Dickinson College
Dickinson College is a private liberal arts college in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1773 as Carlisle Grammar School, Dickinson was chartered September 9, 1783, six days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris, making it the first college to be founded after the formation of the United States. Dickinson was founded by Benjamin Rush, a signer of the United States Declaration of Independence, named "John and Mary's College" in honor of John Dickinson, a signer of the Constitution, the Governor of Pennsylvania, his wife Mary Norris Dickinson, they donated much of their extensive personal libraries to the new college. In addition to offering either a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree in 22 disciplinary majors and 20 interdisciplinary majors, Dickinson offers an engineering option through its 3:2 program, which consists of three years at Dickinson and two years at an engineering school of Columbia University, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, or Case Western Reserve University.
Upon successful completion of both portions of the program, students receive the B. S. degree from Dickinson in their chosen field and the B. S. in engineering from the engineering school. The Dickinson School of Law is located adjacent to the college campus and was founded as its law department, it received an independent charter in 1890 and ended all affiliation with the college in 1917. In 2000 the Law School merged with the Pennsylvania State University; the Carlisle Grammar School was founded in 1773 as a frontier Latin school for young males in western Pennsylvania. Within years Carlisle's elite James Wilson and John Montgomery, were pushing for development of the school as a college. In 1782 Benjamin Rush, a leader during the American Revolution and the preeminent physician in the new nation, met in Philadelphia with Montgomery and William Bingham, a prominent businessman and politician; as their conversation about founding a frontier college in Carlisle took place on his porch, "Bingham's Porch" was long a rallying cry at Dickinson.
Dickinson College was chartered by the Pennsylvania legislature on September 9, 1783, six days after the signing of the Treaty of Paris that ended the American Revolution. Rush intended to name the college after the President of Pennsylvania John Dickinson and his wife Mary Norris Dickinson, proposing "John and Mary's College." The Dickinsons had given the new college an extensive library which they jointly owned, one of the largest libraries in the colonies. The name Dickinson College was chosen instead; when founded, its location west of the Susquehanna River made it the westernmost college in the United States. For the first meeting of the trustees, held in April 1784, Rush made his first journey to Carlisle; the trustees selected Dr. Charles Nisbet D. D. A Scottish minister and scholar, to serve as the College's first president, he arrived and began to serve on July 4, 1785, serving until his unexpected death in 1804. A combination of financial troubles and faculty dissension led to a college closing from 1816 to 1821.
In 1832, when the trustees were unable to resolve a faculty curriculum dispute, they ordered Dickinson's temporary closure a second time. The law school dates to 1833, it became a separate school 1890, although the law school and the college continued to share a president until 1912. The law school is now affiliated with the Pennsylvania State University. Among the 18th-century graduates of Dickinson were Robert Cooper Grier and Roger Brooke Taney, who became U. S. Supreme Court justices, served together on the court for 18 years. During the 19th century, two noted Dickinson College alumni had prominent roles in the years leading up to the Civil War, they were James Buchanan, the 15th President of the United States, Roger Brooke Taney, the 5th Chief Justice of the United States. Dickinson is one of three liberal arts colleges to have graduated both a President and a Chief Justice. Taney led the Supreme Court in its ruling on the Dred Scott v. Sandford decision, which held that Congress could not prohibit slavery in federal territories, overturning the Missouri Compromise.
Buchanan threw the full prestige of his administration behind congressional approval of the Lecompton Constitution in Kansas. During the Civil War, the campus and the town of Carlisle were twice occupied by Confederate forces in 1863; when George Metzger, class of 1798, died in 1879, he left his land and $25,000 to the town of Carlisle to found a college for women. In 1881, the Metzger Institute opened to serve young ladies; the college operated independently until 1913, when its building was leased to Dickinson College for the education of women. The building served as a women's dorm until 1963. Henry Clarke, an alumnus who developed the Klondike bar into a national brand for an ice cream bar, founded the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues at Dickinson College, in 1994 established the Clarke Center; the town of Carlisle was the location of the Carlisle Army Barracks, adapted in the late 1870s for use as the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. In 1879 Dickinson College and the nearby Carlisle Indian School began a collaboration, when Dr. James Andrew McCauley, President of the college, led the first worship service at the Indian School.
