Song China and Neo-Confuciasm Flashcards
Today’s Outline
1.The shift southward
2.Song cities
3.Money and the New Policies
4.Neo-Confucianism
China is divided in north and south
North = succesion of dynasties
Song china focused today as the rise of the philosophical
Center of gravity southward
Cities
Money and economy and set of new policies
The Rise of the South
*Two eras in Song history – Northern (960-1126), with capital in Kaifeng (Bianjing), and Southern (1127-1279), with capital in Hangzhou (Lin’an)
*Population shift south from late Tang through Song
*Agricultural development, like double cropped rice, linked to shift
Two separate era
Northern and southern song = moves southern cuz conquest (even the capital) of non chinese group of north china (find name) = new dynasty = new break
Move south of capital = not only way center of gravity shifted = economy and cultural world in late song dynasty = 742 = 60% (60M) millet in the north
980 = 100M = 60% in the south and increase
Most chinese live south of yangtze river
Why shift? Why pop grow in the south and not in the north? Early south = swampy lad, diseases = political exiles BUT settlers learned to drain swamps and people could move into lowlands and agricultural production (lots of water, rice to flood seedlings, hard compared to millet, but rice fields had technological advances) + new type of rice with shorter time from vietnam and produce two harvests per year = didnt taste good but then hybrids and double crop rice = increease of agricultural productivity unlike the north
Production of rice increases = less land per farmers needed = shift away to agriculture to produce good and create commerce
Agri = not only domain with advances
Annual iron is huge = 6times as eaarly 9th century = sent to eithong = military equipment and state worshops = military and normal products
Iron and Song Industry
Selton = to produce iron by using water = elite families, then use coal to produce energy, precursers to industrial revolution in europe but doesnt use fossil fuel more widly
Kaifeng (Bianjing)
*Less perfectly ordered than Chang’an had been
*Highly commercialized, and commerce not confined geographically
*Women played a major role in commercial activity
Cities of song china = arrangement and layout were diff from changan even if reach massive sides
Biggest city and dense in the world at the time = heart of china and weel connected to eaily supplied by provinces
Disa= open north china plain = vulnerable to floods and attacks from the north & lacks boundaries and organisation compared to changan and lacked it for rulers
Map = looks organized, grew from the wall cities and suburbs crawled and wasnt as net (not like changan in tang) lacked spiritual beliefs, not arranged in grid, insisted for irregularity for defensive purposes = irregular layout VS internal walls that closed off at night for a curfew = didnt have that and curfew is not so strict and fell off eventually entirely
Dont have blocked off parted
Limited market areas in chongan = entire city has shops that flourished and raised value of urban land = shops, brothels, tea shops, entertainment (theaters) = to have a city with the level to spend that much money to use these luxuries = development of a more complex economy = carried out by a women = theory could not do anything = but they rand shops and sell stuff and move freely (last before footbiding)
Elite = managed financed when women had gov affairs
Had to know to handle money and properties cuz had dowries and were responsible to their land (husband, parents) (diff to years to come cuz neo-confuciasm)
Hangzhou (Lin’an)
*Even more dense and crowded than Kaifeng/Bianjing
*Imperial palace was forced into a corner of the city in the south, not centrally located
*The most commercialized city in Chinese history to that point, aided by its location on the southern end of the Grand Canal
*Merchants achieved fairly high social status
*Even more dense and crowded than Kaifeng/Bianjing
*Imperial palace was forced into a corner of the city in the south, not centrally located
*The most commercialized city in Chinese history to that point, aided by its location on the southern end of the Grand Canal
*Merchants achieved fairly high social status
Move to hanzhou = lost part of empire = traumatising = sense among the elite = culture of the central plains and has been lost = hangzhou is prosperous anc ommercial city but isnt where chine empires ahs been
First song emperors that it is temperory capital before reconquest but didnt
Became as more populous and dense, maybe even more that kaifong, hardly any place to put the court, move into modest buildings and imperial building based on the south
Needed to face south for rituals = but facing away from the city = maps were drawn to hide it (square, palace more centraly located) and main axis and unlike kaifong, turns west and not simitrical and ordered for the need of commerce.
