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One Korea?", Steve Murray, Columbus 06 1919 and the East Asian Disappointment, Greg Milo, Akron 08 A Unique Political History, Thomas Ulrich, Toledo 05 American Imperialism and Its Japanese Encounter, Gretchen Williams, Columbus 19

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Jomon

Prehistoric culture characterized by handmade pottery with rope pattern design

Yayoi Culture

More advanced agricultural society, using metals and wheel-turned pottery

Tomb Period

Kofun (250-538) | Asuka (538-710)

Great earthen grave mounds and their funerary objects, such as clay haniwa - terra cotta figurines of people and animals, models of buildings and boats - attest to emergence of powerful clan rulers. Among these was the Yamato clan, whose rulers began the imperial dynasty that has continued to the present.

Introduction of Buddhism

Taika Reform

Reorganization and reform based largely on learning imported from China: Buddhism, writing system, bureaucratic organization, legal theories

Nara Period

Establishment of first permanent capital at Nara; emergence of Japanese patterns of administration and institutions. Beginning of classical period.

Heian Period; Late Heian (Fujiwara)

Great flowering of classical Japanese culture in new capital of Heian-kyo (Kyoto). Court aristocracy, especially women, produced great body of literature - poetry, diaries, the novel The Tale of Genji - and made refined aesthetic sensibility their society's hallmark.

Kamakura Period

Beginning of military rule, as samurai (warriors) replaced nobles as real rulers of Japan. Imperial court remained in Kyoto but shoguns governing organization based in Kamakura, south of modern Tokyo.

Kemmu Restoration

Ashikaga (Muromachi) Period

New warrior government in Kyoto retained weak control of the country, but from its base in Kyoto's Muromachi district became patron of newly flourishing artistic tradition, influenced by Zen Buddhist culture as well as samurai and court society.

Country at War

Warring factions engaged in lengthy, destructive civil wars

Unification

Tokugawa (Edo) Period

Country unified under military government which maintained 250 years of secluded peace, leading to development of vibrant urban, "middle-class" culture with innovations in economic organization, literature, and the arts.

Meiji Restoration

Meiji Era

Emergence, with Western stimulus, into modern international world, marked by dramatic alterations in institutions, traditional social organization, and culture.

Contemporary Japan:

Heisei Era (1989-present)

Reiwa (2019-present)

Prepared by Dr. Amy Vladeck Heinrich, Director, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University, for the Columbia University Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum.
*2020

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Timelines: JAPAN | Asia for Educators | Columbia University

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Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.

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Xia (Hsia) Dynasty

Shang Dynasty

Capitals: near present-day Zhengzhou and Anyang

Zhou (Chou, pronounced "Joe") Dynasty

Capitals: Hao (near present-day Xi'an) and Luoyang

Western Zhou (ca. 1046-771 BCE)

Eastern Zhou (ca. 771-256 BCE)

Spring and Autumn Period (770-ca 475 BCE)
Confucius (ca. 551-479 BCE)
Warring States Period (ca. 475-221 BCE)

Qin (Ch'in, pronounced "chin") Dynasty/

Capital: Chang'an, present-day Xian
Qin Shihuangdi dies, 210 BCE

Han Dynasty

Western/Former Han (206 BCE-9 CE)

Capital: Chang'an (present-day Xian)
Confucianism officially established as basis for Chinese state by Han Wudi (r. 141-86 BCE)

Eastern/Later Han (25-220 CE)

Six Dynasties Period
Three Kingdoms (220-265 CE)
Jin Dynasty (265-420 CE)
Period of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (386-589 CE)

Period of disunity and instability following the fall of the Han; Buddhism introduced to China
Cao Wei, Shu Han, Dong Wu

Sui ( pronounced "sway") Dynasty

Capital: Chang'an (present-day Xian)

Tang Dynasty

Capitals: Chang'an (present-day Xian) and Luoyang

Five Dynasties Period

Song (Sung) Dynasty

Northern Song (960-1127)

Capital: Bianjing (present-day Kaifeng)

Southern Song (1127-1279)

Capital: (present-day Hangzhou)

Yuan Dynasty

The reign of the Mongol empire; Capital: Dadu (present-day Beijing)

Ming Dynasty

Re-establishment of rule by Han ruling house; Capitals: Nanjing and Beijing

Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty

Reign of the Manchus; Capital: Beijing

Republic Period

Capitals: Beijing, Wuhan, and Nanjing

People's Republic of China

Prepared by Dr. Amy Vladeck Heinrich, Director, C.V. Starr East Asian Library, Columbia University, for the Columbia University Project on Asia in the Core Curriculum.

Neolithic Cultures

Xia (Hsia) Dynasty

Shang Dynasty

One of the Three Dynasties, or San Dai (Xia, Shang, and Zhou), thought to mark the beginning of Chinese civilization: characterized by its writing system, practice of divination, walled cities, bronze technology, and use of horse-drawn chariots.

Zhou (Chou, pronounced "Joe") Dynasty: Western Zhou (ca. 1046-771 BCE), Eastern Zhou (771-256 BCE)

A hierarchical political and social system with the Zhou royal house at its apex: power was bestowed upon aristocratic families as lords of their domains or principalities. Although often compared to European "feudalism," what actually gave the system cohesion was a hierarchical order of ancestral cults. The system eventually broke down into a competition for power between rival semi-autonomous states in what became known as the Spring and Autumn period (ca. 770-475 BCE) and the Warring States (ca. 475-221 BCE) period. It was during these tumultuous times that Confucius (551-479 BCE) lived.

Qin (Ch'in, pronounced "chin") Dynasty

Created a unitary state by imposing a centralized administration and by standardizing the writing script, weights and measures. Known for its harsh methods of rule, including the suppression of dissenting thought.

Han Dynasty: Western/Former Han (206 BCE-9 CE) and Eastern/Later Han (25-220 CE)

Modified and consolidated the foundation of the imperial order. Confucianism was established as orthodoxy and open civil service examinations were introduced. Han power reached Korea and Vietnam. Records of the Historian, which became the model for subsequent official histories, was completed.

"Period of Disunity" or Six Dynasties Period

The empire was fragmented. The North was dominated by invaders from the borderland and the steppes. The South was ruled by successive "Chinese" dynasties. Buddhism spread.

Sui (pronounced "sway") Dynasty

China reunified.

Tang Dynasty

A time of cosmopolitanism and cultural flowering occurred. This period was the height of Buddhist influence in China until its repression around 845. Active territorial expansion until defeated by the Arabs at Talas in 751.

Song (Sung) Dynasty: Northern Song (960-1127) and Southern Song (1127-1279)

An era of significant economic and social changes: the monetization of the economy; growth in commerce and maritime trade; urban expansion and technological innovations. The examination system for bureaucratic recruitment of neo-Confucianism was to provide the intellectual underpinning for the political and social order of the late imperial period.

Yuan Dynasty

Founded by the Mongols as part of their conquest of much of the world. Moved capital, called "Dadu" (present-day Beijing), to the north. Dramas, such as the famous Story of the Western Wing, flourished.

Ming Dynasty

The first Ming emperor, Hongwu, laid the basis of an authoritarian political culture. Despite early expansion, it was an inward-looking state with an emphasis on its agrarian base. Gradual burgeoning of the commercial sector; important changes in the economy and social relations in the latter part of the dynasty; also a vibrant literary scene as represented by publication of the novel Journey to the West.

Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty

A Manchu dynasty. Continued the economic developments of the late Ming, leading to prosperity but also complacency and a dramatic increase in population. The acclaimed novel Dream of the Red Chamber was written in this period. Strains on the polity were intensified by a rapid incorporation of substantial new territories. Its authoritarian structure was subsequently unable to meet the military and cultural challenge of an expansive West.

Republic Period

Weak central government following the collapse of the dynastic system in 1911-12; Western influence was shown by the promotion of "science" and "democracy" during the New Culture Movement. The attempt of the Nationalist government (est. 1928) to bring the entire country under its control was thwarted by both domestic revolts and the Japanese occupation (1937-45). The Nationalists fled to Taiwan after defeat by the Communists.

People's Republic of China

Communist government. The drive for remaking society ended in disasters such as the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Economic reform and political retrenchment since around 1978.

Prepared by Michael Tsin, previously assistant professor of Chinese history, Columbia University;
currently associate professor of Chinese history, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Text ©1995 Columbia University, Asia in Western and World History: A Guide for Teaching,
(Ainslie Embree and Carol Gluck, eds., Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharp Inc. 1995).

Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han
Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han

Sui, Tang, Song
Sui, Tang, Song

Yuan, Ming, Qing, Republic
Yuan, Ming, Qing, Republic

Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong

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Timelines: CHINA | Asia for Educators | Columbia University

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Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.

