China

2025-10-09

neolithic and bronze age

• china isolated from outside influence
• warfare and invasion by nomads, Turco-Mongolian
• Yellow and Yangtze Rivers: Neolithic Chinese settlements
• millet in the north, rice in south
• numerous neolithic cultures
• agriculture and metalworking discovered independently

Philosophy, idea, religion

• the universe is a living being

• it functions best when in harmony

• harmony brings social stability

• contrasting forces - Yin/Yang

• reverence for ancestors

• ancestors can bless their descendants

• fortune-telling and oracles

  • oracle bones
  • Feng-shui
  • I Ching
  • etc.

Civilzation

Xia Dynasty

• the first royal dynasty identified
• not well known

Shang Dynasty

• second royal dynasty identified
• more is known about this period
• strictly hierarchical society
  • powerful king with warrior court
  • skilled artisans small traders in towns
  • peasants
• when kings dies, a young woman was killed to accompany the king to the spirit world
• most were from noble families
• important innovations:
  • bronze casting
    • very fine bronze casters
    • world renowned
  • writing
    • origionally pictographic, then developed huge vocabulary of signs called logographs
    • logographs represent ideas
    • there were around 5000 logographs needed to be literate
    • immenslet important in unifying groups which came to call themselves "Chinese"
    • earliest writing found on oracle bones

Zhou Dynasty

• nomadic invaders from the west
• overthrew Shang Dynasty
• extended borders
• extensive literature
• Mandate of Heaven
• powerful military men were the first rulers
• feudal society developed
• noble's power grew, and royal's power fell
• central power broke down completely

Warring States Period

• numerous kingdoms formed in the downfall of the Zhou Dynasty
• wars and chaos broke out
• philosophers sought a way to end the violence and promote harmony

Confucious

• Analects attributed to him
  • education
  • behavior, manner, traditions
• practical interests contered on ethical, correct relations
• chinese family is the model
  • gov't's role is to create a society that functions as a harmonious family
  • each person has rights and obligations
• gentility was the chief virtue
  • courtesy
  • justice
  • moderation
  • rich and strong had obligation to poor and weak
• the proper role for gentlemen was in gov't
• education would stress confucian teachings
• civil service examination system based on confucian education
• low opinion of merchants
• harmony over change
• contempt of change
• distrust of foreigners

Daoism(Taoism)

• concentrated on nature, following the Way
• Lao Zi possibly wrote the Dao De Ching
• the way of nature is percieved through meditation and observation
• man must seek harmony and avoid all extremes
• best gov't is least gov't
• eventually degenerated into peasant superstition

Legalism

• philosophy of gov't rather than private life
• justification of applying force when persuasion fails
• people seen as evil and selfish
• gov't exists to make them do good
• strict censorship
• crush independent thought

Imperial China

Qin Dynasty

• king Qin Shi Huang-di defeated all rivals to become China's first emperor
• First emperor had great influence
• centralization along legalist lines
• weights and measures standardized
• first standard units of money
• writing system standardized
• great wall and other public works projects started
• expanded territory
• some negative aspects
  • torture, harch treatment, consctipted labor
  • burning of the books to combat Confucianism
• overthrow of the first emperor led to the Han dynasty

Han Dynasty

• simultaneous with Rome, some things in common
• non-hereditary
• peasants were heavily taxed
• borders expanded

Confucianism

• new imperial confucian ideology of the state
• blended confucianism and legalism
• established a governance philosophy practiced by subsequent dynasties

Art and Sciences

• history has always been important to the Chinese - careful records were kept
  • most prominent: Sima Qian
• mathematics, geography, astronomy
• invention of paper
• medicine
  • acupuncture
• fine arts
  • silk
  • bronzes
  • jade
  • ceramics
  • poetry
  • landscape painting
  • instrumental music
• canals
• road improved communication and commerce
• large cities and markets
• iron was common: new and cheaper weapons made ever-larger armies possible, expanded agricultural productivity
• trade expanded - establishment of The Silk Road
• government functioned through elaborate bureaucracy, members chosen by examination
• meritocracy brought out best talent regardless of birth
• heavy taxation led to rebellion
• Buddhist monks and merchants from India arrived in China
• the Han Dynasty collapsed due to invasion and regional revolts
• regional strongmen (warlords) established themselves in small kingdoms
• much of north china was united for most of this period

Sui Dynasty

• reunited China
• revived the Civil Service Exam system
• initiated major canal building projects
• most important was the Grand Canal which linked the Yellow river and the Yangzi River

Tang Dynasty

• administratice reform - the empire divided into departments
• improvements in land use; improved lives of peasants
• scholarship, the arts, and literature flourished, especially poetry
• whole page block printing developed
  • as opposed to the gutenburg press where the characters are placed on a plate
• Tang government closely regulated economic activity
• Buddhism spread rapidly throughout China
  • many monastaries founded
  • new Buddhist sects developed
• Tang Dynasty overthrown as a result of internal uprisings and barbarian pressure to the north
• rival genreals fought for power and formed the ten kingdoms in south china

Song Dynasty

• defeated rivals and reunited China
• development of moveable type printing
• expanded tea production
• Chinese merchant communities took shape on the South China Sea
• Maritime trade networks were established
• The Mongols conquered China in 1279