A History of China by Wolfram Eberhard

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[Transcriber's Note: The following text contains numerous non-English
words containing diacritical marks not contained in the ASCII character
set. Characters accented by those marks, and the corresponding text
representations are as follows (where x represents the character being
accented). All such symbols in this text above the character being
accented:

breve (u-shaped symbol): [)x]
caron (v-shaped symbol): [vx]
macron (straight line): [=x]
acute (egu) accent: ['x]

Additionally, the author has spelled certain words inconsistently. Those
have been adjusted to be consistent where possible. Examples of such
adjustments are as follows:

From To
Northwestern North-western
Southwards Southward
Programme Program
re-introduced reintroduced
practise practice
Lotos Lotus
Ju-Chen Juchen
cooperate co-operate
life-time lifetime
man-power manpower
favor favour
etc.

In general such changes are made to be consistent with the predominate
usage in the text, or if there was not a predominate spelling, to the
more modern.]

A HISTORY OF CHINA

by

WOLFRAM EBERHARD

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

_THE EARLIEST TIMES_

Chapter I: PREHISTORY

1 Sources for the earliest history
2 The Peking Man
3 The Palaeolithic Age
4 The Neolithic Age
5 The eight principal prehistoric cultures
6 The Yang-shao culture
7 The Lung-shan culture
8 The first petty States in Shansi

Chapter II: THE SHANG DYNASTY (_c_. 1600-1028 B.C.)

1 Period, origin, material culture
2 Writing and Religion
3 Transition to feudalism

_ANTIQUITY_

Chapter III: THE CHOU DYNASTY (_c_. 1028-257 B.C.)

1 Cultural origin of the Chou and end of the Shang dynasty
2 Feudalism in the new empire
3 Fusion of Chou and Shang
4 Limitation of the imperial power
5 Changes in the relative strength of the feudal states
6 Confucius
7 Lao Tz[)u]

Chapter IV: THE CONTENDING STATES (481-256 B.C.):
DISSOLUTION OF THE FEUDAL SYSTEM

1 Social and military changes
2 Economic changes
3 Cultural changes

Chapter V: THE CH'IN DYNASTY (256-207 B.C.)

1 Towards the unitary State
2 Centralization in every field
3 Frontier Defence. Internal collapse

_THE MIDDLE AGES_

Chapter VI: THE HAN DYNASTY (206 B.C.-A.D. 220)

1 Development of the gentry-state
2 Situation of the Hsiung-nu empire; its relation to the
Han empire. Incorporation of South China
3 Brief feudal reaction. Consolidation of the gentry
4 Turkestan policy. End of the Hsiung-nu empire
5 Impoverishment. Cliques. End of the Dynasty
6 The pseudo-socialistic dictatorship. Revolt of the "Red Eyebrows"
7 Reaction and Restoration: the Later Han dynasty
8 Hsiung-nu policy
9 Economic situation. Rebellion of the "Yellow Turbans".
Collapse of the Han dynasty
10 Literature and Art

Chapter VII: THE EPOCH OF THE FIRST DIVISION OF CHINA (A.D. 220-580)

(A) _The three kingdoms_ (A.D. 220-265)
1 Social, intellectual, and economic problems during the
period of the first division
2 Status of the two southern Kingdoms
3 The northern State of Wei

(B) _The Western Chin dynasty_ (265-317)
1 Internal situation in the Chin empire
2 Effect on the frontier peoples
3 Struggles for the throne
4 Migration of Chinese
5 Victory of the Huns. The Hun Han dynasty
(later renamed the Earlier Chao dynasty)

(C) _The alien empires in North China, down to the Toba_
(A.D. 317-385)
1 The Later Chao dynasty in eastern North China (Hun; 329-352)
2 Earlier Yen dynasty in the north-east (proto-Mongol; 352-370),
and the Earlier Ch'in dynasty in all north China (Tibetan; 351-394)
3 The fragmentation of north China
4 Sociological analysis of the two great alien empires
5 Sociological analysis of the petty States
6 Spread of Buddhism

(D) _The Toba empire in North China_ (A.D. 385-550)
1 The rise of the Toba State
2 The Hun kingdom of the Hsia (407-431)
3 Rise of the Toba to a great power
4 Economic and social conditions
5 Victory and retreat of Buddhism

(E) _Succession States of the Toba_ (A.D. 550-580):
_Northern Ch'i dynasty, Northern Chou dynasty_
1 Reasons for the splitting of the Toba empire
2 Appearance of the (Goek) Turks
3 The Northern Ch'i dynasty; the Northern Chou dynasty

