1. Discuss the rise of the Manchu Qing in Manchuria and its eventual rule over all of China. Assess its governance of China. WHY/ HOW/ SO WHAT

• In manchuria, the Manchus had come to power once again, despite Ming efforts that wanted to keep them subdued. Nurhaci, a Manchu leader, had successfully unified all of the manchu tribes. He founded a chinese style state, adopted chinese style confucianism and also declared himself the emperor of the state he created. He controlled all of Manchu and had made vassals of inner and outer Mongolia as well. This unification and adoption of chinese methods made the manchu’s bigger and stronger than the failing Ming dynasty. The manchu state had also, by this time, developed a large army that was composed of many chinese citizens, who believed that the Manchu state was more competent than the Ming. By 1644, the manchu’s were very similar to the chinese culturally, and had adopted almost all aspects of chinese culture, except for language.
• This same year Wu Sangui, a Ming general who was busy trying to crush a rebellion (led by Li Ziheng), allowed the Mongolian army entrance into China, in order to defeat the rebels. After the rebellion was crushed, the Manchu’s stayed in China, where they proceeded to found the last chinese dynasty- the Qing. They were ruthless in the conquests of central and south China, but later tried hard to win the people over. They were the only dynasty, beside to the mongols, to rule all of china proper.
• The transition from Ming to Qing was lacking bloodshed and was not a violent one. Why? Maybe because the Manchu’s were tired of always being suppressed by the chinese. How- the change occurred through Nurhaci, a capable leader who unified the manchu’s and made them strong. So what? Relevant because It was one of 2 dynasties that was founded by “barbaric” peoples, and the Qing also happened to be the last ruling dynasty of China.
• Assessing its governence: The Manchu’s, all in all, were a successful dynasty. The first 2 centuries were ruled by Kangxi and Qianlong, 2 emperors who were very capable men and reigned for a long time. Under the Qing, China saw a growth in commerce, agriculture and prosperity, and the people were content with what was happening. The Qing tried to keep with chinese traditions and were not harsh with the people. The population also more than likely tripled after 1650, which also indicated prosperity and growth.

1. In what ways was the Tokugawa style of governance a continuation of the Ashikaga administration? In what ways did it differ from the Ashikaga administration?

In what ways was it a continuance: (Point form)

• It was still a shogunate.
• The emperor still remained a figure head.
• The shogunate was still very much in charge of japan.

In what ways did it differ: (the How)

• Had excessive control over the provinces- which ashikaga could never acheive.
• Had the sankin kotai which required the maintaining of 2 palaces ( so taht the shogunate could keep an eye on the daimyo)
• Highly controlled social structure- SPAM, smaurai, peasants, artisans, merchants.
• capital and imperial residence moved from kyoto to Edo (modern day tokyo).

Why? Because the Ashikaga was not as powerful as the Tokugawa. The Tokugawa were obsessed with control and order.

So what? Important because the Tokugawa brought to Japan the “longest period of peace and stability in its history.” It continued almost to the end of the shogunate in the 1800’s.

Confucius was the epitamy everything backward and wrong in china.

