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Period Of The Five Dynasties And The Ten Kingdoms

Period of the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (Traditional Chinese: 五代十國 Simplified Chinese: 五代十国 Hanyu pinyin: Wǔdàishíguó) (907-960) was a period of political upheaval in China, between the Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty. During this period, 5 dynasties succeeded each other in rapid succession in the north, and more than a dozen independent states, mainly in the south, were established, though only ten of them are traditionally listed, hence giving rise to the name "Ten Kingdoms." (Some historians, including Bo Yang, count 11 -- not including Northern Han (as it is an extension of the Later Han Dynasty) and including Yan and Qi in the list.) The Five Dynasties:
- Later Liang Dynasty (June 5, 907-923)
- Later Tang Dynasty (923-936)
- Later Jin Dynasty (936-947)
- Later Han Dynasty (947-951)
- Later Zhou Dynasty (951-960) The Ten Kingdoms:
- Wu
- Wuyue
- Min
- Chu
- Southern Han
- Former Shu
- Later Shu
- Jingnan
- Southern Tang
- Northern Han Other regimes:
- Yan
- Qi
- Chengde Jiedushi (also known as Zhao)
- Yiwu Jiedushi
- Dingnan Jiedushi
- Wuping Jiedushi
- Qingyuan Jiedushi
- Yin
- Ganzhou
- Shazhou
- Liangzhou

Setting the stage

The period was a direct result of the political disintegration at the end of the Tang Dynasty, which saw power shifting away from the imperial government and into the hands of regional military governors (jiedushi). The Huang Chao Rebellion (875-884) also dealt a severe blow to the authority of the central government. By the early 10th century, the central government held little power over powerful jiedushi, who were de facto independent. Important jiedushi at this point included: North China
- Zhu Wen at Bianzhou (modern Kaifeng, Henan province), precursor to Later Liang Dynasty
- Li Keyong and Li Cunxu at Taiyuan (modern Taiyuan, Shanxi province), precursor to Later Tang Dynasty
- Liu Rengong and Liu Shouguang at Youzhou (modern Beijing), precursor to Yan
- Li Maozhen at Fengxiang (modern Fengxiang County, Shaanxi province), precursor to Qi
- Luo Shaowei at Weibo (modern Daming County, Hebei province)
- Wang Rong at Zhenzhou (modern Zhengding County, Hebei province)
- Wang Chuzhi at Dingzhou (modern Ding County, Hebei province) South China
- Yang Xingmi at Yangzhou (modern Yangzhou, Jiangsu province), precursor to Wu
- Qian Liu at Hangzhou (modern Hangzhou, Zhejiang province), precursor to Wuyue
- Ma Yin at Tanzhou (modern Changsha, Hunan province), precursor to Chu
- Wang Shenzhi at Fuzhou (modern Fuzhou, Fujian province), precursor to Min
- Liu Yin at Guangzhou (modern Guangzhou, Guangdong province), precursor to Southern Han
- Wang Jian at Chengdu (modern Chengdu, Sichuan province), precursor to Former Shu

