Documenti di Didattica
Documenti di Professioni
Documenti di Cultura
of the Civilization
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Tuesdays test: everything since the last mid-term, including todays material (lectures 11 through 19-20)
Please remember to bring your HD lead pencil!
His tomb, called Mount Li, was 46 m tall: at the centre of a spirit city enclosed by a stone wall & covering 200 ha
Built by 700,000 labourers over 36 years Filled with a great variety of precious goods
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1400 m east of Qin Shihuanghis tomb, the gallery of the terracotta soldiers: 1.2 ha; 8000 terracotta figures & wooden chariots
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The emperor died in 210, then 5 years of civil war and rebellion Mount Li was burned in a popular revolt in 206 BC Han Dynasty founded that year by one of the rebels, a commoner
The Han Dynasty: Former Han (206BC 2AD); Later Han (AD 25-220)
China continued to be unified With greater political stability, a period of peace and prosperity
Han trade relations with the West: the Great Silk Route
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China:
Aspects of the Civilization
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With the Chinese Civilization (after our excursions to the Indus & Jenn-jeno) we are back in more familiar territory:
The Nn Chinese Civilization meets all 10 of Childes criteria for a complex society !! A hierarchical society, with clear evidence of social stratification !! A tributary mode of production !! City state or territorial state?
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Trigger characterized the Chinese craftsmen as the finest in the ancient world
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Chinese crafts:
Ceramics !! Bronze working !! Jade craving !! Lacquerware !! Silk weaving !! Food preparation
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Pottery
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Already well-developed by Yangshao times In Longshan, making eggshell-thin ware Parts of same vessel often made in different ways: handmade, modeled, coiled, wheelmade Sophisticated kilns Shapes: pots, basins, ring-footed, tripods etc
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Shang ceramics:
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Large thick-walled vessels similar to the bronze vessels Used white kaolinic clay, free of impurities such as iron Before walls completely hardened, white ware carved with decoration Fired between 1900 & 2100F. Glazes first used at Anyang
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Metallurgy:
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The Lost Wax bronze casting technique was commonly used in Western Eurasia and Africa
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The Lost Wax bronze casting technique was used in Western Eurasia and Africa But this technique was not used in China!
Chinese artisans produced large, complexly shaped bronze vessels with intricate surface decoration For these vessels, section molding, involving the work of several different specialists, was used
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Section molding Required the services of several technical experts: miners, ceramic experts, bronze workers Core, model and outer segmented mold all of clay
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Chinese bronze-working:
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Finest bronze-working in the ancient world Vessels used for elite feasting, symbols of power, many buried in royal tombs Largest, from Anyang cemetery: 875 kg
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Jade working
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From Neolithic times Many different objects made Opposite: burial suit of a Han prince made of 2000 jade tiles sewn together with gold thread
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Silk weaving:
A hanging of painted silk from a Han Dynasty tomb
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Lacquer goods
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Juice of lac tree, Rhus vernicifera, a natural varnish that hardens in the air Many coats applied to objects of wood or fabric & polished after each application giving a very high finish Eastern Zhou & Han: used for vessels, boxes, furniture, coffins etc Polychrome painted designs & could be inlaid with shell or precious metals Lacquer goods were more costly than bronze
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one of the worlds great culinary traditions, & goes back at least to Shang times The basic or essential meal consists of grain and water !! Peasants relied mostly on a grain diet !! Meat & vegetable dishes considered secondary & to be eaten in moderation
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Food:
Still, food played a very important role in the culture of the elite:
Oracle bone inscriptions & Three Books of Rites !! Founder of Shang Dynasty said to be a cook !! Kings palace had 4000 servants, of whom 60% were cooks etc. !! Feasting very important for elite: there were rules re right foods, rituals, table manners etc !! Cooking methods: 20 ways listed !! Distinctive in the Chinese culture: how food prepared before cooking & how put together to blend the flavours (fusion cooking) 43 !! Required proper utensils, vessels etc.