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4000 - 1000 BCE

Origin Myths in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki

* The Legendary Past: The Age of the Gods

1000 BCE - 300 CE

Origin Myths in the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki

* The Legendary Past: The Age of the Gods

Women Rulers: Pimiko, the Queen of Wa

600 - 1000

Buddhism in Japan

Kukai, 774-835, founder of the Shingon or "True Word" school
*"Indications of the Goals of the Three Teachings" (Sango Shiki) and "A School of Arts and Sciences" [PDF]

Saicho, 767-822, founder of the Tendai (Tiantai) school
* Selected Writings: "Prayer on Mount Hiei"; "On the Possibility of Enlightenment for All Men"; "Vow of the Uninterrupted Study of the Lotus Sutra"; The Mahayana Precepts inAdmonitions of the Fanwang Sutra" [PDF]

Remaking the Japanese Government after the Chinese Model

Literature

Manyôshû, compiled 7th century; Kokinshû, compiled 8th to 10th centuries
* The Manyôshû and Kokinshû Poetry Collections

* Excerpts from The Pillow Book of Sei Shônagon

1000 - 1450

New Sects in Buddhism

Government: Maintaining Order during Times of Political Transition

War Tales: The Tale of the Heike

* The Tale of the Heike

Military: The Northern Song Defeated by the Jurchen Jin

Literature: Chômei and Kenkô

* An Account of My Hut

* Essays in Idleness

1450 - 1750

The Government of the Tokugawa Shôgunate

Edicts of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, 1536-1598
* The Edicts of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Excerpts from Limitation on the Propagation of Christianity, 1587, and Expulsion of Missionaries, 1587 [PDF]
* The Edicts of Toyotomi Hideyoshi: Excerpts from Collection of Swords, 1588 [PDF]

Edicts of the Tokugawa Shogunate
* The Edicts of the Tokugawa Shogunate: Excerpts from Laws of Military Households, 1615 [PDF]
* The Edicts of 1635 Ordering the Closing of Japan: Addressed to the Joint Bugyô of Nagasaki [PDF]

Social Hierarchy under the Tokugawa Shôgunate

The Samurai Class

Yamaga Sokô, 1622-1685
*Excerpts from The Way of the Samurai (Shîdo) [PDF]

Yamamoto Tsunetomo, 1659-1719
*Excerpts from Hagakure (In the Shadow of Leaves) [PDF]
*Excerpts from Hagakure (In the Shadow of Leaves): On Death, Living in the Moment, Speaking, Etc. [PDF]

* The Tale of the 47 Rônin

The Merchant Class

* The Prosperous Merchant in Tokugawa Society

Women

Kaibara Ekiken (Ekken), 1630-1714
*Excerpts from The Greater Learning for Women (Onna daigaku)

Literature: Comic Novels, Comic Verse; Poetry of Matsuo Bashô; Drama

Ihara Saikaku, 1642-1693
*Excerpts from "The Beauty Contest"

* Haikai: Comic Linked Verse

* The Poetry of Bashô

* Bashô's Narrow Road to the Deep North

1750 - 1919

Reflections on Encounters with "the West" and Japan's Modernization

Aizawa Seishisai, 1781-1863
*Excerpts from Shinron (New Theses): "The Barbarians' Nature" [PDF]

Fukuzawa Yukichi, 1834-1901
*Excerpts from The Autobiography of Fukuzawa Yukichi [PDF]

The Meiji Government

* The Charter Oath (of the Meiji Restoration), 1868 [PDF]

* The Meiji Constitution of 1889 [PDF]

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905)

* The Treaty of Portsmouth (1905)

U.S. Forces Japan to "Open" Its Ports

Millard Fillmore, 1800-1874; Matthew Perry, 1794-1858
* Commodore Perry and Japan (1853-1854)
On July 8, 1853, Commodore Matthew Perry of the United States Navy, commanding a squadron of two steamers and two sailing vessels, sailed into Tôkyô harbor aboard the frigate Susquehanna and forced Japan to enter into trade with the United States. This unit examines that historical exchange with an introductory essay and an examination of the three letters that President Fillmore and Commodore Perry wrote to the Japanese emperor [PDF].

* Excerpts from the Letter from Emperor Meiji (Mutsuhito) to President Ulysses S. Grant, on the Iwakura Mission, 1871
"In 1871, the fledgling Meiji government dispatched a mission [the Iwakura Mission] of almost fifty high officials and scholars to travel around the world, including extended tours of the United States... The leaders of the mission also attempted to begin the renegotiation of the 'unequal treaties' - the exploitative diplomatic and economic agreements imposed by the Western powers on Japan in the 1850s... This letter from the Emperor Meiji was presented to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant when the Iwakura Mission visited Washington, D.C."

Codes of Merchant Houses, Late Tokugawa Period

* Codes of Merchant Houses: The Code of the Okaya House (1836) [PDF]
"Although merchants were accorded low social status in the Tokugawa order and the Confucian orthodoxy of the time, commerce thrived in early modern Japan. ... The Okaya house was based in Nagoya in central Japan and had its origins trading in hardware. This code was written by Okaya Sanezumi, under whose leadership the house prospered, in 1836."

1900 - 1950

Nationalism and Propaganda

* Kokutai no hongi (Fundamentals of Our National Polity), 1937 [PDF]

Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905); World War I and Its Aftermath

* The Treaty of Portsmouth (1905)

Japan and World War II; The Atomic Bomb; Allied/American Occupation of Japan

* Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Saito on the Conflict in the Far East [PDF]

* The Atomic Bomb
Background reading discussing some of the events that preceded the U.S. dropping of the atomic bomb and presenting some of the questions left about the necessity and results of the bombing. With three primary source documents with document-based questions [ Report of the Interim Committee on the Military Use of the Atomic Bomb (May 1945) [PDF]; Report of the Franck Committee on the Social and Political Implications of a Demonstration of the Atomic Bomb (For a Non-Combat Demonstration) (June 1945) [PDF]; The Potsdam Declaration (July 26, 1945) [PDF]], plus activities for students.

* "The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb," by Henry Lewis Stimson (February 1947) [PDF]

* The Constitution of Japan (1947) [PDF]

1950 - 2000

Japan's Postwar Military Policy

* Article 9 and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty
Both Article 9 of the Japanese Constitution [PDF], which prohibits Japan from maintaining military forces for settlement of international disputes, and the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty, which allows the U.S. military to maintain bases on Japanese soil, have been at the center of controversy both in Japan and the United States. This unit includes an essay that explores the changing attitudes towards these two agreements, as well as two primary-source readings: the U.S.-Japan Security Treaty of 1951 [PDF] and the revised security treaty of 1960 [PDF]. With discussion questions for students.

Literature: Kawabata Yasunari (1889-1972)

* "The Pomegranate," by Kawabata Yasunari

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4000 - 1000 BCE

Ancestral Rites and Divination

* Oracle Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty [PDF]

Warfare

* Oracle Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty: On Warfare [PDF]

Women: Childbearing

* Oracle Bone Inscriptions of the Late Shang Dynasty: On Childbearing [PDF]

1000 BCE - 300 CE

Confucianism

Confucius/Kong Fuzi/Kong Qiu, 551-479 BCE
*Selections from the Confucian Analects [PDF]
*Selections from the Confucian Analects: On Humaneness [PDF]
*Selections from the Confucian Analects: On Confucius as Teacher and Person [PDF]

Xunzi/Xun Qing/Xun Kang, ca. 310-ca. 219 BCE
*Selections from the Xunzi: "Human Nature Is Evil" [PDF]
*Selections from the Xunzi: "Encouraging Learning" [PDF]
*Selections from the Xunzi: "A Discussion of Rites" [PDF]

Daoism

Zhou Dynasty Government: Confucius, Mencius, Laozi

Mencius/Mengzi/Meng Ke, 4th Century BCE
*Selections from the Mencius: On the Duty of Ministers to Reprove a Ruler [PDF]

Laozi, ca. 3rd Century BCE
*Selections from the Laozi (Daodejing): On Government [PDF]

Qin Dynasty Government: The Legalist Philosophers Han Fei and Li Si

Han Dynasty Government

Warfare: Zhou Period

Agriculture, Han Period

Women and Family

Confucius/Kong Fuzi/Kong Qiu, 551-479 BCE
*Selections from the Confucian Analects: On Women and Servants [PDF]
*Selections from the Confucian Analects: On Filial Piety [PDF]

Literature: The Classic of Odes (Book of Songs); Poetry from the State of Chu

Eastern Zhou, ca. 771 to 256 BCE
*Selection from the Classic of Odes: I Beg of You, Chung Tzu (Ode 8) [PDF]
*Selections from the Classic of Odes: "Quince" and "Big Rat" [PDF]

Literature: Sima Qian

300 - 600

Buddhism in China

Lotus Sutra, composed after 483 BCE
*Selection from the Lotus Sutra: "The Daughter of the Dragon King" [PDF]
*Selection from the Lotus Sutra: "The Buddha Preaches the One Great Vehicle" [PDF]

Women

Lotus Sutra, composed after 483 BCE
*Selection from the Lotus Sutra: "The Daughter of the Dragon King" [PDF]

Literature: "A Song of Seven Sorrows"; "Peach Blossom Spring"

600 - 1000

Buddhism in China: The Chan (Zen) School of Buddhism

Huineng, 638-713, Sixth Patriarch of the Chan (Zen) school Linji Yixuan, d. 867, founder of the Linji (Rinzai) school
* The Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch [PDF]

* Seeing into One's Own Nature [PDF]

Buddhism in China: Reactions of Confucianists and Daoists to the influence of Buddhism during this period

Han Yu, 768-824
* Memorial on the Bone of the Buddha [PDF]

Emperor Wuzong, r. 841-846
* Emperor Wuzong's Edict on the Suppression of Buddhism: The Edict of the Eight Month [PDF]

Tang Dynasty Government: Effective Rulership, the Law, and Taxes

Reflections on War

Slavery in Tang China

* Deed of a Sale of a Slave [PDF]

Women & Family

* Record of Family Division [PDF]

Tang Poets: Wang Wei, Li Bo, Du Fu

Du Fu, 712-770
* Selected Poems: "On the River"; "I Stand Alone"; "Views in Springtime" [PDF]

1000 - 1450

Neo-Confucianism

Song Dynasty Government: Reform under the Neo-Confucianists

Ming Dynasty Government: Promotion of Social Order and Morality

* Village Ordinances: "Prohibition Ordinance" [PDF]

Military: The Northern Song Defeated by the Jurchen Jin

Agriculture; Growth of Cities and urban Life during the Song and Yuan Dynasties

Unknown Author, ca. 1235
* The Attractions of the Capital (Hangzhou) [PDF]

Women

Literature of Scholar-Officials and Military Officers

Su Shi (Su Dongpo), 1036-1101
* Rhyming with Tzu-yu's "Treading the Green" [PDF]* The Red Cliff, Part I [PDF]

Women Writers

* Poem to be Sung to the Tune of "Southern Song" (Nan-ge-zi) [PDF]

1450 - 1750

Neo-Confucianism during the Ming

Books of Moral Instruction, Ming and Qing

* Selections from The Twenty-four Exemplars of Filial Piety [PDF]

* Selections from Meritorious Deeds at No Cost [PDF]

Christianity Enters China

Provincial and Imperial Government under the Qing

Chen Hongmou, 1696-1771
* On the Duties of an Official [PDF]
* On Substantive Learning [PDF]

