Chinese Cultural Studies: Concise Political History of China
Concise Political History of China
Compiled from Compton's Living Encyclopedia on America Online (August 1995)
1. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTINUITY
A significant aspect of China is its long cultural and national history. The Chinese   people have shared a common culture longer than any other group on Earth. The Chinese   writing system, for example, dates back almost 4,000 years. The imperial dynastic system   of government, which continued for centuries, was established as early as 221 BC. Although   specific dynasties were overturned, the dynastic system survived. China was even ruled at   times by foreign invaders, such as the Mongols during the Yuan Dynasty, from AD 1279 to   1368, and the Manchus during the Ch'ing Dynasty, from AD 1644 to 1911, but the foreigners   were largely absorbed into the culture they governed. It is as if the Roman Empire had   lasted from the time of the Caesars to the 20th century, and during that time had evolved   a cultural system and written language shared by all the peoples of Europe.
The dynastic system was overturned in 1911, and a weak republican form of government   existed until 1949. In that year, after a long civil war, the People's Republic of China,   with a Communist government, was proclaimed. This government and the ruling Communist   party have controlled China ever since. Although the dynastic system has disappeared, the   People's Republic occupies essentially the same territory and governs the same people. If   anything, the culture and power of China seem stronger in the late 20th century than at   almost any other period in history. Under the People's Republic, China's role in world   economic and political affairs has grown increasingly more important.
2. BEGINNINGS AND EARLY HISTORY
Archaeological evidence suggests that China is one of the cradles of the human race.   The earliest known human in China, whose fossilized skull was unearthed in Shanxi Province   in 1963, is believed to date back to 600,000 BC. The remains of Sinanthropus pekinensis,   known as Peking Man and dating back to 400,000 BC, were excavated in 1923 at   Zhoukoudianzhen near Peking. Peking Man was closely related to Pithecanthropus of Java and   lived during the Old Stone Age. In the upper caves of Zhoukoudianzhen are found artifacts   of a late Old Stone Age man (50,000-35,000 BC), who ranks in age with the Cro-Magnon of   Europe. This was an early form of Homo sapiens, or modern man, who made tools out of bones   as well as stones, made clothes out of animal hides, and knew how to make fire.
Around the 4th or 3rd millennium BC, in the New Stone Age, great changes occurred in   the lives of the ancient Chinese. Larger numbers of people began living together at   settled places, cultivating land, and domesticating animals. These people made polished   stone tools and built shelters in pit dwellings and beehive huts that were covered with   reed roofs. Such villages were found mostly in the area of the great bend of the Huang He   on the North China Plain. Despite its severe winters, this area was well suited to   agriculture. In fact, it closely resembled the other cradles of ancient civilizations,   such as the valley of the Nile in Egypt.
The people of this period (3000-2000 BC) also developed the art of making pottery for   storing food and drink. Two distinct types have been discovered: red clay pots with   swirling black designs in the northwest near Yangshao village, and smooth black pottery in   northeast China near Lungshan, a site in Shandong Province.
3. SHANG DYNASTY
The Chinese had settled in the Huang He, or Yellow River, valley of northern China by   3000 BC. By then they had pottery, wheels, farms, and silk, but they had not yet   discovered writing or the uses of metals.
The Shang Dynasty (1766-1122 BC) is the first documented era of ancient China. The   highly developed hierarchy consisted of a king, nobles, commoners, and slaves. The capital   city was Anyang, in north Henan Province. Some scholars have suggested that travelers from   Mesopotamia and from Southeast Asia brought agricultural methods to China, which   stimulated the growth of ancient Chinese civilization. The Shang peoples were known for   their use of jade, bronze, horse-drawn chariots, ancestor worship, and highly organized   armies.
Like other ancient peoples, the Chinese developed unique attributes. Their form of   writing, developed by 2000 BC, was a complex system of picture writing using forms called   ideograms, pictograms, and phonograms. Such early forms of Chinese became known through   the discovery by archaeologists of oracle bones, which were bones with writings inscribed   on them. They were used for fortune-telling and record keeping in ancient China.
Bone libraries and others: ancient times. The earliest known libraries were   connected with palaces and temples. In China, records of the Shang dynasty (1767?-1123?   BC) were written on animal bones and tortoise shells. An early library called "The   Healing Place of the Soul," in the palace of Egypt's King Ramses II (1304?-1237 BC)   at Thebes, consisted of thousands of papyrus scrolls. Among the most important libraries   in the ancient Near East was the palace library of Ashurbanipal (668?-627? BC) at Nineveh   in Assyria. This early type of national library, collected "for the sake of distant   days," consisted of over 30,000 clay tablets. Early librarians were usually priests,   teachers, or scholars. The first known Chinese librarian was the philosopher Lao Tse, who   was appointed keeper of the royal historical records for the Chou rulers about 550 BC.
4. CHOU DYNASTY (1122-221 BC)
The Chou Dynasty (1122-221 BC) saw the full flowering of ancient civilization in China.   During this period the empire was unified, a middle class arose, and iron was introduced.   The sage Confucius (551-479 BC) developed the code of ethics that dominated Chinese   thought and culture for the next 25 centuries (See Confucius).
The Chou conquest of the Shang was given an important meaning by later moralistic   interpretations of the event. The Chou kings, whose chief deity was heaven, called   themselves "Sons of Heaven," and their success in overcoming the Shang was seen   as the "mandate of heaven." From this time on, Chinese rulers were called "Sons of Heaven" and the Chinese Empire, the "Celestial Empire." The   transfer of power from one dynasty to the next was based on the mandate of heaven.
Chou rule in China continued for nearly nine centuries. During that time great advances   were made. The long period of the Chou Dynasty is divided into two subperiods: Western   (Early) and Eastern (Later) Chou, named for the locations of the capitals.
Western (Early) Chou (1122-771 BC).
Western Chou territory covered most of the North China Plain. It was divided into about   200 princely domains. The Chou political system was similar to the feudal system of   medieval Europe. The Chou people combined hunting and agriculture for a living.   Associating the success or failure of crops with the disposition of nature, the people   prayed to numerous nature gods for good harvests. One of the ruler's duties was to placate   heaven and Earth for all people. Failure to do so deprived him of the right to rule. Such   beliefs are still widely held today among the Chinese people. Ancestor worship also   developed during the Chou period and has been important in East Asia for the last 2,000   years.
The Chou were invaded in 771 BC by a less cultured, more militaristic people from the   northwest. The capital was moved east to Luoyang. From this point on, the dates are   considered reliable. The manner in which the Western Chou fell followed a pattern that was   repeated throughout Chinese history. People who led a nomadic, or wandering, life in the   northern steppe land would invade settled agricultural communities to solve periodic food   shortages.
The conflict between the nomads and settled farmers has been a continuing feature of   Chinese history. Settled Chinese called the nomads "barbarians," a term applied   to all peoples of non-Chinese culture up to the 20th century. From this concept an idea   developed that China was the center of the
civilized world, hence the traditional name "Middle Kingdom/Country," referring to China.
Eastern (Later) Chou (771-221 BC).
The Eastern Chou is also two periods. The first is Ch'un Ch'iu, the Spring and Autumn   period (771-481 BC), named for a book credited to Confucius. The second is Chan-kuo, the   Warring States period
(481-221 BC).
In the Spring and Autumn period, iron replaced bronze for tools and weapons. The use of   iron led to an increase in agricultural output, growth of the population, and warfare   among the states. By the 4th century BC the number of states had shrunk to seven. In 256   BC the princes of those states assumed the title of king, stopped paying homage to the   Chou king, and continued to fight for supremacy. The strongest of the seven states was   Ch'in.
The disruption caused by this prolonged warfare had a number of long-range   consequences. One was the rise of a new social group, the scholars (shi). They were   forerunners of the scholar-officials of the Chinese Empire, who became the most   influential group in China. In the Later Chou period, however, they were a relatively   small group of learned people. Often wandering from state to state in search of permanent   employment, the shi worked as tutors to the children of feudal princes and as advisers to   various state governments. The most famous of these scholarly shi was Confucius.
5. CH'IN EMPIRE (221-206 BC)
After nearly 900 years, the Chou Dynasty came to an end when the state of Ch'in, the   strongest of the seven surviving states, unified China and established the first empire in   221 BC. The Ch'in empire did not last long, but it left two enduring legacies: the name   China and the idea and structure of the empire. This heritage outlasted the Ch'in Dynasty   itself by more than 2,000 years. (See Ch'in Dynasty)
The first Ch'in emperor was called Ch'in Shih Huang Ti. The title of emperor was used   for the first time in Chinese history to set the Ch'in ruler apart--as the ruler of the   unified land--from the kings, the heads of the earlier, smaller states. The construction   of massive palaces and the ceremony of the court further enhanced the power of the emperor   by inspiring awe in the people.
A centralized bureaucracy replaced the old feudal system. The empire was divided into   provinces and counties, which were governed by centrally appointed governors and   magistrates. The former ruling families who had inherited their places in the aristocracy   were uprooted and forced to live in the capital of Xianyang. Other centralizing policies   included census taking and standardization of the writing system and weights and measures.
The Ch'in army conducted massive military campaigns to complete the unification of the   empire and expand its territory. The Ch'in empire stretched from the Mongolian plateau in   the north to Vietnam in the south. As with rulers before and after him, the first emperor   was preoccupied with defending his territory against northern nomads. After waging several   successful campaigns, the emperor ordered the building of the wall of "ten thousand   li" (a li is a Chinese unit of distance) to protect the empire. This task involved   connecting the separate walls that were built by former northern states to form the famous   Great Wall. The Ten Thousand Li Wall, as it is known in China, is 1,500 miles (2,400   kilometers) long, from 15 to 50 feet (5 to 15 meters) high, and from 15 to 25 feet (5 to 8   meters) wide. Although closely linked with the first ruler of the Ch'in Empire, the wall   as it stands today dates mainly from the later Ming Dynasty.
Ch'in Shih Huang Ti's harsh rule provoked much opposition. The emperor feared the   scholars most. He had them rounded up and put them to death or sent them into exile. Many   went into hiding. Moreover, all books, except technical ones, were confiscated and burned.   In the last years of his life, Ch'in Shih Huang Ti became fearful of threats on his life   and lived in complete secrecy. He also became obsessed with obtaining immortality. He died   in 210 BC in Shandong Province, far from the capital of Xianyang, during one of his long   quests to find the elixir of life.
The Ch'in empire disintegrated rapidly after the death of the first emperor. The   legitimate heir was killed in a palace intrigue, and a less able prince was put on the   throne. Conditions worsened throughout the empire. In 209 BC, rebellions erupted all over   China. Two men had the largest following. Hsiang Yu was a general of aristocratic   background; Liu Pang was a minor official from a peasant family. By 206 BC rebels had   subdued the Ch'in army and destroyed the capital. The struggle between Hsiang Yu and Liu   Pang continued for the next four years, however, until Liu Pang emerged as the victor in   202 BC. Taking the title of Kao Tsu, High Progenitor, he established the Han Dynasty.
6. THE HAN EMPIRE (202 BC-AD 220)
The four-century-long Han rule is divided into two periods: the Earlier or Western Han   and the Later or Eastern Han. In between these two was the short-lived Hsin Dynasty (AD   9-23).
Earlier (Western) Han (202 BC-AD 9).