The collaboration between the institutions lasted four decades, from the opening day to the closing of the Indian School in 1918. Dickinson College professors served as chaplains and special faculty to the Native American students. Dickinson College students volunteered services, observed teaching methods, participated in events at the Indian School. Dickinson College accepted select Indian School students to attend its Preparatory School and gain c
Simplified Chinese characters
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, they are one of the two standard character sets of the contemporary Chinese written language; the government of the People's Republic of China in mainland China has promoted them for use in printing since the 1950s and 1960s to encourage literacy. They are used in the People's Republic of China and Singapore. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong and the Republic of China. While traditional characters can still be read and understood by many mainland Chinese and the Chinese community in Malaysia and Singapore, these groups retain their use of simplified characters. Overseas Chinese communities tend to use traditional characters. Simplified Chinese characters may be referred to by their official name colloquially; the latter refers to simplifications of character "structure" or "body", character forms that have existed for thousands of years alongside regular, more complicated forms.
On the other hand, the official name refers to the modern systematically simplified character set, which includes not only structural simplification but substantial reduction in the total number of standardized Chinese characters. Simplified character forms were created by reducing the number of strokes and simplifying the forms of a sizable proportion of 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 same pronunciation and identical meaning were reduced to a single standardized character the simplest amongst all variants in form. Many characters were left untouched by simplification, are thus identical between the traditional and simplified Chinese orthographies; some simplified characters are dissimilar to and unpredictably different from traditional characters in those where a component is replaced by a simple symbol.
This has led some opponents of simplification to complain that the'overall process' of character simplification is arbitrary. Proponents counter that the system of simplification is internally consistent. Proponents have emphasized a some particular simplified characters as innovative and useful improvements, although many of these have existed for centuries as longstanding and widespread variants. A second round of simplifications was promulgated in 1977, but was retracted in 1986 for a variety of reasons due to the confusion caused and the unpopularity of the second round simplifications. However, the Chinese government never 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 implemented for use by the State Council of the People's Republic of China on June 5, 2013. Although most of the simplified Chinese characters in use today are the result of the works moderated by the government of the People's Republic of China in the 1950s and 60s, character simplification predates the PRC's formation in 1949.
Cursive written text always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print are attested as early as the Qin dynasty. One of the earliest proponents of character simplification was Lufei 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 therefore proposed that a reform be initiated, it was suggested that the Chinese writing system should be either simplified or abolished. Lu Xun, a renowned Chinese author in the 20th century, stated that, "If Chinese characters are not destroyed China will die". Recent commentators have claimed that Chinese characters were blamed for the economic problems in China during that time. In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, a large number of Chinese intellectuals and writers maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China.
In 1935, 324 simplified characters collected by Qian Xuantong were introduced as the table of first batch of simplified characters, but they were suspended in 1936. The PRC issued its first round of official character simplifications in two documents, the first in 1956 and the second in 1964. Within the PRC, further character simplification became associated with the leftists of the Cultural Revolution, culminating with the second-round simplified characters, which were promulgated in 1977. In part due to the shock and unease felt in the wake of the Cultural Revolution and Mao's death, the second-round of simplifications was poorly received. In 1986 the authorities retracted the second round completely. In the same year, the authorities promulgated a final list of simplifications, identical to the 1964 list except for six changes (including the restoration of three characters, simplified in the First Round: 叠, 覆, 像.
Fuzhou
Fuzhou romanized as Foochow, is the capital and one of the largest cities in Fujian province, China. Along with the many counties of Ningde, those of Fuzhou are considered to constitute the Mindong linguistic and cultural area. Fuzhou lies on the north bank of the estuary of the Min River. All along its northern border lies Ningde, Ningde's Gutian County lies upriver, its population was 7,115,370 inhabitants as of the 2010 census, of whom 4,408,076 inhabitants are urban representing around 61.95%, while rural population is at 2,707,294 representing around 38.05%. In 2015, Fuzhou was ranked as the 10th Fastest Growing Metropolitan Areas in the world by Brookings Institution. Fuzhou is listed as No.20 in China Integrated City Index 2016's total ranking, a study conducted by National Development and Reform Commission. Fuzhou in Chinese is "有福之州", meaning "a city with good luck." The Yuanhe Maps and Records of Prefectures and Counties, a Chinese geographical treatise published in the 9th century, says that Fuzhou's name came from Mount Futo, a mountain northwest of the city.
