W3 WHG Era 3 – Classical Traditions, World Religions, and Major Empires,

1000 B.C.E./B.C. to 300 C.E./A.D.

WHGCEs Middle School Series - Session 7 Part I Craig Benjamin

Part One: China

W3 WHG Era 3 – Classical Traditions, World Religions, and Major Empires, 1000 B.C.E./B.C. to 300 C.E./A.D. (p 60)

• Analyze classical civilizations and empires and the emergence of major world religions and large-scale empires.

• During this era, innovations and social, political, and economic changes occurred through emergence of classical civilizations in Africa and Eurasia. Africa and Eurasia moved in the direction of forming a single world of human interchange as a result of trade, empire building, and the diffusion of skills and ideas

• Six of the world’s major faiths and ethical systems emerged and classical civilizations established institutions, systems of thought, and cultural styles that would influence neighboring peoples and endure for centuries.

W3.1 Classical Traditions in Regions of the Eastern Hemisphere

Analyze classical civilizations and empires and their lasting impact on institutions, political thought, structures, technology and art forms that grew in

- China (Part I) - India (Part II)- Africa (Part III)- the Mediterranean basin (Greece Part IV; Rome

Part V)- Southwest and Central Asia (Part VI)

7 – W3.1.1 – W3.1.2

7 – W3.1.1 Describe the characteristics that classical civilizations share

- Institutions- cultural styles- systems of thought that influenced neighboring peoples and

have endured for several centuries7 – W3.1.2 Using historic and modern maps, locate three major empires of this era, describe their

- geographic characteristics including physical features and climates

- and propose a generalization about the relationship between geographic characteristics and the development of early empires.

7 – W3.1.3 – W3.1.57– W3.1.3 Compare and contrast the defining characteristics of a

- city-state- civilization- empire

7 – W3.1.4 Assess the importance of Greek ideas about democracy and citizenship in the development of Western political thought and institutions7 – W3.1.5 Describe major achievements from Indian, Chinese, Mediterranean, African, and Southwest and Central Asian civilizations in the areas of

- art, architecture and culture- science, technology and mathematics- political life and ideas- philosophy and ethical beliefs- military strategy

7 – W3.1.6 – W3.1.7

7 – W3.1.6 Use historic and modern maps to locate and describe trade networks among empires in the classical era.7 – W3.1.7 Use a case study to describe how trade integrated cultures and influenced the economy within empires E.g.

- Assyrian and Persian trade networks - or networks of Egypt and Nubia/Kush- or Phoenician and Greek networks

7 – W3.1.8 – W3.1.10

7 – W3.1.8 Describe the role of state authority, military power, taxation systems, and institutions of coerced labor, including slavery, in building and maintaining empires. E.g.

- Han Empire- Mauryan Empire- Egypt- Greek city-states - and the Roman Empire.

7 – W3.1.9 Describe the significance of legal codes, belief systems, written languages and communications in the development of large regional empires.7 – W3.1.10 Create a time line that illustrates the rise and fall of classical empires during the classical period.

• Part One: The Feudal Age The Zhou Dynasty (1030 – 221 BCE)

• Part Two: The Emergence of China’s Major Philosophies in the Later Zhou

• Part Four: Unification of China Under the Qin (221-206 BCE)

• Part Five: The Early and Later Han Dynasty(206 BCE – 220 CE)

This Lecture to Include

PART One: The Feudal Age The Zhou Dynasty (1020-221 BCE)

• Soon after 1030 BCE powerful Zhou tribe from western China overthrew the Shang, accusing them of not ruling fairly (‘Shang king a criminal fool given to wine, women, tyranny and greed’!)

