hst China and Japan exam 2

Song Dynasty

(960s-1270s)

Dawn of ‘Modern’ China

Tang dynasty collapses after entering a period of decline

Song State and Society

• Civilian control of military (elevated civilians to top of military)

• Exam system improvement/ expansion (stopped cheating/ true social mobility)

• “Good” emperors (committed to confucian leadership, listen to advisors)

• The confucian ideal? - reach ideal/highest form of confucian gov

• Local scholar-gentry class - need success in exam to have power

• also strong centralized state (more developed than any other dynasty thus far)

• meritocratic bureaucracy

• social mobility

Naito Konan

Japanese historian of the early 20th century

Song modernity thesis

Naito konan

• becoming a modern society means lineage no longer deciding power

• heredity means nothing, merit is what matters

• pyramid of social power shifts

  • start: emp at top, then aristocracy, bureaucracy (scholar officials), then commoners

  • end: emp has more power, then bureaucracy(NEED EXAM SCORES), then local scholar gentry, commoners (pop growing)

• absolutism and populism (social mobility)

Song economy/ demography

geog - center in yellow river valley, but spreading south

~100 million people

foundations of modern China being laid

Song agriculture/industry

• new tech makes agriculture more efficient

• new strains of rice

• amount of food being produced grows along with population

• Iron, steel production grows, industrial capacity grows

Song publishing

• manuals about new tools that can be printed and distributed across the country

• facilitates spread of economic development

Song Demography

• numbers of ppl living in urbanized places rises

• population growing because more food being grown

Song urbanization

lots of large large cities

Song commerce/ money

• people begin producing things specifically to be sold instead of for personal sustenance

• paper money - easier and more convenient than coins

  • governmental guarantee that paper does have value

  • shows how the people have faith in gov and trust them

Song Fall

Lost Chinese world to outsiders

Khitan - Liao dynasty (940s -1120s)

• Khitan - horse riding semi-nomadic people north of China

• Most powerful of many different groups and governed over area in very loose way

• interacted with Song dynasty

• from the very beginning of Song dynasty there was a very powerful people on the northern frontier

Jurchen - Jin dynasty (1120s - 1230s)

• close to what is now Korea

• came together on border of Chinese world

• most like the chinese bc proximity and had a lot of info ab how China operates

• Song tried to ally with Jurchens to help drive out Khitan

• Jurchens agree but end up taking power over northern China and seize control

• Establish Jin dynasty over northern China

Mongol - Yuan dynasty (1260s - 1360s)

• organize themselves in central asia

• conquer other nomadic tribes

• Song dynasty try to make deal with Mongols to kick out Jurchen

• Mongols do this but take over all of China and Song dynasty

• both centers of Chinese world under control of outside force

What accounts for Song “loss” of China

• Inept diplomatic strategy

  • tried twice to make deals w/ outside forces which fails

• strength of invaders

  • unprecedented strength of outsides

• Civilian rule strong, but vulnerable

  • strength left them vulnerable in face of outside forces

  • too much wen(civilization, culture), not enough we (power, military strength)

• Natural evolution of “China”- inner asia relations

  • logical next step in interaction between China and civilizations on their frontiers

The Mongol Conquest of Eurasia

13th century

Ghengis Khan

(1167-1227)

• founder of Mongol empire

• Located in Mongolia, Mongols come about as one unified group under him

1206 unification of Mongol Tribes

• Ghengis khan wanted to avenge dad and did so by conquering tribe that killed him, then kept going and crushed all other tribes

• used lots of violence

• broke bonds of loyalty between tribes by splitting soldiers up and put them in cohorts that were in control of commanders loyal directly to Ghengis Khan

Ghengis Khan

1214-1215 attacks on Jin

1219-1225 Central Asia

Ogodei (1229-1241)

• son of Ghengis Khan

• Conquest of Jin 1234

  • jurchen area now completely under control of Mongol

  • Southern Song still there, but north under Mongol control

• 1236-1242 Eastern Europe

  • could have taken over the whole of Europe, but Ogodei died before then

Karakorum

capital city of Mongol empire

built by Ogodei

Yelu Chucai

• Chinese advisor to Mongols and leaders

• helped them see utility of Chinese ideas

• helped Mongols tax and get revenue from civilians

• Under Ogodei

The pope and the Khan

• pope uses god as defense - the only reason the Khan got this far was to see if he would repent (“Stop taking over world cuz god”)

• Khan response was about him having command of god (“look at map bro, the pope should serve me”)

Khubilai Khan (1215-1294)

• Yuan dynasty at Peking 1271

  • claims they are new Chinese dynasty led by mongols

• Southern Song conquered 1279

  • Song resisted for ~40 years against mongol onslaught

  • First time China was taken over by a non-chinese group

• Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Java

• Two attempts by mongols to invade Japan

  • both failed, Japan was never under Mongol control

  • no experience of naval warfare

• Vietnam was also never overtaken

Peking

city of Mongols under Khubilai Khan

Character of Mongol Rule

• Small numbers, small population

• Cultural gap between Mongols and conquered Chinese

• Reliance on conquered

• Hierarchy

  • Mongols at top

  • Non-Chinese outsiders - 2nd tier of Yuan officials

  • Northern Chinese people - history of engagement with ppl

  • Southern Chinese - at bottom of hierarchy, least in the regime

• Did “Chinese” society merely survive… or thrive?