The North

Zhu Wen was the most powerful warlord at the time in North China. Originally a member of Huang Chao's rebel army, he surrendered to the Tang Dynasty and was crucial in suppressing the rebellion. For this he was given the title of Xuanwu Jiedushi. Within a few years he had consolidated his power by destroying his neighbours, and was able to force a move of the imperial capital to Luoyang (modern Luoyang, Henan province), within his power base. In 904 he had the Emperor Zhaozong killed and put his 13-year-old son on the throne as a puppet ruler. Three years later, in 907, he induced the boy emperor to abdicate in his favour. He then proclaimed the founding of the Later Liang Dynasty, with himself as emperor. By now, many of his rival warlords had also declared their own independent regimes, and not all of them recognized the new dynasty as overlord. In particular, Li Cunxu and Liu Shouguang opposed the new regime, and fought it for control of North China. Li Cunxu was particularly successful. After defeating in 915 Liu Shouguang (who had proclaimed a Yan Empire in 911), Li Cunxu declared himself emperor in 923 and, within a few months, swept away the Later Liang regime, replacing it with the Later Tang Dynasty. Under him, much of North China was reunified again, and in 925 he was able to conquer Former Shu, a regime that had been set up in Sichuan. The Later Tang Dynasty oversaw a few years of relative calm. Soon, however, unrest began to brew once again. In 934 Sichuan once again became independent as the Later Shu regime. In 936, Shi Jingtang, a jiedushi based in Taiyuan, rebelled with the help of the Khitan Empire of Manchuria. In return for their help, Shi Jingtang promised the Khitans 16 prefectures in the Youyun area (modern northern Hebei province and Beijing) and annual tribute. The rebellion succeeded, and Shi Jingtang became emperor of the Later Jin Dynasty in that same year. After the founding of Later Jin, the Khitans increasingly began to view Later Jin as their proxy in China proper. In 943 they decided to take the land for themselves, and within three years had swept into the capital at Kaifeng, ending the Later Jin dynasty. However, they were unable (or unwilling) to hold onto the vast areas of China proper that they had conquered, and retreated early in the next year. To fill this void, a jiedushi named Liu Zhiyuan entered the imperial capital in 947, proclaiming the Later Han Dynasty. This was the most short-lived of the 5 dynasties, as a coup in 951 led to the enthronement of General Guo Wei and the beginning of the Later Zhou Dynasty. However, Liu Chong, a member of the Later Han imperial family, set up the rival Northern Han regime in Taiyuan, and sought Khitan help to defeat Later Zhou. After the death of Guo Wei in 951, his adopted son Chai Rong succeeded the throne and began to pursue a policy of expansion and reunification. In 954 he defeated combined Khitan and Northern Han forces, ending their hopes of destroying Later Zhou. Between 956 and 958 Later Zhou dealt severe defeats to Southern Tang, the most powerful regime in South China, forcing them to cede all territory north of the Yangtze River. In 959 Chai Rong attacked the Khitan Empire in a bid to recover the territories ceded during the Later Jin Dynasty, and scored several victories before succumbing to illness. In 960, the general Zhao Kuangyin staged a coup and took the throne for himself, founding the Northern Song Dynasty. This marks the official end of the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period. Over the next two decades, Zhao Kuangyin and his successor Zhao Kuangyi defeated all of the other remaining regimes in China proper, conquering Northern Han in 979 and reunifying China completely by 982.

The South

Unlike North China, where dynasties succeeded each other in rapid succession, the regimes of South China existed more or less concurrently and each held on to a specific geographical area. By 920, Wu had been established in modern Jiangsu, Anhui, and Jiangxi provinces; Wuyue was based mostly in modern Zhejiang province, Min in Fujian, Southern Han in Guangdong, Chu in Hunan, Jingnan in Jiangling, Hubei province, and Former Shu in Sichuan. Sichuan fell under northern control in 925, but in 934 it regained independence as the Later Shu. In 937 Wu was replaced with Southern Tang. Although more stable than North China as a whole, South China was also torn apart by warfare. Wu quarrelled with her neighbours, a trend that continued as Wu was replaced with Southern Tang. In the 940's Min and Chu underwent internal crises which Southern Tang handily took advantage of, destroying Min in 945 and Chu in 951. (Remnants of Min and Chu, however, survived in the form of Qingyuan Jiedushi and Wuping Jiedushi for many years after.) With this, Southern Tang became the undisputedly most powerful regime of Southern China. However, it was unable to defeat incursions by the Later Zhou Dynasty between 956 and 958, and ceded away all of its land north of the Yangtze River. The Northern Song Dynasty, established in 960, was determined to reunify China. Jingnan and Wuping were swept away in 963, Later Shu in 965, Southern Han in 971, Southern Tang in 975. Finally, Wuyue and Qingyuan gave up their land to Northern Song in 978, bringing all of South China into the control of the central government.

