THE EARLIEST TIMES Chapter One PREHISTORY

Title: A History of China

Author: Wolfram Eberhard

Language: English

Produced by Juliet Sutherland, Gene Smethers and PG Distributed Proofreaders

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breve (u-shaped symbol): [)x] caron (v-shaped symbol): [vx] macron (straight line): [=x] acute (Égu) accent: ['x]

Additionally, the author has spelled certain words inconsistently. Those have been adjusted to be consistent where possible. Examples of such adjustments are as follows:

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In general such changes are made to be consistent with the predominate usage in the text, or if there was not a predominate spelling, to the more modern.]

A HISTORY OF CHINA

by

WOLFRAM EBERHARD

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

THE EARLIEST TIMES

Chapter I: PREHISTORY

1 Sources for the earliest history 2 The Peking Man 3 The Palaeolithic Age 4 The Neolithic Age 5 The eight principal prehistoric cultures 6 The Yang-shao culture 7 The Lung-shan culture 8 The first petty States in Shansi

Chapter II: THE SHANG DYNASTY (c. 1600-1028 B.C.)

1 Period, origin, material culture 2 Writing and Religion 3 Transition to feudalism

ANTIQUITY

Chapter III: THE CHOU DYNASTY (c. 1028-257 B.C.)

  1 Cultural origin of the Chou and end of the Shang dynasty
  2 Feudalism in the new empire
  3 Fusion of Chou and Shang
  4 Limitation of the imperial power
  5 Changes in the relative strength of the feudal states
  6 Confucius
  7 Lao Tz[)u]

Chapter IV: THE CONTENDING STATES (481-256 B.C.): DISSOLUTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM

1 Social and military changes 2 Economic changes 3 Cultural changes

Chapter V: THE CH'IN DYNASTY (256-207 B.C.)

1 Towards the unitary State 2 Centralization in every field 3 Frontier Defence. Internal collapse

THE MIDDLE AGES

Chapter VI: THE HAN DYNASTY (206 B.C.-A.D. 220)

  1 Development of the gentry-state
  2 Situation of the Hsiung-nu empire; its relation to the
    Han empire. Incorporation of South China
  3 Brief feudal reaction. Consolidation of the gentry
  4 Turkestan policy. End of the Hsiung-nu empire
  5 Impoverishment. Cliques. End of the Dynasty
  6 The pseudo-socialistic dictatorship. Revolt of the "Red Eyebrows"
  7 Reaction and Restoration: the Later Han dynasty
  8 Hsiung-nu policy
  9 Economic situation. Rebellion of the "Yellow Turbans".
    Collapse of the Han dynasty
 10 Literature and Art

Chapter VII: THE EPOCH OF THE FIRST DIVISION OF CHINA (A.D. 220-580)

    (A) The three kingdoms (A.D. 220-265)
  1 Social, intellectual, and economic problems during the
    period of the first division
  2 Status of the two southern Kingdoms
  3 The northern State of Wei

(B) The Western Chin dynasty (265-317) 1 Internal situation in the Chin empire 2 Effect on the frontier peoples 3 Struggles for the throne 4 Migration of Chinese 5 Victory of the Huns. The Hun Han dynasty (later renamed the Earlier Chao dynasty)

    (C) The alien empires in North China, down to the Toba
       (A.D. 317-385)
  1 The Later Chao dynasty in eastern North China (Hun; 329-352)
  2 Earlier Yen dynasty in the north-east (proto-Mongol; 352-370),
    and the Earlier Ch'in dynasty in all north China (Tibetan; 351-394)
  3 The fragmentation of north China
  4 Sociological analysis of the two great alien empires
  5 Sociological analysis of the petty States
  6 Spread of Buddhism

(D) The Toba empire in North China (A.D. 385-550) 1 The rise of the Toba State 2 The Hun kingdom of the Hsia (407-431) 3 Rise of the Toba to a great power 4 Economic and social conditions 5 Victory and retreat of Buddhism

