HIS280 midterm

neolithic revolution

• transformation from mobile hunter gatherer civilizations to settled agricultural civilizations

  • crop culitvation, semi permanent settlement, pottery for storage, textiles/clothing production

• began 5000 BCE in china (earlier than in other regions)

• south china = rice based (hemudu culture)

  • advanced weaving, stilt houses for wetlands

• north china = millet based (cishan culture)

  • storage pits and pottery, domestication of dogs, pigs, and cattle

nu wa

• created human being from clay and repaired the sky

• typically imaged as a female with a snake lower body

  • later stories paired her with a male figure (fu xi), showing the shift from matrilineal to patriarchal society

huangdi and yandi

• huangdi = “yellow emperor”, yandi = “fire emperor”

• emerged in northern chinese tribes, believed to be the founders of chinese civilization

  • initially rivals, later became allies to fight the leader of southern china to unify china

• represent a common origin story for china and the chinese people

sage kings

• ruled the centralized regime that arose after huangdi and yandi unified china

• yao, shun, and yu were the sage kings and were seen as capable and moral

  • yao chose shun, then shun chose yu, putting merit over blood, setting precedent for later rulers

yu the great

• one of the sage kings, famous for controlling floods in china via infrastructure

  • demonstrates environmental conditions at the time, political legitimacy being linked to water management, and the importance of coordinated labour

• success leads to the founding of the xia dynasty ruled by qi (his son), which was the first dynasty in china

  • shows a shift from merit based to hereditary succession

jade

• jade is a very hard material to work with, which gives it its high presitge and ritual power

• jade was heavily connected to the liangzhu culture, who were known for their jade works

xia dynasty

• founded after the success of yu the great, led by his son qi

  • seen as the first dynasty in chinese history, but is only known through oral records, not archeology

    • there are archeological sites that point to something before the shang, but nothing definitive (ie erlitou)

erlitou

• archeological site located in henan province that is heavily associated with the xia dynasty

  • Marks a transition from neolithic cultures to a more complex bronze age

• holds many of the oldest bronzes in china, which required a lot of craftsmanship and skill

  • often for ritual use, which shows the social hierarchies and ritual practices of the time

• represents pre-shang state formation and large scale organized societies

shang dynasty

• spanned 1600 to 1046 BCE

• second dynasty in chinese history, but the first to be historically proven by both archeology and written records

• centred on the yellow river region, which was also the core of xia territory

  • bronze signalled social hierarchy because it was controlled by the royal family and their circle

oracle bones

• bones that were prepared by professional diviners employed by the king

  • the king would heat them and interpret them to communicate with the ancestors

• very prevalent in shang society, as they believed that ancestors would protect and guide them as long as they were sustained

shang bronzes

• bronze items were for elite rituals only during the shang dynasty

  • shang artisans made vessels using clay molds and poured bronze for the elites

western zhou dynasty

• the western zhou dynasty ruled from 1027 to 771 BCE with a capital at haojing

• they were initially a peripheral state in shang china but strengthened under king wu

  • the zhou took power after the battle of muye in 1046 BCE, where they overthrew the shang

• they adopted feudalism instead of the shang dual domain system with a rigid hierarchy

mandate of heaven

• originated with the zhou and was central to zhou narratives

• claims that a ruler must obey the heavens and live virtuously lest the heavens revoke their mandate

  • explains the rise and fall of dynasties, and justified zhou conquest as the shang ruler had become corrupt

• took the place of shang supreme deities after the zhou came to power

eastern zhou dynasty

• tribesmen and zhou vassals attacked the western zhou capital and killed the king in 771 BCE, leading to a shift to the eastern capital of luoyi

• the eastern zhou period is split into the spring and autumn period and the warring states period

  • spring and autumn = competition, warring states = total war

• feudalism was a key element in the descent into chaos, as regional lords were gaining too much power and losing loyalty to the king

• this period laid the foundation for later intellectual development (ie confucius)

spring and autumn period

• spanned 722 to 481 during the eastern zhou dynasty

• existing states in the eastern zhou began to compete with each other, slowly gaining power and leading to fragmentation

  • the zhou king was already weak, and the regional lords were becoming too powerful

warring states period

• the many smaller states of the zhou from the spring and autumn period were consolidated into larger, stronger ones

  • qin, zhao, han, wei, chi, qi, and yan

• the goal became survival through expansion, leading to intense competition

  • qin eventually conquered the others and led to a new, unified dynasty

hundred schools of thought

• a name that emerged during the zhou to refer to the many different scholars and thinkers that were around at the time

  • this ran parallel to similar developments in greece, india, and the middle east

confucianism

• confucius lived during the spring and autumn period

  • he saw the behaviour during the time as not according to the rules of how people should act, leading to moral disorder

• spent years travelling across different states to try to convince rulers of moral standards for governance

  • he was unsuccessful in his lifetime, but was survived by his students (mencius, etc)

• ren (benevolence) = being able to care for others

• xiao (filial piety) = respect shown to parents by children

  • children are born with a moral debt, and not respecting parents is a moral failure

legalism

• founded by students of xunzi, who was initially a confucian

  • from the state of zhao and had a pragmatic approach to social order

• centers on effective government and social structures, not spiritual freedom

  • thought rulers should design rules that shape people’s behaviour instead of relying on people to be good

• legalist reforms were implemented by shang yang to reform the state of qin and allow them to come to power

daoism

• founded by laozi and his peers with the dao de tsing

• more skeptical than confucianism and argued that there was too much governance and ritual

  • thought that the artificial order caused by ritual was what caused the disorder of the eastern zhou

• dao = the way, seen as the source of all things, preexisted humans

• emphasized nature, simplicity, and non interference (wu wei), favouring minimal governance

qin dynasty

• spanned 221 to 206 BCE

  • was a very short lived dynasty, but has a far reaching legacy in chinese history

• the qin was separated from the rest of china during the warring states period by a mountain range

  • this gave them an advantage and allowed them to win the war and unify china

• the qin were seen as barbarians and culturally inferior by the other states

• when they came to power in 221 BCE

shang yang

qin shihuang

centralization

commandery-county system

qin standardization

qin mutual responsibility

liu bang

xiang yu

western han dynasty

emperor wudi

silk road

xiongnu

zhang qian

eastern han dynasty

three kingdoms

wei

shu

wu

cao cao

liu bei

sun quan

jin dynasty

northern and southern dynasties

northern wei dynasty

xianbei

sinicization

southern development

aristocratic families

buddhism

sui dynasty

sui reunification

grand canal

tang dynasty

emperor taizong

wu zetian

chang’an

equal field system

civil service exams

an lushan

shi siming

jiedushi

two tax system

buddhist suppression

five dynasties and ten kingdoms

song dynasty

liao dynasty

khitan people

western xia

tangut

changyuan treaty

kaifeng (bianjing)

scholar officials

song urbanization

economic revolution

maritime trade

jin dynasty

jingkang incident

southern song dynasty

lin’an (hangzhou)

neo-confucianism

zhu xi

genghis khan

mongols

kublai khan

yuan dynasty

dadu (beijing)

semu people

eurasian trade