W H Y NOT TEACH CHINESE HISTORY?

A L L A N J A C K S O N Eaton Hall College of Education, Re ford

THERE ARE TWO principal justifications for the study of history: either its value per se, or its value to the citizen as a relevant, meaningful, instructive explanation of contemporary world problems and situations. If the former be accepted, then it is logical to maintain that it is immaterial what area or period is studied, since all are part of the general broadening out of human experience and achievement, and that Chinese history has as much value per se and intrinsic interest as any other possible choice: if the latter, then China would seem an outstanding candidate for selection.

The reasons behind both these assertions are frequently interrelated. First, and most obvious, is the sheer scope and size of China today. One of the largest countries in the world, she has great resources and potential-and not only in terms of manpower, though her 750 million people do comprise about one-third of the total world population. Second, and not disconnected from the former point, is the vital importance of China in the modern world. Apart from her vast size, resources and population, the rapid industrial and agrarian transformation which she has experienced over the past two decades has firmly secured her place among the great powers of tomorrow, and, in some respects, of today.1 Moreover, China’s economic advance has been paralleled by military development, so that today, with millions of men under arms (though not all equipped with the most modem weapons) allied to the growth of her nuclear capability since 1964, she represents a formidable factor to be taken into account in any assessment of world military logistics. Not surprisingly, this economic and military power has been exploited in an active and world-wide foreign policy, which the other great powers of the world must perforce endeavour to understand, especially if the validity of Professor Barraclough’s interpretation of the twentieth century as the age of Revolt against the West is accepted.

The great significance of Mao Tse-tung and the 1949 revolution is another factor which cannot be overstressed. In the early part of this century, Sun Yat-sen’s China Regeneration Society (later the League of Common Alliance, and subsequently, in 1912, the Kuomintang, or Nationalist Party), though helping to promote the revolution of October 191 1, never succeeded in effect- ing the basic transformation of Chinese life which his Three People’s Prin- ciples (nationalism, democratic republicanism and socialism) promised. In

1 This should be seen in correct perspective, of course. According to World Bank statis- tics, China, with aper capita G.N.P. in the region of $100 annually, still lags far behind the U.S.A., Britain and Japan, for example, whose respectiveper capita G.N.P.s are approach- ing $4,009 $2,000 and $1,500 respectively: and in fact she ranks on this basis nearly as low as 100th in the world.

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ALLAN JACKSON 377 like manner, the Russian-inspired Stalinist policies of urban insurrection advocated by the official leadership of the Communist Party (founded July 1921) had little effcct in the face of the growing strength of Chiang Kai-shek’s government after 1926. Mao Tse-lung was the first to comprehend the true nature of the Chinese problem and carry through effective measures for its solution. Mao, strongly influenced by the ideas of Ch’en Tu-hsiu’s magazine, La Jeunesse, formulated the concept of a rural-based guerrilla movement offering the peasantry the vital inducement of land reform and redistribution. It was in this respect, the realization of the necessity of peasant support for an organized Red Army, that Mao laid the foundations for his own power-base in Hunan; it was through this policy, especially after the Long March (October 1934 to October 1935), that he rose, first to the leadership of the Chinese communist movement, and then, through the revolutionary struggle which came to a climax on October 1st 1949, to supreme power in the People’s Republic of China; and it is for this reason, tyrannical despot though he seems to some, that his stature among the great names of history is assured. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that the Chinese revolution did not end in 1949: in some ways that was only a beginning. Since then, under the direct influence of Mao, an experimental society based on a distinct form of com- munist life has evolved. History is being made before the eyes of the present generation, and historians should not be blind to its importance.

In addition there is the intrinsic interest, excitement and uniqueness of Chinese history. To bring this point out clearly, we only have to glance at what had been achieved in the period before A.D. 906, that is, about the middle of the Anglo-Saxon period in Britain, or some five years before the first permanent Viking settlements around the lower Seine. Under the earliest ruling dynasty, the Shang (1523-1028 B.c.), a capital city and public buildings were constructed, irrigation works effected and taxes levied. The concepts of royal and priestly government were accepted, a bureaucracy began and records of governmental activities were kept by state-appointed historians. During the Chou dynasty (1027-256 B.c.) the classical age of Chinese history, a feudal system developed, schools were instituted, a money economy evolved, and reservoirs, roads, aqueducts, canals, hundreds of miles of frontier wall and a great irrigation system were constructed. The brief Ch’in dynasty (221-207 B.c.) saw the establishment of the first real Chinese empire, based on the totalitarianLegalist philosophy, defended by the Great Wall, divided into over forty self-governing military comrnanderies and boasting highways almost fifty metres wide. A strong central government was created, enforcing its control over manufacture and trade, coinage, the maintenance of law and order and the promotion of public works. Nearly 300 royal palaces, all linked by walled or covered roads, were built, the greatest of them, dating from 212 B.c., being over SO0 by 160 metres in area. A canal was built from the Yangtze to the West River. The south was conquered, and the first relationships were established with Japan. Between 202 B.C. and A.D. 220, under the early Han, Hsin and later Han rCgimes, a completely Confucianist state was erected, Korea was conquered and carved up into four colonial provinces, successful

