Category China History

Four Great Inventions, Paper Making, Gunpowder, Printing Technique and Compass

By inChina History

China held the world’s leading position in many fields in the study of nature, from the 1st century to the 15th century, with the four great inventions having the greatest global significance.

Paper Making, Gunpowder, Printing Technique and Compass – the four great inventions of ancient China are the significant contributions of the Chinese nation to world civilization.

Printing Technique

With the inventions of paper and ink, stamper gradually became popular during the Jin Dynasty, which was the early form of Carved Type Printing. Block Printing first appeared in the Tang Dynasty. The text was first written on a piece of thin paper, then glued face down onto a wooden plate. The characters were carved out to make a wood-block printing plate, which was used to print the text. Wood-block printing took a long time as a new block had to be carved for every page in a book.

Yet, Block Printing had its drawbacks —— all the boards became useless after the printing was done and a single mistake in carving could ruin the whole block. The frontispiece of the world’s oldest surviving book, the Diamond Sutra printed in the year 868, was discovered at Dun Huang Cave, along the Silk Road. The book, in the form of a roll, is the earliest woodcut illustration in a printed book.

Block Printing was a costly and time-consuming process, for each carved block could only be used for a specific page of a particular book, besides, a single mistake in carving could ruin the whole block. However movable type changed all of that.

In the Song Dynasty, a man named Bi Sheng carved individual characters on identical pieces of fine clay. Each piece of movable type had on it one Chinese character which was carved in relief on a small block of moistened clay. After the block had been hardened by fire, the type became hard and durable and could be used wherever required. The pieces of movable type could be glued to an iron plate and easily detached from the plate. Each piece of character could be assembled to print a page and then broken up and redistributed as needed. When the printing was finished, the pieces were put away for future use.

Gunpowder

The invention of gunpowder had a close relationship with the advanced ancient workmanship of smelting industry. People began to know a lot of chemistry knowledge about the nature of different mineral materials during the process of smelting operation. With the knowledge, ancient necromancers tried to seek the elixir of immortality from certain kinds of ore sand fuel. Although they failed to get what they were looking for, they discovered that an explosive mixture could be produced by combining sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter （potassium nitrate）. This mixture finally led to the invention of gunpowder although its exact date of invention still remains unknown.

Many historical materials indicate that gunpowder first appeared before the Tang Dynasty （618-907）. From 300 to 650AD several recipes were written about inflammable mixtures. Some historians date the invention of gunpowder at 850AD when a Taoist book warned of three specific elixir formulas as too dangerous to experiment.

The military applications of gunpowder began in the Tang Dynasty. Explosive bombs filled with gunpowder and fired from catapults were used in wars. During the Song and Yuan dynasties （960-1368）, the military applications of gunpowder became common and some other weapons like “fire cannon”, “rocket”, “missile” and “fireball” were introduced.

Paper Making

China was the first nation who invented paper. The earliest form of paper first appeared in the Western Han Dynasty, but the paper was generally very thick, coarse and uneven in their texture, made from pounded and disintegrated hemp fibers. The paper unearthed in a Han tomb in Gansu Province is by far the earliest existing ancient paper, tracing back to the early Western Han Dynasty.

In the Eastern Han Dynasty （25-220）, a court official named Cai Lun made a new kind of paper from bark, hemp, rags, fishnet, wheat stalks and other materials. It was relatively cheap, light, thin, durable and more suitable for brush writing.

The art of paper-making spread east to Korea and Japan at the beginning of the seventh century （the end of the Sui Dynasty and the beginning of the Tang Dynasty）. In the eighth century, along with the Silk Road, the Arab countries began to learn how to make paper. It took about 400 years for paper to traverse the Arab world to Europe. In the 14th century many paper mills were established in Italy, from where the workmanship of paper-making spread to the European countries such as Germany. The Italians vigorously produced the material and exported large amounts of it, dominating the European market for many years. In the 16th century, the art of paper-making appeared in Russia and Holland, and it spread to Britain in the 17th century.

Before paper was invented, Qin Shihuang, the first emperor in Chinese history, had to go over 120 kilos of official documents written on bamboo or wooden strips. With the invention of paper, the popularization of knowledge has turned into reality. The invention of paper is an epoch-making event in human history.