• today it is upheld as the epitamy of rational, virtue and royalty.
• Confucius was a real live person. was born in 551BC and died in 479. born during the zhou dynasty before the imperial period (approx.1000 BC)
• zhou dynasty is more interested in observing how the universe functions than the divine realm. heaven and nature has its own imperatives.
• zhou china is a feudal colony. has some power and descender. hereditary hierarchy of feudal lords.
• lords of the king tax revenue and military service if required.
• by the time confucius is born the zhou was starting to disintegrate.
• some of the states began to annoy one another and started fighting one another.
• Confucius is disturbed by the tendency he sees by state competition. he was correct in his fears. never lived to see china completely disintegrate.
• china enters into a period of the warring states after 200 years after Confucius died. war with itself. Confucius saw all of this coming and he didn’t like it. saw disintegration in moral in society. kids were not respectful towards elders. crime is on the increase. Confucius believed in the bones.
• Hundred Schools of thought, roughly the 6th,5th,4th century BC, there are many other tools of thought out there talking about how to fix china (Daoists, etc.) confucius is most known both outside and inside china. confucius’ thought was the best. made confucius thought the oficial ideaology of all of china.
• film refered to the “axial age” age where several different organizations were debating how to live and how the past is good and the present sucks. in India period of reform of religion, period where buddhism is born (which eventually conquered china), in Palestine period of going back to the pure form of religion of jehova. in greece it was a time for philosophers, period of plato and aristotle. for 300 years of religious and philosophical debate largely concerning of how human beings should live their lives.
• Confucius demand vs. Confucius thought
• Confucius is born in a state in china called Lu, today called shandong province. born in the cradle of the east where chinese civilization has its earliest beginnings. surname was Kong. Confucius comes from venerable master kong (from his name).
• who is Confucius? born into a family of minor aristocratic status, he has access to books and book learning, his family hires a tutor for him. from a very early age he was brilliant and idealistic. learned to venerate and idealize the past.
• Confucius gets a reputation for the idealistic type that his own state won’t be hired, he couldn’t accept orders, had to question everything and problems with authority (because he thinks everybody in authority is not good enough and the he needs to teach them, ancient sage kings,)
• he gets a picture of early zhou china, he begins to insist that any government that would listen to him and recreate it and morally instructed by him that they would become a good state in china and that state will become a model for other states in china.
• he never finds employment so he goes out to look for some government that will let him recreate the moral and instructive state for them. the government thought that he was impractical and idealistic.
• he has midlife crisis sometimes in his 30’s. so he settled down and became a teacher and hoped someday his students would apply his ideas.
• he has several dozen disciples, his students take long transcripts, in them there’s a picture that emerges of a man who is concerned in how society aught to act. he doesn’t dwell on what is a human being, etc. he thought that those questions were distracting and that they should concentrate on the problems in this world than the next (here and now rather than there and later).
• Qin dynasty hated the thought of Confucius. looked for disciples or anyone who believed in Confucius, if they didn’t renounce their loyalty, they were brutally executed. books lost, etc. Qin dynasty didn’t last long due to harshness. then there was a scramble to find men who still remember the Confucius thought, they put the fragments of the books that weren’t burned together with the thoughts of the men as Analects. little bits and pieces here and there. reading it becomes a frustration for some people. gradually a general picture of Confucius thoughts will arrive after taking time reading the Analects. how people do act and how they aught to act.
• Confucius insists that he is not coming up with anything new, he denies being a revolutionary. In antiquity there is a consciousness of one’s role in society. accepts role that fate handed them. sought to behave. no strife in antiquity. “let the ruler be a ruler, let the minister be a minister, let the father be a father and let the son be a son” regenerate moral and ethical excellence of antiquity. let there be no distinction between how a minister should act and how a minister acts. should bridge the gap.
• duke of zhou, great moral exemplars among rulers in china. Confucius eventually comes up with two concepts the importance of ritual and being benevolent.
• importance of ritual: ritual or ceremony, li, li has a broad and narrow sense, narrow sense, li means ritual or ceremony, identifies the major occasions in life, birth, marriage, and death.
• Confucius is big on hierarchy, rejects the idea that everybody is equal. he thinks that there aught to be a hierarchy. point of ritual is the performance of the ritual in and of itself. in funeral ritual you have a model of society. shouldn’t question those roles. to be chinese is to subscribe to ritual and to be farmers. the more frequently you repeat ritual, in the narrow sense, the more you will be trained in society, will work something of a transformative “magic” on you, it would discipline you and train you. he thinks that ritual has a whole lot to teach us. training and repetition.
• Confucius would’ve loved graduation at UofC due to hierarchy, division, expectation and is a ritual. opportunity to learn for him, due to assigned roles in the graduation.
• importance of being benevolent: however, there is a danger with ritual, it will become sterile and people will just mindlessly do the ritual without transforming them. ritual will be an empty formal performance for you and is worthless if it doesn’t transform you. there should be a quality of mind and heart in order to do a transformation in you. Ren is a quality of mind and frame of heart that you had to have. Ren is the label the you have to have in a certain performance. Ren is an individual quality which every individual in society must possess. They will be eager in doing well with their role in society. Ren is an individual quality that is then applied to other individuals in society. Ren means to be deeply human, human heartedness or consummate reality, evolved man or humanity. encourage people to develop or cultivate a sense of Ren. old british translation of Ren is benevolent. Confucius has no answer on how to get Ren. Ren might ultimately have been so profound that it was beyond words and definition. (because some textual are missing). what Ren means and how to get it, don’t know. but if you do get Ren then you will be an important person.
• Benjamin Schwartz: Ren is the capacity to act well and properly in all that one encounters in social life.
• filial piety: respect, love and honor of one’s parents. can be sincere or forced. if you have Ren your filial piety is sincere and if not then your filial piety is stressful for you and you resent them. you become a superior man if you have Ren. Son of a sovern, son of a prince, the nobility are expected to have qualities such as Ren. farmers can also have moral excellence of a prince.
• Confucius does not seem to think very much of women, he sees women as distractions, “I have never seen a man who is as fond of virtue as a beautiful face of a woman”, thinks women are hard to deal with. wants men to influence the moral behavior of women.
• Confucius thought is not very religious. It used to be, in the west, that Confucius is agnostic (you may or may not believe whether God may or may not exist).
• pay your respects to the spirits and deities but keep your distance. by paying your respects to spirits and deities you CAN keep them away from you. Confucius wants there to be a distance between spirits and deities. a gentleman should keep it at an arms length. “never understanding about life, no time to understand death”
• he does not question the existence about the divine realm, but just set them aside. Confucius might have been a believer, for him the answer is that it that exist but the most important question is what do you do about the afterlife and he answers not much. (he’s not concerned with afterlife.) heaven or nature functions as a well oiled machine and should seek our answers there. ritual is attempting to mimic and duplicate the functions of reverence. Confucius probably wasn’t an agnostic.
• The successors of Confucius, two men called Mencius and Hsun-tzu continued after Confucius died.
• Mencius asks why should we be good? that being good is natural, being good is being true to ourselves. every human being on this earth is originality born with a complete sense of Ren within him or herself. after each person is born, the everyday problems of life, obscure our innately good nature and we have to work hard to keep our good nature. either a barbarian or an animal if you don’t feel anything, a human being or a sage if you feel something good.
• Hsun-tzu: human beings are born innately bad, we have to teach human beings to overcome innately bad natures with education. li, is ritual, it is prescription and teaches us how to become good people and to overcome our innately bad nature. having Ren is possible but you gotta work on it.
• Chinese wrestle with this question: are human beings innately good or bad?
• they chose Mencius’ idea about humans.

