The Classical
Civilizations of China
and India
The classical age
of a civilization is the time in which the most important ideas and
institutions of a civilization are established.
It begins certain continuities that run through most of the
civilization’s history. The classical
ages we will look at for this test are those of China
and India.
China
During the internal weakening of China’s
river valley dynasty, the Shang, a family called the Zhou began to rise in
power and influence. At first allied
with the Shang, they soon grew concerned about Shang corruption and
mismanagement. Around 1100 B.C.E. the
Zhou overthrew the Shang and set themselves up as the rulers of China. In order to justify this move and shore up their own political legitimacy, the Zhou advocated the idea
of the Mandate of Heaven. This
idea holds that heaven—an impersonal spiritual power—is somehow related to
earthly events. This power would grant
the right, or mandate, to whomever was most fit to govern earthly affairs thus
linking heaven and earth through the ruler.
If the ruler failed to live up to standards of fairness and justice, an
imbalance would occur, chaos would ensue, and heaven would revoke the mandate
given to the ruler. The Zhou used this
argument to prove that the Shang no longer had the mandate of heaven which they
claimed now fell to themselves. This concept of the Mandate of Heaven is an
enduring element of Chinese society.
This transition of power also exemplifies a pattern of
political change much different that that in India. In China
a ruling dynasty would give in to corruption and weaken. Then, a provincial ruling family would rise
in power, challenge the ruling dynasty, and gain supremacy. They would then become the next dynasty and
claim the Mandate of Heaven.
The Zhou governed China
for centuries through a decentralized political system. As they weakened and collapsed a period of
Chinese history began called the Period of the Warring States. From roughly 400-200 B.C.E. Chinese
civilization fractured into regions characterized by chaos and warring
rivalries. Like all civilizations
experiencing decline, Chinese thinkers began to ponder the reasons for their
predicament; in doing so, they produced a remarkable outpouring of ideas and
philosophies which would affect China’s
classical age and the rest of its history.
The most famous ideas to come from this period were Confucianism,
Daoism, and Legalism.
Confucius was a teacher of ethical and political ideas that
are contained in a work called the Analects. His thought is not so much philosophical or
religious as it is practical. For years
he sought a position in the government but never achieved it. For Confucius, it was not the form of
government that was important but rather the proper harmony of human
relationships. He believed that the
government should be run by “superior individuals” who had a sense of kindness
and benevolence and who governed by what they thought to be best for everyone. The subjects in return should respect and
support their leader’s decisions. Social
harmony depended upon everyone accepting their social place and performing its
required tasks. When society was held
together by personal ties of loyalty and obedience, the intrusion of the state
into social affairs would be minimal.
Particularly important to Confucius was relationships and respect in the
family. But in all cases this was a
two-way relation: those in power must act in such as way as to command trust
and respect; they must model the behavior of the ideal citizen. Those at the bottom must give them respect
and obedience as an act of civic duty.
Thus personal character traits were not to be developed for their own
sake, but rather as a stabilizing force across society.
A man named Laozi offered an alternative to Confucianism. His belief, Daoism, held that rather
than establish ideal relationships between humans, people should cultivate
their relationship with nature. Daoists are committed to discovering the Dao, or the Way, a
concept that defines explanation or categorization. Regardless, Daoists
stressed a life of withdrawal to nature and inner contemplation as an
alternative to the Confucian ordering of personal relations.
A third answer to China’s
troubled times came from those known as Legalists. Legalism held that human relations and
man’s relation to nature were irrelevant to social and political life. Rather, they held that chaos could only be
eliminated by a powerful, merciless state.
Since only agriculture and a strong military contributed to a healthy
state, other diversions, such as poetry, art, trade and philosophical
reflection, were discouraged. The state
should coerce its subjects to obey by ruthlessly applying a strict code of laws
and punishments. Dropping trash in the
street, for example, was punishable by having a hand or foot cut off. Although Legalism was unpopular with the
people, it was the application of this way of thinking that pulled China
out of the Period of the Warring States and began the unification of its
Classical Age.
The Period of Warring States ended when the Qin dynasty centralized power and destroyed regional
opposition. Although it lasted only 14
years, the Qin dynasty set in place many important
aspects of Chinese civilization.
One of the most important things the Qin
did was create a bureaucracy.
Bureaucrats are employees of the state whose position in society, unlike
nobles or aristocrats, does not rest on an independent source of wealth or
ownership of land. Members of the
bureaucracy only had positions and power as granted by the emperor. Land owning aristocrats have large estates
and person fortunes at stake, so they have a vested interest in influencing the
government in their personal favor. By
creating a bureaucracy, the Qin bypassed the
aristocrats and governed through those whose position depended on loyal
obedience to the state.
