1. Lecture for SS2 Asian Studies, prepared by Martin Benedict Perez, PSHS Main Campus
2. I. Preface: From Bones to Philosophers
II. The First Empires
A. The Qin: The idea of China
B. The Han: The empire expands
III. Analysis: Patterns in Chinese History
IV. The Golden Age
A. The Tang: The cultural powerhouse
B. The Song: The commercial powerhouse
V. The Asian Superpower
A. From the Yuan to the Ming
B. Influence on East Asia
10. Born during the
chaotic Eastern Zhou Zuang Zi
(370 – 301BCE) Sun Tzu
period, Chinese
philosophy was Buddhism enters
Lao Zi
primarily preoccupied
with restoring social
Xun Zi
order and harmony. (300 – 237BCE)
Confucius Mencius Qin Shi Huang Di
(551 – 479BCE) (370 – 290BCE) and the Legalists
Shang Western Zhou (1027 – 771BCE) Eastern Zhou (770 – 221BCE) Qin Han
AXIAL AGE (800 – 200BCE)
1000BCE 0
13. Under the guidance of Li Si, The
First Emperor utilized Legalism.
He centralized all power to himself by
placing only giving power to those loyal to
him. At his command was a powerful army.
He also established a network or roads and
canals, and built frontier walls for
protection.
Furthermore he unified currency, system of
Qin Shih Huang Di writing, and even philosophical thought
“The First August God of the Qin” (through book burning) throughout the
empire.
14. Coins from the Qin
dynasty (left) and
Qing dynasty (right)
19. In 138BCE, Zhang Qian was sent on a diplomatic mission to form an alliance
with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu. After many adventures and
misadventures, he would return to the capital in 125BCE with new
knowledge of grand civilizations to the west.
21. China silk, clothing, lacquerware, spices
Indo-China spices, ivory, timber, pearls
North India precious stones, ivory, tortoise shell, incense, spices, cloth,
timber
South India ivory, tortoiseshell, spices, precious stones, cloth, timber
Arabia spices, slaves, precious stones
East Africa gold, ivory, exotic animals, slaves, incense
Trans-Sahara ivory, gold, slaves
North Africa grain
South Europe olive oil, wine, glassware, coinage
West Europe silver, tin
North Europe slaves, amber
Asia Minor silver, precious stones, timber, wine
27. Society during the Han
Confucianism became the state
philosophy. “Men of wisdom and
virtue” were put in place
through the civil service
examinations.
Scholar-officials were expected
to be junzi. Women, however,
were not allowed to take the
exam.
28. Science and technology
Innovation during the Han would
be unmatched until the Song. It
was the highest civilization of its
age.
It exemplified the insight of the
Arab philosophers who said that
the purpose of science is “to put
up a city”. Seismograph invented by Zhang
Feng in the year 132.
29.
30. PATTERN 1
TERRITORIAL PRESSURE
Incursions from China's north by nomadic groups, are from those
attracted by the wealth of the settled, agricultural civilization of
China.
The most illustrative examples are those of the Mongols, who
conquer China and establish the Yuan dynasty (1279-1368 CE), and of
the Manchus, who again conquer China and establish the last
dynasty, the Qing, that rules for 300 years (1644-1911 CE).
Each of these invaders rules through the Chinese bureaucracy,
leading to the expression that China "sinicizes its conquerors."
31. PATTERN 2
CULTURAL CONTINUITY
Dynasties rise and fall but Confucian values keep China intact. This is
seen manifested in several ways:
1. the evolution of the bureaucratic structure — the civil service
examination system, the scholar-gentry who sit for exams and
staff the civil administration;
2. the refinement of the Confucian classics as the basis of
education and elite selection;
Thus there emerged a tendency in China towards political
unification and reunification. A factor that also facilitated this was
increasing population density.
32. PATTERN 3
STRENGTHENING OF THE IMPERIAL CENTER
Beginning with the legalistic approach of the First Emperor of the
Qin, the emperors of China continued a trend of concentrating power
towards the center. Instruments of government were strengthened as
they moved authority further towards the emperor.
The irony however is that it is during moments when power is too
concentrated at the center at the expense of the rest of Chinese
society that a dynasty becomes more vulnerable to rebellion.
The height of imperial concentration can be seen in the Ming dynasty.
34. The Tang (618-907), along with the
Song dynasty (960-1279 CE) that
follows, is often referred to as
China's "Golden Age“.
Poetry, calligraphy, landscape painting,
philosophy, political thought, historical
writing, scientific advances in astronomy,
chemistry, and medicine, and the
production of fine silks, porcelain, and teas
all flourish, particularly in the period from
the 7th to the 12th centuries.
35. “The ruler depends on the state, and the state depends on its people.
Oppressing the people to make them serve the ruler is like someone
cutting off his own flesh to fill the stomach. The stomach is filled, but
the body is injured; the ruler is wealthy but the state is destroyed.”
36.
37. Chang’an was an
imperial city, an
administrative center
designed to show off the
power of the emperor and
the majesty of his court.
41. Drinking Alone by Midnight
A pot of wine, under the flowering trees;
I drink alone, for no friend is near.
Raising my cup I beckon the bright moon,
For her, with my shadow, will make three people.
The moon, alas, is no drinker of wine;
Listless, my shadow creeps about at my side.
Yet with the moon as friend and the shadow as slave
I must make merry before the Spring is spent.
To the songs I sing the moon flickers her beams;
Li Bai In the dance I weave my shadow tangles and breaks.
(Li Bo / Li Po) While we were sober, three shared the fun;
Now we are drunk, each goes their way.
May we long share our eternal friendship,
And meet at last on the paradise.
42. What Du Fu says of Liu Bai –
A hundred poems Liu Bai wrote after a
cask of wine.
He was asleep at a tavern in Xian
When the Emperor called; he would not
board the imperial barge,
But said, ‘Your humble servant is a god of
wine.’
Du Fu
43. Liu Bai answers back –
I met Du Fu on a mountaintop
in August when the sun was hot.
Under the shade of his big straw hat
his face was sad–
in the years since we last parted,
he’d grown wane, exhausted.
Poor old Du Fu, I thought then,
he must be agonizing over poetry
again.
48. Song China was a period of great change.
1. The traditional aristocracy weakened even further after the
Tang. Two reasons: Shift to large cities and the abolition of the
“equal field system” in favor of a money tax.
2. Economic base began to expand to, and somewhat shifted to,
the south. Food production improved immensely and led to a
spike in population growth. Cities also grew immensely dense.
3. The government became even more autocratic. The central
government was better funded, and more government officials
came from the commoner class.
49. Zhu Xi (1130-1200)
Neo-Confucianism
Introduced a philosophy that synthesized
Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism.
Compiled The Four Books (The Analects,
The Mencius, The Doctrine of the Mean,
The Great Learning) which then became
the standard for Confucian learning.
Advocated the selection of officials
through schools, not just examinations.
50.
51.
52.
53. While Buddhism and Daoism ushered in a creative age
in China, Confucianism further deepened as the social
ethic of China.
Chinese society has two main classes: the gentry
(scholarly elite) and the peasants. Third would be the
merchants.
Women had an important role to play in the family, but
their subordinate role was reinforced towards the latter
Song dynasty.
