Medieval China: Crash Course History of Science #8
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- Опубліковано 22 сер 2024
- Like Egypt, Sumer, and Mesoamerica, ancient China represents a hydraulic civilization-one that maintained its population by diverting rivers to aid in irrigation-and one that developed writing thousands of years ago. Today, we’re going to focus on the time of the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, a time of great technical innovation. But, before we get to the Song, let’s take a tour through the ages and explore key elements of Chinese scientific culture.
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"From the country that brought you Taoism, porcelain, and noodles... we now bring you: The Standarized Test!"
The Mongols. I REALLY should have seen that coming in an episode about China.
The Mongol montage(Mongol-tage) started in Crash Course World History, as their civilization comes up in world history quite often, usually being an exception to a lot of situations compared to other civilizations. During and after that series, it just became an amazing run on joke.
Evan Kurniawan They also had merit systems for promoting military leadership, so that was very useful for having effective generals who were harder to corrupt.
The Mongolian merit systems were actually copied from China. Even the Mongols made use of Chinese gunpowder weapons in their conquests of other states.
It's not like they developed it in a vacuum. Temujin just decided to implement it.
+神州 Shenzhou
Stop preaching
Damn Hank's passion is so infectious.
Gaysian_american all-time high passion is a Crash Course trademark, they all rock!
Song China did industrialize using coal and hydraulic automation. I've read from somewhere that the iron production of the Song dynasty was not to be surpassed until the early 19th century by the British. There were many reasons why Song China didn't reach the level scientific sophistication found in 17th - 19th century Europe. Most of the problems could be explained by the timing and the amount of time.
One, the scale of innovation was a lot slower during the Medieval world. This is a significant factor that should not be overlooked. The reason why Medieval China produced more science than the world combined at the time was probably due to the population being larger. The population of technologically gifted people is proportional to the number of people! Song' China's population was roughly 40-50% of the world population, which gave them a numerical advantage of raw brainpower.
Two, mentioned briefly near the end of this video was the Mongols. However, they were not the only ones to blame! Before the Mongol invasion, there were the Jurchens who conquered the Northern half of the Song empire. They destroyed a lot of impressive machines and hydraulic infrastructure, including Su Song's "Cosmic Engine" in Kaifeng.
Three, they were too early to have developed the necessary mathematics to develop science more quantitatively. Chinese math during the Song was centuries ahead of its time (especially with algebra and number theory), but the math problems were still largely written with words instead of symbols. It took Europe about 2-3 centuries to develop a coherent set of math symbols. Song China ran out of time.
Four, although Song China had many technical experts, they did not have many specialists who devoted all their time to one area of research. Most "scientists" did their science more like a hobby for they were scholar-officials of the imperial court. They were more occupied with more mundane work with government administration. Also, the Neo-Confucian cosmology was not objectively true, but hey, Newton's cosmology wasn't either, just more closer to the truth.
The Chinese had amazing art during the Tang Dynasty. I am glad that I got learn about the Tang Dynasty because it was an amazing period in human history. I am not Chinese but I love Chinese history it is so amazing. I love American history (my country’s history) and China’s history the most. I can name all the Chinese Dynasties just like I can name all the U.S. Presidents! I know most of the emperor’s names, but I am working on it. Right now, I am reading about the Ming Emperors.
How can you know most of the emperor's name's, there's literally hundreds of emperors since the qin dynasty
Joanne Smith I managed to memorize about 70% of their names and short intro back in senior high, so I wouldn’t be surprised if anyone who love the Chinese history as much as I do telling me that they could do even better. It’s insanely difficult but still doable if you want it hard.🤩world of the nerds huh😂😂😂
@@cadhlaohanlon4443 Would you say xi jinping is the modern day Chinese emperor
Joanne Smith in some level yes, I get confused often by this but I think that’s somehow what the Chinese ppl wished for.
@@cadhlaohanlon4443 What do you get confused by?
MAJOR Correction !
The Imperial Examination is NOT and NEVER about rote-memorisation and recitation of old books !
first of all, It includes curriculums in music, arithmetic, writing, military strategy, civil law, revenue and taxation, agriculture and geography, and the Confucian classics.
The questions are written to demonstrate knowledge and mastery of the facts related to these topics, extract the political, economic, legal, and social logic and thinking behind it, and apply these thinking on some of the current events. It is the application of your understanding of the Classical Texts to solve the present problems rather than just a test of memory.
lets see some example of surviving Imperial Test questions !
Part 1, History.
Question 1, The Zhou dynasty (~ 1000 BC) and the Tang dynasty (~ 600 AD) had relatively strong regional governments and relatively weak central government. The Qin dynasty (~ 200 BC) and the Wei dynasty (~ 400 AD) had relatively weak regional governments and relatively strong central government. Discuss the pros and cons of each.
Part 2, Policies
Question 1, There are three goals of universal education: first, to make our citizens nice people, second, to make our citizens patriotic, third, to help our citizens acquire the knowledge and skills so that they can make their own living independently. Discuss which one of these is the most important.
Part 3. Confucius Classics. (These are quotes from either Confucius or other scholars around ~ 5 centuries BC)
Question 1, write a discussion essay on the following Confucius quote, “the essence of governing a nation is in promoting transparency and morality, respect and stay close to the common people, until we reach the ultimate state of kindness and humanity”.
The Palace Examination ( held every three years in the Imperial palace and often supervised by the emperor himself)
Question 1. In ancient dynasties (Xia, Shang, Zhou) servicemen came from peasants. After the Well-field system and the GouXu system ended, conscription started. Was it because the situation has changed?
(*Examples from Han, Tang, Song military systems)
Compare the military systems of Han, Tang and Song dynasties. What can we learn from them?
