Ch 4 - Imperial China -

221 B.C.E. - 220 C.E.

Before the HanYellow River Valley

CivilizationThe 4 River Valley

Civilizations

Shang: 1523-1028 Shang: 1523-1028 oracle bones

The evolution of Chinese writing

during the Shang

From Pictograph to Characters

Zhou Dynasty: 1027 - 256

Mandate of Heaven

China’s Dynastic Cycle

A review of Chinese civ. up to this point:

•Shang Dynasty - Rulers and family patriarchs were interested in consulting the ancestors for guidance and made use of oracle bones. Shamans, individuals who claimed the ability to contact the ancestors read the crack formed on the oracle bones when heated. More than 2,000 characters in the Chinese writing have been identified by scholars as having come from these oracle bones.

•Zhou Dynasty -

• Mandate of Heaven

• growing number of professional bureaucrats, or shi - men of service, the best-educated men in the empire, served as scribes, clerks, advisors and overseers in the king’s court and other parts of the government

• importance of rituals to show respect for elders and rulers

Zhou Dynasty 1027 - 256

Warring States Period 475 - 221 B.C.E.

Confucius 551 - 479 B.C.E.Confucianism:• replace chaos of his time with harmony and order•The idea of reciprocity should organize society. Reciprocity is the giving and taking of people within the 5 basic relationships of society. People are either the superior or inferior person in each of these relationships:

•parent and child•sovereign and minister•husband and wife•older and younger brother•friend and friend

Kung Fu-tzu

Significance - will promote a strict hierarchy in society.

Other ideologies that developed during the Era of Warring States:

Legalism and DaoismLegalism - Han Fei Zi

Daoism - Laozi or Lao Tzu

human nature is bad so a strong state is

needed

human nature is good so a centralized state

is not needed

How did Qin gov’t rule China?

• government - Legalist not Confucianist: book burning

• government imposed the following from peasant population:

• main tax - percentage of harvest

• a labor tax - building public projects

• military service - conscription

• standardized weights, measures and coinage

• created a uniformed legal code

• created a common writing system

• built roads like....? and canals to connect rivers

What steps did Qin rulers take to control the aristocracy?

•abolished primogeniture laws

•abolished slavery = free peasants to serve the state

•How were the free peasants now serving the state?

•paid taxes

•provided labor or serve in the military

Let’s review Confucianism:

•filial piety

•order and harmony in family = order and harmony in the state (government)

•superior vs. inferior roles

•bureaucracy + education = good bureaucrats

•The Analects later compiled by Mencius

Qin Dynasty 221 - 206 B.C.E.•China’s 1st

empire

•Shi Huangdi founder

•adopts Legalism

Terra-Cotta Soldiers

Han Dynasty: 200 B.C.E. - 220 C.E.Look for:

•Political system: centralized, emperor rules with help of his bureaucracy

•Expansion

•Technological Advances

•Social and Economic Changes

Government:Emperor: link between heaven and earth - divine power

Bureaucracy - civil servants - create the

scholar-gentry class or shi

Emperor Wuor Wudior Wu Ti

r.141 - 87 B.C.E.

civil service exam based on Confucius writings

sets up ameritocracy

Chinese bureaucracy

Chinese Emperor

•Emperor lived in seclusion, many wives and concubines

•aligns himself with the gentry class to weaken the aristocracy

•creates the gentry-scholar class

Chang’an - present-day Xi’an

•cosmopolitan

•courtiers, officials, soldiers, merchants

•protective wall

•point where Silk Road began

Expansion:

•China doubles in size under rule of Wu:

•expands west to Central Asia

•expands east to Korea

•expands south to Vietnam

Expansion under rule of Wudi

141 - 87 B.C.E.Korea

Vietnam

Central Asia

Why?

capitalSilk Road

Technology =

steel weapons and tools crossbow

horse collar and cavalry

paper - Why?

silk

Confucian emphasis on learning

Economy

•agriculture - main activity

•trade = Silk Road

•luxury goods

•monopolized by government

Chang’An

Chinese Society during Han rule

landowning aristocracy +

educated bureaucrat or the scholar-gentry during Han Dynasty

laboring masses: peasants and urban artisansmean people - unskilled or without meaningful skills like performing

artists,had to wear identifying green scarves, included household slaves

What about them merchants?Confucian emphasis on learning and political service led to the view that merchants were not good people since they had devoted their lives to making money. So, there will be a gap between the wealth of merchants and their low prestige in the Chinese Confucian society.

Collapse: ExternalThreat of nomadic invasions at the bordersCost of defending the north and nw border

How did China deal with the threat of nomadic groups on their frontier? (book lists 5)

Collapse - internal reasons:

power of aristocracy = unequal distribution of landpeasants = unrest, Yellow Turban Rebellion 184 C.E. led by Daoistsstrongmen in countryside = tax revenuesconscription = reliance on mercenariesspread of epidemics = population

220 C.E. Fall of Han Empire

Inefficient rulers, corrupt officials lose control of the gov’t.

Use Imperial Parallels in Bulliet textbook pages 146-147 to compare Rome and

Han

•Similarities or Differences on the following?• their social norms

• their economy

• rulers’ way of controlling the aristocracy

• rulers’ way of conquering and overcoming challenges of running the empire

• technological developments

• the role of urban centers

• reasons for the collapse of their empires

• impact of the collapse of their empires on the region