arky 325 2013 19-20

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China:

n History from the Chou through the Han Dynasties

n Aspects of the Civilization

Tuesday’s test: everything since the last mid-term,

including today’s material (lectures 11 through 19-20)

Please remember to bring your HD lead pencil!

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Early China: Chronology (ctd)

n  Shang Dynasty 1600-1046 n  Western Chou 1046-700 n  Eastern Chou (Warring states: violent

struggle for 250 years between 7 kingdoms) 700-265

n  Qin Shihuanghi 265-210: unified China; 1st emperor in 221 BC

n  Han Dynasty 206 BC to 220 AD

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Eastern Chou (Warring States) 700-265 BC

A time of upheaval, warfare, unrest, and shifting capitals

But also important advances in technology & philosophy

n  Large irrigation works ca. 500 BC, & wet-rice irrigation becoming more important

n  By 600 BC, iron casting practised, and iron tools now used in agriculture; ox-drawn plough introduced

n  Result: rapid increases in population density n  Great cities built; more nucleated than before;

largest, population of 270,000 n  Crossbow; coinage ca. 500 BC n  Confucius (550-480 BC) preached order,

deference & family ties

Qin Shihuanghi 265-210:

Conquered the declining Zhou polity & 5 other states, making China a single imperial kingdom and himself the

first emperor in 221 BC


n  Took steps to strengthen his own position n  Centralized power in his capital of

Xianyang & moved 100,000 feudal lords and their families to the capital

n  He thus separated them from their power bases and weakened their power


n  Codified a legal system n  Standardized the writing system n  Standardized weights, measures & coinage

throughout the empire n  Extensive road building & a canal system for

better communication & transportation

Completed the Great Wall (2400 km long, built by 700,000 conscripts; top,

wide enough for 6 horses abreast)

Built a massive burial complex for himself:

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His tomb, called Mount Li, was 46 m tall:

at the centre of a ‘spirit city’ enclosed by a stone wall & covering 200 ha

Built by 700,000 labourers over 36 years

Filled with a great variety of precious goods

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1400 m east of Qin Shihuanghi’s tomb, the gallery of the terracotta soldiers: 1.2 ha;

8000 terracotta figures & wooden chariots

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Life-sized figures, each different

The emperor died in 210, then 5 years of civil war and rebellion

Mount Li was burned in a popular revolt in 206 BC

Han Dynasty founded that year by one of the rebels, a commoner

The Han Dynasty: Former Han (206BC – 2AD); Later Han (AD

25-220)

China continued to be unified With greater political stability, a period of peace and prosperity

The Han Dynasty n  Controlled the largest empire of its time –

larger than the Roman Empire n  Population of 57.7 million; largest city 500,000? n  1500 administrative provinces, each with its

walled town

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Han trade relations with the West: the Great Silk Route

Great Silk Route:

n  Goods going westward: silk of course; plus skins, furs, slaves, jewelry, pearls, lacquer etc

n  Goods imported into China: initially, horses; later gold, silver, coins, glassware, textiles, wine, papyrus

By about 170 AD, the Han Empire in decline

Foreign wars, power struggles at court, peasant rebellions, local warlords increasingly powerful

Collapse ca. 220 AD

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China:

Aspects of the Civilization

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With the Chinese Civilization (after our excursions to the Indus & Jenné-jeno) we are back in more familiar territory: n  The N’n Chinese Civilization meets all 10

of Childe’s criteria for a complex society n  A hierarchical society, with clear evidence

of social stratification n  A tributary mode of production n  City state or territorial state?

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Some distinctive aspects of the Chinese Civilization:

n  Craft specializations & technology n  Food n  Nature of the city n  Writing n  Religion

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Trigger characterized the Chinese craftsmen as the finest

in the ancient world

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Chinese crafts:

n  Ceramics n  Bronze working n  Jade craving n  Lacquerware n  Silk weaving n  Food preparation

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Pottery n  Already well-developed

by Yangshao times n  In Longshan, making

eggshell-thin ware n  Parts of same vessel

often made in different ways: handmade, modeled, coiled, wheel-made

n  Sophisticated kilns n  Shapes: pots, basins,

ring-footed, tripods etc

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Shang ceramics: n  Large thick-walled

vessels similar to the bronze vessels

n  Used white kaolinic clay, free of impurities such as iron

n  Before walls completely hardened, white ware carved with decoration

n  Fired between 1900 & 2100˚F.

n  Glazes first used at Anyang

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Ceramic dancer figurine from the T’ang Dynasty ca. 700 AD

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Metallurgy:

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The ‘Lost Wax’ bronze casting technique was commonly used in

Western Eurasia and Africa

The bronze head of Sargon of Akkad was produced in this way

The ‘Lost Wax’ bronze casting technique was used in Western

Eurasia and Africa

But this technique was not used in China!

