HIST 270 · Chinese History · Richland Community College
Background Essays
Scholarly grounding for every lecture in the course — the argument behind the slides, the evidence behind the argument, and the historiography behind both. Written to be read, not printed.
- Background essays
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- Reconnaissance audits
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Chapter 1 · China in the Bronze Age: The Shang and Western Zhou, ca. 1500–771 BCE
The land and the first kings, oracle bones and ancestor worship, the king as high priest, Lady Hao’s tomb, Shang writing and bronze, the Bronze Age cultures beyond the Shang core, and the Zhou conquest, the Mandate of Heaven, the Zhou lords and the Book of Songs.
Background essay
The Shang King Ruled Through His Ancestors
The Shang Sacred State. War kings at Anyang, Di and the royal ancestors, how oracle-bone divination worked, the king as high priest, Lady Hao’s unrobbed tomb, and the scale of Shang sacrifice and coerced labor.
Background essay
Rare Skills Became Power, and the Shang Were Not Alone
Writing, Bronze, and the Wider World. Oracle-bone records and literacy as political control, how Chinese characters work, the bronze industry and the royal women it honored, the taotie puzzle, and Sanxingdui and the other Bronze Age centers beyond Anyang.
Background essay
Heaven’s Mandate: How the Zhou Turned Conquest into Legitimacy
The Zhou Conquest, Its Lords, and Its Songs. The Li gui and the conquest of 1045 BCE, the Mandate of Heaven as claim and as propaganda, lords and garrisons and the “feudal” debate, what the Zhou kept and let fade from the Shang, the Book of Documents and the Book of Songs, and the fall of 771.
Chapter 2 · Philosophers and Warring States During the Eastern Zhou Period, 770–256 BCE
The multistate system and the hegemons, the transformation of warfare, iron, coins and the end of serfdom, the rise of the shi, the Hundred Schools of Thought, the debates of Confucius, Mozi, Mencius and Xunzi, the Daoist and Legalist answers to them, yin and yang, the world of spirits, and the state of Chu.
Background essay
When Birth Stopped Mattering: Hegemons, Total War, and the Rise of the Shi
Hegemons, War, and the Shi. The duke of Song at the river, the hegemons and the covenant of 657, the turn from chariot honor to mass conscript armies, iron, registers and the decline of serfdom, the shi and the Hundred Schools, and the textbook’s Jin and “Duke Jin” slips.
Background essay
The Sage and His Challengers: Confucius, Mozi, Mencius and Xunzi
Confucius and His Challengers. Rule by example, ren and li, the redefined junzi, Mozi’s test of utility against mourning, music and war, Mencius and Xunzi on human nature, Fingarette’s ritual as the secular made sacred, and the textbook’s Xunzi and bell-set slips.
Background essay
The Way and the Law: Daoists and Legalists
Daoists and Legalists. The Laozi’s water and sage ruler, Zhuangzi’s tortoise, butterfly, wife and wheelwright, Lord Shang’s Qin, Han Feizi’s trust-no-one statecraft, the Shuihudi statutes, Guodian, and the textbook’s third-century dating.
Background essay
Cosmos, Spirits, and Chu
Nature, spirits and the south. Yin, yang and qi, Physician He, Zou Yan’s Five Phases, the Baoshan divination records, Taiyi, demon spells, Chu’s counties, lacquer and tombs, Qu Yuan and the Songs of Chu.
Chapter 3 · The Founding of the Bureaucratic Empire: Qin-Han China, 256 BCE–200 CE
The Qin unification, Legalist government, standardization, law and coerced labor, and the collapse that left the imperial system intact.
Chapter 5 · Sui and Tang China, 581–907
Reunification, borrowed institutions, a cosmopolitan capital, religion and legitimacy, and the costs of survival after 755.
Background essay
The Sui Tragedy: The Dynasty That Reunited China—and Broke Itself
The Sui Tragedy. How the Sui reunited China in 581–589, integrated north and south with canals, registers, and law, and then overmobilized its people in the Goguryeo wars.
Background essay
Early Tang Power: From the Saddle to the Mirror
Early Tang Power. One reign, six places: Li Shimin’s civil wars and the 626 coup, a court that kept its critics, registered villages and farmer-soldiers, the steppe after 630, and the limits of conquest at Ansi and in Korea.
Background essay
Chang’an Was Open to the World. Who Could Get In?
Chang’an and the Tang Elite. A planned capital linked to Eurasia by roads and trade, and the great families who kept their hold on office despite the examinations.
Background essay
What Could Religion and Culture Do for a Ruler?
Religion, Culture, and Imperial Authority. Buddhism in Tang society, Empress Wu’s many vocabularies of legitimacy, Xuanzong’s court, and the suppression of 845.
