Chinese Dynasties

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Chinese Dynasties

• Too Many Dynasties to Remember? Lets try a SONG!
• Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han
• Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han
• Sui, Tang, Song
• Sui, Tang, Song
• Yuan, Ming, Qing, Republic
• Yuan, Ming, Qing, Republic
• Mao Zedong
• Mao Zedong
• Lets try Frere Jacques
• http//rhs.rocklin.k12.ca.us/academics/socialscien
  ce/apwh/index.html

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Chinese Dynasties Zhou 1027 BCE 221 BCE

• Zhou (1027 BCE 221 BCE)
• Classical ideas of family, property, and
  bureaucracy took shape during Zhou rule
• - The rise of competitive and quarrelling
  smaller states at the end of the Zhou period
  set things up for a strong central power to
  unify the Chinese lands.
• - commonalities in culture between the smaller
  states but also distinct cultural differences
  (similar in some ways to the different Greek
  city-states) (Bulliet 64)

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Chinese Dynasties Qin 221 - 206 BCE

• Qin (221 BCE 206 BCE)
• - Began long period of Imperial China that would
  last into the 20th century.
• Aggressive tendencies and disciplined way of
  life made it the premier power among the warring
  states in the early 3rd century BCE
• - Qin rapidly conquered their rivals and created
  Chinas first empire.
• - Empire was extensive basically the China of
  today much more extensive than the relatively
  compact zone in northeastern China of the Shang
  and Zhou
• - BUT at great human cost empire barely
  survived its founder (Shi Huangdi)
• (Bulliet 64, 160)

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Chinese Dynasties Qin 221 - 206 BCE

• Qin (221 BCE 206 BCE)
• - Leaders were able and ruthless men
• - drew on ideas of legalism
• - cracked down on Confucianism
• - worked to eliminate potential rivals
• - eliminated primogeniture
• - so land would be split up to several heirs.
• - why?
• - abolished slavery
• - wanted a free peasantry of small land owners
• - why?

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Chinese Dynasties Qin 221 - 206 BCE

• Qin (221 BCE 206 BCE)
• - Committed to standarization
• - with writing, weights, coinage, a uniform
  law code etc.
• - tried to eliminate individual version of
  these in each state.
• - Qin
• - built thousands of miles of roads
• - built canals
• - linked some walls as a barricade to
  foreigners (Bulliet 163-164)

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Qin and Han
• - began the long history of imperial China that
  would last into the 20th century
• - remarkable achievement to consolidate these
  lands because they were quite diverse in
  topography, climate, plant and animal life
  and human population
• - there were great obstacles to communication
  and a uniform way of life more so than the
  Roman Empire experienced
• - there was no internal sea like the
  Mediterranean that the Romans had to help with
  transportation. (Bulliet 160)

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Qin and Han
• - Key to empires
• -1) Agricultural production
• - the primary source of wealth and taxes that
  supported imperial China.
• (Bulliet 160)
• 2) Human labor
• - the other fundamental commodity
• - took advantage of this much as the Romans
  did
• - dependence on large population of free
  peasants to give taxes and labor to the
  state (Bulliet 161)

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Han
• Human labor
• - in between growing seasons required
  every able-bodied man to donate one month
  of labor a year to public work projects
• - construction was done on palaces,
  temples, roads, canals, transporting goods
  etc.
• - Another obligation was two years of
  military service (Bulliet 161)

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Han
• - continued structure and Legalist ideology
  but less harsh
• - mixed with form of Confucianism
• - emphasized the benevolence of the
  government and the appropriate behaviors in
  a hierarchal society.
• - Han structure became the standard

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Han -
• - Gradually, but persistently the Han
  expanded at the expense of other ethnic
  groups.
• - As they expanded they brought their
  culture with them
• - ideas about family, Confucianism etc.
• - Chinese today refer to themselves
  ethnically as Han
• (Bulliet 161, 164)

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Han captial Changan -
• - thriving city
• - 246,000 in 2 CE
• - filled with officials, soldiers,
  merchants, craftsmen and foreign
  visitors
• - high walls to protect government
  buildings
• - became a model for urban planning
• - some of city was planned

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Han captial Changan -
• - thriving city
• - gap between rich and poor
• - government officials and merchants
  lived a very different life from the common
  man

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Leadership and Mandate of Heaven
• - continued this idea
• - ruler was regarded as a divinity his word
  was law to a much higher degree than in Rome.
• - However, the Chinese believed there was a
  strong tie between heaven and the natural
  world
• - THEREFORE, floods, earthquakes, droughts etc.
  were seen as a due to the emperors
  mismanagement and a reason for him to be
  replaced. (Bulliet 165)

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Leadership
• - Emperor lived secluded life with wives,
  children, servants, courtiers etc.
• - Central government rarely came in contact
  with the common man
• - local officials would have contact
• - Local officials were often gentry
• - moderately wealthy, educated men who
  were desired by emperors to weaken the
  rich, powerful rural aristrocrats.
• - gentry were generally efficient, respected,
  and responded quickly to the needs of the
  people

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Leadership (Bulliet 165 - 166)
• - System was set up
• 1) to train officials (gentry) to be
  intellectually capable and morally
  worthy to serve.
• had to pass a civil service examination.
• 2) to measure an officials performance with a
  code of conduct.
• - According to tradition an Imperial University
  trained the would-be officials and had more
  than 30,000 students. Some
  scholars doubt this however.
• - In theory any man could advance in this
  system. In practice, the sons of gentry had a
  distinct advantage to receive the
  necessary training.

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Leadership (Bulliet 165 - 166)
• - When emperor died, his most favored wife
  got to choose the next emperor from among
  the males of his ruling clan.

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Technology
• - Iron Qin may have been first to take
  advantage of this as Chinese metallurgists
  were ahead of other areas.
• - Crossbow
• - watermill power to use with grindstone.
• - advanced horse collar
• - allowed horse to breathe better and carry
  heavier loads.
• - Roads and waterways
• - helped with transportation and
  trade. (Bulliet 166-167)

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Decline
• - Several reasons
• 1) Harder and harder to provide adequate
  protection versus nomadic invaders
• - this led to local nobles, merchants,
  and/or warlords offering their protection
• 2) military conscriptions system broke down
• 3) corruption, inefficiency

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Chinese Dynasties Han 206 BCE 220 CE

• Han (206 BCE 220 CE)
• - Decline
• - All of these reasons led to political
  fragmentation.
• - This fragmentation lasted until the rise of
  the Sui and Tang in the late 6th and 7th
  centuries. (Bulliet 168)
• - For good comparison of Roman and Han
  Empires read pgs. 168-170