Chapter 3: India and China

Early Civilization in India

The Land of India

• India is a land of diversity.
  • Today, about 110 languages and more than 1,000 dialects (varieties of language) are spoken in India.
• Diversity is also apparent in India’s geography.
  • The Indian subcontinent, shaped like a triangle hanging from the southern ridge of Asia, is composed of a number of core regions, including mountain ranges, river valleys, a dry interior plateau, and fertile coastal plains.
  • In the far north are the Himalaya, the highest mountains in the world.
  • Directly south of the Himalaya is the rich val- ley of the Ganges River, one of the chief regions of Indian culture.
  • South of India’s two major river valleys—the valleys of the Ganges and the Indus — lies the Deccan, a plateau that extends from the Ganges Valley to the southern tip of India.
• The primary feature of India’s climate is the monsoon, a seasonal wind pattern in southern Asia.
  • One monsoon blows warm, moist air from the south- west during the summer and another blows cold, dry air from the northeast during the winter.

India’s First Civilization

• As in Mesopotamia and Egypt, early civilization in India and China emerged in river valleys.
  • Between 3000 B.C. and 1500 B.C., the valleys of the Indus River supported a flourishing civilization that extended hundreds of miles from the Himalaya to the coast of the Arabian Sea.
• At its height, Harappa had 35,000 inhabitants, and Mohenjo-Daro perhaps 35,000 to 40,000. Both cities were carefully planned.
• Most buildings were constructed of mud bricks baked in ovens and were square, forming a grid pattern
• As in Egypt and Mesopotamia, Harappan rulers based their power on a belief in divine assistance.
• Like those in Mesopotamia and along the Nile, the Harappan economy was based primarily on farming.
  • This Indus valley civilization also carried on extensive trade with city-states in Mesopotamia.
  • Much of this trade was carried by ship via the Persian Gulf, although some undoubtedly went by land.

The Arrival of the Aryans

• Around 1500 B.C., a group of Indo-European nomadic peoples began to move out of their original homeland in central Asia.
• Known as the Aryans, they moved south across the Hindu Kush mountain range into the plains of northern India.
  • Like other nomadic peoples, the Aryans excelled at the art of war.
  • Organized in groups, the Aryans were a pastoral people with a strong warrior tradition.
• The basic crops in the north during this period were wheat, barley, and millet.
• Like most nomadic peoples, the Aryans had no written language.
  • The Aryans developed their first writing system, known as Sanskrit, by 1000 B.C.
  • The early writings of the Aryans reveal that between 1500 and 400 B.C., India was a world of warring kingdoms and shifting alliances.
• Various Aryan leaders, known as rajas (princes), carved out small states and fought other Aryan chieftains.

Society in Ancient India

• The conquest by the Aryans had a lasting impact on Indian society.
• The caste system of ancient India was a set of rigid social categories that determined not only a person’s occupation and economic potential, but also his or her position in society.
• There were five major divisions of Indian classes (known as castes in English) in ancient times.
  • The priestly class, whose members were known as the Brahmans, was usually considered to be at the top of the social scale
  • The second caste was the Kshatriyas, or warriors
  • The third-ranked caste in Indian society was the Vaisyas, or commoners.
  • Below these three castes were the Sudras, who made up the great bulk of the Indian population.
  • At the lowest level of Indian society—and in fact not even considered a real part of the caste system— were the Untouchables.
  • The Untouchables were given menial, degrading tasks that other Indians would not accept, such as collecting trash and handling dead bodies.
• Life in ancient India centered on the family, the most basic unit in society.
  • Upper-class young men were not supposed to marry until they completed 12 years of study.
  • Children were an important product of marriage, primarily because they were expected to take care of their parents as they grew older.
• Perhaps the most vivid symbol of women’s dominance by men was the ritual of suttee.
• In ancient India, the dead were placed on heaps of material called pyres, which were then set on fire.

Hinduism

• Hinduism had its origins in the religious beliefs of the Aryan peoples who settled in India after 1500 B.C.
  • Early Hindus believed in the existence of a single force in the universe, a form of ultimate reality or God, called Brahman.
• By the sixth century B.C., the idea of reincarnation had appeared in Hinduism.
  • Reincarnation is the belief that the individual soul is reborn in a different form after death.
• Important to this process is the idea of karma, the force generated by a person’s actions that determines how the person will be reborn in the next life.
  • The concept of karma is ruled by the dharma, or the divine law.
• The system of reincarnation provided a religious basis for the rigid class divisions in Indian society.
• Hindus developed the practice of yoga, a method of training designed to lead to such union. (In fact, yoga means “union.”)
• Most ordinary Indians, however, could not easily relate to this ideal and needed a more concrete form of heavenly salvation.
• There are hundreds of deities in the Hindu religion, including three chief ones:
  • Brahma the Creator,
  • Vishnu the Preserver,
  • and Siva the Destroyer.
• Today, Hinduism is still the religion of the vast majority of the Indian people.

