There are two purposes for the scholar-official to travel. On one hand, to fulfill their civil service obligations, they had to travel to different places for government services, even crossed China for several times in their lives. On the other hand, Wu also observed that, since the Ming time, more and more scholar-officials took the advantage of traveling for the reason of government service and initiated their own casual style of traveling during their leisure time. Nevertheless, in the late-Ming period, their leisure traveling sometimes could be quite extravagant. Besides indispensable transport, such as palanquins and boats, and other necessities, the elite class sometimes carried as many consumer goods as they wanted to use on the road, which was all delivered by their servants. Zhang Dai …show more content…
Besides servants who delivered these materials, some courtesans would also accompany the scholar-officials on the trip. Therefore, this style of traveling had prevented the elite class from a long-term adventurous style of traveling, and limited them in the short-term ones that usually not too far from the urban areas. As a result, the tourist sites within the Jiangnan region, particularly the places around the cities of Suzhou and Hangzhou such as the Mount Hui, the Tiger Hill (Huqiu) and the West Lake, became extremely popular during the Ming time. Furthermore, since most of the productive writers also residents in this region, and their influence expanded through their publications with the help of the exploding woodblock printing business around China, and reached readers outside of the elite class. Consequently, the places where scholar-officials highly praised, a flock of tourists would also come to visit. Taking the Tiger Hill of Suzhou as an example, while the scholar-officials visited this site to practice their elite-style traveling and tried to find peaceful places to enjoy their own pleasure, local travelers came to throw a party and broke the
On the basis of Pegolotti’s report, I would characterize the various commercial, financial, and economic risks faced by Europeans in China as a few that are minor. There are a few things that may seem silly or like an inconvenience, but the merchants enjoy a smooth journey traveling on a safe road whether it be day or night. Once in Cathay, there is a multitude of cities full of people, houses, and dwellers from where the merchants can trade. The risk Pegolotti first speaks about can be easily avoided. For example, in the report, Pegolotti says, “You should furnish yourself with a dragoman [guide and interpreter]...it will be well to take at least two good men servants who are acquainted with the Cumanian tongue.” He advises that when looking
There are little to no direct accounts of how individuals’ lives were a couple thousand years ago in Ancient China. With a wealth of information on the rise, decline, and fall of empires, Michael Loewe, a sinologist who specializes in oriental studies and theology, writes an imaginary story about a hero named Bing set around 70 BCE. Bing: From Farmer’s Son to Magistrate in Han China is Loewe’s fictional portrait of life during the Han Empire. It is by no means a comprehensive historical account of Han times, in fact, it was written with those readers who are not familiar with Chinese in mind, however through the life of Bing we can gage how the lives of laborers, those involved in military service, merchants, and government officials might
desire for the opulence of the Chinese silks, gold, perfumes, and other high end products. The
The pursuit of a comfortable living or wealth caused a lot of men to venture into the West leaving behind his or her homeland and families. Chinese labors faced conflicts in their homeland;
...y extraordinarily beautiful, it was also a wealth of information about the people and culture of ancient China during his reign.
Timothy Brook’s book, The Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming China is a detailed account of the three centuries of the Ming Dynasty in China. The book allows an opportunity to view this prominent time period of Chinese history. Confusions of Pleasure not only chronicles the economic development during the Ming dynasty, but also the resulting cultural and social changes that transform the gentry and merchant class. Brook’s insights highlight the divide between the Ming dynasty’s idealized beliefs, and the realities of its economic expansion and its effects. Brook describes this gap through the use of several first hand accounts of individuals with various social statuses.
Accompanied by 27,000 men on 62 large and 255 small ships, the Chinese eunuch Zheng He, led 7 naval expeditions to Southeast Asia, Middle East and east coast of Africa in the span of 28 years during the Ming Dynasty. The scale of Zheng He’s fleet was unprecedented in world history. The large treasure ships used during the expeditions were purported to be 440 feet long and 180 feet wide (Dreyer, p. 102). Throughout his travels, Zheng He brought Chinese tea, porcelain and silk products to foreign countries and also brought back exotic goods to the Ming court such as spices, plants and leather. Although his voyages fostered commercial trades and cultural exchange between China and foreign countries, the goal of his expeditions stemmed from the political motivation to maintain the tributary system and his voyages had important political implication of causing Neo-Confucian opposition and suspension of the expedition.
In conclusion, the Chinese literati have gone through many changes in the history of China. Changes include economic, political and social which mostly involved Chinese officials of the Qing and Ming court. The officials were effected by rebellions and foreign involvement throughout the years. This shows that even lower societies such as peasants can make a difference in the world with the right type of leader. Confucianism, which was followed for hundreds of years, vanished very quickly. It is amazing how a society of high stature and power early in the 1500’s could disappear so quickly to modern times.
The Silk Road got its name from the amount of silk used for trade during the Han dynasty. This route was used to travel from West to East on land they traveled to India, Persia, Arabia, and Europe, while traveling by sea they traveled through Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. These paths were used by merchants, pilgrims, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers.... ... middle of paper ...
In this chart (3), we can see that "the change of time spending on the
Confucian was very poor. So he moved to Chu-fu. Food was very inadequate and his mother struggled supporting him.
The most distinctive features of Chinese civilization were in the Song period. This was the scholar-official class certified through highly competitive civil service examinations. These elite were better educated than others in Chinese history. Aristocratic habits and prejudices largely disappeared when examination system was fully developed. This system came to be considered the normal ladder to success. The invention of printing should be given a little credit. The art of carving words and pictures into wooden blocks was developed by Tang craftsmen. They would ink the blocks then press paper onto them. An entire page of text and illustrations was held on each block. In the eleventh century movable type, on piece of type for each character, was invented. In China whole-block printing was cheaper. The spread of literacy was
With deserts and the Himalayas running along most of the border, it was extremely difficult to cross over one of the most dangerous mountain ranges in the world and a few other scorching deserts with the little transport they had during that time. The only way merchants could come into the country was the southeastern coast of China, where most of the prosperous cities resided. What led China to become conceited was because they had an abundance of goods that most of the world wanted. In the 1760-1830s, China was famous for its porcelain (rich Europeans loved it), silk, and of course, tea. Since this Eastern Powerhouse’s goods were so popular, therefore, there were only a few things that interested them to trade with.
China is a culturally vibrant country, full of unique costumes and traditions, religions, accustomed social organizations, beautiful arts and literature, and interesting language that make up its diverse culture. It’s a beautiful country to venture and explore getting a taste of their delicious traditional foods and getting to know their people.
For us today, travel is a matter of hopping on to an express bus or an aeroplane, depending on the distances involved. London is only a few hours away and the moon is not unreachable. In the days of my parents’ youth, travel was a great event. Most people never moved more than fifty miles from their place of birth all their lives. So only a few adventurous people bother to travel at all. Even for these few, elaborate preparations were needed for the months of