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Chinese artisans produced large, complexly shaped bronze vessels with intricate surface decoration

For these vessels, section molding, involving the work of several different specialists, was used

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Bronze vessel technology n  “Section molding” n  Required the services

of several technical experts: miners, ceramic experts, bronze workers

n  Core, model and outer segmented mold all of clay

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Chinese bronze-working:

n  Finest bronze-working in the ancient world

n  Vessels used for elite feasting, symbols of power, many buried in royal tombs

n  Largest, from Anyang cemetery: 875 kg

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Functions of ceremonial bronze vessels:

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Bronze ceremonial axe (for beheading?)

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Jade working n  From Neolithic times n  Many different

objects made n  Opposite: burial suit

of a Han prince made of 2000 jade tiles sewn together with gold thread

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Silk weaving: A hanging of

painted silk from a Han Dynasty tomb

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Lacquer goods n  Juice of lac tree, Rhus vernicifera, a natural varnish

that hardens in the air n  Many coats applied to objects of wood or fabric &

polished after each application giving a very high finish n  Eastern Zhou & Han: used for vessels, boxes, furniture,

coffins etc n  Polychrome painted designs & could be inlaid with shell

or precious metals n  Lacquer goods were more costly than bronze

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Food: one of the world’s great culinary traditions, & goes back at least to Shang times

n  The basic or essential meal consists of grain and water

n  Peasants relied mostly on a grain diet

n  Meat & vegetable dishes considered secondary & to be eaten in moderation

Late Neolithic millet noodles preserved under a ceramic bowl

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Still, food played a very important role in the culture of the elite:

n  Oracle bone inscriptions & Three Books of Rites n  Founder of Shang Dynasty said to be a cook n  King’s palace had 4000 servants, of whom

60% were cooks etc. n  Feasting very important for elite: there were

rules re right foods, rituals, table manners etc n  Cooking methods: 20 ways listed n  Distinctive in the Chinese culture: how food

prepared before cooking & how put together to blend the flavours (fusion cooking)

n  Required proper utensils, vessels etc.

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Functions of ceremonial bronze vessels:

Chinese cities

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Early Chinese cities: different from W’n Eurasian cities

n  As we saw, Shang cities impermanent: capital was wherever the king was, not in some physical settlement

n  Western cities were corporate entities, clearly different from the countryside, with distinctive institutions: city hall, cathedral & other monuments, industries, markets, the notion of citizenship etc

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Early Chinese cities: n  No sharp break between urban & rural; no

‘citizens’; elites could live in city or countryside n  Buildings the same in & out of town n  Important religious centres, libraries, industries,

markets etc were often in the countryside n  Western cities were often museums, preserving

examples of changing architectural styles thru time etc

n  Chinese cities urban-rural continuum; also continuum thru time: architecture similar through time

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By Eastern Zhou or Warring States though:

n  As before, cities were square or rectangular in plan, with N-S orientation, and divided into 4 quarters

n  Cities becoming much more compact: a dense population, workshops etc now gathered within the city walls (for security reasons)

n  In a census from Han period, the empire had 58 million people, and cities up to 250,000, even 500,000 people

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Chinese writing appears in the Late Shang: ca. 1200 BC

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n  Until 1900 AD, scholars knew only of ancient inscriptions on bronze vessels

n  Inscriptions usually brief: up to 6 to 7 characters

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Then in 1903, ‘T’ieh-yun’s Stored Turtles’ n  Collection of turtle shell & bone

frags with archaic Chinese characters

n  These were the OBI: ‘oracle bone inscriptions’

n  Turtle shells & scapulae from oxen (hence scapulimancy)

n  All divinatory in content n  OBI used for just 150 years: Shang

& early Western Zhou n  Bronze inscriptions for 1000 years:

until the Han dynasty n  Paper invented: Qin dynasty

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“This early script was a fully developed writing system, identical in principles of structure and operation with modern Chinese writing, though formally very

different: nothing primitive or rudimentary here” (Boltz in World

Archaeology Feb. 1986:424)

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The early script: n  Started, as all writing, in pictography (a simple

picture to represent each word) n  Each graph = a whole word (a.k.a. logographic) n  Mesopotamian & Egyptian scripts also started as

logographic, but soon became syllabographic, and some western scripts eventually alphabetic (a separation between the consonant & vowel; each sign representing the smallest unit of sound – you need only a few signs)

n  Chinese script remained logographic

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Limitations to a pictographic script: many separate signs

needed, plus you cannot express

abstract ideas or complex semantic constructs

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Chinese script remained pictographic but added elements:

1.  Paronomastic or Rebus writing: you write an abstract word by means of an already established pictograph standing for a similar sounding word

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2.  Parasemantic use: graphs standing for semantically (meaning) similar but phonetically distinct words