The mountain's name was combined with -zhou, meaning "settlement" or "prefecture," in a manner similar to many other Chinese cities. During the Warring States period, area of Fuzhou was sometimes referred to as Ye, Fuzhou was incorporated into China proper during Qin dynasty; the city's name was changed numerous times between the 3rd and 9th centuries before settling on Fuzhou in 948. In Chinese, the city is sometimes referred to by the poetic nickname Rongcheng, literally:'The Banyan City'. In older English publications, the name is variously romanized as Foochow, Foo-Chow, Fuchow, Fūtsu, Fuh-Chow, Hock Chew, Hokchew; the remains of two Neolithic cultures—the Huqiutou Culture, from around 5000 BC, the Tanshi Mountain Culture, from around 3000 BC—have been discovered and excavated in the Fuzhou area. During the Warring States period, Han Chinese began referring to the modern Fujian area as Min Yue, suggesting that the native inhabitants of the area were a branch of the Yue peoples, a family of non-Han tribes who once inhabited most of southern China.
In 306 BC, the Yue Kingdom fell to the state of Chu. Han Dynasty historian Sima Qian wrote that the surviving members of the Yue royal family fled south to what is now Fujian, where they settled alongside the native Yue people, joining Han and Yue culture to create Minyue, their major centre was not at Fuzhou's modern location, but further up the Min watershed near Wuyishan City. The First Emperor of Qin unified ancient China in 221 BC and desired to bring the southern and southeast regions under Chinese rule; the Qin dynasty organized its territory into "Commanderies" —roughly equivalent to a province or prefecture—and the Fujian area was organized as Minzhong Commandery. The area seems to have continued independent of Chinese control for the next century; the Han dynasty followed the short-lived Qin, Emperor Gaozu of Han declared both Minyue and neighboring Nanyue to be autonomous vassal kingdoms. In 202 BC, Emperor Gaozu enfeoffed a leader named Wuzhu as King of Minyue, a walled city called Ye was built.
The founding of Ye in 202 BC has become the traditional founding date of the city of Fuzhou. In 110 BC, the armies of Emperor Wu of Han defeated the Minyue kingdom's armies during the Han–Minyue War and annexed its territory and people into China. Many Minyue citizens were forcibly relocated into the Jiangnan area, the Yue ethnic group was assimilated into the Chinese, causing a sharp decline in Ye's inhabitants; the area was re-organized as a county in 85 BC. During the Three Kingdoms Period, southeast China was nominally under the control of Eastern Wu, the Fuzhou area had a shipyard for the coastal and Yangtze River fleets. In 282, during the Jin dynasty, two artificial lakes known as the East Lake and West Lake were constructed in Ye, as well as a canal system; the core of modern Fuzhou grew around these three water systems, though the East and West Lakes no longer exist. In 308, during the War of the Eight Princes at the end of the Jin dynasty, the first large-scale migration of Han Chinese immigrants moved to the south and southeast of China began, followed by subsequent waves during periods of warfare or natural disaster in the Chinese heartland.
The administrative and economic center of the Fujian area began to shift to the Ye area during the Sui dynasty. In 725, the city was formally renamed "Fuzhou". Throughout the mid-Tang dynasty, Fuzhou's economic and cultural institutions developed; the years of the Tang saw a number of political upheavals in the Chinese heartland, prompting another wave of Chinese to immigrate to the modern-day Fujian and Guangdong areas. In 879, a large part of the city was captured by the army of Huang Chao during their rebellion against the Tang government. In 893, the warlord brothers Wang Chao and Wang Shenzhi captured Fuzhou in a rebellion against the Tang dynasty gaining control of the entire Fujian Province and proclaiming their founding of an independent kingdom they called the Min Kingdom in 909; the Wang brothers enticed more immigrants from the north, though their kingdom only survived until 945. In 978, Fuzhou was incorporated into the newly founded Song dynasty, though their control of the mountainous regions was tenuous.
