Chapter 3 - Ancient China

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Chapter 3 - Ancient China
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The Dawn of Chinese Civilization

• The Land and People of China
• Legend Chinese society was founded by a series
  of rulers who brought civilization
• 7000s B.C.E. agriculture began, particularly near
  the Yellow and Yangtze rivers
• The Yangshao and Longshan Neolithic cultures
• Only 12 percent of China is arable
• China isolated by Gobi Desert, Central Asia, and
  Tibetan plateau
• Agrarian China vs. Asian nomads

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Shang China
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The Shang Dynasty

• 1500s1000s B.C.E., replaced the Xia dynasty
• Political Organization
• Capital was at Anyang
• Oracle bones earliest surviving writing, a way to
  communicate with the gods
• Chariot warfare
• Chariots perhaps through Indo-European contacts
• Ritual sacrifices were performed at death of
  Shang kings
• Lead to the custom of veneration of ancestors

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The Shang Dynasty

• Social Structures
• Farm villages were the basic social unit
• Clans rather than nuclear families
• Some class differentiation aristocratic elite,
  peasants, a few merchants, slaves
• Bronze casting

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The Zhou Dynasty (1000s200s B.C.E.)

• Political Structures
• Capital near present-day Xian and a second
  capital near modern Luoyang
• More extensive and complex bureaucracy than Shang
• The Mandate of Heaven
• Heaven an impersonal law of nature rather than
  anthropomorphic deity
• King not divine but ruled as representative of
  Heaven
• Kings were chosen because of their talent and
  virtue

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The Zhou Dynasty (1000s200s B.C.E.)

• If the king did not rule effectively, he lost the
  Mandate of Heaven and could be replaced by a new
  king/dynasty
• Zhou began to decline by 500s B.C.E.

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The Zhou Dynasty (1000s200s B.C.E.)

• Economy and Society
• The well field system peasants had own lands
  but also cultivate their lords land
• Merchants were not independent but under control
  of local lords
• Late Zhou saw considerable economic and
  technological growth, including massive water
  control projects, iron plowshares, the collar
  harness, natural fertilizer
• Development of extensive trade in silk, to as far
  away as Greece
• Development of a money economy

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The Zhou Dynasty (1000s200s B.C.E.)

• The Hundred Schools of Ancient Philosophy
• Early Beliefs
• Under Shang, the belief in one transcendent god,
  known as Shang Di
• Evolved into Heaven, an impersonal symbol of
  universal order
• Two primary forces of yang (light/male) and yin
  (dark/female)

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The Zhou Dynasty (1000s200s B.C.E.)

• Quotes
• Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig
  two graves.
• Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees
  it.
• He who will not economize will have to agonize.
• It does not matter how slowly you go as long as
  you do not stop.
• Study the past if you would define the future.

• Confucianism
• Confucius/Kung Fuci/Master Kung (b. 551 B.C.E.)
• Analects, conversations between Confucius and his
  followers
• Ethical politics
• Act in accordance with the Dao (the way), similar
  to dharma in India
• Subordinate individualism to broader needs of
  family and community
• Human-heartedness Do not do unto others what
  you would not wish done to yourself
• Merit should decide, not heredity
• Led to practice of selecting officials through a
  civil service exam
• Mencius (370290 B.C.E.) humans were by nature
  good

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The Zhou Dynasty (1000s200s B.C.E.)

• Legalism
• Humans by nature are evil, and must be coerced by
  laws and punishments
• Daoism (Lao Tzu/the Old Master)
• Dao De Jing (The Way of the Tao)
• Like Confucianism, this life and not the cosmos
  is the focus
• Unlike Confucianism, inaction rather than action,
  act in harmony with nature
• Chinese landscape painting often a reflection of
  Daoism
• Popular Beliefs
• Belief in numerous gods and spirits of nature,
  both good and evil

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

• Decline of the Zhou Warring States Period
• State of Qin won out, becoming the first unified
  government of China in 221 B.C.E.

