History of China

China is the oldest continuous major world civilization, with written accounts dating back about 5,000 years ago since the Chinese Yellow lord (Chinese Noah). Successive dynasties developed a system of bureaucratic control, which gave the agrarian-based Chinese an advantage over neighboring nomadic and hill cultures. Chinese civilization was further strengthened by the development of a state ideology based on Confucianism (100 BC) and a common written system (200 BC) that bridged the gaps among the country's many local accents and dialects. Whenever China was conquered by nomadic tribes, as it in the 4th, 13th and 17th century, the conquerors sooner or later adopted the ways of the "higher" Chinese civilization and staffed the bureaucracy with Sinties.

Prehistoric Times

China was inhabited more than a million years ago by Homo erectus: the excavations of Yuanmou and later Lantian show early habitation, however the connection between these people with the modern Chinese are largely under estimate. The Homo sapiens or modern human might had reached China about 6-50,000 years ago from Africa. The proto-Chinese probably developed an agricultural society in about 10,000 BC, as the archeological evdeince suggested they had began to grow paddy (rice) about 9,000 years ago in Zhejiang, Yuyao county, known as Hemudu culture. The earliest evdeince of agriculture appear much laterly in Huanghe (Yellow river), was found in Henan, Xinzheng county from Peiligang culture about 6,000 BC. With the agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and to support specialist craftsmen and administrators: in short, civilization as we know it. In late Neolithic times, the Huanghe valley began to establish itself as a cultural center, where the first villages were founded, the most significant and typical of those was found in Banpo, Xian.

Ancient Chinese History

The Chinese history is usually refer to the 正史 (traditional history) based from the groundwork of 二十四史 or twenty-fourth historical books from different eras. Starting from the Sima Qian's Shiji 《史記》 in the first century BC to the 1739 AD when last book was completed, the 二十四史 is the historiography work of 1800 years with nearly 5,000 years of historical layout stretching from San Huang Wu Di 三皇五帝 to the Manchu era.

The Chinese historiographers (after 1st century BC) traditionally began their accounts of Chinese history with the foundation of the Xia dynasty circa 4,000 years ago, followed by the Shang (map of Shang), but the reliability of these accounts is at issue since the accounts and genealogy of dynasties were written thousand years after the event. Already archaeological findings of an earlier bronze artifacts had shown in Henan, Yanshi county from the Erlitou site (dated 2,000 BC) 二里頭, some of the earliest form of Neolithic markings and symbols had been evacuated in Henan, Jiahu county and Shangdong on pottery before the 3,000 BC, known as the Chinese pottery pictographs 陶器符號 (seen in Dawenkou and Yangshao cultures). Neverthless, with no true scripture records such as provided from Shang's orcale bones 甲骨文 and Zhou's vessel bronze writing 青銅銘文, the earliest Chinese reign (refer to San Huang Wu Di and Xia) remained poorly understood. Archaeological findings provide evidence for the existence of at least the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC). The Shang archaeological evidences are divided into two separation, one the earlier Shang dated from 1600 to 1300 came from an unversed souces of Erligang 二裡崗 and Zhengzhou's Shangcheng 鄭州商城 ruins in Henan, another the later Shang or Yin provided large detailed of writing from oracle bones from Henan, Anyang (1300-1046 BC), had been confirmed to be the last of six capitals of Shang.

The Imperial Chinese historiographers (prefer 2,000 years later) were accustomed to the notion of one dynasty succeeding each other, while the actual political situation in early China is known to be much more complicated. Hence, as some Chinese scholars suggest the Xia and the Shang can possibly refer to political entities that existed at the same time just as the later Zhou (successor state of the Shang), from 2000 to 900 BC.

By the end of 2nd millennium BC, a second culture began to emerge in the Huanghe valley, overrunning the Shang, and the existence of the Zhou (map of Zhou) dynasty, instituted in the 1046 BC, is the first for which there is a reliable historical tradition. The Zhou dynasty appeared to have begun rule under a semi-feudal system. Power became decentralized in subsequent years of Zhou reign, coined as the Spring and Autumn, the annals book 《魯春秋》 that chronicled from 722 BC by later Confucian. During the Spring and Autumn period there was consolidation as larger states defeated and assimilated smaller states. Influential blossom of Chinese philosophy and culture including Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism and Mohism marked this era of importance. As the political consolidation continued, there remained seven prominent states by the end of 5th century BC, and the period in which these few states battled each other is known as the period of the Warring States. Though there still was a Zhou king until 256 BC, he held almost no power whatsoever.

