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(Kenneth Pletcher) The History of China (Understan (BookFi) PDF
(Kenneth Pletcher) The History of China (Understan (BookFi) PDF
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First Edition
On the cover: The Great Wall, China’s most famous landmark, was built over a period of
more than 2,000 years. © www.istockphoto.com/Robert Churchill
On page 20: The Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests, part of a large religious complex called
the Temple of Heaven, was built in 1420 in Beijing. © www.istockphoto.com/Hanquan Chen
25
CONTENTS
Introduction 14
Glossary 346
For Further Reading 348
Index 349
339
INTRODuCTION
Introduction | 15
as the time of the Six Dynasties. Although The Song (960–1279) was one of
China was not united in government, it China’s most brilliant dynasties. During
retained its essentially Chinese charac- the Song period, commerce increased,
ter. This era was a time of development the widespread printing of literature
for two of China’s three major religions: became popular and a growing number
Daoism and Buddhism (The other is of people became educated. An agricul-
Confucianism). tural revolution, including cultivation of
The short-lived yet significant Sui an early ripening strain of rice, produced
dynasty (581–618) unified the country after enough food to feed a population of 100
more than three centuries of fragmenta- million people—by far the largest popula-
tion. One of the greatest accomplishments tion in the world at the time. Artistically,
of the Sui dynasty was building a great the Song dynasty marked a high point for
waterway, the Bian Canal, which linked Chinese pottery. But militarily, the Song
north and south China. This system, were less powerful. During this dynasty
further enlarged in later times, was a valu- the Juchen continued to control much of
able transportation network that proved China’s central plains. This caused a spir-
to be extremely important in maintaining itual crisis that led to a new form of
a unified empire. Confucianism known as Lixue “School of
The Sui set the stage for the succeed- Universal Principles,” which synthesized
ing Tang dynasty (618–907), which metaphysics, ethics, and self-cultivation,
stimulated a cultural and artistic golden and became important in China for cen-
age. Some of China’s greatest poets, such turies to come.
as Li Bai and Du Fu, lived and wrote dur- In the late 12th and 13th century,
ing the Tang dynasty. Genghis Khan, the great Mongol war-
Next came another time of political rior-ruler, was slashing his way across
instability (907–960) during which three Asia and Europe. He started the work of
northern peoples, the Tangut, Khitan, conquering the rich prize that was China,
and Juchen, occupied parts of China’s and began the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368)
traditional territory. The Tangut became but was only partially successful. It
middlemen in trade between Central wasn’t until his grandson, Kublai, took
Asia and China. The Khitan founded the control that the Song dynasty was com-
Liao dynasty by expanding from the bor- pletely defeated—a fight that took several
der of Mongolia into southern Manchuria. decades. Being ruled by a foreign invader
This area remained out of Chinese politi- was difficult for native Chinese, who
cal control for more than 400 years and were not allowed to hold the highest
acted for centuries as a centre for the positions in court and were called “south-
mutual exchange of culture between ern barbarians.” But at the same time,
the Chinese and the northern peoples. The Yuan rule had certain benefits for the
Liao were overthrown by the Juchen. Chinese. The Mongols reunited China.
Introduction | 17
They left religion alone. A large, well-read 19th century as Chinese rebelled against
bourgeoisie enjoyed novels and plays. both Qing policies and these foreign
Because the empire was so vast, China incursions.
engaged in more extensive foreign trade Finally, in 1912, the Qing dynasty
than ever before, allowing the country to abdicated and Yuan Shikai became presi-
become richer and more stable. dent of China’s new republic. But when
Chinese rulers reclaimed leadership the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang, or
of the country during the Ming dynasty KMT), made up mostly of former revolu-
(1368–1644). During the Ming, China tionaries, won a commanding majority of
exerted immense cultural and political seats in the new legislature and
influence on East Asia. This era was obstructed Yuan’s agenda, the president
famous for its brilliant art, especially craft undermined parliament and eventually
goods, such as cloisonné and porcelain. took on dictatorial powers. He then tried
The “willow pattern” porcelain wares to appoint himself as emperor but died in
became a famous export good to Europe. 1916 before doing so. Still, Yuan managed
The Qing dynasty (1644–1911/12) the to leave behind foreign debt, a legacy of
last of China’s imperial dynasties, began brutality, and a country fracturing into
when the Manchu, descendants of the warlordism.
Juchen, took over China. From the begin- On May 4, 1919, students organized
ning, the Manchu made efforts to become protests and riots in the nation’s major
assimilated into Chinese culture. These cities, and waves of workers went on
efforts bred strongly conservative, strike to pressure the government to
Confucian cultural attitudes in official oppose the decisions made at the Paris
society and stimulated a great period of Peace Conference after World War I
collecting, cataloging, and commenting ended, especially the decision to allow
upon the traditions of the past. During the Japanese to keep control of valuable
this time, there was significant trade with Chinese land, resources, and railroads
other countries—in the 18th century, 10 that they had taken in the previous
million Spanish silver dollars a year decade. This outburst led to the estab-
flowed into China. In its early days, Qing lishment of the Chinese Communist
China had a favourable trade balance, Party (CCP). After spending several
but gradually it became weak, and begin- years recruiting new members, the CCP
ning in the 1820s, European powers such began to compete with the KMT for con-
as Britain began demanding conces- trol of China.
sions and other special favours from In 1928, the Nationalists formally
China (including control of some Chinese established a reorganized National
territory). The Qing dynasty was not Government of the Republic of China.
strong enough to resist. A series of brief Meanwhile, Japan was moving aggres-
wars and uprisings took place during the sively to extend its power in Manchuria,
18 | The History of China
and nationalism was growing among the 10 years of civil war, had developed a
Chinese people. powerful discipline and sense of cama-
Throughout most of the 1930s, the raderie. After the war ended with Japan’s
KMT clashed with the CCP. The commu- defeat in 1945, the Nationalist govern-
nists established their own rival ment began to deteriorate.
government in 1931 at several bases in In 1949, the communists took con-
rural areas of central China. In late 1934, trol, establishing the People’s Republic
the Nationalists forced the communists of China and installing Mao Zedong, the
to abandon their bases. The communists chairman of the CCP, as its leader. Using
fought their way across western China in the Soviet model, Mao’s government
what became known as the Long March. wanted to focus on organizing China’s
By 1936, the remnants of several Red industrial workers. But four-fifths of
armies had gathered into an impover- China’s people were underemployed,
ished area in northern Shaanxi and impoverished farmers. To address this
reorganized themselves. During the problem, Mao came up with the First
Long March, the communists developed Five-Year Plan (1953-57), which redis-
cohesion and discipline. Mao Zedong tributed land and forced farmworkers
rose to preeminence as a leader. into small agricultural collectives. This
The Sino-Japanese War (which later plan had some success in helping to
developed into the Pacific theatre of reduce hunger. However, this success
World War II) began in 1937 with did not carry out in his next large pro-
Japanese attacks near Beijing. The CCP gram, the Great Leap Forward (1958–60).
and KMT formed an alliance (the United During that campaign, the large-scale
Front) to fight against the enemy, but collectives Mao had envisioned to
during the war’s first year, Japan won increase China’s food were also pressed
victory after victory. By late December, to engage in small-scale industrial pro-
the Japanese had invaded Shanghai and duction. However, agricultural output
Nanjing. Between 100,000 and 300,000 declined, and this, combined with a series
people were massacred by Japanese sol- of natural disasters that further ravaged
diers in Nanjing. By mid-1938, Japan crop production, led to mass starvation
controlled the rail lines and major cities in the country.
of northern China. The next years con- Indeed, life under Mao was a time of
tinued to be a bitter time, and the constant social upheaval and uproar.
Chinese suffered terribly. Eventually, the Under his leadership, China went through
alliance between the CCP and KMT one kind of social revolution after
began to fracture, as both sides fought another. Posters extolling the virtues of
to control territory. The Nationalist gov- the latest propaganda campaigns, with
ernment became increasingly corrupt, names like “Let a hundred flowers blos-
while the communists, having survived som,” “The Four Olds,” and “Bombard the
Introduction | 19
A Chinese scientist holds the unearthed bones of a human who lived 25,000 years ago. AFP/
Getty Images
global political geography, and China Paleolithic Period [Old Stone Age] began
has since come to rank among the most about 2,500,000 years ago and ended
influential countries in the world. 10,000 years ago) at sites such as Lantian,
Shaanxi; Hexian, Anhui; Yuanmou,
PREhISTORy Yunnan; and, the most famous, that of
Peking man at Zhoukoudian, Beijing
Early Humans municipality. The Lower Cave at
Zhoukoudian has yielded evidence of
The fossil record in China promises intermittent human use from about
fundamental contributions to the under- 460,000 to 230,000 years ago, and fossils
standing of human origins. There is of Peking man found in the complex
considerable evidence of Homo erectus have been dated to about 770,000 years
by the time of the Lower Paleolithic (the ago. Many caves and other sites in
The Beginnings of Chinese History | 23
A farmer in Shaoshan, Hunan province, China, gathers bundles of dried millet stalks. Frederic
J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
The stone tools used to clear and and geographical, are not discussed in
prepare the land reveal generally improv- detail in the following paragraphs.
ing technology. There was increasing
use of ground and polished edges and of Incipient Neolithic
perforation. Regional variations of shape
included oval-shaped axes in central and Study of the historical reduction of the
northwest China, square- and trapezoid- size of human teeth suggests that the
shaped axes in the east, and axes with first human beings to eat cooked food
stepped shoulders in the southeast. By did so in southern China. The sites of
the Late Neolithic a decrease in the pro- Xianrendong in Jiangxi and Zengpiyan
portion of stone axes to adzes suggests in Guangxi have yielded artifacts from the
the increasing dominance of permanent 10th to the 7th millennium BC that include
agriculture and a reduction in the open- low-fired, cord-marked shards with some
ing up of new land. The burial in incised decoration and mostly chipped
high-status graves of finely polished, stone tools; these pots may have been
perforated stone and jade tools such as used for cooking and storage. Pottery
axes and adzes with no sign of edge wear and stone tools from shell middens in
indicates the symbolic role such southern China also suggest Incipient
emblems of work had come to play by Neolithic occupations. These early south-
the 4th and 3rd millennia. ern sites may have been related to the
Neolithic Bac Son culture in Vietnam;
Major Cultures and Sites connections to the subsequent Neolithic
cultures of northwestern and northern
There was not one Chinese Neolithic China have yet to be demonstrated.
but a mosaic of regional cultures whose
scope and significance are still being 6th Millennium BC
determined. Their location in the area
defined today as China does not neces- Two major cultures can be identified in
sarily mean that all the Neolithic the northwest: Laoguantai, in eastern and
cultures were Chinese or even proto- southern Shaanxi and northwestern
Chinese. Their contributions to the Henan, and Dadiwan I—a development of
Bronze Age civilization of the Shang, Laoguantai culture—in eastern Gansu
which may be taken as unmistakably and western Shaanxi. The pots in both
Chinese in both cultural as well as cultures were low-fired, sand-tempered,
geographical terms, need to be assessed and mainly red in colour, and bowls with
in each case. In addition, the presence three stubby feet or ring feet were com-
of a particular ceramic ware does not mon. The painted bands of this pottery
necessarily define a cultural horizon; may represent the start of the Painted
transitional phases, both chronological Pottery culture.
The Beginnings of Chinese History | 27
Silk
Silk is an animal fibre produced by certain insects as building material for cocoons and webs. In
commercial use it refers almost entirely to filament from cocoons produced by the caterpillars of
several moth species of the genus Bombyx, commonly called silkworms. Silk is a continuous fila-
ment around each cocoon. It is freed by softening the cocoon in water and then locating the
filament end; the filaments from several cocoons are unwound at the same time, sometimes with
a slight twist, to form a single strand. In the process called throwing, several very thin strands are
twisted together to make thicker, stronger yarn. Produced since ancient times, the secret of how
silk is made was closely guarded for millennia. Along with jade and spices, silk was the primary
commodity traded along the Silk Road beginning about 100 BC. Since World War II, nylon and
other synthetic fibres have replaced silk in many applications (e.g., parachutes, hosiery, dental
floss), but silk remains an important material for clothing and home furnishings.
Silkworms spin cocoons on a silk farm in Zhejiang province. China is the leader in silk pro-
duction and trade. China Photos/Getty Images
28 | The History of China
porous, charcoal-tempered black pottery. valley and Banpo traditions of the 5th
The site is remarkable for its wooden and millennium. The Miaodigou I horizon,
bone farming tools, the bird designs dated from the first half of the 4th millen-
carved on bone and ivory, the superior nium, produced burnished bowls and
carpentry of its pile dwellings (a response basins of fine red pottery, some 15 per-
to the damp environment), a wooden cent of which were painted, generally in
weaving shuttle, and the earliest lacquer- black, with dots, spirals, and sinuous
ware and rice remains yet reported in the lines. It was succeeded by a variety of
world (c. 5000–4750 BC). Majiayao cultures (late 4th to early 3rd
The Qingliangang culture, which millennium) in eastern Gansu, eastern
succeeded that of Hemudu in Jiangsu, Qinghai, and northern Sichuan. About
northern Zhejiang, and southern one-third of Majiayao vessels were deco-
Shandong, was characterized by ring- rated on the upper two-thirds of the body
footed and flat-bottomed pots, gui with a variety of designs in black pig-
(wide-mouthed vessels), tripods (com- ment; multiarmed radial spirals, painted
mon north of the Yangtze), and serving with calligraphic ease, were the most
stands (common south of the Yangtze). prominent. Related designs involving
Early fine-paste redware gave way in the sawtooth lines, gourd-shaped panels, spi-
later period to fine-paste gray and black rals, and zoomorphic stick figures were
ware. Polished stone artifacts include painted on pots of the Banshan (mid-3rd
axes and spades, some perforated, and millennium) and Machang (last half of
jade ornaments. 3rd millennium) cultures. Some two-
Another descendant of Hemudu cul- thirds of the pots found in the Machang
ture was that of Majiabang, which had burial area at Liuwan in Qinghai, for
close ties with the Qingliangang culture example, were painted. In the North
in southern Jiangsu, northern Zhejiang, China Plain, Dahe culture sites contain a
and Shanghai. In southeastern China a mixture of Miaodigou and eastern,
cord-marked pottery horizon, repre- Dawenkou vessel types (see below), indi-
sented by the site of Fuguodun on the cating that a meeting of two major
island of Quemoy (Kinmen), existed by at traditions was taking place in this area in
least the early 5th millennium. The sug- the late 4th millennium.
gestion that some of these southeastern In the northeast the Hongshan cul-
cultures belonged to an Austronesian ture (4th millennium and probably
complex remains to be fully explored. earlier) was centred in western Liaoning
and eastern Inner Mongolia. It was char-
4th and 3rd Millennia BC acterized by small bowls (some with red
tops), fine redware serving stands,
A true Painted Pottery culture developed painted pottery, and microliths.
in the northwest, partly from the Wei Numerous jade amulets in the form of
30 | The History of China
birds, turtles, and coiled dragons reveal and serving stands, and many styles of
strong affiliations with the other jade- tripods. Admirably executed and painted
working cultures of the east coast, such clay whorls suggest a thriving textile
as Liangzhu. industry. The chronological distribution
In east China the Liulin and Huating of ceramic features suggests a transmis-
sites in northern Jiangsu (first half of 4th sion from Daxi to Qujialing, but the
millennium) represent regional cultures precise relationship between the two cul-
that derived in large part from that of tures has been much debated.
Qingliangang. Upper strata also show The Majiabang culture in the Lake
strong affinities with contemporary Tai basin was succeeded during the 4th
Dawenkou sites in southern Shandong, millennium by that of Songze. The pots,
northern Anhui, and northern Jiangsu. increasingly wheel-made, were predomi-
Dawenkou culture (mid-5th to at least nantly clay-tempered gray ware. Tripods
mid-3rd millennium) is characterized by with a variety of leg shapes, serving
the emergence of wheel-made pots of stands, gui pitchers with handles, and
various colours, some of them remark- goblets with petal-shaped feet were char-
ably thin and delicate; vessels with ring acteristic. Ring feet were used, silhouettes
feet and tall legs (such as tripods, serving became more angular, and triangular
stands, and goblets); carved, perforated, and circular perforations were cut to
and polished tools; and ornaments in form openwork designs on the short-
stone, jade, and bone. The people prac- stemmed serving stands. A variety of
ticed skull deformation and tooth jade ornaments, a feature of Qingliangang
extraction. Mortuary customs involved culture, has been excavated from Songze
ledges for displaying grave goods, coffin burial sites.
chambers, and the burial of animal teeth, Sites of the Liangzhu culture (from
pig heads, and pig jawbones. the last half of the 4th to the last half of
In the middle and lower Yangtze the 3rd millennium) have generally been
River valley during the 4th and 3rd mil- found in the same area. The pots were
lennia, the Daxi and Qujialing cultures mainly wheel-made, clay-tempered gray
shared a significant number of traits, ware with a black skin and were pro-
including rice production, ring-footed duced by reduction firing; oxidized
vessels, goblets with sharply angled pro- redware was less prevalent. Some of the
files, ceramic whorls, and black pottery serving stand and tripod shapes had
with designs painted in red after firing. evolved from Majiabang prototypes,
Characteristic Qujialing ceramic objects while other vessel forms included long-
not generally found in Daxi sites include necked gui pitchers. The walls of some
eggshell-thin goblets and bowls painted vessels were black throughout, eggshell-
with black or orange designs, double- thin, and burnished, resembling those
waisted bowls, tall, ring-footed goblets found in Late Neolithic sites in Shandong
The Beginnings of Chinese History | 31
Regional Cultures
of the Late Neolithic
the North China Plain from sites such as aesthetic coherence. It was evidently the
Dadunzi and Dawenkou to the east and mixing in the 3rd and 2nd millennia of
also moved up the Han River from the these eastern elements with the strong
Qujialing area to the south. A variety of and extensive traditions native to the
eastern features are evident in the North China Plain—represented by such
ceramic objects of the period, including Late Neolithic sites as Gelawangcun
use of the fast wheel, unpainted surfaces, (near Zhengzhou), Wangwan (near
sharply angled profiles, and eccentric Luoyang), Miaodigou (in central and
shapes. There was a greater production western Henan), and Taosi and
of gray and black, rather than red, ware; Dengxiafeng (in southwest Shanxi)—that
componential construction was empha- stimulated the rise of early Bronze Age
sized, in which legs, spouts, and handles culture in the North China Plain and not
were appended to the basic form (which in the east.
might itself have been built sectionally).
Greater elevation was achieved by means Religious Beliefs and
of ring feet and tall legs. Ceramic objects Social Organization
included three-legged tripods, steamer
cooking vessels, gui pouring pitchers, The inhabitants of Neolithic China were,
serving stands, fitted lids, cups and gob- by the 5th millennium if not earlier,
lets, and asymmetrical beihu vases for remarkably assiduous in the attention
carrying water that were flattened on one they paid to the disposition and com-
side to lie against a person’s body. In memoration of their dead. There was a
stone and jade objects, eastern influence consistency of orientation and posture,
is evidenced by perforated stone tools with the dead of the northwest given a
and ornaments such as bi disks and cong westerly orientation and those of the
tubes used in burials. Other burial cus- east an easterly one. The dead were seg-
toms involved ledges to display the regated, frequently in what appear to be
goods buried with the deceased and large kinship groupings (e.g., at Yuanjunmiao,
wooden coffin chambers. In handicrafts Shaanxi). There were graveside ritual
an emphasis was placed on precise men- offerings of liquids, pig skulls, and pig
suration in working clay, stone, and wood. jaws (e.g., Banpo and Dawenkou), and
Although the first, primitive versions of the demanding practice of collective
the eastern ceramic types may have been secondary burial, in which the bones of
made on occasion in the North China up to 70 or 80 corpses were stripped of
Plain, in virtually every case these types their flesh and reburied together, was
were elaborated in the east and given extensively practiced as early as the first
more-precise functional definition, half of the 5th millennium (e.g.,
greater structural strength, and greater Yuanjunmiao). Evidence of divination
The Beginnings of Chinese History | 33
using scapulae (shoulder blades) dating served to validate and encourage the
from the end of the 4th millennium decline of the more egalitarian societies
(from Fuhegoumen, Liaoning) implies of earlier periods.
the existence of ritual specialists. There
was a lavish expenditure of energy by The first historical
the 3rd millennium on tomb ramps and dynasty: the Shang
coffin chambers (e.g., Liuwan [in eastern
Qinghai] and Dawenkou) and on the The Advent
burial of redundant quantities of expen- of Bronze Casting
sive grave goods (e.g., Dafanzhuang in
Shandong, Fuquanshan in Shanghai, The 3rd and 2nd millennia were marked
and Liuwan), presumably for use by the by the appearance of increasing warfare,
dead in some afterlife. complex urban settlements, intense sta-
Although there is no firm archaeo- tus differentiation, and administrative
logical evidence of a shift from matrilineal and religious hierarchies that legitimated
to patrilineal society, the goods buried in and controlled the massive mobilization
graves indicate during the course of the of labour for dynastic work or warfare.
4th and 3rd millennia an increase in gen- The casting of bronze left the most-evi-
eral wealth, the gradual emergence of dent archaeological traces of these
private or lineage property, an increase momentous changes, but its introduction
in social differentiation and gender dis- must be seen as part of a far-larger shift
tinction of work roles, and a reduction in in the nature of society as a whole, repre-
the relative wealth of women. The occa- senting an intensification of the social
sional practice of human sacrifice or and religious practices of the Neolithic.
accompanying-in-death from scattered A Chalcolithic Period (Copper Age;
4th- and 3rd-millennium sites (e.g., i.e., transitional period between the Late
Miaodigou I, Zhanglingshan in Jiangsu, Neolithic and the Bronze Age) dating to
Qinweijia in Gansu, and Liuwan) the mid-5th millennium may be dimly
suggests that ties of dependency and perceived. A growing number of 3rd-mil-
obligation were conceived as continuing lennium sites, primarily in the northwest
beyond death and that women were likely but also in Henan and Shandong, have
to be in the dependent position. Early yielded primitive knives, awls, and drills
forms of ancestor worship, together with made of copper and bronze. Stylistic evi-
all that they imply for social organization dence, such as the sharp angles, flat
and obligation among the living, were bottoms, and strap handles of certain
deeply rooted and extensively developed Qijia clay pots (in Gansu; c. 2250–1900
by the Late Neolithic Period. Such reli- BC), has led some scholars to posit an
gious belief and practice undoubtedly early sheet- or wrought-metal tradition
34 | The History of China
objects must have derived in part from thought to have ruled from about 1600 to
the political control over others that their 1046 BC. (Some scholars date the Shang
production implied. from the mid-18th to the late 12th cen-
Chinese legends of the 1st millen- tury BC.) One must, however, distinguish
nium BC describe the labours of Yu, the Shang as an archaeological term from
Chinese “Noah” who drained away the Shang as a dynastic one. Erlitou, in
floods to render China habitable and north-central Henan, for example, was
established the first Chinese dynasty, initially classified archaeologically as
called Xia. Seventeen Xia kings are listed Early Shang; its developmental sequence
in the Shiji, a comprehensive history writ- from about 2400 to 1450 BC documents
ten during the 1st century BC, and much the vessel types and burial customs that
ingenuity has been devoted to identify- link Early Shang culture to the Late
ing certain Late Neolithic fortified Neolithic cultures of the east. In dynastic
sites—such as Wangchenggang (“Mound terms, however, Erlitou periods I and II
of the Royal City”) in north-central Henan (c. 1900 BC?) are now thought by many
and Dengxiafeng in Xia county (possibly to represent a pre-Shang (and thus, per-
the site of Xiaxu, “Ruins of Xia”?), south- haps, Xia) horizon. In this view, the two
ern Shanxi—as early Xia capitals. Taosi, palace foundations, the elite burials, the
also in southern Shanxi, has been identi- ceremonial jade blades and sceptres, the
fied as a Xia capital because of the “royal” bronze axes and dagger axes, and the
nature of five large male burials found simple ritual bronzes—said to be the ear-
there that were lavishly provided with liest yet found in China—of Erlitou III (c.
grave goods. Although they fall within 1700–1600 BC?) signal the advent of the
the region traditionally assigned to the dynastic Shang.
Xia, particular archaeological sites can The archaeological classification of
be hard to identify dynastically unless Middle Shang is represented by the
written records are found. The possibility remains found at Erligang (c. 1600 BC)
that the Xia and Shang were partly con- near Zhengzhou, some 50 miles (80 km)
temporary, as cultures if not as dynasties, to the east of Erlitou. The massive
further complicates site identifications. A rammed-earth fortification, 118 feet (36
related approach has been to identify as metres) wide at its base and enclosing an
Xia an archaeological horizon that lies area of 1.2 square miles (3.2 square km),
developmentally between Late Neolithic would have taken 10,000 people more
and Shang strata. than 12 years to build. Also found were
ritual bronzes, including four monumen-
The Shang Dynasty tal tetrapods (the largest weighing 190
pounds [86 kg]); palace foundations; work-
The Shang dynasty—the first Chinese shops for bronze casting, pot making, and
dynasty to leave historical records—is bone working; burials; and two inscribed
36 | The History of China
in or near the larger tombs, members of contained 468 bronze objects, 775 jades,
the lesser elite and commoners were bur- and more than 6,880 cowries suggests
ied in pits that ranged from medium size how great the wealth placed in the far-
to shallow, those of still lower status were larger royal tombs must have been.
thrown into refuse pits and disused wells,
and human and animal victims of the The Chariot
royal mortuary cult were placed in sacrifi-
cial pits. Only a few undisturbed elite The light chariot, with 18 to 26 spokes per
burials have been unearthed, the most wheel, first appeared, according to the
notable being that of Fuhao, a consort of archaeological and inscriptional record,
Wuding. That her relatively small grave about 1200 BC. Glistening with bronze, it
was initially a prestigious command car
used primarily in hunting. The 16 chariot
burials found at Xiaotun raise the possi-
bility of some form of Indo-European
contact with China, and there is little
doubt that the chariot, which probably
originated in the Caucasus, entered
China via Central Asia and the northern
steppe. Animal-headed knives, always
associated with chariot burials, are fur-
ther evidence of a northern connection.
art
shamanistic familiars or emblems that surface of the bone. Among the topics
ward away evil. The exact meaning of the divined were sacrifices, campaigns,
iconography, however, may never be hunts, the good fortune of the 10-day
known. That the predominant taotie week or of the night or day, weather, har-
monster mask—with bulging eyes, fangs, vests, sickness, childbearing, dreams,
horns, and claws—may have been antici- settlement building, the issuing of
pated by designs carved on jade cong orders, tribute, divine assistance, and
tubes and axes from Liangzhu culture prayers to various spirits. Some evolu-
sites in the Yangtze delta and from the tion in divinatory practice and theology
Late Neolithic in Shandong suggests that evidently occurred. By the reigns of the
its origins are ancient. But the degree to last two Shang kings, Diyi and Dixin (c.
which pure form or intrinsic meaning
took priority, in either Neolithic or Shang
times, is hard to assess.
Late Shang
Divination and Religion
1101–1046 BC), the scope and form of sources), appears to have been divided
Shang divination had become consider- into 10 units corresponding to the 10
ably simplified: prognostications were stems. Succession to the kingship alter-
uniformly optimistic, and divination nated on a generational basis between
topics were limited mainly to the sacrifi- two major groupings of jia and yi kings
cial schedule, the coming 10 days, the on the one hand and ding kings on the
coming night, and hunting. other. The attention paid in the sacrificial
system to the consorts of “great lineage”
State and Society kings—who were themselves both sons
(possibly nephews) and fathers (possibly
The ritual schedule records 29 royal uncles) of kings—indicates that women
ancestors over a span of 17 generations may have played a key role in the mar-
who, from at least Wuding to Dixin, were riage alliances that ensured such
each known as wang (“king”). Presiding circulation of power.
over a stable politico-religious hierarchy The goodwill of the ancestors, and of
of ritual specialists, officers, artisans, certain river and mountain powers, was
retainers, and servile peasants, they ruled sought through prayer and offerings of
with varying degrees of intensity over the grain, millet wine, and animal and human
North China Plain and parts of Shandong, sacrifice. The highest power of all, with
Shanxi, and Shaanxi, mobilizing armies whom the ancestors mediated for the liv-
of at least several thousand men as the ing king, was the relatively remote deity
occasion arose. Di, or Shangdi, “the Lord on High.” Di
The worship of royal ancestors was controlled victory in battle, the harvest,
central to the maintenance of the dynasty. the fate of the capital, and the weather,
The ancestors were designated by 10 but, on the evidence of the oracle bone
“stem” names (jia, yi, bing, ding, etc.) that inscriptions, he received no cult. This
were often prefixed by kin titles, such as suggests that Di’s command was too
“father” and “grandfather,” or by status inscrutable to be divined or influenced;
appellations, such as “great” or “small.” he was in all likelihood an impartial fig-
The same stems were used to name the ure of last theological resort, needed to
10 days (or suns) of the week, and ances- account for inexplicable events.
tors received cult on their name days Although Marxist historians have
according to a fixed schedule, particu- categorized the Shang as a slave society,
larly after the reforms of Zujia. For it would be more accurate to describe it
example, Dayi (“Great I,” the sacrificial as a dependent society. The king ruled a
name of Tang, the dynasty founder) was patrimonial state in which royal author-
worshiped on yi days, Wuding on ding ity, treated as an extension of patriarchal
days. The Shang dynastic group, whose control, was embedded in kinship and
lineage name was Zi (according to later kinshiplike ties. Despite the existence of
40 | The History of China
such formal titles as “the many horses” or originally based on kinship was one of
“the many archers,” administration was the characteristic strengths of early
apparently based primarily on kinship Chinese civilization.
alliances, generational status, and per- Such ties were fundamentally per-
sonal charisma. The intensity with which sonal in nature. The king referred to
ancestors were worshipped suggests the himself as yu yiren, “I, the one man,” and
strength of the kinship system among the he was, like many early monarchs, peripa-
living; the ritualized ties of filiation and tetic. Only by traveling through his
dependency that bound a son to his domains could he ensure political and
father, both before and after death, are economic support. These considerations,
likely to have had profound political coupled with the probability that the
implications for society as a whole. This position of king circulated between social
was not a world in which concepts such or ritual units, suggest that, lacking a
as freedom and slavery would have been national bureaucracy or effective means
readily comprehensible. Everybody, from of control over distance, the dynasty was
king to peasant, was bound by ties of relatively weak. The Zi should above all
obligation—to former kings, to ancestors, be regarded as a politically dominant lin-
to superiors, and to dependents. The rou- eage that may have displaced the Si
tine sacrificial offering of human beings, lineage of the Xia and that was in turn to
usually prisoners from the Qiang tribe, as be displaced by the Ji lineage of the Zhou.
if they were sacrificial animals and the But the choices that the Shang made—
rarer practice of accompanying-in-death, involving ancestor worship, the
in which 40 or more retainers, often of politico-religious nature of the state, pat-
high status, were buried with a dead king, rimonial administration, the mantic role
suggest the degree to which ties of affec- of the ruler, and a pervasive sense of
tion, obligation, or servitude were social obligation—were not displaced.
thought to be stronger than life itself. If These choices endured and were to
slavery existed, it was psychological and define, restrict, and enhance the institu-
ideological, not legal. The political ability tions and political culture of the
to create and exploit ties of dependency full-fledged dynasties yet to come.
ChaPTER 2
The Zhou and
Qin Dynasties
ThE hISTORy Of ThE ZhOu (1046–256 BC)
superiority of the Shang out of feudal loy- (as tabulated by Dong Zuobin, although
alty. There is not enough evidence either it is traditionally dated at 1122; other
to establish or to deny this. A careful his- dates have also been suggested, includ-
torian, however, tends to take the Zhou ing 1046, which has been adopted for this
subjugation to the Shang as a recogni- article). Wuwang died shortly after the
tion of Shang strength. It was not until conquest, leaving a huge territory to be
the reign of the last Shang ruler, Zhou, consolidated. This was accomplished by
that the kingdom exhausted its strength one of his brothers, Zhougong, who
by engaging in large-scale military cam- served as regent during the reign of Wu’s
paigns against nomads to the north and son, Chengwang.
against a group of native tribes to the The defeated Shang could not be
east. At that time Wuwang organized the ruled out as a potential force, even
first probing expedition and reached the though their ruler, Zhou, had immolated
neighbourhood of the Shang capital. A himself. Many groups of hostile “barbar-
full-scale invasion soon followed. Along ians” were still outside the sphere of
with forces of the Zhou, the army was Zhou power. The Zhou leaders had to
made up of the Jiang, southern neigh- yield to reality by establishing a rather
bours of the Zhou, and of eight allied weak control over the conquered terri-
tribes from the west. The Shang dis- tory. The son of Zhou was allowed to
patched a large army to meet the invaders. organize a subservient state under the
The pro-Zhou records say that, after the close watch of two other brothers of
Shang vanguard defected to join the Wuwang, who were garrisoned in the
Zhou, the entire army collapsed, and immediate vicinity. Other leaders of the
Wuwang entered the capital without Zhou and their allies were assigned lands
resistance. Yet Mencius, the 4th-century- surrounding the old Shang domain. But
BC thinker, cast doubt on the reliability no sooner had Zhougong assumed the
of this account by pointing out that a vic- role of regent than a large-scale rebellion
tory without enemy resistance should not broke out. His two brothers, entrusted
have been accompanied by the heavy with overseeing the activities of the son
casualties mentioned in the classical doc- of Zhou, joined the Shang prince in rebel-
ument. One may speculate that the Shang lion, and it took Zhougong three full
vanguard consisted of remnants of the years to reconquer the Shang domain,
eastern tribes suppressed by the Shang subjugate the eastern tribes, and reestab-
ruler Zhou during his last expedition and lish the suzerainty of the Zhou court.
that their sudden defection caught the These three years of extensive cam-
Shang defenders by surprise, making paigning consolidated the rule of the
them easy prey for the invading enemy. Zhou over all of China. An eastern capital
The decisive battle took place in 1111 BC was constructed on the middle reach of
44 | The History of China
the Huang He (Yellow River) as a strong- and the city were therefore identical,
hold to support the feudal lords in the both being guo, a combination of city
east. Several states established by Zhou wall and weapons. Satellite cities were
kinsmen and relatives were transferred established at convenient distances from
farther east and northeast as the van- the main city in order to expand the ter-
guard of expansion, including one ritory under control. Each feudal state
established by the son of Zhougong. The consisted of an alliance of the Zhou, the
total number of such feudal states men- Shang, and the local population. A
tioned in historical records and later Chinese nation was formed on the foun-
accounts varies from 20 to 70; the figures dation of Zhou feudalism.
in later records would naturally be higher, The scattered feudal states gradually
since enfeoffment might take place more acquired something like territorial solid-
than once. Each of these states included ity as the neighbouring populations
fortified cities. They were strung out established closer ties with them, either
along the valley of the Huang He between by marriage or by accepting vassal sta-
the old capital and the new eastern capi- tus; the gaps between the fortified cities
tal, reaching as far as the valleys of the were thus filled by political control and
Huai and Han rivers in the south and cultural assimilation. This created a
extending eastward to the Shandong dilemma for the Zhou central court: the
Peninsula and the coastal area north of it. evolution of the feudal network but-
All these colonies mutually supported tressed the structure of the Zhou order,
each other and were buttressed by the but the strong local ties and parochial
strength of the eastern capital, where the interests of the feudal lords tended to pull
conquered Shang troops were kept, them away from the centre. Each of these
together with several divisions of the opposing forces became at one time or
Zhou legions. Ancient bronze inscrip- another strong enough to affect the his-
tions make frequent mention of tory of the Zhou order.
mobilizing the military units at the east- For about two centuries Zhou China
ern capital at times when the Zhou feudal enjoyed stability and peace. There were
states needed assistance. wars against the non-Zhou peoples of
the interior and against the nomads
The Zhou Feudal System along the northern frontier, but there was
little dispute among the Chinese states
The feudal states were not contiguous themselves. The southern expansion was
but rather were scattered at strategic successful, and the northern expansion
locations surrounded by potentially dan- worked to keep the nomads away from
gerous and hostile lands. The fortified the Chinese areas. The changing
city of the feudal lord was often the only strength of the feudal order can be seen
area that he controlled directly; the state from two occurrences at the Zhou court.
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 45
In 841 BC the nobles jointly expelled feudal structure and familial ties fell
Liwang, a tyrant, and replaced him with a apart, continuing in several of the
collective leadership headed by the two Chunqiu states for various lengths of
most influential nobles until the crown time, with various degrees of modifica-
prince was enthroned. In 771 BC the tion. Over the next two centuries the
Zhou royal line was again broken when feudal-familial system gradually declined
Youwang was killed by invading barbar- and disappeared.
ians. The nobles apparently were split at In the first half of the Chunqiu period,
that time, because the break gave rise to the feudal system was a stratified society,
two courts, headed by two princes, each divided into ranks as follows: the ruler of
of whom had the support of part of the a state; the feudal lords who served at the
nobility. One of the pretenders, ruler’s court as ministers; the shi (roughly
Pingwang, survived the other (thus inau- translated as “gentlemen”) who served at
gurating the Dong [Eastern] Zhou the households of the feudal lords as
period), but the royal order had lost pres- stewards, sheriffs, or simply warriors;
tige and influence. The cohesion of the and, finally, the commoners and slaves.
feudal system had weakened. Thereafter, The state ruler and the ministers were
it entered the phase traditionally known clearly a superior class, and the common-
as Chunqiu (Spring and Autumn). ers and slaves were an inferior class; the
The familial relationship among the class of shi was an intermediate one in
nobles gradually was diluted during the which the younger sons of the ministers,
Chunqiu period. A characteristic of the the sons of shi, and selected commoners
Zhou feudal system was that the extended all mingled to serve as functionaries and
family and the political structure were officials. The state rulers were, in theory,
identical. The line of lordship was divided into five grades; in reality, the
regarded as the line of elder brothers, importance of a ruler was determined by
who therefore enjoyed not only political the strength of his state. The ministerial
superiority but also seniority in the fam- feudal lords, however, often had two or
ily line. The head of the family not only three grades among themselves, as
was the political chief but also had the determined by the lord-vassal relation-
unique privilege of offering sacrifice to ship. In general, each state was ruled by a
and worshipping the ancestors, who group of hereditary feudal lords who
would bestow their blessings and guar- might or might not be of the same sur-
antee the continuity of the mandate of name as the state ruler. The system was
heaven. After the weakening of the posi- not stable in the Chunqiu period, and
tion of the Zhou king in the feudal everywhere there were changes.
structure, he was not able to maintain the The first important change occurred
position of being the head of a large fam- with the advent of interstate leadership.
ily in any more than a normal sense. The For several decades after 722 BC, the
46 | The History of China
records chiefly show battles and diplo- the meetings became regular, and the vol-
matic maneuvers among the states on untary contribution was transformed into
the central plain and in the middle and a compulsory tribute to the court of the
lower reaches of the Huang He valley. overlord. The new system of states under
These states, however, were too small to the leadership of an overlord developed
hold the leadership and too constricted in not only in northern China under Jin but
the already crowded plain to have poten- also in the south under Chu. Two other
tiality for further development. The states, Qin and Qi, though not command-
leadership was soon taken over by states ing the strength of the formidable Jin and
on the peripheral areas. Chu, each absorbed weaker neighbours
The first to achieve this leadership into a system of satellite states. A balance
was Huangong (reigned 685–643 BC), of power thus emerged among the four
the ruler of the state of Qi on the states of Qi, Qin, Jin, and Chu. The bal-
Shandong Peninsula. He successfully ance was occasionally tipped when two of
rallied around him many other Chinese them went to war, but it was subsequently
states to resist the pressure of non-Chi- restored by the transference of some
nese powers in the north and south. small states from one camp to another.
While formally respecting the suzer- A further change began in the 5th
ainty of the Zhou monarchy, Huangong century BC, when the states of Wu and
adopted a new title of “overlord” (ba). He Yue far to the south suddenly challenged
convened interstate meetings, settled Chu for hegemony over the southern
disputes among states, and led cam- part of China, at a time when the strong
paigns to protect his followers from the state of Jin was much weakened by an
intimidation of non-Chinese powers. internecine struggle among powerful
After his death the state of Qi failed magnates. Wu got so far as to claim over-
to maintain its leading status. The leader- lordship over northern China in an
ship, after a number of years, passed to interstate meeting held in 482 BC after
Wengong of Jin (reigned 636–628 BC), defeating Chu. But Wu’s hegemony was
the ruler of the mountainous state north short-lived; it collapsed after being
of the Huang He. Under Wengong and attacked by Yue. Yue held the nominal
his capable successors, the overlordship overlordship for only a brief period; Jin,
was institutionalized until it took the Qin, and Qi were weakened by internal
place of the Zhou monarchy. Interstate disturbances (Jin split into three con-
meetings were held at first during emer- tending powers) and declined; and a
gencies caused by challenges from the series of defeats paralyzed Chu. Thus, the
rising southern state of Chu. States balance-of-power system was rendered
answering the call of the overlord were unworkable.
expected to contribute and maintain a A half century of disorder followed.
certain number of war chariots. Gradually Small states fell prey to big ones, while in
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 47
the big states usurpers replaced the old The Zhou feudalism suffered from a con-
rulers. When the chaos ended, there were tinual dilution of authority. As a state
seven major powers and half a dozen expanded, its nobility acquired vassals,
minor ones. Among the seven major pow- and these in turn acquired their own vas-
ers, Zhao, Han, and Wei had formerly sals. The longer this went on, the more
been parts of Jin; the Qi ruling house had diluted the family tie became and the
changed hands; and Qin was undergoing more dependent the ruler became on the
succession problems. The only “old” state combined strength of the vassals. At a cer-
was Chu. Even Chu, a southern state, had tain point, the vassals might acquire an
become almost completely assimilated to advantageous position, and the most
the northern culture (except in art, litera- dominant figures among them might
ture, and folklore). The minor powers had eclipse the king. The Zhou royal house
also changed: some had retained only perhaps reached the turning point earlier
small portions of their old territories, than the other feudal states. As a result,
some had new ruling houses, and some the Zhou royal domain and its influence
were new states that had emerged from shrank when Pingwang moved his court
non-Chinese tribes. The long interval of to the east. The ruling houses of other
power struggle that followed (475–221 states suffered the same fate. Within a
BC) is known as the Zhanguo (Warring century after the Zhou court had moved to
States) period. the east, the ruling houses in most of the
feudal states had changed. In some cases
Social, political, and a dominating branch replaced the major
cultural changes lineage, and in others a powerful minister
formed a strong vassaldom and usurped
The years from the 8th century BC to 221 the authority of the legitimate ruler.
BC witnessed the painful birth of a uni- Bloody court intrigues and power strug-
fied China. It was a period of bloody wars gles eliminated many established houses.
and also of far-reaching changes in poli- The new power centres were reluctant to
tics, society, and intellectual outlook. see the process continue and therefore
refused to allow further segmentation and
The Decline of Feudalism subinfeudation. Thus, the feudal system
withered and finally collapsed.
The most obvious change in political
institutions was that the old feudal struc- Urbanization and
ture was replaced by systems of incipient Assimilation
bureaucracy under monarchy. The decline
of feudalism took its course in the Simultaneous with the demise of feudal-
Chunqiu period, and the rise of the new ism was a rise in urbanization. Minor
order may be seen in the Zhanguo period. fortified cities were built, radiating out
48 | The History of China
from each of the major centres, and other difference in writing system and style
towns radiated from the minor cities. from those of the Chinese states.
From these cities and towns orders were Zhou civilization was not assimilated
issued, and to them the resources of the so easily in the south, where the markedly
countryside were sent. The central plain different Chu culture flourished. For
along the Huang He was the first to be some centuries, Chu was the archenemy
saturated by clusters of cities. This is of the Chinese states, yet the nobles of
probably the reason why the central the Chu acquired enough of the northern
states soon reached the maximum of culture to enable their envoy to the courts
their influence in the interstate power of the north to cite the same verses and
struggle: unlike the states in peripheral observe the same manners. The Chu lit-
areas, they had no room to expand. erature that has survived is the fruit of
The period of urbanization was also a these two distinctive heritages.
time of assimilation. The non-Zhou popu- To the north were the nomadic peo-
lation caught in the reach of feudal cities ples of the steppe. As long as they
could not but feel the magnetic attraction remained divided, they constituted no
of the civilization represented by the threat; however, when they were under
Zhou people and Zhou feudalism. The strong leaders, able to forge a united
bronze inscriptions of the Xi Zhou period nomadic empire challenging the domi-
(1046–771 BC) refer to the disturbances of nance of the Chinese, there were
the barbarians, who could be found prac- confrontations. The “punitive” action
tically everywhere. They were the into the north during the reign of
non-Zhou groups scattered in the open Xuanwang (827–782 BC) does not seem
spaces. The barbarians in inland China to have been very large in scope; both
were forced to integrate with one or sides apparently had little ambition for
another of the contenders in the inter- territorial aggrandizement. Cultural
state conflicts. Their lands were annexed, exchange in the northern frontier region
and their populations were moved or was far less than the assimilation that
absorbed. The strength of the large states occurred in the south along the Yangtze
owed much to their success at incorpo- valley, and it was mainly concerned with
rating these non-Chinese groups. By the techniques of cavalry warfare.
time of the unification of China in the 3rd
century BC, there was virtually no signifi- The Rise of Monarchy
cant concentration of non-Chinese
groups north of the Yangtze River valley Internal political changes also took place
and south of the steppe. Bronze pieces as states grew in population and area.
attributable to non-Zhou chiefs in the late The most basic of these was in the pattern
Chunqiu period show no significant of power delegation. Under feudalism,
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 49
authority had been delegated by the lord principal form of local administration in
to the vassal. The new state rulers sought the Zhanguo period.
ways of maintaining and organizing By that time, practically all the major
their power. states had chancellors, who acted as lead-
In the state of Jin the influence of ers of the courts, which were composed of
kinsmen of the ruling house had been numerous officials. Whereas in the feudal
trimmed even before Wengong estab- state the officials had been military offi-
lished his overlordship. Wengong cers, the more functionally differentiated
reorganized the government, installing court of the Zhanguo period usually had
his most capable followers in the key a separate corps of civil service person-
posts. He set up a hierarchical structure nel. Local administration was entrusted
that corresponded to the channels of to prefects, who served limited terms.
military command. Appointments to Prefects were often required to submit
these key positions came to be based on annual reports to the court so that the
a combination of merit and seniority, ruler could judge their performance.
thus establishing a type of bureaucracy Regional supervisors were sometimes
that was to become traditional in Chinese dispatched to check the work of the pre-
government. fects, a system developed by the later
The Chu government was perhaps Chinese imperial government into the
the oldest true monarchy among all the “censor” system. Fiefs of substantial size
Chunqiu states. The authority of the king were given to only a few people, usually
was absolute. Chu was the only major close relatives of the ruler. There was lit-
state in which the ruling house survived tle opportunity for anyone to challenge
the chaotic years of the Zhanguo period. the sovereignty of the state. The majority
Local administration went through a of government employees were not rela-
slow evolution. The prefecture system tives of the ruler, and some of them might
developed in both Jin and Chu was one not even have been citizens of the state.
innovation. In Jin there were several Officials were paid in grain or perhaps in
dozen prefects across the state, each hav- a combination of cash and grain. Archives
ing limited authority and tenure. The Jin were kept by scribes on wooden blocks
prefect was no more than a functionary, and bamboo strips. These features com-
in contrast to the feudal practice. Similar bined indicate the emergence of some
local administrative units grew up in form of bureaucracy.
Chu. New lands taken by conquest were The new pattern was the result of the
organized into prefectures governed by efforts of many reformers in different
ranking officials who were evidently states. Both practical men and theoreti-
appointed by the king. The prefecture cians helped to form the emerging
system of Jin and Chu was to become the structure, which, though still crude, was
50 | The History of China
the forerunner of the large and complex developed among the northern states,
bureaucracy of later Chinese dynasties. including Qin, Zhao, and Yan. The Qin
Military technique also underwent cavalrymen were generally drawn from
great changes in the Zhanguo period. In the northern and northwestern border
the feudal era, war had been a profession areas, where there were constant contacts
of the nobles. Lengthy training was with the steppe peoples. The rise of Yan
needed to learn how to drive and shoot from a rather obscure state to a major
from a chariot drawn by horses. There power probably owed much to its suc-
was also an elaborate code of behaviour cessful adoption of cavalry tactics, as well
in combat. The nature of war had already as to its northern expansion.
changed by the late Chunqiu period, as
the nobility had given way to professional Economic Development
warriors and mercenaries. In some states,
special titles of nobility were created for Important changes occurred in agricul-
successful warriors, regardless of their ture. Millet had once been the major
origin. Foot soldiers were replacing war cereal crop in the north, but wheat gradu-
chariots as the main force on the battle- ally grew in importance. Rice, imported
field: the expansion of the major states from the south, was extended to the dry
into mountainous areas and the rise of soil of the north. The soybean, in a num-
the southern powers in an area of swamps, ber of varieties, proved to be one of the
lakes, and rivers increased the impor- most important crops. Chinese farmers
tance of the infantry. gradually developed a kind of intensive
Battles were fought mostly by hordes agriculture. Soil was improved by adding
of foot soldiers, most of them common- manure and night soil. Planting fields in
ers, aided by cavalry units; war chariots carefully regulated rows replaced the fal-
apparently served only auxiliary roles, low system. Great importance was placed
probably as mobile commanding plat- on plowing and seeding at the proper
forms or perhaps as carriers. All of the time (especially in the fine-grained loess
Zhanguo powers seem to have used con- soil of northern China). Fields were
scription systems to recruit able-bodied weeded frequently throughout the grow-
male citizens. The organization, training, ing season. Farmers also knew the value
and command of the infantry required of rotating crops to preserve the fertility
experts of a special type, and professional of the soil, and soybeans were often part
commanders emerged who conducted of the rotation. Although iron was used
battles involving several thousand men to cast implements in the 5th century BC
along lines extending hundreds of miles. (probably even as early as the 8th cen-
A few treatises on the principles of war- tury BC), those early examples
fare still survive, including Bingfa (The discovered by archaeologists are of
Art of War) by Sunzi. Cavalry warfare rather inferior quality.
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 51
Irrigation became necessary as pop- alkaline soil and replace it with fertile
ulation pressure forced cropland to be topsoil, and, in the south and in the
expanded, and irrigation works were con- Sichuan Basin, to carry water into the
structed in many states beginning in the rice paddies. The irrigation systems
late Chunqiu period. These projects were unearthed by archaeologists indicate
built to drain swampy areas, leach out that these were small-scale works carried
Wood bowl decorated in red and black lacquer with stylized birds and animals, from Changsha,
Hunan province, China, late Zhou dynasty, 3rd century BC; in the Seattle Art Museum,
Washington. Diameter 25 cm (10 in). Courtesy of the Seattle Art Museum, Washington
52 | The History of China
out for the most part by state or local arts. The shi provided the administrators,
authorities. teachers, and intellectual leaders of the
Another significant change in the new society. The philosophers Confucius
economic sphere was the growth of trade (551–479 BC), Mencius (c. 372–289 BC),
among regions. Coins excavated in scat- Mozi (Mo-tzu; 5th century BC), and Xunzi
tered spots show by their great variety (Hsün-tzu; c. 300–c. 230 BC) were mem-
that active trade had expanded into all bers of the shi class, as was also a large
parts of Zhou China. Great commercial proportion of high-ranking officials and
centres had arisen, and the new cities leaders of prominence. The interstate
brought a demand for luxuries. The liter- competition that drove rulers to select the
ary records as well as the archaeological most capable and meritorious individu-
evidence show that wealthy persons had als to serve in their courts resulted in an
possessions made of bronze and gold, sil- unprecedented degree of social mobility.
ver inlays, lacquer, silk, ceramics, and The populace, most of whom were
precious stones. The advancement of fer- farmers, also underwent changes in sta-
rous metallurgy led to the earliest tus. In feudal times the peasants had
recorded blast furnace and the earliest been subjects of their lords. They owned
steel. The Chinese had been casting no property, at most being permitted to
bronze for more than a millennium; turn- till a piece of the lord’s land for their own
ing to iron, they became highly skilled at needs. The ancient texts tell of the “well-
making weapons and tools. The Han his- field” system, under which eight families
torian Sima Qian (writing c. 100 BC) told were assigned 100 mu (15 acres, or 6
of individuals making fortunes in the hectares) each of land to live on while col-
iron industry. lectively cultivating another 100 mu as
As the old feudal regimes collapsed the lord’s reservation. Individual owner-
and were replaced by centralized monar- ship grew as farming became more
chies during the Zhanguo period, the intensive, and, increasingly, farmers were
feudal nobility fell victim to power taxed according to the amount of land
struggles within the states and to con- they “owned.” The land tax had become a
quest by stronger states. During the common practice by Zhanguo times. By
Chunqiu period these parallel processes paying taxes, the tiller of the field
drastically reduced the numbers of the acquired the privilege of using the land
nobility. as his own possession, which perhaps
A new elite class arose in the late was the first step toward private owner-
Chunqiu, composed of the former shi ship. As states expanded and new lands
class and the descendants of the old were given to cultivation, an increasing
nobility. The members of this class were number of “free” farmers were to be found
distinguished by being educated, either tilling land that had never been part of a
in the literary tradition or in the military lord’s manor. With the collapse of
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 53
in China until the tide of commercialism Zhou court. The record is not clear. In the
was ended by the restriction of commer- old annals Qin did not appear as a signifi-
cial activity under the Han emperor Wudi cant power until the time of Mugong
in the 2nd century BC. (reigned 659–621 BC), who made Qin the
The local cultures of China were main power in the western part of China.
blended into one common civilization
during Chunqiu times. Through contacts The Qin State
and interchanges, the gods and legends
of one region became identified and Although Qin attempted to obtain a foot-
assimilated with those of other regions. hold in the central heartland along the
Local differences remained, but, from Huang He, it was blocked by the territo-
that time on, the general Chinese pan- ries of Jin. Qin failed several times to
theon took the form of a congregation of enter the eastern bloc of powers and had
gods with specific functions, represent- to limit its activities to conquering,
ing a celestial projection of the unified absorbing, and incorporating the non-
Chinese empire with its bureaucratic Chinese tribes and states scattered
society. within and west of the big loop of the
Bold challenges to tradition have Huang He. Qin’s success in this was duly
been rare in Chinese history, and the recognized by other powers of the
questioning and innovating spirit of the Chunqiu period, so that the two super-
Chunqiu period was to have no parallel powers Chu and Jin had to grant Qin,
until the ferment of the 20th century, along with Qi, the status of overlord in its
after two millennia had elapsed under the own region. The eastern powers, how-
domination of Confucian orthodoxy. ever, regarded Qin as a barbarian state
because of the non-Chinese elements it
The Qin empire (221–207 BC) contained.
Qin played only a supporting role
The history of the Qin dynasty may be in the Chunqiu power struggle; its loca-
traced to the 8th century BC. According tion made it immune to the cutthroat
to the Qin historical record, when the competition of the states in the central
Zhou royal house was reestablished at the plain. Qin, in fact, was the only major
eastern capital in 770 BC, the Qin ruling power that did not suffer battle within its
house was entrusted with the mission of own territory. Moreover, being a newly
maintaining order in the previous capital. emerged state, Qin did not have the
This may be an exaggeration of the burden of a long-established feudal sys-
importance of the Qin rulers, and the Qin tem, which allowed it more freedom to
may have been only one of the ruling develop its own pattern of government.
families of the old states that recognized As a result of being “underdeveloped,” it
Zhou suzerainty and went to serve the offered opportunity for eastern-educated
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 55
persons; with the infusion of such talent, royal decree. The law was to be enforced
it was able to compete well with the east- impartially, without regard to status or
ern powers, yet without the overexpanded position. He convinced Xiaogong that
ministerial apparatus that embarrassed the rank of nobility and the privileges
other rulers. This may be one reason why attached to it should be awarded only to
Qin was one of the handful of ruling those who rendered good service to the
houses that survived the great turmoil of state, especially for valour in battle. This
the late Chunqiu period. deprived the existing nobility of their
A period of silence followed. Even the titles and privileges, arousing much
Qin historical record that was adopted by antagonism in the court.
the historian Sima Qian yields almost no One of his most influential reforms
information for a period of some 90 years was that of standardizing local adminis-
in the 5th century BC. The evidence sug- tration. It was a step toward creating a
gests that Qin underwent a period of unified state by combining various locali-
consolidation and assimilation during ties into counties, which were then
the years of silence. When it reemerged organized into prefectures under direct
as an important power, its culture supervision of the court. This system was
appeared to be simpler and more martial, expanded to all of China after unification
perhaps because of the non-Chinese in 221 BC.
tribes it had absorbed. Another measure taken by Shang
Yang was that he encouraged production,
Struggle for Power especially in agriculture. Farmers were
given incentive to reclaim wasteland, and
Until the 5th century BC, China was dom- game and fishing reserves were also
inated by the central-plain power Wei, a opened to cultivation. A shortage of
successor to Jin, and by the eastern labour was met by recruiting the able-
power Qi, a wealthy state with a new rul- bodied from neighbouring states,
ing house. Qin remained a secondary especially from Han, Zhao, and Wei. This
power until after the great reforms of policy of drawing workers to Qin had two
Xiaogong (361–338 BC) and Shang Yang consequences: it increased production in
(Wei Yang). Qin, and manpower was lost in the neigh-
Shang Yang, a frustrated bureaucrat bouring states. In order to increase
in the court of Wei, went westward seek- incentives, the Qin government levied a
ing a chance to try out his ideas. In the double tax on any male citizen who was
court of Qin he established a rare part- not the master of a household. The result
nership with the ruler Xiaogong and was a breakdown of the extended-family
created the best-organized state of their system, since younger children were
time. Shang Yang first took strong mea- forced to move out and establish their
sures to establish the authority of law and own households. The nuclear family
56 | The History of China
became the prevalent form in Qin there- the other contending powers. It contin-
after. As late as the 2nd century BC, Han ued maneuvering in order to prevent the
scholars were still attacking the Qin fam- others from uniting against it. A common
ily structure as failing to observe the topic of debate in the courts of the other
principle of filial piety, a cardinal virtue states was whether to establish friendly
in the Confucian moral code. Shang Yang relations with Qin or to join with other
also standardized the system of weights states in order to resist Qin’s expansion.
and measures, a reform of some impor- The Qin strategists were ruthless: all
tance for the development of trade and means, including lies, espionage, bribery,
commerce. and assassination, were pressed into the
Qin grew wealthy and powerful under service of their state.
the joint labours of Xiaogong and Shang For a time, the eastern power Qi had
Yang. After Xiaogong’s death, Shang seemed the most likely to win. It defeated
Yang was put to death by enemies at the Wei, crushed Yan in 314 BC, and annexed
Qin court. Tablets of the Qin law substan- Song in 286 BC. But Qi was overturned
tiate the survival of Shang Yang’s policies by an allied force of five states, including
after his death. Qin. Zhao, the power with extensive terri-
What remained of the Zhou royal tory in the northern frontier, succeeded
court still survived, ruling over a frag- Qi as the most formidable contender
mentary domain—poor, weak, and totally against Qin. In 260 BC a decisive battle
at the mercy of the contending powers. It between Qin and Zhao destroyed Zhao’s
was commonly felt that China ought to military strength, though Qin was not
be unified politically, although the pow- able to complete its conquest of Zhao for
ers disagreed as to how it was to be done several decades.
and who would be the universal king.
