Ancient Chinese Characters And Chinese Writing System

However simultaneously during this time of anarchy and imperialism there were many different cultural and religious sects forming in China. This provides the modern day reader with one of the main obstacles from fully comprehending the text seeing as it cannot be approached from a mere linguistic point of view, as to do this a comparison between various translations would be necessary.

The foundations were set for these two Classical developing empires: China, separated from other developing empires and India, supported by them. While both Classical China and India had hierarchy’s based on agriculture and organized patriarchal societies, India developed multiple institutions, such as language, while China developed one united dialect.

Imposing a universal written language allowed for better communication, orders and implementation of policies. It was such a great concept which has boosted China’s market to where it is today.

First, the Han Dynasty was more important to the development of China because it created the idea of a Civil Service Exam. The Han Dynasty readopted the idea of having families rulers after the Qin Dynasty strayed from the tradition; however, they kept the idea of bureaucrats from the Qin Dynasty. They used appointed government officials to oversee the day-to-day work of their government. This lead them to implement the Civil Service Exam. The exam was meant to help chose the bureaucrats for the government. It was a test centered around the ideas of Confucius and how to apply them to everyday life. By making this a normal part of Chinese society, the Han Dynasty was able to extend government official job opportunities to people of all social classes. In addition, because the exam gave these opportunities to all people, all people put more emphasis on

Attached strings were placed on each end of the vertical piece. That string was pulled back to shoot an arrow. Paper was another very important creation of the Han people. The people found that paper was ideal for a special style of writing called calligraphy. Paper was invented in first century CE.

The Legalist teachings differed from all other philosophies and they became lost in the past. The Legalists rejected all the Confucians values and really wanted to establish a link between the subject and the ruler. Minister Shang established population registers to record who lived together in different households. He stated, “that they supervise each other and be mutually liable. Anyone who failed to report criminal activity would be chopped in two at the waist, while those who reported it would receive the same reward as that for obtaining the head of an enemy.” (Shang, p 128.) The creation of Minister Shang’s registers showed a break from the past and for the first time ever officials kept detailed records of their subjects.

The development the Chinese state and political institutions are classical Chinese government that is based on the dynastic cycle. Which says that a family would start their rule with strength, would grow weaker, and then another dynasty would take its place. Each dynasty that was ruling had the order of heaven and once they lost it another dynasty would take its place. Confucianism grew to be a big inspiration on the political state of China, like it became a highly centralized and bureaucratic government. People gained government offices by earning them through passing the civil service exams, which were based on Confucian classics.

Mesopotamia and Egypt developed advanced systems of writing, starting with simple pictographs and move to advanced letters. Mesopotamian writing began as a wedge-shaped characters, a system that is called cuneiform. Egypt originally used hieroglyphics.

Synopsis Chinese culture has been evolving for more than one thousand years with one of the most significant influences being the development of the Han dynasty. This paper analyses the ways in which the development of the Han dynasty influenced Chinese culture and to what extent. Knowledge of the Han period’s impact on Chinese culture, is obtained through the analysis of written and archaeological sources depicting the Western Han dynasty (206 B.C.–9 A.D) and Eastern Han dynasty (25–220 A.D). Research related to Chinese art and literature was conducted in order to gain information on how they evolved as a result of the Han dynasty. Closer analysis of primary sources, written and archaeological, provide insight into the mindset of the time

Both civilizations were in the Bronze Age, Akkadian craftsmen made the bronze head of Sargon I, and Shang dynasty made a bronze axe head which elaborately decorated bronze vessel required a high level of metalworking ability. Like many other civilizations, irrigation is the essential factor in Mesopotamia and China. Irrigation expanded agrarian base of society and productivity so that they could establish civilized life. Plus, the epic of Gilgamesh, and Chinese oracle bones show us that those civilizations have their own letters to represent their language. The writing system of Mesopotamia was cuneiform formed by phonetic letters, and of China was pictograph formed by ideographs which is slightly different with cuneiform. Also, they used writing systems as the tool of

This script dates back to the Middle Bronze Age which would be approximately 2500 BC. They have not ascertained if this was an example of proto-writing (symbols) or if it is actual writing of the syllabic type. It has been suggested this might be a mature style of writing. Historians learned about the early Chinese Shang Dynasty from 1200 BC from the written documents on bones, bronze or turtle shells. A stone slab, with 3,000 BC year old writing, was discovered in the Mexican State of Veracruz. This would be the oldest script in the Western Hemisphere. The Phoenician alphabet is basically the proto-Canaanite alphabet from the Iron Age (1050 BC). The Greeks borrowed the Phoenician alphabet and adapted it to their own language. The tribe known as Latin (Romans) adopted writing from the Etruscans (tribe from Tiras, son of Japheth) and the Western Greeks in the fifth century. The first pure alphabet with single symbols emerged around 1800 BC in ancient Egypt. Semitic workers in Egypt developed this alphabet as a representation of language. Historians make a distinction between prehistory and the history of early writing, but have disagreed if proto-writing is considered true writing. Papyrus (reed) was the principle writing

The author of this work, David E. Mungello, published this in order to give a more clear understanding of Chinese history in the interval from 1500 to 1800. He explains that this book is meant to be read by the average history student or common reader. By his use of advanced terms & concepts, or lack thereof, he keeps the language understandable and easy. Mungello doesn’t claim to have every bit of historical data on the time period. This book is written to take the most substantial and substantive parts and present them in a format to more easily assist the reader in comprehending Chinese History.

The Phoenicians, are known as people with a relatively small population, they profoundly changed the history of the world with a most notable contribution. It became a definite advancement in simplicity and accessibility of written communication over both the Cuneiforms of the Sumerians and the Hieroglyphs of the Egyptians. This influence redeemable the linguistic field. A system used by the Phoenician’s’ known as the first to use a phonetic alphabet, a method of twenty- two written marks, we know as letters today, all of which corresponded to a specific consonant sound of the oral language. These representing object and their phonetic symbols represent the sound of syllables as we know them today. This profoundly changed the history of the

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.

Is the development of the writing system the most important factor that led to the rise of a civilization? How does our ancestor learned to write when school is not even available? Understand that writing system that I am referring is not the average of using tools such as ink and paper, but more of creative tool that has developed over time. In this essay, I will cover seven points on the importantance of a writing system in the ancient civilization.