(F) _The southern empires_
1 Economic and social situation in the south
2 Struggles between cliques under the Eastern Chin dynasty
(A.D. 317-419)
3 The Liu-Sung dynasty (A.D. 420-478) and the Southern Ch'i dynasty
(A.D. 479-501)
4 The Liang dynasty (A.D. 502-556)
5 The Ch'en dynasty (A.D. 557-588) and its ending by the Sui
6 Cultural achievements of the south

Chapter VIII: THE EMPIRES OF THE SUI AND THE T'ANG

(A) _The Sui dynasty_ (A.D. 580-618)
1 Internal situation in the newly unified empire
2 Relations with Turks and with Korea
3 Reasons for collapse

(B) _The T'ang dynasty_ (A.D. 618-906)
1 Reforms and decentralization
2 Turkish policy
3 Conquest of Turkestan and Korea. Summit of power
4 The reign of the empress Wu: Buddhism and capitalism
5 Second blossoming of T'ang culture
6 Revolt of a military governor
7 The role of the Uighurs. Confiscation of the capital of the
monasteries
8 First successful peasant revolt. Collapse of the empire

_MODERN TIMES_

Chapter IX: THE EPOCH OF THE SECOND DIVISION OF CHINA

(A) _The period of the Five Dynasties_ (906-960)
1 Beginning of a new epoch
2 Political situation in the tenth century
3 Monopolistic trade in South China. Printing and paper money in the
north
4 Political history of the Five Dynasties

(B) _Period of Moderate Absolutism_
(1) _The Northern Sung dynasty_
1 Southward expansion
2 Administration and army. Inflation
3 Reforms and Welfare schemes
4 Cultural situation (philosophy, religion, literature, painting)
5 Military collapse

(2) _The Liao (Kitan) dynasty in the north_ (937-1125)
1 Sociological structure. Claim to the Chinese imperial throne
2 The State of the Kara-Kitai

(3) _The Hsi-Hsia State in the north_ (1038-1227)
1 Continuation of Turkish traditions

(4) _The empire of the Southern Sung dynasty_ (1127-1279)
1 Foundation
2 Internal situation
3 Cultural situation; reasons for the collapse

(5) _The empire of the Juchen in the north (i_ 115-1234)
1 Rapid expansion from northern Korea to the Yangtze
2 United front of all Chinese
3 Start of the Mongol empire

Chapter X: THE PERIOD OF ABSOLUTISM

(A) _The Mongol Epoch_ (1280-1368)
1 Beginning of new foreign rules
2 "Nationality legislation"
3 Military position
4 Social situation
5 Popular risings: National rising
6 Cultural

(B) _The Ming Epoch_ (1368-1644)
1 Start. National feeling
2 Wars against Mongols and Japanese
3 Social legislation within the existing order
4 Colonization and agricultural developments
5 Commercial and industrial developments
6 Growth of the small gentry
7 Literature, art, crafts
8 Politics at court
9 Navy. Southward expansion
10 Struggles between cliques
11 Risings
12 Machiavellism
13 Foreign relations in the sixteenth century
14 External and internal perils

(C) _The Manchu Dynasty_ (1644-1911)
1 Installation of the Manchus
2 Decline in the eighteenth century
3 Expansion in Central Asia; the first State treaty
4 Culture
5 Relations with the outer world
6 Decline; revolts
7 European Imperialism in the Far East
8 Risings in Turkestan and within China: the T'ai P'ing Rebellion
9 Collision with Japan; further Capitulations
10 Russia in Manchuria
11 Reform and reaction: The Boxer Rising
12 End of the dynasty

Chapter XI: THE REPUBLIC (1912-1948)

1 Social and intellectual position
2 First period of the Republic: The warlords
3 Second period of the Republic: Nationalist China
4 The Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945)

Chapter XII: PRESENT-DAY CHINA

1 The growth of communism
2 Nationalist China in Taiwan
3 Communist China

Notes and References

Index

ILLUSTRATIONS

1 Painted pottery from Kansu: Neolithic.
_In the collection of the Museum fuer Voelkerkunde, Berlin_.

2 Ancient bronze tripod found at Anyang.
_From G. Ecke: Fruehe chinesische Bronzen aus der Sammlung Oskar
Trautmann, Peking_ 1939, _plate_ 3.