The Power of the military comes from knowledge, and knowledge comes from education. Countries became powerful through acknowledging the importance of military. Many of their officers know military, and physical education starts from children. Since we are learning from them, shouldn't we find the deeper reason?
This example is just for 4 parts, and 1 question per part. In reality there are a lot more parts and questions.
As you can see, these are not “yes” or “no” question, but you are basically asked to demonstrate your knowledge and mastery of the fact related to these topics, extract the political, economic, legal, and social logic and thinking behind it, and apply these thinking on some of the current events. It is the application of your understanding of the Classical Texts to solve the present problems rather than just a test of memory.
Fascinating. Its really quite similar to some modern exam paper questions, describing certain topics or events in history and getting candidates to write essays about them.
And modern Chinese civil servants need to pass similar exams for their positions......
The question is: Could you pass the exam by just rote-learning the answers from i.e. a question-collection ?
It's really cool to have exam scripts 100s or 1000s of years old that you can refer back... wait... what am I saying?
It is true that many questions were open ended and in essay form, which allowed for freedom and flexibility in responses; however, rote memorization did certainly play a part in the Imperial Exams. For example, the “8 legged essay” required exact quotes from the Classics, and misquoting even a single character could lead to failure.
I spent 4 years getting a degree in Chinese Studies and I learned something in this video! Well done, as always, Crash Course team.
Great respect to the Chinese and to their contribution to Science. This episode was awesome!
thank you good sir
Respects received, sending "thank you" card ;)
Charles Uwakwe
Thank you.
In addition to this, there may be some hypotheses that the early concept of "blood transfusion" was discovered (safe to operate is another matter entirely) back in the Warring States period (right before the Qin Dynasty).
But mostly due to the "burning text and burying scholars" incident, the details and texts on the subject were lost.
Of course, these were just indirect guesswork based from ancient Chinese text recordings
Operation Stratos101 yeah it's sad that they love to burn those, and then during the ming, burning zheng hes fleet, and then during the cultural revolution.. countless times..
"Love" to burn? Then why aren't you a pile of ash right now? Offering baseless non-consensual claims that attack an entire civilization as you do, you should be grateful that you're allowed to speak.
The Huang He (the big northern river) is called the "Sorrow of China" because it's a crazy river that floods very frequently and at times changes course completely, destroying hundreds of thousands of acres of farmland and leaving millions without homes. Dealing with that monster of a river requires farmers and bureaucracies that have to be sophisticated and hugely adaptable to keep the irrigation and levee system going. Otherwise the Huang He would make mincemeat out of their societies.
Luboman411 Is that story related to the legend of Yu the Engineer?
Robert Jarman any rivers in china has a dead engineer in it lmao
if only they didnt over cultivate the flood plains along that river...
There's no electric pump... so along the river is the only place to get sustainable water from, which includes underground water nets.
It’s also the mother river.
Many, many years ago I was looking randomly through my university library, as I often did, and came across Joseph Needham's "Science and Civilisation in China," a multi-volume work. Absolutely mind blowing. Just skimming through it will amaze.
You could have used "the mongols" to talk about the House of Wisdom too, because they were the ones who took it when they destroyed Baghdad
Exactly, but I think that Genghis at least disapproved it and punished the one responsible for this tragedy, not that this would fix something
The Mongols were all about conquering territories and destroying other country's priceless works. After conquering China, these nomadic horsemen know nothing about growing food to feed a population (they're nomads, so they simply move on to greener pastures) so it was Chinese farmers that grew food to feed the empire. The Mongols lived in temporary houses (yurts) so it was Chinese builders who built houses, infrastructure, and so on. The Mongols know nothing about governing an empire, so Chinese bureaucrats were left in charge of running the country.
In my opinion, Song dynasty China would be better off, left to our own innovation and industry, if it weren't for the Mongols conquering China during that time.
The problem with defending those who were conquered, is that they were conquered.
They may have been great at lots of other things, but they weren't good enough at defending themselves.
+Guilherme Vieira - Sechat Genghis died 31 years before the sack of Baghdad.
Guilherme Vieira - Sechat
So? It's not like Ancient's used to store book only in 1 city. Heck Burning of baghdad is over exacrated in term of loss of advancement. Muslim's have been burning lots of Great library's from syria to india and yet we find books.
Europe: The sun revolves around the Earth
China: Nah the sun revolves around *us*
LOL, good one.
I think in this case the 'us' just refers to the world according to the chinese. aka earth in modern term
Emperor: Nah. Sun revolves around me.
No they believed China was the world, and the emperor ruled over everything worth ruling over.
I'd say many believed they were the centre of the "civilised" world, not the world itself. It may come off as a bit arrogant, but when we compare the overall advancement of technology, medicine, economic size, etc with the surrounding tributary states, it'd take great humility to not be so self absorbed :)
I’m here after failing my Medieval China test
Chinese people invented the concept of examinations, so that schoolkids all over the world and people like you today take tests.
完全没错！哈哈
中国历史很长
Haha
At least you have Medieval China test here in Greece the majority of history is about Greece so much that it actually gets boring and nobody cares about the important things of Greek history the only reason history lessons during my last year of high school wasn't bad was because our teacher let me do the lesson and told the class about world history.
Wait for it.... The mongols!
(Simply the best catch phrase ever!)
Lucas Pincerato so good it's become a running joke
When Hank asked why the Song didn't have a scientific revolution I said to myself "because of the Mongols!" I was not disappointed to see the Mongoltage 30 seconds later. Of course that was hardly the only contributing factor.
Probably your best series so far. This one has been awesome. Keep it coming!
Good knowledge on the topic, keep going !