Huiwang, son of Xiaogong, claimed the The Empire
royal title in 325 BC. The adoption of the
royal title by Qin was of course a chal- When Qin succeeded in unifying China
lenge to Qi and Wei. Qin pursued a in 221 BC, its king claimed the title of
strategy of dividing its rivals and individ- “First Sovereign Emperor,” Shihuangdi.
ually defeating them. Qin appealed to the He was a strong and energetic ruler, and,
self-interest of other powers in order to although he appointed a number of capa-
keep them from intervening in any mili- ble aides, the emperor remained the final
tary action it was taking against one of its authority and the sole source of power.
neighbours. It befriended the more dis- Shihuangdi made a number of impor-
tant states while gradually absorbing the tant reforms. He abolished the feudal
territories of those close to it. system completely and extended the
Within half a century, Qin had administration system of prefectures and
acquired undisputed predominance over counties, with officials appointed by the
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 57
The Great Wall of China covered in winter snow. China Photos/Getty Images
58 | The History of China
central government sent into all of China. influential men in the provinces were
Circuit inspectors were dispatched to compelled to move to the capital.
oversee the local magistrates. China was Weapons were confiscated. Hundreds of
divided into some 40 prefectures. The intellectuals were massacred for daring
empire created by Shihuangdi was to to criticize the emperor’s policies. Books
become the traditional territory of China. dealing with subjects other than law,
In later eras China sometimes held other horticulture, and herbal medicine were
territories, but the Qin boundaries were kept out of public circulation because
always considered to embrace the indivis- the emperor considered such knowl-
ible area of China proper. In order to edge to be dangerous and unsettling.
control this vast area, Shihuangdi con- These things have contributed to make
structed a network of highways to Shihuangdi appear the arch tyrant of
facilitate moving his troops. Several hun- Chinese history.
dred thousand workers were conscripted Some of the accusations leveled
to connect and strengthen the existing against him by historians are perhaps
walls along the northern border. The exaggerated, such as the burning of
result was a complex of fortified walls, gar- books and the indiscriminate massacre
rison stations, and signal towers extending of intellectuals. Shihuangdi himself
from near the Bo Hai (Gulf of Chihli) claimed in the stone inscriptions of his
westward across the pastureland of what time that he had corrected the miscon-
is today Inner Mongolia and through the duct of a corrupted age and given the
fertile loop of the Huang He to what is people peace and order. Indeed, his polit-
now northwestern Gansu province. This ical philosophy did not deviate much
defense line, known as the Great Wall, from that already developed by the great
marked the frontier where the nomads of thinkers of the Zhanguo period and
the great steppe and the Chinese farmers adopted later by the Han emperors, who
on the loess soil confronted each other. have been generally regarded as benevo-
Yet the emperor failed in another great lent rulers.
project: digging a canal across the moun- Shihuangdi was afraid of death. He
tains in the south to link the southern did everything possible to achieve
coastal areas with the main body of China. immortality. Deities were propitiated,
Shihuangdi, with his capable chancellor and messengers were dispatched to look
Li Si, also unified and simplified the writ- for an elixir of life. He died in 210 BC
ing system and codified the law. while on a tour of the empire. Excavation
All of China felt the burden of these of his tomb, near modern Xi’an (ancient
11 or 12 years of change. Millions of Chang’an), revealed more than 6,000 life-
people were dragooned to the huge con- size statues of soldiers still on guard.
struction jobs, many dying on the long His death led to the fall of his dynasty.
journey to their destination. Wealthy and The legitimate heir was compelled to
The Zhou and Qin Dynasties | 59
Some of the army of terra-cotta warriors that have been excavated at the Qin tomb near
Xi’an, Shaanxi province, China. In all, some 8,000 pottery soldiers, horses, and chariots were
buried there, only a portion of which have been unearthed. Eric Feferberg/AFP/Getty Images
commit suicide when his younger The uprising spread rapidly as old rul-
brother usurped the throne. Capable ing elements of the six states rose to
and loyal servants, including Li Si and claim their former titles. Escaped con-
Gen. Meng Tian, were put to death. scripts and soldiers who had been
Ershidi, the second emperor, reigned hiding throughout the land emerged in
only four years. Rebellion broke out in large numbers to attack the imperial
the Yangtze River area when a small armies. The second emperor was killed
group of conscripts led by a peasant by a powerful eunuch minister, and in
killed their escort officers and claimed 206 BC a rebel leader accepted the sur-
sovereignty for the former state of Chu. render of the last Qin prince.
ChaPTER 3
The han Dynasty
new social distinctions were brought into intensive administration. Several reigns
being. Chinese prestige among other were characterized by palace intrigue and
peoples varied with the political stability corrupt influences at court, and on a num-
and military strength of the Han house, ber of occasions the future of the dynasty
and the extent of territory that was sub- was seriously endangered by outbreaks
ject to the jurisdiction of Han officials of violence, seizure of political power, or
varied with the success of Han arms. At a crisis in the imperial succession.
the same time, the example of the palace,
the activities of government, and the DyNaSTIC
growing luxuries of city life gave rise to auThORITy aND ThE
new standards of cultural and technologi- SuCCESSION Of EMPERORS
cal achievement.
China’s first imperial dynasty, that of Xi (Western) Han
Qin, had lasted barely 15 years before its
dissolution in the face of rebellion and Since at least as early as the Shang
civil war. By contrast, Han formed the dynasty, the Chinese had been accus-
first long-lasting regime that could suc- tomed to acknowledging the temporal
cessfully claim to be the sole authority and spiritual authority of a single leader
entitled to wield administrative power. and its transmission within a family, at
The Han forms of government, however, first from brother to brother and later
were derived in the first instance from from father to son. Some of the early
the Qin dynasty, and these in turn incor- kings had been military commanders,
porated a number of features of the and they may have organized the corpo-
government that had been practiced by rate work of the community, such as the
earlier kingdoms. The Han empire left as manufacture of bronze tools and ves-
a heritage a practical example of impe- sels. In addition, they acted as religious
rial government and an ideal of dynastic leaders, appointing scribes or priests to
authority to which its successors aspired. consult the oracles and thus to assist
But the Han period has been credited in making major decisions covering
with more success than is its due; it has communal activities, such as warfare
been represented as a period of 400 years and hunting expeditions. In succeeding
of effective dynastic rule, punctuated by centuries the growing sophistication of
a short period in which a pretender to Chinese culture was accompanied by
power usurped authority, and it has been demands for more-intensive political
assumed that imperial unity and effec- organization and for more-regular
tive administration advanced steadily administration; as kings came to dele-
with each decade. In fact, there were gate tasks to more officials, so was their
only a few short periods marked by own authority enhanced and the obedi-
dynastic strength, stable government, and ence that they commanded the more
62 | The History of China
widely acknowledged. Under the king- scarcely survived the death of the first
doms of Zhou, an association was emperor in 210 BC. The choice of his suc-
deliberately fostered between the author- cessor was subject to manipulation by
ity of the king and the dispensation statesmen, and local rebellions soon
exercised over the universe by heaven, developed into large-scale warfare. Gaozu,
with the result that the kings of Zhou and, whose family had not thus far figured in
later, the emperors of Chinese dynasties Chinese history, emerged as the victor of
were regarded as being the sons of heaven. two principal contestants for power.
Anxious to avoid the reputation of having
Prelude to the Han replaced one oppressive regime by
another, he and his advisers endeavoured
From 403 BC onward seven kingdoms to display their own empire—of Han—as a
other than Zhou constituted the ruling regime whose political principles were in
authorities in different parts of China, keeping with a Chinese tradition of lib-
each of which was led by its own king or eral and beneficent administration. As
duke. In theory, the king of Zhou, whose yet, however, the concept of a single cen-
territory was by now greatly reduced, tralized government that could command
was recognized as possessing superior universal obedience was still subject to
powers and moral overlordship over the trial. In order to exercise and perpetuate
other kingdoms, but practical adminis- its authority, therefore, Gaozu’s govern-
tration lay in the hands of the seven ment perforce adopted the organs of
kings and their professional advisers or government, and possibly many of the
in the hands of well-established fami- methods, of its discredited predecessor.
lies. Then in 221 BC, after a long process The authority of the Han emperors
of expansion and takeover, a radical had been won in the first instance by force
change occurred in Chinese politics: of arms, and both Gaozu and his succes-
the kingdom of Qin succeeded in sors relied on the loyal cooperation of
eliminating the power of its six rivals military leaders and on officials who orga-
and established a single rule that was nized the work of civil government. In
acknowledged in their territories. theory and to a large extent in practice,
According to later Chinese historians, the emperor remained the single source
this success was achieved and the Qin from whom all powers of government
empire was thereafter maintained by were delegated. It was the Han emperors
oppressive methods and the rigorous who appointed men to the senior offices
enforcement of a harsh penal code, but of the central government and in whose
this view was probably coloured by later name the governors of the commanderies
political prejudices. Whatever the quality (provinces) collected taxes, recruited men
of Qin imperial government, the regime for the labour corps and army, and
The Han Dynasty | 63
often open to question, as pressure could dowager Gaohou arranged for two infants
be exerted on an emperor over his choice. to succeed consecutively. During that
Sometimes a young or weak emperor was time (188–180 BC) she issued imperial
overawed by the expressed will of his edicts under her own name and by virtue
mother or by anxiety to please a newly of her own authority as empress dowager.
favoured concubine. She set a precedent that was to be fol-
Throughout the Xi Han and Dong lowed in later dynastic crises—e.g., when
Han periods, the succession and other the throne was vacant and no heir had
important political considerations were been appointed. In such cases, although
affected by the members of the imperial statesmen or officials would in fact deter-
consorts’ families. Often the father or mine how to proceed, their decisions
brothers of an empress or concubine were implemented in the form of edicts
were appointed to high office in the cen- promulgated by the senior surviving
tral government; alternatively, senior empress.
statesmen might be able to curry favour Gaohou appointed a number of
with their emperor or consolidate their members of her own family to highly
position at court by presenting a young important positions of state and clearly
female relative for the imperial pleasure. hoped to substitute her own family for
In either situation the succession of the reigning Liu family. But these plans
emperors might be affected, jealousies were frustrated on her death (180) by
would be aroused between the different men whose loyalties remained with the
families concerned, and the actual pow- founding emperor and his family. Liu
ers of a newly acceded emperor would be Heng, better known as Wendi, reigned
overshadowed by the women in his from 180 to 157. He soon came to be
entourage or their male relatives. Such regarded (with Gaozu and Wudi) as one
situations were particularly likely to of three outstanding emperors of the Xi
develop if, as often happened, an emperor Han. He was credited with the ideal
was succeeded by an infant son. behaviour of a reigning monarch
The imperial succession was thus fre- according to later Confucian doctrine;
quently bound up with the political i.e., he was supposedly ready to yield
machinations of statesmen, particularly place to others, hearken to the advice
as the court grew more sophisticated and and remonstrances of his statesmen,
statesmen acquired coteries of clients and eschew personal extravagance. It
engaged in factional rivalry. On the death can be claimed that his reign saw the
of the first emperor, Gaozu (195 BC), the peaceful consolidation of imperial
palace came under the domination of his power, successful experimentation in
widow. Outliving her son, who had suc- operating the organs of government,
ceeded as emperor under the title of and the steady growth of China’s mate-
Huidi (reigned 195–188), the empress rial resources.
The Han Dynasty | 65
Wudi
Wudi (b. 156 BC—d. March 29, 87 BC) is the posthumous name given to Liu Che, the
sixth emperor of the Xi (Western) Han dynasty. He is noted for vastly increasing
the Han’s authority and influence
abroad and for making Confucianism
China’s state religion. Under Wudi,
China’s armies drove back the nomadic
Xiongnu tribes that plagued the north-
ern border, incorporated southern China
and northern and central Vietnam into
the empire, and reconquered Korea.
Their farthest expedition was to Fergana
(in modern Uzbekistan). Wudi’s military
campaigns strained the state’s reserves;
seeking new income, he decreed new
taxes and established state monopolies
on salt, iron, and wine.
The Wudi emperor is best remem-
bered for his military conquests; hence, his
posthumous title, Wudi, meaning “Martial
Emperor.” His administrative reforms left
an enduring mark on the Chinese state,
Drawing of the Wudi emperor (lower right)
and his exclusive recognition of of the Xi (Western) Han dynasty, receiving
Confucianism had a permanent effect on a letter. Snark/Art Resource, NY
subsequent East Asian history.
66 | The History of China
had occurred in Xi Han, dynastic estab- place their own interests above those of
lishment was followed by a period of the state.
internal consolidation rather than expan- During the last 50 years of Dong Han,
sion. Guangwudi resumed the structure northern China became subject to inva-
of government of the Xi Han emperors, sion from different sides, and, as was
together with the earlier coinage and sys- observed by several philosopher-states-
tem of taxation. The palace once more men, the administration became corrupt
promoted the cause of scholarship. and ineffective. Powerful regional offi-
Eunuchs had come to the fore in the Han cials were able to establish themselves
palace during Yuandi’s reign, and several almost independently of the central gov-
had succeeded in reaching powerful posi- ernment. Rivalry between consorts’
tions. Guangwudi’s policy was to rid the families and eunuchs led to a massacre of
government of such influences, together the latter in 189, and the rebel bands that
with that of the families of imperial con- arose included the Yellow Turbans, who
sorts. Under Mingdi (57–75) and Zhangdi were fired by beliefs in supernatural influ-
(75–88), China was once more strong ences and led by inspired demagogues.
enough to adopt a positive foreign policy Soldiers of fortune and contestants for
and set Chinese armies on the march power were putting troops in the field in
against the Xiongnu. To prevent incur- their attempts to establish themselves as
sions by the latter, and possibly to emperors of a single united China. By
encourage the growth of trade, Han influ- 207 the great Han general Cao Cao had
ence was again brought to bear in Central gained control over the north, and, had he
Asia. Chinese prestige reached its zenith not been defeated by Sun Quan at the
around 90 and fell markedly after 125. battle of the Red Cliff, which later became
Dynastic decline can be dated from famous in Chinese literature, he might
the reign of Hedi (88–105/106), when the well have succeeded in establishing a
court once more came under the influence single dynastic rule. Other participants
of consorts’ families and eunuchs. The in the fighting included Dong Zhou, Liu
succession of emperors became a matter Bei, and Zhuge Liang. The situation was
of dexterous manipulation designed to resolved in 220 when Cao Pi, son of Cao
preserve the advantages of interested Cao, accepted an instrument of abdica-
parties. The weakness of the throne can tion from Xiandi, last of the Han emperors
be judged from the fact that, of the 14 (acceded 189). Cao Pi duly became
emperors of Dong Han, no less than 8 emperor of a dynasty styled Wei, whose
took the throne as boys aged between territories stretched over the northern
100 days and 15 years. Factions gradu- part of China and whose capital was at
ally increased in number, and their Luoyang. A year later, in 221, Liu Bei was
members, like the families of imperial declared emperor of the Shu-Han dynasty,
consorts and like the eunuchs, tended to thereby maintaining the fiction that as a
The Han Dynasty | 69
member of the Liu family he was continu- altering the underlying principles of gov-
ing its rule of the Han dynasty, albeit in ernment but at applying them expediently
the restricted regions of Shu in the south- to the changing dynastic, political, social,
west (capital at Chengdu). In the and economic conditions of later centu-
southeast there was formed the third of ries. One of the problems faced by Han
the Sanguo (Three Kingdoms), as the governments was recruiting able and
period from 220 to 280 has come to be honest men to staff the civil service of an
described. This was the kingdom of Wu, empire; those individuals eventually
with its capital at Jianye, under the initial became known in the West as mandarins.
dispensation of Sun Quan. Although the Chinese writing system had
recently been reformed, which facilitated
The administration drafting documents, officials still needed
of the Han empire considerable training before they attained
sufficient competence. Much of the train-
One of the main contributions of the Han ing occurred in local-level bureaus, where
dynasty to the future of imperial China aspirants for imperial appointments
lay in the development of the civil service served the equivalent of apprenticeships.
and the structure of central and provin- Meritorious young men advanced from
cial government. The evolutionary clerical positions to head various local
changes that subsequently transformed bureaus. Having proved themselves in
Han polity beyond recognition were not these positions, they were then eligible for
directed at altering the underlying prin- recommendation or sponsorship, the
ciples of government but at applying standard means by which civil servants
them expediently to the changing dynas- were recruited. Officials were invited to
tic, political, social, and economic present candidates who possessed suit-
conditions of later centuries. able qualities of intelligence and integrity,
usually established in their service in
The Structure of local bureaus, and at certain regular inter-
Government vals provincial units were ordered to send
a quota of men to the capital. At times
The Civil Service candidates were required to submit
answers on questions of policy or admin-
One of the main contributions of the Han istration. They might then be kept at the
dynasty to the future of imperial China palace to act as advisers in attendance, or
lay in the development of the civil service they might be given appointments in the
and the structure of central and provincial central government or in the provinces,
government. The evolutionary changes depending on their success. However, at
that subsequently transformed Han polity that time there was no regular system of
beyond recognition were not directed at examination and appointment akin to
70 | The History of China
what evolved during the Sui and Tang adherence to regular hierarchies of
dynasties. authority, by the division of specialist
The recruitment system was impor- responsibilities, and by a duplication of
tant for two reasons directly related to the certain functions. It was hoped that these
nature and development of Han society. measures would keep individual officials
First, the apprenticeship system assured from accumulating excessive amounts of
that entry into the imperial bureaucracy power. The uppermost stratum of officials
was based on administrative merit. Thus, or statesmen comprised the chancellor,
men of little wealth could enter clerical the imperial counselor, and, sometimes,
positions and support themselves while the commander in chief. These men acted
preparing for higher-level careers. (This as the emperor’s highest advisers and
recruitment system differed strikingly retained final control over the activities of
from the later examination system that government. Responsibility was shared
often required years of study in order to with nine ministers of state, who cared for
master the Confucian Classics and to matters such as religious cults, security of
develop writing skills.) Second, powerful the palace, adjudication in criminal cases,
families, increasingly in the Dong Han diplomatic dealings with foreign leaders,
period, were able to dominate the clerical and the collection and distribution of rev-
and other positions in the local bureaus, enue. Each minister of state was supported
thereby limiting to those powerful fami- by a department staffed by directors and
lies the candidates for imperial subordinates. There were a few other
bureaucratic service. Control of local major agencies, which ranked slightly
positions in turn strengthened the pow- below the nine ministries and were
erful families by allowing them to responsible for specialist tasks. Functions
manipulate tax and census registers. were duplicated so as to check the growth
Such families created the social milieu of power. Occasionally, for example, two
from which the aristocratic families of chancellors were appointed concurrently.
the post-Han period were to emerge. Similarly, financial matters were con-
There was a total of 12 grades in the trolled by two permanent ministries: the
Han civil service, ranging from that of Department of Agriculture and Revenue
clerk to the most senior minister of state. and the Privy Treasury.
No division in principle existed between The foregoing structure of regular
men serving in the central offices or the organs of government was known as the
provincial units. Promotion could be Outer Court. With the passage of time, it
achieved from one grade of the service to became balanced by the growth of a sec-
the next, and in theory a man could rise ondary seat of power known as the Inner
from the humblest to the highest post. In Court. This grew up from members of the
theory and partly in practice, the structure secretariat and had started as a subordi-
of Han government was marked by an nate agency in the Privy Treasury. The
The Han Dynasty | 71
secretariat officials had acquired direct end of the period, their administration
access to the emperor and could thus cir- came to differ less and less from that of
cumvent the more formal approaches the commanderies, which formed the reg-
that protocol required of other officials. ular provincial units. Each commandery
The secretariat rose to prominence dur- was controlled by two senior officials, the
ing the latter part of the 1st century BC governor and the commandant, who were
and was at times staffed by eunuchs. Its appointed by the central government.
members were sometimes distinguished Commanderies could be established at
by receiving privileged titles that con- will: by dividing larger into smaller units,
veyed a mark of imperial favour without by taking over the lands of the kings, or
specific administrative responsibility. by establishing organs of government in
The highest of these titles was that of regions only recently penetrated by
supreme commander, and, when this Chinese officials. Provincial government
title was accompanied by the right or the was not necessarily pervasive throughout
imperial instruction to assume leader- the lands where commandery offices
ship of the secretariat, the powers of existed, but there was a steady advance in
the incumbent outweighed those of the provincial government during the Han
highest ministers of the Outer Court. An period. During Gaozu’s reign 16 com-
official thus named could effectively manderies existed, but by the end of the
control decisions of state, to the discom- Xi Han there were 83 commanderies and
fiture of senior officials such as the 20 kingdoms.
chancellor. It was in this capacity that Each of the commanderies consisted
Wang Mang and his four predecessors of some 10 or 20 prefectures, the size of
had been able to assert their power with- which corresponded to that of English
out fear of check. counties. The prefect’s headquarters were
situated in a walled town, from which his
Provincial Government administration was extended and his offi-
cials were sent to collect taxes, settle
At the outset of the Han dynasty, vast disputes, or recruit able-bodied men for
areas were entrusted as kingdoms to the service. The prefectures were themselves
emperor’s kinsmen, while the central subdivided into districts. The command-
government administered the interior eries included a number of nobilities, the
provinces as commanderies. But by about holders of which enjoyed a noble title
100 BC the imperial government had and income from the taxes collected in
deprived the kingdoms of their strength, them by central government officials.
and most of their lands had been incorpo- The nobles exercised no administrative,
rated as commanderies under the central judicial, or other power over their nobili-
government. Although the kingdoms sur- ties. The number of nobilities varied
vived in a much-reduced form until the considerably, sometimes totaling several
72 | The History of China
hundred. The system was used as a politi- emergency or when a campaign was being
cal instrument for reducing the power of planned with a defined objective, those
the kings, rewarding military officers and officers were appointed for a specific task;
civil officials, and treating surrendered when their mission was fulfilled, their
enemy leaders. Special arrangements commands were brought to a close.
were instituted for provincial govern- Beneath that level was a complement of
ment at the periphery of the empire. colonels whose duties consisted of smaller-
Agencies of a specialist nature were set scale activities. In addition, the governors
up both there and in the provinces of the and commandants of the commanderies
interior, with responsibilities for such were sometimes ordered to lead forces.
matters as supervision of the salt and The commandants were also responsible
iron industries, manufacture of textiles, for training conscript soldiers and setting
fruit growing, and sponsored agriculture, them to maintain internal discipline and
as well as control of passage in and out of to man the static lines of defense in the
the frontier. north and northwest.
From 106 BC the government tried to The Han armies drew their recruits
supervise the work of provincial officials from conscripts, volunteers, and convicts.
more directly. A total of 13 regional inspec- Conscripts, who formed the majority,
tors were appointed, with orders to visit were obliged to serve for two years, either
the commanderies and kingdoms of a under training or on active service. This
specified area and to report to the central duty devolved on all able-bodied males
government on the efficiency of officials, other than those who had acquired privi-
the degree of oppression or corruption, leges of rank or those who could pay for
and the state of popular affection or disaf- substitutes. The latter practice was prob-
fection. Although the arrangement was ably rare. In addition, men were liable for
not yet tantamount to the creation of a lim- recall to the armed forces in times of
ited number (about 20) of large provinces, emergency. Volunteers were the sons of
such as came about from about the 13th privileged families and probably served
century, it may have facilitated the estab- as cavalrymen, and convicts were some-
lishment of separatist provincial regimes times drafted to work out their terms of
at times of dynastic decline. sentence in the army. There is ample evi-
dence to show that Han commanders
The Armed Forces used to draw on Central Asian tribesmen
as recruits, and the tribesmen were par-
The command of the armed forces was ticularly valuable as skilled cavalrymen.
also arranged so as to avoid giving exces- A number of foreigners also served with
sive powers to a single individual. Officers distinction as officers. While little is
equivalent to generals were usually known of the organization of armies on
appointed in pairs, and, in times of campaign, garrison forces were divided
The Han Dynasty | 73
Horse and Swallow, bronze sculpture from the tomb of General Chang, Leitai, Wuwei county,
Gansu province, 2nd century AD, Dong (Eastern) Han dynasty; in the Gansu Provincial
Museum, Lanzhou, China. Height 32.4 cm. Robert Harding Picture Library
into separate commands consisting of edicts declaring the imperial will. Such
perhaps four companies. Each company instructions often took the form of repeat-
had a strength of some 40 or 50 sections, ing officials’ proposals with a note of
each of which comprised one officer and approval. Some edicts were couched as
up to five men. comments on the current situation and
called in general terms for an improve-
The Practice of Government ment in the quality of government or for
more-vigorous attempts to achieve a just
As the final arbiter of power, the emperor— administration. The emperor also issued
and at times the empress dowager—issued formal deeds of investiture to kings or
74 | The History of China
noblemen and letters of appointment for varied with the age and sex of the mem-
senior officials. Edicts were circulated bers of the household. Other taxes were
to the relevant authorities for action, levied in respect to wealth and by means
together with books of other regulations of property assessments.
such as the statutes and ordinances, lay- In addition to service in the army,
ing down entitlements for services able-bodied males were expected to pro-
rendered to the state and penalties for vide one month’s service annually in the
infringing its prohibitions. Officials could state labour corps; tasks included build-
suggest methods of government by sub- ing palaces and imperial mausoleums,
mitting written memorials, and there transporting staple goods such as grain
were occasions when an emperor called a and hemp, and constructing roads and
conference of senior statesmen and asked bridges. Sometimes conscript labour was
their views on topical problems. used to repair breaches in riverbanks or
The Han governments regularly dikes, and men were sent to work in the
issued calendars to enable the court to salt and iron industries after these were
follow a cosmically correct ritual sched- taken over by the state.
ule and officials to maintain their records The establishment of state monopo-
correctly. Regular means of transport lies for salt and iron was one of several
were kept for the use of officials traveling measures taken in Wudi’s reign to bring
on business and for the conveyance of China’s resources under the control of
official mail from one office to another. the government. Agencies were set up
Provincial and local officials were respon- about 117 BC to supervise mining, man-
sible for two regular counts without ufacturing, and distribution and to raise
which government could not proceed: revenue in the process. The measure
the census of the population and the reg- was criticized on the grounds of both
ister of the land and its production. principle and expedience and was with-
Returns, which were submitted for the drawn for three years from 44 BC, and by
number of households and individuals the mid-1st century AD the industries
and for land under cultivation, eventually had in practice reverted to private hands.
found their way to the capital. One count Final measures to standardize the coin-
that has been preserved records the exis- age and to limit minting to state
tence of some 12,233,000 households and agencies were taken in 112 BC, and, with
59,595,000 individuals in AD 2. Two other the exception of Wang Mang’s experi-
main forms of revenue collection were ments, the copper coin of a single
the land tax and the poll tax. The land tax denomination, minted from Wudi’s
was levied in kind at a 30th (sometimes a reign onward, remained the standard
15th) part of the produce, the assessment medium of exchange. Little is known of
depending partly on the quality of the the work of other agencies established
land. Poll tax was usually paid in cash and in Xi Han to stabilize the prices of
The Han Dynasty | 75
staple commodities and to regulate their The Han government, like the Qin,
transport. Such measures had been the ruled by dispensing rewards for service
answer of Wudi’s government to the and exacting punishment for disobedi-
problem of moving goods from an area ence and crime. Rewards consisted of
of surplus to one of shortage. exemptions from tax; bounties of gold,
The government ordered migrations meat, spirits, or silk; amnesties for crimi-
of the population for several reasons. At nals; and orders of honour. The latter
times, such a migration was intended to were bestowed either individually or to
populate an area artificially—the city of groups. There was a ranked scale of 20
Xianyang during the Qin dynasty, for degrees, and, after receiving several of
example, and the state-sponsored farms these awards cumulatively, one could rise
of the borderlands. Alternatively, if the to the eighth place in the scale. The more-
defense of the periphery was impractical, senior orders were given for specified
the population was sometimes moved acts of valour, charity, or good adminis-
away from danger, and distressed folk tration, usually to officials, and the
were moved to areas where they could highest order was the rank of nobility. In
find a more prosperous way of life. addition to conferring social status, the
From about 100 BC it was evident to orders carried with them legal privileges
some statesmen that great disparities of and freedom from some tax and service
wealth existed and that this was most obligations.
noticeable in respect of landownership. In theory, the laws of Han were bind-
Some philosophers looked back nostal- ing on all members of the population,
gically to an ideal state in which land and some incidents testify to the pun-
was said to have been allotted and held ishment of the highest in the land. But
on a basis of equality, thereby eliminat- some privileged persons were able to
ing the wide differences between rich get their sentences mitigated. Nobles,
and poor. It was only in Wang Mang’s for example, could ransom themselves
time that an attempt was made to abolish from most punishments by forfeiting
private landownership and private slave- their nobilities. Han laws specified a
holding. But the attempt failed because variety of crimes, including those of a
of powerful economic and social opposi- social nature such as murder or theft,
tion, and the accumulation of land those that infringed the imperial maj-
continued during Dong Han. In the last esty, and those that were classed as gross
half century or so of the dynasty, country immorality. There was a regular proce-
estates acquired retainers and armed dure for impeachment and trial, and
defenders, almost independently of the some difficult cases could be referred to
writ of government. The great families the emperor for a final decision. The
thus came to exercise more power than punishments to which criminals were
appointed officials of state. sentenced included exile, hard labour,
76 | The History of China
flogging, castration, and death. In the relations with the Xiongnu at the price of
most heinous cases the death sentence gold, silk, and even the hand of a Chinese
was carried out publicly, but senior offi- princess. However, as Wudi’s govern-
cials and members of the imperial family ments began establishing strong policies,
were usually allowed to avoid such a China took the offensive in an attempt to
scene by committing suicide. When the throw back the Xiongnu to Central Asia
death penalty was invoked, a criminal’s and to free the northern provinces from
goods, including members of his family, the threat of invasion and violence. By
were confiscated by the state. Such per- 119 BC, campaigns fought to the north of
sons then became slaves of the state and Chinese territory had attained this objec-
were employed on menial or domestic tive, and after a short interval it was
tasks in government offices. Government possible to send Han armies to advance
slaves were sometimes given as rewards in the northeast (present-day North
to meritorious officials. Korea), the south (present-day Vietnam),
and the southwest. As a result of the cam-
Relations paigns fought from 135 BC onward, 18
with other peoples additional commanderies were founded,
and organs of Han provincial govern-
Simultaneously with the rise of the Qin ment were installed as outposts among
and Han empires, some of the nomadic peoples who were unassimilated to a
peoples of Central Asia, known as the Chinese way of life.
Xiongnu, succeeded in achieving a mea- Chinese government was by no
sure of unity under a single leader. As a means universally accepted in those out-
result, while the Chinese were consoli- lying regions. But despite large losses
dating their government, the lands lying and expenditures incurred in fighting
to the north of the empire—and the the Xiongnu, the Chinese were able to
northern provinces themselves—became mount expeditions into Central Asia
subject to incursion by Xiongnu horse- from about 112 BC. The defensive walls
men. One of the achievements of the Qin were repaired and remanned, and by
dynasty had been the unification of the about 100 they were extended to the
several lines of defense into a single sys- northwest as far as Dunhuang. Chinese
tem of fortification, the Great Wall. By travelers, whether diplomats or mer-
keeping that wall, or line of earthworks, chants, were thus protected as far as the
manned, the Qin dynasty had been free Takla Makan Desert. It was at about that
of invasion. With the fall of Qin and time that trade routes skirting the desert
China’s subsequent weakness, the wall were established and came to be known
fell into a state of disrepair and lacked a collectively as the Silk Road.
garrison. Until about 135 BC, Han gov- The success of Chinese arms in those
ernments were obliged to seek peaceful remote areas was short-lived. Long lines
The Han Dynasty | 77
of communication made it impossible to disruptive factor in the 2nd and 3rd cen-
set up garrisons or colonies in the forbid- turies, to the detriment of imperial unity.
ding country to the west of Dunhuang. The Han expansion into Central Asia
Diplomatic moves were made to implant has been represented by the Chinese as a
Chinese prestige more firmly among the defensive measure designed to weaken
communities that were situated around the Xiongnu and to free China from inva-
the Takla Makan Desert and that con- sion. Allowance must also be made for
trolled the oases; it was necessary for the commercial motives. Some of Wudi’s
Chinese to win those peoples’ support, statesmen were well aware of the advan-
thus denying it to the Xiongnu. In a few tages of exporting China’s surplus
cases the Chinese resorted to violence or products in return for animals and ani-
plots to remove a leader and to replace mal products from Central Asia, and
him with a candidate known to favour the there is evidence that Chinese silk was
Han cause. More commonly, one of the exported at this time. No attempt can be
alien leaders was married to a Chinese made to estimate the volume of trade,
princess, with the intention that he and, as the transactions were conducted
should in time be succeeded by an heir through Parthian middlemen, no direct
who was half-Chinese. These endeavours contact was made by this means between
and the military ventures met with partial Han China and the world of Rome and
success. While the Chinese position in the Mediterranean. China’s export trade
Central Asia was subject to question, was sponsored by the government and
relations with the Xiongnu leaders var- not entrusted to private merchants.
ied. The visit of a Xiongnu leader to The Great Wall formed a boundary
Chang’an in 51 BC was hailed as a mark separating the Chinese provinces from
of Chinese success, but the ensuing the outside world. Traffic was controlled
decades were not free from fighting. at points of access, not only to check
Chinese prestige declined toward the incoming travelers to China but also to
end of the Xi Han and recovered only prevent the escape of criminals or desert-
during the reigns of Mingdi and Zhangdi, ers. At the same time, a ban was imposed
when the Han government was once on the export of certain goods such as
more strong enough to take the field. Ban iron manufactures and weapons of war.
Chao’s campaigns in Central Asia (from The wall also formed a protected cause-
AD 94) reestablished the Chinese posi- way for travelers to the west. Watch
tion, but again the full strength of Chinese stations were erected in sight of each
prestige lasted for only a few decades. other to signal the approach of the enemy,
During the Dong Han, China suffered and the garrison troops were highly
invasion from the northeast as well as trained and disciplined. Meticulous
from the north. The settlement of records were kept to show how govern-
Xiongnu peoples south of the wall was a ment stores were expended and rations
78 | The History of China
Tourists travel by carriage through the ruins of the ancient capital of the Gaochang empire,
Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, China. The city lay on the famous Silk Road at the
foot of Huoyan (“Flaming”) Mountain, noted for the Bezeklik Thousand Buddha caves.
China Photos/Getty Images
issued; routine signals were relayed along observations, Han advances were con-
the line and daily patrols were sent out centrated in the northwest. In AD 97
to reconnoitre. Chinese envoys were frustrated in an
As a result of the campaigns and dip- attempt to visit the western part of the
lomatic activity, China’s immediate world, but a mission from Rome reached
contacts with other peoples grew more China by ship in 166. The first record of
brisk. Many of the Xiongnu and other official visitors arriving at the Han court
neighbouring leaders who had surren- from Japan is for the year AD 57.
dered to Han arms were given nobilities
and settled in the interior of the empire. CuLTuRaL DEvELOPMENTS
Zhang Qian was a pioneer who had set
out about 130 BC to explore the routes The Han emperors and governments
into Central Asia and northern China, posed as having a temporal dispensation
and, as a result of his report and that had received the blessing of heaven
The Han Dynasty | 79
together with its instructions to spread completed in AD 121, included more than
the benefits of a cultured life as widely as 9,000 separate ideograms (characters),
possible. By a cultured life the Chinese with explanations of their meanings and
had in mind a clear distinction between the variant forms used in writing.
their own settled agriculture and the In an attempt to break with earlier
delights of the cities, as opposed to the tradition, the Qin government had taken
rough and hardy life spent in the saddle certain steps to proscribe literature and
by the nomads of Central Asia. The learning. Han governments stressed their
growth of Han government both desire to promote these causes as part of
depended on and encouraged the devel- their mission. In particular, they dis-
opment of literary accomplishment, played a veneration for works with which
scholastic competence, religious activity, Confucius had been associated, either as
scientific discovery, and technological a collector of texts or as an editor, and
achievement. these works became known as the Wujing,
Han administration required detailed or the Confucian Classics. Beginning
record keeping, which generated a prolif- during the reign of Wendi, orders were
eration of documents. Official returns given to search for books lost during the
were sometimes kept in duplicate, and previous dynasty. Knowledge of texts
each agency kept running files to record such as the Shijing (“Classic of Poetry”),
its business. Following a reform of the the Shujing (“Classic of History”), the
script that had evolved before the Han Yijing (“Classic of Changes”), and the
period, a new style of writing was devel- Chunqiu (“Spring and Autumn”) annals
oped that was suited to compiling official became a necessary accomplishment for
documents. These were written mostly officials and candidates for the civil ser-
on bulky and fragile wooden strips; silk vice. To support an argument laid before
was also used as a writing medium. A the throne, statesmen would find a rele-
major development in world history vant quotation from these works; already
occurred in China in AD 105 when offi- in the 1st century BC the tradition was
cials reported to the throne the being formed whereby the civil service of
manufacture of a new substance. imperial China was nurtured on a
Although archaeological evidence indi- Classical education. On two occasions
cates the existence of paper for more than (51 BC and AD 79) the government
a century before this incident, the earlier ordered official discussions about inter-
materials were not completely super- preting texts and the validity of differing
seded until some three or four centuries versions; in AD 175 work was completed
later. In the meantime, the written vocab- on a project that inscribed an approved
ulary of the Chinese had increased in version on stone tablets, so as to allay
response to the demands of a growing scholastic doubts in the future. In the
civilization. The first Chinese dictionary, meantime—and still before the invention
80 | The History of China
of paper—a collection of literary texts had earliest acts of the Han government (c.
been made for the imperial library. The 200 BC) had been to order the formula-
catalog of this collection, which dates tion of such modes of behaviour as a
from the early 1st century AD, was pre- means of enhancing the dignity of the
pared after comparing different copies throne, and one of the latest compilations
and eliminating duplicates. The list of (c. AD 175) that still survives is a list of
titles has been preserved and constitutes such prescriptions, drawn up at a time
China’s first bibliographical list. The when the dynasty was manifestly losing
works are classified according to subject, its majesty and natural authority. Some of
but many have been lost. The importance the emperors were themselves compos-
of these measures lies both in their intrin- ers of versified prose; their efforts have
sic achievement and in the example they also been preserved in the standard
set for subsequent dynasties. histories.
The prose style of Han writers was The emperor was charged with the
later taken as a model of simplicity, and, solemn duty of securing the blessings of
as a reaction to the literary embellish- spiritual powers for mankind. One of the
ments and artificialities introduced in the nine ministries of state existed to assist
5th and 6th centuries, deliberate attempts in this work of mediation, but from the
were made to revert to its natural ele- time of Wudi onward the emperor himself
gance. Examples of this direct prose may began to play a more active part in wor-
be seen in the imperial edicts, the memo- ship and sacrifice. The cults were initially
rials ascribed to statesmen, and, above addressed to the Five Elements (fire,
all, the text of the standard histories water, earth, wood, and metal), to the
themselves, in which such documents of Supreme Unity, and to the Lord of the
state were incorporated. Compiling the Soil. In 31 BC these cults were replaced by
standard histories was a private under- sacrifices dedicated to heaven and earth.
taking in Han times, but it already The sites of worship were transferred to
received imperial patronage and assis- the southern and northern outskirts of
tance. History was written partly to justify Chang’an, and a new series of altars and
the authority and conduct of the contem- shrines was inaugurated. The Han
porary regime and partly as a matter of emperor occasionally paid his respects to
pride in Chinese achievement. Further supreme powers and reported on the
examples of prose writing are the descrip- state of the dynasty at the summit of
tions of protocol for the court. One of the Mount Tai. Wudi’s desire for immortality
Terraced rice fields near Longsheng, Guangzi province, nicknamed the “Dragon’s Backbone.”
Christian Kober/Robert Harding World Imagery/Getty Images
The Han Dynasty | 81
82 | The History of China
and for quickening his deceased favou- troops and horses serving on the north-
rites led him to patronize a number of western frontier. Water clocks and
intermediaries who claimed to possess sundials were used to enable officials to
the secret of making contact with the complete their work on schedule. The
world of the immortals. From such beliefs palace demanded the services of artists
and from a fear of the malevolent influ- and craftsmen to decorate imperial build-
ences that the unappeased souls of the ings with paintings and sculptures and to
dead could wreak on humanity, a few phi- design and execute jades, gold and silver
losophers such as Wang Chong (AD 27–c. wares, and lacquer bowls for use at the
100) reacted by propounding an ordered imperial table. Intricate patterns in mul-
and rational explanation of the universe. ticoloured silks were woven on looms in
But their skepticism received little sup- the imperial workshops. On a more mun-
port. Sometime during the 1st century dane level, technology served the cause
AD, Buddhism reached China, propa- of practical government. The state’s iron-
gated in all probability by travelers who work factories produced precision-made
had taken the Silk Road from northern instruments and weapons of war, and the
India. Shortly thereafter Buddhist founda- state’s agencies for the salt industry
tions were established in China, as well as supervised the recovery of brine from
the first official patronage of the faith. deep shafts cut in the rocks of western
From the 2nd century AD there arose a China. Water engineers planned the con-
variety of beliefs, practices, and disci- struction of dikes to divert the flow of
plines from which alchemy and scientific excess waters and the excavation of
experiment were to spring and which canals to serve the needs of transport or
were to give rise to Daoism. irrigation, and in many parts of the coun-
Most of the cultural attainments of tryside there could be seen a sight that
the Han period derived from imperial remained typical of the Chinese land-
encouragement and the needs of offi- scape up to the 20th century—a team of
cials. A textbook of mathematical two or three peasants sitting astride a
problems was probably compiled to beam and pedaling the lugs of the “drag-
assist officials in work such as land on’s backbone” that raised water from the
assessment; fragments of a medical case- sluggish channels below to the upper lev-
book were concerned with the care of els of the cultivated land.
ChaPTER 4
The Six Dynasties
and the Sui Dynasty
POLITICaL DEvELOPMENTS
DuRINg ThE SIX DyNaSTIES
B y the end of the 2nd century AD the Han empire had vir-
tually ceased to exist. The repression of the Daoist
rebellions of the Yellow Turbans and related sects marked
the beginning of a period of unbridled warlordism and politi-
cal chaos, from which three independent centres of political
power emerged.
The Division of China
In the north all authority had passed into the hands of the
generalissimo and “protector of the dynasty,” Cao Cao; in AD
220 the last puppet emperor of the Han officially ceded the
throne to Cao Cao’s son, who thereby became the legitimate
heir of the empire and the first ruler of the Wei dynasty. Soon
afterward, two competing military leaders proclaimed them-
selves emperor, one in the far interior (Shu-Han dynasty, in
the present-day Sichuan province) and one in the south,
behind the formidable barrier of the Yangtze River (the
empire of Wu, with its capital at Jianye, present-day Nanjing).
The short and turbulent period of these “Three Kingdoms”
(Sanguo), filled with bloody warfare and diplomatic intrigue,
has ever since been glorified in Chinese historical fiction as
an age of chivalry and individual heroism.
84 | The History of China
Confucius
Confucius (Chinese: Kongfuzi; b. 551 BC—d. 479 BC) was the renowned teacher, philosopher,
and political theorist of ancient China. Born into a poor family, he managed stables and
worked as a bookkeeper while educating himself. Mastery of the six arts—ritual, music, archery,
charioteering, calligraphy, and arithmetic—and familiarity with history and poetry enabled
him to begin a brilliant teaching career in his
thirties. Confucius saw education as a
process of constant self-improvement
and held that its primary function
was the training of noblemen
(junzi). He saw public service
as the natural consequence of
education and sought to
revitalize Chinese social
institutions, including the
family, school, commu-
nity, state, and kingdom.
He served in government
posts, eventually becom-
ing minister of justice
in Lu, but his policies
attracted little interest.
After a 12-year self-
imposed exile during
which his circle of students
expanded, he returned to Lu
at age 67 to teach and write.
His life and thoughts are recorded
in the Lunyu (Analects).
Drawing depicting the Chinese ethicist and philosopher Confucius. Hulton Archive/
Getty Images
The Six Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty | 89
of social duties, ritual, law, and the in his worldly teachings, knowing that
study of human characteristics. This mix- these mysteries could not be expressed
ture of Confucian and Legalist notions in words. Hence, his doctrine was sup-
was called mingjiao, “the doctrine of posed to be an expedient, a mere set of
names” (“names” in ancient Confucian ad hoc rules intended to answer the
parlance designating the various social practical needs of the times. This con-
functions—father, ruler, subject, etc.—that cept of “hidden saintliness” and the
an individual could have in society). The “expedient” character of the canonical
other trend was marked by a profound teachings came to play a very important
interest in ontological and metaphysical role in upper-class Buddhism.
problems: the quest for a permanent sub- Xuanxue is sometimes referred to by
stratum (called ti, “substance”) behind the the term Neo-Daoism, but this confuses
world of change (called yong, “function”). the issue. It was both created by and
It started from the assumption that all intended for literati and scholar-offi-
temporally and spatially limited phenom- cials—not Daoist masters and hermits.
ena—anything “nameable”; all movement, The theories of such thinkers as Ji Kang
change, and diversity; in short, all (224–262)—who, with their quest for
“being”—is produced and sustained by immortality and their extreme antiritu-
one impersonal principle, which is unlim- alism, were much nearer to the spirit of
ited, unnameable, unmoving, unchanging, Daoism—hardly belong to the sphere
and undiversified. This important move- of Xuanxue, and the greatest Daoist
ment, which found its scriptural support author of this period, Ge Hong (c. 283–
both in Daoist and in drastically reinter- 343), was clearly opposed to these
preted Confucian sources, was known as mystic speculations.
Xuanxue (“Dark Learning”); it came to The popularity of Xuanxue was
reign supreme in cultural circles, espe- closely related to the practice of “pure
cially at Jiankang during the period of conversation” (qingtan), a special type of
division, and represented the more philosophical discourse much in vogue
abstract, unworldly, and idealistic ten- among the cultured upper class from the
dency in early medieval Chinese thought. 3rd century onward. In the earliest phase,
The proponents of Xuanxue the main theme of such discussion—a
undoubtedly still regarded themselves highly formalized critique of the personal
as true Confucians. To them, Confucius qualities of well-known contemporaries—
was not simply the great teacher who still had a concrete function in political
had fixed the rules of social behaviour life (“characterization” of persons was the
for all time but was the enlightened sage basis of recommendation of clients for
who had inwardly recognized the ulti- official posts and had largely taken the
mate reality but had kept silent about it place of the earlier methods of selection
90 | The History of China
always been a huge complex of many dif- period of division, Daoism had its own
ferent beliefs, cults, and practices. Most canons of scriptural writings, much influ-
of these can be traced to Dong Han times, enced by Buddhist models but forming a
and after the 3rd century they were influ- quite independent religious tradition.
enced increasingly by Buddhism. The other, collective, and more popu-
The basic ideal of Daoist religion— lar form of Daoism, practiced in the
the attainment of bodily immortality in a communities throughout the country,
kind of indestructible “astral body” and was characterized by communal ceremo-
the realization of the state of xian, or nies (zhai, “fasting sessions,” and chu,
Daoist “immortal”—remained alive. It was “banquets”) held by groups of Daoist
to be pursued by a series of individual families under the guidance of the local
practices: dietary control, gymnastics, master, both on fixed dates and on spe-
good deeds, and meditation and visual- cial occasions. The purpose of such
ization of the innumerable gods and meetings was to collectively eliminate
spirits that were supposed to dwell inside sins (evil deeds being considered as the
the microcosmos of the body. Renowned main cause of sickness and premature
literati, such as the poet Ji Kang and the death) through incantations, deafening
calligrapher Wang Xizhi (c. 303–c. 361), music, fasting, and by displaying pen-
devoted much of their lives to such prac- ance and remorse. The gatherings
tices. They combined various methods, sometimes lasted several days and nights,
ranging from mystic self-identification and, according to the indignant reports of
with the all-embracing Dao to the use of their Buddhist adversaries, they were
charms and experiments in alchemy. ecstatic and sometimes even orgiastic.
The development of Daoism seems The allegation of sexual excesses and
to have reached a new stage during the promiscuity may have been stimulated
4th century. An ancient school of esoteric by the fact that both men and women
learning already existed at that time in took part in Daoist meetings, a practice
southern China, exemplified by Ge Hong. unknown in Confucian and Buddhist
The retreat of the Jin to southern China ritual.
in the early 4th century brought to that The Daoist community as an organi-
region the organized religion and priest- zation and the daoshi who led it relied on
hood that had arisen in the north and two sources of income: the gifts made by
west during the Dong Han. In that con- devotee families at ceremonial gather-
text, new priestly cults arose in the south. ings and the regular “heavenly tax,” or
Their teachings were connected with a yearly contribution of five bushels of rice,
series of revelations, the first through which every family was expected to pay
Yang Xi, which led to the formation first on the seventh day of the seventh month.
of the Shangqing sect and later to the The office of daoshi was hereditary,
rival Lingbao sect. By the end of the within one family; in the early centuries
92 | The History of China
Daoist priests usually married. Because absorption of the foreign religion after
Buddhist influence also increased at this about 300, both in the Chinese south and
humble level, however, the daoshi increas- in the occupied north. A negative factor
ingly came to resemble the Buddhist was the absence of a unified Confucian
clergy, especially since most Daoist state, which naturally would have been
priests, at least from the 5th century inclined to suppress a creed whose basic
onward, went to live in Daoist monaster- tenets (notably, the monastic life and the
ies with their wives and children. In the pursuit of individual salvation outside
6th century, when Buddhism became par- family and society) were clearly opposed
amount, some Daoist leaders introduced to the ideals of Confucianism. The popu-
celibacy; in Sui times the unmarried state larity of Xuanxue was a positive and
had become general, and the Daoist powerful factor. Especially in the south,
clergy with its monks and nuns had Mahayana Buddhism, thoroughly amal-
evolved into a counterpart of the Buddhist gamated with Xuanxue, was preached by
sangha. Unlike Buddhist monasteries, cultured monks in the circles of the
the Daoist monasteries and clergy never Jiankang aristocracy, where it became
developed great economic power. extremely popular.
In spite of their resemblance to each Another stimulus for the growth of
other—or perhaps because of it—the two Buddhism was the relative security and
creeds were bitterly opposed throughout prosperity of monastic life. In a country-
the period. Daoist masters were often side devastated by war and rebellion,
involved in anti-Buddhist propaganda innumerable small peasants preferred to
and persecution. As an answer to give up their independence and to avoid
Buddhist claims of superiority, Daoist the scourges of heavy taxation, forced
masters even developed the curious the- labour, and deportation by joining the
ory that the Buddha had been only a large estates of the nobility as serfs,
manifestation of Laozi, who had preached where they would get at least a minimum
to the Indians a debased form of Daoism, of protection. This process of tax eva-
which naturally should not be reintro- sion that consequently extended the
duced into China; this theme can be manorial system also stimulated the
traced in Buddhist and Daoist polemic growth of Buddhist monasteries as land-
literature from the 4th to the 13th owning institutions, peopled with both
century. monks and families of hereditary temple
serfs. By the beginning of the 6th cen-
Buddhism tury, the monasteries had become an
economic power of the first order, which,
The Buddhist age of China began in the moreover, enjoyed special privileges
4th century. Several factors contributed (e.g., exemption from taxes). This,
to the extraordinary expansion and indeed, became a main source of tension
The Six Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty | 93
These giant Buddhist sculptures are located at Longmen Grottoes in the outskirts of Luoyang,
Henan province. The site features more than 110,000 Buddhist images and 2,800 inscribed
tablets. China Photos/Getty Images
between clergy and government and merged with the new Buddhist ideal of
occasionally led to anti-Buddhist move- the monastic life. Many large monaster-
ments and harsh restrictive measures ies thereby became centres of learning
imposed on Buddhism (446–452 and and culture and so became even more
again in 574–578). attractive to members of minor gentry
The monastic life attracted many families, for whom the higher posts in
members of the gentry as well. In these government in any event would be unat-
times of turmoil, the official career was tainable. Buddhist institutions offered a
beset with dangers, and the monastery kind of “internal democracy”—a fact of
offered a hiding place to literati who tried great social importance in the history of
to keep clear of the intrigues and feuds of class-ridden medieval China.
higher official circles; thus, the ancient Finally, Buddhism was patronized by
Chinese ideal of the retired scholar most of the barbarian rulers in the north.
94 | The History of China
At first they were attracted mainly by the Jiankang and in northern Zhejiang (the
pomp and magical power of Buddhist rit- Hangzhou region), this trend was further
ual. Later other motivations were added developed in the late 4th and the early
to this. Unwilling to rely too much on 5th century in other centres throughout
Chinese ministers, with their following of the middle and lower Yangtze basin. The
clan members and clients, they preferred highest flowering of this uniquely
to make use of Buddhist masters, who as “Chinese” type of Buddhism took place
unmarried individuals totally depended in the early 5th century.
on the ruler’s favour. Ideologically, In the north the climax of Buddhist
Buddhism was less “Chinese” than activity and imperial patronage occurred
Confucianism, especially in the north, under the Wei, especially after the
where the connections with Central Asia beginning of their policy of conscious
constantly reinforced its international Sinicization. The Tuoba court and the
and universalistic character. This pecu- great families vied with each other in
liar “Sino-barbarian” nature of northern building temples and granting land and
Buddhism, with its foreign preachers and money to the monasteries; the monu-
its huge translation projects, strongly mental cave temples at Yungang and
contrasts with the south, where Buddhism Longmen are lasting proof of this large-
in the 4th century was already fully scale imperial protection. There was
domesticated. also a dark side: in the north the Buddhist
Because of all these circumstances, clergy became closely tied with secular
the large-scale development of Chinese government, and the government’s lavish
Buddhism started only after the barbar- treatment of the temples was counter-
ian invasions of the early 4th century. In balanced by repeated attempts at
the 3rd century the picture basically was government control. It may also be noted
not any different from Han times—there that the north remained open to influ-
are indications that Buddhism was still ences brought by traveling monks from
largely a religion of foreigners on Chinese Central Asia, and an enormous body of
soil (apart from some activity involving Indian Buddhist texts of all schools and
the translation of Buddhist scriptures)— eras was translated.
but by the 4th century the situation was Little is known of the beginnings of
changing. At the southern Chinese court popular Buddhism. Among the masses
in Jiankang a clerical elite was forming of there was, to judge from Daoist materi-
Chinese monks and propagators of a als, an intense mingling of Buddhist and
completely Sinicized Buddhism, strongly popular Daoist notions and practices,
amalgamated with Xuanxue, and their such as communal festivals and the wor-
sophisticated creed was being spread ship of local Daoist and Buddhist saints.
among the southern gentry. Starting at At that level, simple devotionalism was
The Six Dynasties and the Sui Dynasty | 95
no doubt far more influential than the official at the Bei (Northern) Zhou court,
scriptural teachings. It is also possible a member of one of the powerful north-
that the oral recital of Buddhist scrip- western aristocratic families that had
tures (mainly edifying tales) had already taken service under the successive non-
inspired the development of vernacular Chinese royal houses in northern China
literature. In any event, the constant and had intermarried with the families of
amalgamation of Buddhism, Daoism, their foreign masters. In 577 the Bei Zhou
and the innumerable local cults whose had reunified northern China by con-
history dated to high antiquity contin- quering the rival northeastern dynasty of
ued for centuries, eventually producing Bei Qi. However, political life in the
an amorphous mass of creeds and prac- northern courts was extremely unstable,
tices collectively known as Chinese and the succession of an apparently
popular religion. deranged and irresponsible young
emperor to the Zhou throne in 578/579
The Sui dynasty set off a train of court intrigues, plots, and
murders. Wendi was able to install a child
The Sui dynasty (581–618), which reuni- as puppet emperor in 579 and seize the
fied China after nearly four centuries of throne for himself two years later.
political fragmentation during which the In control of all of northern China
north and south had developed in differ- and in command of formidable armies,
ent ways, played a part far more important he immediately set about establishing
than its short span would suggest. In the order within his frontiers. He built him-
same way that the Qin rulers of the 3rd self a grand new capital, Daxing, close to
century BC had unified China after the the site of the old Qin and Han capitals, a
Zhanguo (Warring States) period, so city erected quickly with a prodigal use of
the Sui brought China together again compulsory labour. This great city
and set up many institutions that were remained (later under the name
to be adopted by their successors, the Chang’an) the capital of the Sui and Tang
Tang. Like the Qin, however, the Sui over- dynasties and the principal seat of gov-
strained their resources and fell. And also ernment until the beginning of the 10th
as in the case of the Qin, traditional his- century.
tory has judged the Sui somewhat unfairly, Wendi also took quick action to pro-
stressing the harshness of the Sui regime tect the frontiers of his new state. China
and the megalomania of its second during the 6th century had a formidable
emperor and giving too little credit for its northern neighbour in the Turks (Tujue),
many positive achievements. who controlled the steppe from the bor-
Wendi (reigned 581–604), the founder ders of Manchuria to the frontiers of the
of the Sui dynasty, was a high-ranking Byzantine and Sāsānian empires. At the
96 | The History of China
The conduct of its personnel was super- during the 580s. It recorded the age, sta-
vised by another organ, the censorate. tus, and landed possessions of all the
The emperor presided over this appara- members of each household in the
tus, and all orders and legislation were empire, and, based on it, the land alloca-
issued in his name. He was assisted by tion system employed under the
the heads of the three central ministries successive northern dynasties since the
who acted as counselors on state affairs end of the 5th century was reimposed.