List of Sovereigns

Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

Sovereigns in Period of Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms 907-960
Temple Names ( Miao Hao 廟號 miao4 hao4) Posthumous Names ( Shi Hao 諡號 ) Personal Names Period of Reigns Era Names (Nian Hao 年號) and their according range of years
the Five Dynasties
Convention: name of dynasty + temple name or posthumous name
Hou (Later) Liang Dynasty 907-923
Tai Zu|太祖 tai4 zu3 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Zhu Wen|朱溫 zhu1 wen1 907-912 Kaiping (開平 kai1 ping2) 907-911
Qianhua (乾化 qian2 hua4) 911-912
Did not exist Mo Di |末帝 mo4 di4 Zhu Zhen|朱瑱 zhu1 zhen4 913-923 Qianhua (乾化 qian2 hua4) 913-9115
Zhenming (貞明 zhen1 ming2) 915-921 Longde (龍德 long2 de2) 921-923
Hou (Later) Tang Dynasty 923-936
Zhuang Zong|莊宗 zhuang1 zong1 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Li Cun Xu|李存勗 li3 cun2 xu4 923-926 Tongguang (同光 tong2 guang1) 923-926
Ming Zong|明宗 ming2 zong1 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Li Si Yuan|李嗣源 li3 si4 yuan2 or Li Dan|李亶 li3 dan3 926-933 Tiancheng (天成 tian1 cheng2) 926-930
Changxing (長興 chang2 xing1) 930-933
Did not exist Min Di|節閔帝 min3 di4 Li Cong Xu|李從厚 li3 cong2 hou4 933-934 Yingshun (應順 ying4 shun4) 913-9115
Did not exist Mo Di |末帝 mo4 di4 Li Cong Ke|李從珂 li3 cong2 ke1 934-936 Qingtai (清泰 qing1 tai4) 934-936
Hou (Later) Jin Dynasty 936-947
Gao Zu|高祖 gao1 zu3 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Shi Jing Tang|石敬瑭 shi4 jing4 tang2 936-942 Tianfu (天福 tian1 fu2) 936-942
Did not exist Chu Di|出帝 chu1 di4 Shi Chong Gui|石重貴 shi4 chong2 gui4 942-947 Tianfu (天福 tian1 fu2) 942-944
Kaiyun (開運 kai1 yun4) 944-947
Hou (Later) Han Dynasty 936-947
Gao Zu|高祖 gao1 zu3 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Liu Zhi Yuan|劉知遠 liu3 zhi1 yuan3 947-948 Tianfu (天福 tian1 fu2) 947
Qianyou (乾祐 qian2 you4) 948
Did not exist Yin Di|隱帝 yin3 di4 Liu Cheng You|劉承祐 liu3 cheng2 you4 948-950 Qianyou (乾祐 qian2 you4) 948-950
Hou (Later) Zhou Dynasty 951-960
Tai Zu|太祖 tai4 zu3 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Guo Wei|郭威 guo1 wei1 951-954 Guangshun (廣順 guang3 shun4) 951-954
Xiande (顯德 xian3 de2) 954
Shi Zong (世宗 shi4 zong1) Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Chai Rong|柴榮 chai2 rong2 954-959 Xiande (顯德 xian3 de2) 954-959
Did not exist Gong Di|恭帝 gong1 di4 Chai Zong Xun|柴宗訓 chai2 zong1 xun4 959-960 Xiande (顯德 xian3 de2) 959-960
the Ten Kingdoms
Convention: use personal names, noticed otherwise
Wu Yue Kingdom 904-978
Tai Zu|太祖 tai4 zu3 Wu Su Wang|武肅王 wu3 su4 wang2 Qian Liu|錢鏐 qian2 liu2 904-932 Tianbao (天寶 tian1 bao3) 908-923
Baoda (寶大 bao3 da4) 923-925
Baozheng (寶正 bao3 zheng4) 925-932
