history 22
Yemima Amanuel 
WorldHistoryIChapter8ChinaandtheWorld600-1300.pptx
China And The Rest of the World 600-1300
World History I
Chapter 8
Fall of the Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty fell around 220 CE and for more than 300 years after, no dynasty took its place. This 300 years allowed certain aristocratic families to rise to almost king status in their areas. Barbarians- the word the Chinese used to describe anyone not Chinese- began to push down from the northern areas. As a result, Chinese immigration into the South of China increased so much at by the year 1000, about 60% of the Chinese population lived in the southern reaches.
A silk painting of Han emperors
The Sui Dynasty
The SUI dynasty arose in 581 and lasted until 618- not long, but fairly long compared to other leaders during the 300 years prior. During the Sui dynasty, canals were built throughout the nation, linking China from within and uniting it. This is no small feat for such as huge area. The dynasty was overthrown though because it waged a futile war against Korea which bankrupted the states’ treasury and natural resources.
The Golden Age
The Sui dynasty was followed by the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties, both of where were long-lived. This era is considered to be the “golden age” of Chinese culture, when painting, porcelain and poetry reached their heights.
These dynasties created a bureaucracy that survived for about a thousand years. The government was split into 6 departments: finance, personnel, ceremonies or rites, army, justice and public works, which were all ruled over by a watchdog agency called the Censorate.
The departments were staffed by upper-class workers who had passed civil examinations, just as in the past. Most schools were created for the purpose of helping workers pass these exams.
A Tang dynasty porcelain horse
Population boom
During the Song dynasty especially, China had a huge population boom, going from about 50-60 million to 120 million in about 600 years. The adoption of a new, faster growing and more drought-resistant strain of Vietnamese rice was one of the reasons for the boom.
China during this time had more cities than any other country. The capital city of Hangzhou (at right) was so splendid that the renowned traveler Marco Polo wrote about it, calling it the “finest and noblest [city] in the world.”
Chinese invention
China was a massive producer of iron, making suits of armor, coins, bells for temples, tools, arrowheads and more. Coal was used to smelt the iron and to heat homes, where most people elsewhere were still relying on wood, which was growing more and more scarce even then.
China printed the world’s first books using woodblock printing (later, Johann von Gutenberg would perfect the idea of using moveable type to give us our more modern printing presses) and eventually books were so plentiful that almost anyone could afford them (compared to Europe where books were copied out and illustrated one by one, by hand, and could be afforded mostly by the rich).
China led the way in oceanic navigation and shipbuilding, also, but there was one Chinese invention that set China far apart from any other nation: Gunpowder.
Gunpowder changes the world
Gunpowder was discovered by accident when Daoist alchemists, trying to find a formula for immortality, instead discovered that mixing saltpeter, Sulphur and charcoal in the right amounts would give you a reaction that was very much the opposite of immortality!
They began to use the discovery at first for fireworks, that only the Chinese made and that amazed the rest of the world. Eventually, gunpowder was used to start fires during warfare, then to make bombs that were at first only used to startle and panic enemy warriors and their horses.
When it became clear that lobbing these “noise bombs” into a crowd caused not just mayhem but casualties, the Chinese (and the Monguls, who fought the Chinese and learned from them) began to create rockets, cannon and eventually guns.
Farming for trade
China was one of the first areas to have people grow crops specifically to sell them- not just subsistence farming where the farmer used what he needed and sold the rest. In China, a farmer grew a single crop or only a few crops, and purchased other food for his family at the market. China was also probably the first nation to demand payment for taxes in actual money, not in goods.
Rice terraces
Foot Binding
In many ways, then, the Song dynasty was a high point for China- but not so for China’s women. The revival of Confucianism, which emphasized the power of men over women, resulted in women losing many of their rights and being perceived even more as the weaker, more fragile, less important sex.
It was during this dynasty that foot binding became popular. Foot binding originally began with dancers, we believe, around 900 or 1000 CE. Young girls’ feet were tightly bound with wrappings that broke the bones of the feet and was incredibly painful for them. It eventually became an indicator of a woman’s high status and increased sexuality in Chinese society to have tiny, virtually useless feet. It not only served to separate the rich from the poor, it also separated the Chinese women from the barbarian women.
Song women
Women were increasingly being replaced in the textile workshops, also. The silk weavers, especially, tended now to be male, although it was usually women who tended the silkworms and spun the silk into threads, but this paid much less and was considered a much lower-class job than actually weaving the silk fabric itself.
Women instead began to operate businesses such as restaurants, grocery stalls at the markets, or to work as maids and other domestic servants to the more wealthy.
There were plenty of jobs to be had in the sex trades as well, from prostitutes to concubines (middle class mistresses or second wives of polygamists) and entertainers, up to courtesans, who were hired by the upper classes sometimes merely for their social and artistic accomplishments, and who were not always expected to provide sex.
On the plus side, women during the Song dynasty could own property, inherit property and control their own money and in many cases could even get an education.
Barbarians to the north
China, meanwhile, often had problems with their neighbors to the north- the nomads who lived on the steppes. These nomads were pastoral, raising animals and following their herds, but also very militaristic. The northern nomads threatened China with attack so often that the Great Wall of China was built to keep them out.
The Chinese did trade with these nomads, though, trading silk and wine for animal furs and hides, and especially for horses. The herds of horses the nomads raised were essential to China’s military.
The Tribute system
China’s dealings with these northern barbarians, and other non-Chinese, served to convince the Chinese that China was the “middle kingdom” – the center of the world and that the Chinese race was superior by far to all others. It was without a doubt one of the most advanced, if not THE most advanced civilization at the time, as well as one of the oldest continuous civilizations.
