for Eng.Kelvin history report

MEDIEVAL CHINA

The West & The World

Key Environmental Features

o Like India, China enjoyed a relative geographical isolation

which allowed it to develop a very distinctive culture.

 Physical barriers separated China from the rest of the Asian

continent:

• SW: Himalayan Mts.

• W: Taklimakan (Takla Makan) Desert

• N: Gobi Desert and Mongolian Plateau

 E & SE: the Pacific Ocean in east and southeast.

 This led to:

• remarkable level of cultural continuity.

• a conscious effort of new ruling dynasties to conform to

past cultural traditions & to Sinicize all conquered

people.

• the belief in Chinese cultural superiority (rest of the

world was made up of “barbarians”).

Key Environmental Features, ct’d

o Central area is the cradle of Chinese civilization.

 Earliest settlements developed in agricultural-friendly areas.

• Fertile plains and river valleys:

 Yellow River (Huang Ho), also called “river of sorrows” –

flooded frequently and in unpredictable patterns; its

waters carried a fine yellow soil (the loess), very fertile

and easy to work.

 Yangtze River, the longest in Asia and third largest in

the world.

 Pearl River in the south.

• In modern times, the Manchurian plain in the N also

became part of China.

 Main staples:

• wheat and millet in center and north

• rice in the south

Key Environmental Features, ct’d

o Other natural resources:

 12 % of world’s mineral resources: iron, tin, copper, lead, zinc,

aluminum, etc.

 Energy resources: coal, oil, natural gas

 Gemstones: amber, amethyst, jade, opal, ruby, sapphire, topaz

 Forests

 Including medicinal and precious woods such as gingko

tress, golden larch, red sandalwood, lacquer tree

 Largest areas of grassland in the world (N and W)

 Tea (SW and N)

• China is the world’s first exporter of tea

 Silk-worms

o Major premodern Chinese exports:

 Silk - developed ca. 6500 y.a.; one of the most sought-after

products in premodern era.

 Lacquered furniture – developed ca 3000 y.a.

 Porcelain – developed ca. 2000 y.a.

Main Historical Developments

o Zhou Dynasty (1122-221 B.C.): Golden Age of China

 A mythical time of great prosperity and excellent government.

• Rulers associated with this dynasty were considered great

sages (i.e. exemplars of wisdom).

 Religious beliefs: polytheistic. • The gods and the spirits of the ancestors were in control of

humans’ well-being.

 To avoid misery and hardships, people had to keep these

celestial beings happy (through daily prayers and sacrifices).

• The spirits of the ancestors could act as mediators between

mortals and the gods. To do so in a positive way, ancestors had

to be honored daily through offerings of food, prayers and pious

reference to their memory.

 A good, easy life was a sign of happy ancestors.

 Misfortunes were signs of displeased ancestors.

Ancestor Worship: At Home

Ancestor Worship: Public Ceremony

Main Historical Developments

 Political innovations: the Mandate of Heaven (i.e. rule by divine

right) - a ruler’s legitimacy came from the divine realm and

depended on moral behavior.

• A dynasty enjoyed the support of heaven as long as it ruled

justly and wisely.

• If a ruler became corrupt, cruel, lazy, abusive, etc. the

Heaven withdrew its mandate.

 Natural disasters, uprisings, invasions, defeats on the

battlefield meant a ruler incurred divine disfavor.

 The ruler and sometimes his entire dynasty would be

removed from power.

• Heaven would then choose a new ruler; he did not have to be of

noble birth, but wise and just in order to be worthy of the

mandate.

The mandate of Heaven & the Dynastic Cycle

Main Historical Developments, ct’d

o Warring States Period (ca. 600s-400s B.C.)

 The Zhou kings lost power over most of China.

• Many smaller states emerged.

 Ongoing fight for regional dominance

 Lawlessness

 Moral decadence

 Social turmoil

 Economic depression

 Food shortages

 Despite political and social upheavals, the arts, literature and

esp. philosophy flourished.

• The formative ideas of Chinese culture were produced

during this period: Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism.

Confucianism, ct’d

o Confucius (ca. 551– 479 B.C.), N China

 A lower clerk of modest social background.

• Sought an answer to the crises of his day.

 Attributed political anarchy and moral dissolution to rulers

and the ruled alike:

• All were motivated by vain ambitions, greed, desire for

power and prestige, self-indulgence.

 Solution: rulers should lead exemplary lives, so that the whole

society could use them as model of behavior.

• Humans were inherently good, but in need of guidance to

not stray away from the right path.

 Confucius’ role was to point to the right path.

Confucianism, ct’d

 Two major Chinese institutions had to be strengthened in

order to bring back order and harmony:

• Family

 Obedience and deference of younger to older relatives,

and of women to men should govern family

relationships.

• Hierarchy

 Rigid rituals expressing reverence to one’s superiors

should govern all social interaction.