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Chinese cities
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Until 1900 AD, scholars knew only of ancient inscriptions on bronze vessels Inscriptions usually brief: up to 6 to 7 characters
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Collection of turtle shell & bone frags with archaic Chinese characters These were the OBI: oracle bone inscriptions Turtle shells & scapulae from oxen (hence scapulimancy) All divinatory in content OBI used for just 150 years: Shang & early Western Zhou Bronze inscriptions for 1000 years: until the Han dynasty Paper invented: Qin dynasty
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This early script was a fully developed writing system, identical in principles of structure and operation with modern Chinese writing, though formally very different: nothing primitive or rudimentary here (Boltz in World
Archaeology Feb. 1986:424)
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Started, as all writing, in pictography (a simple picture to represent each word) Each graph = a whole word (a.k.a. logographic) Mesopotamian & Egyptian scripts also started as logographic, but soon became syllabographic, and some western scripts eventually alphabetic (a separation between the consonant & vowel; each sign representing the smallest unit of sound you need only a few signs) Chinese script remained logographic
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Limitations to a pictographic script: many separate signs needed, plus you cannot express abstract ideas or complex semantic constructs
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Paronomastic or Rebus writing: you write an abstract word by means of an already established pictograph standing for a similar sounding word
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an abstract word by means of an already established pictograph standing for a similar sounding word 2.! Parasemantic use: graphs standing for semantically (meaning) similar but phonetically distinct words
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This multivalent stage, where a single graph can be invested with more than one value, either phonetic or semantic, helped keep down the proliferation of signs But there could be ambiguity as to which of 2 or more possible meanings or pronunciations a given sign was intended: hence, a 3rd, or determinative stage
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(or rebus writing) (similar sound) !! Parasemantic graph (similar meaning) + Determinative
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The Shang inscriptions had already evolved through these 3 stages when the writing first appeared in 1200 BC
So it was already a fully developed, mature and versatile script !! Differs from modern Chinese script in surface structures and details, + many new characters added, but similar in principle and theory !! Origins of the script obscure: Neolithic pot marks? Clan insignia on pottery & bronze vessels? 65
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In the West, just as there is a clear distinction between urban and rural, there is a contrast, a clean break, between civilization and nature
With civilization, humans pass from the world of nature to a world of their own making: they surround themselves with artifacts that insulate them from, and elevate them above, animals, barbarians etc
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Continuity of man & animal, earth & heaven, culture & nature !! The cosmos is an organic whole in which we interact as participants !! There are no inanimate objects: all, from a rock to heaven, are links in the chain of being !! Universe is multilayered: layers above & below the world !! Everything comes to be as result of magical transformation 70
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In this world view, the Shang king is the chief or high shaman
The shaman has the power (with the help of art and ritual) to fly across the different layers of the universe !! He brought down from heaven music, poetry & myth !! Plus the wisdom and foreknowledge which gives rulers the authority to speak, guide and command
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So, a fundamental difference between the ancient civilizations of the West and China:
The Near Eastern complex societies created & concentrated the wealth necessary to support a civilization through innovations in productive technology: irrigation, metallurgy turned to productive purposes, cities with merchants and crafts, writing primarily for economic transactions !! Also the large scale importation of needed resources by traders
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K.C. Chang (quoted in Wenke:452): The wealth that produced the civilization was itself the product of concentrated political power, and the acquisition of power was accomplished through the accumulation of wealth In this system, Chinese writing served primarily for politics and ritual
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Aside from the craftsmen, most continued to work the land Lived in the same semi-subterranean houses as their Neolithic ancestors Same stone tools etc Now had to pay part of their crop as tribute to the king Served in the militia Labour on monumental construction Human sacrifices?
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And the king, as High Shaman, intervenes with heaven for his people, and must be supported in his efforts
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Legitimized their rule by asserting the founders of their dynasty were men of moral perfection, sages, whose perfection was sanctioned by heaven or Tien Dynasties in their last years squandered money, antagonized the population, allowed infrastructure to crumble & became so remote that they lost the Mandate of Heaven: their right to rule Then a new person leads a rebellion, ousts the old king, and starts a new dynasty as the Son of Heaven