Shi Zong (世宗 shi4 zong1) Wen Mu Wang|文穆王 wen2 mu4 wang2 Qian Yuan Quan|錢元瓘 qian2 yuan2 guan4 932-941 Did not exist
Cheng Zong 成宗 cheng2 zong1) Zhong Xian Wang|忠獻王 zhong1 xian4 wang2 Qian Zuo|錢佐 qian2 zuo3 941-947 Did not exist
Did not exist Zhong Xun Wang|忠遜王 zhong1 xun4 wang2 Qian Zong|錢倧 qian2 zong1 947 Did not exist
Did not exist Zhong Yi Wang|忠懿王 zhong1 yi4 wang2 Qian Chu|錢俶 qian2 chu4 947-978 Did not exist
Min Kingdom 909-945 including Yin Kingdom 943-945
Tai Zu|太祖 tai4 zu3 Zhong Yi Wang|忠懿王 zhong1 yi4 wang2 Wang Shen Zhi|王審知 wang2 shen3 zhi1 909-925 Did not exist
Did not exist Did not exist Wang Yan Han|王延翰 wang2 yan2 han4 925-926 Did not exist
Tai Zong (太宗 tai4 zong1) Hui Di (惠帝 hui4 di4) Wang Yan Jun|王延鈞 wang2 yan2 jun1 926-935 Longqi (龍啟 long2 qi3) 933-935
Yonghe (永和 yong3 he2) 935
Kang Zong (康宗 kang1 zong1) Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Wang Ji Peng|王繼鵬 wang2 ji4 peng2 935-939 Tongwen (通文 tong1 wen2) 936-939
Jing Zong (景宗 jing3 zong1) Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Wang Yan Xi|王延羲 wang2 yan2 xi1 939-944 Yonglong (永隆 yong3 long2) 939-944
Did not exist Tian De Di (天德帝 tian1 de2 di4) (as Emperor of Yin) Wang Yan Zheng|王延政 wang2 yan2 zheng4 943-945 Tiande (天德 tian1 de2) 943-945
Jing Nan or Nan Ping Kingdom 906-963
Did not exist Wu Xin Wang|武信王 wu3 xin4 wang2 Gao Ji Xing|高季興 gao1 ji4 xing1 909-928 Did not exist
Did not exist Wen Xian Wang|文獻王 wen2 xin4 wang2 Gao Cong Hui|高從誨 gao1 cong2 hui4 928-948 Did not exist
Did not exist Zhen Yi Wang|貞懿王 yi4 wang2 Gao Bao Rong|高寶融 gao1 bao3 rong2 948-960 Did not exist
Did not exist Shi Zhong|侍中 shi4 zhong1 Gao Bao Xu|高寶勗 gao1 bao3 xu4 960-962 Did not exist
Did not exist Did not exist Gao Ji Chong|高繼沖 gao1 ji4 chong1 962-963 Did not exist
Chu Kingdom 897-951
Did not exist Wu Mo Wang|武穆王 wu3 mo4 wang2 Ma Yin|馬殷 ma3 yin1 897-930 Did not exist
Did not exist Heng Yang Wang|衡陽王 heng2 yang2 wang2 Ma Xi Sheng|馬希聲 ma3 xi1 sheng1 930-932 Did not exist
Did not exist Wen Zhao Wang|文昭王 wen2 zhao1 wang2 Ma Xi Fan|馬希範 ma3 xi1 fan4 932-947 Did not exist
Did not exist Fei Wang|廢王 fei4 wang2 Ma Xi Guang|馬希廣 ma3 xi1 guang3 947-950 Did not exist
Did not exist Gong Xiao Wang|恭孝王 gong1 xiao4 wang2 Ma Xi E|馬希萼 ma3 xi1 e4 950 Did not exist
Did not exist Did not exist Ma Xi Chong|馬希崇 ma3 xi1 chong2 950-951 Did not exist
Wu Kingdom 904-937
Tai Zu|太祖 tai4 zu3 Xiao Wu Di|孝武帝 xiao4 wu3 di4 Yang Xing Mi|楊行密 yang2 xing2 mi4 904-905 Tianyao (天祐 tian1 you4) 904-905
Lie Zong|烈宗 lie4 zong1 Jing Di|景帝 jing3 di4 Yang Wo|楊渥 yang2 wo4 905-908 Tianyao (天祐 tian1 you4) 905-908
Gao Zu|高祖 gao1 zu3 Xuan Di|宣帝 xuan1 di4 Yang Long Yan|楊隆演 yang2 long2 yan3 908-921 Tianyao (天祐 tian1 you4) 908-919
Wuyi (武義 wu3 yi4) 919-921
