Ancient China: November 2021

Sunday, November 28, 2021

The Early Modern Period: The Ming & Early Qing

Historical & Political Introduction

In January 1368 Zhu Yuanzhang ascended the throne.
This was 9 months before the flight of the Manchu court.
He adopted the reign name of Hong and called the dynasty Ming ("brightness')
His reign was to last until 1398.
He was succeeded by his grandson
In 1403 the throne was usurped by Hongwu's fourth son, the Yongle emperor.

The reigns of Hongwu & Yongle proved examples of effective rule.
That was in the early stages of the dynastic cycle.
After Yongle's death, the dynasty began a long decline.
It was briefly interrupted by a period of division in the second half of the 16th century.
This culminated with the collapse in 1644 due to peasant rebellion & Manchu invasion.

The Manchu invaders adopted the dynastic title of the Qing
They built upon the experiences of previous dynasties of conquest.
This was a highly successful form of Sino-Manchu rule.
Under three able emperors:
a) Kangxi (r. 1662-1722)
b) Yongshen (r. 1723-35)
c) Qianlong (r. 1736-95)
The Chinese empire reached its greatest extent
The Chinese culture achieved its greatest sophistication.
In the late Ming period and increasingly under the Qing, foreign contacts proliferated.
By the end of the 18th century the dynasty was showing some evidence of decline.

The Establishment of the Ming

Zhu Yuanzhang was born in 1328 near Fengyang in modern Anhui.
This was an area soon to be affected by
a) the change of course of the Yellow River
b) the silting up of the Grand Canal
c) the depredations of the pirates.
The area was also under the influence of the Maitreya cult of the White Lotus sect.
This cult anticipated the coming of the future Buddha and the establishment of a "pure land."
From about 1340 the White Lotus cult adherents turned to collective violence.
They became known as the Red Turbans.
Zhu Yuanzhang was caught up in the disorder.
After the death of his parents in the famine of 1344, he. became destitute.
for a time he took refuge in a Buddhist temple, then became a beggar, then a soldier.

Zhu Yuanzhang & the Red Turbans

In 1351 Toghto forced thousands of men to work on re-routing the Yellow river.
They also had to dredge the Grand Canal
His coercive measures provoked the outbreak of the Red turban rebellion.
Within a year the Red Turbans had swept through the Yangzi valley.
They had confined the government forces to Nanjing and other major cities of the region.
In 1352 Zhu Yuanzhang joined a Red Turban band led by Guo Zixing, near Fengyang.
Within a year he had recruited 24 men from his native area.
He also had married Guy Zixing's adopted daughter.
Over the next two years the forces of Toghto suppressed much of the rebellion activity.
In January 1355 he was dismissed and the rebel movement revived.
Hal Liner the leader of the northern Red Turban declared himself emperor.
By the end of. the decade the Yuan dynasty had totally lost control of the Yangzi valley.
The area was being contested by several regional leaders.

From this struggle Zhu Yuanzhang was to emerge the victor.
His success may be explained in part by his military skills and making tactical alliances.
He gained a reputation for his willingness to take advice from Confucian scholars
He also showed benevolence towards the common people.
By 1355 he had established a base camp & built up a personal army.
The following year he captures Nanjing
He began changing from leader of a populous sectarian revolt to a leader of a political movement aspiring to traditional legitimacy.
Each time his forces captured a town he adopted a new civil administration.
They were staffed by scholar officials, some had previously served the Yuan.
He engaged officials to supervise the repair of the river defences.
He also promoted the revival of agriculture.
He broke his link with the Red Turban ideology & with northern Red Turban Dynasty.
This dynasty came to an end in 1367 when Hal Liner died from drowning.
He also showed his eagerness to acquire the qualities associated with a Chinese emperor.
In January1368, he declared the founding of the Ming Dynasty.
He assumed the title of Hongwu.

Hongwu/Taizu

He conquered China to end the Yuan Dynasty.
He claimed the Mandate of Heaven to establish the Ming Dynasty.

Military Expeditions

A military expedition was sent to the north where it forced the flight of the Mongol court.
They captured Dadu, which was renamed Beiping ("the north is pacified")
The most serious threat was posed by Koko Temur
In the 1360s he had established himself as an independent military leader around Taiyuan.
In 1372 a large force chased Koko Temur into Mongolia and inflicted a heavy defeat on him.
It was only after his death in 1375 that theMongol threat declined.
An expedition had been sent to recover Sichuan
It had been seized by the southern branch of the Red Turbans.
In 1377 the Korean state of Koguryo was persuaded to abandon its loyalty to the Yuan rulers.
It had recognize the Ming.
In 1379 it was brought to obedience by force.
In the early years Hongwu continued nearly all the features of government introduced by the Mongols.
He retained much of their military structure.
The army was an occupational caste commanded by an hereditary officer clan.
From 1364 these forces were organized according to the weiso system.
This meant into guards, numbering 5000 men and battalions numbering 1000 men.
it was too costly to maintain as a charge to the state.
Honmgwu continued the Yuan practice of making the armies self-sufficient.
He did this through the extension of the military colony.
The commanders of these forces were the survivors of Hongwu's original band of 24 men.
They also included those who had joined him earlier in his campaign.
They were rewarded with noble titles and were ranked higher than military & civil officers.
the same principles were applied to the early Ming system of government.

Government Structure

The Yuan central government was made up of
a) a Secretariat-Chancellory headed by two chancellors,
b) the two chancellors conducted all routine administrative business
c) a powerful independent Bureau of Military Affairs
d) a Censorate, which was concerned with the surveillance of the government.
This structure had been adopted by Hongwu during his rise to power.
It was retained through the first decade of his reign.
The moderation & caution which had marked the early years came to, an abrupt end in 1380.
This was when Hu Weiyong the chancellor on the left was accused of conspiracy
He was executed as a result of this.
His real fault was having challenged the authority of the emperor.
He did this by building up a power base in the civil bureaucracy.
Hu Weiyong's death was followed by a purge costing the lives of 30,000 of his supporters.
It led to important changes in government
The office of the chancellor was abolished.
The emperor demanded that it never be restored by his successors
The Secretariat-Chancellor was dismantled.
The authority of the military commission was fragmented
hongwu became his own chief minister.

Educational Reforms

During the remaining years of his reign hongwu ruled as a conscientious autocrat.
He kept a punishing schedule of audiences.
He concerned himself with many details of government
He took particular interest in education
He ordered the establishment of schools in every prefecture, sub-prefecture, and district.
The staff and students were supported with public funds.
This is the beginning of an empire-wide state supported educational system.
In 1382 Hongwu revived the examinations.
It now became the main avenue for entry in the civil service.

Examination & the Bureaucracy

In 1394, he discovered that not a single northerner had passed the jinshi examination
He then amended the pass list & initiated a quota system.
This reserved a proportion of examination passes to certain groups.
The jinshi ("presented scholar") numbered 871 for the entire reign of Hongwu.
Yet only a small proportion of the civil bureaucracy comprised of about 15, 000 officials.
Many jinshi attained positions of influence.
It provided an important counterbalance to those who owed their appointments to hereditary merit.
Hongwu always claimed to be concerned with the welfare of his people.

Land & Tax Reforms

He promoted resettlement schemes
He gave some encouragement to textile productions & trade.
His most enduring legacy derived from the policies relating to taxes.
He was the first emperor of a dynasty without heavy financial commitments
So, he was in a strong position to reform the tax system.
He took steps to equalize the land-tax burden
He also maintained a punitive level of taxation on ten prefectures in the south of the Yangzi.
this is where the opposition to his rise to power had been strongest.
His ambition was to apply complete control over the entire land & tax system.

In 1370 he ordered that each household should be issued with registration certificates.
This would record details of the family, including its status and occupation.
In 1381 these records were consolidated in the Yellow Books or registers
Hongwu is also credited with having commissioned a monumental survey.
The returns being edited into land registers called "fish-scale books"
The project was neither new nor applied nationally.
Hongwu's priority in tax matters was control.
This was demonstrated in two other measures.
rural communities were organized into the lijia system
Groups of 110 households were grouped as li
They were responsible for the payment of taxes & the discharging of labour services.
Overlapping this arrangement was the tax-captain system.
Wealthy families were made responsible for the collection of grain taxes in their area.
Hongwu died in 1389 and was buried on the slopes of a mountain near Nanjing.

