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IGNOU HISTORY NOTES : History Of China and Japan (1840-1949) - Society and Polity: China

IGNOU HISTORY Study Notes for IAS, UPSC Exams

History Of China and Japan (1840-1949)

Society and Polity: China

Structure

2.0 Objectives
2.1 Introduction
2.2 A Developed Agrarian Society
2.2.1 The Gentry
2.2.2 The Peasantry
2.2.3 The Merchants
2.3 The Confucian State
2.3.1 The Emperor
2.3.2 The Bureaucracy
2.4 Early 19th Century Crisis and Decline
2.4.1 'State and Society under 'the Ch'ing
2.4.2 Demographic Pressures
2.4.3 Administrative Decline
2.4.4 Fiscal Crisis
2.4.5 Military Weakness
2.4.6 Mid-19th Century Crisis
2.5 Let 0s Sum Up
2.6 Key Words
2.7 Answers to Check Your Progress mercises

2.0 OBJECTIVES

After reading this Unit you will be able to:

know about the basic character of traditional Chinese society and its main social divisions, -
understand the nature of the pre-modern Chinese state along with its major political institutions, and
familiarise yourself with the social and political situation prevailing in China at the time of the advenk of Western imperialism.

2.1 INTRODUCTION

The social and political system of traditional China was highly complex and
sophisticated. Its complete collapse and radical transformation in the first half of the
20th century might make you think that it was fundamentally weak and unstable. But
this was not always the case. In fact, it had endured in its basic form, with some
evolutionary changes, for close to two thotisand years, holding together a region of
vast size, population and great diversity. In this sense it was truly a unique product
of human civilization. To understand the nature of China's response to the west, as
well as the roots of the revolutionary upheavals that China has undergone in the
course of the last century, it is important to understand the strength and solidarity of
her traditional system of social and political organization. It is also necessary to
pinpoint those factors undermining this system from within, particularly in the late
18th and early 19th century. These are the various aspects which have been dealt with
in this Unit.