Did not exist Rui Di|睿帝 rui4 di4 Yang Pu|楊溥 yang2 pu3 921-937 Shunyi (順義 shun4 yi4) 921-927
Qianzhen (乾貞 qian2 zhen1) 927-929
Dahe (大和 da4 he2) 929-935
Tianzuo (天祚 tian1 zuo4) 935-937
Nan (Southern) Tang Kingdom 937-975
Convention for this kingdom only : Nan (Southern) Tang + posthumous names. Hou Zhu was referred to as Li Hou Zhu|李後主 li3 hou4 zhu3.
Xian Zhu|先主 xian1 zhu3 or Lie Zu|烈祖 lie4 zu3 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Li Bian|李(曰 on top of 弁) li3 bian4 937-943 Shengyuan (昇元 sheng1 yuan2) 937-943
Zhong Zhu|中主 zhong1 zhu3 or Yuan Zong|元宗 yuan2 zong1 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Li Jing|李璟 li3 jing3 943-961 Baoda (保大 bao3 da4) 943-958
Jiaotai (交泰 jiao1 tai4) 958
Zhongxing (中興 zhong1 xing1) 958
Hou Zhu|後主 hou4 zhu3 Wu Wang|武王 wu3 wang2 Li Yu|李煜 li3 yu4 961-975 Did not exist
Nan (Southern) Han Kingdom 917-971
Gao Zu|高祖 gao1 zu3 Tian Huang Da Di|天皇大帝 tian1 huang2 da4 di4 Liu Yan|劉巖 liu3 yan2 or Liu Yan|劉(龍 on top of 天) liu3 yan3 917-925 Qianheng (乾亨 qian2 heng1) 917-925
Bailong (白龍 bai2 long2) 925-928
Dayou (大有 da4 you3) 928-941
Did not exist Shang Di|殤帝 shang1 di4 Liu Fen|劉玢 liu3 fen1 941-943 Guangtian (光天 guag1 tian1) 941-943
Zhong Zong|中宗 zhong1 zong1 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Liu Cheng|劉晟 liu3 cheng2 943-958 Yingqian (應乾 ying4 qian2) 943
Qianhe (乾和 qian4 he2) 943-958
Hou Zhu|後主 hou4 zhu3 Did not exist Liu Chang|劉鋹 liu3 chang3 958-971 Dabao (大寶 da4 bao3) 958-971
Bei (Northern) Han Kingdom 951-979
Shi Zu|世祖 shi4 zu3 Shen Wu Di|神武帝 shen2 wu3 di4 Liu Min|劉旻 liu3 min2 951-954 Qianyou (乾祐 qian2 you4) 951-954
Rui Zong|睿宗 rui4 zong1 Xiao He Di|孝和帝 xiao4 he2 di4 Liu Cheng Jun|劉承鈞 liu3 cheng2 jun1 954-970 Qianyou (乾祐 qian2 you4) 954-957
Tianhui (天會 tian1 hui4) 957-970
Shao Zhu|少主 shao4 zhu3 Did not exist Liu Ji En|劉繼恩 liu3 ji4 en1 970 Did not exist
Did not exist
Ying Wu Di|英武帝 ying1 wu3 di4 Liu Ji Yuan|劉繼元 liu3 ji4 yuan2 970-982 Guangyun (廣運 guang3 yun4) 970-982
Qian (Former) Shu Kingdom 907 - 925
Gao Zu|高祖 gao1 zu3 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Wang Jian|王建 wang2 jian4 907-918 Tianfu (天復 tian1 fu4) 907
Wucheng (武成 wu3 cheng22) 908-910
Yongping (永平 yong3 ping2) 911-915
Tongzheng (通正 tong1 zheng4) 916
Tianhan (天漢 tian1 han4) 917
Guangtian (光天 guang1 tian1) 918
Hou Zhu|後主 hou4 zhu3 Did not exist Wang Yan|王衍 wang2 yan3 918-925 Qiande (乾德 qian2 de2) 918-925
Xiankang (咸康 xian2 kang1) 925
Hou (Later) Shu Kingdom 934 - 965
Gao Zu|高祖 gao1 zu3 Too tedious thus not used when referring to this sovereign Meng Zhi Xiang|孟知祥 meng4 zhi1 xiang2 934 Mingde (明德 ming2 de2) 934
Hou Zhu|後主 hou4 zhu3 Did not exist Meng Chang|孟昶 meng4 chang3 938-965 Mingde (明德 ming2 de2) 934-938
Guangzheng (廣政 guang3 zheng4) 938-965