Fuzhou prospered during the Tang dynasty. Buddhism was adopted by the citizens who built many Buddhist temples in the area. Fuzhou underwent a major dramatic surge in i
New Testament
The New Testament is the second part of the Christian biblical canon, the first part being the Old Testament, based on the Hebrew Bible. The New Testament discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christianity. Christians regard both the New Testaments together as sacred scripture; the New Testament has accompanied the spread of Christianity around the world. It serves as a source for Christian theology and morality. Extended readings and phrases directly from the New Testament are incorporated into the various Christian liturgies; the New Testament has influenced religious and political movements in Christendom and left an indelible mark on literature and music. The New Testament is a collection of Christian works written in the common Greek language of the 1st century AD, at different times by various writers, the modern consensus is that it provides important evidence regarding Judaism in the 1st century. In all Christian traditions today, the New Testament consists of 27 books: the four gospels, The Acts of the Apostles, twenty-one epistles, Revelation.
The united Catholic Church defined the 27-book canon. The earliest known complete list of the 27 books is by the 4th-century eastern Catholic bishop Athanasius; the first time that church councils approved this list was with the councils of Hippo and Carthage in North Africa and Pope Innocent I ratified the same canon in 405, but it is probable that a Council in Rome in 382 under pope Damasus gave the same list first. These councils provided the canon of the Old Testament, which included the apocryphal books; the original texts were written in the first century of the Christian Era, in Greek, the common language of the Eastern Mediterranean from the conquests of Alexander the Great until the Muslim conquests in the 7th century AD. All the works that became incorporated into the New Testament are believed to have been written no than around 120 AD. John A. T. Robinson, Dan Wallace, William F. Albright dated all the books of the New Testament before 70 AD. Others give a final date of 80 AD or of 96 AD.
Collections of related texts such as letters of the Apostle Paul and the Canonical Gospels of Matthew, Mark and John were joined to other collections and single works in different combinations to form various Christian canons of Scripture. Over time, some disputed books, such as the Book of Revelation and the Minor Catholic Epistles were introduced into canons in which they were absent. Other works earlier held to be Scripture, such as 1 Clement, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Diatessaron, were excluded from the New Testament; the Old Testament canon is not uniform among all major Christian groups including Roman Catholics, the Greek Orthodox Church, the Slavic Orthodox Churches, the Armenian Orthodox Church. However, the twenty-seven-book canon of the New Testament, at least since Late Antiquity, has been universally recognized within Christianity; the phrase new testament, or new covenant first occurs in Jeremiah 31:31. The same Greek phrase for'new covenant' is found elsewhere in the New Testament.
In early Bible translations into Latin, the phrase was rendered foedus,'federation', in Jeremiah 31:31, was rendered testamentum in Hebrews 8:8 and other instances, from which comes the English term New Testament. Modern English, like Latin, distinguishes testament and covenant as alternative translations, the treatment of the term Διαθήκη diathḗkē varies in Bible translations into English. John Wycliffe's 1395 version is a translation of the Latin Vulgate and so follows different terms in Jeremiah and Hebrews: Lo! Days shall come, saith the Lord, I shall make a new covenant with the house of Israel, with the house of Judah. For he reproving him saith, Lo! Days come, saith the Lord, when I shall establish a new testament on the house of Israel, on the house of Judah. Use of the term New Testament to describe a collection of first and second-century Christian Greek scriptures can be traced back to Tertullian. In Against Marcion, written c. 208 AD, he writes of: the Divine Word, doubly edged with the two testaments of the law and the gospel.
And Tertullian continues in the book, writing: it is certain that the whole aim at which he has strenuously laboured in the drawing up of his Antitheses, centres in this, that he may establish a diversity between the Old and the New Testaments, so that his own Christ may be separate from the Creator, as belonging to this rival god, as alien from the law and the prophets. By the 4th century, the existence—even if not the exact contents—of both an Old and New Testament had been established. Lactantius, a 3rd–4th century Christian author wrote in his early-4th-century Latin Institutiones Divinae: But all scripture is divided into two Testaments; that which preceded the advent and passion of Christ—that is, the law and the prophets—is called the Old.