Tuesday October 26, 2010

• Tang expands and revives the examination system. It doesn't want to be run by old aristocratic families.
• Some of these families had a sense of entitlement to government positions.
• They establish 2 major universities.
• What is studied in those 2 universities was social sciences and humanities.
• The government wanted the students to know the thoughts of Confucius.
• Anybody In China was eligible to write the exams.
• They were tested on 5 subjects:
• Law
• Arithmetic
• calligraphy
• History
• literature
• There are 2 types of degrees- a lower and a higher level.
• The 1^st level was the xiucai- which means blossoming student.
• Average age of students passing was late 20’s to early 30’s.
• The 2^nd level was the jinshi- which means accomplished scholar.
• Late 40’s and 50’s was the average age.
• The Tang dynasty hoped that by having these 2 degrees, the aristocrats would never make it to the top of the government rank. Unfortunately, the majority of jinshi were aristocrats.
• The appeal of being a government official was prestige and the position.
• If you arrived at the position of being a government official, you become wealthy and your name is written down in history.

The Landowning system

• Equal fields system (Often called the Zu, Yong, Dog System)- Equal because all men from 16-60 had a piece of land to call theirs.
• Government owns all land, and peasants work the land for and on behalf of the government. Land was assigned to all males from 16-60, which they would farm.
• No one could ever come and buy it out, but you could not sell it either.
• Every farmer expected to pay 3 types of tax.

1. Zu- a payment of grain. North: Millet, South: Rice.
2. Yong- a tax in labor. Labor on government projects for about 1 month a year in the off season. Labor would be done on roads or bridges.
3. Dog- a tax in cloth. North: Hemp/ Cotton. South: Silk.

• In order to keep this running properly, census’ had to be conducted. Census’ were conducted extensively and were expensive to do.
• The equal fields system doesn’t always work. It fails during a rebellion and reverts to being privately owned.

Tang China and the Turks.

The Bipolar world is back again.

• The Turks: Their ethnic homeland is north of China, called Mongolia today. The Turks are ethnically related to the mongols.
• They moved into asia minor. They are the ethnic cousins of the Mongols. Their language is even similar to Japanese. They did not only originate in turkey, they have history in Asia.
• Tumen comes into power and menaces Sui dynasty China.
• The problem the Turkics have is a contradictory crises of succession.
• One tradition says that the following brother should be leader, and another says that the sons should become the next leader. Horizontal and vertical succession.
• Had there been one politically stable succession, they would have been much more powerful. The turks’ downfall was internal problems.
• When Tang emerges, the Li family is part turkish and part Chinese. They found a dynasty and wait for the turks to collapse among themselves. In the 620’s when the younger man is emperor of China, the turks are grumbling and don’t know what to think of this young man. The turks decide to attack the Chinese but the young emperor is too quick. He faces both Khans and the emperor barks out his personal challenge and combat (in Turkish) to whichever Khan steps up to it. He wows the Turks and they back off for a time.

The Heavenly Khan

• In 624, the young emperor launches a sneak attack on the Turks’ Khan encampment. He makes his way to the tent of the Khan and re-challenges him. The Turks submit to Tang China in the year 630.
• With this, the first turkish empire ends.
• The Tang emperor, Li Zhi Ming, becomes awesomely powerful. He is the Grand Khan to the turks and Son of Heaven to the Chinese.
• For the turks, this is shameful.

The Second Turkic empire

• The successor of the Tang dynasty is Gaozong and he doesn’t like the mongols and the mongols don’t like him. They have no respect for Gaozong at all.
• In 670, the 2^nd turk empire is founded. It lasts until the early 700‘s. They (the turks) are almost obsessed with warnings to their people, to stay away from Chinese culture.
• It is so adamant, that it is even written in stone. These warnings are the first written recordings of the turks. They are called the Orkhon inscriptions. Bilgha Khagan writes them.
• Why is China dangerous to the Turks? Because they can produce what people want. They have silk and good food and could cause the turkic people to become assimilated to chinese culture.
• The mongols were never assimilated culturally. Everyone else was.
• The 2^nd turkish empire falls because of the Uigher.

The Uigher Empire.

• They are literate, have their own script and love to raid and plunder China.
• Karabalgasun:
• A storage city made to store all of the stolen Chinese goods.
• Uighers present the head of the last Turkish Khan to the emperor to prove that they are in charge.
• Becomes a target.
• In the year 840, the Kirgiz come down, break down the walls of the city, burn down the city, and with that, the city falls.
• They become very wealthy and are helped by the Sogdians who come from uzbekistan. They speak persian.
• The city of Karabalgasun falls and is destroyed but the people are not.
• Later on, the uighers convert to Islam and are one of the larger ethnic minorities found in China today.

JAPAN

• Japanese civilization is a blend of several different elements.
• Combines continental influences (east asia), culture from far away India (Southeast Asia [wet rice cultivation & tooth mutilation]), modern European culture, and indigenous Japanese. All of that = Japan today.
• Samuel Huntington categorized Japan as a completely separate civilization on its own.
• Japan, like Britain, contributes more than expected from its from small size.
• Japan is 200,000 square miles. Roughly the size of Montana or half of Alberta.
• Has a population of 120 million people.
• Where did the japanese come from? It is still somewhat of a mystery. A large segment is composed of migration from the mainland.
• The Ainu people originally inhabited all of the Japanese islands. They are hairy and had light hair and light eyes. Because of migration, the Ainu were pushed up North, into Hokkaido.
• There are alot of mountains in Japan and in the North, it snows.
• Japan is at an advantage where placed at sea. Close enough to be influenced by the mainland but far enough to be identified on its own.
• Not defeated until 1945, at the end of WWII.

