okay good morning uh today we do China um obviously we are in China and we will we know a lot of Chinese history so I will go fairly quickly and deeply this is an opportunity for us to look back on the theories we've developed um over the course of this year and really think about how they apply to the Chinese context it's a chance for us to see if models work if they do work then they would be true in the western context and also in the Chinese context it's also a chance for us to deeply interrogate uh our theories and see where flaws might arise okay so um I'll be I'll be going through some Chinese history but I will do so um by applying the theories we've learned so far mainly the oceanic currents of History right so let's get started today we're going to look at a question um that is fundamental to China which is we know that for the longest time China really was the Civilized civilization par excellence in the world um it gave us all the great inventions that would make modernity possible including the compass paper print making gunpowder okay but after s Dynasty which is about the year 1200 um chying to stop being creative and so why did this happen and that is the question that we frame our discussion uh this morning all right let's go over some quick Chinese history so um Chinese civilization as you know developed along the Yellow River the Yellow River um is perfect for agriculture and and as a result population expanded very quickly when that happens conflict and War will ensue and that's and that's what will give rise to settlements and fortified cities that will drive the development of the state and civilization and technology okay um the Hallmark of China civilization is what we call the Waring States period uh t CH and at this time the foundations of Chinese civilization will come into being at this time um you will have something called the hund schools of thought um confusion will develop as well thaism and legalism okay and these ideas will form the foundation of Chinese civilization and as you can see in this period all these hundred schools of thought developed because of a process we call open Cooperative competition which as we have discussed is a main driver of innovation in human civilization okay openness means that there is no centralized Authority cooperation means that even though there's no centralized Authority the different states are trading communicating with each other and they are intermarrying into each other and competition means that there is a lot of conflict between them they're they are Waring against each other for dominance in their region okay and in this process this will give rise to the ideas the technology the values the culture that will underpin China civilization for the next 2,000 years confusion is obviously uh who is best remembered from this era but you also have l who is the founder of DSM okay as well as J and M uh Su will at this time write his book The Art of War so in a process that is open Cooperative competition eventually one state will emerge to conquer the rest and as we discussed why the state emerges is because of three things energy they're much more energetic they're much more ambitious second is openness they're much more willing to adopt innovation in the ruthless pursuit of military conquest and they are opportunistic meaning meaning that they will uh do whatever it takes to win okay so in this period the state that will eventually conquer all China and create the first Empire is the ching and again um if you think about it in the year 500 BC we canot possibly predict that the Ching would conquer and unite all of China because of all these states the Ching was the uh porest it was situated in the mountains whereas the other states are situated in these fertile valleys um its culture was not as developed as the rest and its population was smaller so we couldn't predict that the Ching would eventually unite all of China but at the same time near 500 we cannot have predicted that Rome would unite the Mediterranean and we canot have predicted that Macedonia would have United the Greek world all right so let's discuss very quickly why the Ching was able to succeed okay even though this is the Waring States period And there's a lot of warfare going on what we need to remember is that this Warfare is heavily regulated war in this period it's almost like an aristocratic aristocratic gay okay so there are stories where um this General was leading lead laying Siege to a city and the people inside were starving to death which is what you do in a Siege right you starve the population to death but the general felt tremendous regret and guilt for putting the population uh under such misery so he retreated and withw to give time for the population to recover and that was considered what was gentleman okay that was what what was considered shiver um civilized back then another story is that an army was crossing the river which is a great time to attack them but the opposing Army let them cross the river because that is what is civilized okay what is gentlemanly so this period um was heavily regulated by a gentleman's uh code of conduct okay and then then you ask yourself why is that the case and the answer is that remember this is a a open Cooperative competition environment in which even though these states are at War there's still a lot of intermarriage between them there's still a lot of trade a lot of communication so these states are not trying to use Warfare to overturn the social order because they benefit from the status quo they're using Warfare as a means to maintain the social order and that's why Warfare is extremely heavily regulated okay and so let's think about the pelian war between Athens and Sparta uh when we looked at the war we know that the pal pipan war was extremely bloody it was extremely deadly but at the same time it was extremely regulated now a lot of their strategies didn't really make any sense it was really about defeating the enemy so for example know that in Sparta there there are people called the helots who are basically slaves to the Spartan people and the