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- Unification and Consolidation
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- The Zhou dynasty lost control of their vassals by the 700’s BCE and
internal political disorder was increased by nomadic invasions.
- Political stabilization returned in the 3rd century B.C.E. when Shi
Huang-di of the Qin dynasty overthrow the Zhou.
- However, policies by the Qin rulers caused revolts ending with the
emergence of the Han dynasty in 207 B.C.E.
- The Han, ruled over 400 years and reestablished, even expanded, the
extent of Chinese civilization.
- They founded an enduring bureaucracy whose members, the shi, were a
major influence on social and cultural development.
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- Feudal warfare awarded societal value to military skills suppressing the
worth of the shi.
- Aristocratic power grew while the shi power declined.
- Rituals and court etiquette were replaced by rough nomadic manners.
- Warfare consumed state resources and public works.
- Dikes and canals, were ruined.
- Peasants were taxed heavily and conscripted into the military.
- The need for military materials stimulated commerce, helping the growth
of a prosperous merchant class.
- By the end of the Zhou period China supported larger urban centers than
any other civilization of its time.
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- By the 5th century BC, thinkers like Confucius looked for ways to create
a stable society and political structure.
- Confucius, a member of a poor shi family, became a traveling teacher
whose political and philosophical ideas attracted followers.
- He was a social philosopher concerned with the need to reestablish order
and harmony in China.
- He thought that achieving order depended upon rulers accepting the
advice of superior men.
- Men, recruited from the shi, gained wisdom through education. They could
be from any social class.
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- Confucius thought that superior men should rule to serve the interests
and welfare society.
- In return the common people should respect and support their ruler’s
superior status.
- Social harmony depended upon everyone accepting their social place.
- Society was held together by personal ties of loyalty and obedience.
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- Confucius thought that the superior man defended his decisions against
all opposition.
- Rulers should receive deference, but the shi could criticize them for
neglecting their subjects.
- With such men, said Confucius, China would be peaceful and tranquil.
- The most important division among Confucius's disciples was between
Mencius and Xunzi.
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- Mencius believed that humans were good by nature and that government
should develop that goodness. He believed the common people had the
right to overthrow oppressive rulers.
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- Xunzi thought that humans by nature were lazy and evil, thus requiring a
strong and authoritarian government. Education could improve people, he
thought, but he rejected the idea that government was based on their
consent.
- The Legalist school of thought embraced Xunzi views.
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- The philosopher Laozi offered an alternative to Confucianism.
- He urged rulers to be patient, selfless, and have concern for all
creatures.
- Laozi advocated a retreat from society into nature where individuals
could attune with the Dao, or cosmic force.
- Some of his followers, particularly among the shi, followed Laozi's
stress on meditation.
- Others mixed his ideas with magic and eroticism and sought immortality.
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- The western state of Qin, led by Shi Huang-di, unified China at the end
of the 3rd century.
- Qin rulers had nomadic origins and were regarded as barbarians by other
Chinese.
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- Qin rulers introduced critical reforms strengthening their state.
- The Qin produced better metal weapons and tools.
- Peasants were freed from bondage to lords and allowed to hold land.
- The change weakened vassal warriors and allowed the Qin to employ shi in
a loyal bureaucracy.
- Freed peasants enlarged armies which were made more efficient by shi
management.
- The nomadic heritage of the Qin helped in military tactics, especially
in the use of massed cavalry and the crossbow.
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- The political centralization of the Qin was supported by statesmen known
as Legalists.
- Shang Yang and other thinkers argued that the power of rulers should be
absolute.
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- Shi Huang-di's harsh policies created opposition among both the shi and
peasantry.
- All but a few state-approved books were ordered destroyed.
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- Despite its short rule the Qin marked a watershed in Chinese history.
- Shi Huang-di unified China and ruled it through a centralized
bureaucracy.
- The power of the feudal aristocracy ended.
- The building of roads and canals, the shelter of the Great Wall, and a
unified currency all helped to hold the territory together.
- A sound foundation was ready for the succeeding Han dynasty
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- The Han era was a time of great creativity and innovation.
- It emerged from the disorder following the collapse of the Qin.
- Liu Bang, a peasant village headman leading an army of soldiers,
bureaucrats, and peasants, became its first ruler in 202 B.C.E.
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- After a brief return to the vassalage system, Liu Bang, officially known
as Gaozu, relied on the shi to create a more centralized administration.
- Subsequent rulers continued his policies by weakening the position of
landholding aristocrats and granting greater authority to appointed
officials.