The Reign of Jianwen (r. 1399-1402)

Hongwu was succeeded by his grandson, who reigned as the Jianwen emperor.
Janwen was deposed by his uncle, Hongwu's 4th son, the Prince of Yan.
The Prince of Yan would be known as the Yongle emperor.
Jianwen was better educated than his grandfather
He accepted the advice of Confucian tutors to rescind measures of Hongwu's reign.
He also attempted traduce the autonomy of tr hereditary princedoms.
This prompted the rebellion of the Prince of Yan
He commanded th northern frontier army.
This concluded with the reported death of Jianwen in a fire in the imperial palace.

The Reign of Yongle (1403-24)

Yongle moved quickly to consolidate his position.
He did this by restoring features of government as practiced by Hongwu.
He did make some changes, one being the creation of a new Grand Secretariat.
It would replace the Secretariat-Chancellery which his father had abolished in 1380.
Yongle also transferred the capital from Nanjing to Beijing.
This would permit closer control over the military forces in the north.

To restore the food supply required the restoration and extension of the Grand Canal.
This was completed in 1415; it began in 1406.
Yongle's rule was his pursuit of ambitious foreign policy which was similar to that of Khubilai.

Frontier Expeditions

At the beginning the most significant threat came from the Mongol ruler Tamerlane.
Having conquered the Central Asian empire, in 1404 Tamerlane set out to invade China.
He died on his way the following year.
On China's north-east frontier the Urianghad and Jurchen tribes were disunited.
Yongle persuaded them to accept Chinese overlordship.
In the West , in what is now Mongolia , the Tartar and Oirat still presented a danger.
Between 1440 & 1424 Yongle led an expedition against them and died on the last one.
This expeditions were somewhat successful but very costly
They also failed to eliminate the Mongol threat.
In the south, Yongle's forces eliminated surviving pockets of Yuan & tribal resistance.
He then moved against Annam.
Since the Tang, they had been independent & were sending tribute to China.
In 1406, the Annamese throne was usurped.

this provided a pretext for sending in a Chinese army..

The Chinese were eventually forced to withdraw, after Yongle's death.
The was due to patriotic resistance by the Annamese.

Political Aspects: The Middle Years of the Ming

The death of Yongle brought an end to the expansionist stage of Ming dynasty.
The rest of the period was spent in pursuing defensive policies by the Ming emperors.
The political character of the Ming is usually referred to as "Ming absolutism."
The reference is to the unchecked growth of imperial power from the late 14th century.
This tendency was apparent under the Song and it advanced further under the Mongols.
Under Hongwu, it assumed its highest form.
Hongwu had abolished the post of chief minister in 1380.
It placed him in total control of the central government.
Hongwu had also overseen the production of revised Ming legal code.

Ming Absolutism

This absolutist framework was supported by a system of surveillance.
It was supported by harsh punishment.
Hongwu had taken this severe line on official corruption.
He believed that the laxity of the Yuan administration contributed to the dynasty's fall.
Hongwu maintained an elaborate surveillance operation.
It operated through the use of spies, secret agents, and the Embroidered Guards.
The Embroidered Guards carried out major purges of his reign.
Also associated with absolutism was the assumption of a political role by the court eunuchs.
Eunuchs had exceptional access to the emperor.
They were able to exert considerable influence on him.

The Eunuchs During the Ming Dynasty

The eunuchs' role was particularly important if the emperor was enthroned when he was a minor.
Eight of the eleven emperors who succeeded the throne between 1435 & 1644 were minors.
Hongwu had created a tablet with an inscription of warning.
It said, "Eunuchs are forbidden to interfere with government affairs. Those who attempt to do so will be subjected to capital punishment."
He sent some of them to tributary states as his envoy and to provinces as tax-auditors.
Yongle entrusted eunuchs such as Zheng He with the command of major ventures.
Yongle also removed the eunuchs from bureaucratic control.
He appointed them to head the Eastern Depot, the headquarters of the secret police.
The Xuande emperor (r. 1426-35) rescinded the ban on eunuchs being educated.
He established a palace eunuch school.
Thereafter eunuchs gained a key position as the emperor's personal secretaries.
They were able to control the flow of information and so bypassing the secretariat.
Emperors trusted the eunuchs because they were entirely dependent on imperial favour.
In return, eunuchs exploited their privileged positions at the expenses of the bureaucracy.
The consequence was the emergence of eunuch dictators.

Eunuch Dictators

The first such eunuch dictator was Wang Zhen.
The next example is Liu Jin, chief of the imperial staff for the Zhengde emperor
Zhengde had come to the throne as a minor in in 1506.
Liu Jin was corrupt and oppressive.
His enemies accused him of plotting to kill the emperor for which crime he was executed.
The last & most infamous off the eunuch dictators was Wei zhongxian.
He achieved total ascendancy over the Tiaqi emperor (r. 1621-7)
The em[peror agave him lots of gifts & privileges.
All the eunuch dictators subverted the controls over the abuse of power.
They did
a) by gaining the emperor's confidence
b) by using spies & the secret police to investigate as a reign of terror.

Economic Aspects of the Early Ming

The population during the Ming period rose from 65 million to about 150 million.
The average of land cultivated increased from less than 400 million mou to about 500 mou.
A standard mou was about 6000 square feet or one-seventh of an acre
The reasons for this were
a) major advances in agricultural technology
b) diffusion of improved planting materials
c) early ripening rice introduced from Vietnam in the 11th century.
d) plants from the New World (sweet potato, peanuts, maize) reached China in late Ming.
This enabled the food supply to match population growth.

Environmental Disasters

The decades of the 1430s & 1440s were marked by
a) devastating succession of droughts
b) floods
c) pestilence
d) epidemics
This caused severe loss of life
It made possible that female infanticide was widely practiced.
The majority of the population lived in the countryside & depended on agriculture for a living.

Urbanization & the Economy

During the Ming [period cities and towns grew & some industries flourished.
Cities like Jingdezhen was the porcelain centre
Hangzhou was the great city of silk production.
In there Songjiang prefecture in the Yangzi delta many towns specialized in cotton textiles.
The growth of industry and of urbanization brought social problems
But it did not precipitate an industrial revolution (like in Europe, much later)

The Problem of Currency

The Ming Dynasty rarely attempted to intervene in the operation of the economy
Its policies relating to taxation & currency are of some relevance.
Under the Yuan, paper currency had wide circulation.
In the late Yuan period the reckless issue of paper notes led to inflation & a silver shortage.
The Mongols understood that a paper currency should be convertible.
They understood that paper currency should be backed by silver reserves
hongwu was oblivious to thinned.
He issued large quantities of non-convertible paper currency.
By 1425 paper notes were worth only one fortieth of their face value.
By the end of the 15th century paper currency had ceased to have any commercial value.
The result was that the monetary system was restricted to copper & unminted silver.
The main sources of the Ming government revenue was the land tax
This included labour services & the salt monopoly.

Taxation Measures

Hongwu's tax reforms guaranteed revenue would be inadequate for future state uses.
From 1526 onwards the Ming government treasury was in deficit.
To increase revenue a wide variety of supplementary taxes were levied.
The land taxes were as complex as personal income tax in the 20th century USA.
This prompted the Ming government to put forth a series of measures.
This was to simplify the tax system and improve its collection.
this was called the Single-Whip reform - therefore single entry system
The reforms were never carried out in their totality.
The same payment of tax continued.
Labour services were still required in some areas.
The land tax became more complicated.

The Social Aspects of the Early Ming

It was during the Ming that the group referred to as the gentry emerged fully.
the term is used to translate the Chinese expression shenshi - officials & scholars.
Its use implies that entry into the group was achieved by success in the examination system.
Also it was by purchase of rank.
The group existed to provide a reservoir of talent to support the bureaucracy.
The group owed its emergence to the economic and social changes of the Ming period.
It also owed its emergence to the formal process of examinations.

The Rise of the Gentry

The commercialization of the economy and its rise stimulated the formation of wealthy gentry.
They controlled land & credit.
They may be identified with the tax captains of the early Ming period.
It created a large group of families prosperous enough to educate their sons.
Also it made it possible for their sons to participate in the activities of the gentry society.
The gentry were rural elites with a wide range & flexible repertoire of strategies at their disposal.
These strategies included
a) land-owning
b) education
c) degree-holding
This was an upward social mobility in a major society not seen prior to the industrial revolution.

