China- a large country, a superpower, a republic with the largest population, an empire with a huge history and a rich cultural heritage. So many advantages, and all for China alone... Isn’t that a lot? Probably just right)))))) Let's try to figure it out.
China - Celestial Empire. Why?
China is a huge country in East Asia, located on the western Pacific coast. It is the most ancient civilization, having absorbed many cultures and states over the course of 4 centuries. In the middle of the 20th century. internal civil war led to its division into two states: the PRC - the People's Republic of China, which occupies territory on the mainland, and Macau; and the Republic of China, which controls the islands of Taiwan, Matsu, Penghu, and Kinmen.
Why is China called the Celestial Empire?
The basis of the Chinese worldview for a very long time was the idea of the Great Heaven. They considered China to be the middle of the Celestial Empire (ecumene). From there, the official name of China, which has survived to this day, is the “Middle State”. Even under Mao Zedong, China was officially called the “Middle Flowering People's Republic” (literal translation).
For the Chinese, the sky is not only what is above their heads. Heaven is what determines the life of a person, a community, and the entire Celestial Empire. “A person who does not fear Heaven and does not recognize Fate is not worthy to be considered a noble person,” Confucius would say much later (at the end of the 6th century BC). Thus, Heaven is in a sense God. The ideas of various Chinese schools and various religious systems about Heaven are based on a deeply hidden monotheism. Of course, this is an impersonal God, not personal. The ancient Greeks, as a rule, even personified Rock (these could be Moirai, Erinyes), but Heaven in the ideas of the Chinese cannot be described, and, nevertheless, the Earth is governed by the dictates of Heaven. Even the Taoists, who doubted this, still retained the category of “heaven”. They simply considered it completely unnecessary to honor and worship Heaven. So, Heaven for the Chinese is the starting point of everything, the rational beginning, the cult and cultural beginning in the world. (based on responses from Mail.ru)
China on the map
Most of the country in the west is occupied by plateaus, highlands and ridges; in the east and southeast there are lowlands and plains. Therefore, the flow of the Yellow, Amur, and Yangtze rivers is directed from west to east, and the Mekong, Perlin, and Brahmaputra are directed to the south.
The East has a rich flora and fauna: there are more than 25 thousand species of plants, some of which are relict. In China, the vegetation is more uniform: drought-resistant grasses and shrubs “reign” here, which occasionally give way to juniper. And in the subtropics of the south you can find camellia, magnolia, and cunnigamy.
The fauna of this China is represented by a variety of animals: wolves, foxes, bears, tigers, raccoon dogs, sables, antelopes, goitered gazelles, gibbons, loris, tupaya and many others. And only here pandas live.
China is a country surrounded by the Great Wall
The name of China in Latin “China” has taken root in almost all European languages. There is a possibility that it owes its origin to the Chinese Qin dynasty, which ruled the empire in 221-206. BC.
There are many versions interpreting the etymology of the word “China”. I would like to introduce you to one of them. In the Old Russian language there was a concept meaning a place enclosed by a fence or wall, which, for example, is the Moscow “China Town”. It was formed from the Tatar “kytai”: “ky” - “stick, pole”, and “tai” - “to hide, cover”. And in combination it translates as “a country surrounded by a great wall.”
Since 1949, power in China has belonged to the communists, who in the late eighties oriented towards a market economy, which led to the country's modern economic prosperity. Today, hardworking China is not the last player in the global political arena and economic market of the planet.
China, along with the Sumerians, Egyptians and Indians, is considered one of the most ancient civilizations. It was he who gave the world such great inventions as the logographic writing system, paper, printing, compass and gunpowder.
I bring to your attention a film from the Discovery Channel from the Atlas series about the roots of Chinese culture and civilization
Now the Cultural Revolution has made more than half of the Chinese atheists. Nevertheless, religion in the PRC (Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and now Catholicism) plays a very significant role.
If you are lucky enough to visit this country, be sure to check out:
- architectural monument - a grandiose structure known throughout the world;
- architectural and historical monuments of the XV-XIX centuries. in Pekin;
- historical complex “Forbidden City”;
- the park is a mountain-forested reserve with unique roads and landscape;
- ancient temples of the Sun and Moon, Heaven and Earth, built in the 15th-16th centuries;
- Qiang Tang Park, which contains the tombs of the imperial Ming dynasty;
- The cult center of Lamaism is the city of Lhasa, where in the 16th-17th centuries. the residence of the Dalai Lama (monastery-palace) Potala was built;
- Yufesi and Chenghuangmiao Temples in Shanghai: a bejeweled jade statue of Buddha is kept here;
- Tiger Leaping Gorge in the province is best visited in;
- Summer Palace - an architectural monument of the 18th century;
- trading;
- Hong Kong Light Show;
- there is a parade in Hong Kong;
- as well as many other monasteries, temples and fortifications.
Hotels in Communist China
Chinese hotels are mainly located near large shopping centers and famous attractions. If anyone thinks that in a communist country there are hotels of the “scoop” type, and with corresponding service, he is sorely mistaken.
The level of service here is always at the proper level, which attracts more and more spoiled foreign tourists to the country. Comfortable hotel rooms are decorated luxuriously and stylishly; Moreover, they are well equipped. Local hotels will appeal to everyone, regardless of preferences. A huge selection of five, four or three star hotels meets any, even the most demanding, needs.
Despite all its contradictions, overpopulation, communist ideology, mountains of consumer goods and a peculiar way of life China remains one of the most beautiful, mysterious, cultural and attractive.
It’s just a stone’s throw from Almaty to China, and you can go there for the weekend as if you were going to a neighboring town for a picnic. Therefore, from my own experience I can advise everyone - go, see interesting sights, beautiful places, communicate with the local population, fortunately every third person speaks Russian there. I assure you, you won't regret it.
Interesting country, great surroundings and good people. Have a nice trip!
You can return to .
Section 2 CIVILIZATIONS OF THE ANCIENT EAST
ANCIENT INDIA AND CHINA
§ 21. THE CELESTIAL EMPIRE AND THE FIRST POSSESSIONS OF ANCIENT CHINA
Think about it, just to protect the borders, the first emperor rounded up millions of people for grandiose construction. Why did the wall become a symbol of hatred for hundreds of thousands of Chinese for the emperor and his officials? What does another name of the wall indicate - “the longest cemetery in the world”?
The great Wall of China. Those construction began by order of Emperor Qin Shi Huang after the unification of China (221 AD) to protect the northwestern borders of the empire from attacks by nomads. Subsequently, the wall was completed and repaired.
1. What were the natural and geographical conditions of Ancient China?
Ancient China occupied only part of the territory on which modern China is located. Local residents called their country the Celestial Empire.
The ancient Chinese considered Heaven to be the supreme deity. That is why their country was called the Celestial Empire.
In the center of the country, the Great Chinese Plain expanded, carried by the Yellow River (it received this name because of the color of the water), or Yellow River. To the south rose forested mountains, and beyond them was the valley of another great river - the Blue, or Yangtze.
The valleys of these rivers are overgrown with tropical forests. Elephants, rhinoceroses, buffaloes, tigers, antelopes, leopards and other animals lived in the forests. Just like the Nile, the Yellow River carried with its waters a huge amount of fertile silt and, overflowing, flooded large coastal lowlands. Floods of the Yellow River were accompanied by a change in its channel. Through such capricious luck, the Yellow River has been called "the river of a thousand disasters", "China's disaster", and also "wanders".
The humid climate created opportunities for farming without irrigation. True, in order to have land suitable for farming, the Chinese had to first uproot the forest. Already in the 3rd millennium BC. That is, the first settlements of farmers existed on the territory of China. Chumiza (a type of millet) was grown in the Yellow River Valley, and rice was grown on the banks of the Yangtze. The first urban settlements on the banks of rivers arose in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. e.
The labor of ancient Chinese peasants in a rice field.
Look at the map on page 109. 1. Find the Great Chinese Plain in the northeast of India, two large rivers that flow there. 2. Where do these rivers originate? Where do they flow? 3. Determine the location of Ancient China, compare it with the location of Mesopotamia and Egypt.
2. How did the first Chinese empire arise?
In 8 tbsp. to n. That is, in China there arose one and a half to two hundred independent kingdoms that competed with each other. In the end, the seven most influential kingdoms divided almost the entire territory of the country among themselves. That is why 5-3 tbsp. to n. e. called the era of “seven kingdoms that fought.” The largest among them was the kingdom of Qin. The kingdom reached its greatest strength under the reign of Ying Zheng. This ruler set himself the goal of conquering six other kingdoms and uniting all of China under his rule. Realizing the goal, Ying Zheng single-handedly defeated his opponents. He took the title of emperor and began to be called Qin Shi Huang - “the first Qin emperor” (221-210 pp. AD). The capital of the Qin kingdom, the city of Xianyang, was proclaimed the capital of the empire.
Read a fragment from the “Historical Notes” of Sima Qian (145-86 pp. AD) - the father of Chinese history. Determine why Qin Shi Huang carried out the activities that Sima Qian spoke about.
“The Kingdom of Qin united the Celestial Empire for the first time... Shi Huangdi divided the Celestial Empire into thirty-six regions and appointed officials to govern it in each. He changed the name of the common people to “qianshou” - “black-headed”; took all the weapons in the Celestial Empire, collected them in Xianyang and smelted from them frames-racks for hanging bells, as well as twelve human figures weighing a thousand shi (about 31 tons) each; they were installed in palaces. Uniform laws, measures of weight, capacity and length, cart tracks, and the writing of hieroglyphs were introduced.”
1. Warrior from the ceramic army of Qin Shi Huang from the tomb of the emperor. It is interesting that among several thousand clay and bronze figures of warriors, no two are identical. 2. Emperor Qin Shi Huang in a palanquin. Drawing on silk. Influential Chinese officials often used a kind of transport - a palanquin - a chariot for a seated ride, which was carried on the shoulders of servants.
3. How did Qin Shi Huang rule his empire?
After the unification of the country, Shi Huangdi began wars of conquest, as a result of which he moved the borders of the state in the south all the way to the South China Sea. In the north, Shi Huang fought against the nomads, among whom the Xiongnu (Huns) were the most annoying. To protect against attackers, the emperor ordered the construction of a grandiose structure - the Great Wall of China.
Two million peasants were involved in the construction work, who walked north in an endless stream. The working detachments were followed by convoys with clothing and food. Builders had to work in terrible conditions. Most of all, they were bothered by the cold, poor food, and the lashes of the overseers. Unable to withstand the inhuman conditions, thousands of peasants fled. A terrible death awaited the fugitives: they were caught and walled up alive in the wall.
To prevent riots and conspiracies, the emperor ordered 120 thousand people - representatives of noble families - to be relocated to the capital, where they were closely monitored. Sources report that the relentless Shi Huangdi executed 460 scientists who did not share his ideas.
Qin Shi Huang banned songs and stories and ordered the burning of all private bamboo books, except for religious texts, books on medicine, pharmacology, agronomy and mathematics. An order was issued banning private tuition as well as criticism of the government. To prevent discontent, the emperor introduced 12 types of execution.
The incredible cruelty of the emperor led to attempts on his life. Shi Huangdi built himself 37 palaces so that no one would know where he was. However, at the age of 48, the emperor died suddenly.
Shi Huang's empire did not survive much longer. A huge uprising soon broke out. The leader of the rebels, the village headman Liu Bang, declared himself the founder of the new Han dynasty. In 202 AD. e. he became the Chinese emperor.
Solve a chronological problem. Calculate how many years ago the first Ancient Chinese Empire appeared. How many years did it last?
Look at the map on page 109. Find and name the 7 Chinese “kingdoms that fought.” What was the territory of Qin Shi Huang's empire?
1. Think about why Qin Shi Huang ordered books to be destroyed and kept under the supervision of scientists? How do these facts relate to the construction of many imperial palaces? 2. Compare the power of the Chinese emperor, the Egyptian pharaoh and the Persian king.
Read an excerpt from Sima Qian’s work and answer the questions.
Why did the historian give Qin Shi Huang such a description?
Write your attitude towards this historical figure.
Compare the verbal and drawn portraits of Qin Shi Huang. Or was the artist able to embody the character traits of the emperor that Sima Qian spoke about?
“The Lord of Qin was a man with big eyes and the chest of a bird of prey. He was not known for his kindness. He had the voice of a jackal and the heart of a tiger and a wolf at the same time. When Shi Huangdi found himself in a difficult situation, he easily obeyed others. But if he got his way, he could just as easily crush a person.”
Imaginary portrait of Qin Shi Huang.
4. What is known about the Han Empire (202 BC - 220)?
Liu Bang was not able to immediately restore order in an exhausted country with a population of almost 60 million. Acting flexibly and carefully, he abolished the brutal Qin laws and reduced taxes. The emperor proclaimed agriculture to be the basis of the empire's economy and the most respected occupation.
The Han Empire reached its heyday during the time of Emperor Wu Di (14087 pp. AD), whose reign is called the “golden age.” China became a powerful power, all parts of which were subordinate to the emperor. His orders were carried out by a 130,000-strong army of officials. The state had the exclusive right to mint coins and sell salt and iron. The emperor significantly expanded the borders of the empire in the north and west, ensuring unhindered passage for trade caravans. This was the beginning of the Great Silk Road through the Middle East.
Asia to the west. Slaves, glassware, precious stones and spices came to China this way. They exported iron, nickel, lacquered dishes, bronze and other handicrafts and, of course, silk, which was not produced anywhere else.
Korea and modern Vietnam were conquered. Demanding more and more funds, the emperors ordered an increase in taxes and duties, as a result of which the peasants became poorer.
In 3 tbsp. officially abolished coin circulation, starting to use silk and grain as money. The population decreased, and the number of cities was halved. In 184, the "Yellow Turban" uprising broke out. A 300,000-strong army of rebel peasants, who tied their heads with yellow ribbons that symbolized the “coming bright era of universal good,” marched on the capital. In 207 the uprising was defeated. However, in 220 the state split into three kingdoms.
Ceramic model of a watchtower from the Han Dynasty.
What is the origin of expressions related to the history of China: “The Great Silk Road”, “the longest cemetery in the world”, “the river that wanders”, “the seven kingdoms at war”, “the yellow armbands”?