 Perfect society:

• Each member knew his/her place and carried out his/her

moral and social obligations.

• Each member felt protected and respected.

Confucianism, ct’d

 Five hierarchical relationships or building blocks of society:

• Father-son

 Filial piety

• Elder brother-younger brother

• Husband-wife • Elder person-younger person

• Ruler-subject

 Through the right education, nobles and commoners alike could

achieve a moral character.

• Education implied the study of the Confucian Canon:

 Analects (attributed to Confucius himself)

 Previous historical, philosophical and literary works collected

and revised by Confucius

 Mencius (a later follower)

!!!! As the Confucian Canon became mandatory in schools and formed

the basis of civil examinations for positions in imperial bureaucracy,

Confucianism came to pervade Chinese culture.

Confucius as a Teacher

Confucius as an Impartial Judge

Confucius as a Musician

Confucius’ Statue, Shanghai Massive, one ton, 32-foot statue submerged in water

Filial Piety: Emperor Wen Tasted Medicine for His Mother

Wu Meng: Let Mosquitoes Consume His Blood

Guo Ju: Buried His Son for His Mother

Confucius’ statue and temple in Qufu (his hometown)

Confucius’ Temple and its artifacts destroyed during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s

Destruction of artifacts

Revival of Confucianism in the 1990s:

Confucius Temple in Nanjing

Worship ceremony Students of Nanchang Hangkong University, Jiangxi Province

Celebrating Confucius’ Birthday

Public Reading of Confucius’ Analects

Legalism

o Legalists = a group of philosophers active ca. 5th to 1st c. B.C., with a stark view on human nature:

 Fundamentally evil, selfish, easy to corrupt.

• Human would lie, cheat, steal, abuse and kill w/o mercy if their

interests so demanded.

 Only strong action on the part of the ruler could bring and maintain

social order.

• Strict laws and fierce punishments, OR a permanent state of

anarchy.

• Rulers had to be tough and merciless, OR people would take

advantage of his benevolence.

• All human action should be subordinated to the effort of creating

a powerful and prosperous state, subject to the ruler’s will.

 Education of children should consist of firm warnings and harsh

beatings.

• Society should continue these sanctions with the adults (seen as

grown-up children).

Daoism

o Lao Tzu (fl. 6th c. B.C.), “The Old Child”

 Some real, many legendary facts about his life:

• Born w/o a father, as an already old baby-boy.

• Worked as a librarian in the royal archives until realized the

futility of seeking success in one’s career and in conforming

to social roles.

• Riding an ox, he travelled to SW China to go to India, to study

with the sages there.

• Recognized by officials of the western province, was banned

from leaving the country until he wrote down his teachings.

 Dao-de-Jing (Tao-te-Ching)

• He resumed his travel and reached India.

• In old age, he returned to China and ascended to heaven.

 Worshipped as a god by his followers.

Daoism, ct’d

 Lao Tzu, like Confucius, sought to find the right path that led

society back to virtuous living.

• He moved however in the opposite direction to his

contemporary.

 Dao – ultimate reality which cannot be defined; an impersonal

force that created the world, is in the world, is the world.

• Has no concern for its creation.

• But to live meaningful lives, humans must live in harmony

with the Dao.

 usually translated “the way;” also “pure existence,” “path

of nature,” or “process”

 How to live in harmony with something that cannot be defined?

• wu wei or “effortlessness:” all unnecessary or planned action,

i.e. the action which is not a spontaneous reaction to a

challenge, should be avoided.

 “no strain, no pain”

Daoism, ct’d

 Other major principles:

• Acceptance: renounce “against-ness,” i.e. resisting whatever

happens to you.

 Accept your lot in life (wealth or poverty, good health or

illness, success or failure, life or death, etc.) w/o

complaining or fighting against it.

• Simplicity: avoid whatever is artificial, or superfluous, or too

complicated, or done out of pride and ambition, not sheer

necessity.

 Laozi mistrusted formal education and believed

renouncing it put an end to much misery in human life.

 He also disliked the ritualized behavior which governed

social encounters and discouraged it.

Daoism, ct’d

 Other major principles, ct’d:

• Gentleness: be weary of any kind of fighting, in quarrels or

wars.

 Practice peace and restraint.

• Relativity: take things as they are, we can neither understand

nor control what happens around us.

• Flexibility: be malleable and yielding, so that the forces that

hit other people may flow harmlessly around you.

 Laozi and his disciples lived like hermits.

• Led a solitary life in forests and mountain caves, far away

from the world and its useless, burdensome economic, social

and political entanglements.

Birth of Laozi as an old child

Typical Daoist Representations of Laozi

Daoist Art

o Daoist art reflects the beliefs and practices of Laozi :

 All aspects of nature are interrelated and in harmony

• The principle is “Heaven and earth and I live together.”