The Late Ming Period

For a century they pursued defensive & conciliatory policies towards the steppe tribes
The Jailing emperor (r. 1522-66) had to deal with the rise of a new Mongol confederation
This was under the Altan Khan
He had raided Chinese territories to get supplies for his campaigns against the Oirats.
In 1550 Mongol forces besieged Beijing and looted the outer suburbs.
These raids continued until 1571 when Altan Khan accepted a peace treaty.
China's military weakness had been exposed
Her northern borders continued to be threatened by the Mongols until the end of the 16th century.
This was when a new threat from there Jurchen or Manchus had appeared.
The same defensive strategies characterized the Ming maritime affairs.

The Arrival of Europeans & the Rise of Maritime Piracy

In 1514 the first Portuguese reached China.
In 1517 Tome Pires, the Portuguese ambassador arrived at Guangzhou.
He was permitted to travel to Beijing, although he was not received in audience.
In the 1550s, the Portuguese were allowed to establish a trading station at Aomen (Macao)
They were ordered to remain apart from the China population.
Now Japanese traders & pirates had appeared along the south-east coast of China.
They had broken the restrictions on foreign trade
There were large scale attacks by the Japanese pirates.(wokou)
They were able to expose the inadequacy of the coastal defence.
In the 1550s raiding parties established bases on the coast of Zhejiang.
This threatened the whole region.
In 1554 Songjiang was attacked and its magistrate was put to death.
It had been the centre of the cotton industry.
When the ban on China's foreign trade was rescinded in 1567 peace was restored.

Matteo Ricci

Ten years later Alessandro Valignano arrived in Macao
He had obtained permission for the Jesuits to establish a mission on Chinese soil
In 1598, his successor Matteo Ricci reached Beijing.

The Weakening of the Ming

Failure to sustain frontier policies showed the weakness of the Ming Dynasty.
It did not indicate the cause of the fall of the dynasty.
This is usually explained in a variety of ways.
a) beginning with the process of the dynastic cycle.
b) the emphasis on the inadequacy of the emperors
c) the machinations of ministers & eunuchs.
the Jailing Emperor (r. 1522-66) withdrew from the active supervision of the government.
He did this for long periods of time.
He became obsessed with Daoism and the search for the elixirs of immortality.
This eventually led to his death by poisoning.

Later Emperors

From 1549 to 1562, the most powerful official was Yan Song.
The Wanli emperor's reign (1573-1620) had the support of Zhang Juzheng.
He was committed to raising government efficiency and improving the financial administration.
After his death in 1582, the government fell into the hands of the eunuchs.
The reign of Tianqi emperor (r. 1621-7) saw rte rise of the eunuch Wei Zhongxian.
The reign of Chongzhen emperor (1628-45) saw the service of untrusty officials.

Donglin Academy

In 1577 Zhang Juzheng, Wanli's grand secretary was criticized by the Confucianists.
It was because he did not observe the period of mourning after his father's death.
The same year he ordered a personnel evaluation.
This resulted in the discharge of a number of officials
This was an activity to be repeated by his successors.
Discharged officials joined academies, the most notable being the Donglin Academy.
It was founded in 1604, which was based near Wuxi in the Yangzi delta.
the Donglin movement had a regional basis.
It represented the interests of the land-owning class resentful of Ming absolutism.
Donglin sympathizers were kept out of government until Wanli's death in 1620.

The Rise of Alienation

In the early years of Tianqi's rule, officials with Donglin connections briefly dominated the court.
They were forced to retire when the eunuch dictator Wei ZXhongxian gained power
Until the dynasty fell, factionalism from the Donglin movement weakened the government.
Officials & scholars were alienated.
This made them susceptible to changing their allegiance when the dynasty collapsed.

Causes of the Fall of the Ming Dynasty: Climate Change

The decline and fall of the Ming Dynasty has been linked to climate change.
In the late Ming period (1626 and 1640) China experienced unusually severe weather.
This was marked by high temperature, drought, & floods.
The population which had been growing steadily, stagnated or went into a decline.

Causes of the Fall of the Ming Dynasty: World Wide Economic Depression

By the early 17th century, the economy was supported by a vast inflow of silver.
This was paid for Chinese exports.
A European trade depression took place in the 1620s.
It interrupted the trade with the Philippines and Japan in the 1640s.
This reduced the inflow of silver
It damaged the silk industry
It drove up the price of grain.

Saturday, November 20, 2021

The Song Dynasty

The Five Dynasties (907-960) - North China

The Ten Kingdoms (907-970) - South China

After the fall of the Tang, China, once again experienced a period of division.
This time the period of division lasted only for half of a century.
This period is quite complex and it was marked by three main developments.
In the late Tang when military governors of the provinces made their appearance.
When Zhu Wen was made military governor of Xuanwu, he built up a power base.
He created a professional army which was personally loyal to him.
In 907 he deposed the last Tang emperor and founded the Liang Dynasty.
Some Shatuo tribes changed their allegiance to China and were allowed to settle in Shanxi.
They assisted the Tang in recovering Chang'an from Huang Chao's rebels.
In 923 they defeated the Liang Dynasty and established their own dynasty (Later Tang).
It lasted only until 937 but its expansion covered a large part of northern China.
They set a precedent for the rule by non-Chinese people of Chinese territory.
In the south the region was divided into three kingdoms.
Here regional economies grew quickly and interstate trade flourished.
Because of a shortage of copper, the southern states allowed the use of iron, lead and pottery for coinage.
At this time the uses of promissory notes were established - a precursor of paper money.
The state of Wu was prosperous and a literary culture emerged.
The earliest Chinese books were produced in the area.
The later Shu state was a place where artists and poets took refuge along with Tang officials.

The Khitan Liao Dynasty

It is hard to pinpoint their true identity.
It is probable that they shared a common ancestry with the Xianbei.
Under an ambitious leader named Abaoji they began raids deep into Chinese territory.
Over the years they became involved in the struggle between successor states.
Eventually Abaoji forced the Khitan to accept him as an emperor in the Chinese style.
In 907 he founded the dynasty to be known as the Liao.
In 916 he built a capital in the north-west of present day Liaoning.
They began to expand where in 924 they subjected the Urighurs in the west.
Abaoji died in 926 before completing his goal of conquering northern China.
In 947 the Khitan intervened in a dispute over a succession in the Shatuo.
For this they gained a strip of Chinese territory.
After a raid on the Jin territory in 947 they withdrew to the north.
The Khitan Liao Dynasty ruled part of north China and the territories beyond until 1125.
In the north they retained many features of the traditional Khitan.
Here they filled many important military and civil posts.
The southern regions, however, was modelled on the governmental institutions of the Tang.
The southern region had its capital on the strip of land they had gained from the Chinese.
In the north, the laws of the Khitan customs were used.
In the south, the Chinese population was subject to to Tang codified law.
This dualistic formula created tension.
It was a model for the later empires of of the Jurchen Jin and the Manchu Qing dynasties.

The Song Dynasty

A military leader by the name of Zhao Khuangyin, who founded the Song Dynasty.
He was later known as Emperor Taizu.
After he had usurped the throne he persuaded the provincial commanders to submit to him.
He offered them honours and pensions.
He was able t create a loyal professional army.
Eventually he was able to unify the north.
Later. he gained the states south of the Yangzi.
All of China Proper had come under Song control when Taizu died in 976.
But the exceptions were
a) two independent kingdoms in Zhejiang & Shanxi
b) parts of China ruled by Nanzhao & the Khitan.

Emperor Taizong (r. 976-97)

Advances were carried on by Taizu's brother, the Emperor Taizong (r. 976-97).
He got the kingdoms of Zhejiang & Shanxi to submit which his brother had failed to do.
He also received tribute from the Xi Xia state.
Only with the Khitan did the Song Dynasty have to compromise.
In 979 Taizong invaded the Sixteen Prefectures but he was defeated near Beijing.
After two unsuccessful campaigns, he agreed to a truce.