The Han Kao Tsu preserved many features of the Ch'in imperial system, such as the   administrative division of the country and the central bureaucracy. But the Han rulers   lifted the Ch'in ban on philosophical and historical writings. Han Kao Tsu called for the   services of men of talent, not only to restore the destroyed classics but to serve as   officials in the government. From that time, the Chinese Empire was governed by a body of   officials theoretically selected on merit. Such a practice has few parallels elsewhere at   this early date in human history.
In 124 BC, during the reign of Wu Ti (140-87, the Martial Emperor), an imperial   university was set up for the study of Confucian classics. The university recruited   talented students, and the state supported them. Starting with 50 when the university   first opened, the number of government-supported students reached 30,000 by the end of the   Han Dynasty. Emperor Wu also established Confucianism as the official doctrine of the   state. This designation lasted until the end of the Chinese Empire.
The Early Han faced two major difficulties: invasions by the barbarian Huns and the   influence of the imperial consort families. In the Han Dynasty, the Huns (known as   Hsiung-nu by the Chinese) threatened the expanding Chinese Empire from the north. Starting   in Wu Ti's reign, costly, almost century-long campaigns had to be carried out to establish   Chinese sovereignty along the northern and northwestern borders. Wu Ti also waged   aggressive campaigns to incorporate northern Korea in 108 BC and northern Annam in 111 BC   into the Han empire. The Early Han's other difficulty started soon after the first   emperor's death. The widowed Empress Lu dominated politics and almost succeeded in taking   the throne for her family. Thereafter, families of the empresses exerted great political   influence. In AD 9 Wang Mang, a nephew of the empress, seized the throne and founded a new   dynasty of Hsin.
Wang Mang's overambitious reform program alienated him from the landlords. At the same   time the peasants, disappointed with Wang's inability to push through the reform, rose in   rebellion. In AD 17 a rebel group in Shandong painted their faces red (hence their name,   Red Eyebrows) and adopted religious symbols, a practice later repeated by peasants who   rebelled in times of extreme difficulty. Wang Mang's force was defeated, and he was killed   in AD 23.
Later (Eastern) Han (AD 23-220).
The new ruler who restored peace and order was a member of the house of Han, the   original Liu family. His title was Kuang Wu Ti, "Shining Martial Emperor," from   AD 25 to 57. During the Later Han, which lasted another 200 years, a concerted but   unsuccessful effort was made to restore the glory of the former Han. The Later Han scored   considerable success in recovering lost territories, however. Sent to befriend the tribes   on the northwestern frontier in AD 73, a great diplomat-general, Pan Ch'ao, eventually led   an army of 70,000 almost to the borders of eastern Europe. Pan Ch'ao returned to China in   101 and brought back information about the Roman Empire. The Romans also knew about China,   but they thought of it only as the land where silk was produced.
The Later Han period was particularly plagued with evils caused by eunuchs, castrated   males recruited from the lower classes to serve as bodyguards for the imperial harem.   Coming from uneducated and poor backgrounds, they were ruthlessly ambitious once they were   placed within reach of power. Toward the end of the Later Han, power struggles between the   eunuchs and the landlord-officials were prolonged and destructive. Peasant rebellions of   the Taoist-leaning Yellow Turbans in 184 and the Five Pecks of Rice in 190 led to the rise   of generals who massacred over 2,000 eunuchs, destroyed the capital, and one after another   became dictators. By 207 General Ts'ao Ts'ao had emerged as dictator in the north. When he   died in 220 his son removed the powerless emperor and established the kingdom of Wei. The   Eastern Han came to an end, and the empire was divided into the three kingdoms of Wei, Shu   Han, and Wu. The pattern of the rise and fall of Han was to be repeated in later periods.   This characteristic came to be known as the dynastic cycle.
Han culture.
The Chinese show their pride in Han accomplishments by calling themselves the Han   people. Philosophies and institutions that began in the Chou and Ch'in periods reached   maturity under the Han. During Han times, the Chinese distinguished themselves in making   scientific discoveries, many of which were not known to Westerners until centuries later.   The Chinese were most advanced in astronomy. They invented sundials and water clocks,   divided the day equally into ten and then into 12 periods, devised the lunar calendar that   continued to be used until 1912, and recorded sunspots regularly. In mathematics, the   Chinese were the first to use the place value system, whereby the value of a component of   a number is indicated by its placement. Other innovations were of a more practical nature:   wheelbarrows, locks to control water levels in streams and canals, and compasses.
The Han Chinese were especially distinguished in the field of art. The famous sculpture   of the "Han flying horse" and the carving of the jade burial suit found in Han   period tombs are only two superb examples. The technique of making lacquer ware was also   highly developed. The Chinese are proudest of the tradition of historical writing that   began in the Han period. Ssu-ma Ch'ien (145?-85? BC) was grand historian (an office that   combined the duties of court recorder and astronomer) during the time of Wu Ti. His   `Historical Records', which took ten years to complete, established the pattern and style   followed by subsequent histories. In the Later Han, the historical tradition was continued   by the Pan family. Pan Piao, the father, started to bring Ssu-ma Ch'ien's `Records' up to   date. The work was continued by his son Pan Ku (twin brother of the general Pan Ch'ao) and   was completed by his daughter Pan Chao, China's earliest and most famous woman scholar.   Unlike Ssu-ma Ch'ien, the Pan family limited their work to 230 years of the Early Han.   This was the first of the dynastic histories, subsequently written for every dynasty. Pan   Chao also wrote a highly influential work on the education of women, `Lessons for Women'.   `Lessons' emphasized the "virtues" of women, which restricted women's   activities. The Confucianism that the Han Dynasty restored differed from the original   teachings of Confucius. The leading Han philosophers, Tung Chung-shu and others, used   principles derived from the early Chinese philosophy of nature to interpret the ancient   texts. The Chinese philosophy of nature explained the workings of the universe by the   alternating forces of yin and yang--dark and light--and the five elements: earth, wood,   metal, fire, and water. The Han period was marked by a broad eclecticism. Many Han   emperors favored Taoism, especially the Taoist idea of immortality.
7. THE PERIOD OF DISUNITY (220-581)
After the fall of the Later Han, the Chinese Empire remained divided for three and a   half centuries. The first half-century began with the domination of the Three Kingdoms:   Wei under the Ts'ao family in the north, Shu Han under Liu Pei in the southwest, and Wu   under Sun Ch'uan in the southeast. Invaders from the north soon overran the kingdoms and   set up their own states, but the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), established by one of the   barbarian tribes, the Toba, was the only one to last. Four dynasties established by the   Chinese ruled in the south during the 4th and 5th centuries. The Three Kingdoms period was   made famous by the novel `Romance of the Three Kingdoms', which glamorized the period as   an age of chivalry.
8. THE SUI DYNASTY (581-618).
The prolonged period of disunity finally ended when a general from the northwest united   China by establishing the new dynasty of Sui. A second great period of imperial unity was   begun. The relationship of the Sui to the succeeding T'ang Dynasty was much like that of   the Ch'in to the Han. It served as the unifying foundation on which its successor could   build. The first Sui emperor, Wen Ti, introduced a series of economic reforms, such as   reduction of the peasants' taxes, a careful census for equitable tax collection, and   restoration of the equal allocation system used in the Northern Wei. Every taxable male   received a grant of land, part of which was returnable when he ceased to be a taxpayer at   age 60 and part of which he could pass on to his heirs. He also revived the Han system of   examinations based on Confucian classics.
Sui Wen Ti's premature death might have been caused by his ambitious son Yang Ti, whose   grandiose projects and military campaigns ultimately led to the Sui's downfall. Some of   his projects were productive, especially the construction of the Grand Canal, which linked   up the Huang, Huai, and Yangtze rivers and connected north and south China.
Yang Ti's overly ambitious scheme of expanding his empire led to disastrous wars   against Korea. After a series of futile expeditions, the Chinese army of over a million   was defeated and forced to flee. In 618, Yang Ti was assassinated in an army coup; one of   the coup leaders, Li Shih-min, installed his father as emperor, founding the T'ang   Dynasty. After about a decade, during which he was able to secure his father's abdication,   he took the throne himself in 626 as the emperor T'ai Tsung.
9. THE T'ANG DYNASTY (618-907).
The T'ang emperors set up a political system in which the emperor was supreme and   government officials were selected on the bases of merit and education. The early T'ang   rulers applied the equal allocation system rigorously to bring about a greater equity in   taxation and to insure the flow of taxes to the government. A census was taken every three   years to enforce the system, which also involved drafting people to do labor. These   measures led to an agricultural surplus and the development of units of uniform value for   the principal commodities, two of the most important prerequisites for the growth of   commerce and cities.
The T'ang capital of Chang'an was one of the greatest commercial and cosmopolitan   cities in the world at that time. Like most capitals of China, Chang'an was composed of   three parts: the palace, the imperial city, and the outer city, separated from each other   by mighty walls.
The T'ang was a period of great imperial expansion, which reached its greatest height   in the first half of the 8th century. At that time, Chinese control was recognized by   people from Tibet and Central Asia in the west to Mongolia, Manchuria (now the Northeast   region of China), and Korea in the
north and Annam in the south.
The An Lu-shan rebellion.
Most of the T'ang accomplishments were attained during the first century of the   dynasty's rule, through the early part of Emperor Hsuan Tsung's long reign from 712 to   756. However, late in his reign he neglected government affairs to indulge in his love of   art and study. This led to the rise of viceroys, commanders responsible for military and   civil affairs in the regions. An Lu-shan was a powerful viceroy commanding the northwest   border area. He had both connections at the imperial court and hidden imperial ambitions.   In 755 he rose in rebellion.
The emperor fled the capital with an ill-equipped army. These troops soon rebelled and   forced the emperor to abdicate in favor of his son.
The new emperor raised a new army to fight the rebels. An Lu-shan was assassinated in   757, but the war dragged on until 763. Afterward, the Chinese Empire virtually   disintegrated once again. The provinces remained under the control of various regional   commanders. The dynasty continued to linger on for another century, but the T'ang empire   never fully recovered the central authority, prosperity, and peace of its first century.
The most serious problem of the last century of T'ang was the rise of great landlords   who were exempt from taxation. Unable to pay the exorbitant taxes collected twice a year   after the An Lu-shan rebellion, peasants would place themselves under the protection of a   landlord or become bandits. Peasant uprisings, beginning with the revolt under the   leadership of Huang Ch'ao in the 870s, left much of central China in ruins.
In 881 Huang Ch'ao's rebels, now numbering over 600,000 people, destroyed the capital,   forcing the imperial court to move east to Luoyang. Another rebel leader founded a new   dynasty, called Later Liang, at Kaifeng in Henan Province in 907, but he was unable to   unify all China under his rule. This second period of disunity lasted only half a century.   Once again, however, China was divided between north and south, with five dynasties in the   north and ten kingdoms in the south.
T'ang culture. Buddhist influence in art, especially in sculpture, was strong   during the T'ang period. Fine examples of Buddhist sculpture are preserved in rock   temples, such as those at Yongang and Longmen in northwest China. The invention of   printing and improvements in papermaking led to the printing of a whole set of Buddhist   sutras (discourses of the Buddha) by 868. By the beginning of the 11th century all of the   Confucian classics and the Taoist canon had been printed. In secular literature, the T'ang   is especially well known for poetry. The great T'ang poets such as Li Po and Tu Fu were   nearly all disillusioned officials.