378 WHY NOT TEACH CHINESE HISTORY ? military expeditions thrust north and south within China, Vietnam, Hainan and Manchuria, further knowledge was gained of Japan, meetings occurred with the Romans (36 B.C. and A.D. 166), Persians, Arabs and Indians, ambas- sadors were sent to western Asia, a great trade route through Sinkiang having been opened up, and Africa may have been reached. In addition, the great census of A.D. 2 was carried out (when the population totalled 593 million in over twelve million households); slaves were freed, price controls set up, some estates nationalized and redistributed, useless lands reclaimed, mountain areas farmed, and new crops brought in; and trade in a large variety of com- modities took place, leading to the building up of great gold reserves.

One of the most interesting and important periods of Chinese history occurred during the Sui and T’ang dynasties. Under the Sui emperors (A.D. 590-618), the south, Formosa and the eastern Turks were conquered, the Liuchiu islands were claimed, and ambassadors were sent to India, the East Indies and Japan. The Great Wall was further developed, whilst three capital cities, fine canals forty metres broad and several national granaries were constructed. Under the T’ang (A.D. 618-906) Ch‘ang-an, the capital, grew to a great size with two million population, and became one of the world’s cosmopolitan centres, partly due to the practice of religious tolerance under the T’ang.2 The empire was ruled by a powerful Confucianist central government, though the ten provinces were allowed a substantial degree of local autonomy. The law was liberalized and codified in 653, a censorate was introduced, civil service examinations were reinstituted, all state bureaucrats being required to undergo rigorous academic training, and a more egalitarian taxation policy, plus land redistribution, was effected. In addition to these domestic developments, Manchuria and Korea were conquered, Tibet was penetrated through dynastic marriage, the Indus valley was explored and two Chinese protectorates were established in Turkestan,s so that by the eighth century the supremacy of China was recognized in Manchuria, Korea, For- mosa, Vietnam, Mongolia, Tibet, Nepal, Bhutan, Turkestan and Sinkiang.

Two great religions, or, more correctly, philosophical codes, namely Confucianism and Taoism, originated in China, and a third, Buddhism, found early root there. In the first millennium B.c., a number of peripatetic and settled tutor-philosophers arose in China-Mo TSU, Lao-tsu, Confucius and others-and from about 200 B.C. the centrist Confucian philosophies were woven into the whole Chinese governmental system. The appointment of civil servants through competitive written examinations began in 165 B.C. Eighty years later a Confucian college was founded and within little more than two centuries literally tens of thousands of students were receiving edu- cation there. After the introduction of Buddhism in the first century A.D.,

Though Confucianism was strongly reasserted as the established religion, followers of Islam, Judaism, Nestorian Christianity and other faiths were allowed to penetrate southern and central China. Some idea of their numbers is given by the fact that in 879, during a Cantonese uprising, over 100,OOO foreign traders and religious were murdered there. Budd- hism was tolerated until the ninth century, when its 45,000 temples and shrines were closed down.

The battle of the River Talas (751), when T’ang armies were defeated by the Arabs, halted the western spread of Chinese influence.

ALLAN JACKSON 379 Indian philosophical concepts challenged the official creed and spread steadily over the next two centuries, as did Taoism and other philosophies. Nonethe- less, Confucianisin survived. Even the period of political disunity, when libraries and schools were destroyed and the civil service examination system almost disintegrated, could not destroy it. During the T’ang period civil service examinations were again insisted upon, the very demanding final stage including tests on mathematics, law, history, current events and Con- fucian philosophy, and the writing of original verse and stressed prose. Confucian schools were founded in various cities, and Confucian libraries and colleges developed in Ch’ang-an, where several thousand students, in- cluding many from abroad, attended the university.

