Formation of the Chinese Civilization

Lee Bailey, Sr.

His 104 Formation of Chinese Civilization The Chinese civilization was first started during the Xia (2200 BCE-1750 BCE). This it during this era that Chinese people would start to improve upon previous Civilizations. In this essay will see how China progressed throughout history to what it has become based on the their ability to learn from other civilizations and improve upon their own. Agriculture was the bases for all civilizations.

They learned ways to cultivate the land and grow crops for the survival of their people.China’s most important water source for agriculture was the Yellow river. This river was very unpredictable, killed millions of people, so it was named “Chinas Sorrow” ( Bentley and Zeigler p89 ) due to the unpredictable flooding that may occur. The Yellow river would provide Loess, an extremely fine powder like soil that was easy to till and plant.

This way of life would carry through the Xia, Shang, Zhou, Qin and Han dynasties. Social culture was like most other societies like their neighbors.Most people with land were considered aristocrats , government would have administrative and military forces. Although the Xia Dynasty would establish an hereditary monarchial rule in China (Bentley and Zeigler p89).

Of course you had your merchant traders and your pheasants Just like other cultures along with slaves that would provide most of the labor. Ancient China did not have much religion they used to scribe questions on oracle bones to predict or foretell the future.Their writing has not changed much in the last couple thousand years. Early Chinese writing was either pictograph to ideograph. Modern Chinese writing is a direct is descendant of Shang writing of the Shang dynasty (1766-1122) BCE. From we have seen lots of literature such as the Book of Change (a manual of diviners), The Book of History (the history of Zhou), The Book of Rites (the rules of etiquette) and the book.

Along with social stature came family and Patriarchy.Generally the man of the family would be the head of household. He would also be the one to perform ceremonies to honor their past ancestors. This customary honoring of the ancestor is known as Veneration.

The family will have gatherings to honor past relatives and the father would be the lead patriarch. Even though males were the dominate role in the family, women would take over the household duties. Confucisiam had a large impact on China. Confucius lived 551-479 BCE. He was a great contributor to the Chinese people.

He was considered an educator and a political advisor (Bentley and Zeigler p150). He never wrote down his ideas or fundamentals, but his pupils did in the Book of Analects. Confucius thought was fundamentally and morally practical. He believed in Junzi, “superior individuals” (Bentley and Ziegler p151). Since China didn’t have religion they took to Confucian values.

Ren, kindness and Benevolence. Li, a sense of propriety. Xiao, Filial piety. Junzi would bring order to China.

Daoism was sort of a critic to Confucius.Daoist believe in the way of nature and going with the flow. They strongly believed in having no part in politics. Leading a simple life was more in tune with their belief.

This was not what Confucius believed. The unification of China was done by emperor Qin Shihuangdi. He was most Certainly one of the most tyranistic emperors known to China. His way to unify China was through hate tyranny. He ordered all philosophy, ethics, history and literature books to be burned.

Along with burying alive more than 460 scholars.Qin also standardized the laws of currencies, weights, measures and laws (Bentley and Ziegler p157). This unified China but, it was done through fear and eventually would Qin would fall to waves of rebels. Han Wudi was known as the “Martial Emperor” and reigned from 141 BCE – 87 BCE.

Han would take over the falling of the Qin dynasty. Now the new Han dynasty restores order by 206 BCE and does so with a middle path of what happened in the Zhou decentralization and Qin overcentralization.Han continued to grow the empire by adding roads and canals to help with trade. He worked hard learn from previous rulers and not make the same mistakes.

Han created a bureacracy that would run his enormous empire to rule. He did this based on previous emperors and not to recreate their mistakes. Works Cited Bentley, Jerry H. , and Herbert F.

Ziegler. Traditions and Encounters. Fith ed. Vol. 1.

New York: McGraw-Hill. Web.