The long tradition of Chinese civilization goes back about
7,000 years.
Deforestation may have been a problem near the end
of the Xia Dynasty,
which was replaced by the warlike Shang Dynasty
that developed bronze artistry and lasted about five centuries.
The Zhou Dynasty claimed the mandate of heaven in the 11th century
BC
as they criticized the drunkenness and oppressive policies
of the last Shang king.
Chinese kingdoms operated as a feudal
system
under the sovereignty of the Zhou king for centuries.
Several early literary classics indicated a sophisticated culture.
The Book of Changes applied philosophy to the art of divination,
developing the ideas of yin and yang and other natural
symbols,
as they sought to live in harmony with nature.
Songs
and poetry expressing human feelings
were collected and passed
on in the Book of Odes.
Courtesy and manners were precisely
delineated
in the first of many works on propriety (li).
China's early interest in history was recorded in the Book of Documents,
which developed a political philosophy of following
the will of heaven
under hereditary monarchs.
Government became
bureaucratized under the prime minister
and the ministries of
Instruction, Religions, War, Crime, and Works.
Many wars occurred in China in the half millennium from 722
to 221 BC,
the first half known as the Spring and Autumn Era
and
the second as the Period of Warring States.
Small feudal states
were taken over by expanding kingdoms;
then a few kingdoms struggled
for power
until the western state of Qin overcame the rest.
A
commentary on the Spring and Autumn Annals made moral judgments
and drew political lessons from this ancient strife.
Guan Zhong's
political skill was later admired by the Legalists.
A brief respite
from these wars occurred when Heang Seu
convened a meeting in
545 BC that was able to organize a league of states
to keep the
peace for a few years.
Cheng prime minister Zichan encouraged
open discussions of his government's policies.
The state of Wu
was militarized by following the advice of Sun-zi,
who wrote The
Art of War.
Yet Wu's rapid rise to power was followed
by its
even faster decline and destruction in 473 BC.
The intrigues of active advisors caused frequent conflicts
between states.
Wu Qi was another whose military advice stimulated
violence.
Legalists later emulated the harsh punishments of Shang
Yang,
who was killed in 338 BC.
His contemporary Shen Buhai was
influenced by Daoist ideas
and developed subtle techniques of
administration.
Su Qin and his brothers tried to use diplomacy
to form alliances
against the powerful Qin, while Zhang Yi negotiated
with other states for Qin.
Hundreds of thousands were killed in
these battles,
as warlords like the Lord of Mengchang (who went
from Qi to serve Qin and Wei
before going back to Qi), Zhao's
Lord of Pingyuan, the Noble Scion of Wei,
and Chu's Lord of Chunshen
struggled for power.
Finally Li Si became prime minister for Qin's
King Zheng, enabling him
to overcome all the other states and
become the first emperor of China in 221 BC.
Amid these troubled and warlike times China
experienced its
golden age of philosophers.
Confucius (551-479 BC) became the
first known professional teacher of adults.
As a practical humanist,
Confucius emphasized the goodness and wisdom
that produce ethical
behavior.
An indefatigable learner, Confucius studied the classics,
particularly the Book of Changes to which he wrote commentaries.
His conversations with his students recorded in the Analects
portrayed him
as a genial and patient teacher.
He would have liked
to have been an advisor to kings,
but few would listen to his
humane ideas.
Confucius did not consider himself an innovator
but one who
taught the ancient Zhou wisdom of love, justice,
conscientiousness, courage, and filial piety.
Most of all he sought goodness (humanity),
but he never believed that he or others fully attained it.
He
pointed out the difference between the
attitudes and behaviors
of superior people compared to small people.
Instead of judging
people by birth or family,
Confucius evaluated them by their character
and actions.
His thorough and life-long teaching enabled individuals
to rise in Chinese society through education.
Although he was
more philosophical than religious,
Confucius did pray and perform
rituals sincerely;
yet he believed serving people was more important
than serving spirits.
He taught that we should not do to others
what we do not want them to do to us.
He recommended we correct
ourselves before we try to correct others.
For Confucius rectifying
language depended on truthfulness
and the integrity of matching
actions to words.
Confucius focused on political reform as well
as self-improvement.
He believed studying literature could help
prevent one from violating the way
and that social relations could
be harmonized by propriety.
Confucius showed that virtue could
be attained by the love of learning.
Of the followers of Confucius, his favorite student Yen Hui
died before him;
the bold Zilu died serving his prince;
Ran Qiu
was criticized for raising taxes;
Zigong became one of the first
active diplomats;
Zeng Shen emphasized filial piety;
the well
educated Ziyu gained a position;
and Zixia became the master of
his own school.
The grandson of Confucius wrote a book or two
and was the teacher of Mencius.
Mencius (371-289 BC) was the next great Confucian philosopher,
and his book became a Confucian classic.
Mencius advised the aged
King Hui to avoid war
and improve his kingdom with education and
other reforms.
Good government would reduce taxes and the violence
of punishments and war.
The king could become great and make his
kingdom great by practicing kindness.
The people need to be nurtured
and provided with education.
After King Hui died, Mencius went
to Qi to counsel King Xuan;
but he loved money and women and would
not listen
when Mencius implied criticism of him.
Mencius recommended
consulting the people in decisions that affected them.
Mencius
also advised Duke Wen of Teng to do good.
Mencius emphasized goodness and believed that in the heart
of everyone is goodness.
Every human would naturally go to save
a baby about to fall into a well.
This human goodness can also
be applied in government.
He recommended a middle path between
negligence and too much meddling.
For Mencius virtue is more important
than profit.
People can help each other and live in harmony.
Mencius
admired Confucius and criticized Yang Zhu for teaching selfishness.
Mencius suggested seeking and thinking in order to find the answer.
Everyone loves, but the wise love what is more important.
Goodness
is like water and can overcome the cruelty of fire.
If virtue
is put before profit, human relationships will be mutually beneficial.
Mencius criticized advisors who pandered to the evil desires of
rulers.
Mencius found no just wars in his era
and thought that
military experts were grave criminals.
Xun-zi (Hsun-tzu) lived almost a century (310-212 BC) in a
violent era.
He studied and taught at the academy in Qi but had
to flee
during the massive invasion of 284 BC.
In Qin-dominated
Chu, Xun-zi was influenced by Daoism and wrote about education,
returning to the Qi academy after eight years.
Slandered there,
in 265 BC Xun-zi traveled to Qin and Zhao
to advise rulers that
support of the people was most important.
He criticized military
methods and profit motivations,
emphasizing propriety and moral
education.
Unity is better than deception.
Xun-zi believed that
war was only justifiable as a punitive expedition
and that a good
person does not contend for spoil.
Li Si, who became prime minister
of the Qin empire,
and the Legalist philosopher Han Fei-zi both
studied with Xun-zi.
As a Confucian he recommended the use of
virtue over that of force or wealth.
In his native Zhao, Xun-zi was appointed magistrate of Lanling
by Chu prime minister Lord of Chunshen,
but he was removed for
doing such a good job
that he threatened the ruler's power.
Reconciled,
he returned to serve there until Chunshen was assassinated in
238 BC.
Xun-zi's book was influential but never became a classic
like that of Mencius.
Xun-zi also valued education; but he believed
human nature
is basically selfish and evil, and thus people need
to be taught how to behave.
He recommended the classics and aimed
at self-improvement.
The virtuous are not subverted by power or
the love of profit.
Xun-zi also contrasted the gentleman of moral
conduct and the petty person.
He taught the Confucian virtues
of justice, truthfulness, humanity, courage, and propriety.
Xun-zi
criticized the utilitarian Mo-zi and believed followers of Mencius
were deluded.
In government Xun-zi advised promoting the worthy,
dismissing the incompetent, punishing the incorrigibly evil, and
teaching the people.
Xun-zi was admired for teaching moral values
in an era when humanity was degraded.
The Classic of Filial Piety ascribed to Zeng-zi emphasized
family loyalty
and based all love on parental love.
Additional
books were written on propriety and ceremonies,
and one of these
collections contained two outstanding Confucian classics—
Higher
Education and The Center of Harmony,
both attributed
to the grandson of Confucius.
The first described learning as
manifesting clear character,
loving the people, and living in
the highest good.
These can be achieved by directing purpose,
calm clarity,
peaceful poise, and careful deliberation.
The eight
steps are investigating things, extending knowledge, a sincere
will,
setting the heart right, cultivating the personal life,
making families harmonious and government orderly,
resulting in
peace in the world.
The Center of Harmony recommended finding
one's center through self-observation
and harmony through sincere
and conscientious reciprocity based on understanding.
During the Han dynasty Confucian philosophy was promoted by
Dong Zhongshu,
who urged Emperor Wu to open an imperial university
for the study of the five traditional classics.
His own Luxuriant
Gems of the Spring and Autumn Annals
combined the yin-yang
cosmology with Confucian values.
Confucianism had emerged as the
dominant philosophy in China
and was already greatly influencing
government and society,
promoting education and humanistic values
in all relationships.
Lao-zi in his famous book, Dao De Jing, taught the mystical
ideas
of the way and its virtue, founding the Daoist philosophy
and religion.
In the receptivity of the feminine principle (yin)
he experienced peace without competing.
Valuing simplicity, the
natural flow of water, and the mystical source,
Lao-zi transcended
strife and taught loving people without interfering.
Troubles
come from being selfish,
but those who value the world as themselves
may be trusted.
Observing the folly of much striving, Lao-zi saw
unity in simplicity,
and he criticized the destructiveness of
war.
His way of love and frugality without ambition would be very
influential,
as his enigmatic book has been translated more times
than any other book in history.
Mo-zi lived about seventy years and died about 390 BC.
Mo-zi
in his writing taught universal love and following the will of
heaven.
He believed that mutual love would lead to mutual respect.
He not only advised rulers, but he and his followers actively
attempted to stop wars
with counsel and defensive techniques.
