The Zhou Dynasty overthrew the Shang Dynasty in 1046 BCE claiming they had lost the Mandate of Heaven. The Zhou period was divided into the Western Zhou and Eastern Zhou. The Eastern Zhou was a time of philosophical growth and included the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. This era saw the development of Confucianism, Daoism, Mohism, Legalism and other schools. The Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE was the first to unify China under a centralized legalist system, though it collapsed shortly after. This period established lasting influences on Chinese culture, government and society.

1. Zhou to Han Dynasties of China

2. Zhou Dynasty
1046-256 BCE

3. Legacy of the Shang
Dynasty
● Writing as a unifying force
● Bronze ritual vessels and weapons
● Order and rank in the religious world
● Importance of kin connections
● Record keeping (through oracle bones)
● Importance of venerating and placating
ancestors
● Filial practices (burial rites)
● Preference for males

4. Zhou Dynasty and the Mandate of Heaven
● Zhou Dynasty is divided into two periods: Western Zhou (around 1046-771)
and Eastern Zhou (770-256)
○ Eastern Zhou is further divided into the Spring & Autumn period (770-476) and the Warring
States period (475-222)
● Zhou leadership claimed that the tyrannical Shang king had “lost the Mandate
of Heaven” and used this claim to orchestrate a coup
○ “A King and a dynasty cold only rule so long as they retained heaven’s favor”
○ Zhou creation to legitimize their overthrow of the Shang dynasty
○ Zhou king took the title “Son of Heaven,” symbolizing a close relationship with heaven
○ Noble birth nor Chinese ethnicity were not necessary to claim the Mandate
○ Heaven becomes an important concept in China

5. Dynastic Cycle
“The empire, long divided, must
unite; long united, must divide.” Luo
Guanzhong
A new ruler unites China and
establishes a new dynasty
The dynasty loses the
Mandate and is overthrown
by rebels. The Mandate
passes to the next dynasty.
China prospers under the
new dynasty
The royal family begins to decay and
the empire begins to decline and
destabilize

6. Establishment of the Zhou
● Shang are beset by many rivals from outside of the empire, including the Zhou
● Three rulers are given credit for the conquest
○ King Wen-expanded Zhou domain
○ King Wu-conqueror of the Shang
○ Duke of Zhou-consolidated the conquest and served as regent to Wu’s heir, never ruled as king

7. Western Zhou
● State headed by the Zhou king, with an established hierarchy from king to
peasant
● As the empire expanded, the realm decentralized
● Quasi-feudal system
● Hereditary leadership positions
● Bureaucrats used bamboo documents and bronze reproductions to issue decrees
and assign offices and fiefs-strong written records today
● Religion in the Zhou Dynasty
○ Shang ancestral beliefs continued, along with Shang ritual pieces, but new shapes and motifs
eventually take over
○ Concept of Tian or “heaven”
○ Tian: power the governs all creation and leads the spiritual hierarchy
● Western Zhou period is often seen as the ideal age that must be reclaimed

8. Eastern Zhou
● Court transfers from the Western Zhou capital near Xian to the Eastern Zhou
capital near Luoyang.
● Period is better documented than the Western Zhou due to two books
○ The Zuozhuan, a commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals
○ The Intrigues of the Warring States
● Zhou fiefdoms act as independent states, and the Zhou kings have little military
power to force their obedience
○ Fiefs are linked together in a multistate system, with the ruler of one state acting as the leader of
this alliance, known as a “hegemon”
○ Warfare and instability in the alliance increases
■ Succession disputes
■ Balance of power between the states

9. Warring States Period
● Rulers sought to gain territory, population, and power of rival states
● Advances in technology change the nature of war
○ Large armies
○ Crossbows
○ Conscripts
○ City walls, long defensive walls, and permanent garrisons
○ Cavalry and chariots
● Other advances include
○ Coinage
○ Iron
○ Urbanization
○ Improvements in agriculture
● The Shi class
○ Lower aristocracy, social mobility based on merit more than lineage

