A Very Long History
China
is an awesome country with a 5000-year history--a big country,
unpredictable and full of contrasts. China’s 4 million square miles
ranks it the third largest country in the world in size after Russia
and Canada. The bridging of many centuries has produced a unique and
colorful collage of diverse people, different generations, and
contrasting levels of technology. Often referred to as communism
with a capitalist face,
it is a country going through many changes and social growing pains.
The ‘new China’ is emerging through a synthesis of the old and
new.
Today China is home to more than a billion people, roughly 22% of the
world’s population. They call themselves Han, and they make up 92%
of the population. The official language is Mandarin, although
Cantonese, Yue, Wu, Haka, Xiang, GanMinbei, and Minnan are also
spoken. Today China is considered to be a developing nation, and a
poor country in terms of per capita income and quality of life.We
are talking people here. City populations are in the
millions---everywhere! Most cities are chaotic, congested, and
polluted. The people were interesting, and generally friendly, but
most often quite naïve about the outside world. Eighty percent of
the 50 million visitors a year to China are overseas Chinese
returning to visit relatives.
The
Himalayas on the China-India border are the world’s highest
mountains. More than two-thirds of China’s land area is mountainous
or desert, only ten percent of the land is arable! Since it is an
agricultural society that might tell you where populations live.
China shares
its borders with 16 countries. Korea is on the northeast, Mongolia
and Siberia on the north, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and Nepal on the west, Bhutan,
Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos, and Vietnam on the south. China’s 14,500
kilometers of coastline make it the worlds longest.
Ancient
History:
Archeological
records show a highly developed civilization in the area known as
China dating back to 4000 BC suggesting that Chinese people have
shared a common culture longer than any other people on earth.
China’s
first dynasty, the Shang, is believed to have been established in
1800 BC. At that time the country was split into feudal states,
although the King was recognized for his ritual role. The Shang
kings called themselves Sons
of Heaven.
Power
was dispersed among feudal lords, and warring between feudal states
was common. The peasants owned the land on which they farmed but owed
military service to the nobles. As in all agricultural societies, the
family was the dominant social unit.
Around
400 BC a new class of learned men began to form and gave rise to what
is referred to as the Classic Age of Chinese thought. Confucius, the
most famous of these men, asserted that social harmony depends on
each individual understanding and acting in accordance with his
‘station in life’. Confucius’ teachings had great influence on
China’s development over the next 2000 years. The strict ethical
system, more than anything else, provided the basis for the
long-standing unity of the Chinese people and the relative stability
of the dynastic system of government for centuries.
About
the same time Taoism promoted the concepts of inner peace and harmony
with nature. Practitioners sought mystical knowledge through
meditation, and Taoism was embraced my millions of Chinese.
Around
the first century BC, Buddhism, which originated in India, found its
way to China. Confucianism and Taoism were pretty much ethical guides
while Buddhism was the proper religion. To the Buddhist follower life
goes on in a series of reincarnations.
The
first empire was established in 221 BC. Called Ch’in, it differed
from past dynasties in that one emperor ruled over a unified China.
The first emperor, Shih Huang Ti, centralized political power and
standardized language, laws, weights, measures, and coinage. During
the few years of his dynasty he suppressed learning and tried to
destroy most religious texts.
The
Han rose to power in 202 BC, and the next four centuries were a time
of great historical significance. The Han instituted the ‘Mandarin
Bureaucracy’, a merit system by which local officials were selected
based on knowledge of the Confucian classics. China’s first
university was founded, and a new emphasis on learning and education
gave rise to an age of great scientific discovery and artistic
accomplishment. The people remained mainly agricultural, and
Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism remained the prevailing
philosophical and ethical guides.Although specific imperial dynasties
came in and out of power, the structure of the imperial dynastic
system, with administrative divisions and central bureaucracies,
remained in tact until the early 20th
century.
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