helots Outnumber the Spartans 10 to one so all Athens had to do was say the hots if you fight for us if you revolt against your Masters we will grant you Freedom that's all Athens had to do but Athens never did that because because by doing doing that you would disrupt the social order from which Athens benefited and you unleash a revolution that could possibly engulf the entire Greek World also even though Sparta and Athens were enemies they were United by intermarriage among their Elites they they had a similar culture and they um historically were allies especially against the the Persians okay so Warfare at this time was about maintaining the status quo rather than overturning the status quo and this presents an opportunity for the Ching Dynasty which H is in the margins of the status quo right so the Ching Dynasty start to implement Warfare in a way that opportunistically took advantage of the status quo situation and they commit themselves to total warfare meaning their entire Society was engineered in a way to allow them to win against your enemies okay so certain characteristics about the Ching Dynasty at this time uh first is the idea of legalism right Draconian laws that force a population to behave in a certain way something that um is very fundamental the idea of legalism is collective responsibility what that means is that if you commit a crime you'll be punished but so will your entire family okay the idea of collective responsibility is Pioneer at this time in in order to maintain a very strict uh society that can be purposed for war okay so that's the first thing um legalism second thing is the idea of centralization meaning that you have a bureaucracy uh you have standardization okay um and this allows you to actually expand very quickly it allows you to expand and govern new territories that you uh conquer and the third of course is Total War meaning like you devote all your resources to Warfare in order to conquer your enemies the Ching dynasty was also known for its openness so if you were a man of talent and you can contribute to their military and their bureaucracy they would welcome you okay so think of the Ching as a revolutionary system that sought to overturn the status quo and the other other uh States like we Jan and and two especially two they were trying to maintain the status quo and therefore they were not that well equipped to deal with the Challenge from uh the Ching okay now we know that the Ching would unite all of China and but because their system was so Draconian eventually the other states would rebel against them and this would eventually lead to the um Han Dynasty okay now the Han Dynasty um is actually well even though the Han Dynasty disparages the Ching right so our very conception of the Ching comes from Han historians who tell us that the Ching buried Scholars and they burned books and that's exteme and that in our eyes is barbaric right we don't know if that's true we know that the Ching practice heavy censorship so those 100 Schools of thought a lot of these books were censored and destroyed during this period but we don't know for a fact that they buried Scholars okay but this is what but so the Han Dynasty is trying to disparage trying to refute the Ching Dynasty that said the Han Dynasty continues the system first introduced by the um K okay the Han is really at this point the height of of Chinese civilization there's a confidence there's an arrogance to the Han and one of the top priorities for the Han is now that they've United China they have to deal with the northern steps people okay remember that throughout history the steps people have proven to be the most daunting challenge for civilizations they are extremely um they're they're ferocious Warriors and the step people will eventually give rise to the Mongols at this point the main adversary of the Han are called the Shong new people and the Han Dynasty is committed to a policy of eradication against the shungu okay and this policy of eradication will force the shunu to migrate westwards and eventually they will these people will uh start to even threaten Rome um itself AA hun the H people are descendants of the jungu okay but over time um because of this conflict between the Han and the northern step people this will create tremendous strain on the Han and eventually the policy will evolve to one of cooperation and dependency and um so what will happen is there'll be a lot of trade uh there'll be a lot of intermarriage um and and the and the step people will be hired as mercenaries for internal conflicts within China okay so um open qual competition now switches from Mahan which has become a centralized power to the step people so Within These people and there's quite quite a lot of different tribes there will be now tremendous competition and one group one tribe that will eventually Triumph is called the Shan Bay okay and the Shan B will give rise to which Dynasty do you guys know H uh okay which but shamb will give rise to which major Chinese dynasty you guys should know this what comes after the thean the tongue Dynasty okay so this is one one thing um that is misunderstood the Han Dynasty is really the last Chinese dynasty it is the last ethnically Chinese dynasty committed to the protection and propagation of Chinese culture the tong Dynasty um the founders the Lee family they're actually the of the shandai tribe okay and as a result they will switch from a they will switch China into a universal Multicultural Empire okay the tongue Dynasty is famous for being extremely open tolerant and and inclusive okay all right so this is the tong Dynasty which is considered the height of power height of Chinese power in the world uh the tong Dynasty will try to expand Westwoods into Central Asia um and it will start the Silk Road and trade networks all around the world um Buddhism at this point will come into China and it will become um at certain points a state religion okay but the there are many problems with the tongue Dynasty um so there's a heavy Reliance on generals to fight Wars and this will eventually lead to the unan Rebellion okay which