Pax Mongolica:

The First “Global” Civilization

Yuan Dynasty - China under the Mongols

• Souther Chinese confucian officials - local scholar gentry class no longer working in gov

  • type of political oppression of elite class

  • thousands of highly capable scholarly men - opportunities for scholars to work in arts and sciences

Yuan Dynasty Arts and Sciences

painting and theater

• song scholars can delve into arts b/c no longer governing

• artistic pursuits

medicine, astronomy, engineering

• Scholars investigating other things

• learning ab more things

new knowledge coming into Chinese worldview

support of artisans

• Mongols really liked Chinese fine goods and respected artisan class

• Confucian leaders do not value arts as much as the mongols

Asia under Pax Mongolica

period of peak mongol power where there was relative peace

Yuan (mongol) Economy

safe transcontinental travel

Support of merchants

• lowers risk for merchant caravans - multiple merchants go in on a caravan so that if something happens, risk is lower

• promote merchant activity

• opportunity under mongol rule

access to markets

• asian access to European goods and vice versa

• volume of network of trade massive and unprecedented

inspiration for European explorers

• ppl sail out from Europe to Asia in order to cut out middleman

Yuan (mongol) Cross-Cultural Exchange

• religious tolerance

  • culture of religious tolerance

  • mongols do not demand that everyone they’ve conquered have to practice their religion

• technology transfer

  • knowledge being shared between scholars

• a truly Eurasian civilization?

  • Europe and Asia connected in unprecedented way

Marco Polo

Italian traveller/merchant who went through most of Mongol empire

• advertising capital, w/ self benefiting description

• wrote about it in a fantastical way

Ibn Battuta

North African traveller a bit later than Marco Polo who travelled along similar routes

described Hangzhou as biggest city he has ever seen, noting impressive diversity (cosmopolitan city)

Hangzhou

capital city of mongols/ yuan empire

Politics of Memory

Alexander the Great (W → E)

Storm from the East (E → W)

Mongol empire described poorly in textbooks

Ming Dynasty

Chinese Imperial Resurgence (1360s - 1640s)

native Chinese regime

Mongol Fall

fractured political leadership under the mongols and by the early 1300s there was a lot of infighting

ppl under mongol control see weakness and rebel

Ming Taizu

• founder of ming dynasty

• very controlling

• used a lot of force and violence to enforce power

• ppl had bad views of them

Ming Autocracy

strongest single Chinese emperors thus far

LOTS OF POWER

Ming violence

• ideal confucian notion of statecraft has no room for violence

• ming emperors deeply influenced by confucianism, but there was a lot of violence

• ming taizu would beat officials and have corporeal punishments in order to show power and exert influence publicly

Mongol Legacy

• mongols own use of violence could have been picked up by MIng emperors

• ming emperors could have been fearful that China would become so weak that they would be again conquered by outside forces

restoration not innovation

number one concern of Ming emps was to restore Chinese systems from Han, Tang periods

restore those forms of statecraft

Ming Foreign Relations

revival of tributary system

mongols

yi dynasty

Ashikaga Shogunate

Vietnam - Ming occupation 1407 - 1426

Restoration rather than innovation

Yi dynasty

native korean dynasty during Ming

very close relationship with Ming

“junior” position/ political subservience

Ming and Ashikaga Shogunate

Japan during Ming

engage in diplomacy and trade with Ming

mining lots of silver - commercial connections

Ming occupation 1407 - 1426

Ming dynasty invades Vietnam

direct military control of Ming over Vietnam

Vietnam likes Chinese culture but are bitter (fairly) b/c of occupation

Revival of Tributary system

Ming foreign relations

System of diplomacy

junior/less powerful states recognize China as most powerful state
Ming wants to restore forms of statecraft of Han/Tang dynasties

Voyages of Zheng He

hundreds of ships voyaging around Asian world

remarkable level of seafaring tech

Zheng He

Admiral of Chinese Naval force during Ming

Ming expeditions

• purpose was not for exploration

• diplomatic missions as massive public relations exercise

Halting of Ming Expeditions

Possibilities:

• Confucian conservatism

• Mongol threats

• Grand Canal - network of waterways that connect Yangtze and yellow river

• lack of necessity

Economy and Society under Ming Dynasty

Pro farmer, anti merchant (confucian way of thinking)

• not actively promoting merchants, but not stopping them either

foreign trade/ silver

• China being pulled into commerce (silver is lifeblood of global economy)

regional specialization

• nature of economy bring wealth to ppl

New crops from America

• new world veggies and potatoes

• potatoes v easy to grow

Population boom

• feed more ppl with new foods

• urban society growing

Urban popular culture reflects merchant class

Why no Chinese industrial revolution and overseas expansion?