In order to bring unity to China,
the Qin also built roads and bridges, constructed
defensive walls, standardized units of weight and measurement, created a
standard currency, and made one common form of Chinese writing. The harsh Legalism of the Qin
allowed it to do much during it short reign of 14 years, but this same strict
political philosophy also generated much resentment among the common
people. As soon as the emperor died, the
people revolted and slaughtered many of the remaining Qin
officials.
But unlike previous eras, Chinese civilization did not
regress into chaos for long. The Han
dynasty came to power and ruled China
for about 400 years, roughly 200 B.C.E. to 200 C.E. The ability of the Han to maintain a strong
central government over such a vast area was greatly facilitated by the Qin reforms under Legalism.
Under the leadership of emperor Han
Wudi, the Han Dynasty is responsible for some
very important innovations that would have a lasting effect on China:
the official adoption of Confucianism and the rise of the civil service
examinations.
The Han adopted Confucianism because it was the most
organized educational network from which they could draw people for the
bureaucracy. To make certain new
recruits were educated well, they began testing them through a rigorous system
of civil service examinations; to be in the Han bureaucracy, one had to
demonstrate a mastery of Confucian ideas on these test. One effect of this was that the Han
bureaucracy was filled with people profoundly influenced by Confucian thought:
they were taught to model good behavior for those under them and to respect and
submit to those in authority over them.
Thus Confucianism not only became deeply imbedded in Chinese culture, it
also came to re-enforce the political bureaucracy by advocating obedience and
benevolent rule.
Han Wudi also expanded the
boundaries of imperial China
both extending its influence into new realms and bringing new influences into
its culture. The Chinese invaded Korea
and northern Vietnam,
taking with them the values of Confucianism.
They also came into contact with Buddhism during this period.
Like the other civilizations, most laborers in China
were agricultural and the surplus they supported the rise of craft industries
and trade. They learned to forge iron
tools and weave silk. The wealth
generated by trade, however, created the tensions that would internally weaken
the Han and lead, in part, to its downfall.
India
One of the major migrations in human history was that of the
Indo-Europeans in the second and third millennium B.C. Perhaps the most prominent of these
migrations was the gradual decent of the Aryans, a group of Indo-European pastoral
nomads, through the Hindu Kush
mountains around 1500 B.C. As these people settled in the foothills of
the Himalayan Mountains,
they learned to use iron tools and began agriculture. Consequently, their population grew enabling
them to press farther down the Indian subcontinent and soon they gave up the
pastoral life completely and established permanent agricultural
settlements. Although
they never established a large centralized empire, their tribal organization
gradually evolved into more formal regional kingdoms ruled by counsels of
elders.
Over a period of time, these Aryan migrants imposed their
rule over the indigenous inhabitants of the subcontinent. Perhaps the most important step of this
change was the formation of the Indian caste
system. The sharp distinctions in
this caste system were the result of the Aryans establishing a social system in
which the indigenous people of India
were subservient to them. The Aryans
placed themselves in the upper castes as rulers over the inhabitants who were
designated a lower place in the social structure. Gradually, four primary castes, or social
classes, emerged in Indian society. In a
land divided into numerous regions, the caste system served as the primary
unifying force across the politically fragmented subcontinent. Indeed, most people came to identify
themselves with their caste more so than with their city or region. Thus the caste system became a major
characteristic of Indian culture across the ages.
Two important results of the caste system set India
apart from other classical civilizations.
Because people readily accepted their caste as a religious duty, there
was a measure of toleration among the groups. Also, because the lower castes
were regulated to agricultural work, there was practically no slavery in
Classical India.
The early religion of the Aryans was found in a group of
religious hymns and poems called the Vedas.
Although they started as oral traditions that were memorized and passed
on to subsequent generations, they were eventually written down. The Vedas tell the story of Purusha, a being who existed before the universe and was
sacrificed by the gods. The parts of Purusha’s body, from his mouth to his feet, became the
features of the earth and, more importantly, the social castes. More popularly, the caste system is outlined
in a Hindu writing called the Laws of
Manu. Thus religion sanctioned the
social order. As this Vedic religion
spread across the subcontinent, religion in India
came to reinforce the existing caste system.
Like other agricultural societies, India’s
society was male dominated, or patriarchal.
All public authority was made of up men.
