Good Intentions, Bad Results - Reflective Journal #3

Mao Zedong

Photo courtesy of Sodahead.com

For years, I’ve been presented with the idea that Mao Zedong was a bad guy. He’s credited with being a dictator, oppressive, and cruel. However, this week and previous weeks have changed my mind about him. As we learned about the PRC and Mao’s rule, I discovered that he wasn’t really a bad guy after all; he actually had good intentions. Inspired by Stalin’s successful Five Year Plans in Russia, Mao decided to try his own hand at it. China needed the industrial boost and to rebuild its economy after years of civil war and political instability from the PRC and ROC’s struggles.

Mao’s first Five Year Plan in China, with the aid of the Soviet Union, was a triumph. Goals that they had stated were exceeded by 120%-180%. Encouraged by this, Mao began his second five-year plan, grandly titled the “Great Leap Forward.” Mao is often blamed for the death of 45 million people during this time but it really wasn’t his fault. During this five-year plan, people got a little too enthusiastic and farmers began overstating their crop yields to support Mao’s efforts to advance the nation. The government, needing to supply the cities and repay the Soviet Union, continued taking crops from the peasants according to these inflated numbers. Unfortunately for the peasants, they couldn’t control the numbers that authorities above them were reporting and the common people were left with less and less food to sustain themselves with. Not only were there exaggerated reports of crop yields, but the peasants were also using bad farming techniques that Mao had naïvely supported and many farming tools were also gone thanks to a backyard steel campaign that took all the steel that people owned. Even more sadly, a famine struck the land, harming further the farming production. I can’t help but feel sorry for Mao, who was only trying to help the people. He even tried to moderate the goals of agriculture, but he was only foolishly led to believe the peasants’ false reports by enthusiasts. Mao also believed that the people should have a voice, and led the “Let a Hundred Flowers Bloom and a Hundred Schools of Thought Contend” campaign, promoting free speech and the people’s constructive criticism. Watching the video in class where peasants shared stories of their villages dying was incredibly heartbreaking. China was on a potential path to success, but a series of unfortunate events led to the failure of its plans. It’s saddening and somewhat disappointing to think that China could have progressed greatly, but unluckily, its good intentions led to trouble. 


I commented on Kevin's blog here.

Religions in Revolt - Reflective Journal #1

The Boxer Rebellion

(Image courtesy of 社会历史博物馆)

This week we learned about and discussed the reasons for the fall of imperial China. As we debated internal versus external causes of collapse, one topic came up that really got me thinking – the issue of religious tolerance within China. Leading to the fall of the Qing dynasty were three religion-centered rebellions that cost the nation a lot of money and effort. Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity each stirred up revolts against the government, each contributing to the weakening of the empire. The Boxer Rebellion was China’s last attempt at getting rid of these types of religions, and it ended badly, showing China’s defeat. It amazed me how much peasants and their revolts can affect the structure of an entire nation, but it also amazed me how difficult it is to solve problems like it.

Given China’s background with salvation religions, especially the Yellow Turban Revolt, I felt that China had the right to ban religions like Christianity. Someone in class proposed that China should have enforced Confucianism as the only philosophy from the start. Confucianism seemed like a good way to go, since Confucianism believed in a government founded on trust between the government and the people. With trust, surely the people wouldn’t want to rebel against their rulers. However, this started a whole string of questions in my head. Would Confucianism really work as the sole religion of China? China has had Confucianism intertwined with its culture and history, but would everyone accept it? Could everyone be happy with Confucianism? If Confucianism doesn’t enforce religious intolerance, wouldn’t it be a contradiction to the law? Confucius believed in ruling by example, not through law, so wouldn’t that be another paradox? Yet another student said that Confucianism should be the only philosophy of government, but there should be religious freedom in China. But would that cause even more problems? If people were allowed to have their own religions, wouldn’t they find reasons to revolt against the government? Is religious freedom a right that everyone should have? All these problems not only confused me, they also made me realize there was much more to this issue than just plain black and white answers. Originally, I thought that salvation religions in China were a problem that should have been eliminated earlier. The real issue is how to avoid religious dissent; it’s such a delicate and complicated matter. 


I commented on Sarah's blog here.

Industry and Commerce of Song Dynasty China - Screencast

During the Song Dynasty, China changed dramatically in terms of economics and technology. Some of China's most famous inventions were either invented or improved during this time - gunpowder, the compass, and the printing press. It was a pity that the Song industrial revolution was interrupted when the dynasty ended, because with the progress it was making, China could have had an industrial revolution more than half a millennium before Britain did. 

Script: The Song Dynasty was a time of greatness. There were great inventions, great changes, and great prosperity. So great, in fact, was Chinese civilization at the time that even Marco Polo was in awe when he visited. China developed many technological innovations and these advances allowed its population to increase by a factor of 10 in less than 300 years, surpassing even Europe in size that time.

