从encarta上down下来的中国传统文化的资料，希望对各位有用
Chinese Art and ArchitectureI Introduction
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Chinese Art and Architecture, art and architecture of China from the Neolithic (New Stone Age) culture to the 20th century, representing the most significant achievement of the world’s longest continuous civilization. The principle that underlies all aspects of Chinese culture—harmonious balance—is exemplified in its art. Chinese art is a careful balance of traditions and innovations, of both native and foreign ideas, and of religious and secular images.
II Historical Development
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China’s emperors were the earliest and most frequent patrons of the arts. Most artists and architects were government employees, working by royal order. In contrast, amateur artists, often retired or exiled officials, were free from the restraints of court control; their work reflects an important individualism that often differs from the imperial styles. The rise or decline of a particular royal household would affect profoundly the course of Chinese art. Although widely diverse in their cultural inclinations, all dynastic rulers shared an interest in preserving tradition. Chinese kings, especially those establishing a new dynasty, were anxious to gain legitimacy in the eyes of their subjects. A common way to secure support was to continue the artistic achievements of past dynasties. New influences, often entering China from India or the Middle East, were also sanctioned by the court, but any innovative ideas in art, religion, or philosophy were carefully woven into the preexisting fabric of Chinese life.
The art of China’s earliest dynastic periods, often called the Bronze Age, from the Shang to the Han dynasty, focused on the cult of the dead. Concerned with securing immortality and safe passage to the afterlife, kings and their officers constructed and decorated lavish tombs. The Chinese favored underground burials, and many tombs remain intact. Intricately fashioned bronze vessels, weapons, carved jades, and ceramic objects were placed near the coffin to provide comfort and protection in the next world. The walls of the burial chamber were often decorated with carved or painted ornamental scenes depicting popular legends or activities of daily life. Archaeological fieldwork, which has increased dramatically in China since 1950, has unearthed a wealth of ancient material.
Foreign travel and political turmoil affected the character of Chinese art in the centuries following the collapse of the Han dynasty in ad 220. Buddhism, introduced in the 4th century ad, brought new styles of architecture, sculpture, and painting from India. In addition, the Buddhist doctrine stressing the human spirit’s ability to transcend death caused a decline in opulent burial customs. By the time China was unified under the Tang (T’ang) dynasty in the 7th century, the subject matter of art had become more cosmopolitan and worldly. Secular architecture reached unprecedented grandeur; landscape painting and portraiture flourished; and technological advances in ceramics led to the development of fine porcelain during the Tang dynasty.
The dynasties following the Tang refined and expanded on its achievements. Landscape painting became an important expression of both art and philosophy, particularly among the wenren (wen-jen)—amateur painters working outside the court. At court, paintings of the favored subjects—birds and flowers, animals and children—were produced in vast numbers for the royal collections. Calligraphy, the art of writing characters, was elevated to a position of great significance. In addition to the pictorial arts, China’s most enduring art form, ceramics, reached new heights of technological and aesthetic brilliance. Royalty and wealthy subjects decorated their homes with an array of objects such as carved lacquers, woven tapestries, ivories, jades, and precious metals. Architecture, from the Song (Sung) dynasty on, also increased in sophistication. Many of the structures built during the Ming and Qing (Ch’ing) periods still stand in Beijing.
Throughout China’s history its artists were highly trained in specific skills and, with the exception of the amateur artists, were attached to large, well-organized workshops. Knowledge of materials and techniques was passed from generation to generation within families. Although the tools used by Chinese artists were relatively simple, such as a bamboo brush or a wooden beater, the construction of their looms, kilns, and foundries reveals an understanding of complex production procedures. The fast-turning potter’s wheel in the Neolithic period and the remarkable results of bronze casting in the Shang dynasty are testimony to the high technical skill of these early Chinese artists.
III Shang Dynasty
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(1570?-1045? bc). The Shang civilization grew directly from the achievements of the Neolithic cultural period (about 4000-2000 bc), an important epoch in early Chinese history. During the Neolithic period, the beginnings of agriculture and the domestication of animals led to the establishment of villages. With this new pattern of life came the earliest burial practices, including the interment of objects from daily life, thus preserving artifacts. Neolithic tombs have yielded a rich variety of ceramics, the most notable being large, painted jars that were probably burial urns, as well as footed vessels of polished black clay. The latter, which were turned on a potter’s wheel, were associated with a ritual ceremony. Jade and stone tools have also been discovered, and it is likely that the Neolithic Chinese had some knowledge of metallurgy, although definite proof has yet to be found.
The Shang people originated as a clan of Neolithic villagers in the central Chinese province of Henan (Honan). Their dynastic rule is usually divided into two periods, one before and one after the establishment of the royal capital at Anyang in the 13th century bc. A number of Shang cities were established in the pre-Anyang period, but most artifacts of the period, including ceramics, jades, and bronze vessels, have been discovered in graves. The artifacts are of particular significance because they prove the existence of rituals requiring special containers for food and wine. These ceremonies stimulated a desire for vessels of ever more elaborate decoration, and, to meet the demand, the technology of metallurgy advanced rapidly.
The Anyang period marks the final two and one-half centuries of Shang rule. The archaeological work carried out near this ancient capital has increased knowledge of Shang art and culture. It is clear from inscriptions found on animal bones (called oracle bones) and bronze vessels that the rulers were deeply concerned with ensuring their immortality. They practiced a complex system of ancestor worship that included offerings of foods and liquids at their temples. The vessels were a vital part of the ceremony and suggest that the Shang people had several cult images. Often the entire surface of a ritual bronze was decorated with monsters and birds and occasionally with a human figure.
Shang kings also constructed elaborate tombs. Convinced they could carry material possessions to the next life, members of the royal household were buried with much of their personal wealth. In 1975, Chinese archaeologists discovered the Anyang tomb of a Shang king’s favored wife. An inventory of the objects revealed more than 400 bronze vessels and weapons as well as 600 pieces of jade and stone. The high artistic quality of these objects—among them, carefully carved jade figures and bronzes in the shape of animals and birds—gives further evidence of the advanced character of China’s earliest dynastic art.
IV Zhou Dynasty
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(1045?-256 bc). The Shang kings were unable to control the increasing strength of a neighboring tribe, called the Zhou (Chou), who lived on their western border. In about 1045 bc the Zhou attacked Anyang and established their dynastic seat there. At first, much of the conquered Shang culture was retained. Indeed, bronzes and jades from the Xi’an (Sian) period, also called the Western Zhou period, resemble those of the preceding dynasty. As the system of ancestor worship began to disintegrate, vessels once used in the temples became valuable trophies given by the king to powerful subjects. Vessels were cast to commemorate victories in war or the granting of land. These bronzes usually carried long inscriptions explaining the event being commemorated and are now valuable records of early Chinese history.
Forced to flee from other tribal attackers, the Zhou moved their capital from Xi’an to Luoyang, another city in Henan, in 771 bc, marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period. The geographical break with the Shang past was reflected in Eastern Zhou art. Bronzes became more secular and were often given as wedding gifts for household decoration. Images of totemic animals and monsters gave way to colorful, abstract ornament, often inlaid on the surface in gold or semiprecious stones. Bronze bells and mirrors were also popular during this period.
Late Eastern Zhou art displays the diversity and skill in techniques that characterize the rest of the history of Chinese art. Paintings on silk, the earliest examples of this medium, have been discovered in Eastern Zhou tombs. Wood sculpture, lacquerwork, and glazed ceramics also indicate new developments and styles.