Buddhism

• In the sixth century B.C., a new doctrine, called Buddhism, appeared in northern India and soon became a rival of Hinduism.
• The founder of Buddhism was Siddhartha Gautama, known as the Buddha, or “Enlightened One.”
  • Siddhartha Gautama came from a small kingdom in the foothills of the Himalaya (in what is today southern Nepal).
  • Siddhartha appeared to have everything: wealth, a good appearance, a model wife, a child, and a throne that he would someday inherit.
• At first he followed the example of the ascetics, people who practiced self-denial to achieve an understanding of ultimate reality.
• Siddhartha denied the reality of the material world.
• The physical surroundings of humans, he believed, were simply illusions.
• 4 Noble Truths:
  • Ordinary life is full of suffering.
  • This suffering is caused by our desire to satisfy Ourselves.
  • The way to end suffering is to end desire for selfish goals and to see others as extensions of ourselves.
  • The way to end desire is to follow the Middle Path.
• This Middle Path is also known as the Eightfold Path, because it consists of eight steps:
  • 1. Right view We need to know the Four Noble Truths.
  • 2. Right intention We need to decide what we really want.
  • 3. Right speech We must seek to speak truth and to speak well of others.
  • 4. Right action The Buddha gave five precepts: “Do not kill. Do not steal. Do not lie. Do not be unchaste. Do not take drugs or drink alcohol.”
  • 5. Right livelihood We must do work that uplifts our being.
  • 6. Right effort The Buddha said, “Those who follow the Way might well follow the example of an ox that arches through the deep mud car- rying a heavy load. He is tired, but his steady, forward-looking gaze will not relax until he comes out of the mud.”
  • 7. Right mindfulness We must keep our minds in control of our senses: “All we are is the result of what we have thought.”
  • 8. Right concentration We must meditate to see the world in a new way.
• Siddhartha accepted the idea of reincarnation, but he rejected the Hindu division of human beings into rigidly defined castes based on previous reincarnations.
• Buddhism also differed from Hinduism in its simplicity.
• Siddhartha Gautama died in 480 B.C. at the age of 80 in what is today Nepal.

New Empires in India

The Mauryan Dynasty

• Both Hinduism and Buddhism developed out of the Aryan culture in India.
• As we have seen, however, the Aryans brought little political unity to India.
• Between 1500 and 400 B.C., warring kingdoms and shifting alliances prevented a lasting peace.
• After 400 B.C., India faced new threats from the west.
  • First came Persia, which extended its empire into western India.
  • Then came the Greeks and Macedonians.
• The Macedonian king Alexander the Great had heard of the riches of India
• The new Indian state was founded by Chandragupta Maurya, who ruled from 324 to 301 B.C.
• This first Indian Empire was highly centralized.
  • The king divided his empire into provinces which were ruled by governors appointed by him.
• The Mauryan Empire flourished during the reign of Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya.
  • Asoka was more than a kind ruler, however.
  • His kingdom prospered as India’s role in regional trade began to expand.
• India became a major crossroads in a vast commercial network that extended from the rim of the Pacific to Southwest Asia and the Mediterranean Sea.
• After Asoka’s death in 232 B.C., the Mauryan Empire began to decline.

The Kushan Kingdom and the Silk Road

• After the collapse of the Mauryan Empire, a number of new kingdoms arose along the edges of India in Bactria, known today as Afghanistan.
• The Kushans prospered from the trade that passed through their land on its way between the Mediterranean Sea and the countries bordering the Pacific Ocean.
• Most of that trade was between the Roman Empire and China.
  • It was shipped along the route known as the Silk Road, so called because silk was China’s most valuable product.
• The Silk Road, which had arisen sometime between 200 B.C. and A.D. 100, reached from the city of Changan in China across central Asia to Mesopotamia.
  • On it, people and camels transported goods through mountains and deserts, winding up at Antioch in Syria, a port city on the Mediterranean Sea.
  • Chinese merchants made large fortunes by trading luxury goods, such as silk, spices, teas, and porcelain.