The T'ang period marked the beginnings of China's early technological advancement over   other civilizations in the fields of shipbuilding and firearms development. Both reached   new heights in the succeeding dynasty of Sung.
Papermaking; Firearms By the 13th century papermaking spread throughout Europe.   Paper was a Chinese invention. It had been adopted by the Persians and then by the Arabs,   who brought the art to Europe. (See Paper)
Powder (not gunpowder, because guns were not yet known) and fireworks rockets were   introduced into Europe in the 1200s. They had been invented in China some years earlier.
The earliest mention of firearms is in a Dutch chronicle dated 1313. It states that   firearms were invented in Germany. The first picture of a primitive cannon can be found in   an English manuscript dated 1326. (See Rocket; Explosive; Firearms)
10. THE SUNG DYNASTY (960-1279)
Over 300 years of Sung history is divided into the two periods of Northern and Southern   Sung. Because of the barbarian occupation of northern China the second half of the Sung   rule was confined to the area south of the Huai River.
Northern Sung (960-1126). General Chao K'uang-yin, later known as Sung T'ai Tsu,   was said to have been coerced to become emperor in order to unify China. Wary of   power-hungry commanders, Sung T'ai Tsu made the military into a national army under his   direct control. Under his less capable successors, however, the military increasingly lost   prestige. Unfortunately for China, the weakening of the military coincided with the rise of successive strong nomad nations on the borders.
In contrast to the military's loss of prestige, the civil service rose in dignity. The   examination system that had been restored in the Sui and T'ang was further elaborated and   regularized. Selection examinations were held every three years at the district,   provincial, and metropolitan levels.
Only 200 out of thousands of applicants were granted the jinshi degree, the highest   degree, and appointed to government posts. From this time on, civil servants became   China's most envied elite, replacing the hereditary nobles and landlords.
Sung dominion extended over only part of the territories of earlier Chinese empires.   The Khitans controlled the northeastern territories, and the Hsi Hsia (Western Hsia)   controlled the northwestern territories. Unable to recover these lands, the Sung emperors   were compelled to make peace with the Khitans in 1004 and with the Hsi Hsia in 1044.   Massive payments to the barbarians under the peace terms depleted the state treasury,   caused hardship to taxpaying peasants, and gave rise to a conflict in the court among   advocates of war, those who favored peace, and reformers.
In 1069 Emperor Shen Tsung appointed Wang An-shih as chief minister. Wang proposed a   number of sweeping reforms based on the classical text of the `Rites of Chou'. Many of his "new laws" were actually revivals of earlier policies, but officials and   landlords opposed his reforms. When the emperor and Wang died within a year of each other,   the new laws were withdrawn. For the next several decades, until the fall of the Northern   Sung in 1126, the reformers and antireformers alternated in power, creating havoc and   turmoil in government.
In an effort to regain territory lost to the Khitans, the Sung sought an alliance with   the newly powerful Juchens from Manchuria. Once the alliance had expelled the Khitans,   however, the Juchens turned on the Sung and occupied the capital of Kaifeng. The Juchens   established the dynasty of Chin, a name meaning "gold," which lasted from 1115   to 1234, in the north. They took the emperor and his son prisoner, along with 3,000   others, and ordered them to be held in Manchuria.
Southern Sung (1126-1279). Another imperial son fled south and settled in 1127   at Hangzhou, where he resumed the Sung rule as the emperor Kao Tsung. The Sung retained   control south of the Huai River, where they ruled for another one and a half centuries.
Although militarily weak and limited in area, the Southern Sung represented one of   China's most brilliant periods of cultural, commercial, maritime, and technological   development. Despite the loss of the north, trade continued to expand, enabling a   commercial revolution to take place in the 13th century. Cut off from the traditional   overland trade routes, Sung merchants turned to the ocean with the aid of such   improvements as compasses and huge oceangoing ships called junks. The development of a   paper money economy stimulated commercial growth and kept it going.
End of the Southern Sung. While the Sung ruling class and the imperial court   indulged themselves in art and luxurious living in the urban centers, the latest nomad   empire arose in the north. The formidable Mongol armies, conquerors of Eurasia as far west   as eastern Europe and of Korea in the east, descended on the Southern Sung.
Culture in the Sung period.
The Sung period was noted for landscape painting, which in time came to be considered   the highest form of classical art. The city-dwelling people of the Sung period   romanticized nature. This romanticism, combined with a mystical, Taoist approach to nature   and a Buddhist-inspired contemplative mood, was reflected in landscape paintings showing   people dwarfed by nature.
In philosophy, the trend away from Buddhism and back to Confucianism, which had begun   in the late T'ang, continued. Pure and simple restoration of the ancient teaching was   impossible, however, because Confucianism had been challenged by Buddhism and Taoism.   Confucianism needed to explain humanity and the universe as well as to regulate human   relations within society. In the late T'ang and early Sung, several strands of   Confucianism emerged. The great scholar Chu Hsi synthesized elements of Confucianism,   Buddhism, and Taoism. This reconstituted philosophy became known as Neo-Confucianism, and   it was the orthodox state doctrine until the end of the imperial system. Chu Hsi's   philosophy was one that stressed dualism, the goodness of human nature, and   self-cultivation by education through the continuing "investigation of things."
The Sung scholars and historians also attempted to synthesize history. Ssu-ma Kuang   made the first effort at producing a comprehensive history since Ssu-ma Ch'ien of the Han.   In 294 chapters, he wrote a chronological account of the period from 403 BC to AD 959,   which was abridged by Chu Hsi in the 12th century. Another first in Sung scholarship was   the creation of encyclopedias. `Assembled Essentials on the T'ang', a collection completed   in 961, became the example for the various types of encyclopedic literature that followed.
The Sung period is famous for porcelain with a celadon glaze, which was one of the most   desired items in foreign trade (See Pottery and Porcelain). The development of gunpowder   led to the invention of a type of hand grenade. In shipbuilding, the great seagoing junks   were admired and imitated by Arab and Western sailors. By far the largest ships in the   world at the time, they had watertight compartments and could carry up to 1,000   passengers.
The Sung cities. Oceanic and coastal trade was concentrated in large ports such   as Canton, Hangzhou, and Chuanzhou (Marco Polo's Zayton), where large foreign trading   communities developed. Koreans dominated the trade with the eastern islands, while   Persians and Arabs controlled commerce across the western seas. Along with commercial   expansion came the urbanization, or increasing importance of cities, in Sung society.   Hangzhou, the Southern Sung capital, had a population of more than 2 million.   Commercialization and urbanization had a number of effects on Chinese society. People in   the countryside faced the problems of absentee landlordism. Although many city residents   enjoyed luxury, with a great variety of goods and services, poverty was widespread.
A change associated with urbanization was the decline in the status of women of the   upper classes. With the concentration of the upper classes in the cities, where the work   of women became less essential, women were treated as servants and playthings. This was   reflected in the practices of concubinage and of binding girls' feet to make them smaller.   Neither practice was banned until the 20th century.
11. THE YUAN (Mongol) DYNASTY (1279-1368)
The Mongols were the first of the northern barbarians to rule all of China. After   creating an empire that stretched across the Eurasian continent and occupying northern   China and Korea in the first half of the 13th century, the Mongols continued their assault   on the Southern Sung. By 1276 the Southern Sung capital of Hangzhou had fallen, and in   1279 the last of the Sung loyalists perished.
Before this, Kublai Khan, the fifth "great khan" and grandson of Genghis   Khan, had moved the Mongol capital from Karakorum to Peking. In 1271 he declared himself   emperor of China and named the dynasty Yuan, meaning "beginning," to signify   that this was the beginning of a long era of Mongol rule.
In Asia, Kublai Khan continued his grandfather's dream of world conquest. Two   unsuccessful naval expeditions were launched against Japan in 1274 and 1281. Four land   expeditions were sent against Annam and five against Burma. However, the Mongol conquests   overseas and in Southeast Asia were neither spectacular nor were they long enduring.
Mongol rule in China lasted less than a century. The Mongols became the most hated of   the barbarian rulers because they did not allow the Chinese ruling class to govern.   Instead, they gave the task of governing to foreigners. Distrusting the Chinese, the   Mongol rulers placed the southern Chinese at the lowest level of the four classes they   created. The extent of this distrust was reflected in their provincial administration. As   conquerers, they followed the Ch'in example and made the provincial governments into   direct extensions of the central chancellery. This practice was continued by succeeding   dynasties, resulting in a further concentration of power in the central imperial   government.
The Chinese despised the Mongols for refusing to adapt to Chinese culture. The Mongols   kept their own language and customs. The Mongol rulers were tolerant about religions,   however. Kublai Khan reportedly dabbled in many religions.
The Mongols and the West. The Mongols were regarded with mixed feelings in the   West. Although Westerners dreaded the Mongols, the Crusaders hoped to use them in their   fight against the Muslims and attempted to negotiate an alliance with them for this   purpose. Friar John of Carpini and William of Rubruck were two of the better known   Christian missionaries sent to establish these negotiations with the Mongol ruler.
The best account of the Mongols was left by a Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, in his   `Marco Polo's Travels'. It is an account of Polo's travels over the long and perilous land   route to China, his experience as a trusted official of Kublai Khan, and his description   of China under the Mongols. Dictated in the early 14th century, the book was translated   into many languages. Although much of medieval Europe did not believe Polo's tales, some,   like Christopher Columbus, were influenced by Polo's description of the riches of the   Orient. (See Kublai Khan; Mongol Empire; Polo, Marco)
After the death of Kublai Khan in 1294, successive weak and incompetent khans made the   already hated Mongol rule intolerable. Secret societies became increasingly active, and a   movement known as the Red Turbans spread throughout the north during the 1350s. In 1356 a   rebel leader named Chu Yuan-chang and his peasant army captured the old capital of   Nanjing. Within a decade he had won control of the economically important middle and lower   reaches of the Yangtze River, driving the Mongols to the north. In 1368 he declared   himself the emperor Hung-wu and established his capital at Nanjing on the lower Yangtze.   Later the same year he captured the Yuan capital of Peking. (See Kublai Khan; Mongol   Empire)
Kublai Khan (1215-94). The founder of China's Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty was a   brilliant general and statesman named Kublai Khan. He was the grandson of the great Mongol   conqueror, Genghis Khan, and he was overlord of the vast Mongol Empire. The achievements   of Kublai Khan were first brought to the attention of Western society in the writings of   Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler who lived at the Chinese court for nearly 20 years (See   Polo, Marco).
Kublai Khan was born in 1215, the fourth son of Genghis Khan's fourth son. He began to   play a major role in the consolidation of Mongol power in 1251, when his brother, the   emperor Mongke, resolved to complete the conquest of China. He therefore vested Kublai   with responsibility for keeping order in conquered territory. After Mongke's death in   1259, Kublai had himself proclaimed khan. During the next 20 years he completed the   unification of China. He made his capital in what is now Beijing.
Kublai's major achievement was to reconcile China to rule by a foreign people, the   Mongols, who had shown little ability at governing. His failures were a series of costly wars, including two disastrous attempts to invade Japan; they brought little benefit to   China. Although he was a magnanimous ruler, Kublai's extravagant administration slowly   impoverished China; and in the 14th century the ineptitude of his successors provoked   rebellions that eventually destroyed the Mongol dynasty. (See Genghis Khan; Mongol Empire)
Polo, Marco (1254-1323?). In 1298 a Venetian adventurer named Marco Polo wrote a   fascinating book about his travels in the Far East. Men read his accounts of Oriental   riches and became eager to find sea routes to China, Japan, and the East Indies. Even   Columbus, nearly 200 years later, often consulted his copy of `The Book of Ser Marco   Polo'.