V Qin, Han, and Six Dynasties
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(221 bc-ad 589). Although brief, the Qin (Ch’in) dynasty (221-206 bc) played an important part in Chinese history. The political breakdown of the late Eastern Zhou empire ended with a consolidation of power under emperor Qin Shihuangdi (Ch’in Shih-huang-ti). It is from this ruler’s household that the name China is derived. When this powerful ruler died, he was entombed in a massive burial mound in the northwestern province of Shanxi (Shansi). This royal grave came to light only recently, revealing more than 6000 terra-cotta human figures and horses intended to protect the emperor’s crypt. The figures were carefully fashioned to resemble one of his real infantries, with well-outfitted officers, charioteers, and archers, as well as youthful foot soldiers. Now faded with the passage of time, the army was originally painted in a wide variety of bright colors. Although human sacrifice, a practice associated with Shang burials, had long been abandoned, the desire to have protection on the journey after death remained an important element in burial practice.
The second Qin ruler was unable to retain his father’s strength and yielded control to the Han household in 206 bc. China remained under Han rule for more than 400 years (206 bc-ad 220), a period of vital significance in the history of Chinese art.
A Painting
Painting, which had begun in the late Zhou dynasty, flourished during the Han. Tombs were still the primary focus for artists and architects, and the most popular subjects of paintings were the afterlife and legends of ancient heroes. In these paintings is evident the attempt, not found in earlier Chinese art, to depict space and distance. During the Han period the first landscape elements appear in painting; at this early stage, however, they are restricted to small trees or mountains. Historical texts from this era indicate that large portraits of the emperors adorned the palace and that murals were often painted in the royal residences. Unfortunately, all traces of this artwork have been lost.
B Tombs and Tomb Artifacts
As with painting, only the architecture of the tomb survives. Stories of magnificent imperial palaces are found in Han histories, but the palaces themselves have long since been destroyed. The elaborate construction of burial sites gives a strong indication of the sophisticated architectural technology that must have existed. Intricate systems of vaulting and columnar support replaced the timber and packed-earth structures of the previous dynasties. The Han people richly furnished the interiors of their graves with a wide variety of miniature objects, usually fashioned as replicas of actual possessions, animals, or buildings. Called ming ji yi (ming-chi’i) (“spirit goods”), these items were used as substitutes for valuable possessions. Ming ji yi were usually produced in ceramic and were glazed or colorfully painted. A typical grave contained miniatures of home, a barnyard, favorite pets and servants, and an assortment of objects from daily life.
Although the popularity of ming ji yi decreased the quality of artifacts found in graves, some examples of extravagance in the Han rival the great Shang burials. The underground tomb chambers of Prince Liu Sheng and his wife Dou Wan (Tou Wan) (died about 120 bc), discovered in Hebei (Hopeh) Province in 1968, held a rich array of lacquers, silks, pottery, and bronze vessels, some gilded and some inlaid with gold. Both bodies were clothed in so-called jade suits, body coverings fashioned of small, rectangular pieces of jade sewn together with gold thread. Each outfit contains more than 2000 individual pieces of the precious stone, long believed to symbolize eternal life. Chinese archaeologists estimate that each suit took more than ten years to complete.
The wealth of the Han court could not prevent the eventual overthrow of the dynasty in ad 220. The next four centuries, during which rival clans attempted to control portions of the empire, is referred to as the Six Dynasties (ad 220-589). During this period Chinese art was influenced by new ideas, including important religious developments. The native belief systems, Confucianism and Daoism (Taoism), fostered different subject matter and styles in the arts. Scenes of filial piety were the most popular expression of the Confucian ideal; the freer, nature-loving Daoists favored landscapes and folk legends.
C Buddhist Art
The most profound effect of religion on the art of the Six Dynasties was Buddhism, which came from neighboring India. The first examples of Buddhist art were the small statues carried to China by Indian Buddhists. By the 4th century an influx of styles and subjects created a new category of Buddhist art and architecture within the Chinese tradition. In western China, the monastery at Dunhuang (Tunhwang) still preserves important wall paintings based on sacred stories. Monumental sculpture, a contribution from northern India, gained popularity and led to the creation of massive stone carvings of Buddhist deities in the mountains of Henan and Shaanxi (Shensi) provinces. Wooden pagodas, an architectural form based both on the Indian stupa and the Han-dynasty tower, was a significant structural contribution of this period. By the 6th century, Buddhism had permeated nearly every facet of Chinese cultural life.
D Painting
Although Buddhist art dominated much of the Six Dynasties’ achievements, secular traditions were also changing. Gu Kaizhi (Ku K’ai-chih), considered the father of landscape painting, worked during this period. Three paintings are attributed to his hand, although probably only copies remain. They include two versions of the Fairy of the Lo River story (Freer Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., and Palace Museum, Beijing) and the scroll entitled Admonitions of the Instructress to the Ladies of the Court (British Museum, London). The figures and landscape elements in his work have a formal, almost stiff quality, but they also possess a delicacy and an ethereal character that continue throughout the long landscape tradition of Chinese art.
G Social Structure
China’s traditional class and social structure traces back more than 3,000 years to the Shang (1570?-1045? bc) and Zhou (1045?-256 bc) dynasties. During this period a ruling class emerged from a combination of priests, military leaders, and administrators. By the 4th and 3rd centuries bc, the legitimacy of the ruling elite was embedded in the writings of Confucius and other scholars.
Confucian doctrine sought to develop a framework for a stable and harmonious society. In this framework, mutual responsibilities and obligations were defined between ruler and subjects, husband and wife, parents and children, father and eldest son, and eldest son and other siblings. If the roles were carried out properly, society would function in a well-ordered manner. China was defined as a male-centered society in which the family name passed down through the male line. The eldest son was charged with performing important annual rituals that involved reverence for deceased ancestors and parents. Veneration for ancestors was an important part of Chinese family life, and every Chinese home had, and typically still has, a small shrine for ancestors.
Beyond family life, Chinese social order traditionally was defined in terms of a few main social groupings. The emperor and his attendants were at the top of the social order. Below him was the imperial bureaucracy, staffed at all levels—court, province, prefecture, and county—with elite scholar officials. Through these officials, backed by the army and other imperial policing authorities, the imperial government administered the state and imposed its authority and control when challenged. Farmers, soldiers, merchants, and artisans were below the bureaucrats. This general social order persisted until the imperial system was overthrown in 1911, although over time the position of merchants had improved. By the 20th century, a number of families with commercial and industrial interests had amassed great fortunes. Their wealth permitted them the luxury of educating their children, and through this means, their families’ status advanced in the traditional hierarchy.
When the Chinese Communists gained power in 1949, the social hierarchy changed dramatically. Poor peasant farmers and people who had joined the Communist army during the revolution were held in esteem within the party, which exercised great influence over society. Landlords and educated elites often were punished, and many lost their land and other properties. In rural areas there were many executions and other punishments for landlord families.
A peasant background continues to be important for advancement within the party hierarchy. However, the value of education as a means of developing skills and strong qualifications has emerged once again as the best path to social advancement. Since the 1970s individuals from elite backgrounds have been allowed to compete for educational advancement as China has sought to use more fully its human resources. In some cases, former factory owners have been allowed to reestablish their businesses, and in this manner China has allowed a small measure of rehabilitation of its elite governing classes from the past. But China remains a Communist state and political system, and as long as it continues as such, elites are likely to be viewed with suspicion by other members of society.