Jomon

• They left behind mounds and mounds of seashells.
• These seashells are evidence of early civilization in Japan. Suggests that the fishing was very good. There was also a presence of pottery without agriculture.
• Fishing so good that the Jomon could stay in one place and store their food (which is why the pottery existed). The pottery was coiled and they wrapped roe around it to give it a texture that made lifting easy.

Thursday October 28, 2010

Jomon Culture.

• Besides pottery, they also had figurines.
• Tooth mutilation was also practiced. It occurred when boys and girls reached the age of maturity.
• Evidence of tattoos is also present. Influenced from polynesian cultures.

The Yayoi Culture.

• Replaced the Jomon culture.
• Located from the island of Kyushu to the modern Kanto plane.
• The difference was seen in the pots. Better pottery, more refined.
• Does not have agriculture in the early period.
• No evidence of tooth mutilation,
• It was in this period that wet rice cultivation surfaces.
• Taken from southeast asia. Laos, Thailand etc..
• They are fisherman and the basis of the diet, fish and rice, is established.
• Lots of carbohydrates and protein.
• Required a large labor force, due to the fact that wet rice cultivation required a lot of work.
• They are also technology saavy.
• At this time however, no writing system is established.
• Bracelets, jades, disks, mirrors etc.. Are quite prized in Japan.
• Japan also begins to work metal, entering the iron age. Bronze is worked, and a korean styled bell is made at this time.
• Dogs have also been domesticated @ this time.
• Vilages with thatched roofs.

The Tomb Period

• The tombs are distinct and are sometimes called keyhole. Why they are shaped that way is anybody’s guess. Maybe had a religious connotation associated to it.
• Tomb building seems to be all the rage and then tapers off around the 600.
• In the 600‘s, waves of cultural influence from the mainland are coming into Japan. Mostly comes through Korea.
• The Japanese began to write in Chinese Characters. They are not members of the same language family, but Japan adapts their writing anyways.
• Japan, for 2 or 3 centuries (600’s, 700’s, 800’s), borrows and copies much from China- from writing to some cultural aspects.
• Chinese characters are used phonetically to string together Japanese words. This occurs much, much later.
• One chinese contribution to Japan was the potter’s wheel.
• Haniwa are statues placed outside of tombs, perhaps to guard the tombs.
• Enjoying life, singing, drinking sake and many, are obviously Shamans.
• What is a shaman? Often, but not always a woman. Has six fingers (means being favored) and acts as an intermediary between this world and the other world. Usually communicates in a trance or a spell. Also have magical healing powers.
• All of this is archaeological.
• The Japanese begin to read of Sima Qian and some Japanese scholars decide taht Japan needs a written history based on Chinese Models.

The Kojiki (Record of old things) and the Nihon Shoki (chronicle of Japan)

• Japan also has an emperor but there is a difference.
• For the Japanese, it is unthinkable that an emperor could be overthrown and his lineage disposed of.
• Japan has no mandate of Heaven.
• The Japanese made it seem that the emperor had a lineage that began at the creation of the world.
• Japan was seen as the origin of the sun and they have a creation account. Japan was created first. With the creation of the world, there is already and emperor and his family line is forever to remain untouched.
• If the emperor is a nitwit and not capable, then he would live pampered and lavishly and have others run the country for him.
• In Japan, people don't suffer long because of the nitwit emperor. Someone picks up the slack pretty quick.
• The Japanese observe the distinction between reigning and ruling.
• Much like our constitutional monarchy.
• The Chinese don’t like the idea of reigning and ruling.

Tuesday November 2, 2010

Song China -

• 970-960- The 5 dynasties, China puts itself together again in 960.
• Liao dynasty
• The 16 prefectures
• Never get conquered by Song China
• Song never accepts barbarian rule but they leave it alone.
• The treaty of Shan Yuen.
• Liao, int eh North gets treated as an equal and not inferior. The emperor was Huang Di.
• China loses the Northern half of its territory to the Jin. The ruling group were the Jerchens.
• Jin must also be treated as an equal.
• China has a fairly good chunk called Northern Song and there was also a Southern Song.
• In 1279, the mongols, Yuan dynasty, conquered every last inch of China.