BBC NEWS 'Earliest writing' found in China

The Chinese Empire

The word China was probably derived from "Chin" (Qin), whereas could be "Sin" from Old Chinese, the engendered of tonal bifurcation and voicing distinction of Middle Chinese still remains in many dialects like Cantonese along with language like Japanese and Korean. Accodring to the Hebrew's Genesis, "Sin", a brother of Heth (Hittite), has occurrences in variant forms in the Far East, moreover, those who came from the Far East to trade with the Scythians were called Sinae (Sin), Ptolemy, a Greek astronomer, referred to China (Far East) as the land of Sinim or Sin. In Egyptian monuments the Hittite peoples were depicted with prominent noses, full lips, high check-bones, hairless faces, varying skin color from brown to yellowish and reddish, straight black hair and dark brown eyes. Many cuniform scholars have noted the similarities between Sumerian and Chinese.

As early as the 4th cenutry BC the ideogly of "Jiuzhou" (Nine Provinces) 九州說 from Shangshu 《尚書》 had been promoted during the Warring States, the words today largely prefer to the one of those four main Japanese island Kyushu, the Shangshu recorded an associated historic figure Yu established the Jiuzhou of Xia 禹劃九州 after the ceased of inundation.

True establishment of Jiuzhou was occured much laterly during the 3rd century BC, during the period, Zhou's marquis such as Zhao Yong 趙雍 (Zhao Wuling King), Ji Zhi 姬職 (Yan Zhao King) and Chu fought with eachothers, at the same time incorporated outer region with Jun Xian 郡縣制 (prefecture and county), a system which had now evolved into Sheng Xian (province and county). A further expansion began in the 230 BC when Ying Zheng the king of Qin (map of Qin) managed to conquer the other states. The king of Qin proclaimed himself as First emperor of Qin after his unification and added Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi under Jun Xian in 214 BC, thereby the Jiuzhou was "formed".

Though his unified reign lasted only 12 years, he managed to subdue great parts of what constitutes present-day residence and to unite them under a tight centralized government seated in Xian. His sons, however, weren't as successful; soon the Qin ended, the Qin imperial structure collapsed, in the end, the Qin general Zhao Tuo 趙佗 took over Guangdong along with Guangxi (南越), while the aboriginal leaders Wuzhu 無諸 and Yao 搖 have Fujian and Zhejiang (閩越、甌越), the Xiongnu emanated in Qin prefectures of Ordos.

The Han (map of Han) took over Xian in the year 202 BC, it was the first dynasty to embrace Confucianism 獨尊儒術, which became the ideological underpinning of all regimes until the end of imperial China. Under the Han dynasty, historiography and arts flourished, inventions made life easier and emperors like Liu Che 劉徹 (Han Wudi) consolidated and extended the Chinese empire by pushing back the Xiongnu and subjugating areas in the west. The Silk Road and protection for the merchants was established and for the first time connections between China with the Middle East. But in the 1st century AD, the power declined and went into a series of wars, however, the Han was restored and lasted until 263 AD (Shu Han 蜀漢) and subsequently unified by the Jin (map of Jin) dynasty.

However, in the 304 AD, contemporary minority (barbarians) in China ravaged and broke out in Chengdu and Linfen, provoking Chinese regime to the coast of south east (Yangtze). The minority foreigner built different regimes at the Haunghe valley and attempted to similarity it to the earlier Chinese state. To the south, the former Chinese Jin setup regime in Nanjing which later developed into Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. And hence coined the era of Southern and Northern dynasties (map of Southern dynasties). The short-lived Sui (map of Sui) dynasty later managed to reunite the country in 589 AD, after almost 300 years of disjunction.

In 618 AD., the Tang dynasty was established and a new age of flourishing began. Buddhism, which had slowly seeped into China in the first century, became the prominent religion and widely adopted by the royal family. Xian, the national capital, was supposedly the world's biggest city. Finally, however, the Tang dynasty declined as well and another time of political chaos followed, the Five dynasties and the Ten kingdoms. The Tang and Han are often coined as the prosperous age of China, like Han, the Tang also established jurisdiction on trade route.

In 979 AD, the Song dynasty gained power over most of former Tang China and established its capital in Kaifeng whereas the Qitany ruled over the north. In the 12th century., the Jurchen emerged to prominence, not only did it annihilate the Qitany just decade, the Song also lost power over thier capital Kaifeng to the Jurchen and moved its capital to Wenzhou, laterly with the help by hero such as Yue Fei, the Song managed to moved their capital to the north, Hangzhou, in Zhejiang. The southern Song dynasty also suffered the humiliation of having to acknowledge the Jurchen empire as formal overlords. In the ensuing years, East Asia was divided between the Chinese, the Jurchen, and the Tangut. The Song dynasty was a period of great technological development which can be explained in part by the military pressure that it felt from the north.