Compass

Early in the Spring and Autumn Period, while mining ores and melting copper and iron, Chinese people chanced upon a natural magnetite that attracted iron and pointed fixedly north. In the Warring States Period, after constant improvement the round compass came into being. Referred to as a “South-pointer”, the spoon- or ladle-shaped  compasses of magnetic lodestone, and the plate is of Bronze. The circular center represents Heaven, and the square plate represents Earth. The handle of the spoon points south. The spoon is a symbolic representation of the Great Bear. The plate bears Chinese characters which denote the eight main directions of north, north-east, east, etc. This type of compass has been scientifically tested and found to work tolerably well.

By the time of the Tang dynasty and the beginning of the Northern Song Dynasty, Chinese scholars had devised a way to magnetize iron needles, by rubbing them with magnetite, and then suspending them in water. They also observed that needles cooled from red heat and held in the north-south orientation would become magnetic. These more refined needle compasses could then be floated in water, placed upon a pointed shaft or suspended from a silk thread, etc. Consequently, they were much more useful for navigation purposes since they were much more portable.

During the Song Dynasty （960-1279） many trading ships were then able to sail as far as Saudi Arabia without getting lost. The compass was introduced to the Arab world and Europe during the Northern Song Dynasty. The spread of the compass to Europe opened the oceans of the world to travel and led to the discovery of the New World.

Four Beauties of Ancient China, Xi Shi, Wang Zhaojun, Diao Chan and Yang Yuhuan

By inChina History

The Four Beauties are four ancient Chinese women, renowned for their beauty. Though actual historical figures, their stories have been greatly embellished by legend. According to legend, they are the most beautiful women of ancient China. They have remained famous because of their effect on the emperors and kings with whom they were involved. Some brought kingdoms or dynasties to their knees. Most ended their lives in tragedy or mystery.

Xi Shi

Xi Shi, whose real name is Shi Yiguang and who was born in the State of Yue during the Spring and Autumn Period of China (770 BC – 403 BC or so). Her birthplace is a small village of today’s Zhejiang Province. One day when she went to a stream to wash clothes and the fish in the water saw her and fell down from the surface of the water after being astonished by her beauty. This is the legend, but the fact is Xi Shi was sent to the State of Wu to seduce the ruler for her own state. Finally, the ruler of the State of Wu was defeated by the State of Yue.

Xi Shi, being a sickly girl, often had chest pains. It was said that her beauty was most attractive whenever she had her hand on her chest, wincing from the pain. As Dong Shi saw Xi Shi win the admiration of others while she was walking with her hand on the chest and brows furrowed, she imitated Xi Shi. But this only increased her ugliness. This in turn has created the saying “Dong Shi imitates a frown” meaning to attempt imitating another only to emphasize one’s own weaknesses.

Wang Zhaojun

 

Wang Zhaojun， whose real name is Wang Qiang and who was born in today’s Xingshan County, Yichang, Hubei Province. She was once a maid in the imperial palace of the Western Han Dynasty .  It is said that when she was sent to marry the ruler of Xiongnu, one of the ancient nationalities in China, whose headquarters was located beyond the Great Wall, and a wild goose saw her and forgot to fly and fell to ground because it saw the beauty of the beauty.

Since the 3rd century the story of Zhaojun had been elaborated upon and she had been touted as a tragic heroine. The Communist government of the People’s Republic of China uses her as a symbol of the integration of Han Chinese and ethnic minorities of China. Zhaojun Tomb still exists today in Inner Mongolia.

Diao Chan

Diao Chan was born in the Three Kingdoms period  and was the adopted daughter of a senior official Wang Yun of the imperial court of that time. One night when the shining moon in the sky met her, the moon hid itself behind the clouds. The fact is one night when the shining moon appeared and a gust of wind suddenly came, some clouds covered the moon. But this surprising moment was seen by Wang Yun, who later spoke that when the moon saw his adopted daughter, the moon hid itself behind the clouds.

Diao Chan was certainly the most charming one. As she was so fascinating that she has made many outstanding heroes obsessed with her.And she was the most elusive woman in that fiction,so there are four identities of her in record.

Yang Yuhuan

Yang Yuhuan was born in Henan. One day when she was strolling in the imperial palace of the Tang Dynasty  and saw the Chinese rose and peony, she began crying because she was forbidden to leave the palace and caged like a bird. As soon as her tears fell on the petals of the flowers, these petal shrank, which means the flowers were surprised by her beauty and hid themselves.

She was a beautiful concubine of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty. Yang was originally wife of one of the emperor’s sons and later the emperor Xuanzong made Yang Guif his own consort. Yang was so charming that the emperor was infatuated with her beauty and neglected affairs of state.  She was finally forced to death by the emperor’s guards as she was blamed to cause the An Lushan Rebellion.

