a wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop, and a girl ......a wind, bringing willow-cotton,...
TRANSCRIPT
A wind, bringing willow-cotton, sweetens the shop,
And a girl from Wu, pouring wine, urges me to share it
With my comrades of the city who are here to see me
off;
And as each of them drains his cup, I say to him in
parting,
Oh, go and ask this river running to the east
If it can travel farther than a friend's love!
LI PO (701 - 62)
T'ang dynasty
Yongle Encyclopedia
Han dynasty (206 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) first Encyclopedia
Leishu “category books” Encyclopedia
Commissioned by Yongle Emperor 1360-1424)
Third emperor of the Ming Dynasty
2,169 scholars finished it in 1408
Included more than 8000 texts; 22,937 manuscript rolls
Agriculture, drama, history, religion, medicine, literature, etc.
Chinese classical texts: “Four Books and Five Classics”
Lost
3.5 % only survives
1860 Anglo-French invasion of Beijing
Ming Dynasty (1368-1644)
The first post-Mongol
(Yuan dynasty: Kublai Khan (r.1260-1294))
Relative social and state stability
Zheng He (1371 - 1433)
Encountered European expansion: Portuguese & the Dutch
Influx of crops, plants, and animals into China
Forbidden City
Zijin Cheng Constructed 1406 to 1420
MMW 13 Lecture 7, April 23
Tuesday & Thursday Next
week
Loss: Aristotle’s book of comedy
Loss: LIFE (the Plague)
Today’s Lecture
India and the Indian Ocean Basin
The Song Modernity & (briefly) the Ming in East
Asia
Korea; Japan
July
Summer session 1
DEI Course
4pm (?)
Global interconnectivity
before 1500 Southernization
14th Century:
1. Silk Road (Central Asia-Mesopotamia)
2. Baltic-Mediterranean Sea ( Genoa, Padua, Florence,
Venice)
3. (Mediterrean) Trans-Sahran caravan traffic (gold; slaves)
4. Swahili cities (east Africa), Arabian peninsula, Persian
Gulf to China.
5. Indian Ocean
After 1500
Transatlantic
After 1500
Transpacific
India and the Indian
Ocean Basin
Post-Gupta India (320-550
C.E)
Southernization
Unknown.jpeg
A collage
Collage of micro-cultures, (mini) cultures that had their
own autonomy and yet intermingled with others.
1000-1500
Civilization of India (and China) more “advanced” than Europe
India faced a series of invasions:
Islamization (from Central Asia)
European colonialism (18th century)
Chola Empire 300s
BCE-1279 CE
Southern Kingdoms:
Hindu states
Chola Kingdom (850-1267) expanded because of sea trade, dominated South China Sea and Arabian Sea.
Gave considerable autonomy
to local rulers.
● Traded with the Chinese.
● spread the cultic
aspects of the Hindu
religion
Arab Trade with
Subcontinent
India’s regional divide Unlike China, no centralized imperial power.
North-South divide
North: unstable
Rajputs (“kings sons”)
A Hindu warrior caste
Chivalry, courage culture
South: stable, though highly
fragmented.
dependent
on the sea
Hoysala Empire (1026-
1343)
Flowering of architecture, art and religion
Folklore: Sala fights a lion
Agrarian economy, which the state relied on through
taxation
Sagar artificial reservoir
Exported spices, medicinal plants, precious stones,
pottery, rhino horn, salt, gold, rhino horn, perfumes,
camphor, sandalwood, etc.
Siraf
Aden, Yemen
Nanjing
Chennakesava temple at
Somanathapura
Narasimha III (r.1263-1292)
Sculptural details
Krishna
Supreme God
Nexus
City, market and temple nexus
Pattana (Towns)
Halebidu: Capital of Hosayala Empire
Locals
Jews, Persians, Arabs, Armenians
Vijayanagar
(1336-1664)
Deccan Plateau
Harihara and Bukka: later converted to Hinduism and promoted the
religion as a unifying factor.
Vijayanag“City of Victory”
Centralized: Rajya (Provinces)
Hampi:
Village; temple
I. Society and caste
Village as a political unit
Caste and Political
Society
Caste System: social stratification found in the
Vedic period :1500 B.C.E.- 500 B.C.E.
system as social classes or “caste” (Varna)
based on hereditary groups (bloodline or kinship ties), divided into sub-categories
Jāti: birth in the form of occupational segregation (thousand versions)
Varna
Brahmins: highest priestly class
Kshatriyas: ruling military elite
Vaishyas: agriculture and cattle-rearing; landowners, traders…even money lenders
Shudras: lowest and largest caste group, service workers, unskilled workers, even slaves
Endogamy: marriage in a certain group (self-segregation through marriage)
Dalits (The untouchables)
Outside of the caste system
167 million Dalits in today’s India
Caste Function
Division of labor, especially for foreigners and migrants
● established codes of conduct for behavior which helped people order their work and their relationships with others in the same or other classes.
● Subcasts (jati): worker’s guilds.
●Merchants and manufactures organized powerful guilds.
M. N. Srinivas (1916-
1999)
NOT RIGID!
Caste in Modern India and other essays (1962)
“Caste System”
Gender
patriarchal system was prevalent
but women enjoyed a position of respect and reverence
Religious institution: gift giving, public active participation
in temple life
Hindu Temples
Economic centers.
Organized agricultural
activities.
● Provided schooling
● delivered tax receipts to
the Hindu rulers and did
other community activities.
