1.
Communications in Hong Kong
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There are some 60 online newspapers and the numbers of online periodicals run into the hundreds. The territory is in addition the East and Southeast Asian headquarters for most of the major international communications, broadcast media and news is provided by several television and radio companies, one of which is government-run. Television provides the source of news and entertainment for the average family. Chinese television programs are produced for local and overseas markets. Hong Kongs terrestrial commercial TV networks can also be seen in Macau, Television Broadcasts Limited operates TVB Jade, TVB Pearl, J2, iNews and J5, of which Jade and Pearl are available on analogue frequencies. TVB is the citys first commercial television network, and is the citys predominant TV network. HK Television Entertainment operates ViuTV, which is a Cantonese general entertainment channel, the network is mandated by its service license to launch a 17-hour English television channel on or before 31 March 2017. ViuTV is not broadcast on analogue frequencies, public broadcaster RTHK operates three digital channels, two of which have been simulcast on analogue frequencies formerly used by ATV since April 2,2016. Paid cable and satellite television have also been widespread, with Cable TV Hong Kong, Now TV, TVB Network Vision, the production of Hong Kongs soap drama, comedy series and variety shows have reached mass audiences throughout the Chinese-speaking world. Many international and pan-Asian broadcasters are based in Hong Kong, including News Corporations STAR TV, Telecommunications system, modern facilities that provide excellent domestic and international services. There are no foreign ownership restrictions, the Office of Telecommunications Authority is the legislative body responsible for regulating the telecommunications industry. Competition in this sector is fierce, since 2008, one can get 10 Mbit/s up and down unlimited VDSL, telephone line rental, unlimited local calls, and 100 minutes of international calls for US$25/month. Telephone line rental and unlimited local calls is only US$3/month, however the speed to non-Hong Kong destinations is capped to 20 Mbit/s. As of November 2009, the company was offering 100 Mbit/s service for HK$99 per month, major Internet Service Providers include, PCCW Netvigator, with a 95% coverage area and providing internet access to 1.9 million users. ADSL connections, speeds up to 8M/800K are priced differently, newly constructed apartments have ADSL2 and VDSL connections, which have speeds up to 100M/100M. FTTH for last mile broadband of speeds up to 10G/10G, business plans have speeds up to 10G/10G. HGC ADSL & VDSL & FTTH broadband of speeds up to 1G/1G, ADSL & VDSL broadband of speeds up to 10M/10M. HKBN Metro Ethernet broadband of speeds up to 1G/1G, i-cable Broadband Cable HFC Broadband of speeds up to 200M/10M shared by one tower and FTTH Broadband of speeds up to 1G/1G
2.
Telecommunications in Macau
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With Macaus population and its small market, only a few media options are available for the local people. Because radio signals, newspapers and magazines from Hong Kong are available in Macau, O Mun Yat Po or Macau Daily News) is reportedly owned by the Communist Party of China and has the largest circulation. Additionally, Chinese-language newspapers from Hong Kong are popular, Macau has eight Chinese-language, three Portuguese-language and two English-language dailies. The Macau Daily Times is Macaus only English-language newspaper edited seven days a week, Macau Post Daily is published from Monday to Friday. It is owned by a publishing company, Everbright Co. Ltd. which is locally owned. There are 250,000 radios, two twenty-hour FM radio stations, one Portuguese, one Chinese, and four AM stations, Hong Kong radio stations also are popular in Macau. Radio broadcast stations, AM1, FM2, shortwave 0 Radios,160,000 There are 70,300 television sets, Hong Kong television networks TVB and ATV can be received and are widely watched by Macau residents. Television broadcast stations,3 Televisions,49,000 The number of lines has been increasing since the mid-1990s. In 1997 there were 222,456 telephones, by 1999,300,066 lines were in use, in 1999 there were 686 telephone lines per 1,000 people. International access is via Hong Kong and Mainland China and via Intelsat, alcatel-Lucent was granted a contract in February 2007 to collocate a CDMA2000 1xEV-DO high-speed wireless network in Macau for China Unicom. Networks will only be left in place for visitors to roam onto, Macau will be the first region in the world to phase out networks using the GSM standard. Internet Service Providers, CTM Country code. mo The Macao Telecommunications Company in 2000 launched the first broadband Internet access in the territory, mTel 電信 also provides fixed line services as well as broadband and is CTMs main competitor, though much smaller market share. Media of Macau Communications in Hong Kong Communications in China List of Chinese-language television channels CTM CIA - The World Factbook - Macau
3.
Telecommunications in Taiwan
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Communications in Taiwan comprise the following communication media, deployed in the Taiwan Area of the Republic of China and regulated by the National Communications Commission of the Executive Yuan. Since the mid-1970s there has been a shift from traditional personal services to modern personal services. Domestic television has long carried many foreign programs, and liberalization of restrictions in the 1980s brought more. There are about 30 daily newspapers and thousands of periodicals, many of the latter house organs of political and non-political organizations. The government sets general guidelines for the political and cultural content of newspapers, there are three television stations and about 30 radio broadcasting companies with more than 180 stations. Telephones - main lines in use,16.433 million Telephones - mobile cellular,27, see for rankings, List of countries by broadband users. The number of subscribers in Taiwan surpassed 4.5 million by the end of March 2007. This number is approximately 20% of the total population
4.
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
5.
Communication
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Communication is the act of conveying intended meanings from one entity or group to another through the use of mutually understood signs and semiotic rules. The main steps inherent to all communication are, The forming of communicative motivation or reason, transmission of the encoded message as a sequence of signals using a specific channel or medium. Noise sources such as forces and in some cases human activity begin influencing the quality of signals propagating from the sender to one or more receivers. Reception of signals and reassemblying of the message from a sequence of received signals. Decoding of the encoded message. Interpretation and making sense of the original message. The channel of communication can be visual, auditory, tactile and haptic, olfactory, electromagnetic, human communication is unique for its extensive use of abstract language. Development of civilization has been linked with progress in telecommunication. Nonverbal communication describes the process of conveying information in the form of non-linguistic representations, examples of nonverbal communication include haptic communication, chronemic communication, gestures, body language, facial expressions, eye contact, and how one dresses. Nonverbal communication also relates to intent of a message, examples of intent are voluntary, intentional movements like shaking a hand or winking, as well as involuntary, such as sweating. Speech also contains nonverbal elements known as paralanguage, e. g. rhythm, intonation, tempo and it affects communication most at the subconscious level and establishes trust. Likewise, written texts include nonverbal elements such as handwriting style, spatial arrangement of words, Nonverbal communication demonstrates one of Wazlawicks laws, you cannot not communicate. Once proximity has formed awareness, living creatures begin interpreting any signals received, Nonverbal cues are heavily relied on to express communication and to interpret others’ communication and can replace or substitute verbal messages. There are several reasons as to why non-verbal communication plays a role in communication. Written communication can also have non-verbal attributes, e-mails and web chats allow individual’s the option to change text font colours, stationary, emoticons, and capitalization in order to capture non-verbal cues into a verbal medium. Many different non-verbal channels are engaged at the time in communication acts. “Non-verbal behaviours may form a language system. ”Smiling, crying, pointing, caressing. Such non-verbal signals allow the most basic form of communication when verbal communication is not effective due to language barriers, Verbal communication is the spoken or written conveyance of a message
6.
Telephone exchange
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A telephone exchange is a telecommunications system used in the public switched telephone network or in large enterprises. In historical perspective, telecommunication terms have been used with different semantics over time, the term telephone exchange is often used synonymously with central office, a Bell System term. Often, an office is defined as a building used to house the inside plant equipment of potentially several telephone exchanges. Such an area has also referred to as the exchange. Central office locations may also be identified in North America as wire centers, All central offices within a larger region, typically aggregated by state, were assigned a common numbering plan area code. For corporate or enterprise use, a telephone exchange is often referred to as a private branch exchange. Smaller installations might deploy a PBX or key telephone system in the office of a receptionist and this made it possible for subscribers to call each other at homes, businesses, or public spaces. These made telephony an available and comfortable communication tool for everyday use, one of the first to propose a telephone exchange was Hungarian Tivadar Puskás in 1877 while he was working for Thomas Edison. The first experimental telephone exchange was based on the ideas of Puskás, the worlds first commercial telephone exchange opened on November 12,1877 in Friedrichsberg close to Berlin. George W. Coy designed and built the first commercial US telephone exchange opened in New Haven. The switchboard was built from carriage bolts, handles from teapot lids and bustle wire, Charles Glidden is also credited with establishing an exchange in Lowell, MA. with 50 subscribers in 1878. In Europe other early telephone exchanges were based in London and Manchester, Belgium had its first International Bell exchange a year later. In 1887 Puskás introduced the multiplex switchboard, later exchanges consisted of one to several hundred plug boards staffed by switchboard operators. Each operator sat in front of a panel containing banks of ¼-inch tip-ring-sleeve jacks. In front of the jack panel lay a horizontal panel containing two rows of patch cords, each connected to a cord circuit. When a calling party lifted the receiver, the loop current lit a signal lamp near the jack. The operator responded by inserting the rear cord into the jack and switched her headset into the circuit to ask, Number. For a local call, the operator inserted the front cord of the pair into the partys local jack
7.
Optical fiber
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An optical fiber or optical fibre is a flexible, transparent fiber made by drawing glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair. Fibers are also used for illumination, and are wrapped in bundles so that they may be used to carry images, thus allowing viewing in confined spaces, as in the case of a fiberscope. Specially designed fibers are used for a variety of other applications, some of them being fiber optic sensors. Optical fibers typically include a transparent core surrounded by a transparent cladding material with an index of refraction. Light is kept in the core by the phenomenon of internal reflection which causes the fiber to act as a waveguide. Fibers that support many propagation paths or transverse modes are called multi-mode fibers, multi-mode fibers generally have a wider core diameter and are used for short-distance communication links and for applications where high power must be transmitted. Single-mode fibers are used for most communication links longer than 1,000 meters, being able to join optical fibers with low loss is important in fiber optic communication. This is more complex than joining electrical wire or cable and involves careful cleaving of the fibers, precise alignment of the cores. For applications that demand a permanent connection a fusion splice is common, in this technique, an electric arc is used to melt the ends of the fibers together. Another common technique is a splice, where the ends of the fibers are held in contact by mechanical force. Temporary or semi-permanent connections are made by means of specialized optical fiber connectors, the field of applied science and engineering concerned with the design and application of optical fibers is known as fiber optics. The term was coined by Indian physicist Narinder Singh Kapany who is acknowledged as the father of fiber optics. Guiding of light by refraction, the principle that makes fiber optics possible, was first demonstrated by Daniel Colladon, John Tyndall included a demonstration of it in his public lectures in London,12 years later. When the ray passes from water to air it is bent from the perpendicular. If the angle which the ray in water encloses with the perpendicular to the surface be greater than 48 degrees, the angle which marks the limit where total reflection begins is called the limiting angle of the medium. For water this angle is 48°27′, for flint glass it is 38°41′, unpigmented human hairs have also been shown to act as an optical fiber. Practical applications, such as close internal illumination during dentistry, appeared early in the twentieth century, image transmission through tubes was demonstrated independently by the radio experimenter Clarence Hansell and the television pioneer John Logie Baird in the 1920s. The principle was first used for medical examinations by Heinrich Lamm in the following decade
8.
