China facts and history in brief

Asia

China

Excerpted from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

China (Zhonggúo) is an ancient cultural and geographic entity in continental East Asia with some offshore islands which since 1949 has been divided between the People's Republic of China (governing Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Macau) and the Republic of China (governing Taiwan and several outlying Fujianese islands).
The term "China" can narrowly mean China proper, or, more usually and inclusively, China proper and Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang.
In the western news media, "China" is commonly used synonymously with the People's Republic of China or mainland China, while "Taiwan" is used to refer to the Republic of China.
The historical capitals of China were mostly in the east.
The four most commonly designated capitals are Nanjing, Beijing, Xi'an, and Luoyang.
Official languages once included Chinese, Mongol, and Manchu.
The English word China and prefix Sino- probably came from "Qin" (pronounced halfway between "Chin" and "Tsin").
Others believe that China may have been derived from the Chinese word for Tea (Cha) or Silk.
In any circumstance, the word China passed through many languages along the Silk Road before it finally reached Europe.

History
China was one of the earliest centres of human civilisation, and became a large united country with an advanced culture at a very early stage, outpacing the rest of the world in areas like art and science.
China consisted of several hundred small kingdoms since around 1000 BC.
All of which were unified under one emperor in 221 BC by the Qin Dynasty.
Over the course of centuries, China underwent periods of unity and disunity, order and disorder.
In the 18th century, China achieved a decisive technological advantage over the peoples of Central Asia, while simultaneously falling behind Europe technologically.
This set the stage for the 19th century, in which China adopted a defensive posture against European imperialism while simultaneously extending control into Central Asia.
In the early 20th century, the institution of the Emperor of China disappeared, and China entered a period of disunion started by the Chinese Civil War.
There are now two nations which lay formal claim to the title of "China": the People's Republic of China (also called "Mainland China") and the pre-revolution government of the Republic of China which administers Taiwan and several small islands of Fujian.

Politics
After the Qin Empire unification, China experienced about 13 more dynasties, many of which includes extensive system of kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, earldoms, and marquisates.
However, ultimately, the emperor had the centralised authority.
The emperor also consulted civil and martial ministers, especially the prime minister.
Sometimes political power, however, fell into the hands of the officials, eunuchs, or relatives.
Political relations with dependencies (tributary kingdoms) were maintained by international marriages, military aids, and gifts.

Territory
Originally in the Zhou Dynasty, China was the region around the Yellow River.
The territory since then had been expanding from the West outward in all directions, and was largest during the Tang, Yuan, and Qing Dynasties.
From the Chinese point of view, the "Chinese" Empire includes most parts of southern Russia in and Central Asia during the strongest periods in Yuan, although China was mere one of territories of the Mongol Empire in actuality.
Like provincial administrators, some foreign monarchs sent envoys to offer gifts to the Emperor of China and the Emperor returned compliments to them.
The Chinese ostensibly saw that barbarians attached themselves to the virtue of the Emperor, the foreign people had different perspectives.
Since the end of the 19th century, China has tried to interpret this relationship as suzerainty-dependency one based on Western international law.
The Qing Empire reduced the territorial value of Great Wall as a barrier of China proper.
In 1683, Taiwan became a part of the Qing Empire, originally as a prefecture, then two.
Top-level political divisions of China have altered as the administration changed.
Top levels included circuits and provinces.
Below that, there have been prefectures, subprefectures, departments, commandries, districts, and townships.
Recent divisions include counties and cities.

Geography
China contains a large variety in landscapes, with mostly plateaux and mountains in the west, and lower lands on the east.
As a result, principal rivers flow from west to east (Chang Jiang, the Huang He (of central-east), the Amur (of northeast), etc), sometimes to south (Pearl River, Mekong River, Brahmaputra, etc).
All rivers empty into the Pacific.
In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are found extensive and densely populated alluvial plains; the shore of the South China Sea is more mountainous and southern China is dominated by hill country and lower mountain ranges.
To the west, the north has a great alluvial plain, and the south has a vast calcareous tableland traversed by hill ranges of moderate elevation, with the Himalaya, containing highest point Mount Everest.
The southwest also has high plateaux feature among the more arid landscape of deserts such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert, which has been expanding.
Due to a prolonged drought and perhaps poor agricultural practices dust storms have become usual in the spring in China.
During many dynasties, the southwestern border of China has been the high mountains and deep valleys of Yunnan, which separate modern China from Burma, Laos and Vietnam.

