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History of China


History of China

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China's first civilizations arose in the Yangtze and Yellow River valleys at about the same time as Mesopotamia, Egypt and India developed their first civilizations. For centuries China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences. Paper, gunpowder, the compass and printing for example, are Chinese inventions. Chinese developments in astronomy and medicine were extensive. A Chinese tomb contains a heliocentric model of the solar system, about 1,700 years before Copernicus. In mathematics, the Pythagorean theorem and Pascal's triangle were known in China centuries before their Western discoverers lived. There were also grand feats of engineering not to be matched in Europe until centuries later, such as the Dujiangyan Irrigation System in Sichuan built during the Qin Dynasty, and the Grand Canal from Beijing to Hangzhou with its complex system of locks, built during the Sui Dynasty. China was also the first civilization to implement a meritocracy. Official posts were not hereditary but had to be earned through examinations. Based on mastery of the Confucian Classics and the literary arts, a prototype of the exams was first conducted during the Han Dynasty. The system was further refined into the formal Imperial Examination System and opened to all regardless of family background during the Tang Dynasty. The Imperial Examination continued to be used until the beginning of the 20th century. To this day, Chinese parents take education very seriously. Historically, East Asia existed in a China-centric order. Rather than sovereign states, the Emperor was sovereign over all "under heaven" and thus rulers seeking to be "civilized" would need to enter the tributary system. As the Middle Kingdom, China was surrounded by states which paid tribute to the Emperor. The Emperor did not receive ambassadors from these outlanders, only tribute bearers. Tributary missions from some countries continued right up until the empire fell in 1911. Of course, at times "tributary" states were more militarily powerful than the Chinese dynasty at the time. However, the idealized image of a harmonious order with China and the Emperor at the center endured for centuries. Tributary relations were complemented by academic, religious, political and cultural exchanges. Tributary rulers received protection, trade benefits, and advisers. Chinese influence is quite apparent in the traditional culture of many of its neighbors, who adopted the Chinese writing system at some point, and was deeply influenced by Confucian philosophy and social theory. China also explored widely and traded extensively with distant lands. By the 5th and 6th centuries CE, voyages to India and the Arab countries were routine. In the 7th century, Arab traders first introduced Islam into China. In the 15th century, the Ming Dynasty fleets under Admiral Zheng He reached as far as East Africa. These ships were technologically very advanced, much larger than European ships of the day, and equipped with a system of watertight compartments that Europe was not to match for several centuries. These voyages were not for settlement or conquest, but for trade and tribute.

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China Travel Guide from Wikitravel. Many thanks to all Wikitravel contributors. Text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0, images are available under various licenses, see each image for details.

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