CHINA ’ S FLOURISHING CIVILIZATION 1100 BCE – 200 CE Version 2 - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

CHINA’S FLOURISHING CIVILIZATION1100 BCE – 200 CEVersion 2

The Three Dynasties

Three Ways of Life

Society and Culture

• Chinese keep track of time by the last name of the ruling family.
• Zhou (JOH) dynasty
• Qin (CHIN) dynasty
• Han (HAHN) dynasty

• Claiming “Mandate of Heaven” the Zhou family defeated the ruling Shang family in 1028 BCE.
• Zhou emperors ruled for 800 years!

• Called their kings the Son of Heaven.
• Who would defy a ruler called that????

• First few Zhou emperors invaded and conquered many of the lands that make up China.
• They set up “states” and put relatives in charge.
• Figured on family loyalty.

• The relative who was governor of the state could give out land to nobles – depending on the nobles’ loyalty.
• Peasants worked the land under the nobles’ orders.

• Family loyalty vs. GREED.
• Greed won!

• Local lord had total authority on his lands and built his own army.
• In time, they were stronger than any “Son of Heaven” Zhou.

• 771 BCE – Zhou kings realized they were being outpowered on the battlefields.
• Were not major power players between 771 – 200 BCE.

• Building roads
• Expanded foreign trade.
• Obtained horses and created CAVALRY.
• The crossbow.
• Iron plows for farming
• Irrigation
• Writing by symbols.

• Became the most densely populated country in the world.
• No famines = lots of people.
• Wars were just between nobles = not many people died = lots of people.

• China gets their name from the Qin family.
• 221 BCE Qins had wiped out the Zhous.
• Conquered northern China.
• Strong, centralized authority!

• Qin Shihuangdi (SHUR-HWONG-DEE)
• Kept local nobles from becoming too powerful to control.
• Devised weight and measure system
• Standardized money
• Standardized writing
• Law code for all China.

• Shihuangdi wasn’t QUITE a nice guy.
• Used slaves and forced labor to accomplish all that building.

• The Qin realized they needed better defense in the north.
• Nomadic attacks

• Walls had been built, but none were connected.
• Qin changed that!
• 300,000 peasants toiled to build the 1,400 mile wall.
• Thousands died.

• Qin Shihuangdi in 213 BCE ordered all books burned not dealing with “practical” things
• Agriculture
• Medicine
• Magic
• 460 scholars who resisted were executed.

“Anyone referring to the past to criticize the present … shall be put to death.”

Qin Shihuangdi

• Subjects hated him.
• Thought he had lost the Mandate of Heaven.
• Nobles hated his destroying their power.
• Peasants hated his forced labor gangs.
• Scholars hated his burning of books.

• The dynasty itself came to an end.
• BUT New ways of of organizing a nation were kept for nearly 2000 years.

• 207 BCE: Liu Bang (LYOH BONG) overthrew the Qin government.
• Military official with a peasant background.
• 202 BCE defeated all who challenged him.

• Family ruled until 220 CE, more than 400 years.
• Used Qin government structure but without the cruelty.
• Well, MOSTLY without cruelty.

• Greatest Leader was Wudi (WOO-DEE).
• Ruled 141 – 87 BCE.
• Dynamic and talented.
• Expanded China’s borders.

• Wudi sent a general and explorer to see what was west of China.
• General Zhang Quian (JAHNG CHYEN) came back 13 years later.

• General Zhang Quian had his army wiped out and had been a captive for ten years.
• Described a people with huge cities of people with short hair, riding in chariots and wore embroidered robes.

• General Zhang Quian had been to ROME.
• For the first time, China was made aware there was another kingdom as great as theirs.

• Wudi, hearing the tales, started expanding trade routes called THE SILK ROAD.
• Allowed trade of Chinese silk for Middle Eastern and European products like gold, glassware, wool and linen.
• Took 7 years for a round-trip!

• Pax Sinica = Chinese Peace.
• 400 years of prosperity and stability.

• Government agents stored excess food in good times – to use in famine times.
• Chose government people on skills NOT because of family connections.
• Took tests in what became the CIVIL SERVICE.

• Since usually only the rich could afford an education – they were the ones that could pass the tests.
• Mandarins: Well-education civil servants controlled the government until the 1900s CE.

• 220 CE.
• Left a lasting legacy in government, technology, science and the arts.

• Confucianism
• Daoism (Taoism)
• Buddhism

• Kongzi
• Born 551 BCE to poor family
• 12 years he wandered China looking for a position as a government advisor.
• Found a better way to spread his ideas for peace – be a teacher.

