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Porcelain eared cup

Around 220 at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the Yellow Turban Uprising shook the regime to its foundations. Warlords around the country seized this opportunity to expand their own forces and influence, breaking away from central control. After a tangled warfare among various local feudal lords, the regimes were divided and ruled by the Wei, Shu and Wu.

The three kingdoms strived to develop under each regime. After overthrowing the Han and setting up the Wei Kingdom, Cao Pi adopted a system of nine ranks of officials selected by appointed governmental officials, which became the tool of the gentry's monopoly and was replaced by the imperial examination system in the Sui Dynasty (581-618).

Celadon incense burner

In the Shu Kingdom, Emperor Liu Bei and Prime Minister Zhu Geliang actively promoted the development of the local economy, such as the mass production of the Shu brocade. Zhu ordered several northern expeditions, all of which failed. He died on his sickbed in the cantonment during the last expedition. The Wu Kingdom also paid attention to economic development with its high-level shipbuilding technology.

After the Western Jin Dynasty (265-316) overthrew the Wei Kingdom, the country gradually became unified. Later, the Western Jin defeated the Wu and unified the China that had remained divided since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty.

Bronze vessel of the Spring and Autumn Period unearthed in Yancheng Site, Jiangsu Province

The Spring and Autumn Period (770-476BC) refers to the period covered by Confucius' book The Spring and Autumn Annals, which recorded history from 722 to 48BC.

The Spring and Autumn Period was a time of turbulence and transition in Chinese history, with the decline of the patriarchal clan system, enfeoffment system and traditional cultural pattern of the Western Zhou Dynasty (11th century-771BC).

The sword used by Gou Jian, King of the Yue State of the Spring and Autumn Period (55.7cm high, 4.6cm wide and with a handle of 8.4cm long)

During this period vassal states did not obey orders from the king and fought with each other for their own interests. Some powerful states united with other vassal lords by invoking the slogan loyalty to the King of the Zhou and fought anti-Zhou states and other resisting states. During the annexation of the vassal states, Duke Huan of the Qi, Duke Wen of the Jin, Duke Mu of the Qin, Duke Xiang of the Song and Duke Chu of the Zhuang, known as the Five Overlords of the Spring and Autumn Period, had, in turn, emerged as the supreme powers of the states.

From the social structure to the political system, great changes had taken place during the late Spring and Autumn Period. Cultural and educational systems were no exceptions. At that time persistent social upheavals gradually broke the monopoly of culture and literature by members of the nobility. To educate and foster more scholars and officials, private schools became a trendy development. Confucius started private tutoring under such circumstances. Praising King Wen of the Western Zhou Dynasty and influenced by Guan Zhong and Zi Chan of the Spring and Autumn Period, Confucius created a school of thought called Confucianism by refining various literary materials in history.

Following a long war period, only seven states -- the Seven Powers of the Warring States Period -- remained before they were finally absorbed by the Qin when the country was united.

100 Historical and Cultural Cities

Municipalities directly under the Central Government:

Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing

Hebei Province: Baoding, Chengde, Zhengding,* Handan

Shanxi Province: Pingyao,* Datong, Xinjiang,* Daixian,* Qixian*

Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region: Hohhot

Heilongjiang Province: Harbin

Jilin Province: Jilin, Ji?an

Liaoning Province: Shenyang

Jiangsu Province: Nanjing, Xuzhou, Huai?an, Zhenjiang, Changshu, Suzhou, Yangzhou

Zhejiang Province: Hangzhou, Shaoxing, Ningbo, Quzhou, Linhai

Fujian Province: Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Changting*

Jiangxi Province: Nanchang, Ganzhou, Jingdezhen

Anhui Province: Bozhou, Shexian,* Shouxian*

Shandong Province: Jinan, Qufu, Qingdao, Liaocheng, Zoucheng, Zibo

Henan Province: Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Kaifeng, Anyang, Nanyang, Shangqiu, Junxian*

Hubei Province: Wuhan, Jingzhou, Xiangfan, Suizhou, Zhongxiang

Hunan Province: Changsha, Yueyang, Fenghuang*

Guangdong Province: Guangzhou, Chaozhou, Zhaoqing, Foshan, Meizhou, Leizhou

Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region: Guilin, Liuzhou

Hainan Province: Qiongshan

Sichuan Province: Chengdu, Zigong, Yibin, Langzhong, Leshan, Dujiangyan, Luzhou

Yunnan Province: Kunming, Dali, Lijiang,* Jianshui,* Weishan*

Guizhou Province: Zunyi, Zhenyuan*

Tibet Autonomous Region: Lhasa, Xigaze, Gyangze*

Shaanxi Province: Xi?an, Yan?an, Hancheng, Yulin, Xianyang, Hanzhong

Gansu Province: Zhangye, Wuwei, Dunhuang, Tianshui

Qinghai Province: Tongren*

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region: Yinchuan

Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region: Kashi

Note: Names with asterisk are counties.

29 World Heritage Sites

China?s historic preservation efforts have received international recognition, most notably through the list of World Natural or Cultural Heritage sites. By the end of 2002, China had 28 UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites, World Natural Heritage sites and World Cultural and Natural Heritage sites?all imbued with deep historical significance. They are:

1. The Great Wall (Beijing Municipality, 1987, World Cultural Heritage)

2. The Forbidden City (Beijing Municipality, 1987, World Cultural Heritage)

3. ?Peking Man? Ruins at Zhoukoudian (Beijing Municipality, 1987, World Cultural Heritage)

4. Mogao Caves at Dunhuang (Gansu Province, 1987, World Cultural Heritage)

5. Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum and the Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horses (Shaanxi Province, 1987, World Cultural Heritage)

6. Mount Taishan (Shandong Province, 1987, World Cultural and Natural Heritage)

7. Mount Huangshan (Anhui Province, 1990, World Cultural and Natural Heritage)

8. Jiuzhaigou (Sichuan Province, 1992, World Natural Heritage)

9. Huanglongsi Scenic Spot (Sichuan Province, 1992, World Natural Heritage)

10. Wulingyuan Scenic Spot (Hunan Province, 1992, World Natural Heritage)

11. Chengde Mountain Summer Resort and Eight Outer Temples (Hebei Province, 1994, World Cultural Heritage)

12. Potala Palace (Tibet Autonomous Region, 1994, World Cultural Heritage)

13. Confucius Temple, Confucius Family Mansion and Confucius Woods at Qufu (Shandong Province, 1994, World Cultural Heritage)

14. Ancient Buildings on Mount Wudang (Hubei Province, 1994, World Cultural Heritage)

15. Mount Lushan (Jiangxi Province, 1996, World Cultural Heritage)

16. Mount Emei and the Leshan Giant Buddha (Sichuan Province, 1996, World Cultural and Natural Heritage)

17. Ancient City of Pingyao (Shanxi Province, 1997, World Cultural Heritage)

18. Suzhou Classical Gardens (Jiangsu Province, 1997, World Cultural Heritage)

19. Ancient City of Lijiang (Yunnan Province, 1997, World Cultural Heritage)

20. The Summer Palace (Beijing Municipality, 1998, World Cultural Heritage)

21. The Temple of Heaven (Beijing Municipality, 1998, World Cultural Heritage)

22. Mount Wuyi (Fujian Province, 1999, World Cultural and Natural Heritage)

23. Dazu Grottoes (Chongqing Municipality, 1999, World Cultural Heritage)

24. Ming and Qing Imperial Mausoleums (Hubei and Hebei provinces, 2000, World Cultural Heritage)

25. Longmen Grottoes (Henan Province, 2000, World Cultural Heritage)

26. Mount Qingcheng and Dujiang Dam (Sichuan Province, 2000, World Cultural Heritage)

27. Xidi and Hongcun?Ancient Villages in South Anhui (Anhui

Province, 2000, World Cultural Heritage)

28. Yungang Grottoes (Shanxi Province, 2001, World Cultural Heritage)

29. Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan(Yunnan Province, 2003, World Natural Heritage)

Museums

Some museums of cultural relics ? the Qin Dynasty terracotta warriors in Xi?an is an example ? have become internationally known tourist attractions. But this museum is just one of some 1,394 museums nationwide in China. Beijing alone has 118 museums including museums of ancient coins, astronautics, animation art, natural history, Beijing opera, contemporary literature, Buddhist literature and heritage, sports, stamps, classical art, fine arts, military, ethnology as well as museums honoring famous writers, artists, scientists and political figures in Chinese history. Local non-governmental museums included, the number of various museums nationwide has reached some 2,000. These museums keep over 20 million items of cultural relics and art works and hold over 8,000 exhibitions annually. The government encourages exchanges of cultural relics between museums and promotes the display and exchanges of legal non-governmental collections.

The National Museum of Chinese History The National Museum of Chinese History stands on the eastern side of Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The museum?s permanent exhibition, the Exhibition of Chinese General History, was established in 1959, and the museum also has many specialized collections. In March 2003 featured exhibitions were Fine Arts of Inner Mongolia, Splendor of the Great Tang Dynasty, and a Special Exhibition of the Treasures of the National Museum of Chinese History. Since the 1980s, the National Museum of Chinese History has both organized and taken part in some 50 exhibitions in Asia, Europe, and the United States. As an example in 1996, the exhibition ?Outstanding Pieces in the National Museum of Chinese History? was held in Japan. About 130 exhibits were selected from the museum?s wide collection of bronze wares, stone implements, jade ware, pottery and stone carvings. Among them was the well-known bronze mask shaped in the form of a human face, excavated at Sanxingdui of Guanghan in Sichuan Province, and the remarkable ?mystic color? celadon wares found in the crypt of the Fallen Temple at Fufeng in Shaanxi Province.

The Palace Museum in the Forbidden City in Beijing. The Palace Museum, historically and artistically one of the most comprehensive in China, was established on the foundation of a palace of two dynasties, the Ming and the Qing, and their collection of treasures. Designated by the State Council as being among China?s foremost-protected monuments in 1961, the Palace Museum is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Henan Museum, in Henan Province, opened in 1998. The museum features significant collec tions of prehistoric cultural relics, bronze vessels of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, and pottery and porcelain wares of the various dynasties in Chinese history.

