Dynastic Cycle of China
Dynastic cycle is an important political theory in Chinese history. According to this theory, every dynasty goes through a culture cycle.
The cycle
The dynastic cycle appears as follows:
It has 3 main periods:
The dynastic cycle appears as follows:
- A new ruler unites China, founds a new dynasty, and gains the Mandate of Heaven.
- China, under the new dynasty, achieves prosperity.
- The population increases.
- Corruption becomes rampant in the imperial court, and the empire begins to enter decline and instability.
- A natural disaster wipes out farm land. The disaster normally would not have been a problem; however, together with the corruption and overpopulation, it causes famine.
- The famine causes the population to rebel and a civil war ensues.
- The ruler loses the Mandate of Heaven.
- The population decreases because of the violence.
- China goes through a warring states period.
- One state emerges victorious.
- The state starts a new empire.
- The empire gains the Mandate of Heaven.
It has 3 main periods:
- The first is the beginning of the dynasty.
- The second is at the middle of the dynasty's life and is the peak of the dynasty.
- The last period is the decline of the dynasty, both politically and economically, until it finally collapses.
Different Dynasties
Shang Dynasty
The Shang Dynasty, according to traditional historiography, ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, succeeding the Xia Dynasty and followed by the Zhou Dynasty. The classic account of the Shang comes from texts such as the Classic of History, Bamboo Annals and Records of the Grand Historian. According to the traditional chronology based upon calculations by Liu Xin, the Shang ruled between 1766 BC and 1122 BC, but according to the chronology based upon the Bamboo Annals, they ruled between 1556 BC and 1046 BC. The results of the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project place them between 1600 BC and 1046 BC.
Archaeological work at the Ruins of Yin (near modern day Anyang), which has been identified as the last Shang capital, uncovered eleven major Yin royal tombs and the foundations of palaces and ritual sites, containing weapons of war and remains from both animal and human sacrifices. Tens of thousands of bronze, jade, stone, bone, and ceramic artifacts have been obtained. The workmanship on the bronzes attests to a high level of civilization.
The Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, mostly divinations inscribed on oracle bones – turtle shells, oxscapulae, or other bones. More than 20,000 were discovered in the initial scientific excavations during the 1920s and 1930s, and over four times as many have been found since. The inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, and religious practices to the art and medicine of this early stage of Chinese civilization.
Archaeological work at the Ruins of Yin (near modern day Anyang), which has been identified as the last Shang capital, uncovered eleven major Yin royal tombs and the foundations of palaces and ritual sites, containing weapons of war and remains from both animal and human sacrifices. Tens of thousands of bronze, jade, stone, bone, and ceramic artifacts have been obtained. The workmanship on the bronzes attests to a high level of civilization.
The Anyang site has yielded the earliest known body of Chinese writing, mostly divinations inscribed on oracle bones – turtle shells, oxscapulae, or other bones. More than 20,000 were discovered in the initial scientific excavations during the 1920s and 1930s, and over four times as many have been found since. The inscriptions provide critical insight into many topics from the politics, economy, and religious practices to the art and medicine of this early stage of Chinese civilization.
Chou Dynasty
When the Shang Empire suffered a rebellion in the eastern kingdom, the empire failed to see a great army gathering to the west, led by a tribe called the Chou. This federation of tribal armies sacked the capital, ending the Shang dynasty, and the eight hundred years of Chou began. The Chou carried forward most of the characteristics of the Shang except that the throne would pass not from brother to brother but from the father to the eldest son. Other sons and royalty were set upon thrones of rival but now conquered capitals, spreading the Chou state throughout all of the former Shang lands and the territory from the Yangtze River to the deserts. As more land was conquered and more vassal capitals established, the Chou king found it more difficult to maintain control of his far-flung empire, as Mongols, Turks, and Tibetans raided outlying provinces. Gradually these provinces looked less and less toward the king, and more toward their own dukes. As loyalties crumbled, an alliance of dukes and barbarians sacked the Chou capital in 771 BC. The royal family fled to the eastern city of Loyang to begin a new period of its dynasty called Eastern Chou.
For the next two hundred years dukes were able to forget internal tensions and focus on the external barbarian threat. Then in 479 BC, the outlying state of Ch’u, near the Yangtze River defeated a smaller state and triggered a bloody struggle that would stretch for another two hundred years, a period called, appropriately, the Warring States.
For the next two hundred years dukes were able to forget internal tensions and focus on the external barbarian threat. Then in 479 BC, the outlying state of Ch’u, near the Yangtze River defeated a smaller state and triggered a bloody struggle that would stretch for another two hundred years, a period called, appropriately, the Warring States.
Chin Dynasty
As the Warring States in the last years of the Chou battled one another, one western state, the Ch’in, had become a well-ordered state with a large, well-trained army. By 230 BC the other Warring States had worn themselves down to a remaining six. Then the Ch’in armies moved eastward. Within the decade each of the six was conquered, and China was unified under Ch’in’s king. As his first act, he bestowed upon himself the title Shihuangdi, or the “First August Emperor.” In this pivotal year of 221 BC, the land took its name from this dynasty, thus the Middle Kingdom became known as China.
