The Sextants Of Beijing Essay Research Paper

The Sextants Of Beijing Essay, Research Paper A book The Sextants of Beijing by Waley Cohen view China from a Western point of view. In this book Chinese emperors, Chinese governments, and Chinese people were engaged by the outside world, and wanted to study and learn foreign goods and ideas. However, at the same time they were feared that they might lose political and moral as well as their Chinese values and traditions. In each chapter, the author explained the overview of China’s contracts with other civilizations, how China participated in a network of international exchange all around the world. In the book, it started out from the year between 629 through 645, which was the Tang dynasty. In this time, Han China was interested in establishing political and commercial

relationships with others through trade. China began to trade silk and gold with Central Asia in regular basis and in return, China imported spices, woolen fabrics, and military projects from India. According to Waley Cohen, the trade expanded for a number of reasons during the Tang dynasty. The first was simply the attractiveness of the success and cosmopolitan Tang court and society. The second was an increase in seafaring skills and risky attempts that were learned through trade. The third was the change of goods that the China was exporting. Skills that China learned was the most wanted product for all the Chinese. However, ceramics began to up rise as the leading of exports and the trade of silk production lost when silkworm cocoons were smuggled out from China. Even though

fine silks were remained in a great deal and were still traded around the world, development of porcelain was much finer than earlier ceramics. Also, during this period the most influential features of the traffic were the spread of Buddhism from India to China. Along with them, they took elements of Confucianism and other cultural aspects of Chinese civilization. The China’s first identical interaction with Europe and European culture was during the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries. The urbanization added series of developments including the spread of literacy among both men and women, much wider abilities of books, attention to women for more education, and preparation of civil service exams that were reserved for men. I think a connection between China and Europe

brought China a great deal of expanding their abilities of study. Many people rose in upper class and began to collect art objects and antiques on a much larger scales. Also between the China and Europe in the early modern age took place through the Jesuit missionaries. In the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the connection of trade through Southeast Asia and the trade linked to European nations through their colonial activities in Asia. The Qing empire didn’t want to allow Europeans to access China’s market but they played a central part in Qing empire, which represented a major political and cultural force in the region. Also in the eighteenth century, the commerce played an important role. The trade brought China some necessities such as pepper, coconut oil,

rice, sugar, copper, wood, rattan, and sea slugs and took Chinese ceramics, textiles, and other facilities. China made a trade with Japan, the silver and copper from Nagasaki, the only port open to foreign trade in Japan, even though China and Japan were unfriendly to each other. However, the constant need of copper and silver to China made them trade with Japan. After the death of Qianlong in 1799, China suffered the series of treaties that were unequal, and gave the Western powers and rights in China. Also by the nineteenth century, many educated Chinese learned their culture deeply because any religions within the Chinese traditions seemed unimportant to both the Western and Japanese imperialism. China wanted to adopt Western ways to overcome the West and wanted to preserve