The Three Turning Points in Chinese History (Essay Sample)

THE THREE TURNING POINTS IN CHINESE HISTORY First and Last Name Course Name Due Date China is one of the oldest and greatest civilizations, at least according to contemporary understanding of “China” as a continuous entity which has extended across time. However, the Chinese people have understood themselves very differently in different times and regions of what is now referred to as “China.” China was for centuries known as one of the most stable and prosperous regions of the world, only to have its self-image shattered by the “century of humiliation.” This essay is interested in exploring the ways that China’s understanding of itself has evolved throughout its history, and how its people have understood what it meant to be “Chinese.” China has been redefined and reinvented countless times over millennia, responding to internal pressures and external interventions. While the number of turning points are too many to grasp, three important moments will be examined here. First, the formation of the Zhou Dynasty established the archetype for what a Chinese state would look like. Second, the Mongols succeeding in subduing and conquering China from without and established the Yuan Dynasty which brought about a new period of trade and cosmopolitanism. Third, contact with Europeans, especially during the 19th century saw China influenced, and ultimately defeated, by an outside power which ate away at China piecemeal and then eventually led to the collapse of the empire. Each of these moments represented a turning point in Chinese history, even if the precise moment when these turning points took place is hard to pinpoint. The Zhou Dynasty and the Beginning of Chinese Power The Zhou were not the first dynasty to be established in China. Indeed, there were other previous dynasties which claimed dominion over some part of what it is today China well over three and a half millennia before the start of the common era. However, the Zhou were instrumental in establishing many of the cultural touchstones which would later come to be understood as quintessentially Chinese. After defeating the Shang, the Zhou set out to establish the first maximalist state in China. Not merely content to be considered regional monarchs, the Zhou claimed to rule everywhere and introduced the concept that they were divinely inspired and reigned according to a special “mandate of heaven.”[Cohen, Warren I. East Asia at the Center. Columbia University Press, 2023, 7.] The Zhou differed from the previous Shang in that they professionalized the army, creating a bureaucratic system so that the army could be fed, paid and mobilized anywhere in the empire instead of relying on conscripts to be trained as the need arose. This was necessary not only to hold onto power but to feed the Zhou emperor’s appetite for territory. Though the term “Chinese” was still many centuries away, the concept of a people who saw themselves as part of a vast and politically unified empire was beginning to take shape. As the Zhou conquered more territory and brought more peoples under their yoke, the definition of who was “Chinese” expanded accordingly. Regions that came under Zhou dominion became inundated with a particular Chinese culture, with local elites being integrated into the larger polity. For three centuries the Zhou empire grew to encompass peoples from the Mongolian steps to the eastern coast. The concept of a shared cultural Chinese identity was beginning to take shape. People who had previously had no common language or culture and little if any contact with one another where now finding themselves integrated into a strong, outward-facing culture which enfolded and surrounded them whether they liked it or not.[Cohen, East Asia at the Center, 8.] The Mongol Conquest, The Yuan Dynasty, and the Age of Trade One of the most significant turning points after the creation of the Chinese identity was the redefinition of this identity under the Yuan Dynasty. Decedent of Ghengis Khan, Kubilai Kahn succeeded in subsuming the Song Dynasty over the course of many decades of struggle. The Mongolians were unlike the Sinicized peoples they found themselves ruling over in almost every respect. The Mongols were nomadic warriors who had succeeded in conquering nearly all of Asia and much of Europe through their horsemanship. By contrast, the settled peoples who had lived under the Song were mostly farmers and laborers. A select few were imperial beurocrats with educations. The Great Kahn recognized the threat this group of elites represented to him, which is why he decided against reinstating the civil examinations even many years into his reign. Still, he recognized the value of Confucianism and set about imitating the trappings of the Chinese empires that he had succeeded. He restyled his own khanate as the Yuan Dynasty in 1271, drawing on the existing Chinese culture which the Mongols admired in order to assimilate the vast conquered into a single polity.[Cohen, East Asia at the Center, 140.] [Cohen, East Asia at the Center, 137.] However, even as the Yuan Dynasty set out to preserve Chinese culture, the Yuan Dynasty saw the expansion of trade with parts of Western Asia farther than ever before. By all accounts, trade was safe and effective. According to firsthand account by Ibn Battuta, one could travel across the whole of China unmolested even with great wealth, so great was the level of personal security. Muslim traders not only brought exotic goods from afar, some even moved and established permanent settlements inside of China. Though the traders often lived separately from the indigenous Chinese, the presence of foreigners at all was radically transformative for Chinese society. People who had thought of foreigners as barbarians to be conquered now found themselves enmeshed in a network of global trade. It would not be the last time that China would be transformed by influence from without, nor would it be the most dramatic.[Ross E Dunn, The Adventures of Ibn Battuta : A Muslim Traveler of the 14th Century (Berkeley: University Of California Press, Cop, 2012), 258.] [Cohen, 140.] Contact with Europeans The advent of the seventeenth century brought a new group of foreigners into contact with the Chinese. At first, contact with the peoples of Western Europe was fairly limited. New inventions like the telescope were introduced to China in 1618. However, in general the Chinese were unimpressed with these barbarians from what was for them the periphery of the world. Things would change as the technology the Europeans developed continued to improve until it far surpassed that of China. China had enjoyed one of the highest standards of living in the world for centuries, even for peasants and simple craftspeople. As one of the wealthiest and most populace societies, trade with permission by the imperial court was highly desirable. Chinese people saw themselves as sitting at the center of the world, the “Middle Kingdom,” and the peoples of the rest of East Asia thought the same. Smaller kingdoms including Japan, Korea and Vietnam were in the orbit of a much larger political entity. But this changed as former vassals become colonies of Western powers. Accordingly, Chinese people saw their country as occupying a unique position in world affairs and history. As the Europeans gained influence, China would accordingly lose it.[Charles Holcombe, A History of East Asia : From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century (Cambridge University Press, 2017), 171.] [Charles Holcombe, A History of East Asia : From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century, 221.] ...