• 1250
• Song after the sunset.
• First time china had a coastal capital.
• Hang Zhou was the largest city in the world at the time.
• Not multicultural and China was scared of the outside world.
• Threatened in the world and is very aware of that.
• Hang Zhou was the place where all the foreign ships docked but, Hang Zhou was not like Chang an.
• Recognized other rulers as emperors. Distasteful but it happened.
• Family prominence did not exist.
• Trade was 80% internal.
• All trade is private trade and it is not supervised by the government. However, it is taxed.
• Had about a 6% tax on business.
• Getting more tax revenue from business than it is from farming.
• In the late 10 hundreds we see a massive increase in commercial trade.
• Don’t tax peasants, tax business!
• In song by the 10 hundreds, the annual average mint of the government is 6 million strings of copper coins.
• By the mid ten hundreds, there is not enough copper in China to make up for all of the trade going on.
• Someone made up the certificate system, where the certificate was given a monetary value. It was easier than carrying around all of those copper coins.
• The song are the world’s first users of paper money.
• Counterfeiter's were beheaded.
• They think using paper money, is no big deal.
• Marco Polo writes about this and the Europeans disbelieve it.
• China’s economy is highly monetarized.
• By 1100, it was already 100 million.
• By 1250, Southern song alone had 120 million people.
• Over one dozen cities that have populations over a million people.
• These cities are eager to trade one with another.
• They were connected by roads and very connected canals. Think venice.
• City culture emerges in Song China.
• Develop special tastes for different local regions.
• Hang Zhou itself, had a population of maybe 2 million people. He called Hang Zhou the “temporary abode” [xin zai].
• Talks about how people wear silk like cotton. Europe didn’t believe him. Silk was a luxury in Europe.
• Marco Polo also talked alot about how good the prostitutes were.
• 400 000 students.
• Women, educated women, “did not know their place”, and they were viewed as unfeminine and uppity. Very unappealing.
• Song men found women who remarried, after being widowed, horrifying and repulsive.
• A man cannot serve two lords, which means a woman could not have two husbands.
• Women who were small, frail, and weak were ideal.
• The women were to be dumb, and stay at home.
• Good women stayed at home and sent out their servants to fetch what they needed.
• Large feet were repulsive and disgusting. The song men had a foot fetish.
• Foot binding started in Song times. It was done a few years after the young girl learned to walk. Until the girl was 15 or 16, the girls foot was deformed and the toes touched the heel.
• Once this was done, you could not walk very far, and you were basically immobile. Foot binding is not illegal until the 20^th century.

• 750
• Tang China at its height.
• Tang has no real enemies or outward threats.
• Chang An was very multicultural.
• China knows and is quite confident that it is the most powerful state in the world.
• Foreigners were exotica.
• Had never dreamed of any other ruler being equal to the emperor.
• Families and prominence could last many centuries.
• Business occurs in one city- Chang an. Commerce occurred with caravans coming through the city, because of the silk road.
• Commerce was regulated by the government. They wanted to control trade in Luxury items.
• Annual government mint of copper coins. It was approx. 100 000- 300 000 strings of coins, made up of 100 coins each.
• Population was approx. 60 million.
• Chan an. Population? Give or take 1 million.
• 60 000 students.
• From 750- 1250, the position of women worsened. However, the rich people left behind the records. So we are talking about the elite women.
• In 750, women are not allowed to write the govenment exams but are allowed to pursue and education. In tang times this is good and appeals to men. Women were drinkers and the men played drinking games. Tang men are fascinated with women who could hold her liquor and keep place among the men. Men would pay to have her sitting at their table.
• Women in Tang were not dainty or coquettish. They liked deliciously plump, even, fat women.
• Elite women were not equals but were the companions of men.
• If a women widowed, she was allowed to remarry, especially a younger woman.
• The men were very fond of Shiraz, Persian, wine. The chinese did not have grape wine.

• First among equals.
• That is what the emperor is in the Tang.
• Bureaucracy was mostly among old wealthy aristocratic families.
• These bureaucrats were allowed to criticize the emperor tastefully and talk to him directly.

• In song, internally, the emperor is much more powerful during the Song dynasty.
• Government emperors do not sit down for tea with the emperor. They were standing in front of the emperor and discussion was among themselves. Not with him.
• Song emperor listens to debate and makes a decision BY HIMSELF.
• In song you get your position because of what you know, not WHO you know.

• This trend continued with other dynasties. Ming made the ministers kneel.
• In the Qing, the ministers had to (kow tow)?
• The emperor became even more powerful towards the end of the monarchal time.

• Zu Yong Yang - paid taxes in land, silk and labor. (ASK MARTINA FOR THIS)
• The population was growing and moving around. Population concentration moves from North to South.
• By Ming the population is mostly in the South.
• Today, because of industrialization of the North, there has been a huge movement back North.
• There is a transition from a rural based economy to a city based economy. \

• In song, government universities do exist but, among the wealthiest of he Chinese, a kind of snobbery emerged. “Don’t study to get a job. Study for the sake of studying!”
• Private learning flourished during song China.
• The government worries that the best and the brightest aren’t working for the government anymore because they are busy hiding.

Japan- Buddhism and Nara/ Hayan (modern day Kyoto).

• Makes a deliberate attempt to copy the Tang.
• The emperor always rules in a single uninterrupted line. The emperor was untouched.
• Failed to institute the examination system.
• Elitism survives in Japan, more than it does in China.
• Emperor’s family wants to try the equal fields system but the wealthy families opposed the Emperor’s initiative.
• Japan is not a carbon copy of CHina.
• Even their buddhism is different and unique.

Buddhism and Nara Art.

