Chapter 3 - Ancient China. The Dawn of Chinese Civilization The Land and People of China –Legend:...

Chapter 3 - Ancient China

The Dawn of Chinese Civilization

• The Land and People of China– Legend: Chinese society was founded by a

series of rulers who brought “civilization”– 7000s B.C.E. agriculture began, particularly near

the Yellow and Yangtze rivers• The Yangshao and Longshan Neolithic cultures

– Only 12 percent of China is arable – China isolated by Gobi Desert, Central Asia, and

Tibetan plateau – Agrarian China vs. Asian nomads

Shang China©

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The Shang Dynasty• 1500s–1000s B.C.E., replaced

the Xia dynasty• Political Organization

– Capital was at Anyang– Oracle bones earliest surviving

writing, a way to communicate with the gods

– Chariot warfare

• Chariots perhaps through Indo-European contacts

• Ritual sacrifices were performed at death of Shang kings

• Lead to the custom of veneration of ancestors

The Shang Dynasty

• Social Structures– Farm villages were the

basic social unit• Clans rather than nuclear

families• Some class differentiation:

aristocratic elite, peasants, a few merchants, slaves

• Bronze casting

Aristocratic Elite

peasants

merchants

slaves

The Zhou Dynasty (1000s–200s B.C.E.)

• Political Structures– Capital near present-day

Xian and a second capital near modern Luoyang

– More extensive and complex bureaucracy than Shang

– The Mandate of Heaven• Heaven: an impersonal

law of nature rather than anthropomorphic deity

• King not divine but ruled as representative of Heaven

– Kings were chosen because of their talent and virtue


– If the king did not rule effectively, he lost the Mandate of Heaven and could be replaced by a new king/dynasty

• Zhou began to decline by 500s B.C.E.


• Economy and Society– The “well field system”:

peasants had own lands but also cultivate their lords’ land

– Merchants were not independent but under control of local lords

– Late Zhou saw considerable economic and technological growth, including massive water control projects, iron plowshares, the collar harness, natural fertilizer

– Development of extensive trade in silk, to as far away as Greece

– Development of a money economy


• The Hundred Schools of Ancient Philosophy– Early Beliefs

• Under Shang, the belief in one transcendent god, known as Shang Di

• Evolved into Heaven, an impersonal symbol of universal order

• Two primary forces of yang (light/male) and yin (dark/female)


Quotes• Before you embark on a

journey of revenge, dig two graves.

• Everything has its beauty but not everyone sees it.

• He who will not economize will have to agonize.

• It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.

• Study the past if you would define the future.

• Confucianism– Confucius/Kung Fuci/Master Kung (b. 551

B.C.E.)– Analects, conversations between

Confucius and his followers– Ethical politics– Act in accordance with the Dao (the way),

similar to dharma in India– Subordinate individualism to broader

needs of family and community– Human-heartedness: “Do not do unto

others what you would not wish done to yourself”

– Merit should decide, not heredity• Led to practice of selecting officials

through a civil service exam

– Mencius (370–290 B.C.E.): humans were by nature good


• Legalism– Humans by nature are evil,

and must be coerced by laws and punishments

• Daoism (Lao Tzu/the Old Master)– Dao De Jing (The Way of the

Tao)– Like Confucianism, this life

and not the cosmos is the focus

– Unlike Confucianism, inaction rather than action, act in harmony with nature

– Chinese landscape painting often a reflection of Daoism

• Popular Beliefs– Belief in numerous gods and

spirits of nature, both good and evil

China during the Period of the Warring States

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The Rise of the Chinese Empire: The Qin and the Han

• Decline of the Zhou: Warring States Period– State of Qin won out, becoming the first

unified government of China in 221 B.C.E.


• The Qin Dynasty (221–206 B.C.E.): Qin Shi Huangdi, the First Emperor– Political structures: Legalism

was the official ideology– Books burned– Territory expanded, all the

way to Vietnam


– Highly centralized state with harsh punishments

– Society and the Economy• Unified weights and measures, standardized the

monetary and writings systems• Reduced power of the aristocracy

– Aristocrats were required to live in capital of Xianyang

– Government was anti-merchants


• Beyond the Frontier: The Nomadic Peoples and the Great Wall of China– Threats from the northern nomadic Xiongnu, possibly

related to the Huns– Qin solution: build a wall—the Great Wall—at great

cost

• The Fall of the Qin– Rivalry between “inner” and “outer” courts

(bureaucracy vs. imperial family and eunuchs)– Government too oppressive– First Emperor condemned, but Legalism set pattern of

succeeding dynasties

The Glorious Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.–221 C.E.)

• Founded by Liu Bang, took title of Han Gaozu– Maintained the Qin’s centralized political institutions,

but less harsh

• Confucianism and the State– Government was a despotism, capital at Chang’an– State Confucianism

• Civil service examinations,165 B.C.E.– Most were still from aristocratic families

– Factionalism at court still a problem– Aristocratic families remained powerful in spite of

imperial despotism


• Society and Economy in the Han Empire– Population increased from 20 million to 60 million

• Agricultural improvements barely kept up with population rise

– Expansion of trade, all the way to the Roman Empire• State controlled much trade and manufacturing

– New technologies, including water mills, iron casting, paper, rudder

• Expansion Abroad

Trade Routes of the Ancient World


• The Decline and Fall of the Han– Wang Mang declared the Xin (New) dynasty,

9–23 C.E., but was killed– Recovery under the later Han, but the dynasty

disappeared by 220s C.E.

The Han Dynasty©

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Daily Life in Ancient China

• The Role of the Family– Central to Chinese society, not least because

of rice cultivation – Filial piety and the five relationships – Government attempted to impose control

through the Bao-jia system of mutual control and surveillance by five or ten families

Daily Life in Ancient China

• Lifestyles– Houses of tile and brick for the elite, but mud, thatch, and

wooden planks for peasants – Staple foods were millet in the north and rice in the south

• Cities– Most Chinese lived in the countryside– First towns were forts for the aristocracy– By Zhou era, larger towns for trade and commerce– Chang’An covered 16 square miles

• The Humble Estate: Women in Ancient China– Female subservience the norm, both philosophically and in

practice

Chinese Culture

• Metalwork and Sculpture– Bronze Casting under the Shang dynasty

• Bronze vessels both for use and for ritual

– Iron by 800s B.C.E.; Chinese cast iron was better than West’s wrought iron

• The First Emperor’s Tomb, discovered in 1974 near Xian – Thousands of terra-cotta warriors

Chinese Culture

• Language and Literature– Writing based on pictures/ideas

(ideographs/“characters”), not on phonetic symbols• Became the written system for an expanding Chinese

civilization even though spoken languages were often mutually unintelligible

– Earliest surviving was from Zhou, written on silk or strips of bamboo

– Confucian Classics: The Rites of Zhou, Analects, Way of the Dao, The Book of Songs

• Primary purpose was moral and political

Chinese Culture

• Music: aesthetics, but also to achieve political order and refining the human character– Flutes, stringed instruments, bells and

chimes, drums and gourds

Discussion Questions

• What was the Mandate of Heaven? How did it shape the goal and priorities of Chinese government?

• What factors contributed to economic growth during the Zhou period? What role did the government play in promoting growth?

• What values are expressed in Confucianism? How were those values manifested in Chinese society?

• What were the most important accomplishments of the Han dynasty? What led to the dynasty’s demise?

Chapter 3 - Ancient China. The Dawn of Chinese Civilization The Land and People of China –Legend:...

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