By the end of 2002, some 1,269 historical monuments and cultural relics in China had been placed under state protection. This follows the period in the 1990s when China made the largest investment ever toward protecting cultural relics. During that period, the special subsidies appropriated by the Central Government for the protection of cultural relics reached some 700 million yuan for about 1,000 projects. The Palace Museum in Beijing, Potala Palace in Lhasa and the Longmen Grottoes in Henan Province, for example, underwent major renovations. Concerned governmental departments invested in a special fund to protect cultural relics in the project areas of the national basic construction of the Yellow River Xiaolangdi Project and the Yangtze River Three Gorges Water Conservancy Project. The Law on Cultural Relics Protection of the PRC was revised in October 2002 for the first time to institute regulations on transfer and exchange of cultural relics.

Municipalities also are actively engaged in historic preservation. Beijing alone now has 3,553 officially recognized historic and cultural relics, including five sites on the UNESCO World Heritage List and 60 sites under state protection. Beijing?s 2002 plan for the Imperial City protected city walls, altar walls, water network, grassland, roads, the hutong (lane or alley) network and courtyard houses. From 2003 to 2008, the Beijing municipal government will invest 120 million yuan annually to preserve a famous historical and cultural city.

The Chinese government lists 100 cities as famous Chinese historical and cultural cities under key protection, including the capital cities chosen by the emperors of various dynasties, politically and economically important cities during ancient times, places where important historical events took place, cities enjoying great reputations for their rare cultural relics and historical remains, and those famous for exquisite art works. The protection of these cities includes both the preservation of the ancient buildings and historical sectors, and the preservation of the layout and features of the ancient cities.

Two of the country?s better-known preservation sites are the ancient city of Lijiang in Yunnan Province and the ancient city of Pingyao in Shanxi Province. Lijiang lies in the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, a city known for its cobbled streets and canals; Pingyao was not far from the site where Zhang Yimou shot his award-winning film, Raise the Red Lantern. Both of these cities are among those on the United Nations World Cultural Heritage List. Aside from cities, it would be hard to find any other place in the world with as many ancient villages as China, a traditionally large agricultural country. Historic preservation authorities are planning a major ancient village protection project for these treasured villages and the folk culture, art and handicrafts that still thrive in them.

Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties (960-1911)

Following the Tang Dynasty came a period of almost continual warfare known as the Five Dynasties and Ten States. In 960, Zhao Kuangyin, a general of the State of Later Zhou, established the Song Dynasty (960-1279), known in history as the Northern Song Dynasty. When the Song Dynasty moved its capital to the south, it became known in history as the Southern Song Dynasty. China in the Song Dynasty was in the forefront of the world in astronomy, science and technology. Bi Sheng invented movable type made of clay, an invention that greatly increased the number of books published.

In 1206, Genghis Khan established the Mongolian Khanate. In 1271, Kublai, a grandson of Genghis Khan, conquered the Central Plains, founded the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368), and made Dadu (today?s Beijing) the capital. Kublai ended the centuries-long situation in which many independent regimes existed side by side by forming a united country that brought Xinjiang, Tibet and Yunnan under its sway. During the Song-Yuan period, the ?four great inventions? in science and technology of the Chinese people in ancient times?papermaking, printing, the compass and gunpowder?were further developed, and spread abroad.

In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang established the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) in Nanjing, reigning as Emperor Taizu. When his son and successor Zhu Di (1360-1424) ascended the throne, he built and expanded the palaces, temples, city walls and moats in Beijing. In 1421, he officially moved the capital to Beijing. During his reign, he dispatched a eunuch named Zheng He to lead a fleet of many ships to make seven far-ranging voyages. Passing the Southeast Asian countries, the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf and Maldives Islands, Zheng He explored as far as Somalia and Kenya on the eastern coast of Africa. These were the largest-scale and longest voyages in the world before the age of Columbus.

The Manchus of northeast China established the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) in 1644. The best known of the Qing Dynasty emperors, Kangxi (r. 1661-1722) restored the central empire?s rule over Taiwan, and resisted invasions by tsarist Russia. To reinforce the administration of Tibet, he also formulated the rules and regulations on the confirmation of the Tibetan local leaders by the Central Government. He effectively administered over 11 million sq km of Chinese territory.

Modern Period (1840-1919)

During the early 19th century, the Qing Dynasty declined rapidly. Britain smuggled large quantities of opium into China, making the Qing government impose a ban on the drug. In an effort to protect its opium trade, Britain launched a war against China in 1840. The Qing government finally signed the Treaty of Nanking, a treaty of national betrayal and humiliation, with the British government. Many countries, including Britain, the United States, France, Russia and Japan, forced the Qing government to sign various unequal treaties following the Opium War. China was gradually relegated to a semi-colonial, semi-feudal country.

The Revolution of 1911 led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen was one of the greatest events in modern Chinese history, as it overthrew the 200-odd-year-old Qing Dynasty, ending over 2,000 years of feudal monarchy, and established the Republic of China (1912-1949).

New-Democratic Revolution (1919-1949)

The May 4th Movement of 1919 is regarded as the ideological origin of many important events in modern Chinese history. Its direct cause was the unequal treaties imposed on China after the First World War. Out of strong patriotism, students initiated the movement, and it further developed into a national protest movement of people from all walks of life. It also marked the introduction into China of various new ideologies, among which the spread of Marxism-Leninism was worthy of special mention. Under the influence of Russia?s October Revolution of 1917, 12 delegates, including Mao Zedong, representing communist groups in different places throughout the nation, held the First National Congress in Shanghai in 1921 to found the Communist Party of China (CPC).

The Chinese people led by the CPC underwent successively the Northern Expeditionary War (1924-27), War of Agrarian Revolution (also known as ?Ten-Year Civil War,? 1927-37), War of Resistance Against Japan (1937-45) and War of Liberation (1945-49). Owing to the cooperation and joint resistance of the CPC and Kuomintang the Japanese aggressors were defeated. But shortly after the anti-Japanese war, the Kuomintang launched a civil war again. After the three-year War of Liberation led by the CPC, the Kuomintang government was finally overthrown in 1949.

People?s Republic of China (1949- )

On October 1, 1949 a grand ceremony was witnessed by 300,000 people in Beijing?s Tiananmen Square, and Mao Zedong, chairman of the Central People?s Government, solemnly proclaimed the founding of the People?s Republic of China (PRC).

During the initial post-Liberation period, the Chinese government successfully carried out land reform in areas accounting for over 90 percent of the total national agricultural population, and 300 million farmers were granted approximately 47 million ha of land. Amazing achievements were made during the First Five-Year Plan period, from 1953 to 1957. The average annual increase rate of the national income reached over 8.9 percent. China established basic industries necessary for full industrialization hitherto non-existent domestically, producing airplanes, automobiles, heavy machinery, precision machinery, power-generating equipment, metallurgical and mining equipment, high-grade alloy steels and non-ferrous metals.

The ten years from 1957 to 1966 was the period in which China started large-scale socialist construction. Though China suffered from the mistakes in its policies during the period, it also accomplished a great deal. The nation?s total industrial fixed assets quadrupled between 1956 and 1966 and the national income increased by 58 percent in constant prices. The output of essential industrial products increased by several or even a dozen times. Large-scale agricultural capital construction and technical transformation got underway. Unfortunately, the ?cultural revolution,? which lasted for ten years (1966-1976), made the state and its people suffer the most serious setbacks and losses since its founding.

The Jiang Qing counter-revolutionary clique was smashed in October 1976, marking the end of the ?cultural revolution,? and the beginning of a new era in Chinese history. The CPC reinstated Deng Xiaoping, previously general secretary of the CPC, to all the Party and governmental posts he had been dismissed from during the ?cultural revolution.? In 1979, China instituted a guiding policy of ?reform and opening to the outside world? under Deng?s leadership, and the focus was shifted to modernization. Major efforts were made to reform the economic and political systems. China was step by step establishing a road with Chinese characteristics, a road that would lead to socialist modernization. Profound changes have come about in China since the country embarked on the policy of reform and opening-up. The situation in the country is the best ever, characterized by a swiftly and vigorously advancing economy and markedly improved living standard.

After Jiang Zemin became general secretary of the CPC Central Committee (in 1989) and president of the state (in 1993), he led China?s third-generation leaders to uphold and carry on the policy of reform and opening-up initiated by Deng Xiaoping. As a result, China?s policies enjoyed wide popular support in a stable political situation, burgeoning economy, and active diplomatic engagement.

Remote Antiquity and Slave Society (1.7 million years ago-476 B.C.)

China has a recorded history of nearly 4,000 years, but archeologists have traced the beginnings of human civilization in China to a much earlier time. China?s earliest primitive human discovered so far is known as ?Yuanmou Man,? a fossil anthropoid unearthed in Yuanmou in Yunnan Province who lived approximately 1.7 million years ago. The better-known ?Peking Man,? discovered in the Zhoukoudian area near Beijing, lived about 600,000 years ago. Peking Man was able to walk upright, make and use simple tools, and make fire. By the start of the Neolithic Age in China about 10,000 years ago, people were cultivating rice and millet with farming tools, something revealed by relics found in the ruins of Hemudu in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, and Banpo, near Xi?an City, Shaanxi Province. These relics date back some 6,000-7,000 years.