• The japanese learn to speak Chinese.
• To them, Chinese is the language of culture and learning. They import buddhism and see that in China, there are monasteries. Therefore, the Japanese also have monasteries.
• Nara temples.. The oldest Is the Horyuji. Built in the 600’s?. It is both a monastery and a temple. To build these, chinese and korean architects were brought in to Japan. The best place to study Tang architecture is in Japan. Tatami mats and kimono’s were also Chinese.
• The Japanese are fond of using sculpture.
• The Toshodaiji was founded by Ganjin, a chinese man, and he brought a variety of buddhism over to Japan. He failed 5 times and made it the 6^th time. However, he lost his eyesight in the process.
• There is another temple, finished in 752. It is called the Todaiji. This was Japan trying to outdo China.
• In 741, there was a law made that stated there had to be a buddhist temple in every province. However, there were also shinto temples in every province. Would the shinto Kami gods accept these new buddhist gods?
• In order to do things properly, there was a department of deities set up so that Buddhist deities could be introduced to Shinto Kami gods.

Tuesday November 9, 2010

Primitive Shinto

• The Japanese are aware that much of their culture comes from the mainland, but they ask themselves periodically and today… what does it mean to be Japanese?
• Japanese people and Shrek are like onions… they have layers!
• Japanese uses chinese characters and they have their own syllabic alphabet.
• What is at the core of innate Japanese-ness?
• This inner core, was believed to be Shinto.
• Even Shinto is a continental import and is not indigenous to Japan.
• Shinto is close to the shamanism and the fertility worship of other cultures (Including the mongols and the Koreans).
• Animism: the belief that natural objects, phenomena and the world itself, has a soul.
• Shinto Is diverse in its origin and fails to be established as a religion with strict guidelines, outlines and books. Shinto, is simply there.
• Any that has kami is venerable and worthy of worship and respect.
• Kami, = God. Anything that wows or inspires you can be kami.
• Motoori Norinaga wrote that Kami… there are human beings who are kami and because of this, there was a period of kami, or period of the gods.
• Even thunder can have kami. Kami is more like a label.
• When buddhism comes in from the mainland, even this mixes with Kami and shinto.
• Shinto worship, LOVES shrines.
• The oldest shrine is the Izumo Shrine. Another shrine, the Ise shrine, is simple and made of of wood. These shrines are hundreds, if not thousands of years old. The Ise shrine has the 3 symbols- the symbols of the japanese emperor. It is often referred to as the 3 jewels (a mirror, a sword and a jewel).
• The hope is that the kami may come and visit the shrine.
• Marking the contours upon which a shinto shrine rests, is called a Torii. It separates between profane, dirty ground and the entering of a sacred place.
• Harai: Shinto purification ceremonies
• Misogi: Similar to harai, using water to cleanse the individual so that they may approach the deity.
• You have to wash before entering the shrine.
• What goes on historically at these shrines?
• Fishermen would go there and offer the the first catch of the sea. Farmers- their first harvest, hunters- their first gain, warriors- the heads of their enemies.
• Someone who know and performs the ritual well is the epitome of japanese ritual and ceremony.
• You can pray at these shrines and can also purify- get rid of demons. Similar to an exorcism.

Shinto Legend and Creation Myth.

• The Yamato clan is the family, or lineage that emerged as the emperor clan.
• The japanese claim that this clan was established when the world was created.
• The kojiki and nihonshoki.
• 660 B.C- Emperor Jimmu.
• Who is he descended from? Who are his ancestors?
• In the creation myth, there are divine brothers and sisters, Izanagi and Izanami. They descended down on the earth and they made Japan. Their most important child is Amaterasu, the sun goddess, and from her, the imperial lineage came forth. They have Susa no-o, the storm goddess and the deities have to attract the storm goddess to come out of hiding after fighting with the sun goddess. Ninigi’s grandson founded he imperial line.
• All of this, from our modern day P.O.V looks silly, but in Japan, this is truth. Even in WWII, there were soldiers who claimed to be fighting for the lineage of the sun goddess. All of this was created so that the Emperor’s lineage wouldn’t be disputed. It wasn’t, but this doesn’t meant that the emperors were alway listened to.
• The imperial line, is in fact, unbroken. And this is probably the only truth.
• What was the function of the department of deities? To be ritually proper, and to introduce the buddhist boddhisatvas to the Shinto Kami’s.
• Shinto is not as deep or profound as confucianism or buddhism.
• Daoism never takes off in Japan. This happens because of the fact that shinto is already a religion of “nature”. It plays the part of nature religion in Japan.
• The Japanese see little reason as to why they should replace shinto with chinese daoism.

Accounts form the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki.

• Is shinto the core? Is kojiki and Nihon Shoki the ore?
• IN early times, many believed that the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki were the essence of being Japanese.
• Japan takes these elements from the mainland, but after 9 or 10 hundred, they are through with borrowing from the Mainland and begin to stand on their own.
• Not even the Yamato clan, with its prestigious claim, can convince aristocrats to give up their land claims to give them to the government.
• Japanese aristocrats restrict the writing of state exams to aristocrats only.
• Chinese is the language of culture and prestige. The earliest specimens of japanese literature is written in chinese.
• Chinese proves to be too difficult to normal japanese people.
• A woman, at the emperor’s court in Heiyan, Japan, is the one who uses chinese phonetics to write japanese words.
• The characters are simplified because they are too complicated, and then, a japanese writing system emerges.
• There is one spelling system [alphabet] for japanese words (hiragana), another one, chinese characters for chinese (kanji), and another alphabet for words that came from the west (katakana).
• Can the japanese read straight chinese? Sometimes.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

