Week 1: Early China

1.1 Early Chinese Civilization: The Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties

Yellow River Civilization

China is the seat of one of the earliest human civilizations. In fact, human beings may have arrived in China 65,000 years ago, and human ancestors such as Homo erectus migrated to the region or evolved independently as early as one million years ago.

Civilization in China is believed to have begun around 5000 BCE near the Yellow River in northern China. One ancient site, called Banpo, is the earliest known human settlement in the area. Located near modern­day Xian, this site has yielded many artifacts, including pottery shards, tools for agriculture and animal domestication, and metalwork.

Chinese civilization further developed with the Longshan culture (based in the town of Longshan in Shandong Province), before entering the period of imperial dynasties. The first of these, the Xia (c. 2070–1600 BCE), was long considered mythical. However, finds predating existing and verifiable records seem to indicate that the Xia civilization was very real. By the time of the Xia, China had entered its Bronze Age, an important milestone in the technological development of a civilization because it represented the ability to smelt metals and create alloys. There are also indications that the Xia were using the predecessors of today's modern Chinese characters.

Archaeologists know more about the Shang (1600–1046 BCE) and Zhou (1044 –771 BCE) dynasties, which left the world many wonderful artifacts, including pottery, bronze work, and early versions of Chinese characters carved into oracle bones (see figure below). The reading of oracle bones was a type of shamanism that remains in Chinese culture in the form of the classic text I Ching.

Oracle Bone with Chinese Characters

Source: Photo by Kowloonese at the Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland, California, 2004. Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution­ShareAlike 3.0 Unported

license. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Replica_of_oracle_turtle_shell_with_ancient_Chinese_ora

cle_scripts.jpg

China: The Early Dynasties

The Shang dynasty is well­documented in the Chinese historical record, but much of this was written after the fact. The political history of the Shang and the Shang­Zhou transition received the most attention as it set an important precedent. The Zhou's defeat of the Shang dynasty at the battle of Muye could have gone down in history as just another conquest. However, the Zhou justified their victory by pointing out the failures of the last Shang king and attested that they had received heaven's blessing for their victory and their right to rule. This idea later became codified in Chinese tradition as the Mandate of Heaven, and it became the vehicle through which revolution was legitimatized.

Mandate of Heaven

The Mandate of Heaven is a traditional Chinese concept that has its origins in the earliest dynasties. The idea behind the mandate is that rulers can only remain in power as long as heaven allows it. Heaven, in this definition, is not specifically equivalent to a God or gods, but is a broader notion that encompasses deities as well as the supernatural. Heaven's displeasure with a ruling family can materialize in a variety of ways including natural disasters, social unrest, and political intrigue.

Although on the surface, the mandate appears to be a spiritual concept, it is more closely tied with political legitimacy and a fundamental right to revolt. While other civilizations struggled with succession and revolution, the Mandate of Heaven allowed the Chinese to employ a semiformal process through which dynasties could be supplanted and replaced. However, it is important to remember that much of this process occurred after the fact—once a new power was in place, they then went back to describe how they had the Mandate all along, a retroactive process that is admittedly cynical but was ultimately necessary to assure smooth transitions within the Chinese imperial system.

Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou dynasty, with its eastern and western periods, is the first truly historical dynasty and the longest in Chinese history. Unlike the Xia and Shang, the Zhou kept written records of their expansion—records that have survived and that can be studied. What makes China's ancient history unique is that China managed to maintain certain commonalities in its culture for over 4,000 years. On this basis, the Chinese claim to have the oldest continuous civilization in existence today.

In China, however, cultural continuity did not mean stability. The Chinese had to contend with "barbarian" threats as well as with internal strife. Indeed, the reason the Zhou dynasty had eastern and western periods is because the western Zhou capital was sacked and destroyed by invading tribes such as the Xiongnu, who populated what is now Mongolia and parts of Central Asia and were considered uncivilized by the Chinese.

This set a longer pattern of conflict between the agrarian people of the north China plain and the nomadic herders of the central Asian steppes. Their different cultural patterns, economic needs, and population density created tension that extended beyond the simple desire for power or wealth. An ebb and flow relationship also existed between the two civilizations; as one grew weak and disunited, the other could influence and dominate the other. This pattern would repeat numerous times until the modern era, when the nomadic steppe warrior ceased to be a viable military or political force.

