Early Chinese Civilizations

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Early Chinese Civilizations

• Mrs. Brahe
• World History I

2
Objectives

• Explain how geography influenced the development
  of civilizations in China
• Identify the characteristics of early Chinese
  civilizations
• Explain the political and social structure
• Describe the role of religion
• Discuss the contributions

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Geography of China

• Fertile River Valleys
• Huang He (HWONG-HUH) aka Yellow River
• Stretches across China carrying rich yellow silt
  from Mongolia to the Pacific Ocean
• Chang Jiang (CHONG-JYONG) aka
  Yangtze River
• Longer than Huang He
• Across central China to the Yellow Sea
• Great food producing area of ancient
  world

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Geography of China

• Only 10 of China is suitable for farming
• (compare to 19 of the United States)
• Mostly mountains and deserts on the northern and
  western frontiers
• Geographical barriers isolated the Chinese people
• Contact with others marked with conflict
• North Chinese protecting precious farmland

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Shang Dynasty

• First dynasty, Xia (SYAH) approx. 4,000 B.C.
• Could compete with Sumer for first title
• Little is known, however
• Second dynasty, Shang
• 1750 to 1045 B.C.
• Farming society ruled by warrior aristocracy
• (aristocracy upper class whose wealth is based
  on land and power is passed from one generation
  to the next)
• Excavation reveals impressive cities with huge
  city walls, royal palaces and large royal tombs

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Political Structure

• Realm divided into territories
• Administered by aristocratic warlords
• King appointed and removed
• Kings spiritual beliefs
• Buried with corpses of servants
• Supernatural forces gave advice
• Oracle Bones priests carved questions in bones,
  heated metal rods were stuck into the bone
  causing cracks, priests interpreted the cracks as
  answers from the gods
• Wrote the answers, stored the bones are a
  valuable asset in understanding the Shang period

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Social Structure

• King and his family
• Aided by aristocratic families
• Aristocrats waged war and served as officials
• Were the chief landowners
• Majority of people
• Peasants who farmed the land owned by the
  aristocracy
• Small number of merchants, artisans, and slaves

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Religion and Culture

• Veneration of ancestors (ancestor worship)
• Belief in afterlife
• To this day may people burn exactly replicas of
  physical objects to accompany dead on journey to
  next world
• Believed that the spirits of family ancestors
  could bring good or evil to living members of the
  family
• Shang mastery of art of bronze casting

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Zhou Dynasty

• Last Shang ruler was a wicked tyrant
• Aggressive ruler of the state of Zhou (JOH)
  revolted and created a new dynasty
• Zhou Dynasty lasted almost 800 years, longest of
  all Chinese dynasties
• 1045 B.C. to 256 B.C.
• Zhou political structure
• Same as the Shang king served by large, complex
  bureaucracy, territories/officials

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Mandate of Heaven

• New Theory of Government
• Zhou claimed to rule China because it possessed
  the Mandate of Heaven
• Believed that Heaven an impersonal law of
  nature kept order in the universe through the
  Zhou king
• Zhou king ruled over all humanity by mandate, or
  authority to command, from Heaven
• Chosen because of talent and virtue
• Responsible to rule with goodness and efficiency

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Mandate of Heaven

• Double-edged
• King supposed to rule according to the proper
  Way called the Dao (DOW)
• His duty to keep the gods pleased
• Protects people from natural disaster, bad
  harvest
• Right of Revolution - if King was ineffective,
  he could be overthrown by a new ruler
• Representative of Heaven, but not divine
• Dynastic Cycle
• established, ruled successfully, then began to
  decline (rebellions, invasions) collapsed, new
  dynasty

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Fall of Zhou Dynasty

• Divided into smaller territories
• Evolved into powerful states
• Zhou rulers declined, intellectually morally
• 403 B.C. civil war broke out, beginning the
  Period of the Warring States
• Nature of warfare had changed
• Iron weapons replaced bronze weapons
• Foot soldiers (infantry) and soldiers on
  horseback (cavalry)
• Calvary had powerful crossbows, Chinese invention
  of 7th B.C.
• Eventually one warring state Qin (CHIN) took
  control, established dynasty in 221 B.C.