You got the etymology of Mandarin the wrong way round. It referred to the bureaucrats first (coming from a Sanskrit word for a "minister" or "councillor" via Malay and Portuguese, but notably not any Chinese language, and related to the word "mantra"), and then was only later extended to the Lingua Franca used by those bureaucrats.
Mandarin itself calls mandarins guān, Cantonese calls them gun1, Hakka calls them kôn, Min Dong calls them guǎng, Mine Nan calls them koan, and Wu calls them kuoe.
In Portuguese it relates to the word "mandar", to command, although this is a deprecated etymology
I was just going to bring this up! Thanks for such a detailed explanation!
The irony is that the Mandarin dialect is referred to as Pǔtōnghuà 普通话 by modern Chinese, which translates to "ordinary speech" despite the English word "Mandarin" supposedly referring to imperial court speech.
Javier Gil-Ruiz yeah, that's just a coincidence/folk etymology and cannot explain the "in" ("im" in Portuguese) at the end, something a Sanskrit etymon ("mantrin") does much better.
神州 Shenzhou it being the ordinary speech of most people's pretty recent though and only really happened due to post-imperial linguistic (bringing official Mandarin closer to the northern vernacular it was originally based on) and educational (teaching this new Mandarin to all kids across the country from the very start of school, even in areas where Mandarin had only ever been the language of the bureaucracy and the populace spoke various local varieties) reforms.
Even today, the fact Modern Standard Mandarin is called putonghua isn't really accurate across much of the south where you're much more likely to hear Cantonese or Wu in ordinary everyday speech
Oh Mongol-tage, how I have missed you! What fun we will have together!
As a Chinese, I definitely hate the Mongol conquest that ruined many civilizations including ours. But it's not objective enough to give all the blame to Mongolian atrocities. There are more subtle reasons for the fall of China, the Muslim world, and many others who suffered in that period.
To me, isolation, self-complacency, lack of ambition as well as low motivation to develop a sophisticated logic and reasoning system(e.g hypothesis and proving) are more crucial reasons. China was a great civilization especially famed for engineering achievements that occasionally/ haphazardly bring technological breakthroughs including very crucial ones like paper-making, printing press, and gunpowder/cannons. Yet the rigidity of Chinese characters, conciseness but lack of variation of words and grammar, unification and centralization of the feudal empire under the mandate of heaven all give rise to a tendency of stagnation or less variation of ideas, and
an absence of effort to develop a more systematic summary of knowledge like Euclidean geometry and algorithm that can further induce
more breakthroughs, at least in the field of natural science. Even in the field of philosophy or social science, much effort was devoted to better governing the realm with lower stability cost instead of boosting and supporting real-life technologies.
Similar issues also happen in the last few decades of the Abbasids, the grand library of Baghdad became a huge collection of existing knowledge and center of Islamic art and philosophy. But the local monarchs and religious heads were obsessed with interpreting religious canons/contexts or enjoying the wealth instead of retrospection, exploration, and initiate the renaissance. In other words, these once great civilizations in the old world all fall to traps created by themselves, becoming stagnant and eventually surpassed by European explorers. The devastation caused by the Mongols and other nomads just accelerated their declines. But without major breakthroughs from contacts or even shocks with other civilizations, it's really hard for them to escape from the trap.
Yeah, I hate China's conquests too
I can relate to that point.
In the end, it's all about competition.
While the ME and china have been ruled by empires, the many european cities and kindoms had to constantly compete.
In war, trade, prestigous art, and even religion.
In china, it was either an empirial fleet of 300 ships - or non.
In europe you had countless monarch, each could finance a fleet of like, three.
But if you were rejected by one, you could go to the next.
Yes, it was cheotic and bloody - but it made them constantely improve, and finally surpass everyone else.
In the long term fight between order and competition, competition won, big time.
Great video! Your channel is one of the best!
I agree. This is the best channel after Logan Paul.
Now, to tweak the audio/echo in the studio.
I'm Taiwanese but we learned a lot of Chinese history in school, they never emphasized how amazing the technology was though, we just memorized like wars and where dynasties ended. This is much more interesting!
Of Course you do, because you are Republic of China. I know the history, although China insist there's only one China, but in reality there are two China(s).
It's because the government of Taiwan wants to break away from China and to dissociate itself from mainland. But by doing so, it can no longer claim Chinese history as its own.
As for One China, most major countries in the world recognise the One-China Policy that Taiwan is part of China. Even President Trump, the most powerful man in the world, recognise the One-China Policy, after a phone call from President Xi.
Really?
If this is in text books, it will still be super boring.
+Goodle Chinese metallurgists were the first to discover pig iron, cast iron and wrought iron, inventing the blast furnace, the cupola furnace, and the double action bellows to achieve the necessary temperatures needed to smelt iron ores, and Chinese were the first to employ chromium in our alloys. Ancient Chinese even drilled for brine, oil and natural gas, using iron drill bits and constructing bamboo derricks, with specially designed bamboo pipes to siphon off the gas for use as heating.
神州 Shenzhou of course they would claim the history of China as the history of their people; it's where the majority of the population is from. Not being allowed to claim that history as their own would be like white Americans not being allowed to talk about parts of medieval Europe where their ancestors are from, or African Americans not being allowed to claim African history as theirs.
And it shouldn't really be surprising that the rest of the world recognizes China under the one China policy when China has a million guns pointed at their heads and a bunch of trade deals at their mercy lol
One of the only channels on UA-cam with a huge auditorium and no commercials or sponsors... How pleasant :)))
Can you imagine what the world would be like had China not insulated itself. All this knowledge being spread globally could have really improved our world even faster.
