Recovery in China: Ming Centralization Yuan dynasty collapsed 1368, Mongols depart Emperor Hongwu:...

Recovery in China: Ming Centralization

• Yuan dynasty collapsed 1368, Mongols depart• Emperor Hongwu: Ming (“Brilliant”) dynasty, 1368-1644

• administration: reestablished and reformed Confucian education

• political power: rule by Emperor through emissaries called Mandarins

eunuchs (new civil servants)could not build hereditary power base

• Cultural revival• eradicated Mongol legacy by promoting traditional Chinese culture• Emperor Yongle: 23,000-roll Encyclopedia (1577) of all knowledge

• public regulation: clothing political ritual - tribute familial behavior social ritual – village

shrine

• economics/ritual: village shrinewater regulation

Chinese and European voyages of exploration, 1405-1498contact: Admiral Zheng He

seven massive naval expeditions, 1405-33demonstrated strength of Ming dynasty

The Unification of Japan Tokugawa Shogunate (1600-1867)

→ Tokugawa Ieyasu (r. 1600-1616) bakufu government

→ feudal Japanshogunlarge landholders with private

armies – the daimyofigurehead Emperor constant civil war:

sengoku, “country at war”

Control of Daimyo → 260 powerful territorial lords

→ Shogun ‘controls’ them in a variety of ways:“alternate attendance” at Edo (Tokyo)marriage, socializing of daimyo families

→ from 1630s, shoguns ‘close’ countrytravel, import of books forbiddenpolicy strictly maintained for 200

years

Growth in Japan→ peace and prosperity→ agricultural improvements

→ population growth moderate

→ end of war results in unemployed warriors:

daimyo, samuraiand status changed

bureaucrats, scholars→ wealthy urban classes emerge

Floating Worlds (ukiyo)• urban culture: stratified

commercial, co modifiedentertainment, pleasure industries

• change from bushido ethic of stoicism• Uniquely expressed in Japan• Ihara Saikaku (1642-1693), The Life of a Man Who

Lived for Love

• Kabuki theatre

歌舞伎• Bunraku puppet theatre• Geisha [recommended: Memoirs of a Geisha]

A Long History of Christian Contact• Jesuit Francis Xavier in Japan, 1549

remarkable success among daimyowhy? attraction to belief possibility of tradepolitical/military advantage in civil conflict

• Government backlashfear of foreign intrusionConfucians, Buddhists resent Christian absolutism

• Anti-Christian campaign 1587-1639 restricted Christianityexecuted staunch Christians

• If you like this period: remember Shusaku Endo The Samurai

Dutch Learning – and why the Dutch?sakoku→ once the country ‘closed’

→ Dutch at Nagasaki principal contact with world

→ ban on foreign books lifted in 1720→ in the meantime, Japanese scholars studied

Dutch to approach European science, medicine, art rangaku

accommodation/adaptation

‘Loan’ words gairaigooriginally from China and Korea ‘language that comes from outside’16C Portugal and Dutchnow, primarily English

Dutch Japanese EnglishBier biiru beerGlas garasu glass

(pane)Hoos hōsu hoseKok kōhī coffeeKop koppu cupSiroop shiroppu syrup

Portuguese Japanese English

Botão botan buttonCarta karuta playing cardsPão pan breadTempêro tempura tempuraTobaco tabako tobacco

In Portugal: Tempêro could be meatless meal on FridaysSeasoning?Entirely meatless meal

Forget accommodation, don’t even resist,IgnoreIn the east, two very different powers could

afford to focus inward: Chinese EmpireJapan