l. Geography and Climate
2. Rice Agriculture
3. Communal Life
4. Chinese Imperial State and World View
5. Age of Philosophy and Confucius
6. The Two Handles of Government
7. The Solution or Non Solution of Tao
8 The Dynastic Cycle of the Mandate of Heaven
Yangtze River
Intensive Labor Agriculture
Irrigation
Communal Life
Mutual Responsibility and Social Harmony
QIN DYNASTY
Shih Huangdi The First Emperor known as the Tiger of Qin
256 b. C. Founding of the Qin (Chin) Dynasty 221-207 B. C. Short lived due to harsh rule.
The Great Wall, The Steppe Nomads (Hsiung Nu/Xiungnu)
Bureaucracy Principle, anti-aristocratic.
Xian, the first imperial capital of the Qin
The Army of the First Emperor, The Mausoleum of the First Emperor
The Terra Cotta Statues of the Army
HAN DYNASTY
Han Dynasty 3rd century B. C.-3rd Century A. D. (202 B. C. 220 A. D. ) Comparable to the Roman Empire. Tradition of Imperium. Middle Kingdom. Diplomacy: China as Older Brother to rest of nations who are Younger Brothers.
Confucian Philosophy softens Imperial State Practice.
Ssu Ma Chien, the first Historian of China, Shih chih, The Record of the Grand Historian
Age of Philosophy 6th Century B. C. in China, Greece, and Age of Religious Ferment India the Buddha at the same time!
Confucius, Kongze, 551-479 B. C.
Cultivated Gentleman
11 Main Dynasties follow Chinese Imperial State Tradition of Confucian Philosophy from the Qin all the way to 1911 Chinese Nationalist Revolution that destroyed the dynastic tradition.
Rites and Ceremonies
State Examinations
Forbidden City
The Tomb of Mao Zedong along the Temple of Heaven Axis attests to Dynastic tradition symbolism.
Two Handles of Government: Rewards and Punishments
Legalism, Han Fei ze
Taoism, Lao ze
No government is the best government. Non Being as ideal. Nature as source of Harmony.
Mandate of Heaven
Mencius
Heaven as power based on principle of Nature and Humanity.
The Forbidden City and the Tomb of Mao Zedong
THE PERSIAN EMPIRE AND THE ALEXANDRIAN LEGACY IN ASIA: THE GOLDEN AGE OF GRECO-INDIAN BUDDHIST CIVILIZATION
l. The Birth of the Buddhist Message of Enlightenment
2. Alexander the Great’s Conquest of the Persian Empire
3. The Seleucids of South Anatolia and the Mauryan Empire of India
4. Bactria the Land of the Synthesis
5. The Golden Age of Buddhist Kushan Nobles
Vocabulary and Dates
Siddharta Gautama of the Sakyamuni clan in Nepal, Buddha
Bodhi Tree
Nirvana
Sanskrit
4 Noble Thruths
8 Fold Path
Hinduism, Caste, Brahmin
Buddhism
Alexander the Great 338-323 B. C.
Cyrus the Great, Darius, Xerxes of the Persian Empire
Founding of Persian Empire 550 B. C. in Anatolia and Thrace
Persian Wars 500-449 B. C. Greek Victory, Athenian Democracy
Herodotus of Halicarnassus, Historia
Hindu Kush, Hyber Pass, Punjabi warriors, Indus Valley
Hyber Pass
Post Alexander local kingdoms: Orientalized Greeks of the Hellenistic Age
Seleucid, Anatolia, Mesopotamia
Antinogid, Greece, Macedonia
Ptolemy, Egypt, Cleopatra, Anthony, Julius Caesar, she commits suicide 31 B. C.
Bactria, Central Asia, Pakistan and Afganistan today.
Megasthenes, ambassador of Seleucos to court of Chandara Gupta in Pataliputra (Patna).
Wrote the Indica, the first book on India in a European language
Women warriors, secret service spying organization, wooden city walls.
Kautilya, political advisor wrote Arthashastra, Mirror of Princes, genre picked up by Persians and transmitted to the Near East and Europe.
Bindusara, son of Chandara, requests figs, wine, and philosopher from the Seleucid king. Obliged but Greeks reply they do not trade in philosophers!
Ashoka, Grandson of Chandara, 268-232 B. D. converted to Buddhism religion of the masses.
Ashoka pillars have Sanskrit and Greek writings declaring faith.
Bactria the land of the synthesis between East and West
Demetrius (originally Seleucid too) crosses Hindu Kush, conquers north Punjab (Pakistan) and establishes Bactrian Kingdom, capital, Taxila, Gandara region, 182 B. C.
Ruled Afganistan, Pakistan of today.
Converts to Buddhism, name changes to Milinda, in Sanskrit.
Discussions of religious enlightenment with Indian monk Nagasara
Becomes sacred canonical text of Buddhism to this day
Milindapandra (Dialoque of Milinda) written in Greek genre of Dialogue but in Sanskrit.
Translated later to Chinese and Japanese.
Golden Age of Buddhist Kushan Nomads 1-300 A. D.
Han dynasty defeats nomads the Yueh chi nomad tribe migrates to West. Conquers Bactria in 150 B. D. devastates Greek rule forever.
Kushan dynasty emerges 150 years later with cultural synthesis.
Begram, Hadde, Gandara, Surh Kotal villages in Afganistan have Kushan monasteries with Greek Buddhist sculptors who make first generation of Buddha statues!
Ay Hanim site in North Afganistan, Alexandria city, Demeter/Kibele scene in Copper plate,
2.Heracles and the Buddha
3.Buddhist Sea Nymphs
2.Kushan Monk
3. Kushan Prince
