China and Japan

1
China and Japan
2
The Silk Road
3
In 1271 three Venetian merchants left in search
of the wealth of the East
4
17 year-old Marco Polo and his father and his
uncle were gone for 24 years
5
They found great civilizations in the East -- far
more advanced than those in Europe
6
Marco Polo described these cultures in his Book
of Marvels
7
The Polos first destination was China -- the
fabled land Europe called Cathay.Marco Polo
remained there for 17 years, from 1275 to 1292
8
This China was a country that had been conquered
by the hordes of Mongol nomads, swept out of the
northern steppes, led by Genghis
Khan(c.1160s-1267)
9
Mongol Empire
10
The Yuan Dynasty1279-1369

• Established by Kublai Khan
• Series of 11 emperors
• Never fully integrated into Chinese society
• Ruled from capital city of Dadu (Beijing) --
  built Forbidden City

11
The Mongols did not trust the Chinese, and they
welcomed and honored foreigners who could help to
administer their vast territory.
12
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis, employed Marco
Polo for 17 years on business throughout China
13
The Chinese considered both their Mongol Rulers
and foreigners barbarians
14
Chinese called their country CHUNG KOU, the
Middle Kingdomthe center of the world
15
Although the Mongol rulers controlled the top
levels of government, they were too few to
influence Chinese culture
16
The Chinese, believing in the process of
change, knew the Mongols would eventually be
replaced.
17
In society, the ancient principles of Confucius
formed the basis of this order, giving the
Chinese a value system of stable harmony
18
Just as the Chinese sought harmony in society,
they sought harmony in nature through the
philosophy of Taoism following the way of nature
19
Religion Under the Yuan

• Although the Mongols originally rejected
  Confucianism, they later saw its usefulness in
  governing and adopted a kind of
  Neo-Confucianism
• Kublai Khan invited religious debates at his
  court among a variety of religions Tibetan
  Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Islam and
  Hinduism
• Tended to favor Tibetan Buddhists, but tolerated
  other religions

20
Literary Effects of Yuan Rule

• Barred from government, the Chinese nobility and
  scholars turned to literature -- writing under
  pseudonyms
• In the cities, the bourgeoisie adopted popular
  forms of literature
• Poetry, while being vastly popular, was not
  greatly improved upon.
• The greatest advances in literature were in the
  forms of theatre and opera.
• Traditions of verse romances and storytelling
  flourished.

21
Chinese Opera
22
End of the Yuan

• Preoccupied with governing, Mongols grew lax in
  military training
• Never gained popular support
• Both nobility and peasantry were impoverished
• Series of popular uprisings led to overthrow of
  Yuan Dynasty

23
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644
24
Ming Dynasty 1368-1644

• Founded by Chu Yuan-chang, a peasant who had been
  a Buddhist monk, a bandit leader and a rebel
  general Emperor Hong Wu
• Last native imperial dynasty in Chinese history
• Re-adopted civil-service examination system
• One of Chinas most prosperous periods
  agricultural revolution, reforestation,
  manufacturing and urbanization

CHU YUAN-CHANG (1328-1398). Ming Emperor.
Chinese silk scroll painting
25
Age of Exploration

• The Ming Dynasty, under the naval leadership of
  Zheng He, was noted for its sea explorations and
  extensive trade from Africa to Southeast Asia
  greatest naval power in world in 15th c.
• However, scholars convinced the Emperor in 1435
  that taste for exotic wares would cause decline
  of dynasty, so trade and maritime expansion was
  greatly contracted

Zheng He
26
Zheng-Hes Expeditions

• Zheng He sailed from China to many places
  throughout South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Taiwan,
  Persian Gulf and distant Africa in seven epic
  voyages from 1405 to 1433, some 80 years before
  Columbus's voyages.

27
Zheng-He and Columbus
Zheng Hes Treasure Ship
Compared to ColumbussSanta Maria
28
Ming Porcelain
Cranes Taoist motif
Scene from Chinese play
Kraak ware madefor export
29
Ming Literature

• Development of the novel
• Arose from traditions of Chinese storytelling
• Written in commoners language
• Divided into chapters at points where
  storytellers would have stopped to collect money
• Classics of Chinese literature
• Water Margin, 16th c. band of outlaws
• Romance of Three Kingdoms, 16thc. historical
  novel
• Monkey Journey to the West, 16th-17th c.
• Encyclopedias
• Dictionaries

30
Painting
Poet on a Mountaintop Shen Zhou (Shen Chou)
1427-1509
Lady Tang Yin (Tang Baihu) (1470-1523)
31
Decline of Ming Empire

• Incompetence of later Ming Emperors absolute
  authority abolition of office of Prime Minister
• Rebellions in 17th c. caused by increasingly
  burdensome taxes
• Threat from the Manchus in the North

32
The Qing Dynasty 1644-1911
33
The Qing (Ching) Dynasty 1644-1911

• Founded by the Jurchen (Manchu) people, was the
  second minority to rule the whole of China.
• The last feudal dynasty in Chinese history.
• Imperial China reached its zenith of power and
  influence.
• Policy of rewarding land cultivation coupled with
  a reduction or exemption from taxation.
• Several large works such as the Encyclopedia of
  Chinese Writings (Confucian classics, history,
  philosophy and belles-lettres), Kangxi
  Dictionary, and A Collection of Books Ancient and
  Modern, were compiled