lasts for uh almost 10 years Anan is the top general of the tong Dynasty and because he's given too much power and he has too much Independence he's much too trusted by the emperor he eventually rebells and 60 uh throne for himself okay this Rebellion will kill um anywhere between a third to half of the tongue population okay 60 million to 30 million people and this is this is devastating and traumatic for the tong Dynasty okay but somehow it recovers but uh but then but then you will have another Rebellion called a hangcha Rebellion which will end the tongue Dynasty I'll talk about the hang later on okay um the tongue Dynasty will give rise to the S Dynasty um and the S Dynasty Will adopt a policy of diplomacy tribute uh assimilation with the northern tribes okay they're trying to avoid the Trap of the tongue where you give too much power to General and the general will Rebel Okay so a lot of power the S Dynasty so at the time of the S Dynasty a lot of power will be invested in the Imperial bureaucracy okay that's a song um eventually song Empire will be carved up and conquered uh event the ultimate winners of this war will be the Mongols who in the year 1279 conquers entirety of the S Empire and unite China okay but the y the Mongols are considered a foreign Dynasty so I mentioned that the tongue Dynasty is actually um non non-chinese but the Mongols understood themselves to be non-chinese and as a result they discriminated against Chinese people which ultimately led to Rebellion that will establish the Ming Empire and eventually the Ming Empire will give way to the Ching Empire the Manus are just another iteration of the Mongol people um they will rule China until 1911 when the Empire is overthrown a republic is established and this gives way to of course the People's Republic of China okay so the big question again we're looking at is why is it that the Song Dynasty is the last creative Dynasty all right and if we use the idea of open Cooperative competition then we know the answer all right and the answer is this um previous dynasties were not able to exert National control they were always competing against other states within China proper okay so you look at the Han Dynasty well the Han Dynasty would give way to dozens of other states that would compete against each other okay so in theory the ching and the on United China but not for long all right and the same is true for the tongue as as well China uh for the longest time was just too large too diverse to be unified centrally and as a result the idea of open Cooperative competition would still give rise to Innovation but starting at the time of the song we see a radical change look at the look at the song okay the song is pretty uh United and the uran is extremely United so the UN Dynasty is able to unite all of China and then after the UN Dynasty the Ming is also pretty United and the Ching is extremely United okay so in other words the answer is this after the song and starting with the uran China became uh nationally unified and it was able the center was able to exert control of the provin provinces in a way that was not true before in Chinese history okay so the idea of open competitive competition died with the Song Dynasty and that's why after the song trying to stop being creative okay so that's the answer but then this gives rise to a another question which is how was China able to create National unity all right all right so to answer this question I want to uh refer to the work of Professor Wong yua he is a professor of Chinese history at Harvard okay and he wrote a new book called the rise and fall of Imperial China and it's it and it's a wonderful book uh if you're interested in Chinese history I strongly recommend that that you look at this book all right so he begins the book by asking a central question and the central question is this we know that the tong dynasty was really the height of Chinese power it had about a quarter of the world's GDP and it was in and it influenced the cultures of Korea Japan um and it's extremely diverse inclusive Multicultural Empire that introduced Buddhism to China okay but the problem with the tongue is their Emperors didn't really live that long five Emperors at least five Emperors during the tong Dynasty were deposed by the elite the AOS they got together and were through the emperor usually by killing him okay so this is a tongue Dynasty but when you look at the ching ching um only had 5% of the world's GDP and it was racked by internal rebellions like the taiping rebellion and it was far behind in terms of of science technology to Europe but the Emperors like tenan long they could rule for 60 years peacefully okay they transitioned into a thr peacefully and they died peacefully so the Ching even though it marked a um a low point in Chinese Prosperity it the emperors lived for a long time which meant that the bureaucracy the center was really stable this is a paradox okay why is it that when China is wealthy the emperor is weak but when the emperor is strong China is poor that's a paradox that Professor Wong yua is trying to answer in his book okay so he he so I mean he is um he used us a lot of social science analysis and research for his book so he so first of all what he does is he analyzes the probability as an emperor that you're deposed by the elite okay and it turns out like the tongue was really the height but then when you get to the song the probability decreases significantly okay but at the same time what we need to understand is even though the emperor uh lived longer the state's ability to collect taxes to control the economy decrease over time okay so you can see that starting the year zero all the way down there there's a downward slope now this is not straight down okay there are Peaks right so so you go down then you go up you go down the up is when a new Dynasty starts and so at that at this time the new Dynasty is run by a very strong leader like for example um um Jan Jang of the Ming Dynasty the founder of the Ming Dynasty okay these are extremely capable leaders and they are supported by really talented bureaucrats