Overview of Chinese History - Part 1
Introduction
This article is meant as an overview of Chinese History, in particular highlighting events and characters that are relevant as background to the many interviews and technical materials we have published on Wushu Scholar.
It is an impossible task to try and present a history of a country in a few pages and hope to do it justice. This is particularly true of China, a country on such a scale that it should more accurately be compared to a part of the world such as Europe or the Middle East than a single state. That is why this article contains a list of books for further reading after each section. It is recommended that the reader use this list of books to go on to study in more detail any period they are interested in.
The Ancient Chinese
According to tradition, China's first rulers were five semi-divine sages: the Yellow Emperor Huang Di, followed by Zhuan Xiu, Ku, Yao and Shun. Huang Di is famous as the inventor of Chinese writing and is regarded as one of the guiding deities of Chinese Civilization. Yao and Shun are often recalled in Chinese Literature as exemplary sovereigns, who abdicated their power at the end of their rule and chose their successor according to merit. Yao passed the Empire to Shun, who in turn passed control over to Yu, the founder of China's first imperial dynasty - the Xia.
Historical records are only now coming to light about the Xia Dynasty; until not so long ago most historians considered it to be more legend rather than fact. The Xia Dynasty was replaced in around 2000BC by the Shang Dynasty, who left us the earliest examples of Chinese writing, in the inscriptions on Bronze Vessels and divinatory bones and turtle shells. The Shang Dynasty was China's Bronze Age and lasted for nearly a thousand years. Its last Emperor Zhou has become a symbol of cruelty and of a failed ruler in Chinese Literature. He was overthrown by king Wu of the Zhou Dynasty in 1027BC.
The Zhou Dynasty is China's great Golden Age, often recalled with nostalgia by later philosophers and poets. It is also the first Dynasty to leave textual writing beyond short inscriptions. The Five Classics of Chinese Literature - the Odes (Shi), the Documents (Shu), the Rites (Yili, Liji, Zhouli), the Changes (Yi), the Spring and Autumn Annals (Chun Qiu) - which became the five key texts of Confucian canon, were written during the Zhou Dynasty.
The Zhou Dynasty is usually divided into three periods:
- Eastern Zhou (1027BC-771BC)
- Spring and Autumn (771BC-475BC)
- Warring States (475BC-221BC)
During the Eastern Zhou Period the control of the Emperor was still strong and the central court had influence. The greatest figure of that age was Dan, the Duke of Zhou - a model of the perfect minister. The Duke of Zhou was the brother of the Emperor Wu, who became regent on his death and looked after the kingdom and the under-age heir to the throne. However, when the next Emperor reached the age at which he could rule, the Duke of Zhou gave up control over the Empire and withdrew selflessly into private life.
By the Spring and Autumn Period powerful local vassals set up their own independent states and the power of the central court waned. The greatest Chinese philosopher Confucius (c.551BC-c.479BC) was born at the end of this middle period and his thoughts were shaped by the troubled times, in what he saw as the abandonment of the ways of the ancient Sages by the rulers of his day. His sayings were recorded by his students in the "Analects" - one of the most important works of Chinese Literature. For the next two and a half thousand years students wanting to enter civil service in China would be examined on the "Analects", among a small selection of other key texts.
Among the contemporaries of Confucius was the famous military strategist Sun Zi from the state of Qi, author of the "Art of War" and the semi-legendary Lao Zi, author of "Dao De Jing" and the patron saint of Daoist religion. Like the "Analects", the "Dao De Jing" became one of the most influential texts in the history of world literature.
During the Warring States Period, the local dukes went a step further and declared themselves kings, so removing any pretense of still having allegiance to the Zhou Imperial House. Seven competing states emerged - Qi, Yan, Qiao, Wei, Han, Chu and Qin. Over the next three hundred years they were in almost constant warfare, with bigger states slowly eating up their smaller rivals.
The state of war brought about a parallel state of intellectual debate and ferment known as the Hundred Schools. Among the most famous philosophers of the period were Mo Zi, a rival of Confucius, who was also remembered as a great engineer and artisan, something of an earlier version of Leonardo da Vinci. His followers, the Mohists were in constant debate with the Confucians, such as Meng Zi (Mencius) and Xun Zi. Other better known schools included the Legalists, whose major thinker was Han Fei Zi, and followers of the mystic Zhuang Zi, who became another Daoist saint. This great flowering of thought in Ancient China equaled the achievements of the Greek Schools in the same period on the other side of the world.
Finally, the period also saw the birth of poetry, in the writings of China's greatest poet Qu Yuan from the state of Chu. Qu Yuan's eventual suicide by throwing himself into the river led to the creation of the Dragon Boat Festival, performed to this day, in which the participants ostensibly search for the poet's body in the rivers of China.
The Qin Dynasty
The Warring States Period ended with the triumph of the state of Qin over the other states in 221BC. The king of Qin established a unified Empire and reigned as the first Emperor under the name of Qin Shi Huang Di.
The First Emperor established his authority over the whole of China, standardizing Chinese writing, weights and coinage. He was also responsible for two of China's best known archaeological treasures: the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors guarding his tomb in Xi'an. The Great Wall was a grandiose project, linking countless older and smaller fortifications on the northern borders of the Empire to protect against incursions by barbarians. Its construction cost untold thousands of lives to the laborers and was ultimately futile.
Qin Shi Huang Di's autocratic rule ensured that his Qin Dynasty did not long survive his own death: in 206 BC, with the Empire in revolt, his son the Second Emperor Er Shi committed suicide.
Recommended Reading:
- The "I Ching" or the Book of Changes, one of the five Confucian classics composed during the Zhou Dynasty.
- The "Analects" of Confucius
- The "Dao De Jing" by Lao Zi
- The "Art of War" by Sun Zi
- The "Art of War" by Sun Bin (a different author from the above)
- Philosophical writings of Mencius and Zhuang Zi.
- For a general introduction to ancient Chinese thought read "Disputers of the Tao" by A. Graham.
- "The Songs of the South" by D. Hawkes - esp. poetry by Qu Yuan.