China

Unification and Consolidation

Chapter Summary

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.

Crisis of the Later Zhou.

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.

Slide 4

Confucius and the Shi

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.

Women were excluded

Men, recruited from the shi, gained wisdom through education. They could be from any social class.

Confucian Thought and Ideals

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.

The Confucian Gentleman

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.

Heirs of Confucius - Mencius

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.

Heirs of Confucius - Xunzi

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.

Daoist

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.

The Qin Dynasty

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.

The Qin Dynasty

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.

The Legalist

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.

Shi Huang-di

Collapse of the Qin

Shi Huang-di's harsh policies created opposition among both the shi and peasantry.

All but a few state-approved books were ordered destroyed.

Enter the Han

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

Slide 17

The Han Dynasty

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.

Restoration of Imperial Control

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.

Han Expansion

Revenge of the Shi

Education, Examinations, and Shi Dominance

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.

"Three main social strata gained..."

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.

Emergence of the Scholar Gentry

Class and Gender Roles

Position of Women

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.

Peasant Life

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:

The Peasants

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.

The Han Capital at Xian

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.

Towns and Traders

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.

Han Trade

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.

Invention and Artisan Production

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.

Arts of the Han

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.

Sciences of the Han

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.

Imperial Crisis & Han Restoration

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.

Later Han & Imperial Collapse

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.

An Era of Accomplishment

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.

The Shift from Ritual Combat to "Real" War.

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.

Sunzi & The Art of War

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.

Slide 40


	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.


	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.


	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.
		Women were excluded
	Men, recruited from the shi, gained wisdom through education. They could be from any social class.


	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.


	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.



	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	Shi Huang-di's harsh policies created opposition among both the shi and peasantry.
	All but a few state-approved books were ordered destroyed.


	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


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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:


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.


	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.