There was great advancement in scientific knowledge in the Song. The Chinese figured out how to use a compass in the year 1119, and the use of the compass led to better navigation of the seas. This was necessary because a lot of China’s commerce depended on ships, and the need for ships also pushed progress in shipbuilding. Song Dynasty China was a leader in ship building, and inventions like water-tight bulkheads that improved buoyancy of ships, making them safer and also protecting cargo from getting wet and damaged. A new type of sail was invented that allowed ships to travel no matter what direction the wind was blowing, meaning that ships could sail at virtually anytime instead of having to wait for favorable winds. These improvements in navigation and shipbuilding facilitated trade and lent its hand to the economical boom of the Song Dynasty by making trade easier and faster.

Agriculture too made progress. Improved methods of water control and irrigation were used and a new type of rice introduced from Vietnam dramatically increased rice yields. This type of rice ripened earlier and was more drought resistant than any previous form of rice; rice farming proliferated. With the extra rice, farmers could now sell their surplus crops on the market, creating a more agricultural and commercial economy and richer farmers. This rise in rice production caused the population to grow and allowed for the urbanization of China, now that less people could grow more crops. The Yangtze River region, where the climate was warm and humid – best for growing rice – became an economic center of China, since its agriculture was essentially dependent on that area.

As trade and the economy boomed in China, the economic system adapted. Merchants became commercialized and were organized into guilds, that is, an association of merchants. These guilds each had guild heads, and because there were so many merchants, the government would deal with these guild heads when they needed supplies or when they had to handle taxes. Partnerships and joint-stock companies became widespread as trade increased and business became more complicated. All sorts of transportation were used in the Song Dynasty for trade, including camels for trade with countries further west and across the Middle East. China’s waterway system had to be expanded to handle the amount of trade going on. Rivers were already used as much as they could, but canals, too, had to be dug, and a Grand Canal was dug to link the north to the Yangtze River.

 So much transportation made it difficult for merchants to carry gold, a very heavy material, with them all the time. Thus, China became the first nation to use paper money. What began as receipts being traded among merchants in the Tang Dynasty became a government-run system in the Song Dynasty.

With the economy growing, China went through a semi-industrial revolution. It’s wasn’t an industrial revolution like the one Britain experienced about 6 centuries later, because it wasn’t given enough time to develop. During this time, though, the iron and steel industry grew greatly. These metals were used for weaponry in the army, for nails and tools for building, and Buddhist statues. To supply this industry, the use of coal also grew.

Other key inventions during the Song Dynasty included the printing press and gunpowder, two things that greatly affect our modern day world. The printing press, though invented in the 9^th century, was a key part of the Song Dynasty. With the start of Confucian exams, literature and knowledge became even more highly valued than before. The need for knowledge to pass these exams was reflected in a burst of book production. Here, the printing press served as both a cause and an effect; desire for knowledge increased production, but increased production also led to widespread knowledge. Gunpowder was also important because not only did they use it for fireworks, but for weapons and rockets, too. By the end of the Song Dynasty, the Chinese invented multiple-stage rockets, which were crucial steps to the process of getting men into space.

The Song Dynasty is a source of many great innovations. Without the Song, we might not have paper money, knowledge of sea navigation, printing, or even space ships.  

East and West

There are definitely some big differences between China and the West’s interaction with foreign lands. While China, represented by Zheng He, treated foreigners with curiosity, the Portuguese viewed foreigners as despicable. East and West both believed in their own exceptionalism, as Kissinger says, but they key differences I think are in the amount of respect and belligerence in the two cultures. I think the differences here are caused by the fundamental differences between the beliefs and values of the two civilizations. While the West, that is Portugal, was strongly Catholic, the Chinese had influences of Daoism and Confucianism in their values.

            The Portuguese’s values were summed up nicely by Vasco da Gama when asked what he sought for: “Christians and spices.” They wanted riches and to find or make people like them, so when they encountered new nations, they wanted their riches and they wanted the people’s conversion to Christianity. Conversion was obtained through decree of the pope, if not by force and sometime with violence. The West, with a long history of Christianity, was firmly set in its beliefs. Being a religion that proselytizes, it’s a given that Christians believe they are superior.  Without this belief, they have no reason to demand others’ conversion. It was with this belief in mind that western explorers set out to conquer the rest of the world. In their mind, it was their duty to save the rest of the world from their devilish religions, though spices and treasure were nice bonuses along the way. The Requerimiento, with orders from the pope, the king and the queen, allowed explorers to conquer and sack an entire nation if they refused Christianity. This shows their violence in regard to other nations, as well as their lack of respect for any religion other than Christianity. Though the West can’t be justified for their brutal treatment, I think that this provides an explanation for their behavior.

            Zheng He, on the other hand, treated foreign cultures with respect and curiosity, bringing gifts from the Chinese emperor as well as accepting them. I think the example of Ceylon shows the major differences between the Portuguese and China. When Ceylon treated Zheng He with hostility, instead of confronting them or fighting, Zheng He quickly left. He returned many times later to put up his stone inscription and even took a hostage, but he never used his army. He still respected their nation and didn’t attack them as the Portuguese would have done. Like the Portuguese, they Chinese also demanded that other nations accept their emperor as king. Although the Chinese, too, believed in their own nation’s superiority, they never forced it upon anyone, and didn’t try to forcibly conquer any nations. This was a result of the Daoist and Confucian religions, primary religions of China. Both frowned upon war, and Confucianism especially emphasizes respect.