Lecture 5: Ancient China

Topics: Developments after 2000 BCE Rise and collapse of empires China from 1554 to 206 BCE Questions: How does China’s earliest history compare to that of S.W. Asia? Shang Dynasty (approx. 1500-1045 BCE)

Q. What do oracle bones tell us?

Divination

Religious functions of king

Deities

Ancestor worship (esp. royal ancestors)

Worries about weather & harvest

Warfare

Q. What do they not tell us? Characteristics of Shang society

King

religious (divination & intercession)

military

legal/admin (labor mobilization & coercive power)

Cities form around palaces

walls of pounded earth

Ancestor worship

ritual offerings

divination

Main resource/technology = bronze

weapons (incl. chariot harnesses)

ritual vessels

cast

Writing

Early Dynastic Mesopotamia & Shang China

Accumulation of surplus

Social inequality

Functional specialization

Political/religious authority

king’s religious, military, & administrative functions

monumental architecture/population density = palaces

landed aristocracy

bronze Civilization = shared (complex) culture similar social, political, religious characteristics across a geographic space & down through time

China’s is the oldest, continuous civilization

Expansion of Shang culture to rest of today’s China

Succession of Dynasties

Culture not static

Political authority not uncontested Zhou Dynasty (1045-221 BCE)

Outsiders move in! Overthrow Shang (from west) Introduce “Mandate of Heaven” (tianming) to legitimize power Move capital east to Luoyang in 771 BCE Power increasingly weak & fragmented

Shi Qiang bronze pan (10th c. BCE) China’s Ancient Dynasties

Shang 1554-1045 BCE

Western Zhou 1045-772 BCE Mandate of Heaven

Eastern Zhou: * 772-476 BCE capital moves east “Spring and Autumn”

Eastern Zhou: smaller states in 476-221 BCE “Warring States Period” competition

Qin 221-206 BCE unification Eastern Zhou Fragmented power

States in competition War Taxes (new resource base)

Elites in competition New men Rely on ministers (new specialists)

Social mobility

Commercialization

Urbanization

Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE) End “Warring States” period

Unification of China

Administrative reforms

Standardization

New title: Emperor

Terrracotta warriors, Tomb of First Emperor of Qin