    (E) Succession States of the Toba (A.D. 550-580):
      Northern Ch'i dynasty, Northern Chou dynasty
  1 Reasons for the splitting of the Toba empire
  2 Appearance of the (GÖk) Turks
  3 The Northern Ch'i dynasty; the Northern Chou dynasty

    (F) The southern empires
  1 Economic and social situation in the south
  2 Struggles between cliques under the Eastern Chin dynasty
    (A.D. 317-419)
  3 The Liu-Sung dynasty (A.D. 420-478) and the Southern Ch'i dynasty
    (A.D. 479-501)
  4 The Liang dynasty (A.D. 502-556)
  5 The Ch'en dynasty (A.D. 557-588) and its ending by the Sui
  6 Cultural achievements of the south

Chapter VIII: THE EMPIRES OF THE SUI AND THE T'ANG

(A) The Sui dynasty (A.D. 580-618) 1 Internal situation in the newly unified empire 2 Relations with Turks and with Korea 3 Reasons for collapse

    (B) The T'ang dynasty (A.D. 618-906)
  1 Reforms and decentralization
  2 Turkish policy
  3 Conquest of Turkestan and Korea. Summit of power
  4 The reign of the empress Wu: Buddhism and capitalism
  5 Second blossoming of T'ang culture
  6 Revolt of a military governor
  7 The role of the Uighurs. Confiscation of the capital of the
    monasteries
  8 First successful peasant revolt. Collapse of the empire

MODERN TIMES

Chapter IX: THE EPOCH OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF CHINA

    (A) The period of the Five Dynasties (906-960)
  1 Beginning of a new epoch
  2 Political situation in the tenth century
  3 Monopolistic trade in South China. Printing and paper money in the
    north
  4 Political history of the Five Dynasties

(B) Period of Moderate Absolutism (1) The Northern Sung dynasty 1 Southward expansion 2 Administration and army. Inflation 3 Reforms and Welfare schemes 4 Cultural situation (philosophy, religion, literature, painting) 5 Military collapse

(2) The Liao (Kitan) dynasty in the north (937-1125) 1 Sociological structure. Claim to the Chinese imperial throne 2 The State of the Kara-Kitai

(3) The Hsi-Hsia State in the north (1038-1227) 1 Continuation of Turkish traditions

    (4) The empire of the Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1279)
  1 Foundation
  2 Internal situation
  3 Cultural situation; reasons for the collapse

    (5) The empire of the JuchÊn in the north (i 115-1234)
  1 Rapid expansion from northern Korea to the Yangtze
  2 United front of all Chinese
  3 Start of the Mongol empire

Chapter X: THE PERIOD OF ABSOLUTISM

(A) The Mongol Epoch (1280-1368) 1 Beginning of new foreign rules 2 "Nationality legislation" 3 Military position 4 Social situation 5 Popular risings: National rising 6 Cultural

    (B) The Ming Epoch (1368-1644)
  1 Start. National feeling
  2 Wars against Mongols and Japanese
  3 Social legislation within the existing order
  4 Colonization and agricultural developments
  5 Commercial and industrial developments
  6 Growth of the small gentry
  7 Literature, art, crafts
  8 Politics at court
  9 Navy. Southward expansion
 10 Struggles between cliques
 11 Risings
 12 Machiavellism
 13 Foreign relations in the sixteenth century
 14 External and internal perils

    (C) The Manchu Dynasty (1644-1911)
  1 Installation of the Manchus
  2 Decline in the eighteenth century
  3 Expansion in Central Asia; the first State treaty
  4 Culture
  5 Relations with the outer world
  6 Decline; revolts
  7 European Imperialism in the Far East
  8 Risings in Turkestan and within China: the T'ai P'ing Rebellion
  9 Collision with Japan; further Capitulations
 10 Russia in Manchuria
 11 Reform and reaction: The Boxer Rising
 12 End of the dynasty

Chapter XI: THE REPUBLIC (1912-1948)

1 Social and intellectual position 2 First period of the Republic: The warlords 3 Second period of the Republic: Nationalist China 4 The Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945)

Chapter XII: PRESENT-DAY CHINA

1 The growth of communism 2 Nationalist China in Taiwan 3 Communist China

Notes and References

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

1 Painted pottery from Kansu: Neolithic. In the collection of the Museum fÜr VÖlkerkunde, Berlin.

2 Ancient bronze tripod found at Anyang.
  From G. Ecke: FrÜhe chinesische Bronzen aus der Sammlung Oskar
  Trautmann, Peking 1939, plate 3.