1. Where is Ancient China located? Determine the boundaries of ancient Chinese empires.
2. How did natural conditions influence the emergence of ancient Chinese civilization?
3. Why is Qin Shi Huang called the most cruel ruler of the Ancient East?
4. What changes occurred in China during the Han Empire?
Do you agree with the statement: “The construction of the pyramids in Egypt looks like modest fun when compared with the construction work in China during the time of Qin Shi Huang.” Justify your answer. Why did the ancient owners encourage the construction of grandiose structures?
1. The rise and fall of the Qin Empire
It was now, at the end of the long Zhou era, at the final stage of the Zhanguo period in the Celestial Empire (the specific outlines of which by this time had practically merged with Zhongguo, because the fundamental difference between the civilized middle kingdoms and the semi-barbarian periphery had basically disappeared) the contours of a single empire began to emerge. This empire, the formation of the foundation of which took almost a thousand years, cannot be called precocious. On the contrary, its main mechanisms and details were carefully thought out and in their totality almost perfectly corresponded to both the semi-utopian projects of generations of sage reformers and some general sociological patterns of politogenesis.
We are talking, first of all, about the fact that, if we recall the theories of the “Asian” (state) mode of production, we see before our eyes the emerging gigantic machine of a well-thought-out bureaucratic administration within the framework of an ever-increasing empire due to conquests. Based on the principles of power-property and centralized redistribution, the apparatus of the bureaucratic administration of this empire was already ready to take into its own hands all the levers of absolute power. But how to use these levers? And it was here that two parallel improving models of ancient Chinese society collided.
It is immediately worth noting that much of these models were of the same type and quite adequately reflected the realities of late Zhou China. Both were characterized by the concentration of power in the hands of the ruling elite, using the usual Marxist terms - the state-class, which stood firmly above the rest of society, intending to rule it in its own (but first of all, of course, in its own) interests. The only question was how to manage it. And at this point verbal disputes could not help. Only the practice of the historical process could solve the problem. At first, practice was clearly on the side of force, of the Legist whip within the framework of the Qin model.
It was the military successes of the Qin that marked the beginning of the superiority of this kingdom over others. The increase in its military power goes back to the reforms of Shang Yang, the meaning and purpose of which was precisely to create, by strengthening strict administrative and bureaucratic power and providing benefits to farmers; conditions for military-political expansion. The results of the reforms (which so amazed Xunzi, who visited Qin at the beginning of the 3rd century BC) affected military successes. The greatest achievements in this regard are associated with the commander Bai Qi, who in the middle of the 3rd century. BC. won a series of decisive victories over neighboring kingdoms, ending in unheard-of cruelties. For example, after the battle of Changping in 260 BC. all four hundred thousand warriors of the Zhao kingdom were executed (the figure is so incredible that it is sometimes questioned by researchers).
The Qin successes, as mentioned, prompted a desperate attempt by the surviving kingdoms to create a coalition, the Zong vertical (including all the kingdoms from northern Yan to southern Chu), against western Qin. The House of Zhou also supported the coalition. But it was already too late. The Qin's opponents were defeated one after another. The house of Zhou also collapsed, and nine tripods - a symbol of the power of the son of Heaven - went to Qin. Already in 253 BC. It was the Qin Wang, instead of the Zhou son of Heaven, who made the next official sacrifice in his capital in honor of the heavenly Shandi. This, in fact, formally ended the Zhou era. However, the final blows that finally crushed the Qin rivals in the struggle for the empire came in the subsequent decades of Qin Shi Huang and were associated with the name and activities of the last ruler of the kingdom, Ying Zheng, the future Emperor Qin Shi Huang (259-210 BC) .).
Becoming in power in 246 BC. at the age of 13, he initially relied on the help of the chief minister Lü Buwei (Sima Qian cites a legend according to which Ying Zheng was the son of a concubine given to his father by this Lü, hinting at the dubious origins of the emperor), but then decisively removed him from office and appointed legalist Li Si, the already mentioned student of Xun Tzu, to it. Li Si had a great influence on the young ruler, and some experts, not without reason, believe that it was he, and not Ying Zheng, who should be considered the true creator of the Qin Empire.
Based on the available data, Li Si was determined and cruel. He slandered his talented fellow student Han Fei-tzu, a brilliant theorist of late legalism, whom he clearly envied, and thereby brought him to death (subsequently, having read Han’s works, Ying Zheng regretted that he had imprisoned him, where he, according to legend, took poison received from Li Si).
Ying Zheng and Li Si continued their successful wars against their rivals in the east. In 230 BC. The kingdom of Han was destroyed, in 225 - Wei, in 223 - Chu, in 222 - Zhao and Yan, and in 221 - Qi. After this, the entire Celestial Empire was in the hands of Ying Zheng. He founded the new Qin dynasty and began to call himself its first ruler (Shi Huangdi, First Sacred Emperor). Actually, it was this 221 BC. and put an end to the Zhanguo period with its rivalry of kingdoms and bloody wars. Naturally, the new emperor immediately faced the question of how to govern the empire he had won in battle.
On the advice of Li, Si Shi Huang resolutely rejected the idea of creating inheritances for his loved ones, which was insisted on by advisers who respected tradition. And this was easy to understand - the appanage system fully proved its destructiveness during the periods of Western Zhou and Chunqiu, so there was no point or need to revive it in the pursuit of strict centralization. As for traditions, Shi Huangdi was ready to neglect it. In return, the emperor created a harmonious system of centralized administration, tested by Shangyan legalism. He eliminated the privileges of the hereditary nobility, forcibly moving about 120 thousand of their families from all the kingdoms of Zhou China to his new capital in order to tear the aristocrats and descendants of previous rulers from their homes, deprive them of contact with their former subjects and thereby weaken this most dangerous for him power social layer. The entire empire was divided into 36 large regions, the boundaries of which did not coincide with the outlines of the previous kingdoms and principalities, and governors - junshou - were placed at the head of these regions. The regions, in turn, were divided into counties (xian) headed by county chiefs, xianlings and xianzhangs, and the counties into volosts (syak), which consisted of small administrative entities - tins, with a dozen village-communities in each of them.
All officials of the empire, whether they were officials at the level of Ting, Xiang, Xian or Jun, employees of central departments or the censorship-prosecutor's office, had corresponding administrative ranks, indicating the place and status of their owner. If the lowest of these ranks could be held by ordinary commoners, then the middle ones, starting from the 8th, belonged only to officials who received salaries from the treasury for their service, and the highest (the 19th and 20th ranks had only a few) even included the right to be fed. Prosecutors in this administration system had a special status and exclusive powers. They were a kind of personal representatives of the emperor, obliged to closely monitor and truthfully report to him everything that was happening in the country. Thus, the system of Shangyan denunciations was implemented on a national scale. However, regardless of the sovereign’s eye, the entire mass of the bureaucracy was, according to Shanyan’s recipes, tied with mutual responsibility with mutual surveillance and punishment for failure to report, with the responsibility of guarantors for their guilty protégés.
In the empire, administrative orders and decrees that had previously been in force in all kingdoms and principalities were abolished, and in their place new strict legislation was introduced. The essence of this legislation (again, in Shangyan style, extremely elementary) boiled down to unquestioning obedience to the orders of superiors under pain of severe punishment for the slightest offense. A new system of measures and weights was introduced, monetary units were unified (the main one was a round copper coin with a square cut and the name of the ruling emperor on the front side, which has been preserved since then until the 20th century), measures of length (half a verst) and area ( mu). Instead of the complicated Zhou script, a simplified one (lishu) was introduced, which in its basic parameters survived until the 20th century.
The entire administrative apparatus of the country, designed to monitor the implementation of innovations and carry out management at all levels, had a number of important privileges, in particular, they were exempt from taxes and duties and were well paid. For better control over it, a double system of subordination was introduced: local officials were subordinate both to the heads of larger territorial-administrative associations in which they were included, and to ministers and officials of the relevant central departments, with whose demands they were obliged to take into account (as, indeed, , and with the requirements and instructions of censors-prosecutors). Military units were also integrated into the general administrative scheme and were deprived of the isolation that might unduly enhance the power of their leaders. It is worth noting that immediately after the creation of the empire, Shi Huang ordered that weapons be collected from all kingdoms (meaning bronze weapons, the best that the armies possessed) and taken to the capital, where bells and massive statues were cast from them. This gesture undoubtedly had a symbolic character, for in general the emperor attached great importance to weapons, as well as to the army.
Following legist norms, Qin Shi Huang encouraged agricultural activities. All peasants of the empire received plots of land, taxes and duties were quite moderate, at least at first, and farmers even had the right, as already mentioned, to administrative ranks - this gave them prestige, earned respect from their fellow villagers, and also gave them a chance during elections to the position of elders (san-lao), etc. Crafts and trade, which were already largely private in nature, although they continued to serve the needs of the court and treasury, did not enjoy open support from the authorities. However, they were not persecuted, as Shang Yang had once called for. On the contrary, the richest of the artisans and traders could become tax farmers and set up the production of ore, salt or wine, albeit under the control of the authorities. Prices for the most important food products, primarily grain, were also controlled. A network of state workshops was created, where the best craftsmen who knew how to make weapons or other high-quality products necessary for the ever-expanding prestigious needs of the elite were selected to perform labor duties for a certain period of time.
In the mines, in the construction of roads and other hard work, including the construction of the capital with its hundreds of luxurious palaces and the mausoleum for the emperor, as well as in the construction of the Great Wall, both ordinary citizens were used, obliged to bear labor duties, and enslaved for crimes, of which there were many. . Millions of criminals, mobilized peasants and artisans were annually sent to these construction sites, especially in the north, where the wall was being built. The ramparts that existed there before, erected by the rulers of the northern kingdoms of Zhongguo against the raids of nomads, were rebuilt, connected together and turned into a giant wall lined with stone with towers, loopholes and gates precisely under Shi Huang, in just over ten years. During these same years, a network of strategic roads was built that connected the capital with the distant outskirts of the empire. The emperor himself traveled through them on inspection trips, and from time to time installed steles in various regions of the empire, on which he recorded his deeds and merits.
Let us note that, in general, the Legist system of administrative reforms and the methodology for their implementation had an effect, and quite quickly and clearly. The Empire transformed very quickly, acquiring unconditional Order, but not really caring about internal Harmony. Perhaps this was precisely her weak point. Confucians and other opponents of the emperor often and openly criticized him for his rejection of traditions, the cruelty of punishments, and neglect of the very spiritual potentials of morality and virtue, which were perhaps the main thing in the teachings of Confucius and in many ways corresponded to the already established mentality and fundamentals of the worldview of the inhabitants of the Celestial Empire. The Emperor reacted aggressively to criticism. In 213 BC. he ordered the burning of all ancient books, and in 212 - the execution of 460 of the most active opponents. This increased the hatred towards him. Attempts were made on Shi Huang's life; he was afraid to sleep twice in the same palace and did not say where he intended to spend the next night.
Hatred towards the new order and its living personification, Shi Huang, intensified as the first results of reforms that had an economic effect began to be overshadowed by the discomfort caused by the army-barracks order in the style of Shang Yang, to which the overwhelming majority of the population of the Celestial Empire was not accustomed. Sent to build the Great Wall was perceived in the country as a link to hard labor, from which few people return. The long wars against the Xiongnu in the north and in the Vietnamese lands in the south were also something of an indefinite exile. As there was a shortage of funds in the treasury, taxes from the population increased, which caused protests. Discontent was brutally suppressed, and those responsible - whether critical Confucians or rebellious peasants - were severely punished. More and more funds were required for construction and wars; they could only be obtained by increasing taxes and labor duties. And the tax burden was shamelessly increased, regardless of whether the already disadvantaged people could bear it. In addition, cruelty towards Confucians and Confucianism deprived people not so much of the right to appeal to tradition as of spiritual comfort. As a result, order without harmony turned into extremist arbitrariness, into a kind of lawlessness that can only cause despair and push people to extreme measures for the sake of trampled principles and ideals.
As is easy to see, the Qin model of a centralized state, brought to life through the efforts of Shi Huang and Li Si, was noticeably different from the Confucian model in the style of Zhouli’s ideal scheme. If among the Confucians a huge role was played by paternalism and the constant petty, even obsessive concern of the governing upper classes for the controlled lower classes, to which the Zhou people had become somewhat accustomed over many centuries and which was sanctioned by tradition, then here everything was different. Of course, in fairness, it should be noted that in Qin Shih-huang’s legalistic scheme there was a certain place for a tradition based specifically on Confucian values: To be convinced of this, it is enough to read the texts of the steles placed in the sixth chapter of Sima Qian’s work, in which there are many discussions on the topic of humanity and justice, even about the deeds of the ancient sages. In other words, the Qin emperor was to some extent involved in the idea of a synthesis of Confucianism and Legalism, even in the form closest to hard Legalism. And yet, from such a synthesis, Shi-huang was left with mostly only stereotypical phrases. As for specific cases, and especially the strategy of building an empire, here the legalist administrative model appeared in its most inhumane version.
This is clearly seen in the example of all the activities of the emperor, who clearly did not sufficiently understand and, most importantly, practically did not take into account the traditional socio-psychological orientation of his subjects. Phrases from the steles addressed to descendants had no effect on the softening of politics, where unconditional administrative dictate prevailed and there was practically no place for the traditional Confucian paternalism familiar to people. The gigantic apparatus of bureaucratic administration, skillfully built by Shi-huang and Li Si, put pressure on its subjects. Those who criticized the emperor were angrily put in place by Shi Huang, or even mercilessly executed.
All this led to the collapse of the empire. While Shi Huang was alive, no one dared or could seriously resist the apparatus of state coercion. But after his death (in 210 BC) the situation changed dramatically. Er Shi Huang, who inherited the throne, not only did not have the abilities, character and authority of his father, but in general was hardly fit to be a ruler (Shi Huang himself, before his death, bequeathed to transfer power to his eldest son, who criticized his order, which Li Si and other close associates did not want to do ). As a result, the empire entered a period of court intrigue and political instability, which in turn gave strength to the opposition of the emperor's court. Uprisings began. They were still brutally suppressed, but the strength was no longer enough. Discontent was growing rapidly in the country. Frightened, Er Shi Huang tried to resort to executions of the dignitaries and associates who were most hated by the people and dangerous to the throne and him personally. But nothing could help the empire.