H Way of Life
Communism has brought about far-reaching changes in China, as the way of life of China’s people has incorporated and adjusted to shifting ideological currents. Traditionally, the average Chinese citizen, especially the more than 90 percent of the population who resided in rural areas, had little or nothing to do with the central or local government. Most people’s lives were centered on their home village or town, and the family was the main unit of social activity and economic production. The Communist revolution injected the Communist Party into every level of urban and rural life and every institution of society. Thus for the average Chinese citizen, whether urban or rural dweller, Communism has brought a far more intrusive role of government in daily life and in the operation of all significant facets of the economy and society.
However, in the years following the death of Chairman Mao in 1976, China’s leaders gradually modified the strict policies of socialist guidance of the economy, and the role of the party in everyday life began to diminish. This shift reflected an increasing understanding among party leaders that the socialist approach was not succeeding. They recognized that it had not provided a better life for the Chinese people and was stifling economic growth. The shift has been particularly evident in the countryside. Reforms in the rural economy have led to a virtual privatization of rural land, with peasants acquiring long-term leases that amount virtually to private ownership. Many peasants are now responsible for earning their own livelihoods and supporting their families. The state’s role in their daily lives has clearly diminished, although it has not disappeared.
Despite the far-reaching changes in rural areas, country life remains attuned to the seasons and focused on nearby towns and cities for commerce and entertainment. In the rural areas surrounding large urban areas, the pace of life has intensified as farmers have geared their agricultural production to the growing demands of urban consumers. Moreover, much of China’s urban industrial development has flowed to the adjacent rural areas. In these areas land is readily available at lower prices, and the rules concerning release of noxious fumes, liquids, and solids are looser and often not enforced. The inhabitants of these rural areas peripheral to cities have greater opportunities for employment off the farms, often in industrial or service jobs that are not even related to the farm economy. Residents of these areas have been increasingly drawn into a quasi-urban lifestyle, with all of its attendant pleasures and challenges.
Traditional rural family life has been changed by the dynamism of the nearby cities and their evolving economies. New employment opportunities often attract the male head of household, who may later be followed by other members of the farm family. Such employment offers new opportunities but also new challenges. Uncertainty about the long-term prospects for employment off the farm often makes farmers reluctant to let go of their land and farms. When peasants leave the farm under such circumstances, they often leave the farming to those at home who have little interest and enthusiasm for the work, which may be viewed as difficult and tiresome. Under these conditions, the quality of the farm may decline, and the productivity of both land and people may begin to diminish. Nevertheless, the off-farm jobs enhance prospects for social as well as economic change. The new jobs bring rural Chinese into contact with urban dwellers who have different values and different ways of doing things.
Farther from the cities, in the more remote areas of the interior, the traditional rural way of life is generally more prominent. In these areas, opportunities for new off-farm jobs are limited. Yet even in these locations, many peasants have grown dissatisfied with local conditions. They have migrated to other provinces and distant cities in search of more profitable employment and relief from poverty and the routines of village life. Such migrations are not easy, however. The peasants are allowed to leave their villages only as temporary migrants to provide needed labor services in those urban jobs that are the most undesirable, difficult, and dirty. These include jobs in construction, transportation, and domestic service. Migrants must provide for their own lodging, food, and other needs. They are not entitled to the many privileges and subsidies afforded urban citizens employed in the state-supported sector of the economy—such as health care and good schooling for their children. Yet these transients continue to leave rural areas for the cities with dreams of either becoming permanent city dwellers or earning their fortunes and returning to their native villages with new wealth and power. Some have indeed done well. However, the reality for most of these transients is a difficult life of hard work and a second-class status, in cities far from their native villages.
In the cities, the power of the CCP and its governing apparatuses of state power are more obvious and controlling. Most people in cities are employed in state-operated commercial and industrial enterprises. Workers in these enterprises must adhere to state-mandated social rules, as well as employment rules, as the state controls virtually all aspects of life. Access to housing, health care, and education depend on following state-mandated guidelines of proper social conduct, such as the one-child per family policy. In the 1990s the state initiated an effort to privatize urban housing. By the close of the 20th century, many state-supported employees were able to purchase apartments through various state-supported credit arrangements.
At the same time, city life offers many opportunities that are not available in the countryside. City dwellers enjoy the benefits associated with higher incomes and enhanced cultural, commercial, and educational opportunities. China’s large cities in the eastern coastal provinces offer many of the amenities and opportunities associated with cities in the West. Among these are department stores containing the latest fashions, and lodging and restaurant facilities in hotels of world-class standards. In addition to outstanding local and non-local Chinese cuisine, European, Japanese, Indian, and American fare is available. American fast food, such as McDonald’s and Kentucky Fried Chicken, is widely available.
In and around China’s great cities are found the evolving lifestyles of the newly rich, those with strong connections in government and commerce who can accumulate substantial wealth. Members of this class are often eager to flaunt their new wealth. They buy fine clothing and accessories and fancy automobiles, and even purchase large, single-family dwellings near new private schools. Fancy restaurants, discos, and nightclubs are trendy venues for the newly rich to show off their wealth and status and enjoy a sophisticated lifestyle. The children of these urbanites are the ones most likely to go abroad for foreign study and learn foreign languages. Such education will permit them rapid entry into the business and professional circles of China’s increasingly globalized economy and society. While this newly wealthy population is comparatively small, it signifies the rapidly growing disparity in income levels between rich and poor in China’s cities.
I Social Issues
The increasing disparity in income levels resulting from the growth in China’s economy has become a significant social problem. According to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (World Bank), in 1995 the wealthiest 10 percent of China’s population received 30.9 percent of the income, while the poorest 10 percent received only 2.2 percent. Such disparities in income and wealth are found in both cities and rural areas. But the largest disparities, and the most significant friction between rich and poor, are seen in cities. The differences between those who have good housing provided by the state and those who live in makeshift dwellings or otherwise substandard housing are becoming increasingly visible. Many temporary workers do not have proper access to health care. Furthermore, they often have no access to schools, and if they bring their families to the cities, their children sometimes turn to petty crime. This activity causes friction with permanent local residents, who often complain that the temporary migrants cause all of the city’s problems. In each of China’s largest cities, such as Shanghai, Beijing, and Guangzhou, the number of transient workers may exceed 1 million. This issue is becoming increasingly awkward for China, whose Communist government purports to be committed to socialist ideals of equality and sees itself as a model of modern socialist development.
A related and serious problem is the large extent of government corruption in China, which aggravates the disparities in income. Government approvals are required for everything from changes in residence to permits for building factories to exporting commodities. Therefore, government officials responsible for granting those approvals wield a great deal of power. Many bureaucrats abuse their power and expect money in return for routine approval of permits. Sometimes, payments to corrupt officials can involve very large sums of money. Government efforts to curb these practices have been generally ineffective.
J Social Services
The Chinese government seeks to provide for the physical well being of its citizens. Major public welfare programs have included subsidized housing, vocational opportunities, health care, retirement benefits, and the assurance of a paid funeral. Yet services and benefits provided in cities have always been sharply different from those available in the countryside. City dwellers who work for the state have received housing, medical care, and good schooling for their children. The government has also provided benefits for disability, maternity, injury, and old age. Such benefits are part of why many state enterprises are in troubled financial condition and unable to show a profit. In contrast, rural dwellers have been largely on their own for social services. Their well-being has depended on the productivity and wealth of the area in which they live. Since the reforms began in 1978, the level of medical assistance and other social services in rural areas has even been reduced. At the same time, however, rural incomes have risen dramatically, thus better enabling peasants to take care of their own social needs. Farmers do not receive any pension benefits. Under Chinese custom, sons are expected to look after their parents in their declining years.