Writing in China probably began during the second millennium B.C. By the Shang period more than 2,000 symbols were in use, written in ink, with brush or knife, on silk, bone, bamboo and other surfaces. In the Chou era several great writers flourished, and histories, religious texts and books of rhyming verse were produced. The next eight centuries saw tremendous developments. Two hundred years before the birth of Christ, nearly 700 major works were itemized in the national bibliography, including books on law, ethics, poetry and mythology, and in the following century the first history books appeared. By about A.D. 100 the language included over 10,OOO characters, and a few decades later these were written on paper made from hemp, bark and cloth. The flood of literature was increased by the advent of Buddhism, which brought several thousand Sanskrit expressions into Chinese: and by the middle of the third century the Buddhist monastic rule had been translated and it had become necessary to compile a catalogue of Buddhist literature. An encyclopaedia was written in A.D. 220. The modern Chinese bibliographi- cal system dates from 281, by which time books on chess, medicine, botany and numerous other topics were available. Between the third and fifth centuries, one hundred Buddhist books were translated from Sanskrit, the writing of local history began, and Taoist philosophical satire, short stories and verse, Confucian commentaries, psalms, and the first travel book were written. In the fifth and sixth centuries geographies of China and other parts of Asia appeared, foreign languages were studied, dictionaries were compiled and literature and literary construction analysed. Under the Sui and T’ang dynasties, encyclopaedias, Chinese and Sanskrit dictionaries, essays, transla- tions and books on history, philosophy, science and languages were written. As for poetry, a contemporary anthology included some 50,000 works by over 2,000 authors. Printing had been knowii since the seventh century, but the first definitely proven printed book, the Diamond SEitra,5 was made in T’ang China in A.D. 868 and by the end of that century dictionaries, scientific and philosophical works and paper money had been printed.

The earliest musical instruments developed at least as early as the second millennium B.C. Under the Chou dynasty, music was used as a basis for pro- moting social education. During the first two centuries A.D. new instruments

The first Sanskrit word was introduced in the fourth century B.C. Now in the British Museum.

380 WHY NOT TEACH CHINESE HISTORY ? developed and the next few hundred years saw considerable changes, especi- ally under the influence of Buddhism, with the introduction of Indian-style anthems and choruses. Persia also exercised some influence over China in respect of music, several of the instruments played in the Chinese performing bands which had developed by the sixth century being Persian in origin.

Artistic achievements during the Shang dynasty were not inconsiderable, functional and ornamental items of carved ivory, inlaid bone, bronze, stone, wood and pottery having been attributed to that period. Lacquer was in- vented in the Chou era, but only came into general use under succeeding dynasties. At the same time, porcelain was discovered and painting, sculpture, pottery glazing and artistic calligraphy developed, whilst ornaments and luxury furnishings were made of jewelry, silk, bronze, marble and precious metals. Again the T’ang period was of great importance, when representative landscape and figure painting became popular, fabric printing began, great attention was given to the details of architecture and fine Chinese porcelain became a valuable commodity in home and foreign markets.6

The record of scientific and technological progress is also impressive. During the Shang period a great deal of astronomical information was gathered and a calendar of twelve months made up of three ten-day weeks worked out. By the Gfth century B.C. the year was known to be 36% days long. Halley’s comet was observed in 240 B.C. and sunspots in 28 B.C. During the next century or so, lunar and solar eclipses were scientiscally explained, the elliptical nature of the moon’s orbit was noted, over 10,OOO heavenly bodies were observed and the length of the terrestrial day was mathematically (and precisely) calculated. By the close of the sixth century several maps had been constructed on mathematical principles (one 125 miles to the inch grid map of China dating from about A.D. 250), experiments in chemistry, pigmentation, anaesthetics, metallurgy and explosives recorded, IC exactly calculated, botanical observations made, the nature and treatment of various diseases and epidemics discovered, the circulatory mechanism studied, acu- puncture developed and alchemy explored. The T’ang period saw further cartographical advance, especially Chiea Tan’s famous map of China, about A.D. 800, which used a twenty-five miles to the inch scale and was altogether some ten yards square.

If Chinese history is sufficiently interesting and important to warrant inclu- sion in school and college curricular, the question arises how this is to be done. It can of course be taught in isolation, as a separate national study, or (preferably) be linked in with a wider course in world history. China can then still be regarded as an entity in itself, to be studied chronologically or themati- cally; as part of an area study (south east Asia, or east and south Asia); or as contributing to a number of thematic studies (comparative civilization, reli- gion, government, nationalism, imperialism, or industrialization, let alone the development of science and technology). Such courses could be restricted to twentieth-century developments, so that, for instance, a chronological study of China might include work on Sun, Chiang, Mao and the Chinese revolu-

6 A superb collection can be seen in the Percival David Foundation in London.

ALLAN JACKSON 381 tion, before and after: but this would be essentially shallow and short-sighted, as all the great Chinese personalities of this century-even Mao Tse-tung- have their roots firmly secured in Chincse tradition and culture, and it is the lack of knowledge and understanding of this cultural background which is the greatest drawback to the study of any aspect or period of Chinese history. It is therefore essential to study, in addition to twentieth-century China, other aspects of her history and culture. These might include the legendary back- ground, selected dynasties, such as the Han, T’ang or Ming, Chinese thought, philosophy and religion, Chinese literature, music, art, architecture and science, plus social and governmental developments through the ages. More- over, it would seem desirable that such studies should, whenever possible- preferably at all times-be linked with the work of geography, divinity, literature, music, art, mathematics and science departments.

