UGC 112 3rd Edition Lecture 6 Outline of Current Lecture I. The World’s Most Successful Civilization a. China’s Current SignificanceII. Geography and DevelopmentIII. Cultural Solidaritya. The Four Tones of MandarinIV. Political Solidarity, 1V. Political Solidarity, 2VI. Economic FoundationsCurrent LectureI. The World’s Most Successful CivilizationChina—has knit together many countries. China did have a period of stagnation but contributed to some of the most important scientific and cultural changes world has ever seen. Take immense pride in their civilization, we need to be aware of this in order to understand why they are successful.Current SignificanceWhy is china so important in the world today?Possible reasons: o Manufactured goods, countries make their profits by exporting these goods not raw materials. China has developed an intensive and effective manufacturing system. U.S. has a balance-of-payments-deficit of billions of dollars per year with China. o Large population: 1.3 billion. We cannot offend 1/6th of humanityo Labor Forceo P5 means permanent five. There are 5 countries in UN Security Council. Represent countries. British, French, America, Russia. Any one of them can say no.o World’s 2nd Largest economic powerThese notes represent a detailed interpretation of the professor’s lecture. GradeBuddy is best used as a supplement to your own notes, not as a substitute.o China passed Japan in 2009 aso Competitor in both ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ power. o Soft- TV programs, movies shown in other countries, positive ways of spreading themselveso Hard- military pressure, economic pressure. Coercive things. Gain influence whena state uses soft power over hard power. Hard over soft makes for resentment.Today’s Greeting: “Zao An.” This means “morning”, safe/peacefulII. Geography and developmento Natural protection: Gobi desert… steppes.Further to the southwest, plateau of Tibet, Nepal, India, etc. the highest mountains in the world are present: The Himalayas. The old Silk Road is over there too.Come to south, we have sub-tropical. Bordering Vietnam, Myanmar. Then there is the sea itself. China had the greatest navy. o Where there was not natural protection there was the *GREAT WALLo If it was maintained, the Great Wall was great at keeping out invaders. o Huang He, also known as the Yellow River:  Not navigable and has floods all the time.o The Yangtze: Is navigable and therefore, more important in economics. It is the equivalent to the Rhine and Danube Rivers in Europe as well as the Mississippi in the United States. Limited zone for Agriculture:People lived in plains created by these rivers. Why there? Because the soil is fertile, canals couldbe dug, and there was water year-round.III. Cultural Solidarityo Writing System: every word in Chinese has its own system. This means that for basic education, you need to know 3000 or so characters. To be highly educated, 20,000 or more characters. Some of these characters become extremely complicated.Oracle BonesTonal Language: have to listen carefully to every single syllable. Differentiated by how you say them.o Regional DialectsNorth China: Mandarin. Parts of country were isolated so they spoke different languages, have different dialectso Han and Minorities.Consider flag of China: Solid red with four smaller stars in a semicircle that is set off towards the side farthest from the flag pole large yellow star in corner. The red represents the Communist revolution and the five stars and their relationship represent the unity of the Chinese people under the leadership of the Communist Party of China. Larger star said to represent the Han people. The Han constitute 90-95 percent of the population at least. Others? People like Koreans, Manchus, etc. are minorities. The small stars represent these people. They don’t exist in significant numbers. One child policy doesn’t apply to them. In the Northwest area there were Muslims and in the South, Tibetan Buddhists. o Clans and FamiliesDiscussion in the textbook: clans have been significant in Chinese history. Each clan has incredible pride in their ancestry. The Four Tones of Mandarino High level- first toneo Rising- second toneo Falling Rising- third toneo Falling- fourth toneIV. Political Solidarity, 1o Role of EmperorChina has had a hierarchal political system for centuries. Ruler is at top, but is an intermediary between regular people and forces of heaven. Wear yellow. Below emperor,Everyone in society is ranked relative to someone else. Wives are inferior in status to their husbands.o Neo-Confucianismo Followers of Confucius developed system on how to govern. This Neo took morals and precepts and said ok if you know these moral ideas, you can become part of the administration.o Examination System:o If you waned to get ahead in society, study for years and hire a private tutor then take test that would determine your future. Some that failed would try again and again. They were studying the equivalent of Greek and Latin. What they were doing was in essence what the British were doing in 1850 in civil service. China had gotten to this task centuries earlier.o “Mandate of Heaven”:o The right to rule claimed by ancient Chinese rulers and supposedly bestowed by Heaven. Thus, when things started going wrong, the dynasty lost legitimacy. Legitimacy is a vey important concept in this class. Examples: floods, bandits, outside invasions. All these were signs of things not going well. Indicated that themandate of heaven was slipping away. Patterns of Change following the dynastic cycle. This cycle was important inter of comprehending how one period would lead to another.V. Political Solidarity, 2o Localized Religiono Confucianism- moral or ethical system with practical implications. o Beliefs in power of nature and spirits are embodied in Taoism: remain significant even todayo Role of “Gentry”This word comes over from Britain, refers to people who were born in to noble states, control lots of land. In china, born into land owning families in theory but if you passed the exams, you could profit and become a landlord yourself. The examination system recruited new officials. There were many ways this led to CORRUPTION. Corrupt officials do not help out people under their chargeo Dynastic cycle: indicate its approximate length. 250-400 years. Some were shorter but overall, (until major change such as outside invasion, internal collapse occurred) the