Download China to the Mongol Conquest

Empire of the Middle:
China to the Mongol Conquest
Time and Geography
POLITICAL
The Qin Emperor –
Foundation of the State
Warring States
about 350 BCE
• After Era of the Warring States, Qin ruler
reunified country through military force,
administrative reorganization
The Qin Emperor –
Foundation of the State
• First Emperor had great influence
– Centralization along legalist lines
– Country divided into administrative units
– Weights and measures standardized
– First standard units of money
– Writing system standardized
First
Emperor of
Qin Empire,
Feizi
Qin Dynasty
• Great Wall and other public works started
• China expanded to north and south, first
contacts with Vietnamese
• Reigns had negative aspects too
– Torture, harsh treatment
– Burning of the books to combat Confucianism
• Overthrow led to Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty - 202 BCE to 220 CE
• Simultaneous with Rome, aspects in common
– Urban in orientation, population rural and peasant
– Non-hereditary officialdom
– Taxed peasants heavily
Chinese
copper
"cash" coin,
early Han
Dynasty
Han Dynasty - 202 BCE to 220 CE
• Simultaneous with Rome, aspects in common
– Collapsed due to invasion and regional revolts
– Frontiers expanded: parts of Korea, Vietnam, Central
Asia
– Massive cultural influence: “Men of Han” factor in
military, political, and commercial life
Provinces
controlled
by Han
dynasty in
190 CE
INTELLECTUAL
Han Dynasty
Confucianism
• New Imperial Confucian ideology of the
State
• Blended elements of three of China’s
systems of thought
• A unified system of governance
• More emphasis on obedience than before
• Renewed emphasis on Mandate of
Heaven
AESTHETIC/ INTELLECTUAL
Han Dynasty
Arts and Sciences
• History – kept careful records
• Mathematics, Geography, Astronomy
• Invention of paper led to woodblock and
refinement of painting
Chinese wood blocks
used for printing
Han Dynasty
Arts and Sciences
• Medicine: acupuncture
• Fine arts: silk, bronzes, jade, ceramics
• Poetry, landscape painting, instrumental
music became prominent
Acupuncture is
still used today.
POLITICAL/ ECONOMIC
Han Dynasty
Economy, Government, Foreign Affairs
• Canals, roads improved
communications, commerce
• Large cities, numerous market
towns
• Impressive urban markets
• Iron was common, new and
cheaper weapons grew armies,
and expanded agricultural
productivity
A painted ceramic architectural
model—found in a Han tomb—
depicting an urban residential tower
with verandas, tiled
rooftops, dougong support brackets,
and a covered bridge extending from
the third floor to another tower
Han Dynasty
Economy, Government, Foreign Affairs
• Government functioned through bureaucracy, members
(mandarins) chosen by examination
• Meritocracy brought out best talent regardless of birth
• Traders and Buddhist monks made peaceful contacts
with Western Asia and India
• Heavy taxation eventually caused rebellion
A Buddhist monk
meditates
End of the Han Dynasty
• Later Han saw continuation of
stable economy and population
growth
• Transition era: social and political
elite changed from reliance on
military strength to power based
on land ownership and status on
cultural sophistication
• Eventually, broke down into
anarchy – 135 years
An Eastern-Han pottery soldier, with a now-faded
coating of paint, is missing a weapon
End of the Han Dynasty
• Two political divisions: – North and South
• Significant agrarian advance: cultivation of rice in
paddies (wet rice farming)
• Rice expanded population in South, which rivaled the
North in civilized development
Some rice is still grown in
paddies, even today.
POLITICAL
Tang Dynasty - 618-907
• Primary concern: to improve peasant tenants conditions
• Reform: reallocation of land, well-field reform
– gave peasants more rights to land
– broke power of landed elites
• Created generally efficient bureaucracy
• Imperial university expanded
Tang Dynasty - 618-907
• Purchase peace by paying tribute to Turks and
Mongolians or played one tribe off against another
• Began era of Chinese-Japanese cultural contacts, also
with Korea, Tibet, Vietnam
• Eras produced 3 great poets, Li Po, Du Fu, Wang Wei
• Devastating war began in mid-700s
Du Fu
Li Po
Wang Wei
After Tang
Mandate of Heaven
•
•
•
•
Internal discontent led to anarchy
China again divided for a half-century
Northern warlord bid for imperial power
Mandate of Heaven gave Chinese
rationale for accepting new monarchs
INTELLECTUAL
Song Dynasty - 960-1279
• Many technical innovations
– Printing: moveable type
– Irrigation, mining, transportation
– Inventions included waterwheel, forge
bellows, abacus, water clock, gunpowder
• Several new large cities established in
response to market pressures
An abacus
POLITICAL
Song Internal Policies,
Foreign Affairs
• Internal policies
– Obedience, self-discipline of bureaucracy
– Generals under tight control (military was not
considered high status)
– Population grew to about 100 million
– Marked increase in trade volume; silk now major
luxury export
silk became a major luxury export
Song Internal Policies,
Foreign Affairs
• Foreign affairs
– Reduced control of East
Asian holdings: Tibet,
Vietnam, Korea, Manchuria
– Able to focus on heartland
– Defeated by descendants
of Chingis Khan
Emperor Taizu of Song (r. 960–976), a court
portrait painting
RELIGIOUS
Buddhism and Chinese Culture
• Buddhism was greatest
single foreign cultural
influence
– People were responsive to
new faith that answered their
needs
– Appeal of afterlife of eternal
bliss
– Buddhism blended with
existing beliefs
Buddhism and Chinese Culture
• Sanskrit translations stimulated literature
– Poetry
– Appreciation, joy of nature
Sanskrit translated into Chinese
Buddhism and Chinese Culture
• Painting, sculpture, architecture all show
Buddhist influences
• Reaction set in against Buddhism; political
power play
• Neo-Confucians
– Wanted to change the world through teachings of
Mencius
– Insisted everybody had to partake of social life
– Formal education absolute necessity for decent life
– Mandarins had to show signs of deep culture
Discussion Questions
1.
2.
There were a number of similarities between China
under the Han and the Roman Empire. Why do you
think that was so? Was it simply historical accident?
Do those aspects of empire imply some sort of empirebuilding process common throughout the world? Why
or why not?
The coming of Buddhism to China had enormous
cultural effects. How would you compare the
connection between Buddhism and Chinese culture to
the connection between Christianity and the late
Roman Empire? What similarities do you see; what
differences?