Traditional China - Forces of Unity/Disunity
―Chinese political history is dominated by the tension between the power of the central
government and the power of the regions. In times when the central power was weak the
regions attempted to break away and rule themselves. The challenge for a new dynasty was
to harness the forces of unity and bring all regions under the control of the central
government.‖
Buggy, Terry (1988). The Long Revolution. Silverwater, NSW: Shakespeare Head Press.
Forces of Disunity:
Write a sentence for each point, using the most important information in the notes to
show how each contributed to disunity or regional loyalties in China
1. Distance
Third largest country in the world, about 9,740,000 square kilometres
Horse and foot main methods of travel;
N to S: 3 200 km; E to W 4 500 km; 4-6 weeks to travel from Guangzhou (Canton) to
Beijing (Peking)
2. Climate
Ranges from subarctic to tropical
This determines which sort of crops you can grow, which dictates what sort of life a
farmer will have, what sort of food his family will eat etc.
North of Yangzi (Yangtze) wheat and millet; south wetland rice farming
3. Topography
Mountains: tend to run E-W, divide regions into self-contained valleys
Rivers: run E-W; at great expense and effort, some canals were dug N-S
River valleys, fertile esp. along eastern coast Refer to your physical map of Asia
from Week One of this unit which you were told to save in your History folder.
4. Spoken Language
Northern dialect recognised as ‗official‘ language, but further from capital, greater
language changes, dialects developed
In mountain communities, dialects became mutually unintelligible even 100-200 km
away
(Now compulsory study of Guoyu, ‗national language‘ based on the dialect used
around Beijing and intelligible throughout the northern Chinese plain.)
5. Physical differences
Northerners are taller than Southerners (5 cm on average); they are also heavier
Regional insults: Northerners call Southerners ―monkeys‖; Southerns call
Northerners ―Steamed bread‖ (dumplings).
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6. Chinese family
One‘s responsibility to one‘s family is more important than the demands of the
central government (which is far away). If you have problems, it is the family that
will help you, not the government.
As in other agricultural societies, families felt a strong tie to the land, which made
their loyalty to a region strong. Ancestor worship intensified this feeling.
The importance of family is shown in the Chinese language -- family names come
first. Mao is his surname; his personal name was Zedong. When writing about him
you can call him “Mao Zedong” or “Mao” just as you would call our Prime
Minister “John Howard” or “Howard” not “John”.
Forces of Unity
Write a sentence on each of these points using the most important information to show
how these factors acted to unite China
1. Shared history
The Yellow Emperor, Shih Huangdi (Ch‘in Shih Huang-ti), proclaimed himself
Emperor in 221 BC, ending four centuries of civil wars. The dynasty he founded is
the Qin (Ch‘in) from which the West got their name for China.
Shih Huangdi used military power to create a centralised state which lasted until
1911. He codified the laws, built roads, standarized the axle width of carts,
standardized currency, weights and measures, the writing system. He is also the one
who ordered the building of the Great Wall and the entombed warriors.
2. Written language
Ideograms rather than phonic, so people who don‘t speak the language (like
Japanese) can understand what is being written about, the same as if anyone in the
world sees the numerals: 1, 2, 3—they will pronounce them differently but they will
all have the same meaning.
The written language remained almost unchanged for 2000 years; literate Chinese
could still read them in the original. English-speakers can‘t read Beowulf, which was
written in about 1000 AD.
3. Confucianism
Kong Qiu (K‘ung Chiu) was known as Master Kung, Kung fuzi (K‘ung Fu-tzu),
hence Confucius. He lived from 551-479 BC, a very violent era of Chinese history,
sometimes known as the Warring States period. He wanted to become a public
servant, but was never given a job. Instead, he was a wandering teacher.
His beliefs are an ethical philosophy, not a religion. He wasn‘t concerned with the
relationship between individuals and their creator, an afterlife etc., but with creating a
virtuous society on earth.
Education should be used to produce virtuous men
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Virtuous men are natural leaders, who lead by example, not by force.
Leaders can come from any social class, so careers should be open to
talent. (almost 2500 years before Napoleon!)
Five basic relationships exist, and depend on mutual obligations; love
and protection by superiors, loyalty and obedience of inferiors.
o Father-son
o Husband –wife
o Elder brother-younger brother
o Ruler-subject
o Friend-friend
4. Examination system
If a ruling class is to be made up of the talented rather than decided by birth, a way to
identify the talented is necessary. A series of four formal examinations was the
solution. (The idea of a civil service selection examination was adopted by the
British from the Chinese. The British exams at the end of high school, like the NSW
and Victorian HSC exams, also derive from the Chinese system.)