10. The Hundred Schools of Thought
Confucianism, Daoism, and Others

11. The Hundred Schools of Thought and the
Warring States Period
● Constant warfare helped promote intellectual creativity
○ “China” was made up of many competing principalities, not one nation
○ Rulers sought new ideas to rectify the disorder, united the states, and for the prestige of having
notable thinkers in their court
○ Advances in technology, in particular iron-working, also occured in this period.
● New ideas often came from the educated, elite shi-class
○ They asked two main questions
■ How should the ruler act?
■ How should individuals act?
● Historians later grouped these thinkers in to “schools”
○ The main ones were Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism
○ Many more schools based on astronomy, medicine, music, agriculture, etc.

12. Confucius
● Born during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty
● Espoused a system of social and ethical philosophy for
rulers and individuals
● Concerned with restoring social stability and political
order
○ Wanted a return to the “golden” age of the Western Zhou
○ He believed this was a time of peace and prosperity due to Zhou rulers’
virtues
○ Teaching reinforced social hierarchy, centralized government and
patriarchal rule.
○ Used ritual to promote social order
○ Filial piety is the primary bond and the family as the model of a well
ordered society
● His sayings are collected in The Analects
○ His thought concerned ethics, rather than theory or metaphysics
● The benefits of study were valued over other ways of
understanding the world
○ Encouraged the mastery of poetry, rituals, and historical traditions

13. Confucian Virtues
● Emphasis on 7 main virtues
○ Ren: humanity or benevolence.
Caring about others and acting
accordingly
○ Yi: righteousness or integrity
○ Xiao: filial piety
○ Zhong: loyalty, constancy
○ Xin: honesty
○ Jing: reverence or respect
○ Li: propriety, ritual decorum. Promotes good treatment of others and disciplined behavior
through adherence to ritual.
● Through these virtues he urged his followers to become junzi (superior men, or
“man of integrity”) who could advise rulers on the proper ways to govern

14. Confucian Five Social Relationships
● Extolled filial piety
● 5 Relationships in hierarchical order
○ Ruler and Subject
○ Older brother and younger brother
○ Father and Son
○ Husband and Wife
○ Friend and Friend
● Children were expected to be reverent and obedient to parents, including in the
afterlife through ritual
● The senior should lead and protect the junior, the junior support and obey the
senior

15. Mencius
● Studied and revered Confucius
● His book Mencius demonstrates how Confucianism
can be applied to everyday life
○ Human nature is innately good
■ Built upon Confucius’ thinking: Confucius implied human
nature is good, Mencius declared definitively that it is
■ His optimistic view of humanity is a challenge to the idea
that law and rule is needed to restrain a predisposition to
wickedness
○ Advised rulers to enact a benevolent government and to lead by example rather than force
○ Military victories are not as important as benevolence and virtue
○ The people have a duty to overthrow unjust rulers

16. Xunzi
● Wrote the book Xunzi
● Believed human nature is innately bad and
selfish, and can be corrected through
education and ritual
● Advocated merit-based promotion
● Supported the concept of the Mandate of
Heaven, but that tian did not intervene in
human affairs
○ The ruler is the boat, the common people are the
water. It is the water that bears up the boat but also the water that capsizes it
○ Believed ritual was a means to create order and respect for the hierarchy

17. Mozi
● Challenged Confucius’ ideas with a concern for
“universal love” or “concern for everyone.”
○ Believed everyone should be treated as one treats one’s family
members
○ Criticized the Confucian family-based ethical and political system
● Believed advisers to the rulers should be chosen based
on skills rather than rank
○ Distinctly anti-aristocratic philosophy
● Believed every idea should be evaluated on how it benefits the people and the
state
○ War was detrimental to society
○ Ritual was wasteful and extravagant
○ Led a utopian movement engaged in social action, including defending states and cities who were
victims of “wars of expansion”

