history homework

China’s Forbidden City

Imperial Palace

Building began in 1406. In 1911 regular people were not allowed in, that is why it is called the Forbidden City. In1925 people were allowed in again.

52’ wide moat, 30’ walls surrounding it

8,707 rooms, 180 acres of flooring, 800 buildings built by 100,000 workers, no nails used

Through a succession issue and desire for power Yongle or (Yong-bla) will become emperor. He will move capital city to Beijing, where his support base is.To solidify his power he has the texts changed, written in a way to give him authority and when this is complete he kills the scholar in charge.

Yongle or Zhu Di, the 3rd emperor of the Ming will build the:

Forbidden City

Parts of the Great Wall

The Temple of Heaven

He will re-open the Grand Canal to move supplies for the building of the city. He will commission Admiral Zheng He to build and command Junks (ships).Zheng He was a eunuch. He was sent in 1408 to Korea to demand silks, cloths, furs, and virgins. These virgins were to be concubines, and be sexually subservient, mistresses, and secondary wives.

In 1421 Yongle opens up the Forbidden City to foreigners and ambassadors, but ½ the palace remains off limits. Yongle hears that there were relations taking place between concubines and eunuchs. Yongle did not want anyone to think he did not have control over his empire so he has 2,800 eunuchs and concubines slaughtered. After the slaughter, a storm occurred and lightening hit one of the buildings sparking a fire that destroyed 250 buildings.

Yongle thought heaven was angry with him. He became depressed and died in 1424. At his funeral 16 concubines were executed so they would be able to serve him in death. The Forbidden City was ruled by 24 Emperors until 1911 until revolutionaries stormed the palace and put an end to imperial rule.

In the beginning only dark chaos prevailed in the universe. This darkness took the form of an egg, and in this egg Pan Gu, the first living being, was born. Pan Gu slept, fed and protected by the egg. When he awoke after many years, Pan Gu had grown into a giant. He stretched himself, breaking the egg. The lighter, purer parts of the egg rose and formed the heaven; the heavier and impure parts fell, and formed the earth. This was the origin of the forces which are called yin and yang.

Pan Gu was afraid that the heaven and the earth would fuse together again, so he propped up the heaven with his head and pressed against the earth with his feet. For the next eighteen thousand years Pan Gu grew so that the heaven and the earth were pushed further apart. Finally both the heaven and the earth seemed to remain fixed at a distance and Pan Gu fell asleep exhausted, never to wake up again.

At his death the natural phenomena were formed out of the different parts of his body. His breath became the wind and the clouds, his voice turned into thunder and lightning, his left eye became the sun and his right eye the moon. The four points of the compass and the mountains arose from his limbs and trunk, his blood formed the rivers and his veins the ways and paths, his flesh became trees and earth, the hair on his head became the stars in the heaven, his skin and the hairs on his body turned into grass and flowers. Metals and stones arose from his teeth and bones, his sweat became dew and the fleas on his body formed the different races of human beings.

Question: What Is the Mandate of Heaven?

Answer:

The "Mandate of Heaven" is an ancient Chinese philosophical concept, which originated during the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BCE). The Mandate determines whether an emperor of China is sufficiently virtuous to rule; if he does not fulfill his obligations as emperor, then he loses the Mandate and thus the right to be emperor.

 

There are four principles to the Mandate:

1) Heaven grants the emperor the right to rule,

2) Since there is only one Heaven, there can only be one emperor at any given time,

3) The emperor's virtue determines his right to rule, and,

4) No one dynasty has a permanent right to rule.

 

Signs that a particular ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven included peasant uprisings, invasions by foreign troops, drought, famine, floods and earthquakes. Of course, drought or floods often led to famine, which in turn caused peasant uprisings, so these factors were often interrelated.

Although the Mandate of Heaven sounds superficially similar to the European concept of the "Divine Right of Kings," in fact it operated quite differently. In the European model, God granted a particular family the right to rule a country for all time, regardless of the rulers' behavior. The Divine Right was an assertion that God essentially forbade rebellions - it was a sin to oppose the king.

In contrast, the Mandate of Heaven justified rebellion against an unjust, tyrannical, or incompetent ruler. If a rebellion was successful in overthrowing the emperor, then it was a sign that he had lost the Mandate of Heaven and the rebel leader had gained it. In addition, unlike the hereditary Divine Right of Kings, the Mandate of Heaven did not depend upon royal or even noble birth. Any successful rebel leader could become emperor with Heaven's approval, even if he was born a peasant.

The Mandate of Heaven in Action:

The Zhou Dynasty used the idea of the Mandate of Heaven to justify the overthrow of the Shang Dynasty (c. 1600-1046 BCE). Zhou leaders claimed that the Shang emperors had become corrupt and unfit, so Heaven demanded their removal.

When Zhou authority crumbled in turn, there was no strong opposition leader to seize control, so China descended into the Warring States Period (c. 475-221 BCE). It was reunified and expanded by Qin Shihuangdi, beginning in 221, but his descendants quickly lost the Mandate. The Qin Dynasty ended in 206 BCE, brought down by popular uprisings led by the peasant rebel leader Liu Bang, who founded theHan Dynasty.

This cycle continued through the history of China, as in 1644 when the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) lost the Mandate and was overthrown by Li Zicheng's rebel forces. A shepherd by trade, Li Zicheng ruled for just two years before he was in turn ousted by the Manchus, who founded theQing Dynasty (1644-1911), China's final imperial dynasty.

