China – A Brief History

China – A Brief History

Two anecdotal Chinese ancestral Figures

神农氏 – the Godly Farmer, inventor of agriculture & Chinese medicine

伏羲 – The Animal Domesticator, inventor of hunting and fishery, as well as medicine.

A Brief History *

Chinese history & Dynasties

Dynasty -- A succession of rulers from the same family or line

Most of the 5,000 - 6,000 years of recorded Chinese history were characterized by replacement of one dynasty by another, following almost the same pattern.

A new dynasty with a strong leader with strong morality established a new dynasty

Successors as rulers with weak personality, lower morality, corruption, lack of caring for the people

Angry farmers went on rebellion: miserable life with high tax, forced labor without pay, demanding military duties

Neolithic Era3000 - 1500 B.C.

Ceremonial Stem Cup (3000-2000 B.C.)

Funerary Storage Jar (ca 2400 B.C.)

The Chinese civilization started from the alluvial plains down along the Yellow River & Yangtze River

Shang 1523 - 1028 B.C.

Fang I (Ritual Wine Vessel, late 13th-12th century B.C.)

Ko (Dagger-Axe, Yin or early Chou dynasty

Chou (/ Zhou) 1027 - 256 B.C.

Yung-cheng Bell (Chou dynasty, Warring States period)

Chou (/ Zhou): 1027 - 256 B.C.

Tripod (Ritual Food Vessel): Western Chou dynasty

Name: 孔丘 Kong QiuBirth: September 28, 551 BC

Death: 479 BCSchool: Founder of Confucianism

"Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in getting up every time we do fall."

More Confucius quotations

Confucius / 孔夫子

Chu ( 楚 )Han ( 韩 )

Qi ( 齐 )Qin ( 秦 )Wei ( 魏 )Yan ( 燕 )

Zhao ( 赵 )

The Seven Kingdoms ( 战国七雄 )

Ch'in (/Qin)221 - 206 B.C.

Han Dynasty206 B.C. - 220 A.D.

Funerary Model of a Pig Sty(Western Han dynasty, Earthenware)

Paper and lead-glazed ceramics invented

Greatly improved silk-weaving techniques.

Han Dynasty206 B.C. - 220 A.D.

Prancing Horse (Eastern Han dynasty, Earthenware with traces of pigment)

Six Dynasties220- 586

Avalokitesvara (571, Black marble with traces of pigments & gilding

Spirit Jar (late 3rd century, Porcelaneous stoneware with olive green glaze

Wars, plagues, political instability, religions, and arts

Sui581 - 618

Cup: T'ang dynasty:Porcelaneous stoneware with clear glaze

It was during Tang dynasty, Buddhism was introduced into China.

Song960 – 1279 AD

For the nomad people in the north, the Middle Kingdom within the Great Wall were irresistible.

The Great Wall of China Largest structure ever built

on earthCrosses the northern part of

China6,700 km, /4,500 miles long Built over 2,000 years Construction from 770-476

BCBuilt to protect territory Completely built by handMany people died building it

The distribution of the unusual Y-chromosome (Shaded circles). (The New York Times)

Research has found an unusually high prevalence of a particular set of genes on human Y-chromosome in China

Unequal reproductive success in human

Based on the amount of mutations and mutation rate of involved genes, it is possible that these estimated 1,500,000 Chinese men are direct descendants of Giocangga, the grandfather of the founder of the Qing dynasty.

http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/chinese-dynasty-guide.cfm

Minneapolis Institute of Arts, 2400 Third Avenue South, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55404

Tea and the Opium War

As tea drinking became very popular in England from the 18th Century and its main tea supplier was China in the 19th Century, mainly from one province – Fujian, the home of Oolong Tea

Because of Chinese tradition, the British traders, like any other traders, were distrusted, and were required to pay silver bullions for the tea they would buy;

The British did not have that much money, of course!

Tea and the Opium War

As such, the British started to sell to the Chinese Opium, which quickly got the Chinese addicted

Some Chinese officials with vision foresaw this as a serious problem, and convinced the government to start a ban on opium trade

So the British started the Opium War

The Chinese lost the opium war, and had to “rent” Hong Kong to the British and gave them other privileges, such as trading rights

Hong Kong was not returned to China until 1997

China also had to deal with other invading forces, including the France, Russia, USA, Germany, and other tiny countries that China never heard of!

Tea and the Opium War

General Lin Zhexu, the

Chinese hero leading the 1st

Opium War against British Opium

The forming of Modern China1. Ironically, Gun Powder was a Chinese invention,

which the Chinese have used for centuries for various purposes, esp. for firework and hunting.

2. Now the Europeans, not just the British, came with guns and wanted a share of China’s wealth.

3. This defeat and other military losses served to wake up the Chinese. People blamed the corrupted Qing dynasty and believed that they must learning from their enemies in order to save China

4. The Qing dynasty came to an end in 1912 as the revolutionary forces originated in southern China pushed north to overthrow it – The Northward Wars

The “Two Chinas”1. The Northward Wars has lead to the

establishment of the Republic of China with Guomindang, or the Nationalist Party (GMD) as its ruling party;

2. A civil war soon broke out between GMD and the Communist Party (CPC); they cooperated during the Northward Wars (the 1st GMD-CPC Union);

3. The two sides formed a brief 2nd GMD-CPC Union during WWII to fight the Japanese, but split again after WWII.

4. A full scale civil war ended with GMD defeated and retreated to the island of Taiwan

The “Two Chinas” The CPC lead China, the People’s

Republic of China, was founded in 1949; PRC currently represents China in UN,

while Taiwan is officially considered as a province of China;

USA has diplomatic relationship with PRC, but not with Taiwan, although it uses Taiwan as a leverage;

Previous US presidential elections always played the China card, but not in the last one, simply because USA and China are tied up in global issues;

Admit it or not, China has improved greatly in the last 30 yrs.

Cultural Invasion

• 中国 , the Central Kingdom, had fought ferociously to defend its territory from invaders thirsty for its wealth, with much success;

• When it was defeated, it just absorbed the invaders into its culture;

• Will China retain its identity and culture in the tides of globalization?

A summary Yuan Dynasty was the first time when the Central Kingdom

was completely conquered by an invading people. But the Mongols ruled China in the Chinese way, alienating some other Mongols. This left the Mongol Empire to include only China proper and the Outer Mongolia of now;

Ming is the last Han ruled Chinese Dynasty, and the Manchurians Qing Dynasty was the last Chinese dynasty.

The Nationalist government, Republic of China inherited its territory from the Qing, but had to give up the territory of Mongolia because of pressure from the Soviet Union.

Civil war of China after the WWII resulting the retreating of the Nationalist government to Taiwan and the establishment of the People’s Republic of China on the mainland