Women

* Selections from The Twenty-four Exemplars of Filial Piety [PDF]

Essays, Poems and Fantasy Tales of the Qing

1750 - 1919

"Self-Strengthening" and "Learning from the West"

Calls for Radical Social Reform

The May Fourth Movement (ca. 1916-1920s)

* Before and After the May Fourth Movement
The so-called "May Fourth" or "new culture" movement began in China around 1916, following the failure of the 1911 Revolution to establish a republican government, and continued through the 1920s. This unit includes a background reading and three primary-source readings [ Chen Duxiu's "Our Final Awakening" (1916) [PDF]; Chiang Kai-shek's "Essentials of a New Life Movement" (1934) [PDF]; Mao Zedong's "Reform Our Study" (1941)], plus discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

The Taiping Rebellion (1850-1864)

* Excerpts from The Land System of the Heavenly Kingdom (Tianzhao tianumu zhidu): "The Taiping Economic Program" [PDF]

* Excerpts from Ode for Youth [PDF]

The Years of Reform: Prologue to Revolution

* From Reform to Revolution, 1842 to 1911
After China's defeat in the Opium War of 1842, thinkers tried to understand what made the West so strong and how China could best respond. This unit traces the debates about reform from the mid-nineteenth into the early twentieth century, as arguments for more radical reform, including revolution, increased. Includes background readings, two primary-source readings ( Feng Guifen's "On the Adoption of Western Learning" [PDF] and Yan Fu's "Learning from the West" [PDF]) and brief discussions of Liang Qichao's ideas on democracy and Sun Yatsen's "Three People's Principles." Also see the Religion, Philosophy, Thought section, above, for more readings by these and other reformist thinkers.

International Relations: China and Europe (Macartney Embassy, Opium War)

* Macartney and the Emperor
The Qing dynasty's restrictions on foreign trade increasingly frustrated Europeans, especially the British. In 1792 Great Britain sent a diplomat, Lord George Macartney (1737-1806), to present its demands to the Qianlong emperor (r. 1736-1796). This unit includes an introductory note to teachers with suggestions for teaching about Macartney's mission; a student reading discussing European contact and trade with China prior to and on the eve of Macartney's mission to China; and the primary-source reading Two Edicts from the Qianlong Emperor, which were the Qianlong emperor's responses to the Macartney mission. With discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

* The Opium War and Foreign Encroachment
In the fifty years after Macartney's visit (see "Macartney and the Emperor," above), Western powers pushed their demands on China further, leading to war and the gradual shift from tribute to treaty relations. This unit examines the events surrounding the Opium War and the Treaty of Nanjing, which concluded that war, and the increasing foreign encroachments upon China during the nineteenth century. Included are two primary-source readings: Commissioner Lin Zexu's "Letter of Advice to Queen Victoria" (1839) and The Treaty of Nanjing (1842) [PDF]. With discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

Women

1900 - 1950

The May Fourth Movement (ca. 1916-1920s)

* Before and After the May Fourth Movement
The so-called "May Fourth" or "new culture" movement began in China around 1916, following the failure of the 1911 Revolution to establish a republican government, and continued through the 1920s. This unit includes a background reading and three primary-source readings [ Chen Duxiu's "Our Final Awakening" (1916) [PDF]; Chiang Kai-shek's "Essentials of a New Life Movement" (Speech, 1934) [PDF]; Mao Zedong's "Reform Our Study" (1941)], plus discussion questions and suggested activities for students.

Rebuilding China

Sun Yat-sen, 1866-1925
*Selections from A Program of National Reconstruction: "The Three Stages of Revolution" (1918) [PDF]
*"The Principle of Democracy" (1924) [PDF]

Mao Zedong (1893-1976) and the Chinese Revolution

* The Long March (1934-1936)

* Commonly Read Speeches and Writings of Mao Zedong (1927-1945)
With excerpts from three speeches and one article, all highlighting two important themes in Mao Zedong's thinking: voluntarism and selflessness. Includes excerpts from"In Memory of Norman Bethune" (1939); "Serve the People" (1944); "The Foolish Old Man Who Removed the Mountains" (1945); and Report on the Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan (1927).

* Mao Zedong on War and Revolution

* From "The Dictatorship of the People's Democracy": On Leaning to One Side (Speech, 1949) [PDF]

Communism in China

Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945)

* Japanese Ambassador Hiroshi Saito on the Conflict in the Far East [PDF]

Mao Zedong (1893-1976) on War and Revolution

* Mao Zedong on War and Revolution

* Report on the Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan (March 1927) [PDF]

* Selections from On Guerilla Warfare (1927) [PDF]

Society and Family: Raising Children

Farmers and the Chinese Revolution

* Farmers and the Chinese Revolution
This unit looks at the plight of China's farmers in the twentieth century. With a background reading and two primary-source readings ["Spring Silkworms," by Mao Dun [PDF]; Mao Zedong's "Report on the Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan" [PDF]].

20th-century Literature

1950 - 2000

"Hundred Flowers" Period

* Intellectual Opinions from the Hundred Flowers Period (1957) [PDF]

Land Reform, Socialized Agriculture, The Great Leap Forward

* From the People's Daily: "How China Proceeds with the Task of Industrialization" (1953) [PDF]

Cultural Revolution (1966-1976)

* The Sixteen Points: Guidelines for the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966) [PDF]

Socialism and Democracy in China after Mao Zedong

* From the Office of the CCP Dehong Dai Nationality and Qingbo Autonomous Zhou Committee: "Several Questions in Strengthening and Perfecting the Job Responsibility Systems of Agricultural Production" (1980) [PDF]

* How Should the Criteria for Admission to the Communist Youth League Be Administered After Installation of the Production Responsibility System? (1981) [PDF]

* From the People's Daily: "Bourgeois and Socialist Democracies Compared" (March 1990) [PDF]

Tiananmen Square Demonstrations (1989)

* The May 13 Hunger Strike Declaration (1989) [PDF]

* Interview at Tiananmen Square with Chai Ling

China's Political System since 1949

* The Chinese Political System and the Communist Party
This unit provides an overview of the Chinese political system and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) with excerpts from the constitutions of the Communist Party of China and of the People's Republic of China. These primary documents can highlight for students how the Communist Party is the real political power in China. A chart of the political structure of China is also included, to help students better understand the relationship between the party and the state in a communist system. Discussion questions also included.

China's Foreign Policy; U.S.-China Relations

* Taiwan and U.S.-China Relations Since 1949
This unit offers an historical overview of Taiwan and U.S.-China relations. An introductory reading is followed by two important primary-source documents ["Shanghai Communiqué" (1972) and Taiwan Relations Act (1979)] and discussion questions.

Literature

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Primary Sources with DBQs | Asia for Educators | Columbia University

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Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.

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Kyoto Time Slip: Reliving Japanese History in 3rd Grade – Kyoto Journal

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My son Rio has been raised as a bilingual Japanese-English speaker in a college town in the western United States, where I teach Japanese History. My wife and I had taken him to spend summers with relatives in Japan, but last year, after I received a grant to do research at Kyoto University, was his…

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China was the most advanced place in the world. recognized this when he got to China in the late 13th century after traveling through much of Asia. In what is now Europe, this was the period now referred to as the "high" Middle Ages, which fostered the Crusades and witnessed the rise of Venice, the mercantile center that was Marco Polo's home.

A painted by a Chinese artist in the 12th century provides us with a look at society and urban life in China during this time.

During the Song (Sung) Dynasty (960-1276), technology was highly advanced in fields as diverse as agriculture, iron-working, and printing. Indeed, scholars today talk of a Song economic revolution.

The population grew rapidly during this time, and more and more people lived in cities.

The Song system of government was also advanced for its time. The upper-levels of the government were staffed by highly educated scholar-officials selected through competitive written examinations.

Many ways of living and acting that are now seen as most "Chinese," or even characteristically East Asian, did not appear before the Song.

and are historically important crops/staple foods in China; but most Chinese during the previous Tang dynasty and before ate wheat and millet and drank wine. Rice and tea became dominant food and drink in the Song.

China's is large, and tends to "explode" in certain periods; its first explosion occurred in the Song.

Many Chinese are "Confucians"; but the kind of that served as government orthodoxy throughout late-imperial times was a Song reinvention.

Chinese are known to have bound their feet; but they did not bind them until the Song.

Even the with its turned-up corners is by origin a Song Chinese roof.

Yet, despite its political and economic strengths, Central to its engagement with the outside world were efforts to maintain peace with its powerful northern neighbors and extend its trading networks.

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The Song Dynasty in China | Asia for Educators

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China was the most advanced place in the world. recognized this when he got to China in the late 13th century after traveling through much of Asia. In what is now Europe, this was the period now referred to as the "high" Middle Ages, which fostered the Crusades and witnessed the rise of Venice, the mercantile center that was Marco Polo's home.

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The project was made possible by financial support from the Education Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency, the Freeman Foundation, and the Chiang Ching- Kuo Foundation.

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A Visual Sourcebook of Chinese Civilization

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The project was made possible by financial support from the Education Division of the National Endowment for the Humanities, an independent federal agency, the Freeman Foundation, and the Chiang Ching- Kuo Foundation.

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The Grandeur of the Qing | Asia for Educators

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Four Aspects of Qing Government Impressive to Western Observers

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From 1000-1500, China led the world in economic development. As trade between China and Europe begins to expand from 1550 onwards, the Chinese economy is, by many measures, more productive than Europe's. (Map 1 below)

Comparing the leading economic region in Europe (England) and in China (the Yangzi delta) in the period from 1500 to 1800, we find that these two regions perform quite similarly. The population of the Lower Yangzi Region in China is roughly as well off as the population of England at this time. (Map 2 below)

* How do new findings change the conventional historical storyline: that China was "stagnant" and economic "modernization" began as a "reaction" to the Western initiatives in the late 1800s, specifically after the Opium War with England?

* How do we define "modern," then, and when and where does this "modern" period begin?

* And how do new perspectives on China affect our understanding of China's development path in the 21st century and our current understanding of world history?