In Marco's day the book was translated and copied by hand in several languages. After   printing was introduced in the 1440s, the book was circulated even more widely. Many   people thought that the book was a fable or a gross exaggeration. A few learned men   believed that Marco wrote truly, however, and they spread Marco's stories of faraway   places and unknown peoples. Today geographers agree that Marco's book is amazingly   accurate.
Marco Polo was born in the city-republic of Venice in 1254. His father and uncles were   merchants who traveled to distant lands to trade. In 1269 Marco's father, Nicolo, and his   uncle Maffeo returned to Venice after being away many years. On a trading expedition they   had traveled overland as far as Cathay (China). Kublai Khan, the great Mongol emperor of   China, asked them to return with teachers and missionaries for his people. So they set out   again in 1271, and this time they took Marco.
From Venice the Polos sailed to Acre, in Palestine. There two monks, missionaries to   China, joined them. Fearing the hard journey ahead, however, the monks soon turned back.   The Polos crossed the deserts of Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan. They mounted the heights   of the Pamirs, the "roof of the world," descending to the trading cities of   Kashgar (Shufu) and Yarkand (Soche). They crossed the dry stretches of The Gobi. Early in   1275 they arrived at Kublai Khan's court at Cambaluc (Peking). At that time Marco was 21   years old.
Polo at the Court of the Great Khan
Marco quickly became a favorite of Kublai Khan. For three years he governed busy   Yangchow, a city of more than 250,000 people. He was sent on missions to far places in the   empire: to Indochina, Tibet, Yunnan, and Burma. From these lands Marco brought back   stories of the people and their lives.
The Polos became wealthy in Cathay. But they began to fear that jealous men in the   court would destroy them when the khan died. They asked to return to Venice. Kublai Khan   refused. Then came an envoy from the khan of Persia. He asked Kublai Khan for a young   Mongol princess for a bride. The Polos said that the princess' journey should be guarded   by men of experience and rank. They added that the mission would enable them to make the   long-desired visit to Venice. The khan reluctantly agreed.
Since there was danger from robbers and enemies of the khan along the overland trade   routes, a great fleet of ships was built for a journey by sea. In 1292 the fleet sailed,   bearing the Polos, the princess, and 600 noblemen of Cathay. They traveled southward along   Indochina and the Malay Peninsula to
Sumatra. Here the voyage was delayed many months.
The ships then turned westward and visited Ceylon and India. They touched the East   African coast. The voyage was hazardous, and of the 600 noblemen only 18 lived to reach   Persia. The Polos and the princess were safe. When the Polos landed in Venice, they had   been gone 24 years. The precious stones they brought from Cathay amazed all Venice.
Later Marco served as gentleman-captain of a ship. It was captured by forces of the   rival trading city of Genoa, and he was thrown into a Genoese prison. There he wrote his   book with help from another prisoner. Marco was released by the Genoese in 1299. He   returned to Venice and engaged in trade. His name appears in the court records of his time   in many lawsuits over property and money. He married and had three daughters. He died   about 1323.
12. THE MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)
Having restored Chinese rule to China, the first Ming emperor tried to model his rule   after that of the Han, but the Ming fell far short of the Han's accomplishments. The land   under Ming domination was less than under either the Han or the T'ang. The Ming dominion   changed little after the first two decades. It was confined mostly to what is known as   China proper, south of the Great Wall and east of Xinjiang and Tibet.
In culture, as well, the Ming lacked the Han's creativity and brilliance. Coming after   almost a century of foreign domination, the Ming was a period of restoration and   reorganization rather than a time of new discovery. In a sense, the Ming followed a   typical dynastic cycle: initial rehabilitation of the economy and restoration of efficient   government, followed by a time of stability and then a gradual decline and fall.
The emperor Hung-wu modeled his government on the T'ang system, restoring the doctrine   and practices of Confucianism and continuing the trend toward concentration of power in   the imperial government, especially in the hands of the emperor himself. He tried to   conduct state affairs singlehandedly, but the work load proved overwhelming. To assist   him, he gathered around him several loyal middle-level officials, thus creating an   extra-governmental organization, the Grand Secretariat. The central bureaucracy was   restored and filled by officials selected by the examination system. That system was   further formalized by the introduction of a special essay style called the eight-legged   essay, to be used in writing the examination. In addition, the subject matter of the examinations was restricted to the Five Classics, said to have been compiled, edited, or   written by Confucius, and the Four Books, published by Chu Hsi.
In the field of provincial government, the emperor Hung-wu continued the Yuan practice   of limiting the power of provincial governors and subjecting them directly to the central   government. The empire was divided into 15 provinces. The first capital at Nanjing was in   the economic heartland of China, but in 1421 the emperor Yung-Lo, who took the throne   after a civil w ar, moved the capital to Peking, where he began a massive construction   project. The imperial palace, which is also known as the Forbidden City, was built at this   time.
The Ming produced two unique contributions: the maritime expeditions of the early 15th   century and the philosophy of Wang Yang-ming. Between 1405 and 1433, seven major maritime   expeditions were launched under the leadership of a Muslim eunuch, Cheng Ho. Each   expedition was provided with several seagoing vessels, which were 400 feet (122 meters)   high, weighed 700 tons (635 metric tons), had multiple decks and 50 or 60 cabins, and   carried several hundred people. During these expeditions, the Chinese sailed the South   Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. They traveled as far west as   eastern Africa and as far south as Java and Sumatra. But these missions ended just as   suddenly as they had begun.
In philosophy, Wang Yang-ming developed a system of thought that ran counter to the   orthodox teaching of Chu Hsi. While Chu Hsi believed in learning based on reason and the "investigation of things," Wang Yang-ming believed in the "learning of the   mind," an intuitive process.
During the second half of the Ming Dynasty, European expansion began. Early in the 16th   century Portuguese traders arrived and leased the island of Macao as their trading post.   In 1582 Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit missionary, arrived in Macao. Because of his   knowledge of science, mathematics, and astronomy and his willingness to learn the Chinese   language and adapt to Chinese life, he was accepted by the Chinese and became the first   foreigner allowed to live in Peking permanently. Jesuits followed him and served the Ming   emperors as mapmakers, calendar reformers, and astronomers.
Unlike earlier brief contacts with the West or the later Western incursions into China,   the 16th-century Sino-Western relationship was culturally oriented and mutually   respectful. Both the Chinese and the Jesuits tried to find common ground in their   thoughts. The Jesuits' activities produced 300,000 converts in 200 years, not a great   number among a population of more than 100 million. Among them, however, were noted   scholars such as Hsu Kuang-ch'i and Li Chih-tsao, who translated many of the works that   Jesuits brought to China. The Jesuits wrote over 300 Chinese works.
In the last century of its existence, the Ming Dynasty faced numerous internal and   external problems. The internal problem was tied to official corruption and taxation.   Because the Ming bureaucracy was relatively small, tax collection was entrusted to locally   powerful people who evaded paying taxes by passing the burden on to the poor. A succession   of weak and inattentive emperors encouraged the spread of corruption and the greed of   eunuchs. In the 1620s a struggle between the inner group of eunuchs and the outer circle   of scholar-officials led to the execution of about 700 scholars.
Externally, the security of the Ming empire was threatened from all directions. The   Mongols returned and seized Peking in 1550, and their control of Turkestan and Tibet was   recognized by the Ming in a peace treaty of 1570. Pirates preyed on the east coast, and   Japanese pirates penetrated as far inland as Hangzhou and Nanjing. In the 1590s the Ming   had to send expeditionary forces to rescue Korea from invading Japanese soldiers under   Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Ming drove back the Japanese forces, but not without depleting the   treasury and weakening their defensive network against neighboring Manchuria to the   northeast.
In Manchuria the Manchus (Pinyin: Manzhous) had organized a Chinese-style state and   strengthened their forces under a unique form of military organization called the banner   system. However, it was not the Manchus who overthrew the Ming but a Chinese rebel, Li   Tzu-cheng, who became a leader among the bandits who had become desperate because of a   famine in the northwest in 1628. By 1642 Li had become master of north China and in 1644   he captured Peking.
There he found that the last Ming emperor had hanged himself, ending the "Brilliant" dynasty. Li, however, was not destined to rule. The rule was to pass   once again into the hands of a people from beyond the Great Wall, the Manchus. They were   invited into China by the Ming general Wu San-kuei to eliminate the rebels. After driving   the rebels from the capital, the Manchus stayed and established a new dynasty, the Ch'ing.
13. THE CHING DYNASTY (1644-1911)
Like the Mongols in the 13th century, the Manchus (formerly the Juchen) were barbarians   who succeeded in ruling the whole of China, but, unlike the 13th-century conquerers, the   sinicized Manchus made their rule more acceptable to the Chinese. As a result, Ch'ing rule   lasted 267 years, compared with 89 years for the Yuan.
The Pax Sinica 1683-1795
The Manchus took Peking with relative ease in 1644, but they did not gain control of   the whole of China until 1683. Thereafter, the Manchus enjoyed more than a century of   peace and prosperity, a period that came to be called Pax Sinica (Peace in China). By the   end of that period the dynasty had reached the height of its power.
Two strong emperors who were considered models of all Confucian ideals ruled for much   of this period: the emperors K'ang-hsi (1661-1722) and Ch'ien-lung (1735-96). By   recruiting the well-educated in government and promoting Confucian scholarship, these two   Manchu rulers firmly established themselves as Confucian rulers in China. Outside China,   both were successful conquerers. All of the Ch'ing empire's vast territories, including   Mongolia in the north, Xinjiang in the northwest, and Tibet in the southwest, were   incorporated into the expanding Chinese Empire during this period.
The Ch'ing adopted the Ming system of government with two exceptions: the insertion of   Manchu power at the head of the Chinese state, and the creation of the Grand Council in   the emperor Yung-cheng's reign. The Grand Council superseded the Grand Secretariat and   became the most powerful body in the government. In provincial government, the Ch'ing   created 18 provinces from the 15 Ming provinces. A governor, usually Chinese, headed each   province, and a governor-general, usually a Manchu before the 19th century, headed every   two provinces. Local landlords and administrators were generally left alone if they   submitted to the new rule.
The K'ang-hsi era marked the height of Jesuit success in China, with more than 200,000   converts. Thereafter, Jesuit influence waned rapidly because of the rivalry between the   Jesuits and other Catholic missionaries and the so-called Rites Controversy, which   concerned the Jesuits' willingness to tolerate the converts' performance of ceremonies   honoring Confucius. The pope denounced the Jesuit view and prohibited the ceremonies.
The long period of peace and prosperity had some adverse effects on Chinese society.   There was a shortage of land, resulting from an increase in the population from 100   million to 300 million at the end of the 18th century. Decadence and corruption spread in   the imperial court. There was a decline of the Manchu military spirit, and the Ch'ing   military organization deteriorated. The long and illustrious reign of the emperor   Ch'ien-lung was marred by the first of many serious rebellions in the Ch'ing era, the   White Lotus Rebellion from 1796 to 1804. It was not put down for ten years, and China   entered the 19th century rocked by revolt. More devastating were the incursions of Western   powers, which shook the foundation of the empire. (See Ch'ien-lung)
19th Century Invasions and rebellions.
