1.
Jiankang
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Jiankang, or Jianye as it was originally called, was the capital city of the Eastern Wu, the Eastern Jin dynasty and the Southern Dynasties. Its walls are extant ruins in the municipal region of Nanjing. Before the Eastern Jin the city was known as Jianye, renamed Jiankang in 313 CE, it served as the capital of the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties, following the retreat from the north due to Xiongnu raids. It rivaled Luoyang in terms of population and commerce and at its height in the century was home to around 1 million people. During the rebellion of Hou Jing, Jiankang was captured in 549 CE after a siege that devastated the city. During the Sui dynasty national reunification it was almost completely destroyed, under the Tang dynasty, the city regained its prosperity and the name became Jinling. By the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period it was called Jiangning, when Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming dynasty in 1368, he made Jiankang the capital of China and renamed the city as Nanjing, literally the Southern Capital. This was compared to contemporaneous Rome, Constantinople, Luoyang, and the devastated Changan
2.
Chen Shubao
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Chen Shubao, also known as Houzhu of Chen, posthumous name Duke Yang of Changcheng, courtesy name Yuanxiu, nickname Huangnu, was the last emperor of the Chinese Chen Dynasty. In 589, Sui forces captured his capital Jiankang and seized him, ending Chen and unifying China after nearly three centuries of division, which started during the reign of Emperor Hui of Jin. He was taken to the Sui capital Changan, where he was treated kindly by Emperor Wen of Sui until his death in 604, during the reign of Emperor Wens son Emperor Yang of Sui. Chen Shubao was born in 553, when his father Chen Xu was serving as an official under Emperor Yuan of Liang at Emperor Yuans capital Jiangling. His mother was Chen Xus second wife Liu Jingyan, and he was Chen Xus oldest son, in 554, Western Wei attacked Jiangling and captured it, executing Emperor Yuan. For reasons lost to history, Lady Liu and Chen Shubao were not taken to Changan, in 557, Chen Xus uncle Chen Baxian established Chen Dynasty, with his capital at Jiankang. He requested that Western Weis successor state Northern Zhou return Chen Chang and Chen Xu to him, but Northern Zhou, while initially agreeing, did not do so during Emperor Wus lifetime. In 559, Emperor Wu died, and Chen Xus older brother Chen Qian the Prince of Linchuan, as Emperor Wus only close relative in the realm. In 560, Northern Zhou began making overtures to return Chen Xu to Chen, in 562, Emperor Wen, who had remotely created Chen Xu the Prince of Ancheng, traded the city of Lushan to Northern Zhou in exchange for Chen Xus return. Initially, Chen Shubao and his mother Princess Liu were not returned, Chen Shubao was designated as Chen Xus heir apparent. He held minor offices during Emperor Wens reign, in 566, Emperor Wen died and was succeeded by his son Chen Bozong the Crown Prince. In winter 568, he had an edict issued in the name of Emperor Wus wife Grand Empress Dowager Zhang Yaoer, deposing Emperor Fei, in spring 569, he took the throne. Chen Shubao was created crown prince, and his mother Princess Liu was created empress, in fall 569, Chen Shubao married Shen Wuhua, the daughter of the official Shen Junli, as his wife and crown princess. However, eventually he came to favor his concubine Consort Zhang Lihua, as crown prince, Chen Shubao was known for his love of literature and feasting. He therefore wanted to have the official Jiang Zong, who was talented in literature, serve as his chief of staff, and he requested that Kong Huan, Kong declined, citing that Jiang, while talented, lacked steadiness and would not be able to correct Chen Shubao. Chen Shubao then personally made the request to his father Emperor Xuan, in spring 582, Emperor Xuan grew ill, and Chen Shubao, along with his brothers Chen Shuling the Prince of Shixing and Chen Shujian the Prince of Changsha, attended to Emperor Xuan in the palace. Chen Shubao fell to the ground unconscious, Empress Liu tried to stop Chen Shuling, but was also stabbed several times. The lady in waiting Lady Wu, however, then grabbed Chen Shuling, allowing Chen Shubao to get up and they were soon defeated, however, and both were killed in battle
3.
