China Trade and Encounters in History (PDF)

Week 7 Lecture 1 Trade and Encounters in China Confucianism - 5th century BCE = Confucius - Confucian classics: poetry, rituals, historical traditions - Teachings became important after death - Confucianism is a philosophy, not a religion - System of ethics and etiquettes of social h...

Week 7 Lecture 1 Trade and Encounters in China Confucianism - 5th century BCE = Confucius - Confucian classics: poetry, rituals, historical traditions - Teachings became important after death - Confucianism is a philosophy, not a religion - System of ethics and etiquettes of social harmony - Civil religion - Philosophy itself as a philosophy emerged in 5th century - Confucian ideals used by imperial institutions to legitimize themselves Confucian beliefs - A confucian owes everything to their family, society and nation - Confucianism believes in education within family and family relationships - Virtues include - Ren: humanness, goodness (love for humanity - Li: proper behavior - Xiao: emphasized respect for parents and elder relatives (filial piety) State and family - Guo-jia - nation state - The nation comes first and the family second 5 social relations - Define status and roles of each member - Friend to friend - Elder brother to younger brother - Husband to wife - Father to son - Prepare family members for the most important status of the society - The relationship between subject and the ruler Rigid social structure (possibility of social mobility unlike indian caste system) - Emperor - Scholar bureaucrats (based on merit, take exam0 - Farmers - Artisan - Merchant (not treated well in society, - Warriors (at the time, peaceful agrarian society) Confucian exam - Memorize what confucius’ said, not come with your own thinking, innovation discouraged - Merit based entry - Must possess confucian virtues - Benevolence - Righteousness - Propriety  - Wisdom - Trustworthiness - Confucian teachings emphasize emperor as son of heaven - Emperor has to follow the “mandate of heaven” (similar to divine right to rule) - based on conditions and dependent on maintaining economic and social harmony. (natural disasters mean king lost mandate of heaven) Economy and society - Stable agrarian society besides dynasty changes - Taxation and commerce - after standard measurement - Export grain silk and other goods - 811 - paper currency - Foreign trade - africa, korea, japan, and india (maritime trade) - Chinese trade largely along the silk road - China important trading partner, but will later go into isolation - Agriculture - flourished, source of stability - Chinese were not adventurers and conquerers of other societies (confucion values Maritime Ventures - Maritime trade commission - 12th century - Chinese ship building very advanced until 13th century when maritime adventures stopper - Coastal commerce and cities sprung up Customary practices - mark of beauty - Upper class introduced binding women’s feet. Break their feet and toes bent under. Crippled but delicate feet and a shuffling walk. Development Constrained - First, population growth. 10th century 100 million - Second, conservative bureaucracy, not pioneering commercial ventures - Third, adherence to scholarship and bureaucratic achievement. - By 14th century, china was above other civilizations by technological inventions Week 7 Lecture 2 Trade and encounters in china - confucian ism and its influence on china - Social harmony (goal of confucianism) - State and family (fam most important element of state) - Social structure (farmers important to agrarian society, work in civil service very important) - “Mandate of heaven” - emperor, conditional on social and economic harmony - Bureaucracy and confucian exam - Only memorizing, discourage innovation Mongol Rule - Yuan dynasty - 12-13 century, mongolians invaded almost all of asia  - Late medieval period (1271-1368) - First foreign dynasty to rule china - Chinese considered mongolians barbarians - Agrarian to military society - Economy flourished - Abolished confucian exam until 1315 - Mongols lost “mandate of heaven” during flooding - Social disturbance and collapse, mongols expelled from china 1368 Ming Dynasty - Conscious of possibility of mongol reinvasion, structure military to prevent this - The Hongwu emperor (1368-1398) - Han - majority ethinc rule - Goal was to establishe a society of self -sufficient peasants - Tolerance of muslims and others in the empire? Ming China - Contribution to world trade - Chinese artisans very productive (porcelain and silk. Table wear called China in europe - New world silver (china #1 importer - New tax sources dor the state (before silver, give crops as tax, now tax paid in silver) Ming Decline - 1600s - No new intellectual breakthroughs (caused by confucian virtues) except navigational devices in the beginning - Social and political structure retained educated gentry - Corruption, emperor grew weaker - Ming lost mandate of heaven because roving bandits, peasant uprising, rebellion, and population pressure Qing Dynasty (1644-1912) - Foreigners (Manchurians/manchus) - Manchurian army comprised of mongols, ribetan, and ughur minority ethnic regions - When people in other pars of the world were developing their society, china stable agrarian - Manchurians were excellent horsemen and archers, mainly hunters, archers, ect - Munchu society highly hierarchical social order - (new) slaves and elites - Established a seperate military establishment to support their regime Qing - Maintained the old framework - exam confucian, chinese culture and poetry, bureaucracy - Encouraged confucianism - Expanded the empire and pushed the mongols further north (didn’t want them to take over) highly trained military - Expanded to central asia, annexed muslim central asian territories - Took over supervision of Tibet - Took over taiwan from Dutch east india company  - Compelled vietnam pay tribute (why?) - Qing were good soldiers but not Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722) - merger of manchurian military kill and chinese administrative expertise - supported and mastered confucian classics, endearing himself to the chinese scholar gentry class - Brought all the provinces together, government centralized - Expanded