Mo-zi went from Qi and persuaded Gong Shu Ban of Chu
to stop his
threatened attack on Song,
where 300 of Mo-zi's disciples were
prepared in defense.
The frugal Mo-zi asked only for necessary
food and clothing for his political work.
He also advised the
leaders of Qi and Lu not to attack each other,
and he suggested
that the small state of Wei focus on defense rather than luxuries.
Mo-zi was imprisoned in Song.
In 393 BC Mo-zi persuaded Prince
Wen of Lu Yang not to attack Zheng.
Several of his disciples gained
political positions.
Mo-zi argued that universal love is most useful for everyone.
The universal person will feed the hungry, clothe the cold,
care
for the sick, and bury the dead.
Who would not prefer the person
of universal love to the selfish person?
Mutual benefit is most
profitable.
He suggested that when the wise rule, they will honor
the worthy
so that the people will be well served.
Mo-zi condemned
offensive warfare
as the greatest crime for causing so much killing,
destruction, and waste of resources.
The utilitarian Mo-zi also
criticized excessive expenditures on luxuries,
elaborate ceremonies,
and funerals.
The will of heaven is to love people; this will
be rewarded, because heaven is just.
Mo-zi looked to the wisdom
of the ancient sages, the current evidence,
and the pragmatic
test of future results.
Mo-zi criticized the Confucians for their
elaborate funerals, social distinctions,
and hypocrisy; but after
two centuries of rivalry,
Moism was overcome by the Confucian
scholars.
Song Keng also worked to check aggression and proposed disarmament.
Zhuang-zi agreed with him but chose not to enter politics;
he
and Lie-zi were two other Daoists who left charming writings.
Their reclusive lives had little political affect,
but their humorous
stories amused many.
Like Lao-zi, Zhuang-zi transcended worldly
ambitions,
and he satirized the meddling of Confucius.
In the Songs of Chu the poet Qu Yuan expressed his sorrow
at
being dismissed from government,
found consolation in Daoist simplicity
and mysticism,
and composed beautiful songs before drowning himself.
Other poets continued his themes and exalted the shamanistic travels
of the Daoists.
In the Han era a collection of writings called the Huai-nan-zi
expressed Daoist ideas, condemning militarism and valuing the
inner life of joy
over outer desires and ambitions.
Like the short-lived
Qin empire, a state disordered by harsh punishment
cannot last
long, while the virtue of Han culture resulted in prosperity.
These Daoists believed that violence can be prevented by using
troops
to stop oppressive behaviors, but they should not be allowed
to burn crops,
destroy property, rob animals, or enslave people.
When soldiers are just, there is no war.
The realistic Legalist philosophers based their writings
on
the reforms of Guan Zhong and Lord Shang.
The Guan-zi believed
in Confucian virtues but considered the use of force inevitable.
The Book of Lord Shang tried to reduce everything to agriculture
and war-making,
advocating strong government based on strict laws
and punishments
in an authoritarian philosophy that led to the
tyranny of the Qin empire.
Han Fei-zi wrote more elegantly about Legalism and urged Qin
to dominate China,
but he was forced to take poison before Qin
united China under its imperial power.
His philosophy made the
ruler most powerful and discussed techniques
for using ministers
to govern the people with clearly defined laws
using carefully
calculated rewards and punishments.
Power and authority are concentrated
at the top in the ruler.
Han Fei-zi taught how ministers could
effectively persuade
a powerful ruler to follow their advice.
Although his aim was to prevent the strong from oppressing the
weak,
his method of accomplishing that was to make the government
headed
by one man very strong, a dangerous formula.
Ministers
should be punished for disobeying orders
even if their actions
were virtuous and successful.
All private interests must be subordinated
to public order.
Han Fei-zi thought that even small crimes could be deterred
by severe penalties,
and he criticized a duke for eliminating
some laws that were resulting in
too many foot amputations, for
he believed that any leniency to criminals
harmed the good and
the political order.
Rewards and punishments must not be delayed
and should be dispensed with praise and censure.
The coldly logical
Han Fei-zi believed that penalties should not be made
light out
of compassion nor severe from cruelty.
These Legalist ideas would
be tried out in the Qin empire.
When Qin king Zheng proclaimed himself the First Emperor of
China in 221 BC,
he divided the empire into 36 provinces with
military commandants,
confiscated local weapons, and instituted
strict laws with harsh penalties.
Large building projects used
convict labor,
and an attempted assassination stimulated a repressive
and widespread investigation.
A half million men, who had evaded
conscription or taxes,
were put to work completing the Great Wall.
In 213 BC all books not considered practical were ordered burned.
Scholars resisting this were tattooed and put in labor camps.
The next year the Emperor ordered 700,000 castrated convicts put
to work
building his new palace complex.
The escape of two scholars
led to an investigation
and the execution of 460 others in the
capital.
The First Emperor died in 211 BC, and the intriguing eunuch
Zhao Gao
controlled power under the Second Emperor.
Two years
later the leader of 900 convict laborers, rather than be executed,
started a revolution using plow handles and sticks.
Zhao Gao contrived
the execution of chancellor Li Si, whom he replaced,
got the Second
Emperor to commit suicide,
but was killed himself by his replacement,
Ziying.
Only 46 days later the Qin imperial armies were defeated
by the widespread rebellion.
Eventually the governor of Pei, who
became king of Han,
defeated Xiang Yu to found the Han Dynasty in 202 BC as Emperor Gaozu.
Confucian scholars persuaded Emperor Gaozu that the Qin empire
had failed because of its harsh Legalist policies.
He called for
men of virtue in his government,
though he made his relatives
kings in the provinces.
When he died in 195 BC, the Chinese empire
was allowed to experiment
under the Daoist policies of the Empress
Lu
while she was busy with violent intrigues in the capital.
Emperor
Wen reigned 180-157 BC, and he was acclaimed a great exemplar
for his benevolent policies that abolished cruel punishments,
reduced taxes,
and instituted civil service examinations.
Emperor
Jing (157-141 BC) had to deal with a rebellion
after he reduced
the size of several kingdoms.
The martial emperor Wu Di began ruling at age 16 and often
during his 54-year reign
had his army fighting the barbarian Xiongnu
in the northwest;
other military campaigns attacked Korea, Manchuria,
and Mongolia.
Wu Di established an imperial university for the
study of the classics,
but in the second half of his reign the
Legalists
had more influence than the Confucians.
Laws became
more strictly enforced,
but criminals were pardoned if they served
in the army.
Corruption led to larger and larger bands of robbers;
the army attacked them and cut off 10,000 heads at a time.
Commandant
of justice Du Zhou always had at least
a hundred officials in
prison and arrested 60,000 people.
Even the great historian Sima
Qian was arrested in 99 BC and castrated,
because he could not
pay.
Eight years later tens of thousands were arbitrarily executed
for witchcraft.
A public debate on the salt and iron monopolies was conducted
in 81 BC,
indicating a free exchange of ideas.
Emperor Xuan reigned
using Confucian principles from 74 to 48 BC.
Emperor Yuan during
his fifteen years also followed Confucian ways,
but the emphasis
on family led to the problem of nepotism.
Emperor Cheng took over
in 33 BC and abolished the palace writer
so that the eunuchs would
not have so much power.
Chinese civilization had stabilized in
a monarchical empire
guided by Confucian ideas, though intrigues
would soon
bring the fall of the Former Han dynasty.
The earlier Han dynasty came to an end in China after having
had trouble
producing an heir, and the revolutionary Confucian Wang Mang took power in 9 CE.
His attempts to control the economy
while hoarding gold failed;
as millions died from famine and the
turmoil,
peasants joined with Han nobles
in a wide-spread rebellion
that overthrew and killed Wang Mang in 23 CE.
The Eastern Han dynasty moved the capital to Luoyang and expanded to the south,
overcoming numerous rebellions by the Yue people.
The Han army
reconquered central Asia by defeating the Xiongnu,
and sons of
barbarian leaders were educated in Chinese culture.
The Chinese
developed iron into steel, the shoulder collar for draft animals,
the wheelbarrow, porcelain dishes, and paper.
Population increased
again, and 30,000 were studying in the imperial academy by 146.
Eunuchs gained increasing power and wealth,
which they passed
on to adopted sons as corruption flourished at court.
In 184 Daoist
healers led rebellions in Sichuan and in the east
as Zhang Jue
promised equality and common ownership
to 360,000 followers wearing
yellow turbans.
After 220 China became divided into three kingdoms
that invaded
Korea, Vietnam, and the southwest.
In the 4th century Buddhism
spread rapidly in China.
Later the Qin ruler Yao Xing (r. 393-415)
sustained 3,000 Buddhist monks
as Kumarajiva in Chang'an directed
translations of Buddhist scriptures.
The Martial Emperor (Wu Di)
of Liang patronized Buddhism
in the first half of the 6th century.
However, Confucians won a struggle with Buddhists and Daoists
as the Northern Qi reunified north China in 577.
Sui Wen Di (r.
581-604) reunited all of China and promoted reforms and Buddhism.
The Sui conquered Chen and tried to impose morality.
Sui Wen Di
stored grain to prevent famines and had canals built with convict
labor.
Confucian schools were closed in 601.
Wen's son Yang Di
(r. 604-17) was even more extravagant in building
but in 606 instituted
the examination system based on Confucian classics.
Yang Di's
biggest mistake was launching a major war
against Koguryo (Korea)
in 612 with 1,132,800 men.
People rebelled when he broke his promise
to end the war,
and the fleeing Sui emperor was assassinated in
618.
General Li Yuan founded the Tang Dynasty (618-907) with the
help
of his son Li Shimin, who took over and reigned as Tang Tai
Zong (r. 626-49).
He expanded Confucian education and kept Buddhists
out of politics.
The Tang army subjugated the Eastern Turks in
630,
and 100,000 defeated Turks were resettled in southern China.
