EXAM 1
Describe how communalism, an authoritarian government, and corvee responded to China’s physical setting (including its hydraulic demands). past tense or current Communalism, authoritarian government, and corvee; what do all of these things have in common? In the past China’s physical features required all of these concepts to work together for society to function properly. China has always been known for its vast amount of land, but a unique fact about China is only about one-third of the land is usable. Since China has always had a lack of land to live on around sex-sevenths of its population has been crammed into the usable land they do have. The people of China have a strong since of communalism, this is when people feel a responsibility
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Yin is the female principle and Yang the male principle. One would assume this means females and males were considered equals in ancient China, this is very incorrect. Men and women were believed to fit into a cosmic order, which is a natural or universal order. Confucianism was the mainstream way of thinking in ancient China and guided the views of how men were superior to women. One of the five hierarchies of relationships in Confucian thinking was husband to wife. This idea meant the wife had to stay loyal to the husband throughout their marriage and continue to be loyal even when she was widowed. Men were allowed to sleep around outside of their marriage and that was strictly prohibited for women. Once a women’s husband died you would assume she would inherit the land and then remarry but that was not the case. If your husband were to die your son would get the land and if he were not of age the land would go to the closest male relative; maybe a brother, father, or even an uncle. Widowed women were also expected not to remarry or have relations with other men, they were to stay loyal to their dead husbands. The Confucian way of thinking says that women act with jealousy and emotion because they are incapable of the intellectual capacities to behave morally. Due to this idea that women have low …show more content…
The leaders of the Sung dynasty created the Civil Service Exam to staff state bureaucracy. There were three levels of exams that could be taken and each test was harder than the one before it. Depending the exam or exams you passed determined your eligibility for different government positions. Since the exams were such high stakes many measures were taken to ensure the integrity of the system. To prevent cheating, test takers were searched and made to changing into scholar robes with the big sleeves before entering exam rooms. The exams were to be taken in small rooms with cots. The test takers were brought food by people who could not read or write so they were not able to give answers. Test takers were assigned numbers to use instead of their names and hand written exams were recopied all to prevent nepotism. Nepotism is favoritism or bias, this was a concern of the makers of the Civil Service Exams because they did not want any one person to have an advantage because of who they were. The civil service exams were very hard tests that only five percent of the participants past. Due to the difficulty of the tests the men that took them had to be very well educated and capable of reading and writing, which is rare in China. Taking the exams and becoming classically educated became a certification to be
In the book The Examination by Malcolm Bosse two brothers travel across China in their journey to pass the Imperial Exam. The brother’s names are Chen and Hong. Chen is very intelligent and is taking the Civil Service Exams hoping to pass. Hong on the other hand, is a known cricket fighter and joins the White Lotus Society along with the army. The Examination takes place in Song Era and is very accurate about what Chinese life and society was like in that time. This book depicts ideas and technologies and religious structure of ancient China. In the book The Examination by Malcolm Bosse, the author depicts ideas and technologies such as the civil service exam, junk ships, and porcelain as well as the religious structure of
China was not only patriarchal, but also patrilineal. This means that family descent could only be counted through the men. Woman were not able to pass on lineage or surnames except under very rare circumstances. Ancestor worship was very important in this culture, and only the
Confucius believed that proper behavior within all types of relationships was dictated by a hierarchy that should be honored and preserved in order to maintain harmony within oneself and the rest of society (Bulliet 86). Zhao respected and supported these ideas in her own writings as she regularly makes reference to the notion that relationships between married men and women should be guided by the principles of yin and yang. According to Zhao, “as Yin and Yang are not of the same nature, so man and woman have different characteristics”, hence while the yang is firm and strong, the yin must be flexible and gentle (Zhao). Her advice to her daughters and the rest of her female audience was meant to help them avoid the shame that came with breaking the rules of society and promote a happy, harmonious lifestyle. To Zhao and most others, the inequality that existed between men and women was an inherent and necessary quality of traditional Chinese life. The historical context in which Zhao lived gives sufficient information to understand her position and motivations in Lessons for a Woman, nonetheless, her views on education add a unique dimension to her
Yin and Yang – is a symbol used in relation to a Chinese philosophy to represent balance between good and evil or dark and light (Dictionary)
Communism impacted the countries of Russia and China in both strikingly similar and different ways, for the better, or for the worse. During the time period of 1900 to 1945, communism in China and Russia were developed both differently and similarly by the audience to whom they appealed, the programs they sponsored, how they incorporated nationalism into those programs, how effectively they were resisted, and in how the Communist rules were structured. They both appealed to the peasantry, sponsored programs that would call for equal opportunity given to the people, and were resisted ineffectively but the Chinese altered their programs, due to the difference in politics, geographic location, and social problems. The audience in which they appealed to were similar, for they both appealed to the peasantry due to harsh times. They both rose to power due to the fact that the country wanted to end war but their opposing political party did not meet these needs. Nationalism was an important feature of both as China needed nationalism to fight the Japanese while Russia needed nationalism to pull out of the war. The programs they sponsored essentially were similar in many aspects although they did not match up perfectly because of the geological, social, and political differences of China. Communism affected both countries in a variety of different ways.