• China lacked the “spirit” of industrial capitalism (weber)

• Unrivaled development in early modern world

  • top of food chain

  • not drivedn to pursue the things Europeans were

Evaluating the Ming

Ended in disgrace

• Domestically, emperors becoming corrupt, and imperial system messy

• domestic unrest

• foreign invasion

• Asiatic despotism

• “China” lost again to outside world

prosperous development in provincial society

• improvement of basic quality of life for a lot of ppl

Asiatic despotism

Exercise of oppressive power over Asia during ming

Weber

Heian period

Japan’s aristocratic age

(9th - 12th cent)

Capital at Heian

• the capital moved from nara to Heian

• ppl thought nara was too close to buddhist temples (separate religion and state)

Heian Strong early emperors

9th cent during Heian era

• japanese emperors remained strong rulers as modeled by China

Fujiwara clan domination

Japan during Heian period

9th - 11th cent

marriage ties between clans ensured domination of Fujiwara clan

Rivalry and conflict in Heian

late 11th-12th c

• fighting and open war at the end of Heian age

Fujiwara no Michinaga

of the fujiwara clan during Heian

Heian political power

Lineage- based power remained

NO exams

Heian Era Economy

• equal field system starts to break down

• shoen estates

• Local management was done by local warrior clans

• privatization of land/wealth/power - owned by aristocrats

• Collapse of Tang ideals

  • China no longer seen as model for Japanese politics

• Rise of provincial samurai

  • social group

Shoen estates

private land estates

Heian life

time of very stratified population

Courtly Refinement in Heian

• people liked living close to the court

• highest levels of aristocratic society

Ideals of beauty

• beauty in nature

• beauty among one another

  • inner AND outer beauty

  • ex/ calligraphy skills important and judged on delicacy

• abstract ideals

Elite marriage

• marriage politics are very important

• people have relationships outside their relationships

  • affairs quite common

  • not marrying for love

Murasaki Shikibu

Woman in Heian who wrote

“The Tale of Genji”

(literature in Heian comes mostly from women)

The Tale of Genji

written by Murasaki Shikibu

about a prince during Heian

mono no aware

“sensitivity to things”

deep sensitivity to even the smallest details of normal life valued during heian

Sei Shonagon

aristocratic woman in Heian era who wrote

“The Pillow Book”

The pillow book

written by Sei Shonagon

her daily writings about the day

about her own experiences

Native script (Kana)

Japanese as it is understood today comes out of this period (Heian)

Chinese characters simplified only for their sound

Onnade

Hand of the women

writing in Heian was very gender specific but the woman’s way was really good/smart

Kamakura Period

Warrior rule in Japan

1190s - 1330s

Kamakura is a location

Kakamura

Capital city in Japan during Kakamura period

established by samurai minimoto clan

city just north of what is now tokyo

The Late Heian Warrior

• Samurai are a provencial class, with compounds in countryside

• Samurai have high status in countryside, low status in capital

Taira vs Minamoto

• samurai clans

• most influential of early samurai families battling for control

• during kakamura state

Shin Heike Monogatari

movie of samurai during kakamura period

new tales of Taira clan

Directed by mizoguchi Kenji 1955

Taira no Kiyamori

1160-1180

very powerful samurai who established himself as a strong political force of late 12th cent

strong enough to assert himself

Kamakura period

Genpei War, 1180-85

Taira no Kiyamori was challenged and a battle between the Taira and Minamoto ensues

Miniamoto clan emerges victorious

Minamoto no Yoritomo seii taishogun 1192

Minamoto no yoritomo recieved title of seii taishogun from empere

officially recognized by emperor

seii taishogun title of high honor

samurai politics

hold on power very strong in east

in western Japan, samurais have much less power

court aristocrats

aristocrats in western Japan help control the government along with samurai in east

dual polity

two part political structure in kamakura Japan

samurai have military power

aristocrats have governmental control

Kamakura literature

elite literature just for richies by richies

War tales

literature during kamakura

stories of battles

skill on battlefield and courage

loyalty and honor (loyalty a little weak, the samurais wanted to be PAID)

Bun and Bu

Bun - culture sophistication, civilized things

Bu - power, force, brutality

Heike Monogatari - Tale of the Heike

Kamakura book about brutal, violent elements of world while envoking beauty of world

Kamakura religion

social context - ppl looking for out from uncertainty and fear

religion/ literature results of changing world

popular buddhism

• everyday buddhism

• buddhism that does not require elaborate involvement

Pure land sect

buddhism in kamakura sect

attractive to regular people, fairly easy to do

if you just believe you can go to ‘heaven’

Amida

pure land sect buddha

so filled with compassion for humanity that if you just believe with own faith, you can be delivered to promised land

Zen (Ch’an)

Buddhism of Samurai

School from Chinese world

Zen buddhism is about focus, discipline, concentration and meditation to achieve higher level of existence

meditation

simplicity of practice/devotion

Fall of the Kamakura Shogunate

• Hojo regency

• Mongol Invasions

• Kenmu Restoration (1333-36)

• Ashikaga Takauji

Go-Daigo

Japanese emperor trying to govern in a direct way

Hojo Regency

• Hojo was a very powerful aristocratic family

• Hojo ruled as regent for shogun when Go-Daigo died

• powerful elites of Hojo clan were the real political authority