Conversion to Christianity
Conversion to Christianity is a process of religious conversion in which a non-Christian person converts to Christianity. Converts to Christianity make a vow of repentance from past sins, accept Jesus as their Savior and vow to follow his teachings as found in the New Testament. Different sects of Christianity may perform various different kinds of rituals or ceremonies on a convert in order to initiate them into a community of believers; the most accepted ritual of conversion in Christianity is through baptism, but this isn't universally accepted among Christian denominations. A period of instruction and study always ensues before a person is formally converted into Christianity, but the length of this period varies, sometimes as short as a few weeks and less, other times, up to as long as a year or more. Most mainline Christian denominations will accept conversion into other denominations as valid, so long as a baptism with water in the name of the Trinity took place, but some may accept a simple profession of faith in Jesus as Lord as being all, needed for true conversion.
Other Christians may not accept conversions performed in other denominations and certain communities may be discriminated against as heretical. This is most true for many nontrinitarian sects, which many mainstream Christian denominations reject as having valid forms of conversion. Many nontrinitarian sects spiritually isolate themselves in that they may only consider their conversions valid and not those of mainstream Christianity. Social scientists have shown great interest in the Christian conversion as a religious experience that believers describe as strengthening their faith and changing their lives. Christianization, defined as the "reformulation of social relations, cultural meanings, personal experience in terms of Christian ideals," should be distinguished from conversion. Christianization is the broader cultural term, has involved efforts to systematically convert an entire continent or culture from existing beliefs to Christianity. Christian denominations vary on the exact procedures of conversion.
More traditional Christian groups such as the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, Anglicans and some Reformed Christians consider the sacrament of baptism in the name of the Trinity to be the moment of conversion. All of these groups teach the doctrine of baptismal regeneration, that is, once baptized, all past sins, including original sin, are washed away and a person becomes justified before God. Through baptism, one is incorporated into the body of believers, called the Church, may rightly be considered a Christian; some of these groups may administer other sacraments in the process of conversion such as confirmation. Some Evangelical Christians, like Baptist, Pentecostals, do not believe baptism is necessary for salvation and conversion, but only that a profession of faith is enough. Christians differ on how old someone must be to convert. More traditional groups of Christians believe conversion is not restricted to age, tend to baptize infants. Evangelical Christians do not baptize children because they see conversion as a personal decision.
Conversion has been used as a tool by imperial powers during the peak of slave trade & colonization of Asia & Africa. Today it remains to be one of the greatest causes for social conflict in many countries. Before conversion takes place, converts called "catechumens", must undergo a period of instruction. In the Catholic Church, this involves spending a few months preparing in RCIA, where catechumens spend time learning about the Christian faith and the teachings of the Bible and the Church. In the Orthodox Church, it can take up to a full year of studying and participation before one is baptized. Protestant denominations and other Christian groups have various other ways of instructing converts which may focus on the Bible. There are different modes of baptism in Christianity, these include immersion and aspersion; the way in which a person is baptized depends on the denomination one enters. All baptisms share in common the use of the Trinitarain formula by the minister while baptizing the convert.
The Roman Catholic Church baptizes with affusion but does so with immersion. Orthodox Christians and some Eastern Catholics baptize by triple immersion upon invocation of the Trinity. Protestants baptize in a number of different ways. Many Anglicans and Lutherans baptize by affusion, whereas Presbyterians and Congregationalist baptize with aspersion. Others, like Methodist, may conduct all three forms of baptism. Many Evangelical Protestants insist that only full immersion baptism is valid, they base this off of the New Testament Greek word for baptism "baptizo" which can be translated as "dipping" or "submersion." Depending on which of these denominations one enters, the sacrament of Confirmation known as Chrismation by eastern Christians, may be administered after the baptism. In the Latin Catholic Church, infants who are baptized are not confirmed, but instead must wait until they're in their teens to be confirmed. In the Eastern Orthodox Church, many Eastern Catholic Churches, infants are Chrismated and communed by a priest or bishop after they are baptized.