Effects of the Mandate of Heaven Idea

The concept of the Mandate of Heaven had several important effects on China and on other countries such as Korea and Annam (northern Vietnam) that were within the sphere of China's cultural influence. Fear of losing the Mandate prompted rulers to act responsibly in carrying out their duties towards their subjects.

The Mandate also allowed for serious social mobility for a handful of peasant rebellion leaders who became emperors. Finally, it gave the people a reasonable explanation and a scapegoat for otherwise inexplicable events, such as droughts, floods, famines, earthquakes and disease epidemics. This last effect may have been the most important of all.

The first people to migrate into the islands of Japan probably arrived around 8000 B.C.E. These hunter-gathers lived in huts, caves and ravines. For thousands of years, the people of Japan lived off of the land, hunted, farmed, and developed unique cultures and religious beliefs.

Around 200 B.C.E., invaders from the Asian mainland entered Japan. Using their superior technology and weapons, they easily conquered the peoples of these islands. They intermarried with the islanders, and over many generations raised their standard of living, teaching them new methods of farming and new technologies.

Around 250 C.E., another wave of invaders entered Japan from the Asian mainland. These invaders had mastered the use of horses in battle, and their warriors were again able to quickly conquer the islanders.

Clan Life in Japan

The people of Japan lived in clans, which were held together by their common descent from a single ancestor. These clans were ruled by a powerful chief, who was also the religious priest of the group.

Members of each clan practiced a form of ancestor worship known as Shinto. Clan members believed that the spirit of the common ancestor from whom they all descended still inhabited their village, and that it protected them and worked to help better their lives. They prayed to the ancestor for help and guidance.

(see slide with Shinto Shrine)

The clan chief also acted as the military leader and directed the efforts of the clan to protect themselves against outsiders and against other neighboring clans.

The Yamato Clan

By the late 300s C.E., one clan began to stand out in political power and influence. This clan was the Yamato Clan. They were known for their bravery in battle and their superior fighting techniques. As a result, all other clans within Japan became subject to them. The chief of the Yamato Clan became the first emperor of Japan.

Local clans still ruled their own lands, but they owed their loyalty to the emperor, who by 400 C.E. had become very powerful.

The Emperor of Japan

By 500 C.E. the emperor of Japan had become largely a ceremonial position. Political power was taken from the emperor by various families, who then ruled Japan. Since the people of Japan believed that only the emperor could communicate with the gods on behalf of his people, the same family remained on the throne and the unbroken line of emperors exists to this day, with the modern day emperor being a direct descendant of the original emperor of Japan.

Japanese Civilization

By the 700s C.E., Japanese culture and civilization had reached a new height. In 794 C.E., the leaders in Japan set up a new capital city, which they named Heian Kyo, which would later be shortened to Kyoto. This capital city would remain as the capital of the Japanese Empire for over 1,000 years.

Yoritomo Minamoto

In 1185 C.E., a powerful aristocrat by the name of Yoritomo Minamoto defeated all other opponents, and became the defacto ruler of Japan. The emperor remained in Kyoto where he carried out religious and cultural rituals. The emperor named Yoritomo the shogun, which means ‘general’ in Japanese. As the shogun, Yoritomo had all the political and military power in Japan.

Japanese Feudalism

In 1336 C.E., civil war broke out in Japan. Both the shogun and the emperor remained in office, but both became nothing more than figure heads, having no real political power.

Japan fell into a feudal system similar to that of Europe. Landowning warriors known as samurai pledged their allegiance to lords known as daimyos, and fought to protect their lands. Poor farmers paid the daimyos taxes for the right to farm their lands. In exchange, the daimyos used his samurais to protect these poor farmers.

HI 106

Engineering an Empire – China

7 kingdoms fighting for control was called the Warring States Period. What is the Warring States period?

Li Bang –builds Levee- which is used to do what?

Chu wages war will fall to Qin Dynasty

New Emperor for the Qin was Ying Zheng, age 22

He banishes his mother, Kills brothers

The emperor takes a new name – Shi Huangdi and becomes the 1st Emperor of Qin

Links existing walls to create The Great Wall

Work force – 1 million people, 1/5 of Chinese population, ¼ of them will die

How are people treated?

Wall was built for what purposes?

What is the nickname of the wall?

Emperors Tomb is a mound with what inside?

What are the Terra Cotta soldiers?

What purpose do they serve?

What do they tell us about Chinese beliefs of the afterlife?

Liu Bang is the new ruler and launches the Han Dynasty.

He extends the wall. What are characteristics of the wall?

284 A.D. peasant revolt, new empire Sui Dynasty, with new emperor Yang Di, who will unite China again and connect the two main rivers the Yangtze and the Yellow River, which are 1000 miles apart with a Grand Canal. Locks were needed, 24 of them along the canal. It took 5 million workers, 6 years to build canal.

What happens to many of the workers on this project?

Yang Di is killed by his own generals and we have the beginning of the Ming Dynasty.

Zheng He will lead Chinese Armada.

337 ships, 30,000 workers. In 1405 he sets sail and travels around Africa and into the Atlantic. He has a 28 year naval career.

When He dies in 1433 the fleet is recalled and the new emperor destroys it.

Ming add to the great wall. Why?

What changes do they make?