The Treaty of Shanyuan (1004)

The Treaty of Shanyuan was reached & it confirmed the Khitan's claim to the Sixteen Prefectures.
It put forth the terms of the protocol for relations between the two states.
The Song agreed tp pay an annual contribution to military expenses.
This amounted to about 200,000 lengths of silk and 100,000 ounces of silver.
They recrouped the cost through through trade and it stabilized the Khitan economy.
The first Song emperors had been laying down the foundations
Its capital was at Kaifeng on the Grand Canal.
This was a city that was more readily supplied than Chang'an or Luoyang.

The Administration

Many features of the Tang administration were revived in a modified form.
The central government revolved around a chancellor and a secretariat.
He formulated and reviewed policies before presenting them to the emperor for approval.
If accepted they were passed on to the department of state affairs.
The department was made up of six boards of government
The military affairs wee kept secret from civil affairs.
The military affairs bureau.reported to the emperor.
There was a similar continuity in the provincial governments.
Their basic administrative unit was the prefecture - there were 300.
Prefectures were responsible for many functions of the central government
Each had a revenue quota which had to be submitted to the treasury.
During the Tang the prefecture enjoyed a high degree of autonomy
During the Song, this was reduced.
The prefecture had the power to make appointments in military matters.
A new administrative level was added - the circuit.
It supervised the operations of the group of prefectures.
This government structure was manned by a civil service.
It was during the Han that the examination system began to assume its importance.
Under the Song, recruiting the right type of personnel to the bureaucracy was important.
The examination system was expanded and improved.
Under Taizu, the Tang system of annual examinations was continued.
Under Taizong, the number of candidates were awarded the jinshi.
This increased from 10 to over 140 a year.
This led to reforms.
Prefecture exams were added into the examination system.
Quotas on determining how many candidates should pass the examinations were set for the prefecture and
Provisions for impartiality were also set by making candidates anonymous to those correcting the exams.
A second response was to improve educational facilities.
Under the Tang it was both in the capital and at the prefecture, but the provision was limited.
Under the Song, local officials began to establish new schools.
They were provided with a set of Confucian classics, available in print.
At Kaifeng, the Imperial University was opened to prefectural candidates.
a) they made the use of the yin privilege, a system of sponsorship.
b) this allowed certain senior officials to nominate members of their family.
c) this method of recruitment was justified by a saying of Confucius.
d) "raise to office those of virtue and talent whom you know."
e) the sponsor system emphasized character.
f) the candidate's suitability had to be guaranteed by the official making the nomination.
In the early Song period the bureaucracy was less than 10,000 officials.
By the end of the 12th century that figure had quadrupled to 40,000.
The system produced fr more qualified persons than there were positions for.
To deal with this problem there was a protracted delay between qualification and appointment.
Officials would take lengthy career breaks.
A "law of avoidance" debarred an official from serving in his own province.
A system of tenure regulated the amount of time an official might occupy a particular post.
In comparison with the Tang, the Song empire was much smaller.
It did not control large parts of Inner Asia.
the territory know as the Sixteen Prefectures was ruled by a Khitan Dynasty.
the Song had been forced to recognize it as its equal and it was within the Great Wall.
The desire to recover these territories was important.
It caused the Song to break with the practice of the early Tang period - recruiting militia.
Instead the dynasty depended on a professional army of over a million men
The military expenditure consumed 70% of government revenues.
They raised so much revenues was because the economy was expanding.
Between the 8th & 12th centuries China experienced a "medieval economic revolution."

Medieval Economic Revolution

a) The first revolution was in agriculture, which supplied the driving force for other changes - during this period the migration south, especially to the Yangzi valley and improvement to the techniques of wet rice cultivation led to large increases in food output and allowed the doubling of the population.
b) the second was a revolution in water transport with the completion of of an integrated system of internal waterways - there were technical improvements. to ships and the magnetic compass facilitated oceanic & coastal voyages.
c) a third was that changes occurred in the use of money and the availability of credit - under the Tang a shortage of copper had limited monetary transactions but under the Song, copper became readily available and the annual output of copper cash rose by 20 times. At the same time the use of credit instruments and promissory notes increased.
d) a fourth was the vast increase in commerce which was the result of the linking of the rural economy to the market mechanism. Trade was now carried out not just in luxuries but in necessities and a national market developed for some commodities. This led to an urban revolution which saw 10% of the population living in market towns and cities. Kaifeng, the capital carried out a trade which valued at nearly 50% more than that of London in the year 1711.
e) a fifth was that the period saw systematic experimentation, rapid technological advances and the appearance of large scale industry, for example, the production of iron.

Why Did It End?

In many respects 11th century China was at the level of economic development not yet achieved by any European state until the 18th century.
These developments have been interpreted as the beginning of capitalism.
Why did this process not continue?
Scholars argue that its development was inhibited by particular obstacles.
One answer is that key economic and social changes had occurred in the Tang-Song period.
This was when national sovereignty was divided and the power of the state and the scholar-official class was weak.
Once the Song had become established, limitations on individual freedom and the lack of laws protecting property prevented the emergence of a capitalist bourgeoisie.
A second answer might be that the complexity of of the economy outgrew China's managerial competence.
Others say that the problem that prevented the continuity into a full-fledged capitalist society or at least into an industrial revolution was
1) a shortage of capital, an over-abundance of cheap labour.
2) a failure to develop a scientific outlook.
3) the effects of the Mongolian invasion.
The economy was highly productive.
The state had developed sophisticated social, political and economic institutions.
The Chinese economy remained at the pre-modern economic growth stage.
The potential of the technology which had been developed by the Song period was not exhausted until modern times.

The Arrival of Wang Anshi

The song always tried to tackle perceived problems with immediate reforms.
In the reign of Renzong (1023-63) Fan Zhongyan put forth reforms.
This was the ten-point programme.
These included measures to
1) improve the efficiency of the bureaucracy.
2) raise the standard of the examination.
3) increase agricultural production.
4) reduce the demands on the people for labour service.
But only some educational reforms were implemented.
Fan Zhongyan also created a national school system.
He also introduced anonymity for the candidates.
Another proponent of reform was the famous writer Ouyang Xiu (1007-72)
He urged the renovation of Chinese society to bring it closer to the ideal of a Confucian society.
He wanted able men to form a "party" that was committed to this reform.
He was aware that organizing an opposition was unacceptable in Chinese politics.
His justification was that his supporters would be men of principles and not men of profit.
It is in the light of this background that Wang Abnshi (1021-86) took centre stage.

The Reforms of Wang Anshi

Wang Anshi had been a protege of Fan Zhongyan and was supported by the emperor.
He instituted a number of reforms measures.
He also held a number of official positions in the provinces.
In 1058 he gave the Emperor Renzong a document, the Ten Thousand Word Memorial.
In it he expressed nervousness about the current state of the empire.
He advocated a series of conventional Confucian measures to remedy the situation.
By increasing the number of capable officials available for the service of the state he made two novel suggestions.
a) that men should be placed in positions for which they were qualified or had special qualification
b) the emperor should do more than just oversee the government.

The New Laws

The Emperor Renzong ignored these suggestions.
The Shenzong emperor (r. 1068-85) made Wang Anshi his chief minister.
He occupied that position until 1076 and reoccupied it from 1078-1085)
Wang Anshi embarked on a reform programme to be known as the New Laws.
These reforms affected
a) the economy
b security and military affairs
c) the administration
Wang Anshi had identified a shortage of revenue as the main weakness of the state.
He proposed a number of ways in which revenue might be increased.
He suggested the purchase of surplus products in one area and selling them in another.,
In this way it would stabilize prices and realize a profit for the state.
In 1074 Wang Anshi created the Tea & Horse Agency.
It established a monopoly over the Sichuan tea industry.
It used tea to purchase war horses from Tibet.
For the administration he wanted to encourage the promotion of candidates of good character.
The exposition of the Confucian classics was now the main emphasis of the examinations.
It was not the expression of literary skills.
To encourage this Wang Anshi himself composed commentaries on the classics.
Much of this reform programme fell within the Song tradition.
But Wang Anshi was immediately criticized.
Lu Hui, a member of the Censorate, tried to get Wang Anshi impeached.
He made the allegation that Wang Anshi was overbearing in his relations.
He also said that Wang Anshi was scheming to get all military and financial authority into his own hands.
Other critics challenged the practicality of Wang 's reforms.
Su Dongpo, an official who was a well-known poet and calligrapher was a critic.
He said that the low interest loans to peasants might later be used to oppress poor households.
The outstanding scholar Sima Guang resigned as a protest against the reforms.
He later wrote that the New Laws ambitions would oppress the poor.
Sima Guang's criticisms and attacks ruined Wang's reputation.
Since then a more sympathetic assessment has been put forward.
Wang Anshi had tried to introduce state economic planning.
He developed economic resources.
He tried to curb administrative and fiscal abuses.
He was suspected of being a Legalist in disguise - in fact he was.
But he was a Confucianist - an unorthodox one.
his reforms and the conservative reaction to them divided the bureaucracy.
It would also weaken the dynasty.
In 1086, after the death of Shenzong, Sima Guang becamer chief minister.
He repealed several of the New Laws.
The Zhezong emperor appointed Cai Jing, Wang Anshi's son-in-law to office.
He revived the New Laws & stayed in power under Huizong emperor (r. 1101-26)
During his reign, court extravagance weakened the state's finances.
The bureaucracy continued to grow.
Corruption increased.
Other signs of dynastic decline began to show.
In 1120 the Fang La rebellion broke out in Fujian & Zhejiang
Fang La was angry about the amount of tax he was expected to pay.
The rebellion had links to the secret society.
It was also connected with Manichaeism.
This was a religion brought to China in the 8th century by the Uighur merchants.

