China: A Historical Perspective
1.0 Objectives
Understand the changing perspectives on China's history and civilization.
Learn about key landmarks and trends in Chinese history.
Understand the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty.
Learn about China's relations with the world before the 19th century.
1.1 Introduction
This unit provides historical context for the course on China's modern history (1840-1978).
China is one of the oldest civilizations with a continuous existence.
Key questions to consider:
What was the nature of the Chinese economy?
How did the vast Chinese empire break up and reunite in the 20th century?
How did China overcome foreign defeats to re-emerge as a powerful state?
1.2 Changing Understanding of China
Western Narratives:
Historically, understanding of China's modern history was influenced by 19th and early 20th-century Western narratives.
These narratives often sought to:
Justify Western assault on China.
Portray the defeat and collapse of imperial China as inevitable.
Explain China's failure to 'respond to the West' and 'modernize'.
Explain why China was 'lost to communism'.
Western scholarship emphasized the insular and rigid nature of Chinese society and government under the Qing dynasty.
These narratives put forward the concept of "Sino-centrism", the belief that China was the center of the world and looked down on other nations.
Recent Scholarship:
Rejects the 'failure' narrative.
Seeks to explain China's rise by looking at its past and traditions.
Considers the over-emphasis on China's decline in the 19th century as misplaced.
Beginning of 'Modern China':
Traditionally, the Opium Wars in the mid-19th century marked the start of modern China.
Based on studies of commercialization, urbanization, literacy, and technological development, some scholars locate the beginning of modern China:
At the start of the Qing period (mid-17th century).
During the Ming-Qing transition (16th-17th centuries).
Even as far back as the Song period (11th-12th centuries).
Internal processes in China resembled those in early modern Europe.
China and the Outside World:
The notion that China was contemptuous of non-Chinese peoples and sought to isolate itself has been discredited.
China has absorbed influences from many directions.
Buddhism, from the Indian subcontinent, is a major example.
China was at the hub of global trade flows from at least the 16th century.
Key exports included silk, porcelain, and tea.
1.3 The Historical Evolution of China
China is a territory of continental size and variety, including:
Fertile plains along the Yellow and Yangzi rivers.
A long coastal belt.
Forested hills.
The Tibetan plateau and the Himalayan range.
Arid desert regions.
Temperate forested zone bordering Siberia.
Archaeological findings:
Multiple centers of bronze age civilization emerged from the early second millennium BCE.
These centers interacted and shared common characteristics, like bronze casting.
Extensive findings in Anyang are identified as belonging to the Shang dynasty.
The Shang dynasty was a stratified society and theocratic state with a written language, the forerunner of the Chinese script, found on oracle bones.
Zhou Dynasty:
The Shang rulers were defeated by the Zhou dynasty, the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history (ended in the 3rd century BCE).
The Zhou dynasty has literary records and is the period when the foundations of classical schools of thought were laid.
Iron use led to increased agricultural productivity, wealth, and military weaponry.
The territory directly governed by the Zhou rulers was not very big, with a larger area governed by nobles who owed loyalty.
Rivalry and warfare among principalities grew, leading to the period of the Warring States.
Qin Dynasty:
The ruler of the Qin state unified the empire in 221 BCE and proclaimed himself Qin Shihuangdi (the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty).
1.4 The Evolution of Chinese Thought and the Impact of Buddhism
The increase in wealth and new technologies, coupled with warfare and breakdown of order, led to social and intellectual ferment.
Confucianism:
Confucius (Master Kong, or Kongfuzi) was born in 550 BCE.
He deplored the breakdown of order and ascribed it to moral decay.
He urged a return to traditional relationships and mutual obligations.
He believed that order and prosperity would be restored only if moral men of talent governed the land.
Qualities of such men depend on education and merit, not birth.
Government by virtue is a distinctive feature of Confucian philosophy.
His disciple Mencius argued that the people had the right to rebel against a non-virtuous ruler.
His sayings were compiled into the Analects.
Confucianism is a social-political-ethical philosophy that emphasizes respecting order, hierarchy, valuing education, and moral foundations of governance.
Daoism:
Arose around the same period as Confucianism.
Ideas are ascribed to Lao Zi, and its foundational text is the Dao De Jing.
In contrast to Confucianism, Daoism held that man needed to live in tune with the natural order of things, or the 'dao' (the Way).
Daoism was a mystical philosophy that valued spontaneity and intuition.
Daoist works often spoke in riddles and parables.