• Zhou ruler claimed a mandate from heaven, believing that the cosmos was ruled by an impartial and all powerful Heaven who sits in judgment over human rulers

• This idea that rulers could only rule with divine approval became a dominant factor in future Chinese thought

• Zhou very powerful, so former Shang scribes all switched sides, and helped the Zhou establish a dynasty that would last for 900 years (longest in Chinese history)

Zhou Dynasty

(Maximum Extent)

Zhou Feudal Politics

• Zhou domain was so large (both northern China and the Yangtze valley) they instituted a feudal system of government

• Kings gave authority to 50 or so powerful nobles who held their lands at the kings will, and were required to provide troops and fight for him

• Noble titles sometimes hereditary, other times had to be earned. Women and peasants had almost no standing

• Early Zhou kings were powerful rulers successful in war, but after two centuries a series of weak and complacent kings lessened central power of the throne

Chinese cinema posterpromoting another movieabout the Zhou Dynasty

The Later Zhou: Feudalism

• By the 8th century vassals were largely independent; even court officials and scribes increased their power by obtaining lands and privileges

• In 771 all remnants of Zhou royal power disappeared when an alliance of disloyal groups destroyed the capital

• Part of the royal family escaped to the eastern capital of Loyang, where they ruled in a ceremonial capacity for another 500 years

Chinese Symbol for the Zhou Dynasty

The ‘Era of Warring States’

(475-221)• Seven of the strong

feudal princes consolidated their own power; each adopted the title ‘wang’ king.

• Warfare amongst these rival kings was incessant, particularly during the ‘Warring States’ Era

Zhou Economy • Because of unstable political nature of the

later Zhou, era one of the most culturally and technologically creative in Chinese history

• Chinese mastered the use of iron in the 6th Century BCE (centuries before Europe). The iron-tipped plow (drawn by an ox) increase agricultural output significantly, allowing for rapid population growth

• Zhou built canals for irrigation and transport; commerce expanded (with shells, silk, and ingots of gold and silver used as a medium of exchange)

• Middle class increasingly wealthy (richer artifacts found in middle class homes)

• But the ruling classes more and more aloof from the masses

www.is.net

Zhou Society

• With the weakening of central Zhou power after the 9th Century, rigid social hierarchy changed

• Land could be purchased by those with money, rather than just inherited by nobles, allowing the wealthy middle class to achieve elite status

• Peasants excluded from all this• They were tied to villages where they worked as tenant farmers for landed gentry• Most farmers worked plots so small they could not produce a crop surplus

Zhou Religion• The religious practice of the Zhou

empire reflected their hierarchical way of life

• Zhou kings believed that they were given a mandate from heaven to rule

• Kings prayed and sacrificed to Shang Di, the Lord on High, now called Dien (Heaven), and to their ancestors (pictured left)

• The lords of the territories prayed to the local nature gods and to the gods of agriculture in addition to their ancestors

• If any sacrifices or prayers were missed, great ill was predicted to fall on the territory or kingdom of the neglectful leader

Part Two: The Emergence of China’s Major Philosophies During the Later

Zhou Warring States Era • Instability of the later Zhou responsible

for the emergence of rich streams of thought

• Between 6th and 3rd Cs great thinkers and philosophers profoundly considered the nature of society and human existence

• Philosophies they created on how humans should live have substantially shaped Chinese political culture ever since

• Subsequent Chinese rulers were often faced with the decision of whether to adopt Confucianism or Legalism as the guiding principal and philosophy of the state

Confucius www.historywiz.com

ConfucianismLife of Kong Fuzi

• First Chinese thinker to address the problem of political and social order, and also the most famous Chinese philosopher of all time, is Kong Fuzi – Kong the Sage (551-479 BCE), known to the West as Confucius

• A member of the lower aristocracy of a minor state of Lu, and for many years sought an influential post in the Lu Court

• When none came his way he traveled China for about 10 years looking for employment in other courts

• Again he had no success, and in 484 he returned bitterly disappointed to Lu, where he died five years laterConfucius

www.library.northwestern.edu

Eurasian-Wide ‘Age of the Philosophers’• Although he never obtained a powerful position, he did serve as

educator and political advisor throughout his career, which gave him the opportunity to reflect deeply on life and society

• This was a highly philosophical era right across the Afro-Eurasian world zone: Confucius was a contemporary of the Buddha in India, Zoroaster in Persia, and the Socratic philosophers of Greece

• Like the Greeks, Confucius more interested in the essential duties and obligations of correct living, rather than religion

• E.g. to this day the Chinese have no real creation myth like the Old Testament

• So Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism are genuine philosophical schools, not religions

