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CLAS 3305 Lecture 9 India and China Overheads |
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3305 Overheads from lecture 9 India and China
The Indo-Europeans had many names... as Illyrians and Greeks, they entered Greece ----------------------------------- So much we don't know... One theory suggests that the civilization (or its major town) was called Meluhha Meluhha listed on some Mesopotamian inscriptions - clues only --------------------------- ------------------------------------- Mohenjo-daro: ------------------------------------ Middle Town large houses arranged around a courtyard --------------------------------------- commercial districts: fine pottery (hand and wheel turned) ---------------------------------- Workers' quarters: the lower town: neatly laid out as well -- obviously planned ------------------------------------- Theories: abandonment of Indus sites 1. Environmental factors -- Perhaps catastrophic flooding caused by a change in the course of the Indus - perhaps drought and the drying up of the rivers ------------------------------ Dravidian -- Aryan Dravidians are the original inhabitants/creators of the Indus Valley civilization Aryans are the nomadic Indo-European tribes who came from the north (Iran) ---------------------------------------- Revisionist theory. The Aryans and the Dravidians were both there from the beginning No obvious signs of invasion ------------------------------------- Response to the revisionists. Where are the cultural markers for the Aryans in the earliest Indus excavations? Where is the horse? ------------------------------------- Traditionally four Vedas (Holy Books) Rigveda ---------------------------------------- Rig Veda Creation Hymn There was neither non-existence nor existence then. There was neither the realm of space nor the sky which is beyond. What stirred? Where? In whose protection? Was there water, bottlemlessly deep? There was neither death nor immortality then. There was no distinguishing sign of night nor of day. That One breathed, windless, by its own impulse. Other than that there was nothing beyond. ------------------------- Another translation. There was not non-existent nor existent; There was no realm of air, no sky beyond it. What covered it, and where? and what gave shelter? Was water there, unfathomed depth of water? -------------------------- On the Creation Hymn.. "The hymn goes on to say that in the beginning there was neither death nor immortality, nor day nor night. All that existed was void and formless. Then arose, desire, the primal seed and germ of spirit." http://www.atributetohinduism.com/Hindu_Culture.htm ------------------------------- Rig Veda Funeral Hymn From the dead hand I take the bow he wielded To gain for us dominion, might and glory. Thou there, we here, rich in heroic offspring, Will vanquish all assaults of every foeman. Rig Veda 10.18 --------------------------------- The Caste System. the Brahmins: the priestly class the untouchables are outside the system entirely -------------------------------------- The Caste System. Brahmins work with things of the mind and spirit --------------------------------------- Buddha. Buddha preached a religion devoid of authority -----------------------------------------------
1. Buddha preached a religion devoid of authority:
"Do not accept what you hear by reports. Be lamps unto yourselves."
------------------------- 3. Buddha argued that the great questions cannot be answered and at any rate, do not profit a man
opinions tend "not to edification"
"on such questions the Buddha maintains a noble silence" Buddha railed against defeatism:
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Buddha railed against defeatism: "Those who, relying upon themselves only, not looking for assistance to anyone besides themselves, it is they who will reach the topmost height."
----------------------------------------------- Buddha declared the Four Noble Truths Life is "suffering" (dukkha) ------------------------------------- "Most men lead lives of quiet desperation" Henry David Thoreau -------------------------
Eightfold path
preliminary step to the eightfold path: right association
1. Right knowledge: the Four Noble Truths 2. Right aspiration: search your motivation for the journey 3. Right speech: what it reveals about our character 4. Right behaviour: similar to the Ten Commandments 1. do not kill 2. do not lie 3. do not be unchaste 4. do not take drugs or drink intoxicants 5. Right livlihood: occupations to avoid 6. Right effort: stress on moral exertion 7. Right mindfulness: "All we are is the result of what we have thought" 8. Right absorption: product of meditation
At the end of this eightfold path, you did not find a new philosophy. You found a new person
If you meet Buddha in the road, kill him... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CHINA China: The Middle Kingdom "under heaven" Cultural continuity over 7,000 years --------------------- "Peking Man" Sinenthropus pekinensis ----------------------------------------- 2,500 BCE -- pastoral lifestyle ----------------------------------
------------------------- Yangshao Culture Late Neolithic approx. 6,000 BCE
farming techniques improved more yield animals domesticated more yield population increased more land cleared more yield surplus to support non-farmers specialization of crafts and trades trading surplus prosperity more population out-migration trade cultural contact
not civilization yet, however ------------------------- Legendary Past P'an Ku laboured for 18,000 years
-- his breath became the wind and the clouds -- his voice became the thunder -- his veins, the rivers -- his flesh, the earth -- his hair, the grass and trees -- his bones, the metals -- his sweat, the rain -- insects that clung to his body became the human race ------------------------- As in Gilgamesh: "the people were like beasts, clothing themselves in skins, feeding on raw flesh, and knowing their mothers but not their fathers" -----------------------------------
When widespread waters swelled to heaven and serpents and dragons did harm, Yao sent Yu to control the waters and to drive out the serpents and dragons. The waters were controlled and flowed to the East. The serpents and dragons plunged to their places. Ancient China p. 80 Time-Life ----------------------- History. Arts of civilization handed down to mankind by the great emperors of antiquity, ending with Yu, who founded the Xia dynasty (2205-1557 BCE*) --------------------------------- Shang Dynasty
1. sizeable towns and even planned cities by this time more complex than peasant village building mainly of timber packed-earth city walls
2. centralized power structure
including specialization of trades and crafts
3. writing
(3 needful things: central control, cities and writing)
-------------------------------------------- Writing..approx 1300 BCE Oracle bones Found at Anyang Paleography... The study of ancient writing Handwriting
---------------- Zhou (Chou) Dynasty
---------------------------- Poem from the time of Chou:
Broken were our axes And chipped our hatchets But since the Duke of Chou came to the East Throughout the kingdom all is well He has shown compassion to us people He has greatly helped us
from the Shih Ching (Book of Odes)
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Other developments during the Chou Dynasty: • replacement of bronze with iron weapons and tools • taxing of money, fish, salt (funds to help the poor) • stabilization of the currency • development of efficient administration • first imposition of law codes • applied unequally to rich and poor • (rich exempted because supposed to discipline themselves) • (peasants needed to be disciplined)
------------ The morning glory climbs above my head, Pale flowers of white and purple, blue and red I am disquieted
Down in the withered grasses something stirred I though it was his footfall that I heard. Then a grasshopper chirred
I climbed the hill just as the new moon showed, I saw him coming on the southern road, My heart lays down its load.