3 Bronze plaque representing two horses fighting each other. Ordos
region, animal style.
_From V. Griessmaier: Sammlung Baron Eduard von der Heydt,
Vienna 1936, illustration No. 6_.

4 Hunting scene: detail from the reliefs in the tombs at Wu-liang-tz'u.
_From a print in the author's possession_.

5 Part of the "Great Wall".
_Photo Eberhard_.

6 Sun Ch'uean, ruler of Wu.
_From a painting by Yen Li-pen (c. 640-680_).

7 General view of the Buddhist cave-temples of Yuen-kang.
In the foreground, the present village; in the background the rampart.
_Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson_.

8 Detail from the Buddhist cave-reliefs of Lung-men.
_From a print in the author's possession_.

9 Statue of Mi-lo (Maitreya, the next future Buddha), in the "Great
Buddha Temple" at Chengting (Hopei).
_Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson_.

10 Ladies of the Court: Clay models which accompanied the dead person to
the grave. T'ang period.
_In the collection of the Museum fuer Voelkerkunde. Berlin_.

11 Distinguished founder: a temple banner found at Khotcho, Turkestan.
_Museum fuer Voelkerkunde, Berlin. No. 1B 4524, illustration B 408_.

12 Ancient tiled pagoda at Chengting (Hopei).
_Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson_.

13 Horse-training. Painting by Li Lung-mien. Late Sung period.
_Manchu Royal House Collection_.

14 Aborigines of South China, of the "Black Miao" tribe, at a festival.
China-ink drawing of the eighteenth century.
_Collection of the Museum fuer Voelkerkunde, Berlin. No. 1D 8756, 68_.

15 Pavilion on the "Coal Hill" at Peking, in which the last Ming emperor
committed suicide.
_Photo Eberhard_.

16 The imperial summer palace of the Manchu rulers, at Jehol.
_Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson_.

17 Tower on the city wall of Peking.
_Photo H. Hammer-Morrisson_.

MAPS

1 Regions of the principal local cultures in prehistoric times

2 The principal feudal States in the feudal epoch (roughly 722-481 B.C.)

3 China in the struggle with the Huns or Hsiung-nu (roughly 128-100
B.C.)

4 The Toba empire (about A.D. 500)

5 The T'ang realm (about A.D. 750)

6 The State of the Later T'ang dynasty (923-935)

INTRODUCTION

There are indeed enough Histories of China already: why yet another one?
Because the time has come for new departures; because we need to clear
away the false notions with which the general public is constantly being
fed by one author after another; because from time to time syntheses
become necessary for the presentation of the stage reached by research.

Histories of China fall, with few exceptions, into one or the other of
two groups, pro-Chinese and anti-Chinese: the latter used to
predominate, but today the former type is much more frequently found. We
have no desire to show that China's history is the most glorious or her
civilization the oldest in the world. A claim to the longest history
does not establish the greatness of a civilization; the importance of a
civilization becomes apparent in its achievements. A thousand years ago
China's civilization towered over those of the peoples of Europe. Today
the West is leading; tomorrow China may lead again. We need to realize
how China became what she is, and to note the paths pursued by the
Chinese in human thought and action. The lives of emperors, the great
battles, this or the other famous deed, matter less to us than the
discovery of the great forces that underlie these features and govern
the human element. Only when we have knowledge of those forces and
counter-forces can we realize the significance of the great
personalities who have emerged in China; and only then will the history
of China become intelligible even to those who have little knowledge of
the Far East and can make nothing of a mere enumeration of dynasties and
campaigns.

Views on China's history have radically changed in recent years. Until
about thirty years ago our knowledge of the earliest times in China
depended entirely on Chinese documents of much later date; now we are
able to rely on many excavations which enable us to check the written
sources. Ethnological, anthropological, and sociological research has
begun for China and her neighbours; thus we are in a position to write
with some confidence about the making of China, and about her ethnical
development, where formerly we could only grope in the dark. The claim
that "the Chinese race" produced the high Chinese civilization entirely
by its own efforts, thanks to its special gifts, has become just as
untenable as the other theory that immigrants from the West, some
conceivably from Europe, carried civilization to the Far East. We know
now that in early times there was no "Chinese race", there were not even
"Chinese", just as there were no "French" and no "Swiss" two thousand
years ago. The "Chinese" resulted from the amalgamation of many separate
peoples of different races in an enormously complicated and
long-drawn-out process, as with all the other high civilizations of the
world.

