Video Transcript: Lesson 4

 Unit 02 01 Early India and China 

Hello. Welcome to this fourth session of the Christian leaders Institute class on world history when I won the beginnings of civilization to 1500 ad, my name is Rich hamstra. It is my privilege to be the instructor for this course. In our three previous sessions, we dealt with issues of introduction, ask questions about history, what is history? And how does one study it? What are the sources, and then we began in Mesopotamia, and look particularly at the cultures of the Sumerians, the Assyrians, and the early Babylonians. That brought us about to the year 700 years before Christ in Mesopotamia, Session Five will deal with the Egyptians. And so we'll be going to North Africa, the for this session, we're going to go east, to the subcontinent of India, particularly the Indus Valley, today's nations of Pakistan and a bit of Afghanistan, as well as early China a lot of history there a lot of story. But we'll try to hit some of the highlights. So welcome. Good to have you with us. As I said, we begin by looking at India today, the Indus Valley, in particular, here is a recommended viewing, again, it's only recommended, you'll find it on YouTube, and there is the address, it does give lots of good information, it will extend beyond the period of time we're going to deal with today. But we will get to that at some point. Here is the the current nation of India. And where we're really focused on is actually the Indus Valley here. It is a period of the earliest sort of civilizations by which we mean particularly the coming of the city states in India. Your reading assignment, when you're taking this course for credit, is an article by Joshua mark, author whom you read before that you'll find there, as well as an article on Dravidians found on World History blog. Please read those you will be held accountable for them on the quiz. So while it is the case that India and are part of Asia, the history of human habitation goes back 125,000 years maybe it goes back to very ancient, prehistoric times. The beginning of culture, the beginning of civilization really seems to rest with two different cultures. One called the Harappan made up of people from a racial group called the Dravidian druidic people. They are among the very early settlers of the Indus Valley. They learned very early to use irrigation and build significant cities, some with populations of 30 to 40 to 50,000. They're large city states, by any measure in the ancient world. It we've seen over and over that it is how water is used and water is managed, particularly the rivers. When we talk about Mesoamerica, we'll talk about swamps. how water is managed is a significant part of the development of human culture and human rather than just a barrier to be crossed or banks to be walked on. Once people learned how to use irrigation, and learned how to channel the water, how to store it, or how to release it, that cities become significant in terms of their religion, for the Harappan culture, a very early form is Shakti who is a mother earth goddess. That is almost always the case throughout Asia and Europe. In some respects Africa, that a mother earth goddess is a primary deity. Earth is seen as a feminine principle, the giver of life. Earth is seen as one who has the cycles of death and rebirth with the coming of when you plant crops and when you harvest them and when it's in between times.

 

The people who originally were there or early on, they're dramatic people still have many descendants, but they primarily live in Southern India. They were either pushed out or became refugees or migrated out of the industrial and move down into other parts of India. The early Harappan culture does have a written language. But unfortunately, it remains on translated as of today. So they they early on, were using symbols to stand for things and became a written language. But we are unable to read it. About 1500 started maybe a little bit earlier than that maybe around 2000 years, we see there was a migration. Some calls an invasion of this industry Valley by a group of people whose origins are yet mysterious. Some think of them as coming from Persia. Others think of them as coming from farther up in what would be southern Russia, or maybe places like Uzbekistan and the like. But a group from the east, I'm sorry, from the west migrates into the Indus Valley, and over a period of time, they become to dominate the culture. They're often known as Aryan although that might be a real misnomer. And they do have indo European heritage. So, they are connected linguistically, and somewhat culturally with those indo Europeans that we talked about earlier in the earlier in the class. So here are the reading assignments with respect to the Aryan invasion. Again, Joshua Mark article on Ancient India, and recommended viewing again just recommended a video on the history of Hindu India. The indo Europeans, the areas who came, brought with them a particular perspective, on time, on nature, on religion, and on social arrangement. In those ways, they dramatically changed culture. They were indo Europeans after, after all, and brought their own perspective, to the Davidic Harappan cultures. They were farmers and pastoralists. By pastoralists, we mean people who raised goats and sheep, who did not follow the herds, like hunter gatherers might have led, who very much tried to manage the herds and keep them along the way, they created a series of sacred texts, a large collection of sacred texts known as the Vedas. And that is become the scripture for that part of India for 1000s of years. And they continue today to be significant in the Hindu faith, that is our they cover the whole range of human life. But what are the notable things one of the things that that culture brought was the division of society into what today in the West we call caste, or there are there in India are called the varnas. The varnas are the way to organize society, and originally in the Vedas, they were organized according to your occupation. So if you were a leader, or a warrior, you were in one class, if you were a shopkeeper, you were in another class, if you're a farmer, that's still another one of the virus. They basically have five or so classes. At this time, they did not yet have what we call today, the untouchable or the lower class that develops later on. But the occupation that you had determined your place in society, it didn't take very long that this transition not just an occupation, but then became a matter of genetics. It becomes a matter of what family you are born into, so that families are very much structured into their place in society, and