China was self-sufficient and really did not need to participate in the matters of the outside world, so it was often begrudging in its trade with other peoples. Because of this, the TRIBUTE SYSTEM grew. Under this system, countries or groups wanting to trade with China had to send dignitaries to the Chinese court, where they would kowtow, bow continuously in a formalized pattern, and present gifts to the Chinese emperor.
In return, the emperor would give permission for the people to trade with China, and would often give gifts in return that were far more valuable than the original tribute, just to prove the magnificence and magnanimity of China.
The Tributary nations: korea
The Korean peninsula lies just off the northeastern coast of China and has had a long history of involvement with China- not all of it voluntary. The Chinese conquered Northern Korea at one point during the Han dynasty, and other parts of Korea were colonized by the Chinese at various times.
China never conquered Korea, though- any attempts to do so were met with fierce military resistance. Instead, Korea became a lesser trade partner and allowed a small amount of political interference and a massive amount of cultural influence from China, making it one of China’s tributary states, paying tribute to China in exchange for trading rights and continued peace.
Staying Korean
Korea, especially the upper class, embraced Chinese Buddhism and many aspects of Chinese culture. This had an unfortunately negative affect on the lives of Korean women, though, who had had more rights prior to Korea’s push to become more Chinese. Remember that Confucianism kept women very much in the backseat of daily life. Under the Chinese influence, Korean women lost the right to choose their own husbands (instead of their fathers choosing for them), inherit property and more.
Yet Korean managed to stay independent of China and eventually became less and less Chinese in nature. They even eventually created their own alphabet, known as hangul.
Tributary nations: VIETNAM
Vietnam, another Chinese tributary nation, also borrowed a lot of Chinese culture. For nearly a thousand years, the area which would be known as Vietnam was part of the Chinese empire, from 111 BCE-939 CE, although its people were always looked down upon by the Chinese as being barbarians.
When Vietnam was able to regain its independence during the demise of the Tang dynasty, it was still careful to send tribute to China and cause no trouble. Vietnam set up its bureaucracy and courts like the Chinese, and incorporated Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism into its culture.
Unlike the Chinese, however, women in Vietnam were not as subservient, in fact some women actually led rebellions against the Chinese.
A silk painting of Trung Trac, a Vietnamese female who led a rebellion against China
Not very tributary: japan
Japan had a more adversarial relationship with China, probably because they are not connected to the Chinese mainland as Vietnam and Korea are. Being an island, Japan was naturally more independent.
Yet Japan still borrowed parts of Chinese culture, although on a more voluntary basis than Vietnam or Korea who both lived directly in the shadow of the massive Chinese empire. SHOTOKU TAISHI, a Japanese nobleman, helped to introduce his fellow countrymen to the advantages he saw in China- he sent monks, students, scholars and more to China to learn the ways of the Chinese, and from what they learned he created the Seventeen Article Constitution, formally adopting Buddhism and Confucianism on behalf of the Japanese.
Japan began to work hard to adopt Chinese culture including their calendar, taxation system, laws and more. Eventually, as with Korea and Vietnam, however, the push to become more Chinese in culture faded and the unique Japanese culture bloomed.
Shotoku Taishi
Samurai and bushido
Possibly because they had the benefit of not being right next to China, thus having less to fear from invasion, the Japanese also failed to unify until much later.
Instead, various aristocratic families held individual power, creating their own armies of specialized warriors called samurai, who were utterly loyal to their liege lords and would kill anyone- and themselves- in an instant if called upon to do so. The samurai warriors created a code of behavior known as bushido, which valued bravery, loyalty, strength and endurance and honor above all things. In all, the Japanese were much more militaristic than the Chinese.
Samurai armor
Japanese religion
Japanese religion remained distinctive from Chinese as well. Even though Buddhism was a major influence, the Japanese also held to a strong belief in spirits, both evil and benign, called kami.
Kami could be from ancestors or aspects of nature. The belief in kami eventually evolved into the Shinto religion. Japanese culture as a whole was more stylized than Chinese culture.
A Shinto kami
Cultural exchange: Chinese inventions, Eurasian changes
China’s culture had effects on the rest of Eurasia as well. Exports of Chinese paper slowly spread throughout the continent, leaving China as a trade product in the 300s, and taking about a thousand years to arrive in England. Although the Chinese and Japanese were using printers with moveable type, printing in Europe didn’t become massive until paper became plentiful. As more information could be printed on paper, literacy rates began to rise.
Gunpowder likewise came from China into Eurasia, who took the invention of the Chinese bombs and simple weapons and perfected them into the creation of cannons which were eventually made mobile by being mounted on carriages- and eventually these carriages were mounted on ships, changing history by allowing ships to travel the world and conquer native people.
In other words, most of what the Chinese invented eventually traveled west, where it was improved upon by Europeans.
Woodblock printing
Cultural exchange: near eastern goods and ideas
Trade and invention are two-way streets though- China, too, received the benefit of trading with other nations in ways besides just profit.
A strain of Vietnamese rice that grew faster and was disease resistant fed China into a population boom.
Woodblock printing, from which the moveable type printing press grew, was based upon printing techniques learned from Buddhist monks in India.
Foreign trade centers which grew in China brought with them the many different ideas of hundreds of different cultures.
Buddhism is considered to be the most important of the cultural exchanges between China and other nations, although in later years some in China spoke out against it as being a foreign religion and thus beneath the dignity of the Chinese.
A Chinese Buddhist Statue in Taipei