and at this point they're able to collect a lot of taxes which strengthens the center but over time the trend is fairly clear starting at the time of the song You You See a steep decline in the state's ability to collect taxes okay the only exceptions are around the year 1600 when the Ming transitions to the Ching okay and so what Professor W wa has discovered is the reason why you have this transition is the Emperor starting around the time of the S he's actually figured out a way to divide and conquer the elite okay so the elite when they are united they're able to promote strong centralized policies that promot that promote National growth but the centralized Elite can always threaten the Emperor who is dependent on the elite for um for uh uh for for their support in the military and in government okay starting around the song The centralized Elite is now broken down into localized Elite so the trick that China has discovered in maintaining um a strong Center is by localizing the elites okay so the idea is you localize the elites when you localize Elites you can Implement a policy we call divide and conquer okay so you get the Elites in this province to fight amongst themselves if they have too busy f f fighting amongst themselves they're not going to ever rebel against you and they're not going to build alliances with other provinces to ever challenge you okay and their priorities and focus is in the provinces and they really don't care what you guys do in the capital all right so that's the thesis all right and what professor wangas says is the main mechanism um that the emperor used in order to achieve this radical cultural shift is the kuu okay the kuu is a civil service examination that um promoted bureaucrats into into position of power okay the kuu the Civil Service examination and so the history of the kuu is that it was introduced briefly in a sway and then the Tong Dynasty uh started to to use it okay but it was really the S Dynasty that really systemized and promoted it okay basically the S Dynasty in ins institutionalized the kuu okay and before the could you it was it was really an arist aristocratic system where um you had to be of noble birth in order to become a high official in government which is true for most cultures okay so that's what he argues all right so um he looks at times of major rebellions and what he shows is that whenever there's massive climate change you have violence erupt okay because when you have a centralized system what often happens is that the nobility engage in rcking Behavior basically they they exploit The Peasants and that's fine if the weather is good when when the weather is bad and peasants don't have enough to eat they they often Rebel okay and in the tongue this would culminate something called the hangcha Rebellion which would last for 10 years when a salt Merchant in hangcha uh sorry Assa a certain assult Merchant named honga he would lead an uprising that would overwhelm and destroy the um Kong Dynasty the the the thing that that's important for us to remember is that he would go all the way to changan and changan is where all the elite live okay there about 200 aristoc aristocratic families in the tong Dynasty and they all killed in this Rebellion when you remove the aristocracy this this gives the S Dynasty room to implement a new policy and ensure that a nobility cannot arise again okay so that is a significance of the hangchow Rebellion it eliminated the idea of aristocracy in China okay so um Professor Wang yua he looks what he does is he shows you how networks work in uh China so during the tongue Dynasty as you can see there are centers which then move to the provinces okay so these families are all interconnected together because there's only 200 aric families if you are a wealthy family in a province what you want to do is inter Mar into one of these AR aristocratic families okay because that's the best way to ensure your advantage and privilege in life okay so that's this is during the tongue Dynasty when families are united nationally but when you get to the to Soul Dynasty what you will see is that the center has been localized meaning it's been spread out and what you also see is that these networks are are localized they're not connected together now nationally all right and this again allows now the emperor to divide and conquer all right so let's do let's just do a comparison of the tongue and the song as you can see what's really important is look at this guys the networks become more and more localized over time it is the deliberate policy of the Imperial bureaucracy to localize Elite networks so that they can never unite and challenge the center okay so these networks are becoming much more fractured and localized over time all right okay so the the main benefit of the system is of course National Unity so again during the Han you have all these different provinces that form their own dynasties and which challenge a center okay so China was in a constant process of war the tongue dynasty was a bit better but when you get to the S the UN the Ming and the Ching it's all pretty unified nationally okay by localizing Elites you ensure the center can't be challenged and as a result you give a semblance of national Unity but the problem with this as we know is it comes at the cost of in ination which will make China insular poor and divided in the long term and it's not it's not really a sustainable system okay but that's a system that China has chosen to adopt for the past thousand years right a Divine and Conquer policy against the local Elites all right so let's look at another example of how China became insular um poor divided over time so this is a map of the top 30 cities by population throughout Chinese history as you can see during the Western Han during the Hong Dynasty most of these cities are centered around the hango the Yellow River okay that makes sense because that's where Chinese Chinese civilization began but starting by the T time of the tongue they're starting to spread out more and by the time of the Soul they're actually congregating to the coast right so