18. ● People should conform to their superiors
○ Advocated a strict chain of command leading up through the king and resting in tian
○ His ideal state is highly centralized, orderly, and ideologically unified
○ He could tax, judge and punish his followers-even execute them
○ Believed the psychological tendency to respond in kind to the treatment one receives
■ To win a ruler’s favor, act as the ruler desires
■ Those who do not should be regulated through rewards and punishments
○ Ideological differences and factionalism were the primary source of human suffering
● Strong, charismatic leader who inspired his followers to dedicate themselves to
his view of social justice
○ Required them to lead austere and demanding lives under his direct control

19. Daoism (Taoism)
● Two major works
○ Daodejing: May have been written by the
sage Laozi (Lao Tzu, meaning Old Master)
or may have been written by a number of
Daoist philosophers and published by them
○ Zhuangzi: written (at least in part) by
Daoist philosopher Zhuangzi, it is the
fullest articulation of Daoist thought
● Daoists respond to the chaos of the Warring States period by simplifying one’s
life, reducing one’s desires, and living close to the natural order of things
● The Dao: The way
○ Three manifestations
■ The way of heaven: the way of ultimate reality, essentially unknowable
■ The way of nature: the observable dao, the integrating principle of the whole, the driving
power behind nature and the order principle behind all life
■ The way of the human: the “doable” dao, guidelines for one’s ability to go through life

20. Wu-wei: Non-action
● Active not-doing or creative quietude
● The quality of life in tune with the universe, dissociation with the self and the
private ego. Not self-assertive or competitive
● The dao moves through nature through wu-wei, establishing simplicity and
happiness without formalism or ceremony. Creatively stressing spontaneity and
flow
● Wu-wei is not complete passivity, it is a way of getting things done without
excessive force, not a way of life where nothing is done

21. Four Images of Wu-wei
● The Valley: symbolizes Dao’s inclination toward
the lowly and underlying rather than the
prominent or impressive
● Water: water follows the path of stones but is
powerful enough to carve a great canyon-the
easiest and the best way to follow
● Pu (Uncarved block): human nature before
society limits it, natural simplicity is prioritized
over social adornment. Infinite potential.
● The female: power of passivity, yielding and
adaptability. She influences through indirection,
nuance and suggestion, not assault

22. Ziran and De
● Ziran
○ Self-so-ness, or naturalness
○ The concept of acting as one truly is, the natural way
● De
○ The function of the Dao in government
○ “When the way prevails in the empire, fleet-footed horses are relegated to providing manure for
the fields; when the way does not prevail in the empire, war horses breed on the border.”
(Daodejing XLVI)

23. Zhuangzi
● Believed that happiness is only possible when one has realized their zhen-jun, or
“authentic self.”
○ Achieved after relinquishing attachments to limited perspectives and conceptual, analytic
knowledge claims
● Advocated conceptual freedom
● Offered four arguments against this type of knowledge
○ Argument from relativity of distinctions
○ Argument from complementariness of opposites
○ Argument from perspectives
○ Argument from skepticism

24. ● Argument from relativity of distinctions
○ It is impossible to be entirely subjective, one will always bring one’s subjective background to a
decision, and to be totally objective renders a judgment meaningless
○ A policeman will often get entirely different stories from the witnesses of a crime
● Argument from complementariness of opposites
○ One cannot know anything unless one knows its complement
○ One cannot know “dog” unless one knows what dog is not, which is impossible because
everything in the universe that is not dog is not-dog.
○ Since everything has a complement, we cannot know anything because we cannot know
everything

25. ● Argument from perspectives
○ Every judgment only has meaning within a context
○ Is hot tea wonderful? An answer in the summer will be different than an answer in the winter
● Argument from skepticism
○ All knowledge is based on other knowledge, which is based on arbitrary assumptions

26. Major Differences between Laozi and Zhuangzi
● Zhuangzi believed in the concept that time was without beginning or end
● Zhuangzi did not offer advice to rulers, wanted to maximize individual freedom
and spontaneity
● Zhuangzi placed more emphasis on the workings of the Dao in the here and now
● Zhuangzi believed in conquering the fear of death and to live life to the fullest in
the present moment
● Zhuangzi argued that human creations could be a reflection of the Dao, and
were important