Compared to your exams, they were very difficult indeed. A man (average age of
applicant at district level was 24) would study the Confucian classics for years before
submitting himself to even the first exam. Then he would be locked in a small cell
for three exam sessions, each session three days long, for a total of nine days. The
exams were given every three years, so if you wanted to resit you had plenty of time
to revise.
It was after flunking the second exam for the fourth time that Hung Hsiu-ch‘uan had
the vision that he was really Jesus Christ‘s younger brother which eventually led to
the Taiping Rebellion. You can see how he might have cracked under the pressure.
It is estimated that 20 million people died in the rebellion in the middle of the 1800s,
which introduced China to many concepts that later made the Communists
successful: abolition of classes; sharing the wealth through land reform; gender
equality, including the outlawing of the sale of women, prostitution, footbinding,
arranged marriages and polygamy.
The system persisted until the 19th century; the figures below refer to that time:
About 2% of the total population would pass the lowest rung of the ladder;
this gave them the right to take the next exam
Average age at time of second exam was 24; about .02% would pass this
level. (You could also purchase this level if you were wealthy enough.)
Average age at time of third exam was 31; about .0065% of the population
achieved this level.
Average age at time of highest level exam was 35; about .0009% of the total
population achieved this level.
Not everyone sat for the exam (no women for starters, and no peasants had
the time to study and the money to pay for a teacher.) A candidate who sat
the first exam had one chance in 6,000 of getting to the top rank and a
government post.
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Optional activity: Prize for the best entry received by Friday 27 July
From a Chinese Civil Service Exam in the 1900s:
Write a 100-word composition on either one of these topics:
a. ―He who is sincere will be intelligent and the intelligent man
will be faithful.‖
b. ―In carrying out benevolence there are no rules.‖
Anyone who passed the second exam was considered to be lower gentry, no
longer a commoner. However, the position was not hereditary—his son
would have to pass the exam in his own right. The landowning class was
wealthy enough to support its sons while they studied, so the shenshi (gentry)
had wealth, education and family influence. They acted as assistants to the
government officials and as spokespeople for the uneducated masses. They
also became regional leaders in this way when the central government was
weak. This class was vital to the republican effort that overthrew the Qing
dynasty in 1911.
Additional information available here.
5. Dynastic cycle and the Mandate of Heaven
In the West we think of history as linear, time moves in one direction and we never
go back. In China, history was considered circular; a period of chaos and war would
end when a strong man established order, his sons and grandsons would continue his
rule until they became lazy, immoral or corrupt. The kingdom would start to decline
and the forces of disunity would emerge, resulting in another period of chaos and
war. Again a strong leader would use the forces of unity—the Confucian trained
shenshi, the common literary culture, the shared history and pride in their culture—to
establish order. The names and dates would change, but it was really the same thing
happening over and over. This circle of history was called a dynastic cycle.
The right to rule was considered to come from Heaven and was therefore known as
the ―Mandate of Heaven.‖ Signs that a ruler had lost the Mandate were natural
disasters (floods, earthquakes, famines etc) as well as manmade, crime rates up,
rebellions etc. If the signs were present, commoners had a right to rebel as Heaven
had shown its displeasure.
6. Tribute system
China was justifiably proud of her civilisation. Her name for herself, The Middle
Kingdom, showed she was central to the world (just as the Mediterranean shows
classical Europeans thought it was ―Medi‖= middle ―Terra‖ = earth). Her neighbours
on all sides acknowledged her superiority, bringing their admittedly inferior products
to her court, kowtowing to her Emperor (kneeling three times, audibly knocking
one‘s head nine times), and being handsomely rewarded with gifts in return and the
promise of China‘s protection, as an elder brother might protect a younger brother.
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This was called the tribute system, and was seen as an essential part of any
international relations China had.
It was logical to Chinese to think that the further a country was from China, the less
civilised, more barbarous it must be. Their ships had visited the east coast of Africa
in the 1500s—imagine how much worse England must be than Africa, since it is
even further away! Still, the superior civilisation had a duty towards the inferior one.
After all, Chinese products like silk and porcelain were so superior to European
textiles and dinnerware, men like Marco Polo would risk their lives to travel overland
in caravans to get them. But by the 19th century, Western powers were objecting to
performing the kowtow or acknowledging their inferiority as the Chinese required.
The Chinese would prefer to do without their trade than to do without their
obeisance.
Send your 12 sentences to your teacher so we can record who is working
and who isn’t. Send your optional 100-word essay to be eligible for a
virtual reward. Sorry, no jobs in the Chinese civil service are available.
FAX 3406 2409 or email.
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