According to tradition, the Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 B.C.) was the first Chinese dynasty that ruled a state. The center of its activities was the western section of modern Henan Province and the southern section of modern Shanxi Province, and its sphere of influence reached the northern and southern areas of the Yellow River. The Great Yu, King of Xia, was succeeded by his son Qi, and his descendants until the Xia Dynasty was overthrown by Shang. Written records of the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 B.C.) exist?some cast in bronze, some inscribed on tortoise shells or animal bones. These and other relics reveal that Chinese in the Shang Dynasty had magnificent abilities in bronze work, were involved in agriculture, and had formed a slave society. The Western Zhou (1046-771 B.C.) Dynasty saw further development but Chinese historians differ on whether people then maintained a slave society or developed an incipient stage of feudalism. This era was followed by the Spring and Autumn (770-476 B.C.) and Warring States (475-221 B.C.) periods when silk production advanced considerably and steel production started. Periods of economic and social upheaval when independent states vied for power, they are also known as dynamic cultural periods that produced several of the world?s greatest philosophers: Lao Zi, Confucius, Mencius and Sun Zi, whose book The Art of War even in modern times is an international best seller.

The Qin Dynasty (221-207 B.C.)

Qin Shi Huang (259-210 B.C.), first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, conquered six states and established the first centralized, unified, multi-ethnic feudal state in Chinese history. He standardized the written script, weights and measures, and currencies, and established the system of prefectures and counties. The sovereigns of the next 2,000-odd years followed the feudal governmental structure established by him. He mobilized more than 300,000 people over a period of a dozen years to build the Great Wall, which stretches for 5,000 km in northern China. Early in his reign Qin Shi Huang had work started on his enormous mausoleum guarded by terracotta warriors of an ?underground army? unearthed in 1974, a discovery that amazed the world. The 8,000 vivid, life-size pottery figures, horses and chariots have been called the ?eighth wonder of the world? and one of the greatest archeological discoveries of the 20th century. UNESCO added the Qin Shi Huang tomb to the World Heritage List in 1987.

Han Dynasty (206 B.C.-220 A.D.) and the ?Silk Road?

Liu Bang, one of the leaders of a peasant uprising that overthrew the Qin Dynasty, established the powerful Han Dynasty in 206 B.C. During the Han Dynasty, agriculture, handicrafts and commerce flourished, and the population reached 50 million. Emperor Wudi (r. 140-87 B.C.) expanded the territory of the empire from the Central Plains to the Western Regions (present-day Xinjiang and Central Asia). He dispatched Zhang Qian twice as his envoy to the Western Regions, and in the process pioneered the route known as the ?Silk Road? from Chang?an (today?s Xi?an, Shaanxi Province), through Xinjiang and Central Asia, and on to the east coast of the Mediterranean Sea. China?s silk goods were traded to the West along the Silk Road. As contacts between the East and West increased, Buddhism spread to China in the first century. In 105, an official named Cai Lun invented a technique for making fine paper, creating a revolution in communications and learning.

Tang Dynasty (618-907)

After the Han Dynasty came the Three Kingdoms Period (220-265), the Jin Dynasty (265-420), the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-589) and the Sui Dynasty (581-618). Then came the Tang Dynasty, established by Li Yuan in 618 with its capital at Chang?an (Xi?an). Agriculture, handicrafts and commerce flourished; technologies for textile manufacturing and dyeing, pottery and porcelain production, smelting and shipbuilding were further developed. Beautiful woodblock printings of dictionaries and almanacs and Buddhist scriptures were in circulation. Trade was facilitated by institution of a courier service and the introduction of stagecoaches. The Grand Canal also helped the flow of merchandise. Chang?an became a cultural and international trade center and?along with Luoyang, Yangzhou, and Guangzhou?a major commercial center. During the Tang Dynasty cultural relations were established with many countries, including Japan, Korea, India, Persia and Arabia. China?s influence reached far into the northwest, even extending to many city-states in Central Asia. The Tang Dynasty was the time when Buddhism reached its height in China.

Columbus sailed to America in St. Maria (eighty-five feet) in 1492. Zheng He sailed from China to many places throughout South Pacific, Indian Ocean, Taiwan, Persian Gulf and distant Africa in seven epic voyages from 1405 to 1433 ,some 80 years before Columbus's voyages.

Zheng He flag "treasure ship" is four hundred feet long - much larger than Columbus's.
In the drawing below, the two flagships are superimposed to give a clear idea of the relative size of these two ships.

For more about Cheng Ho, there is a full-length book by Louise Levathes, "When China Ruled the Seas", reprinted by Oxford Univ. Pr, 1996, ISBN 0-195-112075

Zheng He's Tomb

Zheng He (1371-1435), or Cheng Ho, is arguably China's most famous navigator. Starting from the beginning of the 15th Century, he traveled to the West seven times. For 28 years, he traveled more than 50,000km and visited over 30 countries, including Singapore. Zheng He died in the tenth year of the reign of the Ming emperor Xuande (1435) and was buried in the southern outskirts of Bull's Head Hill (Niushou) in Nanjing.

In 1985, during the 580th anniversary of Zheng He's voyage, his tomb was restored. The new tomb was built on the site of the original tomb in Nanjing and reconstructed according to the customs of Islamic teachings, as Zheng He was a Muslim.

At the entrance to the tomb is a Ming-style structure, which houses the memorial hall. Inside are paintings of the man himself and his navigation maps. To get to the tomb, there are newly laid stone platforms and steps. The stairway consists of 28 stone steps divided into four sections with each section having seven steps. This represents Zheng He's seven journeys to the West. The Arabic words "Allah (God) is great" are inscribed on top of the tomb.

Zhenghe constructed many wooden ships, some of which are the largest in the history, in Nanjing. Three of the shipyards still exist today.

15. THE CHINESE REVOLUTION II: COMMUNIST

The Communist Party

The Chinese Communist party is the primary political force in China. Unlike parties in Western democracies, it is a tightly organized movement that controls and leads society at all levels. The party sets policy and controls its execution through government officials who are also party members. The effect is to make the government an organ of the party.

At the time of its founding in 1921, the Chinese Communist party focused on organizing urban workers, but it achieved only limited success in this effort. Orthodox Marxism expected the Communist Revolution to begin among industrial workers. However, Karl Marx had developed his theories based upon highly industrialized economies, and the industrial sector in China was small and relatively primitive. It was Mao Zedong who adapted Marxist theory to the conditions of an underdeveloped, primarily agricultural society . Although Mao's successors downgraded some of his more radical ideas, Marxism-Leninism-Mao Thought--Marxism as it was interpreted by Mao--is still officially designated as the guiding philosophy that is behind both the party and the government.

The Chinese Communist party is organized as a hierarchy, with power concentrated at the top. Above the local units, or cells, is a pyramid-like structure of party congresses and committees at various levels, culminating in the National Party Congress. The national congress is supposed to meet every five years, though this has not always been the case. When it is not in session, direction of the party is in the hands of a Central Committee of about 200 members, which is elected by the congress. The Central Committee, in turn, elects the Political Bureau, which in 1982 consisted of 25 full members and three alternates. It is within the Political Bureau and its elite Standing Committee that power is concentrated and the highest level decisions of state are made. There is also a secretariat that carries on the day-to-day business of the party.

Prior to 1982, the highest party office was that of chairman, held for more than 25 years, through most of the People's Republic's history to that time, by Mao Zedong. In an effort to ensure that the power Mao had enjoyed was never again concentrated in one person, a new party constitution adopted in 1982 abolished the chairmanship and replaced it with the administrative position of general secretary to the Secretariat. The constitution also established a body called the Central Advisory Commission to assist and advise the Central Committee. One of the objects of the commission was to encourage elderly party leaders to continue to be active in various functions of the Communist party. The commission became an obstacle to reform and was abolished in 1992.

Theoretically, party membership is open to anyone over 18 who accepts the party program and is willing to work actively in one of its organizations. Members are expected to abide by the party's discipline and to serve as model workers. The backbone of the party consists of full-time paid workers known as cadres (Chinese, ganbu). The term cadre is also used for public officials holding responsible positions who may or may not be members of the party.

THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

On Oct. 1, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The CCP hailed its takeover of China as a people's victory over and liberation from imperial domination (especially that of the United States) and the oppressive KMT regime. The Red Army was renamed the People's Liberation Army. During the early days of the People's Republic, the troops were restrained, foreign-educated Chinese returned to help the country, and most local administrators remained in office.

The first Communist government, the People's Consultative Council, included non-Communists among its 662 members. However, in the top committee, 31 out of 56 seats were occupied by Communists, and the constitution of 1954 drastically curtailed the role of non-Communists. After 1954, more authority was concentrated in the central government under the State Council. Real power, however, lay with the Communist party, especially the Central Committee, then composed of 94 members. This committee held together the triad of power--army, government, and party. The inner circle of the Central Committee was the 19-member Political Bureau and its seven-member Standing Committee.

Land reform. One of the first tasks of the Communist government was land reform, redistributing land from landlords to the peasants. The Agrarian Law of 1950 began the nationwide land reform, which was almost completed by the beginning of 1953.

Social reform. Land reform erased the social distinction between landlord and peasant. The new marriage law of 1950 and the campaigns of the early 1950s removed distinctions within the family. Women were given full equality with men in matters of marriage, divorce, and property ownership. Children were encouraged to denounce parents if they failed to support the Communist line.

Thought reform. Believing that the revolution could not be carried on without reform of people, the CCP launched a massive campaign to change China's entire psychology. The Four Olds campaign was launched to eradicate old ideas, habits, customs, and culture. The Three Anti's movement was directed at officials, with the aim of eliminating corruption, waste, and "bureaucratism." The Five Anti's campaign, directed at the remaining businessmen and bourgeoisie, opposed bribery, tax fraud, cheating, and stealing state property and economic information. For Chinese Christians, The Three Selfs movement stressed self-government, self-support, and self-propagation, the object being to separate the churches in China from their parent denominations abroad. Leading churchmen were forced into denouncing religion as cultural imperialism. The idea of cultural imperialism was extended to art and literature, which henceforth were to serve the people, the class struggle, and the revolution.

Economic planning. Along with the reforms of land tenure, society, family, and even thought, the CCP announced the first five-year plan in 1953 to speed up the socialization of China through a planned economy. The plan's aim was to produce maximum returns from agriculture in order to pay for industrialization and Soviet aid. The means chosen was the collectivization of agriculture. Land and farm implements were pooled into cooperatives and later into collective farms, which controlled the production, price, and distribution of products. By May 1956, 90 percent of the farmers were members of cooperatives.

