EARLY SOCIETIES IN EAST ASIA

Chapter Four

Early agricultural society and the Xia dynasty

• water source at high plateau of Tiber

• Loess soil carried by the river’s water, hence “yellow”

• “China’s Sorrow” – extensive flooding

• Loess provided rich soil, soft and easy to work

Yellow River

Neolithic societies after 5000 B.C.E.

• Yangshao society, 5000 -3000 B.C.E.

• Excavations at Banpo village, fine pottery, bone tools

The Xia dynastyArcheological discovery still in early stages

Established about 2200 B.C.E.

Legendary King Yu, the dynasty founder, a hero of flood control

Erlitou, possibly the capital city of the Xia

Turquoise dragon discovered at Erlitou

The Shang dynasty 1766-1122 B.C.E.

• Arose in the southern and eastern areas of the Xia realm

• Many written records and materials remains discovered

• Bronze metallurgy, monopolized by ruling elite

•Horses and chariots traveled with Indo-European migrants to China (findings of chariot tracks at Erlitou cast doubt)

•Agricultural surpluses supported large troops

•A vast network of walled towns

•Lavish tombs of Shang kings with thousands of objects

•Other states The Shang capital moved 6 times

•besides Shang, for example, Sanxingdui

The Zhou dynasty 1123- 256 B.C.E.

• Zhou gradually eclipsed Shang• Mandate of Heaven, the right to rule

- Zhou needed to justify overthrow - Ruler as “son of heaven” - Mandate of heaven only given to virtuous rulers

Duke of Zhou

Political organization: decentralized administration

• Used princes and relatives to rule regions

• Consequence: weak central government and rise of regional powers

Iron metallurgy spread through China in first

millennium B.C.E.

The fall of Zhou• Nomadic

invasion sacked Zhou capital in 711 B.C.E.

• Territorial princes become more independent

• The last king of Zhou abdicated his position in 256 B.C.E.

The Warring States (403-221 B.C.E.

Society and family in ancient China

• The social order:- the ruling elites with their lavish

consumption of bronze- hereditary aristocrats with

extensive landholdings - administrative and

military offices

- manuals of etiquette

• Free artisans and craftsmen mostly worked for elites

• Merchants and trade were important

• Trade networks linked China with west and south

• oar-propelled boats traded with Korea and offshore islands

Peasants, the majority of the population

• Landless peasants provided labor• Lived in small subterranean houses• Women’s work: wine making,

weaving, silkworm raising• Wood, bone, stone tools before iron was spread in the sixth century B.C.E.

Family and patriarchy

• Early dynasties ruled through family and kinship groups

• Veneration of ancestors - belief in ancestors’ presence and their continuing influence

- burial of material goods with the dead

• Offering of sacrifices at the graves

• Family heads presided over rites of honoring ancestor’s spirits

Patriarchal society evolved out of matrilineal one

• The rise of large states brought focus on men’s contribution

• After the Shang, females devalued

Early Chinese writing and cultural development

• The secular cultural tradition- absence of organized religion and

priestly class- believed in the impersonal heavenly

power- tian

Oracle bones used by fortune-tellers

• Inscribed question, subjected to heat, read cracks

• Discovery of “dragon bones” in 1890”s

Early Chinese writing, from pictograph to ideograph

• More than 2000 characters are identified on oracle bones

Modern Chinese writing is direct descendant of Shang writing

Thought and literature• Zhou literature – many kinds of books

- The Book of Change, a manual of diviners

- The Book of History, the history of the Zhou

- The Book of Rites, the rules of etiquette and rituals for aristocrats

- The Book of Songs, a collection of verses, most

notable work

(Most Zhou writings have perished.)

Ancient China and the larger world

• Chinese cultivators and nomadic peoples of central Asia- exchange of products between nomads and

Chinese farmers

- Nomads frequently invaded rich agricultural society

- Nomads did not imitate Chinese ways

- Nomads relied on grains and manufactured goods of the Chinese

The southern expansion of Chinese society

• The Yangzi valley; dependable river; two crops of rice per year

The indigenous peoples of southern China

• Many assimilated into Chinese agricultural society

• Some were pushed to hills and mountains

• Some migrated to Taiwan, Vietnam, Thailand

The state of Chu in central region of Yanzi

• Challenged the Zhou for supremacy

• Adopted Chinese political and social traditions and writing