The first of many Sino-Western conflicts in the 19th century was the first Opium War,   fought from 1839 to 1842. It was more than a dispute over the opium trade in China; it was   a contest between China as the representative of ancient Eastern civilization and Britain   as the forerunner of the modern West. Free trade advocates in the West had protested   against the restrictive trading system in force at Canton. They demanded free trade in   China, the opening of more ports to Westerners, and the establishment of treaty relations.   The Treaty of Nanjing, which ended the first Opium War, opened five ports to the   British--the first of the "treaty ports" where Western nations were granted   various privileges. A second Opium War, also known as the Arrow War, fought from 1856 to   1860, pitted China against Great Britain and France.
The Opium Wars disrupted the old life and economy of southern China. A number of   peasant revolts occurred in the 1840s, coming to a head in the Taiping Rebellion, the   biggest rebellion in Chinese history. The leader of the Taipings was Hung Hsiu-ch'uan,   from a village near Canton. Believing that God had chosen him to save the world, he   adopted a confused version of Christianity as his guiding doctrine and set out to   overthrow the Manchus and change society. The combination of religious fervor and   anti-Manchu sentiment attracted a following that rose to over 30,000 within a short time.   In 1852 the T'ai-p'ing T'ienkuo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace) was proclaimed. In 1853   the rebels took the city of Nanjing and made it their capital.
Other revolts erupted at about the same time: the Nien Rebellion in the northeast and   Muslim rebellions in the southwest and the northwest. Fearing a linkup among the rebels   that would engulf all of China, the Ch'ing government created regional armies manned   entirely by Chinese and commanded by Chinese of the scholar-gentry class. The commanders   of the new forces, all loyal supporters of the dynasty--Tseng Kuo-fan, Tso Tsung-t'ang,   and Li Hung-chang--suppressed the rebels with the help of Western weapons and leadership.   They annihilated the Taipings in 1864, the Niens by 1868, and the Muslims by 1873.
The internal rebellions were suppressed, but external threats continued. After a brief   period of "cooperation" in the 1860s, foreign powers renewed their assault on   China, reacting to widespread antiforeign violence. Again, China became embroiled in a   series of conflicts: the Tianjin Massacre with France in 1870, the Ili crisis with Russia   in 1879, the Sino-French War from 1884 to 1885, and the Sino-Japanese War from 1894 to   1895. Each brought further humiliation and greater impairment of sovereignty. In the last   two incidents territory was lost, and an indemnity had to be paid to the victor
in the Sino-Japanese War.
Opium Wars
China in the 19th century was beset by internal turmoil. It was easy prey to more   powerful nations that wanted to exploit every advantage to profit from trade. Chief among   these advantages was the opium trade. Official Chinese resistance to opium resulted in two   trade wars in which Great Britain, France, the United States, and Russia gained   significant commercial privileges. These conflicts were the first Opium War from 1839 to   1842 between China and Britain and the second Opium War (1856-60) fought by China against   Britain and France.
Opium had been introduced into China in the 7th century. By the early 18th century   opium addiction had become such a severe problem that the government tried to prohibit   trade in it. The prohibition was a failure. When the British discovered the value of the   opium trade in 1773, they determined to benefit. The Chinese paid the British for the   opium, and the British in turn used the money as part payment for goods bought from the   Chinese.
In 1839 the Chinese government made a concerted effort to suppress the opium trade. All   the opium warehouses in Canton were confiscated. This serious effort, followed by a minor   military incident, led to hostilities. In February 1840 the British sent an expedition   against Canton.
The conflict, in which the more powerful British were victorious, was ended by the   Treaty of Nanjing, which was signed on Aug. 29, 1842, and a supplemental treaty of Oct. 8,   1843. These treaties provided for payment of an indemnity of 21 million dollars by the   Chinese, cession of five ports for British trade and residence, and the right of British   citizens in China to be tried in British courts. It was at this time that Britain gained   control of Hong Kong.
In October 1856 the Canton police boarded a British-registered ship, the Arrow, and   charged its crew with smuggling. This incident led to the second war. In this war the   British were joined by the French, and an Anglo-French force occupied Canton late in 1857.   The Treaty of Tianjin in 1858 temporarily halted the fighting, opened new trading ports,   allowed residence in Peking for foreign emissaries, gave freedom of movement to Christian   missionaries, and permitted travel in the interior.
The Chinese refusal to ratify the treaty led to an Anglo-French attack on Peking and   the burning of the Summer Palace. In 1860 the Chinese signed the Convention of Peking by   which they promised to observe the 1858 treaty.
Taiping Rebellion
In terms of casualties, it was one of the worst civil wars in history. More than 20   million--possibly more than 30 million--died, and 17 provinces were ravaged by the Taiping   Rebellion. This was the most serious of several internal disturbances that took place in   China between 1850 and 1873 and that seriously weakened the Ch'ing Dynasty and helped   prepare the way for the revolutions of the 20th century.
The leader of the rebellion was Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, an unsuccessful civil-service   candidate who came under the influence of fundamentalist Christianity. Thinking of himself   as a son of God sent to reform China, he helped found the Association of God Worshipers in   about 1846. Preaching that all property should be held by the people, he attracted many   followers in Guangxi Province. By January 1851, when the rebellion began, Hung's ranks had   swelled from several thousand ragged peasants to more than 1 million disciplined and eager   soldiers. They took the city of Nanjing in March 1853 and made it their capital. For   several years the rebel armies dominated the Yangtze River valley. They failed, however,   to take Shanghai, where the defenders were commanded by an American named Frederick   Townsend Ward and the British general known as Chinese Gordon . By 1862 the movement was   losing steam, weakened by internal strife and defections. Nanjing fell in July 1864 to the   army of Gen. Tseng Kuo-fan, and Hung committed suicide. Sporadic resistance continued for   four more years.
Late 19th Century Revolutionary ideas and organizations.
The reforms that were sponsored by the imperial government were too little and too   late. A drastic change was necessary. The idea of overthrowing the Manchus was suggested   by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao in his concept of hsin min (new people). Publishing a magazine in   Japan, where he had fled after the Hundred Days, Liang called for the Chinese people to   renew themselves and also indicated that the Chinese nation was distinct and separate from   the ruling dynasty of the Manchus. Although he did not advocate overthrowing the dynasty,   the message was quickly picked up by the more radical leaders who were already leaning   toward revolution.
One such leader was Sun Yat-sen, who is now revered as the father of modern China by   Nationalists and Communists alike. Born into a peasant family near Canton, the traditional   stronghold of anti-Manchu rebels, Sun followed a traditional Chinese path during his early   years. He was educated in Hawaii, converted to Christianity, and had a short-lived medical   career before switching to politics and attempting to propose a reform program to Li   Hung-chang in 1894. After forming a secret revolutionary society and plotting an   unsuccessful uprising in Canton in 1894, Sun began a long period of exile outside China.   He gained wide recognition as a revolutionary leader in 1896, when his arrest in the   Chinese legation in London and subsequent rescue were reported sensationally in newspaper   articles.
In 1905, in Japan, he brought together several revolutionary groups and formed the   Revolutionary Alliance Society. Its program consisted of the now famous Three People's   Principles: nationalism, freeing all China from foreign control; democracy, overthrowing   the Manchus and introducing a democratic political system; and people's livelihood.   Although Sun himself could not live in China, members of the alliance infiltrated many   social organizations there. The revolutionary spirit that had been developed by Sun became   especially high among students' and soldiers' groups.
The Empress Dowger
TZ'U-HSI (1835-1908). Known in the West as the empress dowager, Tz'u-hsi dominated the   political life of China for nearly 50 years. As ruler acting for child emperors, she and   her cohorts brought a measure of stability to their nation. But, under her, the government   was dishonest and did not make changes that were needed to benefit the people. This   eventually led to the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty, which ruled from 1644 to 1911, and a   revolution.
Tz'u-hsi was born in Peking on Nov. 29, 1835. She became a consort of the emperor   Hsien-feng (ruled 1850-61) and mother of the emperor T'ung-chih. When T'ung-chih became   emperor in 1861, he was only 6. She and another consort became co-regents along with a   brother of the former emperor. Under this three-way rule the Taiping Rebellion was ended.   Other disturbances were put down, and some modernization was brought to China.
Tz'u-hsi gradually increased her power within the ruling coalition, and even when the   emperor matured she continued to control the government. After the young emperor's   untimely death, she saw to it that her 3-year-old nephew was named as heir, though this   violated succession law. Thus the two owagers
continued acting as regents. The other dowager died--presumably murdered--in 1881, and   Tz'u-hsi ruled alone. From 1889 to 1898 she lived in apparent retirement in the summer   palace. The new emperor's attempts at reform after losing the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95),   however, brought her back into action--determined to stave off any changes. In 1899 she   backed the officials promoting the Boxer Rebellion. After China's defeat at the hand of   foreign troops, she fled the capital and accepted humiliating peace terms. She returned in   1902 and belatedly tried to install the reforms she had once opposed. Before her death, on   Nov. 15, 1908, she had the emperor poisoned. His successor was a 2-year old who was forced   from the throne four years later.
Boxer Rebellion
In the summer of 1900 members of a secret society roamed northeastern China in bands,   killing Europeans and Americans and destroying buildings owned by foreigners. They called   themselves I-ho ch'uan, or "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." They practiced   boxing skills that they believed made them impervious to bullets. To Westerners they   became known as the Boxers, and their uprising was called the Boxer Rebellion.
Most Boxers were peasants or urban thugs from northern China who resented the growing   influence of Westerners in their land. They organized themselves in 1898, and in the same   year the Chinese government--then ruled by the Ch'ing Dynasty--secretly allied with the   Boxers to oppose such outsiders as Christian missionaries and European businessmen. The   Boxers failed to drive foreigners out of China, but they set the stage for the successful   Chinese revolutionary movement of the early 20th century.
Foreigners had entered China during an era of imperialism. In the late 1800s Great   Britain and other European nations, the United States, Russia, and Japan scrambled for   spheres of influence there. In some cases they seized Chinese territories, but usually   they only sought the riches of trade and commercial enterprise. At the same time, Roman   Catholic and Protestant missionaries tried to convert the Chinese to Christianity. These   outsiders were resented and feared by the Chinese, who saw Western religion and business   practices as a threat to their traditional ways.
By May of 1900, Boxers were wandering the countryside and attacking Western   missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity. In June an expeditionary force, made up   of Russian, British, German, French, American, and Japanese troops, was organized to   proceed to Peking (now Beijing), put
down the rebellion, and protect Western nationals.
The Chinese dowager empress Tz'u-hsi, the aunt of Emperor Kuang-hsu, ordered her troops   to block the advance of this expedition. The foreigners were turned back. Meanwhile,   Boxers were rampaging in Peking, burning down churches and the houses of Westerners, and   killing Chinese Christians. Foreign troops then seized Chinese coastal forts to insure   access to Peking. Enraged, the dowager empress ordered the death of all foreigners in   China. The German minister to China was assassinated, and Boxer rebels began an eight-week   attack on the walled foreign compound in Peking. (See Tz'u-hsi)
In response, the allied foreign governments sent some 19,000 soldiers to Peking,   capturing the city on Aug. 14, 1900. The invaders looted the city and routed the Boxers,   while the empress and her court fled to the north. By the time the rebellion ended, at   least 250 foreigners had been killed. It took a year for the parties to the conflict to   agree on a settlement, which was entitled the Peace of Peking. This protocol, which was   signed in September 1901, was dictated by the Western powers and Japan in such a way as to   humiliate China. Heavy fines were levied against the Chinese government, and existing   commercial treaties were amended in favor of the Western powers. The foreign coastal   defenses were dismantled.