Similarly, 80 percent of heavy industry and 40 percent of light industry were in government hands by October 1952. The government also controlled all the railways and most steamship operations. To speed China's development even more, Mao Zedong, Liu Shaoqi, and others, after overcoming some opposition within the leadership, launched the Great Leap Forward in 1958.

The Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward was designed to overcome the backwardness of China's economy, industry, and technology. It was to be achieved through use of the vast manpower and indomitable spirit of the Chinese. Steel production was to be increased by setting up small-scale "backyard furnaces," and agricultural output was to be raised by combining the collective farms into communes. About 26,000 communes were created by the Communist government, each composed of approximately 5,000 households.

After a year, the leaders admitted that the success of the program had been exaggerated. The steel produced by the backyard furnaces was of low quality, and the quantity fell short of the projected goal. The people's reluctance to join communes was stronger than expected, and the size of the communes had to be reduced. Domestic life in homes, as well as private plots for family use, had to be restored. The effect of the Great Leap Forward on the people and the economy was devastating. Coupled with three straight years of poor harvests, it resulted in a severe food shortage and industrial decline. For the next several years, while lip service was paid to Mao's thought and to Great Leap-type activism, the real power was in more conservative hands.

The Cultural Revolution

The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution was a radical movement that closed schools, slowed production, and virtually severed China's relations with the outside world. It was proletarian because it was a revolution of the workers against party officials. It was cultural because it meant to alter the values of society in the Communist sense. It was great, because it was on a mammoth scale. It lasted for two years in its intense form, lingered on for another year and a half, and was not officially declared over until 1977.

The Cultural Revolution had its roots in a power struggle between Mao and his supporters, including his wife, Jiang Qing, and Lin Biao--who believed that the initial fervor of the revolution was being lost--and more conservative, bureaucratic elements within the leadership. One point at issue was the educational system, and particularly the fact that urban youth (especially the children of privileged officials) appeared to have a better chance of getting a university education than the children of rural peasants. Mao feared that Chinese society was becoming rigid, and to prevent this he relied for support on the military and on youth.

In the summer of 1966, a group of Beijing high school girls protested against the system of college entrance examinations. The Central Committee acceded to the students' demand by promising a reform and postponing the 1966 enrollment for half a year. Freed from their studies, students demonstrated in Beijing in August, touching off demonstrations of young people in general. Obviously inspired by Mao, youths wearing red armbands and flashing copies of the "little red book" containing Mao's thought (`Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong'), marched through the streets shouting the slogan, "To bypass the Communist party apparatus and force the hierarchy's political foes into submission." These Red Guards, as they were called, were given free railway passes, and they poured into Beijing and other cities in great numbers throughout 1967.

In early 1967 some of the highest ranking leaders, former close revolutionary associates of Mao himself, were criticized and dismissed. Liu Shaoqi, who had been president of the republic, Zhu De, and Deng Xiaoping were among the better known victims. Even Confucius was attacked as having been a hypocritical supporter of the bourgeoisie. Throughout the country, revolutionary committees sprang up, seized power from the local government and party authorities, and harassed--and in some cases attacked--those suspected of being disloyal to Mao's thought.

The disorders reached a climax in July 1967 in the city of Wuhan, when the local military commander tried to rally the people against the radicals and troops had to be sent in to restore order. From that time on, steps were taken to quiet the more disruptive portions of the Cultural Revolution, though it was not until 1968 that society returned to something resembling normality. In March 1969 the government issued a directive to open all schools. The situation was so chaotic, however, that the universities were not reopened until September 1970.

The Cultural Revolution greatly affected the CCP leadership. When the long-postponed ninth congress of the CCP was finally convened in April 1969, two thirds of the old members of the Central Committee were missing. Mao's attempt to maintain a state of permanent revolution had been immensely costly. Years of work and progress were sacrificed: A whole generation of youth went without education; factories and farms lay idle. China fell even further behind the industrialized powers of the world. As the Cultural Revolution died down, Zhou Enlai, who had been premier since the founding of the People's Republic, quietly took control. Deng Xiaoping and other "pragmatic" leaders were reestablished. The party and government relaxed their control over the people and granted certain civil rights in a new constitution adopted in 1975.

International Relations of the People's Republic

The People's Republic has undergone several shifts in foreign policy since 1949. Initially, it was closely tied to the Soviet Union and firmly identified as a member of the socialist camp.

Within a few years, however, the Sino-Soviet relationship had begun to deteriorate, the victim, among other factors, of differing national interests, differing interpretations of Marxism, and Chinese resentment over heavy-handed Soviet attempts at control. By the mid-1960s China and the Soviet Union had become openly hostile toward each other.

China was largely isolated from the rest of the world during the height of the Cultural Revolution, but when the upheavals subsided it began to take a more practical foreign policy line. Trade was opened up with a number of Western countries, China started to play an active role in international organizations, and diplomatic relations were established with countries willing to recognize the People's Republic--rather than the Nationalist government on Taiwan--as the government of China. Most dramatically, contacts were begun with the United States, leading to full diplomatic recognition on Jan. 1, 1979.

While China's political system changed little by the 1990s, its economy had become the fastest-growing in the world. Relations with the United States became unstable on two fronts. The Chinese government refused to allow the human rights concerns to become an issue in trade talks. Trade itself became a major issue, as exports to the United States exceeded imports. In addition, North Korea's probable possession of nuclear weapons posed an unsettling problem for China and the United States in the mid-1990s.

MAO ZEDONG, or MAO TSE-TUNG (1893-1976).

In China Mao Zedong is remembered and revered as the greatest of revolutionaries. His achievements as ruler, however, have been deservedly downgraded because he was among the worst of politicians. He knew well how to make a revolution, but once in power he could not put his love of revolution aside for the sake of governing.

Mao was born on Dec. 26, 1893, in Shaoshan, Hunan Province. His father was a peasant who had become successful as a grain dealer. Mao's schooling was intermittent. During the Revolution of 1911-12 he served in the army for six months. After that he drifted for a while without goals, but he managed to graduate from the First Provincial Normal School in Changsha in 1918. He then sent to Peking University, where he became embroiled in the revolutionary May Fourth Movement. This movement marked the decisive turn in Chinese revolutionary thought in favor of Marxist Communism as a solution to China's problems.

In 1921 Mao helped found the Chinese Communist party. He was at that time a school principal in Hunan. Two years later, when the Communists forged an alliance with Sun Yat-sen's Nationalist party (the Kuomintang), he left work to become a full-time revolutionary. It was at this time that Mao discovered the great potential of the peasant class for making revolution. This realization led him to the brilliant strategy he used to win control of China: gain control of the countryside and encircle the cities.

The Communists and the Nationalists coexisted in an uneasy relationship until the end of World War II. The Nationalist leader after 1925 was Chiang Kai-shek, who was determined to rule China. He never trusted the Communists, and at times he persecuted them. Mao's first wife was executed by the Nationalists in 1930.

The Chinese Soviet Republic was founded in November 1931 in Jiangxi Province. In 1934 Mao and his forces were driven out, and they went northward in what is known as the Long March. By 1935, however, the Communists and Nationalists forged a united front against the Japanese. Rivalry persisted, but the front held until 1945. The revolution that then began ended in 1949 with the Communists victorious.

In addition to his problems with the Nationalists, Mao's dealings with the Soviet Union's Joseph Stalin were always uneasy. Stalin grew wary of a competing Communist power of China's size on the Soviet borders. Mao eventually came to regard the Soviets as revisionists and felt they were traitors to the cause of world revolution.

Mao's title as ruler of China was chairman of the People's Republic. For the first five years he rarely appeared in public and seemed to be only a ceremonial figure. He never achieved the total control in China that Stalin did in the Soviet Union. Many of his comrades were influential in directing policy, often in ways with which Mao disagreed. In 1955 he emerged from isolation determined to play the decisive role in economic policy and political restructuring.

Failing to gain the allegiance of the intellectuals, he turned to the masses with a program called the Great Leap Forward. While not a complete economic disaster, it had severe consequences. After it disrupted both city and countryside, he was forced to retreat from his policies in favor of his opponents. To counter opposition he launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, urged on by his radical wife, Jiang Qing. This vast upheaval wrecked the Communist party bureaucracy, paralyzed education and research, and left the economy almost a shambles.

Only slowly did China begin to recover. By then Mao was old and ill. Other, more moderate hands guided policy. Zhou Enlai seemed to emerge as the nation's real leader when relations were reestablished with the United States.

Mao's personality cult remained strong until his death on Sept. 9, 1976. Shortly afterward, however, a power struggle was under way. Members of the party who had been purged by the Cultural Revolution returned to govern China. Chief among them was Deng Xiaoping (See Deng Xiaoping).

16 POST-MAO CHINA

Passing of the old guard.

The year 1976 marked the end of an era. Zhou Enlai died in January. Zhu De, who as chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress had been serving as nominal head of state, died in July. Finally, Mao himself, the chairman of the party and the embodiment of the revolution, died in September. Although many elderly leaders remained in positions of power, the old guard--the veterans of the Long March and the civil war--was clearly passing from the scene.

There were no provisions for automatic succession. At one time, Lin Biao had been Mao's designated successor, but Lin had died under mysterious circumstances in 1971. The stage was set for a power struggle, with the initial advantage going to the radical faction. Zhou's death left the moderate pragmatists in a weakened position, and Deng Xiaoping, as their most visible leader, came under immediate attack.