Background essay
The Tang Survived An Lushan. What Did Survival Cost?
An Lushan’s Rebellion and Its Aftermath. Frontier armies, the rebellion of 755–763, regional governors, new taxes on land and salt, and the long road to 960.
Research reconnaissance
Chapter 5 Research Reconnaissance
Scholarly-foundation audit of the Chapter 5 roadmap and essays, with sources, a primary-source shortlist, and deck issues to fix.
Chapter 8 · China Among Equals: Song, Liao, Xia, and Jin, 907–1279
The founding of the Song, civilian control of the army, a dynasty that fought, paid, and negotiated with strong northern states, and the rice, markets, and sea trade that sustained it.
Background essay
Song China Shared Power with Strong Northern States
Song and the Northern States. The Five Dynasties and the Chenqiao mutiny of 960, Taizu’s curbs on his generals, peace with Liao and Xia, the Jurchen alliance and the fall of Kaifeng in 1127, and the Southern Song court at Hangzhou.
Background essay
Agriculture and Trade Sustained Song Prosperity
Song Agriculture and Trade. Champa rice and a doubling population, commercial farming, paper money, iron and coal, Kaifeng and Hangzhou, border markets with Song’s rivals, and the junks and investors of the South Seas trade.
Chapter 12 · China Under Mongol Rule, 1215–1368
Chinggis Khan and the conquest of the north, the first Mongol tax system, Khubilai's Yuan dynasty and the river war that ended the Song, then ranks, registers and the roads of Eurasia, and the scholars, artists and rebels of the Yuan's last decades.
Background essay
The Mongols Conquered China in Two Stages
Mongol Conquest and State-Building. Chinggis and the fall of Xia and Jin, overseers and Muqali, Yelü Chucai and the pasture debate, tax farmers and appanages, Khubilai's advisers and civil war, Dadu and the Yuan name, and Xiangyang, Bayan and Yashan.
Background essay
Ranks, Registers and Roads: How the Yuan Sorted Its People and Opened Eurasia
Yuan Hierarchy and Global Exchange. The four labels in law and practice, hereditary households, the “ten grades” joke, Ahmad and Phags-pa, then the canal and the sea route, Quanzhou, Rabban Sauma and Ibn Battuta, cobalt and Jingdezhen, the David Vases and the exchange of knowledge.
Background essay
Scholars, Stages and the Fall of the Yuan
Displaced Elites and the Collapse of Yuan Rule. Loyalists, new careers and Zhao Mengfu, the examinations of 1315 and their quotas, zaju and Injustice to Dou E, literati painting and the Four Masters, then succession feuds, paper money, the Yellow River, the Red Turbans and Zhu Yuanzhang.
Research reconnaissance
Chapter 12 Research Reconnaissance
Scholarly-foundation audit of the three Chapter 12 decks against Ebrey and current scholarship, with sources, a primary-source shortlist, and the source-verified deck revisions by slide.
Chapter 14 · The Ming Empire in China, 1368–1644
A beggar monk founds a dynasty and builds a throne for giants, two frontiers on the steppe and the sea, the examinations and Wang Yangming, and late-Ming city culture and the fall of 1644.
Background essay
From Beggar Monk to Autocrat: Hongwu, Yongle, and a Throne Built for Giants
From Beggar Monk to Autocrat. Famine and the Red Turbans, the founding of 1368, registers, law and hereditary households, the purges and the end of the chancellorship, the Yongle emperor’s usurpation, Beijing and the Grand Canal, Tumu, Hai Rui and the Wanli emperor.
Background essay
Two Frontiers: Zheng He, the Great Wall, and the Silver That Came In Anyway
Two Frontiers. The tribute order and Zheng He’s seven voyages, the founders’ steppe campaigns, Altan Khan and the settlement of 1571, the Ming walls, the sea ban and the wokou, the opening of 1567, Japanese and American silver, and new crops.
Background essay
One Life Through the Ming World: The Examinations, Wang Yangming, and the Villages
One Life Through the Ming World. The examination ladder and its odds, the 1397 case and regional quotas, Tan Yunxian, Wang Yangming’s exile and teachings, the Taizhou radicals, the lijia system and the Single Whip, lineages, compacts and charity.
Background essay
The Garden and the Flood: Late-Ming City Culture and the Fall of 1644
The Garden and the Flood. Suzhou gardens, commercial publishing, the four novels, Ricci’s banquets and The Peony Pavilion, then the empty treasury, the Manchu war, the Donglin and Wei Zhongxian, cold and famine, Li Zicheng, silver in 1639 and the Kaifeng flood.
