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Bell Ringer. What was the Mandate of Heaven? What was the main goal of Confucius? What is a meritocracy?. CH 7: Imperial China & Political Development. China: The Beginning. China would become united in 221 BCE by Prince Zheng of the Qin Dynasty. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Bell Ringer
• What was the Mandate of Heaven?
• What was the main goal of Confucius?
• What is a meritocracy?
China: The Beginning
• China would become united in 221 BCE by Prince Zheng of the Qin Dynasty.
• Prince Zheng would become China’s first emperor
Dynasties
• China’s rule will be marked by Dynasties, or by which family is in charge.
• Qin: 221-206 BC• Han: 206BC-220 CE• Period of Chaos: 220-
581
• Sui: 589-618• Tang: 618-907• Period of Chaos: 907-
960ish• Song: 960-1279• Yuan (Mongols):
1297-1368• Ming: 1398-1644
Mandate of Heaven
• The Chinese believed that Dynasties ruled by the Mandate of Heaven
• Floods, drought, famine, earthquakes, plagues, etc were signs Heaven was displeased
Han Dynasty
• The Han Dynasty will rule China for close to 400 years, but eventually fall.
• China would be run by a bureaucracy, a complex system of governments.
• If bureaucracies are honest & hardworking, they are very successful. By 220 CE the Han bureaucracy was corrupt and dishonest.
• This led to high taxes which upset the people
• Taxes drove many into poverty.
• Workers were forced to labor on public projects.
• Bandits were common, and led to warlords that fought the emperor.
• Farmers lost their land, and later rebelled.
• China would fall into a period of chaos
Return to order
• A nomadic group would claim control for 29 years, known as the Sui Dynasty.
• Heavy taxes would cause them to fall to the Tang dynasty.
• They would strengthen and fix the central government of China, and rule for over 300 years.
• The Han dynasty had relied on the aristocracy, ruling class & nobles, to run the government.
• They used civil service exams which determined who was qualified. (Who?)
• The Tang would re-introduce these exams.
• The exams could be taken by anyone, but were extremely difficult people normally needed tutors. The aristocracy were the few who could afford it.
Song Dynasty
• The unfairness of the system led to peasant rebellions, and the Song Dynasty would take over.
• The Song kept the exams, but used a meritocracy, rule by officials of proven merit.
The Exams
• The Exams were based on the teachings of Confucius.
• A Confucian scholar would create the Four Books in 1190. This would become the basis of all civil service exams.
• The Exams would be opened up to anyone in society, and even lower class people could attend state schools to study for the exams.
• If you passed the local exam, you could take the national exam.
• Participants would be locked into rooms when they took the exams, and someone would re-write all their answers so cheating was next to impossible.
• Only a small portion passed the exams.
• After three years on the job you could be promoted.
Mongol Rule• Kublai Khan (Genghis’ Grandson) would
take over China and form the Yuan dynasty.
• The Mongols distrust the Chinese, and don’t want them running their government, so they end the exam system.
• Many Mongols were uneducated or illiterate, so Chinese were still needed.
• After a period of time the continued shortage of officials would make the Mongols put the exams back in place.
• They were still selected who could take the exams.
Ming Dynasty• The Chinese would rebel
against the Mongols, and the Ming Dynasty would take over.
• Though the exam system will benefit China it limited them in some ways.
• People with science, math, or engineering knowledge were kept out of government.
• Merchants were also considered the lowest level of society.