Imperial China -- Qin to Ming Dynasties

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The Qin Dynasty Ethical Systems
Ch.4 Sect. 4 The Unification of CHina
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Todays Goal ? Describe the new philosophies
emerging in China and how Legalism was used by
the Qin Dynasty.
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Dynastic Cycle
Justifies overthrow of poorly ruling dynasty
Approval of gods to rule
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Warring States Period

• Zhou Dynasty fell apart
• Empire divided into seven states
• Regional lords struggled against one another
• New technologies
• New schools of thought

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Confucianism

• Restore order moral living
• Five basic relationships (ruler ? subject,
  father ? son, husband ? wife, older bro ? younger
  bro, friend ? friend)
• Filial piety - respect for parents ancestors
• Education!!!
• Bureaucracy (trained civil service)

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Daoism

• Laozi ? Dao De Jing (The Way of Virtue)
• Natural order more important than social order
• the Dao (Way) is universal force which guides
  all things
• Live simply in harmony with nature

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Humans model themselves on earth,Earth on
heaven,Heaven on the Way,And the way on that
which is naturally so.-- Laozi, excerpted from
Daodejing 251
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Other Ethical Systems

• I Ching ? book of oracles to solve ethical or
  practical problems
• Yin yang ? represented the natural rhythms of
  life
• Yin cold, dark, soft, mysterious
• Yang warm, bright, hard, clear

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The Universe of Opposites Find the Balance!
Yin
Masculine Active Light Warmth Strong
Heaven Sun
Feminine Passive Darkness Cold Weak Earth
Moon
Yang
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Legalism

• Efficient powerful govt needed to restore
  order
• Rewards for obedient harsh punishments for
  disobedient
• Control ideas actions

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Qin Chin Dynasty, 221-206 B.C.

• Established Chinas first empire
• First Emperor Shi Huangdi (221-206 B.C.)
• Strengthen the trunk weaken the branches
• Legalist rule
• Bureaucratic administration
• Centralized control
• Military expansion

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Qin Chin Dynasty, 221-206 B.C.

• Prevented criticism opposition
• Book burnings
• Buried protestors alive
• Autocracy govt w/unlimited power uses it
  however it wishes
• Program of Centralization
• Highway road networks
• Set standards for writing, law, currency,
  weights measures
• Harsh taxes cruel govt

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Great Wall of China

• Closed gaps in pre-existing wall extend along
  border
• Hundreds of thousands of peasant laborers ? work
  or die
• Built upon later by the Han Ming Dynasties
• Today it is 8,851.8 kilometers (5,500 miles) from
  east to west of China

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Great Wall of China
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Fall of the Qin

• Shi Huangdis son was an ineffective ruler
• Cruel and strict laws
• Peasant rebellion
• Weapons farming tools
• Broken cloth flag
• Replaced by Liu Bang Han Dynasty

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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army