Ancient China

1
Ancient China

• degree of isolation
• distance from Middle East
• youngest Primary Phase culture in the Old World

2
Unique features

• intensive garden-style agriculture
• do not adopt the plow until very late
• unique soil loess

3
Early History

• legendary outline
• three principal Neolithic Cultures
• later tradition the Hsia dynasty
• no traces
• first historical civilization the Shang dynasty

4
The Shang Dynasty

• Yellow River
• near the frontier
• traditional date 1500 B.C.
• invaders
• eventually absorbed

5
Distinct Characteristics

• silk
• no animal milk or milk products
• ancestor worship
• central place of the family

6
Operative unit of Society

• the family
• not the individual
• not the state
• not the religion

7
Other features

• ornate architecture
• chopsticks
• ideographic script
• still readable by modern Chinese
• divination

8
Organization

• peasants support nobles officials bureaucracy
  etc.
• government centered in towns
• warrior elite
• poor live in primitive conditions

9
Distinctions

• between rich and poor
• price of civilization
• between male and female
• infanticide
• footbinding
• arranged marriages
• multiple wives

10
Early ideology

• Yin and Yang
• Yin female dark weak wet passive
• Yang male bright strong dry active
• balance of opposites

11
End of the Primary Phase

• not as serious in China
• nomadic invaders
• the Zhou dynasty
• 1027 B.C.
• replaced one ruling class with another
• meet the new boss...same as the old boss.

12
Characteristics of the Zhou

• decentralized government
• local nobility
• long running problem
• 771 B.C. Chou driven east

13
The Eastern Zhou

• ruled until 256 B.C.
• power held by local aristocrats
• first Chinese literature
• evolution of bronze technology

14
Political theory

• the mandate of Heaven
• universal monarch
• favors consolidation
• xenophobic
• Emperor is the Son of Heaven
• feudal monarchy

15
The Period of Warring States

• 771 B.C.
• dozen-plus states
• balance of power until 500s
• period of consolidation by warfare
• warfare chronic

16
Intellectual development

• response to crisis and uncertainty
• Confucianism
• a sort of philosophy
• Taoism
• a sort of religion

17
The Good Old Days

• breakdown of traditional family values
• no trust or confidence in government
• filled with thieves liars and murderers
• no respect for the ancestors
• Why do the wicked flourish

18
Confucius (ca. 551-479 B.C.)

• poor family
• well-educated in the classics
• ambitious (wanted to be a bureaucrat...)
• couldnt get honest work...so he became a teacher

19
Confucius cont

• wrote nothing--his followers wrote about him
• difficult to separate myth from fact
• the Analects
• his sayings

20
The Analects

• looked back to the good old days
• but favored some new ideas along with the old
• rejection of the idea of in-born nobility
• proper training education and aptitude make a
  gentleman
• not simply birth into a certain family

21
Marks of gentility

• goodness wisdom courage
• moderation of outer and inner emotions
• knowledge of traditional rites
• dissociation from all men who did not practice
  these things
• simple satisfaction in the practice of virtue for
  its own sake

22
Circumstances favoring his ideas

• lack of mythopoetic urge
• lack of a strong religious tradition and
  experience
• lack of prophets
• lack of anthropomorphic gods

23
Important Confucian concepts

• jen
• li
• the TAO
• no speculation on metaphysics

24
Confucius cont

• a failure
• ideas spread by students
• adopted by the Han dynasty

25
Taoism

• Mo Tzu ca. 470-391 B.C.
• Lao Tzu 4th or 3rd century
• taught about the Tao

26
Taoism

• supplied the metaphysical
• multiple lines of thought
• very fluid

27
Basic concepts

• pursuit of justice and righteousness
• withdrawal and contemplation
• withdrawal from society

28
The Zhou (Chou) and Qin

• rise of the Qin
• new technology
• gave land to peasants
• new military draft
• new bureaucracy

29
The Qin and the Legalist tradition

• ideology of rule
• absolute power of the ruler
• people existed to serve the state
• destroy Confucian philosophy

30
Shi Huangdi

• united China in 221 B.C.
• ruled by the Legalist theory
• massive conscription for labor

31
Rise of the Han

• rebellion of peasants
• Lui Bang
• a successful failure

32
Han dynasty

• ruled for 400 years
• new bureaucracy
• emphasis on centralization
• weakening of the aristocracy
• imperial expansion
• destruction of the Legalists

33
Han society

• the Confucian educated elite
• free peasants
• non-free peasants
• improvement in womens status
• beginnings of secret societies