The failure of the Boxer Rebellion to eject the West and the humiliation of the Chinese   by the terms of the Peace of Peking generated more support for nationalist   revolutionaries. In 1911 the Ch'ing Dynasty collapsed. Revolutionaries led by Dr. Sun   Yat-sen then took over the Chinese government,
ending more than 2,000 years of monarchy.
14. THE CHINESE REVOLUTION I: NATIONALIST
The Revolution of 1911.
In the industrial city of Wuhan, a soldiers' groupwith only a loose connection to Sun's   alliance rose in rebellion in the early morning of Oct. 10, 1911 (since celebrated as   Double Ten, the tenth day of the tenth month). The Manchu governor and his commander fled,   and a Chinese ommander, Li Yuan-hung, was pressured into taking over the leadership. By   early December all of the central, southern, and northwestern provinces had declared   independence. Sun Yat-sen, who was in the United States during the revolution, returned   and was chosen head of the provisional government of the Republic of China in Nanjing.
The Manchu court quickly summoned Yuan Shih-kai, the former commander of the reformed   Northern Army. Personally ambitious and politically shrewd, Yuan carried out negotiations   with both the Manchu court and the revolutionaries. Yuan was able to persuade the Manchus   to abdicate peacefully in return for the safety of the imperial family. On Feb. 12, 1912,   the regent of the 6-year-old emperor formally announced the abdication. The Manchu rule in   China ended after 267 years, and with it the 2,000-year-old imperial system.
THE REPUBLIC OF CHINA (1912-1949)
Early in March 1912, Sun Yat-sen resigned from the presidency and, as promised, Yuan   Shih-kai was elected his successor at Nanjing. Inaugurated in March 1912 in Beijing, the   base of his power, Yuan established a republican system of government with a premier, a   cabinet, a draft constitution, and a plan for parliamentary elections early in 1913. The   Kuomintang (KMT, National People's party), the successor to Sun Yat-sen's organization,   was formed in order to prepare for the election.
Despite his earlier pledges to support the republic, Yuan schemed to assassinate his   opponents and weaken the constitution and the parliament. By the end of 1914 he had made   himself president for life and even planned to establish an imperial dynasty with himself   as the first emperor. His dream was thwarted by the serious crisis of the Twenty-one   Demands for special privileges presented by the Japanese in January 1915 and by vociferous   opposition from many sectors of Chinese society. He died in June 1916 a broken man. After   Yuan's death, a number of his proteges took positions of power in the Beijing government   or ruled as warlords in outlying regions. In August 1917 the Beijing government joined the   Allies and declared war on Germany. At the peace conference in Versailles, France, the   Chinese demand to end foreign concessions in China was ignored.
Sun-yat Sen (1866-1925). Known as the father of modern China, Sun Yat-sen worked to achieve his lofty goals for modern China. These included the overthrow of the Manchu   Dynasty, the unification of China, and the establishment of a republic.
Sun Yat-sen was born on Nov. 12, 1866, in Guangdong Province and attended several   schools, including one in Honolulu, Hawaii, before transferring to a college of medicine   in Hong Kong. Graduating in 1892, Sun almost immediately abandoned medicine for politics.   His role in an unsuccessful uprising in Canton in 1895 prompted Sun to begin an exile that   lasted for 16 years. Sun used this time to travel widely in Japan, Europe, and the United   States, enlisting sympathy and raising money for his republican cause. Sun returned to   China in 1911 after a successful rebellion in Wuhan inspired uprisings in other provinces.   As leader of the Kuomintang, or Nationalist party, Sun was elected provisional president   of the newly declared republic but was forced to resign in 1912.
In 1913 his disagreements with government policies led Sun to organize a second   revolution. Failing to regain power, Sun left once again for Japan, where he organized a   separate government. Sun returned to China and attempted to set up a new government in   1917 and 1921 before successfully installing himself as generalissimo of a new regime in   1923.
Sun increasingly relied on aid from the Soviet Union, and in 1924 he reorganized the   Kuomintang on the model of the Soviet Communist party. Sun also founded the Whampoa   Military Academy and appointed Chiang Kai-shek as its president. Sun summarized his   policies in the Three Principles of the People--nationalism, democracy, and socialism. He   died of cancer in Peking on March 12, 1925. Sun's tomb in Nanking is now a national   shrine.
The May Fourth Movement.
After World War I The Chinese felt betrayed. Anger and frustration erupted in   demonstrations on May 4, 1919, in Beijing. Joined by workers and merchants, the movement   spread to major cities. The Chinese representative at Versailles refused to endorse the   peace treaty, but its provisions remained unchanged. Disillusioned with the West, many   Chinese looked elsewhere for help.
The May Fourth Movement, which grew out of the student uprising, attacked Confucianism,   initiated a vernacular style of writing, and promoted science. Scholars of international   stature, such as John Dewey and Bertrand Russell, were invited to lecture. Numerous   magazines were published to stimulate new thoughts. Toward the end of the movement's   existence, a split occurred among its leaders. Some, like Ch'en Tu-hsiu and Li Ta-chao,   were beginning to be influenced by the success of the Russian Revolution of 1917, which   contrasted sharply with the failure of the 1911 Revolution in China to change the social   order and improve conditions. By 1920, people associated with the Comintern (Communist   International) were disseminating literature in China and helping to start Communist   groups, including one led by Mao Zedong. A meeting at Shanghai in 1921 was actually the   first party congress of the Communist Party of China (CCP).
The CCP was so small that the Soviet Union looked elsewhere for a viable political   ally. A Comintern agent, Adolph Joffe, was sent to China to approach Sun Yat-sen, who had   failed to obtain assistance from Great Britain or the United States. The period of   Sino-Soviet collaboration began with the Sun-Joffe Declaration of Jan. 26, 1923. The KMT   was recognized by the Soviet Union, and the Communists were admitted as members. With   Soviet aid, the KMT army was built up. A young officer, Chiang Kai-shek, was sent to   Moscow for training. Upon returning, he was put in charge of the Whampoa Military Academy,   established to train soldiers to fight the warlords, who controlled much of China S(See   Chiang Kai-shek). Zhou Enlai (also Chou En-lai) of the CCP was deputy director of the   academy's political department.
Sun Yat-sen, whose power base was in the south, had planned to send an expedition   against the northern warlords, but he died before it could get under way. Chiang Kai-shek,   who succeeded him in the KMT leadership, began the northern expedition in July 1926. The   Nationalist army met little resistance and by April 1927 had reached the lower Yangtze.   Meanwhile, Chiang, claiming to be a sincere follower of Sun Yat-sen, had broken with the   left-wing elements of the KMT. After the Nationalist forces had taken Shanghai, a   Communist-led general strike was suppressed with bloodshed. Following suppressions in   other cities, Chiang set up his own government at Nanjing on April 18, 1927. He professed   friendship with the Soviet Union, but by July 1927 he was expelling Communists from the   KMT. Some left-wingers left for the Soviet Union.
The northern expedition was resumed, and in 1928 Chiang took Peking. China was formally   unified. Nationalist China was recognized by the Western powers and supported by loans   from foreign banks.
The Nationalist Eera (1928-1937).
The Nationalist period began with high hopes and much promise. More could have been   accomplished had it not been for the problems of Comintern corruption and Japanese   aggression. In his efforts to combat them both, Chiang neglected the land reform needed to   improve the lives of the peasants. Driven from the cities, the Communists concentrated on   organizing the peasants in the countryside. On Nov. 1, 1931, they proclaimed the   establishment of the Chinese Soviet Republic in the southeastern province of Jiangxi, with   Mao Zedong as chairman. Here the first units of the Chinese Workers' and Peasants' Red   Army were formed. While conducting guerrilla warfare in these regions, the soldiers   carried out an agrarian revolution that was based on Mao's premise that the best way to   win the conflict was to isolate the cities by gaining control of the countryside and the   food supply.
A military man by temperament and training, Chiang sought to eliminate the Communists   by force. He defined his anti-Communist drive as "internal pacification before   resistance to external attack," and he gave it more importance than opposition to the   increasingly aggressive Japanese. With arms and military advisers from Nazi Germany,   Chiang carried out a series of "extermination campaigns" that killed about a   million people between 1930 to 1934. Chiang's fifth campaign, involving over half a   million troops, almost annihilated the Communists. Faced with the dilemma of being totally   destroyed in Jiangxi or attempting an almost impossible escape, the Communists decided to   risk the escape. On Oct. 15, 1934, they broke through the tight KMT siege. Over 100,000   men and women set out on the Long March of about 6,000 miles (9,600 kilometers) through   China's most rugged terrain to find a new base in the northwest.
In the meantime, the Japanese had made steady inroads into China. The Mukden Incident   of 1931, through which Mukden was occupied by the Japanese, was initiated by Japanese   officers stationed along the South Manchurian Railway. This was followed by the occupation   of Manchuria and the creation of the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932. By the mid-1930s   the Japanese had seized Inner Mongolia and parts of northeastern China and had created the   North China Autonomous Region with no resistance from the Nationalists. Anti-Japanese   sentiment mounted in China, but Chiang ignored it and in 1936 launched yet another   extermination campaign against the Communists in Shaanxi. Chiang was forced to give up the   anti-Communist drive when his troops mutinied and arrested him as he arrived in Xi'an in   December 1936 to plan strategy. He was released after he agreed to form a united front   with the CCP against the Japanese, who were making steady inroads into China.
In China, World War II broke out on July 7, 1937, with a seemingly insignificant little   battle between Chinese and Japanese troops near Peking, called the Marco Polo Bridge   Incident. Within a few days, the Japanese had occupied Peking, and the fighting spread   rapidly. The war in China fell into three stages. The first (1937-1939) was characterized   by the phenomenally rapid Japanese occupation of most of China's east coast, including   such major cities as Shanghai, Nanjing, and Canton. The Nationalist government moved to   the interior, ultimately to Chongqing in Sichuan, and the Japanese established puppet   governments in Peking in 1937 and in Nanjing in 1940. The second stage (1939-1943) was a   period of waiting, as Chiang blockaded the Communists in the northwest (despite the united   front) and waited for help from the United States, which had declared war on Japan in   1941.
In the final stage (1944-1945), the United States provided massive assistance to   Nationalist China, but the Chongqing government, weakened by inflation, impoverishment of   the middle class, and low troop morale was unable to take full advantage of it. Feuds   among the KMT generals and between Chiang and his United States military adviser, General   Joseph Stilwell, further hampered the KMT.
When Japanese defeat became a certainty in the spring of 1945, the Communists seemed in   a better position to take over from the Japanese garrisons than the KMT, which was far   away in the rear of the formation. A United States airlift of KMT troops enabled them to   occupy many cities, but the countryside stayed with the Communists.
After the end of World War II in Europe in May 1945, the Allied war effort moved to the   east. The Soviet Union joined the war against Japan at the end of July. On August 6 and 9   the United States dropped the world's first atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of   Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On Aug. 14, 1945, the Japanese surrendered. In China, however,   civil war raged over who should take charge of the Japanese arms and equipment. At the end   of August an agreement was reached in Chongqing between a CCP delegation and the KMT, but   the truce was brief.
