Ch 4 - Imperial China -
221 B.C.E. - 220 C.E.
Before the HanYellow River Valley
CivilizationThe 4 River Valley
Civilizations
Shang: 1523-1028 Shang: 1523-1028 oracle bones
The evolution of Chinese writing
during the Shang
From Pictograph to Characters
Zhou Dynasty: 1027 - 256
Mandate of Heaven
China’s Dynastic Cycle
A review of Chinese civ. up to this point:
•Shang Dynasty - Rulers and family patriarchs were interested in consulting the ancestors for guidance and made use of oracle bones. Shamans, individuals who claimed the ability to contact the ancestors read the crack formed on the oracle bones when heated. More than 2,000 characters in the Chinese writing have been identified by scholars as having come from these oracle bones.
•Zhou Dynasty -
• Mandate of Heaven
• growing number of professional bureaucrats, or shi - men of service, the best-educated men in the empire, served as scribes, clerks, advisors and overseers in the king’s court and other parts of the government
• importance of rituals to show respect for elders and rulers
Zhou Dynasty 1027 - 256
Warring States Period 475 - 221 B.C.E.
Confucius 551 - 479 B.C.E.Confucianism:• replace chaos of his time with harmony and order•The idea of reciprocity should organize society. Reciprocity is the giving and taking of people within the 5 basic relationships of society. People are either the superior or inferior person in each of these relationships:
•parent and child•sovereign and minister•husband and wife•older and younger brother•friend and friend
Kung Fu-tzu
Significance - will promote a strict hierarchy in society.
Other ideologies that developed during the Era of Warring States:
Legalism and DaoismLegalism - Han Fei Zi
Daoism - Laozi or Lao Tzu
human nature is bad so a strong state is
needed
human nature is good so a centralized state
is not needed
How did Qin gov’t rule China?
• government - Legalist not Confucianist: book burning
• government imposed the following from peasant population:
• main tax - percentage of harvest
• a labor tax - building public projects
• military service - conscription
• standardized weights, measures and coinage
• created a uniformed legal code
• created a common writing system
• built roads like....? and canals to connect rivers
What steps did Qin rulers take to control the aristocracy?
•abolished primogeniture laws
•abolished slavery = free peasants to serve the state
•How were the free peasants now serving the state?
•paid taxes
•provided labor or serve in the military
Let’s review Confucianism:
•filial piety
•order and harmony in family = order and harmony in the state (government)
•superior vs. inferior roles
•bureaucracy + education = good bureaucrats
•The Analects later compiled by Mencius
Qin Dynasty 221 - 206 B.C.E.•China’s 1st
empire
•Shi Huangdi founder
•adopts Legalism
Terra-Cotta Soldiers
Han Dynasty: 200 B.C.E. - 220 C.E.Look for:
•Political system: centralized, emperor rules with help of his bureaucracy
•Expansion
•Technological Advances
•Social and Economic Changes
Government:Emperor: link between heaven and earth - divine power
Bureaucracy - civil servants - create the
scholar-gentry class or shi
Emperor Wuor Wudior Wu Ti
r.141 - 87 B.C.E.
civil service exam based on Confucius writings
sets up ameritocracy
Chinese bureaucracy
Chinese Emperor
•Emperor lived in seclusion, many wives and concubines
•aligns himself with the gentry class to weaken the aristocracy
•creates the gentry-scholar class
Chang’an - present-day Xi’an
•cosmopolitan
•courtiers, officials, soldiers, merchants
•protective wall
•point where Silk Road began
Expansion:
•China doubles in size under rule of Wu:
•expands west to Central Asia
•expands east to Korea
•expands south to Vietnam
Expansion under rule of Wudi
141 - 87 B.C.E.Korea
Vietnam
Central Asia
Why?
capitalSilk Road
Technology =
steel weapons and tools crossbow
horse collar and cavalry
paper - Why?
silk
Confucian emphasis on learning
Economy
•agriculture - main activity
•trade = Silk Road
•luxury goods
•monopolized by government
Chang’An
Chinese Society during Han rule
landowning aristocracy +
educated bureaucrat or the scholar-gentry during Han Dynasty
laboring masses: peasants and urban artisansmean people - unskilled or without meaningful skills like performing
artists,had to wear identifying green scarves, included household slaves
What about them merchants?Confucian emphasis on learning and political service led to the view that merchants were not good people since they had devoted their lives to making money. So, there will be a gap between the wealth of merchants and their low prestige in the Chinese Confucian society.
Collapse: ExternalThreat of nomadic invasions at the bordersCost of defending the north and nw border
How did China deal with the threat of nomadic groups on their frontier? (book lists 5)
Collapse - internal reasons:
power of aristocracy = unequal distribution of landpeasants = unrest, Yellow Turban Rebellion 184 C.E. led by Daoistsstrongmen in countryside = tax revenuesconscription = reliance on mercenariesspread of epidemics = population
220 C.E. Fall of Han Empire
Inefficient rulers, corrupt officials lose control of the gov’t.
Use Imperial Parallels in Bulliet textbook pages 146-147 to compare Rome and
Han
•Similarities or Differences on the following?• their social norms
• their economy
• rulers’ way of controlling the aristocracy
• rulers’ way of conquering and overcoming challenges of running the empire
• technological developments
• the role of urban centers
• reasons for the collapse of their empires
• impact of the collapse of their empires on the region
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