Courtesy The University of Michgan Art MuseumThe First Emperor’s reign was brief but busy. In twelve years he accomplished much, standardizing the Chinese script, width of roads, weights and measures, and metal currency. He undertook monumental building projects including constructing over 4,000 miles of tree-lined imperial highways and over 2,000 miles of the Great Wall. Untold numbers of new palaces were built, including an immense edifice for his primary residence called the Nearby Palace. In the midst of all this, the First Emperor increased the size of his army with which he defended his borders and conquered new lands.
With so much toil there was bound to be trouble. These ambitious projects required the service of hundreds of thousands, and the First Emperor compelled service with brutal force, disrupting the commoners’ lives. Life at court was no better as scholars and members of court lived under the threat of death if they displeased the Emperor.Toward the end the First Emperor turned to the mystic elements of Taoism, falling under the influence of magicians who promised life-extending elixirs and prophesied doom from a northern enemy. On a trip to inspect his kingdom he died, aged forty-nine, in the year 210 BC. His dynasty would last another four years, but his son and grandson proved unable to hold what the First Emperor had secured. Over time China would substantially enlarge and occasionally fragment, yet what the First Emperor consolidated would serve as the country the world has known for over two thousand years, and his influence would resonate through each of its dynasties.
Courtesy The University of Michgan Art MuseumThe First Emperor’s reign was brief but busy. In twelve years he accomplished much, standardizing the Chinese script, width of roads, weights and measures, and metal currency. He undertook monumental building projects including constructing over 4,000 miles of tree-lined imperial highways and over 2,000 miles of the Great Wall. Untold numbers of new palaces were built, including an immense edifice for his primary residence called the Nearby Palace. In the midst of all this, the First Emperor increased the size of his army with which he defended his borders and conquered new lands.
With so much toil there was bound to be trouble. These ambitious projects required the service of hundreds of thousands, and the First Emperor compelled service with brutal force, disrupting the commoners’ lives. Life at court was no better as scholars and members of court lived under the threat of death if they displeased the Emperor.Toward the end the First Emperor turned to the mystic elements of Taoism, falling under the influence of magicians who promised life-extending elixirs and prophesied doom from a northern enemy. On a trip to inspect his kingdom he died, aged forty-nine, in the year 210 BC. His dynasty would last another four years, but his son and grandson proved unable to hold what the First Emperor had secured. Over time China would substantially enlarge and occasionally fragment, yet what the First Emperor consolidated would serve as the country the world has known for over two thousand years, and his influence would resonate through each of its dynasties.
Han Dynasty
The fatiguing pace of life during the Ch’in prompted civil war and the downfall of the empire when those who ruled were overthrown by those they ruled. The victors named their dynasty the Han. Its first Emperor, Kao-ti, established his capital at Chang-an. There he set about replacing the old laws with the teachings of Confucianism, which were to instruct and edify society. Reaching back to the Chou, the Emperor also revived the tenant of the Mandate of Heaven, justifying his authority in the celestial sphere. In the early years of Han, government became less oppressive. Taxes were lowered and extreme punishment curtailed. Merchants, a class generally distrusted, gained new freedoms, and as the floods of the Yellow River were better controlled, more land was brought under plow. Internal disputes subsided and efforts were made to appease the barbarians of the north and west. Over time China’s borders swelled, reaching well beyond the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers. By 87 BC much of what is now modern China was under Han’s direct rule. The emperor governed well over a million square miles and a population of almost fifty million, an empire comparable in almost every way to that of contemporary Rome.
Such aggressive expansion came at a cost, however, and the country found its many resources strained. Measures were undertaken to give greater authority to regional officials, and a professional army replaced the army of conscripted peasants.
This new army was tested by unrest on the borders, as outlying states warred with the Empire. Also the Yellow River again flooded and, combined with other natural disturbances, caused many to question the Emperor’s Heavenly Mandate. These problems forced a migration of peasants southward; eighteen million or more made the trek in the first two centuries of the new millennium. Strained by these migrants, the people of the south and east rebelled, climaxing in AD 220 when the Emperor surrendered his throne to Ts’ao-P’i, who declared himself the first Emperor of the Wei Dynasty. Not only had 400 years of Han ended, but the empire it ruled was split in thirds, each governed by its own emperor.
Such aggressive expansion came at a cost, however, and the country found its many resources strained. Measures were undertaken to give greater authority to regional officials, and a professional army replaced the army of conscripted peasants.
This new army was tested by unrest on the borders, as outlying states warred with the Empire. Also the Yellow River again flooded and, combined with other natural disturbances, caused many to question the Emperor’s Heavenly Mandate. These problems forced a migration of peasants southward; eighteen million or more made the trek in the first two centuries of the new millennium. Strained by these migrants, the people of the south and east rebelled, climaxing in AD 220 when the Emperor surrendered his throne to Ts’ao-P’i, who declared himself the first Emperor of the Wei Dynasty. Not only had 400 years of Han ended, but the empire it ruled was split in thirds, each governed by its own emperor.