Transcript India and China 600 * 1600 II

India and China, 600 – 1600 II
From Buddhism
to
Neo-Confucian
Synthesis
in China
Chinese Dynasties
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Qin
Han
Three Kingdoms
Jin
Southern and
Northern Dynasties
• Sui
• Tang
221–206 BCE
206 BCE – 220 CE
220 – 280
280 – 420
420–589
581–618
618–907
Tang Dynasty
• Began with Li Shimin in 618.
– Continued to expand China’s reach into Central Asia, Korea, and
Vietnam.
– Cultural influence will spread to Japan as well.
– China encounters the West when the Arab Empire reached Southwest
Asia.
• Sasanian Persians fled the Arab expansion, settling in Chang’an.
– Major Chinese cities had neighborhoods for foreign traders.
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Jews
Nestorian Christians
Zoroastrians
Hindus
Jains
Muslims
• Chang’an the largest city in world the seventh century -2,000,000 people
長安
Chang’an
Giant Wild Goose Pagoda, 652
Tang Dynasty
Bureaucratic reform included the introduction of
the examination system.
– Men had to pass three levels of exams on
Confucian, Buddhist, and Daoist texts.
– Open to all men except merchants, artisans, and
criminals.
Tang China prosperous, but . . .
• Northern China was agriculturally less productive than
the south and thus less financially viable.
• Chang’an too large and isolated from the rest of China.
• Tang lost power on the Silk Road to encroaching Arabs.
• Rebellions broke out in:
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Manchuria
Korea
Yunnan
Tang China itself.
• Because of expenses imperial government seized
Buddhist lands in 845.
• Tang China one of the most cosmopolitan of
empires and had a diverse commerce.
– Tea
– Silk
• Tea known in China since 900 BCE
• Common drink under the Qin
• Becomes widely popular under the Tang
• Second most widely consumed beverage in
the world after water.
Han Dynasty, c. 100 BCE
Tang Dynasty
c. 1000
Song Dynasty
Ink and color on silk, c. 950 CE
Robe fragment, c. 1550
17th Century rug
Sold for $7000
Tabriz Medallion Carpet, North West Persia, 16th Century
21 ft. 8 in. x 11 ft. 9 in.
Sold by Christies London July 8, 1999: $2.4 million
• Tang women experienced both greater
restrictions and more opportunities.
• Empress Wu Zetain, r. 684–705, ruled as empress
dowager for her son.
– Declared Buddhism the state religion.
– Created a new Zhou dynasty and proclaimed herself
the Buddhist “Divine Empress who Rules the World.”
• Backlash against her rule and
Buddhism meant she was the last
woman to rule China until the
nineteenth century.
“They have in China a very fine clay with which
they make vases which are as transparent as
glass; water is seen through them. The vases are
made of clay.”
Arab merchant, 851
Cooking pot, c. 4000 BCE
Qin vase, 221-206 BCE
Han jars, 206 BCE – 220 CE
Three Kingdoms Period
(burial object), 222-280
Sui Dynasty, late 500’s
Jin Dynasty teapot, 317 – 420
Tang Dynasty
(618–907)
Song Dynasty
(960 – 1269)
Yuan Dynasty
(1271–1368)
Ming Dynasty
(1368–1644)
Du Fu (712–770)
“To My Retired Friend Wei”
“It is almost as hard for friends to meet
As for the morning and evening stars.
Tonight then is a rare event,
Joining, in the candlelight,
Two men who were young not long ago
But now are turning grey at the temples.
To find that half our friends are dead
Shocks us, burns our hearts with grief. . . .”
Li Bao (Li Bai)
“Drinking Alone by Moonlight”
“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, together with my shadow, will make three
people. . . .”
Wang Wei (699-759)
“One-Hearted”
“When those red beans come in springtime,
Flushing on your southland branches,
Take home an armful, for my sake,
As a symbol of our love.”
Song Dynasty (960 – 1279)
• Continued Tang emphasis on a merit-based central
government.
– Bureaucracy became too unwieldy.
– Had to be supported by onerous taxes.