34
China, convinced of its superiority, had
restricted trade and other contacts with the West
35
Desperate to open up the rich ports of China, the
Europeans finally found a product they could sell
in China
36
opiumOpium is an imperious master and treats
its subjects like slaves. It first comes with a
gentle touch...
37
...and then in a few weeks when it has got its
grip upon the man, it shows itself to be the
cruelest taskmaster that ever drove man to a
lingering death.
38
When the Chinese government tried to curb the
opium traffic, the British gunboats triumphed in
the Opium Wars (1839-42, 1856-60)
39
China was forced to open her ports and the
interior to a flood of foreign merchants,
soldiers and missionaries and to legalize the
opium trade.
40
The Open Door Policy imposed by the Western
Powers created havoc in China depredation by
foreigners and internal rebellion
41
A secret society in northern China began a
campaign of terror against Christian missionaries
and Chinese converts.
The Boxer Rebellion1900
42
1912 Overthrow of last Imperial Dynasty and
establishment of a republic under the leadership
of Sun Yat Sen
43
Most of Eastern Asia acknowledged the superiority
of Chinese culture from which it borrowed for
centuries
44
The Japanese borrowed the Chinese system of
government, Chinese characters for writing, and
Chinese conventions for art, architecture and
literature
45
But the Japanese quickly assimilated Chinese
borrowings and built their own unique island
culture
46
The Portuguese, in their early voyages of
discovery, were the first Europeans to encounter
Japanese culture
47
Throughout the 14th-19th centuries, Japan had
isolated itself from foreign trade and contacts
under the rule of the Shoguns
48
In 1542 the first Portuguese traders and Jesuit
missionaries arrived in Japan. They brought
firearms and Christianity with them. The Jesuit
Francis Xavier undertook a mission to Kyoto in
1549-50.
49
European Trade
The painting depicts a scene of a trading port
during Nobunaga's day.
50
Imposing order after a series of civil wars,
Hideyoshi, in 1587, issued an edict expelling
Christian missionaries.
51
Ieyasu continued to promote foreign trade. He
established relations with the English and the
Dutch. On the other hand, he enforced the
suppression of Christianity from 1614 on.
In 1633, Iemitsu forbade traveling abroad and
almost completely isolated Japan in 1639 by
reducing the contacts to the outside world to
very limited trade relations with China and the
Netherlands. In addition, all foreign books were
banned.
52

The Edo Period 1600-1868 .

• Four social classes samurai, farmers, artisans
  and merchants.
• The shogunate made Edo, which is now Tokyo, the
  capital of Japan, the political and cultural
  center of the country.
• Edo grew rapidly and the merchant class, which
  theoretically was at the bottom of the social
  scale, grew richer and stronger.
• A large entertainment and recreation industry,
  known as ukiyo or the "Floating World",
  flourished in Edo

53

Ukiyo-e The Floating World

• Ukiyo-e Buddhist term emphasizing the transitory
  nature of life
• The Yoshiwara District of Edo
• Development of popular culture patronized by
  merchants
• Teahouses and Pleasure Houses
• Kabuki
• Realistic Fiction Saikaku Ihara
• Illustrated story books
• Woodblock prints

Okumura Masanobu (1686-1764),Hanshozuku Bijin
Soroi
54
Ukiyo-e Prints

• Founder of ukiyo-e art Hishikawa Moronobu
  (1618-94)
• Themes of ukiyo-e prints
• Kabuki actors
• Erotica
• Scenes of everyday life
• Warriors
• Landscapes
• Beautiful women
• Children

Beauty Looking Back by Hishikawa Moronobu, Edo
period, 17th century
55
Kabuki
Kunichika Toyohara, 1835-1900, 3 Kabuki Actors
56
Teahouses
Ginko Adachi, active 1874-97
57
Bathhouses Torii Kiyonaga (1752 - 1815), Women
at Bath
58
Sumo Wrestlers
59
Actors
Sharaku, Actor Ichikawa Ebizo IV in the role of
Takemura Sadanoshin, 1794-95
60
Geisha
Kitagawa Utamaro, Dojouji, 1753-1808
61
Nature
Katsushika Hokusai , 1827 series In the Hollow of
a Wave off the Coast at Kanagawa
62
By the 19th c., the rigid class distinctions were
crumbling in the wake of a failing economic
system
63
Disaffected samurai warriors roamed the country
as bandits
64
Merchants and tradesmen, had
gained power and wealth in the growing cities
65
Such was the situation when, in 1853, US
Commodore Matthew Perry steamed into Yokohama
66
Commodore Perry
67
Demonstrating the firepower of what the Japanese
called his black ships, Perry demanded that
Japan open trade with the West
68
Realizing they could not match the military power
of America, Japan agreed to establish diplomatic
and trade relations
69
The military humiliation of the Shogunate,
combined with the social and economic problems
brought about the restoration of the Emperor in
1868
70
Imperial administrators quickly embraced reform
and completely remodeled the government and
economy to resemble those of 19th c. Europe and
the US
71
The abrupt break with the past left many Japanese
with feelings of cultural loss and a sense of
dislocation and regret
72
But it also led to a rise of nationalism and the
emergence of Japan as a major world power at the
turn of the century