EDU 654: ASIAN STUDIES

CIVILIZATION IN EAST ASIA: CHINA

East Asia is an area of the world comprised of China; Taiwan; Korea; Japan; and Mongolia. East
Asian nations are part of a civilization with distinctive and unique cultural characteristics, similar
to the Western world that emerged out of ancient Greece and Rome. The earliest peoples reached
East Asia from Africa around 25000 BCE.

All of East Asia was populated during the Stone Age. However, it would an anachronistic to
think of Stone Age people in East Asia as Chinese, Japanese, or Korean. Now by far, the most
influential nation in early East Asian history was China. As a distinct civilization, China began
around 3000 BCE in what is now Northern China, in an area along the lower Yellow River,
known as the Central Plain. People living in the Central Plain learned to grow a grain called
millet, and later wheat. They had bronze and build large, walled villages.

Around 2205 BCE, according to traditional Chinese accounts, a legendary figure known as Yu
the Great unified the Central Plain. As Emperor Yu was known for his wisdom and for bringing
flood control, his rule marked the beginning of the first dynasty in China – the Xia Dynasty,
which would rule from 2205 to 1766 BCE.

DYNASTIES

A dynasty is a family of rulers that would rule as emperors over a centralized state. There have
been a number of dynasties throughout Chinese history, and the Chinese have marked long
periods of time by dynasties. Dynasties often would come to an end when the ruling family
was weak, incompetent, or corrupt, or unable to deal with revolts or foreign invasions. This, in
turn, would lead to them being overthrown and replaced with yet a new dynasty – so
Chinese history has a cycle of dynasties. Most Chinese rulers were men, emperors; however,
in a few cases women did wield great powers as emperor dowagers.

In Chinese culture, especially in Confucian teaching, government should be virtuous.

Governments that ruled well were thought to have the approval of heaven, a concept in China as
the mandate of heaven. However, legitimate rule was seen as linked to good government. When
a dynasty ruled poorly it could lose the mandate of heaven and face its downfall. The idea of the
mandate of heaven became important in early Chinese history. Because there is so little evidence
about the first dynasty, the Xia Dynasty, some scholars such as Sarah Allen – have argued that
the Xia Dynasty did not exist and that stories told about it much later were fabricated for political
reasons. Still, more recent archeological evidence tends to favor the traditional view of Chinese
history.
Traditionally, Chinese history stresses what are called the three dynasties, the first three
dynasties in Chinese history – the Xia Dynasty, from 2205 to 1766 BCE; the Xiang Dynasty, from
1766 to 1045 BCE; and then the Zhou Dynasty, from 1045 to 256 BCE. The last two-hundred
years or so of the Zhou Dynasty was known as the Period of the Warring States, from 400 to 200
BCE, because of so much infighting in China in that time. Now under the Xiang Dynasty, which
ruled from 1766 to 1055 BCE, China expanded its territory from the Central Plains, and its culture
began to take shape. For instance, with the development of the Chinese character-based writing
system – however, the Zhou Dynasty, from 1045 to 256 BCE, is widely regarded as the formative
era in Chinese civilization.

Emperors during the Zhou Dynasty engaged in an extensive diking of the Yellow River. Now this
massive engineering project under the Zhou resulted in better drainage of water in the Yellow
River valley, bringing more crop land under cultivation. Under the Zhou, all works of classical
Chinese literature and schools of thought also took shape. This especially included
Confucianism, which is incredibly influential on Chinese civilization.

CONFUCIANISM

Master Kong, or Confucius as he was commonly known, lived in the 6th century BCE. By this
time, conditions in China had become a little chaotic. Confucius therefore, looked back to the
rules of the early Zhou Dynasty as better examples. Confucius was a teacher who’s passionately
interested in good government; proper social relations; and respect for all human beings.
Confucius’s sayings and teachings were written down by his disciples, and form the basis on an
important work in the Confucian canon of text known as the Analects. While as a system of
thought, Confucianism has many different texts, the Analects, which records much of
Confucius’s thought, best summarizes Confucius’s sayings and teachings. Confucianism
teaches that the heavenly realm, or the cosmos, operates on its own – automatically– and has
done so since the beginning of time. As such, Confucianism isn’t really interested in, and doesn’t
really deal with questions about God or the afterlife or the spiritual world; rather, Confucianism
focuses on this world, this life. Confucianism stresses self-cultivation, that every human being
should undergo self-refinement and seek self-improvement. This included empathy, and a version
of the Golden Rule, as Confucius put it – What you do not want for yourself, do not do to others.

