Chinese History Study Guide: Exam 1 - Ancient Chinese Philosophies and Concepts - Prof. La, Study notes of Asian literature

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HIS 104 Study Guide: Exam 1 Terms:  Yellow River: -Referred to as “china’s sorrow” -very fertilized & easy to farm on, had to build walls, forced Chinese to work together -Deity (type of god) called Heaven- judged on ability to care for his people & they would look for events to occur (flooding of the yellow river, for example) -Floods seasonally, very shallow -Earliest sign of civilization  Oracle Bones: -Earliest known writings of the Chinese -Made out of tortus shell or shoulder bone of some other large mammal -used for Divination (communication with ancestors) King would ask dead ancestors about flooding, farming, childbirth, etc. -Heated stylus (metal rod) was inserted into bone & it would crack, priest would interpret the cracks -Primary source from Shang Dynasty -Gave the king legitimacy -ancestors were god like, belief that king & people shared common ancestry  Mandate of Heaven: -granted a man to rule as long as he looked after the well-being of his people -didn’t have to be related, idea of kinship still important “son of heaven” -if a natural disaster was to occur and the ruler was not able to take care of his people & protect them, he would lose the mandate -once the societies became bigger and came together they could no longer count on having the same ancestors, so they had to find another way to find the ruler’s legitimacy, which was the mandate of heaven  Warring States: -period of social change, problems were chaos and war, lack of central authority -search for ways to stop the fighting-Confucian & Daoism/Taosim come about, allowed for intellectual growth & creativity -time of population growth (king could no longer claim kinship-mandate of Heaven comes in), increase in personal wealth, advances in technology -Bureaucrats and Philosophers were very important in society -Warfare very brutal (bc of advances in technology), idea of battle to conquer & destroy, philosophers tried to end this type of thinking -ended by a battle Qin took over, and for the first time China was one union -Early Philosophers-how do we stabilize society here & now? Confucian-looked at “golden age” (western Zhou) -analects and other text from period  Daoism: -seeking to answer problems of chaos & violence (same as Confucian) -thought to disengage people, too many relationships, education is BAD, causes problems -2 Main founders; Zhuangzi & Laozi (old master) -Answer to problem: freedom, don’t worry about rituals & relationships, be more spontaneous -idea= problems were man-made, get rid of by undoing man-made relationships/concerns 1. Relativity: all things relative, everyone knows good as good, evil appears, can’t possibly know wealth w/o knowing poverty, ruler needs to know balance-about withdrawing from society 2. Emptiness: to be a good ruler, ruler needs to be ok & not always striving for more, accepting who he is. Story of butcher: good butcher hits empty spaces doesn’t need to change his knife 3. Inaction: do what feels natural; order will follow if acted naturally ex: mourning for 3 yrs *rule w/o effort, doing nothing, but accomplishing everything (doing what comes natural) * provided a creative outlet for officials and intellectuals, freedom, sought for man to get back to a natural state *ying-yang symbol associated w/ Daoism, it is a while, person can be both Confucian and daoist, complimentary sides to complete, they balance one another *no record of actual successful daoist state, anti-intellectual, not politically successful * would be an easy target for non-daoist states  Mencius: -a later Confucian thinker, about 100 yrs after him -Man by nature was good ex: child falls into a well= man’s first instinct is to save child, but only education will polish that good -ruler had to be a gentleman & understand relationships & reciprocities -government must be ethical=king had responsibility to educate people, if he didn’t they had the right of rebellion -Mandate of Heaven: if people accept as a legitimate ruler=ruler is legit, if people rebelled & killed=not legit, rebelled & king held=legit -dominates Confucianism in 10th century  Filial Piety: -Devotion or obedience to one’s parents, could take ideas & apply to any hierarchical relationship, reciprocity also applies, also applied to ancestors even after death (paying respect), practice b/c it maintains order, about engaging in society Five Classical Relationships: 1. Father-son (teacher-student, emperor-people) 2. Ruler-ministers/officials 3. Husband-wife 4. Elder brother-younger brother 5. Friends *China was superior, neighbors inferior, reciprocal relationship neighbors recognize superiority & in return China looks out for them, often would allow for trade, but primary purpose for China was to create order -Problems arose when China faced with not being superior to western countries  Ming Treasure Ships: -Example of a tribute system *wasn’t a mission of violence or conversion, purpose to bring Confucian order to the world, recognition of superiority -Primary purpose: Demonstrate Chinese Power, that Ming held the Mandate of Heaven -very large ships sponsored by the emperor Examples of gifts- plants, animals, people, sometimes ruler themselves -End was the 4th emperor put money into the army, and navy became less important  Confucianism: *Main goal= bring order to society, emphasized humanism, every person had a place & should be treated accordingly, emphasized intellect, not a religion A Political Philosophy 1. History : - Importance of education & studying of the past ( western Zhou=”golden age”) will of heaven, -not someone who was born wise, someone who loves ancients & tries to learn from them 2. Ritual: -to bring order out of chaos, -interaction between people, -if people practiced ritual in proper manner=social order would follow (Filial Piety) -gov could regulate people thru rituals rather than laws & punishments 3. Virtue: Reciprocity-“don’t do to others what you would not want done to you” serves as a principle for the conduct of life -Idea of a Gentleman: Superior, educated, knowing & accepting place & about relationships, cannot be born as a gentleman, did not question place -Failed initially, became successful because of cultural continuity, not very new, people already knew these ideas, did not challenge traditional leadership-but they had a duty to be ethical to their people, gentleman ideal to king-tell what is right/wrong & won’t challenge to go higher, applied to everybody, he took on anybody as a student that was willing to learn which presented social mobility