Imperial China vs. Feudal Japan Compare/Contrast

Political Ming: centralized bureaucracy; revived the civil service exam Qing: foreign rulers; continued civil service system Confucian ideas present throughout both dynasties Selective borrowing DID NOT include the civil service system Hostage system Feudal political system set up under the shoguns

Religious Neo-Confucianism – we start to see the veneration of Confucius as a godlike figure Zen Buddhism Reinforced the Bushido values of mental discipline and self discipline Christianity threatens shogun rule/feudal system

Intellectual Communism begins to enter Chinese thinking in late 1800s European influences enter Chinese thinking contradict Confucian ideals Communism begins to enter Chinese thinking in late 1800s Qing - “the self strengthening movement” Feared western expansion throughout feudal era – became the reason for the Meiji Restoration at the end of the Tokugawa shogunate

Cultural Renovations of Great Wall & Grand Canal Literature Imperial Palace Porcelain ceramics Ming most famous Qing is imitative Literature – social fiction Beijing Opera Literature Heian period novels Selective borrowing of art & architecture from China Haiku pottery No and Kabuki theater

Economic Trade with Japan and Europe Zheng He voyages of exploration Portuguese traders Peasant unrest due to high taxes, poor crop yield due to harsh climate, & disease led to downfall of the Ming Qing lowered taxes to appease people & expanded trade along the Silk Road Trade with Japan and Europe Merchants at the bottom of the social hierarchy, but they become rich during the Tokugawa shogunate due to lack of internal struggles

Social Elaborate court life helped develop the feudal system Confucian social norms Ming saw outsiders as barbarians Chinese were discriminated against by the Manchu during the Qing Women were kept inferior through social practices (binding of feet) Elaborate court life helped develop the feudal system Feudal social system – rigid class system Bushido defined samurai way of life Eta were discriminated against