why is this happening it's happening because of Maritime trade initiated by the abasa calipat okay remember last class we learned about the Islamic golden age and how the bass of calipat became so wealthy that it established trade networks all around the world and these trade networks were so powerful that they could influence the National Economic Development of China okay and we can expect that because of Maritime trade over time all the major cities of China would all shift to the coast and that's why when jul Yan Jang came into Power he initiated a policy of close borders he shut down Maritime trade because he was afraid that if this continued then all the C all the power would be located in the coastal areas and therefore the north the West the South will become much poorer and therefore they are much more incentivized to Rebel also the coastal uh areas uh would have so much power that they could ultimately depose him okay and that's why Jan uh Jan Jang would impose a policy of Maritime trade B and this would make China much more insular and weak and poor okay so again remember back to the U Islamic golden age when the Islamic World United all the entire world and Tred to pull China into its system but because of that it was causing uh wealth inequality in China and that's why the Ming Dynasty will shut down the straight network not completely but mostly okay and that's why you see have this massive Chinese immigration to Southeast CH Asia because they want to maintain the these trade networks and there's there's a um trade ban enforced uh in the Ching in the sorry in the Ming Dynasty okay and the Ching Dynasty will continue this policy as well for China the priority is is internal internal stability rather than uh wealth and prosperity okay all right so that's the a quick introduction all right any questions about this so far are you guys clear any questions guys are clear right okay all right so um that is Professor Wang y's argument and as you can see um it's it's he backs up with a lot of data okay um I'm I'm just presenting to you his argument okay so now I want to talk more about the idea of uh the Imperial bureaucracy because um this will inform and help us better understand world history as we move along okay so to better understand the rise of imper bureaucracy let's let's first reexamine the history of Rome okay so in the year 500 um BC okay Rome became a republic and Rome the Republic will become the model for for the British Empire as well as the American Republic okay so it's very important that you fully understand the Rome idea of Republic okay so now Republic is again a society governed by laws tradition and history okay and these three things are manifested in the nobility okay what the Romans call patricians patricians and the patricians will exercise power for something called the Senate okay and it's this very idea that Rome is ultimately um a culture a republic governed by laws tradition and history is what will allow it to expand very quickly until it dominate the entire Mediterranean these patricians are the ones who will establish these International networks that will make the Roman Republic um coherent okay and they will do so through the idea of a patreon client relationship okay so the idea is you have a patriarch and then the patriarch has clients and this will expand across the entire um Mediterranean so in other words the emperor is just one among equals the emperor has his has his Empire but these Patriarchs have their own Empires within the Empire okay and this gives Rome even though it's very spread out a um coherence and a Unity that most Empires don't have and again this is important for us because the British will copy this model when they build their empire okay as well as the [Music] Americans the problem with this system though is that um if the PS don't like the emperor the Patriarchs can get together and depose the emperor which has happened a lot of times throughout the history of the Roman Republic so think of Julius Caesar right Julius Caesar um wanted more power for himself and so the Patriarchs got together and killed him but that but Julius Caesar was just one of many there was also Kula uh Nero and and these um and and a lot more Emperors Okay so because of this new Emperors but especially people like uh Dian D cian was a military General who won the Roman Civil War and so made so became emperor they had to fix this problem okay because obviously if you're Emperor your biggest problem is how do you stay alive and in the Roman Republic uh the chances of you staying alive aren't very high okay so starting with Diocesan they start to develop an imperial bureaucracy to counter the power of the nobility okay the problem though is that the nobility solves three problems for you that the broxy cannot solve okay the first is a problem of the will to fight the second is Unity the third is culture okay so the world of fight means like in a war the nobility are those who have the most to lose and therefore they're the most willing to die so think about the year 216 when HBO invaded the Italian Peninsula and he had destroy all the Roman armies at this point um Rome should have surrendered but nobility refused to surrender because if they surrendered then Hannibal would have instituted changes to their culture that that would have destroyed the prestige power and wealth of nobility that's why the nobility refused to surrender they fought to the very bitter end and eventually they were able to triumph over Carthage okay so the will to fight the nobility gives a society the will to fight second of course is Unity okay National Unity the third is culture so the people who wrote the history of Rome were actually the nobility the the Senators the aristocrats okay so when you get rid of nobility you lose these three things you lose the idea of a national Unity a national identity you lose culture you lose the will to fight okay and that's why for the longest time the system stayed in place because to reject the nobility to kill all the mobility would be to destroy the tradition culture and history of Rome all right