The numerous cultures of Mainland China are both intricate with their systems of deities and traditions, and yet humble with their ways of life and survival. China is located in the midst of high lands, plateaus, canyons and numerous river systems. In coinciding with the difficult landscapes in which they live, the Chinese people have managed to generally abide by the natural protocols of the land. Throughout their approximately five thousand years of civilization the Chinese have concocted many traditions which are based upon their thriving in their environment. These traditions are what produce the intricate social structures of most of China. Every aspect of the Chinese culture is interrelated and therefore necessary for the …show more content…
The invention of the cart, the boat, clothes, script and medicine is attributed to the genius of Huang Di. Whereas the necessity of cultivating the land through the use of a plow is attributed to Yan Di.
`Perhaps, hundreds of years thereafter the attributions of Huang Di and Yan Di, the leaders known as Yao, Shun and Yu had led the people one after another. Yu was a prestigious and popular leader who supposedly gained the respect of his followers by taming two flooding rivers by redirecting their currents towards the sea. Upon the death of Yu his son, Qi. had succeeded as ruler. With this first exchange in rule the first dynasty in Chinese history had been founded. It was called the Xia dynasty. With the establishment of its first dynasty China had been transformed from a primitive society, consisting of no family structure, private property, or class distinction, to a society based mainly on family and private ownership. Little is known about the Xia dynasty except for that it had lasted four hundred years and was ultimately overthrown by the Shang,a state that was east of the Chinese establishment.
All history before the Shang dynasty is largely legendary with very little or no material evidence of neither the Xia dynasty nor the rulers Yu, Huang Di or Yao Di. However, the Shang dynasty is assured to have existed in some manner as it is proven by numerous
They were founded by the members of Tzu clan whose founder was Hsei. According to the Shang myth mother of Hsie got pregnant after “an egg dropped by a dark bird was devoured by Hsieh's mother” (12). The egg’s bird supports the belief of many researchers that the people of the Shang dynasty came from the east; birds are a prominent symbol on the east. Moreover, the bird’s egg suggests the divine heavenly connection with choosing the ruler of each dynasty. Although the Shang dynasty is known as the second dynasty of the ancient China, there has not been found any evidence that Hsia dynasty ever existed, hence some scholars consider the Shang dynasty as the first dynasty of China since archaeological evidence of the Shang period has been
The following are the Chinese dynasties in order from oldest to most recent: Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han, Sui, Tang, Song, Jin, Yuan, Ming, and Qing. The legendary dynasty is the Xia, which is believed to be around 2000 BC. The Shang (1700-1000BC) developed the first written Chinese language. The Zhou (1028-221BC) built the first roads, expanded trade contacts and trade routes, and also developed plows and irrigation systems. Trade at this time was expanding in China. The Qin Dynasty (221-207BC) built the famous Great Wall of China as a defense mechanism and also united all of China under one central government. Next is the Han Dynasty (207BC-AD220), which did a lot for China in terms of trading. They developed the Great Silk Road, a trading route that stretched from China all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. The Sui Dynasty (589-618) united almost all of China. Followed in suit by the Tang Dynasty (618-917) discovered one of Chinas' leading exports, porcelain. During the Tang Dynasty, the first block-style printing press was invented. The Song Dynasty (960-1279) came next, which took over all of China and later took the southern rule after being conquered by the Jin. The Song Dynasty is responsible for developing Chinese cuisine as we know it today. During this time period the compass and gunpowder were also discovered. The Jin Dynasty (1127-1234) took rule over Northern China from the Song. The Yuan Dynasty (1279-1368) brought a long period of peace to
Despite being the shortest ruling dynasty at fifteen years, the Qin dynasty served a vital role in the development of China’s civilization (51). The Qin dynasty was prefaced by a period of instability caused by an ineffective political system and war between several regions all vying to overtake the others. After the Qin kingdom rose as the victor, King Cheng established for himself the title of Shi huangdi, or emperor, and looked to create a political system that would prevent the empire from fragmenting again. To achieve such a centralized government, Shi Huangdi sacrificed his people’s intellectual freedom and lives and produced a connected and standardized China, whose efficiency and strength still impacts the vision
The first ever knowing emperor of china was Shi Huangdi, His named applied to the country, while in Zhou’s dynasty he created the feudal system Shi abolished it was no more. Shi was a strong emperor and he expanded the country of Vietnam, during his reign he built the Great wall and a lot of different things that china is revolved around. During the Shi dynasty there where strict laws. If you didn’t go to school you were killed.