In the fall of 209 BC. Chen Sheng's rebellion broke out, followed by others. Er Shi Huang declared a large amnesty in the Celestial Empire and began to mobilize troops against the rebels. Expenditures on expensive construction projects were cut, several more prominent dignitaries, including Li Si, were accused of crimes and executed. But, despite all efforts, the rebel movement expanded and gained strength. It was headed by Xiang Yu, a native of the former kingdom of Chu. The eunuch Zhao Gao, who replaced Li Si as the emperor's chief adviser, tried to take power into his own hands. By his order, Er Shi was forced to commit suicide. However, Zhao Gao himself was soon stabbed to death in the palace. The Qin court was in agony, and soon the Qin dynasty ceased to exist.
Meanwhile, Xiang Yu had rivals, the strongest of whom was Liu Bang, a native of the peasantry. A long internecine struggle ended with the victory of Liu Bang, who became the founder of the new Han dynasty.
The history of the death of the Qin dynasty is instructive and deserves special attention. As you know, this topic was of interest to many, starting with contemporaries of the events. Thus, the sixth chapter of Sima Qian’s work, dedicated to the biography of Qin Shi Huang, includes an essay by Jia Yi concerning the reasons for the fall of a seemingly powerful empire that lasted less than 15 years. Jia Yi reproached Shi Huang for excessive self-confidence, cruelty and outrages, condemned him for refusing to listen to criticism and correct mistakes. He believed that discontent and uprising of the people in such a situation were inevitable. In his opinion, the rejection of traditions and neglect of them ultimately became the reason for the collapse of Qin.
One can largely agree with Jia Yi. But it is more important to pay attention to the fact that the Qin Empire became a kind of gigantic socio-political experiment in the history of China. It was a triumph of rigid legalism, which unexpectedly demonstrated, at the moment of its highest triumph, all its inner weakness. It would seem that this is the desired goal! The country is united and pacified, enemies are defeated, the people enjoy the benefits of effective economic reforms, and the empire is almost thriving. True, some more effort is needed for the final triumph - it is necessary to complete the capital with its 270 palaces and a magnificent mausoleum, strategic roads are needed, the Great Wall is needed to protect against raids and demonstrate the greatness of the empire. Expensive military expeditions against the barbarian tribes in the north and south are also necessary, so that everyone knows about the Qin and is in awe. At the same time, the legist rulers of the empire were not embarrassed by the fact that the people were not accustomed to the dramatically changed way of life, that the new standards contradicted the deep-rooted traditions, and the first economic results were eaten up by unbearable subsequent costs and expenditure of the vital forces of the subjects of the empire.
But since then, much has changed, including the kingdom of Qin, where in the second half of the 3rd century. BC. Private property already existed and trade, cities, and even intellectual and cultural traditions were quite developed. The states of other parts of Zhou China have changed even more in this regard, especially Zhongguo, where crafts and trade, cities and private property, intellectual life and the play of thought, sometimes very subtle and sophisticated, have long become the norm. And Qin Shi-huang and Li Si wanted to subordinate all this diversity of life to their strict legist laws.
In contrast to the Confucian tradition, which harmoniously absorbed innovations and, moreover, gave them an appearance, enriched with a highly moral tradition, acceptable to everyone, legalism had a sharply negative attitude towards other doctrines. He rejected everything that arose in accordance with the spirit of the ethical tradition of Confucianism, that fit into this tradition and enriched the intellectual potential of the Celestial Empire. Thus, legalism, in addition to its harshness and inhumanity, became openly reactionary. He openly denied everything that was new and did not meet his standards. He did not like surprises, because they were dangerous for him, and did not tolerate comments, much less criticism, from opponents, because this undermined the strength of his positions. That is, in the conditions that had already developed in China by the end of Zhanguo, legalism turned out to be unviable. This statement may seem harsh - after all, Shi Huang managed to achieve a lot in the few years of his power. Just remember the Great Wall! But there is a clear answer to this: a brutal regime is capable of much, but at the cost of incredible effort, at the cost of the life of a generation. However, the extreme can never become the norm. Any extremism inevitably generates a response, and quite quickly. Society cannot tolerate prolonged overexertion. Relaxation in a society of the legalist type means the collapse of everything on which the rigidity of legalism rests. And as soon as the foundations collapse, everything else perishes. This is the main reason for the collapse of a seemingly strong and great empire. This revealed the unviability of legalism, which inevitably had to be replaced by another structure, softer, more humane and therefore viable. Such a structure in China became the Confucian empire - the Han Empire.
2. Han Empire. Wu Di and its transformations
The Chinese Empire developed as a centralized state over a number of centuries. In principle, an empire is the highest stage of the process of politogenesis. It can only exist on the basis of a centralized apparatus of power, which in turn must be based on force. Therefore, it is not surprising that the Chinese empire arose in a legist form. It was a kind of apotheosis of cynical power. However, strength alone is not enough to form a stable empire. We need institutions that would contribute to the stabilization of society and economic balance. The legalists paid little attention to both - and lost. They were replaced by a new dynasty, which made considerable efforts to create social stability and economic sustainability. Both were objectively necessary for the structure, within the usual framework of which, based on power-property and centralized redistribution, new institutions of a market-private nature emerged, opposing both.
These institutions, as already mentioned, were integrated into the previous ones, but the legalists did not care at all about creating some kind of stable balance between the haves and have-nots, city and countryside, the ruling elite and the dispossessed lower classes. And it was the masses of the dispossessed - the landless and farm laborers, tenants and mercenaries, slaves and servants - who played a significant role in creating the instability that manifested itself after the death of Shi Huang and the loss by his successors of the main thing they had, i.e. brute force. It fell to the rulers of the Han dynasty to create a truly stable empire that would rely not only and not so much on force, but on a skillfully built administrative-political and socio-economic structure that ensured conservative stability for both society and the state.
The Han Empire did not arise immediately after it began in 207 BC. The Qin dynasty ceased to exist. For several years, China has been the scene of a brutal political struggle between contenders for the vacant imperial throne. The warlords who headed the warring regions settled scores with each other in energetic battles, creating more and more new principalities and kingdoms in the lands they conquered, the names of which sometimes coincided with the previous ones that existed in the same territories before Qin, and sometimes sounded new. The strongest among them, as mentioned, were the newly created political formations of the houses of Xiang and Han. The struggle between them ended in 202 BC, when Liu Bang (Gaozu), who assumed the title of Han emperor, actually seized power throughout the entire Celestial Empire.
But what kind of empire did Liu Bang get?! The country lay in ruins, because not all defeated opponents agreed to unconditional surrender. Many of them, on the contrary, continued to resist, leading the matter to ever greater ruin. However, the main thing was that the power of centripetal factors and tendencies, which had matured for centuries in the depths of Zhou China and to a large extent ensured Qin Shi Huang’s unification of the country into a gigantic empire, not only dried up, but also seemed to turn into its opposite. The clear negative experience of Shi Huang's short-lived legist experiment and the subsequent collapse of his empire was the reality that Liu Bang (the founder of the Han dynasty) faced when he defeated his rivals and again tried to piece the empire together. Of course, long-term factors and trends played a positive role in this, because they objectively reflected what was the result of a long historical process: China was ready for unification and the question came down only to who and how would be able to achieve this. But Qin's failure did not simply slow down the positive process. It seemed to turn him back, sharply slowed down his progress, forced him to create a lot anew, and in the most unfavorable conditions for this, general devastation and collapse.
It is important to remember here that Li Si's legalism, as implemented in the Qin Empire, was extremely intolerant. His goal was to erase from people’s memories everything that in one way or another did not coincide with his norms and was thereby in opposition to them. It is clear that the entire huge administrative and bureaucratic system was created from those who were blindly obedient to the legalist doctrine and zealously implemented its standards in practice. And this was precisely the inheritance that the not very educated peasant Liu Bang received when he sat on the throne and faced the need to manage the empire. How to manage? Who to manage with? Who and what to rely on? These questions were all the more relevant for him because, judging by the eighth chapter of Sima Qian’s work, specially dedicated to Gaozu, almost all of the few years of his reign as the emperor of the new Han dynasty were spent in battles with rebels who continually tried challenge his victory and status as emperor. And although Liu Bang ultimately defeated all his enemies and, in the words of the same Sima Qian, “pacified the Celestial Empire,” turning the state “on the right path,” this was not easy for him, and even more so for the country.
Of course, Liu Bang had knowledgeable and experienced advisers, including from among the surviving Confucians. However, they could do little during the life of the emperor in the conditions of constant wars and rebellions, devastation and collapse, not having a sufficient number of like-minded assistants who were destroyed back in Qin. In addition, in institutional terms, they had practically nothing to oppose to the dilapidated, but still somehow existing legalist administrative system. The Zhouli texts could not help here. Therefore, Gao-tzu was not in a great hurry with radical reforms, and did not try too hard to contrast his new regime with the bankrupt legalist one. On the contrary, he tried to rely on those remnants of the administrative legist structure that had survived from the time of Qin, while doing everything necessary to soften the rigidity of the legalism of Li Si and Qin Shi-huang.
Already in 202 BC. On the occasion of the inauguration, Liu Bang proclaimed a broad amnesty, calling on all fugitives and exiles to return home and receive their lands and homes. He abolished the harsh punishments of the Qin times and placed emphasis on the lower level of the administration, on rural elders - sanlao, among whom ancient traditions existed. Having retained the Legist system of administrative ranks, the lowest, eight of them, he ordered to continue to be assigned to commoners, including the Sanlao. In 199 BC. Construction began on the Weiyanggong palace complex in the new Han capital of Changan. However, the main weakness of the Han government continued to be the lack of a reliable centralized administrative system. Creating it instead of the collapsed Qin one was not an easy task and took a lot of time. In addition, Gao-tzu was aware of the need to reward everyone who helped him win, who was with him during the harsh years, who was among his relatives and associates. There was only one method of reward, known from ancient Chinese history - to distribute titles, ranks and corresponding land grants to deserving people, mostly with noticeable immunity rights, which turned all of them into powerful appanage rulers.
It is difficult to say which of the factors in this decision played the greatest role, perhaps the balance in doubt - and there could not but be doubts: it was too well known what dangers were fraught with the creation of a large number of semi-independent fiefs within the country, - the link outweighed to a tradition that Qin Shi-huang neglected in his time, but which Liu Bang firmly decided to take into account. In any case, the fundamental decision was made already in the first years of his power, when 143 fiefs were created in the Celestial Empire. On average, these were estates of 1-2 thousand households, sometimes smaller, but sometimes much larger, up to 10-12 thousand. Each of the owners of the estate and only he had the title of how, which was passed down along with the estate by inheritance. Liu Bang's closest successors continued his policy in this sense, granting dozens of new inheritances to their close relatives and honored assistants. Over time, many representatives of the appanage nobility became so entrenched in their possessions that the closest of them in terms of the degree of kinship with the emperor began to be called the title of van. The Vans and Khous felt secure in their inheritance and sometimes started rebellions against the legitimate ruler of the Celestial Empire.
However, on the scale of the Celestial Empire as a whole, the specific nobility, both in number and in the number of subjects, did not occupy a very noticeable place. Although there was a lot of trouble with it, it did not influence the politics of the country as a whole so much. The lion's share of the territory and subjects of the ruler of the Celestial Empire remained under the authority of the center, and therefore perhaps the most important task was to create a reliable system of centralized administration on which the empire could rely. Actually, this was the main goal of the activities of several of Liu Bang’s closest successors, right up to his great great-grandson Wu Di, who finally solved the problem of managing the empire. But before Wu-di there were still rulers about whom it is necessary to say at least a few words.
From 195 to 188, the country was ruled by one of Liu Bang's sons, Hui Di. After him, power passed into the hands of Liu Bang's widow, Empress Lü, who surrounded herself with relatives from her Lü clan. Many of their number received the highest titles of Van and Hou, hereditary inheritance and high positions. Empress Lü died in 180 BC. from a mysterious illness, which Sima Qian, as far as he can understand, was inclined to consider heavenly punishment for her crimes. After Lü's death, the temporary workers from her clan were destroyed.
In the history and historical tradition of China, the attitude towards Empress Luhou is purely negative. She is condemned for cruelty towards her rivals, for the murder of government officials, the deposition of legitimate heirs, the rise of relatives from the Lü clan, and much more. Of course, having carefully read the ninth chapter of Sima Qian’s work dedicated to her, one can agree that she was a powerful, cruel and ambitious ruler. But the final lines of the same chapter say: “... the ruler of Gao-hou exercised control... without leaving the palace chambers. The Celestial Empire was calm. Punishments of any kind were rarely used, and there were few criminals. The people were diligently engaged in arable farming, there was plenty of clothing and food.”
This means that court intrigues and bloody showdowns around the throne did not greatly affect the state of affairs in the country. On the contrary, Liu Bang's reforms, including lowering taxes on landowners, carrying out irrigation works, imposing heavy taxes on wealthy merchants, and caring about maintaining the status of ordinary officials, gradually produced positive results. Softened Legist methods of management and encouragement of Confucian traditions led to the replenishment of the administration with active Confucians. Experts in Confucianism were able to reconstruct from memory the texts of the books destroyed by Qin Shi-huang, and first of all the entire Confucian canon, which is now overgrown with numerous commentaries. And the fact that neither Hui-di nor Lü-hou, immersed in palace entertainment and intrigue, did not really interfere in the affairs of governing the Celestial Empire, as if entrusting them to representatives of traditional culture, who replaced the compromised legist dignitaries, went (together with timely and reasonable reforms of Liu Bang) for the benefit of the Celestial Empire. This became especially obvious when one of Liu Bang's sons, Wendi, sat on the throne.
During the 23 years of his reign (179-157 BC), Wen did a lot to revive Confucian traditions and the prosperity of Han China. He began by declaring a general amnesty, generously rewarding almost all of their holders with new ranks, and special awards and awards to those who played a major role in eradicating the Lü clan and restoring order in the country. Wendi abandoned the cruel practice of punishing the crimes of the criminal's relatives. At the same time, he referred to the Confucian thesis that officials are obliged to educate the people, and not harm them with unjust laws. On the occasion of the appointment of his son as heir and the elevation of his mother to the rank of empress, Wen Ti again generously rewarded many and especially singled out the poor, widows and orphans, the poor and lonely, as well as the elderly over eighty, who were granted silks, rice and meat. Awards were also given to veterans close to Liu Bang.
On the day of the solar eclipse in 178 BC. Wendi made a repentant appeal to the people, grieving over his imperfections and offering, according to ancient custom, to nominate wise and worthy people who are ready to serve for the good of the people. That same year, he personally plowed a furrow in the temple field and declared the right of everyone to make critical remarks about the highest authorities. In 177 BC. Wen-di concluded an agreement on brotherhood with the Xiongnu, who constantly troubled the Celestial Empire with their northern neighbors. He allowed part of the Huns to settle in the Ordos region, i.e. in the lands of the Celestial Empire south of the wall, where nomads lived since ancient times and farming was a risky business.