 

what they do for a living in society. And you can see that that we know that you did not cross social divide, you did not move from one kind of varna to the next that was unacceptable. You had to stay where you were and learn to be content. In the Vedic religion, the chief god is Brahma. Brahma is the maker and maintainer of internal order. let me confess we talked earlier that one has to know one's assumptions and perspective. As a Westerner, I find trying to understand the religions and cultures of India and China and Southeast Asia to be particularly difficult, they operate with many different assumptions, from what I operate with. One of those major assumptions is that there is such a thing called the eternal order. And it is conceived really as a as a wheel. It goes, the wheel is a is a constant symbol of the eternal order. And you know, your place in the wheel, the wheel keeps turning, but it just goes round and round. This is a circular view, of life of nature of time, quite in contrast with a western view, which has roots in some area, strongly reinforced in the Hebrew, as well as the Greek cultures and enrolled in cultures, where time is very much understood as linear, we progress we move forward, we aim toward a goal. And that goal is yet out there in the future. That is a much different way of thinking from what we see in the East, where it is, that circle, and one goes round and round and round. There are different places in the circle, one can achieve a better place. But one is always within that eternal order. And Brahma is the God who made and keeps that eternal order. So it is in the religions, particularly come from India, the religions are ordered to help the individual. It's another way that the Eastern faiths are considerably different from the Western face, Western face, particularly those that spring from having it claiming Abraham as our father, the Christian, Judaism, and Islam. Those faiths all see ourselves as living in accord with God, but doing that in a communal way. And so we have churches and synagogues and mosques, where one gathers with other believers. In the Eastern religions, it's much less communal, and more individual more private. So one, once of course, they have temples and I have monasteries, and that sort of thing. But one really has to go inside. And the deeper the internal Joy journey, the deeper one space becomes. So the goal is to live in understanding and acceptance of your place in robbers, great giant wheel, giant return order, often it is to accept one's fate. And if you combine that a little bit with the idea of the cast, it is to understand one place in society and one's place in eternal in the eternal order, contentment with who you are and what you are, and is often seen as the highest goal. These early Vedas are indeed the origin of Hinduism. So, we turned out to Hinduism, this develops later on and that is hold cultural and control over that part of India and extend beyond into Nepal and really all in northern India, for about 1000 years before they they have a serious challenge. During that period of time, the religion of Hinduism really begins to develop and one of the goals of Hinduism is to pass on these various beliefs. There is a real stress in Hinduism on the virtue of a simple lifestyle, simple practices. It is in day to day living, and to find simplicity, not to

 

not to want to reach indulgence, not to want to have access not to want to have accumulation of things, or food or fine things. But simplicity is often strong virtue. There is great respect and for all living things, and Brahma is seen as being manifest. The Divinity the god is seen as being matched manifest in virtually all forms of life that is a form of animism, which is when one sees the divine in objects, animals in particular or plants or people or things around you, in many places animism even refers to inanimate objects like rocks or trees, while trees have an animal, nature, I guess, but rocks in particular. And there is some of that in Hinduism, but the Brahman can be manifests through virtually anything, particularly anything that is alive. And so, one must respect one must try to see and give, give deference to the life, the life force, that is in all of these things, they have their place, and you have yours. The Hindus have many gods therefore, and many different images, many different idols, what we would call idols, they have all different kinds of ways of worship. I read figure that written by Hindus suggested they perhaps have as many as 3 million gods, but who can have virtually anything that one sees is divine or sacred or a manifestation, somehow or another Brahma can become your God. The primary who get but Brahma again, is the primary God and the article that have you read by Joshua Mark, he argues, in particular, there that actually Hinduism may be considered monotheistic, in that Brahman is the really one and only God, and all the others are just different ways that we apprehend or receive Brahma. It's very important, as we talked about, earlier in the course, about the goal of so many religions around the world, that you do what you need to do in order to keep the God happy to keep the God on your side. And certainly that is true in the sacrifices in the offerings in the food that is brought. You take care of the gods and keep them content. And that is a primary way of worship. This is a period of an image of, I believe Shira. And I'm sorry, Shiva. Shiva is one of the early God goddesses of sometimes God they, their gender can change, that Shiva is the giver of life, but also the destroyer. And you see in her, her many arms, the different things she does, she has a pitchfork, perhaps used for farming, but also a boat used for war. She is a God that many Hindus worship is common throughout the Hindu world. Shiva is important. There are other gods you've probably heard about Krishna and the like. They are all significant deities in the Hindu pantheon. So we talked earlier about that circle of life and how that one needs to find your place in that and be content with that. And then, and then hopefully, one can grow out of that one can move on to the next stage. The notion of reincarnation as the afterlife, or the continuance of life, as we might know it, at the moment does not seem to abandon a teaching of the early Vedic tradition. Which is not surprising, because the early indo Europeans, none of their cultures really reflect a strong notion of reincarnation. There is an afterlife in the Indo European. Often it's seen as a continuation of this life. But that's quite different from reincarnation. Reincarnation is when one dies after one dies.