Health care in China has improved dramatically since the economic reforms began. In 1949 the average life expectancy in China was 45 years. By 2004 the average had risen to 73 years (71 years for men and 75 years for women). During the same period the number of medical doctors increased greatly. Despite an overall rapid population increase, in 2000 China had 1 physician for every 595 inhabitants, as opposed to 1 for every 27,000 in 1949. Clinics typically are found at the village and district levels, and hospitals, in most cases, at the city and county levels.
In the period from 1949 to 1974, a paramedical corps of so-called barefoot doctors played an important role in bringing health services to rural people. These personnel were trained in hygiene, preventive medicine, and routine treatment of common diseases. They serviced rural areas where both Chinese and Western-style doctors were scarce. For millions of peasants, barefoot doctors were their first encounter with anyone trained in health services. In recent years, rural incomes have increased and the rural economy has been virtually privatized. These developments have enabled peasants to use local clinics for less serious illnesses and to use hospitals in neighboring towns and cities for more serious illnesses. Typically, a fee is involved, although the costs for such medical assistance is modest compared to such costs in the United States. Another development in health services has been the renewed interest in traditional Chinese medicine, such as local herbal medication, folk medicine, and acupuncture. In rural areas, herbal medications may represent as much as four-fifths of the medication used.
China has launched mass campaigns in the health-care field. Efforts to promote child immunization, eradicate schistosomiasis, and diminish sexually transmitted infections have received widespread governmental promotion. Highly successful campaigns have been waged against infectious and parasite-borne diseases that were formerly widespread, such as tuberculosis, malaria, and filariasis (diseases caused by the filaria parasite).
Clifton W. Pannell wrote the Population section of this article.
IV Arts and Culture
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China’s artistic and cultural achievements over the past 3,000 years are a source of great pride for the Chinese people. Central to the country’s cultural identity is its written language, which has been the vehicle for many of those achievements. The earliest known printed text is a Buddhist religious book, the Jingangjing (Diamond Sutra), which dates from 868 ad. The spread of printing had a great effect on the development of Chinese culture, as it enabled the distribution of new ideas. It also enabled government control of ideas, and beginning during the Song dynasty (960-1279) imperial governments took close interest in approving and printing books. The rulers of China’s dynasties emphasized their role as protectors of the country’s cultural tradition, supporting visual artists and writers and creating elaborate palace and temple complexes to demonstrate their fitness to rule. China’s heritage was also available to those residents who were not literate in the Chinese language, often through the medium of drama, which brought stories from Chinese history and literature into even remote towns and villages.
In the 20th century China underwent a number of revolutionary political changes that led many Chinese to challenge the value of their country’s cultural heritage. Communist leader Mao Zedong, who was a principal founder of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, laid down for all the arts the duty of subordinating self-expression to the needs of class struggle and the building of socialism. This reached an extreme in the political campaign known as the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976). Since the mid-1970s and the introduction into China of a market economy, the arts have operated in a context of much greater freedom, which has benefited some forms of art more than others. China’s distinctive cultural heritage is now threatened as much by forces of global competition as it is by government interference.
A Literature
China is the home of the world’s longest continuous tradition of writing, dating from the first use of Chinese characters for purposes of ritual divination during the Shang dynasty (1570?-1045? bc). The earliest Chinese literary works date from the Western Zhou dynasty (1045?-771 bc). These include the anonymous Shu jing (Book of History or Book of Documents), a collection of ancient state documents, and the Shi jing (Book of Poetry or Book of Songs), an anthology of 305 poems that, according to legend, was compiled and edited by Chinese philosopher Confucius. These books are part of the group of texts known collectively as the Five Classics, or Confucian Classics, which have been revered as guides to moral action and the correct ordering of human society.
From very early times the ability to write poetry was seen as one of the marks of an educated man. Chinese poetry, often personal and lyrical in tone, reached a high point during the Tang dynasty (ad 618-907). Major poets of the period include Wang Wei, Li Bo (Li Po), and Du Fu (Tu Fu). The typical poem of the Tang period was written in the shi form, characterized by five- or seven-word lines, with the rhyme usually falling on the even lines. New forms of verse based on the structures of well-known songs were popular during the Song dynasty.
Drama first flourished during the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1279-1368), when plays were often enjoyed as written literature as well as performed on the stage. During the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the short story and the novel developed. Major works from this period include Sanguozhi yanyi (The Romance of the Three Kingdoms), a historical novel about wars and warriors; Shui hu zhuan (All Men Are Brothers, also known as Outlaws of the Marsh or Water Margin), a novel of the adventures of bandit-heroes; Xiyouji (The Journey to the West), a Buddhist fable; and Jin ping mei (The Golden Lotus or The Plum In the Golden Vase), a work dealing with daily life in a rich family. The playwright Tang Xianzu and others wrote lengthy dramas, often with romantic themes. Also during the Ming period, and for the first time in Chinese history, a great deal of poetry was written by women. Many novels continued to be written during the Qing dynasty (1644-1911), the most famous being Hong lou meng (1792, Dream of the Red Chamber, 1929) by Cao Zhan (also known as Cao Xueqin).
In the 20th century, dissatisfaction with the literature of the past was expressed in the May Fourth Movement of 1919, when writers explored new literary forms that reflected more closely the spoken forms of the Chinese language. Short-story writer and essayist Lu Xun was a leading figure of this movement. After the founding of the Communist People’s Republic of China in 1949, the government ordered that all literature serve the needs of the socialist state. Only after the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976 were Chinese writers allowed more freedom to address topics of personal interest to them and their readers. See also Chinese Literature.
B Art and Architecture
Artistic production in China goes back to about 6000 bc. The Chinese consider their unbroken tradition of art one of the central achievements of Chinese culture, and art of various kinds has always been held in high regard. In earliest times, the most important art forms were jade carving and the casting of bronze vessels, often made for burial in royal tombs. For the last 2,000 years, the art form that has enjoyed the greatest prestige has been calligraphy, in which the characters of the Chinese language are written with a brush on silk or paper. The calligrapher Wang Xizhi, who lived during the 4th century, is remembered as one of the greatest early practitioners of this art, although virtually no traces of his work survive.
The second most important art form in China after calligraphy is painting. Most of the earliest surviving Chinese paintings date from the Song dynasty, which is seen as one of the golden eras of the tradition. A number of famous artists and art theorists, such as Su Dongpo (pseudonym of Su Shi), lived during this period, and the important art form of landscape painting developed. Many famous painters are recorded in the extensive literature about art from the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. One distinctive feature of this literature is the emphasis it places on amateur artists. Their work often was seen as more valuable than that produced by professionals, who were viewed by the educated elite as artisans with a lower social status. Today the tradition of watercolor painting on silk or paper is practiced widely throughout China.
Sculpture was an important art form in China, especially after the introduction of Buddhism from India in the 1st century. However, most sculpture was produced for religious purposes by anonymous craftsmen, and thus the educated elite did not regard it as highly as they did calligraphy and painting. Chinese artisans have also made major achievements in forms such as jade carving, lacquerwork, textiles, and ceramics. Many art forms, such as silk weaving and porcelain work, were invented in China and only later spread to other parts of the world. China’s villages developed important folk art traditions, which were often very different from the art produced for the wealthy in the cities.
Although many splendid palaces, temples, and other buildings have been created in China over the centuries, architecture traditionally was not seen as an art form, and it was given little attention by the elite.