The Kingdom of the Guptas

• The Kushan kingdom came to an end in the third century A.D., when invaders from Persia overran it.
• In 320, a new state was created in the central Ganges Valley by a local prince named Chandragupta (no relation to the earlier Chandragupta Maurya).
  • His successor, his son Samudragupta, expanded the empire into surrounding areas.
• Eventually the new kingdom of the Guptas became the dominant political force throughout northern India.
• Under a series of efficient monarchs—especially Chandragupta II, who reigned from 375 to 415—the Gupta Empire created a new age of Indian civilization.
  • The greatness of its culture was reported by a Chinese traveler, Faxian, who spent several years there in the fifth century.
• The Gupta Empire actively engaged in trade with China, Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean and also encouraged domestic trade in cloth, salt, and iron.
  • Much of their wealth came from religious trade as pilgrims (people who travel to religious places) from across India and as far away as China came to visit the major religious centers.
  • Much of the trade in the Gupta Empire was managed by the Gupta rulers, who owned silver and gold mines and vast lands.
  • The good fortunes of the Guptas did not last. Beginning in the late fifth century A.D., invasions by nomadic Huns from the northwest gradually reduced the power of the empire.

The World of Indian Culture

• The earliest known Indian literature comes from the Aryan tradition in the form of the Vedas, which were primarily religious.
• With the development of writing, India’s great historical epics, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana, were also put into written form.
  • Both of these epics told of the legendary deeds of great warriors.
  • The Mahabharata consists of over ninety thousand stanzas (a series of lines of poetry), making it the longest poem in any written language.
  • The most famous section of the book, called the Bhagavad Gita, is a sermon by the god Krishna on the eve of a major battle.
  • The Ramayana, written at about the same time, is much shorter than the Mahabharata.
  • Like the Mahabharata (and most works of the ancient world), the Ramayana is strongly imbued with religious and moral lessons.
• One of ancient India’s most famous authors was Kalidasa, who lived during the Gupta dynasty.
• Some of the earliest examples of Indian architecture stem from the time of Asoka, when Buddhism became the religion of the state.
  • There were three main types of structures, all serving religious purposes: the pillar, the stupa, and the rock chamber.
  • A stupa was originally meant to house a relic of the Buddha, such as a lock of his hair.
  • The final development in early Indian architecture was the rock chamber, carved out of rock cliffs.
• Ancient Indians possessed an impressive amount of scientific knowledge, particularly in astronomy.
• Their most important contribution was in the field of mathematics.
  • Aryabhata, the most famous mathematician of the Gupta Empire, was one of the first scientists known to have used algebra.
• After Arabs conquered parts of India in the eighth century A.D., Arab scholars adopted the Indian system.

Early Chinese Civilizations

The Geography of China

• The Huang He, or Yellow River, stretches across China for more than 2,900 miles (4,666.1 km), carrying its rich yellow silt all the way from Mongolia to the Pacific Ocean.
• The Chang Jiang, or Yangtze River, is even longer, flowing for about 3,400 miles (5,470.6 km) across central China before emptying into the Yellow Sea.
• China, however, is not just a land of fertile fields.
  • In fact, only 10 percent of the total land area is suitable for farming, compared with 19 percent of the United States.
  • This forbidding landscape is a dominant feature of Chinese life and has played an important role in Chinese history.
• The northern frontier of China became one of the areas of conflict in Asia as Chinese armies tried to protect their precious farmlands.

The Shang Dynasty

• Historians of China have traditionally dated the beginning of Chinese civilization to the founding of the Xia dynasty over four thousand years ago.
  • Little is known about this dynasty, which was replaced by a second dynasty, the Shang.
• China under the Shang dynasty (about 1750 to 1045 B.C.) was a mostly farming society ruled by an aristocracy whose major concern was war.
• An aristocracy is an upper class whose wealth is based on land and whose power is passed on from one gener- ation to another.
• Archaeologists have found evidence of impressive cities in Shang China.
• The Shang king ruled from the capital city of Anyang.
• The Chinese believed in supernatural forces with which they could communicate to obtain help in worldly affairs.
• The king and his family were at the top of Shang society, aided by a number of aristocratic families.
• The aristocrats not only waged war and served as officials but also were the chief landowners.
• The early Chinese had a strong belief in life after death.
  • Remains of human sacrifices found in royal tombs are evidence of peoples’ efforts to win the favor of the gods.
  • From this belief in an afterlife would come the idea of the veneration of ancestors (commonly known in the West as “ancestor worship”).
• The Shang are perhaps best remembered for their mastery of the art of bronze casting.