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- Confucian classics were the centerpiece of the educational system.
- An examination process was established for entering the bureaucracy.
- Since education was expensive the system effectively excluded almost all
peasants and served the shi and landholders.
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- Even though many political positions remained essentially hereditary or
appointive, the Han had initiated the concept of a professional civil
service where holding office depended more on merit than birth.
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- Widows were permitted to remarry.
- Upperclass women often were educated.
- Extended family living was not common among the peasantry; women worked
in households and in town markets.
- At all levels, however, women were subordinate to men.
- Their most vital social function was to produce male children.
- Elder males dominated households and males received the greater share of
family property.
- Political positions were reserved for males.
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- Few peasants produced more than what was required for subsistence and
taxes.
- With a large enough holding they might sell any surplus and live well.
- Poorer peasants with little or no land labored for landlords in
conditions of poverty.
- Technological development eased labor burdens through inventions like:
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- Peasants remained liable to conscription for public works or military
service.
- Population pressure was relieved by movement into uncultivated hill and
forest regions, or to newly conquered lands in the south.
- Some peasants turned to banditry or became beggars.
- Many, for economic and physical protection, formed secret societies
which might, in stressful times, provide a basis for rebellion.
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- Xian, the model for later imperial cities, was laid out on a grid
pattern, with roadways defining its major quarters.
- Walls with towers and gates encircled the city.
- About 100,000 people lived within the walls, with an equal or larger
number residing nearby.
- The imperial family lived in a "forbidden city" separate from
the rest of the inhabitants.
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- China then probably had the world's most urbanized civilization.
- There were many towns with populations over 10,000.
- Most were walled, and many were administrative centers.
- Others were centers for mining, industry, or commerce.
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- Trade expanded under the Han by land and sea routes into central Asia,
south China, southeast Asia, and India.
- Large firms controlled and grew wealthy from the trade.
- They also profited from lending and investing in mining and other
activities.
- Despite their wealth, merchants were barred, because of scholar-gentry
influence, from gaining political power or social status.
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- The Han were the most technologically innovative of all classical
civilizations.
- Innovations included the introduction of the brush pen and paper,
watermills powering mills and workshops, rudders, and compasses.
- Improved techniques appeared in mining, silk making, and ceramics.
- The advances led to the growth of a mostly urban artisan and
manufacturing class.
- Artisans, although relegated by the scholar gentry to a social status
inferior to peasants, surpassed them in living standards.
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- Art was largely decorative and geometric.
- Calligraphy was a highly praised form.
- Painting was less developed than under later dynasties, but bronzes and
ceramics established a lasting standard.
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- Work in the sciences focused on practical applications.
- Astronomers developed a 365.5 day calendar and calculated planetary
movement.
- Medical advances came in disease diagnosis, herbal and drug remedies,
and acupuncture.
- In mathematics the practical focus led to discoveries in acoustics and
measurement standards.
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- The successors of Emperor Wudi were not efficient rulers, losing control
of affairs to the families of emperor's wives.
- The Wang family seized power in 9 C.E.
- Emperor Wang Mang's reform efforts alienated the scholar-gentry and
peasants.
- In 23 C.E. he was overthrown and the Han dynasty was restored.
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- The restored dynasty did not reach the peak attained by earlier rulers.
- Political decline was continuous.
- Central authority crumbled as court factions, the scholar-gentry,
emperor's wives, eunuchs, and regional lords dueled for power.
- The dynasty ended in 200 C.E.
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- The Han dynasty established a cyclical pattern of dynastic succession
and overthrow enduring until the 20th century.
- A core of lasting Chinese cultural values emerged: political unity, rule
by an emperor and a professional bureaucracy, and scholar-gentry
dominance.
- Cultural differences persisted between the legacies of Confucius and
Laozi, and an elite-mass gap continued because only a very few became
literate.
- Still, the Han presided over the development of one of the most creative
civilizations in world history.
- The basic components of the lasting and influential Chinese civilization
had been established.
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- The development of classical civilizations, with their agricultural
surpluses, increased populations, and improved technologies, advanced
the business of making war.
- More people fought and suffered during hostilities.
- In most contemporary civilizations warfare was little organized and
subject to ritual rules.
- Duels between warrior champions were important.
- Change came during the late Zhou period when Sunzi produced a great
classic of military theory, The Art of War.
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- He argued that wars should be fought to increase the power of the state,
and should be waged with great efficiency.
- The result was a transformation in the tactics of warfare.
- The Greeks of the same era independently developed similar patterns.
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