Research reconnaissance
Chapter 14 Research Reconnaissance
Scholarly-foundation audit of the four Chapter 14 decks against Ebrey and current scholarship, with sources, a primary-source shortlist, and the source-verified deck revisions by slide.
Chapter 16 · The Creation of the Manchu Empire, 1600–1800
Nurhaci's banners and the conquest of 1644, Kangxi and Qianlong, the Macartney embassy and the doubling of the population, and The Dream of Red Mansions, brotherhoods, and sects.
Background essay
The Gate in the Wall: The Banner State, the Conquest, and the Loyalists
The Gate in the Wall. Nurhaci and the banners, Hong Taiji and the Qing name, Wu Sangui at Shanhaiguan, Yangzhou and the queue, Koxinga, Huang Zongxi, Gu Yanwu and Wang Fuzhi, and the banner garrisons.
Background essay
Grandfather and Grandson: Kangxi, Qianlong, and the Making of the High Qing
Grandfather and Grandson. Oboi and the boy emperor, the Three Feudatories, Galdan and Tibet, Qianlong's many faces, the queue scare and the Four Treasuries, the rites controversy, and Yongzheng's reforms.
Background essay
The Kowtow and the Crowd: The Macartney Embassy and the Doubling of China
The Kowtow and the Crowd. The Canton system, Macartney's goals, interpreters and audience, Qianlong's answer, the population boom and the bare sticks, and the Miao uprising of 1795.
Background essay
Inside the Garden, Outside the Law: The Dream of Red Mansions, Brotherhoods, and Sects
Inside the Garden, Outside the Law. Yuan Mei and the Yangzhou Eccentrics, Cao Xueqin and the Jia garden, the Heaven and Earth Society, the Eternal Mother and the White Lotus war, widow chastity, and evidential scholarship.
Research reconnaissance
Chapter 16 Research Reconnaissance
Scholarly-foundation audit of the four Chapter 16 decks against Ebrey and current scholarship, with sources, a primary-source shortlist, and recommended deck fixes by slide.
Chapter 18 · China in Decline, 1800–1900
Opium and the first unequal treaties, the Taiping war and the men who saved the Qing, the burning of the Yuanmingyuan and self-strengthening, and Cixi, the lost wars with France and Japan, 1898, and the Boxers.
Background essay
Smoke and Gunboats: Opium, Silver, and the First Unequal Treaty
Smoke and Gunboats. The Canton system, Indian opium and the silver drain, Lin Zexu at Guangzhou, the Nemesis and the Yangzi campaign, and the Treaty of Nanjing and its unequal clauses.
Background essay
Jesus's Younger Brother: The Taiping War and the Men Who Saved the Qing
Jesus's Younger Brother. Hong Xiuquan's visions, the Heavenly Kingdom at Nanjing, Zeng Guofan's Hunan Army and the Ever-Victorious Army, regionalism, and the Nian and Muslim-led risings.
Background essay
Large and Yet Weak: The Second Opium War and Self-Strengthening
Large and Yet Weak. The Arrow War, the burning of the Yuanmingyuan, the regency of 1861, Feng Guifen's question, the Zongli Yamen, arsenals and the students in America, and foreigners in the treaty ports.
Background essay
The Empress and the Boxers: Cixi, Lost Wars, and the Crisis of 1898–1901
The Empress and the Boxers. Cixi as operator, Fuzhou and the Yalu, Shimonoseki and the scramble, why reform fell short, Kang Youwei and the Hundred Days, the coup, the Boxers, and the Protocol.
Research reconnaissance
Chapter 18 Research Reconnaissance
Scholarly-foundation audit of the four Chapter 18 decks against Ebrey and current scholarship, with sources, a primary-source shortlist, and deck issues to fix by slide.
Chapter 24 · Remaking China, 1900–1927
The last Qing reforms, the first nationalists in Tokyo, Sun Yatsen and the Revolutionary Alliance, the Wuchang rising, the killing of Manchus in 1911, the abdication of the boy emperor, Yuan Shikai's failed throne, the warlords, and the wartime factory boom.
Background essay
Cutting the Queue: The Last Qing Reforms, the First Nationalists, and the Revolution of 1911
Cutting the Queue. The Boxer indemnity and the New Policies, local elites and the assemblies, Yan Fu, Liang Qichao and Zou Rong, Sun Yatsen's career, Wuchang, anti-Manchu violence, and the abdication.
Background essay
The President Who Would Be Emperor: Yuan Shikai, the Broken Republic, and the Warlords
The President Who Would Be Emperor. The deal of 1912, Song Jiaoren and the 1913 elections, the Reorganisation Loan, the Second Revolution, the Twenty-One Demands, Yuan's throne, the warlord era, and the wartime boom in Chinese industry.
