7.3. China (III - XVII centuries.)

The era of fragmentation (III-VI centuries). With the fall of the Han Empire at the turn of the II-III centuries. in china going on   a change of epochs: the ancient period of the country's history ends and the Middle Ages begins. The first stage of early feudalism went down in history as the time of the Three Kingdoms (220-280). On the territory of the country, there were three states (Wei-in the north, Shu-in the central part and U-in the south), in which power was close in type to military dictatorship.

But at the end of III. political stability in China is once again lost, and it becomes easy prey for nomadic tribes who have poured in here, mostly settled in the north-western regions of the country. From this point on, over two and a half centuries, China was divided into northern and southern parts, which affected its subsequent development. Strengthening of centralized power occurs in the 20s of the V century. in the south after the establishment of the Southern Song Empire here and in the 30s of the 5th century AD - in the north, where the Northern Wei empire is strengthening , in which the desire to restore the united Chinese statehood was more pronounced. In 581 there was a coup in the north: the commander Yang Jian removed the emperor from power and changed the name of the state Sui. In 589, he subordinated the southern state to his power and for the first time after a 400-year period of fragmentation, he restored the country's political unity.

Political changes in China III-VI centuries. closely related to cardinal shifts in ethnic development. Although foreigners penetrated before, but it was IV in. becomes a time of mass invasions, compared with the Great Migration in Europe. The tribes of the Sünnu, Sanbiyans, Tsianov, Tsze, and di who came from the central regions of Asia settled not only on the northern and western margins, but also on the Central Plain, mixing with the indigenous Chinese population. In the south, the processes of assimilation of the non-Chinese population (Yue, Miao, Li, and Man and Yao) went faster and less dramatically, leaving large spaces uncolonized. This is reflected in the mutual isolation of the parties, and in the language two main dialects of Chinese have been formed. The northerners called the inhabitants of the middle state, that is, the Chinese, only themselves, and the southerners called the people Y.

The period of political fragmentation was accompanied by a noticeable naturalization of economic life, the decline of cities and a reduction in monetary circulation. Grain and silk began to act as a measure of value. An allotment land use system (zhan tian) was introduced, which affected the type of organization of society and the way it was managed. Her being consisted in assigning to each worker, assigned to the estate of personally free common people, the right to receive a certain amount of land and establishing fixed taxes on him.

The allotment system was opposed by the growth of private land plots of the so-called “strong houses” (“da jia”), which was accompanied by the destruction and enslavement of the peasantry. The introduction of the state allotment system, the struggle of the authorities against the expansion of large-scale private landownership lasted throughout the whole of China’s medieval history and affected the design of the country's unique agrarian and social system.

The process of official differentiation was based on the expansion and degeneration of the community. This found expression in the formal union of peasant farms into five-yard and twenty-five-yard, which were encouraged by the authorities for tax benefits. All non-full-fledged strata in the state were collectively called the “mean people” (jianzhen) and were opposed to the “good people” (lanmin). A vivid manifestation of social changes was the increasing role of the aristocracy. Nobility was determined by belonging to the old clans. Genericity was fixed in the lists of noble surnames, the first general register of which was compiled in the III c. Another distinctive feature of social life III-VI centuries. there was an increase in personal relationships. The principle of the personal duty of the younger to the elder has taken a leading place among moral values.

Imperial period ( ending VI-XIII centuries )   During this period, the imperial order was revived in China, the country's political unification took place, the nature of the supreme power changed, the centralization of government increased, the role of the bureaucratic apparatus increased. During the years of the Tang dynasty (618-907), the classical Chinese type of imperial control was formed. Riots of military governors, a peasant war of 874-883, a long struggle against Tibetans, Uighurs and Tanguts in the north of the country, military opposition to the South China state of Nanzhao took place in the country. All this led to the agony of the Tang regime.

In the middle of the X century. the state was born out of chaos. Later Zhou, which became the new core of the country's political unification. Land reunification was completed in 960 by the founder of the Song dynasty Zhao Quaning with the capital Kaifeng. In the same century, the Liao state appears on the political map of northeast China . In 1038, the Tangut Empire of Western Xia was proclaimed on the northwestern borders of the Sun Empire. From the middle of the XI century. between Song, Liao and Xia, there is an approximate balance of power, which at the beginning of the XII century. It was broken with the advent of a new rapidly growing state of Jurchen (one of the branches of the Tungus tribes), formed in Manchuria and proclaimed itself in 1115 the Jin Empire. It soon conquered the state of Liao, seized the capital of Song, along with the emperor. However, the brother of the captured emperor succeeded in creating the Southern Song empire with its capital in Linan (Hangzhou), spreading influence over the southern regions of the country.