(yiguozheng). That system later provided The tax system also followed the old
the basic framework for the central gov- model of head taxes levied in grain and
ernment of the early Tang. silk at a uniform rate. The taxable age
Even more important, he carried out was raised, and the annual period of
a sweeping reform and rationalization of labour service to which all taxpayers
local government. The three-level system were liable was reduced.
of local administration inherited from Wendi’s government, in spite of his
Han times had been reduced to chaos frontier campaigns and vast construc-
during the 5th and 6th centuries by tion works, was economical and frugal.
excessive subdivision; there were innu- By the 590s he had accumulated great
merable local districts, some of them reserves, and, when the Chen territories
extremely small and dominated by single were incorporated into his empire, he
families. Wendi created a simplified was in a position to exempt the new pop-
structure in which a much reduced num- ulation from 10 years of taxes to help
ber of counties was directly subordinated ensure their loyalty.
to prefectures. He also rationalized the The military system likewise was
chaotic rural administrative units into a founded on that of the northern dynas-
uniform system of townships (xiang). ties, in which the imperial forces were
Appointments to the chief offices in pre- organized into militias. The soldiers
fectures and counties were now made by served regular annual turns of duty but
the central government rather than filled lived at home during the rest of the year
by members of local influential families, and were largely self-supporting. Many
as had been the practice. This reform troops were settled in military colonies
ensured that local officials would be on the frontiers to make the garrisons
agents of the central government. It also self-sufficient. Only when there was a
integrated local officials into the normal campaign did the costs of the military
pattern of bureaucratic promotion and in establishment soar.
time produced a more homogeneous
civil service. Integration of the South
Since the registration of population
had fallen into chaos under the Bei Zhou, The second Sui emperor, Yangdi (reigned
a careful new census was carried out 604–617/618), has been depicted as a
98 | The History of China
Yangtze, and in 610 it was extended south northern frontier. The construction of
of the Yangtze to Hangzhou as part of a these waterways was inordinately expen-
general effort to rehabilitate and lengthen sive, caused terrible suffering, and left a
the Grand Canal. At the same time, in legacy of widespread social unrest, but in
preparation for campaigns in Manchuria the long term the transportation system
and on the Korean frontier, another great was to be a most important factor for
canal was built northward from Luoyang maintaining a unified empire. Further
to the vicinity of modern Beijing. By 611 hardship was caused by the mass levies
the entire eastern plain had a canal sys- of labour required to rebuild and
tem linking the major river systems of strengthen the Great Wall in Shanxi in
northern China and providing a trunk 607 and 608 as a precaution against the
route from the Yangtze delta to the resurgent eastern Turks.
100 | The History of China
Ceramic tomb figure decorated in characteristic coloured glazes, Tang dynasty (618–907); in
the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Height 71 cm. Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert
Museum, London
the Sui rebels, who controlled much of spring of 621 Li Shimin attacked his
Hebei and who had completed the defeat army before it could lift the siege, routed
of Yuwen Huaji’s forces in 619. He held it, and captured Dou. Wang then capitu-
the key area of southern Hebei, where he lated. The Tang had thus disposed of its
had successfully resisted both the Tang two most powerful rivals and extended
armies and the forces of Wang and Li its control over most of the eastern plain,
Shimin. Dou now agreed to come to the the most populous and prosperous
aid of the beleaguered Wang, but in the region of China.
104 | The History of China
This was not the end of resistance to defeated near present-day Nanjing at the
the Tang conquest. Most of the surren- end of 621. As had been the case with
dered rebel forces had been treated Xiao Xian’s dominions, the southeast was
leniently, and their leaders were often incorporated into the Tang empire with a
confirmed in office or given posts in the minimum of fighting and resistance. A
Tang administration. Dou and Wang, last southern rebellion by Fu Gongtuo, a
however, were dealt with severely, Dou general who set up an independent
being executed and Wang murdered on regime at Danyang (Nanjing) in 624, was
his way into exile. At the end of 621 Dou’s speedily suppressed. After a decade of
partisans in the northeast again rebelled war and disorder, the empire was com-
under Liu Heita and recaptured most of pletely pacified and unified under the
the northeast. He was finally defeated by Tang house.
a Tang army under the crown prince
Jiancheng at the beginning of 623. The Administration of the State
prolonged resistance in Hebei and the
comparatively harsh Tang conquest of The Tang unification had been far more
the region were the beginning of resis- prolonged and bloody than the Sui con-
tance and hostility in the northeast that quest. That the Tang regime lasted for
continued to some degree throughout nearly three centuries rather than three
the Tang dynasty. decades, as with the Sui, was largely the
Resistance was not confined to the result of the system of government
northeast. Liu Wuzhou in far northern imposed on the conquered territories.
Shanxi, who had been a constant threat The emperor Gaozu’s role in the Tang
since 619, was finally defeated and killed conquest was understated in the tradi-
by his former Turkish allies in 622. In the tional histories compiled under his
south during the confusion at the end of successor Taizong (Li Shimin; reigned
the Sui, Xiao Xian had set himself up as 626–649), which portrayed Taizong as
emperor of Liang, controlling the central the prime mover in the establishment of
Yangtze region, Jiangxi, Guangdong, and the dynasty. Taizong certainly played a
Annam (Vietnam). The Tang army major role in the campaigns, but Gaozu
descended the Yangtze from Sichuan was no figurehead. Not only did he
with a great fleet and defeated Xiao direct the many complex military opera-
Xian’s forces in two crucial naval battles. tions, but he also established the basic
In 621 Xiao Xian surrendered to the Tang, institutions of the Tang state, which
who thus gained control of the central proved practicable not only for a rapidly
Yangtze and the far south. The southeast developing Chinese society but also for
was occupied by another rebel, Li Zitong, the first centralized states in societies
based in Zhejiang. He too was decisively as diverse as those of Japan, Korea,
The Tang Dynasty | 105
Vietnam, and the southwestern kingdom closely resembled that under the Sui. The
of Nanzhao. merging of the local officials into the
The structure of the new central main bureaucracy, however, took time;
administration resembled that of Wendi’s ambitious men still looked upon local
time, with its ministries, boards, courts, posts as “exile” from the main current of
and directorates. There was no radical official promotion at the capital. Until
change in the dominant group at court. well into the 8th century many local offi-
Most of the highest ranks in the bureau- cials continued to serve for long terms,
cracy were filled by former Sui officials, and the ideal of a regular circulation of
many of whom had been the new emper- officials prevailed only gradually.
or’s colleagues when he was governor in Local government in early Tang
Taiyuan, or by descendants of officials of times had a considerable degree of inde-
the Bei Zhou, Bei Qi, or Sui or of the royal pendence, but each prefecture was in
houses of the northern and southern direct contact with the central ministries.
dynasties. The Tang were related by mar- In the spheres of activity that the admin-
riage to the Sui royal house, and a majority istration regarded as crucial—registration,
of the chief ministers were related by land allocation, tax collection, conscrip-
marriage to either the Tang or Sui impe- tion of men for the army and for corvée
rial family. The emperor’s court was duty, and maintenance of law and order—
composed primarily of men of similar prefects and county magistrates were
social origins. At that level the Tang in its expected to follow centrally codified law
early years, like the Sui before it, contin- and procedure. They were, however, per-
ued the pattern of predominantly mitted to interpret the law to suit local
aristocratic rule that had dominated the conditions. Local influences remained
history of the northern courts. strong in the prefectures and counties.
Gaozu also continued the pattern of Most of the personnel in these divisions
local administration established under were local men, many of them members
the Sui and maintained the strict control of families of petty functionaries.
exercised by the central government over
provincial appointments. In the first Fiscal and Legal System
years after the Tang conquest, many pre-
fectures and counties were fragmented to Gaozu had inherited a bankrupt state,
provide offices for surrendered rebel and most of his measures were aimed at
leaders, surrendered Sui officials, and fol- simple and cheap administration. His
lowers of the emperor. But these new bureaucracy was small, at both the cen-
local districts were gradually amalgam- tral and local levels. The expenses of
ated and reduced in number, and by the government were largely met by land
630s the pattern of local administration endowments attached to each office, the
106 | The History of China
rents from which paid office expenses paid a head tax in grain and cloth and
and salaries, by interest on funds of was liable to 20 days of work for the cen-
money allocated for similar purposes, tral government (normally commuted
and by services of taxpayers who per- into a payment in cloth) and to a further
formed many of the routine tasks of period of work for the local authorities.
government as special duties, being Revenues were collected exclusively from
exempted from tax in return. the rural population—the trade sector
Land distribution followed the equal- and the urban communities being
allocation system used under the exempt—and the system bore more heav-
northern dynasties and the Sui. Every ily on the poor, since it ignored the
taxable male was entitled to a grant of taxpayer’s economic status.
land—part of which was to be returned The Sui had made a somewhat desul-
when he ceased to be a taxpayer at age 60 tory attempt to provide China with a
and part of which was hereditary. The dis- unified coinage. Gaozu set up mints and
posal of landed property was hedged began the production of a good copper
around with restrictive conditions. Great currency that remained standard
landed estates were limited to members throughout the Tang era. But cash was in
of the imperial clan and powerful offi- short supply during most of the 7th cen-
cials, various state institutions, and the tury and had to be supplemented by
Buddhist foundations. Although some standard-sized lengths of silk.
land was hereditary, and more and more Counterfeiting was rife, particularly in
passed into the hereditary category with the Yangtze valley, where the southern
the passage of time, the lack of primogen- dynasties had supported a more highly
iture meant that landholdings were monetized economy and where the gov-
fragmented among all the sons in each ernments had exploited commerce as a
generation and thus tended to be small. It source of revenue.
is unlikely that the system was ever Gaozu also undertook a new codifi-
enforced to the letter in any region, and it cation of all centralized law, completed
was probably never enforced at all in the in 624. It comprised a code that embod-
south. But as a legal system governing ied what were considered basic,
registration of landed property and unchanging normative rules, prescrib-
restricting its disposal, it remained in ing fixed penalties for defined offenses;
force until An Lushan’s rebellion in the statutes, comprising the general body of
8th century. universally applicable administrative
The tax system based on this land law; regulations, or codified legislation
allocation system was also much the supplementary to the code and statutes;
same as that under the Sui and preceding and ordinances, detailed procedural laws
dynasties. Every adult male annually supplementing the statutes and issued
The Tang Dynasty | 107
by the departments of the central minis- the throne in 626 and is known by his
tries. Under the early Tang this body of temple name, Taizong.
codified law was revised every 20 years
or so. The systematic effort to maintain The “Era of Good
a universally applicable codification of Government”
law and administrative practice was
essential to the uniform system of The reign of Taizong (626–649), known
administration that the Tang succeeded traditionally as the “era of good govern-
in imposing throughout its diverse ment of Zhenguan,” was not notable for
empire. The Tang code proved remark- innovations in administration. Generally,
ably durable: it was still considered his policies developed and refined
authoritative as late as the 14th century those of his father’s reign. The distinc-
and was used as a model by the Ming. It tive element was the atmosphere of his
was also adopted, with appropriate mod- administration and the close personal
ifications, in Japan in the early 8th interplay between the sovereign and his
century and by the Koreans and the unusually able team of Confucian advis-
Vietnamese at a much later date. ers. It approached the Confucian ideal of
Gaozu thus laid down, at the outset a strong, able, energetic, yet fundamen-
of the 7th century, institutions that sur- tally moral king seeking and accepting
vived until the mid-8th century. These the advice of wise and capable ministers,
provided strong central control, a high advice that was basically ethical rather
level of administrative standardization, than technical. Some important changes
and highly economical administration. in political organization were begun dur-
ing his reign and were continued
The period of throughout the 7th century. The court
Tang power (626–755) remained almost exclusively the domain
of men of aristocratic birth. But Taizong
Two of Gaozu’s sons were rivals for the attempted to balance the regional groups
succession: the crown prince Jiancheng among the aristocracy so as to prevent
and Li Shimin, the general who had any single region from becoming domi-
played a large part in the wars of unifica- nant. They comprised the Guanlong
tion. Their rivalry, and the factional strife group from the northwest, the Daibei
it generated, reached a peak in 625–626, group from Shanxi, the Shandong group
when it appeared that Jiancheng was from Hebei, and the southern group from
likely to succeed. In a military coup, Li the Yangtze valley. The most powerful
Shimin murdered Jiancheng and another Hebei clans were excluded from high
of his brothers and forced his father to office, but Taizong employed members of
abdicate in his favour. He succeeded to each of the other groups and of the lesser
108 | The History of China
In the early years there was a great reign was a period of low prices and gen-
debate as to whether the Tang ought to eral prosperity.
reintroduce the feudal system used under Taizong was also successful in his
the Zhou and the Han, by which authority foreign policy. In 630 the eastern Turks
was delegated to members of the impe- were split by dissension among their
rial clan and powerful officials and leadership and by the rebellion of their
generals who were enfeoffed with heredi- subject peoples. Chinese forces invaded
tary territorial jurisdictions. Taizong their territories, totally defeated them,
eventually settled on a centralized form and captured their khan, and Taizong
of government through prefectures and was recognized as their supreme sover-
counties staffed by members of a unified eign, the “heavenly khan.” A large number
bureaucracy. The Tang retained a nobil- of the surrendered Turks were settled on
ity, but its “fiefs of maintenance” were the Chinese frontier, and many served in
merely lands whose revenues were ear- the Tang armies. A similar policy of
marked for its use and gave it no territorial encouraging internal dissension was
authority. later practiced against the western Turks,
Taizong continued his father’s eco- who split into two separate khanates for a
nomic policies, and government remained while. In 642–643 a new khan reestab-
comparatively simple and cheap. He lished a degree of unified control with
attempted to cut down the bureaucratic Chinese support and agreed to become a
establishment at the capital and drasti- tributary of the Chinese. To seal the alli-
cally reduced the number of local ance, Taizong married him to a Chinese
government divisions. The country was princess.
divided into 10 provinces, which were not The eclipse of Turkish power enabled
permanent administrative units but “cir- Taizong to extend his power over the var-
cuits” for occasional regional inspections ious small states of the Tarim Basin. By
of the local administrations; these tours the late 640s a Chinese military adminis-
were carried out by special commission- tration had extended westward even
ers, often members of the censorate, sent beyond the limits of present-day Xinjiang.
out from the capital. This gave the central To the north, in the region of the Orhon
government an additional means of River and to the north of the Ordos (Mu
maintaining standardized and efficient Us) Desert, the Tang armies defeated the
local administration. Measures to ensure Xueyantou (Syr Tardush), former vassals
tax relief for areas stricken by natural of the eastern Turks, who became Tang
disasters, and the establishment of relief vassals in 646. The Tuyuhun in the region
granaries to provide adequate reserves around Koko Nor caused considerable
against famine, helped to ensure the trouble in the early 630s. Taizong invaded
prosperity of the countryside. Taizong’s their territory in 634 and defeated them,
110 | The History of China
but they remained unsubdued and The court split into factions supporting
invaded Chinese territory several times. various candidates. The final choice, Li
The Chinese western dominions now Zhi, prince of Jin (reigned 649–683; tem-
extended farther than in the great days of ple name Gaozong) was a weak character,
the Han. Trade developed with the West, but he had the support of the most power-
with Central Asia, and with India. The ful figures at court.
Chinese court received embassies from
Sāsānian Persia and from the Byzantine Rise of the Empress Wuhou
Empire. The capital was thronged with
foreign merchants and foreign monks Gaozong was 21 years old when he
and contained a variety of non-Chinese ascended the throne. In his first years
communities. The great cities had he was dominated by the remaining great
Zoroastrian, Manichaean, and Nestorian statesmen of Taizong’s court, above all by
temples, along with the Buddhist monas- the emperor’s uncle Zhangsun Wuji.
teries that had been a part of the Chinese However, real power soon passed from
scene for centuries. Gaozong into the hands of the empress
Taizong’s only failure in foreign pol- Wuhou, one of the most remarkable
icy was in Korea. The northern state of women in Chinese history. Wuhou had
Koguryŏ had sent tribute regularly, but in been a low-ranking concubine of Taizong.
642 there was an internal coup; the new She was taken into Gaozong’s palace and,
ruler attacked Silla, another Tang vassal after a series of complex intrigues, man-
state in southern Korea. Taizong decided aged in 655 to have the legitimate
to invade Koguryŏ, against the advice of empress, Wang, deposed and herself
most of his ministers. The Tang armies, appointed in her place. The struggle
in alliance with the Khitan in Manchuria between the two was not simply a palace
and the two southern Korean states intrigue. Empress Wang, who was of
Paekche and Silla, invaded Koguryŏ in noble descent, had the backing of the old
645 but were forced to withdraw with northwestern aristocratic faction and of
heavy losses. Another inconclusive cam- the great ministers surviving from
paign was waged in 647, and the end of Taizong’s court. Wuhou came from a fam-
Taizong’s reign was spent in building a ily of lower standing from Taiyuan. Her
vast fleet and making costly preparations father had been one of Gaozu’s original
for a final expedition. supporters, her mother a member of the
Taizong’s last years were also marked Sui royal family. She seems to have been
by a decline in the firm grasp of the supported by the eastern aristocracy, by
emperor over politics at his court. In the the lesser gentry, and by the lower-rank-
640s a bitter struggle for the succession ing echelons of the bureaucracy.
developed when it became clear that the But her success was largely the result
designated heir was mentally unstable. of her skill in intrigue, her dominant
The Tang Dynasty | 111
personality, and her utter ruthlessness. the emperor took the new title of “heav-
The deposed empress and another impe- enly emperor.”
rial favourite were savagely murdered, The bureaucracy was rapidly inflated
and the next half century was marked by to a far-greater size than in Taizong’s
recurrent purges in which she hounded time, many of the new posts being filled
to death one group after another of real by candidates from the examination sys-
or imagined rivals. The good relationship tem who now began to attain the highest
between the emperor and his court, which offices and thus to encroach on what had
had made Taizong’s reign so successful, been the preserves of the aristocracy.
was speedily destroyed. Political life Another blow at the aristocracy was
became precarious and insecure, at the struck by the compilation in 659 of a new
mercy of the empress’s unpredictable genealogy of all the empire’s eminent
whims. The first victims were the elder clans, which ranked families according to
statesmen of Taizong’s reign, who were the official positions achieved by their
exiled, murdered, or driven to suicide in members rather than by their traditional
657–659. In 660 Gaozong suffered a social standing. Needless to say, the first
stroke. He remained in precarious health family of all was that of Wuhou. The lower
for the rest of his reign, and Wuhou took ranks of the bureaucracy, among whom
charge of the administration. the empress found her most-solid sup-
Although utterly unscrupulous in port, were encouraged by the creation of
politics, she backed up her intrigues with new posts, greater opportunities for
policies designed to consolidate her posi- advancement, and salary increases.
tion. In 657 Luoyang was made the second The Chinese were engaged in foreign
capital. The entire court and administra- wars throughout Gaozong’s reign. Until
tion were frequently transferred to 657 they waged continual war against the
Luoyang, thus removing the centre of western Turks, finally defeating them and
political power from the home region of placing their territories as far as the val-
the northwestern aristocracy. Ministries ley of the Amu Darya under a nominal
and court offices were duplicated, and Chinese protectorate in 659–661. The
Luoyang had to be equipped with all the Tang also waged repeated campaigns
costly public buildings needed for a capi- against Koguryŏ in the late 650s and the
tal. After Gaozong’s death, Wuhou took 660s. In 668 the Tang forces took
up permanent residence there. P’yŏngyang (the capital), and Koguryŏ
Gaozong and Wuhou were obsessed was also placed under a protectorate.
by symbolism and religion, with one However, by 676 rebellions had forced
favourite magician, holy man, or monk the Chinese to withdraw to southern
following another. State rituals were radi- Manchuria, and all of Korea became
cally changed. For symbolic reasons the increasingly dominated by the rapidly
names of all offices were altered, and expanding power of the southern Korean
112 | The History of China
state of Silla. The eastern Turks, who had agents and informers. Fear overshadowed
been settled along the northern border, the life of the court. The empress herself
rebelled in 679–681 and were quelled only became more and more obsessed with
after they had caused widespread destruc- religious symbolism. She manipulated
tion and had inflicted heavy losses on the Buddhist scripture to justify her becom-
Chinese forces. ing sovereign and in 688 erected a Ming
The most serious foreign threat in Tang (“Hall of Light”)—the symbolic
Gaozong’s reign was the emergence of a supreme shrine to heaven described in
new and powerful force to the west, the the Classics—a vast building put up with
Tibetans (Tubo), a people who had limitless extravagance. In 690 the
exerted constant pressure on the north- empress proclaimed that the dynasty had
ern border of Sichuan since the 630s. By been changed from Tang to Zhou. She
670 the Tibetans had driven the Tuyuhun became formally the empress in her own
from their homeland in the Koko Nor right, the only woman sovereign in
basin. The northwest had to be increas- China’s history. Ruizong, the imperial
ingly heavily fortified and garrisoned to heir, was given her surname, Wu; every-
guard against their repeated raids and body with the surname Wu in the empire
incursions. After a series of difficult cam- was exempted from taxation. Every pre-
paigns, they were finally checked in 679. fecture was ordered to set up a temple in
When Gaozong died in 683, he was which the monks were to expound the
succeeded by the young Zhongzong, but notion that the empress was an incarna-
Wuhou was made empress dowager and tion of Buddha. Luoyang became the
immediately took control over the central “holy capital,” and the state cult was cer-
administration. Within less than a year emoniously transferred there from
she had deposed Zhongzong, who had Chang’an. The remnants of the Tang
shown unexpected signs of indepen- royal family who had not been murdered
dence, and replaced him with another or banished were immured in the depths
son and puppet emperor, Ruizong, who of the palace.
was kept secluded in the Inner Palace Destructive and demoralizing as the
while Wuhou held court and exercised effects of her policies must have been at
the duties of sovereign. the capital and at court, there is little evi-
In 684 disaffected members of the dence of any general deterioration of
ruling class under Xu Jingye raised a administration in the empire. By 690 the
serious rebellion at Yangzhou in the worst excesses of her regime were past.
south, but this was speedily put down. In the years after she had proclaimed her-
The empress instituted a reign of terror self empress, she retained the services
among the members of the Tang royal and loyalty of a number of distinguished
family and officials, employing armies of officials. The court was still unstable,
The Tang Dynasty | 113
however, with unending changes of min- oppression and heavy taxation in the
isters, and the empress remained Hebei and Shandong area. This migra-
susceptible to the influence of a series of tion of peasants, who settled as
worthless favourites. After 700 she gradu- unregistered squatters on vacant land in
ally began to lose her grip on affairs. central and southern China and no lon-
The external affairs of the empire had ger paid taxes, was accelerated by the
meanwhile taken a turn for the worse. Khitan invasion in the late 690s. Attempts
The Tibetans renewed their warfare on to stop it were ineffectual.
the frontier. In 696 the Khitan in By 705 the empress, who was now 80
Manchuria rebelled against their Chinese years old, had allowed control of events
governor and overran part of Hebei. The to slip from her fingers. The bureaucratic
Chinese drove them out, with Turkish faction at court, tired of the excesses of
aid, in 697. The Chinese reoccupied her latest favourites, forced her to abdi-
Hebei under a member of the empress’s cate in favour of Zhongzong. The Tang
family and carried out brutal reprisals was restored.
against the population. In 698 the Turks Zhongzong, however, also had a dom-
in their turn invaded Hebei and were ineering wife, the empress Wei, who
driven off only by an army under the initiated a regime of utter corruption at
nominal command of the deposed court, openly selling offices. When the
emperor Zhongzong, who had been emperor died in 710, probably poisoned
renamed heir apparent in place of by her, she tried to establish herself as
Ruizong. The military crisis had forced ruler as Wuhou had done before her. But
the empress to abandon any plan to keep Li Longji, the future Xuanzong, with the
the succession within her own family. aid of Wuhou’s formidable daughter,
The expenses of the empire made it Taiping, and of the palace army, suc-
necessary to impose new taxes. These ceeded in restoring his father, Ruizong
took the form of a household levy—a (the brother of Zhongzong), to the throne.
graduated tax based on a property assess- The princess now attempted to dominate
ment on everyone from the nobility down, her brother, the emperor, and there fol-
including the urban population—and a lowed a struggle for power between her
land levy collected on an acreage basis. and the heir apparent. In 712 Ruizong
These new taxes were to be assessed ceded the throne to Xuanzong but
based on productivity or wealth, rather retained in his own hands control over
than a uniform per capita levy. Some the most crucial areas of government. A
tried to evade taxes by illegally subdivid- second coup, in 713, placed Xuanzong
ing their households to reduce their completely in charge and resulted in
liabilities. There was a large-scale migra- Ruizong’s retirement and the princess
tion of peasant families fleeing from Taiping’s suicide.
114 | The History of China
Minghuang’s Journey to Shu, ink and colour on silk hanging scroll, attributed to Li Zhaodao,
Tang-dynasty style, possibly a 10th– or 11th-century copy of an 8th-century original; in the
National Palace Museum, Taipei. National Palace Museum, Taipei, Taiwan
The Tang Dynasty | 115
the canal system, which had been disasters of Wuhou’s time and who had
allowed to fall into neglect under Wuhou also excluded members of the royal family
and her successors, was repaired and from politics, faced a series of succession
reorganized so that the administration plots. In 745 he fell deeply under the influ-
could transport large stocks of grain ence of a new favourite, the imperial
from the Yangtze region to the capital concubine Yang Guifei. In 751–752 one of
and to the armies on the northern fron- her relatives, Yang Guozhong, thanks to
tiers. The south was at last financially her influence with the emperor, rapidly
integrated with the north. By the 740s the rose to rival Li Linfu for supreme power.
government had accumulated enormous After Li’s death in 752 Yang Guozhong
reserves of grain and wealth. The tax and dominated the court. However, he had
accounting systems were simplified, and neither Li’s great political ability nor his
taxes and labour services were reduced. experience and skill in handling people.
Some important institutional changes
accompanied these reforms. The land reg- Military Reorganization
istration, reorganization of transport, and
coinage reform were administered by spe- The most important new development in
cially appointed commissions holding Xuanzong’s reign was the growth in the
extraordinary powers, including the power of the military commanders.
authority to recruit their own staff. These During Gaozong’s reign the old militia
commissions were mostly headed by cen- system had proved inadequate for fron-
sors, and they and the censorate became tier defense and had been supplemented
centres of aristocratic power. The exis- by the institution of permanent armies
tence of these new offices reduced the and garrison forces quartered in strategic
influence of the regular ministries, areas on the frontiers. These armies were
enabling the emperor and his aristocratic made up of long-service veterans, many
advisers to circumvent the normal chan- of them non-Chinese cavalry troops, set-
nels and procedures of administration. tled permanently in military colonies.
After 736 the political dominance of Although these armies were adequate for
the aristocracy was firmly reestablished. small-scale operations, for a major cam-
An aristocratic chief minister, Li Linfu, paign an expeditionary army and a
became a virtual dictator, his powers headquarters staff had to be specially
increasing as Xuanzong in his later years organized and reinforcements sent in by
withdrew from active affairs into the plea- the central government. This cumber-
sures of palace life and the study of some system was totally unsuitable for
Daoism. In the latter part of his reign, dealing with the highly mobile nomadic
Xuanzong, who had previously strictly horsemen on the northern frontiers.
circumscribed the power of the palace At the beginning of Xuanzong’s reign,
women to avoid a recurrence of the the Turks again threatened to become a
116 | The History of China
major power, rivaling China in Central fighting broke out again, and the Tibetans
Asia and along the borders. Kapghan began to turn their attention to the Tang
(Mochuo), the Turkish khan who had territories in the Tarim Basin. Desultory
invaded Hebei in the aftermath of the fighting continued on the border of
Khitan invasion in the time of Wuhou and Gansu until the end of Xuanzong’s reign.
had attacked the Chinese northwest at the From 752 onward the Tibetans acquired a
end of her reign, turned his attention new ally in the Nanzhao state in Yunnan,
northward. By 711 he controlled the steppe which enabled them to exert a continuous
from the Chinese frontier to Transoxiana threat along the entire western frontier.
and appeared likely to develop a new uni- In the face of these threats, Xuanzong
fied Turkish empire. When he was organized the northern and northwestern
murdered in 716, his flimsy empire col- frontiers from Manchuria to Sichuan into
lapsed. His successor, Bilge (Pijia), tried to a series of strategic commands or mili-
make peace with the Chinese in 718, but tary provinces under military governors
Xuanzong preferred to try to destroy his who were given command over all the
power by an alliance with the southwest- forces in a large region. This system
ern Basmil Turks and with the Khitan in developed gradually and was formalized
Manchuria. Bilge, however, crushed the in 737 under Li Linfu. The frontier com-
Basmil and attacked Gansu in 720. manders controlled enormous numbers
Peaceful relations were established in 721– of troops: nearly 200,000 were stationed
722. Bilge’s death in 734 precipitated the in the northwest and Central Asia and
end of Turkish power. A struggle among more than 100,000 in the northeast; there
the various Turkish subject tribes followed, were well in excess of 500,000 in all. The
from which the Uighurs emerged as vic- military governors soon began to exer-
tors. In 744 they established a powerful cise some functions of civil government.
empire that was to remain the dominant In the 740s a non-Chinese general of
force on China’s northern border until 840. Sogdian and Turkish origin, An Lushan,
Unlike the Turks, however, the Uighurs became military governor first of one and
pursued a consistent policy of alliance finally of all three of the northeastern
with the Tang. On several occasions commands, with 160,000 troops under
Uighur aid, even though offered on harsh his orders. An Lushan had risen to power
terms, saved the dynasty from disaster. largely through the patronage of Li Linfu.
The Tibetans were the most danger- When Li died, An became a rival of Yang
ous foe during Xuanzong’s reign, invading Guozhong. As Yang Guozhong devel-
the northwest annually from 714 on. In oped more and more of a personal
727–729 the Chinese undertook large- stranglehold over the administration at
scale warfare against them, and in 730 a the capital, An Lushan steadily built up
settlement was concluded. But in the 730s his military forces in the northeast. The
The Tang Dynasty | 117
the treasury well into the 770s, partly by purposes, the northeastern provinces
the failure of the rebel leadership after remained semi-independent throughout
the death of the able Shi Siming, and the later part of the Tang era. They had
partly by the policy of clemency adopted been among the most populous and pro-
toward the rebels after the decisive cam- ductive parts of the empire, and their
paign in Henan in 762. The need for a semi-independence was not only a threat
speedy settlement was made more urgent to the stability of the central government
by the growing threat of the Tibetans in but also represented a huge loss of reve-
the northwest. The latter, allied with the nue and potential manpower.
Nanzhao kingdom in Yunnan, had Provincial separatism also became a
exerted continual pressure on the west- problem elsewhere. With the general
ern frontier and in 763 occupied the breakdown of the machinery of central
whole of present-day Gansu. Late in 763 administration after 756, many of the
they actually took and looted the capital. functions of government were delegated
They continued to occupy the Chinese to local administrations. The whole
northwest until well into the 9th century. empire was now divided into provinces
Their occupation of Gansu signaled the (dao), which formed an upper tier of rou-
end of Chinese control of the region. tine administration. Their governors had
wide powers over subordinate prefec-
Provincial Separatism tures and counties. The new provincial
governments were of two main types.
The post-rebellion settlement not only In northern China (apart from the
pardoned several of the most powerful semiautonomous provinces of the north-
rebel generals but also appointed them east, which were a special category) most
as imperial governors in command of the provincial governments were military,
areas they had surrendered. Hebei was their institutions closely modeled on
divided into four new provinces, each those set up on the northern frontier
under surrendered rebels, while under Xuanzong. The military presence
Shandong became the province of An was strongest in the small frontier-garri-
Lushan’s former garrison army from son provinces that protected the capital,
Pinglu in Manchuria, which had held an Chang’an, from the Tibetans in Gansu
ambivalent position during the fighting. and in the belt of small, heavily garri-
The central government held little power soned provinces in Henan that protected
within these provinces. The leadership China—and the canal from the Huai and
was decided within each province, and Yangtze valleys, on which the central
the central government in its appoint- government depended for its supplies—
ments merely approved faits accomplis. from the semiautonomous provinces.
Succession to the leadership was fre- Military governments were also the rule
quently hereditary. For all practical in Sichuan, which continued to be
The Tang Dynasty | 119
menaced by the Tibetans and Nanzhao, system with its taxes and labour services
and in the far south in Lingnan. had been completely disrupted by the
In central and southern China, how- breakdown of authority and by the vast
ever, the provincial government movements of population. The revenues
developed into a new organ of the civil increasingly came to depend on addi-
bureaucracy. The civil governors of the tional taxes levied on cultivated land or
southern provinces were regularly on property, and the government
appointed from the bureaucracy, and it attempted to raise more revenue from the
became customary to appoint to these urban population. But its survival
posts high-ranking court officials who depended on the revenues it drew from
were temporarily out of favour. central China, the Huai valley, and the
All the new provinces had consider- lower Yangtze. Those revenues were sent
able latitude of action, particularly during to the capital by means of a reconstructed
the reigns of Suzong and Daizong, when and improved canal system maintained
central power was at a low ebb. There was out of the new government monopoly on
a general decentralization of authority. salt. By 780 the salt monopoly was pro-
The new provinces had considerable ducing a major part of the state’s central
independence in the fields of finance, revenues, in addition to maintaining the
local government, law and order, and mil- transportation system. The salt and trans-
itary matters. portation administration was controlled
Under Daizong (reigned 762–779) the by an independent commission centred
court was dominated by the emperor’s in Yangzhou, near the mouth of the
favourite, Yuan Zai, and by the eunuchs Yangtze, and this commission gradually
who now began to play an increasing role took over the entire financial administra-
in Tang politics. A succession of eunuch tion of southern and central China.
advisers not only rivaled in influence the The weak Daizong was succeeded by
chief ministers but even exerted influ- a tough, intelligent activist emperor,
ence over the military in the campaigns Dezong (reigned 779–805), who was deter-
of the late 750s and early 760s. Under mined to restore the fortunes of the
Daizong many of the regular offices of dynasty. He reconstituted much of the old
the administration remained unfilled, central administration and decided on a
while the irregularities encouraged by showdown with the forces of local auton-
Yuan Zai and his clique in the appoint- omy. As a first step, in 780 he promulgated
ment of officials led to an increasing use a new system of taxation, under which
of eunuchs in secretarial posts and to each province was assessed a quota of
their increasing dominance over the taxes, the collection of which was to be
emperor’s private treasury. left to the provincial government. This
The central government did achieve was a radical measure, for it abandoned
some success in finance. The old fiscal the traditional concept of head taxes
120 | The History of China
levied at a uniform rate throughout the Tibetan threat was contained, Nanzhao
empire and also began the assessment of was won from its alliance with the
taxes in terms of money. Tibetans, and the garrisons of the north-
Those in the semi-independent prov- west were strengthened. At the same time,
inces of the northeast saw this as a threat Dezong built up large new palace armies,
to their independence, and, when it giving the central government a powerful
became apparent that Dezong was deter- striking force—numbering some 100,000
mined to carry out consistently tough men by the end of his reign. Command
policies toward the northeast—reducing was given to eunuchs considered loyal to
their armies and even denying them the the throne. The death of Dezong in 805
right to appoint their own governors—the was followed by the brief reign of
Hebei provinces rebelled. From 781 to 786 Shunzong, an invalid monarch whose
there was a wave of rebellions not only in court was dominated by the clique of
the northeastern provinces but also in the Wang Shuwen and Wang Pei. They
Huai valley and in the area of the capital planned to take control of the palace
itself. These events brought the Tang armies from the eunuchs but failed.
even closer to disaster than had the An
Lushan rising. The situation was saved The Struggle
because at a crucial moment the rebels for Central Authority
fell out among themselves and because
the south remained loyal. In the end, the Under Xianzong (reigned 805–820) the
settlement negotiated with the governors Tang regained a great deal of its power.
of Hebei virtually endorsed the preced- Xianzong, a tough and ruthless ruler who
ing status quo, although the court made kept a firm hand on affairs, is notable
some marginal inroads by establishing chiefly for his successful policies toward
two small new provinces in Hebei. the provinces. Rebellions in Sichuan
After that disaster, Dezong pursued a (806) and the Yangtze delta (807) were
much more careful and passive policy quickly put down. After an abortive cam-
toward the provinces. Governors were left paign (809–810) that was badly bungled
in office for long periods, and hereditary by a favourite eunuch commander, the
succession continued. Nonetheless, the court was again forced to compromise
latter part of Dezong’s reign was a period with the governors of Hebei. A fresh wave
of steady achievement. The new tax sys- of trouble came in 814–817 with a rebel-
tem was gradually enforced and proved lion in Huaixi, in the upper Huai valley,
remarkably successful; it remained the that threatened the canal route. That
basis of the tax structure until Ming times. uprising was crushed and the province
Revenues increased steadily, and Dezong divided up among its neighbours. The
left behind him a wealthy state. Militarily, Pinglu army in Shandong rebelled in 818
he was also generally successful: the and suffered the same fate. Xianzong
The Tang Dynasty | 121
thus restored the authority of the central considerably changed. The emperor
government throughout most of the Dezong had begun to delegate a great
empire. His success was based largely deal of business, in particular the draft-
upon the palace armies. The fact that ing of edicts and legislation, to his
these were controlled by eunuchs placed personal secretariat, the Hanlin Academy.
a great measure of power in the emper- Although the members of the Hanlin
or’s hands. Under his weak successors, Academy were handpicked members of
however, the eunuchs’ influence in poli- the bureaucracy, their positions as acade-
tics proved a disaster. micians were outside the regular official
Xianzong’s restoration of central establishment. This eventually placed
authority involved more than military the power of decision and the detailed
dominance. It was backed by a series of formulation of policy in the hands of a
institutional measures designed to group that depended entirely on the
strengthen the power of the prefects and emperor, thus threatening the authority
county magistrates, as against their pro- of the regularly constituted ministers of
vincial governors, by restoring to them the court.
the right of direct access to central gov- The influence of the eunuchs had
ernment and giving them some measure also begun to be formalized and institu-
of control over the military forces quar- tionalized in the palace council; this
tered within their jurisdiction. In an provided the emperor with another per-
important financial reform, the provincial sonal secretariat, which controlled the
government no longer had first call on all conduct of official business and had close
the revenue of the province, as some rev- links with the eunuchs’ command of the
enue went directly to the capital. The powerful palace armies. The eunuchs’
government also began the policy, con- influence in politics steadily increased.
tinued throughout the 9th and 10th Xianzong was murdered by some of his
centuries, of cutting down and fragment- eunuch attendants, and henceforth the
ing the provinces. It strengthened its chief eunuchs of the palace council and
control over the provincial administra- the palace armies were a factor in nearly
tions through a system of eunuch army every succession to the Tang throne; in
supervisors, who were attached to the some cases they had their own candi-
staff of each provincial governor. These dates enthroned in defiance of the
eunuchs played an increasingly impor- previous emperor’s will. The emperor
tant role, not merely as sources of Wenzong (reigned 827–840) sought to
information and intelligence but as active destroy the dominance of the eunuchs;
agents of the emperor, able to intervene his abortive schemes only demoralized
directly in local affairs. the bureaucracy, particularly after the
The balance of power within the Sweet Dew (Ganlu) coup of 835, which
central government had also been misfired and led to the deaths of several
122 | The History of China
ministers and a number of other officials. of peasant risings began in 874, following
But the apogee of the eunuchs’ power a terrible drought. The most formidable
was brief, ending with the accession of of them was led by Huang Chao, who in
Wuzong in 840. Wuzong and his minister, 878 marched south and sacked
Li Deyu, managed to impose some Guangzhou (Canton) and then marched
restrictions on the eunuchs’ power, espe- to the north, where he took Luoyang in
cially in the military. late 880 and Chang’an in 881. Although
In the second half of the 9th century Huang Chao attempted to set up a regime
the central government became progres- in the capital, he proved cruel and inept.
sively weaker. During Yizong’s reign Hemmed in by loyal armies and provin-
(859–873) there was a resurgence of the cial generals, in 883 he was forced to
eunuchs’ power and a constant fratricidal abandon Chang’an and withdraw to
strife between eunuchs and officials at Henan and then to Shandong, where he
court. From the 830s onward the first died in 884. His forces were eventually
signs of unrest and banditry had appeared defeated with the aid of Shatuo Turks,
in the Huai valley and Henan, and trou- and the Tang court was left virtually pow-
ble spread to the Yangtze valley and the erless, its emperor a puppet manipulated
south beginning in 856. Major uprisings by rival military leaders. The dynasty lin-
were led by Kang Quantai in southern gered on until 907, but the last quarter
Anhui in 858 and Qiu Fu in Zhejiang in century was dominated by the generals
859. The situation was complicated by a and provincial warlords. With the pro-
costly war against the Nanzhao kingdom gressive decline of the central
on the borders of the Chinese protector- government in the 880s and 890s, China
ate in Annam, which later spread to fell apart into a number of virtually inde-
Sichuan and dragged on from 858 until pendent kingdoms. Unity was not
866. After the invaders had been sup- restored until long after the Song dynasty
pressed, part of the garrison force that was established.
had been sent to Lingnan mutinied and,
under its leader, Pang Xun, fought and Cultural developments
plundered its way back to Henan, where
it caused widespread havoc in 868 and The Influence of Buddhism
869, cutting the canal linking the capital
to the loyal Yangtze and Huai provinces. The Tang emperors officially supported
In 870 war broke out again with Nanzhao. Daoism because of their claim to be
Yizong was succeeded by Xizong descended from Laozi, but Buddhism
(reigned 873–888), a boy of 11 who was the continued to enjoy great favour and lav-
choice of the palace eunuchs. Prior to his ish imperial patronage through most of
ascension, Henan had repeatedly suf- the period. The famous pilgrim Xuanzang,
fered serious floods. In addition, a wave who went to India in 629 and returned in
The Tang Dynasty | 123
645, was the most learned of Chinese (Zen) school, which had strong roots in
monks and introduced new standards of Daoism. The popular preaching of the
exactness in his many translations from salvationist Pure Land sect was also
Sanskrit. The most significant develop- important. After the rebellion of An
ment in this time was the growth of new Lushan, a nationalistic movement favour-
indigenous schools that adapted ing Confucianism appeared, merging
Buddhism to Chinese ways of thinking. with the efforts of Tiantai Buddhism to
Most prominent were the syncretistic graft Buddhist metaphysics onto
Tiantai school, which sought to embrace Classical doctrine and lay the ground-
all other schools in a single hierarchical work for the Neo-Confucianism of the
system (even reaching out to include Song era.
Confucianism), and the radically anti- In 843–845 the emperor Wuzong, a
textual, antimetaphysical southern Chan fanatical Daoist, proceeded to suppress
Buddhism. One of his motives was eco-
nomic. China was in a serious financial
crisis, which Wuzong and his advisers
hoped to solve by seizing the lands and
wealth of the monasteries. The suppres-
sion was far-reaching: 40,000 shrines and
temples—all but a select few—were closed,
260,000 monks and nuns were returned
to lay life, and vast acreages of monastic
lands were confiscated and sold and their
slaves manumitted. The suppression was
short-lived, but irreparable damage was
done to Buddhist institutions. Buddhism
had already begun to lose intellectual
momentum, and this attack on it as a
social institution marked the beginning
of its decline in China.
Several types of monastic communi-
ties existed at the time. Official temples
set up by the state had large endowments
of land and property and large communi-
Guanyin and attendant bodhisattvas,
ties of monks who chose their own abbot
detail of a painted mural, early 8th cen-
and other officers. There were vast num-
tury, Tang dynasty, from Cave 57,
bers of small village temples, shrines,
Dunhuang, Gansu province, China. Chen
Zhi’an/ChinaStock Photo Library and hermitages; these were often pri-
vately established, had little property,
124 | The History of China
and were quite vulnerable to state poli- pious laypersons, and from grants of
cies. In addition, private temples or lands by the state. The lands were worked
“merit cloisters” were established by by monastic slaves, dependent families,
great families, often to allow the family to lay clerics who had taken partial vows but
donate its property and have it declared lived with their families, and tenants.
tax-exempt. Monasteries also operated oil presses
A monastic community was free of all and mills, and they were important credit
obligations to the state. It was able to institutions, supplying loans at interest
hold property without the process of divi- and acting as pawnshops. They provided
sion by inheritance that made the lodgings for travelers, operated hospitals
long-term preservation of individual and and infirmaries, and maintained the aged.
family fortunes almost impossible in One of their most important social func-
Tang times. It acquired its wealth from tions was offering primary education.
those taking monastic vows, from gifts of The temples maintained their own
Main hall of Nanchan Temple, Mount Wutai, Shanxi province, China, AD 782 or earlier, Tang
dynasty; reconstructed 1974–75. Christopher Liu/ChinaStock Photo Library
The Tang Dynasty | 125
schools, training the comparatively large metre than the five-word and seven-word
proportion of the male population, which, lushi and meant to be sung, made its
although not educated to the standards appearance. The guwen, or “ancient
of the Confucian elite or the clergy, was style,” movement grew up after the rebel-
nevertheless literate. lion of An Lushan, seeking to replace the
euphuistic pianwen (“parallel prose”)
Trends in the Arts then dominant. It was closely associated
with the movement for a Confucian
In literature the greatest glory of the Tang revival. The most prominent figures in it
period was its poetry. By the 8th century, were Han Yu and Liu Zongyuan. At the
poets had broken away from the artificial same time came the first serious attempts
diction and matter of the court poetry to write fiction, the so-called chuanqi, or
of the southern dynasties and achieved “tales of marvels.” Many of these Tang
a new directness and naturalism. The stories later provided themes for the
reign of Xuanzong (712–756)—known as Chinese drama.
Minghuang, the Brilliant Emperor—was The patronage of the Tang emperors
the time of such great figures as Li Bai, and the general wealth and prosperity of
Wang Wei, and Du Fu. The rebellion of An the period encouraged the development
Lushan and Du Fu’s bitter experiences of the visual arts. Though few Tang build-
during it brought a new note of social ings remain standing, contemporary
awareness to his later poetry. This appears descriptions give some idea of the mag-
again in the work of Bai Juyi (772–846), nificence of Tang palaces and religious
who wrote verse in clear and simple lan- edifices and the houses of the wealthy.
guage. Toward the end of the dynasty a Buddhist sculpture shows a greater natu-
new poetic form, the ci, in a less regular ralism than in the previous period, but
Du fu
Du Fu (b. 712—d. 770) is often considered the greatest Chinese poet of all time. After a traditional
Confucian education, he failed the important civil service examinations and consequently spent
much of his life wandering, repeatedly attempting to gain court positions, with mixed success. His
early poetry, which celebrates the natural world and bemoans the passage of time, garnered him
renown. He suffered periods of extreme personal hardship, and as he matured his verse began to
express profound compassion for humanity. An expert in all the poetic genres of his day, he is
renowned for his superb classicism and skill in prosody, though many of the subtleties of his art do
not survive translation.
126 | The History of China
there is some loss of spirituality. Few were established, a large part of their
genuine originals survive to show the personnel often recruited from the com-
work of Tang master painters such as mercial community. The contending
Wu Daoxuan, who worked at Xuanzong’s factions of the 9th-century court also
court. As a landscape painter, the poet employed irregular appointments to
Wang Wei was a forerunner of the wen- secure posts for their clients and support-
ren, or “literary man’s,” school of mystical ers, many of whom also came from
nature painting of later times. The minor comparatively lowly backgrounds.
arts of Tang, including ceramics, metal- Although the old aristocracy retained
work, and textiles, give expression to the a grip on political power until very late in
colour and vitality of the life of the period. the dynasty, its exclusiveness and hierar-
Printing appeared for the first time dur- chical pretensions were rapidly breaking
ing Tang. Apparently invented to help down. It was finally extinguished as a
disseminate Buddhist scriptures, it was separate group in the Wudai (Five
used by the end of the dynasty for such Dynasties) period (907–960), when the
things as calendars, almanacs, and old strongholds of aristocracy in the
dictionaries. northeast and northwest became centres
of bitter military and political struggles.
Social change The aristocratic clans that survived did so
by merging into the new official-literati
Decline of the Aristocracy class; this class was based not on birth
alone but on education, office holding,
By the late Tang period a series of social and the possession of landed property.
changes had begun that did not reach At the same time, there was a return
their culmination until the 11th century. to semiservile relationships at the base of
The most important of these was the the social pyramid. Sheer economic
change in the nature of the ruling class. necessity led many peasants either to dis-
Although from early Tang times the pose of their lands and become tenants
examination system had facilitated or hired labourers of rich neighbours or
recruiting into the higher ranks of the to become dependents of a powerful
bureaucracy of persons from lesser aris- patron. Tenancy, which in early Tang
tocratic families, most officials continued times had most often been a temporary
to come from the established elite. Social and purely economic agreement, now
mobility increased after the An Lushan developed into a semipermanent con-
rebellion: provincial governments tract requiring some degree of personal
emerged, their staffs in many cases subordination from the tenant.
recruited from soldiers of lowly social ori- The new provincial officials and local
gins, and specialized finance commissions elites were able to establish their fortunes
The Tang Dynasty | 127
the south certainly continued, notably in A boom in trade soon followed. The
the area south of the Yangtze, in present- merchant class threw off its traditional
day Jiangxi and Hunan, and in Hubei. legal restraints. In early Tang times there
The chaos of the last decades of the Tang had been only two great metropolitan
dynasty completed the ruin of the north- markets, in Chang’an and Luoyang. Now
west. After the destruction of the city of every provincial capital became the cen-
Chang’an in the Huang Chao rebellion, tre of a large consumer population of
no regime ever again established its capi- officials and military, and the provincial
tal in that region. courts provided a market for both staple
foodstuffs and luxury manufactures. The
Growth of the Economy diversification of markets was still more
striking in the countryside. A network of
The 8th and 9th centuries were a period small rural market towns, purely eco-
of growth and prosperity. The gradual nomic in function and acting as feeders
movement of the population away from to the county markets, grew up. At these
the north, with its harsh climate and dry periodic markets, held at regular inter-
farming, into the more fertile and pro- vals every few days, traveling merchants
ductive south meant a great proportional and peddlers dealt in the everyday needs
increase in productivity. The south still of the rural population. By the end of the
had large areas of virgin land. Fujian, for Tang period these rural market centres
example, was still only marginally set- had begun to form a new sort of urban
tled along the coastline at the end of centre, intermediate between the county
Tang times. During the latter half of the town, with its administrative presence
Tang, the Huai and lower Yangtze and its central market, and the villages.
became a grain-surplus area, replacing The growth of trade brought an
Hebei and Henan. From 763 to the mid- increasing use of money. In early Tang
9th century, great quantities of grain times silk cloth had been commonly
were shipped from the south annually as employed as currency in large transac-
tax revenue. New crops, such as sugar tions. When the central government lost
and tea, were grown widely. The produc- control of the major silk-producing
tivity of the Yangtze valley was increased region in Hebei and Henan, silk was
by double-cropping land with rice and replaced in this use by silver. The gov-
winter wheat and by developing new ernment neither controlled silver
varieties of grain. After the An Lushan production nor minted a silver coinage.
rebellion, silk production began to Silver circulation and assay were in the
increase rapidly in Sichuan and the hands of private individuals. Various
Yangtze delta region, whereas in early credit and banking institutions began to
Tang times the chief silk-producing emerge: silversmiths took money on
areas had been in the northeast. deposit and arranged for transfers of
The Tang Dynasty | 129
funds; a complex system of credit trans- Guangzhou had large Arab trading com-
fers arose by which tea merchants would munities. The northern coastal traffic was
pay the tax quota for a district, some- dominated by the Koreans. Overland
times even for a whole province, out of trade to Central Asia was mostly in the
their profits from the sale of the crop at hands of Sogdian and, later, Uighur mer-
Chang’an and receive reimbursement in chants. Central Asian, Sogdian, and
their home province. Persian merchants and peddlers carried
The increasing use of money and sil- on much local retail trade and provided
ver also affected official finance and restaurants, wine shops, and brothels in
accounting. Taxes began to be assessed in the great cities. Only in the 9th century
money. The salt monopoly was collected did the foreign influence in trade begin
and accounted for entirely in money. The to recede.
government also began to look to trade In the late Tang many officials began
as a source of revenue—to depend to invest their money (and official funds
increasingly on taxes from commercial entrusted to them) in commercial activi-
transactions, levies on merchants, transit ties. High officials took to running oil
taxes on merchandise, and sales taxes. presses and flour mills, dealing in real
The most prosperous of the mer- estate, and providing capital for mer-
chants were the great dealers in salt, the chants. The wall between the ruling class
tea merchants from Jiangxi, the bankers and the merchants that had existed since
of the great cities and particularly of the Han period was rapidly breaking
Chang’an, and the merchants engaged in down in the 9th century, and the growth
overseas trade in the coastal ports. of urbanization, which characterized the
Foreign trade was still dominated by Song period (960–1279), had already
non-Chinese merchants. Yangzhou and begun on a wide scale.
ChaPTER 6
Political
Disunity Between
the Tang and
Song Dynasties
ThE fIvE DyNaSTIES
aND ThE TEN KINgDOMS
The Wudai (Five Dynasties) successive rulers moved like a relay team
along the tortuous road back to unifica-
None of the Wudai regimes that domi- tion. These militarists expanded their
nated northern China ever forgot the personal power by recruiting peoples of
ideal of the unified empire. Each sought, relatively humble social origins to replace
with gradually increasing success, to the aristocrats. Such recruits owed per-
strengthen the power of the central sonal allegiance to their masters, on
authorities. Even Zhu Wen, who began whose favours their political positions
the Wudai by deposing the last Tang depended, thus presaging the rise of
emperor in 907, sought to extend his con- absolutism.
trol in the north. While consolidating his Rather than being discarded, the
strength on the strategic plains along the Tang administrative form underwent
Huang He (Yellow River) and connect- expedient alterations so that the new
ing them with the vital transportation types of officials, promoted because of
system of the Grand Canal, he made the merit from regional posts to palace
significant choice of locating his base at positions, could use the military adminis-
Bian (present-day Kaifeng, in Henan); it tration to supervise the nearby provinces
later became the Bei (Northern) Song and gradually bring them under direct
capital. Bian’s lack of historical prestige control. Top priority went to securing fis-
was balanced by its proximity to the cal resources from the salt monopoly,
ancient capital, Luoyang, a short distance tribute transport, and in particular new
to the west, which was still China’s cul- tax revenues, without which military
tural centre. domination would have been hard to sus-
Zhu Wen’s short-lived Hou (Later) tain and political expansion impossible.
Liang dynasty, founded in 907, was Eventually, a pattern of centralizing
superseded by the Hou Tang in 923, by authority emerged. Fiscal and supply offi-
the Hou Jin in 936, by the Hou Han in cials of the successive regimes went out
947, and by the Hou Zhou in 951. These to supervise provincial finances and the
rapid successions of dynasties came to local administration. The minor milita-
an end only with the rise in 960 of the rists, heretofore the local governors in
Song dynasty, which finally succeeded in control of their own areas, were under
establishing another lasting empire and double pressure to submit to reintegrat-
in taking over much, though not all, of ing measures. They faced the inducement
the former Tang empire. of political accommodation, which
Beneath the surface, however, were allowed them to keep their residual
the continuous efforts to reintegrate the power, and the military threat of palace
political process that heralded the com- army units commanded by special com-
ing of a new empire and helped to shape missioners, which were sent on patrol
its political system. In this respect the duty into their areas. The way was thus
132 | The History of China
huang he
The Huang He (or Huang Ho; English: Yellow River) flows through northern, central, and eastern
China. The second longest river in China and one of the world’s longest, it flows 3,395 miles (5,464
km) from the Plateau of Tibet generally east to the Yellow Sea (Huang Hai). It is sometimes called
“The Great Sorrow” for its tendency to overflow its banks in its lower reaches, flooding vast areas
of rich farmland. Its outlet has shifted over the years to enter the Yellow Sea at points as far apart
as 500 miles (800 km). Irrigation and flood-control works have been maintained for centuries,
and dams, begun in the mid-1950s, exploit the river’s hydroelectric potential. A stronghold for the
Wudai regimes, it has long played a major role in Chinese history.
