The course begins with a look at the physical environment of East Asia, the specific sites from which China emerged, and the prehistoric background of Chinese culture.
The bronze industry developed by the Xia dynasty is raised to even greater heights by the Shang, becoming—along with military forces and the royal ritual cult—one of the defining features of early Chinese society.
The Zhou people lead a coalition that overthrows the Shang and found a new dynasty justified by the "Mandate of Heaven," elaborating critical concepts for China's political culture over the next 3,000 years.
The crises of what came to be known as the "Warring States" period lead many Chinese to question the basic foundations of their society, and to search for answers to the problems facing them.
The lecture introduces the basic concepts of Confucian and Daoist thought, comparing the essentially positivist approach of Confucianism to the radically skeptical system put forth by the Daoists.
Though Confucianism and Daoism are the most enduring schools of thought to emerge from the Warring States period, other ideas also emerge, none as important as those of the Legalists, whose approach to social and political order is fundamentally at odds with both Confucian and Daoist ideas.
A low-ranking official named Liu Bang rises to power and founds a dynasty that will last 400 years and see the solidifying of the imperial state and the blending of Confucian, Daoist, and Legalist elements to construct an ideological framework for official Confucianism.
Internal weaknesses eventually shatter the Han government. The subsequent division of the empire into three large states ushers in one of the most romantic periods in Chinese history, drawn on to this day by Chinese literature for its stories of great heroes, clever strategists, and military leaders.
While the Han dynasty slides toward collapse, a new religion with its origins in India begins to make its presence felt. This lecture examines both Buddhism's basic concepts and the origins of its path into China.
As a result of 4th-century migrations in Central Asia, Proto-Turkic invaders sweep into northern China. Over time, their assimilation leads to a China distinguished by two dramatically different cultures north and south of the Yangzi River.
In the 6th century, a general of mixed ancestry reunifies China's two cultures under the Sui dynasty; its succession by the Tang ushers in one of China's greatest dynasties, which will last until the beginning of the 10th century.
This lecture includes a look at a controversial figure in a national history largely authored by men: Wu Zetian, who deposes her nephew to become the only woman to occupy China's imperial throne in her own name.
The Tang survives a rebellion to endure for another century and a half, a period that includes the rise of a new intellectual movement of Confucian thinkers whose ideas set the stage for enormous cultural and intellectual changes in the 11th century.
A corrupt Tang dynasty eventually falls, and the Song dynasty that emerges responds to its political challenges through institutional and social innovations that fundamentally reshape the later imperial state.
The expansion of the imperial civil service examination system by the early Song dynasty makes that system the most significant mechanism for identifying men of talent for the imperial bureaucracy and launches a great age of respect for intellect and ideas.
Landscape painting emerges to lead the rise of historical art discourse, reflecting new ideas about the place of man in the universe and, ultimately, the new philosophical trend of Daoxue, which becomes the imperial state's official version of Confucianism.
The collapse of the Tang at the beginning of the 10th century leads to a period of division and conflict and creates opportunities for the rise of non-Chinese powers along the northern frontier.
After the loss of north China in 1127, the Song court moves to the city of Hangzhou, surviving for another 150 years and presiding over a period of tremendous expansion of technological growth, and domestic and international trade.
This lecture returns to the developments taking place in Chinese thought to deal with one of the greatest figures in Chinese intellectual history, Zhu Xi, and his forging of what is often called the Neo-Confucian Synthesis through his teaching of Daoxue, the "Learning of the Way."
This lecture recounts the story of Temujin, known to history as Genghis Khan, and his rise to power over the Mongols. His empire at his death would stretch from northern China to Persia and would be extended even further by his sons.
Ghengis's grandson, Khubilai, completes the conquest of China in 1279, establishing the Yuan dynasty. This lecture examines the nature of Chinese life under Mongol rule and draws special insights from the visit of Marco Polo during this dramatic era.
As various factors coalesce to end the Mongol reign, Zhu Yuanzhang rises to power as the founding emperor of the Ming dynasty, but nearly wrecks his creation through his paranoid mistrust of the bureaucratic official he most needs to administer his empire.
The 15th and 16th centuries become a new age of economic growth and achievement, far surpassing even those of the Song, and the consumer power of a revived merchant class enables art and literature to flourish as well.
The very success of the Ming dynasty creates new problems, with economic growth leading to social tensions and the setting of the stage for new philosophical movements that emphasize individual moral responsibility.
A descendant of the people who had ruled China hundreds of years earlier creates a multiethnic alliance he names the Manchus and leads them to dominance in what is now Manchuria, with the eventual goal of reclaiming all of China.
From 1661 to 1795, Manchu China is ruled by only three emperors, a 134-year period of nearly unparalleled stability, during which a Manchu-Chinese symbiosis creates a climate allowing major political and cultural advances.
This lecture looks at the history of the trading relationship between China and the West, culminating in the British search for a commodity other than silver with which to trade for China's superior goods.
In the first half of the 19th century, China begins to face new challenges from both inside and outside its borders—one of the most striking leads to the Opium War and forces China to open to the will of the West.
One of the most intriguing episodes in Chinese history is the Taiping Rebellion, led by a failed examination candidate who thought he was the younger brother of Jesus. It nearly brings the Qing dynasty to an end.
The Opium War and the challenge of the Taiping Rebellion are only the beginning of the end. Failed reforms, a defeat at the hands of Japan, and the fact that the Boxer Rebellion was crushed by Western troops bring more humiliation to the tottering Manchu regime.
A revolutionary movement to create a Chinese republic is led by Sun Yatsen, but when a military mutiny finally topples the Qing dynasty, it is, instead, a decade of fragmentation under military strongmen that replaces the imperial court.
A ferment of ideas and political movements, combined with still another humiliation when the Versailles Peace Conference gives Japan control of Chinese territories once held by Germany, sets the stage for the emergence of the Chinese Communist Party.
This lecture examines the Chinese Revolution in the years before World War II, including the roles played by Sun Yatsen, Chiang Kaishek, and Mao Zedong.
With the defeat of Japan and victory over the Nationalists, who withdraw to Taiwan, the Chinese Communists, under Mao's leadership, set about implementing socialism and creating a "New China."
Even though Mao was the dominant figure in the People's Republic of China for more than 25 years, his was far from the only voice. This lecture examines the complex interactions of differing groups within the Communist leadership and the course of China's development under Mao.
This lecture looks at China since the death of Mao in 1976—when his revolutionary vision was quickly abandoned—and the events that have accompanied China's pursuit of economic and political development.