CHINA & THE WORLD:
EAST ASIAN CONNECTIONS
500 – 1300
Strayer: Chapter 9
Lecture Notes
How did China interact with the world during the
Late Classical era?
• China was a major player among the third-wave civilizations.
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A China-centered “world order” encompassed most of Eastern Asia
China’s borders reached far into Central Asia
Wealthy & cosmopolitan culture
Economy & technological innovation had effects throughout Eurasia
• China was also changed
by its interactions with
non-Chinese peoples
• Nomadic military borderpeoples
• International trade
Why is China during this period different than
Classical Era China?
• The Han dynasty collapsed about 220 C.E.
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Led to 300 years of political fragmentations
Nomadic incursions from the north
Conditions discredited Confucianism in many eyes
Chinese migration southward to Yangzi River valley began
How did China reunify and again emerged as a
world power?
• The Sui dynasty (589 – 618)
reunified China
• Sui rulers vastly extended
the canal system
• Made internal trade,
population, & economic growth
much easier
• Their ruthlessness & failure
to conquer Korea alienated
people, exhausted
resources
• Mandate of Heaven lost,
dynasty was overthrown, but
the state didn’t disintegrate
How did China reunify & again emerge as a world
power?
• Tang (618 – 907) & Song
(960 – 1279) dynasties built
on Sui foundations
• Regarded as a “golden
age” of arts & literature
• Poetry, landscape painting,
ceramics of high order
• Birth of Neo-Confucianism
(Confucian revival with added
elements of Buddhism &
Daoism)
What was government like during the Tang
dynasty?
Implemented flexible new
Divided
government
functions between
six ministries:
state revenue,
public works,
defense, justice,
personnel, and
religious affairs
Reorganized local
administration
law code and restructured
judicial system to include
courts of appeal
Expanded Chinese territory
by conquering Tibet—
thereby opening door for
trade with the West
Expanded civil
service system
started by the
Hans
Founded a
university to
prepare students
for civil service
exams
Built new
capital city at
Chang’an and
engaged in
many public
works projects
Why did the Tang Dynasty fall?
• After Taizong’s death in 649, a long
line of good emperors extended
his work
• But after 760, the Tang Dynasty would
produce no more great rulers
• Chinese power steadily declined
as a result
• Last Tang ruler and his family
were killed during a civil war and
Chang’an was burnt to the
ground
• 907 AD
CHANG’AN
• Planned city
• 30 miles square
• Held population of nearly one million
people
• Another two million lived in
suburbs
• Largest city in the world
• Crowded with markets and
temples
• But was a government center before all
else
• Government buildings and
emperor’s palace complex
occupied several square miles on
the northern side of the city
TANG BUREAUCRACY
• Bureaucracy was huge but performed its job
honestly and efficiently
• Why?
• Board of Censors
• Spied on bureaucrats to make sure everyone
did their job correctly
• Acted as court of appeals for anyone who
felt they had not been treated fairly
• Educational system
• Promotion based exclusively on merit
• Weeded out the weak and mediocre
• Only the best and brightest made it into the
bureaucracy
• And only the best and brightest of them
were promoted
Tang bureaucrat
RESPONSIBLITY
• Power of government was immense
• Every urban neighborhood had its gates
locked at midnight
• National urban curfew designed to
reduce crime
• Peasants organized into “collective
guarantee groups”
• Members had to police themselves
and make sure their neighbors
behaved themselves
• Or else whole group would be
punished
• Responsibility, not freedom, was
keynote of Tang government
What was government like during the Song dynasty?
Song Dynasty founded in
960 by Zhao Kuangyin
Would last until 1279
Did not accomplish
anything noteworthy in
the area of politics and
military achievements
What was the “economic revolution” like during
the Song Dynasty?