The icy Huang He (Yellow River) in winter, near Hukou Waterfall, northern China. China
Photos/Getty Images
Political Disunity Between the Tang and Song Dynasties | 133
paved, in spite of occasional detours and southwestern China, and in the lower
temporary setbacks, for the ultimate Yangtze region in southeastern China
unification. were of great interest. In southern China
The seemingly chaotic period was in the Min kingdom in modern Fujian and
fact less chaotic than other rebellious the Nan Han in present-day Guangdong
times—except from the standpoint of the and Guangxi reflected sharp cultural dif-
aristocrats, who lost their preeminent sta- ferences. Along the coast, sea trade
tus along with their large estates, which expanded, promoting both urban pros-
were usually taken over piecemeal by perity and cultural diversity. On land,
their former managers. The aristocratic wave after wave of refugees moved south-
era in Chinese history was gone forever; a ward, settling along rivers and streams
new bureaucratic era was about to begin. and in confining plains and mountain
valleys and using a frontier agriculture
The Shiguo (Ten Kingdoms) but with highly developed irrigation and
land reclamation. Usually they pushed
From the time of the Tang dynasty until aside the aboriginal minorities, earlier
the Qing dynasty, which arose in the 17th settlers, and previous immigrant groups.
century, China consisted of two parts: the This process turned southern China into
militarily strong north and the economi- a cultural chessboard of great complex-
cally and culturally wealthy south. ity, with various subcultural pieces
Between 907 and 960, 10 independent sandwiched between one another. Many
kingdoms emerged in China, mainly in eventually evolved along different lines.
the south: the Wu (902–937), the Nan In southwestern China the valley of
(Southern) Tang (937–975/976), the Nan what is now Sichuan presented a notably
Ping (924–963), the Chu (927–951), the different picture of continuous growth.
Qian (Former) Shu (907–925), the Hou Usually protected from outside distur-
(Later) Shu (934–965), the Min (909–945), bances and invasions by the surrounding
the Bei (Northern) Han (951–979), the mountains, it enjoyed peace and prosper-
Nan Han (917–971), and the Wu-Yue (907– ity except for one decade of instability
978), the last located in China’s most between the Qian Shu and Hou Shu. The
rapidly advancing area—in and near the beautiful landscape inspired poets, who
lower Yangtze delta. infused a refreshing vitality into old-style
Some of these separate regimes poetry and essays. In this region, a
achieved relative internal stability, stronghold of Daoist religion, the people
although none attained enough strength inserted into Confucian scholarship an
to strive to unify China. Nonetheless, the admixture of Daoist philosophy.
regional developments in southern Buddhism also flourished. These intellec-
China, in the upper Yangtze region in tual trends in Sichuan foreshadowed an
134 | The History of China
eclectic synthesis of the three major From the Wudai onward, southeast-
teachings—Confucianism, Daoism, and ern China, especially its core region of
Buddhism. the Yangtze delta, began to lead the
The Buddhist monasteries owned country in both economic prosperity
large estates and were usually among and cultural refinement. In this region,
the first to introduce new and better fertile soil, irrigation networks, and
technology. Growing commerce created highly selected crops combined to cre-
a demand for money. The ensuing short- ate the best model of intensive farming.
age of copper for coinage was met by an Interlocking streams, rivers, and lakes fed
increasing output of iron through more- an ever-increasing number of markets,
efficient methods and an elementary market towns, cities, and metropolitan
division of labour in production. When areas, where many farm products were
the limited number of copper coins could processed into an ever-expanding variety
no longer meet the growing volume of of consumer goods. Such development
trade, iron currency briefly went into cir- enhanced regional trade, stimulated
culation. With increasing commerce, other regions to adopt specialization, and
various paper credit instruments were promoted overseas commerce.
also developed, the best-known being The Song conquerors from the north
drafts for transmitting funds called feiq- recognized the high level of cultural
ian (“flying money”). Somewhat later the development in this region. After the sur-
private assay shops in Sichuan began to render of the last Nan Tang ruler, himself
issue certificates of deposit to merchants a renowned poet, the unexcelled royal
who had left valuables at the shops for library was moved to the north; along
safekeeping. These instruments, which with it went many officials who were
began to circulate, were the direct ances- skilled in art, literature, and bibliography.
tors of the paper money that emerged in The surrender of the Wu-Yue kingdom,
the early 11th century. slightly farther south, followed the same
During the Wudai, printing became pattern. Moreover, refined culture devel-
common. The most famous and monu- oped away from the coast in such inland
mental cultural production of the period mountainous areas as present-day
was the editing and printing of the Jiangxi, which shortly thereafter pro-
Confucian Classics and the Buddhist duced internationally coveted porcelain
Tipitaka, but a printing industry also and where many great artists and scholar-
emerged during the Wudai that produced officials attained positions of cultural
works for private buyers. The best print- leadership. Thereafter, southeastern
ing in the country during the Wudai and China retained its cultural excellence. At
the Song dynasty came from the regions the end of the Bei Song period, the Nan
of Sichuan and Fujian. Song based itself in the lower Yangtze
Political Disunity Between the Tang and Song Dynasties | 135
delta and located its capital at Lin-an religion, in government and education
(present-day Hangzhou), the former capi- followed the Tang model, and devised a
tal of the Wu-Yue. written script for their own language.
As traditional histories stress, this This richly mixed culture blossomed, as
period of disunity definitely had its dark evidenced by the storing at the
side: militarism, wars, disintegration of Dunhuang caves of an unparalleled col-
the old order, and an inevitable lowering lection of more than 30,000 religious
of moral standards. The dark side, how- paintings, manuscripts, and books in
ever, stemmed largely from underlying Chinese, Tibetan, Uighur, and other lan-
changes that were transforming China guages. In 1038 the Tangut proclaimed
into a new pattern that would last for their own kingdom of Xi Xia, which sur-
nearly a millennium. vived for nearly two centuries with
remarkable stability despite a series of
Barbarian dynasties on-and-off border clashes with the
neighbouring states in northern China.
On the frontier, the far-reaching influ- The kingdom’s end came at the hands of
ence of Tang culture affected various the Mongols, the first nomads to con-
nomadic, seminomadic, and pastoral quer all of China.
peoples. Three groups in the northern
areas—the Tangut, Khitan, and Juchen— The Khitan
established their own regimes in the
region. Respectively, these were the Xi To the north at the time of the Wudai rose
(Western) Xia, Liao, and Jin dynasties. the seminomadic but largely pastoral
Khitan, who were related to the eastern
The Tangut Mongols. The word Khitan (or Khitai) is
the source of Cathay, the name for north-
In the northwest the Tangut (Pinyin: ern China in medieval Europe (as
Dangxiang), a Tibetan-speaking branch reported by Marco Polo), and of Kitai, the
of the Qiang, inhabited the region Russian name for China. The Khitan
between the far end of the Great Wall in founded the Liao dynasty (907–1125) by
present-day Gansu and the Huang He expanding from the border of Mongolia
bend in Inner Mongolia. Their semi- into both southern Manchuria and the 16
oasis economy combined irrigated prefectures south of the Great Wall. This
agriculture with pastoralism, and, by area below the line of the Great Wall was
controlling the terminus of the famous to remain out of Chinese political control
Silk Road, they became middlemen in for more than 400 years. Its control by a
trade between Central Asia and China. non-Chinese state posed a dangerous
They adopted Buddhism as a state security problem for the Bei (Northern)
136 | The History of China
Song. More importantly in the long run, Tang official titles, an examination sys-
this region acted for centuries as a centre tem, Chinese-style tax regulations, and
for the mutual exchange of culture the Chinese language. The laws of the
between the Chinese and the northern second administration enforced the
peoples. established way of life, including such
The Liao made Yanjing (present-day practices as ancestral worship among the
Beijing) their southern capital, thus start- Chinese subjects. The status of Chinese
ing that city’s history as a capital, and subjects varied: some were free subjects
claimed to be the legitimate successors who might move upward into the civil
to the Tang. They incorporated their own service, while others might be held in
tribes under respective chieftains and, bondage and slavery.
with other subdued tribes in the area, Though honouring the Confucian
formed a confederation, which they then philosophy, the Liao rulers patronized
transformed into a hereditary monarchy. Chinese Buddhism. Their achievements
Leadership always remained in the hands were generally military and administra-
of the ruling tribe, the Yelü, who for the tive rather than cultural, but they did
sake of stability shifted to the Chinese provide a model for their successors, the
clan system of orderly succession. Jin, who in turn influenced the Mongols
The Liao economy was based on and, through them, succeeding Chinese
horse and sheep raising and on agricul- dynasties.
ture. Millet was the main crop, and salt,
controlled by government monopoly, was The Juchen
an important source of revenue. Other
commodities included iron produced by The Liao were eventually overthrown by
smelters. The Liao employed an effective the Juchen (Pinyin: Nüchen), another
dual system of administration to guard seminomadic and semipastoral people
against the danger of being absorbed by who originated in Manchuria, swept
Sinicization. They had one administra- across northern China, ended the Bei
tion for their own people that enforced Song, and established the Jin dynasty
tribal laws, maintained traditional rites, (1115–1234). This new and much larger
and largely retained the steppe style of empire in northern China followed the
food and clothing. The Liao deliberately Liao pattern of dual government and of
avoided the use of Chinese and added to some acculturation but at a much higher
their particular branch of the Mongolian cultural level.
language two types of writing—a smaller The Juchen, in establishing their
one that was alphabetical and a larger Chinese-style Jin empire, occupied a
one related to Chinese characters. A sec- broader geographic region in the farming
ond administration governed the farming country than had any previous nomadic
region using the old Tang system, with or pastoral conquerors. The migration of
Political Disunity Between the Tang and Song Dynasties | 137
their own people in large numbers not- was on the side of the majority culture,
withstanding, they were proportionally a which gradually absorbed the minority.
smaller minority than were the Khitan, The transplanted tribesmen, after settling
for the Jin ruled a much larger Chinese on farmland, could not avoid being
population. Because they formed a small affected by the Chinese way of life, particu-
minority in their own empire, their tribes- larly during long periods of peace.
men were kept in a standing army that Economically, the Juchen were no
was always prepared for warfare. They match for the Chinese. In time a number
were quartered among their farming of Juchen became tenants on Chinese-
subjects but were expected to respond to owned land; some were reduced to
the command of their captains at short paupers. Their economic decline altered
notice. In the military service the Juchen social relations. Eventually they were
language was kept alive, and no Chinese- permitted to intermarry, usually with
style names, clothing, or customs were parties wealthier than themselves. Their
permitted. They realized that protecting military strength also declined. It
their separate ethnic and cultural iden- became normal for military units to be
tity was indispensable to maintaining undermanned. Captains of “hundreds”
military superiority. often could put no more than two dozen
Politically, however, it was necessary men into the field, and captains of “thou-
for the Juchen rulers to familiarize them- sands” had no more than four or five
selves with the sophisticated culture of such nominal “hundreds” under them.
their Chinese subjects in order to man- Their ruling class followed a parallel
age state affairs. While limiting Chinese decline. The interests of the ruling
participation in the government, they group shifted from government affairs
shrewdly deflected the interests of their to Confucian studies, Chinese Classics,
subjects toward the pursuit of such and Tang- and Song-style poetry. The
peaceful arts as printing, scholarship, rulers found little use for the two styles
painting, literature, and, significantly, the of Juchen script that their ancestors had
development of drama for widespread devised. Eventually the Juchen, much
entertainment. (These trends continued weakened, were brought down by the
under the Mongols and enriched Chinese Mongols, led by Genghis Khan and his
culture.) In spite of the Juchen efforts, time successors.
ChaPTER 7
The Song Dynasty
The Bei Song (also known simply as the Song) was the last
major Chinese dynasty to be founded by a coup d’état. Its
founder, Zhao Kuangyin (known by his temple name, Taizu),
the commander of the capital area of Kaifeng and inspector
general of the imperial forces, usurped the throne from the
Hou (Later) Zhou, the last of the Wudai.
Unification
the lowest level of major direct imperial succession. Instead, the emperor’s
rule (though there were some petty offi- younger brother, who had acquired much
cials on levels below the district). Because experience at his side, seized the throne.
the members of the formal civil service With reunification accomplished in the
level of the government were so few, south, the new emperor, Taizong (reigned
actual administration in the yamen, or 976–997), turned northward to attack and
administrative headquarters, depended conquer Bei Han (979), the last remaining
heavily on the clerical staff. Beyond the Shiguo. He continued to fight the Khitan
yamen walls, control was in the hands of empire in the north, only to suffer a disas-
an officially sanctioned but locally staffed trous defeat in 986. Taizong’s relative
sub-bureaucracy. shortage of horses and grazing grounds
Following Confucian ideals, the to breed them, in contrast to the strong
founder of the Song dynasty lived mod- Khitan cavalries, was not the only reason
estly, listened to his ministers, and curbed for the defeat. It also resulted from a
excessive taxation. The rising prestige of deliberate policy of removing generals
his regime preceded his conquests. He from their armies, subordinating officers
also absorbed the best military units to civilians, concentrating strength in
under his own command and disciplined imperial units, and converting most pro-
them in the same Confucian style. His vincial armies into labour battalions.
superior force notwithstanding, he The Song never achieved a military
embarked on a reunification program by prowess comparable to that of the Han or
mixing war with lenient diplomatic or the Tang. Despite the occasional bellicos-
accommodative terms that assured ity of its officials, the Song government
defeated rivals of generous treatment. A failed to penetrate Indochina or to break
well-planned strategy first took Sichuan the power of the Xi Xia of Gansu and
in the southwest in 965, the extreme Shaanxi. As a result, Song China became
south in 971, and the most prosperous increasingly isolated, especially from
lower Yangtze area in the southeast one Central Asia, whence much cultural stim-
year before his death, making the reunifi- ulus had come under preceding dynasties.
cation nearly complete. The Wu-Yue, the Combined with a natural pride in internal
sole survivor among the Shiguo (Ten advancements, China’s cultural ethno-
Kingdoms) in the south, chose to surren- centrism deepened.
der without a war in 978.
The sudden death of the founder of Consolidation
the Song dynasty left a speculative leg-
end of assassination, though it was The Song achieved consolidation under
probably caused by his heavy drinking. the third emperor, Zhenzong (reigned
The legend stemmed from the fact that 997–1022). A threatening Khitan offen-
his young son was denied the orderly sive was directly met by the emperor
The Song Dynasty | 141
himself, but a few battles assured neither than it had been in the early Song. Well-
side of victory. The two empires pledged regulated civil service examinations
peaceful coexistence in 1004 through an brought new groups of excellent scholar-
exchange of sworn documents that fore- officials who, though a numerical
shadowed modern international treaties. minority, dominated the higher policy-
The Khitan gave up its claim to a dis- making levels of government. The
puted area it had once occupied south of sponsorship system, which discouraged
the Great Wall, and the Song agreed to a favouritism by putting responsibility on
yearly tribute: 100,000 units (a rough the sponsors for the official conduct of
equivalent of troy ounces) of silver and their appointees, also ensured deserving
200,000 rolls of silk. It was a modest promotions and carefully chosen appoint-
price for the Song to pay for securing ments. Many first-rate officials—especially
the frontier. those from the south whose families had
The emperor thereafter sought to no previous bureaucratic background—
strengthen his absolutist image by claim- upheld Confucian ideals. These new
ing a Daoist charisma. Prompted by officials were critical not only of palace
magicians and ingratiating high officials, impropriety but also of bureaucratic mal-
he proclaimed that he had received a practices, administrative sluggishness,
sacred document directly from heaven. fiscal abuses, and socioeconomic inequi-
He ordered a grand celebration with ties. Respecting absolutism, they focused
elaborate rites, accompanied by recon- their attacks on a veteran chief council-
structed music of ancient times, and he lor, whom the emperor had trusted for
made a tour to offer sacrifices at Mount years. Factionalism developed because
Tai, following precedents of the Qin, Han, many established scholar-officials, mostly
and Tang dynasties. from the north, with long bureaucratic
After the emperor’s death, friction family backgrounds, stood by their leader,
arose between his widow—the empress the same chief councillor.
dowager, who was acting as regent—and A series of crises seems to prove that
Renzong (reigned 1022–63), Zhenzong’s the complaints of the idealists were justi-
teenage son by a palace lady of humble fied. After half a century of complacency,
rank. Following the death of the empress peace and prosperity began to erode.
dowager, Renzong divorced his empress, This became apparent in the occurrence
who had been chosen for him by and had of small-scale rebellions near the capital
remained in sympathy with the empress itself, in the disturbing inability of local
dowager. However, the divorce was unjus- governors to restore order themselves,
tifiable in Confucian morality and and in a dangerous penetration of the
damaged the imperial image. northwestern border by Xi Xia, which
By that time the bureaucracy was rejected its vassal status and declared
more highly developed and sophisticated itself an independent kingdom. The
142 | The History of China
Khitan took advantage of the changing their idealism was modified by the polit-
military balance by threatening another ical lesson they had learned. Eschewing
invasion. The idealistic faction, put into policy changes and tolerating col-
power under these critical circumstances leagues of varying opinions, they made
in 1043–44, effectively stopped the Xi Xia appreciable progress by concentrating
on the frontier by reinforcing a chain of on the choice of better personnel, proper
defense posts and made it pay due respect direction, and careful implementation
to the Song as the superior empire within the conventional system, but
(though the Song no longer claimed many fundamental problems remained
suzerainty). Meanwhile, peace with the unsolved. Mounting military expendi-
Khitan was again ensured when the Song tures did not bring greater effectiveness,
increased its yearly tribute to them. and an expanding and more costly
The court also instituted administra- bureaucracy could not reverse the trend
tive reforms, stressing the need for of declining tax yields. Income no lon-
emphasizing statecraft problems in civil ger covered expenditures. During the
service examinations, eliminating brief reign of Yingzong (1063–67), rela-
patronage appointments for family mem- tively minor disputes and symbolically
bers and relatives of high officials, and important issues concerning ceremonial
enforcing strict evaluation of administra- matters embroiled the bureaucracy in
tive performance. It also advocated mutual and bitter criticism.
reducing compulsory labour, land recla-
mation and irrigation construction, Reforms
organizing local militias, and thoroughly
revising codes and regulations. Though Shenzong (reigned 1067–85) was a reform
mild in nature, the reforms hurt vested emperor. Originally a prince reared out-
interests. Shrewd opponents undermined side the palace, familiar with social
the reformers by misleading the emperor conditions and devoted to serious stud-
into suspecting that they had received ies, he did not come into the line of
too much power and were disrespectful imperial succession until adoption had
of him personally. With the crises eased, put his father on the throne before him.
the emperor found one excuse after Shenzong responded vigorously (and
another to send most reformers away rather unexpectedly, from the standpoint
from court. The more conventionally of many bureaucrats) to the problems
minded officials were returned to power. troubling the established order, some of
Despite a surface of seeming stabil- which were approaching crisis propor-
ity, the administrative machinery once tions. Keeping above partisan politics, he
again fell victim to creeping deteriora- made the scholar-poet Wang Anshi his
tion. Some reformers eventually returned chief councillor and gave him full back-
to court, beginning in the 1050s, but ing to make sweeping reforms. Known as
The Song Dynasty | 143
the New Laws, or New Policies, these season, thus assuring their farming pro-
reform measures attempted drastic insti- ductivity and undercutting their
tutional changes. In sum, they sought dependency upon usurious loans from
administrative effectiveness, fiscal sur- the well-to-do. The government also
plus, and military strength. Wang’s maintained granaries in various cities to
famous “Ten Thousand Word Memorial” ensure adequate supplies on hand in case
outlined the philosophy of the reforms. of emergency need. The burden on
Contrary to conventional Confucian wealthy and poor alike was made more
views, it upheld assertive governmental equitable by a graduated tax scale based
roles, but its ideal remained basically on a reassessment of the size and the pro-
Confucian: economic prosperity would ductivity of the landholdings. Similarly,
provide the social environment essential compulsory labour was converted to a
to moral well-being. system of graduated tax payments, which
Never before had the government were used to finance a hired-labour ser-
undertaken so many economic activities. vice program that at least theoretically
The emperor empowered Wang to insti- controlled underemployment in farming
tute a top-level office for fiscal planning, areas. Requisition of various supplies
which supervised the Finance from guilds was also replaced by cash
Commission, previously beyond the assessments, with which the government
jurisdiction of the chief councillor. The was to buy what it needed at a fair price.
government squarely faced the reality of Wang’s reforms achieved increased
a rapidly spreading money economy by military power as well. To remedy the
increasing the supply of currency. The Song’s military weakness and to reduce
state became involved in trading, buying the immense cost of a standing profes-
specific products of one area for resale sional army, the villages were given the
elsewhere (thereby facilitating the duty of organizing militias, under the old
exchange of goods), stabilizing prices name of baojia, to maintain local order in
whenever and wherever necessary, and peacetime and to serve as army reserves
making a profit itself. This did not dis- in wartime. To reinforce the cavalry, the
place private trading activities. On the government procured horses and
contrary, the government extended loans assigned them to peasant households in
to small urban and regional traders northern and northwestern areas. Various
through state pawnshops—a practice weapons were also developed. As a result
somewhat like modern government of these efforts, the empire eventually
banking but unheard-of at the time. Far scored some minor victories along the
more important, if not controversial, the northwestern border.
government made loans at the interest The gigantic reform program
rate, low for the period, of 20 percent to required an energetic bureaucracy, which
the whole peasantry during the sowing Wang attempted to create—with mixed
144 | The History of China
Zhenshu (“regular style”) calligraphy, written by the emperor Huizong (reigned 1100–
1125/26), Bei (Northern) Song dynasty, China; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei
bureaucracy was dismissed, seeing the When his extravagant expenditures put
significant gains it would bring in popu- the treasury in deficit, he rescinded
lar support among scholar-officials. The scholarships in government schools.
emperor then commissioned the con- Support for him among scholar-officials
struction of a costly new imperial garden. soon vanished.
The Song Dynasty | 147
Spring Fragrance, Clearing After Rain, ink and slight colour on silk album leaf by Ma Lin, Nan
(Southern) Song dynasty; in the National Palace Museum, Taipei. National Palace Museum,
Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Yangtze, they found the weather there too own administration, following the Liao
warm and humid for them. Moreover, the model of dual government.
farther they went, the stronger the resis-
tance they met, as they penetrated into Survival and Consolidation
areas that had been leading the country
in productivity and population and there- Despite the fall of the Bei Song, the major-
fore in defense capability. Besides, the ity of scholar-officials refused to identify
Juchen felt concerned about the areas in themselves with the alien conquerors.
the rear that they had already occupied: The same was generally true at the grass-
one after another of their puppet rulers roots level, among numerous roving
there had failed to secure popular sup- bands of former volunteer militias, army
port, and the Juchen had been forced to units that had disintegrated, and bandits
consolidate control by setting up their who had arisen during the disorder. As
The Song Dynasty | 149
time went on, both civilians and military rural revenues, and prosperous cities did
men turned toward the pretender to the not suffer much from the imposition. The
throne, Gaozong. He was the only son of high priority placed on fiscal matters,
the former emperor Huizong who had though not publicized as in the previous
been absent from Kaifeng and thus reform period in order to avoid a bad
spared captivity. image, persisted throughout the Nan
As the founder of the Nan Song, Song, which was a long era of heavy
Gaozong devoted his long reign (1127– taxation.
62) to the arduous task of putting the Some officials, anxious to recover
pieces together. He rediscovered the lost the central plains, wished to have the
arts of his ancestors: recruiting bureau- capital located in Nanjing, or farther up
crats, securing fiscal resources, and the Yangtze in central China. Gaozong
extending centralized control. Because discreetly declined such advice because
he started with no more than a few thou- these locations were militarily exposed.
sand troops, he had to place a much Instead, he chose Hang (present-day
greater reliance on sophisticated politics, Hangzhou), renaming it Lin’an
which he often artfully disguised. By (“Temporary Safety”), as it occupied a
praising the old, established ways of his more defensible location. It was popu-
predecessors, he pleased the conserva- larly referred to as the place of imperial
tives who remained opposed to the headquarters (Xingzai), later known to
reform system. In reality, he modified the Marco Polo as Quinsai. Economically, it
system he had inherited where it had had the advantage of being at the corner
obviously failed and pragmatically of the lower Yangtze delta, the wealthy
retained the parts that were working. He core of the new empire.
honoured the scholar-officials who had The Nan Song, through continuous
refused to serve under the puppet rulers, development, eventually became wealth-
but he was also glad to have those who ier than the Bei Song had been. Though
had compromised their integrity in so its capital was near the sea—the only such
serving. While he denounced the notori- instance among the Chinese empires—
ous favourites who had misled his father, and international trade increased, the
he used the excuse of being broad- country was not sea-oriented. Gaozong
minded in picking many of their former maintained a defensive posture against
subordinates for key positions, especially periodic Juchen incursions from the
those experienced in raising tax reve- north and meanwhile proceeded to restore
nues. A new network of officials called imperial authority in the hinterland as far
the fiscal superintendent generals was west as the strategic Sichuan and in parts
set up in each region, but they reported of Shaanxi to its immediate north.
directly to court. Urban taxes were No less important was the need
increased; they were easier to collect than for adequate military forces. Neither
150 | The History of China
conscription nor recruitment would suf- called into question the legitimacy of his
fice. Because his position was militarily succession.
weak but financially strong, Gaozong A dramatic crisis occurred in 1141.
adopted the zhao’an policy, which offered On the eve of concluding peace negotia-
peace to the various roving bands. The tions, Gaozong decided to strip the three
government granted them legitimate sta- leading generals of their commands.
tus as regular troops, and it overlooked The generals, summoned to the capital
their minor abuses in local matters. Thus, on the pretext of rewarding their merits,
the size of imperial forces swelled, and were promoted to military commission-
the problem of internal security was ers, while their units were reorganized
largely settled. The court then turned its into separate entities directly under
attention to the control of these armies, imperial control. Two of the generals
which was inseparable from the issue of reconciled themselves to the nominal
war or peace with the Juchen. honours and sizable pensions, but the
Gaozong did not want to prolong the third, Yue Fei, openly criticized the peace
war; he valued most the security of his negotiations. He was put to death on a
realm. A few minor victories did not con- trumped-up charge of high treason. He
vince him that he could hope to recover later became the subject of a great leg-
northern China. Rather, he saw war as a end, in which he was seen as a symbol of
heavy drain on available resources, with patriotism. At the time, however, his
the risk of eventual defeat. Nor did he feel elimination signified full internal and
comfortable with the leading generals, on external security for the court.
whom he would have to rely in case the
war went on. He had to get around the Relations
critics at court, however, who found the with the Juchen
Juchen peace terms humiliating and
unacceptable: in addition to an enormous In spite of Gaozong’s personal inclina-
yearly tribute, the Juchen demanded that tion, his artful guiding hand, and the
the Nan Song formally admit, with due success of his efforts to consolidate the
ceremonials, its inferior status as a vassal empire, the impulse remained strong
state. The shrewd emperor found an among many idealistic Confucians to
impeccable excuse for accepting the attempt to recover the central plains.
terms by claiming filial piety: he sought Even when silenced, they were poten-
the return of his mother from captivity. tially critical of court policies. Gaozong
To this no Confucian could openly object. eventually decided to abdicate, leaving
Significantly, Gaozong refrained from the matter to his adopted heir, but he
asking the release of former emperor retained control from behind the throne.
Qinzong, as such a move would have The new emperor, Xiaozong (reigned
The Song Dynasty | 151
1163–89), sympathetic to the idealists, southern empire alone. It was also obvi-
appointed several of them to court posi- ous that the Chinese population in
tions and command posts. Information northern China consisted of new genera-
about a Juchen palace coup and alleged tions brought up under alien domination
unrest in the Juchen empire, particularly and accustomed to it.
in the parts recently occupied, led to a The Juchen not only retained their
decision to resume the war. An initial military edge over the Nan Song but
Song attack was repulsed with such also revived their ambition of southward
heavy losses that even regrouping took expansion. An offer was made to the
some time to accomplish. Sporadic fight- governor of Sichuan, who decided to
ing went on for nearly two years in the turn against the Song court in faraway
Huai valley, reflecting a military stale- Lin’an and to become king of a vassal
mate. The outcome, in 1165, was a state allied with the Juchen. The civilian
significant change in the new peace for- officials around him, however, took quick
mula: the vassal state designation was action and ended his separatist rebel-
dropped, and the Nan Song attained a lion. Though a passing danger, it
nearly equal footing with the Juchen, highlighted the fact that the Nan Song
although it had to defer to the latter consolidation was not entirely secure;
empire as the senior one. peace was preferred.
After the death of Gaozong in 1187,
Xiaozong followed the precedent of abdi- The Court’s Relations
cating. The international peace was kept with the Bureaucracy
during the brief reign of his son,
Guangzong (reigned 1190–94), but it was Gaozong set the style for all subsequent
broken again in 1205, during the reign Nan Song emperors. The first two emper-
of his grandson, Ningzong (reigned 1195– ors in the Bei Song, both strong militarists,
1224). The 40-year span of continuous had towered above the relatively modest
peace dimmed the memory of difficul- bureaucracy they had created; most of
ties in waging war. A new generation, their successors had found little difficulty
nurtured by a flourishing Confucian edu- in maintaining a balance in the bureau-
cation, tended to underestimate enemy cracy. The circumstances under which
strength and to think once more about the Nan Song came into being, however,
recovering the central plains. The Nan were quite different. Gaozong faced
Song again initiated a northward cam- tough competition in building up a loyal
paign, and again it met with defeat. The bureaucracy, first with the two puppet rul-
event left no doubt that the Juchen ers in the north and then from the dual
empire’s hold over northern China was administration the Juchen empire had
far beyond the military capability of the set up. He became keenly aware that a
152 | The History of China
cautious handling of bureaucrats was and made it known that they had done
essential. Later, the attempted rebellion so, but they did not take concrete action.
in Sichuan taught his successors the Sometimes an emperor would either
same lesson. order an investigation or express a gen-
Gaozong was an attentive student eral agreement with the criticism,
of history who consciously emulated thereby preventing the critics from
the restoration by the Dong (Eastern) making an issue of it by repeated
Han (AD 25–220) and defined his style remonstrances. On other occasions the
as the “gentle approach.” This meant emperors would listen to the critics and
using bureaucratic tactics to deal with commend them for their courage, but, to
the bureaucrats themselves. The gentle avoid stirring up a storm, the court would
approach proved helpful in maintaining explicitly forbid the circulating of private
a balance at court and thus in protect- copies of the criticisms among other
ing councillors and imperial favourites scholar-officials. More subtly, the court
from the criticism of “opinion-officials.” would sometimes announce an official
Absolutism had grown since the middle version of such criticism, leaving out the
of the Bei Song; the emperors had dele- most damaging part. Likewise, rectifying
gated much more power than before to edicts that followed the acceptance of
a few ranking councillors. Similarly, criticism often had little substance.
imperial favourites—e.g., eunuchs, other Reconciliation at court was another tech-
personal attendants of the emperor, nique: an emperor would deliberately, if
and relatives of the consorts—gained not evasively, attribute criticism to prob-
influence. able misunderstanding, assemble the
The opinion-officials by virtue of parties in dispute, ask them to compose
their rank or conviction wished to speak their differences, caution those under
against those who abused power and attack to mend their ways, and suggest to
influence; as a result of the factionalism the critics that their opinions, though
that had plagued the late Bei Song, their valid, should be modified. The handling
effectiveness had declined and never of severe critics who refused to change
recovered. But as long as absolutism was their stand required different tactics.
qualified by Confucian values and the Seemingly accepting their adverse opin-
monarch cherished a Confucian image, ion, the court might reward them by
he had to learn to deal with some adverse promotion to a higher position, whose
opinions, and he often resorted to sophis- functions did not include the rendering
ticated delaying tactics. Skilled at of further advice. Rarely did the court
bureaucratic manipulation, the Nan Song demote or punish opinion-officials, espe-
emperors listened to criticism with osten- cially those with prestige; sometimes it
sible grace, responded appreciatively, would not even permit them to resign or
The Song Dynasty | 153
to ask for a transfer. Any such move geographic area. In addition, the size of
tended to damage the court’s valuable the bureaucracy and fluidity of its com-
Confucian image. On sensitive issues position precluded anyone from
the emperors were likely to invoke their controlling it. The tenure of chief council-
absolutist power, but this was usually lor essentially depended on the sanction
handled gently, by quietly advising the of the emperor. At times even the chief
opinion-officials to refrain from com- councillor had to reaffirm his loyalty
menting on the issues again. along with other bureaucrats. Loyalty in
Under this bureaucratized manipula- absolutist terms being another name for
tion by the court, the institution of submission, the court, bureaucratized as
opinion-officials degenerated. Often the it was, retained its supreme position
emperors appointed their own friends beyond challenge.
to such posts, but just as often, when Nevertheless, the history of Nan
the emperors hinted that they were Song politics had much to do with pow-
displeased with certain ministers, the erful chief councillors, increasingly so as
opinion-officials dutifully responded time went on. Gaozong at first had a
with unfavourable evidence, thus furnish- rapid succession of ranking ministers,
ing the court with grounds for dismissals. but none of them measured up to the dif-
Such imperial manipulations served ficult task at hand: seeking external
manifold purposes: safeguarding abso- security by maintaining peace with the
lutist power and its delegation to various northern empire and maintaining inter-
individuals, disguising absolutism, and nal security by undermining the power
keeping the bureaucracy in balance. of leading generals. Only the chief coun-
cillor Qin Kui did both; moreover, he
The Chief Councillors increased tax revenues, strengthening
the fiscal base of the court and enriching
The later Nan Song emperors preferred the private imperial treasury. For these
not to take on the awesome burden of merits, he was given full support to
managing the huge and complex bureau- impose tight control over the bureau-
cracy. Most of them were concerned cracy as long as he lived. Powerful as he
chiefly with security and the status quo. was, he avoided doing anything that
The Nan Song court delegated a tremen- might arouse imperial suspicion. He had
dous amount of power and thus had a many dissident scholar-officials ban-
series of dominant chief councillors; ished from court, but only with imperial
none of them, however, ever was a poten- sanction. He accommodated many
tial usurper. No bureaucrat during the bureaucrats, even those who neither
Song era had a political base, a hereditary opposed nor followed him, but he made
hold, or a personal following in any many of them jealous of his great power
154 | The History of China
supply of candidates far exceeded the there was a huge output of legislation in
vacancies. the form of imperial edicts and approved
According to Confucian theory, any memorials that took precedence over the
prosperity that made possible more newly adopted code and soon largely dis-
books in print, more schools, and a placed it in many areas of law. Song legal
better-educated elite was all for the bureaucrats periodically compiled and
good. But the original Confucian ideal edited the results of this outpouring of
intended to have the elite serve the soci- new laws. The new rules not only altered
ety in general and the community in the content of the (largely criminal)
particular rather than flood the bureau- sphere covered by the code but also legis-
cracy. Rising educational standards lated in the areas of administrative,
made the competition at examinations commercial, property, sumptuary, and
harder and perhaps raised the average ritual law. There were literally hundreds
quality of degree holders. of compilations of various sorts of laws.
Families with members in the Perhaps as a result of the growth of
bureaucracy responded in part by suc- this legal tangle from the late Bei Song
cessfully increasing the importance of onward, magistrates made increasing use
other avenues of entrance into govern- of precedents, decisions by the central
ment service, especially the “protection” legal authorities on individual cases, in
privilege that allowed high officials to reaching legal decisions. The govern-
secure official rank for their protégés ment sought to help its officials by
(usually junior family members). People instituting a variety of devices to encour-
outside the civil service responded by age officials and prospective officials to
altering their goals and values and by learn the law and to certify that those in
reducing the stress on the importance of office did have some familiarity with
entering the bureaucracy. It was not acci- things legal. There was an increase in the
dental that Neo-Confucian academies writing and publication of other sorts of
spread during the era, emphasizing works concerned with the law, including
moral self-development—not success in casebooks and the world’s oldest extant
examinations—as the proper goal of book on forensic medicine. Despite the
education. appearance of such works, which were
During the Song period, increased intended to help them, officials were
emphasis was placed on morals and eth- under strong pressure to rule in a conser-
ics and a continuous development of the vative way and to avoid rocking the boat.
law. The early Song had adopted a legal Many scholar-officials sought sim-
code almost wholly traceable to an earlier ply to keep things quiet and maintain
Tang code, but Song circumstances dif- the appearance that there was no serious
fered from those of the Tang. As a result, trouble. The bureaucratic style was to
The Song Dynasty | 157
evasion by those who befriended collud- his followers, a state permeated by true
ing officials and clerks, and an undue Confucian practices would be so inter-
shift of the tax burden onto those least nally strong and would have such an
able to pay. attraction for outsiders that retaking the
north would require only a minimal effort;
The rise of a state lacking true Confucian practices
Neo-Confucianism would be so internally weak and unat-
tractive that retaking the lost territories
The rise of the particular school of Neo- would be quite impossible.
Confucianism led by Zhu Xi takes on Moreover, threatened by the Juchen
special meaning in this context. The Neo- adoption of the same heritage, the Song
Confucian upsurge beginning in the late felt driven to make an exclusive claim to
Tang embraced many exciting exten- both legitimacy and orthodoxy. Such a
sions of the Classical vision. Noteworthy claim required that the new departures
during the Bei Song was the emergence be interpreted as reaffirmation of ancient
of a new Confucian metaphysics that was ideals. Thus, the intellectual trend that
influenced by Buddhism and that bor- developed under Zhu Xi’s leadership was
rowed freely from Daoist terminology referred to first as Daoxue (“School of
while rejecting both religions. Of rele- True Way”) and later as Lixue (“School
vance to Nan Song political and social of Universal Principles”). Education, to
conditions was its continuous growth the thinkers of this school, meant a far-
into a well-integrated philosophical sys- deeper self-cultivation of moral
tem that synthesized metaphysics, ethics, consciousness, the ultimate extent of
social ideals, political aspirations, indi- which was the inner experience of feeling
vidual discipline, and self-cultivation. at one with universal principles. These
The best thinkers of the early Nan men, who might be described as tran-
Song were disillusioned by the realiza- scendental moralists in Confucianism,
tion that previous Neo-Confucian also made a commitment to reconstruct a
attempts had failed. Reforms that had moral society—to them the only conceiv-
sought to apply statecraft had ended in able foundation for good government.
abuses and controversies. The spread of With missionary-like zeal, they engaged
education had not coincided with an in propagation of this true way and
uplifting of moral standards. The loss of formed moral-intellectual fellowships.
the central plains was a great cultural Zhu Xi, the great synthesizer, ranked the
shock, but to talk of recovering the lost Classics in a step-by-step curriculum,
territory was useless unless it was pre- interpreted his foremost choices, collec-
ceded by a rediscovery of the true tively known as the Sishu (“Four Books”),
meaning of Confucianism. To Zhu Xi and summed up a monumental history in a
160 | The History of China
The Song Dynasty | 161
short version full of moralistic judgments, the court. The school was proscribed as
prepared other extensive writings and false learning and un-Confucian. Several
sayings of his own, and opened the way dozen of its leaders, including Zhu Xi,
for an elementary catechism, titled the were banished, some to distant places.
Sanzijing (“Three Character Classics”), Thenceforth, all state examination candi-
that conveyed the entire value system dates had to declare that they had no
of this school in simple language for connection with the school.
what approximated mass education. Most historical accounts follow the
Many idealistic scholars flocked to view that the controversy was another
Zhu Xi, his associates, and his disciples. example of factional strife, but that was
Frustrated and alienated by the prevalent not the case. The attackers were not a
conditions and demoralizing low stan- cohesive group, except for their common
dards, these intellectuals assumed a resentment toward the school, nor was
peculiar archaic and semireligious life- the school itself an active group in poli-
style. Prominent in scholarship, tics. The conflict was in fact one between
educational activities, and social leader- two polarized levels—political power and
ship and filling some relatively minor ideological authority. The nature of the
government posts, they asserted their Confucian state required that the two
exclusive ideological authority with an should converge if not coincide.
air of superiority, much to the displeasure The persecution boomeranged by
of many conventional Confucians. making heroes out of its victims and
Though they were not keen about poli- arousing sympathy among neutral
tics, the prestige they acquired was an scholar-officials. Realizing his mistake a
implicit threat to those in power. The few years later, Han lifted the ban. Most
chief councillor Han Tuozhou was par- historical accounts leave an erroneous
ticularly alarmed when he found some of impression that, once the ban was
his political adversaries sympathetic to removed, the Zhu Xi school of Neo-
and even supporting this particular Confucianism by its preeminence soon
school. A number of other bureaucrats at gained wide acceptance, which almost
various ranks shared Han’s alarm; one automatically raised it to the coveted sta-
after another, they accused the school of tus of official orthodoxy. But in reality the
being similar to a subversive religious rise to orthodoxy was slow and achieved
sect, calling it a threat to state security by political manipulation, occasioned by
and attacking its alleged disrespect for an internal crisis of imperial succession
Neo-Confucian leader Zhu Xi, ink on paper, by an unknown artist; in the National Palace
Museum, Taipei. Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taiwan, Republic of China
162 | The History of China
without overburdening other regions; (2) stressed loyalty, and that in turn probably
the tax burden and the emergency requi- helped bolster the strength of the dynasty
sitions fell mostly on the prosperous in the face of foreign invasion and helped
urban sectors rather than on rural areas, limit internal disloyalty.
the backbone of the empire; and (3)
scholar-officials in many areas, in spite Song culture
of their shortcomings, were sophisti-
cated in the art of administration, The Song was an era of great change in
moving quickly to put down small upris- most facets of Chinese life. Some of these
ings before they got larger or offering developments were the outgrowths of
accommodative terms to induce some earlier patterns, while others were largely
rebel leaders to come over while divid- born under that dynasty. These develop-
ing the rest. Finally, the Neo-Confucian ments often related to or were made
values had pervaded the country through possible by major changes in Chinese
more books, more schooling, and greater economic life.
efforts by Neo-Confucians to promote An agricultural revolution produced
moral standards, community solidarity, plentiful supplies for a population of
and welfare activities and through wide- more than 100 million—by far the largest
spread Neo-Confucian roots planted at in the world at the time. Acreages under
the local levels by half-literate storytell- cultivation multiplied in all directions,
ers, makeshift theatres, and traveling stretching across sandy lands, climbing
companies in various performing arts. uphill, and pushing back water edges. A
The examination system itself played variety of early ripening rice, imported
a major role in the Confucianization of during the 11th century from Champa (in
Chinese society. Only a small percentage present-day Cambodia), shortened the
of the candidates actually passed the growing season to fewer than 100 days,
degree examinations and entered the making two crops per year the norm and
civil service. The vast majority, thor- three crops possible in the warm south.
oughly imbued with Confucian studies, Among other new crops the most impor-
returned to the larger society, often to tant was cotton, which was made into
serve as teachers to the next generation. clothing for rich and poor alike; silk and
Furthermore, the examination system hemp were also important. Improved
reinforced the deeply Confucian charac- tools, new implements, and mechanical
ter of the curriculum, from the lowest devices that raised manpower efficiency
level of primary education to the highest were widely used and found their way
level in the academies. Children began into guidebooks used by the literate com-
imbibing Confucian moral precepts munity leaders. The production of such
when they began to read. These precepts minerals as gold, silver, lead, and tin also
164 | The History of China
with multiple decks were propelled by service skill that remained unmatched
fast-moving wheels paddled by man- until the appearance of adding machines
power; many sailed on the high seas, and computers. Cities changed: the Tang
aided by accurate compasses, charts, and pattern of walled-in blocks, each for a par-
instruments as well as by experience in ticular trade, broke down; stores appeared
distant navigation. The expanding sea in various parts of cities; and trade guilds
trade, apart from that with Japan and proliferated. Though official documents
Korea, moved southward and linked up and scholarly essays adopted a down-
with merchants from Persia and Arabia. grading tone toward commercial
Some Chinese merchants began to settle activities, Song China became a society
in Southeast Asia. For the first time in of wholesalers, shippers, storage keepers,
history, Chinese naval forces assumed a brokers, traveling salesmen, retail shop-
vital military role, though China had not keepers, and peddlers. Urban life reached
become a sea power. a new intensity. The populations of sev-
An advanced money economy was eral metropolitan areas approached one
everywhere in evidence. Many cultivated million.
lands produced cash crops. By 1065 the Crowding was serious in the cities,
Bei Song government was taking in and houses usually had narrow front-
annual cash tax payments that were 20 ages. Fires were frequent and disastrous.
times what the Tang had received in 749. Neighbourhood fire squads, with water
The income of the Nan Song consisted of containers at hand, could not prevent
more cash revenues than grain and tex- destruction, and some fires lasted sev-
tile receipts. The economy had progressed eral days. Nonetheless, prosperity was
to such a state that it needed more means the keynote of urban life. Teahouses,
of exchange. Merchants used drafts wine shops, exquisite cuisines, and
called feiqian (“flying money”) and cer- catering services for private parties
tificates of deposits made elsewhere. existed in multitude and variety.
State monopoly agencies in salt and tea Pleasure grounds provided daily amuse-
followed with their respective certificates, ment and festival merriment with
which were as good as money. The gov- acrobats, jugglers, wrestlers, sword swal-
ernment first permitted printed paper lowers, snake charmers, fireworks,
money for limited regional circulation gambling, performing arts of all sorts,
and then authorized it as nationwide puppet shows, storytellers, singing girls,
legal tender. (China was the first country and professionally trained courtesans.
to do so.) Upper-class families enjoyed higher
Busy transactions approached a com- culture, with diversions such as music,
mercial revolution, carried on by rapid pets, intricate games, hobbies, calligra-
calculations on the abacus, a specialized phy, painting, and poetry. Noticeably
166 | The History of China
declining were hunting, horseback riding, knowledge so much that scholars com-
and polo. Gentility displaced sportsman- piled voluminous histories, collected
ship. The prosperous cities also provided works, comprehensive handbooks, com-
easy prey for pickpockets and profes- pendiums, and encyclopaedias. Fine arts
sional thieves. Inasmuch as pauperism also reached new heights.
appeared in cities, parallel to rural under- The term early modern has often
employment and unemployment, the been applied in describing Song culture,
government undertook relief and welfare because it not only advanced beyond
measures such as orphanages, nursing the earlier pattern in China and far
homes for the aged poor, charitable grave- ahead of the rest of the world at the
yards, and state pharmacies. time but also had many startlingly
Knowledge expanded because of new features that approximated later
specialization. Medicine embraced skills developments in western Europe. This
such as acupuncture, obstetrics, den- characterization, though helpful to high-
tistry, laryngology, ophthalmology, and light and appreciate the progress during
treatment of rheumatism and paralysis. Song times, is somewhat misleading,
The demand for improved technology, since this stage of development did not
aided by certain concerns of the Neo- pave the way for more modernity later.
Confucian philosophy, helped to On the contrary, the Song pattern
promote numerous investigations that attained cultural stability, giving rise to
approached the use of scientific meth- the myth of an unchanging China.
ods. Literacy spread with printing, which These conflicting images stemmed
evolved from rubbing through block from the cultural and regional diversity
printing to the use of movable type that of the Song, in which modern-style
facilitated much larger-scale production advances existed alongside continuing
at reduced cost. A great many scholars older practices. In some areas, such as
achieved high standing through the delta lands immediately south of the
Classical studies, newly developed Yangtze River, sizable estates grew up
archaeology, philosophical interpreta- with a complicated social pattern char-
tions, statecraft ideas, Classical forms of acterized by tenant farming. Elsewhere,
poetry, an evolving lyric poetry called ci, in areas less well-developed, owner-
which had its origin in singing, and writ- farmers constituted a greater proportion
ten versions of popular songs, called of the population, while in other regions
sanqu. Of greatest influence on scholar- the landlords tried to bind the tillers to
officials in succeeding generations was a the soil. The same confusion was
masterly prose style that was original and reflected in the status of women. During
creative but was always used in the name the Song the notorious practice of foot
of reviving ancient models. Diversified binding first became common, clearly
and specialized developments widened marking a fall in the status of women,
The Song Dynasty | 167
but there is evidence that during the capital investment. This disincentive to
Nan Song (unlike any other Chinese investment helped create a relatively sta-
dynasty) daughters as well as sons could ble economic and technological pattern
inherit property in their own names. that remained with little change for cen-
Furthermore, Song families tried in vari- turies thereafter. Despite this slowing of
ous ways to strengthen the ties created economic and technological develop-
by the marriages of their daughters to ment, however, the Song did give birth to
other families. changes. Not only did a new Confucian
The extraordinarily rapid pace of eco- synthesis emerge but also the devices
nomic and technological change that that spread the new ideas among the peo-
marked the Bei Song seems to have ple at large. The urban and urbanized
slowed during the Nan Song. For reasons culture that arose in the Song was
that are not wholly clear, Chinese society retained and developed in succeeding
did not break through its inherited pat- dynasties, when the early modern (or
terns in any radically new ways. It may be neo-traditional) pattern created in the
that, with an abundance of inexpensive Song provided both the model for and
labour, economic rationality moved men the basis of the gradual transformation of
to produce through increased amounts of some aspects of Chinese life that belied
labour rather than through innovation or the image of China as unchanging.
ChaPTER 8
The yuan, or
Mongol, Dynasty
ThE MONgOL
CONQuEST Of ChINa
genghis Khan
Genghis, or Chinggis, Khan (original name Temüjin; b. 1162—d. 1227) was the great Mongolian
warrior-ruler of the late 12th and early 13th centuries. Under his leadership, the Mongols consoli-
dated nomadic tribes into a unified Mongolia and fought from China’s Pacific coast to Europe’s
Adriatic Sea, creating the basis for one of the greatest continental empires of all time. The leader
of a destitute clan, Temüjin fought various rival clans and formed a Mongol confederacy, which in
1206 acknowledged him as Genghis Khan (“Universal Ruler”). By that year the united Mongols
were ready to move out beyond the steppe. He adapted his method of warfare, moving from depend-
ing solely on cavalry to using sieges, catapults, ladders, and other equipment and techniques
suitable for the capture and destruction of cities. In less than 10 years he took over most of Juchen-
controlled China; he then destroyed the Muslim Khwārezm-Shah dynasty while his generals raided
Iran and Russia. He is infamous for slaughtering the entire populations of cities and destroying
fields and irrigation systems but admired for his military brilliance and ability to learn. He died
on a military campaign, and the empire was divided among his sons and grandsons.
The Mongol conqueror Genghis Khan on his deathbed, surrounded by his four sons. Hulton
Archive/Getty Images
170 | The History of China
finally, in 1214 they concentrated on the Jin, left Bianjing in 1233, just before the
central capital of the Jin, Zhongdu (pres- city fell, and took up his last residence in
ent-day Beijing). Its fortifications proved Cai prefecture (Henan), but that refuge
difficult to overcome, so the Mongols was also doomed. In 1234 the emperor
concluded a peace and withdrew. Shortly committed suicide, and organized resis-
afterward the Jin emperor moved to the tance ceased. The southern border of the
southern capital at Bianjing (present- former Jin state—the Huai River—now
day Kaifeng). Genghis Khan considered became the border of the Mongol domin-
this a breach of the armistice, and his ions in northern China.
renewed attack brought large parts of
northern China under Mongol control Invasion of the Song State
and finally resulted in 1215 in the cap-
ture of Zhongdu (renamed Dadu in 1272). During the next decades an uneasy coex-
The Mongols had had little or no experi- istence prevailed between the Mongols
ence in siege craft and warfare in densely in northern China and the Song state in
populated areas; their strength had been the south. The Mongols resumed their
chiefly in cavalry attacks. The assistance advance in 1250 under the grand khan
of defectors from the Jin state probably Möngke and his brother Kublai Khan—
contributed to this early Mongol suc- grandsons of Genghis Khan. Their armies
cess. In subsequent campaigns the outflanked the main Song defenses on
Mongols relied even more on the sophis- the Yangtze River and penetrated deeply
ticated skills and strategies of the into southwestern China, conquered the
increased number of Chinese under independent Dai (Tai) state of Nanzhao
their control. (in what is now Yunnan), and even
After 1215 the Jin were reduced to a reached present-day northern Vietnam.
small buffer state between the Mongols Möngke died in 1259 while leading an
in the north and Song China in the south, army to capture a Song fortress in
and their extinction was but a matter of Sichuan, and Kublai succeeded him.
time. The Mongol campaigns against Xi Kublai sent an ambassador, Hao Jing, to
Xia in 1226–27 and the death of Genghis the Song court with an offer to establish
Khan in 1227 brought a brief respite for peaceful coexistence. Hao did not reach
Jin, but the Mongols resumed their the Song capital of Lin’an (now
attacks in 1230. Hangzhou), however, but was interned at
The Song Chinese, seeing a chance to the border and regarded as a simple spy.
regain some of the territories they had lost The Song chancellor, Jia Sidao, consid-
to the Juchen in the 12th century, formed ered the Song position strong enough to
an alliance with the Mongols and besieged risk this affront against Kublai; he thus
Bianjing in 1232. Aizong, the emperor of ignored the chance for peace offered by
The Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty | 171
A Mongol encampment, detail from the Cai Wenji scroll, a Chinese hand scroll of the Nan
(Southern) Song dynasty. Courtesy of Asia House Gallery, New York
Kublai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan founded the Yuan (Mongol) dynasty in China.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images
The Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty | 175
Mongol, and a Chinese interlinear ver- measure in the field of economic commu-
sion was added. This Chinese version nications that was unorthodox in Chinese
was in the colloquial language instead of eyes: about 1280, concessions for grain
the formal documentary style, and it fol- transport overseas were granted to
lowed the Mongol word order so that it some private Chinese entrepreneurs
must have seemed barbaric to the native from the southeastern coastal region
literati. Many of these Chinese versions (some Chinese government officials were
have survived in collections such as traditionally antagonistic toward private
Yuandianzhang. trade and enterprise, an attitude that the
ruling Mongols did not share). These pri-
Economy vate shipowners transported in their fleets
grain from the lower Yangtze region to
The Mongol conquest of the Song empire northern Chinese harbours and from
had, for the first time since the end of the there to the capital. Early in the 14th cen-
Tang, reunified all of China. Song China tury, however, these private fleet owners,
had traded with its neighbours, the Liao who had made huge fortunes, were
and the Jin, but trade had been strictly accused of treason and piracy, and the
controlled and limited to authorized bor- whole action was abolished. The Mongol
der markets. The Mongol conquest government never replaced them with
therefore reintegrated China’s economy. government fleets.
The Mongol administration, in its desire Another factor that contributed to
to utilize the resources of the former Song the flourishing internal trade in China
territory, the most prosperous part of was standardized currency. The Song and
China, tried to promote internal trade and Jin had issued paper money but only in
aimed at a fuller integration of north addition to bronze coins, which had
and south. The region around the capital remained the basic legal tender. The
was dependent on grain transports from Yuan government was the first to make
the south, and large quantities of food and paper money the only legal currency
textiles were needed to keep the Mongol throughout the empire (1260). This facili-
garrisons. The Grand Canal, which had tated financial transactions in the private
linked the river systems of the Yangtze, sector as well as in the state treasuries. As
the Huai, and the Huang since the early long as the economy as such remained
7th century, was repaired and extended to productive, the reliance on paper money
Dadu in 1292–93 with the use of corvée as the basic currency had no detrimental
(unpaid labour) under the supervision of effects. Only when the economy began to
a distinguished Chinese astronomer and disintegrate under the last Mongol ruler
hydraulic engineer, Guo Shoujing—an did the paper money become gradually
action entirely within Chinese tradition. valueless and inflation set in. One reason
This was preceded, however, by another for the paper currency might have been
178 | The History of China
that much bronze and copper was used China, and Genghis Khan had apparently
for the Buddhist cult and its statues, been impressed by the Daoist patriarch
another that metal ores in China proper Changchun. In 1223 Genghis Khan
were insufficient to supply enough coins granted to Changchun and his followers
for some 80 million people. full exemption from taxes and other
duties demanded by the government;
Religious and this was the first of a series of edicts
Intellectual Life granting special privileges to the clergy
of the various religions in China.
The Mongols did not try to impose their For some time it seemed as if Chinese
own religion (a cult of heaven, the forces Daoism would win favour with the
of nature, and shamanistic practices) on Mongol rulers at the expense of Chinese
their subjects. This gave comparative Buddhism. The Buddhists, however, also
freedom to the existing religions in China, profited from the open-minded attitude
including what the Mongol rulers consid- at the court; they tried to win influence
ered to be the sanjiao (“three teachings”): within the imperial family, prompted by
Daoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism. the fact that many Buddhist institutions
Both Daoism and Buddhism retained had been occupied by the Daoists, who
their distinctive identities and organiza- relied on Mongol favour. Under the grand
tions; although they often rivaled each khan Möngke, several discussions were
other, they were not mutually exclusive. held between the Daoist and Buddhist
The Neo-Confucianism of the Zhu Xi clergy (1255–58), ending in a ruling that
school enjoyed orthodox status after the the former Buddhist temples should be
1310s, but adherents of the three teach- returned to their original purpose.
ings interacted philosophically and Imperial orders also outlawed some apoc-
intellectually in a way that popularized ryphal Daoist texts, in which Buddhism
the “amalgamation” of the three schools was presented as a branch of Daoism and
among the common people and the lite- the Buddha as a reincarnation of Laozi,
rati, if not the foreign residents, of China. the founder of Daoism. But Daoism as
such continued to exist under the Yuan,
Daoism and the fiscal privileges originally
granted to the Daoist followers of
Under the Jin dynasty several popular Changchun were extended on principle
Daoist sects had flourished in northern to all clergies.
Timber pagoda of the Fogong Temple, 1056, Song dynasty; at Yingxian, Shanxi province,
China. Christopher Liu/ChinaStock Photo Library
The Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty | 179
180 | The History of China
sponsored arts such as sculpture and artistic vision of their own, and conserva-
ceramics, the Mongols’ desire to lay tism meant mere perpetuation. Song,
claim to the Chinese imperial heritage Liao, and Jin ceramic types were contin-
was not complemented by any strong ued, often altered only by increased bulk,
while the great artistic achievement
of the era, blue-and-white ware, prob-
ably derived from non-imperial
sources. Government-sponsored
Buddhist sculpture often attained
high artistic standards, preserving the
realism and powerful expression of
Tang and Song traditions, while in the
finest sculpture of the time, such as
the reliefs at Juyong Pass north of
Dadu (1342–45), this was combined
with a flamboyant surface decor and a
striking dramatization better suited
to foreign taste than to the increas-
ingly restrained Chinese aesthetic.
Conservatism also tempered the
private arts of calligraphy and paint-
ing: the scholar-amateurs who
produced them felt impelled to
preserve their heritage against a
perceived barbarian threat.
Conservatism, however, often took
the form of a creative revival that
combed the past for sources of
inspiration and then artistically
transformed them into a new idiom.