Khitan & Jurchen during the Song

The most serious threat to the dynasty was the rise of the Jurchen in the north.
Until the start of the 12th century the Khitan Liao empire was more or less stable.
The dualistic system of government was problematic & poorly organized.
It had not solved the conflict between the traditional Khitan aristocracy & the sanicized Khitan officials.
When Tianzuo came to the throne in 1101 the succession was uncontested
But relations with China, with the Xi Xia empire and with the Kogyuro were on friendly terms.
In 1112 Tianzuo visited the eastern part of his empire near Harbin.
He entertained. the chiefs of the north-eastern tribes including the Jurchen.
They were a semi-nomadic Tungusic people subjugated by the Khitan in the 10th century.
At the feast, Aguda, the chief of the "wild" Jurchen, refused to perform the "dance."
It would have signified the submission of his tribe.
His refusal caused a breakdown in the relations between the Khitan and the Jurchen.
In 1114 Aguda proclaimed the establishment of the Jin Dynasty with himself as emperor.
Tianzuo underestimated the threat that this implied
Khitan forces were defeated in the field.
The Khitan Liao Dynasty was also shaken by an internal rebellion
The song had formed an alliance with the Jurchen hoping to break up the Liao empire
This would make them recover the Sixteen Prefectures.
In 1122 Song troops attacked but failed to capture the Khitan southern capital.
this allowed the Jurchen the opportunity to invade and occupy the entire Khitan territory.
In 1125 Tianzuo was captures and forced to to give up the title of emperor.
Khitan survivors moved west.
Between 1131 and 1213 they ruled the Western Liao empire in Central Asia.
Meanwhile the situation of the Song Dynasty had become critical
It had grown weak by internal rebellion
So it was in no condition to withstand the aggression of the Jurchen Jin empire.
In 1125Jurcghen forces invaded China and besieged Kaifeng.
Before retreating the Jurchen forced the Song to promise them a large indemnity.
In 1127 they returned and captures and pillaged Kaifeng
They carried the emperor away as a prisoner.
The next few years they would tighten their grip on north China
They would force the Song court to retreat south of the Yangzi.
The Jurchen did not have the capacity to conquer the south.
In 1141 a peace was agreed between the Jin and the Song controlling the south.
The Song also agreed to pay an annual tribute of 200,000 taels of silver (a tael is about 1.3 ounces of silver) and 200,000 bolts of silk.

The Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115-1234)

At its height it encompassed north China, Manchuria and Inner Mongolia.
Its history is divided in three stages.
a) a period of dualism which lasted until about 1150.
b) a period of increasing sanitization
c) from 1215, a period of decline.
Through conquest the Jin had come to rule about 40 million Chinese.
The dynasty chose to emulate the Khitan Liao and adopted a policy of dualism.
In Jurchen territory theatrical structure was retained, a separate system of taxation was applied.
In north China a system of regimes was headed by Chinese puppet rulers exercised control.
but that was not effective.
Groups of Jurchen "farmer-soldiers moved south.
They acted like an occupying power and subdued Chinese rebellions harshly.
They resettled many thousands of Chinese in Manchuria.
Their treatment of the Khitan was even more severe.

Emperor Hailing

In 1150 after a disputed succession, Hailing became the emperor
He pressed ahead with a policy of sinicization.
He established the capital at Yangjing, present day Beijing.
He curbed in ruthless fashion the power of the Jurchen aristocracy.
Hailing used the examination system to admit the Chinese and the Khitan into his service.
He himself studied Chinese and adopted Chinese customs such as drinking tea.

Reversing Sinicization

Shizong (r. 1161-89) attempted to reverse the process of sinicization.
He did this by promoting the study of the Jurchen language that had already fallen in disuse.
He also prohibited the Jurchen from adopting Chinese dress.
He pursued centralizing policies - the whole scaled adoption of a Chinese form of central government.
This required the employment f many thousands of Chinese officials.
It ran counter to the traditional tribal organization of the Jurchen people.
After his death these reforms were abandoned but sinicization continued.
The ban between Jurchen & Chinese was lifted in 1191.
By that time, Jin rulers regarded their dynasty as a legitimate Chinese dynasty.
It did preserve the tradition of the Tang and northern Song,
This view was acceptable to many of the Chinese subjects.
Within the Jin empire, Chinese intellectual activity continued.
It was a conservative intellectualism.
It rejected the reform ideas of Wang Anshi and his followers.

The Fall of the Jurchen Jin

The collapse of the Jin Dynasty was caused by a combination of internal and external events.
In 1194 the Yellow River shifted to its southern course.
It cause enormous damage and it seriously affected the economy
It encouraged the Southern Song minister Han Tuozhou to declare war on the Jin (1206)
The Southern Song attacked was repelled
It was a distraction at a time when a more serious danger had appeared.
This was the rise of Chinggis Khan and the threat of a Mongol invasion from the north-east.
The first wave of Mongol attacks occurred between 1211 and 1213.
This was a time when the Jin court was paralyzed by a coup.
The Mongols also attacked the Xi Xia state to th north-west.
In response the Xi Xia supported a rebellion against the Jin.
In 1215 the Jin abandoned Yangjing and transferred their capital to Kaifeng.
The next years the capital threat was a popular rebellion, that of the Red Coats In Shandong.
Chinggis Khan died in 1227 and there was a brief respite from Mongol raids.
In 1230 the new khan Ogodei renewed the attack.
In 1232 he besieged. Kaifeng.
The seige lasted for over a year.
It was notable for the endurance of the Jurchen and Chinese defenders.
Also because both sides used firearms.
The last Jin emperor fled the capital
He appealed to the Southern Song for assistance.
He warned them that if the Mongols were victorious they would be their next victims.
But the Southern Song allied themselves with the Mongols against their Jurchen enemies.
The emperor committed suicide and the dynasty came to an end.

The Southern Song (1127-1279)

In 1127 resistance to the Jurchen was led by Gaozong, the younger son of the Huizong emperor.
He established his capital at Hangzhou.
He slowly reasserted Song control over southern China.
He lacked a military power to suppress the separatist movements which had arisen.
He was force to adopt a policy in which outlaw bands were given the choice -
Either they surrendered and join the imperial army or be attacked & eliminated.
They acknowledged the deep shame they felt over the loss of northern China to the Jurchen.
There was also the potential strength of loyalist feelings.
Of those who responded to loyalist cause was a young man by the name of Yue Wei.
He played a key role in subduing rebel bands around the Dongting Lake in Hunan.
He campaigned against the Jurchen in 1140, raiding as far north as Kaifeng.
But the Southern Song chief minister Qin Sui negotiated a settlement.
The Jurchen accepted terms which acknowledged the Song to be vassals of the Jin.