Timothy Hecker the thing is it is true for many empires and the knowledge from many cultures is what makes the world more connected then just knowledge from one
+Timothy Hecker I guess that would be really difficult. you see, the main reason why China decide to insulate itself back then is because they feel they have no need for "Barbarian" stuff. I mean, with all this awesome stuff you had, why would you need someone else anyway? remember what happen around 18th century? British have to import addictive drugs to make China want to trade with them (without bankrupting British empire). before then, Spain have to trade so much silver to China because that's the only thing that China accept from "Outsider" to the point that Spanish king have to restrict pacific trade to only 2 ship per year (which lead to creation of massive Galleon to tip toe this rule)
well, all that didn't stop black market to start spreading China awesome stuff around the world though.
Hmm the flip side of "we don't need other people's stuff" is "I think we should make everyone learn our stuff". Things certainly could have been very different if they decided on the other viewpoint.
+Morbid Eel ok.... why would you want people to learn your stuff? what would you gain for that? isn't it more beneficial if you keep anyone beside your people less advanced than you are?
I was looking it from the perspective of imposing your views/ideology/culture/etc on others because you think it is superior. That would naturally require them to learn your stuff to properly assimilate. It's not a nice reason but it seems like a plausible "what if".
:D CHINA YAY
P.S I’m Chinese so whenever you make a video on China it makes me rlly happy hehe
VampBecca me tooo
Can you watch youtube in China?
2ossy they most likely live in western nations , but are chiense ?
People in China can use VPN to access Western websites like Facebook and UA-cam.
A Non I still can. I'm in China right now
Um... wanted to comment here..
1.China has the earliest astro physics and the mapping of planet and stars, they know the precise distance of the earth from the sun and calculated the seasonal cycle. The whole middle kingdom thing and the son of god is political for the common people.
2. Buddism was about religion, Confucius is about social consciousness such as washing your hand before a meal, giving priority to the elderly and young, being kind while contributing the social constructed of the country( those could be seen in Japan more now then in China which is a shame).. that is why his literature was appointed as one of the main text book for scholars and any one who wants to join the kingdom.
3.The language thing are also in dispute as the official Mandarin(1967-1977) is not established until the Mao revolution, Language was divided similar to early English, written language was standard. the literacy of the people that can write the name is about 5-10% people who can really write is about 1%. Education was privilege at that age and time.
4. Another huge project is the irrigation of the Great Yellow River, that was one of the first and still the biggest water irrigation project in the world, the river we see today on the map? some of those are actually man made. Just another fact,
5.Not that the person are unknown but the records were burn during the revolution in China, Chinese has a great respect for those who invented those technology that is why a lot of bright mind contributed to the system, if there were no credit system then scientific progress would not advance as fast.
6. China has one of the first University and debate schools since the First Kingdom, philosophy was one of the most important subject that is why "old'' China things that wisdom are as important as intelligence.
7. Technology was one of the tightest guarded secret by the Chinese empire, that is also the reason why the West has to buy China for decades from China. If you think a piece of clay was that much a secrete you can imagine the intensity they have over gun powder and other mechanical invention, that was also why China's techno advance wave so much from dynasty to dynasty.
Any way this was a great video, as the history of China are still not very well known in the west, I just wanted to clarify the reasoning behind some of the points.
He had to use "wait for it...the Mongols." I loved they way he used the brief clip of the mongols invading the land.
Chinese history is something we don't learn much about here in the states.
Starman or in the west as a whole as far as I know.
I got so frustrated when my social studies teacher kept calling the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages. It just makes me feel so tense when I know about Bagdhad, China, the Christian Roman Empire, Mali, Ghana, Teotihuacan, Khosrau Anushiruwan and the Sassanians, Indian Ocean Trade, Great Zimbabwe, Swahili City States, the Carolingian Renaissance. And so many more.
Robert Jarman The Christian Roman Empire was one of the reasons for the dark ages but indeed the rest of the world was flourishing.
bibi ozera I meant what others call the Byzantine Empire.
Robert Jarman
Byzantine empire ( greek orthodox) and holy roman empire (catholics) were enemies. The biggest reason the byzantine empire got weak and fall was because of the cursades conducted by the Pope and Holy Roman Church. So they are very different.
P.s.The emperor of Constantinopolis even asked for help from the Ottomans to kick the Cursaders who pillaged, plundered and raped out of the City.
So you see how much they hated the Holy Roman Empire who wasn't very "holy" or "roman" to begin with.
🤣🤣I almost commented ‘all that and no Mongol Montage?’ But you didn’t disappoint, keep it coming. I’ll never get sick of the Mongol Montage! 😉👍
i hope you mean mongoltage, like it calls in when you have closed caption on!
Not sure when the spinning wheel was invented but every source I've seen has it developed in China first and only appeared in Europe as an import originally.
The spinning wheel revolutionized cloth production wherever it was used; prior to its development, all thread for cloth making was done with hand spindles.
Several years back I made the effort to learn spinning. We had to learn hand spindle first before we could graduate to the wheel. Let me tell you, it makes a major difference. Sorta like digging a pool in your back 40, Hank, but using a spade versus a backhoe to do the job.
Other than the spinning wheel, ancient Chinese people literally invented the gear and the world's earliest gears dating from the 4th century BC in China have been preserved at the Luoyang Museum of Henan Province, China. Like what the uploader said, the list of Chinese "firsts" or true technical inventions is so long that it deserves its own episode.
THE MONGOLS!!!!! I WANTED JOHN GREEN TO JUMP ON THE SCREEN AND SAY "WAIT FOR IT, THE MONGOLS" it would have been nice cameo :P
Gotta love that Mongols montage! One of the best parts of the good old world history crash course!