The Zhou also set another important precedent in that they were also from the western end of Chinese civilization, in modern­day Shaanxi, which bordered on the steppe. Although still ethnically and culturally Chinese, exposure to the superior military technology and tactics of the steppe nomad tended to grant

these western kingdoms a marked advantage over those further east or south. This is another pattern that would play a significant role in the shape of Chinese politics in the ancient and medieval periods.

Having been forced to withdraw east, away from the steppes and closer to the core regions of Chinese civilization, the Eastern Zhou dynasty lasted for another 500 years. However, this period was a time of disunity and disintegration in which the emperor was more of a figurehead rather than a sovereign ruler. The first half of the Eastern Zhou dynasty is known as the Spring and Autumn period, named after the Spring and Autumn Annals. It is believed that up to150 small kingdoms existed alongside remnants of the Zhou dynasty during this period.

This profusion of power centers led to constant warfare. Chinese people must have suffered considerably during these conflicts. Another result of the breakdown of central authority was the emergence of new philosophies and ideas about governance, warfare, and society. It was during this time that the great philosophies of the Chinese tradition, Confucianism and Daoism, began to emerge as well as the famous treatise on warfare, Sunzi's the Art of War.

Timeline of Ancient China

Dates Dynastyc. 2070–1600 BCE

Xia

1600–1046 BCE Shang1044–771 BCE Western Zhou770–221 BCE Eastern Zhou

770­476 BCE Spring and Autumn period 475–221 BCE Warring States period

Eventually, over a period of three centuries, power slowly consolidated into the hands of seven powerful kings. The wars, however, did not stop, and instead transitioned into the Warring States period (475–221 BCE). Although there were less individual entities coming into conflict with each, the scale of warfare increased along with the level of destruction and number of casualties.

While the previous era had an air of romanticism to it, much like medieval Europe, the Warring States period was more typified by a hard­edged pragmatism. In this environment, Legalism, a harsh form of government that revolved around punishments and rewards to keep people in line, emerged. This

stood in high contrast to the more humanistic philosophies of Confucius and Laozi.

The Warring States period ended when one state, Qin, defeated and conquered all of the rest through guile and military might. This led to the founding of the Qin dynasty and the beginning of Imperial China.

1.2 Warring States Period: Philosophy and Intellectual Development

Philosophy and Intellectual Development

Amid the civil strife and political upheaval of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, there emerged a "golden age" in Chinese philosophy and intellectual development. As the states struggled amidst political chaos, great thinkers arose from the ranks of the bureaucrats, academics, and peasants—thinkers who wanted to try new ways, old ways, and different ways to bring about peace, prosperity, and, most importantly, stability. One major concept to emerge was that of the meritocracy. The idea of personal worth rather than family connections serving as the currency of promotion in government emerged in China long before it did in the West.

The Eastern Zhou dynasty also had more than 100 hundred schools of philosophy and ideology competing for influence among the states. Some survived and grew in importance to become the cornerstones of Chinese thought.

Confucianism

Founded by the sage Kongzi (also written as Kong Fuzi or Confucius), this philosophy looked to the past and saw unity and glory in the organization of the Zhou dynasty. Kongzi and his disciples, such as Mengzi (also written as Mencius), developed an ideology suffused with ancestor worship and underscored the belief that rulers enjoyed legitimacy through the Mandate from Heaven. Morality and the legitimacy of the state went hand­in­hand in Confucian ideology. Both concepts remain integral to Chinese society, as well as to those of Korea and Japan.

Confucianism is less a religion than a philosophy focused on how social relationships should be organized. Confucius taught his disciples about "right" relationships, morality, and good government. He built his philosophy on a few

key concepts: li, self­interest for the betterment of the community; yi, righteousness; and ren, the kindness and empathy found in all humanity. All are crucial to a well­organized and peaceful society.