China’s imperial rulers were major patrons of the arts. Religious organizations and individual wealthy patrons also employed artists. After 1949, many artists became employees of the state, paid to produce work glorifying the People’s Republic and the Chinese Communist Party. Since 1976 artists have gained greater artistic freedom, but there has been a reduction in government financial support, and the art market has assumed greater importance. See also Chinese Art and Architecture.
C Music and Dance
The philosopher Confucius saw music and dance as enormously important to keeping society in good order, and both have always had an important role in Confucian practices. The earliest surviving Chinese musical instruments include bronze bells dating from the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties. Complete sets of these bells, as well as some stringed instruments, survive from the Eastern Zhou dynasty, which followed the Western Zhou. In imperial China, the ability to play and appreciate music was a central aspect of high social status. Educated gentlemen were expected to be particularly familiar with the musical repertoire for the qin (ch’in), a long zither plucked with the fingers.
Alongside the music of the educated elite, a rich tradition of folk music developed in China’s towns and villages. This tradition continues to thrive today. Most of this music is instrumental and employs a wide variety of stringed and blown instruments, as well as complex percussion sections of gongs, drums, and cymbals. Chinese folk music varies considerably from region to region. Many urban centers now have both Chinese and Western style musical groups, including symphony orchestras and rock bands. See also Chinese Music.
Until the end of the Tang dynasty, dance was an important form of entertainment for the elite, especially at the imperial court. Men performed vigorous dances with swords, and it was fashionable to watch dances performed by professional dancers imported from other parts of Asia. In the Song period the practice of mutilating women’s feet (known as foot binding) gradually became widespread, and this reduced the role of dance among the upper classes.
Forms of folk dance continued to be practiced in China’s countryside, and in the 20th century China’s Communist government promoted them as part of a new emphasis on popular art forms. Also during the 20th century, originally Western forms of dance, such as ballroom dance and ballet, were introduced to China. Ballroom dance was banned for much of the period after 1949, while ballet was used in the 1960s to create “model” revolutionary ballets, such as The White-Haired Girl and The Red Detachment of Women. Since 1976 forms of social dance, such as ballroom and disco, have become popular pastimes at all levels of Chinese society.
D Theater and Film
Chinese theater varies significantly in different regions of the country, with more than 300 types known. All of these involve a combination of music, singing, speech, and dramatic action. Drama traditionally was performed in urban theaters and teahouses by professional actors for paying customers. However, it was also performed to entertain the gods as part of religious rituals, and in this way it was brought to wide audiences in the countryside. These types of rituals have revived in recent years with the relaxation of prohibitions against them by the Chinese government.
Although there have been forms of dramatic entertainment in China since very early times, Chinese theater reached its first height during the Yuan dynasty, when the form of literary drama known as Yuan zaju (Yuan drama) came to the fore. Zaju plays consisted of four acts and a self-contained scene that usually appeared between acts. Men and women both depicted characters of either sex, and only the lead character sang. Dramas such as The West Chamber, a romantic love story by Wang Shifu, were created during this period and have remained part of the repertoire of the Chinese theater ever since.
The late 18th century brought the rise of jingxi, or “drama of the capital city,” under the patronage of the imperial court. This is the form of theater that is widely known in the West as Peking Opera. It combines various theatrical forms—including speech, music, acrobatics, dance, mime, and martial arts—to tell stories from Chinese history and folklore. Until the mid-20th century, men performed all roles in Peking Opera, using elaborate and stylized costumes and makeup to show the type of character being portrayed. The most famous Peking Opera actor of the 20th century, Mei Lanfang, was particularly successful at playing female roles.
In the 20th century Chinese writers adopted originally Western forms of theater to create the form known as huaju (spoken drama). This form remained restricted to major cities and urban audiences. After 1949 the traditional repertoire of historical and romantic dramas was gradually abandoned in favor of revolutionary operas. Since 1976 government controls have been relaxed and the traditional repertoire reinstated, although it has been losing popularity among younger audiences. See also Asian Theater.
The cinema, imported from the West, has been very successful in China. A vigorous film industry developed in Shanghai in the early 20th century, and after the People’s Republic came to power, film was used as a major form of government propaganda. In recent decades Chinese films have found success with international audiences. Popular works include those by director Zhang Yimou, such as Hong gaoliang (1987, also released as Red Sorghum), Ju Dou (1989), and Dahong denglong gaogao gua (1991, also released as Raise the Red Lantern).
E Cultural Institutions
China’s major cultural institutions are in its largest cities. Every provincial capital has a museum and a library, as well as sites of historical or cultural importance.
Beijing is home to China’s largest museum, the Palace Museum. Housed in the Forbidden City, the former residence of the imperial family and court, the museum contains part of the vast imperial collection of artworks. It also mounts exhibitions of important archaeological discoveries from elsewhere in China. Also in Beijing are the Chairman Mao Memorial Hall, the Museum of Chinese History, the China Art Gallery, and the Museum of Natural History. Beijing’s Museum of the Chinese Revolution contains collections relating to modern Chinese history, and the Capital Museum houses historical relics including stoneware, bronzes, and calligraphy.
Shanghai also plays a leading cultural role in China. The city is home to the Shanghai Museum, which contains one of China’s most important historic art collections; the Museum of Natural Sciences; and the museum of the Tomb of Lu Xun (Lu Xun was a 20th-century writer). Numerous buildings in Shanghai are preserved as historic sites. Among them is the site of the First National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
China’s many provincial museums contain important archaeological materials discovered since the founding of the People’s Republic in 1949. The Nanjing Museum in Jiangsu Province and the Shaanxi Provincial Museum in Xi’an are particularly renowned for their collections of archaeological treasures. Most major archaeological sites have museums attached to them. One of the most important sites is the tomb of Chinese emperor Qin Shihuangdi, located just outside Xi’an in Shaanxi Province. Excavations of the tomb have yielded a terra-cotta army of more than 6,000 life-size figures, buried with the emperor upon his death in 210 bc.
Archaeological sites and important historic buildings are protected by government regulations, although illegal excavation of China’s cultural heritage has remained a problem. China’s museums and other cultural institutions are very important to the country’s developing tourism industry. Economic reforms in China since the 1970s have made it more necessary for these institutions to raise funds to support their own activities. Many have done so by organizing exhibitions of their treasures outside of China; these exhibitions have brought China’s artistic and cultural heritage to an international audience.
Important libraries in China include Beijing Library, containing China’s largest collection of ancient and modern books, and the Shanghai Library. The First Historical Archives of China, in Beijing, houses historical records from China’s imperial dynasties.
D 1 The Republic of China
For much of the period from 1912 to 1949, China was a republic in name only. At first, although the government adopted a constitution, Yuan held most of the power. In 1913 the Kuomintang (KMT, or Nationalist Party), a new political party that brought together the T鈥檜ng-meng Hui and other revolutionary groups, attempted to limit Yuan's power by parliamentary tactics. Yuan dismissed the parliament, outlawed the KMT, and ruled through his personal connections with provincial military leaders. In 1915 Yuan announced plans to restore the monarchy and install himself as emperor, but he was forced by popular opposition to abandon his plans.
This period of political confusion was also one of intense intellectual excitement in China. Modern universities, started in the last years of the Qing, began to produce a new type of Chinese intellectual who was deeply concerned with China's fate and attracted to Western ideas, ranging from science and democracy to communism and anarchism. Thousands of young people went abroad to study in Japan, Europe, and North America. The journal New Youth, begun in the mid-1910s, called on young people to take up the cause of national salvation. Writers imitated Western forms of poetry and fiction, and started writing in the vernacular rather than the classical language that had formerly marked the educated person. Widely circulated periodicals brought this new language and new ideas to educated people throughout the country. One of the issues most strongly promoted was women鈥檚 rights. Such traditional practices as arranged marriage, concubinage, and the binding of girls鈥?feet to prevent normal growth (tiny feet were considered to enhance women鈥檚 beauty) were ridiculed as backward, and young women were encouraged to enroll in China鈥檚 many new schools for women.