Co-existence of Confucianism and Daoism:
Lent depth and complexity to the Chinese psyche and spiritual world.
Confucianism became the ideological orthodoxy of the Chinese empire, but Daoism permeated Chinese poetry, painting, and the inner world of the Chinese.
Buddhism:
Entered China mainly from around the 3rd century CE.
Gained followers during a period of social and political confusion.
Offered answers to questions about the meaning of life.
Mahayana Buddhism became dominant in China which included colourful rituals and veneration of the Buddha, bodhisattvas, and minor deities.
The Buddhist sangha or monastic order carried out welfare measures.
Absorption of Buddhism:
By the time the unified empire was restored under the Sui and Tang dynasties, Buddhism had deeply entrenched itself in China.
It influenced Chinese religious life, art, literature, political traditions, and social practice.
Major Chinese schools of Buddhism developed and influenced other societies like Korea and Japan.
The story of the absorption of Buddhism into China refutes the argument that China was a closed or insular society.
Overall Chinese Belief System:
A complex amalgam of different philosophies and practices.
These different schools were not seen as being mutually exclusive and there was much flexibility and variety in the ways they were adhered to.
1.5 The Chinese Imperial State and the Challenge from the Steppe
Integration of Principalities:
The integration of loosely connected principalities of the Zhou period into a centrally administered empire by Qin Shihuangdi in 221 BCE was a major landmark.
Thereafter, the Chinese empire was modified, and even broke up into separate contending states, but the centralized state remained the ideal.
Under Qin Shihuangdi:
The empire was divided into centrally administered provinces.
A uniform legal code and a unified script was enforced.
The peasants were turned into freeholders.
Parts of the Great Wall of China were built.
Weights and measures were standardized.
Books from before his time were burned.
The Han Dynasty:
The Qin dynasty was toppled by a peasant rebellion, which led to the Han dynasty, lasting four centuries.
The structure of the Chinese empire was modified over subsequent centuries.
The empire included territories on the periphery, governed with less direct intervention.
The ideology of the state was tempered with Confucian notions of 'rule by virtue'.
Bureaucracy:
The core of the bureaucracy was manned by educated scholar-officials or mandarins who entered the service through competitive examinations.
Challenge from Nomadic Peoples:
The greatest challenge to the Chinese empire was the presence of warlike nomadic peoples on its northern and north-western frontiers.
The riches of China attracted the nomadic peoples, who were often militarily superior.
From the 3rd century CE, nomadic tribes repeatedly invaded China and established their rule over parts of northern China.
Mongol and Manchu Rule:
The Mongols under Kubilai Khan in the 13th century established rule over the whole of the Chinese empire.
The Manchus from the region north-east of the Great Wall invaded and established the Qing dynasty.
The rule of these non-Han dynasties did not lead to the break-up of the empire or abandonment of the imperial institutions.
Preoccupation with the Steppe:
The Chinese state was greatly preoccupied with the danger from the steppe, which posed a serious threat to the security of the empire.
This has to be kept in mind when understanding the relative lack of attention paid to potential threats on the maritime frontier.
1.6 Social and Economic Change
Despite continuities in the political system, the China of the nineteenth century was vastly different from that unified by the Qin emperor.
From Aristocracy to Gentry:
The first Qin emperor sought to deal a blow to powerful aristocratic families and to establish a direct relationship between the state and the peasants.
Aristocratic elite revived under the Han rulers.
The aristocracy declined after the Tang dynasty and the centralizing of military power by subsequent emperors.
The real demise of the aristocracy came through the broadening of the social base of the officialdom through the expansion of recruitment via civil service examinations.
From about 1000 CE, the gentry, based on landed and commercial wealth, could enter officialdom.
Ethnic and Cultural Diversity:
The penetration of Buddhism and nomadic incursions led to the development of a more mixed and complex society.
Trade and social connections, including inter-marriage, between Chinese and non-Chinese increased.
The Tang dynasty was a period of cosmopolitanism and openness to foreign influences and foreign trade.
A cultural north-south divide in China started to emerge.
Growing Commercialization of the Economy:
The Song period saw remarkable economic growth and inter-regional commerce.
The peasantry began to produce for the market.
Migration triggered settlement of the central and southern regions of China.
New, early-ripening varieties of rice led to increased agricultural productivity.
Certain areas began to specialize in specific crops like cotton or tea.
The growing inter-regional commerce led to the increasing importance of money and to experiments with new forms of currency, including paper currency.
Major tax reforms were instituted which replaced earlier payments in labor and in kind with payment in money.