 This is illustrated in the balance between the main elements of

nature and humans.

• Daoist landscapes are dominated by waterfalls or rivers, pine

trees and mountain peaks.

• Human beings seeking to understand the secrets of the Dao

participate in the natural scene, but they do not dominate it.

 There are usually one or two people, very small in size,

walking or standing.

• Sometimes a temple is also somewhere in the background,

indicating the need for proper worship.

Daoist-inspired Art: landscapes that Suggest Harmony and Interrelatedness among all aspect of nature

Later Daoism

o Later Daoists became engaged in a frantic quest for longevity: sought

techniques or elixirs which could prolong life, and even bring about

immortality.

 A denial of Laozi’s teachings, because it meant not accepting life as it

was, and making useless, artificial efforts to preserve what was not

being preservable.

• Developed a series of “spiritual exercises:” a combination of

bodily movements, control of breathing, diet, massage and

meditation (meant to bring balance to the body and mind and

thus hoped to extend life).

 Tai chi (or Tai chi chuan)

• Other Daoists combined various plants in the effort to find the

right substance which could make humans immortal.

Tai chi practitioners

Summary

o Confucianism

 Emphasis on obedience to hierarchy, strong family ties, loyalty,

respect, subordination of the individual to the state, importance of

formal education, the ruler as exemplar

o Daoism

 Emphasis on the individual experience, on finding personal

fulfillment through non-commitment

 Rejection of rigid hierarchies, formal education, state interference in

private life

o Legalism

 Emphasis on human wickedness, necessity of harsh laws and their

strict implementation, the ruler as stern enforcer of laws

Song Dynasty (960-1279)

o Era of economic prosperity and territorial expansion

 Steel

 Gunpowder and firearms

 Paper money

 Abacus (counting frame)

Song Dynasty, ct’d

o To break the growing power of the landed aristocracy, the Song rulers

took two major steps:

 Economic:

• Limited the size of land a person could own

• Gave the extra land to poor peasants

• Offered cheap credit to commoners struggling with debts, to

prevent selling themselves into slavery

 Political:

• Relatives of the wealthy elite could not take the imperial

examinations (the only means to obtain a position in the imperial

bureaucracy)

o Developed the examination system to the form it would retain until

eliminated in early 20th c.

 Confucian Canon (not 13 works) & “practical” subjects:

arithmetic, music, calligraphy; public rituals; imperial decrees,

taxation, military strategy, law, agriculture and geography.  Three levels: provincial (lower clerical positions); capital (high-ranking

positions); imperial palace (jobs in central administration).

Song Dynasty, ct’d

o Significance of examination system:

 Main vehicle of social mobility

 Major means for implementing the imperial program of Sinification

 Key system for ensuring all officials deeply immersed in Confucian

thinking

 Wide-range benefits at a personal level

• Brought privileges and access to wealth and power in an economy

in which most people lived at subsistence level

• Brought great honor to the family whose son(s) worked for the

government

• Allowed one to reach the Confucian ideal of moral living

o During the Song dynasty, Confucianism became the cement of

Chinese culture

Song Dynasty, ct’d

o Major change in women’s life: the dowry replaced the bride price.

 Daughters became a burden for their own families:

• Infanticide

• Slavery

• Foot-binding (sign of class, submissiveness, self-discipline)

Bound Feet

A Lotus Shoe for Bound Feet

Song Dynasty, ct’d

o One major issue for the Song: unable to stop invasions from the

Manchurian plain in NE

 The Jurchen (roor-ZHEN) tribes, although nomadic, were

powerful enough to infiltrate into China.

• The Song rulers had to pay them tribute to end their

destructive raids on farmlands and cities.

 Vital mistake: towards the end of their rule, the Song emperors

allied themselves with another nomadic tribe, the Mongols, to

defeat the Jurchen.

• The Mongols subdued the Jurchen, then conquered China

and removed the Song from power.

Buddhism in China

o Arrived in the 5th c. in its Mahayana version (open to men/women,

monastic/regular living).

 Brought by missionaries and merchants, appealed especially to the

lower classes.

• More egalitarian tendencies

• Promise of a blissful afterlife

• Emotional and spiritual comfort vs. the intellectual emphasis of

Confucianism, or the complete withdrawal from society

required by Daoism

o Emperors often saw in Buddhism a threat to Chinese culture and

banned it:

 The men and women who abandoned the world to join monastic

communities undermined Confucian values (filial piety, obedience,

respect of social boundaries, hard work)

 Introduced beliefs/practices that seemed absurd: world as an

illusion, reincarnation, worship of relics (disrespectful to ancestors)

 Economically unsound

Buddhism in China, ct’d

o By the 11th c., Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism learned to coexist.

 They are not mutually exclusive, but a Chinese can practice all

three and the cult of ancestors.