The picture of ancient and medieval China has also been entirely changed
since it has been realized that the sources on which reliance has always
been placed were not objective, but deliberately and emphatically
represented a particular philosophy. The reports on the emperors and
ministers of the earliest period are not historical at all, but served
as examples of ideas of social policy or as glorifications of particular
noble families. Myths such as we find to this day among China's
neighbours were made into history; gods were made men and linked
together by long family trees. We have been able to touch on all these
things only briefly, and have had to dispense with any account of the
complicated processes that have taken place here.

The official dynastic histories apply to the course of Chinese history
the criterion of Confucian ethics; for them history is a textbook of
ethics, designed to show by means of examples how the man of high
character should behave or not behave. We have to go deeper, and try to
extract the historic truth from these records. Many specialized studies
by Chinese, Japanese, and Western scholars on problems of Chinese
history are now available and of assistance in this task. However, some
Chinese writers still imagine that they are serving their country by yet
again dishing up the old fables for the foreigner as history; and some
Europeans, knowing no better or aiming at setting alongside the
unedifying history of Europe the shining example of the conventional
story of China, continue in the old groove. To this day, of course, we
are far from having really worked through every period of Chinese
history; there are long periods on which scarcely any work has yet been
done. Thus the picture we are able to give today has no finality about
it and will need many modifications. But the time has come for a new
synthesis, so that criticism may proceed along the broadest possible
front and push our knowledge further forward.

The present work is intended for the general reader and not for the
specialist, who will devote his attention to particular studies and to
the original texts. In view of the wide scope of the work, I have had to
confine myself to placing certain lines of thought in the foreground and
paying less attention to others. I have devoted myself mainly to showing
the main lines of China's social and cultural development down to the
present day. But I have also been concerned not to leave out of account
China's relations with her neighbours. Now that we have a better
knowledge of China's neighbours, the Turks, Mongols, Tibetans, Tunguses,
Tai, not confined to the narratives of Chinese, who always speak only of
"barbarians", we are better able to realize how closely China has been
associated with her neighbours from the first day of her history to the
present time; how greatly she is indebted to them, and how much she has
given them. We no longer see China as a great civilization surrounded by
barbarians, but we study the Chinese coming to terms with their
neighbours, who had civilizations of quite different types but
nevertheless developed ones.

It is usual to split up Chinese history under the various dynasties that
have ruled China or parts thereof. The beginning or end of a dynasty
does not always indicate the beginning or the end of a definite period
of China's social or cultural development. We have tried to break
China's history down into the three large periods--"Antiquity", "The
Middle Ages", and "Modern Times". This does not mean that we compare
these periods with periods of the same name in Western history although,
naturally, we find some similarities with the development of society and
culture in the West. Every attempt towards periodization is to some
degree arbitrary: the beginning and end of the Middle Ages, for
instance, cannot be fixed to a year, because development is a continuous
process. To some degree any periodization is a matter of convenience,
and it should be accepted as such.

The account of Chinese history here given is based on a study of the
original documents and excavations, and on a study of recent research
done by Chinese, Japanese and Western scholars, including my own
research. In many cases, these recent studies produced new data or
arranged new data in a new way without an attempt to draw general
conclusions. By putting such studies together, by fitting them into the
pattern that already existed, new insights into social and cultural
processes have been gained. The specialist in the field will, I hope,
easily recognize the sources, primary or secondary, on which such new
insights represented in this book are based. Brief notes are appended
for each chapter; they indicate the most important works in English and
provide the general reader with an opportunity of finding further
information on the problems touched on. For the specialist brief hints
to international research are given, mainly in cases in which different
interpretations have been proposed.

Chinese words are transcribed according to the Wade-Giles system with
the exception of names for which already a popular way of transcription
exists (such as Peking). Place names are written without hyphen, if they
remain readable.

THE EARLIEST TIMES

Chapter One

PREHISTORY

1 _Sources for the earliest history_

Until recently we were dependent for the beginnings of Chinese history
on the written Chinese tradition. According to these sources China's
history began either about 4000 B.C. or about 2700 B.C. with a
succession of wise emperors who "invented" the elements of a
civilization, such as clothing, the preparation of food, marriage, and a
state system; they instructed their people in these things, and so
brought China, as early as in the third millennium B.C., to an
astonishingly high cultural level. However, all we know of the origin of
civilizations makes this of itself entirely improbable; no other
civilization in the world originated in any such way. As time went on,
Chinese historians found more and more to say about primeval times. All
these narratives were collected in the great imperial history that
appeared at the beginning of the Manchu epoch. That book was translated
into French, and all the works written in Western languages until recent
years on Chinese history and civilization have been based in the last
resort on that translation.