This gave the Southern Song security.
It enabled the dynasty to free itself from an unacceptable dependence on its generals.
Many of the Southern Song found the terms a disgrace
To protect the emperor's reputation the negotiations were conducted by Qin Sui.
He was also to take the blame for the execution of Yue Wei.
Yue Fei's true fault was his determination to continue the war of resistance.
With his patriotism he became one of the great heroes of Chinese history.
The desire for revenge against the Jurchen Jin remained a key issue for the Southern song
In 1161 Hailing the Jurchen Jin emperor attacked the Song area south of the Huai river.
He was stopped at the Fei River.
After this defeat Hailing was assassinated.
In 1165 his successor Shizong concluded a treaty with the Southern Song.
This retracted the assertion of vassal status and the use of the term "tribute."
The Song's annual payments to the Jin continued.
for the next 40 years there was an uneasy peace.
Early in the 13th century Han Tuozhou was the Song emperor Ninzong's chief minister.
He used the issue of revenge to assert his authority.y the Yellow River
He heard of reports of the damage caused by the Yellow River floods.
He also believed that the Chinese under the Jin would rebel if encouraged.
In 1206 he invaded Jin territory.
His invasions was badly planned.
The Jin's Chinese population did not rebel.
The Jurchen replied with a raid deep into the Song territory.
The disaster led to the dismissal and murder of Han Tuozhou.
When peace was agreed in 1208 the annual payments were increased.
The Jin were given Han Tuozhou's head as they had demanded.
By now the mongol threat to the Jin was apparent.
But the Southern Song leaders continued to oppose the Jin.
They would oppose them until that dynasty was extinguished.
In 1162 Gaoziong abdicated in favour of his son.
But until his death in 1187 he remained in power behind the throne.
After his death, his son, the Xiaozong emperor fell into a deep depression
He too had to abdicate.
Recurrent illnesses were to affect to affect all subsequent Southern Siong emperors.
During the reign of Ningzong emperor , two ministers were in control.
These two were Han Tuozhou & Shi Miyuan.

Han Tuozhou the nephew of Gaozong's empress, gained office through intrigue.
He gained office through cultivating close ties with the eunuchs.
He conducted a vendetta against moralistic scholar-officials of the Neo-Confucian school.
The Neo-Confucian school was critical of his lack of formal education.
His decision for war (1206) was caused by domestic political struggles - he participated in these factional struggles.
His murder of 1207 was perhaps agreed by the emperor - he was bludgeoned to death by palace guardsmen.
His death was welcomed by the Neo-Confucianists.
Ningzong's second sole surrogate chief minister was Shi MIyuan.
He gained office after the death of Han Tuozhou.
Shi Miyuan reversed the policies of Han Tuozhou,
He made peace with the Jurchen Jin
He rescinded the ban on Neo-Confucian teachings, which were acceptable teachings.
When Ninzong died in 1224 he interfered with succession.
He set aside the heir to the throne in favour of his own nominee.
The controversy remained in effect until his death in 1233.

Jia Sidao

The most notorious of the Southern Song long-serving minister was Jia Sidao.
He became chief minister in 1259.
He remained in office until just before the dynasty collapsed.
His reputation was that of a dilettante who gained office by intrigues.
He already had 20 years of experience in official posts.
His notoriety resulted from two incidences:
In 1259 he made the claim of having defeated the Mongols & they agreed to leave.
For doing this theSong would define the Yangzi as the border or frontier.
The Mongols agreed to pay tribute.
The truth was that they had to go back to deal with a succession issue.
The khan Mongke had died and had to be replaced.
The next incident was Jia's pursuit of Wang Anshi's agrarian & economic policies.
This was to counter the increasing land-holding & evasion of taxes.
These measures alienated the land holders who might support the dynasty.
Then the Mongols crossed the Yangzi & Jia took command of the Song forces.
Jia's forces were defeated which ensured his fall & his laws were revoked.
Many Song gentry switched over to the Mongol side.

Intellectual and Cultural Trends during the Southern Song

Neo-Confucianism refers to the Confucian revival
It had begun during the Tang period
Under the Northern Song it was continued through the efforts of Ouyang Xiu
Then Neo-Confucianism acquired a political connotation.
Its exponents ranged in opposition to Wang Anshi & his reformers.
Neo-Confucianism borrowed from Daoism & Buddhism.
Zhou Tunyi made use of
a) the Book of Changes
b) the Five Agents
c) the concepts of Yin & Yang.
This was to identify the Great Ultimate, the principle from which all things derive their existence.
These ideas were. later developed by Cheng Han & Cheng Yi - brothers.
Chen emphasized the unity of the human mind with the one of the universe.
This created the Neo-Confucian School of the Mind.
Cheng Yi adopted Zhang Zai's ideas on the qi but added a second concept - li (principle)
This led to the School of Principle.
Later these were synthesized by Chu Xi into a single doctrine & added a revived emphasis on dao.

Zhu Xi's True Way School

The True Way school attracted many followers who adopted old fashion dress to emphasize their identity being separate from those of career minded Confucian bureaucrats.
In 1195. the True Way School was condemned as false learning
This was after Han Tuozhou became chief minister.
Zhu Xi, briefly in office, was dismissed.
The ban was lifted after Han Tuozhou died.
The True Way became the orthodox state doctrine.
The Mongols, now in north China began to adopt features of Confucianism.
But the Southern Song turned to the True Way (now known as the School of Principle)
This was seen as true Confucianism.

China Turning "Inwards"

Neo-Confucianism provided a sense of identity and integrative ideology.
This enable the Chinese intellectual to survive the Mongol occupation.
The effects have been described as China turning inwards.
a) as a defence mechanism it reinforced belief in Chinese cultural superiority.
b) as a state orthodoxy it deprived scholars of the right to criticize the growth of autocracy.
c) as a personal philosophy it elevated self-cultivation above political reform or practical improvement.

Song Landscape Painting

The Song paintings, particularly the "bird & flower" & bamboo painting reflects the profound and subtle examination the visible world which is characteristic of Neo-Confucianism.
Su Dongpu (su Shi -1036-1101) said that when a scholar paints a landscape, he seldom depicts a real place, instead he borrows the forms of the mountain and trees as a vehicle to express his feelings and ideas.
The value placed on the art of painting is indicated in the attention paid by Huizong, the last emperor of the Northern Song who was both a practitioner of the "bird & flower" style and the patron of an academy of painting.
Under the Southern Song the restrained style of the earlier period was replaced by the more expressive style of painters such as Xia Gui (1180-1224)
Chan Buddhist painting also flourished at this time.
It was characterized by a concentration on certain details of the subject, with all else left undefined.
The most famous exponent of this style was Mu Qi (c. 1200-70) whose painting the Six Persimmons is well known in the West.
The Tang made technical advances in the manufacture of ceramics.
Under the Song technical improvements continued with higher aesthetics.
It was accompanied by a very high aesthetic standard.

Economic & Social Changes

During the Southern song period economic growth continued apace.
Agricultural output was increased by the adoption of new seeds.
They introduced fast-ripening Champa rice from Vietnam.
Irrigation was extended & multiple crossings was used more widely.
In some areas, seasonal unemployment almost disappeared.
By the Song period, the Jungian or "equal field" system had been finally abandoned.
It had been replaced by a free market in land.
This produced a new pattern in land-holding.
But scholars tend to disagree as to what this entailed.

Elitism

Under the southern Song, a new. elite emerged.
It totally displaced the aristocratic clans of the Tang period.
A key element in the formation of this elite was the expansion of the examination system.
There was the spread of printing - it inspired intellectual activity.

Women, Fidelity, & Foot-binding

Under the Tang, women participated in society with considerable freedom.
But under the Song, women's situation took a turn for the worse.
This deterioration was exemplified by the spread of foot-binding.
Also, by the condemnation of the remarriage of widows.
Neo-Confucianism promoted the idea that women must value chastity
The spread of foot-binding took place.
It is wrong to assume that it implied the subjection of women.
Or, the evidence suggests that it was adopted by women to promote their attractiveness.

Books & Foot-binding

The Southern Song culture encouraged men to bookishness.
This was to reinforce the contrast with the martial virtues of the Jurchen & the Mongols.
This favoured a stereotype of women as beautiful & deferential.
Foot-binding was originally associated with dancers.
Later with courtesans and concubines.
It allowed other women to match their claim to beauty against others.
So, foot-binding came into general use.
For the remarriage of widows there was a strong popular prejudice against this.
The law allowed a woman to remarry.