The mongols are back!
You foolish fool! The Mongols have never left!
MONGOLTAGE!
We’re the exception!
This is a great episode. I wish during CC Philosophy you included Eastern philosophy instead of only focusing on Western thinkers.
Nice to see the Mongoltage again.
I love learning
What I find most fascinating about China is that it used to be a fragmented mess of different kingdoms and peoples and tribes that somehow united and is still united today. It's like if the Roman Empire were to still be around today larger than ever.
Hyrum Diesen
Well, they did go through many dynasties and was actually conquered by the Mongols at one point.
Hyrum Diesen qin the first dynasty made a big contribution for that. The first emperor had the whole country use the same money, the same language and all kinds of things standardized and universal. Most importantly, through many different dynasties the governments always recognized and emphasized the same believes and culture they inherited from the shared ancestor through many means.
@@nagisaindaegu784 The Romans tried the same. In fact, that's why you have the Romance languages. But they've diverged from each other quite a bit over the centuries.
Its not technically united. The Communist party has many camps, for now Xi's camp appear the strongest but a little trade war can go a long way in giving other camps opportunity.
Ah, the Mongols. Good to see them back.
Great video, although I have a minor quibble. While the Tang dynasty Chinese did invent woodblock printing in the 8th century and the Song dynasty Chinese artisan Bi Sheng invented movable type in the 11th century, neither of these were actually a "printing press" proper. The printing press is a term that should be exclusively applied to the screw press mechanism invented by Johannes Gutenberg for movable type printing in late medieval Europe during the 15th century.
Guys, I'm pretty sure there's no year zero. And Buddhism wasn't the competing ideology, it was Taoism.
Albinotron Both were competing. The Song Dynasty was one of Chinese Buddhism's most prolific periods
Yes, this is why Marco Polo said that China is a paradise-like country.
My ancestors were from Southern China. Represent!
Congratulations! You're a tiny part of the largest ethnic group on Earth. You must feel so special! :p
Well, he's part of the world's majority, just like me.
Let's go Han Chinese
Wow it sounds like China could have been the nation that started the industrial revoultion ,not the UK. I mean they even used coal! But I guess they were too isolationist to start colonies.
Griffdog82 the song was very close, however one theory goes, unlike Europe, there was more Chinese and thus manual labor was cheaper than early machines so machines never got mainstream
The Industrial Revolution is a complex issue where many factors played a part, not just a singular or even a few technological advances, and many of those factors were social and economic. Like a rather large middle class, the appreciation of private economic success, comparatively easy social mobility, an emphasis on private venture and market forces, the large role and prestige of scientific research and invention in society, and so on.
As for manual labour, that also goes both ways - at the beginning, the relative shortage of manual labour played a role; but once industrialisation started, the availability of large amounts of cheap labour due to changes in agriculture driving people off their land was important to sustain mines and factories.
So while China or other societies may have come close to the necessary technologies, they lacked many other ingredients in how the Industrial Revolution started in Britain. We'll never know whether they eventually would've developed their own version but that would've been markedly different from the one we got.
varana312 Maybe if they had started colonising ( not saying that was good or anything) they could have the resources needed to colonise . But yeah probably too early for anything to happen.
I have read somewhere that there was a point in history where china could hhave easily overtaken europe if it wasn't for it's sudden change of priorities.
That would not be possible since Chinese culture considers businessman as the lowest class of people
Another great episode. I’d love to hear more about the movable type printing press.
First, you follow your brother in becoming a novelist, and now the Mongoltage!
Just like the last, elucidating (Islamicate engineering had thought of a robot musician raft, wow!). Sidenote: I have been undeniably addicted to Crash Course, this and that (your Theatre department, and Yorick too, rocks). So yeah, this Belgian student would like to whisper a quick "thanks, guys".
I'm a bit surprised considering this series that you never mentioned the Chinese ver of Aristocracy: the 'Scholar-Bureacrats', aka the nobility were expected to study, innovate, and administer to maintain their position in the social hierarchy. As a result many of China's most famous scientists and engineers were also public servants.
It's interesting that western media usually showcases the Song dynasty as China in its hayday (due to Song's economic strength), but in China the Song dynasty is infamous for its weak government, incompetent rulers, and constantly being invaded. Meanwhile, it's the Tang dynasty - known for its cosmopolitan culture, its military strength, and its multiculturalism that China upholds as its Golden Age.
You cannot blame the Song for that. They are facing the strongest adversaries at the time, multiple of them at once and with limited land resources compare to other dynasties. Plus they had fought the mongols for 45 years which was the longest lasting time for any other country they've ever invaded. This certainly shows the Songs' economic and military might.
China has always faced strong adversaries in the north. The rest of the world just doesn't hear about it most of the time because previous Chinese dynasties successfully contain them (see Han-Xiongnu Wars and Tang Campaigns vs Eastern Turkic Khanagate). The Mongols only spilled into the rest of the world after they successfully conquered northern China. The Song dynasty is also infamous for having several of the most brilliant chinese generals in history who mostly fell to internal treachery (due to the Emperor's incompetence in managing his subjects) rather than outside enemies.
Edmond K. You can definitely blame the Song. They disregarded the military, deeming it the source of troubles as it was what ruined the Tang in the An Lushan Rebellion. This allowed for a strong Jin state in the north, an enemy of their own making. They even had to permit the existence of the Western Xia, which was by all means a Tang-loyal state. In the end they deserved their demise, because they failed to keep balance between the civil and the military sides of governance.
Tang = 289 years.
Song = 319 years.
Song is arguably more prosperous and stable.
If every answer is that straightforward all historians would be out of a job lol!