Kongzi's collected works, The Analects of Confucius, have been published and translated for thousands of years. They include the famous Golden Rule, the gist of which is "Do not do unto others anything you would not want done unto you. Instead, do for others what you would like done for you." Kongzi's ideas spread quickly after his death in the sixth century BCE, influencing parts of China, Korea, Japan, Vietnam, and every place settled by Chinese immigrants.

Sacred Texts: Confucian Teachings

As Confucianism is more of a philosophy than religion, it stands to reason that the words of Kongzi have less to do with spiritual matters than with the practical elements of everyday life. In The Analects of Confucius, Kongzi discusses the superior man, various rites, and the search for knowledge. Some of his most famous quotes include the following:

­ When a man's knowledge is sufficient to attain, and his virtue is not sufficient to enable him to hold, whatever he may have gained, he will lose again.

­ Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.

­ There are three things which the superior man guards against. In youth. . . lust. When he is strong. . . quarrelsomeness. When he is old. . . covetousness.

Daoism

The Dao (Tao), "the Way," is a system of philosophy and religion with its origins in ancient China. Daoist philosophy focuses on reaching a state of balance, or harmony, with nature and with all human affairs. This state of balance mirrors that of the yin and the yang, or the positive and negative energies that bind all things together. To be a true Daoist is to go through life undisturbed by chaos or change, content to let things flow where they will. Daoism proves useless in the political arena but is popular in the hearts and minds of the people.

Daoism is believed to have emerged earlier on but only came to fruition with the writings of Laozi (369–286 BCE). Daoist teachings were the polar opposite of the rigid systems found in Confucianism and Legalism. Part of Daoism's popularity

stemmed from the influential teacher known as Zhuangzi (369–286 BCE), who taught the Dao through the use of parables and the simple language of a storyteller. Daoism helped develop ideas in politics as well as in medicine, martial arts, and religion. What started as a philosophy became one of the richest and most varied belief systems in Chinese culture.

The two main texts of Daoism are the Daodejing and the Book of Zhuangzi. The Daodejing was written in the fourth century BCE by Laozi. Considered the preeminent text of the Daoist world, this book lays out the core of Daoist philosophy. Esoteric and difficult to understand at times, it is best read alongside the Book of Zhuangzi, also written in the fourth century BCE. In this book, Zhuangzi, the second greatest Daoist teacher after Laozi, teaches Daoism through stories and parables.

Sacred Texts: Daoist Teachings

Laozi and Zhuangzi are famous for their many potent and thought­provoking parables and stories. One of the most famous is Zhuangzi's "Butterfly Story," which deals with the nature of knowledge and the ability to discern our own existence. To be sure, this passage does little to answer the questions it raises, but, in typical Daoist fashion, it allows the reader's mind to wander on its own, leading the reader to come to his or her own conclusions about the answer.

From the Book of Zhuangzi:

­ Once Master Zhuang dreamt he was a butterfly, flitting and fluttering happily about, doing butterfly things. He knew of nothing else. Suddenly, he awoke and there he was, unmistakably a man once again. But was he? For now he did not know if he was Master Zhuang, a man who had dreamt he was a butterfly, or a butterfly now dreaming he is a man.

Here is another passage about understanding the cycle of life and death:

­ I received life because the time had come. I will lose it because all things must pass. Be content with the time you have and live in peace with the world around you, then you will know neither extreme sorrow nor the perils of extreme joy, which can poison the human mind. There are those who cannot free themselves, because they are bound to things and by things. But nothing can stand against Heaven. Nothing can stand against God. That is the way it has always been. What would I have to be angry about or sad about, if I accept this as true?

Legalism

Proponents of this philosophy believed that human nature was inherently corrupt and that a strong leader required tough laws. Along with this despotic ideology arose the idea that no one, not even a king, was above the law, and that the population of a country needed to make great sacrifices in order to enjoy public works, a national defense, and a solid economy (somewhat similar to the social contract theory advanced by such Western thinkers as Thomas Hobbes and John Locke). The Legalist doctrine was formulated and made famous by Han Feizi and Li Si during the late Warring States era.