Commercial revenues began to exceed the land revenues of the state.
Expansion of Market Towns and Urban Centers:
Economic growth led to the expansion of market towns and urban centers, and the emergence of great commercial cities.
Growing prosperity among certain classes led to the spread of literacy, aided by the invention of woodblock printing.
Urban life led to new and popular forms of culture.
Marginalization and Distress Migration:
Growth led to the marginalization of the poorer sections of the peasantry.
Increasing distress migration into the cities and into poorer areas of the countryside.
Population Growth:
The increase in agricultural productivity was the basis for a tremendous increase in population.
The population of China increased from around 100 million in 1000 CE to 260 million by the early seventeenth century, and then doubled to about 500 million under the Qing dynasty.
This led to tremendous pressure on the land.
Land Concentration and Peasant Abandonment:
Land was parceled out equally among sons, reducing family landholdings over time.
Many peasants abandoned their lands, leading to increasing land concentration.
Landless peasants turned to tenant farming or non-agricultural occupations, or moved to less populated areas.
Some migrated overseas, particularly to Southeast Asia.
Many peasants swelled the ranks of the secret societies and rebel movements.
Overall Crisis of Major Proportions:
By the end of the eighteenth century and early nineteenth century, a crisis of major proportions was brewing in China.
1.7 The Qing Dynasty
Reassessment of the Qing Period:
The Qing period is being reassessed as a time when China reached a height in terms of size, power and prosperity, not just a period of failure.
Founding of the Dynasty:
Founded by the Manchus from the region north-east of the Great Wall.
They overthrew the Ming dynasty in 1644.
The Manchu rulers successfully ruled as Confucian monarchs and co-opted the Chinese elite.
Territorial Expansion:
The Manchu rulers incorporated vast territories into the Chinese empire, including parts of Mongolia, Chinese Turkestan (Xinjiang), Tibet and parts of the deep south-west.
They adapted their methods and expectations to rule these areas.
Administration:
Developed the most effective administrative system for governing such a vast and heterogeneous territory.
The three Qing emperors from the 1660s to the end of the eighteenth century were able and hardworking rulers.
Problems:
The officialdom was not expanded to meet the needs of a rapidly growing population and economy.
The salaries of the officials were not raised.
This led to decreasing central oversight, administrative inefficiency, corruption and demoralization.
The military organization was not suited to rapidly responding to new threats.
Fiscal problems, shortage of silver, and the spread of the opium-smoking habit affected the Qing administration.
Qing Government Response to Challenges:
The Qing government and elite were capable of responding to major challenges.
The Great Opium Debate was initiated by the Emperor in the 1830s.
Officials and scholars tried to understand the changing world order and the West.
The Qing and the scholar-gentry stamped out the great mid-nineteenth century revolts.
1.8 China and the World Before the Nineteenth Century
Sinocentrism:
Zhongguo, the name for China, means 'central states' or 'middle kingdom'.
The Chinese adopted foreign belives and were aware of other countries and people.
Devout Chinese Buddhist rulers believed that India was the central realm.
Tianxia:
Tianxia or 'all under Heaven' means the Emperor of China was believed to preside over 'all under Heaven'.
Tianxia was a way of referring to areas contiguous to the centrally administered Chinese empire but not directly ruled by the Emperor.
The imperial court maintained the discourse of superiority over others.
The foreign policies of the Chinese rulers flowed from calculations of their own interests.
The Tribute System:
The term 'tribute system' describes pre-nineteenth century China's external relations.
China maintained relations only with those states and peoples which presented tribute to the Chinese emperor.
The Chinese emperor would send back valuable gifts and allow the visitors to trade.
It is the idea that China did not conduct its foreign relations on the basis of self-interest and profit, but mainly from concern with its own prestige.
The tribute system as a description of China's external relations is rejected by scholars.
Chinese rulers differentiated between various kinds of foreigners and didn't apply a ‘one standard fits all' rule.
Most Western nations were allowed freedom to trade with China without being required to present any tribute.
State-controlled tributary trade was not the main form of external trade conducted by China.
Hostility of the Qing to Free Trade:
The argument that the Qing was opposed to 'free trade' was central to Western justifications for the Opium Wars.
From about 1500, China was a major participant in a globalized commerce.
The Qing lifted the ban on foreign trade in 1684, and foreign traders from all countries were welcome to trade.
The Qing valued the revenues derived from foreign trade, and established institutions and procedures to facilitate and regulate, it.
The trading system established by the Qing collapsed on account of weakness and decay in its own administrative structures.