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From 1000-1500, China led the world in economic development. As trade between China and Europe begins to expand from 1550 onwards, the Chinese economy is, by many measures, more productive than Europe’s. (Map 1 below)

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Instructed by the antiquary times, He must, he is, he cannot but be wise.¹

William Shakespeare

World history instructors constantly encounter the exhortation to teach Han dynasty China and the Roman Empire comparatively. ² The reason for this is clear: teaching early China and ancient Rome comparatively invites students to calculate and evaluate what David N. Keightley calls the "costs and benefits" of "great civilizations" for themselves-not only explicitly, in terms of first-millennium antecedents, but also implicitly, in terms of third-millennium legacies. ³

Han China (c. third century BCE to third century CE) and Imperial Rome (c. first century BCE to fifth century CE) both were strong, centrally ruled regimes that expanded geographically, promoted the assimilation of ethnic and linguistic minorities, and provided lasting stability to their respective regions. They controlled populations and territories that were roughly equivalent in size, built roads, defensive walls, and waterworks, and were threatened by "barbarians" on their frontiers even as they employed such peoples as military auxiliaries. Finally, each of these ancient regimes subordinated religion to the interests of the state and experienced the introduction of a popular foreign faith (Indian Buddhism in China, Palestinian Christianity in Rome). To study these two early imperial cultures is to examine how human beings in widely separated geographical contexts coped with similar challenges and circumstances-an ancient lesson with poignant value for students and teachers in today's globalized world.

Yet such an examination must also include the divergent outcomes between the two cultures' experiences, which can be seen in their significant contrasts. Han China was based on rural agriculture, imposed uniformity through a common script, and ultimately asserted indigenous religious values over imported ones. In contrast, the Roman Empire was based on urban and maritime trade as well as agriculture, never became homogeneous except religiously, when the Empire eventually exchanged indigenous religious values for imported values, and never successfully imposed cultural uniformity, especially in written language. Thus, when the contemporary heirs of Han China and Imperial Rome are considered, it is no surprise that nationalist discourses and state authority play relatively greater roles in the People's Republic of China than in the European Union democracies, where cosmopolitanism and corporate globalism seem to hold greater sway.

While numerous theoretical justifications for this comparative approach exist, seldom are such comparisons and contrasts actually attempted, either within world history survey courses or within more specialized courses on ancient civilizations. I was able to offer an entire course on "Ancient Empires: China and Rome" during the Berea College January 2006 "short term." ⁴
Orientations and "Occidentations"
Lack of student knowledge is one of the primary challenges for anyone who teaches about the ancient world. Thus, the first rule for teaching early China and ancient Rome is to take nothing for granted and assume absolutely no prior knowledge of either culture. Teachers must engage in both "orientation," helping Western students contextualize Chinese civilization in comparison and contrast with their own, and "occidentation," helping Western students come to grips with their own cultural foundations.

A good place to begin is with maps. Cosmography (mapping the world) typically expresses cosmology (theorizing about the world), and maps famously vary according to the mapmaker's cultural perspective. Premodern Asian and European maps are not particularly accurate, but are remarkably illuminating as documents of cultural identity visá-vis the known universe. Both the first century CE Roman Orbis terrarum and the fifteenth century CE Korean Yoktae chewang honil kangnido locate their cultures of origin in the center of the world and depict other cultures on their own peripheries. ⁵

Another starting point is to look at how coins were produced in each culture. Roman coins, like their modern Western counterparts, tended to be solid disks of precious metal, such as silver, impressed with the images of rulers or other important cultural entities, including religious figures and formulas (e.g., the god Jupiter, "In God We Trust"). In contrast, ancient Chinese coins usually were disks of less precious metal, such as bronze, and included a square hole in the middle, around which auspicious phrases (such as reign names) might be inscribed. The total effect was similar to that of a Buddhist mandala. The coinage of early Chinese regimes did not change from ruler to ruler, except in the case of dynastic change. The Qian Han Shu (History of the Former Han, c. 90 BCE) notes that Westerners "make coins of silver, which have the king's face on the obverse, and the face of his consort on the reverse" and also points out that "when the king dies, they cast new coins." Commentary such as this can be effectively used by asking students, What aspects of Western culture did Chinese chroniclers find worthy of commentary? What did they take for granted-and refrain from describing? What might be the rationales for the Chinese choices? ⁶
I introduce students in my course to three arenas of similar tensions and concerns: Confucian and Stoic writings about public and private rectitude, Taoist and Epicurean reflections on nature and humanity, and various Han and Roman texts on medical theory and practice.
In addition to contrasting spatial and aesthetic values, teachers can outline the broad historical similarities between the two cultures. The point here is, in the words of Michael Puett, to "[f]irst . . . locate similar tensions and concerns in the cultures in question and then . . . trace the varying responses to those tensions and concerns." ⁸ One commonality shared by Han Chinese and Roman elites was the tension between imperial values and institutions and their pre-imperial antecedents. Many upper class Chinese and Romans wanted to reconcile apparent tensions between the past and the present so as to help assure a lasting future for their social orders. Students need to become acquainted with the fact that even the early Roman emperors such as Augustus and their apologists, such as the poet Virgil, felt compelled to disguise their imperial ambitions by cloaking them in the guise of obsolete republican offices and titles. Also, early Chinese emperors such as Han Gaozu and their propagandists, the officially-sanctioned Confucian chroniclers, took pains to maximize their resemblance to the cultural heroes of China's pre-imperial past. To fully appreciate this phenomenon, students must come to some understanding of the cultures out of which the Han dynasty and the Augustan imperium emerged.
Cultural Foundations
To locate such "tensions and concerns" requires a knowledge of both Chinese and Roman notions of their cultural foundations. Two excellent resources that offer a wide range of materials relevant to this topic are Kenneth J. Atchity's anthology, The Classical Roman Reader (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), and Wm. Theodore de Bary and Irene Bloom, eds., Sources of Chinese Tradition, Vol. I: From Earliest Times to 1600, second edition (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999). ⁹ Still, in most cases the pre-imperial story is told most authoritatively by imperial voices. Virgil and Livy wrote their versions of Rome's past from the vantage point of life under the emperors, while Chinese sources such as the Record of Rites ( Liji) and the Classic of Documents ( Shujing) assumed their final form under Han rule. Making this clear to students can impart an important lesson about both culture and history: neither is usually accessible in some "pure" or "uncontaminated" form, and both tend to be available only through the filter or lens of later values and perspectives. Myth often is more powerful than history. To help my students see how myths of cultural heroes such as the Trojan prince Aeneas and the sage-rulers Yao and the Duke of Zhou played central roles in the constructions of imperial legitimacy and authority, and the development of Chinese and Roman identity, I assigned book six of Virgil's Aeneid (Atchity, 100-119) along with excerpts from the Classic of Documents (de Bary and Bloom, 29-37). Similarly, my assignments juxtaposed Han poet Jia Yi's "The Faults of Qin" (de Bary and Bloom, 228-231), where he excoriates Qin dynasty founder Qin Shihang and his heir, with excerpts from Suetonius' life of Julius Caesar (Atchity, 284-292), which is somewhat more even-handed in tone. This allows students to draw conclusions about the relationship between political realities, biography, and history. Students can also consider the interplay between historical figures such as the first Chinese emperor, Caesar, and mythical cultural exemplars such as Aeneas, Romulus, Cincinnatus, Yao, Shun, and the Duke of Zhou, with which they frequently were compared, either negatively or positively. Finally, modern Chinese mythmaking might be explained through showing Zhou Xiaowen's 1996 film The Emperor's Shadow. The film's plot is based on Chinese chronicles about the first Qin emperor, his rise to power, and China's unification. Similar subject matter has become rather commonplace in recent Chinese cinema, and its sudden predominance usually is explained as a result of reflection upon Mao Zedong's legacy in the post-Deng Xiaoping reform era. Students who know something of contemporary China may be especially engaged by a discussion of whether and how tropes and traditions from early China survive into modern cinematic storytelling. Conversely, what should students make of their own culture's recently-revived interest in their own classical heritage (e. g. the massively popular movie The 300) as a source of popular entertainment?
Indigenous Traditions
Since my expertise lies in early Chinese thought, and I have an interest in the Roman world, I naturally gravitate toward material on religion and philosophy. I introduce students in my course to three arenas of similar tensions and concerns: Confucian and Stoic writings about public and private rectitude, Taoist and Epicurean reflections on nature and humanity, and various Han and Roman texts on medical theory and practice. I pair Dong Zhongshu's Confucian apology for Han power (de Bary and Bloom, 295-301) with excerpts from Marcus Aurelius' Meditations (Atchity, 314-319), and juxtapose selections from Guo Xiang's commentary on the Zhuangzi (de Bary and Bloom, 386- 390) with portions of Lucretius' poetic summation of Epicurean doctrine (Atchity, 82-87). Students might be asked to compare and contrast Dong's and Aurelius' understandings of fate and its relationship to both individual and social welfare, or contrast the accounts of Guo and Lucretius on natural processes and the place of humans in nature. What makes Dong or Guo "Chinese?" What makes Aurelius or Lucretius "Roman? " Once students have some sense of Confucian, Taoist, Stoic, and Epicurean worldviews, the time is ripe to offer another cinematic treat: Ridley Scott's 2000 hit Gladiator, which remains popular almost a decade after its theatrical release. Although many students already know the film, the early sequences of which feature the late Richard Harris as Marcus Aurelius, appreciation can be deepened by asking them to identify Stoic and Epicurean themes in the characters' dialogue and motivations. Moreover, student comparative sensibilities can be stimulated by having the class evaluate the film's scenarios in Confucian or Taoist terms. How would Dong Zhongshu or Guo Xiang review the movie, and why?