The Jurchen was defeated by the Mongolian who then proceeded to defeat the Chinese in a long and bloody war, which was the first war ever in which firearms played an important role, a period of peace began for Eurasia. This era, so-called Pax Mongolia, made it possible for Mediterranean barnstormer with acquaintanceship to Mongol, like Marco Polo and his father travelled all the way to China and to bring the first reports of its wonders to their unbelieving compatriots. In China, Mongolian were divided between those who wanted to remain focused on the steppes and those who wanted to adopt the custom of those they conquered. Kublai Qaghan was one of the latter group and therefore announced and established the Yuan dynasty (meaning "first"), Kublai Qaghan both ruling the whole country and making Beijing its Mongol capital. The Mongol eliminated the Chinese entirely for the first time in history, Mongol Yuan 蒙元 was subsequently substituted into this missing link of Chinese history. Note that Beijing was handed to Qitany from Chinese in 938 AD (16 Prefectures of Yan Yun 燕雲十六州) .

Period of disunion in systematically (refer to the age of multi Chinese govt. existing in contemporary era):

First disunion (map) - 256-221 BC unified by Ying Zheng 嬴政
Second disunion (map) - 206-202 BC reunified by Liu Bang 劉邦
Third disunion (map) - 23- 36 AD reunified by Liu Xiu 劉秀
Fourth disunion (map) - 220-280 AD reunified by Sima Yan 司馬炎
Fifth disunion (map) - 616-628 AD reunified by Li Shimin 李世民
Sixth disunion (map) - 907-979 AD reunified by Zhao Kuangyin 趙匡胤

Revival of Civilization

Among the populace, however, there were strong feelings against the rule of the "foreigner" (known as Da Zi), which finally led to a peasant revolt that pushed the Mongolian back to the steppes and established the Ming dynasty in 1368. This dynasty started out as a time of renewed cultural blossom: Arts, especially the porcelain industry, reached an unprecedented height; Chinese merchants explored all of the Indian Ocean, reaching East Africa with the voyages of Zheng He (original name Ma Sanbao 馬三保). A vast navy was built, including 4 masted ships displacing 1,500 tons; there was a standing army of 1 million troops. Over 100,000 tons of iron per year were produced. Many books were printed using movable type. Some would argue that Ming was the most advanced nation on Earth.

Zhu Yuanzhang 朱元璋 (Hong Wu) the founder of the dynasty, laid the foundations for a state disinterested in commerce and more interested in extracting revenues from the agricultural sector. Perhaps because of his background as a peasant, the Ming economic system emphasized agriculture, unlike that of Song, which had preceded the Mongolian and relied on traders and merchant for revenues. Neo-feudal land-tenure developments of Song and Mongol period were expropriated with the establishment of the Ming. Great landed estates were confiscated by the government, fragmented, and rented out; and private slavery was forbidden. Consequently, after the death of Zhu Di 朱棣 (Yong Le), independent peasant landholders predominated in Chinese agriculture. These laws might have paved the way to social harmony and removed the worst of the poverty of the pre era. The laws against the merchants and the restrictions under which the craftsmen worked, remained essentially as they had been under the Song, but now the remaining foreign merchants before Ming era also fell under these new laws, and their influence quickly dwindled.

The emperor's role became even more autocratic, although Zhu Yuanzhang necessarily continued to use what he called the Grand Secretaries to assist with the immense paperwork of the bureaucracy, which included memorials (petitions and recommendations to the throne), imperial edicts in reply, reports of various kinds, and tax records.

During the Mongol rule, the population had dropped 40 percent, to an estimated 60 million. Two centuries later it had doubled. Urbanization thus progressed, on a small scale, as population grew and as the division of labor grew more intricate. Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing contributed to the growth of private industry as well. In particular, small-scale industries grew specialized often in paper, silk, cotton and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around the country rather than the growth of a few large cities. Town markets mainly traded food with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil.