Disciples• Confucius attracted many

disciples throughout his life, who like him also aspired to political careers

• Confucius collected disciples from all different social classes

• Insisted that the title junzu (Princeling) should apply not just to sons of the aristocracy, but to ‘superior men’ who had achieved a high level of ethical and intellectual cultivation

• This was a revolutionary redefinition of the criterion for assigning status in Chinese society, and was an attempt to revitalize the old aristocracy

Confucius and his disciples

www.cssd11.k12.co.us

Analects• Confucius’ teachings were transmitted faithfully by his disciples• However these have been endlessly reinterpreted in ever-

changing intellectual and socials contexts ever since, so ‘pure’ Confucianism is sometimes hard to pin down

• The statements made by Confucius the teacher were collected in the Analects as a series of answers (‘sayings’) to questions posed by his disciples

Extract from the Analects

Confucian Ideas

• Confucius’ thought fundamentally moral, ethical and political in character

• Also practical – did not deal with abstruse, hypothetical philosophical problems, or with religion

• Rather, in response to the violence and disunity of the times, Confucius attempted to justify prevailing social hierarchy by building it into an ethical framework, based on the stability of interpersonal relationships of officials

• That is, in an age when bureaucratic institutions were not fully developed, he argued that the best way to promote good government was to fill official positions with individuals who were well educated, conscientious and ethical

• He concentrated on the creation of junzi – superior individuals

Literary Study

• In the absence of established education system and core curriculum, he and his disciples studied works of poetry and history produced during the Zhou Dynasty

• They carefully examined these works because they provided insight into human nature

• But they were also practical in their aim of finding literary works that would be instructive to future administrators

• As a result of Confucius’ influence, Zhou literature became the core curriculum in traditional Chinese education for the next two thousand years

• These include the Book of Songs, the Book of History and the Book of Rites

Confucian Values: Ren

• Education only one part of preparation for an ideal official – the other was the possession of moral integrity, and the capacity for wise and fair judgments

• He emphasized several ethical qualities in particular

• One of these was ren, meaning kindness, benevolence, a sense of humanity

• Officials with ren were courteous, respectful, diligent and loyal

• He felt a sense of ren was urgently needed in the bureaucracies of his day

Confucian Values: Li and Xiao

• Li was a sense of propriety – officials had to behave in an appropriate fashion, treat all other humans with courtesy, and show due respect to their elders and superiors

• Xiao meant filial piety, reflecting the great significance of family in Chinese society

• Children obliged to respect their parents and other family elders, support them in their old age, and remember them and other ancestors after their deaths

The Junzi and Moral

Leadership

• Confucius felt that individuals that possessed ren, li and xiao would gain influence in larger society

• These moral and self-controlled individuals would then lead others by example

• Only through enlightened leadership by ethical leaders was there any hope for the restoration of political and social order in fragmented late-Zhou China

• His goal was thus not only the creation of junzi for their own sake, but because they could bring order and stability to society

Hierarchical Society• Confucius thus clearly believed in

moral responsibility in the ruling classes, and a concern for the rights of others: ‘Never do to others what you would not like them to do to you’

• But despite this ethical quality, Confucianism essentially justified a hierarchical society in which ‘The noble man understands what is right; the inferior man understands what is profitable’

• However, the noble man (junzu) need not necessarily be an aristocrat, but superior in terms of education and morality

www.alternativeapproaches.com

Confucius

Later Disciples

• Confucius expressed his ideas in general terms, making it possible for later disciples to adapt it to their own times and problems

• This very flexibility explains the longevity of Confucianism and its continuing influence in China

• Two of the most important later disciples who reflect the flexibility of traditional Confucianism are Mencius and Xunzi

Mencius (372-289 BCE)

• Mencius the most learned man of his age and a principal spokesman for the Confucian school

• Traveled widely throughout China during the later Warring States Era offering advice to rulers

• Felt human nature was basically good, and sought policies that would allow this to influence society

• Advocated government based on ren – benevolence and humanity

• Role of rulers was to levy light taxes, avoid wars, support education and encourage harmony and cooperation

