Production & Consumption, Local, Global, National Power in

the Pre-Modern Era

China as a Case Study

Significance of China is its emergence in the late 20th Cent.

By 1500, China had solidified its boundaries (excluding Tibet and Xingjian)
These boundaries were originally imagined in the Han Dynasty (206BCE
-220 CE)
Imperial China (roughly 900 CE - 1901 CE with its height between 10001400) institutionalized the Chinese through an ethnic national project >
Hannification
Historically the prize for European traders during the rise of European
maritime trade, early industrial capitalism. China a primary export economy
little to no demand for Euro-goods
19th Cent. Opium Wars (Britain V. China) effectively symbolize the rise of
Europe for the Chinese

Marxist-Leninist-Maoist State The Communist Party

of China (1949 current)

1842 Treaty of Nanjing ends Opium Wars w/ Britain

1895 China loses Sino-Japanese War Cedes Taiwan to Japan

1911 Fall of the Qing Dynasty the last Chinese Imperial Order Republican
Revolution

1937 Japanese invasion brief colonization

1945-1949 Chinese Civil War between rightwing nationalists and leftwing

communists (CCP)

1949 Peoples Republic of China under Mao Zedong

1980s Shift to market-socialism as a development strategy

China Today

5.9 million sq.miles in land

9000 sq. miles of coastline

4th largest country in the world

(Russia, Canada, US)

1.32 billion people

91% Han Chinese

95% Taoist or Buddhist, 1-2%

Catholic, 2-3% Prot. 1-2%
Muslim, unofficial house
churches ???

91% of the population over 15

years is literate (95% of the
males, 87% of the females)

Chinese Political Economy

2nd largest Econ. behind the US
2006 est. GDP $10.2 Trillion
1000% increase since 1978
(avg. 10% growth/year since 1993)
130 million (10%) of Chinese < poverty
798 million people in labor pool
45% in Agriculture
24% in Industry
31% in Services
Wealth Disparity
Top 10% reaps 33% of total wealth,
Bottom 10% reaps 2%

Chinese Political Economy, Cont.

Biggest Importing Partners - Japan (14%), S. Korea (11%),
US (7.5%), Germany (5%)
Biggest Exporting Partners - US (21%), Hong Kong (16%) Japan
(10%), S. Korea (5%), Germany (4%)
US Trade Deficit W/ China = $230 billion
Chinese Labor = Avg. $0.50/Hr. = $100 month
Compulsory Military Service for Males and Females
Trained bodies fit for immediate combat (2008):
Male - 281 Million
Female - 270 Million

China Today

Politically, Market-Socialism State-owned/controlled

economy shifting from from the latter to the former Avg.
9.5% growth since 1990

1960s-1970s Maos Cultural Revolution = Intra-CPP

response to Maos Great Leap Forward of the 1950s

Late 1980s Employment Reform Educated no longer

guaranteed jobs

1989 Tiananmen Square weeks of student-led protests

massive crackdown = 1000s dead

1990s = Economic Reform toward global market integration.

But Living Maoism still TOTALLY dominant in culture,
politics, and civil society

HUGE gap between urban and rural pops. 2009 urban PPP
= 17,500 yuan ($2500, up 8.5% from 2008). Rural = 5153
yuan ($814, up 0.6% from 2008)

Chinese Political Map

The Han Project Proto-Chinese Nationalism

Imperial China (900 - 1901{1000-1400})

Power Structure iemP- Centralized Agrarian Bureaucracy
Meritocracy
Scholar Bureaucrats
Merit Exams - Open to all (Some social mobility) (ends in 1905 by
Qing dynasty non-Han minority)
Merchants (money) viewed as having little merit, little virtue
Service to the State = Highest prestige
Ultimate vice/evil = luan (chaos)
Sovereign ruled by mandate of heaven

Chinese Humanism - Confucianism

Bedrock Ideological philosophy guiding Imperial Chinas political economy

Defined by virtue, which is sub-divided into 5 components

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Wisdom
Sincerity
Benevolence
Filial Piety
Propriety

. Confucianism not a religion, but a moral ethic of law, order, governance, and
statecraft P dominates the Ancient Chinese Power structure
. Dominates the collective consciousness of Chinese political culture dialectic
(then and now) between the moral/ethical duty of the state to protect/guide/lead the
people in accordance with above.
. Unites the pre-modern Chinese in a family bond to the Emperor based on duty
and respect as a virtue luan the greatest of all evils

The Institutions of a Centralized Agrarian Bureaucratic Empire Merit

Exams and virtuousness

Meritocracy kept the bureaucracy small, efficient

Confucianism = Luan (chaos, anarchy) is the curse of human
organization and should be avoided AT ALL COSTS
Individualism unknown - No separation between the individual and
the Family, the Family and the sovereign (Proto, pre-European
nationalism)
ANYONE could be a noble Gentlemen - an expression of the
ancestors - ANYONE can be proven Virtuous by illustrating
their command of Chinese Humanism (i.e., Confucianism) premodern social mobility based on merit! no caste, religious, ethnic,
or class/title distinction

Merchants occupied the low end of the social ladder

Merchants, farmers, craftsman - ALL dreamed of their sons becoming scholar
bureaucrats
Trade viewed as of little import beyond satisfying the needs of state.
E network subordinate to P

Public works (Ag. Engineering, city development, temple development, etc.)

viewed as central to the administration of Empire. Expanding Empire by sea
viewed as tedious, unnecessary, wasteful Fundamentally at odds with the
logic of 16th-18th cent. modernizing European states
The superior man seeks the way (dao) and not a mere living. There may be
starvation in farming, and there may be riches in the pursuit of studies. But the
superior man worries about the way (dao) and not about poverty [or riches]
--Confucius

Ancient Chinas Contributions to the MWS

Clock
Hydropower
Chemistry
Subsurface drilling
Paper & printing
Paper Money (1st human society to experience
mass inflation)
Compass (command of magnetism)
Universal education
Gunpowder

Imperial China Politically Powerful, Culturally United,

Averse to Trade! Military consolidated under Emporer (i.e.,
state = P) See Marks on Cheng Hos Navy Reigned In