中国的传统与转型第四章.pptVIP

China: Tradition and Transformation 中国的传统与转型 SWUFE 4. The First Chinese Empire: The Ch’in and Han Dynasties 4.1 Ch’in Creates the Empire Chin’s capital region was the Wei Valley, where previously the Chou had risen to power. The defense of this area was simple, because easy access to it from the rest of China was limited to the narrow strip of land between river and hills at the great bend of the Yellow River. The Wei Valley also was a peripheral area where there was room for growth at the expense of the nomads on the northwest and the less advanced agricultural peoples to the southwest. Ch’in annexed two semi-“barbarian” states in the Szechwan Basin in 318 B.C. Contact with the “barbarians” also maintained the martial arts. Ch’in, for example, developed cavalry in the fourth century B.C. Ch’in also faced a simpler water-control problem in the Wei Valley than did the states which sought to control the Yellow River. In the third century B.C. it built an irrigation and transport canal that greatly increased the productivity and population of the Wei Valley, and Ch’in engineers are credited with the marvelous irrigation and transport canal that greatly increased the productivity and population of the Wei Valley, and Ch’in engineers are credited with the marvelous irrigation system of the Chengtu Plain in Szechwan. Another reason for Ch’in’s triumph was its wholehearted application of the new techniques of political and military organization that the Legalists advocated. The first great surge forward took place under the leadership of Shang Yang, whose name has been incorrectly linked with a third-century Legalist work, the Book of Lord Shang. A native of East China, Shang Yang was the leading official of Ch’in from 361 until his disgrace and death in 338 B.C. He is said to have instituted a strict system of rewards and punishments, forced all persons into “productive” occupations, set up a system of mutual responsibility and s