BUDDHISM

• China is not completely isolated from the rest of the world. Almost without exception, the first example to disprove this is the acceptance of Buddhism
• Buddhism is born in India but becomes “Chinese”. Buddhism doesn’t spread straight out of India, it comes from East Asia.
• Try to reconcile it with Daoism. Buddhism in the song dynasty becomes antagonistic towards Confucius thought. Then there are some who rebel and persecute Buddhism. However, it doesn’t fade away and is still strong in China today.
• The Buddha is a real live person. The Buddha? 563 – 483 BC. He is born in India to a kingdom/ tribe on the foothills of the Himalayan Mountain. The tribe? Sakya. Born into the khsatriya caste and is the rulers or kings. You are born and die within the caste. Your karma from previous lives decides your caste .Brahmans is the highest caste in India. Sakyamuni – sage of the sakya. Siddhartha Buddha. Clan name? Gautama.
• The Buddha was son of the prince of the sakya’s and as royalty was very wealthy. Was trained as a warrior and was learned in the ways of the chariot and was engaged to a beautiful young woman. Every shred of human suffering is removed from his sight and he grows up in palace splendor. He doesn’t see the real world and never experience real sickness. He is living inside a wall palace compound and is not permitted to see much of the outside world. As a young man he became restless and curious of the outside world. This leads to his 4 discoveries. He convinced his favorite charioteer to take him into the outside world. In the outside world, he sees and old man for the first time and asks “what is that repulsive being?” He had never encountered such a thing and is troubled. On another foray, he discovers a very sick man covered with sores and is feverish. His charioteer explains to the Buddha that all men are like this- old and sick. On another occasion he saw a corpse and saw that the body was being hauled to the cremation area. The Buddha saw mourners and people weeping, and questioned this too. His charioteer explained that all human beings MUST die. It could happen young or old, healthy or sick. But it is all of our destinies. On his last excursion he discovered a man with a yellow robe, he was obviously very poor, but the look on the man’s face was one of content, happiness, serenity, calmness, and that made him joyful. Upon questioning the charioteer, the charioteer could not answer. HOWEVER, Siddhartha wants this and he decides to become a beggar like the man he sees.
• He wants nothing but the contentment that he saw on the man's face.
• This leads to Siddhartha’s decision to resign everything and leaves. He cuts off all of his hair, takes off all of his jewels and sends these things back to his father.
• He leaves, is a beggar for some time and ultimately becomes a hermit in the forest. He learns from the religious leaders about the Upanishads and they talk about something called the Atman- which is the self that every human being possesses. Then, there is the Brahman which is the universal self. Atman is one in the same thing with the universal Brahman. It is a part of you, you are it. The understanding of this leads to revelation, Moksha, which is the liberation, known as reincarnation in the western world. This realization could take many lifetimes. It doesn’t just come.
• Eventually, the Buddha leaves the teaching of the Upanishads and doesn’t like Moksha because it is mere knowledge. He believes that there needs to be knowledge AND works.
• Goes on a new search and works on the “doing” part of what he believes. He practices asceticism, which is the denying yourself of one’s bodily needs- sex, drink, food, etc... He did this because asceticism wears down the karma. Karma- a tally of good and bad deeds, that determines where we are and what we are now. Can go back into the past but also extends into the future. True enlightenment, Moksha, can be fulfilled within 2 or 3 lifetimes through asceticism.
• One day, worn out because of all the years he had practiced asceticism, he passed out and his friends thought he had died. When he came around/woke up, he learned that asceticism was not the way. Immediately, he ate food and his ascetic friends are disgusted with him because he goes back on everything he practiced and they leave him, abandoning him. At this time, he learns the importance of the middle path- avoid extremes.
• He had known extreme indulgence and extreme asceticism. He also realizes that the middle path has to be in between knowing and doing.
• Sits under a tree called the tree of Wisdom and swears that he will never get up from there until his search was resolved. At the dawn of the 49^th day of sitting under the tree, in a sudden flash of insight, he had achieved the secret of sorrow- why the world is full of suffering and pain. He also received the “key” as to what humans need to do in order to overcome sorrow.
• At this time, he had become the Buddha.
• He then has a debate within himself, “share or not to share?”
• He decides that he will become the teacher of his beliefs and he goes to deer park to preach to his 5 ascetic friends. They immediately left their asceticism and become his disciples.
• The sermon contained the 4 noble truths and the 8 fold path:
1. Life is suffering, Life is pain.
2. Suffering is caused by desire. Kama= desire, lust, is longing. Anything you want is Kama and can be for food, sex, money, fame etc…
3. Desire can be conquered. Kama can be overcome.
4. The 8 fold path is how you overcome desire. Knowing and doing is inevitably intertwined with one another. The 4 noble truths were knowing and the 8 fold path was doing.
• Nirvana..
• A person is able to achieve nirvana in this life. You are free from desire and the cycle of birth and rebirth forever..
• There are no degrees or levels or stages of enlightenment- you either are or aren’t.
• The Buddha spends the next years spreading his religion to all those who will listen
• Buddhism is Indian and sometimes shares some aspects with Hinduism.
• It shares Samsara, the cycle of birth and rebirth.
• Also has karma in common, which determines the outcome of the future.