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This multivalent stage, where a single graph can be invested with more than one value, either phonetic or semantic, helped keep

down the proliferation of signs

But there could be ambiguity as to which of 2 or more possible meanings or

pronunciations a given sign was intended: hence, a 3rd, or determinative stage

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2.  Parasemantic use: graphs standing for semantically (meaning) similar but phonetically distinct words

3.  Determinative: a secondary, auxiliary graph is attached to the original to specify which possibility, semantic or phonetic, is meant

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In summary: Chinese script pictographic

but adds elements:

n  Paronomastic (or rebus writing) (similar sound) n  Parasemantic graph (similar meaning) + Determinative

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The Shang inscriptions had already evolved through these 3 stages when the writing

first appeared in 1200 BC n  So it was already a fully developed, mature

and versatile script n  Differs from modern Chinese script in surface

structures and details, + many new characters added, but similar in principle and theory

n  Origins of the script obscure: Neolithic pot marks? Clan insignia on pottery & bronze vessels?

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Early Chinese religion

n  In Shang times: a high god, Ti, confers legitimacy on the Shang house

n  King serves as high shaman: can intervene with the divine

n  Ancestor worship n  Later, Confucianism (551-479), Buddhism,

Taoism: the “3 teachings”

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Shang religion deeply shamanistic

n  Shamanism: a religion of northern Asia & Europe characterized by a belief in an unseen world of gods, demons and ancestral spirits that respond only to shamen

n  Shaman: a priest who uses magic to cure the sick, divine the future & control events

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In the West, just as there is a clear distinction between urban and rural, there

is a contrast, a clean break, between civilization and nature

With civilization, humans pass from the world of nature to a world of their own making: they

surround themselves with artifacts that insulate them from, and elevate them above,

animals, barbarians etc

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The Chinese, more a civilization of continuity:

n  Continuity of man & animal, earth & heaven, culture & nature

n  The cosmos is an organic whole in which we interact as participants

n  There are no inanimate objects: all, from a rock to heaven, are links in the chain of being

n  Universe is multilayered: layers above & below the world

n  Everything comes to be as result of magical transformation

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In this world view, the Shang king is the chief or high shaman

n  The shaman has the power (with the help of art and ritual) to fly across the different layers of the universe

n  He brought down from heaven music, poetry & myth

n  Plus the wisdom and foreknowledge which gives rulers the authority to speak, guide and command

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So, a fundamental difference between the ancient civilizations of

the West and China: n  The Near Eastern complex societies created &

concentrated the wealth necessary to support a civilization through innovations in productive technology: irrigation, metallurgy turned to productive purposes, cities with merchants and crafts, writing primarily for economic transactions

n  Also the large scale importation of needed resources by traders

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The Chinese civilization arose n  Not through innovations in the means of

production (until the Eastern Chou, the technology remained unchanged from the Neolithic except for the bronze ritual vessels; no use of irrigation to increase crops etc.)

n  Rather, through differential access by the ruler to the means of communication: he monopolized the road to heaven through his possession of shamanistic powers

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K.C. Chang (quoted in Wenke:452): “The wealth that produced the civilization was itself the product of concentrated political power, and the acquisition of power was

accomplished through the accumulation of wealth”

In this system, Chinese writing served primarily for politics and ritual

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Life of the ordinary people in Shang China:

n  Aside from the craftsmen, most continued to work the land

n  Lived in the same semi-subterranean houses as their Neolithic ancestors

n  Same stone tools etc n  Now had to pay part of their crop as tribute to the

king n  Served in the militia n  Labour on monumental construction n  Human sacrifices?

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And the king, as High Shaman, intervenes with heaven for his people, and must be supported

in his efforts

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Early Chinese religion

n  In Shang times: a high god, Ti, confers legitimacy on the Shang house

n  King serves as high shaman: can intervene with the divine

n  Ancestor worship n  Later, Confucianism (551-479), Buddhism,

Taoism: the “3 teachings”

After the Shang, a shift in the concept of divinity:

n  From the anthropomorphic, all-powerful Ti, who conferred legitimacy upon the Shang & administered divine justice at whim

n  To the impersonal Heaven (T’ien), the source of life and morality

n  Spiritual beings were worshiped for the virtue they embodied

The Chou (& rulers of later dynasties)

n  Legitimized their rule by asserting the founders of their dynasty were men of moral perfection, sages, whose perfection was sanctioned by heaven or T’ien

n  Dynasties in their last years squandered money, antagonized the population, allowed infrastructure to crumble & became so remote that they lost the Mandate of Heaven: their right to rule

n  Then a new person leads a rebellion, ousts the old king, and starts a new dynasty as the ‘Son of Heaven’

Next Thursday:

The Mesoamerican Civilization

arky 325 2013 19-20

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