ORIGINS OF THE
CHINESE EMPIRE
Myth of China’s Origins
• Set of Rulers:
1. Fu Xi – ox tamer (domesticated animals)
2. Shen Nong – divine farmer (technique of agriculture)
3. Huang Di – bows/arrows and writing
• Indicate Important Characteristics of Chinese Life
1. interaction between nomadic and agricultural people
2. importance of family as basic unit of Chinese life
3. development of unique system of writing
Neolithic China – river-based farming
River Videos
• Video #1: Yangtze River and the Three Gorges Dam
• Video #2: Un-Gorgeous Three Gorges
• Video #3: NYTimes Video on Yellow River, Part One
• Video #4: NYTimes Video on Yellow River, Part Two
Early Chinese Dynasties
First Dynasty – Xia – 2200-1750 BCE
•
connections with Indo-Europeans: bronze, chariots,
horses
Second Dynasty – Shang Dynasty
•
(1700 BCE) – just north of Yellow River
•
agricultural society
•
urbanization & class structure developed
•
ruled by aristocratic warriors, city-states, tied to
Shang dynasty by kinship or allegiance
•
believed in afterlife and ancestor worship
•
Best known for bronze casting
•
Link to MetMuseum Bronzes
Xia Dynasty Jade Knife
Photo by Dr. Gary Todd, Luoyang Museum
Music Links
• Shonta, Erhu music
Shang
China
Rice, first cultivated in China seven or eight thousand years ago, is a labor-intensive
crop that requires many workers to plant the seedlings and organize the distribution of
water. Initially, the fields are flooded to facilitate the rooting of the rice seedlings and to
add nutrients to the soil. Fish breeding in the flooded fields help keep mosquitoes and
other insects in check. As the plants mature, the fields are drained, and the plants
complete their four-month growing cycle in dry soil. Shown here is an example of
terracing on a hillside to preserve water for the nourishment of young seedlings.
© William J. Duiker
Third Dynasty – Zhou (1122-256 BCE)
• “Mandate of Heaven”: Definition?:
• Duke of Zhou created tradition
• Ruled with authorization of Heaven: Ruler = Son of Heaven
• Required to govern justly and humanely
• Heaven would withdraw support if he abused people and give
support to someone else, starting a new dynasty
• Started dynastic cycle: rise of one dynasty, loss of mandate,
overthrown, new dynasty,…and so on
• Kings selected based on “talent and virtue” (although
hereditary)
• Trade/monetary system – new cities, trade networks,
roads, canals, copper coins (‘cash’)
Western Zhou Bronze
Photo by Dr. Gary Todd, Luoyang Museum
Qin Dynasty – (221 – 206 BCE)
• Started by Shihuangdi
• Centralized State Powers (3 primary ministries)
• civil authority
• military
• censorate
• Power based on legalist ideas: dictating laws to people
• Successes:
• Standardized system of weights and measures
• Standardized system of writing and money
• Constructed roads
• Government controlled trade
• Terracotta warriors and tomb; started Great Wall
• Abuse of power, so son overthrown by Han dynasty
The Tomb of Qin
Shi Huangdi
The First Emperor of Qin ordered
the construction of an elaborate
mausoleum, an underground
palace complex protected by an
army of terra-cotta soldiers and
horses to accompany him on his
journey to the afterlife.
Video Link: David Brenneman
Reporting
Video Link: NatGeo Terra Cotta
Warriors
© William J. Duiker
The First Emperor of Qin ordered the construction of an elaborate mausoleum,
an underground palace complex protected by an army of terra-cotta soldiers
and horses to accompany him on his journey to the afterlife. This massive
formation of six thousand life-size armed soldiers, discovered accidentally by
farmers in 1974, reflects Qin Shi Huangdi’s grandeur and power.
