The Chinese People and the Traditional Chinese Society
The Chinese People
In population and power, ancient China
was the equal of the Roman Empire, which met its doom in the 5th century.
While China undergoing numerous rises and declines still exists in the east
of the world, making contributions to the human progress along with all
other races and nations.
For the people in the West ,the more important facts about China are the vast number of its population, their very different ways of life which distinguishes culturally from that of the Westerners throughout history. China can be best understood through her history for the following reasons:
1) The Chinese people which cover more than 1/5 of the people of the world see themselves in historical perspective. They are strongly aware of their heritage.
2) Their distinctive aesthetic intellectual and institutional achievements can best be studied as they evolved. Only as one looks at the long flow of their history can one perceive her directions of motion and have some understanding of what is happening in China today.
The essence of present ferment in China is the interaction between new forces many of which were derived from the west, and traditional habits as well as the mode of thinking. On the one hand there is the evolution of the traditional Chinese civilization in over three thousand years of isolation, and on me other hand there are upheavals and transformation of the civilization in Modern times, partly in response to the contact with the western world.
In the decade since 1979, the Chinese revolution has turned another corner. The so-called cultural revolution during the period of 1966-1976 has been repudiated. China's goal of economic modernization has replaced the old concept of stress on the class struggle. Foreign trade and investment ,entrepreneur ship in the countryside, less concern of ideology, the establishment of me special economic zones, market economy, the stock exchange and many other things have shown China's vitality.
It's interesting to make comparison between the West civilization and that of the east which chiefly is represented by the Chinese Civilization. Western civilization grew up in closely connected areas such as Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Greece. Only after it had spread to include most of Europe, North Africa and Western Asia did it divide into its two present halves: the Christian civilization and Islamic Civilization in the east. Let's look back to China, the only east Asian civilization in North China was isolated by natural barriers. To the west, there are the Himalayas, me Tibetan Plateau and the huge mountain chains that radiate from the roof of the world. To the north are vast deserts and steppes. To the south are rugged mountains and jungles. And to the east there is boundless sea.
As an isolated society, China's greatest natural resource has always been her agricultural lands. The material foundation of the Chinese society in history is agriculture. That's why the Chinese society was given another name: the agricultural society. The production relationship in the vast rural areas of China through several thousand years until me eve of me founding of the PRC had been that of the landlords and their tenants. Land owning was the main goal of economic endeavors and investments. The peasants might have to pay as much as half of their crops to the landlord.
Under-developed agricultural production together with poor transportation means made a typical de-centralized market pattern. A rural market center and its surrounding villages within walking distance formed a unit that could live by itself, with a high degree of inertia in spite of wars, invasions and great social changes in the administrative centers where history was recorded.
The agrarian reform after the founding of the People's Republic of China (PRC) which uprooted the landlord class brought a fundamental change to the traditional economic order of the Chinese peasantry. The years from 1953 to 1957 saw the rapid increase of agricultural production. In the late 50s, the establishment of the people's commune, a product of extreme leftist line which overestimated the peasants' collective consciousness and frustrated their working enthusiasm, led to disastrous consequences. Agricultural production declined year after year . The dissolution of people's commune brought about rapid restoration of agricultural production.
With the implementation of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world and the economic development that followed, numerous township enterprises were set up, transportation conditions have been greatly improved, the rural communities are no longer isolated. Millions of working hands have been attracted to leave the land to seek job opportunities in cities and towns.
All these changes produced two results.
1. The active part of the rural population are on the move;
2. the sources of household income become diversified. These phenomena have great impact on the stability of traditional multi-generation household patterns in the countryside.
Of the five well-known relationships by Confucianism (those between the ruler and the subjects, father and son, husband and wife, elder and younger of the brothers and between friends), three were determined by kinship and family ties. Traditionally, China's whole ethical system tended to be family-centered, not oriented toward God or the State.
Within this system, the status of female members in a family was low. As a rule, women obeyed their fathers in youth, their husbands after marriage, and their son in old age. They were expected not to remarry if widowed, but men could take several secondary wives and concubines into the household. After the overthrow of the Qing Empire, women's status was raised to the equal of man's legally, but actually not much was changed owing to the lack of thoroughness in the democratic revolution. It was the founding of the PRC that enabled the women to get rid of their inferior status at last.
The Chinese kinship group was extensive reaching out in each direction to fifth generation. The ideal was to have all the living generations reside in a great household. Under this household pattern, filial piety was the most admired of virtues. Marriage was more of a union of a family than of individuals. However as I have just mentioned, along with the rapid economic and social development under market oriented economy, the fast flowing of inhabitants and other financial and social factors have tremendously affected either the ideal or the practice of the multi-generation household today.
In old China, there was a wide gulf in power and prestige between the rulers and those being ruled. The old Chinese society was traditionally divided into four classes which in the descending order were the scholar- administrator, the farmer, the artisan ,and the merchant. The scholar administrator as an educated man ,was presumed to be morally superior, exercising the power under the supreme authority of the Emperor who was normally considered as the son of heaven mandated to rule the country, consequently dominating all aspects of public life..
