CHINESE CIVILIZATION

AND CULTURE Land; People, History

PRELIMINARY-THE COURSE
1. The name: Classical Confucianism and Daoism:
1. “Classical” ambiguity = 500 BC to 200 AD/ 500AD
2. Loose Sense: includes the neo-Confucianism of song dynasty (10th to 13th AD)
2. The Two native Chinese intellectual traditions
3. Focus: China : Source of Far Eastern Civilization and Culture
4. Self Image: Celestial Empire ： a land where the divine and mortal
once coexisted
5. Self Image Zhong Guo: Middle Kingdom
INTRODUCTION
1. One of the oldest: dates to more than 5000 years
2. Uniqueness: the only to have enjoyed uninterrupted development
3. Uniqueness: The only to still use ideographic language
4. Creator of unique art forms: poetry, painting, pottery, music and performing arts
5. Origin of Four great inventions: Paper; Silk; compass and gunpowder
6. Welcoming and receptive to foreign cultures and religions
ORIGINS OF CHINESE
CIVILIZATION
1. China: one of the places of human origin; 200 paleolithic sites
1. Paleolithic: hunting and gathering
2. Neo-lithic: ability to make stone tools by grinding and polishing; cultivate crops; domesticating
animals-foraging; agriculture lead to settlement- matriarchically culture

2. Yuanmou man; lived 1.7 million years ago; earliest species of homo erectus
3. Peking Man (700000-200000 y.a.) cave man (discovered in 1929).
LAND
1. Area-wise Second only to Russia: total 23 provinces
1. China Proper
1. 18 provinces
2. Major geographical divisions: North and south: Qinling shan from Tibetan mountains towards pacific ocean
3. Dry, brown north: irrigated by Yellow river
4. Rainswept south: irrigated by Yangtze river
2. Not a vast agricultural plain: checkerboard of valleys + rugged terrain

2. Mainland surrounded by later additions of buffer-zones inhabited by non-Chinese

1. Xinjiang
2. Tibet
3. Inner-Mongolia
4. Manchuria-North East
PEOPLE
1. Racial unity: all Chinese are of yellow racial stock without hint of white or black
2. Major cultural differences
1. Majority of Chinese population is Han (pure Chinese)
2. Non Han
1. Manchu-northeast
2. Mongols-inner Mongolia
3. Muslims (Hui) in West (xinjiang)
4. Tibetans {south-southwest}
5. Unassimilated indigenous tribes {hill of south and southwest}
1. Related to Vietnamese, Burmese, thais
2. Originally ousted by the Han Chinese
3. Priniciple of difference:
1. Muslims: religion wise
2. Others: language wise-
LANGUAGE
1. Vast differences
1. han/Non Han
2. Pronunciation Variants within Han
3. Standard Written: Pu Tong Hua

2. Group-Sino Tibetan: related to Vietnamese, Thai and Tibetan.

WRITING SYSTEM
1. Written language important characteristics
1. Basic units: monosyllabic: fa, mo, cheng, meng, shan etc.
2. Words not inflected: no conjugations or declensions|| no changer in word according to its
grammatical function
3. Tonal language: tones differentiate homophones into meaning and character

2. Characters
1. Pictographs: 子 木 女 日 月
2. Ideograph: 一 二 三 上 下 中
3. Compound 休 家 安 好 明
4. Logograph 桐 = 木 （ meaning ） + 同 （ sound ）
SOCIAL PATTERNS
1. Agrarian economy: more than 80% people peasants; agriculture always a priority-
traditional industrial forms: salt-ceramics-metals; cast
2. Social togetherness: family-community over individual
3. Patterns of History
1. Dynastic Cycle: history as succession of dynasties (a family monopolizing the throne)-tian ming:
founder good-loser bad
2. Unity and Disunity: cycles of political; unified china: achievement, affluent, mightier, culturally
dominant and influential abroad
3. Southern Expansion of Han from north: 3 patterns: peaceful assimilation subjugation |
displacement of the resistant; foreign element absorbed into Chinese
4. Northern Invasions: reason for the above- by racially same but linguistically different peoples-
nomads not agrarian- horseback riders not charioteers; Symbol of hostility Great wall
DYNASTIES
1. Shang 1600-1050 BC 6. Song 960-1279
2. Zhou 1046-256 BC 7. Yuan 1279-1368
3. Qin 221- 206 8. Ming 1368-1644
4. Han 206 BC-220 AD 9. Qing 1644- 1912
5. 6 dynasties 220-589
6. Sui 581-618
7. Tang 618-906
8. 5 dynasties-10 Kingdoms 907-960
DYNASTIES
 Periodization
 Prehistory {Stone + Bronze ages}
 Ancient {Xia; Shang; Zhou}
 Imperial
 Early {Qin, Han (206 BC-220AD, San guo, Jin, Northern-Southern}
 Middle {Sui, Tang (7th- 8th)5 dynasties, 10 kingdoms}
 Late {Song etc.; Yuan; Ming; Qing
 Modern
 Republic {Nationalist-1912-1949]
 People’s Republic
PLACING CONFUCIANISM
Zhou Dynasty
1. Western Zhou
2. Eastern Zhou
1. Spring and Autumn Period
2. Warring States Period