China

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China

• Seminar by Ms. Gluskin

The Great Wall
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Map of Modern China
China today
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Chinese Civilization and Geography

• Oldest continuous civilization
• Geography northern plain fed by the Yellow River
• Later settlement grew along the Yangtze River
• Isolation mountains, desert, steppes of Central
  Asia, Pacific Ocean
• Internal boundaries mountains and rivers
• Overall isolated and regional (rivalries between
  areas)

Shang dynasty
Ming dynasty
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2 Evan Hadingham. PBS. Nova Ancient Chinese
Explorers. 2001. http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/an
cient/ancient-chinese-explorers.html (Nov. 9,
2011).
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Topography
Mountains and deserts
Columbia University, East Asia in Geographic
Perspective, N.d., http//afe.easia.columbia.edu/g
eography/element_a/ea1.html (Nov. 15, 2011)
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Topography, cont
3-steps of elevation from east to west
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Yellow River
Yellow River really is yellow in some parts due
to loesse soil it picks up
Facts and Details, Land and Geography of China,
2010, http//factsanddetails.com/china.php?itemi
d400catid10subcatid6401 (Nov. 15, 2011).
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Steppes
Inner Mongolia
University of Washington, Visual Sourcebook of
Chinese Civilization, Outer China, N.d.,
http//depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/geo/outer.htm
(Nov. 15, 2011).
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Difficult Terrain
Terracing is a way of getting more farm land
where there is little arable land
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Economy

• Farming is the basis wheat in the north, rice in
  the south (mostly self-sufficient)
• Traded in East Asia (Japan, Korea) and along the
  Silk Road
• Imported luxuries
• Exported silk, copper, porcelain (Song dynasty)

Porcelain
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China As Sea Power

• Maritime expeditions in the Ming dynasty went to
  Southeast Asia, and through the Indian Ocean to
  the African coast and Arabia
• Led by Zheng He
• Stopped suddenly when China closed itself off
  from foreign contact in the 14th century AD

Foreign Expedition
Evan Hadingham. PBS. Nova Ancient Chinese
Explorers. 2001. http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/an
cient/ancient-chinese-explorers.html (Nov. 9,
2011).
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Silk Road

• Traders from Rome and the Middle East came to
  China for jade, gold, spices, horses, precious
  gems and silk
• Beginning in Han dynasty

The Silk Roads
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Beliefs

• Crossover between religion and philosophy
• From the earliest time Chinese people practised
  ancestor veneration (respect for the spirits of
  dead ancestors)
• Tian heaven, is an old conceptnot a god, but a
  force guarding China and the imperial family

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Dynastic Cycle

• Emperors came to be known as Sons of Heaven
• Emperors ruled with the blessing of Heaven,
  called the Mandate of Heaven
• Natural omens would warn an emperor he was doing
  something wrong if he ignored it, Heaven would
  see that the people rose up and got rid of that
  emperor

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Confucianism

• During a time of internal disorder (5th century
  BCE), a bureaucrat and teacher named Kong Fuzi
  created a philosophy based on ORDER

HistoryWhiz, Confucius, 2008, http//www.historywi
z.com/historymakers/confucius.htm (Nov. 15, 2011).
Kong Fuzi
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Yin-Yang

• The Chinese had a concept of the forces of nature
  called Yin-Yang
• This symbol is the Taiji or great pivot
• Yinfemale, dark, cold, passive
• Yangmale, light, hot, active
• Together they are complimentary

The Pivot
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Taoism
Humans model themselves on earth, Earth on
heaven, Heaven on the Way, And the way on that
which is naturally so.

• Taoism incorporated the idea of Yin-Yang into the
  philosophy of being one with nature
• The Tao the way
• Taoists thought Confucianists were too focused on
  morality rather than nature

Art
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Taoism cont

• Do nothing and nothing will not be done.
• Wu-wei action through minimal action
• It is the practice of going against the stream
  not by struggling against it and thrashing about,
  but by standing still and letting the stream do
  all the work.
• We place our trust and our lives in the Tao,
  that we may live in peace and balance with the
  Universe, both in this mortal life and beyond.
  Lao Tse

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Buddhism

• Came to China later from India (first century CE)
• Also coexisted with Confucianism and Taoism
• Brought the idea of salvation and an end to
  suffering (during a difficult time)

Buddha
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Social Structures
Classes GENTRY Imperial Family Scholar
Officials Nobles Landowners COMMONERS
Peasants, Farmers, Artisans Merchants Servants
and Entertainers
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Gender

• Patriarchy
• Only males can perform ancestor veneration
• Some female empresses
• Foot binding for women and children (made the
  shape of the foot resemble a lotus flower)

Lotus shoes
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Record Keeping

• Writing evolved over time, much like Cuneiform
  (picto to ideograph)
• Used characters rather than an alphabet (similar
  characters in Japan and Korea)
• Calligraphy styles highlighted the beauty of the
  characters
• High value placed on education and written over
  spoken language
• Paper and printing enabled the spread of learning

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Chinese Characters
Chinese characters began as pictograms
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Monuments

• Great Wall of China started by the First Emperor
  (Shi Huangdi) as as a defense against invasion
  (tamped earth)
• Built up in sections over time
• Renovated and strengthened by Ming dynasty
  (bricks)

Stages of the Great Wall
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The First Emperor

• Shi Huangdi was the first to unite the Chinese
  states into one empire
• He was a tyrannical figure and the first Qin
  emperor
• He used conscript labour to build the Great Wall
• He was very strict, trying to centralize and
  standardize everything in China including thought
  (burnt books)
• His tomb included 7000 terra cotta warriors and
  horses- took 36 years to build and 700 000
  labourers

First Emp-eror
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Terra Cotta Warriors
The First Emperor wanted to be well protected in
his tomb.
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The Wall Didnt Stop the Mongols

• The Mongol invasion was traumatic because foreign
  rulers took over
• They overran the Chinese with their skilled
  horsemanship and brutal methods of warfare
  (catapulted diseased human and animal corpses
  armour made of horsehide hardened in animal
  urine)
• Their rule was called the Yuan dynasty
• The Ming dynasty overthrew them and gave the
  Chinese confidence in their own abilities and
  fear of foreigners

Mongol Archer
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Culture

• Architecture homes of the wealthy had courtyards
  and gardens
• Religious architecture included pagodas, temples
  decorated with symbols such as the dragon, lion,
  the number nine
• Imperial architecture included palaces such as
  the Forbidden City in Beijing
• Literature classics, history of dynasties,
  poetry, Analects of Confucius, Tao te Jing
• Art landscape painting, calligraphy

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Technology What China gave the West

• tea
• gun powder
• porcelain
• paper
• wheelbarrow
• paper money
• block printing

• compass
• seismograph (simple)
• chopsticks
• wok
• lacquerware
• efficient iron production
• silk
• acupuncture, Chi
• inoculation

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Before the West
Making silk
Paper money
The first book, 868 CE
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China...

• the oldest continuous civilization