• In Buddhism, the achievement of nirvana is the elimination of suffering, this is primary. Secondary is the liberation of birth and rebirth.
• Buddhism tries to solve the problem of pain, Hinduism tries to solve the problem of birth and re-birth, and Christianity tries to solve the problem of alienation from God through sin.
• Right before the Buddha dies, he asks them if they want to ask something. There is nothing. The moment he dies, doctrinal issues within his disciples arise.
• When he dies, there are 2 branches of Buddhism, Mahayana and Tarabahna.
• Monastic impulse is alive in Christianity and Buddhism.
• You earn nirvana yourself for your own efforts, emphasis on strict monastic practices. This was termed Hinayana or Tarabahna.
• Mahayana Buddhist, Maha= big, Mahayana= big vehicle. It is probably Tarabahna that most closely resembles the teaching of the Buddha.
• Basic teaching of Mahayana: too many ppl suffering to all rely on their own efforts so there has to be another way. Then there emerges a Bodhisattva, one who WILL become a Buddha. It is a person who through his own efforts or merit, earns or achieve nirvana themselves. During death, at the very last moment before entering heaven, re-enters the earth, and focuses the attention on those who are living. The bodhisattva who does this is a savior type figure which allows people the ability to not have to earn nirvana themselves, and, can achieve it through the bodhisattva.
• Mahayana has sometimes been called a dumbed down version of Buddhism. How can you get a peasant to understand nirvana?
• Some bodhisattvas take names called Amitabha. Mahayana is the Buddhism that spreads to china, Japan and Korea.
• Mahayana Buddhism with its basic teaching life is suffering and here is a devotional way out that becomes quite attractive to the Chinese.
• Between China and India, there is the Himalaya Mountain range in between the two.
• When Buddhism 1^st appears in China, it is during the Han dynasty, during the times of Christ.
• Northern China, by the end of the 200s sees Buddhism first.
• The rulers of northern china, the “barbarians” tolerate Buddhism and they think its ok. They like the fact that there is no political agenda in the religion.
• By the end of the 4^th century, Buddhism begins to spread into southern china as well.
• In the south, it’s appealing because Confucian thought doesn’t really seem relevant to china at the time. The rulers see it as harmless and it contains similarities to Daoism.
• Eventually, they don’t just tolerate it, they become very devout Buddhists by the 400s and 500s.
• They want to know about what sutras are in India. They send their own religious missionaries to learn Indian language to translate new Buddhist teachings into Chinese.
• Fa-hsien, famous monk who goes to India.
• Hsuan-Tsang, most famous. Brings back many sutras.
• Lotus Sutra is the most famous of all sutras.
• Buddhism is establishes as a major part of Chinese culture. It enriches rather than dilutes Chinese culture.
• Kushan and Gandara are the provinces in which Buddhism began.
• Buddhist missionaries eventually use visual arts to convey Buddhist ideas. Same idea behind cathedrals in Europe.
• Chinese varieties of Buddhism
• T’ien-t’ai (Tendai) in Japanese. Becomes so popular that it has the defense of the tang dynasty. Heavily scholastic and very doctrinal. They make things one and resolve and eliminate contradictions. It tries to solve these contractions through concepts of relative truth.
• It helps establish the lotus sutra.
• Has no broad mass followers- it is for the elite.
• Hua-yen (Kegon)- flower garland Buddhism. Systematizes concepts and is more into philosophy. Takes all reality and divides it into pairs. Li and Chi. Li here is not ritual or ceremony. It is reason or principle. Li is non material, and is principle. Chi here, means material. This Buddhism teaches that all reality is divided into non- material and material- the stuff of the world. There are similarities with platonic (Plato) Greek thought. India might be the great philosophical head of Greece and China. Does not achieve mass following.
• Ching-t’u (Jodo)- popular by the 5^th century, 400s. Pure land. It is a place you go when you die. It is simplified so that “plain” people can understand. It is a bodhisattva religion, has a concept of getting nirvana by faith, and by faith calling on the name of the Buddha. Guan-yin is the “hearer of the world” . Can be male or female, and Guan Yin here is a translation not a transliteration. Painters paint all kinds of scenes of the pure land. This largely conquers china and eventually goes to Japan and hits the west in the 20^th century.
• Ch’an (Zen). It sees not the study of the sutra and no the study of Indian languages but rather sees mediation as the most important thing you can do to achieve nirvana. Kueinan? Argues that nirvana comes at a sudden flash of insight but only happens after a long periods of searching. Look within to find your own Buddha nature. This is welcome news to many Chinese Buddhists. They are excited about this idea (having the Buddha within you). You feel it, or meditate on it. This type is anti-scholastic and anti-intellectual. The inherency of the Buddhist nature within a person in close to mencian train of thought. This absolutely, uniquely Chinese. Couldn’t have been born anywhere else except for China. Many see this as heresy or distortion. THINK LESS AND FEEL MORE. Kung-an/ Koan; non sensical question with the non sensical answer. What is the sound of one hand clapping? How can I achieve Nirvana? Kill.
• The birth of an entirely new view of the Earth.
• The pattern of investing and saving ultimately has its roots in Calvinistic Christianity.
• The idea of doing well, trying to outdo yourself is a commonality between the east and west.
• Zen Buddhism argues against the idea of having to withdraw yourself from the world. It is not very monastic.
• Almost never are there fights between Buddhism, Daoism and Confucianism. Why? Because neither of the three are mono-theistic. Therefore, they get along.
• Buddhism is the single greatest forward influence EVER to enter China. Greater than even Marxism and Leninism . Greater than western ideas or concepts. Nothing has ever reached the influential level of Buddhism.