China

Question 1

Liu education

Answer 1

Educated from the age of 8 in confucian classics

Tension between education as a moral exercise and for social mobility

Passed licentiate exam at 21; went to Chongxiu academy at 24 for 10 years

Far poorer than most others and more serious

Passed provincial exam on 6th try; failed national exam in 1895

Question 2

Liu tutoring

Answer 2

11 years of tutoring after leaving Chongxiu

Disliked spending time away from his own family and being subordinate

Question 3

Liu politics

Answer 3

Participated in 1912 election of Yuan Shikai, elected as representative (coerced)

Attempted to enter politics, elected head of county assembly in 1912, but prosecuted for failing to spend effectively on Jinci temples

Question 4

Liu mine

Answer 4

Soon after 1913 he was able to manage mines e.g. Shimen due to trustworthy reputation

Wrote about the mines as alternative worlds were ancient values were still respected

Resigned after restrictive government policy was implemented

Question 5

Liu farming

Answer 5

Tended 1.5 acres of land towards the end of his life

Justified farming by suggesting it showed commitment to the old regime, also Classic of History emphasised importance of knowing toil of sowing and reaping

Question 6

Liu as a source

Answer 6

Not a typical man - writing 400 diaries over 50 years is not

However he is someone through which other themes are seen, and his economic position was typical

Interesting source, since while he hoped the diary would be published one day, in reality it marked his downwards social mobility

Question 7

Liu ideology

Answer 7

Adhered strongly to the neo-confucian ideology, tried to be the perfect confucian gentleman

Emphasised hierarchy, self-cultivation, peacefulness

Slowly went from being admired to being laughed at as a relic of a bygone age

Guofan influence based on letter to son giving instructions e.g. practice calligraphy before breakfast, don’t talk too much

Question 8

Liu filial piety

Answer 8

Moral duty requiring repayment of parents’ love and affection

When Liu made point and father agreed, he said ‘I respectfully accept your teaching’

Important for wives also - not showing piety was divorceable offence

Guofan resigned at height of power after father died

Transformed after death into a nightmarish sense of abandonment

Question 9

Liu dreaming

Answer 9

Key was man awakened from dreams - compulsive dreamer of riches and success woken by Lu Dongbin (Daoist immortal) telling him worldly achievement is an empty dream

Liu liked to think of himself as a man who had rejected worldly wealth and status, when really he never had the opportunity to attain it

Question 10

Shanxi province decline

Answer 10

Gradually excluded from prosperity as a trading hub my Mongolian independence and Russian revolution

Transformed from corridor into an inaccessible province

Went from commerce to agriculture

Question 11

Liu in Japanese war

Answer 11

Was 80 when the Japanese invaded in 1937

Climbed onto roof to see family escape from the mountain, then barricaded house and waited for Japanese

Died in 1942 under occupation

Question 12

Wakeman - rise of ideology

Answer 12

China’s sacred community of the past gave way to modern secular communities as it modernised

Social disintegration seemed likely, so by internalising ideological values, individuals gained a sense of common identity

Charismatic authority arose out of momentary institutional failure

Question 13

Wakeman - link between culture and politics

Answer 13

May Fourth generation felt revolution failed as traditional cultural and social patterns had survived overthrow of dynasty

Drew link between culture and politics - political action would only succeed in larger context of cultural change

Question 14

Lu - Wang Tao’s stories

Answer 14

Random Records of a Recluse in Wusong (1884-87) use old form of classical rather than vernacular novel

Product of incipient, repressed Chinese modernities, trying to wrestle issues faced by China

May story - killed by Brit in China - shows western technology finds home in China

Question 15

Lu - Tao as a theorist and personal experience

Answer 15

Seen as China’s first ‘globalisation theorist’, seeing West not as a threat but chance for renewal

Wanted to fuse western technology as ‘function’ to be fused with Chinese culture as ‘essence’

Exiled 1862-1884 in Hong Kong - gave him the chance to reflect on his own culture from observations of the west

Question 16

Dessein - western influence on religion discourse

Answer 16

Chinese spiritual realm redefined in light of Western ‘religion’

Confucianism as a ‘civil religion’ relegated to ‘superstition’ instead of ‘orthodox religion’

Question 17

Dessein - political dismissal of religion

Answer 17

Sun Yatsen considered it necessary to dismantle the ‘cultural state’ to create a ‘nation state’

Same under Mao, religion the ‘opium of the people’

Question 18

Yu - failure of the republic

Answer 18

China discarded familiar institutions and adopted a new form of government overnight

No question as to whether a depotism could be transmuted into a modern democratic state

Emperor had demanded complete authority, and opposition punishable by death

Question 19

Dirlik - fall of Confucianism

Answer 19

When monarchy fell, it lost the institution that had provided it with a concrete embodiment for millennia

May Fourth period saw height of attack - held responsible for social and political problems

E.g. oppressive family structure, extinguishing youth creativity

Question 20

Dirlik - Weberian diagnosis of Confucianism

Answer 20

Considered ideological factors held China back, since it had most material prerequisites for capitalism to emerge

Implied need to abandon Confucianism

Question 21

Elman - exam system exclusive nature

Answer 21

By 1850, there was only a 0.01% chance of making it to the highest level

Great cost of education meant over 90% of population indirectly excluded from exams

Question 22

Elman - exams as a focal point

Answer 22

They were the focal point through which state interests, family strategies and individual aspirations were directed

Those who passed were to support Qing political aims - excellent social engineering

Question 23

Guofan’s Confucian credentials

Answer 23

Upheld the four principal ideas of the Confucian man - achieving self-perfection, managing the family, governing the empire, and bringing order to all under heaven

Perfect family man - strict but loving with children

Question 24

Qing economic situation

Answer 24

Elgin - China in ‘high-level equilibrium trap’

Growth without development; output high, but no method change

Question 25

Chinese railway example

Answer 25

Example of reluctance to modernise was the purchase by authorities of the 1st railway line in Shanghai in 1877, to rip up the rails and turn the station into the temple because it disrupted the feng shui of the countryside