3 Bronze plaque representing two horses fighting each other. Ordos
  region, animal style.
  From V. Griessmaier: Sammlung Baron Eduard von der Heydt,
  Vienna 1936, illustration No. 6.

4 Hunting scene: detail from the reliefs in the tombs at Wu-liang-tz'u.
  From a print in the author's possession.

5 Part of the "Great Wall".
  Photo Eberhard.

6 Sun Ch'Üan, ruler of Wu.
  From a painting by Yen Li-pen (c. 640-680).

7 General view of the Buddhist cave-temples of YÜn-kang.
  In the foreground, the present village; in the background the rampart.
  Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson.

8 Detail from the Buddhist cave-reliefs of Lung-men. From a print in the author's possession.

9 Statue of Mi-lo (Maitreya, the next future Buddha), in the "Great
  Buddha Temple" at Chengting (Hopei).
  Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson.

10 Ladies of the Court: Clay models which accompanied the dead person to the grave. T'ang period. In the collection of the Museum fÜr VÖlkerkunde. Berlin.

11 Distinguished founder: a temple banner found at Khotcho, Turkestan. Museum fÜr VÖlkerkunde, Berlin. No. 1B 4524, illustration B 408.

12 Ancient tiled pagoda at Chengting (Hopei).
   Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson.

13 Horse-training. Painting by Li Lung-mien. Late Sung period.
   Manchu Royal House Collection.

14 Aborigines of South China, of the "Black Miao" tribe, at a festival.
   China-ink drawing of the eighteenth century.
   Collection of the Museum fÜr VÖlkerkunde, Berlin. No. 1D 8756, 68.

15 Pavilion on the "Coal Hill" at Peking, in which the last Ming emperor
   committed suicide.
   Photo Eberhard.

16 The imperial summer palace of the Manchu rulers, at Jehol.
   Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson.

17 Tower on the city wall of Peking.
   Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson.

MAPS

1 Regions of the principal local cultures in prehistoric times

2 The principal feudal States in the feudal epoch (roughly 722-481 B.C.)

3 China in the struggle with the Huns or Hsiung-nu (roughly 128-100 B.C.)

4 The Toba empire (about A.D. 500)

5 The T'ang realm (about A.D. 750)

6 The State of the Later T'ang dynasty (923-935)

INTRODUCTION

There are indeed enough Histories of China already: why yet another one? Because the time has come for new departures; because we need to clear away the false notions with which the general public is constantly being fed by one author after another; because from time to time syntheses become necessary for the presentation of the stage reached by research.

Histories of China fall, with few exceptions, into one or the other of two groups, pro-Chinese and anti-Chinese: the latter used to predominate, but today the former type is much more frequently found. We have no desire to show that China's history is the most glorious or her civilization the oldest in the world. A claim to the longest history does not establish the greatness of a civilization; the importance of a civilization becomes apparent in its achievements. A thousand years ago China's civilization towered over those of the peoples of Europe. Today the West is leading; tomorrow China may lead again. We need to realize how China became what she is, and to note the paths pursued by the Chinese in human thought and action. The lives of emperors, the great battles, this or the other famous deed, matter less to us than the discovery of the great forces that underlie these features and govern the human element. Only when we have knowledge of those forces and counter-forces can we realize the significance of the great personalities who have emerged in China; and only then will the history of China become intelligible even to those who have little knowledge of the Far East and can make nothing of a mere enumeration of dynasties and campaigns.

