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What makes Chinese history such a difficult area of study is its sheer size and scope. To put it in a more familiar perspective, from the time English settlers dropped anchor and settled the first settlement at Jamestown in 1607 all the way up to the Presidency of George W. Bush, the Chinese have experienced that period of time eightfold. The problem with 000 years of history is how to record it. For some, the easiest way would be to account for all the dynasties and their emperors. But as Charles O. Hucker puts it, "presenting Chinese history solely as a succession of dynasties is even duller and less meaningful than presenting American history." (Hucker, 0) The only way to get a clear picture of the history as a whole is to transcend the conventional practice of a chronological study, and find other patterns. Charles O. Hucker in his book, China to 1850 A Short History has done just that and found a guide to understanding Chinese history in the examination of the dynastic cycle, unity and disunity, southern expansion, and northern invasions.
The dynastic cycle is just one of the four patterns that Hucker proposes as legitimate ways to look at Chinese history. The Chinese people look at their history as a succession of families that, in one way or another, seize power and monopolize the throne. Unlike the Western powers, the Chinese emperors did not believe themselves to be preordained at birth to rule. The duty to rule only fell upon an individual if Heaven deemed the previous ruling family as unfit. The construct of the Mandate of Heaven is an ideal way to legitimatize a new ruling family. Since the foundations of the Mandate can be traced back to China's prehistory, history is soon turned into mythology. With a sort of supernatural reverence, the general population sees the transfer of power as truly reasonable, not necessarily because they believe in a higher power, but because they have known no other political shift.
Unity and disunity go hand in hand when talking about the creation of Chinese history. Perhaps a contradiction, the times of disunity did just as much to help the propagation of "Chineseness" as the times when China was united. If it was not for the collapse of the Han dynasty around 00 CE, the Buddhist religion would never have found a place in Chinese minds. While looking at the long established Confucian ideals that the Han so successfully used in setting precedent in everything from government to social life, it would seem impossible for Buddhism to take hold. For one, it was completely foreign in nature. With their ideas of karma, reincarnation, and nirvana, and was a far departure from the familiar, logical preaching of Confucius and Mencius. Buddhism also did not have a practical application to the government as Confucianism did, and offered no way of solving problems of the state. But the Han state began to break down with help from natural disasters, popular uprisings, eunuch politics at the court, and a number of increasing separatist warlords. (Hucker, 75-77) Civil war ensued, and as a result, the population dropped to from 60 million to 15 million people. (Class notes) As China looked for answers in a time of chaos, Buddhism fit in nicely with its Four Noble Truths, one of which is "all life is characterized by suffering".
When Hucker comes to his ideas on southern expansion as a pattern of Chinese history, he seems to be lacking in his argument. Common sense would tell you that the Chinese people could only go so far south, and that eventually, all that could be discovered, would be discovered. While southern expansion can be used to help elaborate certain dynasties or time periods, it does not contribute much in the explanation of the later dynasties such as the Ch'ing, or the shorter lived Sui and Yuan dynasties. However, when expansion was taking place, it does contribute tremendously to the Chinese state. For example, the Grand Canal linked the Yellow and Yangtze rivers and then southward to Hangchow and northward to the Peking. (Hucker, 87) With its completion under the Tang in the early 7th century, the canal made China a more connected nation in economic and political ways. In the pre-industrial age, in order to move goods, it had to be done either with beasts of burden or over water, and obviously, with the construction of the canal, trips from northern China and southern China would take a considerable shorter amount of time. Not only that, but it made available the rich southern lands for rice cultivation. (Class notes) In turn, unlikely country villages soon turned into bustling metropolitan cities thus creating bigger markets for farmers and merchants.The canal also helped connect people with each other. The flow of information helped educate the common people in the rural areas of China in everything from new religious interpretations to court gossip. The Grand Canal literally turned China into a more accessible country forcing future emperors to be wary of how they ruled, because what political intercessions they once could cover up, could now be fodder for a widespread, well organized rebellion.
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Eastern Asia is not as racially uniform as some people might think. While to some, an Asian is just an Asian, there are literally dozens of different races that inhabit China proper and its surrounding regions. While they might look the same, the Chinese are vehemently opposed to their neighbors to the north. As Hucker puts it, the northerners, "had a nomadic, herding life-style that made them and the agrarian Chinese implacably hostile to one another". (Hucker, ) But as history provides, some of the most significant events that have shaped China's history have occurred while under Mongol and Manchurian rule (the Yuan and the Ch'ing dynasties).While the Yuan were not the most successful of dynasties domestically, they did affect the country much in the same way as periods of disunity did they opened a path for new ideas and new interpretations. For example, the Mongols were notably very hospitable to foreigners, the famous of which was Marco Polo. (Hucker, 11) When Polo's account of China and the great Khans became public in Europe, there was an instant fascination with China's exotic culture and resources. Unforeseeably, when Europe's ships find their way to China, they demand trade concessions. And since the Europeans have nothing the Chinese want, trade is done only out of pity.Soon enough though, the British will find their way into China vies-a-vi opium, and after a war in which the Chinese lose in 184. To make matters worse
"To avoid more serious humiliation the Ch'ing court made peace with England, and soon negotiated treaties with other trading nations, on such terms that China became exposed to still more contacts with the rude, importunate "foreign devils". (Hucker, 15)
With a completely different attitude that the Mongols, the Manchurians seized power peacefully from the Ming, and instead of pressuring the Chinese to become Mongolian, the Manchurians began to adopt Chinese culture. (Hucker, 146) While under the rule of perhaps the two most beloved and longest ruling emperors K'ang-hsi and his grandson Ch'ien-lung changed China for the better. K'ang-hsi took exhausting efforts to guarantee honesty in government and to further racial harmony and personally planned the campaigns that suppressed Rebellion of the Three Feudatories in the south. (Hucker, 14,150) Under Ch'ien-lung, all forms of literature and art flourished, while militarily, he expanded Chinese territory as far west as Tibet. (Hucker, 150-15)
Hucker does an admirable job in trying to fit in so much information in fewer than 00 pages. But in reality, he contradicts himself because there is no "short history" when it comes to presenting 000 years to the reader. While some historians can lead you down a path of minutia and bore the reader to death, Hucker does the opposite. He summarized too frequently and it leaves the aspiring historian unfulfilled when he broadly generalizes the Han dynasty to a mere twenty pages. While Hucker's book is by far not a complete and through history, it is perfect as a refresher of sorts. When writing this paper, it seemed as if I used his book more fore reference, an encyclopedia of sorts, instead of a definitive reference of historical insight.
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