptions of the routes
• (7) stable governments in at least China and
  Persia to keep the caravans free of bandit
  harassment.
• Faxian (Fa Hsien) collecting authentic Buddhist
  scriptures who returned to China from the Gupta
  dynasty bringing Buddhism
• Xuanzang, the most renowned of these Chinese
  Buddhist monks, journeyed to India in the seventh
  century to study with Buddhist masters, visit
  important religious sites, and gather Buddhist
  texts and artifacts. His travel account and his
  adventures provide teachers with a lively means
  of explaining Buddhist principles as well as
  showing Buddhist art and ritual objects.
  Xuanzangs voyage ushered in a flourishing era in
  the history of the Silk Roads. The Tang dynasty
  (618907)
• ITsing in the 6th Century from China (Cina) to
  Indu

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Wang MengSocialist Emperor

• a family of less than eight that had more than
  fifteen acres was obligated to distribute the
  excess amount of land to the landless.
• He moved to reduce the tax burden on poor
  peasants, and he devised a plan to have state
  banks lend money to whomever needed it at an
  interest of ten percent a year, in contrast to
  the thirty percent that was the going rate by
  private lenders.
• In order to stabilize the price of grain, he made
  plans for a state granary, hoping that this would
  discourage the wealthy from hoarding grain and
  from profiting from price fluctuations.
• Wang also delegated a body officials to regulate
  the economy and to fix prices every three months,
  and he decreed that critics of his plan would be
  drafted into the military.
• 23 CE executed by Red Eyebrow Society, peasant
  secret society

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Trying to hold on to the empire leads to its
colapse

• Although the Han period was one of great
  prosperity, free peasants began to suffer.
• Land taxes on the land-owning farmers were fairly
  light, but there were other demands on them,
  including military service and forced labor of up
  to one month per year.
• The Chinese population tripled under the Han
  dynasty, eventually reducing the average size of
  the individual farm plot to about one acre per
  personbarely enough for survival.
• As time went on, many poor peasants were forced
  to sell their land and become tenant farmers.
• Land once again became owned by the powerful
  landed aristocrats, who often owned thousands of
  acres and gathered their own military forces to
  bully free farmers into becoming tenants.

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Yellow Turban Uprising

• Gap between Rich Poor
• Banditry
• Factions at Court
• Family Members
• Confucian Scholar Bureaucrats
• Court Eunuchs
• 189 AD Slaughter of Eunuchs
• 400 Years of Chaos (400-800 AD)

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United China Timeline

• 551-479 BC Confucius
• 403-221 BC Period of Warring States
• 390-338 BC Shang Yang
• 372-289 BC Mencius
• 298-238 BC Xunzi
• 280-233 BC Han Feizi
• 221-207 BC Qin Dynasty
• 206 BC 009 AD Former Han Dynasty
• 141-087 AD Han Wudi
• 009-023 AD Wang Mang
• 025-220 AD Later Han Dynasty

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Chinese expansion. A substantial shift in Chinese
population distribution began during the first
two centuries c.e., a fact that can be traced
from Han census records. As land-hunger and
pressure from the Xiongnu and the Tibetans on the
northern border forced migration from the densely
populated northeast, and as techniques for rice
cultivation in the humid basin of the Yangzi
improved, the lands to the south were mastered,
and population clusters developed along the river
valleys.
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Confucius on Good Government

• The Master said, When a Princes personal
  conduct is correct, his government is effective
  without the issuing of orders. If his personal
  conduct is not correct, he may issue orders, but
  they will not be followed.
• The Chinese Classics
• Aspects of Mandate of Heaven
• Later compare to Machivellis The Prince

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Maurya Empire 321184 BC Gupta Empire 240550 AD

• Chandragupta Maurya (326)
• Army
• Secret police
• Courts
• Arthashastra (Treatise on Material Gain) by
  Kautilya early mirror for princes
• Superceded the Laws of Manu (ca. 1500 BCE)
• Ashoka
• Adopts Buddhism
• Rock and Pillar Edicts
• Right behavior, kindness to animals, kindness to
  prisoners
• Promote rest areas and travel and those devoted
  to Dharma