27. Daoist Critique of Confucianism
● The most basic drive for humans is to satisfy their desires
● If all humans strive to satisfy their desires, there will not be enough goods for
everyone
● This shortage of goods leads to competition and strife
● Regulating the competition and strife through morality does not address the
root of the problem
● Daoists called for an abandonment of morality by addressing the root of the
problem
○ Since the Dao is without desire, if humans model themselves after the Dao, order will flow and
rules will be unnecessary

28. Sunzi
● Author of the Art of War
● Believed manipulation, discipline, and sound strategy
were of the utmost importance in overcoming an enemy
● Heroism is a “useless virtue.” Only engage in war when
one is assured of a positive otome
● Advised the means to get the ends, regardless of what
the ends actually are

29. Legalism and the Qin Dynasty

30. Legalism
● Major thinker: Han Feizi, studied under Xunzi, but did not take an interest in
Confucian values
● Skeptical of human behavior, government should rely
on laws instead of a virtuous, moral leader
● Strict, comprehensive and clear laws should be adhered
to by all, and transgressions should be punished
severely
● Rewards should be given to promote proper behavior
● Promotion based on merit

31. Qin Dynasty: 256 to 206 BCE
● The State of Qin unified China in 221 BCE, ending the
Warring States period
● Dynasty established by the first emperor:
Qin Shi Huangdi
○ Qin Shi Huangdi had two legalist advisors: Han Feizi, who was
betrayed by the second advisor, Li Si, early in Qin Shi’s reign
○ Viewed negatively by posterity as cruel and superstitious
○ Slaughtered 400 scholars and burned many Confucian books and documents
● Established a strong centralized government that utilized legalist ideas
○ Harsh legal system with punishments such as: hard labor, mutilation, banishment, slavery or
death
○ Mutual responsibility units were established, if one household in the unit received punishment for
a crime and the other households did not inform on them, all were punished
○ Moved nobility to the capital, dispatched officials loyal to him to control the new territory
■ Officials had no hereditary rights to their offices
■ Could be fined for poor performance

32. Terracotta Army and Other Major Works
● Qin Shi Huangdi was consumed with
his own mortality
○ Survived three assassination attempts
● Searched for the elixir of immortality
● Built a massive tomb
○ Began building the tomb as soon as he
came to power
○ Buried animals and people alive
○ Built thousands of terracotta soldiers,
weapons, and other valuables
● Constructed a tamped-earth Great Wall to respond to the Xiongnu people
○ Conscripted labor built the wall
○ Mobilized a large army to defend the state
● Also built canals to allow long distance travel by boat

33. Collapse of the Qin
● The Legalist system concentrated power in the hands of a strong central ruler
● Qin Shi Huangdi’s heir was an ineffective puppet and was weakened by court
intrigue
● Continued attempts to expand stretched the empire’s finances
● Brutal punishments alienated people and lead to revolts among the aristocracy,
scholars, and the commoners

34. Legacy of the Qin Dynasty
● Created a unified state, established the imperial system and the bureaucracy
● Standardized writing, currency, weights and measures, and axle length of cards
● Scholars and the state became inseparable
● Monitoring of the population through household registry
○ Taxation and labor duties
● The title huangdi (august theocrat, or emperor) lasted
● Improved infrastructure
● Built the first Great Wall

35. Han Dynasty
206 BCE to 220 CE

36. Emperor Gao
● Born Liu Bang, a commoner-evidence of the Qin’s
destruction of the old order
● Did not abandon the Qin bureaucracy, but removed
some unpopular features
○ Moved the capital to Chang’an
○ Eliminated harsher laws and cut taxes, lessened the burden on
people
● Restored the older order by giving out large fiefs to
relatives and generals
○ Spent much of his reign eliminating fief-holders that were not in
his family
● Placated the Xiongnu with gifts and intermarriage
after a failed war
○ This tradition (called appeasement) continued with many early
Han emperors
● Emperor Gao died and left a young son as his heir
○ The empress dowager controlled the throne as regent, named Empress Lu
○ She was vicious and spiteful, and remained a warning to the “dangers” of a woman on the throne