1.3 Bureaucratic Empire: The Qin­Han Dynasties

The Qin Dynasty

During the Warring States period, each of the states vied for supremacy over all the others, desiring to consolidate them into a single political entity. In 221 BCE, much of what we recognize as China today was finally unified by Ying Zheng, king of Qin (pronounced "chin"). Ying Zheng was quite simply the better fighter on the battlefield, the better politician in the capitals, and the better strategist.

Positioned at the far northwest corner of all the Chinese states, he enjoyed the strategic advantage of not being surrounded by enemy states as well as being able to employ military techniques and technology learned from the steppes. Ying also employed effective divide and conquer techniques, likened to a silkworm eating a mulberry leaf bite­by­bite, to defeat his adversaries.

After conquering the other warring states, Ying declared himself the First Emperor of All Under Heaven, or Qin Shihuangdi, the name that comes down to us through history. He organized his new empire along Legalist lines, not Confucianism, which was native to regions farther east, and began a series of reforms that solidified much of what we now know as Chinese culture.

Qin Shihuangdi

Source: Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Qinshihuangdi3.jpg

The word China itself emerged during the Qin dynasty as Latin for the "land of the Qin." The reunification of China after the long decline on the Zhou restored trade over the Silk Road. This contact reached as far west as the Roman Empire, which gave China the name that is still used today across the globe. The Chinese name, Zhongguo, has been commonly translated as the "Middle Kingdom"; however, this interpretation has come into question as more contemporary linguists have suggested that the traditional meaning of the word was "the states in center." While the former underscores the idea of Chinese civilization being the center of the universe, the latter interpretation refers more to the geographic location of the multiple states that make up Chinese civilization in relation to the steppes, ocean, the mountains, and non­Chinese groups that surrounded them.

Qin's reforms were widespread and transformative, forging the multiple sovereign Chinese states together into a single, unified Chinese empire. For example, he codified laws, standardized weights and measures, simplified Chinese characters in a single writing system, gave his empire a common currency, and sent hundreds of thousands of soldiers and peasants to work on great public works projects. Among these included the city walls surrounding his capital in Chang'an, an imperial highway system, and a series of defense walls on the northern frontier which have been commonly associated (inaccurately according to some arguments) with the Great Wall of China.

One of Qin's most famous projects involved his preparation for the afterlife. Thousands were involved in the construction of his tomb, which was possibly the largest in the ancient world, and which is only now being uncovered by researchers in China. The most famous section, the terracotta soldiers, is only part of a larger necropolis which legend claims has a scale model of the known world. The following figure shows Qin's terracotta army.

Qin's Terracotta Army, Xian, China

Source: Photo by Richard Chambers. (2004). Wikimedia Commons. Used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution­ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license. Retrieved from

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Terracotta_army_xian.jpg

Qin's rule was harsh and demanding. In addition to his extensive reforms and public works projects, he also ordered any form of dissent suppressed. Intellectuals who refused to embrace Legalism and his rule were rounded up and killed, often by being buried alive, and their books were burned. After centuries of intellectual and philosophic diversity and exploration, Qin sought to suppress and curtail any divergence in thought in the name of unity and progress. Qin's attack on the intellectual elite and his demands on the populace for labor and conformity placed great strain upon Chinese society and made his rule unpopular.

The Qin dynasty would not last long after Qin Shihuangdi. After his death in 210 BCE, the chief eunuch engineered a plot for Qin's eldest son and leading general, Meng Tian, to commit suicide, and for the execution of the senior official Li Si. A civil war soon broke out, but China did not fragment as it had during previous eras; it united quickly under a new dynasty called the Han (206–220 BCE).

Early Dynasties

Dates Dynasty770–221 BCE Eastern Zhou

770–476 BCE Spring and Autumn period 475–221 BCE Warring States period

221­207 BCE Qin206 BCE–9 CE Western Han9–24 CE Xin (Wang Mang interim)25–220 CE Eastern Han

The Han Dynasty

One of the leaders of the rebellion against the Qin was Liu Bang (247–195 BCE), a man from the peasant class. Another rebel was Xiang Yu, an aristocrat from the state of Chu before its defeat at the hands of Qin. They initially worked together to defeat the Qin but their alliance broke down not long after the fall of the Qin capital at Chang'an. In the ensuing conflict, Liu defeated Xiang and went on to establish the Han dynasty.

