A history rich country, China stands as one of the most ancient civilizations that modern humanity knows of. The oldest recorded dynasty was the Xia which was at its peak around 1800BCE. Dynasty after dynasty came next, over twenty different dynasties have risen and fallen in Chinese history. The last being the Qing Dynasty which ended in 1911 and ultimately led to the rise of the People’s Republic of China which was founded in 1949 as a Communist Party. This gave rise to their economy which is to this day getting stronger and stronger. Through the parties many reforms and opening-up policy, China has flourished economically. The class system is also comprised of four sections, the highest is the Scholars and Government Officials, next the Farmers and peasants, then the Artisans and finally the lowest class is comprised of Merchants. The system is based upon who does the most for society and who produces the most. Throughout thousands of years of feudal governing the Chinese have created and invented beautiful painting and machines. Some of the most renown inventions are known as the “Four Great Inventions of Ancient China”, which includes Printing, Papermaking, Gunpowder and the Compass. “The four great inventions of ancient China-are significant contributions of the Chinese nation to world civilization.”, (FMPRC.GOV. "Four Great Inventions of Ancient China." Four Great Inventions of Ancient China. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Nov. 2016.) all four inventions contributed immensely to
China’s population was growing rapidly, almost doubling between 750 and 1100. Because of this huge population boom, paper money was established, and the trade industry grew. There were many advances that were made, such as technological improvements
Social structure is something that has been present all over history. There are many aspects used to define the social structure of a civilization, like race, ethnicity, class, gender, social mobility, and religion. One civilization in particular, China, has had the social structure of its reason evolve over time. Chinese dynasties from the Classical Era, the Post-Classical Era, and the Early Modern Period each established their own take on these categories. The dynasties from their respective time periods each differentiated themselves from the previous time period and allowed themselves to also have similarities between them. Chinese dynasties from the Classical Era and the Post-Classical Era are able to determine the factors of social structure that remain consistent and the factors that change throughout the time periods, which are class, gender, and social mobility. In the same way, the Ming and Qing dynasties of China from the Post-Classical Era compare to the Song and Tang dynasties from the Early Modern Period in China to define the consistencies of social structure through class, gender, and social mobility.
China has changed in certain ways and remained the same in others from the early Golden Ages to the late 1900s. China has experienced a series of cultural and political transformations, shaping the lives of many Chinese citizens. Culturally, the country’s art and literature hardly changed for almost eight hundred years. Along with their culture, China remained politically the same from the beginning of the Golden Ages all the way until the 1800s. On the other hand, China’s government and society were restructured after new leaders took over. From a monarch to total communism, China’s society had a multitude of new ideas and policies they had to adapt to.
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
Entry# 1: Good day journal, I have ventured further into my research on the Song Dynasty, I have learned very much about the landscape, geographical features, and much more like some major epochs of their time and even some quotes directly from some of the people living there. To start the song dynasty lasted from 960 to 1279 A.D. they lasted 319 years “Their climate had a very diverse range, ranges from tropical in south and subtropical in the north. The terrain is mostly mountains, high plateaus, deserts in the west, plains, deltas, and hills in the east.”(Embry 4). This is what I observed and mentally noted while I was touring the Song Dynasty. “Emperor Taizu began reigning in the year 960. His capital was in Kaifeng. During his 16 years of rule, he instituted successful policies and won his wars of expansion” (Wu 7). This was something that a local had told me about emperor Taizu. He further on explained to me about his resilience and how he expanded his land with intelligent war tactics.The Song dynasty was an era of Chinese history that began in 960 and continued until 1279. It succeeded the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period, and was followed by the Yuan dynasty (Benn 0).
Emperor- the emperor was at the top of the entire hierarchy and he ruled over the Dynasty while his family was rich and
Although China has a complex history, it was one of the most economically stable countries in the world. Chinese’s current complex form of government started with different principles for each city-state and was later unified by dynasties. However, even before the establishment of modern-day China, its success can be contributed to its geographic features, earliest historical record in the Oracle bones, as well as the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. China’s several geographic features contribute to its isolation and success.