 

You can go to a intermediary place, sort of a waiting zone. But then one is reincarnate, one comes back. And that notion seems to have gotten started around the year 1000 between 1900 and we find it in some of the reforms or some of the later robic writings called EU Parishad. You will become acquainted with those in your readings. That's a very significant development in the Hindu faith, it really changes it quite dramatically from the early Vedic tradition, and add an entire layer of why one does good. Now, not only does one try to do good in order to learn contentment with one's place, but one also wishes to accommodate good karma. And karma is simply a phenomenon we see throughout virtually every religion in one form or another, goes by the formula, if you do good, you're going to get good. And if you do bad, you're going to get bad. So if you do good in this world, you may be reincarnated to a higher level, you might be able to jump your caste, even if you're a human being and be born into the next one up, or maybe even a couple of the opposite is also true. If you do bad, you're going to get back, you may descend and become no longer a human being, but you might become even an insect or a tree or you know something that is less considered or of lesser note. So karma is basically what we in Christianity called a works righteousness, sort of faith, do good and you get good, do bad, and you get bad. Now Hinduism to the Vedic and then the shot changes, also knows other major reforms. In the middle of the sixth century BC, there was a person called whom we called Buddha, and he brings a major reform to Hinduism. Sidhartha, Gao Tama lived in the years 563 to 483 BCE. And I should just note, you will find in your readings, both BC and AD, which are Western Christian ways that traditionally we refer to how time is counted, using the birth of Christ, as the midpoint. So BC is before Christ. And ad is Latin for honor Domini, we mean the year the Lord about 50 years ago, in academic circles, it was decided that in order to be global, we also have to, we have to account and be sensitive to many scholars who are not Christian, for whom Christ is not the center of time. And so another way of the years are counted the same, but another way of describing what Christians would say as BC and AD became BCE, meaning before the Common Era. And CE, meaning Common Era. Again, the dates are the same. But BCE is a more academic way of referring to the time before Christ. Before the Common Era. Most of the time in this course I use BC and AD I see on this particular slide, that I use BCE, in the world of academia, one has to be alert to that. Since this is a Christian course in particular, I thought BC and AD would be the dominant way to refer to it. Sidhartha was born probably in Nepal. And he was raised in a very privileged setting, he was a prince in a royal court, and all accounts are is that he enjoyed those privileges. To a great extent he was essentialist in many ways, but around the age of 30, he decided he had sort of a crisis in his life and he decided to give up his privileges and began to search for what he calls enlightenment. The stories are lengthy and complicated. But one of the most famous ones, the climax was, is that he discovered under sitting under a tree that instead of instead of trying to deny Himself

 

