China in Antiquity

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• China in Antiquity

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Shang China
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The Dawn of Chinese Civilization

• Land and People
• Civilization in the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers
• Importance of geography
• Isolation
• Intruders
• The Shang Dynasty
• Civilization began with the Xia (Hsia) dynasty
  more than four thousand years ago
• Founded by Yu who introduced irrigation and
  drainage
• Shang dynasty c. 16th century B.C.E.

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Shang Political Organization

• Predominantly agricultural society
• Ruled by aristocratic class of warriors
• Used two-horse chariots
• Central monarch
• Bureaucracy
• Territories governed by aristocratic bureaucracy
• King intermediary between heaven and earth
• Social Structures
• Clans
• Class differentiation
• Bronze casting

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The Zhou Dynasty (1122-221 B.C.E.)

• Political Structures
• Political system similar to Shang dynasty
• Apex is the king served by a bureaucracy
• Ministers for rites education law and public
  works appointed
• The Mandate of Heaven
• Economy and Society
• Peasants worked on their own land and the lords
  land
• Trade and manufacturing
• Merchants and artisans considered property of the
  local lord
• Economic growth from 6th 3rd centuries B.C.E.
• Large scale water projects
• Agricultural advances
• Iron plows natural fertilizer collar harness
  and leaving the land fallow
• Cultivation of wet rice
• Population growth
• Silk production
• Money economy

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The Hundred Schools of Ancient Philosophy

• Shang Di Shang god presiding over forces of
  nature
• Yang (sun) and Yin (moon)
• Yi Jing (I Ching) Book of Changes
• Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.)
• Focused on politics and ethics
• If humans act harmoniously in accordance with the
  universe all affairs will prosper
• Dao (The Way)
• Analects
• Rule by merit
• Mencius (370-29 B.C.E.)
• Human beings are by nature good
• Rulers duty is to rule by compassion

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Legalism

• Human beings are by nature evil and follow the
  correct path only if coerced by harsh laws and
  stiff penalties
• Only firm action by the state can bring social
  order

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Daoism

• Popular Daoism
• Rituals and forms of behavior that were regarded
  as a means of achieving heavenly salvation or
  even a state of immortality on earth
• Spirits of deceased relatives
• Lao Tzu (Lao Zi)
• Dao De Jing (The Way of the Tao)
• Proper forms for human behavior
• Nature takes its course

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China during the Period of the Warring States
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The Rise of the Chinese Empire
The Qin

• The Warring States
• Civil war between principalities
• New forms of warfare
• The Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.E.)
• Qin Shi Huangdi (Chin Shih Huang Ti) 246 B.C.E.
• Legalism adopted
• Highly centralized state
• Reforms
• Restriction of commercial activities
• Aggressive foreign affairs
• Beyond the Frontier The Nomadic Peoples and the
  Great Wall of China
• Fall of the Qin

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Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.-221 C.E.)

• Liu Bang (Liu Pang) Han Gaozu (Han Kao Tsu)
• Commoner of peasant origin
• Abandoned the Legalistic system
• Confucianism and the State
• State Confucianism Integration of Confucianism
  and Legalism
• Political structure
• Civil service exams

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Society and Economy in the Han Empire

• Peasants
• Free peasantry taxes military service forced
  labor
• Farm plots reduced to about one acre per capita
• Forced to sell to large landowners thus becoming
  tenants
• Trade and manufacturing
• Problems for merchants
• Government directed trade and manufacturing
• Silk Road
• Guangzhou (Canton)

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Trade Routes of the Ancient World
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Decline and Fall of the Han

• Wang Mang 9-23 C.E.
• Reformist seized power
• Xin dynasty proclaimed in 9 C.E.
• Collapsed when Wang Mang killed in 23
• Cao Cao (Tsao Tsao)

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The Han Dynasty
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The Great Wall with Tower north of Beijing
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The Western Terminus of the Great Wall at Jiayugan
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Daily Life in Ancient China

• Cities
• Usually on major trade routes
• Centers of administration and economic functions
• Changan nearly 40 square kilometers
• Family
• Filial piety
• Five relationships
• Women
• Subservience
• Confucian thought accepted dual roles of men and
  women
• Some women were a force at court
• Housing
• Most lived in the countryside
• Staple food was millet in the north and rice in
  the south

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Chinese Culture

• Metalwork and sculpture
• Bronze
• Clay molds produced work of clear line and rich
  surface decoration
• Gave way to iron casting
• Terra-cotta army from Qin Shi Huangdi and later
  of the Han
• Language and Literature
• Writing
• Ideographic and pictographic
• Common written language
• Chinese Literature
• Music
• Music seen as a means of achieving political
  order and refining human character
• Music important both in court life and among
  common people

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Ruins of Jiaohe
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Discussion Questions

• What was the Mandate of Heaven How did it shape
  the goal and priorities of Chinese government
• What factors contributed to economic growth
  during the Zhou period What role did the
  government play in promoting growth
• What values are expressed in Confucianism How
  were those values manifested in Chinese society
• What were the most important accomplishments of
  the Han dynasty What led to the dynastys demise