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China: A (Very) Short Summary
of a (Very) Long Lasting Empire
Geographical Context
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China exists in the eastern part of mainland Asia, sharing borders with
Russia, India, Pakistan, Vietnam and North Korea along with 9 others.
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The Western Part of China is mountainous and sparsely populated; most of
the people are centered in the South and Northeast.
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China's geographic identity has remained largely the same since the 1800s, but
was variable before that.
China is the 3rd largest country in the world, after Russia and Canada, but is
only slightly larger than the USA.
China is bounded on all sides by imposing mountains, leaving it traditionally
isolated from extensive contact with non-Chinese.
● This isolation led to China's sense of itself as the “Middle Kingdom” or
zhongguo, in Chinese.
The NE area is industrial and similar to the American plains.
The South is warmer, and semi-tropical and is a food-producing area.
China's population is 1.2 billion currently, however it has not always been
this large... The country has typically been a smaller state, if in a huge land
area.
Historical Context
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China's history can be broken up into 3 main periods
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221 BC - 1911 AD – The Imperial Period
1912 – 1949 – The Nationalist Period
1949 – Present – The Communist Period
During the Imperial Period China was ruled by a succession of dynasties
and emperors, and running under a Confucian meritocratic system.
When a dynasty was deemed unfit to rule by the people, they were
replaced by a popular uprising.
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They lost the “Mandate of Heaven”
Characteristics of Empire (1)
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One reason for the endurance of the Chinese empire was its nature as a
unitary state, long before any European countries had achieved their
status as strong monarchical states that they did later on in the 17th
century.
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The top of this government was the emperor, and his small cabinet or group
of ministers.
The most distinctive aspect of the empire was the civil service branch.
● This branch was made up of scholar-officials (mandarins) that were
chosen through a rigorous examination on Confucian ideals and the
practical aspects of bureaucracy.
– Because of the nature of these scholars, tied inextricably to the
institutions of China and dead set on keeping the Empire how it
was, it became common during the Vietnam war, within the peace
movement, to call the intellectuals who defended war the “New
Mandarins.”
Characteristics of Empire (2)
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The traditional Chinese economy also was a great boon to the empire.
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Thirdly, the feudal nature of society in China helped to maintain
subjugation of the peasantry and the rule of the aristocrats.
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Chinese farmers pioneered agricultural techniques such as irrigation and
multi-cropping.
The Chinese also urbanised quickly, amazing Western explorers such as
Marco Polo.
This feudal struture extended all the way down into family life, with a rigid
structure to the family with father as head etc.
This structure helped the Chinese to collect taxes etc more efficiently, and
helped the imperial government to extend its reaches all the way down to
the bottom of society.
Fourthly, the geopolitical supremacy, both militarily and economically, of
China as compared with the rest of the world, especially when coupled
with their isolation, helped to prolong the empire.
Confucius (1)
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Confucius was the Eastern Political Philosopher upon whose works the
dynastic empire of China was founded.
Confucius lived from 551 – 479 B.C.
His philosophy came to dominate Chinese thought after the Han Dynasty
took it up as the official state philosophy around 206 B.C.
● The earlier date given for the beginning of the Imperial period was 221
BC, but this is not the date that Confucian ideals were adopted...
– The Chin dynasty ruled as an empire before the Han, they were the
first dynasty to unify China. Before that, China was split into warring
factions. China's history has been traced back past 2500 BC, and it
was the Chin in 221 BC who first unified China.
– It became so that the words “scholar” and “Confucian” were considered
synonymous.
Good Confucius Website:
– http://www.friesian.com/confuci.htm
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Confucius (2)
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Confucius had a simple moral code:
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to love others; to honor one's parents; to do what is right instead of what is
of advantage; to practice "reciprocity," i.e. "don't do to others what you would
not want yourself"; to rule by moral example (dé) instead of by force and
violence; and so forth. Confucius thought that a ruler who had to resort to
force had already failed as a ruler -- "Your job is to govern, not to kill"
(Analects XII:19).
His political philosophy was the same as his moral philosophy...
Chinese rulers did not always obey these rules but they were the ideals for
benevolent rule. When the emperor did not follow these rules, they were
sometimes deposed.
Confucius distrusted monks and mystics, suspecting them of being
freeloaders.
It was in approximately 627 BC that the famous meritocratic examinations of
Confucian origin were instituted in China.
All these Confucian ideals add up to the paradigm of the Imperial
Chinese... to do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and to
be always fair.
Confucius (3)
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To summarize Confucianism as per its relevance to the Chinese:
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Confucianism stresses the group over the individual
Confucianism stresses deference to one's elders and superiors
Confucianism stresses the need to maintain social harmony
Confucianism contains the teaching of the “Mandate of Heaven”
● An unjust ruler may be overthrown by the people
– Chinese history is full of these rebellions
● Nevertheless, Confucianism served to maintain an autocratic imperial
order for thousands of years.
The tenets of Confucianism remain somewhat ingrained in Chinese
political culture, however recently cultural advances have been made
away from this paradigm
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However it is useful to view the Nationalist period as still heavily influenced
by Confucius.
Mongols and Taiping
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The Mongol hordes invaded China in 1267 and has been fully subdued
by 1279.
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After being invaded, however, rather than adopt Mongol culture, the
Mongols adopted Chinese culture.
● This is not to say that the initial conquering was not devestating... it was,
however after a time the hordes settled down and “sinicized.”
