Chinese Civilization

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Chinese Civilization

• Institutions, World Views, and Significance, 2205
  B. C. E. - 1644

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Generalizations About Chinese Civilization

• Powerful Central Authorityemperor
• Veneration of Ancestors
• Beginning w/ Han Dynast, Confucianism is official
  governing philosophy
• Chinese citizens mix Confucian beliefs with
  Taoism
• Perennial problemsfood production, invasion, and
  internal strife

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Cradle of Chinese Civilization

• Huang Ho (Yellow River) is cradle of
  civilizationalso termed River of Sorrowsits
  floods destroy even as they give livelihood.
• Millet cultivation stone tools emergent
  urbanization.
• Three cultural heroes Fu Hsiinvented writing
  Shen Nungfarming and commerce Yellow
  Emperorgovernment and Taoism

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Huang Ho River
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Sage Kings 2350-2200

• May not have been historical but were seen as
  especially virtuous
• Perceived pattern in Chinese historywise rule
  and order followed by period of moral laxity,
  decline, decadence, and disorder
• Chinese history would emphasize public
  virtueobedience to a wise emperor

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Shang Dynasty1766-1050

• First historical dynasty.
• Development of Writing
• Bronze age civilization along Huang Ho
• Reading of oracle bones
• Emergence of Tien conceptheavenwhere God and
  ancestors dwelled.

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Shang Oracle Bones
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Chou Dynasty1050-221 B. C. E.

• Development of Tien Ming or Mandate of Heaven
• Myth of Legitimacyhow to justify overthrowing of
  Shang
• Central authority weakened in Spring and Autumn
  periods771-401 b. c. e.and collapse of order in
  Period of Warring States401-256 B. C. E.
• Ironic contribution of Chou dynasty was providing
  incentive to develop classical philosophy in
  China.

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Classical Chinese Philosphy

• Confucianism
• Taoism
• Legalism

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Confucianism

• Kung Fu-tzu (Confucius) 551 B. C. E.-479 B. C.
  E.
• Public order comes from jen or humane behavior
  between people.
• Superiors should govern well
• Inferiors should obey
• Shureciprocity and chungdoing ones best

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Sayings from the Analects 1

• Fan-ch'ih asked about jen. The Master said, "It
  is to love all men." He asked about knowledge.
  "It is to know all men." Fan ch'ih did not
  immediately understand these answers. The Master
  said, "Employ the upright and put aside all the
  crooked in this way, the crooked can be made to
  be upright."
• Tzu-kung asked, saying, "Is there one world which
  may serve as a rule of practice for all one's
  life?" The Master said, "Is not reciprocity such
  a word? What you do not want done to yourself, do
  not do to others."

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Sayings from the Analects 2

• The Master said, "With coarse rice to eat, with
  water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow I
  still have joy in the midst of these things.
  Riches and honors acquired by inhumanity are to
  me as a floating cloud."
• The Master said, "The determined scholar and the
  man of virtue will not seek to live at the
  expense of humanity. They will even sacrifice
  their lives to preserve their humanity."
• The Master said, "The superior man in everything
  considers righteousness to be essential. He
  performs it according to the rules of propriety
  (li ). He brings it forth in humility. He
  completes it with sincerity. This is indeed a
  superior man."
• The Master said, "The object of the superior man
  is truth, not food. . . . The superior man is
  anxious lest he should not get truth he is not
  anxious lest poverty should come upon him."

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Social Order and Confucius

• Rule of reciprocity promoted both order and
  disorderpresumably an evil ruler or an
  ineffective husband could be disobeyed.
• See Ban Zhao, Lessons for a Woman
• She accepts some subservience and humility but
  also believes in the balance of Yin/Yangnot the
  dominance of Yang

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Taoism

• Based on ideas of Lao Tzu
• Taothe way of heavenunity
• Balance of yang (malenesscold, heaven) and yin
  (femaleness, warm, earth)
• Government should guide people, not rule them.

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Legalism

• Founded by Hsun Tzu (298-238 B. C. E.)
• People are evil and must be controlled through
  harsh laws.
• Reward good deeds, punish bad deeds severely.
• Utilitarianismmeant that government would
  encourage agriculture over other pursuits
• Rule of Lawlaw is supremeand law is standard in
  entire real (two ideas that persist in Chinese
  state)

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Chin Dynasty (221-206 B. C. E.)

• Officially legalist
• Standardized form of govt.
• Ended period of warring states
• Began Great Wall of China
• Extended Chinas boundaries to the south

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Great Wall of china
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Han Dynasty ( 202 B. C. E. -220 C. E.

• Officially Confucian
• Scholar bureaucrats educated in Confucian
  classics govern china on a day to day basis.
• Han Wu Ti (r. 141-86) extended China from Korea
  to Vietnam
• Wang Mang (9-23) overthrew corrupt Han but was
  soon ousted by peasants who were then ousted by
  the nobles.
• Conquests of later Han opened up the Silk Roads
  to Mediterranean

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Tang Dynasty (618-907)

• Followed Three Kingdoms Period (220-589) and Sui
  Dynasty (589-618)
• Chinese government recentralized under emperor
  and three key ministers (but local landlords
  retained a great deal of power).
• Empress Wu (684-705) relied on Confucian
  bureaucrats and used military to extend
  boundaries of China.
• Her own Buddhist beliefs added Buddhist tradition
  to China.
• Great cosmopolitan cultural flowering facilitated
  with contracts from Asia and even Europe

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Sung (960-1279)

• Emperors power restored
• Confucian bureaucrats pre-eminent
• Wang An-shih (1068-85)new lawsmaximum prices on
  grain tax equity non-nobles could take
  Confucian exams. (Greatest example of Confucian
  Scholar Bureaucrat)
• Neo-Confucianism

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Yuan Dynasty (1280-1386)

• Established by descendants of Genghis Khan.
• Mongols ruled through Chinese Scholar Bureaucrats
• Paper currency
• Trade w/ EuropeMarco Polo (1275-1292)
• Pax Sinatica

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Kublai Khan (1215-1294)
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Ming (1369-1644)

• Chinese cultural superiority
• Great porcelain ware
• Later Ming rulers were decadent and China began
  to lose its cultural superiority.
• Confucianism becomes rigid and less a guide to
  practical and effective governing.

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Ming Vase