• Was Mencius naively optimistic? Can these policies succeed in the real world where human interests, wills and ambitions constantly clash?

acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu

Xunzi (298-238 BCE)

• Xunzi was a man of immense learning who served as a government administrator

• This practical experience gave him a morerealistic view of human nature than Mencius

• Believed humans selfishly pursued their own interests, whatever the cost to society, and considered strong social discipline the best way of bringing order to society

• Hence Xunzi emphasized li rather than ren• Advocated the establishment of clear standards of

conduct that set limits on the pursuit of individual interests, with strong punishment for those who neglected their obligations to larger society

www.geocities.jp/jialaid

Confucian Optimism

and Activism

• Although harsher and more realistic, Xunzi (like Confucius and Mencius) believed it was possible to improve human beings and restore order to fragmented society• Fundamental optimism thus a basic characteristic of Confucianism• Explains high value they placed on education and public behavior, and for an activist intervention in public affairs• Confucians actively sought government positions to solve political and social problems

Legalism• Ultimately Confucianism was not able to solve the

problems of the Warring States era• At the end of the Warring States another body of thought

emerged in China – Legalism, or the School of Law – which also sought stability in an age of turmoil, but by strengthening the power of the king

• Legalists argued for strict laws to achieve orderly society, believing people only acted virtuously when forced to by the state

• In the end it was legalism that brought order back to China• Legalism not concerned with ethics or the place of

humans in nature, but with the state, which they sought to strengthen and expand at all costs

Shang Yang• Legalist doctrine emerged from the

insights of men who were actively involved in Chinese political affairs during the late 4th Century BCE

• Most notable was Shang Yang (c. 390-338) who was Chief Minister to the duke of the Qin state in western China

• His policies are found in a surviving text called The Book of Lord Shang which probably also includes contributions from other ministers

• Shang Yang was a clever and efficient administrator, but was despised and feared because of his power and ruthlessness

• Upon the death of his patron, Shang Yang was quickly executed – his body was mutilated and his family annihilated

Han Feizi • Most systematic of all legalist theorists was Han Feizi (c.280-233 BCE) – a student of the Confucian scholar Zunzi

• Han Feizi carefully studied Legalist ideas from all over China, and synthesized them into a collection of powerful and persuasive essays on statecraft

• Han Feizi also an advisor at the Qin Court, and was forced to commit suicide by his enemies who forced him to take poison

• Thus the Legalist state itself consumed the two foremost proponents of Legalist doctrine

www3.la.psu.edu/textbooks

Legalist Doctrine: A World of Soldiers and

Farmers

• Legalists reasoned that the foundations of a state’s strength were agriculture and the armed forces

• Sought to channel as many individuals as possible into farming or the military, while discouraging them from pursuing careers as merchants, entrepreneurs, scholars, educators, philosophers, poets or artists

• These lines of work did not advance the interests of the state

Legalists and the Law

• Legalists wanted to harness subjects’ energy by means of strict and clear laws – hence ‘Legalists’

• Where Confucians relied on custom, education and ethics, legalists depended on laws

• Only way to persuade individuals to subordinate their interests to those of the state was through strictly enforced laws

• These laws clearly outlined expectations and provided severe punishments

• If people feared the consequences of committing petty crimes, they would be deterred from greater crimes

• For petty crimes punishment was thus severe – for disposing of trash in the street individuals would suffer amputation of hands or feet!

Collective Responsibility

• Also established the principle of collective responsibility before the law• All members of a family or community were expected to observe other members closely• Their duty was to forestall any illegal activity, and report any infractions• If they failed in these collective responsibilities, all members of the family or community were liable to the same punishments as the actual violators

The Legacy of Legalism

• Legalist principles of government were not popular• Over the centuries Chinese moral and political philosophers

have had little praise for the Legalists• Very few Chinese thinkers have openly associated themselves

with the legalist school• Yet Legalist doctrine lent itself easily to practical application• Legalist principles of government quickly produced remarkable

results for those who adopted them, particularly the Qin• Ultimately it was Legalism – not Confucianism or Daoism –

that put an end to the disunity and chaos of the Warring States Era and led to the unification of China