We particularly enjoyed considering ancient Chinese and Roman medical texts. I assigned a variety of excerpts from Han medical texts (de Bary and Bloom 273-278, 346-352) alongside excerpts from writings of the Roman physician, Celsus (Atchity, 184-189). Students were then presented a set of fictitious, but representative, "case histories." One seventy-five-year-old male "patient," for example, complained of chills and liver difficulties during warm but cloudy spring days on which an inland northerly wind prevailed. Following Han diagnostic procedures, one student team identified the cause of this patient's ailments as an excess of yin (dark, moist, female, receptive) energies in the body and prescribed the application of heat to his feet, contact with fowl and red-colored objects, and consumption of beans and bitter food, and recommended that sheep, wheat, sour foods, and the color green be avoided while the patient waited for the arrival of more healthful summer weather. A second student team, citing Celsus' manual, blamed the inland northerly wind for negating the ordinarily salutary effects of spring and advised the patient to petition the gods for a change of weather (from cloudy and warm to clear and cool), similarly counseling him to be patient and await the advent of summer. This game of "Ancient E.R. " both amused and edified, insofar as students found correlative and causative links between weather, diet, and illness that were both comical and commonsensical. It also provoked serious discussion of whether and how moderns are any less "primitive" than their ancient forebears in relying on faith healing, prayer, and other "magical" practices in lieu of, or alongside, "medical" techniques.

The worlds of ancient China and Rome often were colorful and earthy, and we should not present these societies as overly formal or stuffy. Popular traditions and practices arguably are more representative of Han and imperial Roman cultural life than the erudite musings of Confucians or Epicureans. Most teachers will find the chapters on Han popular religion (7, 9-10) in Mark Csikszentmihalyi's Readings in Han Chinese Thought (Indianapolis and Cambridge: Hackett Publishing, 2006) and the sections on Roman household shrines (102-103), festival calendars (61, 71-74), and oracles (179-193, 261-273) in Mary Beard, John North, and Simon Price's Religions of Rome, Volume 2: A Sourcebook (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998) helpful tools in understanding common spiritual beliefs and practices. ¹⁰ Such popular traditions are not only important for the sake of enabling students to acquire a realistic sense of the cultures in question, but much like the "Ancient E.R. " exercise described earlier, also can provide enormous classroom enjoyment.
Imported Religions
The encounters of both China and Rome with foreign faiths were crucial in shaping subsequent religious history of their successor cultures and epochs. Had fourth century Roman emperors not embraced Christianity, would the West have survived as a cultural entity distinct from, for example, the Islamic world? Had ninth century Chinese emperors not persecuted Buddhism, would the later "Neo-Confucian" revival and subsequent "Confucianization" of East Asian states and societies have occurred? If the "apostate," anti-Christian emperor Julian (r. 361- 363) had ruled for more than a few short years, might the medieval West have returned to the polytheism of its pagan ancestors, and thus looked more like modern India than modern Europe or North America? If Buddhism had replaced Confucianism permanently as the Chinese state ideology during the Tang dynasty, might China have proved more receptive to other foreign faiths, such as Christianity and Islam, in medieval and early modern times? Such counterfactual speculations can play an important role in the comparative teaching about early China and ancient Rome. They cannot do so, however, without adequate grounding in the factual sources related to the importation of Buddhism from India to China and of Christianity from Palestine to Rome.

To get at these facts and their interpretations by Chinese and Roman commentators, I assigned the various attacks on and apologies for new religious movements available in translation. These texts may generate a number of useful questions. What strategic similarities exist when comparing the Buddhist convert Mouzi's contrast of indigenous traditions with Buddhism with the Christian convert Tertullian's writ ings on indigenous Roman religions and Christianity? ¹¹ How do defenders of indigenous traditions such as the stalwart Confucian official Han Yu (de Bary and Bloom, 583-585) and the pagan historian Tacitus ¹² respond to the challenge of foreign ideas and practices that are gaining in popularity in the imperial capitals? Even where Chinese and Roman rulers disagree in matters of policy toward imported religions-as in the case of the Tang emperor Wuzong, who proscribed Buddhism (de Bary and Bloom, 585-586), and Constantine the Great, who prescribed Christianity-what can be learned from the tensions and concerns that each articulates regarding religion and the state? ¹³ Finally, how do rival traditions that are not affiliated with the state, such as Taoism in China and Judaism in Rome, tend to relate to the success of the imported and the suppression of the indigenous? ¹⁴

These questions, which are not at all counterfactual but in fact crucial for the cultures in question, can be enlivened for students by another round of role-playing. In this case, I presented students with a dispute between Chinese and Roman subjects living in a Silk Road trading center under Parthian jurisdiction. In my imaginary Silk Road oasis city, some (Confucian or perhaps Taoist) Chinese objected to the prosyletization taking place among Chinese by Buddhists, while some (pagan) Romans took offense at the evangelization efforts of Christians among their population, and all four parties turned to me (the Parthian governor) for arbitration of their disputes. While the historical likelihood of such a scenario is dubious, this did not prevent students from engaging imaginatively and productively in an exercise that I, in yet another nod to television drama, labeled "Ancient People's Court." Students freely borrowed appropriate arguments and counter-arguments from assigned primary sources, and our classroom-cum-courtroom proceedings brought forth light as well as heat. While justice may not have been served, at the end of the day, students had a fresh and vivid understanding of the issues at play during this formative period in both cultures' religious histories.
When Empires Collide
The hypothetical Parthian courtroom drama set the stage for the course's final unit on encounters between early Chinese and ancient Romans. At this point, the limits of the primary-source anthologies that I had selected became apparent, and I increasingly turned toward online and other resources to address the often shadowy contacts between East and West that took place through the myriad trading networks collectively known as the Silk Road. It also was at this juncture that my limits as a specialist in China rather than Rome became more obvious, at least to me. Consequently, classroom discussion from this point onward tended to focus on Chinese perspectives on Rome rather than vice versa. ¹⁵ The somewhat one-sided nature of the material notwithstanding, students managed to acquire some sense of the historical and cultural issues at work in this prolonged, if episodic, process of encounter. Just as importantly, they were able to integrate and apply their cumulative knowledge of both Imperial Roman and Imperial Chinese civilizations to understanding this process.

Having reviewed various Chinese chroniclers' impressions of the Romans (and their Central Asian middlemen), students discovered a Chinese tendency to project Confucian utopianism upon the West and see Western culture as exemplifying cardinal Chinese values and virtues. The Hou Han Shu ( History of the Later Han, c. fifth century CE) claims that Western "kings are not permanent rulers . . . they appoint men of merit" and that Western polity honors the Confucian principle of tianming (heavenly mandate): "When a severe calamity visits the country, or untimely rain-storms, the king is deposed and replaced by another.

The one relieved from his duties submits to his degradation without a murmur. The inhabitants of that country are tall and well-proportioned, somewhat like the [Chinese] . . ." At the same time, students detected a change over time in Chinese views of Western religion. The sixth century CE Song Shu ( History of the Song) credits "the doctrine of the abstraction of mind in devotion to the Lord of the World [i.e., Christianity]" with "having caused navigation and trade to be extended," while the eighth century CE Nestorian Christian stele claims that in Christian lands, "robberies are unknown . . . and the people enjoy peace and happiness. Only the luminous [i.e., Christian] religion is practiced; only virtuous rulers occupy the throne." Not long after this stele was inscribed, however, the Tang government proscribed Christianity (along with Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, and other foreign faiths), and by the eighteenth century, the Ming Shi ( History of the Ming) chronicler was able to write about Christianity with some skepticism:
A native from the great western ocean [i.e., Jesuit missionary Matteo Ricci] came to the capital who said that the Lord of Heaven [i.e., Christ], Yēsū [Jesus], was born in [Judea] which is identical with the old country of [Rome]; that this country is known in the historical books to have existed since the creation of the world for the last 6,000 years; that it is beyond dispute the sacred ground of history and the origin of all worldly affairs; that it should be considered as the country where the Lord of Heaven created the human race. This account looks somewhat exaggerated and should not be trusted.
Given the Christian conservatism of the region in which I teach, not to mention the exalted position enjoyed by Christianity in the United States generally, my students' encounter with pre-modern Chinese infatuation, indifference, and skepticism regarding their culture's preeminent religious tradition could be amusing or abrasive, but above all, it was enlightening, insofar as it raised a number of questions. Had the Romans known anything of Chinese religions, what might they have said or done in response? Why do Chinese records seem to testify to a greater (if still very incomplete) knowledge of the West than is the case with comparably antique Western documents? How might Chinese perceptions of the Roman world have conditioned the Chinese reception of later representatives of Western culture, from the alleged visit of Marco Polo to the missionary journeys of the Jesuits?
Student Responses
At the end of the course, I asked students to answer two questions. Their responses to these questions highlight both the successes and the pitfalls of teaching early China and ancient Rome comparatively.

In response to What do you think is the most striking similarity between early China and ancient Rome? students tended to identify ethnocentrism, traditionalism, and centralization as the most striking features shared by Han China and Imperial Rome:
Though on opposite ends of the 'known world,' they both believed they were the pinnacle of civilization and that everyone else was a barbarian. Both find it very important for their leaders to represent old values that may never have existed, but are perceived as having been lost. The desire for a unified empire
What I find most striking about responses to this question is how many students saw the construction of cultural identities as central to the comparative framework of the course:
How the myths of the respective empires facilitated government rule. How much the ideal usually is not the case. They portray the winners [of history] in similar ways.
Like many an ancient Chinese or Roman historian, students learned that the past offers models that can be useful for the present, either as exemplars for emulation or as failures to be avoided. Several students commented on the so-called imperial ambitions of the present United States government, and they compared President George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" appearance on the USS Abraham Lincoln in 2003 to the triumphs staged by victorious Roman generals. Others pointed out that contemporary American appeals to the rectitude of their nation's founders closely resemble Confucian discourse about the sage-kings of antiquity, and serve similar purposes. In general, quite a few students voiced the opinion that we now live in a kind of late Han or late Roman era, although they could not agree on the identity of the "barbarians" massing outside the empire's borders or the culpability of the regime in bringing us to this point in history. Much of the current national debate about whether the United States represents a new imperium has focused on the precedents of British and Soviet power, but my students' experiences suggest that this public conversation could be enriched by greater reference to ancient empires such as those of China and Rome. Such references are all the more poignant, given the apparent return to imperial power by the modern Chinese state after nearly a half-millennium of decline.

