CHAPTER 3 - Far Eastern Civilization at its Zenith

Abstract

This chapter discusses the history of Far Eastern civilization, when it was at its zenith. The chapter discusses the rule of the Confucian scholar-gentry. Hung Wu, like Liu Pang, the founder of the Han dynasty, was a hard-bitten soldier, with no personal liking for scholars or scholarship. Yet, he was shrewd enough to realize that he could not administer the empire he had won merely by force of arms. As the architect of Chinese liberation from alien Mongol rule, he saw the necessity of enlisting the influential Confucianist gentry class in the imperial service. Therefore, he promoted the state cult of Confucius as a deity and, in 1370, decreed that Confucius alone should be so honored. The chapter describes the period of isolation and self-sufficiency after the breakup of the cosmopolitan Mongol empire. The breakup combined with Chinese hostility to foreign influences to isolate China from western Asia and Europe. The chapter discusses the early Ming Era, the period of 1368–1424, and also discusses the rise of the Manchus. The chapter discusses the rule of the Tokugawa Shogunate in Japan, the restoration of political order during the period of 1560–1600, and the policy of seclusion followed in Japan.