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China's History THE SINOPEDIA SERIES (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Th e Sinopedia Series China’s History (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Th e Sinopedia Series Editorial Board Chief Advisor: Wang Chen Chief Conceptualiser: Wang Zhongwei Executive Producer: Guo Changjian Publisher: Li Xiangping Chief Editor: Wu Wei (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Th e Sinopedia Series China’s History CAO DAWEI SUN YANJING Australia • Brazil • Japan • Korea • Mexico • Singapore • Spain • United Kingdom • United States (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. China’s History © 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd Cao Dawei and Sun Yanjing Original Chinese edition © 2010 China Intercontinental Press Publishing Director: ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this work covered by the Paul Tan copyright herein may be reproduced, transmitted, stored or used in any form or by any means graphic, electronic, or mechanical, Editorial Manager: including but not limited to photocopying, recording, scanning, Yang Liping digitalizing, taping, Web distribution, information networks, or Associate Development Editor: information storage and retrieval systems, without the prior writ- Tanmayee Bhatwadekar ten permission of the publisher. Associate Development Editor: Joe Ng For permission to use material from this Senior Product Director: text or product, submit all requests online at Janet Lim www.cengageasia.com/permissions Further permissions questions can be emailed to Product Managers: [email protected] Kevin Joo Lee Hong Tan ISBN-13: 978-981-4319-78-2 Assistant Publishing Manager: Pauline Lim ISBN-10: 981-4319-78-3 Production Executive: Cindy Chai Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd Translators: 5 Shenton Way #01-01 Xiao Ying UIC Building Li Li Singapore 068808 He Yunzhao Copy Editor: Cengage Learning is a leading provider of customized learning Jane Lael s olutions with offi ce locations around the globe, including Cover Designer: Singapore, the United Kingdom, Australia, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. Ong Lay Keng Locate your local offi ce at: www.cengage.com/global Compositor: Integra Software Services, Cengage Learning products are represented in Canada by Pvt. Ltd. Nelson Education, Ltd. For product information, visit www.cengageasia.com Printed in Singapore 1 2 3 4 5 12 11 10 (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Table of Contents Preface vii Chapter 1. Th e Origin of Chinese Culture 3 Chapter 2. Th e Xia, Shang, and Western Zhou Dynasties: Early States and Bronze Civilization 17 Chapter 3. Th e Spring and Autumn and Warring States Periods: States Contend for Power, Control, and Social Reform 31 Chapter 4. Th e Qin and Han Dynasties: Establishment and Development of a Great Unifi ed Country 53 Chapter 5. Th e Wei, Jin, and Southern and Northern Dynasties: Regime Division and Ethnic Concentration 77 Chapter 6. Th e Sui and Tang Dynasties: A Prosperous and Open Age 95 Chapter 7. Th e Song and Yuan Dynasties: Cultural Collision and Fusion and Socioeconomic Advances 119 Chapter 8. Th e Ming and Qing Dynasties (before the Opium War): Prosperity of the Farming Civilization and Crisis before Modern Times 145 Chapter 9. Th e Decline and Struggle of Modern China 177 Chapter 10. Th e People’s Republic of China: In Search of Socialist Modernization 189 Appendix. Chronological Table of the Chinese Dynasties 201 Index 203 (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Preface One of the earliest civilizations in the world, China is the only ancient civilization in world history with no interruption. Th e Chinese people have inherited a com- mon culture and history longer than have any other people on earth. Separated from the western civilization by mountains, deserts, and oceans, China is geographically independent. Fertile farmlands, prairies, and coastal areas for fi shing and trading are spread over a vast space. China’s territory is the third largest in the world today, and up until the modern age, it had always been the largest. Its population was one-third of the global total over a fairly long time in history. Living in East Asia’s northern temperate zone, China’s ancestors nurtured an agrarian economy. They stepped into the threshold of civilization from a stable agricultural community, and their clan chiefs grew into a new ruling class. Th us, kindred ties and a state administrative system fused into an under- lying social structure, resulting in a tradition that emphasizes inwardness, com- munity, human relations, and centralized power. Intensive cultivation marked with the use of iron tools developed in the Yellow and Yangtze river basins in ancient China, forging an individual farm- ing economy, private land ownership, and tenant contractual relationships. Th e natural economy-based centralism, boasting a highly centralized state power and a well-organized hierarchy, competently exercised jurisdiction over a large population across a vast territory via professional offi cials selected through imperial