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After the first king of the empire was established, the idea of a king became the only thing in China. The King Qin Shi Huang. A lot of rules were set in place to build up the basic formation of China and its social structure for the last 2000 years.

He did several things to unify China into a several nations into one culture:

1. Standardization of Writing
Qin Shi Huang standardized Chinese writing, using the writing of his original country known as "Xiao Zhuan" (Small Seal Script). This was the first step in the unification of Chinese Culture. Under nationalized writing, the communication will be come unbridged between people.

2. Standardization Measurement and Currency
Qin Shi Huang standardized weights, measures, and money. This means that the measurement used by different nations is replaced by the unification of culture.

3. Promotion of a Unified Legal System
Qin Shi Huang promoted a uniform legal system. This legal framework, known as "Qin Law," was designed to ensure consistent governance and social order across the empire. However, there are some who blame the law as too harsh to people, which causes it to fall in the future.

In summary, the Emperor Qin Shi Huang became the first well-known king of the united China. He has put great efforts in establishing the same way of life, individually in the nation. This means the cultures of all parts of China gradually have the same base.

Citation:

秦始皇的五个统一:统一文字、货币、度量衡,还有两个统一是啥? (2018). Sohu. Retrieved February 28, 2025, from https://www.sohu.com/a/276931677_99979301

Supporting Reading:

ZhiYu, R. (2023). Unification of China by Qin. Chinese Social Science Net. Retrieved March 1, 2025, from http://english.cssn.cn/skw_culture/202308/t20230801_5676387.shtml

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The unified way of live and order (Confucianism)

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The unified way of live and order (Confucianism)

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Under the new King with a new dynasty, Wu of Han, China developed a unified culture socially and ideologically.

He emphasized the Confucianism beliefs and make it offical to exclude the ideology and their political effects.

He did a following things to achieve it.

1. the declaration of Confucianism as the State Orthodoxy
King of Wu excluded other philosophies and elevated Confucianism as the sole state ideology. This move made Confucianism the dominant cultural force in China for over two thousand years later. A clear notice for viewing Confucianism is to view it properly. The emphasize is about how to live out a good life with the order and norms is the core part emphasized by the Kings.

2. The school of Confucianism

King of Wu established the Imperial Academy (太学) and promoted the study of the Five Classics (五经), which became the core course for education and official selection. This is the base for the national test to get the offical place. This also made the issue of exclusion of science. Also the core things is learning about human and society, but excluding the content about world.

3. Emphasis of social class and order.

In the rules and norms, it emphasizes the authority of the King and officials, the head of the family and parents. This made Confucianism the national and unified belief on what it means to be human in the society.

In general, the efforts made by the king of Wu were mainly ideological and educational to continue with the unification. Even though the idea is achieved fully in the later Dynasty, he is the first to develop and design the project of how to make China unified culturally.

citation:

汉武帝独尊儒术的深层原因探析. (2024, December 30). 趣历史. Retrieved March 1, 2025, from https://www.qulishi.com/article/202401/683143.html

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The National Examination System, known as "Keju", was a national examination system used in ancient China to select officials.

Origin:

During the Sui Dynasty, the issue of testing in the famous family seems no longer useful for getting useful people in official.

To deal with such a large group of people, it developed a systematic way of electing of people, which is the different levels of tests based on the government system from village to whole nation.

However, the content is still focused on Confucianism that are stablished on the Han Dynasty. This led to the education of all people, which brought prosperity in culture and literature to the later dynasty.

The effect of the national test is to increase the civilization of the whole nation and it also makes the confucianism become the united culture in China.

Citation:

Key concepts in Chinese thought and culture. (n.d.). https://www.chinesethought.cn/EN/shuyu_show.aspx?shuyu_id=2211

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The Highest point of the literature is in the Tang Dynasty. The poetry of that time was named after the Dynasty, which is called Tang poetry.

The content of the poetry covers various topics, including social life, policial ambition, and farewell. Poetry became an integral part of social life, education, and governance. Poetry is a way to show your education and ability to other people.

The format of Tang poetry is many, but the most famous of lüshi (“regulated verse”) and jueju (“truncated verse”). Both of them are famous for their strict structure and rhyming and are very short. They are all required for a higher requirement on creatively using words.

Even now, it has a great influence culturally. It is the signboard for people from other nation to see the Chinese culture and language.

Reference:

Li, Tien-Yi, Nienhauser, H, W., Wilhelm, Hellmut, Goldblatt, & C, H. (2025, February 4). Chinese literature | History, Authors, Classics, Books, Characteristics, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-literature/Tang-and-Five-Dynasties-618-960

Suggested material:

Chinese poetry. (2024). Chinese Poetry. https://www.cn-poetry.com/

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After the famous people, the poetry continues. Tang Poetry shows that intellectual people are good at making poetry. But not everyone can use it in that way.

In the Later Tang Dynasty to the Song Dynasty, the new kind of poetry arose, Song's Verse (Generally, it is a kind of poetry that originated from Tang Poetry).