This concept and practice
of me superiority of educated men was clearly related to authoritarian family
pattern of old China, which provided a basis for social order in political
as well as domestic life. The role of the emperor and his officials was
merely that of the father. Just as the emperor was the father of the whole
nation, so a county magistrate was called "parent " of the people
in that county. In feudalistic China only educated men could become officials
through a special kind of examination - the Imperial Examination System.
Even today many young people still hold an ideal of " study hard for
officialdom ".
The Social development of the Eastern
Zhou Dynasty.
Before the unification of China by Qin Empire, there existed three dynasties in ancient China. They were Xia (2100-1600 B.C. ), Shang (1600-1100 B.C.) and Zhou (1100-221 B.C. ); Zhou was the most important among them.
It was not known how long the early Zhou maintained effective control over their wide conquests. Since 770 B.C., Zhou kings never exercised any real political or military power remaining only certain religious and ceremonial functions until their final extinction in 256 B.
The period before 770 B.C. was called the Western Zhou from tile location of the capital (now Xi'an), and the period after 770 B.C. the Eastern Zhou with its capital moved to the east (now Louyang.)
The Eastern Zhou, because of its weakness, was subdivided into 2 shorter periods:
1) The Spring and Autumn Period (722-481 B.C.)
2) The Warring States Period (403-221 B.C.)
The Eastern Zhou was a period of disunity. But it was a period of dynamic growth and tremendous creativity. In many ways the Eastern Zhou was the most exciting and romantic phase of Chinese History without central authority but with multiplicity of rival states served as stimuli
In the 8th century B.C. China was still technologically behind west Asia, but by the end of the period, it had largely caught up and already was me most populous land on earth. The seven largest states of China together might have had in the neighborhood of 20 million people quite comparable to me whole of West Asia and the Mediterranean areas. Iron, which had appeared early in me west, became common in China by 5th century B.C. Iron replaced bronze for weapons and farming tools. The result was that ox- drawn plough brought an agricultural revolution to China . Much of the uncultivated land in North China were brought under the plough,, and more barbarian people in me remaining areas of North China and its vicinities were absorbed into the dominant culture. Grain yields were also greatly expanded by large scale irrigation and other water control projects. And great efforts were devoted to the construction of transport canals indicating the growth of the economic unit and the rising needs to move large quantities of tax-grains and other commodities over long distances.
The growth of production was accompanied by rapid development of trade and a tremendous increase of wealth. As media for exchange in trade copper coinage became prevalent at this time. Before the end of Zhou, copper cash, a small round coin with a square hole at the center for stringing purpose, had come into use, and it remained the standard Chinese coin until in the late 19th century .
The late Zhou also saw the appearance of other characteristic features of Chinese civilization such as chopsticks and lacquer.
During the Eastern Zhou, the barbarian people who lived around the heartland of China became gradually incorporated into the Chinese cultural area. This was the start of the great process of acculturation by which me originally non-Chinese peoples of the Yangtse Valley and Southern China were gradually drawn into the main stream of Chinese civilization except for a few unassimilated remnants in extreme remote areas.
As the result of these changes, the center of Chinese civilization, the city-palaces and their immediate suburbs in me middle Yellow River Valley became more and more scattered; reaching as far south as the Yangtse River Valley. The Chinese world had become so large that the Zhou Kings could not make their authority adequately felt. Several autonomous principalities formed in the border areas and began to try to enlarge their territories and even claim hegemony. The total population played a big part in forming of these principalities, each new state grew aware of its own individuality, endangering the unity of me Chinese world.
These large principalities assumed power in turn during the 7th and 6th centuries B.C. Qi in Shangdong, Qin in Shaanxi and Chu in the South, whose territories reached the Yangtse River Valley. The war between them resulted in the creation of the first inter-state structure )the tax form, the publication of Penal Laws and the organization of relations between the states. (subtle diplomacy, defense alliances, oaths to promote solidarity ) while at the same time the peasants' conditions deteriorated.
This period was known as " the Spring and Autumn Period" (Chun Qiu Period)
From the 5th to 3rd century B.C. the Chinese economy and society both underwent profound changes which were of great significance in Chinese history. The invention of me technique of casting iron and the traction plough were the most noticeable inventions at the time.
The forest receded even further. With the rapid expanding areas of agricultural production, the nuclei of the Chinese civilization, which had previously been separated by empty spaces grew larger and larger until they touched each other.
The principalities became large states
depending on agriculture mainly, large scale collective irrigation work
began in Wei Valley in Shaanxi, in Jiangsu and Sichuan. Various reformatory
measures were carried out, aimed at destroying the remains of the old nobility
and organizing a central power. The peasants were divided into groups of
5 to 6 families, the principle of collective responsibility was introduced;
taxes and loans were created; sections of the population were transferred
to uninhabited areas.The war of conquest continued, prolonging those already
under way in the eve of the hegemony. Hence, the name of the period, ' the
Warring States" was given.
