Early Chinese Civilizations

By the middle of the second millennium BCE Chinese leaders ruled from large capitals, rivaling those in the West in their size and splendor. Beneath present-day Zhengzhou, for instance, lies an early metropolitan center with massive earthen walls. Stone was scared in this area. Material used to build cities was wood. Cities built of wood were vulnerable to fire and military attack and no sign of them remains. However, people learn about early Chinese culture from its written languages and tombs of its rulers. According to scholars who examined fragments of written scrolls, the ancient Chinese is closely related to modern Chinese. Archeologists also discovered that royal Chinese tombs, like Egyptian burial sites, were filled with furnishings, implements, luxury goods, and clothing – anything that deceased might need in the next world.

The Shang Dynasty (1700-1045 BCE)

Chinese records tell of a King Tang who in 1700 BCE established the Shang dynasty. The Shang state was a linked connection of hilltop villages, each overlooking its fields in the river valleys below. It stretched across the plains of the lower Yellow River valley, but it was not a contiguous state with distinct borders; other villages separated some of the Shang villages from one another, and were frequently at war with the Shang. The royal family surrounded itself by priests, who soon developed into a kind of nobility and created new welled urban centers focused around the nobles’ palaces or temples. Many workshops in this area produced bronze vessels, finely carved jades, and luxury goods. The nobility organized itself into armies that controlled and protected the countryside.

The first classic Chinese literature, The Book of Change, or I Jing, which originated in the Shang era, is a guide to interpreting the workings of the universe. The text describes the conditions of the specific moment, which is always a moment of transition, a movement of from one set of circumstances to the next. The I Jing prescribes certain behaviors appropriate to the moment. Thus, it is a book of wisdom.

The wisdom is based on simple principle – which order derives from balance, a concept that the Chinese share with the ancient Egyptians. The Chinese believe that overtime, through a series of changes, all things work toward a condition of balance. Thus, when things are out of balance, diviners might predict the future by understanding that the universe tends to right itself. The image for T’ ai,or “Peace,” for example, is the unification of heaven and earth – “a time in nature when heaven seems to be on earth… a sign of social harmony… when the good elements of society occupy a central position and are in control, the evil elements coming under their influence and change for the better…when the spirit of heaven rules in man.”

In fact, according to the Shang rulers, “the foundation of the universe” is based on the marriage of Qian (at once heaven and the creative male principle) and Kun (the earth, or receptive female principle), symbolized by the Chinese symbol of yin-yang. Yin is soft, dark, moist, and cool; yang is hard, bright, dry, and warm. The two combine to create the endless cycles of change. They balance the five elements (wood, fire, earth, metal, and water) and the five element powers of creation (cold, heat, dryness, moisture, and wind). The yin-yang sign is a symbol of harmonious integration, the perpetual interplay and mutual relation among all things. Neither side can exist without the other.

The symmetry of the yin-yang motif appears in almost all Shang bronze works. Many of their bronze vessels used for storage and for wine had explicitly religious, political and ceremonial functions. Most are decorated with fantastic, supernatural creatures, especially dragons, which for the Shang, symbolized royal authority, strenght, and furtility.

The Zhou Dynasty (1027-256 BCE)

A rebel tribe known as the Zhou overthrew the Shang dynasty in 1027 BCE, claiming that the Shang had lost the “mandate of heaven” by not ruling virtuously. The Book of Changes and the yin-yang symbol were originated by the Shang but codified and written down by the Zhou. One of the oldest songs in the old collections of Chinese poetry, the “Shi jing”, or Book of Songs, celebrates the harvest in particular. The harvest is the sign of the family's harmony with nature, the symbol that the family's ancestors are part of the same natural cycle of life and death, planting and harvest, as the universe as a whole. Unlike Western though, its expression does not emphasize the importance of the individual. It focuses more on the good the harvest brings to the whole – a distinctly Asian worldview.

Daoism and Confucianism

The Dao or “the way” is deeply embedded in the nature, and to eaperience it, the individual must let go of the self through contemplation and enter into the flow of life. Contemplation of the teachings in the 5,000-word Dao de jing aids this process. The book consists of 81 poems believed to have been composed by Lao Zi (“the Old one”) in the sixth century BCE. In essence, it argues for a unifying principle in all nature, what the Chinese call qi. The qi can be understood only by those who live in the total simplicity, and the Dao is the path to such a life. The Daoist engages in strict dietary practices, breathing exercises, and meditation.

If Daoism seeks to leave the world behind, the second great canon of teachings developed during Zhou dynasty, Confucianism, seeks to define the proper way to behave in the world. Confusianism was developed by China's greatest philosopher and teacher, Kong Fu Zi, as he is known as Confucius in the West. He was born to aristocratic parents in the province of Shandong in 551 BCE. By his early twenties,he had begun teaching a way of life. Confucianism is based on self-discipline and proper relations among people.

Traditional Chinese values – values that Confucius believed had once guided the Zhou, such as self-control, propriety, and respect for one's elders – lie in the core of this system. After his death in 479 BCE, Confucius' followers wrote down his words in a book known in English as the Analects. At the heart of Confucius' teaching is the principle of li – civility, propriety or etiquette, politeness, and good manners. The second principle jen is the ideal relationship that should exist between people. The principle te is the power of moral example that an individual, especially a ruler, can exert through a life dedicated to the exercise of li and jen. Finally, in the ideal culture thus created, wen, or the arts of peace. The Chinese moral order, like that of the Greeks, did not depend upon divine decree or authority, but instead upon the people's own right actions. Confucianism was extremely popular among Chinese leaders and the artists they patronized because of its emphasis on respect for age, authority, and morality. The Han dynasty (first century BCE) adopted Confucianism as the Chinese state religion, and a thorough knowledge of the Confucius classics was subsequently required of any politically ambitious person.