Introduction of Sea Route and Ming Exploration to Isolation

The Chinese traditionally began its sea route 海上絲綢之路 and neighborship on East China Sea by the end of 3rd century BC, a true devlepoment began in the 8th century, after the loss of Hexi corridor 河西走廊. The internaional sea route that started from the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean through the Bay of Bengal and the Strait of Malacca to the South China Sea 南洋 and ended at Guangzhou, Quanzhou, and Yangzhou were controlled by Persian merchants and the Chinese. At that time, Guangzhou was the biggest seaport and the first Chinese city that foreigners were allowed to enter, Arab descendants such as Li Yansheng 李彥升 was appointed as government official to this region. During the years of period, more than 4,000 ships came to the port, and close to 120,000 Arab traders lived in the foreign quarters. Further increase in 10th century has also make Guangzhou and Quanzhou 廣州、泉州口岸 becomes a half-immigrant cities.

Intellectual introspection characteristic of early Ming dynasty's increasingly popular new school on "Neo-Confucianism" 程朱理學, established by Zhu Xi 朱熹 and Cheng Hao 程灝 in the 12th century, did not lead to the physical isolation of China. Contacts with the outside world, particularly later with Japan, and foreign trade increased considerably. Zhu Di strenuously tried to extend China's influence beyond her borders by encouraging other rulers to send ambassadors to China to present tribute. The Chinese armies conquered Hanoi 河內 (since 939 AD) while the Chinese fleet sailed the China seas and the Indian Ocean 西洋, cruising as far as the east coast of Africa. The Chinese again gained a certain influence over eastern Turkestan after 791 AD. The maritime Asian nations sent envoys with tribute for the Chinese emperor. Internally, the Grand Canal was expanded to its farthest limits and proved to be a stimulus to domestic trade.

The most extraordinary venture, however, during this stage was the dispatch Zheng He's seven naval expeditions, which traversed the Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asian archipelago. An ambitious Muslim eunuch of Arab descent and a quintessential outsider in the establishment of Confucian scholar elites, Zheng He led seven maritime expeditions from 1405 to 1433 with six of them under the auspices of Zhu Di, probing down into the South China Sea, across the Indian Ocean and traversing perhaps as the Cape of Good Hope. His appointment in 1403 to lead a sea-faring task force was a triumph the commercial lobbies seeking to stimulate conventional trade, not mercantilism. The interests of the commercial lobbies and those of the religious lobbies were also linked. Both offensive of the Confucian sensibilities of the scholarly elite, religious lobbies encouraged commercialism and exploration to divert state funds from the anti-clerical efforts of the Confucian 儒家學者 scholar gentry. The first expedition in 1405 consisted of 62 ships and 28,000 men the largest naval expedition in history. His multi-decked ships carried up to 500 troops but also cargoes of export goods, mainly silks and porcelains, and brought back foreign luxuries such as spices and tropical woods.

However, the Chinese imperial subjects were lately forbidden from either building oceangoing ships or leaving the country. The consensus among historians of the early 21st century is that this measure was taken in response to piracy and in any case restrictions on emigration and ship building were largely lifted by the 17th century.

The Jurchen Empire II

The last dynasty and the last northern steppe regime was built in the 1616 AD by Jurchen, the Manchu (later appellation for Jurchen) captured Beijing and established the Qing dynasty in 1644 AD. Subsequently, the Manchu also overthrew the few last regimes of Ming dynasty (Nanming 南明朝) at Fuzhou and Kunming in 1663 AD. The Manchurian over the next century consolidated control of many areas originally under Ming, including Yunnan and Guizhou, and further stretched their sphere of influence over Xinjiang, Tibet and Mongolia at great expense in blood and treasure. The success of the early Manchurian period was based on the combination of martial prowess and traditional Chinese bureaucratic skills.

Some historians have viewed the Qing as continuing the decline started in the Ming, while others have argued that the Qing (before 1774) were periods of growth rather than decline. Aixinjueluo Xuanye 愛新覺羅玄燁 (Kangxi) commanded the most complete dictionary of Chinese characters ever was put together and under Aixinjueluo Hongli 愛新覺羅弘歷 Qianlong the compilation of a catalogue of all important works on Chinese culture. The Manchurian empire also continued the growth of popular literature such as the Dream of the Red Chamber 《紅樓夢》 and agricultural advances such as triple cropping of rice which caused the population of China to more than double from between 180 million in 18th century to 400 million in 19th century.

During the 19th century, Manchu control weakened, and prosperity diminished. China suffered massive social strife, economic stagnation, explosive population growth, and Western penetration and influence. Britain's desire to continue its illegal opium trade with China collided with imperial edicts prohibiting the addictive drug, and the Opium War erupted in 1840. China lost the war; subsequently, British and other nordic Western powers, along with the Irish populated United States, forcibly occupied "concessions" and gained special commercial privileges. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanjing 南京條約. In addition, the Taiping Rebellion 太平起義 (1851-68) and Nian Rebellions 捻軍起義 (1853-68), along with a Russian supported Islamic separatist movements 邊疆危機 (1864) in Muslim Xinjiang, drained Manchurian resources and almost toppled the dynasty.