Student responses to the second question, What do you think is the most striking difference between early China and ancient Rome?, however, revealed that stereotypes of East and West are difficult to root out. Many identified the most striking difference between early China and ancient Rome in terms of broadly sketched value dichotomies:
The Chinese seem to value virtue above fame; the Romans are all about conquest. The Chinese focus on harmony, while the Romans focus on conquest. The ideals of the Confucian classics (virtue) were very different from those presented in the Aeneid (power through conquest).
This "East is East and West is West" view of the two imperial cultures did not frame all student perceptions, however. Some respondents pointed out that Rome began with a quasi-democratic social order, even if it rejected it in the end, while China never possessed institutions comparable to the Roman senate or consulate. Others saw Rome's cosmopolitanism as a function of its central location in a maritime trade network and attributed China's relatively more xenophobic and conservative cultural orientation to its roots in an inland river valley civilization. Both observations may be routine among more experienced scholars of Old World antiquity, but this does not detract from the value of the students discovering these points of difference for themselves through an examination of primary documents in cultural and historical context.
Conclusion
I believe two major benefits may be derived from teaching early China and ancient Rome comparatively. Such an endeavor not only promotes the basic goals of world-historical education (to acquire knowledge of facts and judgment regarding their interpretation), it also helps equip students not only for an understanding of the past, but also for informed engagement with the present and future. We who now live in a world defined by these foundational empires and their successor civilizations should seize every opportunity to learn about our cultural origins so as to preserve their accomplishments while avoiding their mistakes. On this point, we may find ourselves in agreement with both our early Chinese and our ancient Roman forebears, each of whom knew the world of the dead as a rich resource for the living.

1. William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, II.iii, 246-247.

2. I gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and insights shared with me by Andrew Chittick, David Cohen, Ruben Dupertuis, Lucien Ellington, Robert W. Foster, Grant Hardy, Robert W. Hoag, David G. Johnson, Gary C. Johnson, David N. Keightley, Keith N. Knapp, Steven Shankman, John Svarlien, and my students. Two reviewers for Education About Asia also offered invaluable suggestions for the improvement of this essay.

3. David N. Keightley, "Early Civilization in China: Reflections on How It Became Chinese," in Heritage of China: Contemporary Perspectives on Chinese Civilization, ed. Paul S. Ropp (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1990), 53.

4. A complete course syllabus and supporting materials may be found online at http://faculty.berea.edu/richeyj/ast217.html.

5. Images of these maps are available online at http://www.lietuvos.net/istorija/sarmatia/sarmatija_saltiniai.htm and http://www.answers.com/topic/kangnido, respectively.

6. English translations of this and other Chinese impressions of ancient and medieval Western cultures may be found online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.html.

7. One zhū was equivalent to 1/48 liăng or tael (approximately forty grams) of silver.

8. Michael Puett, "Humans and Gods: The Theme of Self-Divinization in Early China and Early Greece," in Early China/Ancient Greece: Thinking Through Comparisons, eds. Steven Shankman and Stephen W. Durrant (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2002), 71.

9. Although I used de Bary and Bloom's anthology when teaching my course, in future offerings I will consider an alternative text, the Hawai`i Reader in Traditional Chinese Culture (Honolulu: University of Hawai`i Press, 2004), edited by Victor H. Mair, Nancy Shatzman Steinhardt, and Paul Rakita Goldin.

10. Thomas J. Sienkewicz has placed a useful collection of textual excerpts related to Roman religion online at http://department.monm.edu/classics/Courses/Clas230/ MythDocuments/SourcesfromRomanReligion.htm.

11. For Mouzi, see de Bary and Bloom, 421-426; for Tertullian, see the excerpt from his "On the Proscription of Heretics," available online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/ancient/200Tertullian-pagan.html.

12. See the excerpt from Tacitus' Annals available online at http://www.csun.edu/ %7Ehcfll004/xtians.html.

13. See Constantine's "Laws for Christians," an excerpt from Eusebius' Church History, available online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/const1-laws2.html.

14. For an example of Taoist "rebuttal by appropriation" vis-á-vis Buddhism, see "The Doctrine of the Three Heavens" (de Bary and Bloom, 400-402); for a Roman-era Jewish response to the emergence and eventual separation of Christianity from Roman-era Judaism, see the late antique text known as the Toledoth Yeshu, available in English translation online at http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/%7Ehumm/Topics/JewishJesus/toledoth.html.

15. The rich selection of texts in English translation available online at http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/eastasia/romchin1.html is invaluable for teaching this material.

JEFFREY L. RICHEY (PhD Graduate Theological Union) is Associate Professor of Religion and Director of the Asian Studies Program at Berea College in Kentucky. He is the editor of Teaching Confucianism (Oxford University Press, 2008), the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries on early Chinese thought, and the Chinese Philosophy Area editor for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (http://www.iep.utm.edu/). Through the Bluegrass Ancient Studies Seminar (http://faculty.berea.edu/richeyj/bass.html), an annual gathering of scholars in central Kentucky who work on material related to Old World antiquity, he remains engaged with the comparative study of early China and ancient Rome.

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Teaching Early China and Ancient Rome Comparatively - Association for Asian Studies

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Instructed by the antiquary times, He must, he is, he cannot but be wise.1 William Shakespeare World history instructors constantly encounter the exhortation to teach Han dynasty China and the Roman Empire comparatively.2 The reason for this is clear: teaching early China and ancient Rome comparatively invites students to calculate and evaluate what David N.

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Kulp'o Culture

Chulmun Culture

Ch'aemon Culture

United Silla

Later Three Kingdoms

Mongol Domination

Koryo Dynasty

Choson Dynasty

1418-1450 Reign of King Sejong

1592-1598 Imjin Wars (Hideyoshi Invasions)

1724-1800 Reigns of Yongjo and Chongjo

1600-1850s Two centuries of peace

Foreign skirmishes threaten Korea

Japanese colonial rule

Korean War between North and South Korea

Consultant: Charles K. Armstrong, The Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Korean Studies in the Social Sciences
*2020

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Timelines: KOREA | Asia for Educators | Columbia University

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Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.

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4000 - 1000 BCE

Origin Myths

* Iryôn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa): The Tangun Legend [PDF]

1000 BCE - 300 CE

Origin Myths

* Iryôn's Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk yusa): The Tangun Legend [PDF]

600 - 1000

Then Ten Injunctions of King T'aejo

* The Ten Injunctions of Wang Kôn (King T'aejo) [PDF]

Social Stratification: The "Bone Rank" System

* Sôl Kyedu [PDF]

Hyangga: Oral Poetry of the Silla

* "Song for a Dead Sister," by Wôlmyông [PDF]

* "Song for the Peace of the People" (Anmin'ga), by Ch'ungdam [PDF]

1000 - 1450

Han'gul, the Korean Script

* Chông Inji's Postscript to the Hunmin Chôngûm (Correct Sounds to Instruct the People), 1446 [PDF]

* Ch'oe Malli's Opposition to the Korean Alphabet [PDF]

Neo-Confucianist Hostility Toward Buddhism

* Pak Ch'o, Anti-Buddhist Memorial [PDF]

Early Chosôn Land Reforms

* Chông Tojôn, On Land [PDF]

Social Stratification: Inherited Slave Status

* "Inheritance of Slave Status" [PDF]

1450 - 1750

Inherited Status (Slavery); Genealogy

* Excerpts from the Pangye surok: Yu Hyôngwôn on Abolishing Slavery [PDF]

* Excerpts from Preface to the Genealogy of the Andong Kwôn, by Sô Kôjông [PDF]

Neo-Confucian Reforms; Women

* Excerpts from the Sejong sillok: Reform of Funerary Practices, 1437 [PDF]

* Excerpts from the Sôngjong sillok: Prohibition Against Remarriage of Women, 1447 [PDF]

* Excerpts from Instructions to My Daughter, by Song Siyôl [PDF]

1750 - 1919

Japanese Rule (1910-1945)

* "The Old People and the New Government," by Komatsu Midori[PDF]

* Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919)[PDF]

Late Chosôn Reformist Thought

Chông Yagyong, 1762-1836
*Excerpts from the Yôyudan chônsô: Chông Yagyong on the Roots of Royal Authority

Reactions to Contact with the West, 1800s

Yi Hangno, 1792-1868
*Excerpts from the Hwasô sônsaeng mujip: Yi Hangno on "Sinifying the Western Barbarians"

Ch'oe Cheu, 1824-1864, and the Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)
* The Tonghak Religion and Uprising: Ch'oe Cheu on Learning Truth and Twelve Reforms Proclaimed by the Tonghak Overseer's Office [PDF]

The Independent ( Tongnip sinmun), 1896-1899
* Editorial on "Nation and Civilization": A Periodical for the Korean People
* Editorial on "Nation and Civilization": Seoul's Water Supply

Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)

Ch'oe Cheu, 1824-1864, and the Tonghak Uprising (1894-1895)
* The Tonghak Religion and Uprising: Ch'oe Cheu on Learning Truth and Twelve Reforms Proclaimed by the Tonghak Overseer's Office [PDF]

1900 - 1950

Japanese Rule (1910-1945)

* "The Old People and the New Government," by Komatsu Midori[PDF]

* Declaration of Independence (March 1, 1919)[PDF]

Formation of the Korean Communist Party

* Manifesto of the Korean Communist Party in Shanghai (1921) [PDF]

Stories about the Colonial Experience

* Oral Histories of the Colonial Era[PDF]

* Oral Histories of the "Comfort Women"[PDF]

1950 - 2000

South Korea's Postwar Development

Pak Chônghûi, 1917-1979
* Selections from To Build a Nation (1971) [PDF]

Kim Chiha, b. 1941
* "Five Bandits" (1970) [PDF]

The Ideology of Kim Ilsông (1912-1994) and North Korea

* "On Eliminating Dogmatism and Formalism and Establishing Juche in Ideological Work" (Speech, 1955) [PDF]

Security on the Korean Peninsula

* Agreed Framework between the United States of America and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (1994) [PDF]

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Primary Sources with DBQs | Asia for Educators | Columbia University

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Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.