Modern research has not only demonstrated that all these accounts are
inventions of a much later period, but has also shown _why_ such
narratives were composed. The older historical sources make no mention
of any rulers before 2200 B.C., no mention even of their names. The
names of earlier rulers first appear in documents of about 400 B.C.; the
deeds attributed to them and the dates assigned to them often do not
appear until much later. Secondly, it was shown that the traditional
chronology is wrong and another must be adopted, reducing all the dates
for the more ancient history, before 900 B.C. Finally, all narratives
and reports from China's earliest period have been dealt a mortal blow
by modern archaeology, with the excavations of recent years. There was
no trace of any high civilization in the third millennium B.C., and,
indeed, we can only speak of a real "Chinese civilization" from 1300
B.C. onward. The peoples of the China of that time had come from the
most varied sources; from 1300 B.C. they underwent a common process of
development that welded them into a new unity. In this sense and
emphasizing the cultural aspects, we are justified in using from then on
a new name, "Chinese", for the peoples of China. Those sections,
however, of their ancestral populations who played no part in the
subsequent cultural and racial fusion, we may fairly call "non-Chinese".
This distinction answers the question that continually crops up, whether
the Chinese are "autochthonons". They are autochthonons in the sense
that they formed a unit in the Far East, in the geographical region of
the present China, and were not immigrants from the Middle East.

2 _The Peking Man_

Man makes his appearance in the Far East at a time when remains in other
parts of the world are very rare and are disputed. He appears as the
so-called "Peking Man", whose bones were found in caves of
Chou-k'ou-tien south of Peking. The Peking Man is vastly different from
the men of today, and forms a special branch of the human race, closely
allied to the Pithecanthropus of Java. The formation of later races of
mankind from these types has not yet been traced, if it occurred at all.
Some anthropologists consider, however, that the Peking Man possessed
already certain characteristics peculiar to the yellow race.

The Peking Man lived in caves; no doubt he was a hunter, already in
possession of very simple stone implements and also of the art of making
fire. As none of the skeletons so far found are complete, it is assumed
that he buried certain bones of the dead in different places from the
rest. This burial custom, which is found among primitive peoples in
other parts of the world, suggests the conclusion that the Peking Man
already had religious notions. We have no knowledge yet of the length of
time the Peking Man may have inhabited the Far East. His first traces
are attributed to a million years ago, and he may have flourished in
500,000 B.C.

3 _The Palaeolithic Age_

After the period of the Peking Man there comes a great gap in our
knowledge. All that we know indicates that at the time of the Peking Man
there must have been a warmer and especially a damper climate in North
China and Inner Mongolia than today. Great areas of the Ordos region,
now dry steppe, were traversed in that epoch by small rivers and lakes
beside which men could live. There were elephants, rhinoceroses, extinct
species of stag and bull, even tapirs and other wild animals. About
50,000 B.C. there lived by these lakes a hunting people whose stone
implements (and a few of bone) have been found in many places. The
implements are comparable in type with the palaeolithic implements of
Europe (Mousterian type, and more rarely Aurignacian or even
Magdalenian). They are not, however, exactly like the European
implements, but have a character of their own. We do not yet know what
the men of these communities looked like, because as yet no indisputable
human remains have been found. All the stone implements have been found
on the surface, where they have been brought to light by the wind as it
swept away the loess. These stone-age communities seem to have lasted a
considerable time and to have been spread not only over North China but
over Mongolia and Manchuria. It must not be assumed that the stone age
came to an end at the same time everywhere. Historical accounts have
recorded, for instance, that stone implements were still in use in
Manchuria and eastern Mongolia at a time when metal was known and used
in western Mongolia and northern China. Our knowledge about the
palaeolithic period of Central and South China is still extremely
limited; we have to wait for more excavations before anything can be
said. Certainly, many implements in this area were made of wood or more
probably bamboo, such as we still find among the non-Chinese tribes of
the south-west and of South-East Asia. Such implements, naturally, could
not last until today.

About 25,000 B.C. there appears in North China a new human type, found
in upper layers in the same caves that sheltered Peking Man. This type
is beyond doubt not Mongoloid, and may have been allied to the Ainu, a
non-Mongol race still living in northern Japan. These, too, were a
palaeolithic people, though some of their implements show technical
advance. Later they disappear, probably because they were absorbed into
various populations of central and northern Asia. Remains of them have
been found in badly explored graves in northern Korea.

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