The stories of the four beautiful ladies have been widely known by all Chinese people. Now when people compliment you by mentioning their names, it means you are really amazingly beautiful.

 

Famous Tang Poets, Li Bai, Du Fu, Wang Wei, Bai Juyi

By inChina History, Culture Tag , , ,

Poetry in the Tang Dynasty is an unparalleled system and reaches the pinnacle in the development of the poem. It really deserves its fame as a rarity of Chinese culture. Its dazzling value consists of an ideal combination of thoughts and art. The era endowed poets with broad horizons, positive and unrestrained emotion, and innovative inspiration.

Li Bai

Li Bai was a talented man expert in literature, prose, essay and martial arts of swordsman. Besides, many people adored his vast and free character. Also, Li Bai was an alcoholic drinker, and he could drink a lot at a time, so many people also regarded him to be The Immortal of Alcoholics. Li Bai was historically considered to be a great poet of romanticism, this is the widely-accepted comment of the modern people when the western literary theory popularized in China. But this comment is acceptable to a most degree.

Li Bai enjoys the title of the ‘Supernatural Being of Poem’. Even now his ‘Jing Ye Si’ (Thoughts on the Silent Night) is quite popular and nearly everyone knows it even children as young as two years of age. His other verses, exceeding nine hundred in all, are also notable.

Du Fu

Born into a scholarly family, Du Fu received a traditional Confucian education but failed in the imperial examinations of 735. As a result, he spent much of his youth traveling. During his travels he won renown as a poet and met other poets of the period, including the great Li Bai. After a brief flirtation with Daoism while traveling with Li Bai, Du Fu returned to the capital and to the conventional Confucianism of his youth. He never again met Li Bai, despite his strong admiration for his older, freewheeling contemporary.

Du Fu’s early poetry celebrated the beauty of the natural world and bemoaned the passage of time. He soon began to write bitingly of war—as in “Bingqu xing” (“The Ballad of the Army Carts”), a poem about conscription—and with hidden satire—as in “Liren xing” (“The Beautiful Woman”), which speaks of the conspicuous luxury of the court. As he matured, and especially during the tumultuous period of 755 to 759, his verse began to sound a note of profound compassion for humanity caught in the grip of senseless war.

Wang Wei

Wang Wei was a famous Chinese poet and artist. Many of his poems are preserved, and twenty-nine were included in the highly influential 18th century anthology Three Hundred Tang Poems. He was posthumously referred to as the “Poet Buddha”. Wang Wei was a great master of the jueju. Many of his quatrains depict quiet scenes of water and mist, with few details and little human presence.

The tranquil feeling he gave through his poetry is utterly wonderful.

Wang Wei’s delicate landscapes, famed for their depiction of water and mist, were drawn in black ink. He is considered the first master of atmosphere and the founder of Southern Chinese landscape art.

Bai Juyi

Bai Juyi was a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty , with the style name Letian. His ancestral home is the modern-day city of Taiyuan, Shanxi province and he once lived in what is the modern-day Weinan, then stayed on Xiangshan Mountain, near the city of Luoyang, Henan province and referred to himself as the “Hermit of Xiangshan”. His poems are succinct and easy to understand, with many of them dealing with ordinary people’s lives, which were hard at that time, and the corruption and brutality of the ruling class.

Two of his most famous works are the long narrative “Song of Everlasting Regret” and “Song of the Pipa Player”.

Bai was the informal leader of a group of poets who rejected the courtly style of the time and emphasized the didactic function of literature, believing that every literary work should contain a fitting moral and a well-defined social purpose. He considered his most important contributions to be his satirical and allegorical ballads and his “new yuefu,” which usually took the form of free verse based on old folk ballads. The most prolific of the Tang poets, Bai aimed for simplicity in his writing, and—like Du Fu, a great Tang poet of the preceding generation whom Bai greatly admired—he was deeply concerned with the social problems of the time; he deplored the dissolute and decadent lifestyles of corrupt officials and sympathized with the sufferings of the poor.

Former French Concession in Shanghai

By inChina History

Shanghai, the former French concession, is nothing like the modern, crowded, busy, high-rise metropolis you might expect. It is quiet, laid-back and full of early-20th-century european-style villas and buildings. It’s a great place to learn about the history and unique beauty of the city and escape from the bustling city for a while.