The civilization of ancient China was the most successful civilization with their inventions,food,and religion. They had the best inventions like fireworks these were amazing because some inventions they’ve made are fireworks. Fireworks were used for many things in China, and now in many countries. reason we use them is for celebrations or 4th of July. China made fireworks around 2,000 years ago. people say that a chinese cook created it in a field kitchen and accidentally mixed, charcoal, sulphur, and saltpeter. Which he found in his kitchen all so commonly to make something so amazing that we use today.
New agricultural techniques, porcelain, metallurgy, printing, and naval technology were few of the technological elements that reinforced the established features of social order. New agricultural techniques helped in the expand of their agricultural potential, the dynasties gained reputation from porcelain technology which moderately diffused to other societies producing porcelain in large quantities, metallurgical techniques as well diffused to lands beyond China, printing produced texts quickly and popular works appeared in huge quantities, and naval technology included of the magnetic compass which soon became common for mariners to use. Population growth, patriarchal social structures, and gunpowder were technological elements reinforcing established features of political order. Population growth reflected the capacity of economy and distribution of food, patriarchal social structures included of concern to preserve family fortunes and foot binding, and gunpowder was an element used for military effectiveness. These aspects provided a fundamental change in traditions because they changed their whole concepts of how to use goods as in previous Chinese eras.
“The future depends on what we do in the present” - Gandhi. Have you ever wondered what life would be like if Karl Benzin hadn’t created the first car, or Thomas Edison hadn’t invented the light bulb? Things that we take for granted now, were once a dream, an idea, a plan. The inventors probably had little idea about the impact it would have on the future. 4,000 years ago people wouldn’t have even dreamed of things that we take for granted now. But many of the people back then had ideas and made decisions that affected the future of the world. Around 3,000 years ago in China, the 3rd of China’s dynasties occurred. This dynasty is called the Tang Dynasty and is often referred to as the Golden Age because of its great advancements. The Tang dynasty was the most impactful of China’s Dynasty because of the cultural advancements, economic growth, useful inventions, important studies, and government code changes that took place.
The empires of this time period had some innovative ideas and discoveries that permanently changed their nations and in some cases, the world. Both Rome and China had two unique and important cultural characteristics that completely changed their nations. For the Romans, their unique cultural characteristics were new ideas. The first of these new ideas, their unique Judicial System is the basis for many current judicial systems around the world, the other new idea, Christianity is now one of the worlds most practiced Religions. Whereas the unique cultural characteristics of China, namely the creation of paper and the formation of the “silk road” were more practical cultural characteristics, but no less impactful for both their
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
There are many documents, paintings and artefacts from this period nearly 800 years ago, like The Jade Mirror of the Four Unknowns. The landscape paintings, porcelain china, magnetic compasses and decimal numbers were all inventions from the Yuan dynasty. I believe the most significant one is the magnetic compass, as it revolutionised trade between countries and cities. The magnetic compass was invented when Chinese people mining ores and melting copper and iron, chanced upon a natural magnetite that attracted iron and pointed fixedly north. This phenomenon was referred to as a "South-pointer".
In china there has been no central rule in China for 70 years until the Song Dynasty created in 960. Things started to change in China, for example, the government started to aid the poor a lot more than what they have in the past. They were getting this money from the newly introduced income tax. This made a lot of people happy and everyone started to have more patriotism and pride. This pride gave the government a feel of legitimacy. Some of the major things the government is paying for is the roads, food, and education. Pottery at this time helps out the economy in China, because the pottery is so advanced that it was being exported for good money and it also led more people to come to China. Even though China was number one in the world for many things like technology and a sophisticated culture they were weak military wise (Holcombe p.127).
In the ancient Korea, they systemized to enable the professional art education by establishing Hwa-won where foster the professional painters. Silla in the period of the Three States established and operated Chae-jeon where they foster painters; it remained in existence with changing its name into Jeon-chae-seo in the unified Silla period. In Goryeo dynasty, the painters were fostered at central Do-hwa-won in the capital city Gae-gyong and at the branch in the Seo-gyong city; the painters drew the Buddhist paintings together with monks and portraits of the king and meritorious retainers. Do-hwa-won of Goryeo dynasty took its name from Song dynasty’s Han-lim-do-hwa-won; it was similar with Han-lim-do-hwa-won of the Song dynasty on emphasizing