but um thatan would try to solve this problem by implementing Imperial bureaucracy but the Imperial bureaucracy could not challenge The Authority power and legitimacy of nobility okay that's why Constantine would in 330 move the capital to by Byzantium and create the Byzantine Empire okay and as we discussed previously the byan Empire folk had an imperial bureaucracy and it was the dominant power and so the B Empire is not a continuation of the Roman Empire it is rejection of the Roman Republic okay so does that make sense the history of Rome okay this is important for us because the same thing will happen in China okay the same thing will happen in China after the tongue Dynasty the S Dynasty will look at the mistakes of the tongue Dynasty and they will start to implement a um implement the kuu system and create an imperial bureaucracy that will um rule China for the next Thousand Years okay all right so the could you there is a great misconception in China that the kuu is a meritocracy but is not a meritocracy it was never designed to be a meritocracy I know that in school you are taught that they have the K you in order for the emperor to select the best and brightest in China and because of the bright best and brightest they will rule China virtuously that's what you've been taught in school that is not correct that's not what the could you is designed for the could is designed for the emperor to localize the elites and to divide and conquer them okay so let me explain why it's not a meritocracy first thing first thing about theu that's important for us is that there's a qua system in place okay so if it was just meritocracy then the very best and brightest would win out right but think about the G cow okay if it was just americ ocracy then who would get get into like the top university in China I assure you that 90% of all the top students would come from Two Cities right Beijing and Shanghai right but that's not how the system works there is a quarter system in place there's geographic distribution only a certain number of students from Beijing and Shai can get into piking and chinua the rest come from the provinces okay the could you is the same system so let's look at it very quickly you at the center everyone's trying to get into the center let's say you have problems a b c and d and they're all the same you have 10 wealthy families okay and you you have 10,000 poor families okay peasants how the system works is a will send two D will send two B will send two c will send two okay and when you do it this way this creates competition among among the local Elites right to win these positions and therefore they will fight amongst themselves does that make sense if you don't do it this way if it's just the best and brightest then what will happen is like a b c d and will compete compete amongst themselves eventually one of the provinces like maybe B will develop the innovation in order for their children to always finish first or place a top in the K okay does that make sense guys all right so it's not a meritocracy it's a quarter system that's the first thing second thing you need you need to understand is that it is unfair why is it unfair well because in order to do on the could you remember the could you is testing your knowledge of something called Wan okay or classical Chinese classical literary Chinese okay this is a very hard skill to learn it will take you decades you will need private tutoring your family needs to have a lot of money you need to spend decades on this project which means that you have a lot of leisure time you don't have to work okay so another in other words only the elite families of China can compete in the system and that's the point okay the point is to um concentrate the ambition and energy of the elite families into the kuu otherwise they might come up with ideas like Rebellion okay they also might come up with um new inventions and amazing literature but they'll also probably think of waste of Rebel okay that's why you want to concentrate their energies on the kuou right does that make sense the third thing that's really important for us to remember is that this system is discretionary what does that mean it means that just because you finished first on the could you does not mean you become a govern official okay do you guys understand success on the could you does not translate into success in politics it is discretionary meaning the emperor gets to decide who becomes an official and who gets promoted only the emperor all right and often what will happen is the Emperor will start to promote maybe someone from the poor family okay so not poor but lower nobility and the reason why you want to do that is to create a precarious situation in the provinces where no family feels secure enough to feel as though they're the nobility okay you want to create conflict and procurious in the provinces that and Conquer and therefore you can exert greater control over the provinces but by doing that you limit economic growth you limit C Innovation okay does that make sense guys all right so what what what this means is the bureaucracy is able to control China because of its Monopoly it has Monopoly over three aspects all right the first is status right so if you want to be admired if you want to be respected in CH you do well and could you and you become an official that's the dream of every family in China right it's still true today right where the dream of every Chinese family is for you guys to get into an i leag school and or take the GAA and go to Ping or chinga okay the idea of status is still associated with the kuu even though we know that that success on the kuu and success on the gal does not necessarily necessarily translate into success in school or in life okay that's the first thing the second is the Monopoly over literacy okay the Monopoly over literacy what I mean by that is this in most cultures your goal is to make literacy more widespread because when you do that you allow for for faster Economic Development okay so throughout history all cultures have tried to figure out how to make literacy more widespread