Many people suppose that such a course would be impossible, if only because of the lack of suitable books. But there are schools in which children are given courses in Chinese history, and there are books (including paper- backs) which are suitable for school use, either as background reading for the teacher or class books for children. Victor Purcell’s Rise of Modern China (Historical Association pamphlet, 1962) is a helpful introduction for teachers with no previous knowledge, giving a clear, straightforward account of Chinese history in the nineteenth century, with a brief historical background sketch and a short booklist. Christopher Hibbert’s The Dragon Wakes (Longmans, 1970), a full, scholarly and fascinating account of historical developments between 1793 and 1911, and Franz Schurmann and Orville Schell‘s documents on Imperial, Republican and Communist China (Penguin, 3 vols. 1968), provide excellent material for teachers. Henry McAleavy’s ‘China under the War-Lords’ (History Today, April and May 1962) gives a clear, short account of that period, with contemporary illustrations, and is of some use to the teacher, as is his Modern History of China (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1968). Ch‘u Chai and Winberg Chai’s Changing Society of China (Mentor, 1962) is invaluable to the mature historian, offering a real under- standing of the Chinese mind, containing much material on Chinese philo- sophy, social institutions, law and so on, making use of poetic and philo- sophical literature and recounting a fairly detailed history of change since 1842. Of similar value are L. Carrington Goodrich’s Short History of the Chinese People (Allen and Unwin, 2nd ed., 1957), which yields intensive background material for teachers, though sketchy on the twentieth century, and Wolfram Eberhard’s concise and balanced History of China (R.K.P., 2nd ed. 1960). Robert C. North’s Chinese Communism (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966), though not written for children, is a penetrating account of political events in twentieth-century China, fully illustrated with photographs, cartoons and maps. Stuart R. Schram’s Ma0 Tse-rung (Penguin, 1966) and Jerome Ch‘En’s Mu0 and the Chinese Revolution (Oxford, 1965) are readable studies, whilst Edgar Snow’s Red Star over China (Gollancz, 1968) gives afascinating contem- porary account of Mao and the communist movement, with a great deal of source material for the teacher. Likewise, Dick Wilson’s A Quarter of Mankind

382 WHY NOT TEACH CHINESE HISTORY ? (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1966), George Mosley’s China, Empire to People’s Republic (Batsford, 1968) and Hilda Hookham’s Short History of China (Longmans, 1969) are well worth reading. Anne Lonsdale’s China in the Twentieth Century (Oxford, 1971) has immediate visual impact and coukl be valuable with top junior forms. Michael Loewe’s Everyday Life in ear& Imperial China (Batsford, 1968) is quite informative. Alexander B. Jeffries’ Visual History of China (Evans, 1966) relates a brief outline up to modern times, with a date chart, some maps, population graphs and numerous illustrations. The book is of small help to the teacher and would need supple- menting, but its value lies in being suitable for lower secondary children of average ability, as there is little available in this important field. The children can work from the exercises (unfortunately rather unimaginative) on each page of the book. Ping-chia Kuo’s China (O.U.P., 3rd ed., 1969) is a short study, well balanced between background and contemporary affairs, illus- trated, with a clear, simple text, useful maps and up to date revisions. A book which scrutinizes China’s position as a modern world power, it could be used by fairly bright secondary children or as a brief introduction for teachers, as could John Robottom’s extremely well illustrated Twentieth Century China (Wayland, 1971) and Hugh Higgins’ From Warlordr to Red Star (Faber, 1968), which looks at China as part of a world study. John Kennett’s The Rise of Communist China (Blackie, 1970) is important in that it is designed for C.S.E. students, with an easy text in simple sections and several well-chosen documents (unfortunately not specifically identified with particular sections of text). Lois Mitchison’s China in the Twentieth Century (O.U.P., 1970) is usable by secondary children of differing abilities and supplies much addi- tional material for teachers. Well illustrated with maps, photographs and contemporary drawings, it preserves a balance between background and up to date history. Finally Pat Barr’s Foreign Devils (Penguin, 1970), a study of Western penetration of the Far East from the sixteenth century onwards, emphasizes contemporary sources which provide insight into oriental atti- tudes and reactions. It deals with Korea and Japan besides China, boasts an excellent critical bibliography, is superbly illustrated with contemporary sketches and cartoons, is chronological in treatment without seeming to be so, could be read by brighter children and provides a wide variety of material for the teacher’s use.

A concluding point should be driven home. One great tragedy of modern times is that successive generations of Chinese people have been allowed and encouraged to reach maturity either totally ignorant of, or with a grossly distorted attitude to, the West. We should not fall into similar error in our attitudes to China. Why not try teaching Chinese history?