In January 1946 a cease-fire was negotiated by United States General George C.   Marshall. The Nationalist government returned to Nanjing, and China was recognized by the   new United Nations as one of the five great powers. The United States supplied the Chiang   government with an additional $2 billion ($1.5 billion had been spent for the war).   Although the KMT's dominance in weapons and supplies was enormous, it was kept under guard   in the cities, while the Communists held the surrounding countryside. As inflation soared,   both civilians and the military became demoralized. The CCP, sensing the national mood,   proposed a coalition government. The KMT refused, and fighting
erupted again.
The short and decisive civil war that followed was resolved in two main places:   Manchuria and the Huai River area. Despite a massive airlift of KMT forces by the United   States, Manchuria was lost in October 1948 after 300,000 KMT forces surrendered to the   CCP. By the end of 1948 the KMT had lost over half a million men, more than two thirds of   whom had defected. In April 1949 the Communists moved south of the Yangtze.
After the fall of Nanjing and Shanghai, KMT resistance evaporated. By the autumn, the   Communists had taken all mainland territories except Tibet. Chiang Kai-shek and a number   of his associates fled to the island of Taiwan, where they set up what they claimed was   the rightful government of China.
15. THE CHINESE REVOLUTION II: COMMUNIST
The Communist Party
The Chinese Communist party is the primary political force in China. Unlike parties in   Western democracies, it is a tightly organized movement that controls and leads society at   all levels. The party sets policy and controls its execution through government officials   who are also party members. The effect is to make the government an organ of the party.
At the time of its founding in 1921, the Chinese Communist party focused on organizing   urban workers, but it achieved only limited success in this effort. Orthodox Marxism   expected the Communist Revolution to begin among industrial workers. However, Karl Marx   had developed his theories based upon highly industrialized economies, and the industrial   sector in China was small and relatively primitive. It was Mao Zedong who adapted Marxist   theory to the conditions of an underdeveloped, primarily agricultural society . Although   Mao's successors downgraded some of his more radical ideas, Marxism-Leninism-Mao   Thought--Marxism as it was interpreted by Mao--is still officially designated as the   guiding philosophy that is behind both the party and the government.
The Chinese Communist party is organized as a hierarchy, with power concentrated at the   top. Above the local units, or cells, is a pyramid-like structure of party congresses and   committees at various levels, culminating in the National Party Congress. The national   congress is supposed to meet every five years, though this has not always been the case.   When it is not in session, direction of the party is in the hands of a Central Committee   of about 200 members, which is elected by the congress. The Central Committee, in turn,   elects the Political Bureau, which in 1982 consisted of 25 full members and three   alternates. It is within the Political Bureau and its elite Standing Committee that power   is concentrated and the highest level decisions of state are made. There is also a   secretariat that carries on the day-to-day business of the party.
Prior to 1982, the highest party office was that of chairman, held for more than 25   years, through most of the People's Republic's history to that time, by Mao Zedong. In an   effort to ensure that the power Mao had enjoyed was never again concentrated in one   person, a new party constitution adopted in 1982 abolished the chairmanship and replaced   it with the administrative position of general secretary to the Secretariat. The   constitution also established a body called the Central Advisory Commission to assist and   advise the Central Committee. One of the objects of the commission was to encourage   elderly party leaders to continue to be active in various functions of the Communist   party. The commission became an obstacle to reform and was abolished in 1992.
Theoretically, party membership is open to anyone over 18 who accepts the party program   and is willing to work actively in one of its organizations. Members are expected to abide   by the party's discipline and to serve as model workers. The backbone of the party   consists of full-time paid workers known as cadres (Chinese, ganbu). The term cadre is   also used for public officials holding responsible positions who may or may not be members   of the party.
THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
On Oct. 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of   China. The CCP hailed its takeover of China as a people's victory over and liberation from   imperial domination (especially that of the United States) and the oppressive KMT regime.   The Red Army was renamed the People's Liberation Army. During the early days of the   People's Republic, the troops were restrained, foreign-educated Chinese returned to help   the country, and most local administrators remained in office.
The first Communist government, the People's Consultative Council, included   non-Communists among its 662 members. However, in the top committee, 31 out of 56 seats   were occupied by Communists, and the constitution of 1954 drastically curtailed the role   of non-Communists. After 1954, more authority was concentrated in the central government   under the State Council. Real power, however, lay with the Communist party, especially the   Central Committee, then composed of 94 members. This committee held together the triad of   power--army, government, and party. The inner circle of the Central Committee was the   19-member Political Bureau and its seven-member Standing Committee.
Land reform. One of the first tasks of the Communist government was land reform,   redistributing land from landlords to the peasants. The Agrarian Law of 1950 began the   nationwide land reform, which was almost completed by the beginning of 1953.
Social reform. Land reform erased the social distinction between landlord and   peasant. The new marriage law of 1950 and the campaigns of the early 1950s removed   distinctions within the family. Women were given full equality with men in matters of   marriage, divorce, and property ownership. Children were encouraged to denounce parents if   they failed to support the Communist line.
Thought reform. Believing that the revolution could not be carried on without   reform of people, the CCP launched a massive campaign to change China's entire psychology.   The Four Olds campaign was launched to eradicate old ideas, habits, customs, and culture.   The Three Anti's movement was directed at officials, with the aim of eliminating   corruption, waste, and "bureaucratism." The Five Anti's campaign, directed at   the remaining businessmen and bourgeoisie, opposed bribery, tax fraud, cheating, and   stealing state property and economic information. For Chinese Christians, The Three Selfs   movement stressed self-government, self-support, and self-propagation, the object being to   separate the churches in China from their parent denominations abroad. Leading churchmen   were forced into denouncing religion as cultural imperialism. The idea of cultural   imperialism was extended to art and literature, which henceforth were to serve the people,   the class struggle, and the revolution.
Economic planning. Along with the reforms of land tenure, society, family, and   even thought, the CCP announced the first five-year plan in 1953 to speed up the   socialization of China through a planned economy. The plan's aim was to produce maximum   returns from agriculture in order to pay for industrialization and Soviet aid. The means   chosen was the collectivization of agriculture. Land and farm implements were pooled into   cooperatives and later into collective farms, which controlled the production, price, and   distribution of products. By May 1956, 90 percent of the farmers were members of   cooperatives.
Similarly, 80 percent of heavy industry and 40 percent of light industry were in   government hands by October 1952. The government also controlled all the railways and most   steamship operations. To speed China's development even more, Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and   others, after overcoming some opposition within the leadership, launched the Great Leap   Forward in 1958.
The Great Leap Forward
The Great Leap Forward was designed to overcome the backwardness of China's economy,   industry, and technology. It was to be achieved through use of the vast manpower and   indomitable spirit of the Chinese. Steel production was to be increased by setting up   small-scale "backyard furnaces," and agricultural output was to be raised by   combining the collective farms into communes. About 26,000 communes were created by the   Communist government, each composed of approximately 5,000 households.
After a year, the leaders admitted that the success of the program had been   exaggerated. The steel produced by the backyard furnaces was of low quality, and the   quantity fell short of the projected goal. The people's reluctance to join communes was   stronger than expected, and the size of the communes had to be reduced. Domestic life in   homes, as well as private plots for family use, had to be restored. The effect of the   Great Leap Forward on the people and the economy was devastating. Coupled with three   straight years of poor harvests, it resulted in a severe food shortage and industrial   decline. For the next several years, while lip service was paid to Mao's thought and to   Great Leap-type activism, the real power was in more conservative hands.
The Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a radical movement that closed schools,   slowed production, and virtually severed China's relations with the outside world. It was   proletarian because it was a revolution of the workers against party officials. It was   cultural because it meant to alter the values of society in the Communist sense. It was   great, because it was on a mammoth scale. It lasted for two years in its intense form,   lingered on for another year and a half, and was not officially declared over until 1977.
The Cultural Revolution had its roots in a power struggle between Mao and his   supporters, including his wife, Jiang Qing, and Lin Biao--who believed that the initial   fervor of the revolution was being lost--and more conservative, bureaucratic elements   within the leadership. One point at issue was the educational system, and particularly the   fact that urban youth (especially the children of privileged officials) appeared to have a   better chance of getting a university education than the children of rural peasants. Mao   feared that Chinese society was becoming rigid, and to prevent this he relied for support   on the military and on youth.
In the summer of 1966, a group of Beijing high school girls protested against the   system of college entrance examinations. The Central Committee acceded to the students'   demand by promising a reform and postponing the 1966 enrollment for half a year. Freed   from their studies, students demonstrated in Beijing in August, touching off   demonstrations of young people in general. Obviously inspired by Mao, youths wearing red   armbands and flashing copies of the "little red book" containing Mao's thought   (`Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong'), marched through the streets shouting the slogan, "To bypass the Communist party apparatus and force the hierarchy's political foes   into submission." These Red Guards, as they were called, were given free railway   passes, and they poured into Beijing and other cities in great numbers throughout 1967.
In early 1967 some of the highest ranking leaders, former close revolutionary   associates of Mao himself, were criticized and dismissed. Liu Shaoqi, who had been   president of the republic, Zhu De, and Deng Xiaoping were among the better known victims.   Even Confucius was attacked as having been a hypocritical supporter of the bourgeoisie.   Throughout the country, revolutionary committees sprang up, seized power from the local   government and party authorities, and harassed--and in some cases attacked--those   suspected of being disloyal to Mao's thought.
The disorders reached a climax in July 1967 in the city of Wuhan, when the local   military commander tried to rally the people against the radicals and troops had to be   sent in to restore order. From that time on, steps were taken to quiet the more disruptive   portions of the Cultural Revolution, though it was not until 1968 that society returned to   something resembling normality. In March 1969 the government issued a directive to open   all schools. The situation was so chaotic, however, that the universities were not   reopened until September 1970.
The Cultural Revolution greatly affected the CCP leadership. When the long-postponed   ninth congress of the CCP was finally convened in April 1969, two thirds of the old   members of the Central Committee were missing. Mao's attempt to maintain a state of   permanent revolution had been immensely costly. Years of work and progress were   sacrificed: A whole generation of youth went without education; factories and farms lay   idle. China fell even further behind the industrialized powers of the world. As the   Cultural Revolution died down, Zhou Enlai, who had been premier since the founding of the   People's Republic, quietly took control. Deng Xiaoping and other "pragmatic" leaders were reestablished. The party and government relaxed their control over the people   and granted certain civil rights in a new constitution adopted in 1975.
International Relations of the People's Republic
The People's Republic has undergone several shifts in foreign policy since 1949.   Initially, it was closely tied to the Soviet Union and firmly identified as a member of   the socialist camp.
Within a few years, however, the Sino-Soviet relationship had begun to deteriorate, the   victim, among other factors, of differing national interests, differing interpretations of   Marxism, and Chinese resentment over heavy-handed Soviet attempts at control. By the   mid-1960s China and the Soviet Union had become openly hostile toward each other.
China was largely isolated from the rest of the world during the height of the Cultural   Revolution, but when the upheavals subsided it began to take a more practical foreign   policy line. Trade was opened up with a number of Western countries, China started to play   an active role in international organizations, and diplomatic relations were established   with countries willing to recognize the People's Republic--rather than the Nationalist   government on Taiwan--as the government of China. Most dramatically, contacts were begun   with the United States, leading to full diplomatic recognition on Jan. 1, 1979.