Basic Beliefs of Confucianism

• Ethics to live by:
• Respect for family, especially elders.
• Filial Piety
• Reverence for past and its traditions

Confucianism

• Taught “filial piety” (children’s respect for parents)
• Believed parent / child relationship represents society in miniature and that teachings at home prepare children for life in community.

Confucianism

• Government was to set example of righteous conduct.
• Rulers must be
• Ethical
• Have integrity
• Inspire loyalty
• Understand proper behavior
• Appreciate culture

• The Zhou government did not accept Confucius’s teachings during his life.
• Later scholars added their ideas.
• Made Confucianism into a religion.

• During the Han Dynasty, Confucius’ teachings provided the basics for Wudi’s civil service system.
• Basis of Chinese society and government until 1900s.

Daoism

• Time: 500 BCE
• Origination: China
• Founder: Laozi “Old Master”
• Written Documents: Dao De Jing, a classical writing.

• Rejected formal social structures of Confucius.
• Shunned public life – so little is known about him.

Basic Beliefs of Daoism

• Emphasis on harmony and nature, simplicity
• Ying and Yang, two opposing forces present in all nature; must be in balance to achieve harmony.

• By emphasizing harmony with nature, Daoists deeply influenced Chinese painting and poetry.

• Confucianism was knowing your place in the social order.
• Daoism emphasized harmony with the individual attuned to nature.

• Buddhism reached China as the Han Dynasty was collapsing.
• Emphasis on personal salvation in Nirvana appealed to many.

Pagodas instead of Stupas

• Confucianism could follow its Eightfold Path.
• Daoists could admire the meditation.
• Buddhism was widely embraced by China by 400 CE.

• Family did not relate as equals.
• Hierarchy – levels of importance.
• Head of Family was eldest male.
• Next was all the males by age.

• Next was the mother
• All daughters down to youngest or childless daughter-in-laws.
• All family expected obedience from those beneath them.

• Family members knew their rules and not doing their duties as expected brought dishonor on the family.
• Duty to ancestors kept you loyal even after death.

• Han Families were not EXTENDED.
• Different generations living together.
• Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, Grandparents.
• Families were like today’s NUCLEAR FAMILIES.
• Parents and Children

• Father assigned children’s careers, determined education, arranged marriages, controlled finances and gave rewards and punishments.
• Had to provide for old, sick and even lazy.

• Women were SUBORDINATE to men.
• Girls subservient to fathers and brothers.
• When married, subsurvient to husbands and inlaws.
• If she became a mother of a son – her son had authority over her when he grew up.

• Women could inherit property
• Own something on their own after they married.
• Could remarry after a husband’s death.

• Three Classes.
• Landowners
• Peasants
• 90% of the population!
• Merchants

• Lived in mansions surrounded by walls to protect them from bandits.
• Wealth rarely lasted past a few generations.
• ALL sons inherited from their father.
• The “pie” of land became smaller and smaller.
• Less power.

• Supported the rich by their labor.
• Lived in villages and tended the land of the nobles.
• Paid rent for the land.
• Paid taxes and one month a year had to do public works projects.
• Later they could be drafted into the army.

• Floods and famines took their toll.
• Taxes also prevented them from getting ahead.

• Shopkeepers, traders, bankers, government workers.
• Tended to be richer than the landowners.
• Held in contempt because pursuing profit was “unworthy” of a “superior” individual.

• Five Classics
• Written before Confucius.
• Oldest is BOOK OF SONGS
• Written 1000 – 600 BCE.
• 305 of earlies poems.
• Politics, ritual, romance themes

• Book of Documents
• Early Zhou history
• Book of Changes
• Kind of a Nostradamus book
• Spring and Autumn Annals
• History
• Analects
• Confucius

• Chinese astronomers had calculated the proper length of a year.
• 365 ¼ days = 1 year

• First to use telescopes in China.
• 240 BCE first to record what is today known as Halley’s Comet.

• First to recognize that nutrition was important.
• Herbal medicine
• Acupuncture – restores the balance between the Yin and Yang

• Irrigation diverted rivers to get water to remote fields.
• Realized fertilizer helped land.
• Veterinary medicine began.
• Canals used as roadways.

• Silk – made from worms.
• Paper invented 100 BCE.
• Used first for wrapping and clothing before they discovered excellent for writing.

• Wheelbarrows
• Casting bronze and iron.
• Suspension bridge
• The compass,
• Gunpowder.
• China had these a thousand years before Europe.