Wendi was generous with mercy, he forgave the rebellious aristocrats who rebelled against him, advocated mitigation of punishments, especially corporal, and abolished them in 166 BC. land tax, while increasing duties and taxes on the urban population, merchants and artisans (the tax was restored after his death in 156 BC). The emperor cared about the timely offering of sacrifices, the prosperity of the people, and the pacification of the Huns. In the lean year of 159 BC. He greatly reduced the prestigious expenses of the court, opened state barns for distribution to the hungry and allowed the sale of ranks, as well as poor peasants with ranks to give them up to their more prosperous neighbors. Things got to the point that at the end of his life, Wen Di demanded that his household dress in simple clothes, not wear expensive jewelry, and bequeathed after his death not to spend too much on expensive mourning rituals.
Wendi died in 157 BC. Subsequently, he was very highly regarded by his descendants, who praised his virtues. It is worth noting that Wen's virtues fit well into traditional ideas about a wise and virtuous ruler, and he was the first of the Han emperors who can be considered exemplary from the point of view of Confucianism. This means that in about a third of a century, Han China changed greatly. Compromised by cruel years of difficult experiments, legalism became a thing of the past, leaving the territory of the Han Empire before the conquests of Wu Ti to inherit a centralized bureaucratic system and a considerable number of institutions associated with it. Through the efforts of the Confucians, this inheritance was seriously transformed and by the era of Wendi it quite easily fit into those paternalistic traditions glorified by Zhouli’s schemes, which began to clearly come to the fore.
The reign of Wen-di's son and Liu Bang's grandson Emperor Jing-di (156-141 BC) was marked by amnesties that showed mercy for the fallen. Jing-di pacified the Xiongnu, extinguished the rebellions of the appanage princes, streamlined the administration, and in his posthumous edict he granted everyone the next administrative rank. It is important to note that during his reign, a systematic attack began on the rights of appanage princes, whose lands were cut, which sometimes served as a reason for rebellion.
Jing-di's successor was his son and great-grandson Liu Bang Wu-di (140-87 BC). It was during the years of his reign, which was one of the longest and most fruitful in the history of China, that Confucianism not only finally came to the fore and became the basis of the Chinese way of life, but also turned out to be the foundation of the entire mature Chinese civilization. From this time, from the reign of Han Wu-di, almost one and a half thousand years of ancient Chinese history - the history of urban state formations and the formation of civilizational foundations - completes its path and passes the baton to the history of the developed and established Confucian empire.
Han China during the time of Wu Di was a period of prosperity that was recently recreated from the ruins of an empire just over half a century ago. Agriculture flourished in the country, and taxes were relatively low, usually no more than 1/15 of the harvest. True, they were supplemented by a capitation tax, as well as various kinds of labor and duties, but on the whole all this was common and therefore tolerable. The population of the country increased sharply, reaching in the 1st century. BC. 60 million people. The development of new lands gave impetus to the development of agricultural technology, including plowing with the use of draft animals (however, which remained the property of only a few), as well as the bed system of manual cultivation (it was with this method of cultivation that the vast majority of peasants received good harvests from their fields). Old irrigation systems were carefully maintained and new ones created as needed. The roads were in order, and new cities were rising along the roads, the number of which had been continuously increasing since the beginning of the imperial period in Chinese history.
Wu-di borrowed a lot from the Legist experience, adopting and developing those aspects of it that turned out to be viable and even necessary for managing the empire. He restored the state monopoly on salt, iron, coin casting and wine production, established back in the days of Qin Shi-huang, and the mechanism for implementing this monopoly, which was very beneficial for the treasury, was the tax farming system. Rich merchants and artisans from among the wealthy urban and especially metropolitan residents paid huge amounts of money to the treasury for the right to engage in salt making, metallurgy, distilling or making coins and for receiving income from all these industries. In the cities there were also state-owned enterprises, where the best artisans of the country worked (most often in the form of labor, i.e. labor service). They made the most exquisite products for the prestigious consumption of the upper classes, as well as weapons and equipment for the army and much more. All this contributed to the development of the economy and an increase in the number of private owners. The attitude towards private owners and especially rich merchants in Han China did not differ from Zhou times, although it was not as uncompromising as in Shangyang legalism. Rich merchants were strictly controlled by the authorities, the possibilities of selling their wealth were limited by law, although they were allowed to spend money on acquiring a socially prestigious rank or a certain - not too high - position.
Wu Di took a lot from the administrative system of legalism. The country was divided into regions headed by governors responsible to the center. An important role, as in the Qin, was played by the system of everyday control represented by censor-prosecutors vested with the highest powers. Criminals were subjected to severe punishments; often they, and even members of their families, were turned into convict slaves, used in hard work, mainly construction and mining. In order to strengthen the centralization of power in 121 BC. a decree was issued that virtually eliminated the system of appanages - each owner of an appanage was legally required to divide his possessions among all his numerous heirs, which was intended to finally eliminate the influential layer of hereditary nobility, which at times gave rise to rebellions and general instability in the empire.
Being a strong and intelligent politician, Wu-di paid great attention to foreign policy problems, the main of which were the same Huns, who became more active on the northern borders. In search of allies in the fight against them back in 138 BC. Zhang Qian was sent to the northwest, who was initially captured by the Xiongnu for ten long years, but then managed to escape and fulfill the assignment entrusted to him. Having explored the territory and studied the peoples living to the west of the Xiongnu, Zhang Qian, after many years of wandering, returned home and compiled a detailed report on his journey for the emperor. This report, being included as a special chapter in the consolidated work of Sima Qian, has survived to this day and is very helpful to specialists studying the history of the unliterate peoples who lived north of China in Han times.
Wu Di was satisfied with the information received from Zhang Qian. And although the expedition did not achieve the main goal - creating a coalition against the Xiongnu - it provided a lot of material for assessing the political situation on the northwestern borders of Han China. Having received information about the magnificent Davan (Fergana) horses, Wu di sent military expeditions to the Fergana Valley. In addition to the horses that were brought to the imperial stables as a result, the campaigns against Davan made it possible to open regular trade relations with the peoples living in the territory of modern East Turkestan. These connections, which ultimately owed their origin to Zhang Qian, subsequently received the name of trade along the Silk Road, because from China to the west, along the newly opened trade routes, they carried mainly silk, highly valued there, which reached Rome in transit. The Great Silk Road has since functioned for centuries, albeit irregularly, connecting China, isolated from other developed civilizations, with Western countries. Wu Di also sent successful military expeditions to the east, where part of the Korean lands were subjugated to them, and to the south, to the region of Vietnam, where part of the Vietnamese lands was annexed by the Chinese.
The successful foreign policy of Wu Di contributed not so much to the development of trade relations with distant countries (they were given little importance in China), but to the expansion of the territory of the empire and the strengthening of its borders. Both in foreign and even more so in domestic policy, the emperor pursued the goal of strengthening the foundation of imperial power and reviving the glory of the great and prosperous Celestial Empire, which was perhaps the most important element of the highly revered Chinese tradition. It is not surprising, therefore, that Wu Ti himself spent a lot of effort not only to revive the influence of Confucianism in the empire (this process had been going on for a long time and successfully after the collapse of Qin and without his efforts), but to recreate the new, imperial, or, as it is sometimes called , Han, Confucianism. The fundamental difference between imperial Confucianism was not so much in the doctrine, which remained practically unchanged, but in a new approach to newly formed realities, in a new attitude to the world that had changed since the time of Confucius. Or, in other words, in his greater tolerance for other doctrines, especially defeated ones that have not stood the test of history. And the point here is not only about synthesis as an idea that has been making its way for a long time, for centuries. Much more important was the very principle of practical benefit, a pragmatic perception of the world, which developed in China largely under the influence of the same Confucianism.
Wu-di wanted the new official imperial ideology to absorb everything useful that helped the country and him personally, the entire Han dynasty to establish governance of the empire and at the same time rely on a people brought up on ideals and traditions, but at the same time respecting strength and submissive to authority. First of all, this meant a rapprochement between pre-Han Confucianism and legalism, or more precisely, with those elements of legalism that could well coexist with Confucianism and even reinforce its sometimes well-intentioned postulates. After all, both Confucians and Legalists believed that the Celestial Empire should be governed by the sovereign with his ministers and officials, that the people should respect the government and obey its representatives, and that all this ultimately contributes to the good and prosperity, peace and happiness of the subjects. It is worth remembering that Qin Shi-huang spoke approximately this language in his steles. The difference between the doctrines and especially their implementation was in what methods should be used to achieve the goals. Confucians emphasized self-awareness and self-improvement of people, instilling in them humanity, virtue, a sense of duty and respect for elders. Legalists - for intimidation, submission and severe punishment for disobedience. In this situation, a skillful combination of the Confucian carrot with the Legist stick could and did produce very positive results. But that was not all.
Wu-di gathered about a hundred outstanding scientists-boshi (boshi - an honorary academic title, a kind of professor), to whom from time to time, as narrated in the 56th chapter of the dynastic history of Han-shu, he asked important questions about how an empire should be run, what criteria should be used to select assistants and officials, how to interpret ancient wisdom in relation to the tasks of today, etc. As far as is clear from the text of the chapter, most; Smart and accurate answers to the questions posed were given by Wu-di's senior contemporary, the outstanding Confucian of the Han era, Dong Zhong-shu.
Dong Zhong-shu was not just an excellent expert and zealous adherent of the teachings of Confucius, to whose sayings he constantly referred and whose chronicle “Chunqiu” made the basis of his own work “Chunqiu Fanlu”. The historical merit of this outstanding thinker was that he was able to weave into the fabric of Confucianism new non-Confucian ideas that arose and came into use, gained popularity and recognition, be it the concepts of yin-yang and wu-xing associated with the name of Zou Yang, some ideas of Mo- Tzu (for example, about heavenly signs) or Taoists with their category of qi and other elements of cosmogony in the ancient Indian style, i.e. with a considerable amount of mysticism. It was in this apparently very eclectic ideological, philosophical and religious doctrine that the synthesis, which has already been mentioned more than once, found its completion.
It is noteworthy that this synthesis was unobtrusive, it was only woven into patterns into the Confucian fabric; that Confucianism was the basis of Dong’s teaching, which then formed the foundation of the official state ideology of the Chinese Empire and was called Han Confucianism. It is interesting to note that it was Dong who first came up with the idea that Confucius himself had all the virtues so that Heaven would pay attention to him in due time and give him the Great Mandate to rule the Celestial Empire. Although this, as we know, did not happen, which Confucius himself mourned at one time, this kind of assumption only exalted the great sage in the eyes of generations.
It cannot be said that after the innovations of Dong Zhong-shu in the Chinese Empire there were no more disputes concerning the priority of Confucianism. They showed themselves, for example, during a lively debate over state monopolies that took place in 81 BC. under Wu-di’s successor, Emperor Zhao-di, and recorded a little later by Huan Kuan in the treatise “Yan Te Lun” (The Dispute about Salt and Iron). The struggle over whether to keep monopolies or to abolish them resulted in an open dispute between those who leaned in favor of legist methods of management (state monopolies) and Confucians, who believed that it was not the power of the state, but the virtues of the sovereign that should attract people. What is important here is not even the discussion itself (although it is very interesting, because it paid a lot of attention to the arguments of the parties), but rather the fact that ultimately the dispute between representatives of different approaches to managing the empire made a significant contribution to the creation of that very gigantic hierarchical system centralized bureaucratic administration, which in its ideal form was proposed by the Confucians in the treatise Zhouli. Of course, now the “Zhouli” scheme, enriched with well-developed management institutions borrowed from the legalists, has ceased to be an ideal design, but, on the contrary, has acquired flesh and blood and turned into reality. Actually, with the acquisition of this reality, imperial China became the state that it continued to be, with minor ideological and institutional changes, until the 20th century.
Thus, the ancient Chinese period of formation of the foundations of civilization and statehood, the creation of a mature and sufficiently perfect in its basic parameters administration apparatus of a centralized state came to its logical conclusion. In Han China under Wu-di, the Confucian-legist apparatus of power, with its well-trained officials carefully selected before appointment from among well-established experts in official Confucian doctrine, was the result of a long process of synthesis of ideas and the evolution of political and social institutions. The necessary element of coercion within the framework of the imperial administration was harmoniously combined with traditional paternalism, and the centuries-old social discipline of subjects oriented towards respect for elders was reinforced by the Confucian spirit of competition and self-improvement, which in the conditions of imperial China was always the engine that allowed the huge administrative machine not to stagnate and not to rust. And although after Wu Ti, Han China entered a period of protracted crisis (in general, the subsequent history of the country developed in cycles, from prosperity and stability to crisis and decline, and then to another prosperity), the potential laid down by tradition, mainly Confucianism, was quite enough to Chinese civilization and statehood retained their vitality.
3. Han Dynasty after Wu Di. Wang Mang's reforms
After Wu's death, Han China, as mentioned, entered a long period of stagnation and then crisis. If, during the years of strong centralized power, the functions of specially appointed inspectors (the same censor-prosecutors who existed during the Qin dynasty) included, among other things, ensuring that “the lands and houses of local powerful families did not exceed” the established norm, and the rulers In some places “they administered justice fairly and did not oppress the people,” then with the collapse of the effective power of the center, the situation changed dramatically. Wu Di's weak and weak-willed successors were unable to control local power. Moreover, the weakness of the Han Empire was the insufficient degree of institutionalization of the lower level of administration. A solid and proven practice of training and skillful use of cadres of officials at this very mass grassroots level has not yet been established. In addition, the weakness of the unstable system of staffing officials was facilitated by the fierce rivalry of the local elite with the emerging imperial bureaucratic apparatus.
The fact is that in the second half of the 1st millennium BC. The character of the ancient Chinese village-community changed significantly. If before that the village-community was a collection of households with approximately equal levels of prosperity, and the property difference between them, as soon as it became noticeable, was extinguished due to the sporadic redistribution of communal land, then with the development of the privatization process and commodity-money relations, inequality, even if not immediately became noticeable in the village. Social and property inequality especially began to manifest itself precisely in the Han era, when the strict standards of legalism, which severely limited the private owner, were significantly weakened and very much depended on how effectively the state apparatus, the imperial power of the center, exercised control over the country.