37. Emperor Wu
● Innovator, initiated many of the significant changes and developments of the
Han Dynasty
● Patron of the arts
● Pushed Confucian study and privileged
Confucian scholars
● Expanded the empire through military
campaigns with varying levels of success
● The beginning of the Silk Road
● Monopolized Iron, Salt, and Liquor, taxed
merchants and dealt grain to areas of scarcity
to stabilize prices

38. Wang Mang and the Xin Dynasty
● Wang Mang, relative of the Empress Wang the empress dowager for several
infant emperors, became regent and deposed the young emperor, declaring
himself the first emperor of the Xin Dynasty
● Confucian scholar, limited private landholdings, cut expenses, built ritual halls
and public granaries, outlawed slavery
● Some policies were disastrous: new coinage and nationalizing gold among them
● A Yellow River flood and rebellions soon deposed him and the Han returned to
power, moving the capital to Luoyang

39. Confucianism in the Han Dynasty
● Emperor Wu decreed that officials should be selected based on Confucian
virtues and established a national university to train officials in Confucian
classics
○ The classics are
■ The Book of Changes
■ The Book of Documents
■ The Book of Poetry
■ The Spring and Autumn Annals
■ The Book of Rites
○ Scholars often specialized a single classic and passed along his understand of the book to his
disciples
● Han Confucianists began to develop comprehensive theories of all phenomena
○ Incorporated theories such as yin and yang, the five phases, etc.

40. Sima Tan, Sima Qian and the Records of the
Grand Historian
● Emperor Wu commissioned a comprehensive history of the empire, a project
carried on by two officials; Sima Tan and upon his death, his son Sima Qian
● Sima Qian was castrated at the order of Emperor Wu for defending a disgraced
general, yet continued his work
○ Believed in examining artifacts and sites, and interviewing people about the events he chronicled
○ The resultant work narrates Chinese history from the Yellow Emperor to his own day
○ Discussed important institutions and figures, along with his own commentary
● This history becomes the standard for histories in subsequent dynasties

41. Life in the Han Dynasty
● Farmers: agriculture continued to advance,
the Han empire tried to keep farmers
independent, keeping taxes low and
providing relief during famines
● Elites: royalty, adopted relatives of eunuchs, government officials and merchants had
great wealth and power
○ Access to education was available to those with means
● Family life was closely died to Confucian traditions
○ Family members were lead by the
family patriarch, all were responsible
for each other
○ Family holdings were passed down to
all sons
○ Divorce was possible for men
○ Filial piety was extolled in texts and in art

42. The Silk Road and
Borderlands
● Zhang Qian was sent to find a group
called the Yuezhi, to enlist them in a
conflict against the Xiongnu in
Emperor Wu’s time
○ The group did not want to fight, but Zhang
traveled as far as modern Afghanistan and discovered Chinese goods had made their way as far
as Rome
○ Trade from China abroad was conducted by Sogdian, Parthian and Indian merchants, while
Chinese overlordship was acknowledged by city-states along the Silk Road
● Emperor Wu sent armies against the Xiongnu, Northern Korea, and Vietnam
○ He conquered Vietnam in 111 BCE, but uprisings continue throughout their reign

43. Collapse of the Han Dynasty
● After the reestablishment of the Han, court politics began to be controlled by
palace eunuchs
○ Castrated slaves who managed the women’s quarters, they often grew up with the emperors and
their mothers, and gained influence because of their lack of outside connections
● Weak emperors were manipulated by the eunuchs, leading to an uprising by
officials
● Other rebellions and Confucian scholars’ belief that the ruler had lost the
Mandate of Heaven lead to the Han Dynasty’s collapse