China: the basics
1. Geographical Considerations
- Total Area: 9,596,960 sq km or just a bit smaller than the U.S.
- World’s 4th largest country
- Total Land Boundary: 22,147.34 km
- Border Countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, Hong Kong, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Macau, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, Vietnam
- Total Coastal Boundary: 14,500 km
- Total Arable Land: 13.31%
- Total Population: 1,284,303,705 (July 2002 Estimate)
- World’s most populous nation
- 6/7ths of the population live on 1/3rd of total land
- 23% of world’s population live in 7% of world’s arable land
Source: CIA World Factbook http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/ch.html
2. Weather Problems
- Main Rivers: Yellow River d Yangtze River flood regularly - often with disastrous results
- Due to location, China is often subject to severe weather, drought, famine, typhoons, dust storms, earthquakes,
- Agriculture
- Northern Area (above Yangtze River):
- wheat producing area
- 1 crop per year
- not as labor intensive as rice
- Southern Area (below Yangtze River):
- rice producing area
- 2-3 crops per year
- very labor intensive - leading to dense population
- mountainous area required terraced farming in some areas
- Most farming done manually; very little mechanization of farming.
- Most farming done in family or village units.
- Production has not changed significantly in last 600 years.
- Generally, China has had self-sufficient food production.
- Areas not under intense cultivation (Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, etc.) support livestock rangelands, small plot farming and nomadic groups.
Skinner’s Macroregions
- G. William Skinner’s theory tat Chinese economy is traditionally divided into 9 distinct and separate macroregions.
- The 9 regions were fairly self-sufficient in themselves.
- Commercial activity was limited within the region.
- Macroregion centered on prosperous, central region. The main city in the central region was usually in a river drainage basin and had a fairly efficient transportation system.
- The farther from the central region, the poorer and less hospitable the region becomes.
- Border regions send products in to the central markets.
- The developments and declines of each region were not linked to each other or to the state. Rather they were products of local situations.
- Manchuria
- North China
- Northwest China
- Lower Yangtze
- Middle Yangtze
- Upper Yangtze
- Southeast Coast
- Lingnan / Far South
- Yun-Kwei / Southwest China
- Ethno-linguistic variations
- In addition to macroregions, China was also divided by major ethnic and linguistic groups.
- Different groups often had very different cultures, religions, languages, writing systems, political/social structures and economic structures.
Section Two
1. Confucianism
- “Philosophy” that governed state, society and the family
- More pervasive and influential than religion
- Confucian ideals and actions were considered “civilized” and were the only correct ideals and actions
- Three “Core Features”
- Conservative
- ideal society is in the past
- Power is placed in the hands of elders and superiors
- Emphasis of education and scholarship in the works of the past
- Social and state hierarchy
- People not considered equal, their status depended on their relationship to others
- Class boundaries
- Scholars, Farmers, Artisans, Merchants
- 3 & 5 Bonds
- Emperor to Minister, Father to Son, Husband to Wife, Teacher to Student and Brother to Brother
- People gained power through education: requiring literacy and financial support
- Those in position of power were responsible for welfare of those below
- Ritual and “correct” conduct
- True understanding of hierarchy would lead to correct behavior
- Emphasis on correct behavior gave rise to HIGHLY ritualistic social and political customs
- Helped keep dissent and criticism to low levels
