Ancient China

欢迎 "Welcome"

Hey!

Yes, you! I want to ask you something. Have you ever wished you could travel somewhere and experience a new way of life that is completely different from your own? Would you like to learn some things along the way, that you could carry with you for the rest of your life?

Good! All you must do to go is turn your brain on and be open to experiencing what it is like to live somewhere your not used to. Seeing as it may be a bit difficult to arrange for a real trip, I want to take you on one that you can do straight from the computer. It will be as if you actually bought that plane ticket, grabbed your camera and began the adventure.

You would like to know where you're going? Yes, well let me tell you then. The title should give you a bit of a hint. It is located in Asia. Any guesses?

CHINA!!! I am going to take you on a serious of "stops" through China and even through what China was like in the antiquities (which most simply means, ancient China). This journey will hopefully put you on the right path to gaining some knowledge as well as having something fun and interesting to talk about in your next history conversation. So get ready!! HERE WE GO!!!

How do I prepare for this journey?

YOU + BACKPACK

+ CAMERA

= ADVENTURE!!!

3-Geography

As you can see from the Physical map of China, there are many colorful spots that each serve as a function on this map. For instance, this map happens to indicate the height in either feet or meters above Sea Level. Some of the features shown on this map are the Mekong River, Yellow River, Chang Jiang (Yangtze), South China Sea, the Himalaya Mnts. (which actually faces other neighboring countries such as India, Bhudapest and Nepal. All of these physical features are an intricate part of China's geography and are what gives China their edge over other countries. We can see that most of China's area is well above Sea Level, with a large part in the 10000 ft/3050 meter range above Sea Level. Why do you think the green areas are around Sea Level?

4-Geography Continued

This happens to be a political map of China showing the cities that lie within, as well as some of China's territories.

Some of the major cities-including the capital city of Beijing (population is 7,607,000)-are: Shanghai (pop. 9,862,000), Chongqing (pop. 6,609,000), Tianjin (pop. 5,325,000), and many more.

I want to take this time to point out some interesting features about the capital city of Beijing. Like, did you know that Beijing became the capital of China when Mao Zedong openly-in the middle of the now famous Tian'anmen Square-declared it to be the capital of the new People's Republic of China? Mao Zedgon, by the way, was a very influential man, as he helped reconstruct China from the old Dynasties to a new nation comprised of different nation-states. Also, before it became Beijing, the name used to be Peking. Beijing is home to many famous sites such as:

Tian'anmen Square

5-China's Dynasties

Starting with the earliest, we have the Xia Dynasty (which ruled from 1944 B.C.E. [Before Common Era] up to 1766 B.C.E.). Dynasties mainly consisted of families who wanted to take up control of their areas (and in the case of the Xia, it was the Huang River valley), and subsequently China had many families doing this.
The next one is the Shang Dynasty (ruling from 1766 B.C.E. to 1027 B.C.E.). "This dynasty was based on agriculture; millet, wheat, and barley were the primary crops grown. In addition to the crops, silkworms, pigs, dogs, sheep, and oxen were raised. Aside from their agricultural prowess, the Shang dynasty was also advanced in metallurgy. Bronze ships, weapons, and tools were found from that era."
Next we have the Zhou Dynasty (ruling from 1122 B.C.E. to 256 B.C.E.). The Zhou Dynasty was said to have been so large, that not even its rulers could keep a handle on all of its vastness. "Because of this, the leaders decided to appoint people to oversee each of the territories. The territories started off as walled off cities. The leader of each of the territories were the lords, each receiving the title through inheritance. Next in the hierarchy were the fighting men, followed by the peasants and the domestic slaves. Soon, these territories became more independent, eventually breaking away from the main Zhou dynasty leaders."

I'm going to skip all the way down to our current Chinese control so as to show you how ancient China has changed to keep up with its modern edge.

The Chinese form of government today-in the People's Republic of China-is Communism. This form of governing came about in 1949 when the man by the name of Mao (REMEMBER HIM?) declared it. Communism is a complicated term in itself, but the basics exist around supporting the working class (those who labor and are not wearing fancy business suits or work in air conditioned offices). When the working class is being oppressed by other forms of power (whether foreign or local), then having Communism on their side ensured that they would have the kind of rights they had been withheld from. One form of working class (peasants) oppression was land not being evenly distributed or completely withheld all together. When Confucianism was introduced (to which I will explain this form of education in a later "stop") people sought chances to move up from their present class, and subsequently so did the land owners. Once a land owner passed the test issued by Confucianism, and they moved up, they left behind the peasants. This is where Communism can really do its job, by making government in control evenly distribute land amongst the peasants-and give none to those who were unfair to the working class.

