East Asian History

Units

1. 1

   Early China and the classical tradition

   3 lessons

   1. Shang, Zhou and the Mandate of HeavenDescribe the Shang bronze state, explain the Zhou conquest of about 1046 BCE and the Mandate of Heaven as a theory of rule, and show how Zhou feudal kingship spread power through a ring of related states.
   2. Confucius and the Hundred SchoolsCompare how Confucius, Mencius, Laozi and the Legalist Han Feizi answer what makes a good ruler and what human nature is, and explain why the Warring States produced such argument.
   3. Qin unification and the Han synthesisExplain how Qin conquered the other states and standardised the empire in 221 BCE, why it collapsed, and how the Han under Wudi joined Legalist administration to Confucian learning and opened the Silk Road.
2. 2

   Tang, Song and the spread of Buddhism and Chinese institutions

   3 lessons

   1. Tang China as a cosmopolitan empireExplain how the Tang (618 to 907) governed through the equal-field system and the examination system, why Chang'an was the world's greatest city, and how the An Lushan rebellion of 755 ended the dynasty's confidence.
   2. Buddhism, Silla and Nara JapanTrace how Buddhism, the Chinese script and Tang-style law codes reached Korea and Japan, and explain how Silla and Nara Japan adapted them into their own states.
   3. Song economic revolution and neo-ConfucianismExplain the Song agricultural, commercial and technological revolution (Champa rice, iron, paper money, printing), the growth of the examination elite, and Zhu Xi's neo-Confucianism as the new orthodoxy.
3. 3

   Mongols and Ming

   3 lessons

   1. Mongol conquest and the Yuan dynastyTrace Chinggis Khan's unification of the steppe and the Mongol conquests, Khubilai Khan's founding of the Yuan in 1271, how the Yuan ruled China, and the failed invasions of Japan in 1274 and 1281.
   2. The Ming founding and Zheng He's voyagesExplain how the Hongwu emperor rebuilt a centralised, agrarian state after the Yuan, how the Yongle emperor moved the capital and sent Zheng He's fleets across the Indian Ocean from 1405 to 1433, and why the voyages stopped.
   3. Late Ming commerce and the silver tradeExplain the Single Whip tax reform, the flow of Japanese and American silver into China through Manila and the galleon route, and how dependence on silver, famine and rebellion brought the Ming down in 1644.
4. 4

   Tokugawa Japan and Joseon Korea

   3 lessons

   1. Hideyoshi's invasions of KoreaExplain why Toyotomi Hideyoshi invaded Korea in 1592 and 1597, follow the campaigns and Admiral Yi Sun-sin's naval victories on a map, and judge the war's effects on Joseon, Ming China and Japan.
   2. The Tokugawa order and the closed countryExplain how the Tokugawa shogunate controlled the daimyo through sankin-kotai and the domain system, how the four-status order shaped society, and how the limits on foreign trade, the sakoku policy, left four controlled gateways open.
   3. Joseon society, yangban and Korean ConfucianismExplain the founding of Joseon in 1392, the yangban elite and the examination system, the invention of Hangul in 1443, and how Confucian ritual and status shaped Joseon society, with changing social proportions over time.
5. 5

   Qing China and the Western challenge

   3 lessons

   1. The Qing empire at its heightExplain how the Manchus conquered China and ruled it with Manchu institutions and Chinese forms, how Kangxi, Yongzheng and Qianlong expanded the empire into Mongolia, Tibet and Xinjiang by 1760, and how the Canton system limited European trade.
   2. The Opium War and the unequal treatiesExplain how the British opium trade reversed the flow of silver, why Lin Zexu's seizure of opium led to the war of 1839 to 1842, what the Treaty of Nanjing and the later unequal treaties took from China, and where the treaty ports lay.
   3. Taiping Rebellion and self-strengtheningExplain how Hong Xiuquan's Taiping movement grew into a rebellion that took Nanjing in 1853 and cost an estimated twenty million lives or more, how regional armies crushed it by 1864, and what the Tongzhi-era self-strengthening reforms attempted and where they fell short.
6. 6

   Meiji Japan

   3 lessons

   1. Perry and the Meiji RestorationExplain how Commodore Perry's arrival in 1853 and the unequal treaties exposed the shogunate's weakness, how the sonno joi movement and the Satsuma-Choshu alliance brought it down, and how the restoration of imperial rule in 1868 began a new regime.
   2. State building and the Meiji reformsExplain how the Meiji government abolished the domains, introduced conscription and a land tax, sent the Iwakura mission abroad, and issued the constitution of 1889, and judge how these steps made a centralised modern state.
   3. Industrial rise and the wars of 1894 and 1904Explain how Japan's industrial growth and army carried it to victory over Qing China in 1894 to 1895 and over Russia in 1904 to 1905, what it took at Shimonoseki and Portsmouth, and why these wars made Japan a great power and an imperial one.
7. 7

   Revolution in China, 1911 to 1949

   3 lessons

   1. The 1911 revolution and the warlord eraExplain how the Wuchang uprising of 1911 ended the Qing, why Sun Yat-sen gave way to Yuan Shikai, how Yuan's failure left China fragmented under rival militarists, and where the main warlord cliques of the 1920s were based.
   2. May Fourth and the rise of the Communist PartyExplain the New Culture movement, the protests of 4 May 1919 against the Versailles settlement, the founding of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, and the First United Front of 1924 to 1927 and its collapse.
   3. Nationalists, Communists and the victory of 1949Trace the Nanjing decade, the Long March of 1934 to 1935, the war with Japan and the Civil War of 1946 to 1949 on campaign maps, and explain why the Communists defeated the Nationalists and founded the People's Republic.
8. 8

   Japanese empire and war in the Pacific

   3 lessons

   1. Colonial Korea, Taiwan and ManchuriaExplain how Japan ruled Korea from 1910 and Taiwan from 1895, how the Mukden incident of 1931 led to the puppet state of Manchukuo, and what the empire looked like at its greatest extent in 1942.
   2. The war in China and Nanjing, 1937Explain how the Marco Polo Bridge incident of July 1937 grew into full-scale war, trace the campaigns to the fall of Nanjing and Wuhan on a map, describe the Nanjing massacre and how it is remembered, and explain the Nationalist-Communist wartime split.
   3. Pearl Harbor to surrender, 1941 to 1945Explain why Japan attacked the United States in December 1941, follow the Pacific war from the early conquests through Midway and the island campaigns to the atomic bombs and the surrender of 1945, and describe the Allied occupation and its reforms.
9. 9

   Postwar East Asia

   3 lessons

   1. The People's Republic under MaoDescribe land reform and the early campaigns of the People's Republic, explain the Great Leap Forward and the famine of 1959 to 1961 with the grain output record, and outline the Cultural Revolution of 1966 to 1976 and Mao's death.
   2. The Korean War and a divided peninsulaExplain how the division of Korea in 1945 led to the North Korean invasion of June 1950, follow the three phases of the war on a campaign map through UN and Chinese intervention to the armistice of 1953, and assess its consequences for the peninsula and the Cold War.
   3. Japanese and Korean economic growthExplain Japan's postwar miracle and South Korea's growth under Park Chung-hee through the developmental-state model, read a chart of per-capita output in Japan, South Korea and China from 1950 to 1990, and assess the model's strengths and limits.