The Tang helped Silla dominate Koguryo and Paekche in Korea from
619 to 643,
but then the Tang had to retreat from this imperialistic
adventure.
Tai Zong's son Gao Zong was dominated by the concubine
he made Empress Wu.
She promoted reforms according to her Daoist
ideas,
suspending most examinations for ten years.
She tried to
start a new dynasty, but the Tang dynasty was restored
and flourished
under Xuan Zong (r. 712-56).
Building of Buddhist and Daoist temples
was suspended,
and 30,000 monks and nuns were returned to lay
life.
Yet the Pure Land practice of chanting
and Chan concentration
on meditation developed.
New laws were promulgated in 715.
The Tang had conflicts with Tibet, and the central government
declined.
De Zong (r. 779-805) managed to rebuild the palace army
to 100,000 men commanded by eunuchs.
In the 9th century China's
total military increased to nearly a million men.
Daoist Wu Zong
(r. 840-46) confiscated the wealth of the tax-exempt monasteries,
freeing their 150,000 slaves (dependents),
and returning 260,000
monks and nuns to lay life.
Yet the Buddhist monasteries had been
providing many useful services
to the poor, the sick, and the
aged.
Banditry and rebellion eventually brought the end of the
Tang dynasty in 907
and a period of regional governments.
Northern China was ruled by a sequence of five dynasties from
907 to 960
while eight kingdoms existed simultaneously in the
south.
Farther north the Khitans made Abaoji their great khan
in 907,
and he founded the Liao empire that conquered east to
the Yalu and Ussuri rivers.
In 1005 the Liao made the Song emperor
send them annual tribute,
and in 1010 the Khitans invaded Korea.
The Jurchens defeated and ended the Liao empire in 1125,
while
a remnant fled west as the Kara-Khitai.
In the northwest Tanguts
formed the Xia kingdom in the tenth century,
and in 1038 Yuanhao
was proclaimed emperor.
A Xia alliance with the Liao forced the
Song empire to pay
both these northern empires extensive annual
tribute,
while Chinese culture strongly influenced both.
The Mongols
first invaded the western Xia in 1205 and conquered them in 1227.
Wanyan Aguda led the Jurchens in Manchuria and founded the Jin
dynasty in 1115.
They conquered the capitals of the Liao empire
by 1122 and four years later
besieged the Song capital, taking
over northern China for a century.
Jurchen nobles governed the
Chinese majority and adopted their examination system.
The Jin
dynasty made a treaty with the southern Song in 1142
and eventually
adopted Chinese laws.
Mongols invaded the Jin empire in 1211 and
overcame it in 1234.
Another general founded the Song Dynasty (960-1279)
and became
Emperor Song Taizu,
but he put regional governments under civilian
authority.
Military expenses increased and by 1041 were 80% of
government spending.
Buddhism became corrupted by selling certification
of monks.
Paper money, iron production, and increased rice yields
added to prosperity.
However, the status of women declined as
foot-binding became a vogue,
and prostitution flourished in cities.
Printing began using moveable type about 1030.
The poet Wang Anshi
became prime minister and reformed lending, taxes,
and government
employment, establishing public education and social welfare;
but conservatives in the north managed to reverse his reforms
by 1085.
The multi-talented Su Shi criticized Wang Anshi for not
being liberal enough
and tried to reduce the killing of female
babies.
The Jurchens helped the Song fight the Liao,
but as the
Jin they took over the northern capital in 1127.
Gaozong (r. 1127-62)
continued the Song dynasty in the south and paid the Jin tribute.
In the 11th and 12th centuries thinkers developed the Neo-Confucian philosophy
that recommended liberal education and humane government,
formulating the ethics that would guide Chinese culture for the
next eight centuries.
Zhou Dunyi wrote that integrity is the basis
of the ethical mean.
Zhang Zai identified with heaven and universal
love.
The brothers Cheng Hao and Cheng Yi emphasized seriousness.
Cheng Hao became popular by preventing a famine.
Cheng Yi, who
advised extending knowledge and criticized Buddhists, was banished,
and his teachings were banned during the first half of the 12th
century.
Zhu Xi (1130-1200) debated the idealistic Lu Xiangshan
and wrote extensive
commentaries on the Confucian classics,
which
became the basis for civil service examinations.
Zhu Xi promoted
the principle of love, suggesting that
the mind uses moral principle to master the body.
He also commented on the writings of the other
Neo-Confucians.
His book Family Rituals has been criticized
for having a deleterious effect
on the roles of women and the
young in Confucian societies.
His grand synthesis of Confucian
philosophy
has been compared to the work of Thomas Aquinas.
Poetry and calligraphy have been important components of Chinese literary culture.
Correct knowledge of poetry was essential to
passing the examinations,
and scholarly officials often wrote
and quoted poetry.
The wine-loving Li Bo and his friend Du Fu
were two of the most popular poets
during the artistic Tang era.
Bo Juyi (772-846) wrote many poems
but also rose to become a governor
after having been banished.
Temujin was born in 1162 and gained a following among the Mongols.
By 1206 he was ruling a million Mongols
and was proclaimed Genghis
(Chinggis) Khan.
He promulgated their laws with freedom of religion
and tax exemptions for teachers, doctors, and lawyers.
The Mongols
were joined by the conquered Khitans
and the peasants rebelling
against the Jurchens.
The Mongols invaded Central Asia and killed
about fifteen million people in five years.
Genghis Khan died
in 1227 while the Xia capital was being besieged.
East Asia went
to his son Ogodei (r. 1229-41),
and the Mongols conquered the
Jin empire that included northern China by 1234.
Two years later
they issued paper money
based on their reserves of precious metals.
Ogodei's son Koden invaded Tibet in 1239 and was healed by their
lamas in 1247.
Subodei had led the Mongol invasion of Georgia
and Russia in the early 1220s,
and in 1240 his army looted Kiev
before invading Poland, Germany, Hungary,
and as far as Vienna.
Subodei died of drinking, and the Mongols withdrew from Europe
in 1242,
leaving their cousins, the Golden Horde, to rule Russia.
After a struggle for power, Mongke was elected Mongol leader in
1251.
He assigned his younger brothers Hulegu to rule western
Asia
and Khubilai to govern northern China.
Mongke paid off debts
and slowed the issuing of paper money.
Using explosives, Hulegu
led the conquest of Baghdad in 1258.
He was stopped by an Egyptian
army,
but his descendants continued to rule the Persian empire
as the Ilkhans.
Khubilai Khan won a civil war against his brother Arik Boke
and ruled eastern Mongolia, northern China, Tibet, Manchuria,
and Korea.
He promoted recovery and agriculture, and his army
conquered Sichuan in 1265.
Khubilai proclaimed the Yuan dynasty
and with Korean help launched
a campaign against Japan in 1274,
but a storm destroyed their fleet and 13,000 invaders.
The Mongol
forces conquered southern China by 1279.
Two years later a rebellion
was crushed,
and a second attempted invasion of Japan was even
a worse disaster
with a hundred thousand drowned in the storm.
Khubilai Khan ruled over a class system
that favored Mongols and
foreigners over the Chinese.
Efforts to conquer southeast Asia
failed.
Finance ministers such as Ahmad, Lu Shirong, and Sangha
collected heavy taxes,
and pirates were given lucrative contracts
for transporting grain.
Millions of laborers worked on the Grand
Canal from Hangzhou to Daidu (Beijing).
Khubilai tried to reduce
taxes, implement reforms, provide public schools,
and improve
roads with way stations and by planting trees.
Italian traveler
Marco Polo served Khubilai Khan from 1275 to 1291
and wrote about
his court and his admiration for Christian ethics.
Khubilai's grandson Temur (r. 1294-1307) tried to reduce corruption
by convicting 18,473 officials, but his seven successors
had to
deal with rebellions against the Mongol domination.
Emperor Renzong
implemented civil service examinations in 1313,
but half the positions
went to Mongols and other foreigners.
Toghon Temur (r. 1333-68)
was the last Mongol ruler of China.
Rebellions by the White Lotus
Society
that expected the Maitreya Buddha began in 1335.
Confucians
gained more influence at court for a while,
but factions at court
and regional warlords divided the Yuan empire.
Zhu Yuanzhang was
a Buddhist monk who joined the rebels.
He gained custody of a
prince and invaded Nanjing in 1355.
Salt smuggler Zhang Shicheng
robbed the rich and led ten thousand rebels.
In 1357 the Red Turbans
captured Kaifeng,
but they were defeated two years later.
By 1363
Zhu Yuanzhang had set up several monopolies,
collected taxes, and minted millions of coins.
He defeated the Red Turbans and
then overcame Yuan forces in 1367.
The next year Zhu proclaimed
the Ming dynasty
and renamed Daidu the "northern capital"
Beijing.
Heavy taxes and discrimination against the Chinese had
provoked
numerous rebellions in the south after 1350 against the
large estates
that had been taken over by the Mongols.
Theater developed rapidly during the Yuan era in China,
as
the Chinese at the bottom of the social hierarchy next to actors
and prostitutes
expressed their discontent with Mongol domination.
Guan Hanqing wrote many plays with the theme of correcting social
injustices.
Ma Zhiyuan wrote Daoist plays that offer an escape
from the woes of this world in immortal life.
The Romance of
the Western Chamber was written about 1300
and is one of China's
most famous plays.
Actually a series of five plays, this drama
is very romantic
and affirms the value of a scholar passing the
exams to gain success.
The Chalk Circle by Li Xingdao
is another courtroom drama
in which the wise judge, Bao Zheng,
cleverly discovers the truth
to save the innocent and punish the
guilty.
Gao Ming's The Lute is a transitional play between
the Yuan and Ming eras
in which a loyal wife suffers dire poverty
in the country
while her young husband is rewarded for excelling
on the examination at the capital.
Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming dynasty
and ruled as Emperor
Hongwu from 1368 to 1398.
The Ming armies continued to fight the
Mongols until Koko Temur died in 1375.
Hongwu resumed the examinations.
He required Buddhists to pass an exam to be ordained,
and he banned
secret Buddhist societies.
The Ming army invaded Tibet twice in
the late 1370s,
capturing 30,000 people and more than 300,000
animals.
In 1380 the Emperor executed his prime minister and 15,000
people.
His government was organized into the six ministries
of
Personnel, Revenue, Rites, War, Justice, and Works.
He organized
a secret police force and censors in all twelve provinces.
In
1388 a Ming army of 150,000 crossed the Gobi Desert
and captured
77,000 Mongols.
Hongwu required skilled students to serve in the
government or face death.
The Ming code of laws was completed
in 1397.
Punishment for minor crimes was usually by beating with
a stick.
In the 1390s the Chinese planted about one billion trees,
and in 1395 more than forty thousand reservoirs were repaired
or built.
That year all Buddhist and Daoist monks
had to pass
an examination or return to lay life.
Upon his death 38 of Hongwu's
concubines took their lives.
Zhu Jianwen succeeded his grandfather Hongwu
and applied Confucian
principles to make the government more liberal.
However, Prince
Zhu Di of Yan rebelled in the north
and eventually won the civil
war in 1402 to become Emperor Yongle.
He established a military
aristocracy and engaged in
expensive campaigns against Mongols
in the north.
Large numbers of horses were purchased and bred.
The Ming army also invaded Annam (Vietnam)
and made it a province
despite continued resistance.
The Emperor sponsored the compiling
of the massive Yongle Encyclopedia
in 11,095 volumes,
while his empress Xu wrote on Buddhism.
Between 1405 and 1422
the Muslim eunuch Zheng He led six voyages
of exploration that
reached India, Africa, and possibly even America.
Yongle moved
the capital from Nanjing to Beijing.
Although Emperor Hongxi only
ruled for eight months,
he made significant reforms by restoring
civilian government.
Emperor Xuande (r. 1426-35) put down a rebellion
and withdrew the Ming troops from Annam in 1427.
He continued
his father's initiative to bring the military under civilian control,
and Gu Zuo replaced many of the censors.
Young Yingzong (r. 1435-49)
was dominated by the dowager Lady Zhang
and Wang Chen during the
rebellions that followed famines, epidemics, and floods.
Mongols
captured Yingzong in 1449, and his brother became Emperor Jingtai
during the rebellions that continued until he died in 1457.
Then
Yingzong was restored and ruled until his death in 1464.
Emperor Xianzong (r. 1464-87) was dominated by his consort
Lady Wan.
Officials complained that ten thousand eunuchs served
in the bureaucracy.
Thousands of Miao were killed in uprisings.
In 1484 some 70,000 Buddhist ordination certificates were sold.
Xiaozong (r. 1487-1505) applied Confucian policies and developed
the law code.
Rebellions in the early 1500s were suppressed by
the imperial army.
Young Emperor Zhengde (r. 1505-21) was influenced
by the corrupt Liu Qin
and other eunuchs, but the drunk Emperor
ordered Liu Qin executed in 1510.
The palace was burned down during
an extravagant lantern festival
and cost a million ounces of silver
to rebuild.
The Prince of Ning rebelled, but the philosopher Wang
Yangming
led the army that defeated him in 1519.
Zhengde took
hundreds of women into his harem.
Emperor Jiajing (r. 1521-66) had protesting officials beaten,
and seventeen died.
In 1527 treason trials purged the Hanlin Academy
clique
In 1534 Jiajing went into seclusion and took Daoist aphrodisiacs
and elixirs.
Mongols led by Altan invaded Shanxi, killing or capturing
200,000 men
and a million cattle and horses.
When they besieged
Beijing in 1550, Jiajing held an audience
and had his minister
of war executed.
After making an agreement, the Chinese began
building a wall around Beijing.
The Emperor had a thousand pre-menstrual
girls brought into his palace
to increase his male energy.
A large
surtax, drought, and floods caused starvation and epidemics.
Banning
trade caused piracy, which was reduced by 1563.
Zhang Juzheng helped young Emperor Wanli (r. 1572-1620)
by
reducing unnecessary government.
Zhang died in 1582 before a land
survey was completed.
The Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci learned
Chinese and wrote books
on scientific knowledge and Christianity.
After the Japanese invaded Korea in 1592, the Chinese fought them
there until 1598,
costing the Ming treasury ten million taels
of silver.
Wanli had 16,000 eunuchs in the civil service
and sent
them out to collect taxes in 1596.
He ignored criticism and vacant
positions.
The Donglin Academy was founded in 1604 to work for
major reforms.
Buddhists Yuan Liaofan and Zhuhong developed a
system for measuring
merits and demerits of actions with numbers.
Zhuhong aimed to harmonize the Pure Land and Chan schools,
and
he encouraged lay Buddhists.
As Chinese population increased to
230 million, those working
in cotton, silk, paper, and iron industries
in the north
had to be supplied with grain from the south, where
peasants had heavy taxes.
Nurhaci organized the Jurchens in Manchuria,
and his army helped
fight the Japanese in Korea.
He stopped sending tribute to Beijing
in 1615 and expressed his grievances.
Nurhaci defeated the Ming
army and by 1621 ruled over a million Chinese.
Ming emperor Tianqi
(1620-27) relied on the eunuch Wei Zhongxian,
who punished those
in the Donglin movement.
Emperor Chongzhen (r. 1627-44) dismissed
Wei and resumed trade,
but eunuchs inspecting the provinces and
famines caused rebellions.
Nurhaci died in 1626 and was succeeded
by his son Abahai,
who held exams in the Chinese, Manchu, and
Mongol languages.
He proclaimed the Qing dynasty of the Manchus,
and in 1638 their army returned with 400,000 captives.
Li Zicheng
led rebels who besieged Kaifeng and made Xiangyang their capital.
Abahai died in 1643, and Dorgon ruled for his young son.
When
Li Zicheng occupied Beijing the next year,
the last Ming emperor
committed suicide.
Chinese general Wu Sangui joined the Manchus
and helped them defeat Li's rebels.
The Manchus entered Beijing
and announced an amnesty.
Many Confucians served in the Ming government;
Wang Yangming (1472-1529) was the most famous and influential.
While in the
public works department, Wang submitted a memorial
on improving
defense by expanding emergency personnel, reducing the army,
using
the military in farming, enforcing the law, and showing imperial
mercy.
He investigated and reversed convictions in Yunnan,
and
in 1506 he defended officials imprisoned by the eunuch Liu Qin.
While in exile he wrote on the unity of knowledge and action.
He was a judge in Nanjing and was promoted back to Beijing.
By
1516 he was a senior censor and a governor.
He established primary
schools in Jiangxi.
After capturing Prince Ning, he governed Jiangxi
and implemented reforms.
Many followed his philosophy of extending
innate knowledge.
After his death he was condemned until the next
emperor restored his honors.
He explained his idealistic philosophy
in Instructions for Practical Living.
Wang advised eliminating
selfish desires and identifying the mind with heaven (nature).
He believed that the poison of profit has infected human minds,
and he urged self-examination.
Wang summarized his teachings in
his "Inquiry on the Great Learning."
The eccentric
Li Zhi developed his own philosophy
of personal autonomy and wrote
controversial books.
Gao Qi lived during the transition to the Ming dynasty
and
criticized the Yuan government in stories.
He was executed for
revealing palace secrets in 1374.
The astrologer Liu Ji also criticized
the Yuan rulers
and others in his satirical parables.
Qu Yu wrote
stories that reveal the spiritual justice of various actions.
The Ming Era produced several outstanding novels.
The Three
Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong is filled with exciting stories
of the civil wars during and after the decline of the Han dynasty.
Their intrigues teach wisdom,
while the stories in the Outlaws
of the Marsh inspire courage.
This band of noble robbers lived
at the same time as Robin Hood.
The novel was believed to promote
rebellion and was sometimes banned.
However, the longer versions
of the novel
end with the heroes dying or joining the imperial
service.
Wu Chengen wrote the imaginative novel The Journey
to the West
about the pilgrimage of Xuanzang to India in the
6th century
to bring back Buddhist scriptures.
The character Monkey
symbolizes the mind seeking enlightenment.
Monkey uses his supernatural
abilities in various adventures
and eventually is taught by the
Buddha.
Guanyin instructs Monkey and two monsters to help the
pilgrim on his journey.
The pilgrim learns how to restrain the
Mind Monkey,
and they all submit to the Buddha.
The fourth long
and great novel of the Ming era
is the erotic Plum in the Golden
Vase (Jin Ping Mei).
The author intended to portray life realistically
and expose the dangers of promiscuity
in a decadent family during
the decline of the Song dynasty in the early 12th century.
Li
Yu also wrote an erotic novel, Jou Pu Tuan, in 1635 to
entertain young men
and warn them of the consequences from sensuality
and moral corruption.
Zhu Yudun wrote sympathetic Theater plays about prostitutes and Daoists.
Xu Wei had a difficult life in poverty, but he managed to paint
and write plays.
The Lady General portrays the heroic Hua
Mulan,
and The Lady Scholar also implies that women are
not inferior to men.
Tang Xianzu developed the genre of romantic
plays that emphasized diction.
In the Purple Hairpin he
gave a tragic story a happy ending,
but he is most famous for
the romantic play, The Peony Pavilion,
in which a beautiful
woman makes love to a scholar in a dream,
paints her portrait,
dies for love, and comes back to life to elope with him.
Tang
Xianzu's The Nanke Story is a dream play
that moves from
romance to Daoist mysticism.
In The Handan Story by Tang
a farming inspector dreams he has a melodramatic life
and then
decides to wander as an immortal.