This is a picture of Mao Zedong:

6-汉语 "Chinese Language"

I want to go through a list of some common English words, and then next to each word will be the Chinese translation, as well as the Chinese characters for the word.

Hello--Wei--喂
Car--Qiche--汽车
Smile--Wei xiao--微笑
Teacher--Jia yuan--教员

Now I'll go ahead and give some simple phrases, with the same format as above.

How old are you?--Nin gao shao?-

How are you feeling?--Ni xian zai gan jue zen meyang?-

你现在感觉怎么样？

7-Confucianism

In China, especially ancient China, the people lived by certain guidelines. A man by the name of K'ung Fu Tzu (or better known as Confucius) started Confucianism in order to teach China the right ethics and morals, as well as teaching the political leaders how to exercise proper control of the people. Confucius spent most of his adult life until his death at age 72, teaching his principles to those who would listen. He gathered a small amount of students (disciples) that would solely study Confucius' teachings.

A list of some Confucius teachings are:

Li: includes rituals, propriety (proper behavior), etiquette, etc.
Hsiao: love within the family: Love of parents for their children and of children for their parents.
Yi: righteousness
Xin: honesty and trustworthiness
Jen: benevolence, humaneness towards others; the highest Confucian virtue!
Chung: loyalty to the state

There are many schools of Confucianism that still exist today. In fact, the six schools are: Han-Confucianism, Neo-Confucianism, Contemporary Neo-Confucianism, Korean Confucianism, Japanese Confucianism, and Singapore Confucianism.

8-Chinese cultural traditions

Have you had enough exposure? Could use more? Well, one can never learn too much! When you think about the culture you grew up, what were some of the traditions that only your culture uniquely practiced? Well, China definitely had its own traditions, both in the older times and now in the modern time.

Some of these traditions included:

Women's foot-binding: Having smaller feet was considered an attractive characteristic to have for a woman. Just hearing the word can send the message of pain ringing through your ears, but to the ancient Chinese, this was just one of the many unique traditions that they held as precious to their country. (This form of tradition is no longer used, thankfully!)

The Chinese had their own spiritual beliefs that included the worship of deities such as: Guan Yin, Jade Emperor, Buddha. They also practiced fortune-telling.

The Chinese take part in many aspects of the arts such as fine arts, folk arts and performance arts. They hold many festivals in honor of various Chinese characters such as the gods they worshipped, as well as some holidays that we as Americans even celebrate! The picture below is the Chinese New Year and like many of China's festivals or parades, a dragon is representative for their majestic power. The Chinese dragon is also representative as the Male symbol, Yang. The dragon also symbolizes the climate as far as bringing rain and water.

9-Modernization in China

When China switched from the old Imperialist ways to it's now Communist form of Governing, another type of global effect came about and that was "Modernization". Here are some of the modern characters that you can see in China today:

China's "Open door Policy"-What this does (under the new control of Deng Xiaoping) is allow for China to open up it's economy to the rest of the world. This gave way for lots of new opportunities for China to import/export with other countries, flourishing China's economy in the end.
Military Modernization-as a part of the "Open door Policy"-"Beijing is constructing a series of defensive positions in Manchuria, considering the purchase of modern anti- tank weapons and artillery from the U.S., and apparently experi- menting with nuclear mines. In the near future Beijing expects to receive and store under the Gobi Desert nuclear waste from Western Europe. The lethal contamination from this waste could make potential invasion routes impassable for Soviet forces moving through Mongolia." (Keep in mind, that China's Communist Party had competition with the Soviets (Russia) Communist Party).

Overall, China has expanded and is working towards its 3-step goal to modernizing. All the while, we as Americans are keeping a close eye on their progress as to make sure that China's old way of dealing with issues, doesn't creep back up again. I tell you all of this, because many countries dealt-in one form or another-an attack on their systems (whether through wars, famines, etc). Being an American, I believe it is important for us to know about other countries way of life and especially if we have had some kind of relationship with that country.

10-The end of our journey

Hello again!

Did you enjoy going through China's history? I hope you gathered some new information that you can fold up and store in your memory bank for another conversation, or homework assignment. China is just one of many breathtaking countries, whose culture if unique in itself. I have listed under the "To Learn More, Head This Way", five websites that can be used for more information on some of the topics I took you through. I encourage you to visit them sometime in the near future and just explore what each one has to offer on China. Thank you for being such awesome guests and making my job as your tour guide so much more enjoyable! Feel free to visit my tour anytime you'd like!!