Chinese History OverviewHistory & Themes

Three Fundamentals

• China is land.• China is time.• China is people.

Geography Matters

• China tilts down from west to east.

• Sown lands & steppe lands

• North & SouthDry & wetWheat/barley &

rice

• Authority & pacified• Simplicity & luxury

China’s Antiquity

• Antiquity is part of Chinese identity.

• 50,000 years ago - modern humans

• Local Neolithic Cultures

• 6000 years ago - Banpo - women’s power, pottery marks

• Yangshao Culture - farming

• Longshan Culture - walled communities

Multiple Origins

• Old Theory – Northerners created Chinese culture.

• Many different of Bronze Age cultures

• Yangshao & Longshan (Yellow River)

• Sanxingdui (Sichuan)

• Majiabang & Liangzhu (Lower Yangzi River)

• Dawenkou (East Coast)

• Qujialing (Middle Yangzi)

The Main CurrentThe Shang Dynasty

1800 BCE - 1045 BCE

• Rises from Longshan Culture in North China

• Silk technology

• Walled cities - centers of administration

• Ancestor worship & shamanism

• Bronze technology

• First writing

The Feudal AgeThe Zhou Dynasty

1045 BCE - 256 BCE

• The Mandate of Heaven

• Chariots & Crossbows

• Cast Iron & Mass Production

• Coins

• One Hundred Schools - Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism, Logicians, Yin-Yang

EmpireThe Qin Dynasty

221 BCE - 206 BCE

• The First Emperor - Qin Shi Huangdi

• Legalism - efficient government but does not provide legitimacy

• Reduces regional autonomy - taxes, army, writing, measurement

• Centralized bureaucracy

• Mass enslavement

The Han Dynasty206 BCE - 220 CE

• Qin Legalism blends with Han Confucianism - legitimating

• Technology & arts - paper, porcelain, water mills, distillation

• The Silk Route• Buddhism from India via

central Asia• Most Chinese are Han

people.

Unity & Disunity

• China takes unity as the norm.

• Europe takes disunity as the norm.

• Disunity was often very creative in China.

The Cosmopolitan EmpireThe Tang Dynasty618 CE - 907 CE

• The Golden Age - poetry, painting, calligraphy

• Capital at Chang’an - international trade hub, largest city in the world

• Wu Zetian - only female emperor ever

• Buddhism dominant

China’s Mature Imperial SystemThe Song Dynasty960 CE – 1276 CE

• Mature imperial system of government

• Knowledge = Power• Exam System• Commercial Revolution -

paper money• Industrial Evolution - iron,

coal• Printing presses• Neo-Confucianism as

religion• Foot Binding

Wider InfluencesThe Mongols

• Violent conquest by Central Asians

• Pax Mongolica: peaceful exchange of goods and ideas across Asia and Europe

• Unable to manage huge Chinese population for long

The Last Native DynastyThe Ming Dynasty1276 CE - 1644 CE

• Suspicion & Intrigue• Zheng He’s Voyages• Economy contracted.• Secluded empire• Imperial capital

moved to Beijing.• The great novels• The Great Wall

The Last EmperorsThe Qing Dynasty

1644 CE - 1911 CE

• The second major foreign dynasty

• Better organized than the Mongol government

• Strong and wealthy into the 1800s

• Western imperial powers• Western merchants & gunboats• Missionaries• Rebellions - Tai Ping & many

others• Opium Wars

The Twentieth Century

• Republic of China ~ 1911 to 1949

• Warlord Era• Japanese Invasion & World

War Two• Chinese Civil War• 1949 People’s Republic of

China (PRC) - Mao Zedong• 1966 - 1976 Cultural

Revolution• 1978+ Deng Xiaoping’s

Reforms

The Twenty-First Century

• “Socialism with Chinese Characteristics”

• World’s fasting-growing modern economy

• Many social issues