The Kunshan play Fifteen
Strings of Cash by Shi Wu Guan
is an example of a detective
mystery that satirizes a foolish trial.
After taking Beijing in 1644, the Manchus began winning over
the Chinese
with amnesty and tax reductions, but a Ming court
moved to Nanjing.
The Prince of Fu tried to flee from there but
was captured in 1645.
The rebel Zhang Xianzhong ruled Sichuan
tyrannically
and was defeated and killed in 1647.
The Ming emperor
Yongli fled to the southwest, reaching Yunnan in 1651,
and in
1659 he went to Burma, where he was finally killed in 1662.
Merchant
Zheng Chenggong led Ming resistance,
but he retreated to Taiwan, also dying in 1662.
Qing emperor Shunzhi revived the Hanlin Academy
and the grand secretariat in 1658 before he died in 1661.
Four Manchu regents governed until Emperor Kangxi became old
enough in 1667.
In 1670 he promulgated sixteen moral maxims in
a sacred edict
that he ordered read aloud twice a month.
They
emphasized filial piety and other Confucian values.
Kangxi's policy
was to treat Manchus and Chinese equally,
though the governor-generals
were usually Manchus.
Wu Sangui and two other feudal leaders revolted
in 1674.
The next year Mongols rebelled and had to be put down
in Manchuria.
The rebellion in the south was quelled by 1681,
and hundreds were beheaded.
Taiwan was captured two years later.
The devastating war between the Ming and the Manchus caused an
economic depression in the second half of the 17th century.
Kangxi
visited the southern provinces six times to inspect water systems
and schools.
In 1711 he decreed that poll taxes not be raised
above the current level.
Two years later corvée labor requirements
were changed to a tax.
Kangxi sponsored the writing of a history
and an encyclopedia,
publishing of a dictionary and the Complete
Tang Poems
as well as translation of Chinese classics into
Manchu.
For many years Kangxi suspected plots involving his son Yinreng,
who was finally arrested in 1708 for having procured boys.
Jesuits
in the Qing court gave advice on how to make guns and cannons.
They also had helpful scientific knowledge, and Kangxi decreed
that Christians could preach in China.
After the Emperor quarreled
with a papal legate over Chinese rites,
Catholics who refused
to sign his agreement were deported.
In the far north the Russians
had been moving east for a century,
and in 1689 envoys agreed
on a treaty at Nerchinsk.
After the Dzungars invaded Xinjiang
and Mongolia,
Kangxi led an expedition that defeated and killed
Galdan in 1697.
Olods and Dzungars invaded Tibet,
but the Qing
army took over Lhasa in 1720.
Kangxi's son Yongzheng (r. 1723-35) eliminated two of his brothers
but relied on Yinxiang.
The Emperor pardoned Zeng Jing and Lu
Liuliang
for criticizing the Manchu rule of the Chinese.
Yongzheng
was influenced by Confucian philosophy and Chan Buddhism.
He increased
official salaries in order to encourage honesty
and managed to
build up the imperial treasury to sixty million taels of silver.
He implemented land reclamation with incentives
and limited the
tax exemptions of scholars.
The Emperor made opium illegal except
for medical purposes.
He withdrew troops from Tibet and let native
chiefs govern there,
but in China native chiefs were replaced
by Qing administrators.
During the long reign of Qianlong (r. 1736-99) the territory
and population
of the Qing empire nearly doubled.
Farms became
smaller as land was divided between sons.
Prices of rice and cotton
greatly increased.
Qianlong allowed migration to relieve poverty.
He tried to protect Miao children from racketeers and gave them
schools.
The gentry who passed exams had special privileges,
and
the wealthy could avoid punishments by paying fines.
Households
were organized into baojia communities
and were responsible
for each other.
Qing troops occupied the western territory of
Xinjiang,
slaughtering Dzungars in 1759.
Pacifying Tibetans in
western Sichuan cost twice as much in the 1770s.
Customs duties
on growing commerce helped double the Qing treasury in thirty
years.
Compiling the enormous Complete Works of the Four Treasuries
caused an inquisition as scholars searched houses for books.
Many
books were destroyed for having anti-Manchu references
or information
affecting national defense.
Imperial policy persecuted Christians
in 1746 and again in 1784.
Qianlong avoided getting troops involved
in Vietnam in the late 1780s,
but in 1792 Qing forces pushed the
Gurkhas back to Nepal.
The Chinese economy grew in the 18th century with improved
agriculture and few wars.
Hong Liangji and Yang Xifu warned about
the increasing population.
The Emperor refused to make a trade
agreement with the English,
who started increasing their sale
of opium for tea to slow their growing trade deficit.
As Qianlong
moved toward retirement, he let Heshan,
who became grand secretary
in 1786, exert more control and acquire
an immense personal fortune
that reached 800 million taels.
After Qianlong's death in 1799,
Heshan was accused of embezzling the money
for fighting the White
Lotus rebellion; he committed suicide.
Huang Zongxi wrote A Plan for the Prince to recommend
liberal principles.
Gu Yenwu opened up historical criticism by
studying philology
in what was called "Han Learning."
Gu traveled to do research and emphasized evidence, utility, and
originality.
Confucians such as Yen Yuan, Li Gong, and Dai Zhen
turned away from
Neo-Confucian idealism and toward practicality.
Zhang Xuecheng and Bi Yuan emphasized regional histories.
Governor
Chen Hongmou and poet Yuan Mei advocated for the rights of women,
but China remained a patriarchal society
in which the young were
expected to defer to seniors.
Hong Sheng completed his romantic play The Palace of Eternal
Youth in 1688,
but it was banned the next year for its revolutionary
implications.
Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712-56) falls in love with
a concubine.
During the An Lushan rebellion she sacrifices her
life for him,
and he dies to be with her.
Kong Shangren's 1699
play The Peach Blossom Fan portrays a romance
during the
fall of the Ming dynasty.
Corrupt Ming politicians are satirized
and suffer the consequences of their actions,
while the heroic
lovers end up in a Daoist retreat.
Wu Jingzi (1701-54) wrote the autobiographical novel The
Scholars
about a scholar who squanders his fortune by helping
others.
The social status gained by passing the examinations is
apparent,
but several characters criticize the exam system and
the limits of official positions.
This comedy of manners extends
over several generations,
and Dr. Yu emerges as one who attains
a high position but also secretly helps others,
demonstrating
the theme of giving charity wisely.
His involvement in the world
is contrasted to the historical Wang Mian
at the beginning of
the novel, who lives as a hermit.
The Dream of the Red Chamber is the most famous Chinese
novel.
Cao Xueqin (c. 1715-63) was from a family that experienced
difficult times.
His long novel begins in myth as a Buddhist and
a Daoist go from heaven to Earth
to witness the story of a magical
stone.
Jia Baoyu (Precious Jade) is born with it
and loves spending
his time at home with various women.
He especially likes the intellectual
Black Jade.
In their domestic life the matriarchs are more influential
than his father,
who nearly kills him once by punishing him for
suspected homosexuality.
Various intrigues occur, and Baoyu is
kept from marrying Black Jade.
Baoyu marries but ends up going
off with the Buddhist and Daoist.
This novel portrays realistically
the complex experiences
of women in the domestic environment.
The early Korean kingdoms of Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla were
influenced
by Chinese culture and received Buddhism in the 4th
century.
In the east Silla king Pophung (r. 514-40) formalized
an aristocratic social hierarchy
based on the hereditary "bone-rank"
system.
After fighting off a massive Chinese invasion in 612,
Koguryo in the north built a wall from 631 to 647.
Silla formed
an alliance with Tang China in 655,
and in 668 they ended the
kingdoms of Koguryo and Paekche.
Then Silla drove the Chinese
out of the peninsula in 677.
In the north the Parhae kingdom was
founded in 698
and lasted until it was conquered by Khitans in
926.
The Buddhist monk Wonhyo (617-86) wrote extensively
and tried
to unify Korean Buddhism.
Silla suffered succession struggles
but instituted civil service examinations in 788.
The Nine Mountain
Sects of Son (Zen) Buddhism developed during the 9th century.
Rebellions began against the Silla in the late 9th century, and
new kingdoms formed.
In 918 Wang Kon founded the Koryo dynasty, and by 936 he had
unified Korea.
He promoted Buddhism, and Koryo used Chinese administrative
methods.
Land was granted according to government rank.
A large
Khitan army invaded Koryo in 993.
The Koreans fought them and
their Liao empire invasion again in 1009
and then built walls
around the capital and in the north.
In the 11th century the Buddhist Tripitaka was carved on blocks and printed.
Koryo defended
itself from a Jurchen invasion that began in 1104,
but King Injong
submitted to the sovereignty of the powerful Jin empire in 1127.
Military officers rebelled against King Uijong in 1170,
and a
period of revolts did not end until 1202 as Ch'oe Ch'ung-hon took
control.
He and his son Ch'oe U governed Korea as military dictators
until 1249.
Chinul (1158-1210) revived Son Buddhism by teaching
meditation and study.
Mongol invasions of Koryo began in 1231,
and after six invasions
the Koreans submitted to the Yuan empire
in 1270.
Mongol princesses married Koryo royalty,
and Koryo princes
were brought up in Beijing.
The Koreans built ships for two Mongol
invasions of Japan that failed.
A national university system was
reorganized under King Chungnyol (r. 1275-1308).
After 1350 Koryo
had to contend with Japanese raids
and an invasion of Red Turbans
who were rebelling against the Yuan regime in China.
King Kongmin
(r. 1351-74) recognized the Ming dynasty in 1368,
and General
Yi Song-gye fought a pro-Mongol rebellion and Japanese piracy.
Yi refused to attack Ming China and deposed King U and his son
in 1389.
Yi Song-gye founded the Choson (Yi) dynasty in 1392 and implemented
land reform.
He promoted Confucian advisors and drastically cut
back the privileges
Buddhists had gained during the Koryo dynasty.
