Imperial China vs.
Feudal Japan
Compare/Contrast
Political
O Ming: centralized
O Selective borrowing
bureaucracy; revived
the civil service exam
O Qing: foreign rulers;
continued civil
service system
O Confucian ideas
present throughout
both dynasties
DID NOT include the
civil service system
O Hostage system
O Feudal political
system set up under
the shoguns
Religious
O Neo-Confucianism –
we start to see the
veneration of
Confucius as a
godlike figure
O Zen Buddhism
O Reinforced the
Bushido values of
mental discipline
and self discipline
O Christianity
threatens shogun
rule/feudal system
Intellectual
O
European influences
enter Chinese thinking
O
O
O
contradict
Confucian ideals
Communism
begins to enter
Chinese thinking
in late 1800s
Qing - “the self
strengthening
movement”
O Feared western
expansion
throughout feudal
era – became the
reason for the Meiji
Restoration at the
end of the Tokugawa
shogunate
Cultural
O Renovations of Great
Wall & Grand Canal
O Imperial Palace
O Porcelain ceramics
O Ming most famous
O Qing is imitative
O Literature – social
fiction
O Beijing Opera
O Literature
O Heian period novels
O Selective borrowing
of art & architecture
from China
O Haiku pottery
O No and Kabuki
theater
Economic
O Zheng He voyages of
exploration
O Portuguese traders
O Peasant unrest due to
high taxes, poor crop
yield due to harsh
climate, & disease led
to downfall of the Ming
O Qing lowered taxes to
appease people &
expanded trade along
the Silk Road
O Trade with Japan and
Europe
O Merchants at the
bottom of the social
hierarchy, but they
become rich during
the Tokugawa
shogunate due to
lack of internal
struggles
Social
O Confucian social
norms
O Ming saw outsiders as
barbarians
O Chinese were
discriminated against
by the Manchu during
the Qing
O Women were kept
inferior through social
practices (binding of
feet)
O Elaborate court life
helped develop the
feudal system
O Feudal social system
– rigid class system
O Bushido defined
samurai way of life
O Eta were
discriminated
against