Unit #2 – East Asia
Lesson #2
ANCIENT HISTORY of
CHINA
Chinese
History
John
Green
12 m
1. Time periods divided into “Dynasties”
2. A dynasty is a time of one family in power
3. Chinese believed rules ruled because God
willed it.
4. God showed he no longer wanted the family by
punishing the whole country
5. That means they lost “the mandate of heaven
Dynasties
1. Shang
2. Zhou
3. Qin (Chin)
4. Han **
5. Sui
Mongols
6. Tang
7. Song
8. Yuan (Mongols)
9. Ming
10.Qing (Ching) (Manchus)
Shi Huandi
(First Emperor)
Dynastic Cycle (329)
New Dynasty claims
Mandate of Heaven
Dynastic Cycle
New Dynasty claims
Mandate of Heaven
Mandate of
Heaven
PROBLEMS
AGING DYNASTY
GOOD TIMES
Dynastic Cycle
New Dynasty claims
Mandate of Heaven
Mandate of
Heaven
PROBLEMS
AGING DYNASTY
GOOD TIMES
Fair laws
land to peasants
Repair of defenses
Economy Strong
Dynastic Cycle
New Dynasty claims
Mandate of Heaven
Mandate of
Heaven
PROBLEMS
GOOD TIMES
Fair laws
land to peasants
Repair of defenses
Economy Strong
AGING DYNASTY
Public works projects ignored
Wars with foreigners lost
Taxes increase – burden falls on poor
Defensive walls in state of disrepair
Dynastic Cycle
New Dynasty claims
Mandate of Heaven
Mandate of
Heaven
PROBLEMS
Floods & natural disasters
Foreign invasions
Peasants suffering increases
Armed bandits roam land
Peasants rebel
GOOD TIMES
Fair laws
land to peasants
Repair of defenses
Economy Strong
AGING DYNASTY
Public works projects ignored
Wars with foreigners lost
Taxes increase – burden falls on poor
Defensive walls in state of disrepair
Philosophies & religion
Buddhism
• ONE OF OLDEST RELIGIONS STILL IN PRACTICE TODAY
• STARTED 6TH CENTURY BC IN NEPAL BY PRINCE
SIDDHARTHA GAUTAMA
Confucianism
• NOT A RELIGION; IT’S A WAY TO LIVE AN ORDERLY LIFE
• STARTED 500 BC DURING AN ERA OF CHAOS
• BECAME THE ANCHOR FOR THE CULTURE OF CHINA
Taoism (Daoism)
• A VERY GENTLE CULTURE OF HARMONY WITH NATURE
• STARTED SAME TIME AS BUDDHISM
Legalism
• IS THE OLDEST OF THE FOUR, BUT ORGANIZED IN 200BC
• VERY STRICT RULES WITH HARSH PUNISHMENTS
Buddhism in Japan
• Called ZEN BUDDHISM in Japan
• Adopted by the Samurai as their official religion
(in China, they called it “Ch’en” Buddhism)
JAPANESE ZEN BUDDHIST TRADTIONS:
• Tea Ceremony
• Tea House
• Meditation
• Harmony with nature
• Used to clear mind and gain control
Emperors of China
• Shi Huangdi – the first
emperor
• Qin
• Ruled by legalism
• Feared invasion from
Mongols
• Constructed GREAT
WALL to keep them out
Temple of Heaven
The Ming defeated the Mongols
• Mongols had created __________
empire in world
• Built _______________for Emperor
• Built huge fleet
– 62 ships
– 25,000 sailors
• “Ming” = __________
The Forbidden City
Describe what the Forbidden
City looks like, or the size of it.
3min documentary – start at 1:30
The Forbidden City
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the world's biggest ancient palace
almost 600 years old
9,999 rooms in 980 buildings
7,747,200 square feet / 180 acres
2x the size of the Vatican
26 ft high surrounding wall, 28 ft wide
at the base
20 ft deep Moat outside the wall
Hall of Supreme Harmony is Largest
structure at 98 ft tall.
9,000 eunuchs lived there.
~1 million laborers built the complex
24 emperors lived there.
Entrance to Forbidden City
Sedan Chair of the Emperor
(this road is in the movie “The Last Emperor”)
Early Trade with
Europe
p. 343 (bottom right)
What did the Ming emperors do that made it hard for
foreigners to trade with them?
Chinese sailing
Compare
Chinese
ships and
sailing to
European
ships and
sailing in the
1400s
THE OPIUM WAR
(DRUGS CAN DESTROY EVEN THE
GREATEST CIVILIZATION IN THE
WORLD!)
The Opium Trade
• China was arrogant about trading
• Europeans wanted what China had
– SILK
– PORCELAIN CHINA
• China demanded Europeans pay in GOLD
• China DIDN’T WANT any European goods
• Europeans wanted to dominate trade with China
• So…
The Opium
Addiction
• Europeans introduced OPIUM to Chinese
youth
• Europeans got them ADDICTED
• Then, Europeans demanded GOLD for
Opium
• and… they got it
• Chinese government demanded this stop
• Chinese captured European ships
carrying opium
• Europeans saw this as an act of war…
What was the background to the Opium War?
• Europeans had been pushed around by Chinese traders
– Example: China accepted ONLY
gold for Chinese goods,
like porcelain and silks
• The English looked for a way to change that imbalance
• The English grew poppies in India (one of their
colonies), manufactured that into Opium, and
• Sold Opium to Chinese Traders
• The traders got addicted, and gave
ANYTHING for more opium
• The English demanded GOLD
How did the Opium War start?
• China demanded an end to
Opium imports
• All Opium was destroyed, and the
English traders were jailed
• England called this an ACT OF
WAR, and attacked China
• China had become too arrogant
and isolated for years
• England had become
technologically advanced beyond
China
• English won special trade rights
called SPHERES OF
INFLUENCE
The Ming were eventually
defeated by the Manchus
• Manchus created the _____Dynasty
• Qing lasted until ______
• The Last Emperor was ________
– crowned at age ____in 1908
– ____ wives
– Eventually was forced from
the Forbidden City
click
Pu Yi, the Last Emperor of China
Was Mao Zedong any good?
• Mao is regarded as one of the most important
individuals in modern world history.
• Supporters credit him with driving imperialism
out of China, modernizing China and building it
into a world power, promoting the status of
women, improving education and health care,
and increasing life expectancy.
Chinese Civil War
• After the last emperor
surrendered the
throne in 1911…
• Civil War broke out
• Three factions:
1. Communists
2. Nationalists
3. War Lords
History of China 1911-1949
1911 – The emperor resigned
Civil War broke out
1937 – Japan invaded China
(start of World War II)
1945 – Japan defeated by USA
China claimed they defeated Japan
1949 – Communists defeated Nationalists
Nationalists retreated to Taiwan
We claimed Taiwan was “the” China