Background essay
Youth Is Like Early Spring: The New Culture Movement, Lu Xun, and the Women's Movement
Youth Is Like Early Spring. Chen Duxiu and New Youth, Cai Yuanpei's Beijing University, Hu Shi and the vernacular, Lu Xun and "national character," setting up "Diary of a Madman," Qiu Jin, girls' schools, Nora, divorce, and Sophia Chen and H. C. Zen.
Background essay
The Day the Students Marched: May Fourth, the Soviet Alliance, and the March North
The Day the Students Marched. Shandong from 1898, the laborers in France, Wellington Koo at Paris, 4 May 1919 and the June strikes, Sun Yatsen and the Comintern, Borodin and the united front, Whampoa, 30 May 1925, the Northern Expedition, and Ho Chi Minh and the Hong Kong strike.
Research reconnaissance
Chapter 24 Research Reconnaissance
Scholarly-foundation audit of the four Chapter 24 decks against Ebrey and current scholarship, with sources, a primary-source shortlist, and a verification table of every textbook detail checked, by slide.
Chapter 25 · War and Revolution, China, 1927–1949
The founding of the Communist Party and the purge of 1927, Mao's turn to the peasants, Chiang Kaishek's Nanjing government and Shanghai, the Long March, Japan's invasion and the Nanjing massacre, Chongqing and Yan'an, and the civil war that ended in 1949.
Background essay
The Barrel of a Gun: Shanghai 1927, the Communist Party, and Mao's Turn to the Peasants
The Barrel of a Gun. Li Dazhao and the study groups, the Comintern and democratic centralism, the founding of 1921, the alliance ordered from Moscow, the Shanghai rising and the April 1927 purge, Mao in Hunan, Jinggangshan, the Jiangxi Soviet and the Xunwu survey.
Background essay
Paris of the East: Chiang Kaishek's Nanjing Decade and the City of Shanghai
Paris of the East. Sun Yatsen's burial, reunification and the recovered rights, the Land Law and the Civil Code, cities and villages, rural reconstruction, Chiang and political tutelage, the encirclement campaigns, German advisers and fascism, the Blue Shirts, New Life, Shanghai's fortunes and mill girls, and Yuetsim.
Background essay
Eight Thousand Arrived: The Long March, Japan's Invasion, and the War of 1937
Eight Thousand Arrived. The breakout from Jiangxi, Bo Gu and Otto Braun, the women of the march, Zunyi, the route and its numbers, the founding myth, Mukden and Manchukuo, the Xi'an Incident, the Second United Front, Shanghai and Nanjing in 1937, the Yellow River flood, and Edgar Snow.
Background essay
Two Capitals: Chongqing and Yan'an in Wartime, Rectification, and the Civil War
Two Capitals. Bombing, inflation and press gangs in Chongqing, the Hump and Cairo, the New Fourth Army Incident, Yan'an's growth and its peasants, Mao Zedong Thought and rectification, Manchuria and the Marshall Mission, Huaihai, the gold yuan, Taiwan, Jiang Qing, and the Dixie Mission.
Research reconnaissance
Chapter 25 Research Reconnaissance
Scholarly-foundation audit of the four Chapter 25 decks and essays, with sources, a primary-source shortlist, and a verification table of every textbook detail checked.
Chapter 27 · China Under Mao, 1949–1976
The building of the party-state, the Korean War, land reform and collectivization, the Hundred Flowers and the Great Leap Forward, the break with Moscow, and the Cultural Revolution.
Background essay
China Has Stood Up: Building the Party-State, 1949–1956
China Has Stood Up. The people's democratic dictatorship, the party behind the state, Mao in Moscow, the Five-Antis and the Five-Year Plan, Korea and its prisoners, the campaign against counterrevolutionaries, land reform and class labels, collectives, the grain monopoly, rural cadres, the danwei and the Marriage Law, the nationalities, Xinjiang and Tibet.
Background essay
Surpass Britain in Fifteen Years: Flowers, the Leap, and the Split, 1956–1962
Surpass Britain in Fifteen Years. Thought reform and Khrushchev's secret speech, the Hundred Flowers and the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the communes and backyard furnaces, false reports and Lushan, the famine and how it is counted, the split with Moscow and the bomb, household registration, and the Third Front.
Background essay
To Rebel Is Justified: The Cultural Revolution and the End of Mao, 1962–1976
To Rebel Is Justified. Liu and Deng after the famine, the Hai Rui play and the Small Group, the Red Guards and the little red book, the four olds and the fall of Liu Shaoqi, factional war and the sent-down youth, the revolutionary committees, Lin Biao, Nixon, the deaths and the earthquake of 1976, the Gang of Four, and how China judged Mao.