Thus, on the eve of the Mongol invasion, China again found itself split into two parts northern, including the Jin Empire, and the southern territory of the Southern Song Empire.

The process of ethnic consolidation of the Chinese, which began in the VII century, already at the beginning of the XIII century. leads to the formation of the Chinese people. Ethnic identity manifests itself in the allocation of the Chinese state, opposing foreign countries, in the spread of the universal self-name "Han Ren" (Han people). The population of the country in the X-XIII centuries. amounted to 80-100 million people.

In the Tang and Song empires, management systems perfect for their time were added, which were copied by other states. From 963, all military units of the country began to be subordinated directly to the emperor, and military officials in places were appointed from among the civil servants of the capital. This strengthened the power of the emperor. The bureaucratic apparatus grew to 25 thousand. The supreme government agency was the Office of the Institutions, which headed the six leading executive authorities of the country: Chinov, Taxes, Rituals, Military, Judicial, and Public Works. Along with them were established the Imperial Secretariat, the Imperial Chancellery. The authority of the head of state, officially called the Son of Heaven and the emperor, was hereditary and legally unlimited.

The economy of China VII-XII centuries. based on agricultural production. The allotment system, which reached its apogee in the 6th-8th centuries, by the end of the 10th century. disappeared. In Sung China, the land tenure system already included a state land fund with imperial estates, large and medium private land ownership, small-peasant land property, and estates of state land holders. The taxation procedure can be called total. The main factor was the land tax twice, which constituted 20% of the crop, supplemented with the field tax and mining. Household registers were compiled every three years to account for taxpayers.

The unification of the country led to a gradual increase in the role of cities. If in the eighth century. there were 25 of them with a population of about 500 thousand people, then in the 10th-12th centuries, during the period of urbanization, the urban population began to account for 10% of the total number of the country.

Urbanization was closely associated with the growth of handicraft production. Such trends in state-owned crafts as silk weaving, ceramics, woodworking, paper making and dyeing were especially developed in the cities. A form of private craft, the rise of which was restrained by strong competition of state-owned production and the all-round control of the imperial power over the urban economy, was a family workshop shop. Trade and craft organizations, as well as shops, represented the main part of the urban craft. Gradually the techniques of the craft were improved, his organization changed. Large workshops appeared, equipped with machine tools and employing hired labor.

The development of trade contributed to the introduction at the end of VI. standards of measures and weights and the release of a copper coin of an established weight. Tax revenues from trade have become a tangible source of government revenue. The increase in the extraction of metals allowed the Sung government to release the largest amount of specie in the entire history of the Chinese Middle Ages. The intensification of foreign trade occurred in the VII-VIII centuries. The center of maritime trade was the port of Guangzhou, which connected China with Korea, Japan and coastal India. The land trade went along the Great Silk Road through the territory of Central Asia, along which caravanserais were arranged.

In the Chinese medieval society of the pre-Mongol era, the disengagement followed the line of aristocrats and non-aristocrats, the service class and commoners, free and dependent. The peak of the influence of aristocratic clans falls on the VII-VIII centuries. The first genealogical list of 637 was recorded 293 names and 1654 families. But by the beginning of the XI century. the power of the aristocracy weakens and begins the process of merging it with the bureaucratic bureaucracy.

The “golden age” of bureaucracy was the time of Sung. The service pyramid consisted of 9 ranks and 30 degrees, and belonging to it opened the way to enrichment. The main channel for penetration of officials into the environment was the state exams, which contributed to the expansion of the social base of service people.

About 60% of the population were peasants who legally retained the rights to land, but in fact did not have the ability to freely dispose of it, leave it untreated or abandon it. From the IX c. there was a process of disappearance of personal-non-full-fledged estates (jianzheni): state serfs (guanhu), state-made artisans (guns) and musicians (yue), private and dependent landless workers (butsoy). A special stratum of society were members of Buddhist and Taoist monasteries, numbering in the 20s of the XI century. 400 thousand people.

Cities in which the lumpen layer appears become centers of anti-government uprisings. The largest movement against the arbitrariness of the authorities was an uprising led by Phan La in southeastern China in 1120-1122. On the territory of the Jin Empire until its fall in the 13th century. the national liberation units of the "red jackets" and the "black banner" acted.

In medieval China, there were three religious doctrines: Buddhism, Taoism, and Confucianism. In the Tang era, the government encouraged Taoism: in 666, the sanctity of the author of an ancient Chinese treatise - the canonical composition of Taoism Laozi (IV-III centuries. BC) was officially recognized, in the first half of the VIII century. established Taoist Academy. At the same time, persecution of Buddhism intensified and neo-Confucianism was asserted, which claimed the role of the only ideology that established the social hierarchy and correlated it with the concept of personal duty.