Climate
The climate of China varies greatly.
Southern China lie within the tropics.
The northern zone (in which lies Beijing), by contrast, has a climate with winters of Arctic severity.
The central zone (in which Shanghai is situated) has a generally temperate climate.

Prehistory
The Palaeozoic formations of China, excepting only the upper part of the Carboniferous system, are marine, while the Mesozoic and Tertiary deposits are estuarine and freshwater or else of terrestrial origin.
Groups of volcanic cones occur in the Great Plain of north China.
In the Liaodong and Shandong Peninsulas, there are basaltic plateaux.

Demographics
Over a hundred ethnic groups have existed in China.
Many of them were assimilated into neighbouring ethnicities.
Some, like the Hun, have left China and their current whereabouts is unknown.
Several previously distinct ethnic groups have Sinicized into the Han, making its population increasing dramatically.
The Han, however, had been speaking several virtually unintelligible languages.
China has largely been an atheist nation throughout history.
Today, China has about 100 million religious worshippers (10% of the population):
Buddhists 72%, Muslims 11%, Protestants 10%, Catholics 5.10%, Taoist 1.5%, Orthodox Jews ??%
The earliest religions in China are: Ancestor worship: A prevalent ritual even today. Shamanism: practised by many ethnicities, including several states during the Spring and Autumn Period.
Taoism is the only major Chinese religion that originated in China.
Other popular religions such as Islam, Buddhism, and Christianity were spread into China through the Silk Road by travellers between the 5th and 7th centuries.
Buddhism came from India and has been very popular among Chinese of all walks of life, admired by commoners, and sponsored by emperors.
Christianity was spread by European or Middle-Eastern travellers who came to China in 635 A.D., as documented by the Nestorian Stone in Xi'an.
During the 1840's foreign missionaries spread Christianity rapidly through the foreign occupied coastal cities.

Culture
Philosophy that have had extremely consequential impact on the Chinese culture, literary or illiterate, stems from Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (in order of appearance).
Chinese literature have the longest continuous history and had been more numerous than other cultures' for centuries because of the Chinese invention of printmaking.
Prior to that, manuscripts of the Classics and religious texts (mainly Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist) were manually written by ink brushes and distributed.
To comment on these works, printed or written, scholars formed numerous academies, many of which were sponsored by the empire, and some royalties constantly participated in the discussions.
Chinese philosophers, writers, and poets have been mostly highly respected, and considered to be those preserving and promoting the culture of the empire.
Some classical scholars, however, were noted for their daring depictions of lives of the common people.
The Chinese created numerous musical instruments, such as zheng, xiao, that erhu, that have spread around East and Southeast Asia, especially to its dependencies.
Sheng became the mother of several Western free-reed instruments.
The Chinese characters have had many variants and styles throughout the history of China, and was "simplified" in mid-20th century in mainland China.
Bonsai is a millennia-old art that spread to Japan and Korea.

Technology and science
In addition to the above mentioned cultural inventions, technological inventions from China include:
Compass
Printmaking / Printing Technology
Paper
Eastern abacus
Gunpowder
Other areas of science are:
Chinese astrology and constellations were often used for divination purposes. One of the main applications of mathematics in China have been architecture and geography.
Alchemy was Taoist chemistry, very different from modern chemistry.
Studies in biology has been extensive, and historic records are consulted upon today, such as pharmacopoeias of natural medicinal plants.
Traditional medicine and surgery have been advanced.
A well-known example is acupuncture.
However, autopsy was unacceptable, because of the belief that the corpses should not be violated.
Nonetheless, there were several doctors who increased the understanding of internal anatomy by violating this autopsy taboo.

Miscellaneous topics

• List of China-related topics
• Chinese name
• List of Chinese proverbs
• Chinese dragon
• Overseas Chinese

• The Chinese Empire: Washington State University
• China News
• 1911 EB "China"

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