Commerce flourished in hangzhou = lower rank merchands can reach top of society and intermarrying scholar official elites
Shops and trade everywhere, canal for goods and with giant werehouses for products = revenues to taxing them, especially on salt, alcohol, tea =
new model of urbanism = less ordered and layed out, otehr east asian cites will be modelled on either of both capitals = show devlopment of song period
Economic policies
Policy Debates: Sima Guang
*Sima Guang led the historicists
*Looked to recent past for policy examples
*Wrote the Comprehensive Mirror for Aid in Government (Zizhi tongjian 資治通鑒)
Light = prices are important = how to manage it
State policie schools
1 - historicist, led by sima guang = people as foundation of the house = individual hearts and model policies to keep past, to see what could work, aid = influencial story of china history =diff interpretation of the events and understand it better
2 - classicist = wang anshi = dominant approach until his death = hsit is not radical enough = need to remain the age of the sgae kings = interpretation of classics to teach students
Practical questions = moeny
Jhist = suspicious and limit state intervention = basis construct between poor and rich shouldnt be altered, have stagnisy
Wang = gov could make policies to bring empire state receipt and overturn relations to support position of poor agaisnst the rich, whole new life, and do more
Aeconomy based on money now, more effective economy = could be produced by state by paper moeny
Sichuan province = accident to create paper moeny = prosperous aggricultural region = not more coins and bronze = lets use iron coins but too low currency = merchants dev paper current non-officially and have deposits
Notes replaced iron coins and state recognized it at 11th cenntury = monopoly on creation of notes = pb = fail to honor value of paper money = stolen from people = zone of circulation to all china = use of money as solution to state problems = cash salaries, promoted merchands by moey, green sprout reform
Wang Anshi and the New Policies
*Wang Anshi led the “Classicists”
*Believed radical reform could bring China back to age of the sage kings
*Focused on expanding use of money, including support for printing paper money
*Green Sprouts program intended to relieve debt of peasants, ultimately failed
Green sporut = didnt have grain left and would have to buy new ones until they sell crops are cheap, always in debt
Breaking cycle and serve the empire = pay back and loans after the harvest
Instead of being payed back and state would control prices and access easoer to ressources but fail apart
Officials to run program = can make more moeny if charge interest rate = bring more noeny = promote officails by money = and then got promoted = debt from state instead of merchants
Loans made by money lenders
Sima = not supported program and was right = only substistance and if cash, had to use it more and be in debt
New policies and attempt made 14 years after his death
Lives of elites = schools = banned each other from offices and exiles depending on who had the power = upper elite = begins to weaken = diff positijon cuz purged and reabilitated = local leader didnt shift and rise of power there = effect = diminsument of status of women = cuz important in big elites = local not as important to get personal advancement through marrying and decline to dowaries of status of elite women
Neo-Confucianism and the Cheng Brothers
*Cheng Hao (1032-1085) and Cheng Yi (1033-1107)
*Developed idea that Mencius, Doctrine of the Mean, and the Great Learning were key texts of Confucianism, alongside the Analects
*Developed idea of “principle” (li) as ordering factor in universe
Most important school one of = rise of new version of confuciasm = diff names in chinese = restablish conf ideas against bud and dao = n and s periods = rise in buddhism = reaction to put confu back on top = thinlkers = clearing out erros in confuciam = but incorporate ideas from b and d
3 key figures = two brothers, n song dyn = hao, older and more successful career, more honored, yi repsonsible to dev ideas = claims to learining of the wei = encouragement of brother and became one of the property carried on ideas (why mencius is still there?) = identify in chaoters in and confucian cannon = concept of li = founfation of all truth and values = pure set of pattern that bring order and strutcure but covered by qi = clear from dirty influence of qi = shape and ofrm of all imperial events
Lead accurate perception of right and wrong = basis of proper self-culviationn = investigation of things = basic principles of how to become a better person
Contreversial ideas = prohibited and personal trouble = elivated to a central position by zhu xi, most influencal and important confucais thinkers
Zhu Xi
*Endorsed ideas of the Cheng brothers