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Download PDF

Editor's Note: New EAA subscribers might not be aware of Visualizing Cultures, founded in 2002 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professors Shigeru Miyagawa and John Dower. Visualizing Cultures, which uses technology to blend images, video, and text into superb interactive teaching units, is the source for all the graphics in this photo spread. Readers interested in the Russo-Japanese War are particularly encouraged to explore the units titled "Throwing off Asia," "Asia Rising," and "Yellow Promise/Yellow Peril." These are on the "Visualizing Cultures" Web site at http://ocw.mit.edu/ans7870/21f/21f.027j/menu/index.html.

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Visualizing Cultures: Postcards From the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) - Association for Asian Studies

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Editor's Note: New EAA subscribers might not be aware of Visualizing Cultures, founded in 2002 by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professors Shigeru Miyagawa and John Dower. Visualizing Cultures, which uses technology to blend images, video, and text into superb interactive teaching units, is the source for all the graphics in this photo spread.

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Key Points | Asia for Educators | Columbia University

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Asia for Educators (AFE) is designed to serve faculty and students in world history, culture, geography, art, and literature at the undergraduate and pre-college levels.

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China is a world superpower today. But just over a century ago, the country was in complete turmoil - foreign powers had carved up the country, the ruling dynasty was losing control, and millions of citizens were struggling to survive. However, that political chaos inspired a nationalist movement that reshaped China as we know it, and it was led by one man - Sun Yat-sen.
If you would like to read more on the topic, here's a list:
We love to hear from our listeners! Tweet at us @throughlineNPR, send us an , or leave us a voicemail at (872) 588-8805.

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China is a world superpower today. But just over a century ago, the country was in complete turmoil - foreign powers had carved up the country, the ruling dynasty was losing control, and millions of citizens were struggling to survive.

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There is a review of this book in EAGLE as well.  A great insight into the terra cotta warriors and other key objects.

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Early China is best known for the dazzling material artifacts it has left behind. These terracotta figures, gilt-bronze lamps, and other material remnants of...

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Introduction

To show change over time and compare cultures as well as learn more about a very important part of Japanese history and culture, the "Journey along the Tōkaidō" has been created using various primary source materials. The Tōkaidō Road, from Tokyo to Kyoto in Japan can be examined at various time periods (1830s, 1920s, and present day) and will show comparisons to the U.S. National Road and Route 66. The stations along the Tōkaidō Road can looked at two ways: "horizontally" across the many stations in one time period, or looking "vertically" at one station across several time periods.

Students will study two primary source materials: the Tōkaidō gojūsantsugi manga emaki (The Fifty Three Stations of the Tōkaidō Manga Scroll, which will be referred to as the "Tōkaidō Manga Scroll") and the The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō woodblock prints.This Tōkaidō manga scroll was created by 18 members of the Tokyo Manga Association during a trip approximating the route of the old Tōkaidō in 1921 and depicts scenes of Japanese culture, history, economics, daily life, transportation, architecture, and industry. Utagawa (Andō) Hiroshige's The Fifty-Three Stations of the Tōkaidō (1833-1834 in the Hōeidō edition) is a series of woodblock prints (ukiyo-e) of the stations along the Tōkaidō. These ukiyo-e prints became enormously popular and have been reprinted countless times down to the present. Lesson plans align to the state standards of Ohio. Funding was provided by the Japan Foundation Center for Global Partnership and the Institute for Japanese Studies at The Ohio State University.

"Journey along the Tōkaidō" resources:

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The Great Wall of China was not constructed as a single project. It is made up of numerous construction projects that were begun at different times, during different dynasties and in different locations. Most of the early sections of the construction fell into disrepair, or had even disappeared entirely, by the fourteenth century when the Ming Dynasty came to power. The wall as it known today is predominantly a product of the Ming Dynasty, which both repaired and rebuilt older sections, and expanded the reach of the structure. The Ming Dynasty structure can be seen from Hebei province to Gansu province. Beyond Gansu province the wall becomes a series of watchtowers that stretch into Xinjiang province and the Taklamakan desert.

The initial fortifications and the subsequent wall were both constructed to slow the advance of invading forces that depended on cavalry-mounted horsemen expert at using the bow and arrow. The initial constructions may have been designed at least as much in response to internal strife as to exterior threats. Imperial governments feared the possibility of disloyal Chinese bringing military technology or other kinds of information to the northern nomadic tribes. As a result, the construction of the wall was equal parts protection from outside invaders and an attempt to keep the Chinese in China.

The Great Wall represented one solution to imperial China's most long term foreign policy problem. This problem rose from the need by China, as a sedentary, agricultural empire to respond to the invasions by nomadic, tribal peoples. Initially, this concern came to prominence with the rise of the Xiongnu (shyong-new) Empire, which was based in present-day Mongolia. In later centuries the Chinese would sustain attacks along the northern frontier from other peoples residing to the north. Some of these groups even succeeded in conquering China, such as the Mongols in the thirteenth century (ruling as the Yuan Dynasty 1279-1368), and the Manchus (ruling as the Qing Dynasty 1644-1911).

The initial fortifications were begun in the 3rd century BCE, during the Qin (pronounced Chin) Dynasty (221- 206 BCE). The fortifications begun during the Qin dynasty were augmented and expanded during the Han dynasty (202 BCE- 220 CE) that followed. The final, and most comprehensive, period of construction took place during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 CE). The Ming Dynasty extended and strengthened the Great Wall in response to the earlier successes of the Mongols. Early Ming rulers greatly feared the Mongols, whom they had toppled in 1368. This fear was not without foundation: one fifteenth-century Ming emperor was captured and held captive by the Mongols for a year.

The Ming Dynasty was overthrown by another people from beyond the northern frontier: the Manchus. Over a number of decades, the Manchus prepared for the conquest of China by learning the governing systems and skills of the Chinese empire. In 1644, Manchu leaders took advantage of an internal rebellion that destroyed the Ming, entering Chinese territory through one of the wall's gates. The Manchus established the Qing (pronounced Ching) Dynasty (1644- 1911), China's last dynasty.

Readings on Chinese geography and the mapping of China are available from the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Asia Society. Readings on China's dynastic history and on the Mongols are also available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Asia For Educators.

Note: There are two transliteration systems for Mandarin Chinese. This lesson uses the pin-yin system, however some of the internet sources use the Wade-Giles system. In the Wade-Giles system Qin will be spelled Ch'in and Qing will be spelled Ch'ing, however, they both refer to the same period.

Activity 1. Mapping the Wall

You may wish to begin by helping students to become familiar with the geography of China and with Chinese place names. You can introduce students to China's geography by engaging them in this interactive from the EDSITEment-reviewed website of the Asia Society, which allows them to puzzle together a map of the regions of China. Ask students to read the names of China's provinces. You may wish to distribute this pronunciation chart that will help students to read through the unfamiliar names.

Students can begin to grasp the size of the Great Wall as a construction project by plotting the wall on a map of China using a print out of the course of the Great Wall (zoom in on the map until the yellow course of the wall becomes visible just north of Beigjing) available through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library to plot the wall on the political map of modern China. You may want to remind students that watchtowers stretched beyond the most western reaches of the wall, even though they are not plotted on the map.

Discuss with students what the wall can tell us today about what China was like in the past. You may wish to raise a number of study questions to begin the discussion. These questions might include:

Why would the Chinese imperial court build such a wall?

How long might it have taken to build, and what kind of resources needed to be devoted to the project? This discussion might focus on building materials such as stone (which would need to be quarried), earth and brick, and the armies of builders needed to construct such a massive structure.

What does the building of the wall tell us about the power of the Chinese imperial court and its abilities to control human and other resources?

What does the building of the wall tell us about China's relationship with its northern neighbors?

You may wish to have students read a history of the Great Wall. This reading can be used either to help students answer study questions or to check their hypotheses.

Activity 2. The Great Wall in History

There were two major periods of construction on the Great Wall, one during the Qin and Han dynasties, and the second during the Ming dynasty. During the first period the wall was not one extensive wall, but was rather numerous shorter fortifications. By the time of the second period of major construction during the Ming many of the original fortifications had fallen into complete disrepair, or had even disappeared. You may want to introduce the Great Wall to students by explaining that the idea of constructing walled fortifications to protect towns and cities originated even before the Great Wall. In this activity students will be asked to investigate the most important period major construction on the wall: the Ming Dynasty.

Students can learn about the period by reading the brief history of the Ming Dynasty. The readings are short, however they do contain challenging vocabulary. For classes of beginning students you may wish to summarize the readings or complete the reading as a group.

More advanced students can be directed to more in-depth information on the Ming Dynasty.

Activity 3. Howdy, Neighbor!

In the first activity of this lesson, students will be asked to think about what the wall can tell us about China's relationship with its northern neighbors. In this activity students will learn more about who those neighbors were and are.

The Great Wall that can be seen in a photograph today is almost entirely the Ming Dynasty construction project. While earlier dynasties sought ways to protect their territory from their northern neighbors (such as the Xiongu empire), protection from the Mongols, Manchus and other northern neighbors was a particular concern during the Ming Dynasty.

Divide the students into small groups. List on the blackboard some factual information on the size of the wall, such as the average height of the wall (usually between 20 and 30 feet tall) and its length (around 1500 miles long). Ask each group to work together to form a hypothesis about what the purpose of the wall was.

Why do you think the wall was constructed?

Do you think the wall was an important public works project? Why?

What evidence can you find in the readings and in the facts presented in class that support your hypothesis?

Groups should arrive at a conclusion about the purpose of the wall which includes the need for protection. Returning to their maps students should investigate the path of the wall and contemplate: protection from what and from whom? What does this tell us today about the relationship between the Ming Dynasty and its northern neighbors? Groups should work together to explain what the wall tells us about this relationship.

Who was the wall meant to protect? From whom or what?

What does this tell us about China's relationship with its northern neighbors?