This sinicizing is characteristic of Chinese history... They preferred to remain
a closed system, and distrusted outsiders.
However the first rumblings of change came in the late 18th and early
19th centuries:
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The population boomed, and the economy stagnated coupled with a
significant rise in official corruption, and exploitation of the peasants.
● This led eventually to the Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864), claiming 20
million lives and nearly succeeding in toppling the dynasty.
Opium
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More change had arrived with the advent of Western military supremacy.
Britain began to press China to trade more, and open trade routes, in the
early 1800s
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China showed little interest.
Britain, in the midst of its era of mercantilist and colonial expansion, used its
military supremacy to compel China into “free” trade with Britain.
China's efforts to stop Britain selling opium in China led to war.
The Opium War (1839-1842) firmly established Western supremacy in
the East, and literally forced China to open its borders to foreign
merchants, missionaries, and diplomats on Western terms
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China lost Hong Kong in the Opium Wars, which was only returned recently.
China's economy also came under, in many cases, foreign control.
Revolution!
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There were many unsuccessful efforts to revitalise or reform the dynasty
in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, but political power in China
remained staunchly conservative and resistant to change
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The Republic of China was founded on January 1st, with Sun Yat-sen,
the most well known revolutionary, as president.
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Change did come however, in the Nationalist revolution of Dr. Sun Yat-sen in
1911, marking the end of a two millenia old social order.
In 1912 Sun Yat-sen also established the Nationalist Party (guomindang) to
oppose warlords seizing power in the new republic.
However the Western-educated Sun soon lost control of power, and
China soon fell into a period of conflict and disintegration.
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Different parts of the country fell under warlord control, and the Nationalist
party lost much control.
Communists
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In 1921 the CCP was founded by a group of intellectuals dissatisfied
with the way the Nationalists were running the country
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Mao was a junior founder.
They were inspired by the 1917 Bolshevik victory, and by the Soviet
Union's new anti-imperialism to search for radical new methods to solve
China's problems.
In 1924, acting on Soviet advice, the small CCP joined with the
Nationalists in their fight against the warlords
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After some initial success, Chiang Kai-shek, who had gained control of the
Nationalists in 1925 after Sun's death, turned against his military partners in
1927 and ordered a bloody suppression that nearly wiped out the fledgling
CCP
Chiang then unified China under his personal rule, striking deals with the
warlords
Mao
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Ironically, the CCP's defeat set it up for its eventual victory
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Mao Zedong (or Tse-tung) strongly advocated forming a peasant base of
revolutionaries
● This went against traditional Marxist-Leninist belief.
However with the defeat in 1927, the CCP was forced into retreat and went
on their famous “Long March” through 6000 miles of Chinese territory to
escape Chiang's nationalist forces.
At the end of the Long March, a base was established in Yanan, which
became the CCP's operational capitol.
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This area was highly rural, and so Mao's form of peasant revolution had to
be adopted
In Yanan Mao consolidated his political and ideological supremacy, and
became the first Chairman of the CCP in 1943
● He held this position until his death in 1976.
Nationalist Dictatorship
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Meanwhile, under Chiang Kai-shek China became a right-wing
dictatorship
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It became closely allied with big business, foreign interests, and the rural
elite
Corruption, mismanagement, and repression undermined Chiang's
legitimacy.
The Civil war had continued throughout the Long March, but was
profoundly affected in 1937 with the Japanese invasion of mainland
China, and subsequent occupation of the Nationalist controlled areas.
WW2
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In 1937 Japan invaded China.
Japan's assault pushed the Nationalist forces deep into China's
southwest, and effectively subdued it and eliminated it as a military
threat overall
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In December 1937 Nanking, then the Chinese capital was taken.
In contrast, the Communists based in Yanan continued to wage a
guerilla war against the Japanese, resisting their occupation.
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Mao and the CCP mobilized the peasants, and by the end of WW2 in 1945
had greatly expanded their membership and support
By 1945 the CCP controlled much of Northern China
● In contrast the Nationalists seemed unfit to govern to many Chinese,
and were considered unpopular by many more.
The Rape of Nanking (1)
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In 1967 the Chinese capital of
Nanking was invaded, and what
is possibly the greatest single
atrocity ever was committed.
The Rape of Nanking killed tens
of thousands of Chinese civilians,
with estimates ranging from
40,000 to 400,000.
The picture to the left is of a bed
of bones laid down, after civilians
from Nanking were killed by the
Japanese.
The Rape of Nanking (2)
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The latest scholarly work puts the
death toll at 369,366 or more.
There are those who seek to
revise history, in the manner of
Western holocaust revisionaries,
however unlike their Western
counterparts they have much
support throughout Japan.
80,000 women and girls were
raped, according to this source
The Rape of Nanking was no
organised slaughter, it was an
orgy of death and destruction in
all its forms, utterly devoid of
order. These deaths are all the
result of pure and unadulterated
savagery.
The PRC
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Mao remained popular after WW2, whereas Chiang Kai-shek was not.
The civil war resumed quickly after the Japanese surrender
– CCP forces won a quick and decisive victory over the Nationalists
● The Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek were driven to Taiwan,
where they remain still
● The US backed the Nationalists, and remains sympathetic to
Taiwan now, despite not formally recognizing it as an
independent country... probably due to China's economic weight,
and geopolitical significance.
On October 1st, 1949, Chairman Mao Zedong stood on a rostrum in
Tianenmen near the entrance to the former Imperial Palace, and
declared the founding of the People's Republic of China.