Coaxial cable
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Coaxial cable, or coax, is a type of cable that has an inner conductor surrounded by a tubular insulating layer, surrounded by a tubular conducting shield. Many coaxial cables also have an outer sheath or jacket. The term coaxial comes from the conductor and the outer shield sharing a geometric axis. Coaxial cable was invented by English engineer and mathematician Oliver Heaviside, Coaxial cable is used as a transmission line for radio frequency signals. Its applications include feedlines connecting radio transmitters and receivers with their antennas, computer network connections, digital audio and this allows coaxial cable runs to be installed next to metal objects such as gutters without the power losses that occur in other types of transmission lines. Coaxial cable also provides protection of the signal from external electromagnetic interference, the cable is protected by an outer insulating jacket. Normally, the shield is kept at ground potential and a signal carrying voltage is applied to the center conductor, the advantage of coaxial design is that electric and magnetic fields are restricted to the dielectric with little leakage outside the shield. Conversely, electric and magnetic fields outside the cable are largely kept from interfering with signals inside the cable, larger diameter cables and cables with multiple shields have less leakage. Common applications of coaxial cable include video and CATV distribution, RF and microwave transmission, the characteristic impedance of the cable is determined by the dielectric constant of the inner insulator and the radii of the inner and outer conductors. A controlled cable characteristic impedance is important because the source and load impedance should be matched to ensure maximum power transfer, other important properties of coaxial cable include attenuation as a function of frequency, voltage handling capability, and shield quality. Coaxial cable design choices affect physical size, frequency performance, attenuation, power handling capabilities, flexibility, strength, the inner conductor might be solid or stranded, stranded is more flexible. To get better performance, the inner conductor may be silver-plated. Copper-plated steel wire is used as an inner conductor for cable used in the cable TV industry. The insulator surrounding the conductor may be solid plastic, a foam plastic. The properties of control some electrical properties of the cable. A common choice is a solid polyethylene insulator, used in lower-loss cables, solid Teflon is also used as an insulator. Some coaxial lines use air and have spacers to keep the conductor from touching the shield. Many conventional coaxial cables use braided copper wire forming the shield and this allows the cable to be flexible, but it also means there are gaps in the shield layer, and the inner dimension of the shield varies slightly because the braid cannot be flat
9.
Microwave transmission
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Microwave transmission is the transmission of information or energy by electromagnetic waves whose wavelengths are measured in small numbers of centimetre, these are called microwaves. This part of the spectrum ranges across frequencies of roughly 1.0 gigahertz to 300 GHz. These correspond to wavelengths from 30 centimeters down to 0.1 cm, communication satellites which transferred data between ground stations by microwaves took over much long distance traffic in the 1960s. This allows nearby microwave equipment to use the same frequencies without interfering with each other, a disadvantage is that microwaves are limited to line of sight propagation, they cannot pass around hills or mountains as lower frequency radio waves can. Microwave radio transmission is used in point-to-point communication systems on the surface of the Earth, in satellite communications. Other parts of the radio band are used for radars, radio navigation systems, sensor systems. Radio waves in this band are usually strongly attenuated by the Earthly atmosphere and particles contained in it, also, in wide band of frequencies around 60 GHz, the radio waves are strongly attenuated by molecular oxygen in the atmosphere. Wireless transmission of power Proposed systems e. g, in microwave radio relay, microwaves are transmitted between the two locations with directional antennas, forming a fixed radio connection between the two points. The requirement of a line of sight limits the distance between stations to 30 or 40 miles. Beginning in the 1950s, networks of microwave links, such as the AT&T Long Lines system in the U. S. carried long distance telephone calls. The first system, dubbed TD-2 and built by AT&T, connected New York and these included long daisy-chained series of such links that traversed mountain ranges and spanned continents. Much of the traffic is now carried by cheaper optical fibers and communication satellites. Antennas must be highly directional, these antennas are installed in elevated locations such as radio towers in order to be able to transmit across long distances. Typical types of antenna used in radio relay link installations are parabolic antennas, dielectric lens, and horn-reflector antennas, highly directive antennas permit an economical use of the available frequency spectrum, despite long transmission distances. Because of the frequencies used, a line-of-sight path between the stations is required. Additionally, in order to avoid attenuation of the beam an area around the beam called the first Fresnel zone must be free from obstacles, obstacles in the signal field cause unwanted attenuation. In the planning process, it is essential that path profiles are produced, multipath fades are usually deep only in a small spot and a narrow frequency band, so space and/or frequency diversity schemes can be applied to mitigate these effects. Rare events of temperature, humidity and pressure profile versus height, may produce large deviations and distortion of the propagation and affect transmission quality
10.
Roaming
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To roam is to wander around, to go from place to place without a certain direction or purpose. In the context of mobile networks the word is used when a mobile phone is used outside of the range of its home network. Roaming ensures that a wireless device is kept connected to a network without breaking the connection. For example, should a subscriber travel beyond their cell phone companys transmitter range, their cell phone would automatically hop onto another phone companys service, Using another phone companys service can be done by using the subscriber identity in the visited network. Roaming is technically supported by mobility management, authentication, authorization, device equipment and functionality, such as SIM card capability, antenna and network interfaces, and power management, determine the access possibilities. Username/password based roaming, GSM subscriber roams onto a Public WLAN operated by, although these user/network scenarios focus on roaming from GSM Network Operators network, clearly roaming can be bi-directional, i. e. from Public WLAN Operators to GSM Networks. Traditional roaming in networks of the standard, e. g. In the case of session continuity, seamless access to these services across different access types is provided, the differentiation between home network and visited network is technically given by the type of subscriber entry in a specific network. The visiting subscriber acquires an entry in a database of the visited network. Thus, the term roaming is not linked to a specific network standard, if a subscriber can use their personal service profile, which they use in the home network, in the visited network as well, this is also referred to as Global Service Roaming Capability. The legal roaming business aspects negotiated between the partners for billing of the services obtained are usually stipulated in so called roaming agreements. The GSM Association broadly outlines the content of such roaming agreements in standardized form for its members, if there is no roaming agreement between the two networks, maintenance of service is impossible, and service is denied by the visited network. The visited network contacts the home network and requests information about the roaming device using the IMSI number. If successful, the visited network begins to maintain a temporary subscriber record for the device, likewise, the home network updates its information to indicate that the cell phone is on the host network so that any information sent to that device can be correctly routed. It occurs for example when a call is made to a cell phone. Signaling process, The calling subscriber dials the mobile subscribers MSISDN of the cell phone. Based on the contained in the MSISDN, the call is routed to the mobile network gateway MSC. Its done with an ISUP IAM message, to locate the MS, the GMSC sends to the HLR a MAP SRI message
11.
Fiber to the x
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Fiber to the x is a generic term for any broadband network architecture using optical fiber to provide all or part of the local loop used for last mile telecommunications. As fiber optic cables are able to much more data than copper cables, especially over long distances. FTTX is a generalization for several configurations of fibre deployment, arranged into two groups, FTTP/FTTH/FTTB and FTTC/N, the telecommunications industry differentiates between several distinct FTTX configurations. The terms in most widespread use today are, FTTP, This term is used either as a term for both FTTH and FTTB, or where the fiber network includes both homes and small businesses. FTTH, Fiber reaches the boundary of the space, such as a box on the outside wall of a home. Passive optical networks and point-to-point Ethernet are architectures that deliver services over FTTH networks directly from an operators central office. FTTD, Fiber connection is installed from the computer room to a terminal or fiber media converter near the users desk. FTTO, Fiber connection is installed from the main computer room/core switch to a special mini-switch located at the user´s workstation or service points and this mini-switch provides Ethernet services to end user devices via standard twisted pair patch cords. The switches are located all over the building, but managed from one central point. FTTE and FTTZ are not considered part of the FTTX group of technologies, FTTF This is very similar to FTTB. In a fiber to the front yard scenario, each fiber node serves a single subscriber and this allows for multi-gigabit speeds using XG-fast technology. The fiber node may be reverse-powered by the subscriber modem, FTTN is often an interim step toward full FTTH and is typically used to deliver advanced triple-play telecommunications services. FTTC is occasionally ambiguously called FTTP, leading to confusion with the distinct fiber-to-the-premises system, the FTTH Councils do not have formal definitions for FTTC and FTTN. While fiber optic cables can carry data at speeds over long distances, copper cables used in traditional telephone lines. For example, the form of gigabit Ethernet runs over relatively economical category 5e, category 6 or augmented category 6 unshielded twisted-pair copper cabling. However,1 Gbit/s ethernet over fiber can easily reach tens of kilometres, therefore, FTTP has been selected by every major communications provider in the world to carry data over long 1 Gbit/s symmetrical connections directly to consumer homes. FTTP configurations that bring fiber directly into the building can offer the highest speeds since the segments can use standard ethernet or coaxial cable. Google Fiber provides speed of 1 Gbit/s, still, the type and length of employed fibers chosen, e. g. multimode vs. single-mode, are critical for applicability for future connections of over 1 Gbit/s
12.
History of science and technology in China
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Among the earliest inventions were the abacus, the shadow clock, and the first items such as Kongming lanterns. The Tang Dynasty in particular, was a time of great innovation, a good deal of exchange occurred between Western and Chinese discoveries up to the Qing Dynasty. In the 19th and 20th century the introduction of Western technology was a factor in the modernization of China. Much of the early Western work in the history of science in China was done by Joseph Needham, the Warring States period began 2500 years ago at the time of the invention of the crossbow. Needham notes that the invention of the crossbow far outstripped the progress in defensive armor, at this time, there were also many nascent schools of thought in China — the Hundred Schools of Thought, scattered among many polities. The schools served as communities which advised the rulers of these states, mo Di introduced concepts useful to one of those rulers, such as defensive fortification. One of these concepts, fa was extended by the School of Names, the development of a school of logic was cut short by the defeat of Mohisms political sponsors by the Qin Dynasty, and the subsumption of fa as law rather than method by the Legalists. You conquered the empire on horseback, but from horseback you will never succeed in ruling it, derived from Taoist philosophy, one of the newest longstanding contributions of the ancient Chinese are in Traditional Chinese medicine, including acupuncture and herbal medicine. These claims, however, are disputed and rely on much supposition. The Book of Silk was the first definitive atlas of comets and it listed 29 comets that appeared over a period of about 300 years, with renderings of comets describing an event its appearance corresponded to. In architecture, the pinnacle of Chinese technology manifested itself in the Great Wall of China, typical Chinese architecture changed little from the succeeding Han Dynasty until the 19th century. The Qin Dynasty also developed the crossbow, which became the mainstream weapon in Europe. Several remains of crossbows have been found among the soldiers of the Terracotta Army in the tomb of Qin Shi Huang, the Eastern Han Dynasty scholar and astronomer Zhang Heng invented the first water-powered rotating armillary sphere, and catalogued 2500 stars and over 100 constellations. In 132, he invented the first seismological detector, called the Houfeng Didong Yi, according to the History of Later Han Dynasty, this seismograph was an urn-like instrument, which would drop one of eight balls to indicate when and in which direction an earthquake had occurred. On June 13,2005, Chinese seismologists announced that they had created a replica of the instrument, the mechanical engineer Ma Jun was another impressive figure from ancient China. However, Ma Juns most impressive invention was the south-pointing chariot and it incorporated the use of a differential gear in order to apply equal amount of torque to wheels rotating at different speeds, a device that is found in all modern automobiles. Sliding calipers were invented in China almost 2,000 years ago, the Chinese civilization was the earliest civilization to experiment successfully with aviation, with the kite and Kongming lantern being the first flying machines. The Four Great Inventions are the compass, gunpowder, papermaking and printing, paper and printing were developed first
13.
Four Great Inventions
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The Four Great Inventions are inventions from ancient China that are celebrated in Chinese culture for their historical significance and as symbols of ancient Chinas advanced science and technology. The Four Great Inventions are, Compass Gunpowder Papermaking Printing These four discoveries had a impact on the development of civilization throughout the world. This commonplace spread rapidly throughout Europe in the 16th century and was appropriated only in recent times by Chinese scholars and these inventions were a badge of honor to modern Europeans, who proclaimed that there was nothing to equal them among the ancient Greeks and Romans. After reports by Portuguese sailors and Spanish missionaries began to back to Europe beginning in the 1530s. By 1620, when Francis Bacon wrote in his Instauratio magna that printing, gunpowder, and the nautical compass. Have altered the face and state of the world, first, in matters, second, in warfare, third, in navigation. Western writers and scholars from the 19th century onwards commonly attributed these inventions to China, edkins notes on these inventions were mentioned in an 1859 review in the journal Athenaeum, comparing the contemporary science and technology in China and Japan. In 1880 Johnsons New Universal Cyclopædia, A Scientific and Popular Treasury of Useful Knowledge. The Chautauquan in 1887, none of these, however, referred to four inventions or called them great. A lodestone compass was used in China during the Han Dynasty between the 2nd century BC and 1st century AD, where it was called the south-governor and it was not used for navigation, but rather for geomancy and fortune-telling. The device is recommended as a means of orientation in the obscurity of the night, the first suspended magnetic needle compass was written of by Shen Kuo in his book of 1088. For most of Chinese history, the compass that remained in use was in the form of a magnetic needle floating in a bowl of water. According to Needham, the Chinese in the Song Dynasty and continuing Yuan Dynasty did make use of a dry compass, Gunpowder was discovered in the 9th century by Chinese alchemists searching for an elixir of immortality. By that time, the Chinese had discovered how to create explosive round shot by packing their hollow shells with this nitrate-enhanced gunpowder, however, a recent archaeological discovery has been reported from Gansu of paper with Chinese characters on it dating to 8 BC. While paper used for wrapping and padding was used in China since the 2nd century BC, by the 6th century in China, sheets of paper were beginning to be used for toilet paper as well. During the Tang Dynasty paper was folded and sewn into square bags to preserve the flavor of tea, the Song Dynasty that followed was the first government to issue paper currency. The Chinese invention of Woodblock printing, at some point before the first dated book in 868, according to A. Hyatt Mayor, curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it was the Chinese who really discovered the means of communication that was to dominate until our age. Woodblock printing was better suited to Chinese characters than movable type, which the Chinese also invented, western printing presses, although introduced in the 16th century, were not widely used in China until the 19th century. China, along with Korea, was one of the last countries to adopt them, Woodblock printing for textiles, on the other hand, preceded text printing by centuries in all cultures, and is first found in China at around 220
14.
