ChinaX Course Notes If you copy this document, please do not remove this disclaimer These are the class notes of Dave Pomerantz, a student in the HarvardX/EdX MOOC course entitled ChinaX. My ChinaX id is simply DavePomerantz. First, a very big thank you to Professors Peter Bol and Bill Kirby, to the visiting lecturers who appear in the videos and to the ChinaX staff for assembling such a marvelous course. The notes contain copyrighted material from the ChinaX course. Any inaccuracies are purely my own. The notes for Part 1 are here The notes for Part 2 are here. The notes for Part 3 are here. ChinaX Part 4 A New National Culture Page 1 of 49 Table of Contents Part 4: A New National Culture ................................................................................................................................. 4 16: From Early to Later Imperial China .................................................................................................................... 4 Introduction ........................................................................................................................................................... 4 Historical Overview............................................................................................................................................... 5 Periodization and the Tang-Song Transition ......................................................................................................... 6 How should we divide historic time? ................................................................................................................ 6 No single overriding principle ........................................................................................................................... 7 Changed Foreign Relations, Changed China: 750 and 1050 ................................................................................. 8 Tang ................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Liao.................................................................................................................................................................... 8 Tanguts .............................................................................................................................................................. 8 Keeping the Peace with Brother States .............................................................................................................. 8 Changes at Home: Reconfiguration of Domestic Power and Wealth .................................................................... 9 Population, North and South ............................................................................................................................. 9 Centers of Wealth Expanding in the South ........................................................................................................ 9 Southern climate advantage ............................................................................................................................... 9 Southern water transit advantage ....................................................................................................................... 9 Southern priorities differed .............................................................................................................................. 10 Differing styles of governance ........................................................................................................................ 10 Commerce and Urbanization ............................................................................................................................... 11 A Tale of Two Cities ....................................................................................................................................... 11 Commerce ....................................................................................................................................................... 12 Taxes ............................................................................................................................................................... 13 A Shifting Social and Political Elite .................................................................................................................... 14 Who are the elite? ............................................................................................................................................ 14 Elite culture has become ideological ............................................................................................................... 14 Tang - Song Transition - The An Lushan Rebellion ........................................................................................... 15 Late Tang - Changes at Home and Abroad ......................................................................................................... 16 Shrinking Borders and a Shifting Economic Base........................................................................................... 16 Regional Development .................................................................................................................................... 16 Ancient Style Movement ................................................................................................................................. 16 Huang Chao Rebellion .................................................................................................................................... 16 Discussion ........................................................................................................................................................... 17 17: Transforming Society Through Government..................................................................................................... 18 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................... 18 A Changing China, A Changing World: Song in 1050 CE ................................................................................. 19 The Civil Service Exam ................................................................................................................................... 19 How Can Government Serve the Common Good? .......................................................................................... 20 Readings .............................................................................................................................................................. 20 Han Yu: Essentials of the Moral Way (Yuandao) ........................................................................................... 20 Liu Zongyuan: “Essay On Enfeoffment” ........................................................................................................ 20 Ouyang Xiu: Essay On Fundamentals (Benlun) .............................................................................................. 21 Wang Anshi ......................................................................................................................................................... 21 Wang Anshi's Precepts .................................................................................................................................... 21 Wang Anshi's Policies ..................................................................................................................................... 22 Impact of the Policies ...................................................................................................................................... 22 What is Wang Anshi Trying to Accomplish? .................................................................................................. 22 Waterwheel Painting ........................................................................................................................................... 23 Sima Guang ......................................................................................................................................................... 24 Discussion Forum (YvaWong and Dougma) ...................................................................................................... 25 YvaWong ........................................................................................................................................................ 25 Dougma ........................................................................................................................................................... 26 YvaWong's Reply to Dougma ......................................................................................................................... 26 My own question to YvaWong ........................................................................................................................ 27 ChinaX Part 4 A New National Culture Page 2 of 49 YvaWong's Reply to Me ................................................................................................................................. 27 My Reply to YvaWong ................................................................................................................................... 29 18: The Neo-Confucianism Movement ................................................................................................................... 30