Download China*s Empire

China’s Empire
• Confucius
•
•
•
•
Most influential scholar
Lived during time when Zhou dynasty was in shambles
Studied and taught history, music, and moral character
Could restore social order, harmony, and good gov’t through 5
relationships
•
•
•
•
•
Ruler and subject
Father and son
Husband and wife
Older brother and younger brother
Friend and friend
Philosophy and Social
Order
• Children should practice filial piety
• Respect for their parents and elders
• Wanted to show rulers how rule effectively
• Confucius is appointed Minister of Justice
• After resignation, Confucius’ ideas were kept and studied in a
book called the Analects
• Education could transform a humbly born person into a
gentleman
• Laid ground work for a bureaucracy
• Trained civil service (people who run the gov’t)
• Confucianism is never a religion but an ethical system
• Becomes foundation for Chinese gov’t and social order
Confucian Idea About
Gov’t
• Laozi is key figure
• Natural order was only thing important
• Universal force called the Dao (“the Way”) guides all things
• Beliefs turn into Daoism
• Search for knowledge and understanding of nature
• Led to people pursuing scientific studies such as alchemy,
astronomy, and medicine
Daoists Seek Harmony
• Believe that highly efficient and powerful gov’t was the
key to restoring social order
• Gov’t should use the law to end civil disobedience and
restore harmony
• Teach that a ruler should provide rich rewards for people
who carried out their duties well
• Disobedient should be punished harshly
• Believed in controlling ideas as well as actions
• Encourage leaders to burn all material that might encourage
people to think critically about gov’t
Legalists and Harsh Rule
• I Ching = book of oracles
• Answered ethical or practical problems
• Threw set of coins, interpreted the results, and then read the
proper oracle
• Yin and Yang
• Created by ancient thinkers
• Two power that when put together represent the natural
rhythms of life
• Yang = Masculine qualities in the universe
• Yin = Feminine qualities in the universe
I Ching and Yin and Yang
•
•
•
•
Short lived dynasty in 3rd century B.C.
13 yr. old ruler who applied Legalist ideas
Qin ruler assumes name Shi Huangdi or “First Emperor”
Began rule by:
• Halting the internal battles that had taken China’s strength
• Defeating invaders and crushing internal resistance to his
rule
• Attacked the invaders north of the Yellow River and south
into Vietnam (doubled China’s size)
The Qin Dynasty
• Acted to crush political opposition at home
• Commanded noble families to live in the capital city under
close watch
• Killed many Confucian scholars
• Burned “useless” books
• Established an autocracy
• Government in which the ruler has unlimited power
• Built road network of 4,000 + miles
• Forced peasants to work against their will
• Created irrigation projects to increase farming
• Merchants become higher class
• Discourage invaders from attack
• Built by peasants
• “Work on the wall or die”
• Many worked and died anyway
• One of few human made objects that can be viewed from
space
Great Wall of China
• Peasants rebelled 3 years after the second Qin emperor
took office
• Leader from Han lands pushes army into capital city
• Qin Dynasty gives way to the Han Dynasty
Goodbye Qin Dynasty