Chinese mathematics
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Mathematics in China emerged independently by the 11th century BC. The Chinese independently developed very large and negative numbers, decimals, a place value system, a binary system, algebra, geometry. Knowledge of Chinese mathematics before 254 BC is somewhat fragmentary, as in other early societies the focus was on astronomy in order to perfect the agricultural calendar, and other practical tasks, and not on establishing formal systems. Ancient Chinese mathematicians did not develop an approach, but made advances in algorithm development. Some exchange of ideas across Asia through known cultural exchanges from at least Roman times is likely, frequently, elements of the mathematics of early societies correspond to rudimentary results found later in branches of modern mathematics such as geometry or number theory. The Pythagorean theorem for example, has been attested to the time of the Duke of Zhou, knowledge of Pascals triangle has also been shown to have existed in China centuries before Pascal, such as by Shen Kuo. Simple mathematics on Oracle bone script date back to the Shang Dynasty, one of the oldest surviving mathematical works is the Yi Jing, which greatly influenced written literature during the Zhou Dynasty. For mathematics, the book included a sophisticated use of hexagrams, leibniz pointed out, the I Ching contained elements of binary numbers. Since the Shang period, the Chinese had already developed a decimal system. Since early times, Chinese understood basic arithmetic, algebra, equations, although the Chinese were more focused on arithmetic and advanced algebra for astronomical uses, they were also the first to develop negative numbers, algebraic geometry and the usage of decimals. Math was one of the Liù Yì or Six Arts, students were required to master during the Zhou Dynasty, learning them all perfectly was required to be a perfect gentleman, or in the Chinese sense, a Renaissance Man. Six Arts have their roots in the Confucian philosophy, the oldest existent work on geometry in China comes from the philosophical Mohist canon of c.330 BC, compiled by the followers of Mozi. The Mo Jing described various aspects of many associated with physical science. It provided a definition of the geometric point, stating that a line is separated into parts. Much like Euclids first and third definitions and Platos beginning of a line, there is nothing similar to it. Similar to the atomists of Democritus, the Mo Jing stated that a point is the smallest unit and it also described the fact that planes without the quality of thickness cannot be piled up since they cannot mutually touch. The book provided word recognition for circumference, diameter, and radius, the history of mathematical development lacks some evidence. There are still debates about certain mathematical classics, for example, the Zhoubi Suanjing dates around 1200–1000 BC, yet many scholars believed it was written between 300–250 BC
15.
Chinese astronomy
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Astronomy in China has a very long history, with historians indicating that the Chinese were the most persistent and accurate observers of celestial phenomena anywhere in the world before the Arabs. Detailed records of observations began during the Warring States period. The telescope was introduced in the seventeenth century, in 1669, the Peking observatory was completely redesigned and refitted under the direction of Ferdinand Verbiest. Today, China continues to be active in astronomy, with many observatories, one of the main functions was for the purpose of timekeeping. The Chinese used a calendar, but, because the cycles of the sun. The Chinese calendar was considered to be a symbol of a dynasty, as dynasties would rise and fall, astronomers and astrologers of each period would often prepare a new calendar to be made, with observations for that purpose. Astrological divination was also an important part of astronomy, astronomers took careful note of guest stars, which suddenly appeared among the fixed stars. Ancient astronomical records of phenomena like comets and supernovae are used in modern astronomical studies. The Chinese developed three different cosmological models, the Gai Tian, or hemispherical dome, model conceived the heavens as a hemisphere lying over a dome-shaped earth. The second cosmological model, associated with the Hun Tian school, saw the heavens as a celestial sphere not unlike the spherical models developed in the Greek, the divisions of the sky began with the Northern Dipper and the 28 mansions. In 1977, a box was excavated from the tomb of Yi. Names of the 28 lunar mansions were found on the cover of the box, as lunar mansions have such an ancient origin, the meanings of most of their names have become obscure. Even worse, the name of each lunar mansion consists of only one Chinese word, the meanings of the names are still under discussion. Besides the 28 lunar mansions, most constellations are based on the works of Shi Shen-fu and Gan De, in the fourth century BC, the two Chinese astronomers responsible for the earliest information going into the star catalogues were Shi Shen and Gan De of the Warring States period. These books appeared to have lasted until the sixth century, but were lost after that, a number of books share similar names, often quoted and named after them. These texts should not be confused with the original written by them. Notable works that helped preserve the contents include, Wu Xian has been one of the astronomers in debate and he is often represented as one of the Three Schools Astronomical tradition along with Gan and Shi. Moreover, it was customary in the past for the Chinese to forge works of notable scholars, Wu Xian is generally mentioned as the astronomer who lived many years before Gan and Shi
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Chinese calendar
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Traditional Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar which reckons years, months and days according to astronomical phenomena. It is used for activities in China and overseas Chinese communities. It depictures and lists the dates of traditional Chinese holidays, and guides Chinese people in selecting the most auspicious days for weddings, funerals, moving, in the Chinese calendar, the days begin and end at midnight. The months begin on the day with the dark moon, the years begin with the dark moon near the midpoint between winter solstice and spring equinox. The solar terms are the important components of the Chinese calendar, in a month, there are one to three solar terms. The currently used traditional Chinese calendar is the end result of centuries of evolution, many astronomical and seasonal factors were added by ancient scientists, and people can reckon the date of natural phenomena such as the moon phase and tide upon the Chinese calendar. The Chinese calendar has over 100 variants, whose characteristics reflect the evolutionary path. As with Chinese characters, different variants are used in different parts of the Chinese cultural sphere, calendars in Mongolia and Tibet have absorbed elements from the Chinese calendar and elements from other systems, but they are not direct descendants of the Chinese calendar. The official calendar in China is the Gregorian calendar, but the traditional Chinese calendar still plays an important role there. The Chinese calendar is known officially as the Rural Calendar, but is referred to by other names, such as the Former Calendar. The Chinese calendar preserves traditional East Asian culture, although the month sequences of Chinese calendar is decided by the solar term, the Chinese calendar is not an agriculture calendar. The Chinese calendar has greatly influenced the traditional calendars around Asia, the calendar has a year, month and date frame. The key elements are the day, synodic month and solar year, the Chinese calendar is a lunisolar calendar, similar to the Hindu and Hebrew calendars. The concepts in the Chinese, Hindu, and Hebrew calendars, day, in the Chinese calendar, a day starts from the midnight, in the Hindu calendars, a day starts from sunrise, and in the Hebrew calendar, a day starts from sunset. Month, the time is based on the obliquity of the moon path, a month is about 29 17/32 days. Phase, 1/30 month, 12° obliquity of the moon path, a unique concept of dating method in the Hindu calendar, a phase is about 63/64 day, which derived out the 64 divinatory symbols. Date, the day number in a month, in the Chinese and Hebrew calendars, days are numbered in sequence from 1 to 29 or 30, and in the Hindu calendars, the days are numbered according to the number of the phase in the days. In the Hindu calendars, some dates may be vacant, Year, the time based on the earths revolution
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Chinese units of measurement
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Chinese units of measurement are the customary and traditional units of measure used in China. In the Peoples Republic of China, the units were re-standardised during the late 20th century to make them approximate SI units, many of the units were formerly based on the number 16 instead of 10. The Chinese name for most SI units is based on that of the closest traditional unit, when it is necessary to emphasize which system is used, the words market for traditional units or common/standard for SI units may be added in front of the name. SI is the system of units, but traditional units are still ubiquitously used in everyday life. Note, The names lí and fēn for small units are the same for length, area, according to the Liji, the legendary Yellow Emperor created the first measurement units. The Xiao Erya and the Kongzi Jiayu state that length units were derived from the human body, according to the Records of the Grand Historian, these human body units caused inconsistency, and Yu the Great, another legendary figure, unified the length measurements. Rulers with decimal units have been unearthed from Shang Dynasty tombs, in the Zhou Dynasty, the king conferred nobles with powers of the state and the measurement units began to be inconsistent from state to state. After the Warring States period, Qin Shi Huang unified China, in the Han Dynasty, these measurements were still being used, and were documented systematically in the Book of Han. Astronomical instruments show little change of the length of chi in the following centuries and it was not until the introduction of decimal units in the Ming Dynasty that the traditional system was revised. On 7 January 1915, the Beiyang Government promulgated a measurement law to use not only metric system as the standard, in 1976 the Hong Kong Metrication Ordinance allowed a gradual replacement of the system in favor of the International System of Units metric system. The Weights and Measures Ordinance defines the metric, Imperial, as of 2012, all three systems are legal for trade and are in widespread use. On 24 August 1992, Macau published Law No, traditional units of length include the chi, bu, and li. The precise length of these units, and the ratios between these units, has varied over time,1 bu has consisted of either 5 or 6 chi, while 1 li has consisted of 300 or 360 bu. All metric values given in the tables are exact unless otherwise specified by the approximation sign ~, certain units are also listed at List of Chinese classifiers → Measurement units. The Chinese word for metre is 米 mǐ, this can take the Chinese standard SI prefixes, a kilometre, however, may also be called 公里 gōnglǐ, i. e. a metric lǐ. For example, a kilometre is 平方公里 píngfāng gōnglǐ. These units are used to measure cereal grains, among other things, in imperial times, the physical standard for these was the jialiang. In the case of volume, the market and metric shēng coincide, the Chinese standard SI prefixes may be added to this word shēng
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Early Chinese cartography
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Early Chinese cartography began in the 5th century BC during the Warring States period when cartographers started to make maps of the Earths surface. Its scope extended beyond Chinas borders with the expansion of the Chinese Empire under the Han dynasty, there is an ancient Chinese legend called He Bo Xian Tu, which roughly means the River Deity presenting a map. During the mythical Xia dynasty, a river deity gave Yu the Great a stone with a flood map etched on its surface, Yu the Great used the map to help him in taming the flood that threatened to destroy rural agriculture. In general, the development of early Chinese cartography experienced three phrases, primitive map, classical map, and survey map, the primitive maps were simple maps, still steeped in myth and legend. It was not until the Han dynasty that classical maps began to emerge, the earliest reference to a map in Chinese history can be found in Volume 86 of the historical text Records of the Grand Historian. This volume recorded an incident in 227 BC during the late Warring States period in which a map is mentioned, crown Prince Dan of the Yan state sent Jing Ke to assassinate the King of the Qin state, so as to prevent Qin from conquering Yan. The map, which was rolled up and held in a case, had a dagger hidden in it. As Jing Ke was showing the King the map, he slowly unrolled the map until the dagger was revealed, the King managed to escape unharmed and Jing Ke was killed in his failed assassination attempt. From then on, maps are frequently mentioned in Chinese historical texts, in 1986, seven maps were found in Tomb 1, dating to the Qin state of the Warring States period, at Fangmatan in Gansu Province. The areas covered by the seven maps overlap, but in total they cover 107 ×68 km in area. In addition to the seven maps on wooden blocks found at Tomb 1 of Fangmatan and this tomb is dated to the early Western Han dynasty, so the map dates to the early 2nd century BC. The map shows topographic features such as mountains, waterways and roads, concrete evidence of the existence of maps in ancient China dates back to the Han dynasty. The three silk maps found at the Mawangdui tumulus in Changsha, Hunan Province are traced back to the 2nd century BC, the three maps are a topographic map of the Changsha region, a military map of southern Changsha, and a prefecture map. Research on the three maps indicates that the Chinese had acquired cartography skills in the Han dynasty, the scale of the map is approximately 1,180000. At the time of their discovery, these three silk maps were the oldest to be found in China, however, they were superseded in 1986 after Qin dynasty maps dating back to the 4th century BC were found in Fangmatan, Tianshui, Gansu Province. Throughout the Yuan and Ming dynasties, Chinese cartography did not experience any significant developments, however, traditional cartography skills became more refined, and different types of maps starting appearing. The new types of maps include national maps showing mountains and cities, land maps, coastal defence maps, river maps for flood control. The Guang Yu Tu incorporates the discoveries of admiral Zheng Hes 15th century voyages along the coasts of China, Southeast Asia, India, among Ming dynasty maps, Zheng Hes map was the most influential nautical chart