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Life During Zhou Dynasty

• Economic Features
• Peasants worked land owned by a lord but often
  had a small area for own use
• Artisans and merchants lived in walled towns
  under direct control of local lord
• Merchants did not operate freely but were
  considered property of local lord
• Slaves present as well
• Local trade (later distant trade) for items like
  salt, iron, cloth and luxuries

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Economic and Technical Growth

• Significant growth 6th to 3rd century B.C.
• Irrigation early 6th century
• Mid 6th century iron plowshares more land to
  farm
• Population up to 50 million people at the end of
  Zhou
• Trade and manufacturing
• SILK! All the way to
  Athens, Greece

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Family in Ancient China

• Almost sacred quality of entire social order
• Filial piety duty of family members to
  subordinate their needs and desires to those of
  the male head of the family
• system in which every family member has a place
• Central to Confucianism
• Male supremacy
• Traditional role provide food, work in fields,
  warriors, scholars, government ministers
• Women raised kids and worked in home (court)

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Chinese Written Language

• Pictographic and Ideographic
• Form a picture of the object to be represented
• Characters given a sound when pronounced
• Later phonetic meanings given to some symbols
• Evolved over 400 years, never abandoned original
  format

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Chinese Philosophies

• Between 500 and 200 B.C.
• 3 major schools of thought about the nature of
  human beings and the universe emerged
• Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism
• Focused on immediate world and how to create a
  stable order
• (unlike Hinduism and Buddhism conserved about
  freeing the human soul from the cycle of
  rebirth/reincarnation)

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Confucianism

• Confucius/Kongfuzi (KOONG FOO DZUH)
• Born 551 B.C. in China
• Upset by violence and moral decay
• Traveled China to persuade political leaders to
  follow his ideas (pretty unsuccessful)
• Followers documented his sayings in the Analects
• Until 20th century almost every Chinese student
  studied these sayings
• Provided a basic set of ideas to keep order

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Confucianism

• Political and ethical philosophy, not spiritual
• Useless to speculate on spiritual questions
• Focus on ordering the affairs of the world - if
  act in harmony with the world, will prosper
• Human behavior is key
• Behave in accordance with the Dao (Way)
• Two elements to Dao
• Duty and Humanity

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Confucianism

• Duty (according to the Dao, the Way)
• All should subordinate their own interests to the
  needs of family and the community
• Governed by the Five Constant Relationships
  parent and child, husband and wife, older sibling
  and younger sibling, older friend and younger
  friend, and ruler and subject
• Each person in a relationship has a duty to the
  other
• Parents loving towards children, children revere
  parents
• Husband fulfill duties, wives should be obedient
• Older siblings kind, younger siblings respectful
• Obvious family importance!
• Everyone does their duty whole world prospers!

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Confucianism

• If there is righteousness in the heart, there
  will be beauty in the character. If there is
  beauty in the character, there will be harmony in
  the home. If there be harmony in the home, there
  will be order in the nation. If there be order
  in the nation, there will be peace in the world.
• Confucius

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Confucianism

• Humanity (according to the Dao, the Way)
• Sense of compassion and empathy for others
• Like the Christian idea Do unto others as you
  would have others do unto you. instead it is
  Do not do unto others what you would not want
  done to yourself. Confucius
• Tolerate others
• Values of the Golden Age of the Zhou
• Revolutionary idea government officials should
  be ruled by merit, not noble birth
• Later civil service examinations

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Daoism

• System of ideas based on teachings
  of Laozi (LOW DZUH)
• Contemporary of Confucius (if existed!)
• Ideas outlined in Tao Te Ching (The Way of the
  Dao)
• Also does not concern itself with underlying
  meaning of the universe but focuses on proper
  behavior
• Differs from Confucianism
• True way to follow the will of Heaven is not
  action but inaction (unlike emphasis on duty of
  humans to work hard and improve life here on
  Earth)
• Act in harmony with universal order by acting
  spontaneously and letting nature take its course
  by not interfering

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Daoism

• Without going outside, you may
• know the whole world.
• Without looking through the window,
• you may see the ways of heaven.
• The farther you go, the less you know.
• Thus the sage wise man knows
  
• without traveling
• He sees without looking
• He works without doing.

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Daoism

• The universe is sacred.
• You cannot improve it.
• If you try to change it, you will ruin it.
• If you try to hold it, you will lose it.

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Legalism

• Proposed that humans are evil by nature
• Will only follow the correct path if forced to by
  harsh laws and punishments
• Argued for a system of impersonal laws
• Strong ruler was required to create an orderly
  society
• Disagreed with Confucius Lead the people by
  virtue and restrain them by the rules of good
  taste, and the people will have a sense of shame,
  and moreover will be become good.
• People are not capable of being good
• Only the fear of harsh punishment would keep
  order
• Ruler did not have to show compassion for the
  needs of the people

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Phew!

• Thats it for the Early Chinese Civilizations
• Chapter 3 India and China notes DONE!