Yi's fifth son Pang-won gained the throne as T'aejong (r. 1400-18)
and centralized his authority over the military and the six departments.
The lands of the yangban class became hereditary,
and Neo-Confucian
philosophy became the orthodox doctrine.
King Sejong (r. 1418-50)
founded the Chiphyonjon
for research to promote learning and economic
progress.
They designed the phonetic Han'gul alphabet and
printed many books.
The arbitrary rule of King Sejo (r. 1456-68)
provoked rebellions that were crushed.
Songjong (r. 1469-94) tried
to restore humane government,
but his policies favored the growing yangban class
at the expense of women, Buddhists, and others.
Yonsan'gun (r. 1495-1506) ruled very badly,
executing dissenting
officials until he was deposed.
The Neo-Confucian Cho Kwang-jo
helped King Chungjong (r. 1506-44)
bring reforms, but in 1519
an ultimatum Cho and radicals made
was answered by their execution.
Neo-Confucian philosophers Yi Hwang and Yi I
promoted liberal
reforms in their writings.
During the reign of Sonjo (r. 1567-1608), more provincial colleges
provided teaching positions for yangban scholars.
Hyujong
(1520-1604) worked on blending
Buddhism with Daoist and Confucian
philosophy.
The era of factions began in 1575 with a split in
the capital between
Westerners and Easterners, who in 1589 divided
into Northerners and Southerners.
In 1592 a Japanese army of 160,000
invaded Korea,
occupying Seoul and P'yongyang;
but Korea's armored
navy devastated Japanese ships,
and a Chinese army drove the Japanese
forces south.
Hideyoshi sent his Japanese army again in 1597;
but after he died the next year, they withdrew.
Korea spent several
decades recovering from the war devastation.
Ho Kyun wrote a novel
about a bandit leader to criticize the rigid class system
that
discriminated against the sons of concubines.
Yi Su-gwang met
the Jesuit Matteo Ricci in Beijing
and brought back western ideas.
The Manchus invaded twice, and Korea submitted to its new Qing
dynasty in 1637.
Alternating factions continued to dominate the
Korean government.
Yu Hyong-won (1622-73) began the Practical Learning (Sirhak)
movement in Korea
by proposing social reforms.
King Sukchong (r.
1674-1720) turned from the Old Doctrine (Noron) faction
to the
Young Doctrine (Soron) in 1689.
Kim Man-jung wrote novels about
the displaced Queen Inhyon
and Nine Cloud Dream with the
Buddhist theme of reincarnation.
The anonymous novel Life of
Unyong deplores the plight of women
in the palace who cannot
marry.
Copper coins became popular, though land tax was usually
paid in rice.
The military tax was two bolts of cotton cloth and
was hard on the poor.
King Yongjo (r. 1724-76) worked hard to
reduce factionalism
by appointing the best officials from all
four colors.
Famine provoked rebellion in 1728, and Yongjo reduced
taxes.
In 1750 he cut the military tax in half.
He appointed his
son Sado regent but was so disappointed by the Prince's
erratic
behavior that he had him locked in a rice box in 1762.
Sirhak
scholars such as Yi Ik proposed various social reforms
and practical
improvements in their extensive writings.
In 1772 Yongjo allowed
sons of concubines to gain high offices.
Pak Chi-won (1737-1805)
exemplified
the Northern Learning in his satirical Jehol Diary.
King Chongjo (r. 1776-1800) favored research and practical improvements.
Irrigation and double-cropping increased food production, and
commerce developed.
The son of an envoy came back from Beijing
a Catholic in 1784,
and the religion quickly spread in Seoul.
The ancient culture of Japan practiced human sacrifice,
but
Korean and Chinese influence added subtlety to the native Shinto
religion
that worshipped the emperor.
Prince Shotoku (574-622)
particularly applied more enlightened
Buddhist and Confucian ethics
to government.
Fujiwara clan founder Nakatomi Kamatari implemented
reforms in 646
by eliminating private ownership of land, which
was distributed to cultivators equally;
weapons were put in government
storehouses.
By 692 Japan had 545 Buddhist monasteries and shrines.
Laws favored the emperor and hereditary aristocrats,
and the Tang-like
reforms were promulgated in the Taihe code of 702.
Females and
slaves got only two-thirds as much land,
but males had to provide
labor or military service.
Minister Oshikatsu retained popular
support by reducing taxes
and the farmers' government labor from
sixty to thirty days.
After Empress Koken (r. 749-58) regained
the throne in 764,
she let her lover, the Buddhist priest Dokyo,
govern until her death in 770.
After that, the council refused
to put a woman on the throne.
The Heian era (794-1192) gave Japan nearly four centuries
of
relative peace until it deteriorated in civil war.
Saicho (Dengyo
Daishi) founded Tendai Buddhism from the similar Chinese Tiantai,
and Kukai (Kobo Daishi) founded the Shingon sect of esoteric Buddhism
in 816.
For three centuries Japan was dominated by the emperor
and the Fujiwara clan.
Sei Shonagon's Pillow Book was written
as a diary;
but the great classic of this era is the long Tale of Genji by Lady Murasaki Shikibu,
who described the psychological
subtleties of Japanese aristocrats in a
multi-generational story
of the 10th century.
Tendai Buddhism split in 933, and in the
12th century
the powerful monasteries had their own armies.
Yoritomi
eventually won a civil war between clans and became shogun in
1192
to begin the militaristic feudal era.
Yoritomi's son was
forced to abdicate and was assassinated and replaced
by the Hojo
family of the Taira clan that held the chief political position
until 1333;
often a child was made shogun so that the Hojo regent
held the power,
though Yasutoki established a state council for
advice in 1226.
Feudal law was established in 1232 and tried to
be impartial,
allowing women to own land.
Following the Buddhist schools of China, Honen (1133-1212)
founded
the Jodo (Pure Land) sect and Eisai (1141-1215)
the Rinzai Zen based on Chan.
Nichiren (1222-82), like the Pure
Land of Honen and Shinran (1173-1262),
emphasized chanting the
nembutsu to Amida Buddha.
Nichiren gained credibility when
he correctly prophesied the Mongol invasions.
The Japanese believed
that divine winds (kamikaze) produced the storms
that helped
them defeat the Mongolian, Chinese, and Korean armies
that invaded
Kyushu in 1274 and again in 1281.
The Bakufu rule of the Hojo family ended in 1333 when Emperor
Go-Daigo
changed sides and proclaimed a new era.
However, his
favoritism provoked Takauji to take military control as shogun,
and he issued a moral exhortation called the Kemmu Shikimoku.
For six decades a civil war raged between warlords.
Takauji was
succeeded by his son Yoshiakira in 1358,
and the office of shogun
remained in the Ashikaga family for the next two centuries.
In
1392 the southern and northern emperors agreed to alternate ruling.
The civil war had made the military class dominant.
In the late
14th century the No theater came alive
as Kannami wrote musical
plays with spiritual themes that included female characters
played
by male actors.
His son Zeami wrote the most outstanding plays
and for a while was patronized by Shogun Yoshimitsu.
In the 15th
century Japan developed trade with China and Korea.
Ending sole
inheritance and developing manufacturing and guilds
improved the
economy despite oppressive warlords and rebellions.
The Onin War between the Hosokawa and Yamana clans broke out
in 1467
and lasted ten years, and the frequent battles
between
warlords went on for a century.
About twenty local warlords proclaimed
and enforced
house laws while collecting taxes.
People rioted
to get their debts canceled.
Shogun Yoshimasa also sponsored the
arts until he died in 1490.
After that, the shoguns became puppets
of the Hosokawa family until 1558.
Farmers, who had to pay half
their crops for war taxes,
formed self-governing organizations
and leagues
with other clans to settle their own disputes.
In
the mid-16th century peasants who returned to their land
were
forgiven their back taxes.
Agriculture improved with draft animals,
better irrigation,
and new crops such as soy beans.
Commerce increased,
and Chinese coins were used.
Samurai warriors formed powerful
associations.
Japanese piracy increased, but the Chinese suppressed
most of it by 1560
and ended its trade embargo.
The Portuguese
brought fire-arms to Japan in 1543,
and Francis Xavier introduced
the Catholic religion in 1549.
A few Jesuits made many converts,
but in 1565 the Emperor expelled the Christians.
In 1571 the Portuguese
established a base for Europeans at Nagasaki.
Oda Nobunaga developed strong military forces and was assisted
by
Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
In 1568 Nobunaga entered
Kyoto and named the new shogun.
He encouraged free markets and
abolished toll gates.
He let Ieyasu govern eastern Japan.
Nobunaga
defeated the militarized Enryakuji monastery in 1571,
and two
years later he overcame rival armies.
In 1574 his forces killed
about 20,000 people
while crushing the Ikko league of monks.
The
next year Nobunaga's men used muskets in helping Ieyasu defeat
a larger force of Takeda warriors.
In 1581 their massive army
overcame the 20,000 in the Takeda army.
The next year Nobunaga
was killed fighting in the west.
Hideyoshi won over the army and soon took over thirty provinces.
He ordered a land survey in 1583 and was able to tax most of Japan's
farmers.
Hideyoshi had an army of 200,000 and exchanged eight
eastern provinces with Ieyasu.
In 1588 Hideyoshi's officers began
confiscating all weapons not held by his army.
Hideyoshi tried
to expel the Jesuits,
but the number of their converts grew to
300,000.
In 1592 he sent a force of 158,800 men to invade Korea.
After taking the major cities, they were pushed back by a Chinese
army.
A second invasion by 100,000 men in 1597
withdrew the next
year after Hideyoshi died.
Wealthy Ieyasu won the struggle for
power and was appointed shogun in 1603.
Dutch ships began trading
with Japan in 1609.
Two years later the Tokugawa government prohibited
Christianity.
Ieyasu ended a civil war in 1614 when his forces
defeated the army of Hideyoshi's son Hideyori.