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Mauryan

• The remarkably advanced Mauryan empire was
  divided and subdivided into provinces, districts,
  and villages whose headmen were appointed by the
  state.
• The old customary law, preserved and administered
  by the Brahmin priesthood, was superseded by an
  extensive legal code that provided for royal
  interference in all matters.
• A series of courts ranging from the village court
  presided over by the headman to the emperor's
  imperial court administered the law.
• So busy was Chandragupta with the details of his
  surprisingly modern administration that,
  according to Megasthenes, he had to hear court
  cases during his daily massage.
• Two other agencies were very important in holding
  the empire together. One was the professional
  army, which Megasthenes reports was an incredibly
  large force of 700,000 men, 9000 elephants, and
  10,000 chariots.
• The other was the secret police, whose numbers
  were so large that the Greek writer concluded
  that spies constituted a separate class in Indian
  society.
• So great was the danger of conspiracy that
  Chandragupta lived in strict seclusion, attended
  only by women who cooked his food and in the
  evening carried him to his apartment, where they
  lulled him to sleep with music.
• Complementing this picture of an efficient but
  harsh bureaucracy is a remarkable book, Treatise
  on Material Gain (Arthashastra), written by
  Chandragupta's chief minister, Kautilya, as a
  guide for the king and his ministers.
• Kautilya exalts royal power as the means of
  establishing and maintaining "material gain,"
  meaning political and economic stability.

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Mauryra

• Asoka
• Rigid and strict military campaigns
• Adopts buddhism yet is tolerant
• Although a devout Buddhist, Ashoka did not
  persecute the Brahmins and Hindus but proclaimed
  religious toleration as official policy
• The king ... honors every form of religious faith
  ...
• whereof this is the root, to reverence one's own
  faith and never to revile that of others. Whoever
  acts differently injures his own religion while
  he wrongs another's.

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Gupta 320-460 CE

• Title of maharajadhiraja Great One
• City of Patna
• Chandra Gupta 319 335 CE
• Samudragupta 335 380 CE
• Faxian (Fa Hsien) collecting authentic Buddhist
  scriptures who visited in 450
• light taxes
• nine gems
• Aryabhatta calculated the solar year
• Kalidasa playwright and poet
• Vatsyayana Kama Sutra
• Rock cut monateries Mahayana Buddhist caves
• Although Brahmanism was waxing and Buddhism
  waning under the Guptas, all the Hindu sects, as
  well as Buddhism and Jainism, coexisted
  peacefully, and there was considerable
  intermingling and exchange of ideas among them.
  (In fact, the Buddha himself would be accepted
  into the Hindu pantheon as one of the avatars of
  Vishnu.) The amiability was surely due in part to
  the insistence of the Gupta emperors on religious
  tolerance Ardent followers of Vishnu though they
  were, the Gupta rulers generally had Buddhists
  among their advisers at court, and they were
  generous in their patronage of Buddhist monastic
  centers and universities, such as the one at
  Nalanda
• 466 Unable to hold back the Huns
• Next Century 7 very weak rulers and .

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• Family Life and the Caste System
• Gender Relations
• Sati
• Castes and Guilds - Jati
• Wealth and the Social Order

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Gupta Achievements
1000 diseasesclassified
500 healingplants identified
Printedmedicinal guides
Kalidasa
Literature
Medicine
PlasticSurgery
GuptaIndia
Inoculations
C-sectionsperformed
SolarCalendar
Astronomy
Mathematics
DecimalSystem
The earthis round
PI 3.1416
Conceptof Zero
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Pax Gupta

• Accomplishments in art, literature, scholarship,
  and philosophy were not more remarkable than
  those in science.
• The most famous Gupta scientist was the
  astronomer-mathematician, Aryabhatta, who lived
  in the fifth century.
• He discussed (in verse) quadratic equations,
  solstices, and equinoxes, along with the
  spherical shape of the earth and its rotation.
• Other Hindu mathematicians of this period
  popularized the use of a special sign for zero,
  later passing it on to the Arabs.
• But an even more valuable mathematical
  contribution also dates from Gupta times numbers
  themselves, as they are now known.
• Although their specific author is uncertain,
  "Arabic" numerals, with their system of nine
  digits and a zero, are not, in fact, Arabic they
  are the product of Indian mathematicians of Gupta
  times.
• The notation and decimal systems were adopted by
  the Arabs who called mathematics "the Indian
  science" and passed along by them to Europe,
  where it helped form the basis of much invention
  and discovery.
• In addition to employing their skills in Yoga,
  Hindu physicians sterilized wounds and prepared
  for surgery by fumigation, performed Caesarean
  operations, set broken bones, and practiced
  plastic surgery.
• They used drugs then unknown in the West, such as
  chaulmoogra oil for treating leprosy, a practice
  still used today.
• Achievements in pure science were matched by
  practical applications. Gupta craftsmen made
  soap, cement, superior dyes, and the finest
  tempered steel in the world.

