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