China enjoyed a respite from Western pressure from 1914 to 1918, when European powers were preoccupied by World War I. Chinese industries expanded, and a few cities, especially Shanghai, Canton, Tianjin, and Hankou (now part of Wuhan), became industrial centers. However, European powers鈥?preoccupation with the war at home also gave Japan an opportunity to try and gain a position of supremacy in China. In 1915 Japan presented China with the Twenty-one Demands, the terms of which would have reduced China to a virtual Japanese protectorate. Yuan Shikai's government yielded to a modified version of the demands, agreeing, among other concessions, to the transfer of the German holdings in Shandong to Japan.
After Yuan died in 1916, the central government in Beijing lost most of its power, and for the next decade power devolved to warlords and cliques of warlords. In 1917 China entered World War I on the side of the Allies (which included Britain, France, and the United States) in order to gain a seat at the peace table, hoping for a new chance to halt Japanese ambitions. China expected that the United States, with its Open Door Policy and commitment to the self-determination of all peoples, would offer its support. However, as part of the negotiation process at the peace conference in Versailles, France, U.S. president Woodrow Wilson withdrew U.S. support for China on the Shandong issue. The indignant Chinese delegation refused to sign the Treaty of Versailles.
Young people in China who looked to the West for political ideals were crushed by the decisions at Versailles. When news of the peace conference reached China on May 4, 1919, more than 3,000 students from Beijing universities assembled in the city to protest. The Beijing governor suppressed the demonstrators and arrested the student leaders, but these actions set off a wave of protests around the country in support of the Beijing students and their cause (see May Fourth Movement).
D1 a The Nationalist and Communist Revolutionary Movements
After Yuan outlawed the KMT parliamentary party in 1913, Sun Yat-sen worked to build the revolutionary movement, eventually establishing a KMT base in Guangzhou. Sun’s ideas became more anti-imperialist during this period. In speeches and writings he stressed that China could not be strong until it rid itself of imperialist intrusions and was reconstituted as the nation of the Chinese people. Other forms of revolution also attracted adherents. Marxism gained a following among urban intellectuals and factory workers in China, particularly after the success of the Communists in the Russian Revolution of 1917. In 1921 the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was organized in Shanghai.
During the warlord period after the death of Yuan Shikai, most Western powers dealt with whichever warlord had control of Beijing and ignored the revolutionaries. By contrast, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR, or Soviet Union), through the Comintern (an international Communist organization), offered to help the Chinese revolutionaries. Believing that the KMT had the best chance of succeeding, the Comintern instructed CCP members to join Sun Yat-sen’s KMT. In 1923 Sun agreed to accept Soviet advice in reorganizing the crumbling KMT party and army and to admit Communists into the KMT as part of a united-front policy.
Despite Sun's death in 1925, the rejuvenated KMT launched the Northern Expedition in 1926 from its base in Guangzhou. The expedition, an attempt to rid China of warlords and reunify the country under KMT rule, was led by the young general Chiang Kai-shek, who had been trained in Japan and Moscow and had been in charge of the KMT’s military academy. Communists aided the advance of Chiang Kai-shek's army by organizing peasants and workers along the way. However, the alliance between the two groups was fragile because the KMT drew its strength from wealthy intellectuals and landowners, while the Communists advocated redistribution of wealth. In 1927, as the KMT army approached Shanghai, Chiang ordered members of the Green Gang, a Shanghai underworld gang, to kill labor union members and Communists, whom he feared were becoming too powerful. The alliance ended, and the KMT began a bloody purge of the Communists.
From 1927 to 1937 the KMT under Chiang ruled from Nanjing. Chiang's foremost goal was to build a strong modern state and army. He employed many Western-educated officials in his government, and progress was achieved in modernizing the banking, currency, and taxation systems, as well as transportation and communication facilities. However, China remained fragmented. While a small, Westernized elite and an industrial force developed in the cities, the vast majority of people were poor peasants in the countryside. The rural economy suffered from continued population growth and from the collapse of some local industries, such as silk production and cotton weaving, due to foreign competition. Chiang's highest priority was not improving the lives of peasants but gaining full military control of the country. Many regions remained under warlords, the Communists controlled some areas, and the Japanese were encroaching in North and Northeast China.
The Chinese Communists had gone underground after they were purged from the KMT in 1927 and had organized areas of Communist control. The most successful group settled in the countryside near the border between Jiangxi and Fujian provinces in an area they called the Jiangxi Soviet. From there, the group mobilized peasant support and formed a peasant army. One of the top leaders of the Jiangxi Soviet was Mao Zedong. Mao was from a peasant family in Hunan but was educated through the new school system. After graduating from a teacher’s college in Hunan, he went to Beijing, where he became involved with Marxist discussion groups. In the 1920s, when most of the early CCP members were organizing workers in the cites, Mao worked in the countryside, developing ways to mobilize peasants.
Chiang’s army attempted four extermination campaigns against the Jiangxi base, all of which failed against the Communists’ guerrilla tactics. In the fifth campaign in October 1934, the KMT encircled the base. Eighty thousand Communists broke out of the KMT encirclement and started what became known as the Long March. For a year, the Communists steadily retreated, fighting almost continuously against KMT forces and suffering enormous casualties. By the time the 8,000 survivors had found an area where they could establish a new base, they had marched almost 9,600 km (6,000 mi), crossing southern and southwestern China before turning north to reach Shaanxi province. This triumph of will in the face of incredible obstacles became a moral victory for the Communists. For the next decade the CCP made its base at Yan’an, a city in central Shaanxi.
Although the KMT had forced the Communists to flee, they still faced a major threat from Japan. In 1922 Japan had agreed to return the former German holdings in Shandong to China, but it continued to expand its dominance in Manchuria. In 1931 the Japanese retaliated for an alleged instance of Chinese sabotage by extending military control over all of Manchuria. Chiang Kai-shek knew his armies were no match for Japan’s and ordered the KMT to withdraw without fighting. In 1932 Japan established the puppet state of Manchukuo in Manchuria and made Henry Pu Yi, the last emperor of the Qing dynasty, its chief of state. Early in 1933 eastern Inner Mongolia was incorporated into Manchukuo.
As Japanese aggression intensified, popular pressure mounted within China to end internal fighting and unite against Japan. Chiang, however, resisted allying with the Communists until late 1936, when he was kidnapped by one of his own generals. During his captivity at Xi'an (Sian) in Shaanxi Province, Chiang was visited by Communist leaders, who urged the adoption of a united front against Japan. After his release, Chiang moderated his anti-Communist stance, and in 1937 the KMT and CCP formed a united front to oppose Japan.
D1 b Second Sino-Japanese War and World War II
In July 1937 the Japanese tried once again to extend their territory in China. Chiang resisted, and Japan launched a full-scale offensive (see Second Sino-Japanese War). Chiang’s forces had to abandon Beijing and Tianjin, but his troops held out for three months in Shanghai before retreating to Nanjing. When the Japanese captured Nanjing in December, they went on a rampage for seven weeks, massacring more than 100,000 civilians and fugitive soldiers, raping at least 20,000 women, and laying the city to waste.