Ancient Chinese coinage
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Ancient Chinese coinage includes some of the earliest known coins. These coins, used as early as the Spring and Autumn period, the Spring and Autumn period also saw the introduction of the first metal coins, however, they were not initially round, instead being either knife shaped or spade shaped. Round metal coins with a round, and then later square hole in the center were first introduced around 350 BCE, the beginning of the Qin Dynasty, the first dynasty to unify China, saw the introduction of a standardised coinage for the whole Empire. Subsequent dynasties produced variations on these round coins throughout the imperial period, ancient Chinese coins are markedly different from coins produced in the west. Chinese coins were manufactured by being cast in molds, whereas western coins were cut and hammered or, in later times. Chinese coins were made from mixtures of metals such copper, tin and lead, from bronze, brass or iron, precious metals like gold. The ratios and purity of the coin metals varied considerably, most Chinese coins were produced with a square hole in the middle. This was used to allow collections of coins to be threaded on a rod so that the rough edges could be filed smooth. Official coin production was not always centralised, but could be spread over many mint locations throughout the country, aside from officially produced coins, private coining was common during many stages of history. Various steps were taken over time to try to combat the private coining and limit its effects, at other times private coining was tolerated. The coins varied in value throughout the history, some coins were produced in very large numbers – during the Western Han, an average of 220 million coins a year were produced. Other coins were of limited circulation and are extremely rare – only six examples of Da Quan Wu Qian from the Eastern Wu Dynasty are known to exist. Occasionally, large hoards of coins have been uncovered, the earliest coinage of China was described by Sima Qian, the great historian of c. While nothing is known about the use of shells as money, gold. They are not found in hoards, and the probability is that all these are in fact funerary items. Archaeological evidence shows that the earliest use of the spade and knife money was in the Spring, as in ancient Greece, socio-economic conditions at the time were favourable to the adoption of coinage. Inscriptions and archaeological evidence shows that cowrie shells were regarded as important objects of value in the Shang Dynasty, in the Zhou period, they are frequently referred to as gifts or rewards from kings and nobles to their subjects. Later imitations in bone, stone or bronze were used as money in some instances
4.
Cash (Chinese coin)
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Cash was a type of coin of China and East Asia from the 2nd century BC until the 20th century AD. The English term cash referring to the coin was derived from the Tamil kāsu, the English word cash, meaning tangible currency, is an older and unrelated word from Middle French caisse. There are a variety of Chinese terms for cash coins, usually descriptive, confusingly, Chinese qián is also a weight-derived currency denomination in Chinese called mace in English. Traditionally, Chinese cash coins were cast in copper, brass or iron, in the mid-19th century, the coins were made of 3 parts copper and 2 parts lead. Cast silver coins were produced but are considerably rarer. Cast gold coins are known to exist but are extremely rare. Chinese cash coins originated from the barter of farming tools and agricultural surpluses, around 1200 BC, smaller token spades, hoes, and knives began to be used to conduct smaller exchanges with the tokens later melted down to produce real farm implements. These tokens came to be used as media of exchange themselves and were known as spade money, the hole enabled the coins to be strung together to create higher denominations, as was frequently done due to the coins low value. The number of coins in a string of cash varied over time, a string of 1000 cash was supposed to be equal in value to one tael of pure silver. A string of cash was divided into ten sections of 100 cash each, local custom allowed the person who put the string together to take a cash or a few from each hundred for his effort. Thus an ounce of silver could exchange for 970 in one city and 990 in the next, in some places in the North of China short of currency the custom counted one cash as two and fewer than 500 cash would be exchanged for an ounce of silver. A string of cash weighed over ten pounds and was carried over the shoulder. Paper money equivalents known as flying cash sometimes showed pictures of the number of cash coins strung together. The Koreans, Japanese, and Vietnamese all cast their own copper cash in the part of the second millennium similar to those used by China. The last Chinese cash coins were struck, not cast, in the reign of the Qing Xuantong Emperor shortly before the fall of the Empire in 1911, the coin continued to be used unofficially in China until the mid-20th century. Vietnamese cash continued to be cast up until 1933, in AD666, a new system of weights came into effect with the zhū being replaced by the mace with 10 mace equal to one tael. The mace denominations were so ubiquitous that the Chinese word qián came to be used as the word for money. Other traditional Chinese units of measurement, smaller subdivisions of the tael, were used as currency denominations for cash coins
5.