The Song collapsed slowly, bit by bit, while the Tang collapsed almost overnight in the fires of a civil war.
Oooooh! The Mongols! I missed those guys!
You could probably do an entire series on the History of China - science, art, politics, music... Okay, so you could do several China based series.
Some notes on China: Buddhism didn't come to prominence China until the Sui (pronounced like "sway) dynasty at the earliest, and really took off during the Tang (pronounced with a long "a" tahng) dynasty. Second, "competition" between the 100 schools of thought was a Spring and Autumn event: it was mainly during the late Zhou (pr like "Joe"), prior to the unification of China under the Qin (cheen).
Also, Chinese though is syncretic. A lot of that syncretism was formed by Daoist thought in taking a utilitarian world view overall (oversimplification). So while the official state structure was based on Confucian order, it's not really accurate to say it was the state ideology per se.
Also, "Mandarin" is a Western word. The Chinese didn't call themselves Mandarins. The mandarins were 君子, or gentlemen/scholar officials. The social order was informed by "the four occupations," or Warrior/Farmer/Craftsman/Merchant. Warrior transitioned into scholar by the Song dynsasty. Within these categories, there were sages of each of these classes that had somewhat of a cult like status. Lu Ban is an example of that.
Great job, CrashCourse!
That WALL-E on the desk is so cool!! I love it!!
Another great episode as usual guys! Just one note, the audio on this episode seems a little off. Hank sounds really 'tinny', like there's no bass in his voice. Hope it's a one-off issue, and thanks for making great educational content free on youtube.
What about the Tang? They were part of the Golden Age of China! And they had railroads later!
(coming here after taking AP World exam)
Tang dynasty was more of a renascence period, not a scientific revolution period like Song dynasty (and perhaps Ming dynasty). Tang dynasty was famous for the explosion in arts, culture, poems, literature, religion, etc, rather than scientific inventions (although there were continued inventions during this period)
was joking
Hey! Give some credit to the Sui - they truly brought about the merit-based civil service exam! Be grateful that your AP World exam isn't predicated on schmoozing lots of aristocrats.
Printing and gun powder were actually invented by Tang.
Why when I open this video do I see “the video is unavailable on this device” while other videos on this playlist work fine??
Same. Wouldn't work on ipad but fine on my samsung phone...
During the 12th-13th century A.D. should be an important history to teach the world. It was a time of when both the Khmer Empire and Song Dynasty was at it's height. Both empires had strong relations with each other and produced bronze, iron, steel, gold, metal, military technology, urban cities, massive population, geo-engineering, massive hydraulic works, and such on a industrial level. There was a lot more going on in the far east during the middle age periods than the rest of the world. The Khmer Empire already produced hand cannons in the 1100's already and can be seen in the wall carvings of Angkor Wat King Suryavarman II military troop campaign.
I just want to say that this channel helped me study for my GNED exams. I refused to pay $200 for a random course. Thank you. I will be graduating from college next month. LOL!
So good, but you got a fact mixed up. The Grand Canal that went from Hangzhou to Beijing was not the same distance that New York is to Florida. If New York was located in Beijing than Florida would be located just north of Guangzhou. A much larger distance than Beijing to Hangzhou. Again, your video is great. But that fact there is not true. The distance is more like New York to North Carolina.
you know, song dynasty are famous for their lyrics
oldcowbb get out
This is a great pun 😂 because the Song dynasty IS actually well known for their lyric poetry called ci 😂😂😂
lol the song dynasty really is known for its lyric writers in chinese literary history, the 'lyrics' were indeed beautiful and poetic and now we Chinese kids have to memorize them to pass standardized tests we've invented haha
😆😆😆
Malachi
I never realized how much I needed another Momgaltage.
It wasn't the Song that was the technological marvel of Song but it would be the Tang that did that.
Tang was known to be the one that perfected steel making as they invented the "Cold Steel" standard which was better than Damascus steel and even the Japanese used it. It was also here at the Tang dynasty where gunpower was invented. Even all those interlocking block of construction that you see in Korean palaces and even in Japan where nails are not needed are also perfected by the Tang who brought it to Japan and even Korea. Paper money was also initially used here before the Song did. Compass was also 1st tested here till it was the Ming that set it to work and proved to the world that you can actually do world navigation with just a compass. The Tang did more than the Song.
China has 5000 years of history and is among the world's oldest 'continuous' civilization still alive today, whereas other great ancient civilizations like Mesopotamia, Rome and Egypt have since faded to history.
Indian civilization is also very old, but Indian civilization 500 years ago was very different from what it was 1000 years ago, which was bery different from what it was 2000 years ago, which was very different from what it was 3000 years ago, which was very different from what it was 5000 years ago, which was very different from what it was 8000 years ago.
It's strange how Chinese values, culture and ideologies have remained without much change for 4000 years.
China is the longest standing civilization. India was colonized by the British Empire - whereas China has remained under its own rule. That probably explains the upholding of Chinese values, whereas India was influenced greatly by British colonizers.
They kept mainly to themselves. That may have been the key.
@@lovelylalalala China was ruled by Mongols and Chinese women raped by Mongols. So I guess you learned to conquer Tibet from the mongols?
It's 3000 scientifically speaking, we say 5000 when you include the mythological and unproven piece of history.
Chinese state: 10:13
Mr Beast: Am I a joke to you?
I like how he side stepped how some emperors in ancient china just decided to burn the books the lower class were reading thus setting back science in china
Love the MONGOLS reference! Throwback to CrashCourse History
One of the best videos of the series. The Song is my fav dynasty. I just wish people would try a little harder to pronounce foreign words a little better. e.g. Hangzhou is more like Hahng-Joe Also don't state the Xia (pron.: shyah) like it was more than legend. Not one bit of writing identify them until 1500 years after their reputed fall.
