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 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 Era B.C. Ceremonial Stem Cup ( 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 B.C. Fang I (Ritual Wine Vessel, late 13th-12th century B.C.) Ko (Dagger-Axe, Yin or early Chou dynasty

Chou (/ Zhou) B.C. Yung-cheng Bell (Chou dynasty, Warring States period)

Chou (/ Zhou): B.C. Tripod (Ritual Food Vessel): Western Chou dynasty

Name: 孔丘 Kong Qiu Birth: September 28, 551 BC Death: 479 BC School: 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) B.C.

Han Dynasty 206 B.C A.D. Funerary Model of a Pig Sty (Western Han dynasty, Earthenware)  Paper and lead-glazed ceramics invented  Greatly improved silk-weaving techniques.

Han Dynasty 206 B.C A.D. Prancing Horse (Eastern Han dynasty, Earthenware with traces of pigment)

Six Dynasties 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

Sui Cup: T'ang dynasty:Porcelaneous stoneware with clear glaze It was during Tang dynasty, Buddhism was introduced into China.

Song 960 – 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 earth  Crosses the northern part of China  6,700 km, /4,500 miles long  Built over 2,000 years  Construction from BC  Built to protect territory  Completely built by hand  Many 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.

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 18 th Century and its main tea supplier was China in the 19 th 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 1 st Opium War against British Opium

The forming of Modern China 1.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 1 st GMD-CPC Union); 3.The two sides formed a brief 2 nd 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