more prevalent so let's look look at the example of Egypt okay Egypt Egypt has been around for as long as China and over centuries they would make their language a lot easier to understand so in the beginning they had heroglyph okay so maybe the Sun this represent Sun this is Moon okay so that's a first stage they have pictograms to represent um ideas okay then what they would do is make these symbols shorter okay so that it's easier to remember and then what what they would do is they would make these symbols phological meaning they don't they don't represent ideas they represent sounds okay so this now becomes the English word Monsoon right does that make sense and then what they would do is they would take the sound sorry take take take the the word and make it into just one consonant okay so this would so this would become s this will become M and therefore you now have the word English word sum okay and and that's how and that's why we have the alphabet because of this evolution of language in Egypt it was the Egyptians who developed this system and then the Greeks uh stole it uh through the Phoenicians okay all right so most cultures follow this pattern because then because now it's it's easier for people to become literate which is drives economic growth okay China is the only culture in human history that has made literacy more difficult over time all right China took the um pictograms and made them even more complex and added these very complex grammatical rules to the language and created something called literary Chinese okay literary Chinese but that's a nice that's a euphemism that's a nice way of saying it it really what what it is is bureaucrat bureaucrats okay burees is a language that only bureaucrats can understand so think of contracts right when you look at legal contracts you can't read it why because the language the grammar is designed so that only as a specialized lawyer could you understand the contract right and this is what we call Rent seeking Behavior you create something that only you can use and people have to pay rent in order uh to access your knowledge all right so uh literacy the problem of literacy will keep China back uh from developing and the third is culture okay culture and when I mean culture I really mean confusion ISM so confusion confusion ism is really a bureaucratic philosophy system designed to maintain the status to control how people think about the world all right so remember in the confusion religion what really ma what matters first and foremost is balance Harmony there's also a concept called an ancestor worship so you can't leave your village because if you leave your village you can no longer worship your ancestors right you can't clean their graves and so people are just stuck in place that limits trade and innovation in China okay so the could you uh sorry the bureaucracy the imper bureaucracy was able to maintain its Monopoly over status literacy and culture through three mechanisms the could you L uh W Yen literary Chinese and confusion ISM okay and that stopped the development of um that stop the cultural and economic development of China okay so let's better understand this idea okay in a society there are different ways to se to seek success and Status all right so you have the bureaucracy of course and that's the that's the way PE people do it in China but you also have the military you also have nobility right joinan nobility you also have church uh religion right by becoming a priest be by becoming a spiritual leader you also have uh Merchants right Commerce you can also do it through Artistic Endeavors okay so these are the main ways people achieve status in society and in most societies you have these different systems in place what is unique about China is the dominance of the bureaucracy okay so the nobility was wiped out and for the kuu uh the kuu ensures that no nobility can arise again in China okay um Church religion was outlawed for most of Chinese history okay um the merchant and the artistic people are low status in China so go back to the confusion system The Scholar fishes at the top uh then you then you have the farmers then you have the merchants and you have the artists right so the so the confusion religion puts the merchants and the artists at the very bottom and this is intentional because the the artists okay they they can promote new ideas but the merchants are even more Pro problematic because they trade okay and they can accumulate wealth and that wealth can challenge the authority of the Empire all right so the merchants are a problem the military as we know was heavily suppressed um throughout Chinese history okay so the sun Dynasty there was these massive conflicts between the military and the bureaucracy the military want want to go fight and defend s own territory the Bucy wanted to just bribe um everyone okay all right okay so and because you have too much power within the bureaucracy this will stunt development in China all right let's look look at one more example okay we know like by the time of the song China had four major inventions okay these four major inventions of course are paper print making compass and gunpowder all right and these four inventions guys will Revol revolutionize the world all right so you look at paper it will give rise to uh back notes okay so the stone had back notes and this will give rise to capitalism in the west print making is important because remember in the 15th century uh Gutenberg created something called the printing press in Europe and because of the printing press you're now able to manufacture books at scale and when you do that what happens is like people become more literate okay so the very idea of the printing press made available all this all these books all this knowledge that wasn't available before and now people could just learn how to read and write okay so this will give rise to literacy and when you give rise to literacy you will give rise to things like the Renaissance um the pro Reformation the S Revolution the enlightenment the French reev ution okay so this marked a revolution in European