While the government, especially under Wu-di, was strong, equality in the village was artificially maintained (which, as just mentioned, special inspectors were obliged to monitor). But as soon as the government began to weaken, centrifugal forces on the ground began to demonstrate their capabilities more and more actively. Strong farms arose in the villages, which quickly grew rich and took over more and more new lands, turning their yesterday's owners into tenants and mercenaries. The so-called “strong houses” that arose on this economic basis (they were called by various terms in the texts) divided among themselves (sometimes in the course of fierce rivalry) power and influence. Dispossessed peasants often had to leave their native places and go to new ones, where they found themselves in the position of dependent clients (ke, lit. - “guest”) from the same village rich people. Forced under the conditions of the ineffective government of the center to take care of their own well-being, strong houses acquired home guards (buqu) recruited from the poor and newcomers, which in a critical situation could act as a completely combat-ready military formation.
Handling many millions, or even tens of millions of coins, as is often mentioned in sources, strong houses not only became a generally recognized elite of the empire with real power, but also gained opportunities to influence the administration apparatus. Moreover, the administrative apparatus at the county and district level was mainly staffed by representatives of these powerful houses and, in any case, was highly dependent on their “general opinion.”
Why did the strong houses become such an influential force in the Han village during the decline of the empire? The fact is that in addition to purely economic factors (the enrichment of the rural minority in the conditions of a commodity economy), several others actively contributed to the power of rich clans in the rural community. Firstly, as soon as it became possible to acquire communal lands by hook or by crook, all the officials who received high salaries and the owners who became rich through market transactions began to try to invest their income in the land, which was not so profitable as it was prestigious and reliable. This, naturally, contributed to the practical merger of the village elite with all the powers that be, and above all with the influential elite of officials. Secondly, the weakening of power as such played an important role.
Under the conditions of effective power of the center, anyone involved in power was first of all an official and only secondarily an owner. The cornerstone postulate that power generates and preserves its property and that the property of the holder of power is mediated precisely by his involvement in the administrative apparatus was clear to everyone, because it went back to the ancient principle of power-property. But as soon as a crisis of power arose and the treasury was correspondingly emptied, and the interests of the official were significantly affected, the situation changed. Officials, on the one hand, began to put more harsh pressure on the village, which was already groaning from the blows of the crisis, which led to the ruin of the peasants and a deepening of the crisis, and on the other hand, they increasingly felt the interests of the owners as their own and even (in the changed situation) as paramount .
The interweaving of the interests of the village property elite and the local administration apparatus, in turn, sharply aggravated the economic crisis, which entailed further weakening and political decentralization of the state. It was this process that was observed at the end of the first Han dynasty. It manifested itself primarily in a noticeable reduction in the role of the state administrative principle in the country, as well as in the fact that the functions of power actually ended up in the hands of powerful houses with their vast lands, financial resources, abundant clientele and, moreover, with claims to high moral potential and aristocracy spirit and high Confucian standards.
Taking the Confucian ideal of a noble husband (junzi) as a social and moral basis and striving to demonstrate by their way of life the highest standards of existence of the layer of aristocratic shi officials glorified in Confucian treatises of the “Ili” type, representatives of the village elite (all the same strong houses) They considered themselves guardians of the virtuous foundations of an empire collapsing under the blows of the crisis. It was themselves that they increasingly called “the hope of the people” and “worthy men” possessing the moral purity of true shi. In an effort to retain the right to express a “general opinion” and speak from a position of “pure criticism,” powerful houses jealously watched each other, which objectively contributed to the preservation and cultivation of a high standard of Confucian norms among them, moreover, to the formation of a kind of aristocracy of spirit . This aristocracy differed from the corresponding standard of the feudal structure of Chunqiu in that it was based not so much on the realities of the socio-political prerogatives of the hereditary nobility, but on a high reputation, on the creation and preservation of the Confucian “face”. “Lose face”, i.e. to lose their reputation was an unbearable blow for a zealous Confucian, which not every one of them could bear.
Of course, all these features and the most important characteristic features of the elite were formed in Han China gradually, honed over the centuries. But it was they who meant that the ideas and plans of Wu Di and Dong Zhongshu, laid as the foundation of the post-Qin empire, began to acquire traditions. Those very Confucian traditions that were destined to survive for centuries and exert their influence on China right up to the present day. And it should be especially emphasized that these traditions realized themselves with the greatest strength and effectiveness only in conditions of strong power of the center, while when this power weakened they were only preserved, and first of all and mainly at the grassroots level, at the level of the same local elite .
The result of this kind of tendency was the reforms that the rulers of the Chinese empire usually resorted to during periods of weakening of their power, stagnation, and especially crises. The meaning of all reforms known to specialists in the history of the empire was to restore the order lost by society with the help of traditional Confucian recommendations and appropriate mechanisms and thereby actively resist destruction and chaos. The first of this kind of reforms is associated with the name of the famous Han ruler Wang Mang.
In fact, an attempt at reforms, aimed primarily at curbing the appetites of rich powerful houses, was made during the reign of Ai-di (6-1 BC), but was not successful. Soon after this failure, power in the country was seized by Wang Mang, the father-in-law of Emperor Ping-di (1-5) and regent for his young son. In 8 AD, he deposed the young Emperor Yingdi and proclaimed himself the founder of the new Xin dynasty. Having become emperor and proving himself to be a zealous Confucian and an ardent supporter of traditions, Wang Mang began reforms that were a bizarre mixture of idealized designs with real and even harsh measures aimed at undermining the omnipotence of the autocratic elite on the ground. The first and main task of the new emperor was to strengthen state power and the entire system of centralized redistribution closely associated with it. It was for this purpose that Wang Mang declared all lands in the empire state-owned and strictly prohibited their purchase and sale. The possessions of powerful houses confiscated in this way were intended for distribution among all those privately dependent who did not have their own land and were in the position of tenants, clients, or even simply slaves in the households of powerful village clans. Mencius's scheme of jing-tian was chosen as a normative principle for distribution, and its utopianism did not in the least bother the reformer, for whom the most important thing was not the fields strictly divided into clear squares of 100 mu (approx. 7 hectares), but the principle itself , embedded in this scheme. The principle was based on the fact that there are only two types of land ownership - peasant and state, and, thus, in the relationship between the farmer and the treasury there is no place for any intermediaries, yesterday's rich owners.
In addition to reforms in the field of land relations, Wang Mang issued a special decree on the elimination of private slavery and the ban on the purchase and sale of people. All slaves automatically acquired the status of dependents and, accordingly, found themselves under certain protection from the state, which also was a severe blow, primarily to powerful houses and their farms. Only criminals remained slaves, in accordance with ancient tradition, and the number of slaves in this category under Wang Man increased sharply due to severe punishments for all those who violated the new laws or actively opposed them. By special decrees, Wang Mang introduced state monopolies on wine, salt, iron, and even credit, which were no longer valid. A new type of coins was put into circulation in the country, the casting of which also became a state monopoly.
The reforms met desperate resistance from those who, by the emperor's decrees, were deprived of almost all their property, all the wealth accumulated over generations. In an effort to suppress discontent, the reformer did not hesitate to resort to repression, relying, it is important to emphasize, on the administration apparatus. Using new orders; The administration apparatus derived considerable benefits for itself from the expropriation of other people's wealth. And since considerable expenses were required to implement reforms and strengthen the apparatus of power in such a difficult situation for the empire, Wang Man had to take some unpopular measures - he increased taxes and introduced a number of new levies and duties from various categories of the population. This latter, apparently, played almost the decisive role in the growth of dissatisfaction with the reforms.
Assessing the reforms as a whole, it is necessary to note that, in principle, they were quite well thought out and, if they were skillfully implemented, they could well lead the country out of the crisis. True, in any case it would cost the country quite dearly. But reforms, especially at a time of severe crisis, are hardly ever easy and painless. Therefore, it cannot be considered that Wang Mang acted ineptly and therefore lost. Another thing played a decisive role in his fate, as well as in the fate of the empire: in 11 AD, the wayward Yellow River changed its course, which led to the death of hundreds of thousands of people, the flooding of fields, and the destruction of cities and towns.
Over the course of several thousand years of written Chinese history, the Yellow River has repeatedly changed its course, which was associated with the abundance of silt (loess) that this river, not by chance called the Yellow River, carried in its waters. Usually its waters were closely monitored by officials responsible for cleaning the riverbed and building dams. But during the years of stagnation and crisis, in moments of destruction and weakening of power, this important function of the Chinese administration also weakened. They stopped monitoring the rivers and could not carefully monitor them. And retribution was not long in coming. And if we take into account that for the population brought up within the framework of a certain tradition, including Wang Mang himself, the breakthrough of the Yellow River and the great disasters associated with it clearly indicated that Heaven was dissatisfied with the state of affairs in the Celestial Empire and warned of its dissatisfaction with precisely this kind of global cataclysms, then there is no need to argue about the conclusions that were made by everyone after the change in the course of the Yellow River: the great Heaven against the reforms of Wang Mang.
Realizing this, the emperor was forced not only to openly repent, but also to cancel a significant part of his decrees. This kind of forced action played a fatal role. Opponents of the reforms rejoiced, the situation in the country changed decisively again, which once again gave rise to chaos and confusion. The crisis began to deepen, the dissatisfied and dispossessed took up arms again, and uprisings began in the country. As a result of these numerous uprisings, the most prominent role among which was played by the uprisings of the so-called “red brows” (fighters who belonged to this movement painted their eyebrows red in order to distinguish themselves from the rest), the armies of the empire lost ground and retreated to the capital. In 23, Chang'an fell and Wang Mang was killed. Soon after, during the showdown between the rebels of the various movements, the red-brows gained the upper hand. But this was their last success. Taking advantage of the civil strife between the rebel leaders, the Han generals defeated the red-browed ones and nominated one of the representatives of the House of Han, Liu Xiu, as the new emperor.
4. Second Han Dynasty (25-220)
Having become emperor and taking the name Guan Wu-di, the new ruler of the same Han dynasty actually continued the transformations begun by the unsuccessful Wang Mang, aimed at strengthening the power of the state and weakening the positions of strong houses and the local power elite. Guan Wu-di considered his main concern to be the need to give all farmers fields and provide them with the opportunity to feed themselves, giving the treasury a modest share, officially reduced at first to 1/30 of the harvest. In order for each plowman to receive his own field, almost all the land that ended up in the hands of the state after Wang Mang's reforms was distributed, including a significant part of the fields of those powerful houses that resisted the reforms and whose lands were confiscated. In parallel with this, officials of the new dynasty took vigorous measures to put in order the country’s irrigation system, which had suffered greatly during the years of crisis and uprisings. Criminal convicts and most private slaves were freed from slavery, and they were also given land plots.
All these measures played a positive role, and in a short time the second Han dynasty brought the country out of a state of severe crisis and provided it with a basis for prosperity, which manifested itself in various fields - in the field of agricultural technology (for example, the spread of the bed system and plowing with oxen, the use of new agricultural systems), irrigation, trade (including along the Great Silk Road) and, finally, foreign policy (wars with the Huns, development of distant southern lands, etc.). Considerable successes were also achieved in the field of science and culture - the flourishing of mathematics (the treatise “Mathematics in Nine Chapters”, summing up all the knowledge of the ancient Chinese in the field of operations with numbers, including negative ones, as well as the beginnings of geometry and algebra), the creation of not the world's first seismograph, advances in urban planning and architecture, including the ability to construct multi-story buildings, or such an important innovation for a country that respects written text as the invention of paper.
In a word, a series of reforms, skillfully implemented by the first emperor of the second Han dynasty Guan Wu-di (25-27) and his successors, especially Ming-di (58-75), yielded results and contributed to the stabilization of the empire, the flourishing of its production and culture , the successes of both domestic and especially foreign policy. It is enough to mention the successful campaigns of the famous Chinese commander and diplomat Ban Chao, who in the 70s. I century managed, with a small detachment, to subjugate to Han China a significant part of the small state formations located along the Turkestan part of the Great Silk Road (the Chinese called these lands the term “Xi-yu” - Western Territory), which not only facilitated trade with foreign countries, but also significantly strengthened the position empire in its confrontation with the Huns (Xiongnu).
So, the desired stability has finally come to the suffering country. The time has come, if not utopian Harmony and Order, then at least calm and contentment. However, this did not last too long. Already at the turn of the 1st-2nd centuries. The situation in the empire began to deteriorate. In order to understand the reasons for this (remember that something similar happened with the first Han dynasty after Wu Ti; similar processes were also characteristic of almost all subsequent dynasties of imperial China), it is necessary to consider the features of the Chinese dynastic cycle, which manifested themselves very clearly from the first imperial dynasty - Han.
The cycles in question usually began and ended in an environment of severe economic crises, social unrest and political destabilization, which most often manifested itself externally in the form of uprisings of the poor and dispossessed. Regardless of whether the crisis ended with the victory of the rebels or their defeat - in any case, the new dynasty that replaced the collapsed one (even if it was foreigners invading from the north) began its reign with reforms. The mechanism of the cycle, which began with reforms and ended with the next crisis, despite its standard nature, was always, in general, quite complex, because it was influenced by a variety of factors, the strength and impact of which were by no means the same. Therefore, each cycle had its own characteristics and different durations. However, their common feature was the interaction of a number of economic, socio-demographic and environmental processes, the resultant of which created a very definite critical impulse. Usually it all started with violations in the field of agriculture and traditional norms of existence of the communal village, which turned out to be the starting point of the crisis.
What exactly did it look like? We have already said that since the time of the reforms of Shang Yang in the kingdom of Qin and Shi Huang, administrative and social corporations from artificially created five- or ten-yards were planted throughout China. During the period of the empire, these corporations included both poor and very rich households, including the so-called strong houses, and everyone within the five-yard was obliged to answer for their neighbors on the principle of mutual responsibility. And although this system did not always act harshly, it was always remembered when it was necessary to strengthen the position of power of the center. In practice, this meant that precisely during periods of weakening of this power, i.e. in moments of crisis and even the stagnation that usually preceded them, the communal village found itself in a state of destruction: everyone was responsible for himself, as a result of which the poor easily became the victim of a rich neighbor.