The Zhou Dynasty

• The Zhou dynasty lasted for almost eight hundred years (1045 to 256 B.C.), making it the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history.
  • The Zhou dynasty continued the political system of the rulers it had overthrown.
• The Shang practice of dividing the kingdom into a number of territories governed by officials appointed by the king was continued under the Zhou.
• The Zhou kings also made some changes, however, as the Chinese began to develop a theory of government.
• The Zhou dynasty claimed that it ruled China because it possessed the Mandate of Heaven.
  • It was believed that Heaven—which was an impersonal law of nature—kept order in the universe through the Zhou king.
  • The Mandate of Heaven, however, was double- edged. The king was expected to rule according to the proper “Way,” called the Dao.
  • This theory has strong political side effects. It sets forth a “right of revolution” to overthrow a corrupt or evil ruler.
  • The Mandate of Heaven was closely tied to the pattern of dynastic cycles.
• No matter how long the dynasties lasted, all went through a cycle of change
• The Zhou dynasty, too, followed the pattern of rise, decline, and collapse.
• In 403 B.C., civil war broke out, beginning an age known in Chinese historical records as the “Period of the Warring States.”
  • By this time, the nature of warfare had also changed in China.
  • Eventually, one of the warring states—that of Qin—took control.
  • In 221 B.C., it created a new dynasty.
• During the Zhou dynasty, the basic features of Chinese economic and social life began to take shape.
• Trade in this period involved the exchange of local products that were used on an everyday basis.
• The period from the sixth to the third centuries B.C. was an age of significant economic growth
• Changes in farming methods also increased food production.
• By the mid-sixth century B.C., the use of iron had led to the development of iron plowshares, which made it possible to plow land that had not yet been used for farming.
• Improved farming methods were also a major factor in encouraging the growth of trade and manufacturing.
• Few social institutions have been as closely identified with China as the family.
• At the heart of the concept of family in China was the idea of filial piety.
  • Filial refers to a son or daughter.
  • Filial piety, then, refers to the duty of members of the family to subordinate their needs and desires to those of the male head of the family.
• Male supremacy was a key element in the social system of ancient China, as it was in the other civilizations that we have examined.
• Although women did not hold positions of authority, some did have influence in politics.
• Perhaps the most important cultural contribution of ancient China to later Chinese society was the creation and development of the Chinese written language.
• Pictographs are picture symbols, usually called characters, that form a picture of the object to be represented.
  • Each character, of course, would be given a sound by the speaker when pronounced.
  • However, although the Chinese language has evolved continuously over a period of four thousand years, it has never entirely abandoned its original format.

The Chinese Philosophies

• Between 500 and 200 B.C., toward the end of the Zhou dynasty, three major schools of thought about the nature of human beings and the universe emerged in China—Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism.
• Confucius was known to the Chinese as the First Teacher.
  • Confucius was born in 551 B.C. He hoped to get a job as a political adviser, but he had little success in find- ing a patron.
  • Upset by the violence and moral decay of his age, Confucius traveled around China in an attempt to persuade political leaders to follow his ideas.
  • This made Confucianism, or the system of Confucian ideas, an important part of Chinese history.
  • Confucius’s interest in philosophy was political and ethical, not spiritual.
  • Two elements stand out in the Confucian view of the Dao: duty and humanity.
  • The Confucian concept of duty is often expressed in the form of a “work ethic.”
  • Above all, the ruler must set a good example.
  • If the king followed the path of goodness and the common good, then subjects would respect him, and society would prosper.
  • The second key element in the Confucian view of the Dao is the idea of humanity.
  • This consists of a sense of compassion and empathy for others.
• Confucius was not just living in the past, however.
• Many of his key ideas looked forward rather than backward.
• Perhaps his most striking political idea was that the government should not be limited solely to those of noble birth but should be open to all men of superior talent.
• Daoism was a system of ideas based on the teachings of Laozi.
  • According to tradition, Laozi, or the Old Master, was a contemporary of Confucius.
  • The chief ideas of Daoism are discussed in a short work known as Tao Te Ching (The Way of the Dao).
• Daoism’s point of view is quite different from that of Confucianism.
  • Followers of Confucius believe that it is the duty of human beings to work hard to improve life here on Earth.
  • The best way to act in harmony with the universal order is to act spontaneously and let nature take its course by not interfering with it
• A third philosophy that became popular in China was Legalism.
  • Unlike Confucianism or Daoism, Legalism proposed that human beings were evil by nature.
  • The Legalists believed that a strong ruler was required to create an orderly society.
  • To them, people were not capable of being good.
  • Fear of harsh punishment would cause the common people to serve the interests of the ruler.
  • The ruler did not have to show compassion for the needs of the people.