*Wrote influential commentaries on the “four books” (the texts the Cheng brothers had elevated to importance) that would become basis of exam curriculum in later periods
*Saw the role of principle/li as tied to Mencius’s positive view of human nature
*His book Family Rituals helped reshape gender norms and lead to creation of complex lineage organizations
Endorsed ideas of cheng = notion of li and qi = similar to distinction to buddhist though but deny it
Set of commentaries = interpretation of old texts = zhu xi = basis of exam curricuculm on clssic and repeat his ideas in commentaries
Another feature of use of li and qi = endorsement of mencius and degredation on xi zei = enhretly good (li, source of goodness) = engage in meditative practice and reflect around you and very important in zhu xi = quiet sitting and relfecting on internal things baout yourself unlike b
Family rituals = structure of fami;y life in elites = patrial lines, ancestor lines, inspirrtion to lineage ? = accumulate to support ancestral rights= converted practice of women is dimished = women to be committed to one husband, evem widowed
Recap
*China’s center of gravity shifted south between the mid Tang and the mid Song
*Song cities were far more commercially vibrant than those of earlier periods, less restricted than the hyper-controlled Tang capital
*Growth of commercial economy and use of money was tied to the New Policy reforms of Wang Anshi, which were highly controversial and led to substantial and vicious factional infighting among the Song central elite
*Neo-Confucian ideas developed by key Song thinkers (Cheng brothers and Zhu Xi) would reshape Chinese philosophy and Chinese society until the modern era
The Qingming scroll
How can we use art/painting as a historical value?
- Other references and crossing references
- Who made it and who they were = perspective and experiences
- Idealized ideas
- Modify reality, find elements that are still factual
- Separating what is embelished and what is not, learn from that embelishment
- Quality can reflect development (material, painting, colors)
- Clothing (social class has one type of cloth in the painting, fashion, fabrics, social structure)
- Material culture of an era (what they had and what it looked like)
- Technology (boats, bridges)
- Connections with other places = awareness even if they do not use them as much
- Daily lifes, interractions, religions
- Women’s rights and social situations/statuses
- Art not reserved to upper classes = ability to interract, what is worth depicting = but no homeless people depicted
- Social function of art
- Difference between cultures and periods, reflect what is being focused on
- EA political values =conf= merchants are bottom of society = mercantile activity to be attractive = values = orthodox morality isnt reflected in a diff form of cultural production
PAINTING+ARTICLE
valerie hanson =
- city is not kaifong (capital northern song)
- argument :
- no landmarks specific to kaifong (temple, pagoda, iconic building)
- lack of soldiers = conflicts and not see soldiers at the gates would be peculiar
- lay off of the scroll = not geographically following kaifong
- no homeless and poor and sick people
- not realistic depiction of kaifond VS not a depiction of kaifong
- density and buildings = doesnt seem to be it
- other sources = data is not matching
- political argument = statement of what an ideal city should be
- qingming festival = no caracterization of this celebration
- choose scene and figure out what’s happening & think what we might learn and questions it raises about song society
- money? what did they use for exchange? how much was it in the economy?
- bridge and boat = technological advances, how well were they able to handle agriculture? how much boats are going into the city? how was security at sea being presented?
- business, moving things
- lots of shops
- important bridge = lot of interest in recent times = hight is fairly complex to preduce = and underside = didnt match known bridge making technology = try to make a bridge like this = were able to do it? = high and wide single arche
seal scripts = intentionally archaic = used in stamps =
manchu seal scripts = examples of jin period
stamp of a collector next to the gates?
scholars
- only talking to each other if not same status
- diff groups = less socially intergrated (storyteller)
- when it was painted = after the fall according to her
- nostalgia from the painting
- lack of soldiers or strong fortifications
- style is more similar to the one in a cave which is dated = after
- very detailed = so later
- inscription from an emperor
- women’s role = looked more confined
- why important to date?
- perceptions of city is not there to live it, and just memories
- values from after coming in
- diff if you want them to reflect on a lost past or what they see
- projecting present values in the past
