The Significance of Ancient China in World History Name: ______
World AP/ Napp Date: ______
Part I: Reading – Context and Connections: [From Voyages in World History]
- Circle key words
- Underline important ideas
- Box unfamiliar vocabulary
- Annotate – add notes to text
“The clearest indication of the First Emperor’s legacy is the words we use even now for ‘China’ and ‘Chinese.’ China entered English via the Sanskrit word for Chee-na, the Indian pronunciation of Qin. Following the lead of the First Emperor, the Qin and Han dynasties created a blueprint for imperial rule that lasted for two thousand years. In the centuries after the fall of the Han, China was not always unified. But subsequent Chinese rulers always aspired to reunify the empire and conceived of China’s physical borders as largely those of the Han dynasty at its greatest extent.
The Qin dynasty begun by the First Emperor introduced a centralized administration headed by the emperor, recorded the population in household registers, systematized weights and measures, and promoted officials strictly on the basis of merit. The Qin also had a ceremonial state, as the emperor’s sacrifices showed, but these measures affected everyone living in Qin territory and had far greater impact than any actions of the Mauryan dynasty in India.
The Han dynasty made one important change: officials had to pass examinations testing their knowledge of Confucianism before they could attain higher office. The Han extended its military control far to the west, establishing more sustained contacts with the peoplesliving along the Silk Road. Use of this route continued in later periods, peaking in the sixth through eight centuries.
The Qin/Han blueprint for rule kept China unified for most of its long history. Even before the Qin unified China, the Chinese shared a cuisine, belief in the tenets of Confucianism, and a common writing system which has remained in use, with some modifications for over three thousand years. These all made China easier to unify than neighboring India. Just as a Chinese chef combines different precut ingredients to make distinctive dishes, other ancient innovations often made use of component parts to make final products that varied slightly.
China’s path to complex society followed the same pattern as in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India, all societies on the Eurasian landmass. In about 8000 B.C.E., the Chinese began to cultivate millet and wheat in the north, and in 7000 B.C.E., they first grew rice in the south. Chinese farmers domesticated cattle, oxen, and horses to work the land, and they made agricultural implements – plows, shovels, machetes – first of stone and then, around 2000 B.C.E., of bronze. Agriculture arose first in river valleys, and farmers used plows to prepare the land to seed, wheeled carts to carry things, and domesticated animals to work the land. Similarly, metallurgists learned how to work bronze before they mastered the higher temperatures necessary to smelt iron. In both China and India, iron replaced bronze around 500 B.C.E., the time when the first coins circulated.”
Part II: Generalizations
- Examine the following groups of five related terms/events/individuals
- Note what the terms have in common: select an appropriate title
- Determine the specific relationship between and among the terms
- In a sentence or two, express that specific relationship; the generalization must address all four terms. In a multi-paragraph essay, the generalization would become the thesis
I
First Emperor
Centralized
Systematized Weights and Measures
Officials Promoted Based on Merit
Ceremonial State
II
Examination System
Silk Road
Confucianism
Military Control
Unified
III
Common Writing System
Confucianism
Cuisine
Qin
Han
IV
Millet
Rice
Domesticated Cattle, Oxen, and Horses
Plows, Shovels, Machetes
Wheeled Carts
Critical Thinking Question:
The past informs the present. How does the reading support this thesis?
______
Part III: Enduring Issue – Confucianism and China Today
The Article: “A Confucian Constitution for China” by Jiang Qing and Daniel A. Bell
July 10, 2012: An Op-Ed piece in the New York Times
ON Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton gave a speech in Mongoliadenouncing Asian governments that seek “to restrict people’s access to ideas and information, to imprison them for expressing their views, to usurp the rights of citizens to choose their leaders.” It was a swipe at China’s authoritarian political system. The view that China should become more democratic is widely held in the West. But framing the debate in terms of democracy versus authoritarianism overlooks better possibilities.
The political future of China is far likelier to be determined by the longstanding Confucian tradition of “humane authority” than by Western-style multiparty elections. After all, democracy is flawed as an ideal. Political legitimacy is based solely on the sovereignty of the people – more specifically, a government that grants power to democratically elected representatives. But there is no compelling reason for a government to have only one source of legitimacy.
Democracy is also flawed in practice. Political choices come down to the desires and interests of the electorate. This leads to two problems. First, the will of the majority may not be moral: it may favor racism, imperialism or fascism. Second, when there is a clash between the short-term interests of the populace and the long-term interests of mankind, as is the case with global warming, the people’s short-term interests become the political priority. As a result, democratically elected governments in America and elsewhere are finding it nearly impossible to implement policies that curb energy usage in the interests of humanity and of future generations.
In China, political Confucians defend an alternative approach: the Way of the Humane Authority. The question of political legitimacy is central to their constitutional thought. Legitimacy is not simply what people think of their rulers; it is the deciding factor in determining whether a ruler has the right to rule. And unlike Western-style democracy, there is more than one source of legitimacy.
According to the Gongyang Zhuan, a commentary on a Confucian classic, political power can be justified through three sources: the legitimacy of heaven (a sacred, transcendent sense of natural morality), the legitimacy of earth (wisdom from history and culture), and the legitimacy of the human (political obedience through popular will).
In ancient times, Humane Authority was implemented by early Chinese monarchs. But changes in historical circumstances now necessitate changes in the form of rule. Today, the will of the people must be given an institutional form that was lacking in the past, though it should be constrained and balanced by institutional arrangements reflecting the other two forms of legitimacy.
In modern China, Humane Authority should be exercised by a tricameral legislature: a House of Exemplary Persons that represents sacred legitimacy; a House of the Nation that represents historical and cultural legitimacy; and a House of the People that represents popular legitimacy.
The leader of the House of Exemplary Persons should be a great scholar. Candidates for membership should be nominated by scholars and examined on their knowledge of the Confucian classics and then assessed through trial periods of progressively greater administrative responsibilities – similar to the examination and recommendation systems used to select scholar-officials in the imperial past. The leader of the House of the Nation should be a direct descendant of Confucius; other members would be selected from descendants of great sages and rulers, along with representatives of China’s major religions. Finally, members of the House of the People should be elected either by popular vote or as heads of occupational groups.
This system would have checks and balances. Each house would deliberate in its own way and not interfere in the affairs of the others. To avoid political gridlock arising from conflicts among the three houses, a bill would be required to pass at least two houses to become law. To protect the primacy of sacred legitimacy in Confucian tradition the House of Exemplary Persons would have a final, exclusive veto, but its power would be constrained by that of the other two houses: for example, if they propose a bill restricting religious freedom, the People and the Nation could oppose it, stopping it from becoming law.
Instead of judging political progress simply by asking whether China is becoming more democratic, Humane Authority provides a more comprehensive and culturally sensitive way of judging its political progress.
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On a separate piece of paper, answer the following questions.
1- What is the author’s thesis?
2- How does the author support his thesis?
3- How would the author’s vision of a superior government function?
4- Evaluate the author’s conclusions. Do you agree or disagree? Support your answer.
5- Determine the strengths and weaknesses of the author’s thesis. Where might you argue with the author? Provide your arguments.