During the period of reforms or the emergence of a new dynasty, i.e. in the midst of a severe crisis or after it was overcome, as was the case in the Han during the times of Liu Bang, Wang Man or Guang Wu-di, a radical redistribution of land took place. The traditional Chinese state from ancient times and almost until the 20th century. rightly considered himself the supreme subject of power-property and centralized redistribution, so that not a single reformer ever had a shadow of doubt about his right, even the duty, to wisely manage the land, namely, to ensure that every plowman had his own field and paid taxes accordingly. All able-bodied farmers were given land. Moreover, officials sought every opportunity to increase their number, for which purpose they freed dependents or gave additional allotments to household members, including sometimes slaves. These lands in the empire were traditionally called ming-tian (people's) lands, which, however, should not be misleading: what was meant was not the right of peasants to freely dispose of their plots, but the right of the state to distribute these plots, and, if necessary, redistribute them among community members.
Along with the ming-tian lands, there was also a category of service lands - guan-tian. They were intended as a reward for officials and nobility, who were given a certain amount of these lands in the form of feeding with the right to use tax revenues from the peasants who cultivated these lands. All lands were usually distributed among farmers, taking into account their location, fertility and general availability in a particular district. On average, a family possessed approximately 100 mu until the late Middle Ages. It was believed that the fields were distributed among the peasants more or less evenly and for a long period of time, and it was at this time that five- and ten-yard farms with mutual responsibility usually functioned. However, stability of this kind existed, as a rule, within the framework of the dynastic cycle not for too long, most often for no more than a century.
The laws of the market, albeit limited in their capabilities, acted inexorably, and over time, other factors, primarily demographic and environmental, began to have an impact. The essence of the process was that the increasing population (its average value for China from the turn of the new era until the Ming dynasty fluctuated around 60 million, but in years of crisis it usually decreased by three to four times, and in moments of prosperity it could increase significantly ) already in the first decades after the reforms absorbed all the free arable land, and this led to the fact that the rich in the village, by hook or by crook, began to take away their plots from their poor neighbors. Formally, it was forbidden to sell land, but in fact it was possible to mortgage your plot or simply transfer it to a rich neighbor, remaining on your former land as a tenant. Sooner or later, the deal gained legal force, and the treasury was deprived of the taxpayer. As for those who acquired peasant lands, they usually had close ties with the district authorities and either had tax privileges or bought off increased taxes. This naturally led to a decrease in revenues to the treasury.
The government apparatus, trying to maintain the volume of tax revenues on which it existed, illegally increased fees from those who could still give something. The result was the ruin of an increasing number of farmers and a deepening crisis in the spheres of the economy (decline of the economy, the death of the poorest peasant households), social relations (discontent of the peasants, the emergence of robber gangs, riots and uprisings) and, finally, politics (the inability of the ruling elite to cope with the crisis, the dominance of temporary workers, a clear weakening of the effectiveness of the apparatus of power). This is where the dynastic cycle usually ended, and the country, after the crisis and the accompanying uprisings or enemy invasions, found itself in a state of devastation, but at the same time, a kind of catharsis, a kind of purification that opened the way to revival. Sometimes the cycle was lengthened due to timely and successfully carried out reforms, which “let off steam” and extended the existence of a particular dynasty, sometimes for a long time, for a century and a half. But ultimately the situation repeated itself, and another crisis swept away the dynasty.
The socially cleansing function of the dynastic cycle was very important for the empire as a viable structure, because it was it that guaranteed the stability of the system as a whole, even at the cruel cost of the suffering of millions. The change of dynasties was always convincingly explained by references to the theory of the Mandate of Heaven, and the realities were completely consistent with the letter and spirit of this ancient theory: who else but the bad rulers who lost their de were to blame for the fact that a crisis arose in the country?! Who else but them should pay for this with the loss of the mandate, which was transferred by Heaven to new hands?
Until the turn of the 1st-2nd centuries. the second Han Empire was on the rise. Its administrative apparatus functioned successfully, the problem of staffing which also deserves serious attention. In addition to the practice of promoting the wise and capable from their places, dating back to ancient times (for which all officials were responsible and which was most actively used by people from wealthy families and strong houses), competent administrators were trained in special schools in provincial centers and especially in the capital (Tai-hsue school ), where graduates were subjected to strict examinations and divided into categories. The practice of patronage, personal recommendation for which the guarantors were responsible, was also important, especially in the Han. Representatives of the highest nobility were in a special position, for whom all roads were easily opened. Later, such forms of career as the right of “shadow” (high dignitaries could help promote one of their close relatives) or even the purchase of a rank, degree and position, although not from among the highest, became somewhat widespread.
The administration of the empire, formed in this way, had several levels. The highest level consisted of metropolitan dignitaries who managed the chambers (administrative, control, palace) and ministries (rites, ranks, public works, military, financial, etc.). These departments also had their representations at the middle level of provinces and districts. The lower level of government was usually represented by only one nomenklatura official, the head of the district (counties in the empire usually numbered about one and a half thousand), whose functions included organizing management based on the rich and influential local elite. And although officials, as a rule, were appointed to places other than where they were from (and they were usually moved on average once every three years, so as not to grow into positions and not get bogged down in abuses), elements of corruption always existed in the empire, and in moments of stagnation and crisis increased a hundredfold. True, there were also control inspectors who opposed them, endowed with enormous powers. This has always served as a serious counterbalance to corruption, not to mention the fact that the traditional norms of Confucianism were uncompromising towards their violators, which also largely limited the appetites of those in power, encouraging them to act carefully and observe moderation.
All these institutions, which developed over centuries, were perfected by practice and existed during the Han period in their most initial and imperfect form, nevertheless contributed to the strengthening of the administration of the empire. It was thanks to them and the underlying Confucianism with its strict and uncompromising principles that, at least in the first half of the dynastic cycle, there were times of stability and prosperity. They, to the best of their ability, restrained destructive phenomena during the second half of the cycle, stagnation and crisis, and within each dynasty these processes took place depending on the specific situation. During the reign of the second Han dynasty, events developed in such a way that already from the beginning of the 19th century, when the process of absorption of lands and, accordingly, strengthening the positions of the same powerful houses, noticeably intensified and became more and more clearly manifested, the rulers of the empire were not only unable to counteract the crisis, but they also openly distanced themselves from state affairs, leaving their management to temporary workers from among the relatives of the empresses and influential eunuchs who were in cahoots with them, whose political weight and real importance were constantly increasing.
As a result, the court of the empire began to be drowned in intrigue; eunuchs and temporary workers, organized into cliques, sought to destroy each other and enthrone the next emperor from among their proteges. Naturally, the Confucian bureaucracy, which was gaining political power but was distant from the court, could not come to terms with this. Its representatives in the capital complained about the excessive spending of the court and the money-grubbing of temporary workers and eunuchs. In the provinces, dissatisfaction with relatives and proteges of court eunuchs and temporary workers, who felt impunity and committed arbitrariness, sharply increased. In active political struggle in the middle of the 2nd century. Students from Confucian schools, especially the capital's Tai-xue, became involved. The already mentioned movement of “pure criticism” developed in full force in the country, its goal being to glorify the names of the honest and incorruptible, contrasting them with the covetous of the court. In response to this, influential eunuchs and courtiers attacked the ideological leaders of the Confucian opposition with brutal repression. In the 70s II century the confrontation took on an open character, with the temporary workers clearly gaining the upper hand over their opponents.
While the political struggle at the top of the empire was developing and becoming more and more acute, the crisis phenomena in the economy were taking on their completed form. Peasant lands passed into the hands of powerful houses, the number of tax-paying farmers decreased, and the flow of taxes into the treasury decreased accordingly. Ruined community members joined the ranks of the dissatisfied, and order in the country became less and less. In such a situation, many of the rural population preferred to renounce their rights to land and come under the protection of those rich fellow villagers who could provide themselves and them with reliable protection in an increasingly alarming time. During the ensuing period of stagnation and confusion, and also against the backdrop of acute clashes at court, the situation in the empire became unstable and uncontrollable. It was during these years that the social discontent of the people began to gain strength, which this time took the form of a sectarian-religious movement under the slogans of Taoism.
At the turn of our era, the philosophical doctrine of Lao Tzu and Zhuang Tzu was increasingly transformed into an inherently religious search for salvation and prosperity. Of course, Taoism as a doctrine even in imperial China did not lose its religious and philosophical idea, which ultimately boiled down to merging with Tao, to achieving Tao. But at the mass popular level, high philosophy was more and more clearly and obviously overwhelmed by religious and sectarian ideas, which were based on the natural desire of everyone to prolong life and achieve immortality (both through magical elixirs and talismans, and as a result of severe asceticism, dematerialization of the body) , and the eternal peasant ideals of great equality in a simplified organized society, free from pressure from the state and its bureaucracy.
The ideas of equality were reflected in the treatise “Taiping Jing”, which in turn became the foundation of the Taoist sect “Taiping Dao”. The head of this sect is Zhang Jue, who became famous for the art of healing and, according to legend, saved many people during the epidemic, at the turn of the 70s and 80s. II century unexpectedly found himself at the head of a numerous and politically active movement of supporters of the new “yellow” sky, which in 184 (the beginning of the next 60-year cycle, which played the role of a century in China) was supposed to replace the “blue” sky of the Han Dynasty, mired in vices. The sect's supporters, who covered their heads with yellow scarves, planned to raise an uprising at this sacred moment, which, naturally, soon became known to everyone in China.
The popular uprising, or rather, the rumors about its preparation were like a bolt from the blue for the ruling elites, mired in internecine struggle. Accusing and suspecting each other of collaborating with the rebels, they eventually almost united in the fight against the new enemy. The authorities dealt with the uprising of the “Yellow Turbans”, which broke out, as expected, at the beginning of 184 quite quickly, especially since its suppression began even before the fatal moment arrived. And although individual rebel detachments that retreated to distant regions of the empire continued to make themselves known for quite a long time, the main result of the failed uprising was that it seemed to put an end to the protracted confrontation at the top and forced the most active and energetic forces in the empire to resort to the tactics of open struggle , which practically meant the end of the Han Dynasty.
Not only the army generals, but also the most powerful of the strong houses in the localities intervened in the struggle at the highest level. During the hostilities, Luoyang was completely destroyed and burned, and the court moved to Changan, the ancient capital of the country. New leaders came to the forefront in the political struggle, among whom one of the representatives of the local elite, Cao Cao, became the most influential. He facilitated the emperor's return to Luoyang and thereby became the support of the throne. Soon it was Cao Cao, who held the emperor almost as his hostage, who managed to defeat his rivals. At the same time, he, naturally, skillfully used his advantageous political persona as the defender and savior of the empire and its symbol, the emperor. Having achieved the actual position of dictator already at the turn of the 2nd-3rd centuries, Cao Cao ruled the dying empire for quite a long time. He openly relied on force and it was with the help of military force that he succeeded.
Here it should be noted that, relying on force, a skillful politician and highly educated intellectual from among the Confucian elite, Cao Cao, skillfully flirted with shi scholars, using their authority, supported the traditions of conversations in the style of “pure criticism,” and attracted the country of the empire's outstanding intellectuals. But he clearly foresaw the coming collapse of the Han Dynasty, moreover, he prepared it himself. Having become the highest official and having conferred all conceivable ranks and titles, Cao Cao accustomed his entourage to the fact that power in the empire would soon pass to a new dynasty. Before his death in 220, he explicitly compared himself with the great Zhou Wen-wang, making it clear that he entrusted his son Cao Pei with the task of completing the work he had begun and founding this dynasty. This is exactly what Cao Pei did. In 220, shortly after the death of his father, he seized the Han throne and founded the Wei dynasty. True, at the same time, two other contenders for the imperial throne founded two more states, Shu and Wu, in the southwest and southeast of the country. As a result, the phenomenon of the Three Kingdoms arose, the short history of which is covered with an aura of knightly romanticism. Subsequently, a thousand years later, it was colorfully sung in the novel of the same name.
Assessing the four-century reign of the Han Dynasty and the role of the “Yellow Turbans” uprising in the collapse of the centralized empire, which was replaced by a four-century period of political fragmentation and almost constant wars, not to mention the invasion of nomads, it is necessary to note the main thing: created by Confucius and adapted by the efforts of Wu Ti and Dong Zhongshu, in response to the needs of a huge empire, the official ideology not only withstood all the difficult trials that befell the country, but also in fact proved its viability. Moreover, despite the foregrounding of the military function and, accordingly, some downplaying of the role of the official bureaucracy, despite the invasion of nomads and the long process of barbarization of the northern part of the country, and finally, despite the strengthening of the positions of religious Taoism and Buddhism, which was penetrating China precisely at the time being described. its powerful intellectual potential, the Confucian tradition continued to remain the foundation of Chinese civilization. At the upper level of the empire, destructive processes were taking place; millions died in the fire of wars and barbarian invasions, but those who continued to live under these conditions remained not just Chinese, but primarily Confucians. And the leading force in this regard was the very local elite, the very layer of educated shi who preserved and developed the tradition.
The Confucianization of the local elite during the Han period, followed by the constant concentration of its best representatives in the bureaucratic administration, led to the emergence of a fundamentally new quality, i.e. to the transformation of ancient servants-shi into zealous guardians of the great achievements of a self-improving civilization over centuries. It was on this basis that a rigid stereotype was developed, a kind of Confucian genotype, the carriers of which were the aristocrats of culture and which with honor passed all the tests of timelessness. Ultimately, this genotype played a decisive role in the revival of the great empire with its successfully functioning bureaucratic administration, the composition of which from top to bottom was staffed primarily through a competitive system of state examinations, which only a few and the most capable of the same Confucian shi passed .
Since ancient times, on the Great Chinese Plain, in the lower reaches of the Yellow and Yangtze rivers, there were states that in the 3rd century BC. e. united into an empire. China was a huge country, comparable in territory, population, and cultural achievements to all of Europe. Thus, by the beginning of the 13th century, about 100 million people lived in China - more than in Europe at that time.
There are several periods in the history of China, named after the imperial dynasties that ruled at that time.
At the end of the 6th century, the country was able to be reunited after a period of fragmentation and civil strife. During the Tang Dynasty (618-907), China traded with countries to its west. The Great Silk Road led there, ending at the Mediterranean Sea.
Caravan of merchants. Fragment of a world map. End of the 14th century
Along with merchants, pilgrims and missionaries widely used this route. By that time, Buddhism had spread in China, living peacefully with traditional Chinese Confucianism and other religions. A characteristic feature of China was religious tolerance and mutual influence of different religions.
In an effort to control the Great Silk Road, the emperors annexed areas in the west of the country. Chinese troops even invaded Central Asia, but were defeated by the Arabs in 751.