burearcray school, established grand council - Passed legal code to punish local rebellions (rebellions emerged as a result og people thinking th emperor lost the mandate of heaven) - Village leaders responsible for maintaining law and order (conrol crime and debt collection) The qing social and cultural patterns - Favored traditional expression - By 18century, art literature and philosophy focused on the ancient - Technology did not break new ground (society depends on historical things) - Under the qing rule the availability of new world silver created social inequality, new world crops and things caused population increase (1600-1800, 150 to 300million) Qing decline - 17 to 18 century, but don’t collapse until 19 century - Pressures from Taxation - Military virtues waned among the Manchu generals (prefered luxurious living over confucian values of bettering yourself) - Corruption increased among court officials - Manchu were resilience: “im puyi, the last emperor of the qing dynasty. Im staying with relatives and can’t find my way home” - Continued to rule china despite losing the mandate of heaven Qing and Ming Dynasties and Early Modern Globalization - Zheng He Voyages - Trade with africa, naval power, technology and trade across the indian ocean and southeast asia. (compass and ship technology) - Display of chinese power and technology. Zheng he could have discovered the americas with his technology on his boat - Zheng he expeditions stopped because it was expensive in 1433. Ming dynasty was preoccupied with mongolians, keep them at bay - Trade continued in southeast asia, permanent settlements in philippines and malaysia and indonesia - After opium wars, chinese sent to europe to learn shipbuilding, lost the technology after isolation. Silver based economy - China was silver based - Chinese were not interested in products coming from europe, but silver was something they wanted and could trade - The sycee, a silver ingot currency in china.  - Change paying taxes from agricultural products to silver Routes to get silver - Manila-Accapulco-Gallron Route (1565-1815) - Silver route from japan, (japan mined 30% of the world silver), via black markets to china. The black market caused inflation with silver Week 7 Lecture 3 Watch the chinese documentary Ming dynasty (1368-1644) - Han people - Tolerance - Society of self sufficient peasants - World trade - Silver economy Qing dynasty (1644-1911) - Native people (qing was manchurian) - Expansion of the empire - Economic prosperity - China’s prosperity attracted europeans (chinese tea, porcelain, silk) - Brought in chinese bureaucratic skill and mixed it with manchurian warrior skills Portuguese at Macao - 1557 portuguese stationed in Macao (stay until 1999, considered portuguese province) - Place to repair ships - 16th century jesuit missionaries allowed in china - Missionaries adopted many chinese ways (approving ancestor worship and wearing confucian clothing) - 18th century missionaries prosecuted Canton System - 18 century europeans start arriving bc goods coming from china, british and dutch - Chinese started canton system to control westerners - Europeans can only in foreign section of 1 city (guangxhou) - Can only live for 5 months during the trading season - No women or families allowed - Governed by a guild of 13 chinese merchants allowed to trade with europeans (Cohong) - Europeans paid very high prices for chinese goods (tea cilk and porcelain) British tried to break canton system - Macartney Mission - Employed by british governor to convince chinese emperor - 600 packages of gifts (guns, cannons) (chinese say gifts as tributes) - Goals - Opening chinese ports to british merchants  - Allow a british ambassador at Qing court - Want emperor to improve trading condition at canton (want to leave - British display wealth and power - Rejection of british - ‘Gifts’ vs ‘tribute’ - Emperor receives mandate of god, so everyone is inferior to him, british can’t be equal to him - Macartney didn’t want to bow down since he was representing british government, thought they should be equal to emperor - Chinese saw macartney as ‘conveyer of tribute’ not a ‘legate of the sovereign’ - “Our celestial empire posses all things in prolific abundance and lacks no product within its orders. There is therefore no need to import the manufacturers of outside…” chinese had everything they needed inside china The key to opening china - Opium: british made opium in india - Plan: - Export opium to china - Reduce trade deficit - Make china bargain - Got china addicted to opium - Qing reaction to opium problem (lin Zexu) - Prohibited import, sale and consumption of opium - 1% of population addicted to opium - Tried to get british traders to leave china - Blockaded foreign settlement in canton - Dumped everything into the sea - British merchants return home after opium dumped into sea, had british retaliate with military force - The Opium War (1839-1842) - Chinese not prepared for any external attack, chinese military below standards, not prepared for british navy - British surprised china with sea/naval attacks British Winning the Opium war - Treaty of nanjing (1842) - Ended canton system - 5 new treaty ports - Hong kong given to british (100 year lease) - China forced to pay 21 million dollars indemnity (pay for lost opium) - Beginning of unequal treaties in china - British threaten chinese with navy ships - Extraterritoriality (1843)  - Europeans exempt from being tried in chinese courts, european courts instituted to try europeans in china - After opium war, whatever british wanted in china they got China’s relationsip with the west and Japan - 1842-1895 - 5 more wars with west and japan - Europeans controlled china - Christian missionary activity allowed - Westerners allowed to travel anywhere within China - 10 new treaty ports - British forced to pay indemnity How did confucianism shape the dynamics of china’s cultural development? - Confucianism prevents innovation in culture and technology How did the many years of isolation shape China’s internal development? - Created economic prosperity within china What was china’s position in the global economy during the early modern period - Had products important to global economy: porcelain, silk tea