When one thinks about female traits or characteristics within the Asian culture you are likely to think of obedience and even docility. This can especially be true of Chinese women. Why is this? Where did this behavior and belief system originate? Many scholars and cultural behaviorists would argue that Ban Zhao and Confucius played a pivotal role in this behavioral construct. Confucian teachings are the foundation upon which much of Asian society and culture have been erected. Confucius’ teachings focused on the importance of family dynamics and the need for children to obey and serve their parental figures. Confucius also stressed the need to exercise restraint and to treat others as you would have them treat you. Ban Zhao was the
... turned one of the Chinese literati temple into a table tennis area (Sommer 1995, 19). During modern period, some universities utilize the Imperial Exams as they had hundreds of years ago so the traditional Chinese ways apply to modern society (Hayhoe 2011, 98).
Yin and Yang – is a symbol used in relation to a Chinese philosophy to represent balance between good and evil or dark and light (Dictionary)
Gender equality has been an issue in the world for the past century. The contrast between men and women in China begins at home and translates into workplace expectations. In China, the expectation in the home is that men are superior to women and that she should be obliged to serve her husband. According to the Passport to China, “Confucianism is still a major factor in Chinese culture. A direct quote from the Passport to China represents this well. “The Confucian husband rules over his wife as a lord rules his people.” This essentially means that the husband is superior to the woman entirely in households that still maintain the Confucian attitudes of the past.
However, this “ladder of success” was not as simple as it seemed. First of all, the class of both families will be a huge barrier. We are not even talking about freedom to love here, there is no such thing in late imperial China. Although we can’t say that love doesn’t exist even in such systems, such as Shen Fu and Chen Yun, but most marriages are not about love. Rather, it was about exchange of values. For example, when two families want to become business partners, the parents of the family will have their son and daughter married, so the two families will have closer bonding which made the business much easier. In this sense, we can see that the couple is simply a tool. In the same sense, the families which has not much “values” can only have marriages with the same class of families. Meaning for a women to climb up the ladder of success is not quite possible as the class of her family is a huge deciding factor for marriage in the
Programs such as collectivization and land reformation were essentially a microcosm of Mao's impact on China. Under the policy of collectivization, the government promoted cooperative farming and redistributed the land on the principle that the product of labor could be better distributed if the la...
Men and women in early China were separated by the idea of the Yin and Yang cosmic forces. These forces are complementary to each other. However they are hierarchical. Consequently, they lead to oppression. With the aspect
Confucianism is a philosophy and way of life formed in China by Confucius, an early Chinese philosopher. It began as a simple concept with ideals of personal virtue, simple filial piety, and basic gender distinctions and social inequalities. But, over time with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism it began to transform into a way of life that was degrading towards women with certain hostilities towards rivaling religions. In its early period, from around 500 B.C.E to the Common Era, Confucianism changed in that it became the leading belief system and a major part of Chinese tradition. From the transition into the Common Era to the end of the Classical time period, Confucianism was altered because of a loss of popularity following the collapse of the Han dynasty and the corruption in the governing political system. In its ending period, the post-classical era, Confucianism underwent perhaps its biggest adjustments with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism. The ideas and virtues presented in the “rebirth of Confucian philosophies” of intolerance of foreign religions and extreme filial piety...
It can also be argued that the political activities of Chairman Mao’s Communist China were more of a continuation of traditional Imperial China, based heavily in Confucian values, than a new type of Marxist-Leninist China, based on the Soviet Union as an archetype. While it is unquestionable that a Marxist-Leninist political structure was present in China during this time, Confucian values remained to be reinforced through rituals and were a fundamental part of the Chinese Communist ...
The spread of Communism and its ideals significantly increased during the final stages of the Chinese Civil War which intensified after the Second World War and resulted in a victory to the Communists in October 1949. At this time, the majority of the provinces in China were led by either the GMD or the CCP. However, the civilians in the GMD-ruled cities were suffering rapid inflation, strikes, violence and riots which led to a collapse of public order. Adding to this instability, corruption was rife within the Nationalist party’s lead...