The verse is what means the lyric of the music. This means the Song verse actually can be sung out. However, with the development, it can stand out from music to become a kind of poetry.

The topic continues to vary as Tang poetry, but stand on they way of expressing emotions it can be divided into two main types:

Wanyue (Graceful and Mild): This style deals with themes of love, sorrow, and the beauty of nature. It is like singing a soft and emotional song. From this style, you can see the involvement of women in the culture and social activity.

Haofang (Bold and Unconstrained): This style is characterized by boldness and broad themes, often incorporating pastoral scenes, grand landscapes to expressions of patriotism and willing to do great things for the nation or get a great name of it.

Reference:

Li, Tien-Yi, Nienhauser, H, W., Wilhelm, Hellmut, Goldblatt, & C, H. (2025, February 4). Chinese literature | History, Authors, Classics, Books, Characteristics, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-literature/Song-dynasty-960-1279

Poetry of Chinese song and yuan dynasties. (2021). Travel China Guide. Retrieved March 1, 2025, from https://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/literature/classical3.htm

Suggested material:

Chinese poetry. (2024). Chinese Poetry. https://www.cn-poetry.com/

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Yuan Dynasty drama, known as Zaju, which means various kinds of drama or shows, is considered one of the most significant parts in Chinese theatrical history.

Also, this type of poetry is the most controversial one. This type of poetry is often less regarded because it often does not contain high literature vary as the previous two type of Poetry.

Just like Drama, it is developed from the drama shows. Compared to the high literature skills of the previous types of poetry, the Qu is more specialized to the idioms and phrases used in normal speech. The topic is still diverse, it even includes some epic stories.

the feature of it is shown in the following

1. Structure
Yuan Zaju typically consists of four actions, "wedge" (xiezi) can be put between two actions. Each act features a set of songs in a single musical mode, sung by the leading character.

2. Performance Elements
Just the western drama has diverse format, the Zaju also using various things to perform, including recitation, singing, dance, and fighting. It also incorporates comedic elements and dialogue, making it a highly entertaining and versatile art form.

However, as a form of poetry is still have great emphasis on the rhyming skills and performance

3. Roles
Performers in Yuan Zaju are categorized into specific roles: dan (female), sheng (male), Jing (painted-face [hua lian]), chou (clown), and zha (straight man). These roles help define the characters and their interactions. This roles are somehow same in todays shows and novels.

All of the three poetry, (actually cannot be called poetry), are forming the based anchaic literature of Ancient China.

citation:

元曲有哪些语言特色_元曲特色介绍. (2022, April 11). 古宫历史网. https://www.gugong.net/wenhua/37397.html

Li, Tien-Yi, Nienhauser, H, W., Wilhelm, Hellmut, Goldblatt, & C, H. (2025, February 4). Chinese literature | History, Authors, Classics, Books, Characteristics, & Facts. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/Chinese-literature/Yuan-dynasty-1206-1368

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. (1999, June 17). Zaju | Opera, Music, Drama. Encyclopedia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/art/zaju

Suggested material:

Chinese poetry. (2024). Chinese Poetry. https://www.cn-poetry.com/

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The history is rooted in the movement for the unification of the language, which some people started to create a language used globally.

History:

In 1909, scholars like Qian Xuantong (钱玄同) started advocating for the use of simpler characters to ease learning and writing. The movement gained momentum during the May Fourth Movement in 1919, which called for the simplification of the Chinese script to promote literacy and modernization.

At the same time, the promotion of the development of Pin Ying started, a little earlier than the official declaration of official simplified characters. However, the movement of to transform Chinese into a Roman like language was abandoned because of the instability of the government at that time.

This is foundation of the later development of the keyboard that incorporate English and Chinese.

The movement of simplification is under the goal to reduce the education barriers for the normal people.

the way of simplification:Methods of Simplification

1. Reduction of Strokes
the most obvious one is reduced the number of strokes. For example, the traditional character "愛" (ài, love) was simplified to "爱".

2. Structural Simplification
Some words were simplified by altering their structure. However, the big structure is mostly still kept. For instance, "國" (guó, country) became "国".

3. Phonetic Replacement
In some examples, words were replaced with simpler phonetic equivalents. For example, "後" (hòu, after) was replaced with "后".

4. Combining Characters
Some words were combined by the simplified words to replace the words. For example, "塵" (chén, dust) became "尘".

Reference

JianWei, S. (2021). CSSN-Contentions over simplified Chinese in early 20th century. http://english.cssn.cn/research/linguistics/202103/t20210302_5314802.shtml

经纬视界观. (2024, November 23). 汉字改革与文化传承:从古代到现代的演变之路. 网易. https://www.163.com/dy/article/JHN4MFQ0055695FF.html

从民间到官方,汉字简化的历史. (2023, September 23). Fenghuangwang Guoxue. Retrieved March 1, 2025, from https://guoxue.ifeng.com/c/8TJ7WrIPdCh