The French settlement in Shanghai dates back to 1849. It was the earliest and gradually developed into the largest and most prosperous French concession in China. In the 1920s, it was the best and richest residential area in Shanghai. The Chinese government took it over in 1943 and ended its history as a French concession nearly 100 years later. As time went on, the area had no definite boundaries. But generally speaking, the former French concession Shanghai is south of yan ‘an road, north of xujiahui road, east of huashan road and west of huangpu river. This very large area is almost in the center of Shanghai. A complete tour to cover every corner is impossible and takes about a whole day. If you want to take a break, grab a cup of coffee or a few gourmet dishes at a sidewalk cafe or restaurant. If you want to make it shorter, you can start or end anywhere you like.
The French concession maintained a high degree of independence in the old Shanghai. The whole Shanghai French concession is the highest residential area in the old Shanghai, with a neat and uniform architectural style. The reason why it is called phoenix tree in China is also because it was first introduced to China by the French and planted in the French concession in Shanghai. Shanghai’s reputation as the “Paris of the east” is also derived from the French concession, as its architectural style is independent of the public concession and the Chinese concession, and is almost identical to that of Paris thousands of miles away. The French always maintained great control over the French concession. In the battle of Shanghai, the Japanese invaders occupied the public concession area around hongkou, bringing the public concession north of suzhou river into the Japanese DE facto sphere of influence.

Han Nationality, the Largest Ethnic Group in the World

By inChina History, Minority Groups

Han Nationality, as the principal ethnicity of China, is the descendant of Yan Emperor and Huang Emperor in the classical era. Han people are found in all parts of the country, but mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River (Huanghe), Yangtze River (Changjiang), Pearl River (Zhujiang) and the Northeast Plain. For years, they together with other ethnic minorities lived mainly on agriculture, and made outstanding achievements in the spheres of politics, philosophy, art, literature and natural science.

Religion

There is no universal religion in China and parts of its population believe in Buddhism, Catholicism, and Christian. Han Nationality, as always, encourages the co-existence of various religious beliefs. Seeking happiness through one’s own efforts and respect (rather than adoration) on ancestors are the major traditions of Chinese people. In history, some Chinese of Han Nationality believed in Buddhism and Taoism; when Catholicism and Christian were introduced to China others started to believe in the foreign religions. For thousands of years, benevolence is the center of Chinese ethnics which emphasizes moral and ethnic education. Confucian School featuring the thoughts of Confucius and Mencius has exerted wide and deep influence on Han people.

Food

Rice and wheat are the staple food, plus vegetables, meat and all kinds of bean products. Rice is usually steamed and sometimes made into porridge, rice noodles, rice cake, sweet dumplings, Zongzi (made of glutinous rice) and glutinous rice cake; steamed buns, noodles, steamed twisted roll, dumping, steamed stuffed buns, Wonton, fried deep-fried dough sticks (Youtiao), spring roll and fried cakes. The cuisines of Han people are usually represented by the Eight Cuisines in China, including Sichuan, Guangdong, Fujian, Anhui, Shandong, Hunan, Zhejiang and Suzhou cuisines. Tea and liquor are two important drinks to the Han people.

Costume

Speaking of the traditional clothes of the Han people, some may think of the cheongsam or Tang suit, which are actually renovation of the clothes of the Manchu. The real Han clothes first appeared about 5,000 years ago during the Yellow Emperor period, but was disappeared because of the minority rulers during the feudal society, especially in the Qing Dynasty. Now more and more Han people realize that the Han clothes are their traditional clothes, and start all kinds of “Han Clothes Movements”.

Hanfu clothing is the traditional dress of the Chinese Han people and it is also one of the cultural symbols of Chinese civilization. Hanfu clothing, as one the most ancient clothing in the world, has a history of more than 4,000 years. The complete scale of clothing customs was established in Han Dynasty, hence the name Hanfu clothing.

Language and Character

Chinese belongs to the Sino-Tibetan family of languages and is their language. The language is divided into seven dialects namely Mandarin, Wu Dialect, Xiang Dialect, Gan Dialect, Min Dialect, Cantonese and Hakka. In different regions, the standard of Chinese varies. The Mandarin is the standard designated language on the Chinese mainland and Taiwan; while Cantonese is the prime dialect of Hong Kong.

Chinese is written in two forms by the Han people – the traditional and simplified Chinese characters. The latter is derived from the former and is now widely and frequently used.

Architecture

House styles and materials of the Han people vary in different regions of China. Those built in North China are mostly made of bricks in the courtyard style. The courtyard (Sihe Yuan) in Beijing is a representative. For houses in Northeast China, the style is almost the same as that in North China except for the walls. As Northeastern China is extremely cold, walls are built thicker and more solid than those of other places to retain warmth. However, in southern China, the Han people build their houses mainly of timber. The unique style of their buildings can be admired in the earthen buildings (tulou) in Fujian and pavilions in Suzhou.