The original poster said "I just wish people would try a little harder to pronounce foreign words a little better" so at least he demonstrated some understanding of learning to pronounce foreign words a little better. I wish people would stop getting all defensive, because some made such remark, over what's considered a minor issue.
puckay In addition, my experience with the varieties of Chinese spokem in the Bay Area, the Chinese dialects are tonal. Had that drummed into my head when I was 17 and needed to know how to ask "do you want a spanking?" in Cantonese (baby talk) when i was babysitting my sister's 3 toddlers who knew no English. 😜 Quite a learning experience from someone fresh out of Bozeman MT
Sung was an independent country. China is just a region name, it is NOT a country.
The name "China" was actually derived from the first imperial dynasty of China, the Qin Dynasty, in which Emperor Qin Shihuangdi unified all the states and proclaimed himself emperor of China.
Most of the writing back then were burned when Xiang Yu had the QIn Capital burned, along with the imperial library that stored most of the books (including historical text).
"It was whole again...Then it broke again."
HE DID THE THING!!!! HE DID THE....WAIT FOR IT...."THE MONGOLS!!!" AHH IM FANGIRLING SO MUCH
Although the Song Dynasty was economically and technically developed, the military power of the Song Dynasty was weak, because the military system existed to prevent the military from rebelling against the central government. Therefore, the Song Dynasty was the weakest dynasty in Chinese history, so that its land area was also small. Even if the military strength is weak, it still resists the Mongolians for 44 years. On the contrary, other countries are instantly conquered by the Mongols.
[ LIKED!!! ]
China... infrastructure.... hmmm, so we are not only obsessed with infrastructure building recently, it is through our history... I should've seen this coming...
Well, when you are dealing with hilariously huge amount of people, infrastructure is kinda important.
Yes! The creators of the abacus, Confucianism, standardized tests and plenty of great inventions
I love that Giancoli textbook from the Physics series, it used myself in college
“This video is unavailable on this device.” ... iPhone 6s , UA-cam app
Oh this was just uploaded XD
Love you crash course
You didn't mention CHINESE MEDICINE - herbal remedies, acupuncture, cupping etc.! It's still being learned today and has withstood time
FINALLY! A Mongols montage.
Tests! China you historical nerds!
Sounds like the Chinese had a good system working, say 9th century? I wonder what the situation was like in medieval England or America?
David
Was America even America as we know it in the 9th century?
Its a good point, maybe it was just the natives living in wig-wams who knows ....
That's probably the case, though I read somewhere that Native Americans had a pretty good woodworking industry and trade prior to the arrival of the colonists.
Satria Kurniawann Djaenal we also had some cool bath tubs
If medieval America means Maya, that will be an interesting comparison. Mayan civilization was thriving in 9th century. They were city states so it was very different from Chinese system at that time. And somehow Mayans couldn't maintain the system and finally collapsed around 10th century. I think it is a topic worth looking into it.
Excellent video! The Mongoltage was the icing on the cake! :D
Finally, the Mongol-tage in Hank's Crash Course subject.
Why our friend taiwan is not on the map?
The People's Republic of China doesn't administer Taiwan, last time I checked.
Because they are not your friends.
@@chronikhiles It's a geographical map, it's insulting to the credibility of the video as well as the intelligence of the audience to just make the largest island in the region to disappear for the sake of 'who is in charge'
Do one for africa
Good one.
It doesn't exist.
What do you mean by that
Africa is a continent, not a country. China is a country within a continent.
China was not one country
The Song dynasty fell to ... [wait for it] ... the Mongols. [Cue Mongols B-roll]
TOOOOO wonderful callback to CC World History!!
China has a lot to give: Origin of the Standardized Test, State Examinations, the Great wall of China, the Grand Canal, the "scientific revolution' that was felt by the people but not mentioned in books (only Hanks analysis made it so).
.
China have lots of contributions. Hydraulic Civilization true Egypt , Sumer , or Mesoamerica. And from writing chinese scholars naturally developed a critical invention in knowledge transmission and state control. Middle Kingdom - China . The cosmos revolved around not just can but China itself, symbolic center of China stands ' son of heaven ' the emperor. State Exams a way of ensuring that trained civil servants to oversee the collection of taxes and building of roads . Metallurgy Backed Military might Hydraulic Engineering is vital in running large states. Canal represented the "Powerful" chinese states ability to engineer vast regions , opening up where goods and people could travel.
China has a lot of contribution in the history of science. Before the song dynasty, china represents hydraulic civilization and developed writings like the writings of Confucius and other philosophers. China also contributed in agricultural methods. Another contribution of china in the history of science is their standardized test and state examination, to know the knowledge of the citizens in the studies of their philosophers and to select candidates for the state because it was the basis of their social status.
Unlike other civilization that had experienced Scientific revolution because they observed, experimented, debated, and studied things, China had its own version of this revolution. It had scientific revolution without the intention of having one for they just go through the process of creating things that are useful for them and sometimes things that could beautify the state. China’s involvement to Science is indeed peculiar to the majority of civilization discussed in previous videos. Instead of renowned scholars making theories, it had anonymous lower-class artisans that ventured the wonders of Science. Although China had its scholars such as Confucius, they were still outnumbered by artisan whose discoveries were somehow not recorded. But there is no denying that
I admire how the states/dynasties governed the said country. To sum it up, I believe that although they did sciencing, it is only for the sake of the dynasty and its people and not for the sake of knowing. But no matter how we put it up, China also did Science and they are successful in whatever they were doing with it and somehow they became one of the most influential countries in the word because of Science.
