Category: Intro to Pre-modern China

A lot of what we discussed this week was branding, in a sense. It has always been important for rulers and other diplomatic figures to be aware of how they present themselves to the world in order to achieve their goals. For the Hongwu Emperor, it was important to brand his Ming Dynasty after the Tang, in order to portray a sense of proto-nationalism and a romanticization of Chinese history. Matteo Ricci and the other Jesuits realized that to bring Christianity into China, they would need to take on the aesthetic of Confucianism to make their foreign religion palatable. And Hong Taiji re-branded his people as the Manchu in order to distance his dynasty from the fall of the Jurchen Jin.

We’ve discussed how the Sinocentric worldview of the Chinese was flipped during the long periods of non-Han rule. Instead of others bringing their tribute to China as the center of the world, they had to pay tribute to others. Zheng He’s voyages represent another adaptation of this worldview, in a sense. It still breaks with the original opinion that all others should be coming to China with tributary gifts, maintaining China as the superior center. However, despite Zheng He going into the “outer circles”, there are still tributary gifts being given, and the Ming are showing off their power and the place of superiority that they hold.

We talked recently about practices of foot-binding for women, and how women’s freedom of movement was increasingly restricted. What is interesting is how the Mongol women seem to have had a very different experience. They were able to wear pants, ride horses, and yield weapons. This is more similar to the experience of women in the Tang Dynasty, rather than those in the Song that lived at the time that the Mongols began to expand. I wonder why the freedom of Mongol women did not influence that of the Song, and foot-binding as a practice persevered.

We have talked about how during the Song Dynasty, the Sinocentric worldview was turned upside down. The Song were losing territory to foreign “barbarians” and having to make indemnity payments to the Khitan rather than receiving tribute from them. They wrote about how the world had turned upside down, such as the example of the woman who led bandits and became a general, which the author attributed to an excess of yin, an imbalance in the world. What is interesting though is the development of non-Chinese written languages. This development did follow the Sinocentric worldview, in that they were largely influenced by Chinese script, allowing for a continuity of Chinese dominance in at least one area.

In class we mentioned how religion had adapted to include new deities who would preside over commerce, money, and markets. It is somewhat surprising that those hadn’t already existed, particularly given the active and diverse markets of the Tang Dynasty. I wonder what power people had turned to for these matters before these deities were brought in. Did families have specific ancestors that they trusted with their economic concerns? I can’t imagine that before these deities came to be, people believed that the markets were completely secular, devoid of any influence from beyond, as it seems that ancestors and deities had their hands on all aspects of life.

It is interesting to see the increasing influence of non-Chinese cultures and ideas. Since the fall of the Han Dynasty, Sinocentric values have faltered and waned. The Tang Dynasty seems to be the pinnacle of this diversity within Chinese culture. In the time since the Han fell, the region has seen a vast increase in non-indigenous religion, fashion, food, language, and values. While there are those in the Tang Dynasty who decry and belittle foreign influence, it has undoubtedly made its mark in China. Part of this influence comes from the non-Han rulers that have controlled parts of the area since the Han fell, particularly in the North. Merchants and their wares also play a part, as people across history have always been intrigued by foreign goods and their exotic unfamiliarity.

I think it is very interesting how the Chinese worldview was applied to various aspects of life and culture. In the instructions for the Yan family, he talked about how environment affects one’s pronunciations. Typically, in Chinese culture, all things have affiliation with a certain direction, color, feeling, etc. So it makes sense that north and south and the different environments found there would be understood as connected to the ways that the people talk and act. This application of traditional beliefs extends to Buddhism, the ideas of which were merged with indigenous beliefs in order to form something new, a form of Buddhism that was uniquely suited to the Chinese and their understanding of the world and the afterlife.

I think it is always interesting to consider how women are portrayed in history and media, and the perspectives that influence and are influenced by those representations. I remember when I took the course on China’s Magical Creatures, I did my final project on the story of the White Snake, a fictional tale about a snake disguising herself as a beautiful woman and enticing a man to fall in love with her. Unlike the stories that we read for Friday, this one is fictional, however, it does still act as a representation of women in Chinese society and their role at the time of the story’s recording. Over time, various versions of the White Snake story were written, allowing for characters and values to develop in reflection to society at each time the story was recorded. Similarly, the stories we read on Friday and how the authors chose to portray their own role as women or the values of a woman in court reflect the values of society at the time they were written.

This week we discussed Chinese thinkers during the Warring States period and their thoughts on an ideal government, and followed that with a look at the Qin government (through the eyes of the Han) after they defeated the other warring states. One thing I am coming to realize now that I had not questioned during class is why we have direct documents of thinkers from the Warring States period, but we rely on the Han’s Records of the Grand Historian for knowledge about the Qin dynasty. I know that we are made to believe by the Records that the Qin suppressed knowledge and education, so is that the reason for a lack of documented thought such as existed in the Warring States?

This week was mainly focused on philosophy and thought during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. Particularly interesting was looking at what was written during the Warring States Period. This was a time of political instability and the various negative things that tend to ripple out from that. So the thinkers we looked at were attempting to make sense of turmoil and hypothesize on an ideal world, where people are good and rulers are strong. The way that looks to different people varied, but it typically involved compassion and kindness, which seems to have been lacking in that reality. Looking through history, periods of war and instability typically cause shifts in thought, but others lack the hope that these thinkers seem to hold. I believe it was around the time of the World Wars in the 20th century that nihilism was the response to the turmoil of the time. Rather than thinking on ways that the world could improve, popular thought shifted towards the hopelessness of the situation.