By late 1938 Japan had seized control of most of northeast China, the Yangtze Valley as far inland as Hankou, and the area around Guangzhou on the southeastern coast. The KMT moved its capital and most of its military force inland to Chongqing in the southwestern province of Sichuan. Free China, as the KMT-ruled area was called, contained 60 percent of China’s population but only 5 percent of its industry, which hampered the war effort. In 1941 the United States entered World War II after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. Thereafter, American advisers and aid were flown to China from Burma, which enabled Chiang to establish a number of modern military divisions. However, the bulk of China’s 5 million military troops consisted of ill-trained, demoralized conscripts.
During the first few years after the Japanese invasion, some genuine cooperation took place between the CCP and the KMT. However, animosity between the groups remained, and the cooperation largely ended after the KMT attacked the CCP’s army in 1941. From then on, although both sides continued to resist Japan, they concentrated more on preparing for their eventual conflict with each other. The KMT imposed an economic blockade on the CCP base at Yan’an, making it impossible for the Communists to get weapons except by capturing them from the Japanese. Defeating Japan was left largely to the United States, which was fighting the war in the Pacific.
During the war period, the Communists made major gains in territory, military forces, and party membership. They infiltrated many of the rural areas behind Japanese lines, where they skillfully organized the peasantry and built up the ranks of the party and their army (known as the Red Army). The CCP grew from about 300,000 members in 1933 to 1.2 million members by 1945. While in Yan’an, Mao Zedong had time to read Marxist and Leninist works and began giving lectures at party schools in which he spelled out his versions of Chinese history and Marxist theory. Whereas neither Marx nor Lenin had seen significant revolutionary potential in peasants, Mao came to glorify peasants as the true masses. During these years, Mao also perfected methods of moral and intellectual instruction and party discipline, which involved close discussion of assigned texts, personal confessions, struggle sessions (meetings in which people were publicly criticized and punished for past offenses), and dramatic public humiliations.
The KMT emerged from the war in a weakened state. Severe inflation had begun in 1939, when the government, cut off from its main sources of income in Japanese-occupied eastern China, printed more currency to finance the mounting costs of wartime operations. Despite substantial U.S. economic aid, the inflationary trend worsened and official corruption increased. The financial problems also caused a loss of morale in the KMT armed forces and alienation of the civilian populace.
After Japan surrendered in 1945, bringing World War II to an end, both the CCP and the KMT were rearmed, the KMT by the United States and the Communists by the Soviet Union. The Soviets had accepted the surrender of Japanese troops in Manchuria and turned over large stockpiles of Japanese weapons and ammunition to the CCP.
D1 c Civil War
Shortly after Japan’s surrender, civil war broke out between CCP and KMT troops over the reoccupation of Manchuria. A temporary truce was reached in 1946 through the mediation of U.S. general George Catlett Marshall. Although fighting soon resumed, Marshall continued his efforts to bring the two sides together. In August 1946 the United States tried to strengthen Marshall's hand as an impartial mediator by suspending its military aid to the KMT government. Nevertheless, hostilities continued, and in January 1947, convinced of the futility of further mediation, Marshall left China. The United States resumed aid to the KMT in May. In 1948 military advantage passed to the Communists, and in the summer of 1949 the KMT resistance collapsed.
The KMT government, with the forces it could salvage, sought refuge on the island of Taiwan. Until his death in 1975, Chiang Kai-shek continued to claim that his government in Taiwan was the legitimate government of all of China. Meanwhile, on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong, as chairman of the CCP, proclaimed the establishment of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Beijing.
D 2 The People's Republic
The new Communist government, a one-party state under the rule of the CCP, brought an end to the long period of Western imperialist involvement in China. Regions within the country’s historic boundaries that had fallen away since the overthrow of the Manchus were reclaimed, including Tibet and Xinjiang in western China (see Tibet: Reincorporation into China; Xinjiang Uyghur Automomous Region: History). China established alliances with the countries of the emerging Socialist bloc. In 1950 China and the USSR signed a treaty of friendship and alliance, and in supplementary agreements the Soviets gave up their privileges in Northeast China. During the Korean War (1950-1953), Chinese troops aided the Communist regime of North Korea against South Korean and United Nations forces. China also aided the Communist insurgents fighting the French in Vietnam, and Chinese premier Zhou Enlai played an important role in negotiating the 1954 Geneva Accords that ended the hostilities known as the First Indochina War.
D2 a Transformation of the Economy and Society
During the first few years of Communist leadership, the new government reorganized nearly all aspects of Chinese life. To revive the economy, which had been disrupted by decades of warfare, the CCP adopted measures to curb inflation, restore communications, and reestablish the domestic order necessary for economic development. The government also orchestrated campaigns and struggle sessions to mobilize mass revolutionary enthusiasm and remove from power those likely to obstruct the new government. In the 1951 campaign against individuals who had been affiliated with KMT organizations or had served in its army, tens of thousands were executed and many more sent to labor reform camps.
The CCP made fundamental changes to society. New marriage laws that prohibited men from taking more than one wife and interference with remarriage by widows assured women of a more equal position in society. Women also received equal rights with respect to divorce, employment, and ownership of property. The CCP made every effort to control the spread of ideas. Through the press and through schools, the government directed youth to look to the party and the state rather than to their families for leadership and security. The CCP assumed strict control over religion, forcing foreign missionaries to leave the country and installing Chinese clerics willing to cooperate with the Communists in positions of authority over Christian churches. Intellectuals were made to undergo specialized programs of thought reform directed toward eradicating anti-Communist ideas.
Government takeover of businesses undermined the power of the urban-based capitalists who had gained influence under the KMT. To make use of their expertise, however, the government often enlisted previous business owners to manage companies. The government’s first five-year plan, initiated in 1953 and carried out with Soviet assistance, emphasized the expansion of heavy industry at the expense of consumer goods.
Through the progressive socialization of Chinese agriculture (making ownership of land collective, not individual or family), the landowning elite was eliminated, the source of its income and influence abolished. As the CCP took control of new areas, it taught the peasants in those areas that social and economic inequalities were not natural but rather a perversion caused by the institution of private property. Wealthy landowners were not people of high moral standards but were exploiters.
To create a new communal order where all would work together unselfishly for common goals, the Communists first redistributed property. Their usual method was to send a small team of cadres (party administrators) and students to a village to cultivate relations with the poor, organize a peasant association, identify potential leaders, compile lists of grievances, and organize struggle sessions. Eventually the inhabitants would be classified into five categories: landlords, rich peasants, middle peasants, poor peasants, and hired hands. The government then would confiscate the holdings of landowners, and sometimes land owned by rich and middle peasants, and redistribute it more evenly. The wealthy also endured struggle sessions, which sometimes led to executions of landlords. This stage of land reform resulted in the creation of a castelike system in the countryside. The lowest caste was composed of the descendants of those labeled landlords, while the descendants of former poor and lower-middle peasants became a new privileged class.
Agricultural collectivization followed land reform in several stages. First, farmers were encouraged to join mutual-aid teams of usually less than 10 families. Next, they were instructed to set up cooperatives, consisting of 40 or 50 families. From 1954 to 1956 the Communists created higher-level collectives (also called production teams) that united cooperatives. At this point, economic inequality within villages had been virtually eliminated. The state took over the grain market, and peasants were no longer allowed to market their crops.