Ieyasu proclaimed
a moral code before he died in 1616.
His Tokugawa family would
rule Japan for the next 250 years.
Fujiwara Seika was influenced
by a Korean war captive
and promoted Neo-Confucian philosophy.
While Ieyasu's son Hidetada governed Japan, hundreds of Christians
were executed.
Shogun Iemitsu (r. 1632-51) required daimyos to
live in Edo half the time
and began the exclusion of all foreign
contacts except at Nagasaki.
After the shogunate defeated the
Shimabara revolt in 1638,
Japan did not have another major war
for more than two centuries.
Daimyos and their samurai retainers
enforced the laws
that even limited peasants from traveling.
Unemployed
samurai (ronin) were brought under control
and gradually
found other work.
By the time Tsunayoshi (r. 1680-1709) became
shogun,
the government had a growing deficit.
He confiscated daimyos'
estates and imposed sumptuary laws.
The government got temporary
relief by debasing the currency in 1695.
Tsunayoshi punished many
for harming animals.
Arai Hakuseki persuaded Shogun Ienobu (r.
1709-13)
to implement reforms and stop debasing the currency.
During the 17th century additional cultivated land and improved
methods
increased agricultural production, but it would be difficult
for the population
to grow after reaching about 25 million.
Wisely
the Japanese valued the sacredness of trees and managed
to preserve
most of their forests by using thin screens in their houses.
Hayashi Razan (1583-1657) advised Ieyasu and promoted education
based on the Neo-Confucianism of Zhu Xi.
Nakae Toju studied Wang
Yangming and taught his idealist philosophy.
Toju's student Banzan
tried to introduce land reforms but had to resign.
The Fuju Fuse
faction of the Nichiren sect was persecuted.
Takuan Soho applied
Zen's mental discipline to the martial arts and tea ceremony.
Suzuki Shosan did not follow a Zen master
and suggested that work
can be a religious experience.
Shido Bunan, Bankei Eitaku, and
Hakuin Ekaku helped the Rinzai sect of Zen
become more popular,
but Yamazaki Ansai
turned from Zen to Confucianism and Shinto,
initiating the national learning (kokugaku) movement.
Yamaga
Soko applied Confucian philosophy
to develop the way of the warrior
(samurai).
Ito Jinsai studied and taught ancient Confucianism.
Kaibara Ekken and his wife Token wrote a book on education for
women.
Arai Hakuseki (1657-1725) drew lessons from history, wrote
an autobiography,
and was tutor for Shogun Ienobu.
Pure Land (Jodo)
Buddhism was most popular with more than six thousand temples,
and Shinto shrines represented the national religion.
A young
samurai wrote down the ideas of the hermit and
Hagakure master
Yamamoto Tsunetomo on the way of the warrior by 1716.
After composing haikai poetry, Ihara Saikaku
wrote Life
of an Amorous Man in 1682.
His Five Women Who Loved Love
(1686) is about women in the merchant class
who gave their lives
for love.
In Saikaku's Life of an Amorous Woman a courtesan
tells her life story of
pleasure, adventures, and troubles.
Saikaku
published stories about samurai pederasty and vendettas.
He wrote
books about how some people became millionaires
and others lost
their fortunes or cheated and came to a bad end.
Another of his
books is about the problems of debtors
in the growing commercial
society.
His realistic writing about real incidents revealed the
changing morals
in Japanese society during the decline of the
samurai class
and the rise of the merchants.
Women were second-class
citizens, and many are forced by poverty
or enticed by greed into
the sad profession of prostitution.
In the 17th century kabuki theater began with prostitutes
and
became more acceptable as women were barred from performing.
The
Joruri puppet theater also developed using reciters of scripts
with literary quality about current events and history.
Chikamatsu wrote an entertaining revenge play in 1683.
After concentrating
on kabuki theater for fifteen years,
between 1703 and 1724 Chikamatsu
wrote many excellent puppet plays
about lovers' suicides and other
current tragedies.
His history plays include The Battles of
Coxinga, Twins at the Sumida River,
Lovers Pond
in Settsu Province, Battles at Kawa-nakajima,
and
Tethered Steed and the Eight Provinces of Kanto.
Chikamatsu
is famous for dramatizing the conflicts between feelings (ninjo)
and duty (giri), and he has been called the Japanese Shakespeare.
Between 1746 and 1748 Takeda, Namiki, and Miyoshi worked together
to produce three famous history plays
that also depicted the conflicting
loyalties of the samurai code.
Sugawara and the Secrets of
Calligraphy is about Sugawara no Michizane
and the three triplets
he helped during the Fujiwara rule around 900.
Yoshitsune and
the Thousand Cherry Trees dramatizes the final defeat
of the
Heike clan by the Minamoto brothers in the 1180s.
Chushingura
or The Treasury of Loyal Retainers is meant to commemorate
the famous revenge and collective suicide by the
47 samurai who
lost their master in 1702, though it is set in 1338.
Tokugawa Yoshimune (r. 1716-45) implemented financial and legal
reforms,
but fluctuating rice prices reflected problems in the
second half of his shogunate.
Land taxes increased government
reserves,
and Shogun Ieshige confiscated many estates.
Under Shogun
Ieharu (r. 1760-86) Tanuma rose to power
with bribes and created
monopolies.
Floods and famines took many lives.
Ienari was shogun
for a half century until 1837.
During the first six years Matsudaira
Sadanobu revived Yoshimune's reforms.
His strict censorship began
in 1790, but foreign books were allowed after 1811.
In China the word for civilization means literate rather than
a city-dweller,
and so the Chinese have a long and rich cultural
tradition of learning and education.
Their ancient concept of
heaven and the divine was more natural than anthropomorphic,
and
yet the will of heaven is what they believed authorized a government
to rule.
Like the Greeks, the Chinese had an excellent tradition
of philosophy
during centuries of frequent wars.
Clever men often
used their oratory to persuade rulers
to form alliances that often
resulted in devastating battles.
Yet the humane teaching of Confucius
and his followers,
the peaceful wisdom of Lao-zi, and the universal
love of Mo-zi
offered alternatives to this strife.
Others believed
that people could be manipulated by fear of severe punishments
and strict enforcement of laws under a supreme authority.
As the
Period of Warring States culminated in Qin's conquest of the other
states,
this Legalistic philosophy was applied in the first Chinese
empire
since legendary times in 221 BC.
Yet the Qin empire could
only last a mere 15 years
before it was completely overthrown
by a popular revolution.
About the same time that Rome overcame
Carthage's Hannibal
and the Macedonian-dominated Greeks,
the Han
dynasty established its empire
and began applying Confucian and
Daoist principles to government.
Like the Roman empire, they would
still have their problems,
but the stability would support prosperity
and population growth.
After the turmoil of Wang Mang's revolution, the Eastern Han
dynasty
stabilized China and increased Confucian education for
two more centuries
until government corruption under eunuchs at
court led to revolts
and the division of China into three kingdoms
in 220 CE.
By the 4th century Buddhism was spreading rapidly in
China,
and Wu Di of Liang patronized it in the 6th century.
The
Northern Qi used Confucianism to reunify northern China in 577;
but when Sui Wen Di (r. 581-604) reunited all of China,
he promoted
reforms and Buddhism.
Yet his son Yang Di in 606 instituted the
examination system
based on Confucian classics.
Though rulers
changed and vied for power, the Chinese tended to tolerate
the
co-existence of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism.
The mistake
of invading Korea with a million men
caused the Sui dynasty to
be short-lived.
The Tang dynasty (618-907) was probably the most
sophisticated culture
in the world at that time, though they dominated
Korea,
subjugated the Eastern Turks, and had conflicts with Tibet.
The Tang dynasty dissolved into regional kingdoms for about
sixty years,
as the Liao and the Xia formed smaller empires in
the north
while being strongly influenced by Chinese culture.
The Song dynasty (960-1279) reunited China and governed with civilian
control
over the military, but tribute was paid to the Liao and
the Xia.
Increased prosperity allowed the empire to sustain military
expenses.
Advances in printing stimulated an intellectual renaissance
before that occurred in Europe.
They experimented with the social
reforms of Wang Anshi
while Neo-Confucians developed ethical philosophy.
The patriarchal nature of Chinese society exploited women as prostitutes
and limited their mobility with the painful vogue of foot-binding.
Also population was often controlled by drowning female infants,
causing an imbalance between the male (yang) and female
(yin) principles.
The Jurchens took over the Liao empire
and conquered northern China in 1127.
The Jurchens ruled these
Chinese as an aristocratic class for a century
until they too
were overcome by the Mongols' invasion in the following century.
The Song dynasty continued in southern China as Zhu Xi completed
the Neo-Confucian synthesis that became the basis for
China's
civil service examinations until 1911.
The Mongols conquered Xia
in 1227
and the expanded Jin empire of the Jurchens in 1234.
The
Mongols were the most aggressive conquerors of eastern Asia
and
slaughtered millions of people as they expanded their territory
to an immense empire for a brief time;
their descendants continued
to dominate central Asia.
Under Khubilai Khan the Mongols took
control of southern China by 1279.
The Mongols' conquests were
stopped in the east by the storms
that protected Japan and the
tropical weather that discouraged them in southeast Asia.
Chinese
culture also civilized them during the century of their Yuan dynasty.
Theater, which had been discriminated against socially,
was utilized
to express the feelings of the dominated Chinese.
Educated Confucians
were useful in administration,
and the civil service
examinations
based on Zhu Xi's scholarship were established in 1313.
Buddhists
led rebellions in expectation of a better society,
and in a war
of liberation the Chinese eventually
defeated the Mongols militarily
in 1368.
Thus Hongwu's Ming dynasty began with an imperial military.
He resumed the Confucian examinations and reformed
Buddhism and
Daoism by requiring exams for ordination
and by banning the secret
societies that led to the revolution.