Affairs the compass right will allow for the Age of Exploration so these Europeans are able to discover new lands and Conquer and colonize them right so North America South America will eventually all become colonized by the Europeans using the compass gunpow is important because it is the uh it is a revolution in Warfare from gunpow you will have things like the cannon and also uh eventually the musket the musket is just an individual gun and this marks a revolution not only in Warfare but also in human Affairs because when when you have the musket now individual soldiers do matter okay before it was a knight who was the main uh um weapon in the Warfare but we have a must you can now equal the playing field okay it's more important to have more soldiers than you have Knights and this will allow for things like the American Revolution right when you have these Farmers with muskets they were able to overthrow the British Empire it will give rise to the French Revolution when you have citizens who are not professional soldiers they're able to take these muskets and defend their country against a European invasion right so the all these are major revolutions that will give rise to mity okay and again China by the S Dynasty 1200 CE had all four inventions but because of the culture in place because of the bureaucratic culture in place neither not any of these inventions had an impact in on China China Society China did nothing whatsoever with all four inventions all right so the key lesson here guys and this is really important technology does not matter you can steal the technology what matters is the culture all right another example of course is the UN Dynasty when the UN Dynasty during the UN Dynasty uh China was importing a lot of foreign experts a lot of foreign bureaucrats Christians Muslims Jews they're in in a lot of foreign technology and then when the M power when the M Empire came into place they got rid of all this stuff okay they got rid of the foreigners they got rid of technology and try to became much more insular and backward okay okay so that explains why the S after s Dynasty China did not innovate anymore because the empire did not want to innovate Innovation is a threat to the status quo okay and what's important is to maintain the status quo even though by doing so ultimately you make China um poor weak and divided all right good any questions does it make sense to you guys does is conform to your understanding of Chinese history questionus yeah okay so the question is is confusion ISM a religion or a culture so um no one thinks confusion is a religion at most people say that confusion is a Civic religion okay or philosophy all right um so I would say that confusion ISM ultimately what it is is bureaucratism I can't even SP spell bureaucrat anymore okay bureaucratism okay what I mean by that is that it is something that's designed to um make everyone believe that a bureaucratic Society is the best Society it is one that is uh the most sophisticated and it it it it's it's designed in order to maintain the status quo where bureaucrats at the top okay that's what confusion ISM really is so the example is that if you re Chinese history the most virtuous people are always bureaucrats scholar officials right and this propag is so effective that eventually Europeans will stop will will start to mimic this propaganda so voler the French Enlightenment thinker says that Chinese have have the best system because they allow only the educated to rule not soldiers not PR but um scholar officials mandarins okay so this is so the idea of confusion ism is that it's bureaucratism it's designed to legitimize and give authority to the bureaucratic Elite right so so so thank you does that make sense to you okay any more questions okay so I'm going to end the class with a story okay and the story has to do with the first emperor of the main Dynasty julan Jang so Julian Jang he is now Emperor and he reinstituted the kuu okay the the Mongols got rid of the kuu um because they had a nobility but Jan Jang he restores the kuu and everyone was excited okay so everyone comes and takes the examination when the results come out what happens is that the the um test takers from the south do a lot better from the north so these Northern test takers feel there must be corruption in place so they they they file petition to the emperor the emperor looks at the petition and he agrees there must be corruption how is that no northerner was able to pass the kuu so he calls in his chief minister and he says this is a huge Scandal um I want you to resolve this issue okay figure out who responsible for this corruption and kill them all right so the SC so the chief minister um he really wants to impress the emperor so he spend months painstakingly rigorously examining the issue in investigating the issue he has commission he has hundreds of Staff he personally looks at every single could you and then he writes his report he presents to the emperor okay and he says to the emperor your majesty I personally have done this investigation and we have written like thousands of pages of report directly to you I can guarantee you the kuou when implemented was a fear open and transparent process the fact of the matter is that people in the South they're more civilized they're more culture they're more educated and therefore they just did better on the uh they're better than the Northerners and I'm really sorry this happened but I guarantee you the kuu is a fair open and transparent process you have nothing to worry about it's all been taken care of so what do you think think the emperor did what do you think the emperor did have you guys heard heard of the story he killed them all he killed the um high official he killed the high official's Commissioners he killed the test uh makers he killed those who got the very best scores on the kuou Okay the reason why is the Emperor does not want a fair open and transparent system he wants a system in which the localities will not rebel against the center okay and that's what the kuu is all right so that is it we will do gangas Conan uh next class