So, by the beginning of the XIII century. in Chinese society, many features and institutions take on a complete form, and subsequently they will undergo only partial changes. Political, economic and social systems are approaching classical models, changes in ideology bring to the forefront of neo-Confucianism.

China in the era of Mongol rule

China in the era of Mongol rule. Yuan Empire (1271-1367) The Mongol conquest of China stretched for almost 70 years. In 1215 was taken. Beijing, and in 1280 China was completely at the mercy of the Mongols. With the accession to the throne of Khan Kubilai (1215-1294), the Great Khan rate was transferred to Beijing. Along with it, Karakorum and Shandun were considered equal capitals. In 1271 all the possessions of the Great Khan were declared the Yuan Empire in the Chinese style. Mongolian domination in the main part of China lasted a little more than a century and is noted by Chinese sources as the most difficult time for the country.

Despite military might, the Yuan empire was not distinguished by its internal strength, civil strife shook it, as well as the resistance of the local Chinese population, the uprising of the secret Buddhist society “White Lotus”.

A characteristic feature of the social structure was the division of the country into four unequal categories of rights. The Chinese of the north and the inhabitants of the south of the country were considered respectively the people of the third and fourth grade after the Mongols themselves and people from the Islamic countries of western and central Asia. Thus, the ethnic situation of the epoch was characterized not only by national oppression by the Mongols, but also by legalized opposition of the northern and southern Chinese.

The rule of the Yuan Empire was held by the army. Each city contained a garrison of at least 1000 people, and in Beijing there was a Khan guard of 12 thousand people. In vassal dependence on the Yuan palace were Tibet and Koryo (Korea). Attempts to invade Japan, Burma, Vietnam and Java, undertaken in the 70-80s of the XIII century, did not bring the Mongols success. For the first time, Yuan China was visited by merchants and missionaries from Europe who left notes about their travels: Marco Polo (about 1254-1324), Arnold from Cologne and others.

From the second half of the 12th century, the Mongol sovereigns interested in receiving income from the conquered lands. increasingly began to adopt the traditional Chinese methods of exploitation of the population. Initially, the taxation system was streamlined and centralized. The collection of taxes was removed from the hands of local authorities, a general census of the population was conducted, tax registers were compiled, grain and land taxes and a land tax levied by silk and silver were introduced.

The laws in force determined the system of land relations, within which private lands, state-owned lands, public lands and allotments were allocated. A steady trend in agriculture since the beginning of the XIV century. there is an increase in private land ownership and an increase in rental relations. The abundance of the enslaved population and prisoners of war allowed the extensive use of their work on state and warrior lands in military settlements. Along with the slaves, state-owned land was cultivated by state tenants. It was widely, as never before, spread temple tenure, replenished both through government donations, and through purchases and direct seizure of fields. Such lands were considered eternal possession and were processed by brethren and tenants.

Urban life began to revive only by the end of the 13th century. In the register lists in 1279 there were about 420 thousand masters. Following the example of the Chinese, the Mongols established a monopoly on the treasury to dispose of salt, iron, metal tea, wine and vinegar, set a trade tax in the amount of one-thirtieth value of the goods. In connection with the inflation of paper money at the end of the XIII century. barter in the trade began to dominate, the role of precious metals increased, usury flourished.

From the middle of the XIII century. Lamaism, a Tibetan type of Buddhism, becomes the official religion of the Mongol court. A characteristic feature of the period was the emergence of secret religious sects. The former leading position of Confucianism was not restored, although the opening in 1287 of the Academy of Sons of the Fatherland, the forge of the highest Confucian cadres, testified to Khan Kubilai’s acceptance of the imperial Confucian doctrine.

Minsk China (1368-1644)

Minsk China (1368-1644). Minsk China was born and died in the crucible of the great peasant wars, the events of which were invisibly directed by secret religious societies such as the White Lotus. In this era, Mongolian domination was finally eliminated and the foundations of the economic and political systems that meet the traditional Chinese ideas of ideal statehood were laid. The peak of the power of the Ming Empire fell in the first third of the 15th century. By the end of the century, negative phenomena began to grow. The entire second half of the dynastic cycle (XVI - first half of the XVII centuries) was characterized by a protracted crisis, which by the end of the epoch acquired a universal and comprehensive character. The crisis that began with changes in the economy and social structure manifested itself most visibly in the area of ​​domestic politics.

The first emperor of the Ming dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang (1328-1398), began to conduct a far-sighted agrarian and financial policy. He increased the proportion of peasant households in the land wedge, strengthened control over the distribution of state-owned land, stimulated the military settlements sponsored by the treasury, resettled peasants to vacant land, introduced a fixed taxation, provided benefits to poor households. Его сын Чжу Ди ужесточил полицейские функции власти: было учреждено специальное ведомство, подчинявшееся только императору – Парчовые халаты, поощрялось доносительство. In the XV century. появилось еще два карательно-сыскных учреждения.