In calligraphy, Zhao Mengfu gave
new impetus to the 4th-century style
of Wang Xizhi, which then became a
standard for Chinese writing and
book printing for centuries. In paint-
Example of xingshu by Zhao Mengfu, Yuan
ing, Zhao and his contemporary Qian
dynasty; in the National Palace Museum,
Xuan helped to complete the devel-
Taipei. Courtesy of the National Palace
Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China opment of a distinctively amateur
style that ushered in a new phase in
The Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty | 185
the history of Chinese painting. Their their subject matter, stylistic references,
work did not continue that of the previ- or inscriptions.
ous generation but ranged widely over Naturalistic painting styles also
the available past tradition, and past contnued in popularity throughout the
styles rather than observed objects first two-thirds of the period, painted by
became the subject of artistic interpreta- such important artists as Li Kan and
tion. The naturalism of Song painting Ren Renfa. Perpetuating northern tradi-
gave way to calligraphically inspired tions of the Tang and Song periods,
abstractions. Paintings became closely these styles were practiced chiefly by
linked in style to the written inscriptions scholar-officials associated with the
that appeared upon them with increas- court at the capital. Several members of
ing frequency and prominence. Skillful the Mongol royal family became major
professional techniques and overt visual patrons or collectors of such conserva-
attractiveness were avoided, replaced by tive styles, although imperial patronage
deliberate awkwardness and an intellec- remained slight in comparison with ear-
tualized flavour. Their works were done lier periods.
for private purposes, often displaying or In the latter third of the dynasty, with
concealing personal and political a sharp decline in the practice of painting
motives, to be understood only by fellow by scholar-officials and northerners, Yuan
literati through the subtle allusions of painting was increasingly represented by
Nine Horses, detail of a hand scroll by Ren Renfa, ink and colours on silk, 1324, Yuan dynasty; in
the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Mo., U.S. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art,
Kansas City, Missouri; purchase Nelson Trust (72-8)
186 | The History of China
the innovative approach of Zhao Mengfu largely with the Italian republics (e.g.,
as practiced by reclusive scholars from Genoa, Venice). To the Italians, trade
the Suzhou-Wuxing area. Four of these— with the East was so important that the
the landscape painters Huang Gongwang, Practica della mercatura, a handbook on
Wu Zhen, Ni Zan, and Wang Meng— foreign trade, included the description of
transformed and blended certain trade routes to China.
elements from the past into highly per- Direct contacts between China and
sonal, easily recognizable styles and later Europe were insignificant, however, even
came to be known as the Four Masters of though China was part of an empire
the Yuan dynasty. In the early Ming stretching from Dadu to southern Russia.
period the Hongwu emperor decimated Chinese historical and geographic liter-
the Suzhou literati and with it Suzhou ature had little to say about the European
painting; by the end of the 15th century, parts of the Mongol empire; in the official
however, Suzhou artists once again domi- dynastic history of the Yuan, references
nated Chinese painting, and the styles of to foreign countries are limited to coun-
the Four Masters became the most influ- tries such as Korea, Japan, Nam Viet,
ential of all painting models in later Myanmar (Burma), and Champa, with
Chinese history. which China had carried on trade or trib-
utary relations for centuries, and there
Yuan China and the West are some scattered data on Russia. For
some time a Russian guards regiment
As has been mentioned, Mongol rulers existed in Dadu, and some Russian sol-
favoured trade in all their dominions. In diers were settled in military colonies in
China too they eliminated state trade eastern Manchuria. As a whole, however,
controls that had existed under the Song the civilizations of Europe and China
and Jin, so that internal and external did not meet, although contacts were
trade reached unprecedented propor- made easy; Europe remained for the
tions. It seems, however, that China’s Chinese a vague region somewhere
transcontinental trade with the Middle “beyond the Uighur.”
East and Europe was in the hands of non- More important were the contribu-
Chinese (mainly Persians, Arabs, and tions from the Islamic countries of the
Syrians). Silk, the Chinese export com- Middle East, chiefly in the fields of sci-
modity par excellence, reached the ence and technology. During the reign of
Middle East and even Europe via the car- Kublai Khan, Arab-Persian astronomy
avan routes across Asia; Chinese and astronomical instruments were intro-
ceramics were also exported, chiefly into duced into China, and the Chinese
the Islamic countries. The Asian coun- astronomer Guo Shoujing operated an
tries concentrated their European trade observatory. Nevertheless, the basic
The Yuan, or Mongol, Dynasty | 187
military and colonialist character of their soldiers, and so the progress of the rebel
rule—became more apparent under movement in the 1350s and 1360s
Kublai’s successors and reached a maxi- remained slow. But the rebel armies who
mum under Togon-temür, the last Yuan had chosen what is now Nanjing as their
ruler. Togon-temür was not unfriendly base took Dadu in 1368; the Mongol
toward Chinese civilization, but this emperor fled, followed by the remnants
could not alter the contempt of many of his overthrown government.
leading Mongols for Chinese civilian The Mongols remained a strong
institutions. For centuries China had potential enemy of China for the next
known clique factionalism at court, but century, and the Genghis Khan clan in
this was mostly fought with political Mongolia continued to regard itself as
means; Mongol factionalism usually the legitimate ruler of China. The cen-
resorted to military power. Militarization tury of Mongol rule had some undesirable
gradually spread from the Mongol ruling effects on the government of China:
class into Chinese society, and not a few imperial absolutism and a certain brutal-
dissatisfied Chinese leaders established ization of authoritarian rule, inherited
regional power based on local soldiery. from the Yuan, were features of the suc-
The central administration headed by a ceeding Ming government. Yet, Mongol
weak emperor proved incapable of pre- rule lifted some of the traditional ideo-
serving its supremacy. logical and political constraints on
Thus, the military character of Chinese society. The Confucian hierar-
Mongol rule paved the way for the suc- chical order was not rigidly enforced as it
cess of Chinese rebels, some of whom had been under the Tang and Song, and
came from the upper class, while others the Mongols thereby facilitated the
were messianic sectarians who found upward mobility of some social classes,
followers among the exploited peas- such as the merchants, and encouraged
antry. The Mongol court and the extensive growth of popular culture,
provincial administrations could still which had been traditionally downgraded
rely on a number of faithful officials and by the literati.
ChaPTER 9
The Ming Dynasty
POLITICaL hISTORy
states to the south wrangled for survival then the Wu domain to the east. He also
and supremacy. Out of this turmoil captured the Zhejiang coastal satrap,
emerged a new native dynasty called Fang Guozhen. Zhu then announced his
Ming (1368–1644). intention of liberating all of China from
Mongol rule and proclaimed a new
The Dynasty’s Founder dynasty effective with the beginning of
1368. The dynastic name Ming, meaning
Zhu Yuanzhang, founder of the new “Brightness,” reflects the Manichaean
dynasty, came from a family originally influence in the Song-revivalist Han
from northwestern Jiangsu province Lin’er regime under which Zhu had
who by Yuan times had deteriorated into achieved prominence. Zhu came to be
itinerant tenant farmers in northern known by his reign name, the Hongwu
Anhui province. Orphaned by famine (“Vastly Martial”) emperor.
and plague in 1344, young Zhu was taken
into a small Buddhist monastery near
Fengyang city as a lay novice. For more
than three years he wandered as a men-
dicant through the Huai basin before
beginning studies for the Buddhist
priesthood in his monastery. In 1352,
after floods, rebellions, and Yuan cam-
paigns against bandits had devastated
and intimidated the whole region, Zhu
was persuaded to join a Fengyang branch
of Han Lin’er’s uprising. He quickly
made himself the most successful gen-
eral on the southern front of the rebel
Song regime, and in 1356 he captured
and set up his headquarters in Nanjing, a
populous and strategically located city
on the Yangtze River. There he began
assembling a rudimentary government
and greatly strengthened his military
power. Between 1360 and 1367, still nom-
The Hongwu emperor, hanging scroll,
inally championing the cause of the
ink and colour on silk, 14th century; in
Song regime, his armies gained control
the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
of the vast central and eastern stretches
Courtesy of the National Palace Museum,
of the Yangtze valley, absorbing first the Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
Han domain to the west of Nanjing and
192 | The History of China
hongwu
Hongwu is the reign name of Zhu Yuanzhang (b. Oct. 21, 1328—d. June 24, 1398), founder of
China’s Ming dynasty. A poor peasant orphaned at 16, Zhu entered a monastery to avoid starva-
tion. Later, as a rebel leader, he came in contact with educated gentry from whom he received an
education and political guidance. He was advised to present himself not as a popular rebel but
as a national leader against the foreign Mongols whose Yuan dynasty was on the point of col-
lapse. Defeating rival national leaders, Zhu proclaimed himself emperor in 1368, establishing
his capital at Nanjing and adopting Hongwu as his reign title. He drove the last Yuan emperor
from China that year and reunified the country by 1382. His rule was despotic: he eliminated the
posts of prime minister and central chancellor and had the next level of administration report
directly to him. He prohibited eunuchs from participating in government and appointed civilian
officials to control military affairs.
Samarkand. Modern Chinese honour the (reigned 1402–24) and proved to be vigor-
Ming emperors especially for having ous and aggressive. He subjugated Nam
restored China’s international power and Viet, personally campaigned against the
prestige, which had been in decline since reorganizing Mongols in the north, and
the 8th century. The Ming emperors sent large naval expeditions overseas,
probably exercised more far-reaching chiefly under the eunuch admiral Zheng
influence in East Asia than any other He, to demand tribute from rulers as far
native rulers of China, and their attitude away as Africa. He also returned the
toward the representatives of Portugal, empire’s capital to Beijing, giving that
Spain, Russia, Britain, and Holland who city its present-day name.
appeared in China before the end of their For a century after the Yongle emperor,
dynasty was a condescending one. the empire enjoyed stability, tranquillity,
For the first time in Chinese history, and prosperity. But state administration
the Ming rulers regularly adopted only began to suffer when weak emperors were
one reign name (nianhao) each; the sole exploitatively dominated by favoured
exception was the sixth emperor, who had eunuchs: Wang Zhen in the 1440s, Wang
two reigns separated by an interval of Zhi in the 1470s and 1480s, and Liu Jin
eight years. Because of this reign-name from 1505 to 1510. The Hongxi (reigned
practice (which was perpetuated under 1424–25), Xuande (1425–35), and Hongzhi
the succeeding Qing dynasty), modern (1487–1505) emperors were nevertheless
writers, confusingly but correctly, refer to able and conscientious rulers in the
the Wanli emperor, for example, by his Confucian mode. The only serious disrup-
personal name, Zhu Yijun; by his temple tion of the peace occurred in 1449 when
name, Shenzong; or sometimes, incor- the eunuch Wang Zhen led the Zhengtong
rectly but conveniently, simply as Wanli, emperor (first reign 1435–49) into a disas-
as if the reign name were a personal name. trous military campaign against the
The Ming dynasty’s founder, the Oyrat (western Mongols). The Oyrat
Hongwu emperor, is one of the strongest leader Esen Taiji ambushed the imperial
and most colourful personalities of army, captured the emperor, and besieged
Chinese history. His long reign estab- Beijing. The Ming defense minister, Yu
lished the governmental structure, Qian, forced Esen to withdraw unsatisfied
policies, and tone that characterized the and for eight years dominated the gov-
whole dynasty. After his death in 1398 his ernment with emergency powers. When
grandson and successor, the Jianwen the interim Jingtai emperor (reigned
emperor, trying to assert control over his 1449–57) fell ill in 1457, the Zhengtong
powerful uncles, provoked a rebellion on emperor, having been released by the
the part of the prince of Yan and was Mongols in 1450, resumed the throne as
overwhelmed in 1402. The prince of Yan the Tianshun emperor (1457–64). Yu Qian
took the throne as the Yongle emperor was then executed as a traitor.
194 | The History of China
The Zhengde (reigned 1505–21) and far inland to terrorize cities and villages
Jiajing (1521–1566/67) emperors were throughout the whole Yangtze delta.
among the less-esteemed Ming rulers. Although coastal raiding was not totally
The former was an adventure-loving suppressed, it was brought under control
carouser, the latter a lavish patron of in the 1560s. Also in the 1560s Altan Khan
Daoist alchemists. For one period of 20 was repeatedly defeated, so that he made
years, during the regime of an unpopular peace in 1571. For the next decade, during
grand secretary named Yan Song, the the last years of the Longqing emperor
Jiajing emperor withdrew almost entirely (reigned 1566/67–1572) and the early
from governmental cares. Both emperors years of the Wanli emperor (1572–1620),
cruelly humiliated and punished hun- the government was highly stable. The
dreds of officials for their temerity in court was dominated by the outstanding
remonstrating. grand secretary of Ming history, Zhang
China’s long peace ended during the Juzheng, and capable generals such as Qi
Jiajiang emperor’s reign. The Oyrat, Jiguang restored and maintained effec-
under the vigorous new leadership of tive military defenses.
Altan Khan, were a constant nuisance on In 1592, when Japanese forces under
the northern frontier from 1542 on; in Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea, Ming
1550 Altan Khan raided the suburbs of China was still strong and responsive
Beijing itself. During the same era, Japan- enough to campaign effectively in support
based sea raiders repeatedly plundered of its tributary neighbour. But the Korean
China’s southeastern coast. Such sea war dragged on indecisively until 1598,
raiders, a problem in Yuan times and when Hideyoshi died and the Japanese
from the earliest Ming years, had been withdrew. It made heavy demands on
suppressed during the reign of the Ming resources and apparently precipi-
Yongle emperor, when Japan’s Ashikaga tated a military decline in China.
shogunate offered nominal submission The reign of the Wanli emperor was
to China in exchange for generous trad- a turning point of Ming history in other
ing privileges. However, changes in the regards as well. Partisan wrangling
official trade system eventually provoked among civil officials had flared up in the
new discontent along the coast, and dur- 1450s in reaction to Yu Qian’s domi-
ing the 1550s corsair fleets looted the nance and again in the 1520s during a
Shanghai-Ningbo region almost annu- prolonged “rites controversy” provoked
ally, sometimes sending raiding parties by the Jiajing emperor on his accession;
One of 36 stone statues (18 pairs) of officials and creatures that guard the route to the tombs
of 13 emperors of the Ming dynasty north of Beijing. Richard Nowitz/National Geographic/
Getty Images
The Ming Dynasty | 195
196 | The History of China
known as supreme commanders (zongdu), irregular ways rarely had notable, or even
whose principal function was to coordi- active, careers in government. In the
nate military affairs in extended, early decades of the dynasty, before com-
multi-province areas. As the dynasty petitive examinations could provide
grew older, as the population expanded, sufficient numbers of trustworthy men
and as administration became increas- for service, large numbers of officials
ingly complex, coordinators proliferated were recruited directly from government
even at sub-provincial levels in the form schools or through recommendations by
of circuit intendants (daotai), who were existing officials, and such recruits often
delegated from provincial agencies as rose to eminence. But after about 1400,
functionally specialized intermediaries persons entering the civil service by ave-
with prefectural administrations. nues other than examinations had little
To an extent unprecedented except hope for successful careers.
possibly in Song times, Ming govern- In a departure from traditional prac-
ment was dominated by nonhereditary tices but in accordance with the Yuan
civil service officials recruited on the precedent, there was only one type of
basis of competitive written examina- examination given in Ming times. It
tions. Hereditary military officers, required a general knowledge of the
although granted ranks and stipends Classics and history and the ability to
higher than their civil service counter- relate Classical precepts and historical
parts and eligible for noble titles rarely precedents to general philosophical or
granted to civil officials, always found specific political issues. As in Yuan times,
themselves subordinate to policy-making interpretations of the Classics by the Zhu
civil servants, except in the first years of Xi school of Neo-Confucianism were pre-
the dynasty. Members of the imperial scribed. By the end of the Ming dynasty,
clan, except in the earliest and latest the writing of examination responses had
years of the dynasty, were forbidden to become highly stylized and formalized in
take active part in administration, and a pattern called “the eight-legged essay”
the Ming practice of finding imperial (baguwen), which in subsequent centu-
consorts in military families effectively ries became notoriously repressive of
denied imperial in-laws access to posi- creative thought and writing.
tions of significant authority. Beginning in the Hongwu emperor’s
High-ranking civil officials usually could reign, the government sponsored district-
place one son each in the civil service by level schools, in which state-subsidized
hereditary right, and, beginning in 1450, students prepared for the civil service
wealthy civilians often were able to pur- examinations. Especially talented stu-
chase nominal civil service status in dents could be promoted from such local
government fund-raising drives. But schools into programs of advanced learn-
those entering the service in such ing and probationary service at a national
200 | The History of China
university in the capital. Especially after Although acceptance into, and suc-
1500, there was a proliferation of private cess in, the civil service were the most
academies in which scholars gathered to highly esteemed goals for all and were
discuss philosophy and students were nominally determined solely by demon-
also prepared for the examinations. strated scholastic and administrative
Education intendants from provincial abilities, other factors inevitably intruded
headquarters annually toured all locali- to prevent the civil service system from
ties, examining candidates who presented being wholly “open.” Differences in the
themselves and certifying those of “prom- economic status of families made for
ising talent” (xiucai) as being qualified to inequalities of educational opportunity
undertake weeklong examination ordeals and, consequently, inequalities of access
that were conducted every third year at to civil service careers. The sons of well-
the provincial capitals. Those who passed to-do families clearly had advantages,
the provincial examinations (juren) could and men of the affluent and cultured
be appointed directly to posts in the southeastern region so threatened to
lower echelons of the civil service. They monopolize scholastic competitions that
were also eligible to compete in triennial regional quotas for those passing the
metropolitan examinations conducted at metropolitan examinations were imposed
the national capital. Those who passed by the government, beginning in 1397.
were given degrees often called doctor- Once in the service, one’s advancement
ates (jinshi) and promptly took an or even survival often depended on
additional palace examination, nominally shifting patterns of favouritism and
presided over by the emperor, on the factionalism. Present-day scholarship
basis of which they were ranked in order strongly suggests nevertheless that “new
of excellence. They were registered as blood” was constantly entering the Ming
qualified officials by the Ministry of civil service, that influential families did
Personnel, which assigned them to not monopolize or dominate the service,
active-duty posts as vacancies occurred. and that men regularly rose from obscu-
While on duty they were evaluated regu- rity to posts of great esteem and power
larly by their administrative superiors on the basis of merit. Social mobility, as
and irregularly by touring inspectors reflected in the Ming civil service, was
from the Censorate. It was normally only very possibly greater than in Song times
after long experience and excellent and was clearly greater than in the suc-
records in low- and middle-grade posts, ceeding Qing era.
both in the provinces and in the capital, The Ming pattern of government has
that an official might be nominated for generally been esteemed for its stability
high office and appointed by personal under civil service dominance, its cre-
choice of the emperor. ativity in devising new institutions to
The Ming Dynasty | 201
serve changing needs, and its suppres- aboriginal tribes of south and southwest
sion of separatist warlords on one hand China, who often rose in isolated rebel-
and disruptive interference by imperial lions but were gradually being
clansmen and palace women on the other. assimilated. The Chinese took for granted
It suffered, however, from sometimes that their emperor was everyone’s over-
vicious factionalism among officials, lord and that de facto (mostly hereditary)
recurrences of abusive influence on the rulers of non-Chinese tribes, regions, and
part of palace eunuchs, and defects in its states were properly his feudatories.
establishment of hereditary soldiers. The Foreign rulers were thus expected to hon-
military system not only failed to achieve our and observe the Ming ritual calendar,
self-support but stagnated steadily, so to accept nominal appointments as mem-
that from the mid-15th century onward it bers of the Ming nobility or military
had to be supplemented by conscripts establishment, and, especially, to send
and, finally, all but replaced by mercenary periodic missions to the Ming capital to
recruits. Most notoriously, the Ming state demonstrate fealty and present tribute of
system allowed emperors to behave local commodities. Tributary envoys from
capriciously and abusively toward their continental neighbours were received
officials. Despite their high prestige, offi- and entertained by local and provincial
cials had to accept being ignored, governments in the frontier zones. Those
humiliated, dismissed, and subjected to from overseas were welcomed by special
bodily punishment and to risk being cru- maritime trade supervisorates (shibosi,
elly executed (sometimes in large often called trading-ship offices) at three
numbers), as suited the imperial fancy. key ports on the southeast and south
Power was concentrated in the hands of coasts: Ningbo in Zhejiang for Japanese
the Ming emperors to a degree that was contacts, Quanzhou in Fujian for contacts
probably unparalleled in any other long- with Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands, and
lived dynasty of Chinese history, and the Guangzhou (Canton) in Guangdong for
Ming emperors often exercised their vast contacts with Southeast Asia. The fron-
powers in abusive fashion. tier and coastal authorities forwarded
foreign missions to the national capital,
Foreign relations where the Ministry of Rites offered them
hospitality and arranged for their audi-
Whereas in Ming times the Chinese ences with the emperor. All envoys
organized themselves along wholly received valuable gifts in acknowledge-
bureaucratic and tightly centralized lines, ment of the tribute they presented. They
the Ming emperors maintained China’s also were permitted to buy and sell pri-
traditional feudal-seeming relationships vate trade goods at specified, officially
with foreign peoples. These included the supervised markets, both in the capital
202 | The History of China
and on the coasts and frontiers. Thus, occasional raiding forays such as those
copper coins and luxury goods (notably by Esen Taiji and Altan Khan.
silks and porcelains) flowed out of China, The fact that the Mongols could not
and pepper, other spices, and similar rari- reunite themselves was a fortunate cir-
ties flowed in. On the western and cumstance for Ming China. As early as
northern frontiers the principal exchange the Yongle emperor’s time, the Mongols
was in Chinese tea and steppe horses. On were divided into three groups that were
balance, the combined tribute and trade often antagonistic to one another: the so-
activities were highly advantageous to called western Mongols or Oyrat
foreigners—so much so that the Chinese (including the Kalmyk), the eastern
early established limits for the size and Mongols or Tatars, and a group in the
cargoes of foreign missions and pre- Chengde area known as the Urianghad
scribed long intervals that must elapse tribes. The Urianghad tribes surrendered
between missions. to the Hongwu emperor and were incor-
The principal aim of Ming foreign porated into China’s frontier defense
policy was political: to maintain China’s system under a Chinese military head-
security and, especially, to make certain quarters. Because they served the Yongle
the Mongols could not threaten China emperor as a loyal rear guard during his
again. To this end the Hongwu emperor seizure of the throne, he rewarded them
repeatedly sent armies northward and with virtual autonomy, withdrawing the
northwestward to punish resurgent Chinese command post from their home-
Mongol groups and prevent any recon- land beyond the Great Wall. Subsequently,
solidation of Mongol power. The Yongle the Xuande emperor similarly withdrew
emperor was even more zealous: he per- the command post that the Hongwu
sonally campaigned into the Gobi emperor had established at the Mongols’
(desert) five times, and his decision to old extramural capital, Shangdu. These
transfer the national capital from Nanjing withdrawals isolated Manchuria from
to Beijing, completed in 1421 after long China proper, terminated active Chinese
preparations, was largely a reflection of military control in Inner Mongolia, and
his concern about the frontier. His suc- exposed the Beijing area in particular to
cessors, though less zealous than he in the possibility of probing raids from the
this regard, were vigilant enough so that nearby steppes. They reflected an essen-
the Great Wall was restored and expanded tially defensive Chinese posture in the
to its present-day extent and dimensions. north, which by late Ming times allowed
Frontier defense forces, aligned in nine the Oyrat to infiltrate and dominate
defense commands stretching from Hami and other parts of the northwestern
Manchuria to Gansu, kept China free frontier and the Manchu to rise to power
from Mongol incursions, except for in the northeast.
The Ming Dynasty | 203
The Ming attitude toward foreign area into the Ming domain as a province
peoples other than the Mongols was gen- in 1407.
erally unaggressive: so long as they were After the Yongle era the Ming gov-
not disruptive, the Ming emperors left ernment reverted to the founding
them to themselves. The Hongwu emperor’s unaggressive policy toward
emperor made this his explicit policy. foreign states. Nam Viet was abandoned
Even though he threatened the Japanese in 1428 after protracted guerrilla-style
with punitive expeditions if they per- resistance had thoroughly undermined
sisted in marauding along China’s coasts, Chinese control there. A new civil war in
he dealt with the problem by building Nam Viet provoked the Chinese, after
strong fortresses and coastal defense long and agonized discussion, to prepare
fleets that successfully repulsed the to intervene there again in 1540, but the
marauders. He did send an army to sub- offer of ritual submission by a usurper
due Turfan (Turpan) in 1377, when the gave the Chinese an opportunity to avoid
Turko-Mongol rulers of that oasis region war, and they welcomed it. On only two
rebelled and broke China’s traditional other occasions were Ming military forces
transport routes to the west. But he active outside China’s borders: in 1445–46,
refused to intervene in dynastic upheav- when Chinese troops pursued a rebellious
als in Nam Viet and Korea (when Koryŏ border chief into Myanmar despite resis-
was replaced by Chosŏn), and he was tance there, and in 1592–98, when the
unmoved by the rise of the Turko-Mongol Ming court undertook to help the Chosŏn
empire of Timur (Tamerlane) in the far (Yi) dynasty in Korea repulse Japanese
west at Samarkand, even though Timur invaders, a long and costly effort.
murdered Chinese envoys and was plan- In order to preserve the government’s
ning to campaign against China. monopolistic control of foreign contacts
The Yongle emperor was much more and trade and, at least in part, to keep the
aggressive. He sent the eunuch admiral Chinese people from being contami-
Zheng He on tribute-collecting voyages nated by barbarian customs, the Ming
to Southeast Asia, the Indian Ocean, and rulers prohibited private dealings
the Persian Gulf and as far as East Africa. between Chinese and foreigners and for-
On one early voyage, Zheng He inter- bade any private voyaging abroad. The
vened in a civil war in Java and rules were so strict as to disrupt even
established a new king there; on another, coastal fishing and trading, on which
he captured the hostile king of Sri Lanka large populations in the south and south-
and took him prisoner to China. The east had traditionally based their
Yongle emperor also reacted to turbu- livelihood. Such unrealistic prohibitions
lence in Nam Viet by sending an were unpopular and unenforceable, and,
expeditionary force that incorporated the from about the mid-15th century, Chinese
204 | The History of China
readily collaborated with foreign traders 1622, took control of coastal Taiwan in
in widespread smuggling, for the most 1624 and began developing trade con-
part officially condoned. In addition, by tacts in nearby Fujian and Zhejiang
late Ming times, thousands of venture- provinces. In 1637 a squadron of five
some Chinese had migrated to become English ships shot its way into
mercantile entrepreneurs in the various Guangzhou and disposed of its cargoes
regions of Southeast Asia and even in there. Russia, meanwhile, had sent peace-
Japan. In efforts to enforce its laws, the ful missions overland to Beijing, and by
Ming court closed all maritime trade the end of the Ming dynasty the Russians’
supervisorates except the one at eastward expansion across Siberia had
Guangzhou early in the 16th century, and carried them finally to the shores of the
by the 1540s it had begun to reinvigorate Pacific north of the Amur River.
coastal defenses against marauders Christian missionaries from Europe
throughout the southeast and the south. were handicapped by the bad reputation
These circumstances shaped the early their trader countrymen had acquired in
China coast experiences of the Europeans, China, but the Jesuit tactic of accommo-
who first appeared in Ming China in 1514. dating to local customs eventually got
The Portuguese had already established the Jesuits admitted to the mainland.
themselves in southern India and at Matteo Ricci was the successful pioneer,
Malacca, where they learned of the huge beginning his work in 1583 well-trained
profits that could be made in the regional in the Chinese language and acquainted
trade between the China coast and with Confucian learning. By the time of
Southeast Asia. Becoming involved in his death in 1610, despite hostility in
what the Ming court considered smug- some quarters, Jesuit communities were
gling and piracy, the Portuguese were established in many cities of south and
not welcomed to China, but they would central China, a church had been built in
not be rebuffed, and by 1557 they had Beijing under imperial patronage, and
taken control of a settlement at the Christianity was known and respected by
walled-off end of a coastal peninsula many Chinese scholar-officials. Before
(present-day Macau) and were trading the end of the dynasty, Jesuits had won
periodically at nearby Guangzhou. In influential converts at court (notably the
1575 Spaniards from Manila visited grand secretary Xu Guangqi, or Paul Xu),
Guangzhou in a vain effort to get official had produced Chinese books on
trading privileges, and soon they were European science as well as theology,
developing active though illegal trade on and were manufacturing Portuguese-
the Guangdong and Fujian coasts. type cannon for Ming use against the
Representatives of the Dutch East India Manchu. They also held official appoint-
Company, after unsuccessfully trying to ments in China’s Directorate of
capture Macau from the Portuguese in Astronomy, which had the important
The Ming Dynasty | 205
During the migrations back to north- been introduced into the Chinese econ-
ern China, the registered populations of omy in Song and Yuan times. The
the largest urban centres of the south- introduction in the 16th century of food
east declined. For example, between 1393 crops originating in America—peanuts
and 1578, Nanjing declined from 1,193,000 (groundnuts), corn (maize), and sweet
to 790,000, Zhejiang province from potatoes—created an even stronger
10,487,000 to 5,153,000, and Jiangxi prov- agrarian basis for rapidly escalating
ince from 8,982,000 to 5,859,000. (It should population growth in the Qing period.
be mentioned, however, that the actual
population in cities typically was greater Agriculture
than what was registered.) Despite this
leveling trend in the regional distribution Neo-feudal land-tenure developments of
of population, southern China—especially late Song and Yuan times were arrested
the southeast—remained the most popu- with the establishment of the Ming
lous, the wealthiest, and the most cultured dynasty. Great landed estates were
area of China in Ming times. Great confiscated by the government, frag-
southeastern cities such as Nanjing, mented, and rented out, and private
Suzhou, and Hangzhou remained the slavery was forbidden. In the 15th cen-
major centres of trade and manufactur- tury, consequently, independent peasant
ing, entertainment, and scholarship and landholders dominated Chinese agricul-
the arts. Beijing was their only rival in the ture. But the Ming rulers were not able
north—solely because of its being the cen- to provide permanent solutions for
tre of political power. China’s perennial land-tenure problems.
Although official census figures sug- As early as the 1420s, the farming popu-
gest that China’s overall population lation was in new difficulties despite
remained remarkably stable in Ming repeated tax remissions and other efforts
times at a total of about 60 million, mod- to ameliorate its condition. Large-scale
ern scholars have estimated that there landlordism gradually reappeared, as
was in fact substantial growth, probably powerful families encroached upon the
to a total well in excess of 100 million lands of poor neighbours. Song-style
and perhaps almost as high as 150 mil- latifundia do not seem to have reemerged,
lion in the early 17th century. Domestic but, by the late years of the dynasty,
peace and political stability in the 15th sharecropping tenancy was the common
century clearly set the stage for great condition of millions of peasants, espe-
general prosperity in the 16th century. cially in central and southeastern China,
This can be accounted for in part as and a new gulf had opened between
the cumulative result of the continuing the depressed poor and the exploitative
spread of early ripening rice and of cot- rich. The later Ming government issued
ton production—new elements that had countless pronouncements lamenting
The Ming Dynasty | 207
the plight of the common man but never The land-tax rate was highly variable,
undertook any significant reform of depending not on the productivity of any
land-tenure conditions. plot but on the condition of its tenure,
which might be as freehold or as one of
Taxation several categories of land rented from the
government. The land tax was calculated
The Ming laissez-faire policy in agrarian together with labour levies, or corvée,
matters had its counterpart in fiscal which, though nominally assessed
administration. The Ming state took the against persons, were assessed against
collection of land taxes—its main reve- land in normal practice. Corvée obliga-
nues by far—out of the hands of civil tions also varied widely and were usually
service officials and entrusted that payable in paper money or in silver rather
responsibility directly to well-to-do fam- than in actual service. Assessments
ily heads in the countryside. Each against a plot of land might include sev-
designated tax captain was, on the aver- eral other considerations as well, so that a
age, responsible for tax collections in an farmer’s tax bill was a complicated reck-
area for which the land-tax quota was oning of many different tax items. Efforts
10,000 piculs of grain (one picul is the to simplify land-tax procedures in the
equivalent of 3.1 bushels or 109 litres). In 16th century, principally initiated by con-
collaboration with the lijia community scientious local officials, culminated in
chiefs of his fiscal jurisdiction, he saw to the universal promulgation of a consoli-
it that tax grains were collected and then dated-assessment scheme called “a
delivered, in accordance with compli- single whip” (yitiaobian) in 1581. Its main
cated instructions; some went to local feature was reducing land tax and corvée
storage vaults under control of the dis- obligations to a single category of pay-
trict magistrate and some to military ment in bulk silver or its grain equivalent.
units, which, by means of the Grand This reform was little more than a book-
Canal, annually transported more than keeping change at best, and it was not
three million piculs northward to Beijing. universally applied. Land-tax inequities
In the early Ming years, venal tax cap- were unaffected, and assessments rose
tains seem to have been able to amass sharply and repeatedly from 1618 to meet
fortunes by exploiting the peasantry. spiraling costs of defense.
Later, however, tax captains normally Many revenues other than land taxes
faced certain ruin because tax-evading contributed to support of the govern-
manipulations by large landlords thrust ment. Some, such as mine taxes and
tax burdens increasingly on those least levies on marketplace shops and vending
able to pay and forced tax captains to stalls, were based on proprietorship; oth-
make up deficiencies in their quotas out ers, such as salt taxes, wine taxes, and
of their personal reserves. taxes on mercantile goods in transit, were
208 | The History of China
based on consumption. Of all state reve- Because during the last century of
nues, more than half seem to have the Ming dynasty a genuine money econ-
remained in local and provincial grana- omy emerged and because concurrently
ries and treasuries; of those forwarded to some relatively large-scale mercantile
the capital, about half seem normally to and industrial enterprises developed
have disappeared into the emperor’s per- under private as well as state ownership
sonal vaults. Revenues at the disposal of (most notably in the great textile centres
the central government were always rela- of the southeast), some modern-day
tively small. Prosperity and fiscal caution scholars have considered the Ming age
had resulted in the accumulation of huge one of “incipient capitalism”; according
surpluses by the 1580s, both in the capital to this reasoning, European-style mercan-
and in many provinces, but thereafter the tilism and industrialization might have
Sino-Japanese war in Chosŏn, unprece- evolved had it not been for the Manchu
dented extravagances on the part of the conquest and expanding European impe-
long-lived Wanli emperor, and defense rialism. It would seem clear, however, that
against domestic rebels and the Manchu private capitalism in Ming times flour-
bankrupted both the central government ished only insofar as it was condoned
and the imperial household. by the state, and it was never free
from the threat of state suppression
Coinage and confiscation. State control of the
economy—and of society in all its
Copper coins were used throughout the aspects, for that matter—remained the
Ming dynasty. Paper money was used for dominant characteristic of Chinese life
various kinds of payments and grants by in Ming times, as it had earlier.
the government, but it was always non-
convertible and, consequently, lost value Culture
disastrously. It would in fact have been
utterly valueless, except that it was pre- The predominance of state power also
scribed for the payment of certain types marked the intellectual and aesthetic life
of taxes. The exchange of precious metals of Ming China. By requiring use of their
was forbidden in early Ming times, but interpretations of the Classics in educa-
gradually bulk silver became common tion and in the civil service examinations,
currency, and, after the mid-16th century, the state prescribed the Neo-
government accounts were reckoned pri- Confucianism of the great Song thinkers
marily in taels (ounces) of silver. By the Cheng Yi and Zhu Xi as the orthodoxy of
end of the dynasty, silver coins produced Ming times; by patronizing or comman-
in Mexico, introduced by Spanish sailors deering craftsmen and artists on a vast
based in the Philippines, were becoming scale, it set aesthetic standards for all the
common on the south coast. minor arts, for architecture, and even for
The Ming Dynasty | 209
Poet on a Mountain Top, ink on paper or ink and light colour on paper, album leaf mounted
as a hand scroll, by Shen Zhou, Ming dynasty; in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas
City, Mo., U.S. 38.7 × 60.2 cm. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri; pur-
chase Nelson Trust (46–51/2)
painting, and, by sponsoring great schol- of Tang and Song masterpieces in all
arly undertakings and honouring genres, but independent thinkers, artists,
practitioners of traditional literary forms, and writers were striking out in many
the state established norms in those new directions. The final Ming century
realms as well. Thus, it has been easy for especially was a time of intellectual and
historians of Chinese culture to catego- artistic ferment akin to the most seminal
rize the Ming era as an age of bureaucratic ages of the past.
monotony and mediocrity, but the stable,
affluent Ming society actually proved to Philosophy and Religion
be irrepressibly creative and iconoclastic.
Drudges by the hundreds and thousands Daoism and Buddhism by Ming times had
may have been content with producing declined into ill-organized popular reli-
second-rate imitations or interpretations gions, and what organization they had
210 | The History of China
Panel from an imperial Chinese silk dragon robe embroidered in silk and gold thread, 17th
century, early Qing dynasty; in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City. Lee Boltin
216 | The History of China
Dorgon
Dorgon (Chinese temple name: Chengzong; b. Nov. 7, 1612—d. Dec. 31, 1650), prince of the Manchu
people, was instrumental in founding the Qing (Manchu) dynasty in China. He joined his former
enemy Wu Sangui in driving the Chinese rebel Li Zicheng from Beijing, where Li had already
unseated the last Ming-dynasty emperor. Though some wanted to put Dorgon on the throne, he
saw to it that his nephew Fulin was proclaimed emperor (Dorgon acted as regent); this loyalty
and selflessness won him the high regard of future historians.
moved from the hills of southwest the provincial and central governments
Fujian, northern Guangdong, and south- (half of the powerful governors-general
ern Jiangxi. Although the Qing dynasty throughout the dynasty were Manchu),
tried to forbid migration into its home- but Chinese were able to enter govern-
land, Manchuria, in the 18th and 19th ment in greater numbers in the 18th
centuries Chinese settlers flowed into century, and a Manchu-Han dyarchy was
the fertile Liao River basin. Government in place for the rest of the dynasty.
policies encouraged Han movement The early Qing emperors were vigor-
into the southwest during the early 18th ous and forceful rulers. The first emperor,
century, while Chinese traders and Fulin (reign name, Shunzhi), was put on
assimilated Chinese Muslims moved the throne when he was a child of six sui
into Xinjiang and the other newly (about five years in Western calculations).
acquired territories. This period was His reign (1644–61) was dominated by his
punctuated by ethnic conflict stimu- uncle and regent, Dorgon, until Dorgon
lated by the Han Chinese takeover of died in 1650. Because the Shunzhi
former aboriginal territories and by emperor had died of smallpox, his suc-
fighting between different groups of cessor, the Kangxi emperor, was chosen
Han Chinese. in part because he had already survived a
smallpox attack. The Kangxi emperor
Political Institutions (reigned 1661–1722) was one of the most
dynamic rulers China has known. During
The Qing had come to power because of his reign the last phase of the military
their success at winning Chinese over to conquest was completed, and campaigns
their side; in the late 17th century they were pressed against the Mongols to
adroitly pursued similar policies to win strengthen Qing security on its Central
the adherence of the Chinese literati. Asian borders. China’s literati were
Qing emperors learned Chinese, brought into scholarly projects, notably
addressed their subjects using Confucian the compilation of the Ming history,
rhetoric, reinstated the civil service under imperial patronage.
examination system and the Confucian The Kangxi emperor’s designated
curriculum, and patronized scholarly heir, his son Yinreng, was a bitter disap-
projects, as had their predecessors. They pointment, and the succession struggle
also continued the Ming custom of that followed the latter’s demotion was
adopting reign names, so that Xuanye, perhaps the bloodiest in Qing history.
for example, is known to history as the Many Chinese historians still question
Kangxi emperor. The Qing rulers ini- whether the Kangxi emperor’s eventual
tially used only Manchu and bannermen successor, his son Yinzhen (reign title
to fill the most-important positions in Yongzheng), was truly the emperor’s
The Early Qing Dynasty | 219
Imperial Chinese throne of the Qianlong emperor (reigned 1735–96), red lacquer carved
in dragons and floral scrolls, Qing dynasty; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
Courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; photograph, A.C. Cooper Ltd.
deathbed choice. During the Yongzheng the fiscal administration and rectified
reign (1722–35) the government promoted bureaucratic corruption.
Chinese settlement of the southwest and The Qianlong reign (1735–96) marked
tried to integrate non-Han aboriginal the culmination of the early Qing. The
groups into Chinese culture; it reformed emperor had inherited an improved
220 | The History of China
bureaucracy and a full treasury from his practice of father-son succession but
father and expended enormous sums without the custom of favouring the
on the military expeditions known as eldest son. Because the identity of
the Ten Great Victories. He was both the imperial heir was kept secret until the
noted for his patronage of the arts and emperor was on his deathbed, Qing
notorious for the censorship of anti- succession struggles were particularly
Manchu literary works that was linked bitter and sometimes bloody.
with the compilation of the Siku The Manchu also altered political
quanshu (“Complete Library of the Four institutions in the central government.
Treasuries”; Eng. trans. under various They created an Imperial Household
titles). The closing years of his reign Department to forestall eunuchs from
were marred by intensified court faction- usurping power—a situation that had
alism centred on the meteoric rise to plagued the Ming ruling house—and
political power of an imperial favourite, they staffed this agency with bond
a young officer named Heshen. Yongyan, servants. The Imperial Household
who reigned as the Jiaqing emperor Department became a power outside the
(1796–1820), lived most of his life in his control of the regular bureaucracy. It
father’s shadow. He was plagued by trea- managed the large estates that had been
sury deficits, piracy off the southeast allocated to bannermen and supervised
coast, and uprisings among aboriginal various government monopolies, the
groups in the southwest and elsewhere. imperial textile and porcelain factories
These problems, together with new pres- in central China, and the customs
sures resulting from an expansion in bureaus scattered throughout the
opium imports, were passed on to his empire. The size and strength of the
successor, the Daoguang emperor Imperial Household Department
(reigned 1820–50). reflected the accretion of power to the
The early Qing emperors succeeded throne that was part of the Qing political
in breaking from the Manchu tradition process. Similarly, revisions of the sys-
of collegial rule. The consolidation of tem of bureaucratic communication and
imperial power was finally completed the creation in 1729 of a new top deci-
in the 1730s, when the Yongzheng sion-making body, the Grand Council,
emperor destroyed the power base of permitted the emperor to control more
rival princes. By the early 18th century efficiently the ocean of government
the Manchu had adopted the Chinese memorandums and requests.
This 18th-century drawing depicts Qianlong, the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty. De
Agostini Picture Library/Getty Images
The Early Qing Dynasty | 221
222 | The History of China
tallies) to Chinese merchants coming to China and of Hunan, Hubei, and the far
Nagasaki after 1715. The Qing need for southwest proceeded on this basis.
Japanese copper, a money metal in Land reclamation went hand in hand
China, required that trade with Japan be with the construction and reconstruction
continued, and it was. of water-control projects. This was an
activity so characteristic of a new dynasty
Economic Development that one can speak of “hydraulic cycles”
moving in tandem with political consoli-
In the 1640s and 1650s the Manchu abol- dations in China. These water-control
ished all late Ming surtaxes and granted projects varied in scale with terrain and
tax exemptions to areas ravaged by war. ecology. In central and southern China,
Tax remissions were limited, however, by irrigation systems were the foundation
the urgent need for revenues to carry on for rice cultivation and were largely the
the conquest of China. It was not until the product of private investment and man-
1680s, after the consolidation of military agement. In northern China, control of
victory, that the Qing began to permit tax the heavily silted Huang He (Yellow
remissions on a large scale. The perma- River), which frequently inundated the
nent freezing of the ding (corvée quotas) eastern portion of the North China Plain,
in 1712 and the subsequent merger of the required large-scale state management
ding and land tax into a single tax that and coordination with the related water
was collected in silver were part of a long- level of the Grand Canal, the major north-
term simplification of the tax system. The south waterway supplying Beijing.
commutation of levies from payment in The preferred crops—rice in central
kind to payment in money and the shift and southern China, wheat in northern
from registering males to registering China—retained their primacy in Qing
land paralleled the increasing commer- agriculture. In the course of the dynasty,
cialization of the economy. the cultivation of wheat and other north-
A healthy tax base required that land ern staple grains continued to creep
be brought under cultivation. Because southward; rice was transplanted to the
more than one-fourth of the total culti- best lands on the frontiers, and the
vated land had slipped off the tax rolls in cropping cycle gradually intensified.
the early 17th century, the restoration of Both on the frontiers and within China
agriculture was an important goal. The proper, new lands were opened for settle-
new dynasty began to resettle refugees ment using the New World crops that
on abandoned land with offers of tax had been introduced into China in the
exemptions for several years and grants late 16th century. Corn (maize) and
of oxen, tools, seeds, or even cash in some the Irish potato permitted Chinese to
areas. In the late 17th century the resettle- cultivate the marginal hilly lands. The
ment of the Chengdu Basin in western sweet potato provided insurance against
224 | The History of China
of rural markets that linked villages more be formalized and protected through
firmly to a market network. Although the written contract. Reliance on written con-
majority of economic transactions contin- tracts for purchasing and mortgaging
ued to take place within local and land, purchasing commodities and peo-
intermediate markets, interregional and ple, and hiring wage labourers became
national trade in grain, tea, cotton, and silk commonplace.
expanded significantly. In the 18th cen- The early Qing economy was inti-
tury, Shanghai became a thriving entrepôt mately tied to foreign trade, which
for the coastal trade that extended from consisted of junks trading with ports in
Manchuria to southern China. Southeast Asia, Japan, and the
The most-dramatic economic inno- Philippines and of the expanding trade
vations of the 18th century resulted from conducted by Europeans. After 1684,
the needs of long-distance traders for when the ban on maritime trade was
credit and new mechanisms that would lifted, Western traders flocked to
ease the transfer of funds. Native banks, Guangzhou (Canton), and foreign com-
as they were called by foreigners in the merce was finally confined to this port in
19th century, accepted deposits, made 1759. The “Canton system” of trade that
loans, issued private notes, and trans- prevailed from that year until 1842 speci-
ferred funds from one region to another. fied that Europeans had to trade through
Promissory notes issued by native banks the cohong (gonghang), a guild of
on behalf of merchants facilitated the Chinese firms that had monopoly rights
purchase of large quantities of goods, to the trade in tea and silk.
and money drafts and transfer accounts From 1719 to 1833 the tonnage of
also helped ease the flow of funds. By the foreign ships trading at Guangzhou
early 19th century, paper notes may have increased more than 13-fold. The major
constituted one-third or more of the total export was tea; by 1833, tea exports
volume of money in circulation. The were more than 28 times the export
demands of large-scale, long-distance levels of 1719. Silk and porcelain were
trade had, without government participa- also exported in increasing quantities
tion, inspired merchants to transform a through the early 18th century. Although
metallic monetary system into one in only a small fraction of total output
which paper notes supplemented copper was exported, the effect of foreign trade
coins and silver. on the Chinese economy was direct
Customary law evolved outside the and perceptible. Its repercussions were
formal legal system to expedite eco- not limited to the merchants and pro-
nomic transactions and enable strangers ducers involved in specific export
to do business with one another. commodities but also had a general
Business partnerships in mining, com- impact on domestic markets through the
merce, and commercial agriculture could monetary system.
226 | The History of China
The Chinese economy had long been ratio between silver and copper cash was
based on a metallic currency system in responsive to fluctuations in the supply
which copper cash was used for daily pur- of the metals, and changes in the
chases and silver for large business exchange ratio affected all citizens. The
transactions and taxes. The exchange economic expansion of the 18th century
brought rising demand for silver and
copper. Although domestic production of
copper increased, silver was primarily
obtained from abroad. After 1684 the net
balance of trade was consistently in
China’s favour, and silver flowed into the
Chinese economy. Perhaps 10 million
Spanish silver dollars per year came into
China during the early Qing, and in the
18th century Spanish silver dollars
became a common unit of account in the
southeast and south.
QINg SOCIETy
sitting for the civil service examinations. eschewed the morally ambiguous role of
Despite attempts in the 1720s to return official to devote their energies to scholar-
some of these mean people to ordinary ship, painting, poetry, and the other arts.
commoner status, the social stigma per- Others turned to managing their locali-
sisted throughout the dynasty. ties and assumed leadership in public
Servitude was commonplace in Qing welfare, mediation of disputes, and local
society. The Manchu had enslaved pris- defense. Families with a long tradition of
oners of war, and in China persons could success in examinations and official ser-
be sold by their families. Many well-to-do vice were increasingly preoccupied with
households owned some domestic ser- strategies for ensuring the perpetuation
vants. Servants were grouped with the of their elite status and countering the
mean people in Qing law, but some of inexorable division of family estates
them nonetheless achieved considerable stemming from the Chinese practice of
power and authority. Bond servants of the partible inheritance. Downward mobility
imperial house ran the powerful Imperial was a more general phenomenon than
Household Department and themselves upward mobility in Qing society; those at
owned slaves. Servile tenants of the the bottom of the social scale did not
wealthy Huizhou merchants were some- marry and have children, while the
times raised as companions to the wealthy practiced polygyny and tended
master’s son and trusted to help run the to have large families.
long-distance trade on which Huizhou In China’s long-settled and densely
fortunes were based. Servitude in some populated regions, degree holders who
cases was thus an important avenue for confronted the prospect of downward
social advancement. mobility for their sons were profoundly
Social mobility increased during the disturbed by the circumstances that per-
early Qing, supported by a pervasive mitted wealthy merchants to mimic their
belief that it was possible for a peasant way of life. The money economy and its
boy to become the first scholar in the land. impersonal values penetrated more
An ethic that stressed education and hard deeply into Chinese society than ever
work motivated many households to before, challenging former indicators of
invest their surplus in the arduous prepa- status for preeminence. Alarmed, the
ration of sons for the civil service Chinese elite joined the Qing state in try-
examinations. Although the most presti- ing to propagate traditional values and
gious career in Qing society remained behaviour. Morality books, published in
that of the scholar-official, the sharpened increasing quantities from the late 16th
competition for degrees in the prosperous century onward, tied virtuous behaviour
18th century significantly expanded to concrete rewards in the form of educa-
socially acceptable forms of achievement. tional success, high office, and sons. The
At one pole, alienated literati deliberately Qing bestowed titles, gifts, and imperial
228 | The History of China
calligraphy on virtuous widows and These lineages seem to have been com-
encouraged the construction of memo- posed of only the most elite lines within a
rial arches and shrines in their honour descent group, who focused their efforts
to reinforce this female role. Rural lec- on national rather than local prominence
tures (xiangyue) were public ceremonies and emphasized their marriage networks
staged for citizens that combined reli- rather than ties to poorer kinsmen.
gious elements with reciting the sacred Kinship was of limited use to the
edict promulgated by the emperor. increasingly numerous sojourners who
were working away from home in the
Social Organization early Qing. Other kinds of organizations
emerged to meet the needs of a more
The basic unit of production and con- mobile population. The share partnership
sumption in Chinese society remained permitted unrelated persons to pool their
the jia (“family”), consisting of kin related resources to start a business, and it was
by blood, marriage, or adoption that used to finance a wide variety of enter-
shared a common budget and common prises, including mining ventures, coastal
property. The Chinese family system was and overseas shipping, commercial agri-
patrilineal; daughters married out, while culture, money shops, and theatres. The
sons brought in wives and shared the res- trading empires created by the Huizhou
idence of their fathers. The head of the and Shanxi merchants were examples of
family, the patriarch, had the power to how such partnerships, cemented by kin-
direct the activities of each member in an ship and native-place ties, could be used
effort to optimize the family’s welfare. for large-scale business operations.
The family was a metaphor for the state, “Native place” was the principle used
and family relations were the foundation to organize the huiguan (native-place
of the hierarchical social roles that were associations) that spread throughout
essential in the Confucian vision of a Qing market centres. Some huiguan were
morally correct society. primarily intended for officials and exam-
In southeastern and southern China ination candidates; these were located in
during the early Qing, there was an the capitals of provinces and in Beijing.
expansion of extended kinship organiza- Others, located in the southwest, were for
tions based on descent from a common immigrants, but the vast majority were
ancestor. In those areas, lineages became created and used by merchants. The hui-
a powerful tool for collective action and guan provided lodging and a place to
local dominance, using revenues from meet fellow natives, receive financial aid,
corporate property to support education, and store goods. In the course of the 18th
charity, and ancestral rites. Other types of century, another kind of organization
lineages, possessing little corporate that encompassed all those engaged in a
property, existed in other parts of China. trade, the gongsuo (guild), emerged in
The Early Qing Dynasty | 229
as sojourners disseminated culture from who were “raw,” or still possessed of their
localities into the cities and back again. own culture, and those who were “cooked,”
The spread of this culture was also sup- or assimilated. The ethnic minorities
ported by increased functional literacy resisted violently, but they were gradually
and the expansion of large-scale printing assimilated or pushed farther south and
for commercial and scholarly audiences. west during the early Qing.
A wide variety of written materials were
available in market towns and cities—col- Trends in the Early Qing
lections of winning examination essays,
route books for commercial travelers, The tripling of China’s population from
religious pamphlets and scriptures, nov- the beginning of the Qing dynasty to the
els, short-story collections, jokebooks, mid-19th century rested on the economic
and almanacs. Storytelling, puppet plays, expansion that followed the consolida-
and regional drama in rural and urban tion of Manchu rule. This population
places provided yet another mode of cul- growth has been frequently cited as the
tural dissemination. In China’s cities, major cause of the decline of China in the
sojourning merchants sponsored visits of 19th century. Certainly, by the year 1800
drama troupes from their own localities, the Qing state’s surpluses—sufficient
which facilitated the spread of regional through the 18th century to pay for
drama forms outside their own territo- numerous military expeditions—were
ries. Drama was the bridge connecting exhausted in the long campaign to quell
the oral and written realms, the “living the White Lotus Rebellion. Whereas fis-
classroom” for peasants who learned cal reforms had strengthened the state in
about cultural heroes and history through the 18th century, fiscal weakness plagued
watching plays. The expansion of a Qing governments thereafter. The
national urban culture supported the vaunted power of the Qing armies also
state’s efforts to systematize and stan- waned after 1800, in part because of new
dardize Chinese society. modes of warfare. Increased commercial-
China’s non-Han minorities found ization had tied more and more Chinese
themselves surrounded by an aggressive, into large market fluctuations. In the 18th
expansionist Han Chinese culture during century the world market economy into
the early Qing. Attempts by the emperors which China was increasingly integrated
at that time to protect minorities from the worked in its favour and stimulated a
Han onslaught were largely unavailing, long period of internal prosperity. But the
and some rulers, such as the Yongzheng favourable trend was reversed in the
emperor, actually tried to hasten the 1820s and 1830s, when rising opium
assimilation of aboriginal groups into the imports altered the net balance of trade
Chinese order. The Qing categorized the against China and ushered in a period of
ethnic minorities into two groups: those economic depression.
ChaPTER 11
Late Qing
The clipper ship Le-Rye-Moon, built for the opium trade, 19th-
century wood engraving; from the Illustrated London News.
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
232 | The History of China
annual tea cargo for sale in Europe. This Guangzhou. He tried to negotiate with
“triangular trade” became a major vehicle the Guangzhou authorities on equal foot-
for realizing the potential gains from the ing, but the latter took his behaviour as
British conquest of India, providing a contrary to the established Sino-foreign
means to repatriate the company’s Indian intercourse. His mission failed, and he
revenue in opium in the form of Chinese was replaced in 1836 by Charles (later Sir
teas. In 1819 the company began to han- Charles) Elliot.
dle larger amounts of opium. Substantial In Beijing a proposal in 1836 to relax
social and economic disruption followed the opium restraint acquired much sup-
in China, not only from the effects of the port, but the Daoguang emperor
opium habit itself as it spread among the appointed a radical patriot, Lin Zexu, as
populace but from the corruption it imperial commissioner for an anti-
engendered among petty officials and opium campaign. Chinese anti-opium
from a fall in the value of copper in efforts in fact began to make consider-
China’s bimetallic monetary system as able headway in controlling the Chinese
silver was drained from the economy. side of the smuggling trade in late 1838
The Beijing court repeatedly banned the and early 1839. The critical foreign side
opium imports but without success, of the opium trade was, however, beyond
because the prohibition itself promoted Commissioner Lin’s direct reach.
corruption among the officials and sol- Arriving at Guangzhou in March 1839,
diers concerned. There was no possibility Lin confiscated and destroyed more than
of the opium question being solved as a 20,000 chests of opium. Skirmishes
domestic affair. began after September between the
After the turn of the 19th century, the Chinese and the British.
main avenue for opium smuggling was
through the designated traders who were The First Opium War
allowed only to manage the inter-Asian and its Aftermath
trade under the company’s license.