PART THREE: Unification of China Under the Qin (221-206 BCE)

• It was the dynasties of the Qin (which gave its name to ‘China’) and their successors the Han that created first Chinese Empire

• The Qin were short-lived, but the Han ruled for 400 years, utterly transforming Chinese society

The Qin rulers enlarged China by conquests as far south as the South China Sea and Vietnam

www.metmuseum.org

Qin Rise to Power

• The king of the Qin Dynasty, helped by a legalist Zhou Prime Minister, overthrew the powerless Zhou Dynasty in 256, and by 221 had united much of China

• Declared himself Shi Huang Di (First August Supreme Ruler) – an official title for China’s emperors that lasted until 1911

Qin Shi Huangdi

Qin Political Structure

• King weakened nobility by moving its leading members to the Qin capital at Xian; ordered the civilian population to surrender all weapons

• New legal code (proposed by the Legalists) regulated all aspects of society

• China was divided into 48 provinces, each under the control of administrative bureaucracies (not feudal lords)www.washburn.edu/

Qin Social Reforms

• Private ownership of land by the peasants was allowed

• Chinese society transformed by freeing the peasants from serfdom, and allowing for creation of a merchant and military upper class

• Population was divided into 20 ranks, and the role of the bureaucracy strengthened

www.oneworld.org

www.shef.ac.uk

The Qin Economy

• Qin rule stimulated booming economy - began to use money for the first time

• Trade routes strengthened, cities expanded, regional specialization emerged

• Growth also stimulated by public works; standardization of the written language and currency; and building of the first Great Walls to keep the militarized nomads of China’s north out of the country

• New form of Chinese written language lasted until 1949• 4000 miles of highways, and thousands of miles of canals

were also constructed (Roman roads were slightly shorter in total length - about 3,740 miles)

• The emperor is also credited with the construction of the Great Wall of China!

Qin Society • As a legalist, Shi Huangdi

suppressed Confucianism and burned any philosophical books that might be interpreted as anti-legalist

• New cultural elite consisted of state-appointed teachers who used state-approved texts based on Qin interpretation of history

• First Emperor used 500,000 laborers to construct his own massive tomb near Xian. To keep the location a secret, all artisans and laborers were buried alive at the tomb’s conclusion

www.emuseum.msu.edu

Tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi - The Terracotta Warriors

End of the Qin

Dynasty

• The First Emperor succeeded by his inept son in 210 BCE, who could not control the alienated nobility

• Rebel armies arose across China, leading to anarchy and the collapse of Qin authority

• Most formidable army was led by a peasant who had become a Qin general, Liubang

• Although the Qin Dynasty was short lived, empire it created ultimately lasted for 2000 years until 1912 (when China became a republic) – the longest-lived political entity in human history

Part Four: The Early and Later Han Dynasty

(206 BCE – 220 CE)

• 206 BCE Liubang defeated his rivals and established the Han Dynasty (named after the Han River, a tributary of the Yangtze)

• Han history divided into two phases: • Early Han (capital at Xian) lasted 206-8 BCE:

Later Han (capital at Loyang) lasted 23-220 CE – a total of almost 400 years

• Chinese call themselves ‘Men of Han’ to this day

Ancient Xianwww.ancient.holm.

Han Social and Political Reform

• Han succeeded where Qin failed because they were more moderate. • Liubang reduced taxes and forced labor, established an excellent

road system, and enlisted the support of Confucian intellectuals, replacing Qin legalist terror by reviving intellectual life

• Han created vast bureaucracies staffed by salaried administrators to rule the empire

• Men employed on the basis of an examination system based on knowledge of the Confucian classics

• This was a masterstroke because of the Confucian insistence on loyalty to the state

The results of government exams were ‘published’

Wudi and the Pax Sinica (141-87)• Han Empire reached its

zenith under Emperor Wudi (‘Martial Emperor’)

• The emperor dispatched envoy Zhang Qian to travel deep into Central Asia and seek allies against the Xiongnu