all physical pleasures, which he had tried, didn't find fulfillment or enlightenment there. And certainly not in in self indulgence did not find enlightenment there. He began through intense meditation, that he could find what he would call a middle way If you could find a way to enlightenment, and it began right away to teach that new faith to others, here's a statue of Buddha. Buddhism is in many respects more of philosophy than it is a religion. Buddhists have Gods, but it's unclear and unclear to me exactly how those gods function within the religion you can be a Buddhist and not believe in any god I've given to understand. The gods are often those divine or semi divine beings, who have attained a higher place, who have become enlightened and live a better life, often not in this realm, somewhere else on the great wheel. But Buddhism can be practiced without any theocentric without any gods at all, and is practiced by many in that way as a form of meditation, as a form of getting in touch with a deeper self. So is Buddha God. Sort of, for some, much more so than others. So the main Buddhist teaching what what Buddha discovered under the tree and contemplation is that you don't have to go into radical self denial, in order to attain enlightenment nor into radical self indulgence, but rather, there is a middle way. And that middle way, is key to understanding Buddhism. Just kind of as an aside, I know the Greek world better than this world of India, and in the Greek world, there is called the golden mean, all things in moderation. There is some real similarity, I think, in understanding, contentment, and enlightenment, in human culture and human life. It's either too far one way, or too far. Another bit is in the compromise. Later in Chinese thought, and philosophy, we'll talk about the ying and the yang. Other cultures have other things, even even Hegel, in Germany talked about the thesis and antithesis, and finding the synthesis in the middle. This idea of not going too far, one way and not going too far, the other, but finding a compromise is deep in our human condition, and deep in our human religions. Practice in different ways, through many different cultures. Here we see it in Buddha. The way to achieve meditation, or the way to achieve enlightenment, rather, is through an inward journey is through meditation. And so one goes inside and concentrates on what's inside. Actually, one concentrates by emptying trying to empty oneself of all things that perturb you all things that are on your mind, all things that keep you awake at night, is to rid yourself of all those concerns and cares and let them float away. And Buddhist monks are masters of this technique about this journey. It is intended to find relief, from desire, from craving for things that are impermanent, things that don't matter, things that will pass away, the only thing that counts is to be aligned with that great wheel that brawler has set up. Those impermanent things are called the Dukkha. Buddha established what he called the Four Noble Truths, things that are always true eternal truth, principles of how the world work, and they are significant ways to escape the endless cycles of reincarnation. That is an interesting development in Buddhism that one can rise above the endless birth and reverse and Burson

 

and reach a place known as nirvana. That place that is above where, where one no longer goes through all those. And in order to do that one has to practice quite diligently perfectly before eternal truth. Remember, daca refers to those things that are impermanent and that will pass away. So the TOS are that DACA exists. There is such a thing That is this striving, this wanting this desire, this craving for things that pass away. The second truth is the arising of dukkha. One has to recognize that and own that and knows see that there is the cessation of dukkha. One learns no longer to crave no longer to desire no longer to need those things. And then there is the path that leads to the cessation of dukkha. That path again is primarily meditation. Other key terms and these terms are shared. Buddhism comes out of Hinduism, and they're shared in similar ways, both by Buddhism and Hinduism. Other key terms that are important to understand, to even begin to grasp. The religions of India are dharma. Dharma is another way of referring to the cosmic order, that the wheel that goes round and round the cycle of births and deaths and reincarnations, and one's place in the eternal order. Dharma is created by Brahma. Most of the time, Shiva gets involved there and other gods get involved there. But dharma is established by the gods and it is the cosmic order. Karma, which we in the West use, a lot to refer to kind of good luck or bad luck. But karma is really the tally of deeds, it is the accounting of deeds by one which, by which one either achieves better reincarnation or you lose it, you know, it is the, it is the adding up of the good that you do, versus the bad that you do. And what you want to do, of course, is to increase your karma, you want to increase your good karma, and you want to decrease your bad karma. So at the end of the day, when death comes, it is decided that your good karma outweighs your bad, and you're able to move into a better reincarnated state. One of the important ways of establishing good karma or receiving good karma, is to be kind to others. There are many other ways as well, the kindness is a particular virtue. Alongside Judaism, there is another religion that develops out of Hinduism. It actually predates Buddhism by 100 years or so. And instead of coming right out of the Vedic tradition, it comes from the Ganges River Valley, the other side of the continent. It is, it is a significant reform of the early Vedic teachings, although keeps many of the, of the same notions, but it's directed much more toward non violence and a respect for all living things. And this is done in very radical ways. Practice of ascetic belief, ascetic behavior. And asceticism is virtually every religion I know of has ascetics as part of its religion. Aesthetic behavior is extreme self denial, sometimes self punishment. Fasting is an ascetic practice. Denial. abstinence from sex is an ascetic practice. If you know the Christian tradition, you understand often in the monasteries throughout medieval medieval Europe, they were practicing forms of asceticism, sometimes extreme ways. And it's still practice today in many places. I know. The top Coptic Christians in Egypt, often revere people who have radical ascetic kinds of practices.