Without protection from the company, In February 1840 the British government
they cultivated the opium market in decided to launch a military expedition,
China on their own. They defied the and Elliot and his cousin, George (later
opium ban in China and gradually Sir George) Elliot, were appointed joint
became defiant toward Chinese law and plenipotentiaries to China (though the
order in general, having nothing in mind latter, in poor health, resigned in
but making money. After Parliament November). In June, 16 British warships
revoked the East India Company’s arrived in Hong Kong and sailed north-
monopoly in 1834, William John Napier ward to the mouth of the Bei River to
was appointed chief superintendent of press China with their demands. Charles
British trade in China and arrived at Elliot entered into negotiations with the
Late Qing | 233
Chinese, and, although an agreement 1842 and took Wusong, Shanghai, and
was reached in January 1841, it was not Zhenjiang. Nanjing yielded in August,
acceptable to either government. In May and peace was restored with the Treaty of
1841 the British attacked the walled city Nanjing. According to the main provi-
of Guangzhou (Canton) and received a sions of the treaty, China ceded Hong
ransom of $6 million, which provoked a Kong to Britain, opened five ports to
counterattack on the part of the British trade, abolished the cohong sys-
Cantonese. This was the beginning of a tem of trade, agreed to equal official
continuing conflict between the British recognition, and paid an indemnity of $21
and the Cantonese. million. This was the result of the first
The Qing had no effective tactics clash between China, which had regarded
against the powerful British navy. They foreign trade as a favour given by the
retaliated merely by setting burning rafts heavenly empire to the poor barbarians,
on the enemy’s fleet and encouraging and the British, to whom trade and com-
people to take the heads of the enemies, merce had become “the true herald of
for which they offered a prize. The impe- civilization.”
rial banner troops, although they The Treaty of Nanjing was followed
sometimes fought fiercely, were ill- by two supplementary arrangements
equipped and lacked training for warfare with the British in 1843. In addition, in
against the more-modern British forces. July 1844 China signed the Treaty of
The Green Standard battalions were sim- Wanghia (Wangxia) with the United
ilarly in decay and without much States and in October the Treaty of
motivation or good leadership. To make Whampoa (Huangpu) with France.
up the weakness, local militias were These arrangements made up a complex
urgently recruited, but they were useless. of foreign privileges by virtue of the
The British proclaimed that their aim was most-favoured-nation clauses (guaran-
to fight the government officials and sol- teeing trading equality) conceded to
diers who abused the people, not to make every signatory. All in all, they provided
war against the Chinese population. And a basis for later inroads such as the loss
indeed there was a deep rift between the of tariff autonomy, extraterritoriality
government and the people that the (exemption from the application or juris-
British could easily exploit, a weakness in diction of local law or tribunals), and the
Qing society that became apparent dur- free movement of missionaries.
ing the crisis of the war. With the signing of the treaties—
Elliot’s successor, Henry Pottinger, which began the so-called treaty-port
arrived at Macau in August and cam- system—the imperial commissioner
paigned northward, seizing Xiamen Qiying, newly stationed at Guangzhou,
(Amoy), Dinghai, and Ningbo. Reinforced was put in charge of foreign affairs.
from India, he resumed action in May Following a policy of appeasement, his
234 | The History of China
dealings with foreigners started fairly society. The city of Guangzhou was also a
smoothly. But, contrary to the British centre of diffusion of xenophobia, because
expectation, the amount of trade dropped the scholars at the city’s great academies
after 1846, and, to British dissatisfaction, were proclaiming the Confucian theory
the question of opium remained unset- that uncultured barbarians should be
tled in the postwar arrangements. The excluded. The inspired antiforeign mood
core of the Sino-Western tension, how- also contained a strong antigovernment
ever, rested in an antiforeign movement sentiment and perhaps a tendency toward
in Guangdong. provincialism; the Cantonese rose up
against the barbarians to protect their own
The Antiforeign homeland, without recourse to the govern-
Movement and the Second ment authorities.
Opium War (Arrow War) In the strained atmosphere in
Guangzhou, where the xenophobic gov-
At the signing of the Treaty of Nanjing, ernor-general, Ye Mingchen, was inciting
China and Britain disagreed as to whether the Cantonese to annihilate the British,
foreigners were allowed to enter the the Arrow incident occurred in October
walled city of Guangzhou. Though 1856. Guangzhou police seized the Arrow,
Guangzhou was declared open in July a Chinese-owned but British-registered
1843, the British faced Cantonese opposi- ship flying a British flag, and charged its
tion. After 1847 trouble rapidly grew, and, Chinese crew with piracy and smuggling.
as a result of an incident at nearby The British consul Harry Parkes sent a
Foshan, a promise was given the British fleet to fight its way up to Guangzhou.
that they would be allowed to enter the French forces joined the venture on the
city in 1849. Yet troubles continued. As a plea that a French missionary had been
result of his inability to control the situa- officially executed in Guangxi. The
tion, Qiying was recalled in 1848 and British government sent an expedition
replaced with the less-compliant Xu under Lord Elgin as plenipotentiary. The
Guangjin. As the promised date neared, Russians and the Americans abstained
the Cantonese demonstrated against but sent their representatives for diplo-
British entry. Finally, the British yielded, matic maneuvering. At the end of 1857 an
and the antiforeigners won a victory Anglo-French force occupied Guangzhou;
despite the fact that the Beijing court in March 1858 they took the Dagu fort
conceded a “temporary entrance” into and marched to Tianjin.
the city. The Qing representatives had no
After the Cantonese resistance in 1841, choice but to comply with the demands
the gentry in Guangdong began to build a of the British and French; the Russian
more-organized antiforeign movement, and U.S. diplomats also gained the privi-
promoting the militarization of village leges their militant colleagues secured
Late Qing | 235
by force. During June four Tianjin trea- Muravyov had sponsored four expedi-
ties were concluded that provided for, tions down the Amur; during the third
among other measures, the residence of one, in 1856, the left bank and lower
foreign diplomats in Beijing and the free- reaches of the river had actually been
dom of Christian missionaries to occupied by the Russians. In May 1858
evangelize their faith. Muravyov pressed the Qing general
In 1859, when the signatories arrived Yishan to sign a treaty at Aigun (Aihui),
off the Dagu fort on their way to sign the by which the territory on the northern
treaties in Beijing, they were repulsed, bank of the Amur was ceded to Russia
with heavy damage inflicted by the gun- and the land between the Ussuri River
fire from the fort. In 1860 an allied force and the sea was placed in joint posses-
invaded Beijing, driving the Xianfeng sion by the two countries, pending further
emperor (reigned 1850–61) out of the cap- disposition. But Beijing refused to ratify
ital to the summer palace at Chengde. A the treaty. When the Anglo-French allies
younger brother of the emperor, Gong attacked northern China in 1860, the
Qinwang (Prince Gong), was appointed Russian negotiator Nikolay Ignatyev
imperial commissioner in charge of acted as China’s friend and mediator in
negotiation. The famous summer palace securing the evacuation of the invaders
was destroyed by the British in October. from Beijing. Soon after the allies had left
Following the advice of the Russian nego- Beijing, Ignatyev secured, as a reward for
tiator, Prince Gong exchanged ratification his mediatory effort, the Sino-Russian
of the 1858 treaties; in addition, he signed Treaty of Beijing, which confirmed the
new conventions with the British and the Treaty of Aigun and ceded to Russia the
French. The U.S. and Russian negotiators territory between the Ussuri and the sea.
had already exchanged the ratification in The 1858–60 treaties extended the
1859, but the latter’s diplomatic perfor- foreign privileges granted after the
mance in 1860 was remarkable. first Opium War and confirmed or legal-
Russian interests in the East had ized the developments in the treaty-
been activated in competition with the port system. The worst effects for the
British effort to open China. A Russian Qing authorities were not the utilitarian
spearhead, directed to Kuldja (Yining) by rights, such as trade, commerce, and
way of the Irtysh River, resulted in the tariff, but the privileges that affected
Sino-Russian Treaty of Kuldja in 1851, the moral and cultural values of China.
which opened Kuldja and Chuguchak The right to propagate Christianity
(Tacheng) to Russian trade. Another threatened Confucian values, the back-
drive was directed to the Amur watershed bone of the imperial system. The
under the initiative of Nikolay Muravyov, permanent residence of foreign represen-
who had been appointed governor-gen- tatives in Beijing signified an end to the
eral of eastern Siberia in 1847. By 1857 long-established tributary relationship
236 | The History of China
between China and other nations. The treaty ports with foreign settlements,
partial collapse of the tribute system consular jurisdiction, and employment of
meant a loss of the emperor’s virtue, a Westerners as imperial personnel; thus,
serious blow to dynastic rule in China. the Chinese regarded the Western impact
During the turbulent years 1858–60, as an extension of their tradition rather
the Qing bureaucracy was divided than a totally new situation that necessi-
between the war and peace parties. It was tated a new adjustment. And at least until
the peace party’s leaders—Prince Gong, 1860 the Qing leaders remained with-
Gui Liang, and Wen Xiang—who took drawn in the shell of tradition, making no
charge of negotiating with the foreigners, effort to cope with the new environment
though they did so not as a matter of by breaking the yoke of the past.
principle but because the imminent crisis
forced them to. Popular uprising
In 1861, in response to the settlement
of the foreign representatives in the capi- The third quarter of the 19th century was
tal, the Zongli Yamen (office for General marked by a series of uprisings, again as
Management) was opened to deal with a result of social discontent. The most
foreign affairs, its main staff filled by the destructive of these was the Taiping
peace party leaders. The Qing officials Rebellion (1850–64) in southern and cen-
themselves, however, deemed this as still tral China. The Nian Rebellion (c.
keeping a faint silhouette of the tribute 1853–68) was roughly contemporaneous
system. with the Taiping in the eastern and cen-
The delay and difficulty in the Qing tral provinces. In addition, there were
adjustment to the Western presence may several prolonged uprisings between
possibly be ascribed to both external and Muslims and Han Chinese in northwest-
internal factors. The Chinese must have ern and southwestern China.
seen the Westerners who had appeared
in China as purveyors of poisonous drugs The Taiping Rebellion
and as barbarians in the full sense of the
word, from whom they could learn noth- In the first half of the 19th century, the
ing. But the Chinese staunchly held to provinces of Guangdong and Guangxi,
their tradition, which also had two the homeland of the Taiping people, had
aspects—ideological and institutional. been beset with accelerating social
The core of the ideological aspect was the unrest. After the first Opium War, gov-
Confucian distinction between China ernment prestige declined, and officials
and foreign nations. The institutional lost their capacity to reconcile communal
aspect had recently been much studied, feudings. The greatest among such con-
however, and precedents in Chinese his- flicts was that between the native settlers
tory had been found, for example, of and the so-called guest settlers, or Hakka,
Late Qing | 237
who had migrated to Guangxi and west- While this extreme egalitarianism was
ern Guangdong, mainly from eastern rarely implemented outside the original
Guangdong. The Baishangdi Hui (“God Hakka core from Guangxi, it probably at
Worshippers’ Society”) was founded by times attracted the distressed and lured
Hong Xiuquan, a fanatic who believed them to the Taiping cause. The origin of
himself a son of God, and his protégé, many Taiping religious ideas, morals,
Feng Yunshan, an able organizer. Their and institutions can be traced to China’s
followers were collected from among Confucian tradition, but the Taiping’s all-
miners, charcoal workers, and poor peas- out anti-regime struggle, motivated by
ants in central Guangxi, most of whom strong religious beliefs and a common
were Hakka. In January 1851 a new state sharing, also had precedents in earlier
named Taiping Tianguo (“Heavenly religious rebellions.
Kingdom of Great Peace”) was declared After the Taiping settled in Tianjing
in the district of Guiping in Guangxi, (Nanjing), village officials were
with Hong Xiuquan assuming the title appointed, and redistribution of farm-
tianwang (“heavenly king”). That land was planned in accordance with an
September the Taiping shifted their base idea of primitive communism. But in fact
to the city of Yong’an (present-day the land reform was impracticable. The
Mengshan, Guangxi), where they were village officials’ posts were filled mainly
besieged by the imperial army until April by the former landlords or the clerks of
1852. At that point they broke the siege the local governments, and the old order
and rushed into Hunan. Absorbing some in the countryside was not replaced by a
secret-society members and outlaws, they new one that the oppressed people could
dashed to Wuhan, the capital of Hubei, dominate.
and proceeded along the Yangtze to In May 1853 the Taiping sent an expe-
Nanjing, which they captured in March dition to northern China, which reached
1853, renamed Tianjing (“Heavenly the neighbourhood of Tianjin but finally
Capital”), and made their capital. collapsed during the spring of 1855. After
The core of the Taiping religion was a that the Yangtze valley provinces were
monotheism tinged with fundamentalist the main theatre of struggle. Of the gov-
Protestant Christianity, but it was mixed ernment armies in those years, the Green
with a hatred of the Manchu and an intol- Standards were too ill-disciplined, and
erance of the Chinese cultural tradition. not much could be expected of the ban-
In the early years of the rebellion, this nermen. The Qing government had no
politico-religious faith sustained the choice but to rely on the local militia
fighting spirit of the Taiping. In the ideal forces, such as the “Hunan Braves” (later
Taiping vision the population was to give called the Hunan Army), organized by
all of its belongings to a “general trea- Zeng Guofan in 1852, and the “Huai
sury,” which would be shared by all alike. Braves” (later called the Huai Army),
238 | The History of China
Zhang Luoxing received the title “lord of Rivalry between the Chinese and
the alliance” of the Nian, but he was far Muslim miners in central Yunnan trig-
too weak to form a centre. Imperial pacifi- gered a severe clash in 1855, which
cation was launched by General developed into the slaughter of a great
Senggelinqin, who led a powerful cavalry many Muslims in and around the provin-
into the affected area in 1862, but his pur- cial capital, Kunming, the following April.
suit was ineffective, and the general This triggered a general uprising of
himself was killed in Shandong in May Yunnan Muslims, which lasted until 1873.
1865. Thus, the last imperial crack unit Lack of a unified policy weakened the
disappeared. Zeng Guofan succeeded Muslims, and the rebellion was brought
Senggelinqin as general and enforced a to an end partly through the pacifiers’
policy of detaching the earth-wall mas- policy of playing the rebel leaders off
ters from their men and of employing the against one another.
latter as his troops. Finally, Li Hongzhang Another Muslim uprising, in Shaanxi
succeeded Zeng in 1866 and set up encir- in 1862, promptly spread to Gansu and
clement lines along the Huang He and Xinjiang and lasted for 15 years. The gen-
the Grand Canal, using that strategy to eral cause of the trouble was the same as
destroy the revolts in 1868. in Yunnan, but the Taiping advance to
Shaanxi encouraged the Muslims to
Muslim Rebellions rebel. The first stage of the uprising
developed in the Wei River valley in
Muslim rebellions in Yunnan and in Shaanxi; in the next stage the rebels,
Shaanxi and Gansu originated from defeated by the imperial army, fled to
clashes between the Chinese and Gansu, which became the main theatre of
Muslims in those provinces. Religious fighting. Encouraged by the Nian invad-
antipathy must be taken into account, but ing Shaanxi at the end of 1866, the core of
more important were social and political the rebel troops returned to Shaanxi, and
factors. In the frontier provinces the late- sporadic clashes continued in the two
dynastic confusions were felt as keenly as provinces. In the last phase, Zuo
elsewhere, which aggravated the prob- Zongtang, a former protégé of Zeng
lems between the Chinese and the Guofan, appeared in Shaanxi with part of
Muslims. Yunnan had been haunted by the Huai Army and succeeded in pacify-
Muslim-Chinese rivalries since 1821, but ing the area in 1873.
in Shaanxi small disturbances had been There were many independent
seen as early as the Qianlong reign. Muslim leaders in Shaanxi and Gansu at
Government officials supported the that time, but they had neither a common
Chinese, and the Muslims were obliged headquarters nor a unified policy, nor
to rise up against both the Chinese and were there any all-out revolutionaries.
the authorities. Pacification was delayed because the
240 | The History of China
imperial camp was preoccupied with the thereafter the region was resettled by
Taiping and the Nian and could not afford immigrants from less-damaged areas. Its
the expenditure needed for an expedition ruined industry and agriculture had not
to the remote border provinces. fully recovered even by the beginning of
the 20th century. The area of the Muslim
Effects of the Rebellions rebellions too suffered catastrophic devas-
tation and depopulation.
The Qing authorities had to rely on local During the first half of the 19th cen-
armies, financed by the provincial and tury, a number of natural disasters left
local gentry class, to combat the large large hordes of starving victims who had
popular uprisings. To meet this need, a no choice but to join the Taiping and
special tax on goods in transit—called the other rebel groups. The worst calamity,
likin (lijin)—was started in 1853, the pro- however, was a drought that attacked the
ceeds of which remained largely outside northern provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi,
the control of the central government. and Henan in 1877–78 and caused hard-
The provincial governors-general and ship for perhaps as many as 13 million
governors came to enlarge their military people. These disasters were a serious
and financial autonomy, bringing about a setback to China, which had just begun
trend of decentralization. Moreover, the to promote industrialization to meet the
locus of power shifted from the Manchu Western challenge.
to those Chinese who had played the
main part in putting down the rebellions. The Self-Strengthening
The Hunan Army was gradually dis- Movement
banded after Nanjing had been retaken
from the Taiping, but the Huai Army, Upon the Xianfeng emperor’s death at
after its success against the Muslims, Chengde in 1861, his antiforeign entou-
served as a strong basis for the political rage entered Beijing and seized power,
maneuvers of its leader, Li Hongzhang, but Cixi, mother of the newly enthroned
until its defeat and collapse in the Sino- boy emperor Zaichun (reigned as the
Japanese War in 1894–95. Tongzhi emperor, 1861–74/75), and Prince
The rebellions brought immeasurable Gong succeeded in crushing their oppo-
damage and devastation to China. Both nents by a coup d’état in October. A new
the Taiping and the pacifiers were guilty system emerged in which the leadership
of brutality and destruction. A contempo- in Beijing was shared by Cixi and another
rary estimate of 20 million to 30 million empress dowager, Ci’an, in the palace
victims is certainly far less than the real and by Prince Gong and Wen Xiang, with
number. In the course of the Taiping the Zongli Yamen as their base of opera-
Rebellion, the lower Yangtze provinces tion. The core of their foreign policy was
lost much of their surplus population, but expressed by Prince Gong as “overt peace
Late Qing | 241
included provisions for them to be revised refusing the demanded execution of the
in the year 1868, at which time the Qing three (though several others were put to
were able to negotiate with due prepara- death). After the incident, however, Zeng
tions and in an atmosphere of peace for was denounced for his infirm stand, and
the first time since the Opium Wars. The Prince Gong’s political influence began to
result was the Alcock Convention of 1869, wane in the growing antiforeign climate.
which limited the unilateral most- Various interpretations have been
favoured-nation clause of the original given regarding the nature of the anti-
treaty, a sign of gradual improvement in Christian movement: some emphasize
China’s foreign relations. However, under the antiforeign Confucian orthodoxy,
pressure from British merchants in China, while others stress the patriotic and
the London government refused to ratify nationalistic reaction against the mis-
it. The resentment engendered by the sionaries’ attempt to Westernize the
refusal, together with an anti-Christian Chinese. Still others point to the Christian
riot at Tianjin in 1870, brought an end to support of the oppressed in their struggle
the climate of Sino-foreign cooperation against the official and gentry class. What
that had prevailed in the 1860s. is clear, however, is that Christianity
The treaty arrangements made just sowed dissension and friction in the
after the Opium Wars forced China to already disintegrating late Qing society
remove the ban on Christianity, but the and undermined the prestige of the Qing
Beijing court tried to keep that fact secret dynasty and the Confucian orthodoxy.
and encouraged provincial officials to
continue prohibiting the religion. The Industrialization for
pseudo-Christian Taiping movement fur- “Self-Strengthening”
thered the anti-Christian move on the
part of royalists. Under such circum- Stimulated by the military training and
stances, anti-Christian riots spread techniques exhibited during the
throughout the country, culminating in Westerners’ cooperation against the
the Tianjin Massacre in 1870, in which a Taiping and supported by Prince Gong in
French consul and 2 officials, 10 nuns, and Beijing, the Self-Strengthening Movement
2 priests died and in which 3 Russian was launched by the anti-Taiping gener-
traders were killed by mistake. At the als Zeng Guofan, Li Hongzhang, and Zuo
negotiating table, the French sternly Zongtang, who sought to consolidate the
demanded the lives of three responsible Qing power by introducing Western
Chinese officials as a preventive against technology. The ideological champion
further such occurrences, but the Qing of the movement was Feng Guifen, who
negotiators, Zeng Guofan and Li urged China to “use the barbarians’ supe-
Hongzhang, were successful at least in rior techniques to control the barbarians”
Late Qing | 243
and proposed to give the gentry stron- Management, however, was beset
ger leadership than before in local with bureaucratic malpractices. The seat
administration. of decision making and responsibility
In the first period of modern industrial was obscure, business was spoiled by
development (1861–72), effort was focused nepotism and corruption, and the spon-
on manufacturing firearms and machines, sors tended to use the enterprises as a
the most important enterprises being the basis for their regional power. The cen-
Kiangnan (Jiangnan) Arsenal in Shanghai, tral government not only was unable to
the Tianjin Machine Factory, and the supply capital but also looked for every
Fuzhou Navy Yard; there were many other opportunity to exploit these enterprises
smaller ones. However, the output was dis- as it had exploited the monopolistic salt
appointing—the shipyard at Fuzhou, for business on which those companies were
example, built 15 vessels during the half modeled. Under such circumstances, the
decade after 1869 as scheduled, but there- enterprises inevitably slid into depres-
after it declined and was destroyed in 1884 sion after some initial years of apparent
during the Sino-French War—and the success.
weapons industry was significant not so Compounding the problems were
much for its direct military purpose as for the compradors (Chinese agents
the introduction of Western knowledge employed by foreign firms in China)
and techniques through the many educa- who, acting as a link between Chinese
tional facilities that were attached to each commerce and the foreign firms in the
installation. treaty ports, accumulated vast wealth
In the second period (1872–94), from the new enterprises. Though active
weight shifted from the weapons industry in supplying capital and managerial per-
to a wider field of manufacture, and the sonnel to the enterprises, the compradors
operation shifted from direct government themselves lacked technical training
management to a government-supervised and knowledge and often indulged in
and merchant-managed method. Leading speculation and embezzlement. Each
among the several enterprises of the comprador belonged to an exclusive
second period were the China Merchants’ community by strong family or regional
Steam Navigation Company and the ties that focused his concerns on his com-
Kaiping coal mines. These enterprises munity rather than on national interests.
were sponsored by high provincial These shortcomings were deeply
officials—the central figure was Li rooted in the late Qing social conditions
Hongzhang—but their management was and more than offset efforts to construct
left to joint operation by shareholders’ and maintain the new enterprises. Thus,
representatives and the lower officials Chinese society as a whole did not
appointed by the sponsors. change structurally before 1911.
244 | The History of China
the Tibetans, who expelled the enemy on 1875. The British minister in China, Sir
their own. China was a mere bystander Thomas Francis Wade, seized the oppor-
during a coup d’état in Lhasa in 1844 and tunity to negotiate the Chefoo Convention
could not protect Tibet when it was with China. Negotiated and signed at the
invaded by Gurkhas in 1855. Tibet thus northern Shandong city of Yantai
tended to free itself from Qing control. (Chefoo) in 1876, the treaty further
The border dispute between Nepal extended the British rights by opening
and British India, which sharpened after more Chinese ports to foreign trade and
1801, had caused the Anglo-Nepalese agreeing to a mission to delineate the
War of 1814–16 and brought the Gurkhas Yunnan-Myanmar border, though the
under British influence. During the war London government put off its ratifica-
the Gurkhas sent several missions to tion until 1885. Guo Songtao, appointed
China in vain expectation of assistance. chief of a mission of apology to Britain,
When political unrest flared up in Nepal arrived in London in 1877. He was the first
after 1832, an anti-British clique seized Chinese resident minister abroad, and
power and sought assistance from China within two years China opened embas-
to form an anti-British common front sies in five major foreign capitals.
with the Qing, then fighting the first When the last king of Myanmar,
Opium War. But this too was rejected. Thibaw, tried to join with France and Italy
Jung Bahadur, who had become premier to stave off British pressure, Britain sent
of Nepal in 1846, decided on a pro-British an ultimatum in October 1885, seized the
policy; his invasion of Tibet in 1855— capital of Mandalay, and annexed the
which took advantage of the Taiping country in January 1886 under the name
uprising in China—gained Nepal many Burma. During the final bargaining with
privileges there. Though Nepal sent the British, Thibaw ignored his tributary
quinquennial missions to China until relations with the Qing, yet China pro-
1906, the Gurkhas did not recognize posed that the Myanmar royal court be
Chinese suzerainty. preserved even nominally so that it could
send a decennial mission to China. Britain
Myanmar (Burma) refused, but, in a convention signed in
July 1886, it agreed that the new Burmese
In 1867 the British gained the right to sta- government should send to China a
tion a commercial agent at Bhamo in decennial envoy. This outdated practice,
Myanmar, from which they could explore however, was abandoned in 1900.
the Irrawaddy River up to the Yunnan
border. A British interpreter accompany- Vietnam
ing a British exploratory mission to
Yunnan was killed by local tribesmen on In 1802 a new dynasty was founded in
the Yunnan-Myanmar border in February Vietnam (Dai Viet) by Nguyen Anh, a
246 | The History of China
these two incidents, Qing political influ- Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula. Six
ence and commercial privileges emerged days later, however, Russia, Germany, and
much stronger, though Japan’s trade in France forced Japan to restore the penin-
Korea far surpassed that of China in the sula; Japan formally relinquished it on
late 1880s. May 5, for which China agreed to pay
In 1860 a Korean scholar, Ch’oe Che- 30 million taels. Gaining China’s favour
u, had founded a popular religion called by this intervention, the three powers
Tonghak (“Eastern Learning”). By 1893 it began to press China with demands,
had turned into a political movement that which gave rise to a veritable scramble
attracted a vast number of peasants for concessions.
under the banner of antiforeignism and
anticorruption. They occupied the south- Reform and upheaval
western city of Chŏnju in late May 1894.
Both China and Japan sent expeditions Immediately after the triple intervention,
to Korea, but the two interventionists Russia succeeded in 1896 in signing a
arrived to find the rebels at Chŏnju secret treaty of alliance with China
already dispersed. To justify its military against Japan, by which Russia gained
presence, Japan proposed to China a pol- the right to construct the Chinese Eastern
icy of joint support of Korean reform. Railway across northern Manchuria. In
When China refused on the ground that November 1897 the Germans seized
this was counter to Korean independence, Jiaozhou Bay in Shandong and forced
a clash seemed inevitable. On July 25 the China to concede them the right to build
Japanese navy defeated a Chinese fleet two railways in the province. In March
in Kanghwa Bay, and on August 1 the two 1898 Russia occupied Port Arthur
sides declared war on each other. Japan (Lüshun; since 1984 a part of Dalian) and
gained victories in every quarter on both a small fishing village that became
land and sea. Dairen (Dalian; called Lüda in 1950–81)
During the crisis the Qing power cen- on the Liaodong Peninsula and obtained
tre was again divided. The northern the lease of the two ports and the right to
(beiyang) navy was less powerful than build a railway connecting them to the
it appeared, lacking discipline, unified Chinese Eastern Railway. Vying with
command, and the necessary equipment Russia and Germany, Britain leased
of a modern navy. In February 1895 Li Weihai in Shandong and the New
Hongzhang was appointed envoy to Territories opposite Hong Kong and
Japan; he signed a peace treaty at forced China to recognize the Yangtze
Shimonoseki on April 17, whose main River valley as being under British influ-
items were recognition of Korean inde- ence. Following suit, Japan put the
pendence, indemnity of 200 million taels, province of Fujian under its influence,
and the cession of Taiwan, the Pescadores and France leased Kwangchow
Late Qing | 249
Map of Hong Kong c. 1900; from the 10th edition of Encyclopædia Britannica.
Drawing of a scene from the Boxer Rebellion uprising in China. Hulton Archive/Getty Images
252 | The History of China
northern China. After 1895 the Huang He sent an expedition of some 19,000 troops,
flooded almost annually, and in 1899– which marched to Beijing and seized the
1900 a serious drought struck the north. city on August 14. Cixi and the emperor
Vast numbers of starving people turned fled to Xi’an.
to begging and banditry and were easy The two governors-general in the
converts to the Boxers’ cause. southeastern provinces, Liu Kunyi and
Many local authorities refused to Zhang Zhidong, who together with Li
stop the violence. Some supported the Hongzhang at Guangzhou had already
Boxers by incorporating them into local disobeyed Beijing’s antiforeign decrees,
militias. The Manchu court, meanwhile, concluded an informal pact with foreign
was alarmed by the uncontrollable popu- consuls at Shanghai on June 26, to the
lar uprising but took great satisfaction at effect that the governors-general would
seeing revenge taken for its humiliation take charge of the safety of the foreigners
by the foreign powers. As a result, it under their jurisdiction. At first the pact
assumed at first a neutral policy. On the covered the five provinces in the Yangtze
part of the Boxers, there emerged some- River region, but later it was extended to
time in the autumn of 1899 a move to three coastal provinces. Thus, the foreign
gain access to the court under the slogan operations were restricted to Zhili (pres-
“Support for the Qing and extermination ent-day Hebei) province, along the
of foreigners.” By May 1900 the Qing northern coast.
government had changed its policy and The United States, which had
was secretly supporting the Boxers. Cixi announced its commercial Open Door
inclined toward open war when she policy in 1899, made a second declaration
became convinced of the dependability of the policy in July 1900—this time insist-
of the Boxers’ art. Finally, incensed over a ing on the preservation of the territorial
false report that the foreign powers had and administrative entity of China. With
demanded that she return administration its newly acquired territory in the western
to the emperor, she called on all Chinese Pacific, the United States was determined
to attack foreigners. Within days, on June to preserve its own commercial interests
20, the Boxers’ eight-week siege of the in China by protecting Chinese territo-
foreign legations in Beijing began; a day rial integrity from the other major powers.
later Cixi declared war by ordering pro- This provided a basis for the Anglo-
vincial governors to take part in the German agreement (October 1900) for
hostilities. preventing further territorial partition, to
An international reinforcement of which Japan and Russia consented. Thus,
some 2,000 men had left Tianjin for partition of China was avoided by mutual
Beijing before the siege, but on the way it restraint among the powers.
was resisted by the Boxers and forced The final settlement of the distur-
back to Tianjin. The foreign powers then bance was signed in September 1901. The
Late Qing | 253
October 1900, which failed after two was published in 1903, and more than a
weeks’ fighting with imperial forces. million copies were issued.
After the Boxer disaster, Cixi reluc- Dealing with the young intellectuals
tantly issued a series of reforms, which was a new challenge for Sun Yat-sen, who
included abolishing the civil service hitherto had concentrated on mobilizing
examination, establishing modern the uncultured secret-society members.
schools, and sending students abroad. He also had to work out some theoretical
But these measures could never repair planks, though he was not a first-class
the damaged imperial prestige; rather, political philosopher. The result of his
they inspired more anti-Manchu feeling response was the Three Principles of the
and raised the revolutionary tide. People (Sanmin Zhuyi)—nationalism,
However, other factors also intensified democracy, and socialism—the prototype
the revolutionary cause: the introduction of which came to take shape by 1903. He
of social Darwinist ideas by Yen Fu after expounded his philosophy in America
the Sino-Japanese War countered the and Europe during his travels there in
reformists’ theory of change based on the 1903–05, returning to Japan in the sum-
Chinese Classics; and Western and revo- mer of 1905. The activists in Tokyo joined
lutionary thoughts came to be easily and him to establish a new organization
widely diffused through a growing num- called the United League (Tongmenghui);
ber of journals and pamphlets published under Sun’s leadership, the intellectuals
in Tokyo, Shanghai, and Hong Kong. increased their importance.
Nationalists and revolutionists had
their most-enthusiastic and most- Sun Yat-sen
numerous supporters among the and the United League
Chinese students in Japan, whose num-
bers increased rapidly between 1900 Sun’s leadership in the league was far
and 1906. The Zongli Yamen sent 13 stu- from undisputed. His understanding that
dents to Japan for the first time in 1896; the support of foreign powers was indis-
within a decade the figure had risen to pensable for Chinese revolution militated
some 8,000. Many of these students against the anti-imperialist trend of the
began to organize themselves for young intellectuals. Only half-heartedly
propaganda and immediate action accepted was the principle of people’s
for the revolutionary cause. In livelihood, or socialism, one of his Three
1902–04, revolutionary and nationalistic Principles. Though his socialism has
organizations—including the Chinese been evaluated in various ways, it seems
Educational Association, the Society for certain that it did not reflect the hopes
Revival of China, and the Restoration and needs of the commoners.
Society—appeared in Shanghai. The Ideologically, the league soon fell
anti-Manchu tract “Revolutionary Army” into disharmony: Zhang Binglin (Chang
Late Qing | 255
Sun yat-sen
Sun Yat-sen (Pinyin: Sun Yixian; b. Nov. 12, 1866—d. March 12, 1925), leader of the Chinese
Nationalist Party, is known as the father of modern China. Educated in Hawaii and Hong Kong,
Sun embarked on a medical career in 1892, but, troubled by the conservative Qing dynasty’s inabil-
ity to keep China from suffering repeated humiliations at the hands of more advanced countries,
he forsook medicine two years later for politics. A letter to Li Hongzhang in which Sun detailed
ways that China could gain strength made no headway, and he went abroad to try organizing
expatriate Chinese. He spent time in Hawaii, England, Canada, and Japan and in 1905 became
head of a revolutionary coalition, the Tongmenghui (“Alliance Society,” or United League). The
revolts he helped plot during this period failed, but in 1911 a rebellion in Wuhan unexpectedly
succeeded in overthrowing the provincial government. Other provincial secessions followed, and
Sun returned to be elected provisional president of a new government. The emperor abdicated in
1912, and Sun turned over
the government to Yuan
Shikai. The two men split
in 1913, and Sun became
head of a separatist regime
in the south. In 1924, aided
by Soviet advisers, he reor-
ganized his Nationalist
Party, admitted three com-
munists to its central
executive committee, and
approved the establish-
ment of a military
academy, to be headed by
Chiang Kai-shek. He also
delivered lectures on his
doctrine, the Three
Principles of the People
(nationalism, democracy,
and people’s livelihood, or
socialism), but died the fol-
lowing year without having
The Chinese revolutionary leader Sun Yat-Sen. Topical Press
had the opportunity to put
Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
his doctrine into practice.
256 | The History of China
in the latter line, and their anti-Beijing army troops in Hubei who were urged on
remonstrance grew into a province-wide by the local revolutionary bodies not
uprising. The court moved some troops incorporated in the league. The acciden-
into Sichuan from Hubei; some other tal exposure of a mutinous plot forced a
troops in Hubei mutinied and suddenly number of junior officers to choose
occupied the capital city, Wuchang, on between arrest or revolt in Wuhan. The
October 10. That date became the memo- revolt was initially successful because of
rial day of the Chinese Revolution. the determination of lower-level officers
The commoners’ standard of living, and revolutionary troops and the coward-
which had not continued to grow in the ice of the responsible Manchu and
19th century and may have begun to dete- Chinese officials. Within a day the rebels
riorate, was further dislocated by the had seized the arsenal and the governor-
mid-century civil wars and foreign com- general’s offices and had gained
mercial and military penetration. Paying possession of Wuchang. With no nation-
for the wars and their indemnities cer- ally known revolutionary leaders on
tainly increased the tax burden of the hand, the rebels coerced a colonel, Li
peasantry, but how serious a problem this Yuanhong, to assume military command,
was has remained an open question although only as a figurehead. They per-
among scholars. The Manchu reforms suaded the Hubei provincial assembly to
and preparations for constitutionalism proclaim the establishment of the
added a further fiscal exaction for the pop- Chinese republic; Tang Hualong, the
ulace, which hardly benefited from these assembly’s chairman, was elected head of
urban-oriented developments. Rural dis- the civil government.
tress, resulting from these policies and After this initial victory, a number of
from natural disasters, was among the historical tendencies converged to bring
causes of local peasant uprisings in the about the downfall of the Qing dynasty.
Yangtze River region in 1910 and 1911 and A decade of revolutionary organization
of a major rice riot at Changsha, the capi- and propaganda paid off in a sequence
tal of Hunan, in 1910. However, popular of supportive uprisings in important
discontent was limited and not a major centres of central and southern China;
factor contributing to the revolution that these occurred in recently formed mili-
ended the Qing dynasty and inaugurated tary academies and in newly created
the republican era in China. divisions and brigades, in which many
cadets and junior officers were revolu-
The Chinese Revolution tionary sympathizers. Secret-society
(1911–12) units also were quickly mobilized for
local revolts. The antirevolutionary con-
The Chinese Revolution was triggered stitutionalist movement also made an
not by the United League itself but by the important contribution: its leaders had
258 | The History of China
become disillusioned with the imperial the outbreak of the revolution in 1911, the
government’s unwillingness to speed the court had no choice but to recall him from
process of constitutional government, retirement to take command of his new
and a number of them led their respec- army. Instead of using force, however, he
tive provincial assemblies to declare their played a double game: on the one hand,
provinces independent of Beijing or to he deprived the floundering court of all
actually join the new republic. Tang its power; on the other, he started to nego-
Hualong was the first among them. A sig- tiate with the revolutionaries. At the peace
nificant product of the newly emerging talks that opened at the end of the year,
nationalism was widespread hostility Yuan’s emissaries and the revolutionary
among Chinese toward the alien dynasty. representatives agreed that the abdica-
Many had absorbed the revolutionary tion of the Qing and the appointment of
propaganda that blamed a weak and vac- Yuan to the presidency of the new repub-
illating court for the humiliations China lic were to be formally decided by a
had suffered from foreign powers since National Assembly that would be formed.
1895. Therefore, broad sentiment However, this was renounced by Yuan,
favoured the end of Manchu rule. Also, as probably because he hoped to be
an outcome of two decades of journaliz- appointed by the retiring Manchu mon-
ing discussion of “people’s rights,” there arch to organize a new government rather
was substantial support among the urban than nominated as chief of state by the
educated for a republican form of govern- National Assembly. (This is a formula of
ment. Probably the most-decisive the Chinese dynastic revolution called
development was the recall of Yuan chanrang, which means the peaceful shift
Shikai (Yüan Shih-k’ai), the architect of in rule from a decadent dynasty to a more-
the elite Beiyang Army, to government virtuous one.) But events turned against
service to suppress the rebellion when its him, and the presidency was given to Sun
seriousness became apparent. Yat-sen, who had been appointed provi-
After the collapse of the Huai Army sional president of the republic by the
in the Sino-Japanese War, the Qing gov- National Assembly. In February 1912
ernment had endeavoured to build up a Sun voluntarily resigned his position,
new Western-style army, among which and the Qing court proclaimed the
the elite corps trained by Yuan Shikai, for- decree of abdication, which included a
mer governor-general of Zhili, had passage—fabricated and inserted by
survived the Boxer uprising and emerged Yuan into this last imperial document—
as the strongest force in China. But it was purporting that Yuan was to organize a
in a sense Yuan’s private army and did republican government to negotiate with
not easily submit to the Manchu court. the revolutionists on unification of north-
Yuan had been retired from officialdom at ern and southern China. Thus ended the
odds with the regent Prince Chun, but, on 268-year rule of the Qing dynasty.
ChaPTER 12
The Early
Republican Period
ThE DEvELOPMENT
Of ThE REPuBLIC (1912–20)
During the first half of the 20th century, the old order in
China gradually disintegrated, and turbulent preparations
were made for a new society. Foreign political philosophies
undermined the traditional governmental system, national-
ism became the strongest activating force, and civil wars and
Japanese invasion tore the vast country and retarded its
modernization. Although the revolution ushered in a repub-
lic, China had virtually no preparation for democracy. A
three-way settlement ended the revolution: the Qing dynasty
abdicated; Sun Yat-sen relinquished the provisional presi-
dency in favour of Yuan Shikai (Yüan Shih-k’ai), regarded as
the indispensable man to restore unity; and Yuan promised
to establish a republican government. This placed at the head
of state an autocrat by temperament and training, and the
revolutionaries had only a minority position in the new
national government.
1913. The Nationalist Party (Kuomintang 10, 1914, and appointed another body to
[KMT], or Guomindang), made up largely prepare a constitution according to his
of former revolutionaries, won a com- own specifications. The presidency had
manding majority of seats. Parliament become a dictatorship.
was to produce a permanent constitution.
Song Jiaoren (Sung Chiao-jen), the main China in World War I
organizer of the KMT’s electoral victory,
advocated executive authority in a cabi- Japanese Gains
net responsible to parliament rather than
to the president. In March 1913, Song was Following the outbreak of World War I in
assassinated; the confession of the assas- 1914, Japan joined the side of the Allies
sin and later circumstantial evidence and seized the German leasehold around
strongly implicated the premier and pos- Jiaozhou Bay together with German-
sibly Yuan himself. owned railways in Shandong. China was
Parliament tried to block Yuan’s not permitted to interfere. Then, on Jan.
effort to get a “reorganization loan” (face 18, 1915, the Japanese government
value $125 million) from a consortium of secretly presented to Yuan the Twenty-
foreign banks, but in April Yuan con- one Demands, which sought in effect to
cluded the negotiations and received the make China a Japanese dependency.
loan. He then dismissed three Nationalist Yuan skillfully directed the negotiations
military governors. That summer, revolu- by which China tried to limit its conces-
tionary leaders organized a revolt against sions, which centred on greater access to
Yuan, later known as the Second Chinese ports and railroads and even a
Revolution, but his military followers voice in Chinese political and police
quickly suppressed it. Sun Yat-sen, one of affairs. At the same time, Yuan searched
the principal revolutionaries, fled to for foreign support. The European pow-
Japan. Yuan then coerced parliament ers, locked in war, were in no position to
into electing him formally to the presi- restrain Japan, and the United States was
dency, and he was inaugurated on unwilling to intervene. The Chinese pub-
October 10, the second anniversary of lic, however, was aroused. Most of Yuan’s
the outbreak of the revolution. By then political opponents supported his resis-
his government had been recognized by tance to Japan’s demands. Nevertheless,
most foreign powers. When parliament on May 7 Japan gave Yuan a 48-hour ulti-
promulgated a constitution placing exec- matum, forcing him to accept the terms
utive authority in a cabinet responsible as they stood at that point in the
to the legislature, Yuan revoked the cre- negotiations.
dentials of the KMT members, charging Japan gained extensive special privi-
them with involvement in the recent leges and concessions in Manchuria
revolt. He dissolved parliament on Jan. (Northeast China) and confirmed its
The Early Republican Period | 261
gains in Shandong from Germany. The When he would not, the Yunnan army in
Hanyeping mining and metallurgical early January 1916 invaded Sichuan and
enterprise in the middle Yangtze valley subsequently Hunan and Guangdong,
was to become a joint Sino-Japanese hoping to bring the southwestern and
company. China promised not to alienate southern provinces into rebellion and to
to any other power any harbour, bay, or then induce the lower Yangtze provinces
island on the coast of China nor to permit to join them. The Japanese government
any nation to construct a dockyard, coal- covertly provided funds and munitions to
ing station, or naval base on the coast of Sun and the Yunnan leaders. One by one,
Fujian, the province nearest to Japan’s military leaders in Guizhou, Guangxi, and
colony of Taiwan. parts of Guangdong declared the inde-
pendence of their provinces or districts.
Yuan’s Attempts By March the rebellion had assumed seri-
to Become Emperor ous dimensions, and public opinion was
running strongly against Yuan.
In the wake of the humiliation of these A third source of opposition came
forced concessions, Yuan launched a from Yuan’s direct subordinates, Generals
movement to revive the monarchy, with Duan Qirui (Tuan Ch’i-jui) and Feng
some modernized features, and to place Guozhang (Feng Kuo-chang), whose
himself on the throne. The Japanese gov- powers Yuan had attempted to curtail.
ernment began to “advise” against this When he called on them for help, they
move in October and induced its allies to both withheld support. On March 22—
join in opposing Yuan’s plan. Additional with the tide of battle running against his
opposition came from the leaders of the forces in the southwest, Japanese hostil-
Nationalist and Progressive parties. In ity increasingly open, public opposition
December, Chen Qimei (Ch’en Ch’i-mei) in full cry, and his closest subordinates
and Hu Hanmin (Hu Han-min), two fol- advising peace—Yuan announced the
lowers of Sun Yat-sen (who was actively abolition of the new empire. His oppo-
scheming against Yuan from his exile in nents, however, demanded that he give
Japan), began a movement against the up the presidency as well. The revolt con-
monarchy. More significant was a mili- tinued to spread, with more military
tary revolt in Yunnan, led by Gen. Cai E leaders declaring the independence of
(Ts’ai O; a disciple of Liang Qichao) and their provinces. The issue became that of
by the governor of Yunnan, Tang Jiyao succession should Yuan retire. The presi-
(T’ang Chi-yao). Joined by Li Liejun (Li dent, however, became gravely ill and
Lieh-chün) and other revolutionary gen- died on June 6.
erals, they established the National Yuan’s four years in power had seri-
Protection Army (Huguojun) and ous consequences for China. The
demanded that Yuan cancel his plan. country’s foreign debt was much
262 | The History of China
enlarged, and a precedent had been opposed the step, but Duan favoured
established of borrowing for political pur- moving toward entry into the war.
poses. Yuan’s defiance of constitutional Parliamentary factions and public opin-
procedures and his dissolution of parlia- ion were bitterly divided. Sun Yat-sen,
ment also set precedents that were later now in Shanghai, argued that entering
repeated. Many were disillusioned with the war could not benefit China and
the republican experiment; China was a would create additional perils from
republic in name, but arbitrary rule based Japan. Under heavy pressure, parliament
on military power was the political real- voted to sever diplomatic relations with
ity. The country was becoming fractured Germany, and Li was compelled by his
into competing military satrapies—the premier to acquiesce. When the United
beginning of warlordism. States entered the war in April, Duan
Gen. Li Yuanhong (Li Yüan-hung), wished China to do the same but was
the vice president, succeeded to the pres- again opposed by the president.
idency, and Duan Qirui continued as Duan and his supporters demanded
premier, a position he had accepted in that China enter the war and that Li dis-
April. A man of great ability and ambi- solve parliament. On May 23, Li
tion, Duan was supported by many dismissed Duan and called on Gen.
generals of the former Beiyang Army, a Zhang Xun (Chang Hsün), a power in
powerful force based in northern China the Beiyang clique and also a monar-
that developed originally under Yuan’s chist, to mediate. As a price for
leadership. Duan quickly began to gather mediation, Zhang demanded that Li dis-
power into his own hands. Parliament solve parliament, which he did
reconvened on August 1; it confirmed reluctantly on June 13. The next day
Duan as premier but elected Gen. Feng Zhang entered Beijing with an army and
Guozhang, the leader of another emerg- set about to restore the Qing dynasty.
ing faction of the Beiyang Army, as vice Telegrams immediately poured in from
president. The presidential transition military governors and generals denounc-
and restoration of parliament had by no ing Zhang and the coup; Li refused to
means answered the underlying question sign the restoration order and called on
of where the governing power lay. Duan to bring an army to the capital to
restore the republic. Li requested that
Conflict Over Entry into the War Vice President Feng assume the duties of
president during the crisis and then took
In February 1917 the U.S. government sev- refuge in the Japanese legation. Duan
ered diplomatic relations with Germany captured Beijing on July 14; Zhang fled to
and invited the neutral powers, including asylum in the Legation Quarter, and this
China, to do the same. This brought on ended a second attempt to restore the
a crisis in the Chinese government. Li imperial system.
The Early Republican Period | 263
Duan resumed the premiership, and quell the southern opposition by force,
Feng came to Beijing as acting president, while Feng advocated a peaceful solution.
bringing a division as his personal guard. Duan resigned and mustered his strength
The two powerful rivals, each supported to force Feng to order military action;
by an army in the capital, formed two Gen. Cao Kun was put in charge of the
powerful factions: the Zhili (Chihli) clique campaign and drove the southerners out
under Feng and the Anhui clique under of Hunan by the end of April 1918. In May
Duan. Opposed neither by Li nor by the the southern government was reorga-
dissolved parliament, Duan pushed nized under a directorate of seven, in
through China’s declaration of war on which military men dominated. Sun
Germany, announced on Aug. 14, 1917. therefore left Guangzhou and returned to
Shanghai. Although his first effort to
Formation of a establish a government in the south had
Rival Southern Government been unsuccessful, it led to a protracted
split between south and north.
Meanwhile, in July Sun Yat-sen, sup-
ported by part of the Chinese navy and Wartime Changes
followed by some 100 members of parlia-
ment, attempted to organize a rival Although its wartime participation was
government in Guangzhou (Canton). The limited, China made some gains from its
initial costs of this undertaking, termed entry into the war, taking over the
the Movement to Protect the Constitution, German and Austrian concessions and
probably were supplied by the German canceling the unpaid portions of the
consulate in Shanghai. On September 1 Boxer indemnities due its enemies. It was
the rump parliament in Guangzhou also assured a seat at the peace confer-
established a military government and ence. Japan, however, extended its gains
elected Sun commander in chief. Real in China. The Beijing government, domi-
power, however, lay with military men, nated by Duan after Feng’s retirement,
who only nominally supported Sun. The granted concessions to Japan for railway
southern government declared war on building in Shandong, Manchuria, and
Germany on September 26 and unsuc- Mongolia. These were in exchange for
cessfully sought recognition from the the Nishihara loans, amounting to nearly
Allies as the legitimate government. The $90 million, which went mainly to
Constitution-Protecting Army (Hufajun), strengthen the Anhui clique with arms
made up of southern troops, launched a and cash. Japan also made secret agree-
punitive campaign against the govern- ments with its allies to support its claims
ment in Beijing and succeeded in pushing to the former German rights in Shandong
northward through Hunan. Sichuan was and also induced the Beijing government
also drawn into the fight. Duan tried to to consent to these. In November 1917 the
264 | The History of China
United States, to adjust difficulties with tenancy and a slow impoverishment that
Japan, entered into the Lansing-Ishii sent rural unemployed into cities and
Agreement, which recognized that armies or into banditry.
because of “territorial propinquity . . .
Japan has special interests in China.” An Intellectual Revolution
This treaty seemed to underwrite Japan’s
wartime gains. An intellectual revolution took place dur-
Important economic and social ing the first decade of the republic,
changes occurred during the first years sometimes referred to as the New Culture
of the republic. With the outbreak of the Movement. It was led by many of the new
war, foreign economic competition with intellectuals, who held up for critical
native industry abated, and native- scrutiny nearly all aspects of Chinese cul-
owned light industries developed ture and traditional ethics. Guided by
markedly. By 1918 the industrial labour concepts of individual liberty and equal-
force numbered some 1,750,000. Modern- ity, a scientific spirit of inquiry, and a
style Chinese banks increased in number pragmatic approach to the nation’s prob-
and expanded their capital. lems, they sought a much more profound
reform of China’s institutions than had
Intellectual Movements resulted from self-strengthening or the
republican revolution. They directed
A new intelligentsia had also emerged. their efforts particularly to China’s edu-
The educational reforms and the ending cated youth.
of the governmental examination system In September 1915 Chen Duxiu
during the final Qing years enabled thou- (Ch’en Tu-hsiu), who had studied in
sands of young people to study sciences, Japan and France, founded Xinqingnian
engineering, medicine, law, economics, (“New Youth”) magazine to oppose
education, and military skills in Japan. Yuan’s imperial ambitions and to regen-
Others went to Europe and the United erate the country’s youth. This quickly
States. Upon their return they took impor- became the most popular reform journal,
tant positions and were a modernizing and in 1917 it began to express the icono-
force in society. Their writing and teach- clasm of new faculty members at Peking
ing became a powerful influence on University (Beida), which Chen had
upcoming generations of students. In joined as dean of the College of Letters.
1915–16 there were said to be nearly Peking University, China’s most presti-
130,000 new-style schools in China with gious institution of higher education,
more than four million students. This was was being transformed by its new chan-
mainly an urban phenomenon, however; cellor, Cai Yuanpei (Ts’ai Yüan-p’ei), who
rural life was barely affected except for had spent many years in advanced study
what may have been gradually increasing in Germany. Cai made the university a
The Early Republican Period | 265
centre of scholarly research and inspired China was launched on a new revolution-
teaching. The students were quickly ary path.
swept into the New Culture Movement. A
proposal by Hu Shih (Hu Shi), a former The interwar years
student of the American philosopher (1920–37)
John Dewey, that literature be written in
the vernacular language (baihua) rather Beginnings
than the classical style won quick accep- of a National Revolution
tance. By 1918 most of the contributors to
Xinqingnian were writing in baihua, and This new revolution was led by the
other journals and newspapers soon fol- Nationalist Party (KMT) and the Chinese
lowed suit. Students at Peking University Communist Party (CCP).
began their own reform journal, Xinchao
(“New Tide”). A new experimental litera- The Nationalist Party
ture inspired by Western forms became
highly popular, and scores of new literary The Nationalist Party had its origins in
journals were founded. the earlier United League (Tongmenghui)
against the Qing dynasty. The name
Riots and Protests Nationalist Party was adopted in 1912.
After the suppression of this expanded
On May 4, 1919, patriotic students in party by Yuan Shikai, elements from it
Beijing protested the decision at the Paris were organized by Sun Yat-sen in 1914
Peace Conference that Japan should into the Chinese Revolutionary Party,
retain defeated Germany’s rights and which failed to generate widespread sup-
possessions in Shandong. Many students port. Sun and a small group of veterans
were arrested in the rioting that followed. were stimulated by the patriotic upsurge
Waves of protest spread throughout the of 1919 to rejuvenate this political tradi-
major cities of China. Merchants closed tion, as well as to revive the Nationalist
their shops, banks suspended business, Party name. The party’s publications took
and workers went on strike to pressure on new life as the editors entered the cur-
the government. Finally, the government rent debates on what was needed to “save
was forced to release the arrested stu- China.” Socialism was popular among
dents, to dismiss some officials charged Sun’s followers.
with being tools of Japan, and to refuse to The formation of an effective party
sign the Treaty of Versailles. This out- took several years, however. Sun returned
burst helped spread the iconoclastic and to Guangzhou from Shanghai late in
reformist ideas of the intellectual move- 1920, when Gen. Chen Jiongming (Ch’en
ment, which became known as the May Chiung-ming) drove out the Guangxi
Fourth Movement. By the early 1920s, militarists. Another rump parliament
266 | The History of China
elected Sun president of a new southern special rights gained by tsarist Russia at
regime, which claimed to be the legiti- China’s expense and to return the Russian-
mate government of China. In the spring owned Chinese Eastern Railway in
of 1922 Sun attempted to launch a north- Manchuria without compensation. The
ern campaign as an ally of the Manchurian contrast between this promise and the
warlord, Zhang Zuolin (Chang Tso-lin), Versailles award to Japan that had touched
against the Zhili clique, which by now off the 1919 protest demonstrations could
controlled Beijing. Chen, however, did hardly have been more striking. Although
not want the provincial revenues wasted the Soviet government later denied such
in internecine wars. One of Chen’s subor- a promise and attempted to regain con-
dinates drove Sun from the presidential trol of the railway, the impression of this
residence in Guangzhou on the night of first statement and the generosity still
June 15–16, 1922. Sun took refuge with the offered in a more diplomatic second
southern navy, and he retired to Shanghai Karakhan Manifesto of September 1920
on August 9. He was able to return to left a favourable image of Soviet foreign
Guangzhou in February 1923 and began policy among Chinese patriots.
to consolidate a base under his own con- Russia set up an international com-
trol and to rebuild his party. munist organization, the Comintern, in
1919 and sent Grigory N. Voytinsky to
The Chinese Communist Party China the next year. Voytinsky met Li
Dazhao in Beijing and Chen Duxiu in
The CCP grew directly from the May Shanghai, and they organized the
Fourth Movement. Its leaders and early Socialist Youth League, laid plans for the
members were professors and students Communist Party, and started recruiting
who came to believe that China needed a young intellectuals. By the spring of 1921
social revolution and who began to see there were about 50 members in various
Soviet Russia as a model. Chinese stu- Chinese cities and in Japan, many of
dents in Japan and France had earlier them former students who had been
studied socialist doctrines and the ideas active in the 1919 demonstrations. Mao
of Karl Marx, but the Russian Revolution Zedong, a protégé of Li Dazhao, had
of 1917 stimulated a fresh interest in keep- started one such group in Changsha. The
ing with the enthusiasm of the period for CCP held its First Congress in Shanghai
radical ideologies. Li Dazhao, the librar- in July 1921, with 12 or 13 attendants and
ian of Peking University, and Chen Duxiu with a Dutch communist—Hendricus
were the CCP’s cofounders. Sneevliet, who used his Comintern name,
In March 1920 word reached China of Maring, in China—and a Russian serving
Soviet Russia’s revolutionary foreign pol- as advisers. Maring had become head of a
icy enunciated in the first Karakhan new bureau of the Comintern in China,
Manifesto, which promised to give up all and he had arrived in Shanghai in June
The Early Republican Period | 267
1921. At the First Congress, Chen Duxiu they had gained experience in the French
was chosen to head the party. labour movement and with the French
The CCP spent the next two years Communist Party; Zhou Enlai was one of
recruiting, publicizing Marxism and the these. Other recruits were students influ-
need for a national revolution directed enced by the Japanese socialist movement.
against foreign imperialism and Chinese By 1923 the party had some 300 members,
militarism, and organizing unions among with perhaps 3,000 to 4,000 in the ancil-
railway and factory workers. Maring was lary Socialist Youth League.
instrumental in bringing the KMT and the
CCP together in a national revolutionary Communist-Nationalist
movement. A number of young men were Cooperation
sent to Russia for training. Among the
CCP members were many students who By then, however, the CCP was in serious
had worked and studied in France, where difficulty. The railway unions had been
Mao Zedong
The Chinese Marxist theorist, soldier, and statesman Mao Zedong (b. Dec. 26, 1893—d. Sept. 9,
1976) led China’s communist revolution and served as chairman of the People’s Republic of China
(1949–59) and chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP; 1931–76). The son of a peasant,
Mao joined the revolutionary army that overthrew the Qing dynasty but, after six months as a
soldier, left to acquire more education. At Peking University he met Li Dazhao and Chen Duxiu,
founders of the CCP, and in 1921 he committed himself to Marxism. At that time, Marxist thought
held that revolution lay in the hands of urban workers, but in 1925 Mao concluded that in China
it was the peasantry, not the urban proletariat, that had to be mobilized. He became chairman of
a Chinese Soviet Republic formed in rural Jiangxi province; its Red Army withstood repeated
attacks from Chiang Kai-shek’s Nationalist army but at last undertook the Long March to a more
secure position in northwestern China. There Mao became the undisputed head of the CCP.