same Book of Odes as other poem --------------------- Concept of yin and yang first formulated in the Chou Age • yin: negative, passive and earthly principle of darkness, cold and death • yang: positive, active productive and celestial principle of light, heat and life
Opposites not thought of as being in conflict
Rather they existed in precarious balance were necessary to that balance... ----------------------- Confucius 551-479 BCE most influential travelling philosopher was K'ung Fu-tzu
"A man's character is formed by the Odes, developed by the Rites [the rules of ceremony and courtesy], and perfected by music."
"When a man is not in the habit of saying, "What shall I think of this? What shall I think of this?" I can indeed, do nothing with him." Durant 659
“I do not open up the truth to one who is not eager, nor help out any one who is not anxious to explain himself. When I have presented one corner of a subject to any one, and he cannot from it learn the other three, I do not repeat my lesson.” Durant 659
---------- Confucius: Improvement of character was the aim of study:
"It is not easy to find a man who has learned for three years without coming to be good."
Confucius felt that only the wisest and the stupidest were beyond benefiting from instruction ----------- Oppressive government is fiercer than a tiger -- Confucius ----------------------- Goethe said that if clothes be your honor, it will soon be threadbare; if honour be your clothing, it will last a lifetime.
---------------------- Confucius' Golden Rule "Not to do unto others as you would not wish done to yourself" ----------------------------------------- Confucius says
The centralization of wealth is the way to scatter the people; letting it be scattered is the way to collect them. ------------------------------------------------------------
He eats without tilling, dresses without weaving, wagging his lips and clacking his tongue, he presumes to be a force of right and wrong in order to delude the masters of “under heaven” ------------- Lao-tzu Tao-Te-Ching "The Book of the Way and of Virtue"
"The ways of men are conditioned by those of the Earth, the ways of Earth by those of Heaven, the ways of heaven by those of the Tao, and the Tao came into being by itself." Lao-Tzu 90-91
------------------------------------ In the beginning of heaven and earth there were no words, Words came out of the womb of matter; And whether a man dispassionately Sees to the core of life Or passionately Sees the surface, The core and the surface Are essentially the same, Words making them seem different Only to express appearance. From wonder into wonder Existence opens -------------------------
Taoists
(Taoists called "irresponsible hermits" by the Confucians)
------------------------- All things in nature work silently. They come into being and possess nothing. They fulfil their function and make no claim. All things alike do their work, and then we see them subside. When they have reached their bloom each returns to its origin. Returning to their origin means rest, or fulfilment of destiny. This reversion is an eternal law.
Lao-tze ------------------------- Water most exemplified the power of wu wei:
• water supports objects -- carries them along • poor swimmers flail and sink (because they work against the water) • good swimmers float motionlessly, letting the water carry them • water is unobtrusive and adaptive • it seeks the lowest places • it adapts to any shape
yet: • it subdues other objects • it carves canyons from granite • it melts the mountains which appear eternal
supple yet strong -- the virtues of wu wei
water good metaphor also because muddy water will clear through calmness -- ------------------ If you do not quarrel, no one on earth will be able to quarrel with you. . . recompense injury with kindness.. . . To those who are good I am good, and to those who are not good I am also good' thus all get to be good. To those who are sincere I an sincere, and to those who are not sincere I an also sincere; and thus all get to be sincere.. . . The softest thing in the world dashes against and overcomes the hardest. . . There is nothing in the world softer or weaker than water, and yet for attacking things that are firm and strong there is nothing that can take precedence of it.
Lao-tzu
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A leader is best when people barely know that he exists. Of a good leader, when his work is finished, the people will say, "We did this ourselves. Tao te Ching
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Silence is the beginning of wisdom:
He who knows (the Way) does not speak about it; he who speaks about it does not know it. He who knows it will keep his mouth shut and close the portals of his nostrils.
------------------------------------- Ch'in Dynasty Chou dynasty destroyed by the Ch'in in 256 B.C. (also written Qin) ---------------------- Burning the books of Confucius.. "Where they have burned books, they will end in burning human beings." Heinrich Heine (1821) --------------------------------------- The Chinese say:
It is said that the average Chinese:
is Confucian in public Taoist in private Buddhist at time of death wears Confucian hat Taoist robes Buddhist sandals
The world is so full of poetry
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