• Time of great prosperity
• Great improvement in agricultural production
• Rapid population growth (50 – 60 million during Tang  over 120 during
Song)
• Most urbanized region in the world
• Dozens of cities with populations 100,000+
• Hangzhou – capital – over a million people
• Network of internal waterways (canals, rivers, lakes) = cheap
transportation
• Great improvements in industrial production – iron
• Inventions – printing press, shipbuilding, navigation, gunpowder
• Production for market rather than local consumption
• Cheap transportation
• Taxes in cash
• Paper money
SONG SCIENTIFIC ACHIEVEMENTS
• During Song Dynasty the Chinese
invented
• The compass
• Revolutionized navigation
• The printing press
• Used block printing
• Not movable type
• Gunpowder
• Used primarily for entertainment
purposes
• Fireworks
• Chinese doctors took the pulse of
patients to aid them in their diagnosis
and inoculated patients against
smallpox
ACUPUNCTURE
Chinese doctors developed
acupuncture
It is the practice of inserting needles
in precise locations of the body to
anesthetize patients for surgery
Western doctors are still not sure
how it works
it might block transmission of
pain signals to the brain
it might also cause body to
manufacture its own
anesthesia
PROBLEMS
• Growing population
• Over 120 million under the Songs
• Combined with increased taxes resulted in
the impoverishment of peasantry
• Inflation
• Provoked by deficit spending by Songs
• Military budget gobbled up 80% of all
revenue every year
• Forcing government to borrow to
pay for other things
• Used to support one million man
standing army
DECLINE IN THE STATUS OF WOMEN I
• Growth of concubinage
among upper class
• When married man’s
mistresses live under
same roof as his legal
wife
• And their children
have the same rights
as his legitimate
children
DECLINE IN THE STATUS OF WOMEN
• Footbinding
• Feet of young girls are tightly wrapped in linen
strips
• Remained bound in this manner for
ten years
• Result is the “lily foot”
• Men liked this
• It showed off the fact that they were
so wealthy that their wives did have to
work
• They also saw the walk produced by
this mutilation as sexually exciting
• Women were mutilated to satisfy the
egos and desires of men
How did China relate to its Northern Nomadic
neighbors?
• Northern nomads lived in small kinship-based groups
• Occasional creation of powerful states or confederations
• Pastoral societies needed grain, farm products, & luxury goods
from China
• Pressure from northern/western frontier was a constant factor in
Chinese history
• Nomads often felt threatened by the Chinese – military often
attacked on the steppes
• Great Wall
• Chinese needed the nomads
• Horses & other goods
• Nomads controlled parts of Silk Roads
What was the solution to managing unfriendly
frontier peoples?
• The Tribute System in THEORY…
• Chinese understood themselves as the center of the world – “middle
kingdom” – far superior to “barbarian” outsiders
• Believed that barbarians could become civilized Chinese
• Tang/Song dynasties established the “tribute system” to manage relations
with non-Chinese peoples
1. Non-Chinese authorities
must acknowledge
Chinese superiority
2. Present tribute to emperor
3. Would receive trading
privileges and “bestowals”
in return (often worth
more than the tribute
4. System worked for
centuries
What was the solution to managing unfriendly
frontier peoples?
• The Tribute System in PRACTICE…
• System disguised contradictory realities
• Some nomadic empires could deal with China on at least equal terms
• Xiongnu confederacy (est. 200 B.C.E.)
• Han Chinese emperor had to recognized political equality of Xiongnu & pay Xiongnu
what amounted to tribute
• Turkic Empires of Mongolia
were similar
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Steppe nomads usually did not
want to conquer & rule China –
preferred extortion
• Nomads moved in when
Chinese state broke down in
order to save beneficial
relationship
• Several steppe/nomadic states
took over parts of northern
China
How did nomadic interactions affect both
cultures?
• Nomads who ruled parts of China often
adopted Chinese ways
• Chinese culture did not have great impact on
steppe nomadic peoples as a whole – pastoral
societies retained their cultures because most
lived where Chinese-style ag was impossible
• Interaction = trade, military conflict,
negotiations, extortion, & some cultural
influence
• Steppe culture influence the parts of northern
China that were ruled frequently by nomads
• Founders of Sui & Tang dynasties were of mixed
blood
• Tang dynasty: fad among N. Chinese elites for
anything connected to “western barbarians”
How did China effect other East/SE Asian
societies?