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Chinese geography
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The study of geography in China begins in the Warring States period. It expands its scope beyond the Chinese homeland with the growth of the Chinese Empire under the Han dynasty. It enters its golden age with the invention of the compass in the 11th century, three Kingdoms Pei Xiu, the father of Chinese cartography produced a map of China with plotted grid lines and a graduated scale. A map carved in stone in AD1137 shows 500 settlements and a dozen rivers in China, on the reverse, the Yu Ji Tu, a copy of a more ancient map, uses the grid system developed in China a millennium earlier. After the founding of the Yuan dynasty in 1271, Kublai Khan ordered the compilation of a geography monograph named Dayuan Dayitong Zhi in 1285. In 1286, Persian astronomer Jamāl al-Dīn made Kublai Khan a proposal for merging several maps of the empire into a world map. It was supposedly a world map but is lost today and he also ordered to obtain a book called Rāh-nāmah from Muslim sailors. An extant map attached to the Jingshi Dadian proves Mongols accurate knowledge on Inner Asia that was obtained from Muslims, influence by these official projects, Taoist monk Zhu Siben compiled a geography monograph of China named Jiuyu Zhi in 1297. Based on this work, he created a now lost map of China named Yuditu in 1311-1320. These materials were, however, too large for circulation, what directly impacted Chinese intellectuals were the secondary compilations. Newly discovered materials reveal personal networks among intellectuals of southern China, Qingjun, who was from neighboring Taizhou, created the Hunyi Jiangli Tu when he stayed in Qingyuan. Wu Sidao, who left an important bibliographic clue, was also from Qingyuan, in addition, Ningbo was one of the most important seaports and the sea routes were extended to Fuzhou and Guangzhou, and Southeast Asia, Japan and Goryeo. They must have acquired marine information from Muslim sailors, maps in the Chinese tradition tended to be known by specific titles, easily expressed as short sequences of ideograms, such as the Yu Gong Jiuzhou Lidai Diwang Guodu Dili Tu. The Shengjiao Guangbei Tu by Li Zemin is lost, the Da Ming Hun Yi Tu, a Ming period map with much later Manchu translations of its labels, is also considered to have been based ultimately on Li Zemins map. The Shengjiao Guangbei Tu was a world map and it contained not only China but also Africa and Europe. Little is known about the author Li Zemin, based on place names on the map, it has been presumed that it was created around 1319 and revised sometime between 1329 and 1338. However, Wu Sidaos statement suggests that his map was newer than Qingjuns, the Hunyi Jiangli Tu by Zen monk Qingjun is lost. However, the Shuidong Riji by the Ming period book collector Ye Sheng includes an edition of the map by the name of Guanglun Jiangli Tu
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History of printing in East Asia
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Printing in East Asia evolved from ink rubbings made on paper or cloth from texts on stone tables in China during the Han dynasty. Mechanical woodblock printing on paper started in China during the Tang dynasty before the 8th century CE, use of woodblock printing quickly spread to other East Asian countries. While the Chinese used only clay and wood movable type at first, the Western-style printing press became known in East Asia by the 16th century but was not fully adopted until centuries later. Traditionally, there have two main printing techniques in Asia, woodblock printing and moveable type printing. In the woodblock technique, ink is applied to letters carved upon a wooden board, with moveable type, the board is assembled using different lettertypes, according to the page being printed. Wooden printing was used in the East from the 8th century onwards and it is a dharani sutra printed on hemp paper and dated to 650 to 670 AD, during the Tang Dynasty. Another printed document dating to the half of the Chinese Tang Dynasty has also been found. In Korea, an example of woodblock printing from the century was discovered in 1966. The document is estimated to have been created no later than 704 AD, the manuscript is transcribed onto thin slightly waxed sheets of paper by a professional calligrapher. The engraving uses a set of sharp-edged tools to cut the characters with a double edged tool used to cut away any extra surfaces, the knife is held like a dagger in the right hand and guided by the middle finger of the left hand, drawing towards the cutter. The vertical lines are cut first, then the block is rotated 90 degrees, four proof-readings are normally required - the transcript, the corrected transcript, first sample print from block and after any corrections have been made. A small correction to a block can be made by cutting a small notch, after this the block is washed to remove any refuse. To print, the block is fixed firmly on a table, the printer takes a round horsehair inking brush and applies ink with a vertical motion. The paper is laid on the block and rubbed with a long narrow pad to transfer the impression to the paper. The paper is peeled off and set to dry, because of the rubbing process, printing is only done on one side of the paper, and the paper is thinner than in the west, but two pages are normally printed at once. Sample copies were made in red or blue, but black ink was always used for production. It is said that a printer could produce as many as 1500 or 2000 double sheets in a day. Blocks can be stored and reused when extra copies are needed,15,000 prints can be taken from a block with a further 10,000 after touching up
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Chinese ceramics
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Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era, Porcelain is so identified with China that it is still called china in everyday English usage. Most later Chinese ceramics, even of the finest quality, were made on an industrial scale, many of the most important kiln workshops were owned by or reserved for the Emperor, and large quantities of ceramics were exported as diplomatic gifts or for trade from an early date. The earliest Chinese pottery was earthenware, which continued in production for utilitarian uses throughout Chinese history, but was increasingly less used for fine wares. Porcelain, on a Western definition, is a term comprising all ceramic ware that is white and translucent. The Chinese tradition recognizes two categories of ceramics, high-fired and low-fired, so doing without stoneware, which in Chinese tradition is mostly grouped with porcelain. Terms such as porcellaneous or near-porcelain may be used for stonewares with porcelain-like characteristics, the Erya defined porcelain as fine, compact pottery. Chinese pottery can also classified as being either northern or southern, the kiln types were also different. Southern materials have high silica, low alumina and high potassium oxide, the northern materials are often very suitable for stoneware, while in the south there are also areas highly suitable for porcelain. Chinese porcelain is made by a combination of the following materials. Porcelain stone - decomposed micaceous or feldspar rocks, historically known as petunse. Feldspar Quartz In the context of Chinese ceramics, the term lacks a universally accepted definition. This in turn has led to confusion about when the first Chinese porcelain was made, claims have been made for the late Eastern Han dynasty, the Three Kingdoms period, the Six Dynasties period, and the Tang dynasty. Chinese kiln technology has always been a key factor in the development of Chinese pottery, the Chinese developed effective kilns capable of firing at around 1, 000°C before 2000 BC. These were updraft kilns, often built below ground, two main types of kiln were developed by about 200 AD and remained in use until modern times. Both could reliably produce the temperatures of up to 1300°C or more needed for porcelain, in the late Ming, the egg-shaped kiln or zhenyao was developed at Jingdezhen, but mainly used there. This was something of a compromise between the types, and offered locations in the firing chamber with a range of firing conditions. According to Science, pottery dating from 20,000 years ago were found at the Xianrendong Cave site
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History of metallurgy in China
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Metallurgy in China has a long history. The earliest metal objects in China date to around 3,000 BC, China was also the earliest civilization that produced cast iron. Recent evidence indicates that the earliest metal objects in China go back to the fourth millennium BCE. The earliest sites that have yielded metal objects date to the late fourth, copper was generally the earliest metal to be used by mankind. The use of copper in ancient China goes back to 3,000 BC, although bronze artifacts were exhumed in the archeological sites of Majiayao culture, it is still widely believed that Chinas Bronze Age began from around 2100 BC during the Xia dynasty. The Qijia culture of Qinghai, Gansu and western Shaanxi has yielded copper and bronze items and gold, copper. The earliest dates for metal in this region are found at a Majiayao site at Linjia, Dongxiang, Linjia site has the earliest evidence for bronze in China, dating to c.3,000 BC. The majority of metal items found in China come from the North-Western Region. Their dates range from 2900 –1600 BCE and these metal objects represent the Majiayao 马家 窑 Type of the Majiayao Culture, Zongri 宗日 Culture, Machang 马 厂 Type, Qijia 齐家 Culture, and Siba 四坝 Culture. The Erlitou culture, Shang Dynasty and Sanxingdui culture of early China used bronze vessels for rituals as well as farming implements, chromium only came to the attention of westerners in the 18th century. The alloys of tin and copper enabled weapons such as knives and swords to avoid rust. The layer of chromium oxide used on steel swords was 10 to 15 micrometers, the beginning of new breakthroughs in metallurgy occurred towards the Yangzi Rivers south in Chinas southeastern region in the Warring States Period such as gilt-bronze swords. According to some scholars, lost-wax casting was used in China already during the Spring and Autumn period, in 2008, two iron fragments were excavated at the Mogou site, in Gansu. They have been dated to the 14th century BC, belonging to the period of Siwa culture, one of the fragments was made of bloomery iron rather than meteoritic iron. In 1972, near the city of Gaocheng in Shijiazhuang, a bronze hatchet dating back to the 14th century BC was excavated. After a scientific examination, the iron was shown to be made from meteoric iron, cast-iron artifacts are found in China before the 5th century BC, as early as the Zhou dynasty of the 6th century BC. An Iron Age culture of the Tibetan Plateau has tentatively been associated with the Zhang Zhung culture described in early Tibetan writings, around 500 BC, metalworkers in the southern state of Wu developed an iron smelting technology that would not be practiced in Europe until late medieval times. In Wu, iron smelters achieved a temperature of 1130 °C, at this temperature, iron combines with 4. 3% carbon and melts
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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
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Chinese alchemy
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Pao zhi cites the pharmacological processing as used in the practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine, such as honey or wine frying and roasting with toxic metals such as mercury, lead, and arsenic. According to J. C. Cooper states that a common viewpoint is that classical Taoism was the original but was too austere, Tao Chiao fulfilled the day-to-day needs of the people. By refining bases into gold, the alchemist believed that life would be delivered if the fake or synthetic gold was ingested. The idea that gold was superior to real gold arose because the alchemists believed the combination of a variety of substances gave the final substance a spiritual value. It possesses a superior essence when compared to natural gold, gold and cinnabar were the most sought-after substances to manipulate and ingest. They were believed to have longevity and could elongate the life of the consumer, cinnabar is a mineral with a reddish-brown colour and is the most common source of mercury in nature. It was used in the search for immortality because of the significance of its colour. The colour of the cinnabar is significant to symbolic belief as well, the colour red in Chinese culture is considered to be the zenith of the colour representing the sun, fire, royalty and energy. Cinnabar could also be roasted which produced a form of silver known as quicksilver. This substance was ingested but it could also be combined with sulphur, cinnabar was the yang to quicksilvers yin. In China gold was quite rare, so it was imported from other surrounding countries. However, cinnabar could be refined in the mountains of Szechuan and Hunan Provinces in central China, although the majority of hsien elixirs were combinations of jindan, many other elixirs were formed by combining metallic bases with natural herbs or animals bi-products. The rhinoceros horn was used in medicines and elixirs and was held to have fertility-increasing abilities. Elixirs were composed of compounds such as gold and silver, but they could also be made of more lethal components like arsenic. Both the Eastern practice of alchemy and the later Western practice are remarkably similar in their methods, to be sure, the desire to create an elixir of immortality was more appealing to the Taoists, but European alchemists were not averse to seeking out formulas for various longevity-boosting substances. The secret of transmuting one element into another, specifically base metals into gold or silver, was explored by both schools for obvious reasons. Alternatively, transmutation was also a means of accruing the precious metals that were key in making life-extending elixirs, Chinese alchemy specifically was consistent in its practice from the beginning, and there was relatively little controversy among its practitioners. Definition amongst alchemists varied only in their medical prescription for the elixir of immortality or perhaps only over their names for it, in the West there were conflicts between advocates of herbal and chemical, but in China, mineral remedies were always accepted
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Traditional Chinese medicine