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The Rise of the Chinese Empire The Qin and the
Han

• The Qin Dynasty (221206 B.C.E.) Qin Shi
  Huangdi, the First Emperor
• Political structures Legalism was the official
  ideology
• Books burned
• Territory expanded, all the way to Vietnam

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The Rise of the Chinese Empire The Qin and the
Han

• Highly centralized state with harsh punishments
• Society and the Economy
• Unified weights and measures, standardized the
  monetary and writings systems
• Reduced power of the aristocracy
• Aristocrats were required to live in capital of
  Xianyang
• Government was anti-merchants

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The Rise of the Chinese Empire The Qin and the
Han

• Beyond the Frontier The Nomadic Peoples and the
  Great Wall of China
• Threats from the northern nomadic Xiongnu,
  possibly related to the Huns
• Qin solution build a wallthe Great Wallat
  great cost
• The Fall of the Qin
• Rivalry between inner and outer courts
  (bureaucracy vs. imperial family and eunuchs)
• Government too oppressive
• First Emperor condemned, but Legalism set pattern
  of succeeding dynasties

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The Glorious Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.221 C.E.)

• Founded by Liu Bang, took title of Han Gaozu
• Maintained the Qins centralized political
  institutions, but less harsh
• Confucianism and the State
• Government was a despotism, capital at Changan
• State Confucianism
• Civil service examinations,165 B.C.E.
• Most were still from aristocratic families
• Factionalism at court still a problem
• Aristocratic families remained powerful in spite
  of imperial despotism

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The Glorious Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.221 C.E.)

• Society and Economy in the Han Empire
• Population increased from 20 million to 60
  million
• Agricultural improvements barely kept up with
  population rise
• Expansion of trade, all the way to the Roman
  Empire
• State controlled much trade and manufacturing
• New technologies, including water mills, iron
  casting, paper, rudder
• Expansion Abroad

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Trade Routes of the Ancient World
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The Glorious Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.221 C.E.)

• The Decline and Fall of the Han
• Wang Mang declared the Xin (New) dynasty, 923
  C.E., but was killed
• Recovery under the later Han, but the dynasty
  disappeared by 220s C.E.

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The Han Dynasty
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Daily Life in Ancient China

• The Role of the Family
• Central to Chinese society, not least because of
  rice cultivation
• Filial piety and the five relationships
• Government attempted to impose control through
  the Bao-jia system of mutual control and
  surveillance by five or ten families

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Daily Life in Ancient China

• Lifestyles
• Houses of tile and brick for the elite, but mud,
  thatch, and wooden planks for peasants
• Staple foods were millet in the north and rice in
  the south
• Cities
• Most Chinese lived in the countryside
• First towns were forts for the aristocracy
• By Zhou era, larger towns for trade and commerce
• ChangAn covered 16 square miles
• The Humble Estate Women in Ancient China
• Female subservience the norm, both
  philosophically and in practice

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Chinese Culture

• Metalwork and Sculpture
• Bronze Casting under the Shang dynasty
• Bronze vessels both for use and for ritual
• Iron by 800s B.C.E. Chinese cast iron was better
  than Wests wrought iron
• The First Emperors Tomb, discovered in 1974 near
  Xian
• Thousands of terra-cotta warriors

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Chinese Culture

• Language and Literature
• Writing based on pictures/ideas
  (ideographs/characters), not on phonetic
  symbols
• Became the written system for an expanding
  Chinese civilization even though spoken languages
  were often mutually unintelligible
• Earliest surviving was from Zhou, written on silk
  or strips of bamboo
• Confucian Classics The Rites of Zhou, Analects,
  Way of the Dao, The Book of Songs
• Primary purpose was moral and political

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Chinese Culture

• Music aesthetics, but also to achieve political
  order and refining the human character
• Flutes, stringed instruments, bells and chimes,
  drums and gourds

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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?