Unit 16 Chinese Civilization

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 457.

China is an East Asian country with a large territory, a huge population and an ancient history. With written records dating back 4,000 years, it is recognized as one of the four great ancient civilizations of the world, together with ancient Egypt, Babylon and India. Moreover, it is the only ancient civilization that has continued to this very day.

Successive ancient dynasties developed system of bureaucratic control, which gave the agrarian-based Chinese state an advantage over neighboring nomadic and mountain dwelling cultures. The development of a state ideology based on Confucianism (100 BC) and a common system of writing (200 BC) both strengthened Chinese civilization.

According to legend, the primitive tribes that inhabited the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River were unified into two powerful tribes under the Yellow Emperor and Fiery Emperor, and began their push southward 5,000 years ago, what marked the beginning of the Chinese nation. Yellow Emperor has cultivated many wild plants, has created compass, chariot and silk. Fiery Emperor has learnt metallurgy, making weapons and metal tools and vessels.

During the Xia Dynasty, 4,000 years ago, China entered the period of slave society. The Shang Dynasty (16-11th centuries BC) saw the height of bronze culture, when superb smelting and casting techniques brought forth beautiful wares made of bronze. Pottery making also developed very rapidly with the appearance of primitive pottery wares. Sericulture and silk weaving reached maturity at this time.

Ancient China enjoyed a developed agriculture and advanced medicine. China's four great inventions, namely, the compass, gunpowder, movable type printing and papermaking, have changed the world history. China's pottery is one of the best ceramic units in the world. The Chinese were also the first who made world's most detailed notes of such astronomical phenomena as comets, sunspots and new stars. In metallurgy, China long held a leading position. When Europeans still could not produce a single piece of cast iron in the 14th century, the Chinese had already produced cast iron on an industrial scale four centuries earlier.

Unfortunately, the country's feudal bureaucratic system held back science and inventions from making further progress resulting poverty of the country up to the 19^th century.

http://www.china.org.cn/e-gudai/index-1.htm