The army extended the Ming
empire into Tibet and Mongolia;
but trees were planted, and reservoirs
were repaired.
A liberal successor was overthrown by an ambitious
prince
who established a military aristocracy as Emperor Yongle.
Campaigns against the Mongols were expensive,
and the invasion
of Annam (Vietnam) could not be sustained for long.
The Yongle
Encyclopedia compiled knowledge,
but the maritime explorations
led by Zheng He were not continued after him.
Attempts were made
to bring the military under civilian control.
However, emperors
often had large harems,
and eunuchs pervaded the bureaucracy.
Buddhist ordination certificates were sold,
and rebellions were
suppressed by the imperial army.
The idealistic philosopher Wang
Yangming worked in the government
and suggested reforms to reduce
the military and expand social services,
but his ideas had little
lasting effect.
Taxes for imperial extravagance and the military
aggravated poverty,
and banning foreign trade led to piracy.
Fighting
the Japanese in Korea during the 1590s was also costly.
Eunuchs
collecting taxes in the countryside were unpopular.
Scholars founded
the Donglin Academy to make reforms, but they were repressed.
Unhappy Manchus in the north turned from helping
the fight against
the Japanese in Korea to attacking the Ming army.
Increasing poverty
and imperial neglect led to banditry and rebellion in China itself.
Beijing was taken over by rebels who yielded or joined the Manchus
in 1644.
During the Qing dynasty era the Manchus ruled as an aristocratic
class,
but from the beginning they made use of the literate Chinese
to help them administer the empire.
They granted amnesty and reduced
taxes
to revive the economy after the devastating war.
Emperor
Kangxi promoted Confucian values
and attempted to treat Manchus
and Chinese equally.
His envoys made a treaty with Russia in 1689,
but his army captured Lhasa in 1720.
His son Yongzheng increased
salaries and limited
the privileges of the gentry to reduce corruption.
He subsidized land reclamation and withdrew the imperial troops
from Tibet.
The Qing empire nearly doubled in population and territory
during the long reign of Qianlong, who expanded the empire to
the west
and wisely allowed free migration.
Community cooperation
was encouraged by the baojia system,
and schools were provided
for minorities such as the Miao;
but imperial expansion was achieved
by military violence.
Collecting books for the Complete Works
of the Four Treasuries
coincided with an inquisition that
eliminated thousands of books.
China continued its haughty policy
of accepting foreign tribute
while declining to engage in trade.
In the last years of the 18th century corruption increased in
China
under the administration of the avaricious Heshan.
Chinese
culture continued to flourish in art, poetry, plays, and novels.
In the 18th century about half of all the books in the world were
in Chinese.
With population growing beyond three hundred million,
heavy
taxes and corruption led to banditry and rebellions
supported
by secret societies, millenarian Buddhists,
and Muslims in the
western regions.
As the English increased their sale of opium
from India in order to balance
their buying of tea and other products,
more Chinese became addicted and corrupted.
In the 1830s the loss
of silver from buying opium
led to higher taxes and worse poverty.
The Qing government tried to stop the importation of opium,
but
the English merchants persuaded their government to send gunboats,
resulting in the Opium Wars.
The French, wanting to protect their
missionaries, joined the English invasion,
and in "unequal
treaties" made between 1842 and 1860 the Chinese
gave the
westerners various concessions.
Rebellions began breaking out
in 1851, and the Taiping revolution,
inspired by a peculiar form
of Christianity, ruled a portion of China
from Nanjing between
1853 and 1864 during a devastating civil war
in which more than
twenty million people died.
This and the Nian rebellions started
by bandits and the Muslim rebellions
in the west were eventually
put down by armies raised by leaders
such as Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang,
and Zuo Zongtang.
During the Tongzhi era the Chinese began to
rebuild under the policy
of self-strengthening, turning to western
science and technology
to make their education and military more
practical and modern.
Thus the traditional Confucianism, Daoism,
and Buddhism of the Chinese
began to merge with western advances
into a modern culture.
China is the largest and one of the oldest continuous civilizations.
Their Confucian emphasis on education enabled them to grow and
prosper.
However, their proud isolation in the 18th and 19th centuries
during a period of rapid European progress
put them behind the
latest advances in science and technology.
Although the English
and others did not use their military power to conquer China,
they did use it to open up trade for the harmful opium.
These
defeats taught the Chinese that they must use western methods
and develop modern military power to defend themselves.
Their
patriarchal and traditional society still prevented
the liberation
of women and democracy.
Although people lived on the Korean peninsula for thousands
of years,
their cultural development lagged behind
and was strongly
influenced by Chinese civilization.
The three independent kingdoms
of Koguryo, Paekche, and Silla
accepted Buddhism in the 4th century.
A significant difference from China was the genealogical class
system
developed by Silla, which defeated the other two kingdoms
with help from the Tang Chinese.
Silla then expelled the Chinese
a decade later in 677.
Silla also encouraged scholarship by adopting
the
Chinese civil service examination system in 788.
They called
Chinese Chan Buddhism Son, which became Zen in Japan.
The Koryo
dynasty, founded in 936, promoted Buddhism
but continued using
Chinese administrative methods.
Land was allotted according to
government rank,
which was determined by being in the yangban
class,
passing the exams, and experience in office.
Koryo managed
to survive invasions from the empires
of the Khitans (Liao), Jurchens
(Jin), and Mongols (Yuan).
Son Buddhism flourished by encouraging
both meditation and study.
The Neo-Confucian ethics of Zhu Xi strongly influenced Korean
thought
and became the orthodox philosophy when General Yi Song-gye
founded the Choson dynasty in 1392.
Yi promoted Confucian scholars,
gave his yangban supporters land
which became hereditary,
and removed the privileges of Buddhists.
King Sejong (r. 1418-50)
has been called great
for promoting learning and economic progress.
Perhaps Korea's greatest contribution to civilization is the development
of their phonetic Han'gul alphabet, which enables people
to learn to read and write easily and quickly.
However, the educated
Confucian class continued to write mostly in Chinese.
Korea suffered
a devastating invasion by the Japanese in the 1590s,
but they
were defended by China and their own armored ships.
Their envoys
learned some western ideas from Jesuits in Beijing.
Although conquered
by the Manchus in 1637,
Koreans were not required to adopt their
hairstyles as in China.
Another difference from China was the development of factions
or political parties
in Seoul that tended to dominate the government
when they were in power.
Also eunuchs did not gain as much influence
as in China,
perhaps because Koreans resented having to send virgins
and eunuchs
as tribute to the Chinese court.
As in China, scholars
turned toward practical ideas,
and much criticism in Korea focused
on the injustice of social classes
as well as land reform and
bureaucratic corruption.
The Catholic religion appealed to a few
intellectuals and many of the poor
who wanted social equality,
but Confucian resentment caused persecutions.
The serfdom of the
slave class persisted even after the central government
emancipated
its slaves in 1801.
Korea maintained its independence in isolation
and resisted aggressive
western efforts to trade, having learned
vicariously from China's Opium Wars.
Yet this isolation prevented
Korea from keeping up with some western
advances in science and
technology.
After 1875 Korea would have to face Japanese imperialism.
Japan held onto to its indigenous religion that
worshipped
its emperor but readily took to Buddhism.
Japanese culture greatly
advanced after the positive
influence of Prince Shotoku (574-622).
Buddhism flourished during the peace of Japan's Heian era (794-1192),
though by the 12th century powerful monasteries
had their own
armies and sometimes fought each other.
A militaristic feudal
era was inaugurated when Yoritomi won a civil war
between clans
and became shogun in 1192.
Mahayana Buddhist schools developed
from their Chinese roots,
and the Mongols' attempted attack on
Japan failed.
Civil wars between warlords plagued Japan during
the 14th century.
The No theater of Kannami and Zeami offered
sophisticated entertainment
with spiritual themes, but the decade-long
Onin War between clans
was followed by another century of violent
conflict
in the militaristic culture of the samurai.
In the 16th
century the Portuguese introduced fire-arms,
and the Jesuits were
soon expelled.
As armies increased in size, Nobunaga unified Japan
by force.
He was succeeded by Hideyoshi, who launched an aggressive
invasion of Korea in the 1590s that was eventually defeated
by
the Korean navy and a Chinese army.
Tokugawa Ieyasu gained power
as shogun and established a dynasty
that would keep the peace
for a quarter of a millennium.
The Tokugawa era was essentially a feudal system with
a military
aristocracy of self-disciplined samurai,
but Japan's self-imposed
isolation prevented foreign conflicts.
European missionaries and
merchants were excluded
except for minimal contacts at Nagasaki.
In the 17th century Confucian philosophy developed along with
Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines that were used to register
people.
Kabuki and puppet theater developed popular entertainment
as the merchant class rose in wealth and influence.
In the patriarchal
culture women had few rights and often sold their bodies
in the
urban quarters that catered to the wealthy and growing middle
class.
Conflicts turned inward, and the warrior code sometimes
caused them
to be resolved violently by suicide for samurai,
disgraced
lovers, and despairing debtors.
The population growth allowed
by increased cultivable land in the 17th century
had to slow down,
but the Japanese wisely managed to preserve their forests.
The danger of famines required improvements in
economic management
in order to prevent rebellions.
Intellectuals had contact with
Dutch ideas and began to look
to western science and technology
even though
Japan was still closed to trade and open communication.
By 1800 eastern Asia in their long development from ancient times
had expanded their populations and refined their cultures.
With the major exception of the Mongols in the 13th century
and Chinese adventures in Tibet and Vietnam,
they did not usually try to colonize or dominate other parts of the world.
Confucian and Buddhist values contributed enormously to the
ethical and spiritual cultures of China, Korea, and Japan.
Let us hope that humanity will benefit from the wisdom and sensitivity
that can be learned from Asian cultures.
This chapter has been published in the book CHINA, KOREA & JAPAN to 1800.
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