 

Jainism is the name of this religion. This offshoot of Hinduism, and it calls for radical self denial. You You don't allow yourself any pleasures, any tangible physical enjoyment. This is a symbol of Jainism is not even an ancient symbol. It is still in use today. And it has two features that I'll point out. I subscribe right away you see the swastika there. At the top, but there's also the hand going out. The swastika was famous to us, because the Nazis adopted it and used it as a primary means of terror in Nazi Germany, in the 1930s, and 40s, but the swastika is actually an image that we find in many, many different cultures. You even find it in some Native American petroglyphs in the United States, what are now in the United States, it goes back and it seems to be a design that has captured the human imagination to because it is in a sense like that we'll each has its side and its place. But you can see that it keeps turning. In Jainism, the swastika since ancient times, and still today, symbolizes the four realms of existence, that are thought of there are the heavenly beings, there are the human beings, there are the heavy, hellish beings. And there are beings that are subhuman. So for Jainism, the swastika is a way to divide reality into different parts and pieces, and where different beings dwell and live, the hand that we saw, I can just go back and see the palm outstretched. And we could go into detail about what's in the center. There's a time for that. But basically, the hand is a primary symbol of what Jainism teaches. The basic concept of pursuing non injury don't hurt any living thing. And so, it is a poem out, which is nearly universally understood by human beings to be a sign of peace. You see, in my hand, I carry no weapon, you see in my hand is not a fist, you see in my hand that it is open to touching your hand. And that symbol of peace is central to Jainism. Jainism is still practiced today, just like Hinduism and Buddhism are in some parts of India, but it has spread beyond to Europe and to North America as well. Now we're going to change gears, we're going to leave India. And we're going to leave it about where it is, around the year 500 600 BC. There's a lot more detail about India, of course, that will pick that up in the future in this class. For now, I want to just leave in the about at that time and move north and east into China. Here's your first assigned article about China. Again, Joshua mark is a primary author, you'll see that I have a lot of appreciation for what he has written. They are not only media articles, but they're also brief. And with good solid scholarship behind it, so pay attention to what Joshua Mark puts out there. Please take special notice the sections on definition prehistory, the early first dynasties, the Jo dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Warring States, which is how far we'll get today and talking about China. And then in the future, we'll pick up with the Qin Dynasty, and the jahaan content contention and move forward. If you like and you have opportunity to watch videos, then I highly recommend to you the first 30 minutes of the video called Lost Civilizations History of Ancient China documentary, take a look at that it is well done. And there's so many more pictures and images and you get a real feel for the land.

 

So here we are in China and the yellow rectangle shows us primarily the Yellow River Valley. The Yellow River Valley is where civilization, cities get their primary start in China. And that's where we'll focus. This is the region of the Yellow River Valley you'll see the Yellow River here draining into the loc. And it is this central and northern part of China, where civilization first arises. And again, my apologies to all those other cultures and all those other places. Southeast Asia, Indonesia, Polynesia, southern China, Japan. I mean they're just so many places where We could go just in the east and talk about early civilizations and early development of their cultures. I apologize to just as in time to do that. So I've had to be selective. China is a is a major player in the world, even early on. There's evidence that the Egyptians, the early people in India, and China had trade relations, at least there are some trade goods that are archaeological artifacts that we have found, that have come from those places. I mean, sometimes I think we can get the impression the ancient world or people just isolated by themselves and growing up growing a culture going to civilization with no influence from others. That is not correct. It's hard to judge how much influence there was. But certainly trade. Trade among the major empires in the places in between was a significant way that ideas and religion and how to work, how to make bronze, for instance, technology, maybe how to do irrigation, maybe how to do writing, ways in which all of those things spread from one to another. It's not by accident, that 3500 BC is general time and we'll see civilizations and city states arise. And we see that in virtually every one of these cultures, they they they arise all about the same time. Trade is likely the reason why don't believe those who tell you you can get by without trading with people around the world. Early China, again, there's evidence of settlement that goes back hundreds of 1000s of years in China, there have been some recent archaeological finds, as a matter of fact, in China, that just as Europe and South Asia has its Neanderthal race, there is indications of a race of hominins people like us that lived in China, perhaps as much as 500,000 years ago. human habitation comes, of course, later, but one of the oldest civilizations, or the oldest developments of city states and towns where irrigation becomes important where technology becomes used, where there's a stratification into societies where their religion begins to develop. One of the oldest places is in the Yellow River Basin, as mentioned, settled probably as early as 5000 BC. Early on, around 2700 BC, and lasting until 1600 BC, which is more than 1000 years, 1100 years. There is a family that begins to have dominance over that region. They're called the Thai family. And one of the early rulers was a person by the name of you. And he's recalled as you the great. Now, let me tell you, there are some historical dispute about this. We have stories and legends about you and about the tie dynasty and what they did and didn't do. Some scholars regard those as legendary, more than as being rooted in historical reality. That's very hard to tell. But we'll just mentioned you the great. And the beginnings of chai, the chai dynasty, dynasty, again refers to a family that controls a number of city states or a number of areas, number of provinces.