I already knew that China contributed meaningfully to our history in different areas of science but i did not know that it was this MANY, like for real. From astronomy, meteorology, astrology, agriculture, education, to Confucius' teachings, and infrastructures like the The Grand Canal and Great Wall. I'm just dumbfounded. And their state actually supported a lot to this revolutionary things which made the chinese people to unite more. Sana all.
The China was great civilization in terms of arts, industrial, technologies, infrastructure, engineering achievement including cannons, gunpowders and others also they good in terms of trademark especially in the Philippines on the time of Pre-historic. Aside from that chinese contribute a lot in our history. However, in the time of Mongol Conquest many civilizations is destroyed including the civilization of China. thanks for the video i learn a lot.
Hey guys, how soon can we get mathematics rolling on here?
Akram Elkouraichi Statistics is still going, maybe something like algebra or calc shows up later on?
Aesop's Fables calc evevolved in 17th century Europe algebra was in india so China is the best
Wow nevermind
Btd Pro Actually I recall that the Babylonians were using a rudimentary form of calculus to find the areas under the curve with regard to positions of planets (can't remember what the use of that was though)
Well, PBS just shut down Infinite Series recently, so... :/
Actually the first thing I noticed wasn't the rivers but that you missed an entire island of China. It kind of just disappeared from the ocean.
Mainland China only colonized Formosa in the era of European commerce (they took over Dutch trading posts on the island). During the classical Chinese period, the island was controlled by peoples more akin to Filipinos or Malays.
I don't think you know what you're talking about.
Source for your skepticism?
The fact that I'm not some western brainwashed shill such as yourself.
I will provide a source. Not a primary source, but a starting point. If you care to dispute any of this, provide your own source.
From Wikipedia, "Taiwan":
The island of Taiwan, formerly known as Formosa, was inhabited by aborigines before the 17th century, when Dutch and Spanish colonies opened the island to mass Han immigration. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed in 1683 by the Qing dynasty, the last dynasty of China.
Mongoltage never gets old.
a very awesome course. Thanks, CrashCourse!
Most of the discoveries about astronomy and space by Chines were already discovered in India .
But Chinese independent enquiry is praiseworthy nonetheless.
The invention of paper by Chinese was superb.
The term medieval should not be applied to China. It doesn’t make sense on many levels.
Took a little tid bit from his brother lol "Wait for it... The Mongols"
Perfect! Thank you for this valuable addition.
So why do we say Gutenberg invented the printing press in tb
email 15th century? I guess I should Google that....
Tasty Treats because the chinese writing with its billions of characters made their printing press less conveniantly usable than Gutenbergs. Therefore Gutenberg had the bigger impact on history... at least of the western world.
because Gutenberg developed his printing press independently. His printing press was different and he invented unique parts such as using oil based ink, using a more durable metal alloy for the type and also creating the process known as letterpress printing. But like Moritz said the chinese didn't have a small alphabet so even with their printing press making books was still difficult.
My Gender-Studies professor told me that science is an invention of "rich European white men" ...
*when I asked what about the scientifically verified fact that men are 15% larger than women on average
Why are you even in such a pointless class?
So? That doesn't take away from the validity of science
Methinks he's just trying to start a flamewar. Best not take the bait.
Maybe the professor is a her, not a him.
Chinese invent gunpowder: cool we can use it for fireworks and make everyone happy.
europe gets the gunpower: cool, we can go on a world domination with that baby!
Can you do a series or episode on Native American societies? The Mayans had a pretty complicated city state system, and I know northern Haiti he tribes also keep really intricate trading routes with each other. Sorry if you already covered it!!
Again there isn't much actual science history here. This so far has been the history of civil engineering
Good thing they have a CC Engineering course going on right alongside this then. ;) More seriously, I don't think Hank wants to get too hung up on the distinction between pure and applied science, at least not yet. The ancients usually didn't bother separating them much, so he's just evaluating them on their own terms.
I mean, how do you expect him to scientifically explain how ancient Chinese knew how gunpowder works? To the ancient Chinese, mixing different proportions of 3 common substances: sulphur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate (saltpeter) in a silver bowl (to prevent sparks from igniting the powder) seemed to work. Gunpowder origins was actually known in China as "fire medicine" Huǒyào 火药.
That's exactly the point the series is making: Before the development of the scientific method, engineering and "natural philosophy" were the closest things we had to proper science.
"Again"
You kind of need to master civil engineering in order to have the luxury to do science.
I'm concerned with the way in which you use the word "science" or "scientific" in historical contexts that have nothing to do with the practices of present time. Can we really say that anyone was doing "science" 500 years ago, before Galileo or Newton, or even Karl Popper? Just think how nowadays, how many times we see people claiming to have made "scientific" discoveries or inventions that prove to be fake or scams. To me, the word "science" should be use in a very restricted sense, otherwise you can be giving credibility to all the pseudoscience that unfortunately surrounds us.
I think even if the scientific method is essential for modern science, knowledge about the world is still the core of all science. This has been true for all of human civilization, not just for the "refined methods" we use today. All pseudosciences get filtered out eventually, the scientific method is just much more efficient at this.
scientific method was present with muslims in golden age
Scientific method was created by Aristotle, I think. So many civilization after him such the Islamic or Christian kingdom did have some form of method.
I think it's fair (IN THIS CONTEXT) to understand science as "knowledge making" this definition is usefull when we are talking about the history of science
The "scientific method" is just making theories consistent with observation so its not really something that was invented. Its just the rational thing to do for anyone trying to honestly understand the world.
This is the Course I always wanted and never knew it!
Such an amazing world we live in...
I want to learn everything about everything ever