“L’Age Pivotal”or The Axial Age

or Great Revolutions in Thought and Religion

1000BCE – 350BCE

Comparative Essay

• Compare how political turmoil led to intellectual and cultural creativity, during the period 1000 to 350 BCE in East Asia and South Asia

The World, c. 500 BCE

Most revolutions in thought occurred near one of the four river valley societies.

Mesopotamia

Yellow River (Huang He)

Nile

Indus

The Greeks & their mates

Generalizations

• Fringe regions develop on the borders of the river basin hearths

• Thinkers, teachers, prophets emerge from a world at war

• New types of political & social organizations emerge

• Cultural ideas develop into cultural identities• “Second Generation” societies

– Built on predecessors - tended to keep many original traditions

Commonalities of GREAT Revolutions• Sanctified (Made Holy):

– Time: sacred calendar, rituals, events like marriage

– Space: shrines, pilgrimage sites– Language and literature; Sanskrit,

Tripitaka, Torah– Art: art and music used to inspire religious

feelings– Organization: membership makes you

accepted

CRISIS• Each Revolution in Thought occurred at a time

of crisis– Iron tools made armies more powerful– Old societies disintegrating

• China - Period of Warring States– Zhou regime fractured– Huge competing Chinese armies– Population rising

• India – Invasion!– Aryans moved into India assimilating much of native

population• Greece – Unrest/search for meaning

– Unsatisfying religion– Warring city states

"We're surrounded. That simplifies the problem!"

Case Study I: China

New Ideas Emerge - “The Hundred Masters”

• Confucius (Kong Fuzi)- Confucianism

– Searches for clues to good governance– Government by junzi (superior man)

• Laozi - Daoism

– Follow the order of nature, do nothing

• Xunzi – Legalism

– Men & women are innately bad– Need for strong authoritarian rule

• Scholars were bureaucrats & not free thinkers as in Greece & South Asia

A person is born with a liking for

profit

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and

is not intent on arriving

Respect yourself and others will

respect you

Kong Fuzi

Laozi

Xunzi

Case Study II: South Asia

• The Vedas - collections of songs and prayers, most important is the Rig Veda

• The Vedas are a priestly perspective (priests would be interested in maintaining the status quo and their own high positions in society(POV)

Aryan Invasions

• Aryans spread from Indus Valley to Ganges Plain

• Raj- kingdoms- emerged– Ruled by Kshatriyas– Some are oligarchies

• Aryan oral traditions is finally preserved using Sanskrit and Prakrit

Hinduism• Aryan and Dravidian beliefs fused to create Hindu

religion• Very defined social order created stability• Occupation defined role (Varna)

– Priests and Teachers– Warriors and Nobles– Farmers, Artisans and Merchants– Landless Peasants and Serfs

• Jati - sub-castes, occupationally related• Untouchables are added later (outcastes)• Upward mobility impossible• Foreigners are absorbed into the caste system-

stability

Written alphabet challenged hegemony of BrahmansUpanishads “sitting down near”

Discussions about the universe

Gender in Vedic Society

• Patriarchal

• Women have no public authority

• Women explicitly under men’s control

• Law Book of Manu - confirms second class status of women

• Sati recommended

New Ideas Emerge• Jainism - developed from Hinduism

– Mahavira – meaning "great hero" • He was the last of 24 prophets, who taught Jainism

– Ascetic• You can achieve liberation of your soul through

meditation and self-denial• All living things have an immortal soul – step on no

ant!

– Not possible for peasants– Popular with traders

BuddhismFounded by Siddhartha Gautama– Four Truths

• Suffering exists• Suffering arises from attachment to desire• Suffering ceases when attachment to desire ceases• Freedom from suffering is possible by practicing the Eightfold Path

– Must follow “Noble Eightfold Path”• Right understanding, intent, speech, action, livelihood, effort,

mindfulness, concentration

– People are caught in a cycle of death and rebirth

– There’s no place for the supernatural– Patronized by urban merchants

Better than a thousand hollow words, is one

word that brings peace.

It is better to travel well than

to arrive All living beings long to live.

No one wants to die

Non-violence is the highest religion

• Don’t forget the Greeks! We won’t!

Comparative Essay

• Compare how political turmoil led to intellectual and cultural creativity, during the period 100 to 350 BCE in East Asia and South Asia