chinese history overview
TRANSCRIPT
Chinese History OverviewHistory & Themes
Three Fundamentals
• China is land.• China is time.• China is people.
Geography Matters
• China tilts down from west to east.
• Sown lands & steppe lands
• North & SouthDry & wetWheat/barley &
rice
• Authority & pacified• Simplicity & luxury
China’s Antiquity
• Antiquity is part of Chinese identity.
• 50,000 years ago - modern humans
• Local Neolithic Cultures
• 6000 years ago - Banpo - women’s power, pottery marks
• Yangshao Culture - farming
• Longshan Culture - walled communities
Multiple Origins
• Old Theory – Northerners created Chinese culture.
• Many different of Bronze Age cultures
• Yangshao & Longshan (Yellow River)
• Sanxingdui (Sichuan)
• Majiabang & Liangzhu (Lower Yangzi River)
• Dawenkou (East Coast)
• Qujialing (Middle Yangzi)
The Main CurrentThe Shang Dynasty
1800 BCE - 1045 BCE
• Rises from Longshan Culture in North China
• Silk technology
• Walled cities - centers of administration
• Ancestor worship & shamanism
• Bronze technology
• First writing
The Feudal AgeThe Zhou Dynasty
1045 BCE - 256 BCE
• The Mandate of Heaven
• Chariots & Crossbows
• Cast Iron & Mass Production
• Coins
• One Hundred Schools - Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, Logicians, Yin-Yang
EmpireThe Qin Dynasty
221 BCE - 206 BCE
• The First Emperor - Qin Shi Huangdi
• Legalism - efficient government but does not provide legitimacy
• Reduces regional autonomy - taxes, army, writing, measurement
• Centralized bureaucracy
• Mass enslavement
The Han Dynasty206 BCE - 220 CE
• Qin Legalism blends with Han Confucianism - legitimating
• Technology & arts - paper, porcelain, water mills, distillation
• The Silk Route• Buddhism from India via
central Asia• Most Chinese are Han
people.
Unity & Disunity
• China takes unity as the norm.
• Europe takes disunity as the norm.
• Disunity was often very creative in China.
The Cosmopolitan EmpireThe Tang Dynasty618 CE - 907 CE
• The Golden Age - poetry, painting, calligraphy
• Capital at Chang’an - international trade hub, largest city in the world
• Wu Zetian - only female emperor ever
• Buddhism dominant
China’s Mature Imperial SystemThe Song Dynasty960 CE – 1276 CE
• Mature imperial system of government
• Knowledge = Power• Exam System• Commercial Revolution -
paper money• Industrial Evolution - iron,
coal• Printing presses• Neo-Confucianism as
religion• Foot Binding
Wider InfluencesThe Mongols
• Violent conquest by Central Asians
• Pax Mongolica: peaceful exchange of goods and ideas across Asia and Europe
• Unable to manage huge Chinese population for long
The Last Native DynastyThe Ming Dynasty1276 CE - 1644 CE
• Suspicion & Intrigue• Zheng He’s Voyages• Economy contracted.• Secluded empire• Imperial capital
moved to Beijing.• The great novels• The Great Wall
The Last EmperorsThe Qing Dynasty
1644 CE - 1911 CE
• The second major foreign dynasty
• Better organized than the Mongol government
• Strong and wealthy into the 1800s
• Western imperial powers• Western merchants & gunboats• Missionaries• Rebellions - Tai Ping & many
others• Opium Wars
The Twentieth Century
• Republic of China ~ 1911 to 1949
• Warlord Era• Japanese Invasion & World
War Two• Chinese Civil War• 1949 People’s Republic of
China (PRC) - Mao Zedong• 1966 - 1976 Cultural
Revolution• 1978+ Deng Xiaoping’s
Reforms
The Twenty-First Century
• “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”
• World’s fasting-growing modern economy
• Many social issues