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THE BUDDHIST STUPA Sanchi
NAEEM AHMED "The Stupa is truly the image, or
rather the epiphany, of the Buddha, of his Law
that rules the universe, and is moreover a
psycho-cosmogram. The form, suggested by the
apparent aspect of the vault of the sky, implies
in its turn the total presence and intangibility
of the Buddha, who in this way is seen not as a
human teacher but as the essence of the
Universe."
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Nine gems during golden age

• Faxian (Fa Hsien) collecting authentic Buddhist
  scriptures who visited in 450
• light taxes
• Aryabhatta (b. 476 d. 550)
• calculated the solar year
• Stated earth rotated on its axis
• Defined sine and cosine
• Considered first to write about algebra
• Kalidasa playwright and poet
• Vatsyayana - Kama Sutra
• Rock cut monasteries (Mahayana Buddhist) caves

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Buddhism under the Guptas

• Under the Gupta dynasty (c. AD 320-c. 600),
  Buddhism in India was being affected by spreading
  Gupta patronage for Brahmanic religion and by the
  rising tide of bhakti (a devotional ritualism
  centered on temples to Puranic deities), which
  emphasized a devotees love for a personal god).
• During this period, some Hindus practiced
  devotion to Buddha, whom they regarded as an
  avatar (incarnation) of Vishnu.
• During the Gupta period some Buddhist monasteries
  joined together to form mahaviharas that
  functioned as universities.
• The most famous of these at Nalanda had a
  curriculum that went far beyond the bounds of
  traditional Buddhism.
• Nalanda soon became the leading centre for the
  study of Mahayana, which was rapidly becoming the
  dominant Buddhist tradition in India.
• Though Buddhist institutions seemed to be faring
  well under the Guptas, various Chinese pilgrims
  visiting India between AD 400 and 700 described a
  decline in the Buddhist community and the
  beginning of the reabsorption of Indian Buddhism
  by Hinduism.
• Among these pilgrims were Fa-hsien, Sung Yün,
  Hui-sheng, Hsüan-tsang, and I-ching.

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Pax Romana and legacy of Roman Empire

• Rule of Law instead of man
• Aquaducts based on Greek principles plus the
  keystone
• Pantheon using a dome based on the barrel dome
• Virgils The Aenid
• Coluseum built
• Christianity
• Concrete

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Pax Romana - 27 BCE - 180 CE

• Caesar Augustus reign (27 bce-14 ce) considered
  the Golden Age of Rome
• Establishment of law and civil order throughout
  Empire
• Rome became an international city
• Public works aqueducts, public baths, theatres,
  marketplaces, roads, libraries
• Some 400,000 slaves perform the menial work of
  Rome, with middle-class citizens often owning 8,
  the rich from 500 to 1,000, an emperor as many as
  20,000.
• Population of city of Rome is 1 million
• Free urban workers enjoy 17 to 18 hours of
  leisure each day, with free admission to baths,
  sports events, and gladiatorial contests.
• Economy rested on slavery
• slaves ranged from field laborers to secretaries,
  teachers, and artists
• Could earn their freedom and often earned enough
  to buy freedom

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Pax Sinica

• 222 CE Gunpowder will be invented in the next
  half century by Chinese alchemists of the Wu
  dynasty, who will mix sulfur and saltpeter in the
  correct proportions and at the correct
  temperature to produce the explosive
• Paper made of flax in 101 CE

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GreeksPericlean Era is Golden Age Hellenistic
Greece

• Science, Medicine, Astonomy ,Math
• Greek ideals were accepted and incorporated into
  the Roman lifestyle.
• Archimedes developed several simple machines but
  his most notable were the Archimedes screw used
  to pump water for irrigation and mining, and the
  cranes used at sea ports to load and unload heavy
  cargo.
• The aeolipile was a crude steam engine developed
  by Hero of Alexandria during the 1st century BC.
• Aqueducts and Bridging - The Greeks also used
  techniques such as aqueducts and bridging
  valleys.
• Without the use of telescopes, the Greek
  astronomer Aristarchus determined that the earth
  was not the center of the universe and developed
  the heliocentric theory that the earth and other
  planets revolve around the sun (McKay).
• Eratosthenes, a Greek scientist from the 3rd
  century BC, realized that the earth was actually
  round and was able to calculate its
  circumference accurately within 200 miles.
• Another fascinating machine from the 1st century
  BC is the Antikythera Mechanism, a mechanical
  calendar considered to be the first computer.
• Euclid
• Father of Geometry (Elements)

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Hippicrates Father of Medicine

• I SWEAR by Apollo the physician, and
  Aesculapius, and Health, and Allheal, and all the
  gods and goddesses, that, according to my ability
  and judgment, I will keep this Oath . . . . I
  will follow that system of regimen which,
  according to my ability and judgment, I consider
  for the benefit of my patients, and abstain from
  whatever is deleterious and mischievous.
• From Hippocrates, The Hippocratic Oath

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Fall of Classical Empires