 

And by family, I don't just mean mom and dad and their kids, it can extend to brothers and cousins and uncles and aunts and beyond. But there is a there's a historical continuity and often a genetic or biological continuity that goes from one ruler to the next. And that's what we mean by a dynasty. You as remembered in particular as figuring out how to control the Yellow River and it's flooding, that the floods of the Yellow River, our yellow river is huge. And it it floods are to be devastating to people who live along it. The trouble is if you don't live along the Yellow River, you can't raise crops and so they're caught in that tension of how do you deal with this great powerful river. And you early on, it's taught was able to control the flooding through a series of dams and irrigation. And he became highly regarded and his family did it over the course of centuries. The family also through mostly heavy taxation, other people around them, the family was taught to have become a self centered, no longer caring for the people, but they were only in it for their own aggrandizement, they became opulent. And this was highly resented, of course, by the people. Wherever the people have high resentment, that's a setup for dynastic change. The God who was worshiped primarily, although they have many gods, the primary God was a mother risk artist by the name of shanti. And she took care of nature, and the political order of war, and the carrying on of tradition, from its earliest days. The Chinese love the notion of tradition, passing on the practices, the attitudes, the beliefs, of from one's ancestors, early on a family's ancestors, my ancestors, your ancestors, people who had died, were identified as having sort of a mediatorial, they could intercede for you. And that's a kind of a godlike power. And so, religion is often that ancestor worship we call religion is often a matter of keeping your dead ancestors content, and honored. They still have life, some time, they still can see they know what's going on, you can still communicate with your ancestors through prayer, you still give them offerings, you still bring them food, you keep them happy, so that they will intercede for you. You build them grand tombs, and most of the early archaeology that we have, and much of the information that we have about virtually every culture, but is here in China particular comes from either the temples, or the tours, where people bury, bury their precious belongings. So if you keep your ancestors happy, if you worship them, if you if you honor them, they in turn will intercede with Shanti or with the gods on your behalf, they will ask that the gods bless you and keep you. Just to reminder, again, I hate to beat that old drum too much to just reminder again, that religion and the practices of religion around the world is often a matter of how do we get the gods on our side. Here in China, we see the practices primarily being through the worship and intercession of one's ancestors. I mentioned that the Thai dynasty lasting about 1100 years, went into decline, it became opulent, the taxation was merciless, and they began to be only for themselves. So Rhonda, your 1600 BC, a different family from a different area started to rise and block, primarily a military coup. Another factor of China and China's history is that local warlords, but we call warlords, local generals, local leaders with a strong military backing, probably militia people when they called out of the farms, but then they could equip with weapons. Much of Chinese history, including one could argue into the 20th century is a battle between these different warlords.

 