The Yuan Dynasty

The Mongolian Conquest
The traditional view of Mongol rule over China was that it was an unmitigated disaster.
Three charges have been levelled against the Mongols:
a) that they discriminated against the Chinese both racially and economically.
b) that they failed to build on on the technological & economic achievements of the Song period.
c) that they instituted practices which contributed to the development of despotism.
The Mongolian invasion did cause extensive damage.

Positive Features of the Conquest

The period of Mongol rule had some positive features.
a) the Mongols reunified China - adopting the dynastic title "Yuan" entitled them to a place in the Chinese dynastic record.
They became the legitimate holders of the mandate from heaven.
b) Chinese civilization was not fundamentally altered by the episode of Mongol rule.
In several ways scholarship and the arts benefitted from it.
c) Mongol rule was more humane and less ideologically restrictive than that of the Song.olica"
The "pax mongolica" - the Mongol peace" which spread across Asia exposed China to a variety of external influences.
d) the hostility of the Chinese for the Mongols was not so intense.
It did not prevent many Mongols to remain in China after the flight of the Mongol court.

Mongolian Society

The Mongols were pastoral nomads.
By the 11th century they were living as a tribal society in present-day Mongolia.
They were in frequent conflict with the Tartars, their neighbours to the West
Soon the Mongols began to develop an ethnic consciousness.
This was a political situation that was exploited and taken advantage of by Temujin.
He was the son of a tribal leader who was born in about 1167.
His father had been poisoned by the Tartars.
His grievances motivated him to claim the leadership of the tribe.
He raised a disciplined army & divided it into groups of 1000 men.
He devised new military tactics and strategies.
This enabled him to unite the Mongol tribes.
In 1206 he was acclaimed Genghis Khan.
He was the universal sovereign of the steepest people.
He claimed to be heaven's chosen instrument
He declared that all those who stood in his way did so in defiance of heaven's will.
then he embarked on a remarkable series of conquests.

The conquests of Chinggis Khan

In 1210 he invaded the Xi Xia kingdom.
He forced them to pay tribute thereby cutting China's trade routes to the north -west.
In 1215 he ca-ptures te Jin capital at Yanjing.
He did not destroy the Jurchen Dynasty.
He turned west and seizedBokhara and Samarkand.
He began to recruit Chinese and Khitan officials.
He appointed Mukali , one his best generals to administer the Chinese territory.
In 1226 he turned to destroy the Xi Xia kingdom but died during the campaign.
He was succeeded as khan or the khan of khans by his third son Ogodei.
The Mongol empire was divided between his sons & grandsons.

Ogodei

Ogodei continued the conquests.
He invaded Korea and in 1234 completed the destruction of the Ji Dynasty.
In the West, the Mongol forces overcame Russia.
They inflicted devastating defeats on the states of Eastern Europe.
Only Ogodei's death in 1241 ended his extraordinary expansion.
Ogodei drank himself to death in 1241 and his widow became regent (female sovereign, ruler).

Mongke

In 1215 Mongke became the khagan
After that the Mongol expansion resumed
Not making a direct attack on the Southern Song he decided to outflank them.
In 1252 he ordered his brother Khibilai to attack the south-west.
He destroyed the south west kingdom of Nanzhao.
Mongke's next objective was the province of Sichuan but he died in 1259 on that campaign.
A succession dispute delayed a decisive Mongol attack on China.
Mongke had constructed the administration of north China to his younger bother Khubilai.

Khubilai Khan

Khubilai was willing to accept advice from Confucian advisors
He was also willing to promote the prosperity of the region.
In 1260 he ws elected Khagan and soon adopted a Chinese reign title.
His chief adviser was a former Buddhist monk named Liu Bingzhong.
His advice encouraged Khubilai to lay out a Chinese style capital at Kaiping
It was later renamed Shangdu or "upper capital" - it became known in the West as Xanadu.
In 1268 Khubilai was ready to attack the Southern Song.
But the Southern Song continued to assert their claim to the whole of the country.
Khubilai's chief objective was to attack the key city of Xiangyang on the Han River.

The End of the Southern Song

Using war ships and/or engineers, the Mongols battered down the walls.
The city surrendered.
This cleared the route to the Yangzi River valley.
In 1275 Bayan, the main Mongol general met and defeated a large army of Jia Sidao.
Jia was theist counsellor of the Southern Song.
his policies had already alienated wealthy land owners.
The defeat ensured his dismissal.
Southern Song resistance now collapsed and their court surrendered.
It was only in 1279 that the last Southern Song loyalists were defeated at sea.
The last emperor of the Southern Song finally drowned.

China Under Mongol Rule

Khubilai had been victorious in China but his other military ventures were less successful.
In 1274 & 1281 he tried to conquer Japan but both times he was driven back.
This was by strong & fierce Japanese resistance and bad weather.
Campaigns in Southeast Asia took them into terrain where he suffered reversals
This is where military skills were at a disadvantage.
his last years were negative fora number of reasons:
a) military failures.
b) ill-health
c) the death of his favourite wife
d) difficulties over the succession - a chronic problem formal of them.

Succession Issues of the Mongols

Mongol customs prescribed that the next in line to be the khagan should go to whichever of the khan's male relatives was acclaimed at the council of nobles.
Khubilai tried to follow Chinese customs and nominated Zhenjin.
He was th eldest son by his principal wife.
Zhenjin died in 1285.
Khubilai died in 1294
He bestowed the succession on his second son Temur, who reigned until 1307.
Temur continued many aspects of Khubilai's rule.

Succession Struggles

Temur's successor Khaishan was succeeded by his brother who ruled as Renzong (1311-1320).
Renzong was the most sanitized and cultured of the Mongol rulers.
After Renzong's death the court split into factions.
In 1323 Yesun Temur seized the throne and held it until his death five years later.
He was hostile to the influence of the Chinese scholar- officials.
After that there were some succession struggles.
Then the throne was held for another five years by Tugh Temur
He was more committed to to the Chinese than to the steppes.
The last Mongol ruler Toghon Temur came to the throne as a minor
He survived until the Mongol court fled from China in 1368.

The Rule of Khubilai

Khubilai established the pattern of Mongol rule over China.
In 1272, readopted Da Yuan, or "Great Origin" as the title of his dynasty.
He established the claim to be a universal empire.

His Accomplishments

a) he retained many superficial features of the Song government such as the secretariat and six and six ministers and the traditional division between the civil, military and censorial branches of government.
b) He adopted Chinese court ceremonial andConfucian rites.
c) He set up an office to collect materials for a history often preceding dynasties.
They could be used as models for future dynasties.
d) he declined to restore the examination system.
He thought it might restrict his choice to those who had knowledge of the Confucian classics.
The bureaucracy was very ethically mixed.
No metropolitan examinations were held for 40 years.
The opportunity existed for men to work their way up to a salaried office position.
e) officials were selected with reference to birth and yin privilege.
In 1315 the Renzong emperor permitted the reintroduction of examinations.
It was in a form for which it was heavily biased in favour of Mongol candidates.
The Yuan government did not run much beyond the metropolitan province.
This tendency towards regionalism became even more prominent under his successors.
The most upsetting actions was his division of the population into four groups:
1) the Mongols at the top of the pyramid.
2) the semi ren, the miscellaneous aliens - a reference to Western & Central Asians.
3 the Han ren, the inhabitants of north China.
4) the nan ren, the Chinese of the newly conquered south.
This was clearly a case of discrimination.
But the Chinese scholars were prepared to accept offers under those conditions.
Before the conquest of the south, Khubilai had employed a number of Chinese advisers - these included Xu Heng, a notable Neo-Confucian.
He held the view that the duty of a scholar was to civilize the Mongols.
Khubilai andlater Mongol emperors employed many foreigners in key positions.
The largest and most influential group were the Turks.
They included the Uighurs many of whom were employed top ranking officials.
They provided an infrastructure between the Mongols and their Chinese subjects.

Mongols & Buddhism

An important & religious role was performed by Tibetan Buddhists.
A Tibetan monk - Phans-pa was placed in charge of all Buddhist clergy.
He advised on relations with Tibet.He identified Khubilai as the universal emperor of the Buddhist tradition.
Throughout the Yuan period Tibetan Buddhism or Lamaism was granted a privileged status.
This became a source of complaint by the Chinese, particularly in the south.