Emperor Gaozu of Han

Source: Miuki. (2006). Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain in the United States. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Hangaozu.jpg

Under Liu's leadership and that of his successors, the Han dynasty retained much of the Qin administrative structure, but jettisoned Legalism in favor of Confucian ideas on government and Daoist ideas on spirituality. This was an important precedent that established the philosophic underpinning of the Chinese imperial system until the modern era. The process was gradual as it would not be until the fifth emperor of the Han dynasty, Emperor Wudi, for a ruler to openly endorse Confucianism.

As good governance was now to be based on Confucian ideas, a mastery of the Confucian classics was essential to become inducted into the ranks of the scholar­officials, the professional governing class of China. To this end, the Han inaugurated the Imperial Civil Service Exam system and carefully restored intellectual and literary masterpieces. The imperial exam system in China enabled the government to choose the best and brightest to fill civil service posts. Allowing for upward mobility among high achievers, the exam system shows the value the forward­thinking Chinese saw in a meritocracy.

Civil Examinees During the Ming Dynasty

Source: Spencer195. (2005). Artist: Qiu Ying c. 1540. Wikimedia Commons. In the public domain in the United States. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Civilserviceexam1.jpg

Chinese history also received its first serious academic treatment by the famous writer Sima Qian (145–87 BCE). The Records of the Grand Historian is unique in Chinese history because it represents the view of a private scholar, not a state pronouncement seeking to prove that a given dynasty had earned or lost the

Mandate of Heaven. However, this candor caused Sima to fall victim to court politics, and he eventually chose castration over execution in order to finish his work. Sima's work was so influential that his organization and writing style influenced a majority of the histories that followed, even officially sanctioned ones. Scholars also still view his Historical Records as one of the most important works of ancient China.

The Han dynasty expanded Chinese territory far to the West, securing modern­day Xinjiang and helping traders safely conduct business between China and Rome. This overland route became known as the Silk Road. This foreign contact led to ideas from abroad entering and becoming absorbed into Chinese culture. One of these was Buddhism from India, which reached China through the circuitous route of the Silk Road rather than the more direct maritime route. Conversely, Chinese inventions such as paper and porcelain, both invented during the Han dynasty, flowed to the West, sparking an interest in Chinese goods that continues today.

Han Dynasty Politics

Although the Han dynasty ruled for 400 years, making it a contemporary of the Roman Empire, it dealt with a great deal of political turmoil. After the death of the dynastic founder, Empress Lu, Liu Bang's wife and empress dowager (mother of the emperor) assumed de facto power in the realm. However, her nepotism and unpopularity led to the virtual extinction of her clan after her death.

Much like the Zhou dynasty, the Han can be divided into two eras—the Western and Eastern Han—with the Western portion being the period where they were stronger. In between these two periods was the 15­year Xin dynasty, during which the senior Han official Wang Mang, known as the "Usurper," took control. Although vilified by later historians, Wang was a true Confucian who attempted to apply solutions to governance that were radical at the time but, in retrospect, were forward thinking. These included currency, the outlawing of slavery, public granaries, and nationalization of territory and property.

Wang Mang

Source: Wikimedia Commons. (2013). In the public domain in the United States. Retrieved from http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wang_Mang.jpg

The Han also had to deal with considerable threats from its western frontier. The Xiongnu, a nomadic tribe that have been linked in some sources to the Huns that ravaged Europe at the end of the Roman Empire, was one of the dynasty's more consistent adversaries. Having been surrounded and threatened with defeat on one of his expeditions against the Xiongnu, Liu Bang formed a marriage alliance with one of the leading Xiongnu chieftains, a maneuver which kept the peace during the rest of his reign.

Liu's successors, most notably Han Wudi, employed a more aggressive strategy, seeking to conquer the steppes. Although this led to large acquisitions of territory, it was a costly endeavor and did not prove to be a lasting solution. Although the downfall of the Han would not come via the steppe, the northern frontier remained a constant issue and would come back to haunt China in the centuries to follow.