• To finance imperial expansion he increased peasant taxes (but not those of the nobles) and also increased demands of military service and forced labor

www2s.biglobe.ne

Zhang Qian and Han Expansion

• It was by seeking an alliance with the Yuezhi against the Xiongnu that China became involved in the Silk Roads trade• The Chinese commercial exchanges brought great profits to Chinese merchants (and their western counterparts)

• The Silk Roads were the most important exchange network of the ancient world, responsible for massive levels of cultural exchange

depts.washington.edu/uwch/ silkroad/maps/maps.html

Wang Mang (8-23 CE)

• Wudi’s costly policies led to fiscal crisis and peasant revolt • Wudi followed by succession of weaker emperors, and the Han

were temporarily overthrown in 8 CE by a Confucian chief minister, Wang Mang

• Peasants struggled to pay their taxes, while the number of tax-free noble estates had increased, so Wang Mang abolished debt slavery and attempted to portion the land out to the peasants

• He also tried to stabilize prices by establishing government agencies to buy surplus commodities when prices fell, and sell them when scarcity forced prices to rise

• FDR later did something very similar (inspired by Wang Mang) during the ‘New deal’ in the 1930s

Coins minted during the reign of Wang Mang

The Later Han

(23-220 CE)

• Wang Mang’s reformist program failed because bureaucracy was unequal to the task - he was killed by rebels in 23 CE

• Power of the nobles, and the lot of the peasants, was unaffected• He was replaced by the Later Han Dynasty, which never

reached the heights of the Early Han• Numerous revolts by poverty-stricken peoples (including that by

the ‘Yellow Turbans’ in 184)• Eventually in 220 the throne was usurped by a warlord,

leading to 350 years of disunity and turbulence (China’s ‘Middle Ages’?)

Pottery heads ‘ the ‘Yellow turbans’

Han Thought, Art and Culture

• Han scholarship not original; mainly focused on interpreting the Zhou classics

• Wudi established an imperial university in 124 BCE, based on Confucianism (official state philosophy)

• Han created the world’s first dictionary - the Shuo Wen (Word’s Explained) - listed the meaning and pronunciation of over 9000 characters

• Han art highly creative, particularly its sculpture of high spirited Central Asian horses Exert from an early edition of the

Shuo Wenwww.chinavoc.com/arts/calligraphy

Han Art

Flying Horse, Gansu Provincewww.cohums.ohio-state.edu

Terracotta Models www.artsmia.org

Han Technology and Science

• Chinese technological innovation resulted in inventions like:

• seismograph

• water mill for grinding grain

• piston bellows for smelting iron

• horse collar for plowing

• wheelbarrow

Han scientists recognized sunspots and accurately determined the length of the calendar year

www.wkcj.var12Han Wheelbarrow

Ban Zhao• Ban Zhao (45-116 CE) the only

women ever chosen in Chinese history to be court historian - she established the concept of the ‘ideal woman’

• She listed four womanly qualifications – womanly virtue, words, bearing and work – and insisted on chastity, modesty and self-control, as well as hygiene

• This profoundly influenced Chinese, Japanese and Korean woman for the next 2000 years Chinese Woman – Ming Dynasty

www.mythinglinks.org

The Ideal Woman?

• Ban Zhao accepted that men were superior, and that women should acquiesce to their desires

• But she also argued for equal educational opportunities, because ideals of ‘right living’ could only be passed down through the generations by education

China

Japan

Han China and Foreign Trade

• Han resented having to trade with the ‘barbarians’ of the West, but recognized that this would increase the wealth and technological skill of China

• They exported mainly silk, and received horses and certain other material goods in return

• The involvement of China with the west through Central Asia increased both Chinese exposure to foreign goods and ideas, and brought China to the attention of the Parthians and even the Romans

• The Romans sent an envoy to China during the reign of Marcus Aurelius, who traveled by sea to the Han court

Conclusion

• Shang succeeded by long-lasting Zhou, which established Chinese self perception of a united people sharing a common destiny

• Under Qin and Han, China was unified and expanded, bringing China into contact with the rest of the Afro-Eurasian world zone for the first time

• During the Silk Roads ‘Era’ all of Afro-Eurasia united into a single world-system – the forerunner to globalization

• The conception of empire, unity and philosophy established during this period has defined the Chinese national character up to the present day