Sati
Kerala:
Southwestern India
Practiced Polyandry, a marriage of one woman to several
husbands.
II. Economy
1) Agricultural production: with the increase in agricultural yields, people began to trade more and manufacture goods (rather than produce food).
2) Network of sea-lanes and port-cities:
a) Innovation in maritime technology
b) Trade brought water management systems for irrigation (in the south)
Oceanic Trade
Dhows and Junks
Emporia:
Manufacturing:
cloths, textiles, pottery, leather goods, and jewelry
Agriculture & irrigation
Southern India: arid land without rivers like the Indus or the
Ganges.
Dams, reservoirs, canals, wells and tunnels.
Reservoir: Artificial lakes (250 square miles).
Therefore: Rise of agricultural
goods and population!!!
Urbanization
By 1500 the subcontinent had a population of 105 million.
1) Internal Trade:
a) Rise of cities led to an increase in
b) trade: caravan and sea routes (coastal towns like Calicut and Quilon flourished).
2) Maritime trade:
Lucknow
Rajput dynastic orders
Emerged in political importance in the 7th century
Landowners and patrilineal clans in central and
northern India
Descendent of warrior ruling class, but in reality
varied in class status
Islam and the Indian
subcontinent Mahmud (971-1030) ruler of a Turkish dynasty based at
Ghazni in eastern Afghanistan
1001 the first of numerous invasions of modern day Pakistan
1041 Kashmir
1025 Hindu, Buddhist and Jain kingdoms of Nagarkot, Thanesar, and Ujjain,
but left them as vassal states
Delhi Sultanate (1206-
1526) Five dynastic rules, Turkish origins
based in Delhi (northern India)
Tughlaq Dynasty (1320-1413)
an era of temple destruction and desecration
Indo-Islamic Architecture:
Sultanate of Delhi
(1206-1526)
Islam Appeal: egalitarianism & pragmatic (to improve their economic
situation).
Sufism (& Hinduism)
a) Mysticism: Divine as self.
b) Spiritual Authority: Pir and Guru
● Cross-fertilized sects
The Bhakti Movement: Southern India.
a) Cult of love and devotion.
b) Fused with Islamic values (as moved to the north)
c) Shiva, Vishnu and Allah were all manifestations of a single deity.
Shi’i Islam
Sikhism
Guru Nanak (1469-1539)
Make a note
India’s contribution, in terms of religion, in
terms of economics, in terms of trade,
CANNOT be detached from
Buddhism
624 BCE
Nepal; formerly parts of India (Lumbini)
Tang Dynasty (618-907)
The Silk Road revived
Chinese maritime presence
Southernization
Xuanzang (d. 664)
What role did Tang China play
in the Eurasian world?
1) Technological advancements: woodblock printing text
2)The Mongols adopt their advanced urban civilization and spread it
across Eurasia.
3) Cosmopolitanism: cross-fertilization of cultures and religions.
Song (960-1279
Restored unity in China and made China the richest, most populous civilization
Economic cultivation through
Agricultural production
1279 conquered by Kublia Khan
Tang-Song China Legacy
1) Revival of centralized imperial order.
2) Spread of religions and ideas.
3) Expansive market-based economy (not agricultural)
4) Major technological and industrial advancements.
Song State bureaucracy
Political order: emperors legitimized sovereignty upon
long-established bureaucratic structures
“Middle Kingdom”: emperor ruling as the “son of
Heaven,” an intermediary between the divine world and
earthly spheres of human existence.
Middle kingdom as the highest form of civilization
Since Han, an extensive system of bureaucracy of
Confucian scholars administrated all aspects of society,
except the miltiary
Examination and civil service
Meritocracy: Merit-based
Candidates all male, competed for positions based on
performance and not connection to carry out
responsibility of governance
Imperial Examination: very tough!
Benefits:
1. Centralized the state
2. Created political stability, promoted
Good governance, but not necessarily
“democratic” in the “modern” sense
Compass
Textile machinery (spinning wheel)
Gunpowder (Navy)
Printing
Song Economic Accomplishments
Banknotes
Developed revolutionary new military technology: Gunpowder
Deployment of compass
Movable printing press (Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127)
What did the Song NOT do?
1) Major economic and technological advancements did not lead to
revolutionize Chinese society? Because it was already self-sufficient.
2) Technology to sail the seas: lacked incentive to sail the world.
3) Despite commercial expansion, kept merchants out of major
industries.
4) Peaceful relations with neighboring nomadic societies: big mistake!
Mongols…
Late Medieval Korea
Kingdom of Goryeo
(918–1392) Wang Geon (877-943)
Goryeo capitulated to the Mongols
Yi Song-gye (1335-1408)
Founder of the Choson (Yi) dynasty, longest imperial
dynasty (1392-1910)
Hanyang (Seoul)
Centralized state and promoted agricultural economy and
society.
Defended Japanese (1500s) and Chinese (1600s) invasions
Isolationist policy (“the Hermit Kingdom”)
Late Medieval Japan
1200-1500
Mongol failure
1274 & 1281 300 to 600 vessels, 40,000 soldiers
“Divine wind”: Typhoon
“Kamikaze”
Kamakura period (1185–1333) centralized
Muromachi (1333–1568) decentralized, erosion of
imperial governance, a shift in the exercise of power
within the established ruling circles
Relative economic prosperity: population boom (10
million)
Shogunate
Military rule or dictator
12th century competing bands of feudal lords
“Barbarian-subduing generalissimo”
NohSupernatural beings transformed into human form as heroes
(telling a story)