examinations, and created smooth and efficient road and communication networks. Th e application of a single writing system via characters and the prevalence of Confucian philosophy and culture have exerted a profound infl uence on the homogeneity and cohesion of the Chinese civilization. The world experienced significant changes during the Ming and Qing dynasties (1368–1911). Major European countries entered into the industrial age. The rise of capitalism threw the whole world into a vast maelstrom of commodity circulation. Western powers swarmed into other continents across the oceans and established colonies. China reached a new peak in its course of farming civilization and showed some signs of modernization. However, the emperors of the early Qing Dynasty (1644–1991) turned a blind eye to the historical trend and kept China from the outside world. Th ey stubbornly (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. viii PREFACE promoted the farming system while discouraging the budding industrial civilization. Hence, the positions of China and the West were overwhelmingly reversed, leading to a meteoric decline of China in the midst of industrial civilization. Th e First Opium War broke out from 1840 to 1842. Th ree score years from then on, China, invaded and insulted by western powers, was forced to ink a series of unequal treaties to cede territory and pay indemnities, and fell into a colonial and semi-colonial abyss. Th e invasion brought severe tribulations to the Chinese people and accel- erated the disintegration of the restrictive traditional natural economy, giving rise to national capitalists and working classes and reducing the bankrupted peasantry to semi-proletariats. During the century-long modernization dating from the Opium War, the Chinese people constantly promoted the development of national industry through struggles against imperialism, feudalism, and capitalism. Th e Revolu- tion of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty, and helped the spread of concepts such as democracy and republic. Next, the revolution guided by the Communist Party of China won the great victory of national independence and people’s liberation. October 1, 1949 witnessed the founding of the People’s Republic of China, inaugurating a new era toward socialist modernization. The reform and opening-up policy with Chinese characteristics was implemented after 30 years of zigzagging exploration. Th e policy galvanized China’s eff orts to prac- tice democracy and rule of law in the political fi eld and established a socialist market-oriented economy, enabling the country to actively participate in inter- national competition and cooperation in economy. All these are done to work toward an affl uent, democratic, cultural, sustainable, and harmonious society. Ancient China’s Silk Road played an important role in promoting China’s relations with the outside world. Th e introduction of China’s three great inven- tions—paper, gunpowder, and compass—to the western world expedited the formation of the bourgeois society. Meanwhile, western culture’s eastward penetration and the promotion of Marxism signifi cantly infl uenced the course of Chinese history. Today, the Chinese nation, with its brand-new forward- looking philosophy of pursuing modernization and opening up to the outside world, has integrated itself into the global community and will contribute sig- nifi cantly to safeguarding world peace and stability. Th is book traces the unique trajectory and sums up the distinct features of the Chinese civilization and attempts to unlock the secret behind the continu- ity of the Chinese nation over thousands of years. (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. (c) 2011 Cengage Learning Asia Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved. Chapter 1 1The Origin of Chinese Culture Primitive Humans and Tribes China, a country with the highest number of primitive human sites in the world, has not only preserved the most abundant materials related to the ori- gin of human beings, but also has had a fairly complete evolutionary process without serious interruptions. In the early Paleolithic Period (about 250,000 to 2 million years ago), China’s ancient ancestors were scattered over a vast area that covers today’s Yunnan, Sichuan, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan, Hebei, Jiangsu, Anhui, Hubei, Guizhou, Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, and Beijing. Several hundred sites of the late Paleolithic Period, dating to about 10,000 to 40,000 years ago, have been found across China. The progression from Yuanmou Man to Peking Man and then to Upper Cave Man outlines the evolution of early humans in China. Yuanmou Man dates to 1.7 million years ago, and was named aft er Yuanmou, Yunnan, where their fossils, two teeth and some handmade stone instruments, were unearthed. Coal dust and burned bones were found in clay layers. Yuanmou Man fossils are believed to be the earliest human remains in the Chinese territory. Th e sedimentation layer of the caveman site at Longgu Mountain, Zhouk- oudian, Beijing, is over 40 meters deep.
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