When an adult convert enters the Catholic or Orthodox Church, they are confirmed after baptism, upon which, a clergy member will anoint the forehead with
East Asia
East Asia is the eastern subregion of Asia, defined in either geographical or ethno-cultural terms. China, Japan and Vietnam belong to the East Asian cultural sphere. Geographically and geopolitically, the region includes China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Mongolia, North Korea, South Korea; the region was the cradle of various ancient civilizations such as ancient China, ancient Japan, ancient Korea, the Mongol Empire. East Asia was one of the cradles of world civilization, with China, an ancient East Asian civilization being one of the earliest cradles of civilization in human history. For thousands of years, China influenced East Asia as it was principally the leading civilization in the region exerting its enormous prestige and influence on its neighbors. Societies in East Asia have been part of the Chinese cultural sphere, East Asian vocabulary and scripts are derived from Classical Chinese and Chinese script; the Chinese calendar preserves traditional East Asian culture and serves as the root to which many other East Asian calendars are derived from.
Major religions in East Asia include Buddhism and Neo-Confucianism, Ancestral worship, Chinese folk religion in Greater China and Shintoism in Japan, Christianity and Sindoism in Korea. Shamanism is prevalent among Mongols and other indigenous populations of northern East Asia such as the Manchus. East Asians comprise around 1.6 billion people, making up about 38% of the population in Continental Asia and 22% of the global population. The region is home to major world metropolises such as Beijing, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Tokyo. Although the coastal and riparian areas of the region form one of the world's most populated places, the population in Mongolia and Western China, both landlocked areas, is sparsely distributed, with Mongolia having the lowest population density of any sovereign state; the overall population density of the region is 133 inhabitants per square kilometre, about three times the world average of 45/km2. In comparison with the profound influence of the Ancient Greeks and Romans on Europe and the Western World, China would possess an advanced civilization nearly half a millennia before Japan and Korea.
As Chinese civilization existed for about 1500 years before other East Asian civilizations emerged into history, Imperial China would exert much of its cultural, economic and political muscle onto its neighbors. Succeeding Chinese dynasties exerted enormous influence across East Asia culturally, economically and militarily for over two millennia. Imperial China's cultural preeminence not only led the country to become East Asia's first literate nation in the entire region, it supplied Japan and Korea with Chinese loanwords and linguistic influences rooted in their writing systems. In addition, the Chinese Han dynasty hosted the largest unified population in East Asia, the most literate and urbanized as well as being the most technologically and culturally advanced civilization in the region. Cultural and religious interaction between the Chinese and other regional East Asian dynasties and kingdoms occurred. China's impact and influence on Korea began with the Han dynasty's northeastern expansion in 108 BC when the Han Chinese conquered the northern part of the Korean peninsula and established a province called Lelang.
Chinese influence would soon take root in Korea through the inclusion of the Chinese writing system, monetary system, rice culture, Confucian political institutions. Jōmon society in ancient Japan incorporated wet-rice cultivation and metallurgy through its contact with Korea. Vietnamese society was impacted by Chinese influence, the northern part of Vietnam was occupied by Chinese empires and states for all of the period from 111 BC to 938 AD. In addition to administration, making Chinese the language of administration, the long period of Chinese domination introduced Chinese techniques of dike construction, rice cultivation, animal husbandry. Chinese culture, having been established among the elite mandarin class, remained the dominant current among that elite for most of the next 1,000 years until the loss of independence under French Indochina; this cultural affiliation to China remained true when militarily defending Vietnam against attempted invasion, such as against the Mongol Kublai Khan.
The only significant exceptions to this were the 7 years of the anti-Chinese Hồ dynasty which banned the use of Chinese, but after the expulsion of the Ming the rise in vernacular chữ nôm literature. Although 1,000 years of Chinese rule left many traces, the collective memory of the period reinforced Vietnam's cultural and political independence; as full-fledged medieval East Asian states were established, Korea by the fourth century AD and Japan by the seventh century AD, Korea and Vietnam began to incorporate Chinese influences such as Confucianism, the use of written Han characters, Chinese style architecture, state institutions, political philosophies, urban planning, various scientific and technological methods into their culture and society through direct contacts with succeeding Chinese dynasties. For many centuries, most notably from the 7th to the 14th centuries, China stood as East Asia's most advanced civilization, commanding influence across the region up until the early modern period.
