Chapter 8

Chapter 8: China
For this blog entry, I decided to do more bullet notes, but I wrote a reflection on my blogging style at the end and some thoughts about the chapter.
Unified China
  • Collapse of Han dynasty → unification under Sui dynasty
  • Under Tang and Song dynasties, had a golden age of arts and literature
    • 6 majors ministries accompanied by a Censorate
    • Revived examination system
    • Rapid growth of population, agricultural production, and urbanization
    • Improved infrastructure and industrial production: mostly through coal
    • Revived Confucianism: patriarchal restrictions on women: foot binding
      • Property rights and education still expanded for women
China and Nomads
  • Nomads to the north considered barbarians by China
  • China needed nomads for horses and hides (and b/c they controlled part of the Silk Road); Nomads needed China for agricultural products
  • China thought they were the “middle kingdom”: center of the world and believed everyone else was lower
  • Tribute system: foreigners acknowledged Chinese superiority and gave tribute; in return, they received gifts
  • Nomads were not interested in conquering China - only extorting gifts from them
  • Chinese influenced nomads, but nomads maintained their own culture
  • Traditional south was critical of the north for adopting western practices
Impact of China on Neighbouring Countries


Country
Who was affected
How it was affected
What did they adopt
Which cultural aspects of their own did they keep
Korea
-Mostly the elite class
-Chinese attempted to colonize
-Buddhism
-Court life and administrative techniques
-rights of women diminished
-Political independence
-Hangul (language)
Vietnam
-Mostly the elite class
-Chinese wanted to take advantage of Vietnam’s arable land
-Confucian-based schools
-Chu nom (language)
-greater role for women
Japan
-All classes were influenced to some degree
-Willingly traveled overseas to learn about Chinese culture
-Chinese-style emperor
-Buddhism
-Aristocratic families eventually ruled
-Samurai developed as a local military
-lack of centralized rule
-celebration of military over intellectual achievements
-unique writing
Chinese Impact on Eurasia
  • Salt, papermaking, printing press, magnetic compass came from China
  • Were not adopted by other countries directly; but it stimulated innovations in other lands
    • Ex: gunpowder used in China → cannons in Europe
  • Chinese learned about cotton and sugar from India; drought-resistant strains of rice from Vietnam; Buddhism from India
Chinese and Buddhism
  • It was not popular at all in the Han Dynasty; after Han’s collapse, it became more appealing
    • Monasteries provided social services and a place of refuge
    • Associated w/magic and miracles
  • Translations into Chinese changed the meaning of key terms that helped to assimilate Buddhism into the Chinese culture so it wouldn’t conflict too much w/the beliefs at the time
  • Popular Buddhism: Pure Land School
    • Salvation by Faith
  • Monasteries never received independence from the state
    • Untaxed at first
  • Buddhism was later resented for its enormous wealth → rebellion → taxing and destruction of monasteries
I tried writing a full page of notes this time for my blog, but I don’t know if I’ll do this again because I preferred my previous style of blogging. Nothing much stood out to me in this chapter so I didn’t know what to analyze. I would have been forcing my analysis. I’m pretty accurate at pointing out main ideas so I might post my notes anyway if it would help anyone.
Some Thoughts:
A small thing I would like to point out is the “middle kingdom” view of China. It made me laugh when I first read it because I think most countries would feel that way about themselves. That sense of feeling important and thinking you’re higher than everyone must feel nice. If I were a northern nomad I’d feel resentful. I also like how the Chinese in this time period have a passive aggressive way of showing dominance and scorn: “I will give you gifts but it’s actually for you to acknowledge that I’m superior.” In the end, everything worked out for them and they’ve lasted a long time, so they must be doing a lot of things right. Lastly, the foot binding really grossed me out. I’ve seen pictures before, but looking at the one in the textbook (pg. 332) made me really nauseous. The things people do for status....It doesn’t make sense to me. I feel like it’s similar to people sagging their pants or some other ridiculous trend these days. We would do a lot of things to be part of a group I guess.


Thank you for reading and have a wonderful day! :)

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