© Martin Puddy/Getty Images
The Great Wall
Great Wall construction began in defense against
the Xiongnu – invaders from north
• Info on the Great Wall
• GoogleMaps of Great
Wall
Link to Wikipedia Map of Great Wall
The Han Dynasty –
(202 BCE – 220 CE)
• First Emperor – Gaozu
• No more legalism – State Confucianism
• government officials selected by merit
• Population increased rapidly
• State regulated trade and manufacturing
• The Silk Road
• New technologies: textiles, water and iron
• Paper was invented
• Dynasty so successful that Chinese people today still call
themselves the Han people
The Silk Road
• Trade route from China to
• Silkworm growth
western Asia, Africa, and
Europe
• All kinds of goods,
including Chinese silk
stages video
• Making Silk video
• Silk Road video
Western Han
Pottery, female
figure
Photo by Dr. Gary Todd,
Luoyang Museum
Han Jade Disc
Photo by Dr. Gary Todd, Luoyang Museum
Eastern Han
Pottery
Chandelier
Photo by Dr. Gary Todd,
Luoyang Museum
Chinese Philosophies
and Religions
Ancient Religion
and World View
• World divided into 3 levels: heaven, earth, underworld
• Reverence for ancestors – link between past, present,
•
•
•
•
•
and future
Devotion and sacrifices to ancestors at shrines – in home,
temples, or nature
2 souls: hun (heaven; spirit); po (with corpse; ghost)
Devotion = prosperity
Divination – shamans or priests use techniques to
understand supernatural or spirit world (oracle bones)
These beliefs and practices could be combined with other
religious or philosophical beliefs/practices
Shell and Bone Writing
The earliest known form of true
writing in China dates back to the
Shang dynasty and was inscribed
on shells or animal bones.
Questions for the gods were
scratched on bones, which cracked
after being exposed to fire. The
cracks were then interpreted by
sorcerers. The questions often
expressed practical concerns: Will
it rain? Will the king be victorious in
battle? Will he recover from his
illness? Originally composed of
pictographs and ideographs four
thousand years ago, Chinese
writing has evolved into an
elaborate set of symbols that
combine meaning and
pronunciation in a single character.
© Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY
Oracle Bone. China, Shang
Dynasty, ca. 1300-1050 BCE.
Scapula, (11.4 cm. x 18 cm.)
C. V. Starr East Asian Library,
Columbia University
Link to Lesson on Oracle
Bones, British Museum
Burial goods
in tombs prove
belief in the
afterlife
Like the pharaohs in Egypt, Chinese rulers filled their tombs with prized
possessions from daily life. It was believed that if the tombs were furnished
and stocked with supplies, including chairs, boats, chests, weapons, games,
and dishes, the spiritual body could continue its life despite the death of the
physical body. Here we see the remains of a chariot and horses in a burial pit
in China’s Hebei province that dates from the early Zhou dynasty.
© Lowell Georgia/CORBIS
Confucianism
• Confucius (Kungfuzi) – 551-479 BCE
• Analects – written conversations with disciples
• Emphasis on honorable, “noble-minded” public service:
“You are unable to serve man, how then can you hope to serve
the spirits? While you do not know life, how then can you know
about death?”
• Focus on active public life (compared to Daoism)
• Could be conservative (stay in place, obey) or radical (question
authority, expect just rule, overthrow unjust)
• Virtual Confucius Exhibit, China Institute, NYC
Confucius and his disciples
© Howard Sochurek/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images
Daoism (Taoism)
• Laozi – legendary figure, 6th-century BCE
• Main text, Daodejing
• Dao (The Way) – action/behavior
• Live in harmony with nature
• Let go of control
• Avoid worldly ambition
• Silence, passivity, contemplation: “True way to interpret
the Will of Heaven is not action, but inaction.”
• Much different than Confucianism – more about private
thought and living
Laozi – legendary
founder and Daoist
philosopher
Yin and Yang
• Harmony of opposites
• Light and dark
• Sun and moon
• Male and female
• Confucianism (public
politics) and Daoism
(private thought)
Legalism
• Based on ideas of Xunzi – 300-230 BCE
• Responded to disorder of warring states
• Believed humans were selfish and brutal
• Order had to be imposed from above
• Strict laws enforced by powerful authoritarian
state
• Disciple Li Si advised Qin ruler (terracotta
warriors, Great Wall) – short-lived brutal dynasty
Integrating Various Beliefs
• Question: In your view, how can one person integrate
various Chinese beliefs and philosophies in his/her daily
life without seeing a conflict between them?
• Open book quiz – one paragraph to answer the question:
• Give topic sentence
• Then outline the rest of the paragraph (give basic info. to
back up your topic sentence; info. doesn’t have to be in
complete sentences)
• No citations necessary