The reorganization of the countryside created a new elite of rural party cadres. Illiterate peasants who kept the peace among villagers and exceeded state production targets had opportunities to rise in the party hierarchy. This created social mobility far beyond anything that had existed in imperial China, which had only provided advancement opportunities to educated peasants. Another byproduct of the reorganization of the countryside was the extension of social services, because collectives throughout the country coordinated basic health care and primary education for their members.
D2 b The Hundred Flowers and the Great Leap Forward
In 1956 Mao Zedong launched a campaign to expose the party to the criticism of Chinese intellectuals under the slogan “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom.” Mao was afraid that the revolutionary fervor of CCP members was waning, that they were losing touch with the people and becoming authoritarian bureaucrats. Although most intellectuals were cautious at first, Mao repeatedly urged people to speak up, and once the criticism had started, it became a torrent. In 1957 Mao and other party leaders abruptly changed course and launched the so-called Antirightist campaign on the critics for harboring rightist ideology. About half a million educated people lost their jobs and often their freedom, usually because something they had said during the Hundred Flowers period had been construed as anti-Communist.
Next Mao launched a radical development plan known as the Great Leap Forward. Mao announced the plan in November 1957 at a meeting of the leaders of the international Communist movement in Moscow, claiming that China would surpass Britain in industrial output within 15 years. Through the concerted hard work of hundreds of millions of people laboring together, he claimed, China would transform itself from a poor nation into a mighty one. In 1958, in a wave of utopian enthusiasm, the CCP combined agricultural collectives into gigantic communes, expecting huge increases in productivity. Throughout the country, communes, factories, and schools set up backyard furnaces in order to double steel production. As workers were mobilized to work long hours on these and other large-scale projects, they spent little time at home or in normal farm work.
Peng Dehuai, China’s minister of defense and a military hero, offered measured criticisms of the Great Leap policies at a 1959 party meeting. Mao was furious and forced the party to choose between Peng and himself. The CCP ultimately removed Peng from his positions of authority. Within a couple of years, the Great Leap had proved an economic disaster. Industrial production dropped by as much as 50 percent between 1959 and 1962. Grain was taken from the countryside on the basis of wildly exaggerated production reports, contributing, along with environmental calamities, to a massive famine from 1960 to 1962 in which more than 20 million people died.
D2 c Growing Isolation
The economic hardship created by the Great Leap was made worse in 1960 by the Soviets’ withdrawal of economic assistance and technical advice. As the USSR moved toward peaceful coexistence with the West, its alliance with China deteriorated. In 1962 China openly condemned the USSR for withdrawing its missiles from Communist Cuba under pressure from the United States. Consequently, the USSR reneged on its agreements to aid China’s economic development. The Chinese began to compete openly with the USSR for leadership of the Communist bloc and for influence among the members of the Nonaligned Movement, a loose association of countries not specifically allied with either of the power blocs led by either the United States or the USSR. In 1963 Zhou Enlai toured Asia and Africa to gain support for the Chinese model of socialism.
Meanwhile, other actions taken by China kept many nonaligned nations wary. In 1959 the United Nations condemned China’s actions in Tibet when China suppressed a rebellion there. The Dalai Lama (Tibet’s ruler at that time) and thousands of Tibetans fled south to Nepal and India. Also in 1959, Chinese troops penetrated and occupied 31,000 sq km (12,000 sq mi) of territory claimed by India. Negotiations between the two countries proved inconclusive, and fighting erupted again in 1962 when Chinese troops advanced across the claimed Indian borders. In Southeast Asia, China lent moral support and technical and material assistance to Communist-led insurgency movements in Laos and Vietnam during the Vietnam War (1959-1975). In Indonesia, Chinese embassy officials aided Communist insurgents until the Chinese embassy was expelled in 1965.
D2 d The Cultural Revolution
In mid-1966 Mao launched the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, known simply as the Cultural Revolution. The announced goals of the revolution were to eradicate the remains of so-called bourgeois ideas and customs and to recapture the revolutionary zeal of early Chinese Communism. Mao also wanted to increase his power over the government by discrediting or removing party leaders who had challenged his authority or disagreed with his policies. Earlier in the year, Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, and a few other Mao supporters had begun calling for attacks on cultural works that criticized Mao’s policies. Soon radical students at Beijing University, urged by Mao to denounce elitist elements of society, were agitating against university and government officials who they believed were not sufficiently revolutionary. Liu Shaoqi, a veteran revolutionary who had been designated as Mao’s successor, tried to control the students, but Mao intervened. He launched an intense public criticism of Liu and sanctioned the organization of Beijing students into militant groups known as Red Guards. Soon students all over China were responding to the call to make revolution, happy to help Mao, whom many worshiped as a godlike hero.
In June 1966 nearly all Chinese schools and universities were closed as students devoted themselves full-time to Red Guard activities. Joined by groups of workers, peasants, and demobilized soldiers, Red Guards took to the streets in pro-Maoist, sometimes violent, demonstrations. They made intellectuals, bureaucrats, party officials, and urban workers their chief targets. The central party structure was destroyed as many high officials, including Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, were removed from their positions. During 1967 and 1968 bloody fighting among various Red Guard factions claimed thousands of lives. In some areas, rebellion deteriorated into a state of lawlessness. Finally, the army was called in to restore order, and in July 1968 the Red Guards were sent back to school or to work in the countryside. In many areas, the army quickly became the dominant force.
During the early stages of the Cultural Revolution, Mao and his supporters continually promoted “class struggle” against so-called revisionists and counterrevolutionaries. To this end, educated people were singled out for persecution. College professors, middle-school teachers, newspaper journalists, musicians, party cadres, factory managers, and others who could be categorized as educated suffered a wide variety of brutal treatment. Men and women were tortured, imprisoned, starved, denied medical treatment, and forced to leave their children unsupervised when they were sent to labor camps in the countryside. Tens of thousands were killed or committed suicide.
CCP delegates to the Ninth Party Congress in April 1969 reelected Mao party chairman with a great deal of fanfare. They named Defense Minister Lin Biao, Mao's personal choice, to be Mao’s eventual successor. For several years, Lin was regularly referred to as Mao's closest comrade in arms and best student. Yet, according to the official CCP account, in 1971 Lin turned against Mao, plotted unsuccessfully to assassinate him, and then died in an airplane crash while attempting to flee to the USSR. Lin was officially condemned as a traitor.
Much of the political and social turmoil that characterized the first half of the Cultural Revolution subsided in the second half. In 1976 the government arrested a group of four revolutionaries, known as the Gang of Four, and charged them with the crimes of the Cultural Revolution. This event came to mark the official end of the campaign.
D2 e Shifting Foreign Relations
In the early years of the Cultural Revolution, China’s already strained foreign relations worsened. Propaganda and agitation in support of the Red Guards by overseas Chinese strained relations with many foreign governments. A successful Chinese hydrogen bomb test in 1967 did nothing to allay apprehension. Tension with the USSR worsened when China accused Soviet leaders of imperialism after the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. Clashes between Soviet and Chinese border guards along the Amur and Ussuri rivers in 1969 created a tense situation. China was largely isolated from the outside world, maintaining good relations only with Albania.
In the early 1970s, however, China's foreign relations began to improve dramatically. In 1971 the People’s Republic of China was given the China seat in the United Nations, replacing the nationalist government on Taiwan, which had continued to hold the seat after losing the civil war with the Communists in 1945. In 1972 U.S. president Richard Nixon made an official visit to China during which he agreed to the need for Chinese-American contacts and the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Taiwan. In the wake of these developments, many other nations transferred their diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to the mainland Communist government. In 1972 China restored diplomatic relations with Japan. up 我很想用中国的例子，但怕老外不认
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