Tracing back the history of China, Xia Dynasty of the second millennium BCE was the earliest dynasty in China, which was centered along the Yellow River. Before China was unified, it was the time during which most of China's cultural tradition arose. Chinese civilization ascended and developed in a vast area, one-third larger than the United States if such dependencies as Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, and Tibet are included. For centuries China was almost completely isolated from the other centers of civilization by mountains, deserts, and seas. This isolation helps explain the great originality of China's culture. China has many mountain ranges and three river systems that rise close together on the high Tibetan plateau and flow eastward to
The Shang period was preceded by the Xia, but scholars cannot verify the reality of
The region of China is extensive and profound. “In China lay people did not belong to an institutionalized sect, nor did their religious life have anything to do with signing articles of faint. Religion in China was so woven into the broad fabric of family and social life that there was not even a special word for it until modern times, when one was coined to match the Western term” (Thompson, 1). In China, Taoism, Buddhism, and Confucianism are all blended. In the earliest period, Shang Dynasty (2000 BC), people in China had worshipped a lot of different gods (polytheism) such as weather god, river god. People in the Shang Dynasty believed that their ancestors become like gods after they died, so people worshipped their
China has had many dynasties, but there are two which stand out; which, are the Qin and the Han. Ancient China has had one of the oldest and longest civilizations in the history of the world. Throughout China’s history, China was ruled by powerful families called dynasties. Because of Qin and Han significance and impact on China, both dynasties sites are influential to Chinese history, but the Han dynasty had a greater impact on the history of China due to their significant rise to power, impact, and their influence to Chinese history.
1. The Zhou Dynasty the First Dynasty of the Classical China. It lasted from 1029 to 258 b.c.e. This Dynasty ruled through alliances with the elite of society.
Chinese Dynasties: 1. Shang: Also called Yin, dynasty that was China's earliest historically verifiable state 1766 B.C. to 1122 B.C. A. Reason's for Rise: Unlike the early accounts of history by the Chinese, there is archaeological evidence of the Shang, who built their cities in northern China around the eastern parts of the Yellow River. For this reason they are called the Yellow River civilization. They were a bronze age people; bronze-working seems to have entered China around 2000 BC (about one thousand years after its invention in Mesopotamia). B. Territorial Location & size at height of power (map): The Shang ruled the area from the North China Plain northward into present-day Shantung Province and westward to the tip of Honan
As many other countries around the world China has its long history of a struggle for equality and prosperity against tyrants and dictatorships. The establishment of People’s Republic of China in 1949 seemed to have put an end to that struggle for a better life. “The Chinese people have stood up!” declared Mao Tse-tung, the chairman of China’s Communist Party (CPP) – a leading political force in the country for the time. The people were defined as a coalition of four social classes: the workers, the peasants, the petite bourgeoisie and the national-capitalists. The four classes were to be led buy the CPP, as the leader of the working class.
At the core of any nation’s culture are its religious beliefs. In China there are the “Three Jewels” Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism, as described in Lopez (1996). There are small numbers of people practicing other religions such as Christianity and Islam, but these are the three dominant beliefs of the region. While they are separate in content, they have coexisted for several thousand years. Lopez (1996) goes on to say, “Historical precedent and popular parlance attest to the importance of this threefold division for understanding Chinese culture…Buddhism is the sun, Daoism the moon, and Confucianism the five planets…suggesting that although they remain separate, they also coexist as equally indispensable phenomena of the natural world.” Each belief system stands alone, and at the same time needs the other(s).
There are ancient accounts about the history of a small kingdom along the Yellow River that existed from about 2,000 BC to 1,600 BC. The main ancient accounts are in the Records of the Grand Historian (史記) that were written between about 109 BC and 91 BC by Sima Qian and another textthat is called the Bamboo Annals (竹書紀年) that was a text that was said to have been buried with the King of Wei who died in 296 BC and was rediscovered in 281 AD during the Jin Dynasty. The text was written on flat pieces of bamboo, and this is why it is called the Bamboo Annals. Are these accounts accurate? It is said that the Xia Dynasty people didn't keep written records, but that their histories were passed orally. Archeologists
China has about five thousand years history which is a very long period of time. Also, the Chinese civilization was growing with these periods of time and it will continues greater than ever. Many wars and unhappinesses were happening during this period. Although, the time has passed, the histories and the civilizations have not passed. These family virtues, serious, working attitudes, sense of justice and the great Confucian tradition have been deeply assimilated into the Chinese people. Some Chinese traditions are different from North American’s. The Chinese culture has many special characteristics which are very interesting for people to learn.
Rhoads Murphey describes the history of China history is on the succession of dynasties that ruled it over a period of time until around 1912 when Republic of china was formed before rising to the current People’s Republic of China was formed in 1949. In China, a dynasty was made up of Kings or emperors that came from the same family. They ruled in succession where a king could be inherited by his son or his immediate relatives. Although china’s history is majorly regarded on the basis of dynastic ruling, other small kingdoms were established that ruled different part of china. For example, in 200AD, the fall of great Han dynasty triggered formation of smaller kingdoms all over the china which were later united by a short lived Sui Dynasty that reigned between 580 and 618 AD.