Views on China's history have radically changed in recent years. Until about thirty years ago our knowledge of the earliest times in China depended entirely on Chinese documents of much later date; now we are able to rely on many excavations which enable us to check the written sources. Ethnological, anthropological, and sociological research has begun for China and her neighbours; thus we are in a position to write with some confidence about the making of China, and about her ethnical development, where formerly we could only grope in the dark. The claim that "the Chinese race" produced the high Chinese civilization entirely by its own efforts, thanks to its special gifts, has become just as untenable as the other theory that immigrants from the West, some conceivably from Europe, carried civilization to the Far East. We know now that in early times there was no "Chinese race", there were not even "Chinese", just as there were no "French" and no "Swiss" two thousand years ago. The "Chinese" resulted from the amalgamation of many separate peoples of different races in an enormously complicated and long-drawn-out process, as with all the other high civilizations of the world.

The picture of ancient and medieval China has also been entirely changed since it has been realized that the sources on which reliance has always been placed were not objective, but deliberately and emphatically represented a particular philosophy. The reports on the emperors and ministers of the earliest period are not historical at all, but served as examples of ideas of social policy or as glorifications of particular noble families. Myths such as we find to this day among China's neighbours were made into history; gods were made men and linked together by long family trees. We have been able to touch on all these things only briefly, and have had to dispense with any account of the complicated processes that have taken place here.

The official dynastic histories apply to the course of Chinese history the criterion of Confucian ethics; for them history is a textbook of ethics, designed to show by means of examples how the man of high character should behave or not behave. We have to go deeper, and try to extract the historic truth from these records. Many specialized studies by Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars on problems of Chinese history are now available and of assistance in this task. However, some Chinese writers still imagine that they are serving their country by yet again dishing up the old fables for the foreigner as history; and some Europeans, knowing no better or aiming at setting alongside the unedifying history of Europe the shining example of the conventional story of China, continue in the old groove. To this day, of course, we are far from having really worked through every period of Chinese history; there are long periods on which scarcely any work has yet been done. Thus the picture we are able to give today has no finality about it and will need many modifications. But the time has come for a new synthesis, so that criticism may proceed along the broadest possible front and push our knowledge further forward.

The present work is intended for the general reader and not for the specialist, who will devote his attention to particular studies and to the original texts. In view of the wide scope of the work, I have had to confine myself to placing certain lines of thought in the foreground and paying less attention to others. I have devoted myself mainly to showing the main lines of China's social and cultural development down to the present day. But I have also been concerned not to leave out of account China's relations with her neighbours. Now that we have a better knowledge of China's neighbours, the Turks, Mongols, Tibetans, Tunguses, Tai, not confined to the narratives of Chinese, who always speak only of "barbarians", we are better able to realize how closely China has been associated with her neighbours from the first day of her history to the present time; how greatly she is indebted to them, and how much she has given them. We no longer see China as a great civilization surrounded by barbarians, but we study the Chinese coming to terms with their neighbours, who had civilizations of quite different types but nevertheless developed ones.

It is usual to split up Chinese history under the various dynasties that have ruled China or parts thereof. The beginning or end of a dynasty does not always indicate the beginning or the end of a definite period of China's social or cultural development. We have tried to break China's history down into the three large periods—"Antiquity", "The Middle Ages", and "Modern Times". This does not mean that we compare these periods with periods of the same name in Western history although, naturally, we find some similarities with the development of society and culture in the West. Every attempt towards periodization is to some degree arbitrary: the beginning and end of the Middle Ages, for instance, cannot be fixed to a year, because development is a continuous process. To some degree any periodization is a matter of convenience, and it should be accepted as such.

The account of Chinese history here given is based on a study of the original documents and excavations, and on a study of recent research done by Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars, including my own research. In many cases, these recent studies produced new data or arranged new data in a new way without an attempt to draw general conclusions. By putting such studies together, by fitting them into the pattern that already existed, new insights into social and cultural processes have been gained. The specialist in the field will, I hope, easily recognize the sources, primary or secondary, on which such new insights represented in this book are based. Brief notes are appended for each chapter; they indicate the most important works in English and provide the general reader with an opportunity of finding further information on the problems touched on. For the specialist brief hints to international research are given, mainly in cases in which different interpretations have been proposed.

Chinese words are transcribed according to the Wade-Giles system with the exception of names for which already a popular way of transcription exists (such as Peking). Place names are written without hyphen, if they remain readable.