China was not a backward country unable to secure the prerequisite stability and security for western-style commerce, but a highly advanced empire unwilling to admit western and often drug-pushing commerce, which may explain the West's contentment with informal Spheres of Influences. China, unlike tropical Africa, was a securable market without formal control. Following the Opium War, British commerce, and later capital invested by other newly industrializing powers, was securable with a smaller degree of formal control than in Southeast Asia, Africa, and the Pacific. In many respects, China was a colony and a large-scale receptacle of capital investments. Forgien powers did intervene military there to quell domestic chaos, such as the horrific Taiping Rebellion and the anti-imperialist Boxer Rebellion 義和團造反 (1899-1901). For instance, British general Charles Gordon (also known as Charles "Chinese" Gordon), later the imperialist "martyr" in the Sudan, was often accredited as having saved the Manchurian government from the Taiping insurrection.

By the 1870, the government had put down the rebellions with the help of militia organized by the Chinese gentry. The Manchurian then proceeded to deal with problem of modernization, which it attempted with the Self Strengthening Movement 自強運動 (1860-84). In the Sino-French War 中法戰爭 (1883-5) and the Sino-Japanese War 甲午戰爭 (1894-5), the New Armies 新軍 created by the government were defeated, which produced calls for greater and more extensive reform.

After the start of the 20th century, the Manchurian empire was in a dilemma. It could proceed with reform and thereby discontented the conservative gentry or it could stall reform and thereby irritated the revolutionaries. The Manchu tried to follow a middle path, but proceed to alienate everyone.

Reform and Conflict

Frustrated by the Manchu court's resistance to reform, young officials, military officers, and students -- inspired by the revolutionary ideas of Sun Zhongsan 孫文 began to advocate the overthrow of the Manchu government and creation of a republic. A revolutionary military uprising, Wuchang Uprising 武昌起義, on October 10, 1911 in Wuhan, led to the abdication of the Pu Yi 溥儀. A provisional government in Nanjing was formed on March 12, 1912 with Sun as President, but Sun was forced to turn over power to Yuan Shikai 袁世凱 who commanded the New Armies. Yuan Shikai proceeded in the next few years to abolish the national and provincial assemblies and declared himself emperor 洪憲帝制. Yuan's imperial ambitions were fiercely opposed by his subordinates and faced with the prospect of rebellion. Yuan broke down and died shortly after in 1916, leaving a power vacuum in China. His death left the republican government all but shattered, ushering in the era of the "warlords" during which China was ruled and ravaged by shifting coalitions of competing provincial military leaders.

In the 1920s, Sun Zhongsan established a revolutionary base in south China and set out to unite the fragmented nation. With Soviet assistance, he entered into an alliance with the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). After Sun's death in 1925, one of his proteges, Jiang Jieshi 蔣介石, seized control of the Kuomintang 國民黨 (KMT) and succeeded in bringing most of south and central China under its rule in a military campaign known as the Northern Expedition 北伐戰爭 (1926-7). Having defeated the warlords in south and central China by military force, Jiang was able to secured the nominal allegiance of the warlords in the north. In 1927, Jiang turned on the CCP and relentlessly chased the CCP armies and its leaders out of heir based in southern and eastern China. In 1934, driven out of their mountain bases, the CCP forces embarked on a Long March 紅軍長征 (1934-6) across China's most desolate terrain to the northwest, where they established a guerrilla base 革命聖地 at Yanan in Shaanxi.

During the Long March, the communists reorganized under a new leader, Mao Zedong 毛澤東. The bitter struggle between the KMT and the CCP continued openly or clandestinely through the 14-year long Sino-Japanese War II 中日戰爭 (1931-45) portion of World War II, even though the two parties nominally formed a united front to oppose the Japanese invaders. The war between the two parties resumed after the Japanese defeat in 1945. By 1949, the CCP occupied most of the country.

Jiang Jieshi fled with the remnants of his KMT government and military forces to Taiwan, where he proclaimed Taipei to be China's "provisional capitol" and vowed to reconquer the Chinese mainland. The KMT authorities on Taiwan still call themselves the "Republic of China". With the proclamation of the Peoples Republic of China on October 1st, 1949. China was divided again, into the PRC and the ROC, with two governments that each regarded themselves as the one true Chinese government and denouncing each other as illegitimate. This remained true until the early 1990s when political changes on Taiwan led it to no longer actively portray itself as the sole Chinese government.