In the 9th century, a wave of noble revolts swept across China. Increasing taxes and abuses in their collection caused a peasant war in 874-884 led by the salt merchant Huang Chao. During the period of unrest and strife after the fall of the Tang dynasty, the northern regions of the empire were conquered by the Khitan tribes (hence the Russian name of the country - China). Then the Song Dynasty (960-1279) managed to reunite almost the entire country.xxx Street of a Chinese city. Fragment of a scroll. XII century
Chinese Emperor. Fragment of a scroll on silk. VII century
Although the Song period was the heyday of China, the emperors constantly had to repel external threats, suppress peasant uprisings and revolts of the nobility. The empire paid a huge tribute to its northern neighbors in silver and silk. In the 12th century, nomads captured the entire north of the country. At the beginning of the 13th century, the state of the Mongols was formed near the northern borders of China. Taking advantage of the empire's hostility with its neighbors, the Mongols first conquered northern China and, by 1279, the entire country. The Mongol Khan Kublai moved his headquarters to Beijing, took the imperial title and founded the Yuan dynasty (1271 -1368). The conquest was accompanied by the devastation of the country and the death of the population. But soon the Mongols restored the previous system of governing the empire.
European merchants, diplomats and missionaries visited China more than once. The most famous of them was Marco Polo. These travels reflected the West's interest in various contacts with the Far East.
Portrait of an official. Scroll on silk. XVI century
In the middle of the 14th century, an uprising against the Mongols began. One of its leaders occupied Beijing in 1368 and became emperor. The Ming ("Light") dynasty he founded ruled the country until the mid-17th century.
The Emperor was called the Son of Heaven. His person was sacred. He was considered not only the ruler of all people, but also an intermediary between the supreme deity - Heaven and the “Celestial Empire,” that is, the earth.
Every Chinese was considered an executor of the will of Heaven, transmitted through the emperor. Chinese society was characterized by a strict hierarchy. Everyone, from the emperor to a simple servant, occupied his place in life, to which everything had to correspond: activities, manners, clothing. Unlike medieval Europe, in China the clan nobility did not have direct access to governing the country. The emperor relied on hundreds of thousands of specially trained officials.
Officials were appointed from all walks of life, but only from among those who had received a good education and passed exams. Those who passed the most difficult exams occupied the highest positions and received generous salaries. During the exam, they wrote essays in which they had to show knowledge of famous historical, philosophical, and religious works. All free people were allowed to take the test, which made it possible to attract talented commoners to the service.
History of China. Background overview, infographics, videos
The emperor of the Chinese dynasty did not rule China, he ruled the whole world - everything that “is under Heaven,” to which, being the “son of Heaven,” he had every right. The Celestial Empire is the whole world, which is divided into subjects of the emperor and his vassals. If there were other categories of peoples, then in China they preferred not to notice it.
The word "China" did not exist for the Chinese. Sina/Cina and its derivatives, Mongolian Hyatad/Cathay and its derivatives are words that appeared from outside. In the Han Empire, the Chinese felt themselves to be the “Han people”, in the Tang Empire - “Tang people” and so on.
Along the river on All Souls' Day. Small fragment of a 12th century scroll. Zhang Zeduan (1085-1145) - court artist of the Song Dynasty / A small section of the Song dynasty painting "Along the River During the Qingming Festival" by Zhang Zeduan. via. Clickable - 3066 x 1746 pixels
Understanding Chinese history is not easy. Textbooks often consist of long chapters listing endless periods, dynasties, emperors, wars and other dry tedium. Three materials from "Magazeta", an online publication about modern China, will help to a little systematize some of the Chinese historical: capitals, chronology of periods and changes in borders.
34 capitals of China.
Historical infographics
The two main features of Chinese history are its duration and the volume of surviving written sources. Awareness of the scale does not come immediately: at first you try for a long time to remember at least the dynasties, then the most striking periods of rule, but only over time you realize that hundreds of years, dozens of generations are hidden behind the short names of the periods.
An infographic that sheds a ray of light on the confusing issue of China's capitals:
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Capitals of China
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Timeline of China
Map of China: from 2000 BC. to 2000 AD
How have China's borders changed over the past 4,000 years?
One of the difficult aspects of studying history is detaching yourself from modern concepts, boundaries and values. In Chinese history, because of its length, everything is even more confusing. For example, without belittling the influence of Confucius’s teachings on Chinese culture, it is difficult to accept that he lived and worked not in the mighty Middle State, but in the small kingdom of Lu.
The map of China has been redrawn several times throughout its history. At times, the single empire was fragmented into a dozen small states; at times, its sphere of influence spilled far beyond the borders of modern China. To give a little idea of the scale of changes in the often conventional borders of China, the editors of Magazeta have prepared a short video. Without claiming historical accuracy, we have tried to convey the dynamics of the changing borders of what is often simply called China.
Map of China from 2000 BC. to 2000 AD in one and a half minutes:
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Dynamics of changes in China's borders. Video Stores
Illustrations: Olga Merekina
Video: Pavel Ovsyukov
Sources: listed in credits
Music: 囍 - Intro
Some still frames from the video:
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Xia dynasty (2070-1600 BC)
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Western Han (202 BC - 8 AD)
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Three Kingdoms (220-280)
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Eastern Jin (317-420)
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Tang Dynasty (618-907). 804
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Tang Dynasty (618-907). 839
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Northern Song Dynasty (939-1126). 1000 year
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Northern Song Dynasty (939-1126). 1060
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Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279)
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Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). 1296
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Ming Dynasty / Ming dynasty (1368-1644). 1310
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People's Republic of China. 1949 to present
Where is the center of the Celestial Empire?
A hard-hitting reference look at the where, when and why of China's capitals.
Once again, the infographic “34 capitals of China” - for clarity of perception of what is written below, you can open it. Link will open in a new window:
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Traditionally, in our minds, China appears as a monolithic state with strictly defined borders (the hieroglyph 国 is probably to blame for this) and a clearly defined center - the capital. Here is the emperor's palace, from here his word spreads to all the remote corners of the empire. “So it was, so it is and so it will be.”
However, the study of Chinese history proves to us that “rumors” about the rigid centralization of the Middle Empire are “greatly exaggerated.” The capital of the Celestial Empire was moved from place to place more often than in any other country in the world. And it wasn’t always in the center of the country. And in general, it most often happened that there was not one capital, but at least two.
Ancient capitals
The history of China, according to ancient chronicles, begins with the mythological era of the “Three Rulers and Five Emperors” (三皇五帝), who “ruled” around the 26th to 21st centuries BC. There is no information about any capital cities during this “golden age”. However, it is known where the places associated with the mythical “progenitor” of the ancient Chinese are located - the Yellow Emperor (Huang Di 皇帝). It is believed that he was born in the town of Shouqiu (壽丘) in the territory of the present city of Qufu (曲阜, Shandong), his “ancient date garden” is located in the modern city of Zhengzhou, and his mausoleum (黄帝陵) is 140 km south of the city of Yan’an ( 延安, Shaanxi) in the center of the Loess Plateau. Even if this is not entirely true, it is obvious that the cradle of Chinese civilization was here - in the territory of the current provinces of Henan, Shandong, Shanxi and Shaanxi.
It is unknown where the capital of the future China was located during the reign of the legendary Xia dynasty (夏朝). It is also unknown whether such a dynasty existed at all. And is it right to call China China when talking about these ancient times? It is only clear that the term 天下 (Celestial Empire) denoted the entire known world in general, and the term 中国 (Middle, or Central State) appeared later and designated the central principalities during the period of specific fragmentation. We will return to this issue later, but for now we note that Chinese archaeologists identify the Xia state with the Early Bronze Age culture of Erlitou (二里头), finds related to which were made on the banks of the Luohe River (洛河) near the modern city of Luoyang (洛阳, Henan) .
Neither ancient historiographers nor modern historians have any doubts about the existence of the next Chinese Shang Dynasty (商朝). As well as about the fact that its capital was located in the center of the Shan proto-state. One of the central events in the history of this dynasty, described in detail by Sima Qian in “Shi-ji”, is the transfer of the “capital city” from the settlement of Yan (there is an opinion that this is in the area of present-day Qufu) to the settlement of Yin. It is believed that the capital was moved several times before. For example, the archaeological culture of Erligang (二里岗), which existed in the territory of present-day Zhengzhou, is often associated with the early stage of Shang history. The Yin transference is well known for two reasons. Firstly, the new capital gave the second name to the dynasty - Yin (殷). Secondly, in 1928-37, the remains of this city were excavated in the area of the modern city of Anyang (安阳, Henan) (which is why now this place is called Yinxu (殷墟), “Yin ruins”). In this regard, Anyang can be considered the first scientifically proven capital of China.
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In recent years, through the efforts of local authorities, the provincial Henan city of Anyang has been promoted to the “first capital” of the country.
The Shang domain was conquered in the 11th century BC by the Zhou tribe. By this time, the centers of this tribe were the settlements of Feng (沣) and Hao (镐), located opposite each other on the banks of the small river Fenghe (沣河), a tributary of Weihe, on the banks of which present-day Xi'an stands. Feng and Hao can be considered as the first urban agglomeration in Chinese history, since it was actually a single settlement - the western capital of the Zhou Wangs in their ancestral lands, known as Zongzhou (宗周, the character 宗 in this case means "ancestral temple"). In the center of their new possessions, among the recently conquered peoples, the Zhou Vans founded, as it were, an “acting capital" is the city of Chengzhou (成周). Later, a new city was built 15 kilometers east of Chengzhou, called Wangcheng (王城). It was also called Loyi (洛邑, i.e. “city on the Lo River”) - this is the future Luoyang.
Thus, for purely practical reasons, the practice of coexistence of two capitals - Western and Eastern - was established. The western one was always located somewhere in the Xi'an area, and the eastern one - in the Luoyang area. The court of the ruling dynasty was periodically transferred from one capital to another, and then this became a milestone that divided the period of reign of a particular dynasty in two. Moreover, as a rule, the capital was moved from west to east, respectively, the “Western era” preceded the “Eastern”.
During the Western Zhou period, the wang's domain was located in the west - in Zongzhou, and after 771 BC, during the Eastern Zhou period, in the east - in Luoyang, and the wang's palace was located either in Chengzhou or in Wancheng. At this time, as is known, the power of the Zhou rulers became purely nominal and a long period of fragmentation of the ethnopolitical community began, which we would later begin to call China.
Luoyang
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The history of China is so ancient, and the capitals have been completely destroyed so many times, that from the earliest of them only the vague outlines of walls now remain. Luoyang.
Many fiefs had many capitals. We will name only the most significant centers. The capital of the Qi domain (齐国) was the city of Linzi (临淄) - now one of the districts of the city of Zibo (淄博) in Shandong province. The center of the northern possession of Yan (燕京) is the city of Ji (薊), located on the site of modern Beijing (which was also called Yanjing (燕京) - i.e. “capital of Yan”). The centers of the Principality of Chu (楚国) were the cities of Ying (郢) and Chen (陈) - both in the territory of the present city of Jingzhou (荆州) in Hubei Province. The capital of one of the so-called The "middle principalities" of Zhao was the city of Handan (邯郸) in Hebei Province. The capital of the “semi-barbarian” principality of Shu (蜀国), possibly associated with the mysterious archaeological culture of Sanxingdui, was the city of Chengdu. Finally, the capital of the Western Principality of Qin (秦国) was located on the former ancestral lands of the Zhou - in the city of Xianyang (咸阳) a few kilometers from the former Western Zhou capital of Zongzhou (Fenghao).
Imperial capitals
The Principality of Qin in 221 BC finally conquered all the other principalities of the Celestial Empire and turned into the Qin Empire (大秦帝国). The capital was located there - in Xianyang. The origin of the city's name is noteworthy: it was located south of the mountains and on the northern bank of the river, that is, it was in the “double yang” position, extremely favorable from the point of view of feng shui. Nowadays it is a suburb of Xi'an with the same name with a population of about 1 million people. The Xi'an airport is also located here, so you can see the places where the Chinese empire “came from” from the window of the airport express bus.
The capital of the Xianyang Empire was until 206 BC, after which it was completely destroyed and burned during the civil war against the rule of the Qin Dynasty. The founder of the next Han Dynasty (汉朝) built his capital not on the ruins of Xianyang, but in the immediate vicinity. This is how the great city of “Eternal Peace” was formed - Chang'an (长安, future Xi'an), which served as the capital of the empire in its most brilliant years.
It is believed that during the Western Han period, in addition to the main capital, there were five more “secondary capitals” located in rich regional centers, the former capitals of appanage principalities, incl. in Linzi, Chengdu and Luoyang. It was to Luoyang that the capital was moved in 25 AD after the civil war caused by Wang Mang's rebellion and the Red Brows rebellion. (It is curious that the reforms of the “usurper” Wang Mang did not bypass Chang’an - for a short time the hieroglyphic spelling of the capital changed, (常安) instead of (长安), “peace” instead of “eternal” became “permanent”). One way or another, the capital was again moved to the east, and the historical period began to be called the Eastern Han.
In the 3rd century AD, the empire fell into three parts - the period of the Three Kingdoms, glorified in the famous epic, began. The capital of the Kingdom of Wei (魏国, also known as Cao-Wei 曹魏) was located there, in Luoyang. The capital of the kingdom of Shu (蜀国, also known as Han-Shu 汉蜀) is in Chengdu. And the center of the kingdom of Wu (吴国, also known as Sun-Wu 孙吴) is on the site of the future Nanjing, in the city of Jianye (建邺).
The country was unified under the Jin Dynasty (晋朝), named after the ancient kingdom on whose territory its capital was located. You will laugh, but it was Luoyang again. After Luoyang fell during the Xiongnu invasion in 317, and the dynasty lost control over the northern part of the country, the capital was moved southeast of Luoyang - to Nanjing (by that time it was already called Jiankang (建康)).
For another hundred years (317-420), the north of China was divided between various “barbarian states,” and the south was ruled by the Eastern Jin dynasty (its rulers themselves naturally called it simply “Jin”). In 420, it also fell - the period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (南北朝) began, when one dynasty ruled both in the north and in the south. The center of southern China has always been Nanjing. In the north, the famous Buddhist dynasty Northern Wei (北魏) ruled for about 100 years from the city of Pingcheng (平成) - this is in the area of the modern city of Datong (大同) in the north of Shanxi, and then “moved” to the well-known Luoyang. After the collapse of Northern Wei, its eastern followers ruled from the city of Yecheng (邺城, a region of modern Handan), after which they moved the capital further south to the Anyang region, and its western followers from Chang'an, which by that time had returned to its former economic and cultural importance.