Confucianism also highly values learning and education. And finally, Confucianism places a
great deal of emphasis on ritual – seeing ritual as being part of a civilized human being’s
behavior. Confucianism stressed five social relations – five very important social relations.
First, father to son; second, ruler to subject; third, husband to wife; fourth, older brother to
younger brother; and fifth, friend to friend – now these are conceived of as hierarchical
relationships, with a superior and an inferior role in each relationship. The family is also very
important to Confucianism; this especially includes obedience to parents and respect for
those who are elders. Sons, especially older sons, are supposed to take care of their parents in
their old age. This is known as filial piety. In fact, in Confucianism, care of parents does not
end with their death but rather with the death of the son, as Confucianism also includes ritual
ancestor worship. Respect for those above you in power, for the elderly, for your parents – are
still extremely important values in East Asian nations, such as China; North and South Korea;
and Japan – and this is still true today. This is due to the legacy of Confucianism. During the
Zhou Dynasty, and after Confucius’s death, two Confucian teachers were particularly
influential as well as indicative of a variety in differences that emerge within the Confucius
school of thought. The first was Mencius, who lived in the 5th century BCE; the next was
Xunzi, who lived in the 3rd century BCE – both of these teachers agreed with the basics of
Confucianism; however, Mencius believed that human nature was naturally good, while Xunzi
saw it as naturally evil. In addition to Confucianism, Daoism also took place during the Zhou
Dynasty.

TAOISM (DAOISM)

Daoism is a word that means ‘the way, or the path’; its founder was Lao-Tzu, a term which
means ‘old master’. According to tradition, Lao-Tzu was a contemporary of Confucius. Daoism
teaches that the Dao is an impersonal force and the origin of all reality, but is beyond human
comprehension. By the way, in the Star Wars series, the concept of The Force is loosely based
on the Dao. Daoism stresses living in harmony with nature, and with the universe. Daoists came to
have deep respect for nature and living in balance with nature. This idea of balance is best
expressed in the concept of the ying and the yang. The ying is seen as dark, negative, passive, and
feminine; while the yang is light, positive, energetic, and masculine. These opposites are said to
live in balance. Daoism also believed that change is a constant part of life. As with
Confucianism, over time Daoism came to have many texts further explaining its beliefs.

LEGALISM

Another system of thought that emerged under the Zhou Dynasty was legalism. This viewpoint
argued that only a strong, repressive, authoritarian state could bring chaos and enforce law and
order, and indeed – the last part of the Zhou Dynasty, the warring period, was known for this sort of
chaos – making legalism popular among some people. Finally, during the Zhou Dynasty, which
again towards its end saw a lot of chaos and warfare, a teacher known as Sun Tzu also wrote a
text known as The Art of War. Now The Art of War is the first systematic military treatise in all of
human history. Sun Tzu was a pragmatic thinker, and sought military victory above all else – yet he
downplayed brute force in war – instead, he argued in favor of intelligence and saw surprise and
trickery as key to winning wars. For Sun Tzu wars are best won with brains, not brawn, and the
best victories are those that involve as little fighting and destruction as possible.

Confucianism; Daoism; legalism; and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War were all key elements of early
Chinese civilization, and in part emerged as response to the chaos in China towards the end of
the Zhou Dynasty, the period of the warring states. Chinese civilization – from its
character-based writing system to Confucianism; Daoism; Sun Tzu; legalism – all exert a very
profound influence on Korea and Japan. Prehistoric humans came to Korea around 10000 BCE.
By around 1000 BCE, Korea came to have bronze metalwork and rice cultivation.

Rice cultivation likely came from South China, as North China, where Chinese civilization first took
place grew millet and grain, and not rice. Chinese culture likewise strongly influenced Korea.
Korea had some early kingdoms, but it was not fully unified until the 7th century CE. Now
prehistoric people first came to Japan around 11000 BCE, and some of the earliest pottery in
the world has actually been found in Japan. Prehistoric peoples in Japan experienced traumatic
change around 300 BCE. This was due to huge Korean influence. Large numbers of Koreans
immigrated to Japan bringing bronze and rice cultivation with them. Korean immigrants also
mixed with the peoples living in Japan. Koreans and Japanese people not only have common
ancestral and DNA ties, but language. Korean and Japanese are distantly related. Early
civilizations in Korea and Japan were thus closely intertwined and neither country yet had any
coherent national identity. But above all, and in conclusion, the influence of Chinese culture
loomed large on early Korea and Japan.