While China's political system changed little by the 1990s, its economy had become the   fastest-growing in the world. Relations with the United States became unstable on two   fronts. The Chinese government refused to allow the human rights concerns to become an   issue in trade talks. Trade itself became a major issue, as exports to the United States   exceeded imports. In addition, North Korea's probable possession of nuclear weapons posed   an unsettling problem for China and the United States in the mid-1990s.
MAO ZEDONG, or MAO TSE-TUNG (1893-1976).
In China Mao Zedong is remembered and revered as the greatest of revolutionaries. His   achievements as ruler, however, have been deservedly downgraded because he was among the   worst of politicians. He knew well how to make a revolution, but once in power he could   not put his love of revolution aside for the sake of governing.
Mao was born on Dec. 26, 1893, in Shaoshan, Hunan Province. His father was a peasant   who had become successful as a grain dealer. Mao's schooling was intermittent. During the   Revolution of 1911-12 he served in the army for six months. After that he drifted for a   while without goals, but he managed to graduate from the First Provincial Normal School in   Changsha in 1918. He then sent to Peking University, where he became embroiled in the   revolutionary May Fourth Movement. This movement marked the decisive turn in Chinese   revolutionary thought in favor of Marxist Communism as a solution to China's problems.
In 1921 Mao helped found the Chinese Communist party. He was at that time a school   principal in Hunan. Two years later, when the Communists forged an alliance with Sun   Yat-sen's Nationalist party (the Kuomintang), he left work to become a full-time   revolutionary. It was at this time that Mao discovered the great potential of the peasant   class for making revolution. This realization led him to the brilliant strategy he used to   win control of China: gain control of the countryside and encircle the cities.
The Communists and the Nationalists coexisted in an uneasy relationship until the end   of World War II. The Nationalist leader after 1925 was Chiang Kai-shek, who was determined   to rule China. He never trusted the Communists, and at times he persecuted them. Mao's   first wife was executed by the Nationalists in 1930.
The Chinese Soviet Republic was founded in November 1931 in Jiangxi Province. In 1934   Mao and his forces were driven out, and they went northward in what is known as the Long   March. By 1935, however, the Communists and Nationalists forged a united front against the   Japanese. Rivalry persisted, but the front held until 1945. The revolution that then began   ended in 1949 with the Communists victorious.
In addition to his problems with the Nationalists, Mao's dealings with the Soviet   Union's Joseph Stalin were always uneasy. Stalin grew wary of a competing Communist power   of China's size on the Soviet borders. Mao eventually came to regard the Soviets as   revisionists and felt they were traitors to the cause of world revolution.
Mao's title as ruler of China was chairman of the People's Republic. For the first five   years he rarely appeared in public and seemed to be only a ceremonial figure. He never   achieved the total control in China that Stalin did in the Soviet Union. Many of his   comrades were influential in directing policy, often in ways with which Mao disagreed. In   1955 he emerged from isolation determined to play the decisive role in economic policy and   political restructuring.
Failing to gain the allegiance of the intellectuals, he turned to the masses with a   program called the Great Leap Forward. While not a complete economic disaster, it had   severe consequences. After it disrupted both city and countryside, he was forced to   retreat from his policies in favor of his opponents. To counter opposition he launched the   Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, urged on by his radical wife, Jiang Qing. This vast   upheaval wrecked the Communist party bureaucracy, paralyzed education and research, and   left the economy almost a shambles.
Only slowly did China begin to recover. By then Mao was old and ill. Other, more   moderate hands guided policy. Zhou Enlai seemed to emerge as the nation's real leader when   relations were reestablished with the United States.
Mao's personality cult remained strong until his death on Sept. 9, 1976. Shortly   afterward, however, a power struggle was under way. Members of the party who had been   purged by the Cultural Revolution returned to govern China. Chief among them was Deng   Xiaoping (See Deng Xiaoping).
16 POST-MAO CHINA
Passing of the old guard.
The year 1976 marked the end of an era. Zhou Enlai died in January. Zhu De, who as   chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress had been serving as   nominal head of state, died in July. Finally, Mao himself, the chairman of the party and   the embodiment of the revolution, died in September. Although many elderly leaders   remained in positions of power, the old guard--the veterans of the Long March and the   civil war--was clearly passing from the scene.
There were no provisions for automatic succession. At one time, Lin Biao had been Mao's   designated successor, but Lin had died under mysterious circumstances in 1971. The stage   was set for a power struggle, with the initial advantage going to the radical faction.   Zhou's death left the moderate pragmatists in a weakened position, and Deng Xiaoping, as   their most visible leader, came under immediate attack.
In April the people staged an unusual demonstration to protest the removal, by the   police, of memorial wreaths honoring Zhou from Beijing's Tiananmen (the Gate of Heavenly   Peace leading to the old Forbidden City). With this as an excuse, the radicals blamed Deng   for the disorders and dismissed him from office. But the radicals, in turn, lost their   protector when Mao died. Within a month, the "Gang of Four" radical leaders,   including Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, were arrested, and Deng was reinstated once again. The   Gang of Four were subsequently tried and convicted of various crimes against the state.   They became a convenient scapegoat for the new leadership, which did not wish to blame   China's ills on Mao directly.
In the following years, the pragmatists consolidated their position. Although he did   not take any of the main party or government positions, Deng emerged as the outstanding   figure within the leadership. An elderly man himself, he brought in younger men who shared   his views. The new policies were confirmed in the party and state constitutions adopted in   1982. These included accelerating China's economic development by the best possible means;   for example, by rewarding good work, even if this resulted in some inequalities in   society. Steps were also taken to prevent the concentration of power that had marked Mao's   time. Thus, the new state constitution limited state leaders to two consecutive terms.
Nevertheless, the new leadership remained firmly committed to Communism. The 1982   constitution stated again the Four Fundamental Principles that should guide the society:   the leadership of the Communist party, the "people's democratic dictatorship," the socialist road, and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The new constitution allowed   a greater measure of political freedom and civil rights, and legal safeguards were   introduced. It was evident, however, that there were limits to the new liberalization.   After an early period during which considerable freedom of speech was allowed, the   post-Mao leadership began to warn against destructive criticism.
The Four Modernizations.
The new regime's goal was the development of China's economy by means of the Four   Modernizations: of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology.   The Four Modernizations were first announced by Zhou at the tenth party congress in 1973,   when the country was just starting its slow recovery from the Cultural Revolution. The new   leadership under Deng placed great stress on them, with the aim of bringing China into the front rank among the world's nations.
To achieve the ambitious aims of the program, the new leadership replaced the Maoist   dogma of stressing the revolutionary spirit, the "red," with the practical value   of the "expert." In education, academic achievements were emphasized, and   nationwide college entrance examinations were reinstated. In industry, the authority of   experts was reasserted. In agriculture, peasants were allowed private plots. Some   overambitious projects were begun, and some replanning proved necessary. Nevertheless, the   Chinese were cautiously optimistic that they would attain their goals. They set a   reasonable economic growth rate of 7.2 percent per year and began a rigorous campaign to   slow the rate of population increase. They hoped that these measures would quadruple   industrial and agricultural production by the year 2000. In 1987 Deng retired and was   succeeded by Zhao Ziyang as general secretary and Li Peng as premier. (See Deng Xiaoping;   Zhao Ziyang)
DENG XIAOPING (born 1904).
During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, China's Communist government publicly   humiliated Deng Xiaoping by parading him through the national capital in a dunce cap. Yet,   after the deaths of Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong in 1976, he emerged as his country's   paramount leader. Whether in exile or in power, Deng was long acclaimed as a reformer who   resisted rigid Communist ideology. But his image was tarnished in mid-1989 when he ordered   a military crackdown on the student pro-democracy movement. At the same time the   government began to build a personality cult around the aging, ailing survivor of purges   who had once belittled the similar deification of Mao. Deng Xiaoping was born on Aug. 22,   1904, to a wealthy family in Sichuan Province. At age 16 he went to Paris to study. While   there he was befriended by Zhou. After he returned home in 1924, Deng joined the Communist   party and was sent to the Soviet Union for another year of study. In the political   movement led by Mao, he started out as an underground organizer. He participated in the   Long March of 1934-35.
Deng became a vice-premier in 1952, the party secretary in 1954, and a member of the   ruling Politburo in 1955. During the Cultural Revolution radical Maoists condemned him as   a bourgeois "freak." In 1973 he was rehabilitated under Zhou, and, as the most   senior vice-premier, became the effective head of the government during Zhou's later   illness. But Mao's supporters were alarmed by his efforts to promote economic reform   through "capitalist methods of production." Instead of succeeding Zhou when the   premier died, Deng was banished by the radical Gang of Four, an elite group of Mao's   supporters led by Mao's wife, Jiang Qing.
After Mao's death, the Gang of Four lost power. Until 1980-81 Deng struggled for   supreme control with Hua Guofeng, Mao's chosen successor, but he finally engineered the   promotions of his own proteges--Zhao Ziyang as premier and Hu Yaobang as party secretary.   In late 1987, to force the resignation of senior leaders, Deng gave up his own committee   posts. At the beginning of the year Hu Yaobang had been ousted because his leniency toward   dissidents and his support of Western-style democracy were blamed for a rash of student   demonstrations for reform. In Deng's next effort to establish the line of succession, Zhao   took over the party leadership.
For the rebellious Chinese students, Hu's disgrace had made him a martyr; his death on   April 15, 1989, became the catalyst for more aggressive pro-democracy demonstrations that   ended in the massacre of unarmed marchers in Peking (Beijing) on June 4. Deng's other   designated heir, Zhao, was removed because he favored concessions to the protesters. A new   leader, Jiang Zemin, was chosen for his law-and-order stance during similar demonstrations   in Shanghai. General Secretary Jiang next took over Deng's chairmanship of the party's   Central Military Commission in November 1989. Deng resigned from his last official post in   March 1990. (See China)
Jiang Zemin (born 1926).
In the wake of the student-led pro-democracy movement in China, Jiang Zemin emerged as   one of the nation's most influential Communist leaders. In June 1989, when the Communist   party was purged of its moderate leaders, he was appointed party general secretary and   chosen as the heir apparent to the senior leader Deng Xiaoping (See Deng Xiaoping).
Jiang was born in July 1926 in Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province. Little is known about his   childhood. He joined the Communist party while attending Shanghai's Jiaotong University,   where he graduated in 1947 with a degree in electrical engineering. After several Shanghai   factory jobs and advanced training in Moscow in the 1950s, Jiang worked up to a top   position at a northeastern Chinese automobile plant. He did not hold a government post   until 1980. Jiang became a member of the party's Central Committee in 1982 and the   Political Bureau in 1987. As the mayor of Shanghai from 1985 until his surprise   appointment as general secretary, and later the city's party chief, Jiang had gained   recognition as an economic reformer. Many believed the ideologically tough Jiang was   chosen to replace the moderate Zhao Ziyang as a reward for his swift action in quelling   the student demonstrations in Shanghai. (See Zhao Ziyang)
As general secretary, Jiang called for strict vigilance against what he described as   efforts by the West to subvert the Chinese government. In October 1989 the party announced   that Jiang would serve as the "core" of the next generation of Chinese leaders.