arising out of that situation where the Thai dynasty was in decline, came a person by the name of Tang from the family of Shang Tang letter revolts. They took the capital, and he put himself in as the chief can't really say Empire, but the chief of the many city states in the provinces that were under control. First thing he did was he cut taxes. Always a popular move around by politicians and leaders. He reduced taxes significantly and relieve the burden. And we see that the culture grew quite significantly. He also reached for a much simpler kind of court and cut many of the extravagance considers that the previous dynasty had put in place. It seems about this time, although that again is in dispute, that is just some of writing came into being, as well as entry into the early Bronze Age. And the Shang dynasty became quickly, very, very artistic in their use of bronze 1600 is 1600 to 1046 BC, the length of the Shang Dynasty is later than other places in the development and use of bronze. The tin in particular that has to be used to bind tin and copper to make bronze. The tin in particular had to be imported from great distances in many places, and that probably accounts for the slower development of bronze in China. However, once it got going, it went full guns. Again, we talked about trade, and we talked about how the influence of other cultures Mesopotamia was, was deep into the Bronze Age of Africa was, was only gonna last for another 400 years or so, in Mesopotamia. So if they showed the people in China, how to combine tin, and copper and produce bronze, maybe that's how it went. Who knows. They continue to the pantheistic religion of this supreme god Shanti that worship many other gods. I mentioned that the Shang were very exquisite in their use of bronze. The image before you is a bronze axe. You'll see up in this area, this is where the handle would have been attached. And this is the ropes. This is the cutting edge down at the bottom of the image. But it wasn't just utilitarian. It's also highly artistic. Who knows who this is an image of is it's an axe used in war. Is it an app used in farming cutting down trees? Is it an axe perhaps that was produced as an artistic expression. We don't hear the godly also from the Shang Dynasty period. And you'll see how how beautifully it is engraved. And you'll see how beautifully it is worked. Once the Shang got going in bronze. They went for God's during the Shang Dynasty. So we're talking between 1600 and basically 1100 BC. During the Shang Dynasty, the political leader also now begins to adopt a priestly media mediator role. Not only do I as an individual have to honor my ancestors and pray to them and keep them supplied so that I personally would be blessed. Now the king, or the leader or the warlord takes on that religious role on behalf of the nation as the one who mediates between the exalted dead, the honored dead, and the living during this Shang Dynasty, then we get the idea of the very beginnings of an AI, very important idea in the history of China, called the mandate from heaven. And we'll explain that a little bit later, more fully. But fundamentally, the mandate from Heaven was that the king rules, the warlord rules, by the blessings of shanti and the gods. Decisions have major importance in China and culture. And then later on, of course, that continued, were made by the practice of divination or divination.

 

That's a practice where you're trying to figure out what the gods want you to do. Different cultures, different civilizations have different ways of doing that. In the Greek and Roman cultures, primary practice was, you go to an Oracle, Apollo had an Oracle, you Romans or go to the Sybil and hear what the God had to say. They also would open up animals, they would sacrifice an animal and look at the animals insides in trails, and try and read what the gods were saying or in some famous stories, an owl lands and they know Oh, that leader is going to die right away, or an eagle comes in. And Oh, that one's on the ascendancy. They tried to read nature in order to understand what the gods were saying to them. The same as here in China. And they would use what are called oracle bones. But it isn't really just lived limited to bones, they would also use shells, particularly toward tortoise shells. Now what they would do is they would take a bone, dry it out, take a tortoise shell dry it out, and then take a hot poker, probably bronze, and put that on the bone or put that on the shell. And they would watch the way that the bone or the shell would crack. And then the priests or the shaman, the leaders, the people who had the secret knowledge, they would read those cracks, and thereby read what it is that God wanted them to do. This is an image of a tortoise shell that was used as an Oracle. There in the archaeological recoveries from China. There are 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of these shells, and bones that were used. They wanted to know of course, what did the gods want from us? What is required of us? As we read in Micah six, that's the human question of religion, what is required of us in order to stay in good terms with the gods. They tried to find out by reading the shells, you'll see other markings on act. This is a illustration of early writing in the Shang, period. The Shang ruled well, and I thought mostly very highly in Chinese history and culture. But they too, as all dynasties and all empires have a beginning and a middle and an end. The end of the Shang Dynasty came with another warlord, another group that excuse me, that rose to prominence called the Joe family.

 

When the job family led the revolt, they utilize in particular that notion of the mandate from heaven. And they applied it in a very significant way that is profound and important for us all to understand about Chinese life and culture. They argued, the Joe family argued that the mandate from heaven says that the government must do what is in the best interest of the people. In other words, the people don't exist for the sake of the government. But the government exists for the sake of the people. And this is the will of the gods. And as long as a government dynasty could show that it was benefiting the people, it stayed in power. You will imagine what happens when there are natural disasters, when there are floods, when there are plagues, with our crop failures, when cultures begins to fall apart, then it's pretty easy to say that dynasty has lost the mandate from heaven. And as a matter of fact, we see that pattern occur time and time and time again, in the dynastic changes the history of China, fascinating for me as a Westerner, to know that the government that I know says that it is of the people and by the people, and for the people. Right now, we don't say it's by God. For the people. What we say is, it's by the people, for the people. That's democracy. But I think it is marvelous to note that early on 1000 years before Christ, there were people who understood that the government exists for the good of its people, and not the other way around. And that becomes a ruling concept throughout the political, military, and social life of China for 1000s and 1000s. of years. One could even argue that in the time prior to World War Two and the like, the battle between the communists and Chiang Kai Shek and other forces is still this battles between who best has the good of the people in mind Though of course, Mao, and the Chinese Communist would reject any notion of God being the one who gives them this concept. But it's still about who will rule best for the people. That's quite a different concept, again, from what we see in Mesopotamia, and what we see in Egypt, in particular, and we're going to get to use you next time, where the people exists for the good of the king, and for the good of the government. This is much closer to what we might think of as a modern democratic idea. It is not invented by Greece is not invented by Rome. It is invented by the Chinese. Joe are remembered as one of China's greatest dynasties, not only politically, but they also set the cultural standards for 1000s of years much of the art that one sees much of the architecture that one sees, and much of the language is all stems back to this Joh period in China's history. So the main thing to note, in particular is that this mandate of heaven is solidified during Jos dynasty. This map, I know is rather fuzzy. But you'll see different provinces or different parts of the yellow valley that were early settled and become the different lands this map comes from quite a bit later, when there are warring states, along the lands, but here in in the north are where the Joe are, and they