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It is primarily used as a complementary alternative medicine approach. TCM is widely used in China and is becoming prevalent in Europe. One of the tenets of TCM holds that the bodys vital energy circulates through channels, called meridians. Concepts of the body and of disease used in TCM reflect its ancient origins and its emphasis on dynamic processes over material structure, scientific investigation has not found histological or physiological evidence for traditional Chinese concepts such as qi, meridians, and acupuncture points. The TCM theory and practice are not based upon scientific knowledge, the effectiveness of Chinese herbal medicine remains poorly researched and documented. There are concerns over a number of toxic plants, animal parts. There are also concerns over illegal trade and transport of endangered species including rhinoceroses and tigers, a review of cost-effectiveness research for TCM found that studies had low levels of evidence, but so far have not shown benefit outcomes. Pharmaceutical research has explored the potential for creating new drugs from traditional remedies, proponents propose that research has so far missed key features of the art of TCM, such as unknown interactions between various ingredients and complex interactive biological systems. The doctrines of Chinese medicine are rooted in such as the Yellow Emperors Inner Canon and the Treatise on Cold Damage, as well as in cosmological notions such as yin-yang. Starting in the 1950s, these precepts were standardized in the Peoples Republic of China, including attempts to integrate them with modern notions of anatomy, in the 1950s, the Chinese government promoted a systematized form of TCM. TCMs view of the body places little emphasis on anatomical structures, while health is perceived as the harmonious interaction of these entities and the outside world, disease is interpreted as a disharmony in interaction. Traces of therapeutic activities in China date from the Shang dynasty, which Shang elites usually attributed to curses sent by their ancestors. There is no evidence that the Shang nobility used herbal remedies, according to a 2006 overview, the Documentation of Chinese materia medica dates back to around 1,100 BC when only dozens of drugs were first described. By the end of the 16th century, the number of drugs documented had reached close to 1,900, and by the end of the last century, published records of CMM had reached 12,800 drugs. Stone and bone found in ancient tombs led Joseph Needham to speculate that acupuncture might have been carried out in the Shang dynasty. The earliest evidence for acupuncture in this sense dates to the second or first century BC, the Yellow Emperors Inner Canon, the oldest received work of Chinese medical theory, was compiled around the first century BC on the basis of shorter texts from different medical lineages. It was also one of the first books in which the doctrines of Yinyang. The Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders and Miscellaneous Illnesses was collated by Zhang Zhongjing sometime between 196 and 220 CE, at the end of the Han dynasty
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Chinese herbology
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Chinese herbology is the theory of traditional Chinese herbal therapy, which accounts for the majority of treatments in traditional Chinese medicine. The term herbology is misleading in the sense that, while plant elements are by far the most commonly used substances, animal, human, in the Neijing they are referred to as 毒藥 which means toxin, poison, or medicine. Unschuld points out that this is similar etymology to the Greek pharmakon, thus, the term medicinal is usually preferred as a translation for 药. Research into the effectiveness of traditional Chinese herbal therapy is of poor quality, there are concerns over a number of potentially toxic Chinese herbs. Chinese herbs have been used for centuries, among the earliest literature are lists of prescriptions for specific ailments, exemplified by the manuscript Recipes for 52 Ailments, found in the Mawangdui which were sealed in 168 BC. The first traditionally recognized herbalist is Shénnóng, a mythical god-like figure and he allegedly tasted hundreds of herbs and imparted his knowledge of medicinal and poisonous plants to farmers. His Shénnóng Běn Cǎo Jīng is considered as the oldest book on Chinese herbal medicine and they have almost no unfavorable side-effects. A category comprising tonics and boosters, whose consumption must not be prolonged, a category of substances which must usually be taken in small doses, and for the treatment of specific diseases only. The original text of Shennongs Materia Medica has been lost, however, the true date of origin is believed to fall into the late Western Han dynasty. The Treatise on Cold Damage Disorders and Miscellaneous Illnesses was collated by Zhang Zhongjing, also sometime at the end of the Han dynasty, focusing on drug prescriptions, it was the first medical work to combine Yinyang and the Five Phases with drug therapy. This formulary was also the earliest Chinese medical text to group symptoms into clinically useful patterns that could serve as targets for therapy, succeeding generations augmented these works, as in the Yaoxing Lun, a 7th-century Tang Dynasty Chinese treatise on herbal medicine. There was a shift in emphasis in treatment over several centuries, a section of the Neijing Suwen including Chapter 74 was added by Wang Bing in his 765 edition. In which it says, 主病之謂君，佐君之謂臣，應臣之謂使，非上下三品之謂也。 Ruler of disease it called Sovereign, aid to Sovereign it called Minister, comply with Minister it called Envoy, the last part is interpreted as stating that these three rulers are not the three classes of Shénnóng mentioned previously. This chapter in particular outlines a more forceful approach, later on Zhang Zihe is credited with founding the Attacking School which criticized the overus of tonics. Arguably the most important of these works is the Compendium of Materia Medica compiled during the Ming dynasty by Li Shizhen. The use of Chinese herbs was popular during the age in western Asian. They were traded through the Silk Road from the East to the West, cinnamon, ginger, rhubarb, nutmeg and cubeb are mentioned as Chinese herbs by medieval Islamic medical scholars Such as Rhazes, Haly Abbas and Avicenna. There were also similarities between the clinical uses of these herbs in Chinese and Islamic medicine
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Agriculture in China
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Agriculture is a vital industry in China, employing over 300 million farmers. China ranks first in worldwide farm output, primarily producing rice, wheat, potatoes, tomato, sorghum, peanuts, tea, millet, barley, cotton, oilseed and soybeans. Although accounting for only 10 percent of land worldwide, it produces food for 20 percent of the worlds population. The development of farming over the course of Chinas history has played a key role in supporting the growth of what is now the largest population in the world. Analysis of stone tools by Professor Liu Li and others has shown that the origins of Chinese agriculture is rooted in the pre-agricultural Paleolithic, during this time, hunter-gatherers harvested wild plants with the same tools that would later be used for millet and rice. Remains of domesticated millet have been found in northern China at Xinglonggou, Yuezhang, Dadiwan, Cishan and these sites cover a period over 6250-5050 BCE. The amount of domesticated millet eaten at these sites was proportionally quite low compared to other plants, at Xinglonggou, millet made up only 15% of all plant remains around 6200-5400 BCE, a ratio that changed to 99% by 2050-1550 BCE. Excavations at Kuahuqiao, the earliest known Neolithic site in eastern China, have documented rice cultivation 7,700 years ago, approximately half of the plant remains belonged to domesticated japonica species, whilst the other half were wild types of rice. It is possible that the people at Kuahuqiao also cultivated the wild type, finds at sites of the Hemudu Culture in Yuyao and Banpo near Xian include millet and spade-like tools made of stone and bone. Evidence of settled agriculture has been found at the Hemudu site of Tianluoshan. There is also a tradition involving agriculture in Chinese mythology. In his book Permanent Agriculture, Farmers of Forty Centuries, Professor Franklin Hiram King described and extolled the values of the farming practices of China. Due to Chinas status as a country and its severe shortage of arable land. However, throughout its history, various methods have developed or imported that enabled greater farming production. They also utilized the seed drill to improve on row farming. During the Spring and Autumn period, two revolutionary improvements in farming took place. One was the use of cast iron tools and beasts of burden to pull plows, and the other was the large-scale harnessing of rivers and development of water conservation projects. The engineer Sunshu Ao of the 6th century BC and Ximen Bao of the 5th century BC are two of the oldest hydraulic engineers from China, and their works were focused upon improving irrigation systems
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Sericulture
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Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several species of silkworms, Bombyx mori is the most widely used. Silk was first produced in China as early as the Neolithic period, sericulture has become an important cottage industry in countries such as Brazil, China, France, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, and Russia. Today, China and India are the two producers, with more than 60% of the worlds annual production. According to Confucian text, the discovery of silk production dates to about 2700 BC, by about the first half of the 1st century AD it had reached ancient Khotan, by a series of interactions along the Silk Road. By 140 AD the practice had been established in India, in the 6th century the smuggling of silkworm eggs into the Byzantine Empire led to its establishment in the Mediterranean, remaining a monopoly in the Byzantine Empire for centuries. Chinese sericulture process Silkworm larvae are fed with leaves, and, after the fourth moult, climb a twig placed near them. This process is achieved by the worm through a fluid secreted from its structural glands. The silk is a continuous filament comprising fibroin protein, secreted from two glands in the head of each larva, and a gum called sericin, which cements the filaments. The sericin is removed by placing the cocoons in hot water and this is known as the degumming process. The immersion in hot water also kills the silkworm pupae, single filaments are combined to form thread, which is drawn under tension through several guides and wound onto reels. The threads may be plied to form yarn, after drying, the raw silk is packed according to quality. The stages of production are as follows, The silk moth lays thousands of eggs, the silk moth eggs hatch to form larvae or caterpillars, known as silkworms. The larvae feed on mulberry leaves, having grown and moulted several times silkworm weaves a net to hold itself It swings its head from side to side in a figure 8 distributing the saliva that will form silk. The silk solidifies when it contacts the air, the silkworm spins approximately one mile of filament and completely encloses itself in a cocoon in about two or three days. The amount of quality silk in each cocoon is small. As a result, about 2500 silkworms are required to produce a pound of raw silk The intact cocoons are boiled, the silk is obtained by brushing the undamaged cocoon to find the outside end of the filament. The silk filaments are wound on a reel
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Chinese architecture
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Chinese architecture is a style of architecture that has taken shape in East Asia over many centuries. The structural principles of Chinese architecture have remained unchanged, the main changes being only the decorative details. Since the Tang Dynasty, Chinese architecture has had a influence on the architectural styles of Korea, Vietnam. The architecture of China is as old as Chinese civilization, throughout the 20th Century, Western-trained Chinese architects have attempted to combine traditional Chinese designs into modern architecture, with only limited success. A very important feature in Chinese architecture is its emphasis on articulation and bilateral symmetry, bilateral symmetry and the articulation of buildings are found everywhere in Chinese architecture, from palace complexes to humble farmhouses. When possible, plans for renovation and extension of a house will often try to maintain this symmetry provided that there is enough capital to do so, secondary elements are positioned either side of main structures as two wings to maintain overall bilateral symmetry. The buildings are planned to contain an even number of columns in a structure to produce an odd number of bays. With the inclusion of a door to a building in the center bay. In contrast to the buildings, Chinese gardens are an exception which tend to be asymmetrical. The principle underlying the composition is to create enduring flow. In much of traditional Chinese architecture, buildings or building complexes take up an entire property and these enclosed spaces come in two forms, the, Courtyard, The use of open courtyards is a common feature in many types of Chinese architectures. This is best exemplified in the Siheyuan, which has consisted of an empty space surrounded by buildings connected with one another either directly or through verandas. This structure is essentially an enclosed courtyard formed from the intersections of closely spaced buildings. These enclosures serve in temperature regulation and in venting the building complexes, northern courtyards are typically open and facing the south to allow the maximum exposure of the building windows and walls to the sun while keeping the cold northern winds out. Southern sky wells are relatively small and serves to collect water from the roof tops. They perform the duties as the Roman impluvium while restricting the amount of sunlight that enters the building. Sky wells also serve as vents for rising hot air, which cool air from the lower stories of the house. The projected hierarchy and importance and uses of buildings in traditional Chinese architecture are based on the placement of buildings in a property/complex
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Chinese garden
