Transcript Ancient China - Fleming College

Ancient China
Culture & Society
"Be still like a mountain and flow like a great river." Lao Tse
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Overview
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Family
Politics
War & Martial Arts
Trade
Art & Literature
Religions
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Confucian Values
• Ideas
1. Hierarchy is basic order of
universe
2. Human society should harmonize
with nature
• Principles
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Social order
Ceremonial behaviour
Education, role models
Government exists to serve people
Ruler respected for fairness,
integrity
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Family
• Ancestor worship
• Family hierarchy
– Male centred
– Confucian values
• filial piety
• humaneness
• ritual
• Marriages
– Arranged by parents
– Tension between wives & inlaws
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Government
• Values of Confucianist
bureaucracy
– Benevolence, nonviolence,
justice, rationalism, loyalty,
decorum
• Examination system
– Han to Qing Dynasties
– Civil service recruitment,
education
• Provincial exams on classic
Confucian texts
– Meritocracy: rule by men of
virtue and ability
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The Art of War
• Sun Tzu
– “Art of War”: oldest
military text
– Army’s vital
importance to the
State
• Imperial Armies
– Support by taxation,
road/canal networks
– Walled towns meant
long sieges
– Use of archers,
cavalry, gunpowder
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Chinese Martial Arts
• Role of Philosophy
– Training in Buddhist temples,
monasteries
• e.g. Shaolin Temple, Henan
Province
– Physical related to mental discipline
Shaolin monastery
• Weapons fighting
– Bo stick, kwan do, staff solid or
sectional.
• Empty Hand fighting
– Kung Fu
– Tai Chi
• Related to Daoism
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• Silk Road
– Westbound: silk,
jade, tea, technology
– Eastbound: wool,
gold, silver, Buddhism
Trade
• Grand Canal
– Connected Yellow and
Yangtze drainages
• Ports and Shipping
The Silk Road
– Tianjin, Shanghai,
Hong Kong
Tianjin
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Grand Canal at Suzhou
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Classic Porcelain
Tang Dynasty
Song Dynasty
Ming
Dynasty
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Yuan Dynasty
Qing
Dynasty
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Painting
• Song period to present
• Styles
– Landscape painting
Mu Qi - Six Persimmons
• Trees, mountains express
ideas, feelings
– Bird-and-flower painting
• Painters
– Mu Qi (Chan Buddhist)
– Xia Gui
Xia Gui 16-Jul-15
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Snowy Hall
and Talking Guests
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Literature
• Five Confucian Classics
– Book of Changes (I Ching:
divination)
– Book of Documents
(history, Shang & Zhou
periods)
– Book of Songs (poems)
– Spring & Autumn Annals
– Book of Rites (Liji: rituals)
I Ching hexagram
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Belief
• Nature worship
– Shrines to gods of
wind, rain, rivers,
mountains
– Animal sacrifice
• Balance of forces
– Yin (female) & yang
(male)
– Geomancy: earth
divination
• Location & orientation
of buildings, graves
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Confucius
• Life
– Born 551 BC d. 479 BC
– Teacher, administrator
– Exiled, taught disciples
• Analects
– Collected memoirs of teachings
• Moral influence
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Ai Ren: Love Others
Yi: Right Conduct
Lï: Manners, Ceremony
Lì: Profit (bad)
• Political influence
– Han Dynasty: rules of governing
– Still felt today
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Daoism
• Founded by Lao Zi
– 6th cent BC
– Wrote “Tao Te Ching”
• The Dao: the path or way
– Perceived only by experience
– Power flowing through all life
– Dynamic balance of universe
• Harmony of opposites
– Goal is to become one with the Dao
• State religion in China
– 5th cent BC to 20th cent AD
Yin-Yang
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Buddhism
• History
– along Silk Road from India
• Han Dynasty 206 BC
– Mahayana (“Greater Vehicle”)
tradition
• Buddhist scriptures (sutras)
– Tripitika
– Lotus & Diamond Sutras (oldest
known paper books)
• Chinese Buddhist Schools
– Pure Land (White Lotus sect)
• Oldest, from India
– Huayan (Flower Garden)
– Chan (Zen)
• Emphasized meditation
– Tientai (Celestial Terrace)
Diamond sutra
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