Overview Ancient and Middle China

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Overview Ancient and Middle China
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Earliest China the Shang Era

• Introduced little if any cultural change
• China was extremely isolated from outside
  influences
• Agriculture, metalworking originated
  independently
• No connection with Indian or Mesopotamian
  cultures
• Strictly hierarchical society
• Powerful king with warrior court
• Skilled artisans, small traders
• Peasants (great majority)
• Fundamental aspects of Chinese life
• Supreme importance of family
• Reverence for ancestors and aged
• Emphasis on this world
• Importance of education, literacy

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Writing

• Beginnings date to about 1500 BCE
• Originally pictographic, then developed huge
  vocabulary of signs called logographs
• Single logographs may represent several words
• Students had to memorize about 5000 logographs to
  be literate
• Earliest writing was on oracle bones used to
  discern divine wishes
• Writing was so difficult that there were very low
  literacy rates

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Zhou Dynasty

• Greatly extended Chinas borders
• Extensive literature survives history, records
  of all kinds
• Mandate of Heaven
• Vote of confidence for ruler from gods
• As long as he ruled well, justly, he kept the
  mandate
• If he betrayed the mandate, he had to be replaced
• Highly influential idea in Chinese history
• First rulers were powerful military men
• Feudal society developed local aristocratic
  power increased
• Control of area by royal government weakened
• By 400 BCE, central power broke down completely

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Cultural and Daily Life

• Great advances in all arts and crafts
• Silk
• Bronze work
• Iron for tools, utensils, plowshares
• War chariot was technical breakthrough
• Wars were common
• Use of horse harness meant horses could pull
  better
• Transformed the value of horses
• Peasants were moderately prosperous, rarely
  enslaved, most were sharecropping tenants
• Literary arts
• Earliest surviving books date to 800s BCE
• Professional historians wrote chronicles of
  rulers
• Poetry made first appearance
• calligraphy

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Silk Road

• Caravan route to the Near East and the Black Sea
• Used to trade many kinds of goods but silk was
  the most important and valuable
• From the Black Sea goods would travel to Rome
  (paid a pound of gold for a pound of Chinese silk

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Confucius and Confucian Philosophy

• Extremely influential figure
• Molder of patterns of education
• Authority on actions of true Chinese
• Interests were practical, centered on ethical,
  political relations
• His model was the Chinese family state should
  be like harmonious family
• Headed by males
• Each person has rights and duties
• Women scarcely existed

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Confucius 5 key Relationships

• Ruler Ruled
• Husband Wife
• Parent Child
• Elder Brother Younger Brother
• Friend Friend
• Filial Piety- children demonstrate devotion and
  dedication to their parents in both thought and
  actions from childhood to adulthood

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Confucius and Confucian Philosophy

• Gentility (courtesy, justice, moderation) was
  chief virtue
• Rich, strong had obligation to poor, weak
• Proper role for gentleman was government
• Came to have enormous influence
• Rulers were judged according to his guidelines
• Educated officials (mandarins) were governing
  class
• Rulers came to prefer status quo, harmony over
  change, new ideas

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Rivals to Confucius

• Daoism
• Concentrated on nature, following the Way
• Based on Lao Zis The Way of the Dao
• Sees the best government is the least government
• Way of Nature is perceived through meditation,
  observation
• Man must seek harmony of parts of the whole,
  avoid all extremes
• Eventually degenerated into peasant superstition

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Rivals to Confucius

• Legalism
• Philosophy of government rather than private life
• Popularized during Era of the Warring States
• Primarily a justification for applying force when
  persuasion fails
• Sees most people as inclined to evil selfishness,
  government must restrain them
• Strict censorship, crushing of any independent
  thought
• Strict Law
• State should have as much power as possible
• Would lead to stable government

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Empire of the MiddleChina to the Mongol Conquest
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China under the Qin and Han Dynasties
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Qin Dynasty
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The Qin Emperor Foundation of the State

• After Era of the Warring States, Qin ruler
  reunified country through military force,
  administrative reorganization
• First Emperor had great influence
• Centralization along legalist lines
• Country divided into administrative units
• Weights and measures standardized
• First standard units of money
• Writing system standardized

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Qin Dynasty

• Great Wall and other public works started
• China expanded to north and south, first contacts
  with Vietnamese
• Reigns had negative aspects too
• Torture, harsh treatment
• Burning of the books to combat Confucianism
• Overthrow led to Han Dynasty

http//www.youtube.com/watch?vdTY7yJ7JWFUfeature
related http//www.youtube.com/watch?vAB4nXADdP
PYfeaturefvw
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Han dynasty
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Han Dynasty 202 BCE to 220 CE

• Simultaneous with Rome, aspects in common
• Basically urban
• Depended on non-hereditary officials
• Taxed peasants heavily
• Collapsed under internal, external pressures
• Chinese frontiers greatly expanded
• Ended Chinese isolation
• from rest of world
• Massive cultural influence
• On Japan, Korea, Vietnam

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Han Dynasty

• Confucianism

• Arts and Sciences

• Became semi-official philosophy of Han regime
• More emphasis on obedience than before
• Renewed emphasis on Mandate of Heaven
• Mandate of Heaven- under Zhou Dynasty, deities
  give leader mandate to rule, as long as they
  protect people from invaders they keep the mandate

• History kept careful records
• Mathematics, geography, astronomy
• Invention of paper
• Medicine acupuncture
• Fine arts silk, bronzes, jade, ceramics
• Poetry, landscape painting, instrumental music
  became prominent

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Han DynastyEconomy, Government, Foreign Affairs

• Canals, roads improved communications, commerce
• Large cities, numerous market towns and
  impressive urban markets
• Government functioned through bureaucracy,
  members (mandarins) chosen by examination
• China absorbed, assimilated nomadic invaders
• Peaceful contacts with India by traders, Buddhist
  monks
• Heavy taxation eventually caused rebellion

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End of the Han Dynasty

• Broke down into anarchy
• Two political divisions then appeared North and
  South
• Paddy rice farming entrenched in South, made
  population growth possible
• Peasants Revolt
• 95 of People in China consider themselves Han
• Culture was primarily established under dynasty