Music:
Chinese Bamboo Flute: Daha (Higuchi
Taizan)
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Mentality
collective, based on all Chinese cooperating
View of other cultures is disdainful: China
is center of the universe, has all she needs,
barbarians from outside possess little worth
having
Religion
based on philosophy
also Buddhism, which is based on
enlightenment and ones connection to all
Society
highly hierarchical class system, merchants at the bottom
and emperor at the top
Economy
producer of food and luxury goods: rice, silk, porcelain,
spices, jade imports: clockwork and mechanical
toys, gold and silver
Gender
Roles
based on yin-yang: men dominant and women submissive;
male children valued because son's wife moves in and raises
family in husband's parents' house, providing old age security
for them
Philosophy
Confucianism based on hierarchy of respect and family
structure; the structure of state mirrors that of the family Daoism emphasizes the role of the
individual within nature and all life
Also yin-yang: the idea that yang
(brightness, activity, masculinity) is balanced
by yin (darkness, passivity, femininity).
History
cyclical: focused on the rise and fall of dynasties
which usually last hundreds of years; dynasties which fulfill
the Mandate of Heaven rule, then decline of dynasty
and takeover of a new one indicate that Mandate has been
taken away; continuity valued
Image
by Jason McCartney, Jill Malone's CIS 246/Art
247 Photoshop class (S04)