Liang dynasty
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The Liang dynasty, also known as the Southern Liang dynasty, was the third of the Southern Dynasties during Chinas Southern and Northern Dynasties period. Located in central China, north of Lake Dongting, the Liang dynasty was followed by the Chen dynasty, during the Liang dynasty, in 547 a Persian embassy paid tribute to the Liang, amber was recorded as originating from Persia by the Book of Liang. The ending date for Liang dynasty itself is a matter of controversy among historians, many historians consider the end of Emperor Jings reign in 556, when he was forced to yield the throne to Chen Baxian, who established Chen dynasty, to be Liangs end date. Others regard the abolition of Western Liang in 587 to be the end of Liang. A Liang scion named Xiao Xian attempted to revive the Liang dynasty during the collapse of the Sui dynasty and he was defeated and executed by Emperor Gaozu of Tang. Tombs of a number of members of the ruling Xiao family, with their sculptural ensembles, the best surviving example of the Liang dynastys monumental statuary is perhaps the ensemble of the Tomb of Xiao Xiu, a brother of Emperor Wu, located in Qixia District east of Nanjing. Tombs of the Liang Dynasty King of Liang Book of Liang Book of Zhou History of Northern Dynasties History of Southern Dynasties Zizhi Tongjian Media related to Liang dynasty at Wikimedia Commons
6.
Sui dynasty
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The Sui Dynasty was a short-lived imperial dynasty of China of pivotal significance. It was succeeded by the Tang dynasty, which inherited its foundation. Founded by Emperor Wen of Sui, the Sui dynasty capital was Changan and they also spread and encouraged Buddhism throughout the empire. By the middle of the dynasty, the unified empire entered a golden age of prosperity with vast agricultural surplus that supported rapid population growth. A lasting legacy of the Sui dynasty was the Grand Canal, the dynasty, which lasted only thirty-seven years, was undermined by ambitious wars and construction projects, which overstretched its resources. Particularly, under Emperor Yang, heavy taxation and compulsory labor duties would eventually induce widespread revolts, the dynasty is often compared to the earlier Qin dynasty for unifying China after prolonged division. Wide-ranging reforms and construction projects were undertaken to consolidate the newly unified state, after crushing an army in the eastern provinces, Yang Jian usurped the throne to become Emperor Wen of Sui. In a bloody purge, he had fifty-nine princes of the Zhou royal family eliminated, Emperor Wen abolished the anti-Han policies of Zhou and reclaimed his Han surname of Yang. In his campaign for southern conquest, Emperor Wen assembled thousands of boats to confront the forces of the Chen dynasty on the Yangtze River. The largest of ships were very tall, having five layered decks. They were outfitted with six 50-foot-long booms that were used to swing and damage enemy ships, besides employing Xianbei and other Chinese ethnic groups for the fight against Chen, Emperor Wen also employed the service of people from southeastern Sichuan, which Sui had recently conquered. In 588, the Sui had amassed 518,000 troops along the bank of the Yangtze River. The Chen dynasty could not withstand such an assault, by 589, Sui troops entered Jiankang and the last emperor of Chen surrendered. Although Emperor Wen was famous for bankrupting the treasury with warfare and construction projects. He established granaries as sources of food and as a means to market prices from the taxation of crops. The large agricultural surplus supported rapid growth of population to historical peak, the state capital of Changan, while situated in a military-secured heartland of Guanzhong, was remote from the economic centers to the east and south of the empire. Emperor Wen initiated the construction of the Grand Canal, with completion of the first route that directly linked Changan to the Yellow River, Later Emperor Yang would enormously enlarge the scale of the Grand Canal construction. Externally, the emerging nomadic Turkic Khaganate in the north posed a threat to the newly founded dynasty
7.
