Chinas First Three Dynasties

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Chinas First Three Dynasties

• The Zhou (Chou)
• The Qin (Chin)
• The Han

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The Zhou

• Characteristics of Unification
• Family authority
• Fealty of peasants to local lords
• Fealty of local lords to the ruler
• Improvements in society
• HorseCavalry
• Crossbow All of these lead to security
• Iron plow and population growth
• Irrigation
• Examples in Art
• Oracle bones contributes to written language
• Ceramics and their purpose in the afterlife
• Bronze ware and its purpose
• Lacquer ware and its purpose
• Jades connection to daily life and the afterlife

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Handle-shaped ornament, Western Zhou dynasty
(ca. 1046771 B.C.), 10th9th century
B.C.ChinaJade (nephrite) L. 10 15/16 in. (27.8
cm)Gift of Ernest Erickson Foundation Inc., 1985
(1985.214.96) Throughout the Shang and Zhou
dynasties, jade continued to be used in the
creation of ritualistic objects, in particular
tokens of rank and symbolic aids for the
celestial journey thought to be undertaken by the
dead. This pale-green tablet with a concave grip
and a conical hafting hole resembles a common
type of Shang and early Zhou jade handle, but its
large size and fully ornamented surfaces suggest
that it served as a ceremonial scepter. The two
broad faces of the tablet are identically
decorated with a subtlety and complexity of
design that illustrates the changing techniques
for jade working characteristic of the later
Western Zhou dynasty. Plumed birds stand atop a
kneeling anthropomorphic figure, which surmounts
addorsed animal masks that face both up and down
the vertical axis. The upward-facing mask seems
to hold the foot of the kneeling figure in its
jaws another such mask frames the erect bird in
its gaping mouth.
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Pair of covered ritual wine containers (hu),
the eight panels are filled with an ornamental
pattern consisting of hooked lines enclosing an
"eye" motif, a playful transformation of the
ubiquitous dragon-mask (taotie) motifs of the
earlier vessels.
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The Crossbow
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Song painting of the Chinese cavalry
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The first iron plow and irrigation
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Two-man Silk loom
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The Art of War and Film

• In the 1987 film Wall Street, the main
  antagonist, Gordon Gekko, says "I don't throw
  darts at a board. I bet on sure things. Read
  Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Every battle is won
  before it is ever fought."
• The 2000 Wesley Snipes film The Art of War was
  named after the book.
• Gustav Graves of the James Bond film Die Another
  Day quotes The Art of War on more than one
  occasion.

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The Qin

• Characteristics of Unification
• The Emperor becomes all powerful First Chinese
  emperor
• He destroyed intellectual freedom
• eliminated freedom and attacked the scholars
• burned books to get rid of what he felt was
  dangerous
• anything that was questioning of authority or
  used logic
• Centralization Emperor Shihuangdi fed all
  information to him
• Characteristics of society
• Militaristic
• Standardization of weights and measures
• Diminished the local lords power
• Developed huge labor projects
• Canals/Roads/Emperors Tomb/Great Wall
• Universal tax system
• Examples in Art
• The most famous example is the 8000 warrior tomb
• the previous power point emphasized this era

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The Han

• Characteristics of Power
• Maintained a fairer centralized system of
  control
• Returned Confucian and Toaist thought to
  preeminence
• Exploration by Zhang Qian
• Improvements in society
• Civil Service Exam mandarins
• Iron weapons and tools
• Invented Paper
• Astronomy and the compass
• Social Structure
• Landowners?Peasants?Merchants
• The place of women
• Examples in Art
• Ceramics and their purpose in the afterlife
• The figures produced in ceramics were often for
  the tombs, which were available to a larger
  number of nobility, but the ceramics also
  improved in their daily usage in both style and
  quality.

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The Compass
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Exploration by Zhang Qian
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Zhang Qian

• At this time, while the Roman empire was just
  beginning to expand beyond Italy, the Han empire
  controlled China. On their northwest border a
  strong nomadic tribe, the Xiung-nu (pronounced
  SHE-UNG-NU) posed a constant threat. The Xiung-nu
  often raided the frontier, taking from the border
  towns all the things they couldnt get by trade.
  The Han emperors wanted allies who would help
  them fight the Xiung-nu. The Han had heard of a
  tribe further to the west called the Yueh-chih
  (U-AY-CHER) who might be friendly.

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The Han, the Silk Road and the Romans

• The Chinese were also strongly attracted by the
  tall and powerful horses in the possession of the
  Dayuan (named Heavenly horses), which were of
  capital importance in fighting the nomadic
  Xiongnu. The Chinese subsequently sent numerous
  embassies, around ten every year, to these
  countries and as far as Seleucid Syria. Thus
  more embassies were dispatched to Anxi Parthia,
  Yancai who later joined the Alans , Lijian
  Syria under the Seleucids, Tiaozhi Chaldea,
  and Tianzhu northwestern India As a rule,
  rather more than ten such missions went forward
  in the course of a year, and at the least five or
  six. (Hou Hanshu, Later Han History). The
  Chinese campaigned in Central Asia on several
  occasion, and direct encounters between Han
  troops and Roman legionnaires (probably captured
  or recruited as mercenaries by the Xiong Nu) are
  recorded, particularly in the 36 BC battle of
  Sogdiana (Joseph Needham, Sidney Shapiro). It has
  been suggested that the Chinese crossbow was
  transmitted to the Roman world on such occasions.

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Summary

• The early Chinese were tribal and committed to
  the family. Their art was produced for ceremonies
  concerning the afterlife and the society at the
  time was unstable and violent. The concept of a
  force in nature and a duality of what is found in
  every living thing surfaces at this time. Success
  in society could be measured in how many heads
  were taken in battle.
• The introduction of Confucian and Taoist thought
  offers the individual guidelines to deal with
  life, whether it be with societal expectations or
  a method of dealing with nature and the cosmos.
  This drives cultural thinking until the
  unification under the Chin ruler. Success was
  measured in ones intellectual capacity to
  understand each philosophy
• The Chin leadership of Chin Shi Huang centralized
  all control and authority through standardization
  of all public measures and through the
  elimination of any dissent found in the scholars
  and intellectuals.
• The Zhou leadership returned to a fairer system
  for the citizen, with Confucian and Taoist
  thought rekindled. Success was based on merit.
  This system will remain in place, with some
  aspects of favoritism in the royal family and
  lapses into corruption evident at different
  times. The Mandate of Heaven will ever after
  imply that good leadership means the citizenship
  is served.
• As China opens up to the outside world, the
  interchange causes great tension within the
  culture. While willing to adapt, the future
  portions we study will show that the Chinese
  consider themselves the center of the world and
  they are offering what they want and taking only
  that which they agree they could use.