• Korea, Vietnam, & Japan also had tributary relationships with China
How did China affect Korean society?
• Interaction with China started with
temporary Chinese conquest of northern
Korea during Han dynasty
• Korean states emerged in 4 th – 7th centuries
C.E.
• States were rivals – Korea resisting Chinese
control
• 7th century – Korean Silla kingdom allied with
Tang dynasty to bring political unity
• Korean ruler’s relationships with China
provided legitimacy to their rule
• Acceptance of much Chinese culture –
Confucianism, end of “free-choice” marriages,
no more plural marriage for men (some wives
reduced to rank of concubine)
• Korea maintained its Korean culture
• Buddhism moved beyond Korean elite
How did China effect Vietnamese society?
• Very similar experience to that of Korea, but
Vietnam’s cultural heartland in the Red River
Valley was officially part of the Chinese state
from 111 BCE – 939 CE
• Real effort at cultural assimilation of elite
• Provoked rebellions – rebellion in early 10th century
CE established Vietnam as a separate state,
remained tributary to China
• Vietnamese rulers adopted Chinese approach to
gov’t
• Examination system, established “emperor” who
claimed Mandate of Heaven
• Much of distinctive Vietnamese culture remained
in place
• Language, greater roles for women, kept nature
goddesses & “female Buddha,” independent
writing
How did China effect Japanese society?
• Different than Korea & Vietnam. Japan was
never invaded, conquered, or even
threatened by China – borrowing Chinese
culture was voluntary
• Main period of borrowing from 7 th – 9th
centuries CE when 1 st unified Japanese
state began to emerge
• Japanese bureaucratic state modeled on
China
• Large-scale missions to China to learn
• 17 Article Constitution resulted – Japanese ruler
as Chinese-style emperor, encourage Buddhism
& Confucianism, identified moral rulers as
foundation for social harmony
• 2 capital cities (Nara & Heian) were founded
– modeled on Chinese capital of Chang’an
• Elements of Chinese culture took root in
Japan – schools of Chinese Buddhism, art,
architecture, education, medicine,
religious views
How did China effect Japan?
• Japanese never created an effective
centralized & bureaucratic state
• Political power became decentralized
• Local authorities (Daimyo – aka lords)
developed their own military values
• Bushido – samurai set of values
• Japanese society is much more celebratory
towards military values than China
• Religious distinctiveness – Buddhism never
replaced native belief system based on sacred
spirits – Shintoism
• Maintained distinctive literary & artistic
culture
• Unique writing system mixed Chinese
characters with Japanese symbols
• Elite women escaped more of Confucian
oppression
• Only began to lose status in 12th century with
rise of warrior culture
Economic
What effects did China have on the
late-classical world’s economies?
How did world economies effect
China?
• Technological innovations spread
beyond its borders
• China learned cotton & sugar
cultivation & processing from India
• Population boom around 1000
assisted by intro of new rice strains
from Vietnam
• Some tech creativity was motivated
by cross-cultural contact
• Salt production through solar
evaporation
• Papermaking
• Printing (resisted by Islamic world)
• Gunpowder – invented circa 1000
CE; used differently in Europe
• Textile, metallurgical, & naval
technologies – magnetic compass
• Riches available in China
stimulated commercial life all over
Eurasia
• Printing by Buddhism
• Growing participation in Indian
Ocean Trade
• S. China begins exporting products
• Sometimes brought violence
How did Buddhism & China affect each other?
• Buddhism was India’s
most important gift to
China
• China’s only large-scale
cultural borrowing
until Marxism
• China was the base for
Buddhism’s spread to
Korea & Japan
Why did China ultimately turn on Buddhism?
• IMPORTANT: All across history we continue to see China display immense
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pride in itself and a general belief that they are the superior society. This
often results in isolationist policies and a distrust of all thing foreign. This
is an important theme in Chinese history! Remember it!
Deepening resentment of the Buddhist establishment’s wealth
It was foreign, thus offensive
Withdrawal from society of monks undermined the Confucian-based family
system
Government xenophobia (hatred of outsiders)
Note that Buddhism did not vanish from China – it’s still an important
religious element