There were no women priests, warrior or tribal leaders. These gender distinctions were also outlined
in the Laws of Manu. This book called on men to treat women with
respect, but insisted that women be subject to their fathers and husbands. Women were promised by their fathers to
husbands (betrothed) at very early ages, 8 or nine years old, and then, as soon
as puberty, married older men.
The classical age of India’s
history was comprised of two important dynasties, the Mauryan and the Gupta. The rise of the Mauryan dynasty was precipitated by the invasion of
Alexander of Macedonia in 327 B.C.
Although Alexander left no lasting impression on India,
he did clear out several small states and create the power vacuum which allowed
the Mauryan dynasty to emerge.
Under Mauryan rule much of the
Indian subcontinent was united for the first time under one central government. They were able to rule such a large area by
using a well organized bureaucracy. The
most important ruler of the Mauryan dynasty was Asoka. Under his rule the empire expanded and the
bureaucracy became more organized. He
created central organizations to ensure that his edicts and policies were
carried out all across his empire. An
important event during Ashoka’s rule was his
conversion to Buddhism. Although it
remained a minority religion despite Ashoka’s
patronage, Buddhist missionaries, prompted by Ashoka,
went out to Bactria,
Sri Lanka and
other areas. This was one of the most
significant early catalysts for the spread of Buddhism into central, east, and southeast Asia.
When Asoka died the Mauryan empire soon crumbled. After a period of disorder and regional
kingdoms, the Gupta dynasty emerged and once again united India
under a common centralized rule. The
Gupta empire never grew to the size of the Mauryan. The
organization of their empire was considerably different as well. Ashoka used the
bureaucracy to manage most details of the empire. The Gutpas, on the
other hand, let most decisions and policy making up to local leaders. They also preferred to negotiate or
intermarry with local rulers to keep the peace.
Although they ruled over a smaller area than the Mauryans,
the Gupta era was the greatest period of political stability in classical India. However, this lack of centralized rule came
with an eventual price. The various
regions of India
had their own distinctions and were never integrated into the whole as they
were under Ashoka.
In fact, the Gupta empire would break along
these regional divisions as the empire was threatened by internal corruption
and nomadic invaders. After the fall of
the Gupta dynasty, the Indian subcontinent would remain fragmented into regions
for over 1500 years. Thus the pattern of
rule in classical India
alternated between large but decentralized empires and networks of disjoined
regional kingdoms.
Economy and Trade
Agricultural surpluses in India
led to the emergence of towns, the growth of trade and industry, and changes in
the caste system.
Towns grew across the Indian countryside and became
manufacturing centers for iron tools, textiles, and pots, most of which were
bought and sold locally. However, the
conquests of Alexander the Great had created trading links between India
and the Mediterranean, Persia,
and Anatolia. In
the east, the silk roads connected India
to China. The primary Indian exports were cotton,
pepper, pearls, and gems; they imported horses and bullion from the west and
silk from the east. At sea, Indian trade
depended on the rhythms of the weather.
The monsoon winds blew from the southwest in the spring and summer, and
the opposite direction in the fall and winter.
As they grew to understand these patterns, Indians would time their
departures for the short interval between monsoons. In this intermittent fashion, Indian
merchants made trading contacts with Indonesia
and southeast Asia.
Many of these goods from Asia made their way
through the Arabian Sea to the coastal regions of the Persian
Gulf and the Red Sea.
Trade and economic growth created many new skilled craft
laborers and merchants whose existence altered the Indian caste system. Individuals working in the same trade—such as
textiles or metallurgy—often banded together to form guilds. These guilds did not fit easily into the
existing caste system and in turn became subcastes,
or jati.
Soon the jati became the backbone of Indian society. They formed their own courts through which
Indian society was regulated in the absence of a strong central
government. Thus Indian families tended
to associate closely with other families involved in the same occupations as
themselves. This tendency has survived
until the present.
The tremendous wealth generated by India’s
economic development placed pressures on the Indian social and religious
system. As an agricultural society, India’s
priestly and aristocratic castes were granted special respect and reverence; their
activities were necessary for successful harvests. The other castes did the labor and were given
no respect. However, as trade increased,
economic wealth and prosperity went mainly to the lower castes. The merchant caste grew very wealthy but
still merited little respect while the priests, whose sacrifices were thought
to guaranteed bountiful harvests, did not seem as relevant as they did in the
past. These social injustices were the
catalyst for the rise of Buddhism and the reformation of Hinduism into a
popular religion. (See class notes on Hinduism
and Buddhism)
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