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The Chinese garden is a landscape garden style which has evolved over three thousand years. They create a miniature landscape, which is meant to express the harmony that should exist between man and nature. The earliest recorded Chinese gardens were created in the valley of the Yellow River and these gardens were large enclosed parks where the kings and nobles hunted game, or where fruit and vegetables were grown. Early inscriptions from this period, carved on tortoise shells, have three Chinese characters for garden, you, pu and yuan and you was a royal garden where birds and animals were kept, while pu was a garden for plants. During the Qin Dynasty, yuan became the character for all gardens, a famous royal garden of the late Shang dynasty was the Terrace, Pond and Park of the Spirit built by King Wenwang west of his capital city, Yin. The immaculate cranes have plumes of a brilliant white, the Emperor makes his promenade to the Pond of the Spirit, The water is full of fish, who wriggle. - translation in Jardins de Chine, ou la quête du paradis Another early royal garden was Shaqui, or the Dunes of Sand, built by the last Shang ruler, King Zhou. It was composed of a terrace, or tai, which served as an observation platform in the center of a large square park. It was described in one of the classics of Chinese literature. According to the Shiji, one of the most famous features of this garden was the Wine Pool, a large pool, big enough for several small boats, was constructed on the palace grounds, with inner linings of polished oval shaped stones from the sea shores. The pool was filled with wine. A small island was constructed in the middle of the pool, where trees were planted, King Zhou and his friends and concubines drifted in their boats, drinking the wine with their hands and eating the roasted meat from the trees. Later Chinese philosophers and historians cited this garden as an example of decadence, during the Spring and Autumn period, in 535 BC, the Terrace of Shanghua, with lavishly decorated palaces, was built by King Jing of the Zhou dynasty. In 505 BC, a more elaborate garden, the Terrace of Gusu, was begun. It was located on the side of a mountain, and included a series of terraces connected by galleries, from the highest terrace, a view extended as far as Lake Tai, the Great Lake. An ancient Chinese legend played an important part in early garden design, on this island were palaces of gold and silver, with jewels on the trees. There was no pain, no winter, wine glasses and rice bowls were always full, and fruits, in 221 BC, Ying Zheng, the King of Qin conquered other rival states and unified China under the Qin Empire, which he ruled until 210 BC. He heard the legend of the islands and sent emissaries to find the islands and bring back the elixir of immortal life, at his palace near his capital, Xianyang, he created a garden with a large lake called Lanchi gong or the Lake of the Orchids
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History of transport in China
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Transport has been a major factor in Chinas national economy. For most of the period since 1949, however, transport occupied a low priority in Chinas national development. In the twenty-five years that followed the founding of the Peoples Republic in 1949, Chinas transportation network was built into a partially modern, the drive to modernize the transport system that began in 1978 required a sharp acceleration in investment. Though despite increased investment and development in the 1980s, the sector was strained by the rapid expansion of production. As a result, the transport system constrained the pace of economic development throughout the country. In the 1980s the updating of transport systems was given priority, in the late 1980s, China had more than 140,000 highway bridges. Their length totaled almost 4,000 kilometers, inland navigation is Chinas oldest form of transport. Despite the potential advantages of water transport, it was often mismanaged or neglected in the past, beginning in 1960 the network of navigable inland waterways decreased further because of the construction of dams and irrigation works and the increasing sedimentation. But by the early 1980s, as the railroads became increasingly congested, the central government set out to overhaul the inefficient inland waterway system and called upon localities to play major roles in managing and financing most of the projects. An estimated 340,000 people and 170,000 boats were engaged in the transport business. More than 800 shipping enterprises and 60 shipping companies transported over 259 million tons of cargo on the Yangtze River, nationally, in 1985 the inland waterways carried some 434 million tons of cargo. In 1986 there were approximately 138,600 kilometers of waterways,79 percent of which were navigable. The Cihuai Canal in northern Anhui opened to navigation in 1984 and this 134-kilometer canal linking the Ying River, a major tributary of the Huai River, with the Huai Hes main course, had an annual capacity of 600,000 tons of cargo. The canal promoted the flow of goods between Anhui and neighboring provinces and helped to develop the Huai River Plain, one of Chinas major grain-producing areas, during the early 1960s, Chinas merchant marine had fewer than thirty ships. By the 1970s and 1980s, maritime shipping capabilities had greatly increased, in 1985 China established eleven shipping offices and jointly operated shipping companies in foreign countries. The fleet called at more than 400 ports in more than 100 countries, the container ship fleet also was expanding rapidly. In 1984 China had only fifteen container ships, seven more were added in 1985, and an additional twenty-two were on order. By the early 1980s, Chinese shipyards had begun to manufacture a number of ships for their own maritime fleet
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Naval history of China
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The naval history of China dates back thousands of years, with archives existing since the late Spring and Autumn period about the ancient navy of China and the various ship types used in war. China was the maritime power in the years 1405–1433, when Chinese shipbuilders began to build massive oceangoing junks. In modern times, the current Mainland Chinese and Taiwanese governments continue to maintain standing navies with the Peoples Liberation Army Navy and the Republic of China Navy, respectively. The legendary Xu Fu searching for mythical Fusang, or the setting up of the maritime Silk Road since the 2nd century BC from Hepu Commandery, drew the ancient Chinese naval maps. After the First and Second Opium Wars, which shook up the generals of the Qing dynasty, for example, medieval Chinese hulls were split into bulkhead sections so that a hull rupture only flooded a fraction of the ship and did not necessarily sink it. This was described in the book of the Song Dynasty maritime author Zhu Yu, along with the innovations described in Zhus book, there were many other improvements to nautical technology in the medieval Song period. A significant naval battle was the Battle of Lake Poyang from August 30 to October 4 of the year 1363 AD, one of the oldest known Chinese books written on naval matters was the Yuejueshu of 52 AD, attributed to the Han Dynasty scholar Yuan Kang. Many passages of Yuan Kangs book were rewritten and published in Li Fangs Imperial Reader of the Taiping Era, the preserved written passages of Yuan Kangs book were again featured in the Yuanjian Leihan encyclopedia, edited and compiled by Zhang Ying in 1701 during the Qing Dynasty. Yuan Kangs book listed various water crafts that were used for war and these classes of ships were the great wing, the little wing, the stomach striker, the castle ship, and the bridge ship. Ramming vessels were also attested to in other Chinese documents, including the Shi Ming dictionary of c.100 AD written by Liu Xi. The Chinese also used a large iron t-shaped hook connected to a spar to pin retreating ships down, as described in the Mozi book compiled in the 4th century BC. This was discussed in a dialogue between Mozi and Lu Ban in 445 BC, as the technique made standard on all Chu warships was given as the reason why the Yue navy lost in battle to Chu. The rebellion of Gongsun Shu in Sichuan province against the re-established Han Dynasty during the year 33 AD was recorded in the Book of Later Han, compiled by Fan Ye in the 5th century. Gongsun sent a force of some twenty to thirty thousand soldiers down the Yangtze River to attack the position of the Han commander Cen Peng. The castle ship design described by Yuan Kang saw continued use in Chinese naval battles after the Han period. Confronting the navy of the Chen Dynasty on the Yangtze River, during the Chinese Tang Dynasty there were some famous naval engagements, such as the Tang-Silla victory over the Korean kingdom of Baekje and Yamato Japanese forces in the Battle of Baekgang in 663. Tang Dynasty literature on warfare and ship design became more nuanced. In his Taipai Yinjing of 759 AD, Li Quan gave descriptions for several types of ships in his day
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Military history of China before 1911
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The recorded military history of China extends from about 2200 BC to the present day. Although traditional Chinese Confucian philosophy favored peaceful political solutions and showed contempt for brute military force, in addition, Chinas armies also benefited from an advanced logistics system as well as a rich strategic tradition, beginning with Sun Tzus The Art of War, that deeply influenced military thought. The military history of China stretches from roughly 2200 BC to the present day, Chinese armies were advanced and powerful, especially after the Warring States period. Composed of peasant levies, usually serfs dependent upon the king or the lord of their home state. While organized military forces had existed along with the state, few remain of these early armies. These armies were centered around the chariot-riding nobility, who played a role akin to the European Knight as they were the main fighting force of the army, bronze weapons such as spears and swords were the main equipment of both the infantry and charioteers. These armies were ill-trained and haphazardly supplied, meaning that they could not campaign for more than a few months, during the Shang and Western Zhou times, warfare was seen as an aristocratic affair, complete with protocols that may be compared to the chivalry of the European knight. States would not attack other states while mourning its ruler, ruling houses would not be completely exterminated so descendants would be left to honor their ancestors. Nevertheless, under the Shang and Zhou, these armies were able to expand Chinas territory and influence from a narrow part of the Yellow river valley to all of the North China plain. However, after the collapse of the Zhou Dynasty in 771 BC when the Xirong captured its capital Haojing, China collapsed into a plethora of small states, the competition between these states would eventually produce the professional armies that marked the Imperial Era of China. During the Spring and Autumn period, Duke Xiang of Song, after Xiang lost the battle and was being rebuked by his ministers of war, he responded, The gentleman does not inflict a second wound, nor does he capture those with gray hair. On campaigns the ancients did not obstruct those in a narrow pass, even though I am but the remnant of a destroyed state, I will not drum an attack when the other side has not yet drawn up its ranks. His minister retorted, My lord does not know battle, the power of the aristocracy was curbed and for the first time, professional generals were appointed on merit, rather than birth. For example, during the Battle of Changping the state of Qin drafted all males over 15 years of age, although most soldiers were conscripts, it was also common to select soldiers based on specific qualifications. When a man meets this requirement, his household would be exempted from all corvée labor obligations and he would also be given special tax benefits on land and housing. However, this policy made soldiers in the Wei state difficult to replace, the first recorded use of cavalry took place in the Battle of Maling, in which general Pang Juan of Wei led his division of 5,000 cavalry into a trap by Qi forces. In 307 BC, King Wuling of Zhao ordered the adoption of nomadic clothing in order to train his own division of cavalry archers and he had to be ruthless in searching for the advantage, and an organizer in integrating units under him. In 221 BC, the Qin unified China and ushered in the Imperial Era of Chinese history, although it only lasted 15 years, Qin established institutions that would last for millennia
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Science and technology of the Han dynasty
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There were great innovations in metallurgy. Smelting techniques were enhanced with inventions such as the waterwheel-powered bellows, the quality of life was improved with many Han inventions. The Han Chinese had hempen-bound bamboo scrolls to write on, yet by the 2nd century AD had invented the process which created a writing medium that was both cheap and easy to produce. The invention of the aided in the hauling of heavy loads. The maritime junk ship and stern-mounted steering rudder enabled the Chinese to venture out of waters of interior lakes and rivers. The invention of the reference for maps and raised-relief map allowed the Chinese to better navigate their terrain. In medicine, they used new herbal remedies to cure illnesses, calisthenics to keep physically fit, authorities in the capital were warned ahead of time of the direction of sudden earthquakes with the invention of the seismometer that was tripped by a vibration-sensitive pendulum device. To mark the passing of the seasons and special occasions, the Han Chinese used two variations of the calendar, which were established due to efforts in astronomy and mathematics. Hundreds of new roads and canals were built to transport, commerce, tax collection, communication. The Han-era Chinese also employed several types of bridges to cross waterways and deep gorges, such as bridges, arch bridges, simple suspension bridges. Han ruins of defensive city walls made of brick or rammed earth still stand today, if Mohism, rich in scientific thought, had rapidly grown and strengthened, the situation might have been very favorable to the development of a scientific structure. However, this did not happen because the seeds of the structure of science were never formed. During the late Eastern Han, disastrous upheavals again occurred in the process of social transformation, one can imagine the effect of this calamity on science. The most common writing mediums found in archaeological digs from ancient sites predating the Han period are shells, the written characters on these narrow flat strips of bamboo were arranged into vertical columns. Yet Chinese hempen paper of the Western Han and early Eastern Han eras was of a coarse quality, by the 3rd century, paper became one of Chinas chief writing mediums. The Han ceramics industry was upheld by private businesses as well as government agencies. Ceramics were used in domestic wares and utensils as well as materials for roof tiles. Kilns of the Han dynasty making grey pottery were able to reach firing temperatures above 1,000 °C, however, hard southern Chinese pottery made from a dense adhesive clay native only in the south was fired at even higher temperatures than grey pottery during the Han
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Science and technology of the Tang dynasty