• Song economic burden increased by of loss of northern
lands and Silk Road.
• Song China more southern and urban than previous
dynasties.
• Internal trade helped by:
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Creation of paper money
More coins
Less usury
Well maintained roads and canals.
Song Dynasty Currency
1 – 1.5 oz. of silver
Temujin - Genghis Khan
(c. 1162 – 1267)
• Created the Mongol Empire by uniting Mongol
tribes.
– Superior horsemen
– Archers
• Kublai Khan completed the conquest of the Song.
– Created the Yuan Dynasty
– Linked China to larger Mongol world.
• In China Mongols assimilated to Chinese culture.
• Mongol conquests spread Chinese technology
throughout Eurasia.
• Yuan Dynasty ended in 1368:
– Bubonic plague
– Internal rebellions
– Breakdown of Mongol hegemony in Eurasia
Ming Dynasty
(1368–1644)
• Founded by
Zhu Yuanzhang,
a soldier and
Buddhist monk,
• Became
Emperor Hongwu.
• Hongwu
– Reinstated Confucian bureaucracy and
– Traditional Chinese culture.
– Created the Grand Secretariat in 1382, as advisors
to the emperor.
• Moved capital to Beijing to protect it from
invaders.
• Population rebounded in China with the
arrival of food crops from America.
– Potatoes
– Corn
– Peanuts
• Population grew to 150 million by 1600.
The Expedition of Zheng He
• Emperor Yongle (1360-1424) ordered the expedition
• 1405 to 1433.
• Zheng He
– eunuch
– was a friend and confidant of the emperor.
– in the emperor’s inner circle.
• Largest fleet in world history until the twentieth
century.
– Approximately 30,000 men
– Sought to establish trade contacts throughout the Indian
Ocean, Persian Gulf, East Africa, and Southeast Asia.
• 62 “treasure ships”
• 190 smaller ships
• Debate about why China didn’t
continue.
Wang Anshi (1021 – 1086)
"The state should take the
entire management of
commerce, industry, and
agriculture into its own
hands, with a view to
succoring the working classes
and preventing them from
being ground into the dust by
the rich."
The baojia System.
• Village families grouped in 10’s.
• One family selected as the group leader.
• Leadership of this bao rotated.
• Ten responsible families were gathered, and a member
chosen to be responsible for 100 households, and so
on.
• Worked with the magistrate to prevent rebellions.
Leader of 100 Families
Groups of 10 Families
Imperial Civil Service
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Palace Examinations
National Examinations
Provincial Examinations
County Examinations
Nine
Grades
Imperial Examinations
First Form
• Scholastic arts
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Music
Arithmetic
Writing
Knowledge of the rituals and ceremonies
• public
• Private
• Military arts
– Archery
– Horsemanship
Imperial Examinations
Sui Dynasty additions (600’s)
• "Five Studies“
– Military strategy
– Civil law
– Revenue and taxation
– Agriculture and geography
– The Confucian classics
• Imperial bureaucracy takes its full form in the
Tang Dynasty.
Village Leadership
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“Scholar-gentry class.”
Had to obtain at least the shengyuan
Open to all classes.
Most scholar-gentries came from the wealthy.
Expected to present a model of moral
behavior.
District Magistrate
• Lowest level of bureaucratic office.
• Training ground for higher levels of service.
• Managed local government
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collecting taxes
public order
presiding over ceremonies
conducting exams
setting a moral example.
• To prevent abuses, he had to write reports and
was monitored.
c. 1880
c. 1492
Guangxu Emperor and court officials, 1901
Women’s lives
largely unchanged,
except for custom
of foot binding.
Initially
represented a
woman’s freedom
from manual labor
Xi’an 1986
Tang Dynasty perfects porcelain.
Not duplicated in Europe until early 1700’s
Neo-Confucian synthesis . . .
• . . . retained core of Confucian ethical teachings
with Buddhist and Daoist speculative philosophy.
• Zhu Xi (1130 – 1200) encouraged full exploration
of the physical world as necessary to understand
one’s place in the Supreme Ultimate.
• The basis of the Chinese world view until the 20th
Century.