In 581, Yang Jian, who came from one of the northern dynasties, was able to reunite the entire country and founded the Sui Dynasty (隋朝). Several centuries later, it was replaced by the Tang Dynasty (7th-10th centuries), whose reign became the heyday of medieval China. The imperial capital at this brilliant time was in Chang'an (for some time it was called Daxing (大兴)), which was actually rebuilt in a new place by Yang Jian. And Luoyang served as an auxiliary “eastern capital”. Under Tang, the city of Jinyang (晋阳), located on the site of modern Taiyuan, received the status of the “third capital” of the empire, the importance of which increased during the Northern and Southern dynasties.
It is known that Tang Chang'an was the most populous and, apparently, the richest city in the world. Its territory was many times larger than the territory covered by the walls of the Ming period, which have survived in the center of Xi'an to this day. In any case, the Big and Small Wild Goose Pagodas are located at a considerable distance from the city walls of the Ming period. There is reason to believe that the complex of buildings associated with the imperial palace alone occupied the territory on which the modern city center is located. Chang'an was the most important trading center of the Great Silk Road. Luoyang was its westernmost point.
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The Tang pagodas of Chang'an were miraculously preserved, but nothing remained from the Han Dynasty. Modern Xi'an.
During the civil war associated with the An Lushan rebellion, both capitals were destroyed, then restored, but during the Huang Chao uprising they were plundered and burned again. Looking ahead, we will say that neither Chang'an (the future Xi'an) nor Luoyang will recover from such a “double blow.” The rich architectural heritage of these cities, which served as the capitals of the empire for almost a millennium and a half, except for the already mentioned wild goose pagodas, has been lost.
During the period of fragmentation that followed the fall of the Tang dynasty (Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms: 907-960), the country's economic centers shifted to other cities. First of all, this is Bian (汴, also Bianliang 汴梁 and Dalian 大梁) in the territory of modern Kaifeng (开封, Henan), at the intersection of the Yellow River and the Grand Canal. The capitals of most of the fleeting dynasties of this period were located here. The centers of appanage states that broke away from the empire, as a rule, coincide with modern regional centers: these are Yangzhou (扬州) in Jiangsu (Kingdom of Wu), Nanjing (Kingdom of Nan Tang), Hangzhou (Kingdom of Wu Yue), Changsha (Kingdom of Chu), Fuzhou (Kingdom of Ming), Guangzhou (Kingdom of Nan Han), Chengdu (Kingdom of Qian Shu and Hou Shu), Taiyuan (Kingdom of Bei Han) and so on.
In 960, the Song Dynasty (宋朝) reunited the Celestial Empire and ruled from Kaifeng until 1126, when the warlike Jurchens captured the entire northern part of the country. The imperial court, as usual, fled to the south and founded its new capital in the city of Lin'an (临安) on the shores of Lake Xihu. Nowadays it is the city of Hangzhou. The Northern Song period gave way to the Southern Song period.
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Such Kaifeng can now only be seen in paintings. But Severosun painting is too beautiful to miss the opportunity to place it.
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But Hangzhou, although it was the capital of China for only one dynasty (and even then only the southern one), retained a lot of its metropolitan charm, glorified in Sung poetry.
Suddenly: a lyrical digression
The following lyrical digression is appropriate here. Actually, speaking about “dynasties” we all make a certain assumption. Han, Tang, Song and so on - all these are the names of states (empires), and not the houses ruling in them (clans, families, dynasties). The Han Empire was ruled by the House of Liu (刘), the Tang Empire by the House of Li (李), and the Song Empire by the House of Zhao (赵). The term “dynasty,” which we use to designate entire historical periods, is a tribute to the tradition that was established by the Chinese themselves, but it is not quite a “dynasty” in the European sense of the word, when one or another family came to power in a certain state with established borders and peoples. Chinese “dynasties” are states, and not of a local, but of a universal nature. The emperor of the Chinese dynasty did not rule China, he ruled the whole world - everything that “is under Heaven,” to which, being the “son of Heaven,” he had every right.
Understanding this fact is very important for distinguishing between the “Chinese” and the “non-Chinese” in history. How did the Chinese feel? In the Han Empire they felt themselves to be the “Han people” (汉族), in the Tang Empire they felt like “Tang people” (唐人) and so on. (It is no coincidence that the greatest dynasties gave rise to ethnonyms, which, along with the term “huaxia” (华夏), the Chinese called themselves until our time). The word “China” itself did not exist for the Chinese! Both Sina/Cina and its derivatives, and the Mongolian Hyatad/Cathay and its derivatives, these are words that appeared from the outside, they do not reflect the self-identification of the local population, as most often happens in history. The concept of “nation” did not exist, just as there was no possibility of “incorporating” the Han people and neighboring peoples into some kind of conditional “Chinese nation” (i.e., doing what the ideologists of the new Chinese Republic cleverly accomplished at the beginning of the 20th century). The Celestial Empire is the whole world, which is divided into subjects of the emperor and his vassals. If there were other categories of peoples, then in China they preferred not to notice it.
Although I had to from time to time. China had been conquered before, and from the beginning of the second millennium AD they began to do this with enviable regularity. Of the 1015 years that have passed since 1000 AD, 732 years of northern China were part of various foreign states, and 364 years of the Chinese state as such did not exist at all - during this time it was part of the Mongol and then Manchurian empires.
In other words, the Khitans, Tanguts, Jurchens, Mongols and Manchus were not Chinese, just as their history was not part of the Chinese one. But for the reasons described above, it was difficult for the Chinese to consider their history as the history of something “separate” (because there could be nothing separate from this history; after all, if the Yuan era came, it came all over the world!) With certain reservations and assumptions, We have no choice but to follow the court historiographers and touch upon these quite “non-Chinese” states in our story.
Chinese capitals and not so much
The Khitan founded the Liao Empire (辽国), which controlled much of northern China in the 10th and 11th centuries. As befits yesterday’s nomads, the Khitans had several “capital settlements”-headquarters, of which the most important, called Huangdu (皇都) or Shangjing (上京) by the Chinese, was located somewhere in the vastness of Inner Mongolia (neither version seems to me convincing), and the so-called The “southern capital” (南京) was located on the site of present-day Beijing.
The first capital of the Jurchens - the city of Huining (会宁), as it is called in Chinese-language chronicles - was located on the site of present Acheng (阿城) 29 km southeast of Harbin. As the Khitan and Song territories were captured, the Jurchens moved their capitals to the south. As a result of the main, so-called The future Beijing became the “middle capital” (Zhongdu 中都). All subsequent conquerors and even the Chinese themselves invariably built their capitals here.
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The pagoda of the Tianning Temple has been standing in Beijing since the time when this city was one of the capitals of the Khitan state.
The Great Khan of the Mongols had his headquarters at Karakorum in the north of modern Mongolia before they conquered China in the 13th century. Kublai proclaimed himself Great Khan at the kurultai, which he assembled at his own headquarters in the city of Kaiping (开平, also Shangdu 上都). Later, after Khubilai moved his capital to Beijing, which under the Mongols became known as the “main capital” (大都, or “Khanbalik” in Mongolian), Shangdu retained its status as the “second capital of the Yuan Empire.” In 1276, Marco Polo visited there, thanks to whose description this city became a symbol of wealth and luxury in Western culture. True, under a slightly distorted name - Xanadu. Now the territory of Xanadu belongs to the city of Chifeng (赤峰, Inner Mongolia), its ruins are a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Beijing (Dadu) served as the capital of the Mongols until 1368, when Zhu Yuanzhang's rebellion drove them back to their steppes. Zhu Yuanzhang became the Hongwu Emperor (洪武), founded the Ming Dynasty and moved the capital to the city of Yingtianfu (应天府) on the site of present-day Nanjing. For a long time, Kaifeng claimed the status of the “second (northern) capital,” but everything changed in the years preceding the ascension to the throne of the Yongle Emperor (永乐). Having come to power as a result of a rebellion against his own nephew, he was interested in strengthening his own position, so he moved the capital to the area of his headquarters, from where he controlled the troops fighting in the Mongolian steppes. That is, to Beijing, which first received this name (北京), but was also known as Shuntianfu (顺天府) and simply “Capital City” (京市). So the capital of China ended up not in the middle of the country, which its rulers had always wanted, but on its northern periphery.
Nanjing retained the status of the “second capital” and it was then that the name “Southern Capital” (Nanjing 南京) was assigned to it. However, the imperial court was still located in the far north, in close proximity to its warlike northern neighbors.
In the end, this played a bad joke on the Ming Dynasty. In 1644, under very dubious circumstances, the story of which deserves a separate post, the capital was captured by the Manchus. Since the Manchus came to power under the slogans of not just conquest (although in essence that was what it was), but the restoration of “universal peace and tranquility” after the uprising of Li Zicheng, who killed the last Ming emperor, they immediately moved their capital to the capital of the Universe - then there is in Beijing. Their original capital, the city of Shengjing (盛京), now Shenyang, remained the “capital in the ancestral lands of the Manchus,” where the Chinese were forbidden to settle. The city of Changde (承德) acquired the unofficial status of “summer capital”, i.e. "Transmitting (Imperial) Virtue" in the mountains north of Beijing. The local palace is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. As for Nanjing, under the Qing it lost its “capital status” and was renamed Jiangning (江宁).
20th century
The “capital name” was returned to it when the Republic of China was proclaimed here on January 1, 1912, and Sun Wen (aka Sun Yat-sen) became its first “provisional president.” The haste with which the revolutionaries grabbed everything in Nanjing is understandable, given that the Manchu dynasty had not yet officially given up power, and “trump cards up their sleeve” were necessary for bargaining with Yuan Shikai, the commander-in-chief of the army and the man in whose hands more less real power in the country. After Sun Wen renounced his presidential powers in favor of Yuan Shikai, the republican capital was again moved to Beijing. The president himself insisted on this, since only in his hometown, surrounded by his troops, could he be confident in the strength of his power.
After the break between Yuan Shikai and the Kuomintang, the center of the “revolutionary government” was Guangzhou, from January 1927 - Wuhan, and from February 1928 - again to Nanjing. At the same time, in the spring of 1928, Beijing was captured by the troops of General Yang Xishan, an ally of the Kuomintang, who immediately deprived Beijing of its “capital character” 京 - Beijing turned into Beiping (北平).
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The 20th century unexpectedly returned Nanjing to capital status, which this city had not had since the time of the Ming Emperor Hongwu. The photo shows his tomb.
Nanjing remained the capital of the Republic of China in 1928-37 (this time went down in history as the “Nanjing decade”) and in 1945-49. After the outbreak of war with Japan, the Republican government was forced to evacuate first to Wuhan and then to Chongqing, which was the capital of China until the end of the war. In the occupied territories, the Japanese founded their “puppet states” - these existed in Beijing (Chinese Provisional Government), Nanjing (Reformed Provisional Government), Zhangjiakou (张家口, the state was called Mengjiang, and the city itself was known by its Mongolian name Kalgan). But the most famous pro-Japanese puppet state is by far the "nation state" of the Manchu people of Manchukuo, founded in 1932 with its capital in Changchun, which was renamed "New Capital" (Xinjing 新京) for the occasion.
After the break with the Kuomintang in 1931-34, the Chinese communists also formed their own “state within a state.” At first it was the Central Revolutionary Base with its capital in the village of Ruijin (瑞金, southern Jiangxi Province). In 1934, the Communists abandoned Ruijin and embarked on their famous “Long March” to the north of the country. Those who did make it, made the same town of Yan'an on the Loess Plateau, where our story began, the new “red capital”.
Finally, after the capture of Beiping, the new authorities concentrated there, and on October 1, 1949, it officially (under the name Beijing) became the capital of the People's Republic of China. It was hardly possible to do otherwise. Nanjing was firmly associated with the former regime. In the eternal struggle between North and South, this time the North won. Well, they decided not to rename Nanking anymore. Thus, for the first time in Chinese history, a “non-capital” city with a capital name appeared.
Instead of output
So, as we see, China really has a lot of capitals. Only the so-called There are six “gudu” (古都, that is, classical “ancient capitals”): Chang’an (Xi’an), Luoyang, Beijing, Nanjing, Kaifeng and Hangzhou. Not to mention the capital cities of various local dynasties and appanages, the capitals of neighboring nations now located on the territory of China and the cities that served as “auxiliary capitals.”
There is no single center towards which the Chinese state gravitates. Capitals were often moved, the reasons could be different: from river floods, as was apparently the case in ancient times, to conquest and devastation after civil wars. A combination of purely opportunistic factors led to the fact that the capital of the last Chinese imperial dynasty ended up in Beijing, a city that had previously more often been the capital of neighboring hostile states. Similar motives led to the fact that it is here, far from “in the center of the Celestial Empire,” that the capital is now located.
Another feature is the frequent changes of names, by which one can trace the entire “biography” of a particular capital. This is the “eternal city” Rome has always been Rome: from Romulus to Berlusconi. But Beijing, over its long history, has been Ji, Yanjing, Zhongdu, Dadu, and Beiping. The presence or absence of “metropolitan hieroglyphs” 京 and 都 is another feature of metropolitan oikonymy. Depending on their location relative to other important cities, “capital cities” could turn from “central” to “northern” or “western” (for example, in the place of Beijing there was Nanjing and Beijing, Chang’an, having lost its central status, turned into Xi’an) .
Finally, as we see, at all times the capital was not a single center in which all the wealth of the country was concentrated. Under certain dynasties, the number of “auxiliary capitals” reached five. This is due to both the traditional Chinese predilection for numerology and purely practical considerations dating back to the Zhou conquest. We see the same thing in modern China, in which, along with the “main capital” (Beijing), there is also the “eastern capital” (Shanghai), and the “southern capital” (Guangzhou), and the “western capital” (Chengdu), and "northern capital" (Shenyang).
Note by: The material for this article was at one time collected bit by bit in various Chinese-language reference books, the works of domestic historians K. Vasiliev “The Origins of Chinese Civilization” and L. Vasiliev “Ancient China” were used, but the most useful was the monograph of the St. Petersburg researcher B.G. Doronin “Capital Cities of China” (St. Petersburg, 2001), which contains comprehensive material on this topic.