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The popularization of woodblock printing during the Tang dynasty made the written word available to greater audiences. The extent of woodblock printing is attested to by one of the worlds oldest surviving printed documents, a copy of the Diamond Sutra found at Dunhuang is the earliest surviving full-length book printed at regular size, complete with illustrations embedded within the text and dated precisely to 868. Among the earliest documents to be printed were Buddhist texts as well as calendars, the latter essential for calculating and marking which days were auspicious and which days were not. The first known book on the game was called the Yezi Gexi and was allegedly written by a Tang woman. However, Ouyang claimed the leaves were pages of a book for a game played with dice. In any case, Ouyang asserted that the rules for the game were lost by 1067 and it may be that the first pack of cards ever printed was a 32-card Chinese domino pack, in whose cards all 21 combinations of a pair of dice are depicted. According to the Gui Tian Lu, an 11th-century Chinese text redacted, domino cards were printed during the Tang dynasty, there is difficulty distinguishing paper cards and gaming tiles in many early sources as the Chinese word pái is used to describe both. Playing cards are paper pái while tiles are called bone pái, paper playing cards and the woodblocks to print them are unambiguously attested in 1294. William Henry Wilkinson suggests that the first cards may have been actual paper currency which were both the tools of gaming and the stakes being played for, as in trading card games. As using paper money was inconvenient and risky, they were substituted by play money known as money cards, one of the earliest games in which we know the rules is Madiao, a trick-taking game, which dates to the Ming Dynasty. 15th century scholar Lu Rong described it is as being played with 38 money cards divided into four suits,9 in coins,9 in strings of coins,9 in myriads, and 11 in tens of myriads. The two latter suits had Water Margin characters instead of pips on them with Chinese ideograms to mark their rank, the suit of coins is in reverse order with 9 of coins being the lowest going up to 1 of coins as the high card. Inverted ranking is also found in the Vietnamese game of Tổ tôm, the money-suited system is based on denominations of currency and not on the pips or pictures. This is why there is no tenth rank as that would create a new suit, a simplified deck is still in use by Hakka players, where every suit has just nine cards in progressive ranking, replacing pips and pictures with labels. Another type of modern deck keeps the traditional images but drops the highest suit, the designs on modern Mahjong tiles likely evolved from this pack. Technology during the Tang period was built also upon the precedents of the past, the mechanical gear systems of Zhang Heng and Ma Jun gave the Tang engineer, astronomer, and monk Yi Xing inspiration when he invented the worlds first clockwork escapement mechanism in 725. This was used alongside a clepsydra clock and waterwheel to power a rotating armillary sphere in representation of astronomical observation. Yi Xings device also had a mechanically timed bell that was struck every year, and a drum that was struck automatically every quarter-hour, essentially
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Science and technology of the Song dynasty
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The Song dynasty provided some of the most significant technological advances in Chinese history, many of which came from talented statesmen drafted by the government through imperial examinations. The ingenuity of advanced mechanical engineering had a tradition in China. The application of movable type printing advanced the already widespread use of printing to educate and amuse Confucian students. Notable advances in engineering, nautics, and metallurgy were made in Song China. These advances, along with the introduction of paper-printed money, helped revolutionize, polymath geniuses – that is, people knowledgeable across an encyclopaedic range of topics – such as Shen Kuo and Su Song embodied the spirit of early empirical science and technology in the Song era. This allowed sailors to navigate the seas more accurately with the magnetic needle compass, Shen was made famous for his written description of Bi Sheng, the inventor of movable type printing. Shen was also interested in geology, as he formulated a theory of geomorphology, along with his colleague Wei Pu in the Bureau of Astronomy, Shen used cosmological hypotheses when describing the variations of planetary motion, including retrogradation. One of Shens greatest achievements, aided by Wei Pu, was correcting the error by diligently recording and plotting the moons orbital path three times a night over a period of five years. Unfortunately Shen had many political rivals at court who were determined to sabotage his work, the court fully accepted their corrections to lunar and solar error, but only partially adopted Shen and Weis corrected plotting of the planetary orbital paths and various speeds. This treatise included many medicinal applications, including the use of ephedrin as a pharmaceutical drug, however, Su was most famous for his hydraulic-powered astronomical clock tower, crowned with a mechanically driven armillary sphere, which was erected in the capital city of Kaifeng in the year 1088. Sus clock tower employed the escapement mechanism two centuries before it was applied in clocks of Europe, sus clock tower also featured the earliest known endless power-transmitting chain drive in the world, as outlined in his horological treatise of 1092. On a court mission to inspect a frontier region, Shen Kuo once made a map of wood and glue-soaked sawdust to show the mountains, roads, rivers. Shen Kuo also experimented with camera obscura, only a few decades after the first to do so, there were many other important figures in the Song era besides Shen Kuo and Su Song, many of whom contributed greatly to the technological innovations of the time period. The Song Shi states, The odometer. is painted red, with pictures of flowers and birds on the four sides, and constructed in two storeys, handsomely adorned with carvings. At the completion of every li, the figure of a man in the lower storey strikes a drum, at the completion of every ten li. The carriage-pole ends in a phoenix-head, and the carriage is drawn by four horses, the escort was formerly of 18 men, but in the 4th year of the Yongxi reign period the emperor Taizong increased it to 30. When the upper horizontal wheel has made 1 revolution, the carriage will have gone 10 li, the number of wheels used, great and small, is 8 inches in all, with a total of 285 teeth. Thus the motion is transmitted as if by the links of a chain, in the Song period, the odometer device was combined with the south-pointing chariot device, which was probably first invented by the ancient Chinese mechanical engineer Ma Jun
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Science and technology in China
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This is about the contemporary Peoples Republic of China. Science and technology in China redirects here, for times predating 1949, see History of science and technology in China. Science and technology have developed rapidly in the Peoples Republic of China during the 1990s to 2010s, China is now increasingly targeting indigenous innovation and aims to reform remaining weaknesses. China was a leader in science and technology until the early years of the Qing Dynasty. Chinese discoveries and Chinese innovations such as papermaking, printing, the compass, Chinese activity started to decrease in the fourteenth century. Unlike in Europe scientists did not attempt to reduce observations of nature to mathematical laws and they did not form a community with criticisms. There was a concentration on literature, arts, and public administration while science. The causes of this Great Divergence continue to be debated, one factor is argued to be the imperial examination system which removed the incentives for Chinese intellectuals to learn mathematics or to conduct experimentation. After being defeated repeatedly by Western nations in the 19th century, Chinese reformers began promoting modern science, after the Communist victory in 1949 science and technology research was organized based on the model of the Soviet Union. Researchers should work as collectives for society rather than as individuals seeking recognition, many studied in the Soviet Union which also transferred technology. The Cultural revolution, which sought to remove perceived bourgeois influences and attitudes, caused large negative effects, after Mao Zedongs death, S&T was established as one of the Four Modernizations in 1976. The new leader Deng Xiaoping, and architect of the Chinese economic reform, was a promoter of S&T. The Soviet inspired system was gradually reformed. Media began promoting the value of S&T, scientific thinking, the third and fourth generations of leaders came almost exclusively from technical backgrounds. The State Council of the Peoples Republic of China in 1995 issued the Decision on Accelerating S&T Development which described planned Science & Technology development for the coming decades. It described S&T as the productive force and affecting economic development, social progress, national strength. S&T should become closely associated with market needs, not only Soviet style institutes should do research but also universities and private industries. State institutions should form joint ventures with Chinese or foreign venture capital in order for S&T developments to reach the industry, S&T personal should become more occupationally mobile, pay should be linked to economic results, and age and seniority should become less important for personal decisions
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Qing dynasty
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It was preceded by the Ming dynasty and succeeded by the Republic of China. The Qing multi-cultural empire lasted almost three centuries and formed the base for the modern Chinese state. The dynasty was founded by the Jurchen Aisin Gioro clan in Manchuria, in the late sixteenth century, Nurhaci, originally a Ming vassal, began organizing Banners, military-social units that included Jurchen, Han Chinese, and Mongol elements. Nurhaci formed the Jurchen clans into an entity, which he renamed as the Manchus. By 1636, his son Hong Taiji began driving Ming forces out of Liaodong and declared a new dynasty, in 1644, peasant rebels led by Li Zicheng conquered the Ming capital, Beijing. The Ten Great Campaigns of the Qianlong Emperor from the 1750s to the 1790s extended Qing control into Central Asia, the early rulers maintained their Manchu ways, and while their title was Emperor, they used khan to the Mongols and they were patrons of Tibetan Buddhism. They governed using Confucian styles and institutions of government and retained the imperial examinations to recruit Han Chinese to work under or in parallel with Manchus. They also adapted the ideals of the system in dealing with neighboring territories. The Qianlong reign saw the apogee and initial decline in prosperity. The population rose to some 400 million, but taxes and government revenues were fixed at a low rate, corruption set in, rebels tested government legitimacy, and ruling elites did not change their mindsets in the face of changes in the world system. Following the Opium War, European powers imposed unequal treaties, free trade, the Taiping Rebellion and the Dungan Revolt in Central Asia led to the deaths of some 20 million people, most of them due to famines caused by war. In spite of disasters, in the Tongzhi Restoration of the 1860s, Han Chinese elites rallied to the defense of the Confucian order. The initial gains in the Self-Strengthening Movement were destroyed in the First Sino-Japanese War of 1895, in which the Qing lost its influence over Korea, New Armies were organized, but the ambitious Hundred Days Reform of 1898 was turned back by Empress Dowager Cixi, a conservative leader. Sun Yat-sen and other revolutionaries competed with reformist monarchists such as Kang Youwei, after the deaths of Cixi and the Guangxu Emperor in 1908, the hardline Manchu court alienated reformers and local elites alike. The Wuchang Uprising on October 11,1911, led to the Xinhai Revolution, General Yuan Shikai negotiated the abdication of Puyi, the last emperor, on February 12,1912. Nurhaci declared himself the Bright Khan of the Later Jin state in both of the 12–13th century Jurchen Jin dynasty and of his Aisin Gioro clan. His son Hong Taiji renamed the dynasty Great Qing in 1636, there are competing explanations on the meaning of Qīng. The character Qīng is composed of water and azure, both associated with the water element and this association would justify the Qing conquest as defeat of fire by water
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Taiwan
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Taiwan, officially the Republic of China, is a state in East Asia. Neighbours include China to the west, Japan to the northeast, Taiwan is the most populous state that is not a member of the United Nations, and the one with the largest economy. The island of Taiwan, also known as Formosa, was inhabited by Taiwanese aborigines before the 17th century. After a brief rule by the Kingdom of Tungning, the island was annexed by the Qing dynasty, the Qing ceded Taiwan to Japan in 1895 after the Sino-Japanese War. While Taiwan was under Japanese rule, the Republic of China was established on the mainland in 1912 after the fall of the Qing dynasty, following the Japanese surrender to the Allies in 1945, the ROC took control of Taiwan. However, the resumption of the Chinese Civil War led to the ROCs loss of the mainland to the Communists, and the flight of the ROC government to Taiwan in 1949. As a founding member of the United Nations, the ROC continued to represent China at the United Nations until 1971, in the early 1960s, Taiwan entered a period of rapid economic growth and industrialization, creating a stable industrial economy. In the 1980s and early 1990s, it changed from a one-party military dictatorship dominated by the Kuomintang to a multi-party democracy with universal suffrage, Taiwan is the 22nd-largest economy in the world, and its high-tech industry plays a key role in the global economy. It is ranked highly in terms of freedom of the press, health care, public education, economic freedom, the PRC has consistently claimed sovereignty over Taiwan and asserted the ROC is no longer in legitimate existence. Under its One-China Policy the PRC refused diplomatic relations with any country that recognizes the ROC, the PRC has threatened the use of military force in response to any formal declaration of independence by Taiwan or if PRC leaders decide that peaceful unification is no longer possible. There are various names for the island of Taiwan in use today, the former name Formosa dates from 1542, when Portuguese sailors sighted the main island of Taiwan and named it Ilha Formosa, which means beautiful island. The name Formosa eventually replaced all others in European literature and was in use in English in the early 20th century. This name was adopted into the Chinese vernacular as the name of the sandbar. The modern word Taiwan is derived from this usage, which is seen in forms in Chinese historical records. Use of the current Chinese name was formalized as early as 1684 with the establishment of Taiwan Prefecture, through its rapid development, the entire Formosan mainland eventually became known as Taiwan. The official name of the state is the Republic of China and it was a member of the United Nations representing China until 1971, when it lost its seat to the Peoples Republic of China. Over subsequent decades, the Republic of China has become known as Taiwan. In some contexts, especially ones from the ROC government
40.
