Transcript EARLY SOCIETIES IN EAST ASIA

EARLY SOCIETIES IN
EAST ASIA
Chapter Four
Early agricultural society and the
Xia dynasty
• water source at high
plateau of Tiber
• Loess soil carried by
the river’s water,
hence “yellow”
• “China’s Sorrow” –
extensive flooding
• Loess provided rich
soil, soft and easy to
work
Yellow River
Neolithic societies after 5000 B.C.E.
• Yangshao society,
5000 -3000 B.C.E.
• Excavations at
Banpo village, fine
pottery, bone tools
The Xia dynasty
Archeological
discovery still in
early stages
Established about
2200 B.C.E.
Legendary King Yu,
the dynasty
founder, a hero of
flood control
Erlitou, possibly the
capital city of the
Xia
Turquoise dragon discovered at Erlitou
The Shang dynasty 1766-1122 B.C.E.
• Arose in the southern and eastern areas of
the Xia realm
• Many written records and materials
remains discovered
• Bronze metallurgy, monopolized by
ruling elite
•Horses and chariots traveled with
Indo-European migrants to China
(findings of chariot tracks at
Erlitou cast doubt)
•Agricultural surpluses supported
large troops
•A vast network of walled towns
•Lavish tombs of Shang kings with
thousands of objects
•Other states The Shang capital
moved 6 times
•besides Shang, for example,
Sanxingdui
The Zhou dynasty 1123- 256 B.C.E.
• Zhou gradually eclipsed Shang
• Mandate of Heaven, the right to rule
- Zhou needed to justify
overthrow
- Ruler as “son of heaven”
- Mandate of heaven only
given to virtuous rulers
Duke of Zhou
Political organization:
decentralized administration
• Used princes and relatives to rule regions
• Consequence:
weak central
government and
rise of regional
powers
Iron metallurgy spread through
China in first millennium B.C.E.
The fall of Zhou
• Nomadic
invasion sacked
Zhou capital in
711 B.C.E.
• Territorial
princes become
more
independent
• The last king of
Zhou abdicated
his position in
256 B.C.E.
The Warring States (403-221 B.C.E.
Society and family in ancient China
• The social order:
- the ruling elites with their lavish
consumption of bronze
- hereditary aristocrats with
extensive landholdings
- administrative and military
offices
- manuals of etiquette
• Free artisans and craftsmen mostly
worked for elites
• Merchants and trade were important
• Trade networks linked China with
west and south
• oar-propelled boats traded with
Korea and offshore islands
Peasants, the majority of the
population
• Landless peasants provided labor
• Lived in small subterranean houses
• Women’s work: wine making, weaving,
silkworm raising
• Wood, bone, stone
tools before iron
was spread in the
sixth century B.C.E.
Family and patriarchy
• Early dynasties ruled through family and
kinship groups
• Veneration of ancestors
- belief in ancestors’
presence and their
continuing influence
- burial of material
goods with the dead
• Offering of sacrifices at the graves
• Family heads presided over rites of
honoring ancestor’s spirits
Patriarchal society evolved out
of matrilineal one
• The rise of large states brought focus
on men’s contribution
• After the Shang, females devalued
Early Chinese writing and cultural
development
• The secular cultural tradition
- absence of organized religion and
priestly class
- believed in the impersonal heavenly
power- tian
Oracle bones used by fortunetellers
• Inscribed question, subjected to heat, read
cracks
• Discovery of “dragon
bones” in 1890”s
Early Chinese writing, from
pictograph to ideograph
• More than 2000 characters are identified
on oracle bones
Modern Chinese
writing is direct
descendant of Shang
writing
Thought and literature
• Zhou literature – many kinds of books
- The Book of Change, a manual of diviners
- The Book of History, the history of the Zhou
- The Book of Rites, the rules of etiquette and
rituals for aristocrats
- The Book of Songs, a collection of verses, most
notable work
(Most Zhou writings have perished.)
Ancient China and the larger world
• Chinese cultivators and nomadic peoples of central
Asia
- exchange of products between nomads and
Chinese farmers
- Nomads frequently invaded rich agricultural
society
- Nomads did not imitate Chinese ways
- Nomads relied on grains and manufactured
goods of the Chinese
The southern expansion of Chinese
society
• The Yangzi valley; dependable river; two
crops of rice per year
The indigenous peoples of
southern China
• Many assimilated into Chinese
agricultural society
• Some were pushed to hills and mountains
• Some migrated to Taiwan, Vietnam,
Thailand
The state of Chu in central region
of Yanzi
• Challenged the Zhou for supremacy
• Adopted Chinese political and social
traditions and writing