Rise and Fall of Chinese Empires

The Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.)

• In 221 B.C., the Qin ruler declared the creation of a new dynasty.
• The ruler of Qin was Qin Shihuangdi, meaning “the First Qin Emperor.”
• The Qin dynasty dramatically changed Chinese politics.
• Legalism was adopted as the regime’s (the government in power) official ideology.
• The Qin dynasty made a number of important administrative and political changes, which served as models for future dynasties.
• The central bureaucracy was divided into three parts: the civil division, the mili- tary division, and the censorate.
  • The censorate had inspectors who checked on government officials to make sure they were doing their jobs.
• Below the central government were two levels of administration—provinces and counties.
• Qin Shihuangdi unified the Chinese world.
  • He created a single monetary system and ordered the building of a system of roads throughout the entire empire.
  • Qin Shihuangdi was equally aggressive in foreign affairs.
• The Qin emperor’s major foreign concern was in the north.
• In the vicinity of the Gobi, there resided a nomadic people known to the Chinese as the Xiongnu
  • The Xiongnu had mastered the art of fighting on horseback
• Qin Shihuangdi’s answer to the problem in the north was to strengthen the existing system of walls to keep the nomads out.
• Today we know Qin Shihuangdi’s project as the Great Wall of China.
• By ruthlessly gathering control over the empire into his own hands, Qin Shihuangdi had hoped to establish a rule that “would be enjoyed by his sons for ten thousand generations.”
• The fall of the Qin dynasty was followed by a period of civil war, but it did not last long. A new dynasty would soon arise.

The Han Dynasty (202 B.C.-A.D. 220)

• One of the greatest and most long-lasting dynasties in Chinese history—the Han (HAHN) dynasty— emerged in 202 B.C.
• The founder of the Han dynasty was Liu Bang (LYOH BONG), a man of peasant origin who became known by his title of Han Gaozu (“Exalted Emperor of Han”).
• The first Han emperor discarded the harsh policies of the Qin dynasty.
  • Most important, the Han rulers continued the Qin system of choosing government officials on the basis of merit rather than birth.
• China under the Han dynasty was a vast empire.
  • The population increased rapidly—by some estimates rising from about twenty million to over sixty million at the height of the dynasty.
  • In addition to providing a strong central government, the Han emperors continued to expand the Chinese Empire.
• Han rulers, especially Han Wudi (“Martial Emperor of Han”), added the southern regions below the Chang Jiang into the empire.
• Along the coast of the South China Sea, part of what is today northern Vietnam became part of the empire.
• The Han period was one of great prosperity.
  • Free peasants, however, began to suffer.
  • Land taxes on land-owning farmers were fairly light, but there were other demands on them, including military service and forced labor of up to one month per year.
  • As time went on, many poor peasants were forced to sell their land and become tenant farmers, who paid rents ranging up to half of the annual harvest.
• New technology added to the economic prosperity of the Han Era.
  • With the invention of the rudder and fore-and- aft rigging, ships could sail into the wind for the first time.
  • This made it possible for Chinese merchant ships carrying heavy cargoes to travel throughout the islands of Southeast Asia and into the Indian Ocean, leading to a major expansion of trade in the Han period.
• Over a period of time, the Han Empire began to fall into decay.
  • By A.D. 170, wars, intrigues at the court, and peasant uprisings brought the virtual collapse of the Han dynasty.
  • In 190, rebel armies sacked the Han capital, Luoyang
• The next great dynasty would not arise for four hundred years.

Culture in Qin and Han China

• The Qin and Han dynasties were also known for their cultural achievements.
• The key works of the Confucian school, for example, were made into a set of Confucian classics, which became required read- ing for generations of Chinese schoolchildren.
• Perhaps the most remarkable artistic achievement of the Qin period was discovered in 1974.
  • Farmers digging a well about 35 miles (56 km) east of Xian discovered an underground pit near the burial mound of the First Qin Emperor.
  • The army, dressed in uniforms, is contained in four pits.
  • Archaeologists estimate that there are more than six thousand figures in the first pit alone, along with horses, wooden chariots, and seven thousand bronze weapons.