In April the people staged an unusual demonstration to protest the removal, by the police, of memorial wreaths honoring Zhou from Beijing's Tiananmen (the Gate of Heavenly Peace leading to the old Forbidden City). With this as an excuse, the radicals blamed Deng for the disorders and dismissed him from office. But the radicals, in turn, lost their protector when Mao died. Within a month, the "Gang of Four" radical leaders, including Jiang Qing, Mao's widow, were arrested, and Deng was reinstated once again. The Gang of Four were subsequently tried and convicted of various crimes against the state. They became a convenient scapegoat for the new leadership, which did not wish to blame China's ills on Mao directly.

In the following years, the pragmatists consolidated their position. Although he did not take any of the main party or government positions, Deng emerged as the outstanding figure within the leadership. An elderly man himself, he brought in younger men who shared his views. The new policies were confirmed in the party and state constitutions adopted in 1982. These included accelerating China's economic development by the best possible means; for example, by rewarding good work, even if this resulted in some inequalities in society. Steps were also taken to prevent the concentration of power that had marked Mao's time. Thus, the new state constitution limited state leaders to two consecutive terms.

Nevertheless, the new leadership remained firmly committed to Communism. The 1982 constitution stated again the Four Fundamental Principles that should guide the society: the leadership of the Communist party, the "people's democratic dictatorship," the socialist road, and Marxism-Leninism-Mao Zedong Thought. The new constitution allowed a greater measure of political freedom and civil rights, and legal safeguards were introduced. It was evident, however, that there were limits to the new liberalization. After an early period during which considerable freedom of speech was allowed, the post-Mao leadership began to warn against destructive criticism.

The Four Modernizations.

The new regime's goal was the development of China's economy by means of the Four Modernizations: of agriculture, industry, national defense, and science and technology. The Four Modernizations were first announced by Zhou at the tenth party congress in 1973, when the country was just starting its slow recovery from the Cultural Revolution. The new leadership under Deng placed great stress on them, with the aim of bringing China into the front rank among the world's nations.

To achieve the ambitious aims of the program, the new leadership replaced the Maoist dogma of stressing the revolutionary spirit, the "red," with the practical value of the "expert." In education, academic achievements were emphasized, and nationwide college entrance examinations were reinstated. In industry, the authority of experts was reasserted. In agriculture, peasants were allowed private plots. Some overambitious projects were begun, and some replanning proved necessary. Nevertheless, the Chinese were cautiously optimistic that they would attain their goals. They set a reasonable economic growth rate of 7.2 percent per year and began a rigorous campaign to slow the rate of population increase. They hoped that these measures would quadruple industrial and agricultural production by the year 2000. In 1987 Deng retired and was succeeded by Zhao Ziyang as general secretary and Li Peng as premier. (See Deng Xiaoping; Zhao Ziyang)

DENG XIAOPING (born 1904).

During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, China's Communist government publicly humiliated Deng Xiaoping by parading him through the national capital in a dunce cap. Yet, after the deaths of Zhou Enlai and Mao Zedong in 1976, he emerged as his country's paramount leader. Whether in exile or in power, Deng was long acclaimed as a reformer who resisted rigid Communist ideology. But his image was tarnished in mid-1989 when he ordered a military crackdown on the student pro-democracy movement. At the same time the government began to build a personality cult around the aging, ailing survivor of purges who had once bel

12. THE MING DYNASTY (1368-1644)

Having restored Chinese rule to China, the first Ming emperor tried to model his rule after that of the Han, but the Ming fell far short of the Han's accomplishments. The land under Ming domination was less than under either the Han or the T'ang. The Ming dominion changed little after the first two decades. It was confined mostly to what is known as China proper, south of the Great Wall and east of Xinjiang and Tibet.

In culture, as well, the Ming lacked the Han's creativity and brilliance. Coming after almost a century of foreign domination, the Ming was a period of restoration and reorganization rather than a time of new discovery. In a sense, the Ming followed a typical dynastic cycle: initial rehabilitation of the economy and restoration of efficient government, followed by a time of stability and then a gradual decline and fall.

The emperor Hung-wu modeled his government on the T'ang system, restoring the doctrine and practices of Confucianism and continuing the trend toward concentration of power in the imperial government, especially in the hands of the emperor himself. He tried to conduct state affairs singlehandedly, but the work load proved overwhelming. To assist him, he gathered around him several loyal middle-level officials, thus creating an extra-governmental organization, the Grand Secretariat. The central bureaucracy was restored and filled by officials selected by the examination system. That system was further formalized by the introduction of a special essay style called the eight-legged essay, to be used in writing the examination. In addition, the subject matter of the examinations was restricted to the Five Classics, said to have been compiled, edited, or written by Confucius, and the Four Books, published by Chu Hsi.

In the field of provincial government, the emperor Hung-wu continued the Yuan practice of limiting the power of provincial governors and subjecting them directly to the central government. The empire was divided into 15 provinces. The first capital at Nanjing was in the economic heartland of China, but in 1421 the emperor Yung-Lo, who took the throne after a civil w ar, moved the capital to Peking, where he began a massive construction project. The imperial palace, which is also known as the Forbidden City, was built at this time.

The Ming produced two unique contributions: the maritime expeditions of the early 15th century and the philosophy of Wang Yang-ming. Between 1405 and 1433, seven major maritime expeditions were launched under the leadership of a Muslim eunuch, Cheng Ho. Each expedition was provided with several seagoing vessels, which were 400 feet (122 meters) high, weighed 700 tons (635 metric tons), had multiple decks and 50 or 60 cabins, and carried several hundred people. During these expeditions, the Chinese sailed the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf. They traveled as far west as eastern Africa and as far south as Java and Sumatra. But these missions ended just as suddenly as they had begun.

In philosophy, Wang Yang-ming developed a system of thought that ran counter to the orthodox teaching of Chu Hsi. While Chu Hsi believed in learning based on reason and the "investigation of things," Wang Yang-ming believed in the "learning of the mind," an intuitive process.

During the second half of the Ming Dynasty, European expansion began. Early in the 16th century Portuguese traders arrived and leased the island of Macao as their trading post. In 1582 Matteo Ricci, an Italian Jesuit missionary, arrived in Macao. Because of his knowledge of science, mathematics, and astronomy and his willingness to learn the Chinese language and adapt to Chinese life, he was accepted by the Chinese and became the first foreigner allowed to live in Peking permanently. Jesuits followed him and served the Ming emperors as mapmakers, calendar reformers, and astronomers.

Unlike earlier brief contacts with the West or the later Western incursions into China, the 16th-century Sino-Western relationship was culturally oriented and mutually respectful. Both the Chinese and the Jesuits tried to find common ground in their thoughts. The Jesuits' activities produced 300,000 converts in 200 years, not a great number among a population of more than 100 million. Among them, however, were noted scholars such as Hsu Kuang-ch'i and Li Chih-tsao, who translated many of the works that Jesuits brought to China. The Jesuits wrote over 300 Chinese works.

In the last century of its existence, the Ming Dynasty faced numerous internal and external problems. The internal problem was tied to official corruption and taxation. Because the Ming bureaucracy was relatively small, tax collection was entrusted to locally powerful people who evaded paying taxes by passing the burden on to the poor. A succession of weak and inattentive emperors encouraged the spread of corruption and the greed of eunuchs. In the 1620s a struggle between the inner group of eunuchs and the outer circle of scholar-officials led to the execution of about 700 scholars.

Externally, the security of the Ming empire was threatened from all directions. The Mongols returned and seized Peking in 1550, and their control of Turkestan and Tibet was recognized by the Ming in a peace treaty of 1570. Pirates preyed on the east coast, and Japanese pirates penetrated as far inland as Hangzhou and Nanjing. In the 1590s the Ming had to send expeditionary forces to rescue Korea from invading Japanese soldiers under Toyotomi Hideyoshi. The Ming drove back the Japanese forces, but not without depleting the treasury and weakening their defensive network against neighboring Manchuria to the northeast.

In Manchuria the Manchus (Pinyin: Manzhous) had organized a Chinese-style state and strengthened their forces under a unique form of military organization called the banner system. However, it was not the Manchus who overthrew the Ming but a Chinese rebel, Li Tzu-cheng, who became a leader among the bandits who had become desperate because of a famine in the northwest in 1628. By 1642 Li had become master of north China and in 1644 he captured Peking.

There he found that the last Ming emperor had hanged himself, ending the "Brilliant" dynasty. Li, however, was not destined to rule. The rule was to pass once again into the hands of a people from beyond the Great Wall, the Manchus. They were invited into China by the Ming general Wu San-kuei to eliminate the rebels. After driving the rebels from the capital, the Manchus stayed and established a new dynasty, the Ch'ing.

13. THE CHING DYNASTY (1644-1911)

Like the Mongols in the 13th century, the Manchus (formerly the Juchen) were barbarians who succeeded in ruling the whole of China, but, unlike the 13th-century conquerers, the sinicized Manchus made their rule more acceptable to the Chinese. As a result, Ch'ing rule lasted 267 years, compared with 89 years for the Yuan.

The Pax Sinica 1683-1795

The Manchus took Peking with relative ease in 1644, but they did not gain control of the whole of China until 1683. Thereafter, the Manchus enjoyed more than a century of peace and prosperity, a period that came to be called Pax Sinica (Peace in China). By the end of that period the dynasty had reached the height of its power.

Two strong emperors who were considered models of all Confucian ideals ruled for much of this period: the emperors K'ang-hsi (1661-1722) and Ch'ien-lung (1735-96). By recruiting the well-educated in government and promoting Confucian scholarship, these two Manchu rulers firmly established themselves as Confucian rulers in China. Outside China, both were successful conquerers. All of the Ch'ing empire's vast territories, including Mongolia in the north, Xinjiang in the northwest, and Tibet in the southwest, were incorporated into the expanding Chinese Empire during this period.

The Ch'ing adopted the Ming system of government with two exceptions: the insertion of Manchu power at the head of the Chinese state, and the creation of the Grand Council in the emperor Yung-cheng's reign. The Grand Council superseded the Grand Secretariat and became the most powerful body in the government. In provincial government, the Ch'ing created 18 provinces from the 15 Ming provinces. A governor, usually Chinese, headed each province, and a governor-general, usually a Manchu before the 19th century, headed every two provinces. Local landlords and administrators were generally left alone if they submitted to the new rule.