Warlord Era
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The era lasted from the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916 until 1928. Some of the most notable warlord wars, post-1928, including the Central Plains War, the division of the country continued after the Warlord Era until the fall of the Nationalist government at the end of the civil war. The origins of the armies and leaders which dominated politics after 1912 lie in the reforms of the late Qing dynasty. These did not establish an army but utilized regional armies. The most powerful army was the northern-based Beiyang Army under Yuan Shikai. Officers were loyal to their superiors and formed cliques based upon geography, units were composed of men from the same province. This policy was meant to reduce dialectal miscommunication and encourage regionalistic tendencies, the Xinhai Revolution in 1911 brought widespread mutiny across southern China. The revolution had begun in October 1911 with the mutiny of the based in Wuhan. Soldiers once loyal to the Qing government began to defect to revolutionary forces, rebel troops established a provisional government in Nanjing the following year under Dr. Sun Yatsen, who had returned from his long exile to lead the revolution. The revolutionaries were not strong enough to defeat the Beiyang army, instead, Sun negotiated with Beiyang commander Yuan Shikai to bring an end to the Qing and reunify China. In return, Yuan would become president, Yuan refused to move to Nanjing and set the capital in Beijing, where his power base was secure. Reacting to Yuans growing authoritarianism, the southern provinces rebelled in 1913 but were crushed by Beiyang forces. Civil governors were replaced by military ones, in December 1915 Yuan made clear his intentions to become emperor of China and found a new dynasty. The southern provinces rebelled again in the National Protection War, only time it was more serious because most Beiyang commanders abandoned Yuan. He renounced his plans for restoring the monarchy to woo back his lieutenants, the North-South split would remain during the course of the Warlord Era. The warlords were noted for wearing elaborate, gaudy uniforms with ostrich-plumed hats, golden-braided epaulettes, dozens of medals and flashy ceremonial swords. As a generalization, the warlords were as a group in the words of the American historian Lucian Pye, instinctively suspicious, hard-headed, devoted to the short run and impervious to idealistic abstractions. As a reflection of this, the warlords treated both their own soldiers and the Chinese people with considerable brutality, in 1921 the North China Daily News reported that in Shaanxi province, violence and robbery stalk abroad
41.
Second Sino-Japanese War
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The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan from July 7,1937 to September 9,1945. The First Sino-Japanese War was fought from 1894 to 1895, China fought Japan, with some economic help from Germany, the Soviet Union and the United States. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, the war merged into the conflict of World War II as a major front of what is broadly known as the Pacific War. Many scholars consider the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 to have been the beginning of World War II, the Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war in the 20th century. The war was the result of a decades-long Japanese imperialist policy to expand its influence politically and militarily in order to access to raw material reserves, food. The period after World War One brought about increasing stress on the Japanese polity, leftists sought universal suffrage and greater rights for workers. Increasing textile production from Chinese mills was adversely affecting Japanese production, the Depression brought about a large slowdown in exports. All of this contributed to militant nationalism, culminating in the rise to power of a militarist fascist faction and this faction was led at its height by the Imperial Rule Assistance Associations Hideki Tojo cabinet under the edict from Emperor Shōwa. Before 1937, China and Japan fought in small, localized engagements, the last of these incidents was the Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 1937, which is traditionally seen as the beginning of total war between the two countries. Since 2017 the Chinese Government has regarded the invasion of Manchuria by the Kwantung Army in 1931, initially the Japanese scored major victories, such as the Battle of Shanghai, and by the end of 1937 captured the Chinese capital of Nanjing. After failing to stop the Japanese in Wuhan, the Chinese central government was relocated to Chongqing in the Chinese interior, by 1939, after Chinese victories in Changsha and Guangxi, and with Japans lines of communications stretched deep into the Chinese interior, the war reached a stalemate. The Japanese were also unable to defeat the Chinese communist forces in Shaanxi, on December 7,1941, the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, and the following day the United States declared war on Japan. The United States began to aid China via airlift matériel over the Himalayas after the Allied defeat in Burma that closed the Burma Road, in 1944 Japan launched the invasion, Operation Ichi-Go, that conquered Henan and Changsha. However, this failed to bring about the surrender of Chinese forces, in 1945, the Chinese Expeditionary Force resumed its advance in Burma and completed the Ledo Road linking India to China. At the same time, China launched large counteroffensives in South China and retook the west Hunan, the remaining Japanese occupation forces formally surrendered on September 9,1945 with the following International Military Tribunal for the Far East convened on April 29,1946. China was recognized as one of the Big Four of Allies during the war, in the Chinese language, the war is most commonly known as the War of Resistance Against Japan, and also known as the Eight Years War of Resistance, simply War of Resistance. It is also referred to as part of the Global Anti-Fascist War, which is how World War 2 is perceived by the Communist Party of China, in Japan, nowadays, the name Japan–China War is most commonly used because of its perceived objectivity. In Japan today, it is written as 日中戦争 in shinjitai, the word incident was used by Japan, as neither country had made a formal declaration of war
42.
Chinese Civil War
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The Chinese Civil War was fought between forces loyal to the Kuomintang -led government of the Republic of China, and forces loyal to the Communist Party of China. The civil war began in August 1927, with Generalissimo Chiang Kai-sheks Northern Expedition and it can generally be divided into two stages, the first being from 1927 to 1937, and the second being from 1946 to 1950 with the Second Sino-Japanese War separating them. The war represented a split between the Communist CPC and the KMTs brand of Nationalism. It continued intermittently until late 1937, when the two came together to form the Second United Front to counter the Japanese threat and prevent the country from crumbling. Chinas full-scale civil war resumed in 1946, a year after the end of hostilities with Japan, to this day no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed, and there is debate about whether the Civil War has legally ended. The ROC mutually claims mainland China, and they continue the fight over diplomatic recognition. The Qing Dynasty, the last of the ruling Chinese dynasties, collapsed in 1911 and finally fell in 1912 with the abdication of the last emperor, Puyi. China fell into what became known as the era, when control of much of the country was divided among a group of powerful independent warlords. Sun Yat-sens efforts to aid from the Western countries were ignored, however. Thus the struggle for power in China began between the KMT and the CPC, in 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance for Chinas unification. The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was a declaration of cooperation among the Comintern, KMT, Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPC joined the KMT to form the First United Front, in 1923, Sun Yat-sen sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of his lieutenants from his Tongmeng Hui days, for several months of military and political study in Moscow. By 1924 Chiang became the head of the Whampoa Military Academy, the Soviets provided the academy with much educational material, organization and equipment, including munitions. They also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization, with this aid, Sun Yat-sen was able to raise a dedicated army of the party, with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CPC members were present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, including Zhou Enlai. Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis, the CPC itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925. The KMT in 1923 had 50,000 members, however, after Sun died, the KMT split into left- and right-wing movements. KMT members worried that the Soviets were trying to destroy the KMT from inside using the CPC, the CPC then began movements in opposition of the Northern Expedition, passing a resolution against it at a party meeting
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Nanjing
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Nanjing has a prominent place in Chinese history and culture, having served as the capitals of various Chinese dynasties, kingdoms and republican governments dating from the 3rd century CE to 1949. When being the capital of a state, for instance, the ROC, Nanjing is particularly known as Jinling or Ginling and the old name has been used since the Warring States period in Zhou Dynasty. Located in Yangtze River Delta area and the center of east China and it has also been awarded the title of 2008 Habitat Scroll of Honour of China, Special UN Habitat Scroll of Honour Award and National Civilized City. Nanjing boasts many high-quality universities and research institutes, with the number of universities listed in 100 National Key Universities ranking third, the ratio of college students to total population ranks No.1 among large cities nationwide. Nanjing is one of the three Chinese top research centers according to Nature Index, Key cultural facilities include Nanjing Library, Nanjing Museum and Art Museum. Archaeological discovery shows that Nanjing Man lived in more than 500 thousand years ago, zun, a kind of wine vessel, was found to exist in Beiyinyangying culture of Nanjing in about 5000 years ago. According to a legend quoted by an artist in Ming dynasty, Chen Yi, Fuchai, King of the State of Wu, later in 473 BCE, the State of Yue conquered Wu and constructed the fort of Yuecheng on the outskirts of the present-day Zhonghua Gate. In 333 BCE, after eliminating the State of Yue, the State of Chu built Jinling Yi in the part of present-day Nanjing. It was renamed Moling during reign of Qin Shi Huang, since then, the city experienced destruction and renewal many times. Nanjing was later the city of Danyang Prefecture, and had been the capital city of Yangzhou for about 400 years from late Han to early Tang. This city would soon play a role in the following centuries. Shortly after the unification of the region, the Western Jin dynasty collapsed, First the rebellions by eight Jin princes for the throne and later rebellions and invasion from Xiongnu and other nomadic peoples that destroyed the rule of the Jin dynasty in the north. Its the first time that the capital of the moved to southern part. During the period of North–South division, Nanjing remained the capital of the Southern dynasties for more than two and a half centuries, during this time, Nanjing was the international hub of East Asia. Based on historical documents, the city had 280,000 registered households, assuming an average Nanjing household had about 5.1 people at that time, the city had more than 1.4 million residents. As the old capital of China, many legendary stories happened here, residents in Nanjing all have the warmest affection for this city. Throughout glory and darkness in past centuries, Nanjing becomes a low-key city, GDP growth rate significantly exceeds the average rate in China for decades, which also maintain a fast developing model. Possibly the best preserved of them is the ensemble of the Tomb of Xiao Xiu, the period of division ended when the Sui Dynasty reunified China and almost destroyed the entire city, turning it into a small town
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Shanghai
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Shanghai is the most populous city proper in the world, with a population of more than 24 million as of 2014. As one of the four direct-controlled municipalities of the Peoples Republic of China, it is a financial centre and transport hub. Located in the Yangtze River Delta in East China, Shanghai sits on the edge of the mouth of the Yangtze in the middle portion of the eastern Chinese coast. The municipality borders the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang to the north, south and west, as a major administrative, shipping and trading city, Shanghai grew in importance in the 19th century due to trade and recognition of its favourable port location and economic potential. The city was one of five treaty ports forced open to foreign trade following the British victory over China in the First Opium War, the subsequent 1842 Treaty of Nanking and 1844 Treaty of Whampoa allowed the establishment of the Shanghai International Settlement and the French Concession. The city then flourished as a center of commerce between China and other parts of the world, and became the financial hub of the Asia-Pacific region in the 1930s. However, with the Communist Party takeover of the mainland in 1949, trade was limited to other socialist countries, and the citys global influence declined. In the 1990s, the reforms introduced by Deng Xiaoping resulted in an intense re-development of the city, aiding the return of finance. The two Chinese characters in the name are 上 and 海, together meaning Upon-the-Sea. The earliest occurrence of this dates from the 11th-century Song Dynasty, at which time there was already a river confluence. There are disputes as to exactly how the name should be understood, Shanghai is officially abbreviated 沪 in Chinese, a contraction of 沪渎, a 4th- or 5th-century Jin name for the mouth of Suzhou Creek when it was the main conduit into the ocean. This character appears on all motor vehicle license plates issued in the municipality today, another alternative name for Shanghai is Shēn or Shēnchéng, from Lord Chunshen, a third-century BC nobleman and prime minister of the state of Chu, whose fief included modern Shanghai. Sports teams and newspapers in Shanghai often use Shen in their names, such as Shanghai Shenhua F. C. Huating was another early name for Shanghai. In AD751, during the dynasty, Huating County was established at modern-day Songjiang. Today, Huating appears as the name of a hotel in the city. The city also has various nicknames in English, including Pearl of the Orient, during the Spring and Autumn period, the Shanghai area belonged to the Kingdom of Wu, which was conquered by the Kingdom of Yue, which in turn was conquered by the Kingdom of Chu. During the Warring States period, Shanghai was part of the fief of Lord Chunshen of Chu and he ordered the excavation of the Huangpu River. Its former or poetic name, the Chunshen River, gave Shanghai its nickname of Shen, two important events helped promote Shanghais development in the Ming dynasty
This article incorporates public domain material from the Library of Congress Country Studies website http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/. [1]