Guerrilla warfare tactics, appeals to the local population’s nationalist sentiments, and Mao’s
agrarian policies gained the party military advantages against their Nationalist and Japanese
enemies and broad support among the peasantry. Mao’s agrarian Marxism differed from the
Soviet model, but, when the communists succeeded in taking power in China in 1949, the Soviet
Union agreed to provide the new state with technical assistance. However, Mao’s Great Leap
Forward and his criticism of “new bourgeois elements” in the Soviet Union and China alienated
the Soviet Union irrevocably; Soviet aid was withdrawn in 1960. Mao followed the failed Great
Leap Forward with the Cultural Revolution, also considered to have been a disastrous mistake.
After Mao’s death, Deng Xiaoping began introducing social and economic reforms.
The Early Republican Period | 269
brutally suppressed, and there were few Guangdong. By June, five young Soviet
places in China where it was safe to be a officers were in Beijing for language train-
known communist. In June 1923 the ing. More importantly, the Soviet leaders
Third Congress of the CCP met in selected an old Bolshevik, Mikhail M.
Guangzhou, where Sun Yat-sen provided Borodin, as their principal adviser to Sun
a sanctuary. After long debate, this con- Yat-sen. The Soviet leaders also decided to
gress accepted the Comintern strategy replace Maring with Voytinsky as princi-
pressed by Maring—that communists pal adviser to the CCP, which had its
should join the KMT and make it the cen- headquarters in Shanghai. Thereafter
tre of the national revolutionary three men—Karakhan in Beijing, Borodin
movement. Sun had rejected a multiparty in Guangzhou, and Voytinsky in
alliance but had agreed to admit commu- Shanghai—were the field directors of the
nists to his party, and several, including Soviet effort to bring China into the anti-
Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, had already imperialist camp of “world revolution.”
joined the KMT. Even though commu- The offensive was aimed primarily at the
nists would enter the other party as positions in China of Great Britain, Japan,
individuals, the CCP was determined to and the United States.
maintain its separate identity and auton-
omy and to attempt to control the labour Reactions to Warlords
union movement. The Comintern strat- and Foreigners
egy called for a period of steering the
Nationalist movement and building a These countries too were moving toward
base among the Chinese masses, fol- a new, postwar relationship with China.
lowed by a second stage—a socialist At the Washington Conference
revolution in which the proletariat would (November 1921–February 1922), China
seize power from the capitalist class. put forth a 10-point proposal for relations
By mid-1923 the Soviets had decided between it and the other powers, which,
to renew the effort to establish diplomatic after negotiations, became four points: to
relations with the Beijing government. Lev respect the sovereignty, independence,
M. Karakhan, the deputy commissar for and territorial and administrative integ-
foreign affairs, was chosen as plenipoten- rity of China, to give China opportunity
tiary for the negotiations. In addition to to develop a stable government, to main-
negotiating a treaty of mutual recognition, tain the principle of equal opportunity in
Karakhan was to try to regain for the Soviet China for the commerce and industry of
Union control of the Chinese Eastern all countries, and to refrain from taking
Railway. On the revolutionary front, the advantage of conditions in China to seek
Soviets had decided to financially assist exclusive privileges detrimental to the
Sun in Guangzhou and to send a team of rights of friendly countries. The treaty
military men to help train an army in was signed as the Nine-Power Pact on
270 | The History of China
February 6. Two other Chinese proposals, controlled provinces in the Yangtze valley
tariff autonomy and abolishing extrater- and in the north; these factions competed
ritoriality, were not included in the pact for control of Beijing. In Manchuria,
but were assigned to a committee for fur- Zhang Zuolin headed a separate Fengtian
ther study. In the meantime, separate army. Shanxi was controlled by Yan
negotiations between China and Japan Xishan (Yen Hsi-shan). Each separate
produced a treaty in which Japan agreed power group had to possess a territorial
to return the former German holdings in base from which to tax and recruit. Arms
Shandong to China—although under con- were produced in many scattered arse-
ditions that left Japan with valuable nals. Possession of an arsenal and control
privileges in the province. of ports through which foreign-made
For a few years thereafter, Great arms might be shipped were important
Britain, Japan, the United States, and elements of power. Most of the foreign
France attempted to adjust their conflict- powers had agreed in 1919 not to permit
ing interests in China, cooperated in arms to be smuggled into China, but that
assisting the Beijing government, and embargo was not entirely effective.
generally refrained from aiding particu- The wealthier the territorial base, the
lar Chinese factions in the recurrent greater the potential power of the con-
power struggles. But China was in tur- trolling faction. Beijing was the great
moil, with regional militarism in full tide. prize because of its symbolic importance
Furthermore, a movement against the as the capital and because the govern-
Unequal Treaties began to take shape. ment there regularly received revenues
collected by the Maritime Customs
Militarism in China Service, administered by foreigners and
protected by the powers. Competition for
During the first years of the republic, bases brought on innumerable wars, alli-
China had been fractured by rival mili- ances, and betrayals. Conflict was
tary regimes to the extent that no one continuous over spoils, even within each
authority was able to subordinate all military system. To support their armies
rivals and create a unified and centralized and conduct their wars, military com-
political structure. Southern China was manders and their subordinates taxed
detached from Beijing’s control; even the the people heavily. Money for education
southern provinces, and indeed districts and other government services was
within them, were run by different mili- drained away; revenues intended for the
tary factions (warlords). Sichuan was a central government were retained in
world in itself, divided among several the provinces. Regimes printed their
military rulers. The powerful Beiyang own currency and forced “loans” from
Army had split into two major factions merchants and bankers. This chaotic
whose semi-independent commanders situation partly accounts for the
The Early Republican Period | 271
leftward trend. One of the strongest 1924 and 1925 in developing the
advocates of the Nationalists’ Soviet Whampoa Military Academy and form-
orientation, Liao Zhongkai, was assassi- ing the National Revolutionary Army.
nated. In retaliation, Borodin, Chiang Blücher returned to Guangzhou in May
Kai-shek, and Wang Ching-wei (Wang and helped refine plans for the Northern
Jingwei) deported various conservatives. Expedition, which began officially in
A group of KMT veterans in the north July, with Chiang as commander in chief.
then ordered the expulsion of Borodin
and the communists and the suspension The Northern Expedition
of Wang Ching-wei; they set up a rival
KMT headquarters in Shanghai. The left- During the Northern Expedition the out-
wing leaders in Guangzhou then held numbered southern forces were infused
the Second National Congress in with revolutionary spirit and fought with
January 1926, confirming the radical pol- great élan. They were assisted by propa-
icies and the Soviet alliance. But as the ganda corps, which subverted enemy
Soviet presence became increasingly troops and agitated among the populace
overbearing, as the strike and boycott in in the enemy’s rear. Soviet military advis-
Guangzhou and Hong Kong dragged on, ers accompanied most of the divisions,
and as class conflict intensified in the and Soviet pilots reconnoitred the enemy
south, opposition to the radical trend positions. The army was well-financed at
grew stronger, particularly among mili- the initial stages because of fiscal reforms
tary commanders. in Guangdong during the previous year,
Chiang Kai-shek, now commander of and many enemy divisions and brigades
the National Revolutionary Army, took were bought over. Within two months the
steps in March to curb the communists National Revolutionary Army gained
and to send away several Soviet officers control of Hunan and Hubei, and by the
whom he believed were scheming with end of the year it had taken Jiangxi and
Wang Ching-wei against him. In a read- Fujian. The Nationalist government
justment of party affairs, communists no moved its central headquarters from
longer were permitted to hold high Guangzhou to the Wuhan cities of the
offices in the central headquarters, and Yangtze. By early spring of 1927, revolu-
Wang Ching-wei went into retirement tionary forces were poised to attack
in France. Chiang also demanded Nanjing and Shanghai.
Comintern support of a northern military The political situation, however, was
campaign and the return of Gen. V.K. unstable. Hunan and Hubei were swept
Blücher as his chief military adviser. by a peasant revolt marked by violence
Blücher, who used the pseudonym Galen against landlords and other rural power
in China, was a commander in the Red holders. Business in the industrial and
Army who had worked with Chiang in commercial centre of the middle
The Early Republican Period | 275
Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, two leaders of the Chinese Communist Party, during the Long
March. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
280 | The History of China
newly created post of chairman. It was The United Front Against Japan
also during the Long March that the CCP
began to develop a new political strat- Fearing that China would be plunged into
egy—a united front against Japan. It was renewed disorder if Chiang were killed,
first conceived as an alliance of patriotic the nation clamoured for his release. The
forces against Japan and the Nationalist Soviet Union quickly denounced the cap-
government, but, as Japan’s pressure on tors and insisted that Chiang be freed
China and the pressure of the Nationalist (the Soviet Union needed a united China
armies against the weakened Red armies opposing Japan, its potential enemy on
increased, the communist leaders began the east). The CCP leaders also decided
to call for a united front of all Chinese that Chiang’s release would serve China’s
against Japan alone. Virtually all classes interests as well as their own, if he would
and various local regimes supported this, accept their policy against Japan. Zhou
and the communists moderated their rev- Enlai and several other communist lead-
olutionary program and terminated class ers flew to Xi’an to try to effect this. Zhang
warfare in their zone of control. Xueliang finally agreed to free his cap-
Chiang was determined, however, to tive, with the understanding that Chiang
press on with his extermination cam- would call off the civil war and unite the
paign. He ordered the Manchurian army country against the invader. On December
under Zhang Xueliang, now based in 25 Chiang was freed.
Xi’an (Sian), and the Northwestern army The two Chinese parties began pro-
under Yang Hucheng (Yang Hu-ch’eng) tracted and secret negotiations for
to attack the communist forces in north- cooperation, each making concessions.
ern Shaanxi. Many officers in those But it was not until September 1937,
armies sympathized with the communist after the Sino-Japanese War had begun,
slogan “Chinese don’t fight Chinese”; that the Nationalist government for-
they preferred to fight Japan, a sentiment mally agreed to a policy of cooperation
particularly strong in the homeless with the CCP. For its part, the CCP pub-
Manchurian army. Zhang Xueliang was licly affirmed its adherence to the
conducting secret negotiations with the realization of Sun Yat-sen’s Three
communists and had suspended the civil Principles of the People, its abandon-
war. In December 1936 Chiang Kai-shek ment of armed opposition to the KMT
flew to Xi’an to order Zhang and Yang to and of the forcible confiscation of land-
renew the anticommunist campaign. lords’ property, the substitution of
Under pressure from subordinates, democracy for its soviet government,
Zhang detained Chiang on the morning and the reorganization of the Red Army
of December 12 (this became known as as a component of the national army
the Sian Incident). under the central government.
ChaPTER 13
The Late
Republican
Period and the
War against Japan
ThE EaRLy SINO-JaPaNESE WaR
Phase One
Nanjing Massacre
The Nanjing (or Nanking) Massacre (December 1937–January 1938) was one of the most infa-
mous events of the Sino-Japanese War that preceded World War II. Also called the Rape of
Nanjing, the incident involved a series of mass killings and the ravaging of Chinese citizens and
capitulated soldiers by soldiers of the Japanese Imperial Army after its seizure of Nanjing,
China, on Dec. 13, 1937. The number of Chinese killed in the massacre has been subject to much
debate, with most estimates ranging from 100,000 to more than 300,000.
The destruction of Nanjing—which had been the capital of the Nationalist Chinese from 1928
to 1937—was ordered by Matsui Iwane, commanding general of the Central China Front Army
that captured the city. Over the next several weeks, Japanese soldiers carried out Matsui’s orders,
perpetrating numerous mass executions and tens of thousands of rapes. The army looted and
burned the surrounding towns and the city, destroying more than a third of the buildings. In 1940
the Japanese made Nanjing the capital of their Chinese puppet government headed by Wang
Ching-wei (Wang Jingwei). Shortly after the end of World War II, Matsui and Tani Hisao, a lieu-
tenant general who had personally participated in acts of murder and rape, were found guilty of
war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East and were executed.
The bodies of some of the tens of thousands of people killed during the Nanjing Massacre
of December 1937–January 1938. © AP Images
The Late Republican Period and the War Against Japan | 283
Union, while for the Japanese navy it was and all the ports through which military
the United States. equipment and civilian supplies might be
During the first year of the unde- imported. However, it still held a vast
clared war, Japan won victory after though largely undeveloped territory and
victory against sometimes stubborn had unlimited manpower reserves. So
Chinese resistance. By late December, long as China continued to resist, Japan’s
Shanghai and Nanjing had fallen, the lat- control over the conquered eastern part of
ter city being the site of the infamous the country would be difficult.
Nanjing Massacre (December 1937–
January 1938) perpetrated by Japanese Phase Two:
troops. However, China had demon- Stalemate and Stagnation
strated to the world its determination to
resist the invader; this gave the govern- During the second stage of the war (1939–
ment time to search for foreign support. 43), the battle lines changed only slightly,
China found its major initial help from although there were many engagements
the Soviet Union. On Aug. 21, 1937, the of limited scale. Japan tried to bomb Free
Soviet Union and China signed a nonag- China into submission; Chongqing suf-
gression pact, and the former quickly fered repeated air raids in which
began sending munitions, military advis- thousands of civilians were killed. In 1940
ers, and hundreds of aircraft with Soviet Japan set up a rival government in
pilots. Yet Japanese forces continued to Nanjing under Wang Ching-wei. But the
win important victories. By mid-1938 Chinese would not submit. Hundreds of
Japanese armies controlled the railway thousands migrated to western China to
lines and major cities of northern China. continue the struggle. Students and fac-
They took Guangzhou on October 12, ulties of most eastern colleges took the
stopping the railway supply line to overland trek to makeshift quarters in
Wuhan, the temporary Chinese capital, distant inland towns. Factories and
and captured Hankou, Hanyang, and skilled workers were reestablished in the
Wuchang on October 25–26. The Chinese west. The government rebuilt its shat-
government and military command tered armies and tried to purchase
moved to Chongqing (Chungking) in supplies from abroad.
Sichuan, farther up the Yangtze and In 1938–40 the Soviet Union extended
behind a protective mountain screen. credits for military aid of $250 million,
At the end of this first phase of the war, while the United States, Great Britain,
the Nationalist government had lost the and France granted some $263.5 million
best of its modern armies, its air force and for civilian purchases and currency stabi-
arsenals, most of China’s modern indus- lization. Free China’s lines of supply were
tries and railways, its major tax resources, long and precarious; when war broke out
284 | The History of China
in Europe, shipping space became scarce. The war had the opposite effect upon
After Germany’s conquest of France in the CCP. The communist leaders had sur-
the spring of 1940, Britain bowed to vived 10 years of civil war and had
Japanese demands and temporarily developed a unity, camaraderie, and pow-
closed Rangoon, Burma (Yangon, erful sense of mission. They had learned
Myanmar), to military supplies for China to mobilize the rural population and to
(July–September). In September 1940 wage guerrilla warfare. In 1937 the CCP
Japan seized control of northern had about 40,000 members and the
Indochina and closed the supply line to poorly equipped Red Army numbered
Kunming. The Soviet Union had pro- perhaps 100,000. By agreement with the
vided China its most substantial military Nationalist government, the Red Army
aid, but, when Germany attacked the was renamed the Eighth Route Army
Soviet Union in June 1941, this aid virtu- (later the Eighteenth Army Group); Zhu
ally ceased. By then, however, the United De and Peng Dehuai served as com-
States had sold China 100 fighter planes— mander and vice commander, and Lin
the beginning of a U.S. effort to provide Biao, Ho Lung, and Liu Bocheng were in
air protection. charge of its three divisions. The commu-
In addition to bombing, the civilian nist base in the northwest covered parts
population in Free China endured other of three provinces with an undeveloped
hardships. Manufactured goods were economy and a population of about 1.5
scarce, and hoarding drove up prices. million. Operating within the general
The government did not have the framework of the United Front against
means to carry out rationing and price Japan, the leaders of the Eighth Route
control, though it did supply government Army adopted a strategy that used their
employees with rice. The government’s experience in guerrilla warfare. They
sources of revenue were limited, yet it sent small columns into areas of north-
supported a large bureaucracy and an ern China that the Japanese army had
army of more than three million con- overrun but lacked the manpower to
scripts. The government resorted to control; there they incorporated remnant
printing currency inadequately backed troops and organized the population to
by reserves. Inflation grew until it was supply food, recruits, and sanctuaries for
nearly uncontrollable. Between 1939 and guerrilla units attacking small Japanese
1943 the morale of the bureaucracy garrisons.
and military officers declined. Old Early in the period of united resis-
abuses of the Chinese political system tance, the government permitted the
reasserted themselves—factional poli- New Fourth Army to be created from
tics and corruption, in particular. The remnants of communist troops left in
protracted war progressively weakened Jiangxi and Fujian at the time of the
the Nationalist regime. Long March. Commanded by Gen. Ye
The Late Republican Period and the War Against Japan | 285
Chiang Kai-shek meeting with his staff during the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45).
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
286 | The History of China
and secret organizing. Though both sides CCP was willing to push the conflict to
continued the war against Japan, each open civil war in 1941. The government
was fighting for its own ultimate advan- deployed many of its best divisions in
tage. Bitter anticommunist sentiment in positions to prevent the communist forces
government circles found its most vio- from further penetration of Nationalist-
lent expression in the New Fourth Army held territories and to weaken the CCP
Incident of January 1941. through a strict economic blockade.
The government had ordered the
New Fourth Army to move north of the The International
Huang He (Yellow River) and understood Alliance Against Japan
that its commanders had agreed to do so
as part of a demarcation of operational The United States had broken the
areas. However, most of the army had Japanese diplomatic code. By July 1941 it
moved into northern Jiangsu (south of knew that Japan hoped to end the unde-
the Huang) and, together with units of clared war in China and that Japan was
the Eighteenth Army Group, was compet- preparing for a southward advance
ing with government troops for control of toward British Malaya and the Dutch East
bases there and in southern Shandong. Indies, planning to first occupy southern
Ye Ting and Xiang Ying stayed at the Indochina and Thailand, even at the risk
army’s base south of the Yangtze. of war with Britain and the United States.
Apparently believing that Ye did not
intend to move northward, government U.S. Aid to China
forces attacked the base on Jan. 6, 1941.
The outnumbered communists were One U.S. response was the decision to
defeated, Ye Ting and some 2,000 others send large amounts of arms and equip-
were captured, Xiang Ying was killed, ment to China, along with a military
and both sides suffered heavy casualties. mission to advise on their use. The under-
Ignoring Chiang Kai-shek’s order to dis- lying strategy was to revitalize China’s
solve the New Fourth Army, the war effort as a deterrent to Japanese land
communist high command named Chen and naval operations southward. The
Yi as its new commander and Liu Shaoqi Nationalist army was ill-equipped to fight
as political commissar. the Japanese in 1941. Its arsenals were so
The danger of renewed civil war lacking in nonferrous metals and explo-
caused widespread protest from China’s sives that they could not produce
civilian leaders. The People’s Political effectively. The maintenance of millions
Council, a multiparty advisory body of ill-trained and under-equipped troops
formed in 1938 as an expression of united was a heavy drain on the economy. There
resistance, debated the issue and later was no possibility that the United States
tried to mediate. Neither the KMT nor the could arm such numbers from its limited
The Late Republican Period and the War Against Japan | 287
stocks while building up its own forces the United States began a transport pro-
and assisting many other countries. In gram the next month. But shortages and
addition, there was a formidable logistics other difficulties had to be overcome, and
problem in shipping supplies along the not until December 1943 were cargo
715-mile (1,150-km) Burma Road, which planes able to carry as much tonnage as
extended from Kunming to Lashio, the was carried along the Burma Road by
terminus in Burma of the railway and trucks two years earlier. This was much
highway leading to Rangoon. less than China’s needs for gasoline and
By December 1941 the United States military equipment and supplies.
had sent a military mission to China and
had implicitly agreed to create a modern Conflicts Within
Chinese air force, maintain an efficient the International Alliance
line of communications into China, and
arm 30 divisions. Japan’s bombing of China’s alliance with the United States
Pearl Harbor in Hawaii brought the and Great Britain was marked by deep
United States into alliance with China, conflict. Great Britain gave highest prior-
and Great Britain joined the Pacific war ity to the defeat of its main enemy,
as its colonial possessions were attacked. Germany. The U.S. Navy in the Pacific
This widening of the Sino-Japanese con- had been seriously weakened by the
flict lifted Chinese morale, but its other Japanese air attack at Pearl Harbor and
early effects were harmful. With the required many months to rebuild. During
Japanese conquest of Hong Kong on the winter of 1941–42, the grand strategy
December 25, China lost its air link to the of the United States and Great Britain
outside world and one of its principal called for the defeat of Germany first and
routes for smuggling supplies. By the then an assault across the Pacific against
end of May 1942, the Japanese held most Japan’s island empire. China was rele-
of Burma, having defeated the British, gated to a low position in U.S. strategic
Indian, Burmese, and Chinese defenders. planning. The United States aimed to
China was almost completely blockaded. keep China in the war and enable it to
For the moment, there was little China’s play a positive role in the final defeat of
allies could do other than state a willing- Japan on the continent. Chiang Kai-shek,
ness to offer China loans. on the other hand, envisaged a joint strat-
The solution was found in an air route egy by the United States, the British
from Assam, India, to Kunming, in south- Commonwealth, and China over the
west China—the dangerous “Hump” whole Pacific area, with China playing a
route along the southern edge of the major role. He demanded an equal voice
Himalayas. In March 1942 the China in Allied war planning, which he never
National Aviation Corporation (CNAC) received, though U.S. President Franklin
began freight service over the Hump, and D. Roosevelt was generally solicitous.
288 | The History of China
From the fundamentally different out- By the end of 1943 the China-based
looks of Chiang, British Prime Minister U.S. Fourteenth Air Force had achieved
Winston Churchill, and Roosevelt and tactical parity with the Japanese over
because of the divergent national inter- central China, was beginning to bomb
ests of China, the British Commonwealth, Yangtze shipping, and had conducted a
and the United States, there followed successful raid on Japanese airfields on
many controversies that had powerful Taiwan. A second training centre had
repercussions in China and led to frustra- been started at Guilin to improve 30 more
tions and suspicions among the partners. Chinese divisions (Z-Force). The cam-
After Burma fell to the Japanese, a paign to open a land route across
controversy developed over whether the northern Burma had run into serious dif-
principal Chinese and U.S. effort against ficulty. At the first Cairo Conference in
Japan should be devoted to building up November, Chiang met Churchill and
U.S. air power based in China or to reform Roosevelt for the first time. The Cairo
of the Chinese army and its training and Declaration issued there promised that,
equipment for a combat role. Chiang following the war, Manchuria, Taiwan,
advocated primary reliance on U.S. air and the Pescadores Islands would be
power to defeat Japan. Several high-rank- returned to China and that Korea would
ing U.S. generals, on the other hand, gain independence. The three allies
emphasized creation of a compact and pledged themselves to “persevere in
modernized Chinese ground force able to the . . . . prolonged operations necessary
protect the airfields in China and to assist to procure the unconditional surrender of
in opening an overland supply route Japan.” These words, however, concealed
across northern Burma. Already in India, deep differences over global strategy.
the United States was training two U.S. planners realized that Japan might
Chinese divisions from remnants of the be approached successfully through the
Burma campaign, plus artillery and engi- south and central Pacific and that the
neering regiments (this became known Soviet Union would enter the war against
as X-Force). Also in training were Chinese Japan after Germany’s defeat; hence, the
instructors to help retrain other divisions importance of China to U.S. grand strat-
in China. Both air development and army egy declined. Churchill was unwilling to
modernizing were being pushed in early use naval resources, needed for the forth-
1943, with a training centre created near coming European invasion, in a seaborne
Kunming to reenergize and reequip invasion of Burma to help reopen China’s
select Chinese divisions (called Y-Force), supply line. Yet Chiang had demanded a
and a network of airfields was being built naval invasion of Burma as a condition to
in southern China. This dual approach committing the Y-Force to assist in open-
caused repeated conflict over the alloca- ing his supply line. Shortly after Cairo,
tion of scarce airlift space. Churchill and Roosevelt agreed to set
The Late Republican Period and the War Against Japan | 289
Roosevelt agreed, but thereafter his rela- Yan’an area in May 1944 and to a group
tions with Chiang were no longer cordial. of U.S. observers that established itself
Stilwell was replaced by Gen. Albert there in July, the communists professed
Coady Wedemeyer. allegiance to democracy and to contin-
ued cooperation with the Nationalist
Nationalist Deterioration government in the war effort. There was
convincing evidence that the areas under
The military weakness in 1944 was symp- communist control extended for hun-
tomatic of a gradual deterioration that dreds of miles behind Japanese lines in
had taken place in most aspects of northern and central China.
Nationalist Chinese public life. Inflation This situation was the result of many
began to mount alarmingly as the gov- factors. Communist troop commanders
ernment pumped in large amounts of and political officers in areas behind
paper currency to make up its fiscal defi- Japanese lines tried to mobilize the entire
cits. Salaries of government employees, population against the enemy. Party
army officers, teachers, and all those on members led village communities into
wages fell far behind rising prices. For greater participation in local government
most, this spelled poverty amid growing than had been the case before. They also
war-weariness. Dissatisfaction with the organized and controlled peasants’ asso-
government’s policies spread among ciations, labour unions, youth leagues,
intellectuals. Inflation gave opportuni- and women’s associations. They linked
ties for some groups to profit through together the many local governments and
hoarding needed goods, smuggling high- the mass organizations and determined
value commodities, black market their policies. Because of the need for
currency operations, and graft. unity against Japan, the communist orga-
Corruption spread in the bureaucracy nizers tended to follow reformist economic
and the armed forces. As the war dragged policies. The party experimented with
on, government measures to suppress various forms of economic cooperation to
dissidence grew oppressive. Secret police increase production; one of these was
activity and efforts at thought control mutual-aid teams in which farmers tem-
were aimed not only against communists porarily pooled their tools and draft
but also against all influential critics of animals and worked the land collectively.
the government or the KMT. In areas behind Japanese lines, some
mutual-aid teams evolved into work-and-
Communist Growth battle teams composed of younger
peasants: when danger threatened, the
The communist armies were growing teams went out to fight as guerrillas under
rapidly in 1943 and 1944. According direction of the local communist army;
to U.S. war correspondents visiting the when the crisis passed, they returned to
The Late Republican Period and the War Against Japan | 291
the fields. The party recruited into its who requested U.S. assistance in improv-
ranks the younger leaders who emerged ing relations between China and the
from populist activities. Thus, it pene- Soviet Union and in settling the commu-
trated and to some extent controlled the nist problem.
multitude of villages in areas behind In September 1944, Patrick J. Hurley
Japanese lines. As the Japanese military arrived as U.S. ambassador to China and
grip weakened, the experienced commu- as Roosevelt’s personal representative.
nist armies and political organizers Hurley attempted to mediate, first in dis-
spread their system of government ever cussions in Chongqing and then by
more widely. By the time of the CCP’s flying to Yan’an in November for a con-
Seventh Congress in Yan’an (April–May ference with Mao Zedong. But the
1945), the party claimed to have an army positions of the two sides could not be
of more than 900,000 and a militia of reconciled, and the talks broke off in
more than 2,000,000. It also claimed to March 1945. Between June and August,
control areas with a total population of Hurley resumed protracted discussions,
90,000,000. These claims were disput- both indirect and in conferences with
able, but the great strength and wide high-level representatives from both
geographical spread of communist orga- sides. Each side distrusted the other; each
nization was a fact. sought to guarantee its own survival, but
the KMT intended to continue its politi-
Efforts to Prevent Civil War cal dominance, while the CCP insisted on
the independence of its armies and
Between May and September 1944, repre- regional governments under whatever
sentatives of the government and the coalition formula might be worked out.
CCP carried on peace negotiations at The Pacific war (which in China
Xi’an. The main issues were the disposi- became known as the War of Resistance
tion, size, and command of the communist Against Japanese Aggression) ended on
armies, the relationship between commu- Aug. 14 (Aug. 15 in China), 1945, and the
nist-organized regional governments formal Japanese surrender came on
and the Nationalist government, and September 2. China rejoiced. Yet the
problems of civil rights and legalization country faced enormously difficult prob-
of the CCP and its activities in Nationalist lems of reunification and reconstruction
areas. Suggestions for a coalition govern- and a future clouded by the dark prospect
ment arose for the first time. No of civil war.
settlement was reached, but it appeared
that the antagonists were seeking a Civil war (1945–49)
peaceful solution. U.S. Vice Pres. Henry
A. Wallace visited Chongqing in June In a little more than four years after
and had several discussions with Chiang, Japan’s surrender, the CCP and the
292 | The History of China
People’s Liberation Army (PLA; the name the main eastern cities, such as Beiping,
by which communist forces were now Tianjin, Shanghai, and the prewar capital,
known) conquered mainland China, and, Nanjing. The U.S. Navy moved Chinese
on Oct. 1, 1949, the People’s Republic of troops from southern China to other
China was established, with its capital at coastal cities and landed 53,000 marines
Beijing (the city’s former name restored). at Tianjin and Qingdao to assist in dis-
The factors that brought this about were arming and repatriating Japanese troops
many and complex and subject to widely but also to serve as a counterweight to
varying interpretation, but the basic fact the Soviet army in southern Manchuria.
was a communist military triumph grow- Furthermore, U.S. Gen. Douglas
ing out of a profound and popularly based MacArthur ordered all Japanese forces in
revolution. The process may be perceived China proper to surrender their arms
in three phases: (1) from August 1945 to only to forces of the Nationalist govern-
the end of 1946, the Nationalists and com- ment. They obeyed and thereby were
munists raced to take over Japanese-held occasionally engaged against Chinese
territories, built up their forces, and communist forces.
fought many limited engagements while Immediately after the surrender, the
still conducting negotiations for a peace- communists sent political cadres and
ful settlement; (2) during 1947 and the troops into Manchuria (Northeast China).
first half of 1948, after initial Nationalist This had been planned long in advance.
success, the strategic balance turned in Gen. Lin Biao became commander of the
favour of the communists; and (3) the forces (the Northeast Democratic Allied
communists won a series of smashing Army), which incorporated puppet troops
victories beginning in the latter part of of the former Japanese Manchukuo
1948 that led to the establishment of the regime and began to recruit volunteers; it
People’s Republic. got most of its arms from Japanese stocks
taken over by the Soviets.
A Race for Territory Manchuria was a vast area with a pop-
ulation of 40 million, the greatest
As soon as Japan’s impending surrender concentration of heavy industry and rail-
was known, the commander of the com- ways in China, and enormous reserves of
munist armies, Zhu De, ordered his coal, iron, and many other minerals. The
troops, on August 11, to move into Soviet Union had promised the Nationalist
Japanese-held territory and take over government that it would withdraw its
Japanese arms, despite Chiang Kai- occupying armies within 90 days of
shek’s order that they stand where they Japan’s surrender and return the region to
were. The United States aided the China. The government was determined
Chinese government by flying many to control Manchuria, which was vital to
divisions from the southwest to occupy China’s future as a world power. However,
The Late Republican Period and the War Against Japan | 293
Lin Biao’s army attempted to block the Attempts to End the War
entry of Nationalist troops by destroying
rail lines and seizing areas around ports Peace negotiations continued in
of entry. Soon the two sides were locked in Chongqing between Nationalist and
a fierce struggle for the corridors into communist officials after Japan’s surren-
Manchuria, although negotiations were der. An agreement reached on Oct. 10,
under way in Chongqing between Mao 1945, called for the convening of a multi-
Zedong and Chiang for a peaceful settle- party Political Consultative Council to
ment. The Soviet army avoided direct plan a liberalized postwar government
involvement in the struggle, but it dis- and to draft a constitution for submission
mantled much industrial machinery and to a national congress. Still, the sides
shipped it to the Soviet Union together were far apart over the character of the
with hundreds of thousands of Japanese new government, control over the areas
prisoners of war. By the end of 1945 the liberated by the communists, and the size
Nationalists had positioned some of their and degree of autonomy of the commu-
best U.S.-trained armies in southern nist armies in a national military system.
Manchuria as far north as Mukden (pres- Hurley resigned his ambassadorship on
ent-day Shenyang), a strategic rail centre November 26, and the next day U.S. Pres.
to which Nationalist troops were trans- Harry S. Truman appointed Gen. George
ported by air. The government’s hold was C. Marshall as his special representative,
precarious, however, because the com- with the specific mission of trying to
munist Eighteenth Army Group and the bring about political unification and the
New Fourth Army had regrouped in cessation of hostilities in China.
northern China, abandoning areas south Marshall arrived in China on
of the Yangtze after a weak bid to take December 23. The Nationalist govern-
Shanghai. By the end of 1945, communist ment proposed the formation of a
forces were spread across a band of prov- committee of three, with Marshall as
inces from the northwest to the sea. They chairman, to end the fighting. This com-
had a grip on great sections of all the rail- mittee, with Generals Chang Chun
way lines north of the Longhai line, which (Zhang Qun) and Zhou Enlai as the
were vital supply lines for Nationalist Nationalist and communist representa-
armies in the Tianjin-Beiping area and in tives, respectively, met on Jan. 7, 1946.
Manchuria. The Nationalist government The two agreed on January 10 that
held vast territories in the south and west Chiang and Mao would issue orders to
and had reestablished its authority in the cease hostilities and halt troop move-
rich provinces of the lower Yangtze val- ments as of January 13 midnight, with
ley and in a few important cities in the exception of government troop move-
northern China; it had also assumed civil ments south of the Yangtze and into and
control on Taiwan. within Manchuria to restore Chinese
294 | The History of China
negotiations ended in March; the die was imports. The government had to import
cast for war. large amounts of grain and cotton, but, in
In the latter half of 1946, government the months immediately after Japan’s
forces made significant gains in northern surrender, it also permitted the import of
China and Manchuria, capturing 165 luxury goods without effective restric-
towns from the enemy. Buoyed by these tions. As an anti-inflationary measure, it
victories, the government convened a sold gold on the open market. These poli-
multiparty National Assembly on cies permitted a large gold and U.S.
November 15, despite a boycott by the currency reserve, estimated at $900 mil-
CCP and the Democratic League. The lion at the end of the war, to be cut in half
delegates adopted a new constitution, by the end of 1946. Foreign trade was
which was promulgated on New Year’s hampered by excessive regulation and
Day, 1947. The constitution reaffirmed corrupt practices.
Sun Yat-sen’s Three Principles of the The spiraling effects of inflation were
People as the basic philosophy of the somewhat curbed by large amounts of
state; called for the fivefold division of supplies imported by the United Nations
powers among the executive, legislative, Relief and Rehabilitation Administration,
judicial, control, and examination yuan chiefly food and clothing, a wide variety
(“governmental bodies”); and established of capital goods, and materials for the
the people’s four rights of initiation, refer- rehabilitation of agriculture, industry,
endum, election, and recall. The way was and transportation. In August 1946 the
prepared for election of both central and United States sold to China civilian-type
local officials, upon which the period of army and navy surplus property at less
Nationalist tutelage would end. than 20 percent of its estimated procure-
The Nationalist government strug- ment cost. In spite of these and other
gled with grave economic problems. forms of aid, the costs of civil war kept
Inflation continued unabated, caused the budget continuously out of balance.
principally by government financing of Speculation, hoarding of goods, and
military and other operations through black market operations as hedges
the printing press: approximately 65 per- against inflation continued unabated.
cent of the budget was met by currency The constant depreciation in the value of
expansion and only 10 percent by taxes. paper currency undermined morale in all
Government spending was uncontrolled; classes who depended on salaries, includ-
funds were dissipated in maintaining ing troops, officers, and civilian officials.
large and unproductive garrison forces. By contrast, it appears that the com-
Much tax revenue failed to reach the trea- munists in their areas, which were mostly
sury because of malpractices throughout rural, practiced a Spartan style of life
the bureaucracy. Inflation inhibited close to the common people. Morale
exports and enhanced the demand for remained high in the army and was
296 | The History of China
One reason for communist success was The year 1948 was the turning point in
the social revolution in rural China. The the civil war. In central China, commu-
CCP was now unrestrained by the multi- nist armies of 500,000 troops proved
class alliance of the United Front period. their ability to fight major battles on the
In mid-1946, as civil war became more plains and to capture, though not always
certain, the party leaders launched a hold, important towns on the Longhai
land revolution. They saw land redistri- line such as Luoyang and Kaifeng. In
bution as an integral part of the larger northern China they encircled Taiyuan,
struggle; by encouraging peasants to the capital of Shanxi; took most of Chahar
seize landlords’ fields and other prop- and Jehol, provinces on Manchuria’s
erty, the party apparently expected to western flank; and recaptured Yan’an,
weaken the government’s rural class which had been lost in March 1947. The
base and strengthen its own support decisive battles were fought in Shandong
among the poor. This demanded a deci- and Manchuria, where the forces of Chen
sive attack on the traditional village Yi and Liu Bocheng and those under Lin
social structure. The party leaders Biao crushed the government’s best
believed that to crack the age-old peas- armies. For the government it was a year
ant fear of the local elite and overcome of military and economic disasters.
the traditional respect for property In Shandong, despite the departure
rights required unleashing the hatred of of Chen Yi’s forces, communist guerrillas
the oppressed. Teams of activists moved gradually reduced the government’s hold
through the villages, organizing the on the railway from Qingdao to Jinan;
poor in “speak bitterness” meetings to they penned up about 60,000 govern-
struggle against landlords and ment troops in the latter city, an important
Nationalist supporters, to punish and railway junction. Instead of withdrawing
often to kill them, and to distribute their that garrison southward to Suzhou, the
land and property. The party tried to government left it, for political reasons,
control the process in order not to alien- to stand and fight. Then Chen Yi’s forces
ate the broad middle ranks among the returned to Shandong and overwhelmed
peasants, but land revolution had a the dispirited Jinan garrison on
dynamism of its own, and rural China September 24. This opened the way for a
went through a period of terror. Yet communist attack on Suzhou, the historic
apparently the party gained from the northern shield for Nanjing and a vital
revolutionary dynamism; morale was at railway centre.
fever pitch, and, for those who had ben- Beginning in December 1947, a com-
efited from land distribution, there was munist offensive severed all railway
no turning back. connections into Mukden and isolated
298 | The History of China
morale, inept command, and a defensive large army. General Li tried to secure U.S.
psychology brought another disaster to support in the peace negotiations and in
the Nationalist government. One after the military defense of southern China,
another, its armies were surrounded and but the U.S. government, attempting to
defeated in the field. When the 65-day extricate itself from its entanglement
battle was over on January 10, the with the collapsing forces of the
Nationalists had lost some 500,000 men Nationalist government, pursued a pol-
and their equipment. The capital at icy of noninvolvement.
Nanjing would soon lie exposed. When peace negotiations broke
With Manchuria and most of the down, communist armies crossed the
eastern region south to the Yangtze in Yangtze virtually unopposed; the
communist hands, the fate of Tianjin and Nationalist government abandoned its
Beiping was sealed. The railway corridor indefensible capital on April 23 and
between Tianjin and Zhangjiakou was moved to Guangzhou. In succession,
hopelessly isolated. Tianjin fell on communist forces occupied Nanjing
January 15 after a brief siege, and Beiping (April 24), Hankou (May 16–17), and
surrendered on the 23rd, allowing a Shanghai (May 25). The Nationalists’
peaceful turnover of China’s historic cap- last hope lay in the south and west, but
ital and centre of culture. Xi’an, a longtime Nationalist bastion
Thus, during the last half of 1948, the and the gateway to the northwest, had
communist armies had gained control fallen to Gen. Peng Dehuai on May 20.
over Manchuria and northeastern China During the last half of 1949, powerful
nearly to the Yangtze, except for pockets communist armies succeeded in taking
of resistance. They had a numerical the provinces of southern and western
superiority and had captured such huge China. By the end of the year, only the
stocks of rifles, artillery, and armour islands of Hainan, Taiwan, and a few
that they were better equipped than the other offshore positions were still in
Nationalists. Nationalist hands, and only scattered
Great political shifts occurred in pockets of resistance remained on the
1949. Chiang Kai-shek retired temporar- mainland. The defeated Nationalist gov-
ily in January, turning over to the vice ernment reestablished itself on Taiwan,
president, Gen. Li Tsung-jen (Li Zongren), to which Chiang had withdrawn early in
the problem of holding the government the year, taking most of the govern-
together and trying to negotiate a peace ment’s gold reserves and the Nationalist
with Mao Zedong. Li’s peace negotia- air force and navy. On October 1, with
tions (February–April) proved hopeless. most of the mainland held by the PLA,
The Nationalists were not prepared to Mao proclaimed the establishment in
surrender; they still claimed to govern Beijing of the government of the People’s
more than half of China and still had a Republic of China.
ChaPTER 14
Establishment
of the
People’s Republic
This undated propaganda cartoon features Chinese peasants with a poster of Chairmen
Mao Zedong. AFP/Getty Images
vision forged in the rural struggle would workers and peasants, under the leader-
continue to guide the party. ship of the CCP. The people’s state would
In a series of speeches in 1949, exercise a dictatorship “for the oppres-
Chairman Mao stated that his aim was to sion of antagonistic classes” made up of
create a socialist society and, eventually, opponents of the regime.
world communism. These objectives, he The authoritative legal statement of
said, required transforming consumer this “people’s democratic dictatorship”
cities into producer cities to set the basis was given in the 1949 Organic Law for the
on which “the people’s political power Chinese People’s Political Consultative
could be consolidated.” He advocated Conference, and at its first session the
forming a four-class coalition of elements conference adopted a Common Program
of the urban middle class—the petty bour- that formally sanctioned the organization
geoisie and the national bourgeoisie—with of state power under the coalition.
302 | The History of China
time hostilities ended in July 1953, increase production and to lay the basis
approximately two-thirds of China’s com- for long-term socialization.
bat divisions had seen service in Korea. These programs coincided with a
In the three years of war, a “Resist massive effort to win over the population
America, aid Korea” campaign translated to the leadership. Such acts as a marriage
the atmosphere of external threat into a law (May 1950) and a trade-union law
spirit of sacrifice and enforced patriotic (June 1950) symbolized the break with
emergency at home. Regulations for the the old society, while mass organizations
Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries and the regime’s “campaign style” dra-
(1951) authorized police action against matized the new.
dissident individuals and suspected During 1949–50, policy toward the
groups. A campaign against anticommu- cities focused on restoring order, rehabil-
nist holdouts, bandits, and political itating the economy, and, above all,
opponents was also pressed. Greatest wringing disastrous inflation out of the
publicity attended Beijing’s dispatch of urban economy. To accomplish these
troops to Tibet about the same time that tasks, the CCP tried to discipline the
it intervened in Korea. The distinctive- labour force, win over the confidence of
ness and world reputation of the Tibetan the capitalists, and implement drastic fis-
culture was to make this a severe test of cal policies so as to undercut inflation.
communist efforts to complete the con- These policies brought such remarkable
solidation of their power. In 1959, after a successes that by late 1950 many urban
period of sporadic clashes with the Chinese viewed the CCP leadership as
Chinese, the Tibetans rose in rebellion, to needed reformers. Indeed, numerous cap-
which Beijing responded with force. italists believed them to be “good for
Under the Agrarian Reform Law of business.”
1950, the property of rural landlords was But, beginning in 1951, the revolu-
confiscated and redistributed, which ful- tionary agenda of the communists began
filled a promise to the peasants and to be felt in the cities. A Suppression of
smashed a class identified as feudal or Counterrevolutionaries campaign dealt
semifeudal. The property of traitors, violently with many former leaders of
“bureaucrat capitalists” (especially the secret societies, religious associations,
“four big families” of the Nationalist and the KMT in early 1951. In late 1951
Party [KMT]—the K’ungs [Kongs], and early 1952, three major political cam-
Soongs [Songs], Chiangs [Jiangs], and paigns brought the revolutionary essence
Ch’ens [Chens]), and selected foreign of the CCP home to key urban groups.
nationals was also confiscated, helping The Three-Antis campaign targeted com-
end the power of many industrialists and munist cadres who had become too close
providing an economic basis for industri- to China’s capitalists. The Five-Antis
alization. Programs were begun to campaign was aimed at the capitalists
304 | The History of China
themselves and brought them into line the authority of his potential competitors,
on charges of bribery, tax evasion, theft of notably Liu Shaoqi and Zhou Enlai, both
state property and economic informa- leading members of party and state
tion, and cheating on government organs. The ensuing power struggle
contracts. Finally, the thought-reform lasted more than a year, reflecting an
campaign humbled university professors underlying fissure in the CCP. Gao him-
and marked a turning point in the move self had long been a man of the rural base
from Western to Soviet influence in struc- areas, while Liu and Zhou were associ-
turing China’s university curriculum. ated far more with the pre-1949 work in
The pressures toward national politi- the “white areas” (areas outside CCP con-
cal consolidation and the costly struggle trol). After 1949, base area veterans
in Korea produced significant conse- believed that they received fewer high
quences. In the several provinces of positions than their struggles in the wil-
Manchuria (now called the Northeast), derness had warranted. Within weeks
there was a growing concentration of after the National Conference of the party
industrial and military presence, as well (March 1955) had proclaimed the defeat
as an increased presence of Soviet eco- of the Gao clique, Beijing approved a
nomic advisers and key elements of long-delayed First Five-Year Plan (techni-
China’s tiny corps of technicians and cally covering the years 1953–57). That
specialists. This was a natural develop- summer, active programs for agricultural
ment in view of the extensive economic collectivization and the socialization of
infrastructure left behind by the Japanese industry and commerce were adopted.
in that region and its proximity to Korea. The period 1949–52 was marked by
Additionally, Northeast China had long changes in Soviet influence in China.
been an area of Soviet interest. The officially sanctioned terms of that
Gao Gang headed Northeast China, influence had been worked out in a visit
and, in addition to his authoritative by Mao to Moscow from mid-December
regional position, Gao also influenced 1949 until the following March and were
decisions in Beijing. He planned the formalized in the Treaty of Friendship,
Three-Antis campaign and took the lead Alliance, and Mutual Assistance (signed
in adapting Soviet techniques to Chinese Feb. 14, 1950). Years later the Chinese
factory management and economic plan- charged that Moscow had failed to give
ning. He promoted these techniques on a Beijing adequate support under that
national basis when he moved to Beijing treaty and had left the Chinese to face
in late 1952 to set up the State Planning UN forces virtually alone in Korea. The
Commission. Working closely with the seeds of doubt concerning Soviet willing-
head of the party’s Organization ness to help China had been sown.
Department and other senior officials, Moreover, one of the errors purportedly
Gao allegedly tried to drastically reduce committed by Gao Gang was his
Establishment of the People’s Republic | 305
changes and the measures for enforcing Such actions can be understood
them, particularly grain rationing, com- against the background of the experi-
pulsory purchase quotas, and stricter ences of the capitalists in the previous
regulations on savings and wage rates. few years. The Five-Antis campaign of
Nevertheless, Chinese agricultural orga- 1952 had terrorized many of them and left
nization in 1956 reached the approximate most deeply in debt to the government,
level of collectivization achieved in the owing purported back taxes and financial
Soviet Union: a peasant owned his penalties. In any case, the state sector of
house, some domestic animals, a garden the economy and the state controls over
plot, and his personal savings; by the banking had increased to such a degree
end of 1956, some seven-eighths of that the capitalists relied heavily on the
China’s peasant households were orga- government for the contracts and busi-
nized into advanced cooperatives. ness necessary to keep from bankruptcy.
After the Five-Antis campaign, the gov-
Urban Socialist Changes ernment extended the reach of its trade
unions into the larger capitalist enter-
Mao combined this massive transforma- prises, and the “joint labour–management”
tion of the agricultural sector with a call committees set up under government
for the “socialist transformation” of pressure in those firms usurped much of
industry and commerce, in which the the power that the capitalists formerly
government would become, in effect, the had exercised. Thus, many Chinese capi-
major partner. In Chinese communist talists saw the socialist transformation of
fashion, this change was not simply 1955–56 as an almost welcome develop-
decreed from above. Rather, extreme ment, because it secured their position
pressures were put on private merchants with the government while costing them
and capitalists in late 1955 to “volunteer” little in money or power.
their enterprises for transformation into
“joint state-private” firms. The results Political Developments
were sometimes extraordinary. For
example, all the capitalists in a given The socialist transformation of agricul-
trade (such as textiles) would parade ture, industry, and commerce thus went
together to CCP headquarters to the relatively smoothly. Nevertheless, such
beat of gongs and the sound of fire- changes could not take place without
crackers. Once there, they would present considerable tensions. Many peasants
a petition to the government, asking streamed into the cities in 1956–57 to
that the major interest in their firms escape the new cooperatives and to seek
be bought out at the rate that the gov- employment in the rapidly expanding
ernment deemed appropriate. The state-run factories, where government
government would graciously agree. policy kept wages rising rapidly. China’s
308 | The History of China
urban population mushroomed from 77 ties with the KMT. After 1949 and particu-
million in 1953 to 99.5 million by 1957. larly during the first part of the Korean
Several problems also became War, the Central Committee launched a
increasingly pressing. First, CCP leaders major campaign to reeducate teachers
found that the agricultural sector was not and scientists and to discredit Western-
growing fast enough to provide addi- oriented scholarship. In 1951 the emphasis
tional capital for its own development shifted from general campaigns to self-
and to feed the workers of the cities. Until reform; in 1955 it shifted once again to an
then, agricultural policy had attempted intensive thought-reform movement, fol-
to wring large production increases out lowing the purge of Hu Feng, until then
of changes in organization and land own- the party’s leading spokesman on art and
ership, with little capital investment. By literature. This latter movement coin-
1956–57 that policy was shown to be cided with the denunciation of a scholarly
inadequate. study of the Dream of the Red Chamber
Second, Soviet assistance had been (Hongloumeng), an 18th-century novel of
made available to China as loans, not tragic love and declining fortunes in a
grants. After 1956 China had to repay Chinese family. Literature without a clear
more each year than it borrowed in new class moral received blistering criticism,
funds. Thus, the Chinese could no longer as did any hint that the party should not
count on Moscow for net capital accumu- command art and literature—a theme
lation in its industrialization drive. identified with the ousted Hu Feng—and
Third, the vastly expanded govern- “Hu Feng elements” were exposed among
mental responsibility for managing the intellectuals in schools, factories, and
country’s urban firms and commerce cooperatives.
required far more experts than before. For The intensity of these attacks slack-
this, the leadership tried to resolve the ened in early 1956. Party leaders publicly
increasingly severe strains that had char- discussed the role of intellectuals in the
acterized the relationship between the new tasks of national construction and
country’s intellectuals (including techni- adopted the line “Let a hundred flowers
cal specialists) and the CCP. blossom, a hundred schools of thought
The leadership’s policies up to that contend.” Because intellectuals in China
point had been ambivalent toward the included high school graduates as well as
intelligentsia: on the one hand it had those with college or advanced profes-
required their services and prestige, but sional training, the policy affected a vast
on the other it had suspected that many number of people. The “hundred flowers”
were untrustworthy, coming from urban line explicitly encouraged “free-ranging”
and bourgeois backgrounds and often discussion and inquiry, with the explicit
having close family and other personal assumption that this would prove the
Establishment of the People’s Republic | 309
approach to development and shifted the Indochina in 1954 and to try to normalize
initiative to others who, like Mao, believed its foreign relations.
that the solutions to China’s core prob- Premier Zhou Enlai symbolized
lems lay in a major break with the China’s more active diplomatic role at
incrementalist Soviet strategy and in a the Bandung Conference in April 1955,
bold new set of distinctly Chinese ideas. held at Bandung, Indonesia, which dis-
International events dovetailed with that cussed Asian-African issues. His slogan
basic thrust by the winter of 1957–58. was “Unity with all,” according to the line
of peaceful coexistence. This “Bandung
Foreign Policy line” associated with Zhou gained world-
wide attention when he told the delegates
While the Chinese initially took their there that his government was fully pre-
principal cues in shaping foreign policy pared to achieve normal relations with all
from domestic developments and gener-
ally adhered to the initial pro-Soviet line,
they began to act—on the basis of several
important lessons gained during the
Korean struggle—to reduce Beijing’s mili-
tant and isolationist attitudes in
international affairs. Beijing had recog-
nized that the great costs of the war, the
questionable reliability of Soviet military
backing, and the danger of direct U.S.
retaliation against China had come close
to threatening its very existence.
Although in preserving North Korea as a
communist state China had attained its
principal strategic objective, its leaders
understood the costs and risks involved
and were determined to exercise a greater
caution in their international dealings.
Another lesson was that the neutralist
countries in Asia and Africa were not
Western puppets, and it was politically
profitable to promote friendly relations
with them. These lessons, as reinforced
Zhou Enlai, a leading architect of
by domestic considerations, led China to
China’s foreign policy. Encyclopædia
take a conciliatory role in the confer- Britannica, Inc.
ence leading to the Geneva Accords on
Establishment of the People’s Republic | 311
countries, including the United States. final analysis, however, the spiraling dete-
One result of his initiative was the start of rioration in Sino-Soviet relations proved
ambassadorial talks between China and impossible to reverse.
the United States. China adopted a new, more militant
Between 1955 and 1957, however, foreign policy that can be traced most
changes in Soviet and U.S. policies clearly to Mao’s statement during a
caused Chinese leaders to doubt the Moscow trip in November 1957 that the
validity of this more cautious and concil- “East wind prevails over the West wind,”
iatory foreign policy. At the 20th which implied a return to militant strug-
Congress of the Soviet Communist Party gle. According to some estimates, the
in 1956, First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev change in line was necessitated by the
announced a de-Stalinization policy. This U.S. buildup of anticommunist regimes
development angered Mao Zedong for to encircle China and by the lack of
two reasons: he thought, correctly, that it major gains in peaceful coexistence with
would undermine Soviet prestige, with Third World neutrals. Other analysts
potentially dangerous consequences in argue that Mao regarded the launching
eastern Europe, and he chafed at of a Soviet space vehicle (October 1957)
Khrushchev’s warning to other commu- and the Sino-Soviet nuclear-sharing
nist parties not to let a willful leader have agreement as indications that the bal-
his way unchecked. Thus, a new situation ance of world forces had changed in
in Sino-Soviet relations began to emerge, favour of communism.
in which antagonisms based on different
national traditions, revolutionary experi- New directions in
ences, and levels of development that national policy, 1958–61
had previously been glossed over broke
through to the surface. The pressures behind the dramatic inau-
Chinese leaders—Mao foremost guration in 1958 of “Three Red
among them but by no means alone—now Banners”—i.e., the general line of socialist
began to question the wisdom of closely construction, the Great Leap Forward,
following the Soviet model. Economic and the rural people’s communes—are
difficulties provided a major set of rea- still not fully known. Undoubtedly, a com-
sons for moving away from that model, plex mixture of forces came into play.
and increasing mutual distrust exacer- Mao personally felt increasingly uncom-
bated the situation. Nevertheless, at the fortable with the alliance with the Soviet
end of 1957 the Soviet Union evidently Union and with the social and political
agreed to provide China with the techni- ramifications of the Soviet model of
cal assistance needed to make an atomic development. On ideological grounds
bomb, and during 1958 the Soviet Union and because it shifted policy away from
increased its level of aid to China. In the his personal political strengths, Mao
312 | The History of China
disliked the Soviet system of centralized policy by the State Council and its sub-
control by large government ministries, ordinate ministries. The best available
substantial social stratification, and evidence suggests that almost all the top
strong urban bias. In addition, the Soviet leaders supported Mao as he developed
model assumed that agricultural surplus a series of initiatives that eventually
need only be captured by the govern- produced the Great Leap strategy and
ment and made to serve urban the people’s communes. The only major
development. This was true for the Soviet exceptions appear to have been Zhou
Union in the late 1920s, when the model Enlai and Chen Yun, a force in Chinese
was developed, but the situation in China economic policy; both faded from the
was different. Chinese policy had to public eye in 1958 only to be brought
devise a way first to create an agricultural back into active roles as the Great Leap
surplus and then to take a large part of it faltered in 1959.
to serve urban growth. The Soviet model The general line of socialist construc-
also rested on implicit assumptions about tion and the Great Leap Forward were
the energy and transportation sectors announced at the second session of the
that were not compatible with the Eighth Party Congress (May 1958), which
Chinese realities of the 1950s. concentrated as much on political slo-
To some extent, obscure political bat- gans as on specific objectives. Special
tles also became caught up in the debates emphasis was placed on political guid-
over Chinese development strategies. In ance by party cadres of the country’s
the spring of 1958, for example, Mao scientists and technicians, who were
Zedong elevated Marshal Lin Biao to a viewed as potentially dangerous unless
higher position in the CCP than that held they would become fully “Red and
by Defense Minister Peng Dehuai. At the expert.” The progressive indoctrination
same time, Mao initiated a critique of of experts would be paralleled by intro-
China’s slavish copying of Soviet mili- ductory technical training for cadres,
tary strategy. thereby in theory transforming the entire
Overall, the radicalization of policy elite into political-technical generalists.
that led to the Great Leap Forward can be The Congress of 1958 called for a bold
traced back to the anti-rightist campaign form of ideological leadership that could
of 1957 and a major meeting of China’s unleash a “leap forward” in technical
leaders at the resort city of Qingdao innovation and economic output. To link
in October of that year. By the time of the new generalist leaders and the
another central meeting—this one in masses, emphasis fell on sending cadres
Nanning in January 1958—Mao felt con- to the lower levels (xiafang) for firsthand
fident enough to launch a blistering experience and manual labour and for
critique of the domination of economic practical political indoctrination.