With social and technical developments, the scale and technique of war developed further, characterized in the following aspects:
1) Warfare became much large in scale and more ruthless. Conquered states were obliterated and turned into centrally cons' oiled provinces of the victor. This was quite different from before, when a weaker state was subjugated, their noble lines should be extinguished.
2) Cheap iron weapons instead of expensive bronze weapons had led to a great increase in the sue of fighting forces. Peasant foot soldiers who now numbered greatly, replaced the aristocratic charioteers
3) The use of horses made the pastoral northern neighbors of China a greater military treat than they had been before. One result of this was the creation by the northern Chinese states of long walls, which later unified became the Great Wall of China. Another result was the replacement of chariots by cavalry in Chinese armies.
4) The states built walls around their territories to protect themselves from barbarian invasion and from their rival attack.
The economic and social transformations in the Warring States Period were also remarkable..
I) The workshops which attached to the old "City Palaces" expanded into large centers of handicrafts such as pottery, foundries, lacquer and salt works.
2) The towns grew and trade developed, the first element of a merchant class came into being; four types of money were used in the 4th and 3rd centuries B.C.
3) The economical and social transformation were accompanied by great progress in political and philosophical thought. The period was also known as the "hundred schools," (Confucius, Mo Zi, Taoist,, Legalist etc.)
The Founding of The Qin Empire The
first Unification of China (221-207 BC)
In the face of the fading Zhou authority and growing ferocity of warfare, the states of the Eastern Zhou period made many efforts to minimize fighting and stabilize the political situation:
Bilateral and multi-lateral inter-state conference were held very frequently. Disarmament proposals were discussed and treaties were signed. Alliances were formed. Marriages between princely lines were also an important means of strengthening alliances. Hostages were widely used to ensure me loyalty of satellite states.
At the time during the 6th century B.C., some stability was achieved! through a formalized balance of power between Qin in the north and west, Chu in the south, Qi and Wu in the east. But in 473 B.C. Wu was crushed and annexed by Yueh, the most barbarian state of all the states at that time.
Since then there were no further attempts to organize an inter-state order in ancient China. Brute conquests had become the political order of the day. The contenders for supremacy were Qi in the east, (Qin in the west and Chu in the south.
Chu exterminated Yueh in 344 B.C. and the small central state of Lu in 249 B.C.; Qi annexed the central state of Sung in 286 B.C. While Qin exterminated me Zhou Dynasty itself in 256 B.(:'.
Finally in a series of great campaigns between 230B.~. to 221 B.C. Qin taking the legalists as the source of its inspiration conquered all the remaining states, unifying China for the first time and opening, a new stage in its history by founding the Qin Empire in 211 B.C.
The price of Qin was the promoter of an idea of a unified empire with an emperor. This idea and its realization made him known in the Chinese history for more than 2,000 years until today. The prince who was later to be known as Qin Shi Huang (the first Emperor of Qin) carried out his plan in 3 stages:
1) He took over the power of Qin in 238 B.C. and prepared his victories through cunning and diplomacy.
2) From 230-221 BC., he crushed his
rivals ([Han, Zhao, Wei, Yen Chu, and Qi) one by one, and pushed out the
borders of the Chinese world in several masterly campaigns, driving eastward
as far as the pass of Shan Hai Guan, northwards as the steppe land where
the Huns roamed and southwards as far as the South China Sea to the Guangdong
Province.
3) From 221 until his death in 210, he organized his conquests: 36 commanderies were created; a network of roads was formed radiating from Xian Yang, the capital, in the shape of star; weights and measures; coinage and the script were standardized; the fortifications separating the states were destroyed; but the Great Wall was built (existing segments were linked into one great defensive wall that can be seen from outer space today) along the northern frontier to protect the new Empire from the nomad invasions; private weapons were confiscated, me classics which " discredited the present in favor of the past" were destroyed and the followers of Confucius were persecuted; the system of groups of families was strengthened.
The measures taken by Qin Shi Huang Di were too severe. The population of the eastern region, used to more refined civilization, found the restraint forced on them by these harsh laws hard to bear; and the huge work projects: the Great well, the Imperial Palace, "A Fang Gong" near now Xi-an and the Emperor' s Tomb exhausted the manpower and drained the treasury. An uprising broke out only 1 years after the death of the first Emperor in 210 B.C. And it was quickly responded by common people, by the upper classes of conquered states and by the educated groups throughout the country. And the invincible empire collapsed, demonstrating the validity of one of Mancius' idea - "the government ultimately depends upon the tacit consent of the governed."
The first emperor thus failed completely in founding a lasting dynasty, but the system of a unified country he created was to continue, though with occasional breaks, for more than two thousands years, proving to be the world's most durable political system. He has been excoriated as a tyrant through out most of (Chinese history, but Chinese today consider him the founder of China as a unified country. The name Qin is quite fittingly the origin of the Western name for China.