Marriage

In the past most marriages were arranged by parents. Contract for a marriage was very popular. Some young people were arranged as husband and wife by their parents when they were not born. Before engagement, the go-between will be invited to the bride’s family as marriage interview. During the ceremony of engagement, the groom’s family should send some presents to his wife-to-be as betrothal gifts. On the wedding day, the bride should also bring gifts to the groom’s family as dowry.

On the wedding day, the groom will sit on a sedan and go to fetch the bride. Usually the sedan is decorated with music band. When the bride arrives at the groom’s family, she will bow to the groom’s parents and worship Heaven and Earth. After the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom will enter the bridal chamber while the groom’s family members will treat guests and friends with big dinner. In some areas, there are customs of tease the bride and listening to the love chatting between the bride and groom.

Empress Dowager Cixi, a Notorious Lady in China

By inChina History Tag , , , ,

Usually, when we refer to the empress dowager Cixi, we tend to compare her to wu zetian of the tang dynasty (618-907). To be sure, the two powerful women do have a lot in common: they both served under three emperors, became their husbands and sons, and each had real imperial power for nearly half a century. But the difference lies in that Wu Zetian ascended the throne by herself, and her reign was regarded as an indispensable link between li shimin’s zhenguan and li longji’s kaiyuan prosperity. Cixi’s reign was considered the weakest of the qing dynasty. As a result, she has been considered a notorious woman and even betrayed her country.

The empress dowager Cixi was one of the few women in the imperial era of Chinese history who had long been in power and who had been able to manage the balance of power between close courtiers to maintain their absolute authority.

When Cixi was in power, the centralized power of the qing court and the Chinese sovereignty were faced with various threats from internal and foreign countries. From the standpoint of defending the authority of the qing empire and its own power, her measures were not successful, but in the context of history, most of them were reasonable.

In terms of personality, Cixi’s methods of seizing power from the palace struggle were cruel. Died in 1861, heshen in jehol summer resort, queen had become Ye He the Laplace, Wilson of joint (such as the royal clan coup from royal far the happy prince to carry through huawei first prince, zheng end, actual to minister lu su shun hand eight ministers group, as the core of life won the regime, and three of them (walls, end China, lu su shun) to be put to death. In order to establish and maintain her dictatorial power, empress dowager Cixi showed little mercy on her political opponents, even controlling her son tongzhi and his successor guangxu.

Emperor Guangxu, Whose Life Was Full of Tragic Elements

By inChina History Tag , , ,

Emperor guangxu was born on August 14, 1871, as aisin gioro zaitian, the seventh son of emperor daoguang. In 1874, emperor tongzhi died of illness. Since the empress dowager cixi had no heir to the throne, the machiavellian empress dowager chose zaitian (cixi’s mother was cixi’s sister) to continue her reign. In 1887, emperor guangxu was inaugurated. However, real power remained in the hands of cixi, who continued to rule behind the scenes for two years. From the beginning of guangxu’s accession to the throne, he was destined to be manipulated by his adoptive mother, cixi.

During the reign of emperor guangxu, the two most notable events were the Anti-Japanese War and the 1898 reform. In the war of resistance against Japanese aggression, he resolutely opposed compromise and repeatedly forced the qing army to fight with the Japanese. However, he was overwhelmed by the weak and corrupt qing government, which was defeated in the sino-japanese war. After learning a painful lesson, emperor guangxu began to think about the reform to adjust the imperial order and prevent the decline of the whole country.

In 1898, together with a group of reform advocates, he promulgated the state policy and began the reform. Unfortunately, this fierce reform movement lasted only 103 days and was strangled by rival parties that staged a coup against all reform parties. After that, emperor guangxu lost his imperial power again and was placed under house arrest by cixi.

In 1900, the so-called eight-power allied forces invaded China. Facing a deadly crisis, emperor guangxu had decided to stay in the capital to calm people, but before Beijing fell he was taken to xi ‘an by the empress dowager cixi. When they returned from xi ‘an the following year, he was still far away from state affairs. Until 1908, he died of depression and was buried in the tomb of the western qing dynasty.

In short, although the guangxu emperor’s political life was fraught with tragedy, he was seen as a progressive monarch. As a pioneer of capitalist transformation, his deeds broke the ideological prison of feudal autocracy and opened the ideological liberation of China. Therefore, emperor guangxu was regarded as an enlightened emperor who first tried to adopt the western political model to govern China.