Mongols & Muslims

The early Mongol emperors employed a significant number of Muslims in key positions.
Many of whom came from Central Asia.
Islam was not new to China.
It had been introduced in theTang period.
At the timeMuslim tradershad settled in Guangzhou and other southern ports.
Muslimsalso made converts among the Chinese in Central Asia.
Using Muslims rather than sanitized Turks and Tibetans was a departure from the dual governments as practices by previous dynasties of conquest.
Muslims in Chia were classified as semi ren and were guaranteed special privileges.
They performed a variety of specialized tasks.
a) in finance
b) in medicine
c) in astronomy
d) in architecture.
They were excluded from the higher ranks in the army.
Muslims did not play major role in the administration of China.
But there was one notable exception, the case of Sayid Ajall, a Central Asian Muslim.
He was appointed governor of the newly conquered territory of Yunnan.
Khubilai was aware of Chinese hostility towards them.
He grew concerned about their increasing influence.
From 1279 Khubilai adopted a harsher policy toward Muslims.
The pax majolica and the increase in trade along the Silk Road had a good effect.
It enabled rate establishment of the first direct contacts between China & the West.
For the early travellers the most common motive was trade.
some had political objective, to seek allies.
This was when Islam was seen as a threat to both Mongols and Christians.
For others, proselytism (preaching the religion) was the primary purpose of the journey.

The Arrival of Europeans

The first European to place his journey on record.
He was a monk by the name of John of Plano Carpini.
He was a Franciscan monk.
He had been sent by Pope Innocent IV
He was sent to seek an agreement with the Mongols and to convert them to Christianity.
He failedBut he left a record (writings) ofhistravels.
This included a description of the enthronement Guyug Khan in 1246.

Marco Polo

In 1265, Khubilai received two merchants from Venice.
They were the brothers Maffeo and Marco Polo.
They returned to the West in 1269
Khubilai toldthem to ask the Pope to send 100 Christian scholars to China.
In 1271 they set out to China again, without the scholars but with Niccolo's son Marco.
Marco Polo's Travels contained a detailed description of Khubilai's court.
Also of the great city of Hangzhou, which he called Quinsai.

Demographic Changes

The period of Mongol rule was one of damage to the economy.
Also there was a decline in the living standards of the Chinese.
Evidence to support this view concerns the demographic record.
The combined population of Song & Jin China amounted to well over 100 million.
According to the census carried out in 1290, it was less than 60 million.
There was a reduction between 1200 & 1400, the most extreme in Chinese history.
This population declined had been attributed
a) to theMongol invasion of the north.
b) to the confiscation of land for distribution to the invaders.
c) the application of heavy taxations to those Chinese who retained their land.
This precipitated a wave of southern migration.

Mismanagement

The Yuan Dynasty also stands accused of its subsequent mis-management of the economy.
They failed to maintain river defences resulting in massive flooding of the Yellow River in 1344.
The Mongols were extravagant in their spending, such as the building of summer residences.
In 1266 Khubilai ordered the construction of a new capital at Dadu.
The cost of this project put a heavy burden on the treasury.
Financial problems were made worse by instances of official corruption.

Currency Issues

Paper money had been introduced under the Song & Khubilai used it to promote trade.
At first the currency , backed by silver reserve, proved a success.
In 1776 paper notes in circulation was greatly increased to finance the conquest of the south.
this was the beginning of a loss of confidence in paper money.
By the beginning of the Ming period it had become entirely discredited.

The Economy

To restore the economy of the north Khubilai granted impoverished areas tax concessions.
Villages affected by natural disasters were given assistance.
In 1261 Khubilai established an "Office for the Stimulation of Agriculture."
This helped peasants make the best use of their land
He endorsed the existence of peasant self-help organizations.
This promoted irrigation & land reclamation.
He encouraged internal trade and greatly improved the postal relay system.
Measures were introduced to relieve areas that had affected by the war.
Landowners were allowed to retain their land & tax burdens were light.
The encouragement of maritime commerce was also of benefit to the region.
Khubilai left his successors a stable and prosperous state.
Later Yuan emperors were less proactive in economic matters.

Laws & Legal Issues

Another aspect of Mongol rule was related to legal matters.
They had brought with them the jasagh, the collection of rules promoted by Chinggis Khan.
This was for the regulation of nomadic society.
The Chinese were accustomed to statutory law as codified under the Tang.
Under the Yuan Mongols and semi ren were tried according to Mongol law.
The Chinese were tried according to Chinese law.
for the same crimes these two laws involved different punishments.
In legal cases involving both Mongol & Chinese, they were dealt with a special court.
In this case the Mongols had the advantage.
In disputes involving a mixed marriage, they were tried according to the law of the husband.
If the wife's a Mongol the Mongolian law applied.
The Mongol emperors, beginning with Khubilai, sought to preserve the Mongol tradition.

Mongolian Religion

Mongol religion, a form of shamanism, was preserved.
Khubilai performed its traditional rituals.
There was no attempt to impose Mongol religious beliefs on the Chinese.
The Yuan period was notable for its religious freedom.
Mongke & later Khubilai encouraged open debates between Buddhists and Daoists.
In 1281 after a famous debate Khubilai decided that theBuddhists had won the contest.
He argued that Daoists excesses should be curbed.

Sinicization

The Mongol attitude towards Confucianism was more prudent or cautious
His (Khubilai) ignorance of the language stopped him from understanding the Confucian texts.
It was not until Ayurbarwada that a Mongol emperor had a working knowledge of it.
Khubilai recognized the importance of Confucianism.
He employed Confucian officials.
He promoted the translation of the Confucian classics into the Mongol language.
Ayurbarwada went further in modifying the Mongolian character of the state.
Confucian elements were now incorporated but remained superficial features.
In Toghon Temur's reign his chancellor Bayan attempted to turn the tide of sinicization.
He did this by abolishing the examination as a route into the civil service.
Bayan was overthrown in 1340.
confucianism recovered some of its ideological preeminence.
The restoration of the examination system was offered to the Mongols and the semu.
It was also offered to th Chinese.
This should a commitment to a unified state.

Confucian Hermeticism

In the Yuan period confucian scholars were placed in a dilemma.
some reasoned that their Confucian duty required them to serve the Mongols.
The was in the hope of civilizing them.
Other scholars refuse to condone the Mongol presence
They would not compromise and accept office.
An example is Liu Yin (1249-93) who refused an invitation to become an academician
He refused to commit himself to public service at the Imperial College.
This has been seen as an example of Confucian hermeticism.
This withdrawal of Confucian scholarship from worldly affairs was a protest against Mongolian rule.

Drama as Protest

Another form of protest has been identified in drama.
Drama as a form of popular entertainment had emerged in the Tang period.
Plays and sketches were commonly performed under the Song.
It was not until the Yuan period that plays as distinct literary form appeared.
These plays were collectively known as "Yuan northern drama."
They were mainly written for performances in Dadu.
But the theatre became popular in the south.
These plays were written by displaced Confucian scholars
They contained protests against the Mongol presence.
Their popularity owe much to the Mongol patronage.
These plays were written in the language of the Mongols.

The Fall of the Yuan

The traditional Chinese explain the fall of the Yuan was due to their hatred of their invaders.
Also it was the Mongol's failure to modify their rule to meet Chinese expectations.
In recent years a different interpretation has been proposed.
It suggests that the Mongol rule was undermined by a crisis in the 1350s & 1360s.

Crises

It began in the 1340s with
a) the outbreak of local rebellions
b) Therese of piracy. which threatened the shipment of grain to the capital by sea.
c) the flooding of the Yellow River.
In 1351 hteemperor called upon Toghto to deal with the situation
He returned to office and took steps to
a) increase revenue
b) control the flooding
c) suppress the rebels
He began an ambitious plan to reopen the Grande Canal.
To do this he drafted thousands of peasant labourers
This aroused a new and greater rebellion.

The Flight of the Mongol Court

In 1355 Toghto's opponents persuaded the emperor to dismiss him.
This is seen as marking the end of the Yuan government as an integrated political system.
The dynasty not only controlled the capital and the surrounding regions
Other parts of the country was held by independent commanders.
The rebellions grew and acquired a moral dimension.
A civil war broke out among the Yuan supporters
In 1368 the court fled to Manchuria and the Yuan dynasty came to an end.