Disability in ancient China

Abstract

Introduction This chapter concerns the perceptions of disability and the treatment of those classified as disabled in ancient China. For the purposes of this discussion, the period in question covers the time from the collapse of the Western Zhou dynasty in 771 bce, when the regime was ripped apart by a horrific civil war following a series of natural disasters in the capital region, through to the invasions by the Xiongnu (Huns), the Xianbei (a Turkic ethnic group) and other Central Asian peoples in 316 ce, when the whole of northern China came under foreign rule. In the course of this thousand-year period, China underwent massive political and social upheavals. During the Spring and Autumn period (771-475 bce) and Warring States era (475221 bce), the aristocrats who had thrown off any last vestiges of subordination to the Zhou kings fought each other for dominance. In 221 bce, these realms were unified by the First Emperor, who simultaneously incorporated vast areas of territory inhabited by non-Chinese peoples into the Qin regime. During the Han dynasty (206 bce-220 ce) yet more lands were conquered in what is now Central Asia, the Korean peninsula and Vietnam. In 220 ce, the territory of the Han was temporarily partitioned among warlords who rose up in the wake of the upheavals caused by the Yellow Turbans Rebellion, a massive uprising provoked by severe flooding along the lower reaches of the Yellow River in 184 ce. China was then briefly reunited by the Jin dynasty in 265-316 ce.