The K'ang-hsi era marked the height of Jesuit success in China, with more than 200,000 converts. Thereafter, Jesuit influence waned rapidly because of the rivalry between the Jesuits and other Catholic missionaries and the so-called Rites Controversy, which concerned the Jesuits' willingness to tolerate the converts' performance of ceremonies honoring Confucius. The pope denounced the Jesuit view and prohibited the ceremonies.

The long period of peace and prosperity had some adverse effects on Chinese society. There was a shortage of land, resulting from an increase in the population from 100 million to 300 million at the end of the 18th century. Decadence and corruption spread in the imperial court. There was a decline of the Manchu military spirit, and the Ch'ing military organization deteriorated. The long and illustrious reign of the emperor Ch'ien-lung was marred by the first of many serious rebellions in the Ch'ing era, the White Lotus Rebellion from 1796 to 1804. It was not put down for ten years, and China entered the 19th century rocked by revolt. More devastating were the incursions of Western powers, which shook the foundation of the empire. (See Ch'ien-lung)

19th Century Invasions and rebellions.

The first of many Sino-Western conflicts in the 19th century was the first Opium War, fought from 1839 to 1842. It was more than a dispute over the opium trade in China; it was a contest between China as the representative of ancient Eastern civilization and Britain as the forerunner of the modern West. Free trade advocates in the West had protested against the restrictive trading system in force at Canton. They demanded free trade in China, the opening of more ports to Westerners, and the establishment of treaty relations. The Treaty of Nanjing, which ended the first Opium War, opened five ports to the British--the first of the "treaty ports" where Western nations were granted various privileges. A second Opium War, also known as the Arrow War, fought from 1856 to 1860, pitted China against Great Britain and France.

The Opium Wars disrupted the old life and economy of southern China. A number of peasant revolts occurred in the 1840s, coming to a head in the Taiping Rebellion, the biggest rebellion in Chinese history. The leader of the Taipings was Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, from a village near Canton. Believing that God had chosen him to save the world, he adopted a confused version of Christianity as his guiding doctrine and set out to overthrow the Manchus and change society. The combination of religious fervor and anti-Manchu sentiment attracted a following that rose to over 30,000 within a short time. In 1852 the T'ai-p'ing T'ienkuo (Heavenly Kingdom of Great Peace) was proclaimed. In 1853 the rebels took the city of Nanjing and made it their capital.

Other revolts erupted at about the same time: the Nien Rebellion in the northeast and Muslim rebellions in the southwest and the northwest. Fearing a linkup among the rebels that would engulf all of China, the Ch'ing government created regional armies manned entirely by Chinese and commanded by Chinese of the scholar-gentry class. The commanders of the new forces, all loyal supporters of the dynasty--Tseng Kuo-fan, Tso Tsung-t'ang, and Li Hung-chang--suppressed the rebels with the help of Western weapons and leadership. They annihilated the Taipings in 1864, the Niens by 1868, and the Muslims by 1873.

The internal rebellions were suppressed, but external threats continued. After a brief period of "cooperation" in the 1860s, foreign powers renewed their assault on China, reacting to widespread antiforeign violence. Again, China became embroiled in a series of conflicts: the Tianjin Massacre with France in 1870, the Ili crisis with Russia in 1879, the Sino-French War from 1884 to 1885, and the Sino-Japanese War from 1894 to 1895. Each brought further humiliation and greater impairment of sovereignty. In the last two incidents territory was lost, and an indemnity had to be paid to the victor

in the Sino-Japanese War.

Opium Wars

China in the 19th century was beset by internal turmoil. It was easy prey to more powerful nations that wanted to exploit every advantage to profit from trade. Chief among these advantages was the opium trade. Official Chinese resistance to opium resulted in two trade wars in which Great Britain, France, the United States, and Russia gained significant commercial privileges. These conflicts were the first Opium War from 1839 to 1842 between China and Britain and the second Opium War (1856-60) fought by China against Britain and France.

Opium had been introduced into China in the 7th century. By the early 18th century opium addiction had become such a severe problem that the government tried to prohibit trade in it. The prohibition was a failure. When the British discovered the value of the opium trade in 1773, they determined to benefit. The Chinese paid the British for the opium, and the British in turn used the money as part payment for goods bought from the Chinese.

In 1839 the Chinese government made a concerted effort to suppress the opium trade. All the opium warehouses in Canton were confiscated. This serious effort, followed by a minor military incident, led to hostilities. In February 1840 the British sent an expedition against Canton.

The conflict, in which the more powerful British were victorious, was ended by the Treaty of Nanjing, which was signed on Aug. 29, 1842, and a supplemental treaty of Oct. 8, 1843. These treaties provided for payment of an indemnity of 21 million dollars by the Chinese, cession of five ports for British trade and residence, and the right of British citizens in China to be tried in British courts. It was at this time that Britain gained control of Hong Kong.

In October 1856 the Canton police boarded a British-registered ship, the Arrow, and charged its crew with smuggling. This incident led to the second war. In this war the British were joined by the French, and an Anglo-French force occupied Canton late in 1857. The Treaty of Tianjin in 1858 temporarily halted the fighting, opened new trading ports, allowed residence in Peking for foreign emissaries, gave freedom of movement to Christian missionaries, and permitted travel in the interior.

The Chinese refusal to ratify the treaty led to an Anglo-French attack on Peking and the burning of the Summer Palace. In 1860 the Chinese signed the Convention of Peking by which they promised to observe the 1858 treaty.

Taiping Rebellion

In terms of casualties, it was one of the worst civil wars in history. More than 20 million--possibly more than 30 million--died, and 17 provinces were ravaged by the Taiping Rebellion. This was the most serious of several internal disturbances that took place in China between 1850 and 1873 and that seriously weakened the Ch'ing Dynasty and helped prepare the way for the revolutions of the 20th century.

The leader of the rebellion was Hung Hsiu-ch'uan, an unsuccessful civil-service candidate who came under the influence of fundamentalist Christianity. Thinking of himself as a son of God sent to reform China, he helped found the Association of God Worshipers in about 1846. Preaching that all property should be held by the people, he attracted many followers in Guangxi Province. By January 1851, when the rebellion began, Hung's ranks had swelled from several thousand ragged peasants to more than 1 million disciplined and eager soldiers. They took the city of Nanjing in March 1853 and made it their capital. For several years the rebel armies dominated the Yangtze River valley. They failed, however, to take Shanghai, where the defenders were commanded by an American named Frederick Townsend Ward and the British general known as Chinese Gordon . By 1862 the movement was losing steam, weakened by internal strife and defections. Nanjing fell in July 1864 to the army of Gen. Tseng Kuo-fan, and Hung committed suicide. Sporadic resistance continued for four more years.

Late 19th Century Revolutionary ideas and organizations.

The reforms that were sponsored by the imperial government were too little and too late. A drastic change was necessary. The idea of overthrowing the Manchus was suggested by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao in his concept of hsin min (new people). Publishing a magazine in Japan, where he had fled after the Hundred Days, Liang called for the Chinese people to renew themselves and also indicated that the Chinese nation was distinct and separate from the ruling dynasty of the Manchus. Although he did not advocate overthrowing the dynasty, the message was quickly picked up by the more radical leaders who were already leaning toward revolution.

One such leader was Sun Yat-sen, who is now revered as the father of modern China by Nationalists and Communists alike. Born into a peasant family near Canton, the traditional stronghold of anti-Manchu rebels, Sun followed a traditional Chinese path during his early years. He was educated in Hawaii, converted to Christianity, and had a short-lived medical career before switching to politics and attempting to propose a reform program to Li Hung-chang in 1894. After forming a secret revolutionary society and plotting an unsuccessful uprising in Canton in 1894, Sun began a long period of exile outside China. He gained wide recognition as a revolutionary leader in 1896, when his arrest in the Chinese legation in London and subsequent rescue were reported sensationally in newspaper articles.

In 1905, in Japan, he brought together several revolutionary groups and formed the Revolutionary Alliance Society. Its program consisted of the now famous Three People's Principles: nationalism, freeing all China from foreign control; democracy, overthrowing the Manchus and introducing a democratic political system; and people's livelihood. Although Sun himself could not live in China, members of the alliance infiltrated many social organizations there. The revolutionary spirit that had been developed by Sun became especially high among students' and soldiers' groups.

The Empress Dowger

TZ'U-HSI (1835-1908). Known in the West as the empress dowager, Tz'u-hsi dominated the political life of China for nearly 50 years. As ruler acting for child emperors, she and her cohorts brought a measure of stability to their nation. But, under her, the government was dishonest and did not make changes that were needed to benefit the people. This eventually led to the end of the Ch'ing Dynasty, which ruled from 1644 to 1911, and a revolution.

Tz'u-hsi was born in Peking on Nov. 29, 1835. She became a consort of the emperor Hsien-feng (ruled 1850-61) and mother of the emperor T'ung-chih. When T'ung-chih became emperor in 1861, he was only 6. She and another consort became co-regents along with a brother of the former emperor. Under this three-way rule the Taiping Rebellion was ended. Other disturbances were put down, and some modernization was brought to China.

Tz'u-hsi gradually increased her power within the ruling coalition, and even when the emperor matured she continued to control the government. After the young emperor's untimely death, she saw to it that her 3-year-old nephew was named as heir, though this violated succession law. Thus the two owagers

continued acting as regents. The other dowager died--presumably murdered--in 1881, and Tz'u-hsi ruled alone. From 1889 to 1898 she lived in apparent retirement in the summer palace. The new emperor's attempts at reform after losing the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), however, brought her back into action--determined to stave off any changes. In 1899 she backed the officials promoting the Boxer Rebellion. After China's defeat at the hand of foreign troops, she fled the capital and accepted humiliating peace terms. She returned in 1902 and belatedly tried to install the reforms she had once opposed. Before her death, on Nov. 15, 1908, she had the emperor poisoned. His successor was a 2-year old who was forced from the throne four years later.