 

are highly regarded. But the Joe dynasty falls as well, around 771 BC. And if you're trying to keep track with the other regions, this is really a prominent time for the Assyrians, we talked about last time, the Assyrians and the Egyptians in Middle East, they are their strongest position, particularly a serious. So while serious is significantly strong, and in India, the Vedic tradition, and is very strong and solidifying almost all Northern India and Pakistan and Afghanistan, the Jo dynasty decides to move its capital, and to greatly decentralize its government. Prior to that, the government is primarily in the hands of a biological family. But now they allow local places much more control. And that begins a period of time as one can imagine of competition among those different provinces and different warlords. But it is a time of great cultural flourishing. And during this period of time, and demand, we know as Confucius begins his teachings

 

is called the Ottoman spring period. It is a time after the Jos really fall from power and no one else has reached

 

has reached ascendancy or has reached control over other areas. There are seven warlords who rage among that area. We'll come back to Confucius in just a minute but just to finish the political military question around the year to 21 BC. Now Alexander the Great has already been great. throughout the Mediterranean world. Greece has pretty much declined as a political power player. Egypt is a mess. Mesopotamia is in deep decline. Persia is gone all the sorts of empires that we'll talk about. The Spring and Autumn Period in Chinese history ends with the coming of the Qin faction. Setting up the Qin Dynasty that takes all the way to 221 BC. There was a local military person by the name of Shang who was from the kin and I'll just see if I can back up the kin are here in this area. So there are sort of the western most Part of the civilized China that time. man named Shing. Will in the West Sangsu is one of the kin generals and he changes military tactics, the warlords all fought the same. And they fought to stalemate after stalemate after stalemate after stalemate. Finally Sang Soo Sunsoo comes up with a creative and new ways to use his troops and new tactics. And that gave his family and his province and his dynasty great military advantage over the others, and he overcomes them and sets up the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC. Well, we'll leave the Chinese history, political history to rest for the moment and move really to Chinese religions. And here's an assigned reading for you. by Emily mark. I don't know that she's related to Joshua lark, but I wouldn't be surprised. Her article is on religion in ancient China, and you will be held responsible for reading this article. Here's an image of Confucius as an older gentleman, wise, and the like. Confucius live during the later part of the Joe dynasty and early part of the autumn spring period. He taught ancestor worship the traditional way of Chinese religion, but really focused not so much on the worship but focus on human behavior, focus on a rational what we would call a rational or ethic way of living morally. Confucius is one of the truly first great philosophers have a rational, reasonable thought through way of life, and particularly ethics, how you treat other people and how you respond to society. Although a Thai ancestor worship Confucius is not particularly interested in the gods or the other world, he's very much of this world, kind of theologian kind of philosopher during the Qin Dynasty, which, you know, resolve follows much later. After Confucianism had become sort of the main expression of Chinese religion, the Qin Dynasty decides that it's going to get rid of religion. And instead, get rid of all the traditional religions. Get rid of ancestor worship, get rid of Confucius get rid of Taoism, which we're not going to be able to say much about, but you'll see it in the article. Get rid of all those instead, the state and the Qin Dynasty. Were going to become the objects of faith, they were going to be the religious center, so they banned religions. Well, the truth is, the Qin Dynasty didn't last very long. And as soon as it was replaced by the Han Dynasty, they restored Confucianism, as the primary Chinese religion and others cameras comes at as well, particularly Buddhism, and Taoism. That brings us to the end of today to the end of session four. Look forward to seeing you next time. We'll go back west, as far as North Africa, and

 

the development of the great civilization of ancient Egypt. Thank you, and God bless. We'll see you next time.