China
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China, officially the Peoples Republic of China, is a unitary sovereign state in East Asia and the worlds most populous country, with a population of over 1.381 billion. The state is governed by the Communist Party of China and its capital is Beijing, the countrys major urban areas include Shanghai, Guangzhou, Beijing, Chongqing, Shenzhen, Tianjin and Hong Kong. China is a power and a major regional power within Asia. Chinas landscape is vast and diverse, ranging from forest steppes, the Himalaya, Karakoram, Pamir and Tian Shan mountain ranges separate China from much of South and Central Asia. The Yangtze and Yellow Rivers, the third and sixth longest in the world, respectively, Chinas coastline along the Pacific Ocean is 14,500 kilometers long and is bounded by the Bohai, Yellow, East China and South China seas. China emerged as one of the worlds earliest civilizations in the basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. For millennia, Chinas political system was based on hereditary monarchies known as dynasties, in 1912, the Republic of China replaced the last dynasty and ruled the Chinese mainland until 1949, when it was defeated by the communist Peoples Liberation Army in the Chinese Civil War. The Communist Party established the Peoples Republic of China in Beijing on 1 October 1949, both the ROC and PRC continue to claim to be the legitimate government of all China, though the latter has more recognition in the world and controls more territory. China had the largest economy in the world for much of the last two years, during which it has seen cycles of prosperity and decline. Since the introduction of reforms in 1978, China has become one of the worlds fastest-growing major economies. As of 2016, it is the worlds second-largest economy by nominal GDP, China is also the worlds largest exporter and second-largest importer of goods. China is a nuclear weapons state and has the worlds largest standing army. The PRC is a member of the United Nations, as it replaced the ROC as a permanent member of the U. N. Security Council in 1971. China is also a member of numerous formal and informal multilateral organizations, including the WTO, APEC, BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, the BCIM, the English name China is first attested in Richard Edens 1555 translation of the 1516 journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The demonym, that is, the name for the people, Portuguese China is thought to derive from Persian Chīn, and perhaps ultimately from Sanskrit Cīna. Cīna was first used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata, there are, however, other suggestions for the derivation of China. The official name of the state is the Peoples Republic of China. The shorter form is China Zhōngguó, from zhōng and guó and it was then applied to the area around Luoyi during the Eastern Zhou and then to Chinas Central Plain before being used as an occasional synonym for the state under the Qing
8.