Центральной внешнеполитической задачей Минского государства в XIV-XV вв. было предотвращение возможности нового монгольского нападения. Не обходилось без военных столкновений. И хотя в 1488 г. с Монголией был заключен мир, однако набеги продолжались еще и в XVI в. От нашествия на страну войск Тамерлана, начавшегося в 1405 г., Китай спасла смерть завоевателя.

In the XV century. активизируется южное направление внешней политики. Китай вмешивается во вьетнамские дела, захватывает ряд районов Бирмы. С 1405 по 1433 гг. в страны Юго-Восточной Азии, Индию, Аравию и Африку совершается семь грандиозных экспедиций китайского флота под руководством Чжэн Хэ (1371 – около 1434). В разных походах он вел от 48 до 62 только крупных кораблей. Эти вояжи имели целью установление торговых и дипломатических связей с заморскими странами, хотя вся внешняя торговля была сведена к обмену данью и дарами с зарубежными посольствами, на частную же внешнеторговую деятельность накладывался строжайший запрет. Караванная торговля также приобрела характер посольских миссий.

Государственная политика в отношении внутренней торговли не была последовательной. Частная торговая деятельность признавалась легальной и доходной для казны, однако общественное мнение считало ее недостойной уважения и требовавшей систематического контроля со стороны властей. Само же государство вело активную внутреннюю торговую политику. Казна принудительно закупала товары по низким ценам и распределяла продукты казенных промыслов, продавала лицензии на торговую деятельность, сохраняла систему монопольных товаров, содержала императорские лавки и насаждала государственные «торговые поселения».

The basis of the monetary system of the country remained during this period the notes and small copper coins. The ban on the use of gold and silver in the trade, although weakened, but, however, rather slowly. More precisely than in the previous epoch, the economic specialization of the districts and the tendency to the expansion of state-owned crafts and trades are indicated. Craft associations in this period gradually begin to acquire the character of guild organizations. Written charters appear inside them, a prosperous stratum arises.

Since the XVI century. the penetration of Europeans into the country begins. As in India, the championship belonged to the Portuguese. Their first possession on one of the South Chinese islands was Macau (Macao). Since the second half of the XVII century. the country is flooded with the Dutch and the British, who helped the Manchus to conquer China. At the end of the XVII century. in the suburb of Guan-chou, the British founded one of the first continental trading posts, which became the center of distribution of English goods.

In the Ming era, neo-Confucianism dominated religion. Since the end of the XIV century. there is a desire of the authorities to put restrictions on Buddhism and Taoism, which led to the expansion of religious sectarianism. Other vivid features of the country's religious life were the Sinification of local Muslims and the spread of local cults among the people.

Нарастание кризисных явлений в конце XV в. начинается исподволь, с постепенного ослабления императорской власти, концентрации земель в руках крупных частных владельцев, обострения финансового положения в стране. Императоры после Чжу Ди были слабыми правителями, а всеми делами при дворах заправляли временщики. Центром политической оппозиции стала палата цензоров-прокуроров, члены которой требовали реформ и обвиняли произвол временщиков. Деятельность такого рода встречала суровый отпор со стороны императоров. Типичной была картина, когда очередной влиятельный чиновник, подавая обличительный документ, одновременно готовился к смерти, ожидая от императора шелкового шнурка с приказом удавиться.

The turning point in the history of Minsk China is associated with a powerful peasant uprising of 1628-1644. led by Li Zichen. In 1644, Lee's troops occupied Beijing, and he declared himself emperor.

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История средневекового Китая представляет собой пестрый калейдоскоп событий: частую смену правящих династий, длительные периоды господства завоевателей, как правило, приходивших с севера и очень скоро растворявшихся среди местного населения, восприняв не только язык и образ жизни, но и классический китайский образец управления страной, оформившийся в танскую и сунскую эпохи. Ни одно государство средневекового Востока не смогло достичь такого уровня управляемости страной и обществом, какой был в Китае. Не последнюю роль в этом сыграла политическая замкнутость страны, а также господствовавшее в среде управленческой элиты идейное убеждение об избранности Срединной империи, естественными вассалами которой являются все прочие державы мира.

Однако и такое общество не было свободно от противоречий. И если побудительными мотивами крестьянских восстаний часто оказывались религиозно-мистические убеждения или национально-освободительные идеалы, они нисколько не отменяли, а наоборот, переплетались с требованиями социальной справедливости. Показательно, что китайское общество не было столь замкнутым и жестко организованным, как, например, индийское. Предводитель крестьянского восстания в Китае мог стать императором, а простолюдин, выдержавший государственные экзамены на чиновничью должность, мог начать головокружительную карьеру.