Next, ask students to look at the modern photographs of the wall provided on the link above. While it would certainly be difficult, would it be impossible for armies to climb over this wall? Do students think that the wall was constructed only to keep out people, or was it designed to keep out something else? Is it possible that the wall was meant to keep something or someone in? Ask student groups to work together to imagine what else the wall may have been designed to keep from passing into Ming territory. Introduce students to the , about whom more information can be accessed through the EDSITEment reviewed web resource Internet Public Library, and to the history of some of the other peoples that inhabited the northern frontier.

As described above, two ethnic groups who successfully invaded China and installed their own dynasties. The Yuan Dynasty (1273-1368), which preceded the Ming Dynasty, was established by the Mongols and was part of the great Mongol Empire that stretched across Eurasia from the China Sea to the Middle East. The Qing Dynasty (1644-1912), which followed the Ming Dynasty, was established by invading Manchus. More information on these two dynasties can be found through the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Internet Public Library. Although the Mongols governed China for less than a century, their rulers adopted many of the systems and structures of the traditional Chinese emperors. In addition, because the Mongols were small in number, they recruited people from all over the empire-including Arabs and Persians-to perform tasks such as tax collection. The Manchu court was also adopted numerous Chinese governing systems, and eventually even the Chinese language as the main mode of communication, during the course of the Qing Dynasty. While the Manchus worked diligently to maintain their separate cultural identity, this influence of Chinese governing systems and language was so profound that today there are only a handful of people who can still read the Manchu script.

Ask students to write a short, persuasive essay answering one of the above questions.

Students will become more familiar with Chinese geography by completing the online mapping exercise or by inserting the path of the Great Wall on a printed map.

Students will show their understanding of some of the basic characteristics and events of the Ming Dynasty by successfully completing the online quiz.

Students will bring together what they have learned about the Great Wall, Chinese history and China's neighbors with their writing skills in writing a short persuasive essay on either the Great Wall's efficacy or the success of the Manchu invasion.

Students can read about China's ethnic minorities on the EDSITEment-reviewed web resource Asia Society. This essay gives a brief overview of four of China's many ethnic minorities, including the Mongols, Manchus, Naxi and Tibetans.

EDSITEment Websites

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The famous Great Wall of China, which was built to keep the China's horse-riding neighbors at bay, extends more than 2,000 kilometers across China, from Heilongjiang province by Korea to China's westernmost province of Xinjiang.

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Maps- Geography | East Asian Studies Center

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Teaching Resources: East Asia in Geographic Perspective, Asia for Educators EASC/NCTA Lesson plans about Geography, The Ohio State University Journey alo

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The history of China reaches back over 4,000 years. In that time, China has created a culture rich in philosophy and the arts. China has seen the invention of amazing technologies such as silk, paper, gunpowder, and many other products.

Over the millennia, China has fought hundreds of wars. It has conquered its neighbors, and been conquered by them in turn. Early Chinese explorers such as Admiral Zheng He sailed all the way to Africa; today, China's space program continues this tradition of exploration.

This snapshot of the People's Republic of China today includes a necessarily brief scan of China's ancient heritage.

Capital and Major Cities

Capital:

Beijing, population 11 million.

Major Cities:

Shanghai, population 15 million.

Shenzhen, population 12 million.

Guangzhou, population 7 million.

Hong Kong, population 7 million.

Dongguan, population 6.5 million.

Tianjin, population 5 million.

Government

The People's Republic of China is a socialist republic ruled by a single party, the Communist Party of China.

Power in the People's Republic is divided between the National People's Congress (NPC), the President, and the State Council. The NPC is the single legislative body, whose members are selected by the Communist Party. The State Council, headed by the Premier, is the administrative branch. The People's Liberation Army also wields considerable political power.

The current President of China and General Secretary of the Communist Party is Xi Jinping. The Premier is Li Keqiang.

Official Language

The official language of the PRC is Mandarin, a tonal language in the Sino-Tibetan family. Within China, however, only about 53 percent of the population can communicate in Standard Mandarin.

Other important languages in China include Wu, with 77 million speakers; Min, with 60 million; Cantonese, 56 million speakers; Jin, 45 million speakers; Xiang, 36 million; Hakka, 34 million; Gan, 29 million; Uighur, 7.4 million; Tibetan, 5.3 million; Hui, 3.2 million; and Ping, with 2 million speakers.

Dozens of minority languages also exist in the PRC, including Kazakh, Miao, Sui, Korean, Lisu, Mongolian, Qiang, and Yi.

Population

China has the largest population of any country on Earth, with more than 1.35 billion people.

The government has long been concerned about population growth and introduced the " One-Child Policy" in 1979. Under this policy, families were limited to just one child. Couples who got pregnant for a second time faced forced abortions or sterilization. This policy was loosened in December of 2013 to allow couples to have two children if one or both of the parents were only children themselves.

There are exceptions to the policy for ethnic minorities, as well. Rural Han Chinese families also have always been able to have a second child if the first is a girl or has disabilities.

Under the communist system, religion has been officially discouraged in China. Actual suppression has varied from one religion to another, and from year to year.

Many Chinese are nominally Buddhist and/or Taoist but don't practice regularly. People who self-identify as Buddhist total about 50 percent, overlapping with the 30 percent who are Taoist. Fourteen percent are atheists, four percent Christians, 1.5 percent Muslims, and tiny percentages are Hindu, Bon, or Falun Gong adherents.

Most Chinese Buddhists follow Mahayana or Pure Land Buddhism, with smaller populations of Theravada and Tibetan Buddhists.

China's area is 9.5 to 9.8 million square kilometers; the discrepancy is due to border disputes with India. In either case, its size is second only to Russia in Asia and is either third or fourth in the world.

China borders 14 countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Burma, India, Kazakhstan, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Laos, Mongolia, Nepal, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan, and Vietnam.

From the world's tallest mountain to the coast, and the Taklamakan desert to the jungles of Guilin, China includes diverse landforms. The highest point is Mt. Everest (Chomolungma) at 8,850 meters. The lowest is Turpan Pendi, at -154 meters.

As a result of its large area and various landforms, China includes climate zones from subarctic to tropical.

China's northern province of Heilongjiang has average winter temperatures below freezing, with record lows of -30 degrees Celsius. Xinjiang, in the west, can reach nearly 50 degrees. Southern Hainan Island has a tropical monsoon climate. Average temperatures there range only from about 16 degrees Celsius in January to 29 in August.

Hainan receives about 200 centimeters (79 inches) of rain annually. The western Taklamakan Desert receives only about 10 centimeters (4 inches) of rain and snow per year.

Over the past 25 years, China has had the fastest-growing major economy in the world, with annual growth of more than 10 percent. Nominally a socialist republic, since the 1970s the PRC has remade its economy into a capitalist powerhouse.

Industry and agriculture are the largest sectors, producing more than 60 percent of China's GDP, and employing over 70 percent of the workforce. China exports $1.2 billion U.S. in consumer electronics, office machinery, and apparel, as well as some agricultural produce each year.

The per capita GDP is $2,000. The official poverty rate is 10 percent.

China's currency is the yuan renminbi. As of March 2014, $1 US = 6.126 CNY.

History of China

Chinese historical records reach back into the realm of legend, 5,000 years ago. It is impossible to cover even the major events of this ancient culture in a short space, but here are some highlights.

The first non-mythical dynasty to rule China was the Xia (2200- 1700 BCE), founded by Emperor Yu. It was succeeded by the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE), and then the Zhou Dynasty (1122-256 BCE). Historical records are scanty for these ancient dynastic times.

In 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huangdi assumed the throne, conquering neighboring city-states, and unifying China. He founded the Qin Dynasty, which lasted only until 206 BCE. Today, he is best-known for his tomb complex in Xian (formerly Chang'an), which houses the incredible army of terracotta warriors.

Qin Shi Huang's inept heir was overthrown by the army of commoner Liu Bang in 207 BCE. Liu then founded the Han Dynasty, which lasted until 220 CE. In the Han era, China expanded west as far as India, opening trade along what would later become the Silk Road.

When the Han Empire collapsed in 220 CE, China was thrown into a period of anarchy and turmoil. For the next four centuries, dozens of kingdoms and fiefdoms competed for power. This era is called the "Three Kingdoms," after the three most powerful of the rival realms (Wei, Shu, and Wu), but that is a gross simplification.

By 589 CE, the Western branch of the Wei kings had accumulated enough wealth and power to defeat their rivals and unite China once more. The Sui Dynasty was founded by Wei general Yang Jian and ruled until 618 CE. It built the legal, governmental, and societal framework for the powerful Tang Empire to follow.

The Tang Dynasty was founded by a general called Li Yuan, who had the Sui emperor assassinated in 618. The Tang ruled from 618 to 907 CE, and Chinese art and culture flourished. At the end of the Tang, China descended into chaos again in the "5 Dynasties and 10 Kingdoms" period.

In 959, a palace guard named Zhao Kuangyin took power and defeated the other small kingdoms. He established the Song Dynasty (960-1279), known for its intricate bureaucracy and Confucian learning.

In 1271, the Mongolian ruler Kublai Khan (grandson of Genghis) established the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368). The Mongols subjugated other ethnic groups including the Han Chinese and eventually were overthrown by the ethnic-Han Ming.

China flowered again under the Ming (1368-1644), creating great art and exploring as far as Africa.

The final Chinese dynasty, the Qing, ruled from 1644 to 1911, when the Last Emperor was overthrown. Power struggles between warlords such as Sun Yat-Sen touched off the Chinese Civil War. Although the war was interrupted for a decade by the Japanese invasion and World War II, it picked up again once Japan was defeated. Mao Zedong and the Communist Peoples Liberation Army won the Chinese Civil War, and China became the Peoples' Republic of China in 1949. Chiang Kai Shek, leader of the losing Nationalist forces, fled to Taiwan.

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What You Should Know About China's History

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The history of China reaches back over 4,000 years. In that time, China has created a culture rich in philosophy and the arts. China has seen the invention of amazing technologies such as silk, paper, gunpowder, and many other products. Over the millennia, China has fought hundreds of wars.