Boxer Rebellion

In the summer of 1900 members of a secret society roamed northeastern China in bands, killing Europeans and Americans and destroying buildings owned by foreigners. They called themselves I-ho ch'uan, or "Righteous and Harmonious Fists." They practiced boxing skills that they believed made them impervious to bullets. To Westerners they became known as the Boxers, and their uprising was called the Boxer Rebellion.

Most Boxers were peasants or urban thugs from northern China who resented the growing influence of Westerners in their land. They organized themselves in 1898, and in the same year the Chinese government--then ruled by the Ch'ing Dynasty--secretly allied with the Boxers to oppose such outsiders as Christian missionaries and European businessmen. The Boxers failed to drive foreigners out of China, but they set the stage for the successful Chinese revolutionary movement of the early 20th century.

Foreigners had entered China during an era of imperialism. In the late 1800s Great Britain and other European nations, the United States, Russia, and Japan scrambled for spheres of influence there. In some cases they seized Chinese territories, but usually they only sought the riches of trade and commercial enterprise. At the same time, Roman Catholic and Protestant missionaries tried to convert the Chinese to Christianity. These outsiders were resented and feared by the Chinese, who saw Western religion and business practices as a threat to their traditional ways.

By May of 1900, Boxers were wandering the countryside and attacking Western missionaries and Chinese converts to Christianity. In June an expeditionary force, made up of Russian, British, German, French, American, and Japanese troops, was organized to proceed to Peking (now Beijing), put

down the rebellion, and protect Western nationals.

The Chinese dowager empress Tz'u-hsi, the aunt of Emperor Kuang-hsu, ordered her troops to block the advance of this expedition. The foreigners were turned back. Meanwhile, Boxers were rampaging in Peking, burning down churches and the houses of Westerners, and killing Chinese Christians. Foreign troops then seized Chinese coastal forts to insure access to Peking. Enraged, the dowager empress ordered the death of all foreigners in China. The German minister to China was assassinated, and Boxer rebels began an eight-week attack on the walled foreign compound in Peking. (See Tz'u-hsi)

In response, the allied foreign governments sent some 19,000 soldiers to Peking, capturing the city on Aug. 14, 1900. The invaders looted the city and routed the Boxers, while the empress and her court fled%2

9. THE T'ANG DYNASTY (618-907).

The T'ang emperors set up a political system in which the emperor was supreme and government officials were selected on the bases of merit and education. The early T'ang rulers applied the equal allocation system rigorously to bring about a greater equity in taxation and to insure the flow of taxes to the government. A census was taken every three years to enforce the system, which also involved drafting people to do labor. These measures led to an agricultural surplus and the development of units of uniform value for the principal commodities, two of the most important prerequisites for the growth of commerce and cities.

The T'ang capital of Chang'an was one of the greatest commercial and cosmopolitan cities in the world at that time. Like most capitals of China, Chang'an was composed of three parts: the palace, the imperial city, and the outer city, separated from each other by mighty walls.

The T'ang was a period of great imperial expansion, which reached its greatest height in the first half of the 8th century. At that time, Chinese control was recognized by people from Tibet and Central Asia in the west to Mongolia, Manchuria (now the Northeast region of China), and Korea in the

north and Annam in the south.

The An Lu-shan rebellion.

Most of the T'ang accomplishments were attained during the first century of the dynasty's rule, through the early part of Emperor Hsuan Tsung's long reign from 712 to 756. However, late in his reign he neglected government affairs to indulge in his love of art and study. This led to the rise of viceroys, commanders responsible for military and civil affairs in the regions. An Lu-shan was a powerful viceroy commanding the northwest border area. He had both connections at the imperial court and hidden imperial ambitions. In 755 he rose in rebellion.

The emperor fled the capital with an ill-equipped army. These troops soon rebelled and forced the emperor to abdicate in favor of his son.

The new emperor raised a new army to fight the rebels. An Lu-shan was assassinated in 757, but the war dragged on until 763. Afterward, the Chinese Empire virtually disintegrated once again. The provinces remained under the control of various regional commanders. The dynasty continued to linger on for another century, but the T'ang empire never fully recovered the central authority, prosperity, and peace of its first century.

The most serious problem of the last century of T'ang was the rise of great landlords who were exempt from taxation. Unable to pay the exorbitant taxes collected twice a year after the An Lu-shan rebellion, peasants would place themselves under the protection of a landlord or become bandits. Peasant uprisings, beginning with the revolt under the leadership of Huang Ch'ao in the 870s, left much of central China in ruins.

In 881 Huang Ch'ao's rebels, now numbering over 600,000 people, destroyed the capital, forcing the imperial court to move east to Luoyang. Another rebel leader founded a new dynasty, called Later Liang, at Kaifeng in Henan Province in 907, but he was unable to unify all China under his rule. This second period of disunity lasted only half a century. Once again, however, China was divided between north and south, with five dynasties in the north and ten kingdoms in the south.

T'ang culture. Buddhist influence in art, especially in sculpture, was strong during the T'ang period. Fine examples of Buddhist sculpture are preserved in rock temples, such as those at Yongang and Longmen in northwest China. The invention of printing and improvements in papermaking led to the printing of a whole set of Buddhist sutras (discourses of the Buddha) by 868. By the beginning of the 11th century all of the Confucian classics and the Taoist canon had been printed. In secular literature, the T'ang is especially well known for poetry. The great T'ang poets such as Li Po and Tu Fu were nearly all disillusioned officials.

The T'ang period marked the beginnings of China's early technological advancement over other civilizations in the fields of shipbuilding and firearms development. Both reached new heights in the succeeding dynasty of Sung.

Papermaking; Firearms By the 13th century papermaking spread throughout Europe. Paper was a Chinese invention. It had been adopted by the Persians and then by the Arabs, who brought the art to Europe. (See Paper)

Powder (not gunpowder, because guns were not yet known) and fireworks rockets were introduced into Europe in the 1200s. They had been invented in China some years earlier.

The earliest mention of firearms is in a Dutch chronicle dated 1313. It states that firearms were invented in Germany. The first picture of a primitive cannon can be found in an English manuscript dated 1326. (See Rocket; Explosive; Firearms)

10. THE SUNG DYNASTY (960-1279)

Over 300 years of Sung history is divided into the two periods of Northern and Southern Sung. Because of the barbarian occupation of northern China the second half of the Sung rule was confined to the area south of the Huai River.

Northern Sung (960-1126). General Chao K'uang-yin, later known as Sung T'ai Tsu, was said to have been coerced to become emperor in order to unify China. Wary of power-hungry commanders, Sung T'ai Tsu made the military into a national army under his direct control. Under his less capable successors, however, the military increasingly lost prestige. Unfortunately for China, the weakening of the military coincided with the rise of successive strong nomad nations on the borders.

In contrast to the military's loss of prestige, the civil service rose in dignity. The examination system that had been restored in the Sui and T'ang was further elaborated and regularized. Selection examinations were held every three years at the district, provincial, and metropolitan levels.

Only 200 out of thousands of applicants were granted the jinshi degree, the highest degree, and appointed to government posts. From this time on, civil servants became China's most envied elite, replacing the hereditary nobles and landlords.

Sung dominion extended over only part of the territories of earlier Chinese empires. The Khitans controlled the northeastern territories, and the Hsi Hsia (Western Hsia) controlled the northwestern territories. Unable to recover these lands, the Sung emperors were compelled to make peace with the Khitans in 1004 and with the Hsi Hsia in 1044. Massive payments to the barbarians under the peace terms depleted the state treasury, caused hardship to taxpaying peasants, and gave rise to a conflict in the court among advocates of war, those who favored peace, and reformers.

In 1069 Emperor Shen Tsung appointed Wang An-shih as chief minister. Wang proposed a number of sweeping reforms based on the classical text of the `Rites of Chou'. Many of his "new laws" were actually revivals of earlier policies, but officials and landlords opposed his reforms. When the emperor and Wang died within a year of each other, the new laws were withdrawn. For the next several decades, until the fall of the Northern Sung in 1126, the reformers and antireformers alternated in power, creating havoc and turmoil in government.

In an effort to regain territory lost to the Khitans, the Sung sought an alliance with the newly powerful Juchens from Manchuria. Once the alliance had expelled the Khitans, however, the Juchens turned on the Sung and occupied the capital of Kaifeng. The Juchens established the dynasty of Chin, a name meaning "gold," which lasted from 1115 to 1234, in the north. They took the emperor and his son prisoner, along with 3,000 others, and ordered them to be held in Manchuria.

Southern Sung (1126-1279). Another imperial son fled south and settled in 1127 at Hangzhou, where he resumed the Sung rule as the emperor Kao Tsung. The Sung retained control south of the Huai River, where they ruled for another one and a half centuries.

Although militarily weak and limited in area, the Southern Sung represented one of China's most brilliant periods of cultural, commercial, maritime, and technological development. Despite the loss of the north, trade continued to expand, enabling a commercial revolution to take place in the 13th century. Cut off from the traditional overland trade routes, Sung merchants turned to the ocean with the aid of such improvements as compasses and huge oceangoing ships called junks. The development of a paper money economy stimulated commercial growth and kept it going.

End of the Southern Sung. While the Sung ruling class and the imperial court indulged themselves in art and luxurious living in the urban centers, the latest nomad empire arose in the north. The formidable Mongol armies, conquerors of Eurasia as far west as eastern Europe and of Korea in the east, descended on the Southern Sung.

Culture in the Sung period.

The Sung period was noted for landscape painting, which in time came to be considered the highest form of classical art. The city-dwelling people of the Sung period romanticized nature. This romanticism, combined with a mystical, Taoist approach to nature and a Buddhist-inspired contemplative mood, was reflected in landscape paintings showing people dwarfed by nature.

