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16th to 19th Centuries:
The Far East to 1700
Time Line of Art History: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
In his famous book, "Organism," Abraham Maslow originated the idea of self-actualization within a hierarchial structure of physilogical and psychological needs. Within this structure are what Maslow calls "esteem needs." From the very beginning of time historians have made manifest evidence of man's expression of "esteem needs." Over 30,000 years ago in Chauvet France the discovery of dynamic, vibrant paintings of animals drawn on limestone cave walls stand as a testament to man's need to express his world through art.
Beauty is truth, truth beauty,
That is all ye know on earth and
All ye need to know.
-------- John Keats (1819) "Ode on a Grecian Urn"
Take the time to see the truth, to see the beauty that man has created across time and space. "Click away!"
Time Line Index:
The Timeline Index : People, Periods, Places and Events in a chronological context.
Readings: Washington State University-World Cultures from 1500
Ming China:
The Ming dynasty was the last native imperial dynasty in Chinese history. Sandwiched between two foreign dynasties, the Ming stand as one last attempt to hold Chinese government in native hands. Humiliated and oppressed by the foreign rule of the Mongols, the Ming dynasty rises up out of a peasant rebellion to preside over the greatest economic and social revolution in China before the modern period. The Ming are also the first to deal with Europeans arriving in ever increasing numbers; as a pre-modern period, many of the issues and contentions of the modern period will have their precursors in the Ming dynasty.
The Establishment of the Ming State
In reality, the Mongol imperial dynasty, the Yüan, had begun to decline long before revolutions began to break out in the 1350's. In Chinese accounts of history, the fall of the Yüan had largely to do with the gradual abandonment of the emperor and his advisors to the pursuit of pleasure. Like all dynasties, the Yüan had begun with dynamic and beneficent rule under Kubilai Khan. The government, according to the Chinese, was simple and moral; the attitude towards the people was lenient. Towards the end, abandoning themselves to corruption and pleasure, the emperor and his government ceased to be concerned about the welfare of the people and neglected their duties. Officials seized power and so caused revolts throughout the country; the revolts caused hardship on the common people.
Under the Ming dynasty, China experienced one of the greatest economic expansions in its history. This expansion affected every area of Chinese economic life: agriculture, commerce, and maritime trade and exploration. It was under the Ming that the Chinese first began to trade and interact with Europeans on any significant scale. The presence of Europeans would eventually prove to be the most contentious aspect of modern Chinese history, but during the Ming, European trade greatly expanded Chinese economic life, particularly in the south.
There are numerous causes for the decline and fall of the Ming despite the auspicious start of the dynasty under the Hong Wu emperor. The most immediate and direct cause of the fall of the Ming were the rebellions that racked the country in the seventeenth century and the aggressive military expansion of the Manchus. The decline of the dynasty, however, began much sooner; history works more often in long patterns, and the decline of the Ming can be dated as far back as the establishment of the dynasty.
Readings:
Washington State University-World Cultures from 1500
Takugawa Japan:
The Tokugawa shogunate was the longest period of uninterrupted peace Japan ever enjoyed. The brilliant and ruthless administration of the Tokugawa military administration combined with the rigid seclusion of the country allowed for the flowering of Japanese culture in an unprecedented way. We are going to take a short tour through the history and culture of early modern Japan, from the bloodshed of the Onin War to the forbidden pleasures of the floating world; these two and a half centuries of seclusion that we are going to tour are the crucible in which the modern Japanese temper was formed.
The Ashikaga Shogunate(1338-1567) was never an extremely powerful shogunate as the Kamakura Shogunate(11-1336) had been. Neither the shogun nore the emperor had enough power to restrict or control the feudal houses (daimyo), which by 1467 had grown to almost 260 in number. So, for all practical purposes, Japan by 1467 was in fact 260 separate countries, for each daimyo was independent and maintained separate armies. The political and territorial picture in Japan, then, was highly volatile. With no powerful central administration to adjudicate disputes, individual daimyo were frequently in armed conflict with other daimyo all through the Ashikaga period.
Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) was the first individual to attempt to unify Japan at the end of the Warring States period; his ultimate goal, though he never realized it, was to bring all of Japan "under a single sword" (tenka-fubu ). Like so many others in the history of Japan, he rose from an obscure family through ruthless ambition to become one of the most powerful men in Japan. His rise to power was slow and deliberate and his use of power unforgiving. The most significant step he took in unifying the country was the destruction of the Buddhist monastery of Mt. Hiei. All throughout the medieval period in Japan, from the Heike war onwards, the monks of Mt. Hiei had played a significant role in both the political and military course of Japan. Seeing Mt. Hiei as a threat to future stability, he destroyed the monastery and hunted down every single Hiei monk and slaughtered them, regardless of their age or innocence.
The most significant figure in Japanese history, as far as the Japanese are concerned, is Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598). Even his lifetime he was considered one of the greatest of the Japanese, and he was made a Shinto deity shortly after his death and given the title, Hokoku, or "Wealth of the Nation." He began in the most obscure circumstances—the homeless son of a peasant— and rose to become the complete master of Japan by 1590. Hideyoshi had no last name when he began to serve Oda Nobunaga; by the end of his life, he had assumed the family name, Toyotomi, or "Abundant Provider."
Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616)
Life in Tokugawa Japan was strictly hierarchical with the population divided among four distinct classes: samurai, farmers, craftspeople, and traders. Prior to the Tokugawa period there was some movement among these classes, but the Tokugawa shoguns, intent upon maintaining their power and privilege, restricted this movement. In particular they tried to protect the samurai, making upward mobility from the farming class to the samurai impossible. The shogun Hideyoshi decreed in 1586 that farmers must stay on their land. In 1587 he decreed that only samurai would be allowed to carry the long sword, which would later define them as a class. As economic conditions changed, the shoguns were less successful, however, in maintaining the rigid boundaries separating the other classes.
Tokugawa Ieyasu's central concern was the restoration of peace and order to war-ravaged Japan; in order to accomplish this, he turned to China and Confucianism. In the bakuhan system of government, the bakufu, or military, government of the Tokugawa shogunate reserved the right to inspect the 250 or so autonomous territories, or han under the control of various daimyo. In order to oversee all these territories, about three-fourths of Japan, and autonomous daimyo , the Tokugawa shogunate established an elaborate bureaucracy modelled after the Chinese imperial bureaucracy. Although Confucianism had been rooted in Japan since the sixth century A.D., it had largely been confined to Buddhist monasteries; however, Tokugawa Ieyasu turned to Confucianism, particularly Neo-Confucianism, as he began to build the bureaucracy which would eventually bring about over 260 years of domestic peace.
The difficulty in studying Japanese culture is it's hard to distinguish precisely what it is. When Japan enters history, that is, when the Japanese begin to write about their experience, the Japanese had already adopted Chinese ways of thinking. In fact, when the Japanese begin writing, they write in Chinese. What Japanese culture was like before Chinese culture began to influence it is almost impossible to determine, even though the Japanese adapt and change Chinese and Indian culture to their own purposes. For instance, the Chinese political theory of the emperor gets infused with Shinto ideas to produce the doctrines of Tennoism.
As a young scholar, Motoori Norinaga (1730-1801) concentrated on linguistic studies; the particular branch of kokugaku that he made his own was the recovery of the Japanese language. If one can sum up his attitude towards language it would be thus: Motoori believed that human beings should experience language directly, to understand the idea or thing in the word in an unmediated fashion. Ordinary Japanese (aohitogusa ) speaking their ordinary language use language in this direct way. Chinese writing gets in the way of this direct understanding of speech and the Chinese in general tend to be "murky" in their use of language. As a result, the use of language in Japan should take its model from the living, changing language of the ordinary people.
Modern Japan: Meiji Restoration
One productive way of looking at Japanese history--and you've probably recognized this already--is to look at its relationship to the outside world. Perhaps because of its geography, or for complex cultural reasons, or both, Japan has a long tradition of interacting with outsiders, borrowing technology and cultural characteristics from these outsiders, and then closing itself off from the outside world to absorb its new influences. Strangely enough, Japan seems just as determined about one approach as the other. At one moment it is reaching out with open arms, and then before you know it, Japan closes its doors and bolts them tight.
A Glossary of Japanese Culture and History
Bridging World History: Annenburg Media
How was the story of the industrial revolution a global process? Industrialization was and is a global process, not just a European or American story. This unit links Cuba, Uruguay, Europe, and Japan, examining the impact of industry on trade, environment, culture, technology, and lives around the world.
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