The Imperial Chinese tributary system shaped much of East Asia's history for over two millennia due to Imperial China's economic and cultural influence over the region, thus played a huge role in the history of East Asia in particular. The trans
Quakers
Quakers called Friends, are a Christian group of religious movements formally known as the Religious Society of Friends, Society of Friends or Friends Church. Members of the various Quaker movements are all united in a belief in the ability of each human being to experientially access "the light within", or "that of God in every one"; some may profess the priesthood of all believers, a doctrine derived from the First Epistle of Peter. They include those with evangelical, holiness and traditional Quaker understandings of Christianity. There are Nontheist Quakers whose spiritual practice is not reliant on the existence of gods. To differing extents, the different movements that make up the Religious Society of Friends/Friends Church avoid creeds and hierarchical structures. In 2007, there were about 359,000 adult Quakers worldwide. In 2017, there were 377,557 adult Quakers, with 49% in Africa. Around 89% of Quakers worldwide belong to the "evangelical" and "programmed" branches of Quakerism—these Quakers worship in services with singing and a prepared message from the Bible, coordinated by a pastor.
Around 11% of Friends practice waiting worship, or unprogrammed worship, where the order of service is not planned in advance, is predominantly silent, may include unprepared vocal ministry from those present. Some meetings of both types have Recorded Ministers in their meetings—Friends recognised for their gift of vocal ministry; the first Quakers lived in mid-17th-century England. The movement arose from the Legatine-Arians and other dissenting Protestant groups, breaking away from the established Church of England; the Quakers the ones known as the Valiant Sixty, attempted to convert others to their understanding of Christianity, travelling both throughout Great Britain and overseas, preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Some of these early Quaker ministers were women, they based their message on the religious belief that "Christ has come to teach his people himself", stressing the importance of a direct relationship with God through Jesus Christ, a direct religious belief in the universal priesthood of all believers.
They emphasized a personal and direct religious experience of Christ, acquired through both direct religious experience and the reading and studying of the Bible. Quakers focused their private life on developing behaviour and speech reflecting emotional purity and the light of God. In the past, Quakers were known for their use of thee as an ordinary pronoun, refusal to participate in war, plain dress, refusal to swear oaths, opposition to slavery, teetotalism; some Quakers founded banks and financial institutions, including Barclays and Friends Provident. In 1947, the Quakers, represented by the British Friends Service Council and the American Friends Service Committee, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. During and after the English Civil War many dissenting Christian groups emerged, including the Seekers and others. A young man, George Fox, was dissatisfied with the teachings of the Church of England and non-conformists, he had a revelation that "there is one Christ Jesus, who can speak to thy condition", became convinced that it was possible to have a direct experience of Christ without the aid of an ordained clergy.
In 1652 he had a vision on Pendle Hill in Lancashire, England, in which he believed that "the Lord let me see in what places he had a great people to be gathered". Following this he travelled around England, the Netherlands, Barbados preaching and teaching with the aim of converting new adherents to his faith; the central theme of his Gospel message was. His followers considered themselves to be the restoration of the true Christian church, after centuries of apostasy in the churches in England. In 1650, Fox was brought before the magistrates Gervase Bennet and Nathaniel Barton, on a charge of religious blasphemy. According to Fox's autobiography, Bennet "was the first that called us Quakers, because I bade them tremble at the word of the Lord", it is thought that Fox was referring to Isaiah 66:2 or Ezra 9:4. Thus, the name Quaker began as a way of ridiculing Fox's admonition, but became accepted and is used by some Quakers. Quakers described themselves using terms such as true Christianity, Children of the Light, Friends of the Truth, reflecting terms used in the New Testament by members of the early Christian church.
Quakerism gained a considerable following in England and Wales, the numbers increased to a peak of 60,000 in England and Wales by 1680. But the dominant discourse of Protestantism viewed the Quakers as a blasphemous challenge to social and political order, leading to official persecution in England and Wales under the Quaker Act 1662 and the Conventicle Act 1664; this was relaxed after the Declaration of Indulgence and stopped under the Act of Toleration 1689. One modern view of Quakerism at this time was that the relationship with Christ was encouraged through spiritualisation of human relations, "the redefinition of the Quakers as a holy tribe,'the family and household of God'". Together with Margaret Fell, the wife of Thomas Fell, the vice-chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and an eminent judge, Fox developed new conceptions of family and community that emphasised "holy conversation": speech and behaviour that reflected piety and love. With the restructuring of the family and household came new roles for wom