In philosophy, the trend away from Buddhism and back to Confucianism, which had begun in the late T'ang, continued. Pure and simple restoration of the ancient teaching was impossible, however, because Confucianism had been challenged by Buddhism and Taoism. Confucianism needed to explain humanity and the universe as well as to regulate human relations within society. In the late T'ang and early Sung, several strands of Confucianism emerged. The great scholar Chu Hsi synthesized elements of Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. This reconstituted philosophy became known as Neo-Confucianism, and it was the orthodox state doctrine until the end of the imperial system. Chu Hsi's philosophy was one that stressed dualism, the goodness of human nature, and self-cultivation by education through the continuing "investigation of things."

The Sung scholars and historians also attempted to synthesize history. Ssu-ma Kuang made the first effort at producing a comprehensive history since Ssu-ma Ch'ien of the Han. In 294 chapters, he wrote a chronological account of the period from 403 BC to AD 959, which was abridged by Chu Hsi in the 12th century. Another first in Sung scholarship was the creation of encyclopedias. `Assembled Essentials on the T'ang', a collection completed in 961, became the example for the various types of encyclopedic literature that followed.

The Sung period is famous for porcelain with a celadon glaze, which was one of the most desired items in foreign trade (See Pottery and Porcelain). The development of gunpowder led to the invention of a type of hand grenade. In shipbuilding, the great seagoing junks were admired and imitated by Arab and Western sailors. By far the largest ships in the world at the time, they had watertight compartments and could carry up to 1,000 passengers.

The Sung cities. Oceanic and coastal trade was concentrated in large ports such as Canton, Hangzhou, and Chuanzhou (Marco Polo's Zayton), where large foreign trading communities developed. Koreans dominated the trade with the eastern islands, while Persians and Arabs controlled commerce across the western seas. Along with commercial expansion came the urbanization, or increasing importance of cities, in Sung society. Hangzhou, the Southern Sung capital, had a population of more than 2 million. Commercialization and urbanization had a number of effects on Chinese society. People in the countryside faced the problems of absentee landlordism. Although many city residents enjoyed luxury, with a great variety of goods and services, poverty was widespread.

A change associated with urbanization was the decline in the status of women of the upper classes. With the concentration of the upper classes in the cities, where the work of women became less essential, women were treated as servants and playthings. This was reflected in the practices of concubinage and of binding girls' feet to make them smaller. Neither practice was banned until the 20th century.

11. THE YUAN (Mongol) DYNASTY (1279-1368)

The Mongols were the first of the northern barbarians to rule all of China. After creating an empire that stretched across the Eurasian continent and occupying northern China and Korea in the first half of the 13th century, the Mongols continued their assault on the Southern Sung. By 1276 the Southern Sung capital of Hangzhou had fallen, and in 1279 the last of the Sung loyalists perished.

Before this, Kublai Khan, the fifth "great khan" and grandson of Genghis Khan, had moved the Mongol capital from Karakorum to Peking. In 1271 he declared himself emperor of China and named the dynasty Yuan, meaning "beginning," to signify that this was the beginning of a long era of Mongol rule.

In Asia, Kublai Khan continued his grandfather's dream of world conquest. Two unsuccessful naval expeditions were launched against Japan in 1274 and 1281. Four land expeditions were sent against Annam and five against Burma. However, the Mongol conquests overseas and in Southeast Asia were neither spectacular nor were they long enduring.

Mongol rule in China lasted less than a century. The Mongols became the most hated of the barbarian rulers because they did not allow the Chinese ruling class to govern. Instead, they gave the task of governing to foreigners. Distrusting the Chinese, the Mongol rulers placed the southern Chinese at the lowest level of the four classes they created. The extent of this distrust was reflected in their provincial administration. As conquerers, they followed the Ch'in example and made the provincial governments into direct extensions of the central chancellery. This practice was continued by succeeding dynasties, resulting in a further concentration of power in the central imperial government.

The Chinese despised the Mongols for refusing to adapt to Chinese culture. The Mongols kept their own language and customs. The Mongol rulers were tolerant about religions, however. Kublai Khan reportedly dabbled in many religions.

The Mongols and the West. The Mongols were regarded with mixed feelings in the West. Although Westerners dreaded the Mongols, the Crusaders hoped to use them in their fight against the Muslims and attempted to negotiate an alliance with them for this purpose. Friar John of Carpini and William of Rubruck were two of the better known Christian missionaries sent to establish these negotiations with the Mongol ruler.

The best account of the Mongols was left by a Venetian merchant, Marco Polo, in his `Marco Polo's Travels'. It is an account of Polo's travels over the long and perilous land route to China, his experience as a trusted official of Kublai Khan, and his description of China under the Mongols. Dictated in the early 14th century, the book was translated into many languages. Although much of medieval Europe did not believe Polo's tales, some, like Christopher Columbus, were influenced by Polo's description of the riches of the Orient. (See Kublai Khan; Mongol Empire; Polo, Marco)

After the death of Kublai Khan in 1294, successive weak and incompetent khans made the already hated Mongol rule intolerable. Secret societies became increasingly active, and a movement known as the Red Turbans spread throughout the north during the 1350s. In 1356 a rebel leader named Chu Yuan-chang and his peasant army captured the old capital of Nanjing. Within a decade he had won control of the economically important middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, driving the Mongols to the north. In 1368 he declared himself the emperor Hung-wu and established his capital at Nanjing on the lower Yangtze. Later the same year he captured the Yuan capital of Peking. (See Kublai Khan; Mongol Empire)

Kublai Khan (1215-94). The founder of China's Yuan (Mongol) Dynasty was a brilliant general and statesman named Kublai Khan. He was the grandson of the great Mongol conqueror, Genghis Khan, and he was overlord of the vast Mongol Empire. The achievements of Kublai Khan were first brought to the attention of Western society in the writings of Marco Polo, the Venetian traveler who lived at the Chinese court for nearly 20 years (See Polo, Marco).

Kublai Khan was born in 1215, the fourth son of Genghis Khan's fourth son. He began to play a major role in the consolidation of Mongol power in 1251, when his brother, the emperor Mongke, resolved to complete the conquest of China. He therefore vested Kublai with responsibility for keeping order in conquered territory. After Mongke's death in 1259, Kublai had himself proclaimed khan. During the next 20 years he completed the unification of China. He made his capital in what is now Beijing.

Kublai's major achievement was to reconcile China to rule by a foreign people, the Mongols, who had shown little ability at governing. His failures were a series of costly wars, including two disastrous attempts to invade Japan; they brought little benefit to China. Although he was a magnanimous ruler, Kublai's extravagant administration slowly impoverished China; and in the 14th century the ineptitude of his successors provoked rebellions that eventually destroyed the Mongol dynasty. (See Genghis Khan; Mongol Empire)

Polo, Marco (1254-1323?). In 1298 a Venetian adventurer named Marco Polo wrote a fascinating book about his travels in the Far East. Men read his accounts of Oriental riches and became eager to find sea routes to China, Japan, and the East Indies. Even Columbus, nearly 200 years later, often consulted his copy of `The Book of Ser Marco Polo'.

In Marco's day the book was translated and copied by hand in several languages. After printing was introduced in the 1440s, the book was circulated even more widely. Many people thought that the book was a fable or a gross exaggeration. A few learned men believed that Marco wrote truly, however, and they spread Marco's stories of faraway places and unknown peoples. Today geographers agree that Marco's book is amazingly accurate.

Marco Polo was born in the city-republic of Venice in 1254. His father and uncles were merchants who traveled to distant lands to trade. In 1269 Marco's father, Nicolo, and his uncle Maffeo returned to Venice after being away many years. On a trading expedition they had traveled overland as far as Cathay (China). Kublai Khan, the great Mongol emperor of China, asked them to return with teachers and missionaries for his people. So they set out again in 1271, and this time they took Marco.

From Venice the Polos sailed to Acre, in Palestine. There two monks, missionaries to China, joined them. Fearing the hard journey ahead, however, the monks soon turned back. The Polos crossed the deserts of Persia (Iran) and Afghanistan. They mounted the heights of the Pamirs, the "roof of the world," descending to the trading cities of Kashgar (Shufu) and Yarkand (Soche). They crossed the dry stretches of The Gobi. Early in 1275 they arrived at Kublai Khan's court at Cambaluc (Peking). At that time Marco was 21 years old.

Polo at the Court of the Great Khan

Marco quickly became a favorite of Kublai Khan. For three years he governed busy Yangchow, a city of more than 250,000 people. He was sent on missions to far places in the empire: to Indochina, Tibet, Yunnan, and Burma. From these lands Marco brought back stories of the people and their lives.

The Polos became wealthy in Cathay. But they began to fear that jealous men in the court would destroy them when the khan died. They asked to return to Venice. Kublai Khan refused. Then came an envoy from the khan of Persia. He asked Kublai Khan for a young Mongol princess for a bride. The Polos said that the princess' journey should be guarded by men of experience and rank. They added that the mission would enable them to make the long-desired visit to Venice. The khan reluctantly agreed.

Since there was danger from robbers and enemies of the khan along the overland trade routes, a great fleet of ships was built for a journey by sea. In 1292 the fleet sailed, bearing the Polos, the princess, and 600 noblemen of Cathay. They traveled southward along Indochina and the Malay Peninsula to

Sumatra. Here the voyage was delayed many months.

The ships then turned westward and visited Ceylon and India. They touched the East African coast. The voyage was hazardous, and of the 600 noblemen only 18 lived to reach Persia. The Polos and the princess were safe. When the Polos landed in Venice, they had been gone 24 years. The precious stones they brought from Cathay amazed all Venice.

Later Marco served as gentleman-captain of a ship. It was captured by forces of the rival trading city of Genoa, and he was thrown into a Genoese prison. There he wrote his book with help from another prisoner. Marco was released by the Genoese in 1299. He returned to Venice and engaged in trade. His name appears in the court records of his time in many lawsuits over property and money. He married and had three daughters. He died about 1323.