Establishment of the People’s Republic | 313
In 1958, during the Great Leap Forward, employees of a hotel build a small rudimentary
steel smelting furnace. Jacquet-Francillon/AFP/Getty Images
314 | The History of China
The Great Leap Forward involved an agriculture and, within the urban sector,
enormous amount of experimentation. It of both large- and small-scale industry. If
had no detailed blueprint, but there were it worked, this would resolve the dilemma
some underlying strategic principles. of an agricultural bottleneck that had
There was a general reliance on a combi- seemed to loom large on the horizon as of
nation of ideological and organizational 1957. It would, however, involve a major
techniques to overcome seemingly insu- departure from the Soviet model, which
perable obstacles that was focused on the would predictably lead to increased ten-
countryside and that drew from policies sions between Beijing and Moscow.
of the 1930s and 1940s. The basic idea Largely because of unusually good
was to convert the massive labour sur- weather, 1958 was an exceptionally good
plus in China’s hinterlands into a huge year for agricultural output. But, by the
production force through a radical reor- end of that year, the top CCP leadership
ganization of rural production. The sensed that some major problems
search for the best organizational form to demanded immediate attention. Initial
achieve this result led in August 1958 to optimism had led peasants in many areas
popularization of the “people’s com- to eat far more than they usually would
mune,” a huge rural unit that pooled the have, and stocks of grain for the winter
labour of tens of thousands of peasants and spring months threatened to fall dan-
from different villages in order to increase gerously low. In addition, reports of
agricultural production, engage in local sporadic peasant unrest cast some doubt
industrial production, enhance the avail- on the rosy picture being presented to
ability of rural schooling, and organize a the leaders by their own statistical sys-
local militia force in accordance with tem, the accuracy of which in turn came
Mao’s preferred national military strat- into question.
egy of combining the deterrence of an The fall harvest of 1958 had not been
atomic bomb with guerrilla warfare. as large as expected, and in February and
Mao believed that through these rad- March 1959 Mao Zedong began to call for
ical organizational changes, combined appropriate adjustments to make poli-
with adequate political mobilization cies more realistic without abandoning
techniques, the Chinese countryside the Great Leap as a whole. Mao emerged
could be made to provide the resources as one of the most-forceful advocates of
both for its own development and for the scaling back the Great Leap in order to
continuing rapid development of the avert a potential disaster. He faced sub-
heavy industrial sector in the cities. stantial resistance from provincial CCP
Through this strategy of “walking on leaders, whose powers had been greatly
two legs,” China could obtain the simul- increased as part of the Great Leap strat-
taneous development of industry and egy. A meeting at Lushan in the summer
Establishment of the People’s Republic | 315
of 1959 produced an unanticipated and Vladimir Lenin’s 90th birthday, for exam-
ultimately highly destructive outcome. ple, Beijing published an article that
Defense Minister Peng Dehuai raised a contained a slightly veiled critique of
range of criticisms of the Great Leap, Soviet foreign policy, arguing that the
based in large part on his own investiga- Soviets had become soft on imperialism.
tions. He summed these up in a letter that Khrushchev reacted with a rapid with-
he sent to Mao during the conference. drawal of all Soviet technicians and
Mao waited eight days to respond to the assistance that July. (When he quietly
letter and then attacked Peng for “right offered to return them that November, his
deviationism” and demanded the purge offer was refused.)
of Peng and all his followers. Despite the importance of these dif-
The Lushan Conference resulted in ficulties, China’s worst problem was bad
several major decisions: Peng Dehuai was policy. The people’s communes were too
replaced as defense minister by Lin Biao large to be effective, they ignored age-old
(who would later be marked for succession marketing patterns in the countryside,
to Mao’s position of CCP chairman), the and they required administrative and
Great Leap Forward was scaled back, and a transport resources that did not exist.
political campaign was launched to iden- Their structure and means of allocating
tify and remove all “rightist” elements. resources removed almost all incentive to
The third decision effectively canceled work, and the breakdown in the statistical
the second, as party officials refused to system meant that the top leaders had
scale back the Great Leap for fear of being grossly erroneous ideas about what was
labeled as “rightists.” The net effect was occurring. Thus, even after many rural
to produce a “second leap”—a new radical areas were beset by massive starvation,
upsurge in policy that was not corrected the orders from above continued to
until it produced results so disastrous demand large-scale procurement of food-
that they called into question the very stuffs. The rural cadres were so afraid of
viability of the communist system. being branded rightist that they followed
The CCP celebrated the 10th anni- these unrealistic orders, thus deepening
versary of national victory in October the famine. By 1961 the rural disaster
1959 in a state of near euphoria. The caught up with the cities, and urban
weather turned in 1959, however, and dur- industrial output plummeted by more
ing the next two years China experienced than 25 percent. As an emergency mea-
a severe combination of floods and sure, nearly 30 million urban residents
drought. Although the economy was in were sent back to the countryside because
serious trouble by mid-1960, the Chinese they could no longer be fed in the cities.
leaders sharpened their debate with The Great Leap Forward had run its
Moscow. In April 1960, on the occasion of course, and the system was in crisis.
316 | The History of China
Mao Zedong at a Red Guard rally in Bejing in 1966. His followers wave their “Little Red Books,”
or Quotations from Chairmen Mao, as he passes. Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
320 | The History of China
that they could combine ideological polemicists in Beijing and Moscow pub-
purity with technical virtuosity, Mao tried licly engaged in barbed exchanges. When
to expand the PLA’s organizational the Soviet Union signed the Nuclear
authority and its political role. Beginning Test-Ban Treaty with the United States
in 1963, Mao called on all Chinese to and Great Britain in August 1963, Chinese
“learn from the PLA.” Then, starting in articles accused the Soviets of joining an
1964, Mao insisted that political depart- anti-Chinese conspiracy. Confronted by
ments modeled on those in the PLA be this new strategic situation, the Chinese
established in all major government shifted their priorities to support an anti-
bureaucracies. In many cases, political foreign line and promote the country’s
workers from the PLA itself staffed these “self-reliance.” Mao’s calls for “revolution-
new bodies, thus effectively penetrating ization” acquired a more nationalistic
the civilian government apparatus. Other aspect, and the PLA assumed an even
efforts, such as a national propaganda larger place in Chinese political life.
campaign to learn from a purported army These many-sided trends seemed to
hero, Lei Feng, also contributed to collide in 1963 and 1964. With the split in
enhancement of the PLA’s prestige. the international communist movement,
The militancy of subsequent cam- the party in late 1963 called on intellectu-
paigns to learn from army heroes, or from als, including those in the cultural sphere,
the PLA as a whole, was echoed in inter- to undertake a major reformulation of
national politics. In a tour of Africa in late their academic disciplines to support
1963 and early 1964, Zhou Enlai startled China’s new international role. The initial
his hosts by calling for revolution in assignment for this reformulation fell to
newly independent states and openly Zhou Yang, a party intellectual and deputy
challenging the Soviet Union for the director of the Central Committee’s
leadership of the Third World. Propaganda Department, who tried to
Simultaneously, China challenged the enlist China’s intellectuals in the ideologi-
U.S. system of alliances by establishing cal war against Soviet revisionism and in
formal relations with France and chal- the struggle for rigidly pure political stan-
lenged the Soviet Union’s system by dards. (Less than three years later, however,
forming closer ties with Albania. Zhou Yang was purged as a revisionist,
Beijing’s main target was Moscow. A and many intellectuals were condemned
Soviet-U.S. crisis in Cuba (October 1962) as Mao Zedong’s opponents.)
had coincided with the Sino-Indian strug- Closely connected with the concerns
gle, and in both cases the Chinese of the intellectuals were those relating
believed the Soviet Union had acted to the party and the Communist Youth
unreliably and had become “capitulators” League. A drive began to cultivate what
of the worst sort. For the next months, one author called “newborn forces,” and
Establishment of the People’s Republic | 321
for a time, that effort was taken over com- Lin Biao repeated Mao’s position on
pletely by the Chinese after June 1959. By people’s war, further arguing that popu-
1964 the costs of the program had forced lar insurrections against noncommunist
a substantial reduction in other defense governments could succeed only if they
costs. China’s first atomic explosion (Oct. took place without substantial foreign
16, 1964) affected the debate by appear- assistance. To the extent that indigenous
ing to support Mao’s contention that rebels came to depend on outside sup-
domestic revolutionization would in no port, inevitably their bonds with the local
way jeopardize long-term power aspira- populace would be weakened. When this
tions and defense capabilities. happened, the rebellion would wither for
Mao’s military thinking, a product of lack of support. On the other hand, the
his own civil war experiences and an essen- hardships imposed by relying on indig-
tial component of his ideology, stressed enous resources would stimulate the
the importance of military strength comradeship and ingenuity of the insur-
through sheer numbers (“people’s war”) gents. Equally important, Lin’s statement
during the transition to nuclear status. He also indicated a high-level decision for
felt that preparation for such a war could China to remain on the defensive.
turn China’s weaknesses into military Lin’s speech coincided with yet
assets and reduce its vulnerability. Mao’s another secret working conference of the
view of people’s war belittled the might of Central Committee, in which the Maoist
modern advanced weapons as “paper group reissued its call for cultural revolu-
tigers” but recognized that China’s stra- tionization, this time convinced that the
tegic inferiority subjected it to dangers effort of 1964 had been deliberately
largely beyond its control. His reasoning sabotaged by senior party and military
thus made a virtue out of necessity in officials. Initiated by Mao Zedong and
the short run, when China would have Lin Biao, the purge first struck dissident
to depend on its superior numbers and army leaders, especially the chief of staff;
the morale of its people to defeat any as the power struggle began, China
invader. In the long run, however, he held turned its back on the war in Vietnam
that China would have to have nuclear and other external affairs. The September
weapons to deprive the superpowers of meeting may be taken as a clear harbin-
their blackmail potential and to deter their ger of what came to be known as the
aggression against smaller states. Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution.
ChaPTER 15
China Since 1965
A Chinese communist poster commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Paris Commune
in 1871. RDA/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
constituted the opening volley in an him with his best shock troops. As a prin-
assault on cultural figures and their cipal purpose, the Cultural Revolution
thoughts. was launched to revitalize revolutionary
As the Cultural Revolution gained values for the successor generation of
momentum, Mao turned for support to Chinese young people.
the youth as well as the army. In seeking The attack against authors, scholars,
to create a new system of education that and propagandists during the spring of
would eliminate differences between 1966 emphasized the cultural dimension
town and country, workers and peasants, of the Cultural Revolution. Increasingly it
and mental and manual labour, Mao was hinted that behind the visible targets
struck a responsive chord with the youth; lay a sinister “black gang” in the fields of
it was their response that later provided education and propaganda and high up
China Since 1965 | 325
in party circles. Removal of Peng Zhen delay in reopening the campuses. Party
and Lu Dingyi and subsequently of Zhou officials and their wives circulated among
Yang, then tsar of the arts and literature, the campuses to gain favour and to
indicated that this was to be a thorough- obstruct their opponents. Intrigue and
going purge. Clearly, a second purpose of political maneuvering dominated,
the Cultural Revolution would be the although political lines were not at first
elimination of leading cadres whom Mao sharply drawn or even well understood.
held responsible for past ideological sins The centres of this activity were Beijing’s
and alleged errors in judgment. schools and the inner councils of the
Central Committee; the students were
Attacks on Party Members the activists in a game they did not fully
comprehend.
Gradual transference of the revolution This phase of the Cultural Revolution
to top echelons of the party was man- ended in August 1966 with the conven-
aged by a group centred on Mao Zedong, ing of a plenary session of the Central
Lin Biao, Jiang Qing, Kang Sheng, and Committee. Mao issued his own big-
Chen Boda. In May 1966 Mao secretly character poster as a call to “Bombard the
assigned major responsibilities to the headquarters” (“Paoda silingbu”), a call
army in cultural and educational affairs. to denounce and remove senior officials,
Another purpose of the Cultural and a 16-point Central Committee deci-
Revolution, as then conceived, would be sion was issued in which the broad
a “revolution in the superstructure”: a outlines for the Cultural Revolution were
transformation from a bureaucratically laid down and supporters were rallied to
run machine to a more popularly based the revolutionary banner. The immediate
system led personally by Mao and a sim- aim was to seize power from “bourgeois”
plified administration under his control. authorities. The locus of the struggle
Following the May instructions, the would be their urban strongholds. Now
educational system received priority. more than ever, Mao’s thought became
“Big-character posters,” or large wall the “compass for action.”
newspapers (dazibao), spread from the Evidently fearing that China would
principal campuses in Beijing through- develop along the lines of the Soviet rev-
out the land. University officials and olution and concerned about his own
professors were singled out for criticism, place in history, Mao threw China’s cities
while their students, encouraged by the into turmoil in a gigantic effort to reverse
central authorities, held mass meetings the historic processes then under way. He
and began to organize. In June the gov- ultimately failed in his quest, but his
ernment dropped examinations for efforts generated problems with which
university admissions and called for a his successors would have to struggle for
reform of entrance procedures and a decades. Mao adopted four goals for his
326 | The History of China
Red guards
The Red Guards constituted a number of paramilitary units of radical university and high-school
students formed during the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Responding in 1966 to Mao Zedong’s
call to revitalize the revolutionary spirit of the Chinese Communist Party, they went so far as to
attempt to purge the country of its pre-communist culture. With a membership in the millions,
they attacked and persecuted local party leaders, schoolteachers, and other intellectuals. By
early 1967 they had overthrown party authorities in many localities. Internal strife ensued as dif-
ferent units argued over which among them best represented Maoism. In 1968 their disruption of
industrial production and urban life led the government to redirect them to the countryside,
where the movement gradually subsided.
Young members of the Red Guard marching in the streets of Bejing. Central Press/Hulton
Archive/Getty Images
China Since 1965 | 327
Cultural Revolution: to replace his desig- turn included several important turning
nated successors with leaders more points. The latter half of 1966 was not
faithful to his current thinking, to rectify only when the Red Guard mobilized
the CCP, to provide China’s youth with a (including Red Guard reviews of more
revolutionary experience, and to achieve than a million youths at a time by Mao
specific policy changes to make the edu- Zedong and Lin Biao in Beijing) but also
cational, health care, and cultural systems when key Political Bureau (Politburo)
less elitist. He initially pursued those leaders were removed from power, most
goals through a massive mobilization of notably Pres. Liu Shaoqi and CCP
the country’s urban youths—organized in General Secretary Deng Xiaoping. In
groups called the Red Guards—while October 1966 both Liu and Deng engaged
ordering the CCP and the PLA not to in public self-criticism. Mao, however,
suppress the movement. rejected both acts as inadequate. At the
When Mao formally launched the same meeting, Mao heard bitter com-
Cultural Revolution in August 1966, he plaints from provincial party leaders
had already shut down the schools. about the chaos of the political campaign.
During the following months, he encour- While acknowledging the validity of
aged the Red Guards to attack all much of what was said, Mao nevertheless
traditional values and “bourgeois” things declared that it would do more good than
and to put CCP officials to the test by harm to let the Cultural Revolution con-
publicly criticizing them. These attacks tinue for several more months.
were known at the time as struggles In January 1967 the movement began
against the Four Olds (i.e., old ideas, cus- to produce the actual overthrow of pro-
toms, culture, and habits of mind), and vincial CCP committees and initial
the movement quickly escalated to com- attempts to construct new organs of
mitting outrages. Many elderly people political power to replace them. The first
and intellectuals were physically abused, such “power seizure” (duoquan) took
and many died. Nonetheless, Mao place in Shanghai and was followed by
believed that this mobilization of urban temporary confusion as to just what kind
youths would be beneficial for them and of new political structure should be estab-
that the CCP cadres they attacked would lished to replace the discredited
be better for the experience. municipal CCP and government appara-
tuses. At first, a “commune” (gongshe),
Seizure of Power reminiscent of the 1871 Commune of
Paris, was set up, but the final form
The period from mid-1966 to early 1969 adopted was called a “revolutionary
constituted the Red Guard phase of the committee” (geming weiyuanhui); that
Cultural Revolution, and those years in appellation subsequently was given to
328 | The History of China
politics. (The answer came only with a serious menace, especially given the
coup against the radicals a month after political division and social chaos that
Mao Zedong’s death on Sept. 9, 1976.) still prevailed in much of the country.
China’s actions following the meet- When the Party Congress convened
ing of October 1968 suggested the in April 1969, it did so in the wake of two
degree to which fear of a Soviet invasion bloody Sino-Soviet border clashes that
contributed to the closing down of the had occurred in early and mid-March.
Cultural Revolution’s most radical Written into the new party constitution
phase. Almost immediately after the was an unprecedented step—Defense
meeting, China called on the United Minister Lin Biao was named as Mao’s
States to resume ambassadorial-level successor—and the military tightened its
talks in Warsaw. Beijing also renewed its grip on the entire society. Both the
conventional diplomacy—it had reduced Central Committee and the new party
its level of ambassadorial representation committees being established through-
abroad to a single ambassador in Egypt— out the country were dominated by
and quickly sought to expand the range military men. Indeed, less than one-third
of countries with which it enjoyed diplo- of the Eighth Central Committee mem-
matic relations. bers elected in 1956 were reelected in
China’s concern stemmed partly 1969, and more than two-fifths of the
from the Soviet leadership’s articulation members of the Ninth Central Committee
of a policy (called the Brezhnev Doctrine) chosen in 1969 held military posts.
that was used to justify the invasion of Premier Zhou Enlai tried to cut back
Czechoslovakia on the grounds that the Lin Biao’s power and to relieve some of
Soviet Union was obligated to intervene the threat to China’s security by engag-
whenever the regime in a socialist coun- ing the Soviets in direct negotiations on
try was being threatened internally or the border dispute. A series of serious
externally. To Beijing’s horror, even North military clashes along the border, culmi-
Vietnam came out in support of this nating in a limited but sanguinary Soviet
threatening posture. Moscow had long thrust several miles into the Uygur
made clear its belief that a “military- Autonomous Region of Xinjiang, height-
bureaucratic dictatorship” had seized ened tensions. Zhou briefly met with
power from the “true communists” in Soviet Premier Aleksey Kosygin at the
Beijing. To add to Beijing’s concern, since Beijing airport in early September, and
1966 the Soviet Union had been building the two agreed to hold formal talks.
up a sizable military force along the for- Nevertheless, Lin Biao declared martial
merly demilitarized Sino-Soviet border. law and used it to rid himself of some of
While the forces deployed as of late 1968 his potential rivals. Several leaders who
were not adequate for a full-scale inva- had been purged during 1966–68, includ-
sion of China, they certainly posed a ing Liu Shaoqi, died under the martial
330 | The History of China
law regime of 1969, and many others suf- large measure to the study of politics and
fered severely. to vocational training. Examinations of
Lin quickly encountered opposition, the traditional type were abolished, and
however. Mao became wary of a succes- stress was placed on collective study. The
sor who seemed to want to assume power authority of teachers in the classroom
too quickly and began to maneuver was seriously eroded. These trends
against Lin. Premier Zhou Enlai joined reached their most extreme form when
forces with Mao in that effort, as possibly a student in the Northeast was made a
did Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing. Mao’s assis- national hero by the radicals because he
tant, Chen Boda, decided to support Lin’s turned in a blank examination paper and
cause, however. Therefore, while in 1970– criticized his teacher for having asked
71 many measures were undertaken to him the examination questions in the
bring order and normalcy back to society, first place.
increasingly severe strains split the top Many bureaucrats were forced to
leadership. leave the relative comfort of their offices
for a stint in “May 7 cadre schools,” usu-
Social Changes ally farms run by a major urban unit.
People from the urban unit had to live
By 1970 many of the stated goals of the on the farm, typically in quite primitive
Cultural Revolution had been trans- conditions, for varying periods of time.
lated into at least somewhat-operational (For some, this amounted to a number of
programs. These included initiatives years, although by about 1973 the time
designed to reduce what were termed periods in general had been held to
the “three major differences”—those about six months to one year.) While on
separating intellectual from manual the farm the urban cadre would both
labour, worker from peasant, and urban engage in rigorous manual labour and
from rural. undertake intensive, supervised study of
Many measures had been taken to ideology. The object was to reduce
make the educational system less elitist. bureaucratic “airs.”
The number of years at each level of Millions of Chinese youths were also
schooling was shortened, and admission sent to the countryside during these
to a university became based on the rec- years. Initially, these were primarily Red
ommendations of a student’s work unit Guard activists, but the program soon
rather than on competitive examination. achieved a more general character, and it
All youths were required to engage in at became expected that most middle-
least several years of manual labour school graduates would head to the
before attending a university. Within countryside. While in the hinterlands,
schools, formal scholarship yielded in these young people were instructed to
China Since 1965 | 331
“learn from the poor and lower-middle thus it had a highly uneven effect on the
peasants.” Quite a few were merely sent peasants. Some villages, especially those
to the counties immediately adjacent to near major cities, became caught up in
the city from which they came. Others, the turmoil, but many peasants living in
however, were sent over long distances. more-remote areas experienced less
Large groups from Shanghai, for instance, interference from higher-level bureau-
were made to settle in Heilongjiang, the cratic authorities than would normally
northernmost province in the Northeast. have been the case.
This rustication was in theory perma- Nevertheless, there were two dimen-
nent, although the vast majority of these sions of the Cultural Revolution that did
people managed to stream back to the seriously affect peasants’ lives. First, the
cities in the late 1970s, after Mao’s death country adopted a policy of encouraging
and the purge of his radical followers. local rural self-sufficiency in foodstuffs.
The system of medical care was also This policy stemmed from ideological and
revamped. Serious efforts were made to security considerations, and it had begun
force urban-based medical staffs to before the onset of the Cultural Revolution.
devote more effort to serving the needs of Its major consequence was a stress on
the peasants. This involved both the reas- grain production so great that a quite irra-
signment of medical personnel to rural tional and uneconomical cropping pattern
areas and, more important, a major emerged. Second, great stress was placed
attempt to provide short-term training to on separating income from the amount of
rural medical personnel called “barefoot work performed by a peasant. Pressure
doctors.” This latter initiative placed at was applied to raise the unit of income dis-
least a minimal level of medical compe- tribution to the brigade rather than the
tence in many Chinese villages; ideally, team (the former was several times larger
the referral of more-serious matters was than the latter), and an increasing share of
to be made to higher levels. Another the collective income was to be distributed
prong of the effort in the medical arena on the basis of welfare and political crite-
was to place relatively greater stress on ria rather than on the basis of the amount
the use of Chinese traditional medicine, of work performed.
which relied more heavily on locally
available herbs and on such low-cost Struggle for the Premiership
treatments as acupuncture. Western
medicine was simply too expensive and As these programmatic aspects of the
specialized to be used effectively through- Cultural Revolution were being put into
out China’s vast hinterlands. place and regularized, the political battle
The Cultural Revolution was primar- to determine who would inherit power
ily an urban political phenomenon, and at the top continued and intensified.
332 | The History of China
Tensions first surfaced at a meeting of assert was an attempt to flee to the Soviet
the Central Committee in the summer of Union. The Chinese high military com-
1970, when Chen Boda, Lin Biao, and their mand who had served under Lin was
supporters made a series of remarks that purged in the weeks following his death.
angered Mao Zedong. Mao then purged Lin’s demise had a profoundly disil-
Chen as a warning to Lin. At the end of lusioning effect on many people who had
1970 Mao also initiated a criticism of supported Mao during the Cultural
Lin’s top supporters in the military forces, Revolution. Lin had been the high priest
calling them to task for their arrogance of the Mao cult, and millions had gone
and unwillingness to listen to civilian through tortuous struggles to elevate this
authority. The situation intensified dur- chosen successor to power and throw out
ing the spring of 1971 until Lin Biao’s son, his “revisionist” challengers. They had in
Lin Liguo, evidently began to put together this quest attacked and tortured respected
plans for a possible coup against Mao teachers, abused elderly citizens, humili-
should this prove the only way to save his ated old revolutionaries, and, in many
father’s position. cases, battled former friends in bloody
During this period, Zhou Enlai confrontations. The sordid details of Lin’s
engaged in extremely delicate and secret purported assassination plot and subse-
diplomatic exchanges with the United quent flight cast all this in the light of
States, and Mao agreed to a secret visit to traditional, unprincipled power strug-
Beijing by the U.S. national security gles, and untold millions concluded that
adviser Henry Kissinger in July 1971. they had simply been manipulated for
That visit was one of the more dramatic personal political purposes.
events of the Cold War era and laid the Initially, Zhou Enlai was the major
groundwork for U.S. Pres. Richard M. beneficiary of Lin’s death, and from late
Nixon’s trip to China the following 1971 through mid-1973 he tried to nudge
February. At a time when the Vietnam the system back toward stability. He
War continued to blaze, China and the encouraged a revival and improvement
United States took major steps toward of educational standards and brought
reducing their mutual antagonism in the numerous people back into office. China
face of the Soviet threat. Lin Biao strongly began again to increase its trade and
opposed this opening to the United other links with the outside world, while
States—probably in part because it would the domestic economy continued the for-
strengthen the political hand of its key ward momentum that had begun to build
architect in China, Zhou Enlai—and the in 1969. Mao blessed these general moves
Kissinger visit thus amounted to a major but remained wary lest they call into
defeat for Lin. question the basic value of having
In September 1971 Lin died in a plane launched the Cultural Revolution in the
crash in Mongolia in what the Chinese first place. In Maoist thought it had
China Since 1965 | 333
always been possible for formerly way- economic decline and increasing chaos
ward individuals to reform under pressure made Mao shift back toward Zhou and
and again assume power. Deng. With Zhou hospitalized, Deng
During 1972 Mao suffered a serious assumed increasing power from the sum-
stroke, and Zhou learned that he had a mer of 1974 through the late fall of 1975.
fatal cancer. These developments high- During this time Deng sought (with
lighted the continued uncertainty over Zhou’s full support) to put the Four
the succession. In early 1973 Zhou and Modernizations (of agriculture, industry,
Mao brought Deng Xiaoping back to science and technology, and defense) at
power in the hope of grooming him as a the top of the country’s agenda. To fur-
successor. But Deng had been the second ther this effort, Deng continued to
most-important victim purged by the rehabilitate victims of the Cultural
radicals during the Cultural Revolution, Revolution, and he commissioned the
and his reemergence made Jiang Qing, drafting of an important group of docu-
by then head of the radicals, and her fol- ments much like those developed in
lowers desperate to return things to a 1960–62. They laid out the basic princi-
more radical path. From mid-1973, ples for work in the party, industry, and
Chinese politics shifted back and forth science and technology. Their core ele-
between Jiang and her followers—later ments were anathema to the radicals,
dubbed the Gang of Four—and the sup- who used their power in the mass media
porters of Zhou and Deng. The former and the propaganda apparatus to attack
group favoured political mobilization, Deng’s efforts.
class struggle, anti-intellectualism, egali- The radicals finally convinced Mao
tarianism, and xenophobia, while the that Deng’s policies would lead eventu-
latter promoted economic growth, stabil- ally to a repudiation of the Cultural
ity, educational progress, and a pragmatic Revolution and even of Mao himself. Mao
foreign policy. Mao tried unsuccessfully therefore sanctioned criticism of these
to maintain a balance among these differ- policies in the wall posters that were a
ent forces while continuing in vain to favourite propaganda tool of the radicals.
search for a suitable successor. Zhou died in January 1976, and Deng
The balance tipped back and forth— delivered his eulogy. Deng then disap-
nudged by Mao first this way, then peared from public view and was formally
that—between the two groups. The radi- purged (with Mao’s backing) in April.
cals gained the upper hand from mid-1973 The immediate reason for Deng’s down-
until mid-1974, during which time they fall was a group of massive demonstrations
whipped up a campaign that used criti- in Beijing and other cities that took
cism of Lin Biao and Confucius as an advantage of the traditional Qingming
allegorical vehicle for attacking Zhou festival to pay homage to Zhou’s memory
and his policies. By July 1974, however, and thereby challenge the radicals.
334 | The History of China
In the immediate wake of Deng’s Bold actions in the late 1970s went far
purge, many of his followers also fell from toward coping with those immediate
power, and a political campaign was problems, but the Cultural Revolution
launched to “criticize Deng Xiaoping and also left more-serious, longer-term lega-
his right-deviationist attempt to reverse cies. First, a severe generation gap had
correct verdicts [on people during the been created in which young adults
Cultural Revolution].” Only Mao’s death had been denied an education and had
in September and the purge of the Gang been taught to redress grievances by
of Four by a coalition of political, police, taking to the streets. Second, corruption
and military leaders in October 1976 grew within the CCP and the govern-
brought this effort to vilify Deng to a ment, as the terror and accompanying
close. Although it was officially ended by scarcities of goods during the Cultural
the 11th Party Congress in August 1977, Revolution had forced people to fall back
the Cultural Revolution had in fact con- on traditional personal relationships and
cluded with Mao’s death and the purge of on extortion in order to get things done.
the Gang of Four. Third, the CCP leadership and the sys-
tem itself suffered a loss of legitimacy
Consequences of the when millions of urban Chinese became
Cultural Revolution disillusioned by the obvious power plays
that took place in the name of political
Although the Cultural Revolution largely principle in the early and mid-1970s. And
bypassed the vast majority of the people, fourth, bitter factionalism was rampant,
who lived in rural areas, it had highly seri- as members of rival Cultural Revolution
ous consequences for the Chinese system factions shared the same work unit, each
as a whole. In the short run, of course, the still looking for ways to undermine the
political instability and the zigzags in eco- power of the other.
nomic policy produced slower economic
growth and a decline in the capacity of China after
the government to deliver goods and ser- the death of Mao
vices. Officials at all levels of the political
system had learned that future shifts in Perhaps never before in human history
policy would jeopardize those who had had a political leader unleashed such
aggressively implemented previous pol- massive forces against the system that he
icy. The result was bureaucratic timidity. had created. The resulting damage to
In addition, with the death of Mao and the that system was profound, and the goals
end of the Cultural Revolution, nearly that Mao Zedong sought to achieve
three million CCP members and other ultimately remained elusive. The agenda
citizens awaited reinstatement after hav- he left behind for his successors was
ing been wrongfully purged. extraordinarily challenging.
China Since 1965 | 335
During the Cultural Revolution, peasants gathered in Nanshangio, China, to recite passages
of Chairman Mao’s “Little Red Book.” AFP/Getty Images
ideas, but many others in the top leader- Lacking detailed information on the
ship wanted to move away from these economy, the leaders adopted an overly
issues, and Hua’s position eroded over the ambitious 10-year plan in early 1978 and
remainder of the decade. Furthermore, used the government’s resources to the
Hua’s successor as party chairman, Hu limit throughout that year to increase
Yaobang, helped abolish the chairmanship investment and achieve rapid economic
in 1982 in response to concerns that one growth. Much of that growth consisted
person might again become too powerful of reactivating capacity that had lain
within the party; however, he remained as idle because of political disruption.
general secretary. Future growth would be harder to
The ambivalent legacies of the achieve, and long-term trends in matters
Cultural Revolution were reflected in the such as capital-output ratios made it
members of the Political Bureau chosen increasingly clear that the old strategies
just after the 11th Party Congress had would be less effective.
convened in August 1977. Like Hua One of the major changes of 1978 was
Guofeng, almost half of the members China’s sharp turn toward participation
were individuals whose careers had ben- in the international economy. While in
efited from the Cultural Revolution; the the 1970s there had been a resumption of
other half were, like Deng Xiaoping, the the foreign trade that had been largely
Cultural Revolution’s victims. While a halted in the late 1960s, along with
balance between the two groups would far-more-active and Western-oriented
be reached only after a period of years, in diplomatic initiatives, the changes dur-
the short run the tide quickly shifted in ing and after 1978 were fundamental.
favour of the latter group. China’s leaders became convinced that
large amounts of capital could be
Economic Policy Changes acquired from abroad to speed up the
country’s modernization, a change in
In the late fall of 1976, the CCP leadership attitude that elicited an almost frenetic
tried to bring some order to the country response from foreign bankers and
through a series of national conferences. entrepreneurs.
They moved quickly to appeal to workers’ These several strands came together
interests by reinstating wage bonuses. in late 1978 at a major meeting of the CCP
The economy had stagnated that year leadership, when China formally agreed
largely because of political turmoil, and to establish full diplomatic relations with
Mao’s successors were anxious to start the United States. China’s leaders also
things moving again. Despite some formally adopted the Four Modernizations
uncertainty, Deng was rehabilitated and as the country’s highest priority, with all
formally brought back into his previous other tasks to be subordinated to that
offices in the summer of 1977. of economic development. This set of
China Since 1965 | 337
On June 5, 1989, a lone protester stands down a column of tanks at the entrance to Tiananmen
Square in Bejing. CNN/Getty Images
top participants. The reform movement the CCP and the government had
began to sour in 1985. Financial decen- become widespread. Students—eventu-
tralization and the two-price system ally joined by many others—took to the
combined with other factors to produce streets in dozens of cities from April to
inflation and encourage corruption. June to demand greater freedom and
China’s population, increasingly exposed other changes. Government leaders,
to foreign ideas and standards of living, after initial hesitation, used the army to
put pressure on the government to speed suppress this unrest in early June (most
the rate of change within the country. visibly in Tiananmen Square), with sub-
These forces produced open unrest stantial loss of life. China’s elderly
within the country in late 1986 and again revolutionaries then reverted to more-
on a much larger scale in the spring of conservative economic, political, and
1989. By 1989 popular disaffection with cultural policies in an attempt to
340 | The History of China
has at times been a source of friction in world’s third largest economy and also
U.S.-China relations. the third largest trading country, China
Through all this, economic ties have accounted in 2007 for approximately 5
improved considerably between the percent of world GDP and had recently
mainland and Taiwan. Taiwan has graduated in status to a middle-income
become one of China’s major trading country. Beijing was also emerging as a
partners, and large numbers of people key global aid donor. In terms of produc-
from the island live and work on the tion, China supplied more than one-third
mainland. Beijing has continued to press of the world’s steel, half of its cement, and
for reintegrating Taiwan as a province of about a third of its aluminum.
China under mainland administration. China’s achievements in poverty
However, a growing movement on reduction from the post–Mao Zedong era,
Taiwan has advocated that the island in terms of both scope and speed, were
become an independent sovereign state impressive; about 400 million people had
and not continue to be considered a part been lifted from poverty. The standard of
of China. Tensions escalated after the living for many Chinese was improving,
pro-independence Chen Shui-bian was and this led to a widespread optimism
elected president of the ROC in 2000. that the government’s goal of achieving
Nonetheless, discussions have continued an overall well-off, or xiaokang, society,
between the two sides, and in 2005 high- was possible in the near future.
ranking Nationalist Party (KMT) officials The figures that illustrated China’s
traveled to the mainland, the first such remarkable economic achievements,
visits since 1949. In addition, tensions however, concealed huge and outstand-
between China and Taiwan eased signifi- ing challenges that, if neglected, could
cantly after the Nationalists regained jeopardize those very same gains. Many
control of both Taiwan’s legislature and local and foreign-development analysts
the presidency in 2008. agreed that China’s unsustainable and
reckless approach to growth was putting
Conclusion the country and the world on the brink
of environmental catastrophe. China was
In anticipation of the 2008 Olympic already coping with limited natural
Games, Beijing underwent a huge make- resources that were fast disappearing. In
over that China used to show how fast addition, not everyone was sharing the
change could happen in a country of benefits of growth—about 135 million
1.3 billion people. New subway lines were people, or one-tenth of the population,
completed, and more and more sky- still lived below the international abso-
scrapers were added each month to the lute poverty line of $1 per day. There was
landscape to replace the fast-disappearing a huge inequality between the urban and
traditional housing (hutongs). As the rural population, as well as between the
China Since 1965 | 343
poor and the rich. The increasing num- wastewater were released into waterways
ber of protests (termed mass incidents without any treatment. China had about 7
in China) was attributed to both environ- percent of the world’s water resources
mental causes and experiences of injustice. and roughly 20 percent of its population.
If these social problems remained, it could In addition, this supply was severely
imperil the “harmonious development,” or regionally imbalanced—about four-fifths
hexie fazhan, project of the government of China’s water was situated in the
and eventually erode the Communist southern part of the country.
Party of China’s continued monopoly of The Pearl River Delta and Yangtze
political power. River Delta, two regions well developed
China consumed more coal than the owing to recent export-oriented growth,
U.S., Europe, and Japan combined and in suffered from extensive contamination
2007 was about to surpass, or had already from heavy-metal and persistent organic
surpassed, the U.S. as the world’s biggest pollutants. The pollutants emanated
emitter of greenhouse gases. Beijing was from industries outsourced from the
also the biggest emitter of sulfur dioxide, developed countries and electronic
which contributes to acid rain. Chinese wastes that were illegally imported from
scholars blamed the increase in emis- the U.S. According to an investigation of
sions on rapid economic growth and the official records conducted by the Institute
fact that China relied on coal for 70% of of Public and Environmental Affairs
its energy needs. More than 300,000 pre- (IPE), a domestic environmental nongov-
mature deaths annually were attributed ernmental organization, 34 multinational
to airborne pollution. The changing life- corporations (MNCs) with operations
style of the increasing number of in China had violated water-pollution-
middle-class families also contributed to control guidelines. These MNCs included
the problem. In Beijing alone, 1,000 new PepsiCo, Inc., Panasonic Battery Co., and
cars were added to the roads every day. Foster’s Group Ltd. The IPE’s data were
Seven of the 10 most polluted cities in the based on reports by government bodies
world were located in China. at local and national levels.
The UN 2006 Human Development China was beginning to realize, how-
Report cited China’s worsening water ever, that its growth path was not cost-free.
pollution and its failure to restrict heavy According to the State Environmental
polluters. More than 300 million people Protection Administration and the World
lacked access to clean drinking water. Bank, air and water pollution was costing
About 60 percent of the water in China’s China 5.8 percent of its GDP. Though the
seven major river systems was classified Chinese government carried the responsi-
as being unsuitable for human contact, bility for fixing the overwhelming
and more than one-third of industrial environmental consequences of China’s
wastewater and two-thirds of municipal breakneck growth, help, if offered, from the
344 | The History of China
A portrait of former Chinese Communist Party leader Mao Zedong displayed during National
Day celebrations in Beijing on October 1, 2009. Frederic J. Brown/AFP/Getty Images
protests, it was evident that many in government was founded in 1949. China
China were clamouring for a more equi- has experienced many bewildering
table distribution of China’s bounty from changes in fortune. It has been both
its two-decades-long growth. conquered and conqueror, shattered
On October 1, 2009, China’s com- and united. Yet, longer than any other
munist government celebrated its 60th nation in the world, it has retained its
anniversary with a huge military parade essential character through all of its
featuring tanks and marching soldiers. many incarnations. China faces many
This display demonstrated China’s challenges as it looks to the future. But
growing military might. It was just one with its wealth of history, resources, and
symbol of how far China has come from people, it is likely to be able to adapt to
its weak and devastated state when the whatever may come.
Glossary
assay Analysis of components in an feiqian “Flying money”; a type of paper
ore to determine quantity of each credit used to transmit funds.
component. fief Area of land given to select
bourgeois According to Marxist individuals, usually relatives of
doctrine, a capitalist, or a person the ruler.
who owns property. filial piety The Confucian virtue of
cash crop Any crop grown specifically devotion to and respect for one’s
to be sold. parents and ancestors.
cell A small entity that acts as a gongsuo Trade guild.
unit within a larger political guozijian State academy.
organization. herrenvolk A master race.
censorate Body of government jia Family.
officials responsible for supervis- khan A ruler, often of a Central Asian
ing the conduct of other officials country.
and rulers. khanate The area over which a khan
Collective A business or farm orga- presides.
nized under the political idea of microlith Small stone artifact.
centralized economic control. mingjiao The “doctrine of names”; a
Comintern An international association combination of Confucian and
of communist parties from different Legalist ideas forming a doctrine
countries, started in the Soviet emphasizing social duty, ritual, law,
Union in 1919. and human traits.
communism A system of social prefect An official appointed to govern
organization based on the idea of a prefecture, often with a limited
holding all property in common range of authority.
and of workers being organized to prefecture system Division of land into
labor for the community rather localities governed by appointed
than for themselves. officials (prefects).
corvée Unpaid labour for a feudal lord. primogeniture The eldest son’s
dowager A widow with a title or right to inherit all the property of
property from her deceased his parents.
husband. revisionism A strain of Marxism
eunuch A male who has been castrated, in which certain classic
often for the purposes of serving as Marxist principles have been
a palace official or guard. abandoned.
Glossary | 347
China since 1965, 323–345 during Six Dynasties, 87, 89, 90, 92, 94
Chinese Communist Party (CCP), 266–269, during Song dynasty, 123, 139, 140, 141, 143,
273–274, 275–276, 278–280, 284, 285–286, 144, 150, 151, 152, 153, 154, 156
291–293, 294, 295, 296, 297, 300–322, 326, during Sui dynasty, 96
327–328, 334, 335–336, 338–339, 343 during Tang dynasty, 107, 123, 125
Chinese Revolution, 257–258, 259 during Zhou dynasty, 54
Chinese Revolutionary Party, 265 Neo-, 123, 156, 159–162, 166, 178, 181, 182,
Chongzhen emperor, 196 199, 208, 229
Christianity in China, 187–188, 204, 235, 237, Confucius, 52, 53, 79, 88, 89, 162, 181, 333
242, 251, 271 Cultural Revolution, 268, 317, 322, 323–329,
Chuluo, 100 330, 331, 332, 333, 334, 336, 337, 338
Chun, Prince, 256, 258 culture/art
Churchill, Winston, 288–289 during Han dynasty, 78–80, 82
Ci’an, 240 during Jin dynasty, 137
civil service, 157 during Ming dynasty, 208–209, 211
under Han dynasty, 69–71, 79 during Mongol dynasty, 182–186, 212
under Ming dynasty, 199–200 during Neolithic Period, 28, 29–31, 32
under Nan Song dynasty, 155–156 during Qing dynasty, 227, 229–230
under Qin dynasty, 157 during Shang dynsasty, 37–38, 42
under Song dynasty, 139, 140, 141 during Shiguo, 134
civil war (1945–1949), 291–299, 300 during Six Dynasties, 85
Cixi, 240, 250, 252, 253, 254, 256 during Tang dynasty, 122–126
communes, creation of people’s, 311, 312, 313, during Zhou dynasty, 42
314, 315, 316 and People’s Republic of China, 308,
communism in China, 255, 266–269, 272, 316–317, 323–325, 340
273–274, 275–276, 278, 284, 300–322,
323–345
establishment of, 21–22
D
growth/spread of, 290–294, 295–298 Daizong, 119
and revolution, 268 Danfu, 42
and victory over Nationalist government, Daoguang emperor, 220, 232
298–299, 300 Daoism, 82, 94–95, 159
Confucian Classics (Wujing), 79, 98, 108, 112, during Ming dynasty, 194, 209–210
123, 134, 144, 157, 159, 181, 199, 208, 229 during Mongol dynasty, 178
Confucianism, 91, 136, 137 during Shiguo, 133–134
during Han dynasty, 64, 65, 70, 87 during Six Dynasties, 87, 89, 90–92
during Ming dynasty, 199, 204, 210, 211 during Song dynasty, 141
during Mongol dynasty, 178, 181–182 during Tang dynasty, 122, 123
during Qin dynasty, 56 Daoist rebellions, 83, 90
during Qing dynasty, 218, 228, 229, 234, Democratic League, 294, 295
235, 236, 237, 238, 242, 250 Deng Xiaoping, 268, 316, 318, 327, 333–334,
during Shiguo, 133–134 335, 336, 338, 340
Index | 351
Kang Sheng, 318, 325 Li Shimin (Taizong), 102, 103, 104, 107–108,
Kangxi emperor (Xuanye), 218 109, 110
Kang Youwei, 249–250, 253 Li Tsung-jen, 299
Kapghan, 116 Liu Bang (Gaozu), 60, 62, 64, 71
Karakhan, Lev M., 269 Liu Bei, 68–69
Karakhan Manifesto, 266 Liu Bingzhong, 173, 181
Khitan, 135–136, 137, 140–141, 142, 168, 172, Liu Bocheng, 284, 296, 297, 298
173, 176 Liu Gengshi, 67
Kissinger, Henry, 332 Liu Heita, 104
KMT (Kuomintang; Nationalist Party), 260, Liu Heng (Wendi), 64, 79
268, 269, 271–272, 273–274, 275–276, 277, Liu Jin, 193
280, 286, 290, 291, 294, 303, 308 Liu Kunyi, 252
Kojong, 247 Liu Shaoqi, 278, 286, 304, 316, 318, 327, 329
Korea, during the Late Qing dynasty, Liu-Song dynasty, 85
247–248 Liu Wuzhou, 104
Korean War, 300, 302–303, 304, 308, 310 Liu Xiu (Guangwudi), 60, 67–68
Kublai Khan, 170–171, 172, 173, 175, 178, 181, Liu Yuan, 85
186, 189 Liu Zongyuan, 125
Kwantung Army, 278 Li Yuan (Gaozu), 101, 102, 104, 105, 106,
107, 108
Li Yuanhong, 257, 262
L Li Zhi (Gaozong), 110, 111, 112, 115
Laozi, 87, 92, 122, 178 Li Zhi (Ming dynasty), 211, 212
Legalism, 87, 89, 96 Li Zicheng, 196, 216–217
Lei Feng, 320 Li Zitong, 104
Liang Qichao, 250, 253 Lizong, 155, 162
Liao dynasty, 135–136, 147, 148, 177 Long March, 268, 278, 280
Liao Zhongkai, 272, 274 Longqing emperor, 194
Li Bai, 125 Longwu emperor, 196
Li Dazhao, 266, 268, 269, 272 Lu Dingyi, 325
Li Deyu, 122
Li Hongzhang, 238, 239, 240, 242, 243, 244,
246, 247, 248, 252, 253, 255, 263
M
Li Kan, 185 MacArthur, Douglas, 292, 302
Li Linfu, 115, 116 Ma Duanlin, 183
Li Mi, 101, 102 Manchu, 21, 87, 196, 204, 208, 214–230, 250,
Lin Biao, 278, 284, 292, 293, 296, 297, 298, 312, 252, 258
315, 316, 318, 319–320, 322, 323, 325, 327, mandarins, 69
329–330, 332 Mao Zedong, 266, 268, 275, 291, 293, 296, 299,
Lin Liguo, 332 330, 332–333
Lin Zexu, 232 and Cultural Revolution, 323–328, 332
Li Peng, 338 China after death of, 331, 334–342
354 | The History of China
Neolithic Period in China, 24–33 and international relations, 320, 329, 336,
Nepal, during Late Qing dynasty, 245 340–342
New Culture Movement, 264–265 new directions in national policy
New Fourth Army Incident, 286 (1958–61), 311–315
Nian Rebellion, 236, 238–239 and nuclear weapons, 321–322
Nine-Power Pact, 269–270 opening of economy to outside world,
Ningzong, 151, 154, 162 336–337, 341
Nixon, Richard, 332 political developments, 307–310,
Northern Expedition, 274–275, 276 338–340
Nurhachi, 196, 214–216 readjustment and reaction (1961–65),
316–322
reconstruction and consolidation,
O 302–305
Ögödei, 172, 173 role of military, 302–303, 305, 311, 316,
Olympics (2008), 341, 342, 344 318–320, 321, 322, 323, 328, 329
Open Door policy, U.S., 252 and rural collectivization, 306–307, 308
opium trade, 230, 231–232, 234 since 1965, 323–345
Opium Wars, 242 and social changes, 330–331
first, 232–234, 235, 236, 245 and struggle for premiership, 331–334
second, 234–236 and suppression of 1989 demonstrations,
Oyrat, 193, 194, 202, 217, 222 339, 341
transition to socialism, 305–311
urban socialist changes, 307
P Pingdi, 66, 67
Painted Pottery culture, 26, 28, 29 Pingwang, 47
Pang Xun, 122 Political Consultative Council, 293–294
paper, invention of, 79–80 pollution in modern China, 343–344
Parkes, Harry, 234 Polo, Marco, 149, 188
Pei Ju, 100, 101 Pottinger, Henry, 233
Peking man, 22 poverty in modern China, 344–345
Peng Dehuai, 284, 299, 312, 315, 323 prehistory in China, 22–33
Peng Zhen, 325
People’s Liberation Army (PLA), 292, 296,
299, 302, 318, 320, 328
Q
People’s Republic of China, 268, 292, 299 Qiang, 86, 135
aid/influence from Soviet Union, Qianlong emperor, 219–220
300, 304–306, 308, 310, 311–312, 315, Qian Xuan, 184–185
321–322 Qi Jiguang, 194
establishment of, 300–321 Qin dynasty, 42, 53, 54–59, 61, 62, 75, 76, 84,
foreign policy of, 310–311 95, 141, 157
and industrialization, 300, 303, 305, 306, family structure under, 55–56
308, 313, 314 and unification of China, 56–58
356 | The History of China
Qing dynasty, Early (Manchu), 87, 133, 157, Ren Renfa, 185
193, 196, 197, 206, 214–230 Renzong, 141
and economic development, 223–226 Republican Period, Early, 259–280
foreign relations of, 222–223 early power struggles, 259–260
and Korea, 222 and foreign presence, 271, 273
and Japan, 222–223 intellectual movements, 264–265
political institutions of, 218–220 interwar years, 265–280
rise of the Manchu, 214–217 militarism in, 270–271
social organization under, 228–229 and relations with Japan, 260–261, 263–
society of, 226–230 264, 270, 271, 277–278, 280
trends during, 230 Republican Period, Late, 281–299
Qing dynasty, Late, 231–258, 262 and civil war, 291–299, 300
changes in outlying areas, 244–248 and relations with Japan, 281–290
constitutional movements during, 256–257 rise of communism during, 290–291
end of, 258, 259 and U.S. aid to China, 286–289
foreign relations of, 241–242 Revive China Society, 253
and Opium Wars, 232–236 Revive Han Association, 253–254
reform and upheaval, 248–253 Ricci, Matteo, 204
reformist and revolutionist movements Roosevelt, Franklin D., 287–290, 291
during, 253–258 Ruizong, 112, 113
Self-Strengthening Movement of,
240–243, 249
uprisings during, 236–240
S
Qin Kui, 153–154 Sanguo (Three Kingdoms), 83, 84
Qinzong, 147, 150 Second Revolution, 260
Qiying, 233–234 Self-Strengthening Movement, 240–243, 249
Qui Fu, 122 Senggelinqin, General, 239
Quotations from Chairman Mao, 319 Shang dynasty, 34, 35–40, 42–43, 44, 61
Shang Yang, 53, 55, 56
Shegui, 100
R Shenzong (Song dynasty), 142, 143, 144, 145
Red Guards, 326, 327, 328, 330 Shenzong (Wanli emperor; Ming dynasty), 193
religious beliefs/practices Shi Chaoyi, 117, 127
during Han dynasty, 65, 66, 80, 82 Shiguo (Ten Kingdoms), 130, 133–135, 140
during Ming dynasty, 209–211 Shihuangdi, 56–58
during Mongol dynasty, 178–182 Shiliuguo (Sixteen Kingdoms), 85, 86–87
during Neolithic Period, 32–33 Shi Miyuan, 154, 155, 162
during Qing dynasty, 229, 237, 239 Shi Siming, 117, 118, 127
during Shang dynasty, 38–39 Shu-Han dynasty, 83, 84
during Shiguo, 133–134 Shunzhi emperor (Fulin), 217, 218
during Six Dynasties, 87–89, 90–95 Shunzong, 120
during Tang dynasty, 111, 112, 122–125 Sian Incident, 280
Index | 357
silk, 27, 28, 31, 52, 76, 77, 79, 82, 106, 128, 141, and integration of south, 98–99
163, 186, 202, 225 and reunification of China, 95, 96
Silk Road, 27, 76, 82, 135 Sun Yat-sen, 253, 254, 255, 258, 259, 260,
Sima Qian, 52, 55 261, 262, 263, 265, 266, 269, 271, 272, 273,
Sino-French War, 243 280, 295
Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895), 240, 244, Suppression of Counterrevolutionaries
248, 254, 258 campaign, 303
Sino-Japanese War (1937–1943), 280, Suzong, 117, 118
281–289, 291
Six Dynasties, 83–95
division of China during, 83–84
T
intellectual activity during, 87–90 Taewŏn’gun, 247
religion during, 90–95 Taichang emperor, 196
Socialist Youth League, 266, 268 Tainshun emperor, 193
social organization/hierarchies Taiping, 113
in Early Qing dynasty, 226–229 Taiping Rebellion, 236–238, 239, 240, 245, 251
in Ming dynasty, 197, 200 Taiwan, relationship with China, 340, 341–342
in Neolithic Period, 33 Taizong (Li Shimin; Tang dynasty), 102, 103,
in Shang dynasty, 36–37, 39–40 104, 107–108, 109, 110, 111
in Tang dynasty, 126–127 Taizong (Song dynasty), 140
in Zhou dynasty, 45, 52, 53 Taizu (Zhao Kuangyin), 130, 138–139, 140
Society of Brothers and Elders, 253 Tang code, 96
Song dynasty (Bei Song), 122, 123, 129, 130, Tang dynasty, 70, 87, 95, 97, 101, 102–129, 131,
131, 134, 137, 138–167, 170, 175, 177, 191, 196 133, 135, 136, 137, 140, 141, 159, 177, 181, 196
consolidation under, 140–142 administration of state, 104–105
culture of, 163–167 cultural developments during, 122–126
decline and fall of, 145–147 fiscal and legal system, 105–107, 156
invasion of by Mongols, 170–172, 176, 177, growth of economy during, 128–129
180, 182 late Tang, 117–122, 130
military during, 140, 143, 147, 149–150 military during, 111–112, 115–117, 120
Nan Song, 147–159, 168 period of power, 107–117
reforms under, 142–145 population movements during, 127–128
unification/administration during, prosperity and progress during, 114–115
138–140, 200 provincial separatism during, 118–120
Song Jiaoren, 260 social change during, 126–127
Song Lian, 211–212 struggle for central authority in late Tang,
Stalin, Joseph, 276, 305, 306, 311, 317 120–122
Stilwell, Joseph, 289–290 Tang Hualong, 257, 258
Sui dynasty, 70, 87, 90, 92, 95–101, 102, 104, Tangut, 135, 176
105, 106, 108, 110, 127 Tang Xianzu, 212
foreign affairs under Yangdi, 100–101 Tan Sitong, 250
institutional reforms of Wendi, 96–97 Tardu, 96
358 | The History of China
Tatars, 202 W
Thibaw, 245
thought-reform campaign, 304, 308, 316 Wade, Sir Thomas Francis, 245
Three-Antis campaign, 303, 304 Wallace, Henry A., 291
Three Principles of the People, 254, 255, 256, Wang, Empress, 110, 111
280, 295 Wang Anshi, 142, 143, 144–145
Tiananmen Square protests, 339, 340 Wang Ching-wei, 274, 275–276, 282, 283
Tianqi emperor, 196 Wang Chong, 82
Tibet Wang Mang, 60, 67, 71, 74, 75, 175
during Late Qing dynasty, 244–245 Wang Pei, 120
rebellion against People’s Republic of Wang Shichong, 102–103, 104
China, 303, 318 Wang Shizhen, 211–212
Tibetans, 86, 112, 113, 116, 117, 118, 119, 120, Wang Shuwen, 120
135, 180, 181, 217 Wang Wei, 126
Timur, 203 Wang Xizhi, 91, 184
Togon-temür, 180, 189 Wang Yangming, 210, 211–212
Tongzhi emperor (Zaichun), 240 Wang Zhen, 193
Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 194 Wang Zhengjun, 67
Treaty of Aigun, 235 Wang Zhi, 193
Treaty of Beijing, 235 Wanli emperor, 194, 196, 208
Treaty of Kuldja, 235, 244 Washington Conference, 269
Treaty of Nanjing, 233, 234 Wedemeyer, Albert Coady, 290
Treaty of Wanghia, 233 Wei, Empress, 113
Treaty of Whampoa, 233 Wei dynasty, 83, 84, 87, 94
treaty-port system, 233, 235 Wei Zhongxian, 196
Triad fraternities, 229 Wendi (Han dynasty), 64, 79
Truman, Harry S., 293 Wendi (Sui dynasty), 87, 95–97, 98, 105
Tuoba (Bei Wei), 86, 87, 94 Wengong of Jin, 46, 49
Turks, 86, 95–96, 99, 100, 101, 109, 111, 112, Weng Wei, 125
113, 115–116, 122 Wenwang, 42–43
Wen Xiang, 236, 240
Wenzong, 121
U White Lotus sect, 229, 230, 251
Unequal Treaties, 270, 271, 273, 277 women’s roles/status
United League, 254–256, 257, 265 in Han dynasty, 63, 64
Urianghad tribes, 202 in modern China, 344
in Neolithic Period, 33
in Qing dynasty, 227–228
V in Shang dynasty, 39
Vietnam, during Late Qing dynasty, 245–246 in Song dynasty, 166–167
Voytinsky, Grigory N., 266, 269 World Trade Organization, 341
Index | 359
Z Zhenzong, 140–141
Zhezong, 145
Zeng Guofan, 237, 239, 242, 247 Zhongzong, 112, 113
Zeng Guoquan, 246 Zhou (Shang ruler), 43
Zeng Jize, 244 Zhou dynasty, 41–54, 62, 112
Zhang Binglin, 254–256 Chunqiu period, 42, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52,
Zhangdi, 68, 77 53, 54, 55
Zhang Fakui, 276 Dong Zhou, 42, 45
Zhang Juzheng, 194, 196 feudal system of, 44–47, 48–49, 50, 52–53
Zhang Luoxing, 239 rise of monarchy, 48–50
Zhang Qian, 78 urbanization and assimilation during, 47–48
Zhang Shicheng, 190 Xi Zhou, 41–42
Zhangsun Wuji, 110 Zhanguo period, 42, 47, 49, 50, 52, 58
Zhang Xueliang, 277, 280 Zhou Enlai, 268, 278, 280, 293, 304, 310–311,
Zhang Xun, 262 312, 320, 329, 330, 332, 333
Zhang Zhidong, 252, 256 Zhougong, 43, 44
Zhang Zuolin, 266, 270, 272, 273, 276, 277 Zhou Yang, 320, 325
Zhaodi, 66 Zhuangzi, 87
Zhao Mengfu, 184–185, 186 Zhu De, 278, 284, 292, 298
Zhao Ziyang, 338, 340 Zhu Wen, 130, 131
Zheng Chenggong, 196 Zhu Xi, 154, 159–161, 162, 178, 181, 199, 208,
Zhengde emperor, 194, 213 210, 211
Zheng He, 193, 203 Zongli Yamen, 240–241, 246, 254
Zhengtong emperor, 193 Zuo Zongtang, 239, 242, 244