Vietnam
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Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. With an estimated 92.7 million inhabitants as of 2016, it is the worlds 14th-most-populous country, and its capital city has been Hanoi since the reunification of North and South Vietnam in 1976, with Ho Chi Minh City as a historical city as well. The northern part of Vietnam was part of Imperial China for over a millennium, an independent Vietnamese state was formed in 939, following a Vietnamese victory in the Battle of Bạch Đằng River. Following a Japanese occupation in the 1940s, the Vietnamese fought French rule in the First Indochina War, thereafter, Vietnam was divided politically into two rival states, North Vietnam, and South Vietnam. Conflict between the two sides intensified in what is known as the Vietnam War, the war ended with a North Vietnamese victory in 1975. Vietnam was then unified under a communist government but remained impoverished, in 1986, the government initiated a series of economic and political reforms which began Vietnams path towards integration into the world economy. By 2000, it had established relations with all nations. Since 2000, Vietnams economic growth rate has been among the highest in the world and its successful economic reforms resulted in its joining the World Trade Organization in 2007. It is also a member of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation and the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, Vietnam remains one of the worlds four remaining one-party socialist states officially espousing communism. The name Việt Nam is a variation of Nam Việt, a name that can be traced back to the Triệu Dynasty of the 2nd century BC. The word Việt originated as a form of Bách Việt. The form Vietnam is first recorded in the 16th-century oracular poem Sấm Trạng Trình, the name has also been found on 12 steles carved in the 16th and 17th centuries, including one at Bao Lam Pagoda in Haiphong that dates to 1558. Then, as recorded, rewarded Yuenan/Vietnam as their nations name, to also show that they are below the region of Baiyue/Bach Viet. Between 1804 and 1813, the name was used officially by Emperor Gia Long and it was revived in the early 20th century by Phan Bội Châus History of the Loss of Vietnam, and later by the Vietnamese Nationalist Party. The country was usually called Annam until 1945, when both the government in Huế and the Viet Minh government in Hanoi adopted Việt Nam. Archaeological excavations have revealed the existence of humans in what is now Vietnam as early as the Paleolithic age, Homo erectus fossils dating to around 500,000 BC have been found in caves in Lạng Sơn and Nghệ An provinces in northern Vietnam. The oldest Homo sapiens fossils from mainland Southeast Asia are of Middle Pleistocene provenance, teeth attributed to Homo sapiens from the Late Pleistocene have also been found at Dong Can, and from the Early Holocene at Mai Da Dieu, Lang Gao and Lang Cuom. The Hồng Bàng dynasty of the Hùng kings is considered the first Vietnamese state, in 257 BC, the last Hùng king was defeated by Thục Phán, who consolidated the Lạc Việt and Âu Việt tribes to form the Âu Lạc, proclaiming himself An Dương Vương
9.
Simplified Chinese characters
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Simplified Chinese characters are standardized Chinese characters prescribed in the Table of General Standard Chinese Characters for use in mainland China. Along with traditional Chinese characters, it is one of the two character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language. The government of the Peoples Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s in an attempt to increase literacy and they are officially used in the Peoples Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau. Overseas Chinese communities generally tend to use traditional characters, Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name above or colloquially. Strictly, the latter refers to simplifications of character structure or body, character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, Simplified character forms were created by decreasing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of traditional Chinese characters. Some simplifications were based on popular cursive forms embodying graphic or phonetic simplifications of the traditional forms, some characters were simplified by applying regular rules, for example, by replacing all occurrences of a certain component with a simplified version of the component. Variant characters with the pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character. Finally, many characters were left untouched by simplification, and are identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies. Some simplified characters are very dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters and this often leads opponents not well-versed in the method of simplification to conclude that the overall process of character simplification is also arbitrary. In reality, the methods and rules of simplification are few, on the other hand, proponents of simplification often flaunt a few choice simplified characters as ingenious inventions, when in fact these have existed for hundreds of years as ancient variants. However, the Chinese government never officially dropped its goal of further simplification in the future, in August 2009, the PRC began collecting public comments for a modified list of simplified characters. The new Table of General Standard Chinese Characters consisting of 8,105 characters was promulgated by the State Council of the Peoples Republic of China on June 5,2013, cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed, they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty, One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lubi Kui, who proposed in 1909 that simplified characters should be used in education. In the years following the May Fourth Movement in 1919, many anti-imperialist Chinese intellectuals sought ways to modernise China, Traditional culture and values such as Confucianism were challenged. Soon, people in the Movement started to cite the traditional Chinese writing system as an obstacle in modernising China and it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or completely abolished. Fu Sinian, a leader of the May Fourth Movement, called Chinese characters the writing of ox-demons, lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, If Chinese characters are not destroyed, then China will die. Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the problems in China during that time