Other regimes



local independent regimes during Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period but traditionally not counted in the Ten Kingdoms
Name of Posts Personal Names Period on post
Wuping and Hunan 節度|jie2 du4 (similar to thema of the Byzantine Empire) 950-963
Wuping strategos (correct English translation?)|武平節度使 wu3 ping2 jie2 du4 shi3 Liu Yan|劉言 liu3 yan2 950-953
Wuping strategos (correct English translation?)|武平節度使 wu3 ping2 jie2 du4 shi3 Wang Kui|王逵 wang2 kui2 or Wang Jin Kui|王進逵 wang2 jin4 kui2 953-956
Hunan strategos (correct English translation?)|湖南節度使 hu2 nan2 jie2 du4 shi3 Zhou Xing Feng|周行逢 zhao1 xing2 feng2 956-962
Hunan strategos (correct English translation?)|湖南節度使 hu2 nan2 jie2 du4 shi3 Zhou Bao Quan|周保權 zhao1 bao3 quan2 962-963
Quanzhang 節度|jie2 du4 (similar to thema of the Byzantine Empire) 945-978
Quanzhang strategos (correct English translation?)|泉漳都指揮使 quan2 zhang1 du1 zhi3 hui1 shi3 Liu Cong Xiao|留從效 liu2 cong2 xiao4 945-962
Quanzhang strategos (correct English translation?)|泉漳留守 quan2 zhang1 liu2 shou3 Liu Shao Zi|留紹鎡 liu2 shao4 zi1 962
Quanzhang strategos (correct English translation?)|泉漳節度使 quan2 zhang1 jie2 du4 shi3 Zhang Han Si|張漢思 zhang1 han4 si1 962-963
Quanzhang strategos (correct English translation?)|泉漳節度使 quan2 zhang1 jie2 du4 shi3 Chen Hong Jin|陳洪進 chen2 hong2 jin4 963-978

See also


- Liao dynasty
- Chinese sovereign Category:History of China
- ja:五代十国時代

Traditional Chinese

Traditional Chinese characters are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese characters. It is the set of characters that first appeared during the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 220 AD) and has been used since the 5th century during the Southern and Northern Dynasties. It is called traditional as opposed to the other form - the simplified Chinese characters, created or standardised by the government of the People's Republic of China (mainland China) starting from the 1950s. Traditional Chinese is text written with Traditional Chinese characters. Traditional Chinese characters are used in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and some overseas Chinese communities; especially those originating from the aforementioned countries or who emigrated before the widepspread adoption of simplified characters in the People's Republic of China. In contrast, simplified characters are used in Mainland China, Singapore, and in some overseas Chinese communities; especially those from aforementioned countries who emigrated after the widespread adoption of simplified Chinese characters.

Controversy over name

Among Chinese people, traditional Chinese characters are referred to by several different names, each with different implications. The government of the Republic of China (Taiwan) officially calls traditional Chinese characters standard characters or orthodox characters (Traditional Chinese: 正體字; Simplified Chinese: 正体字; pinyin: zhèngtǐzì), which implies that traditional characters are the full and correct forms of the characters. In contrast, users of simplified characters call them complex characters (Traditional Chinese: 繁體字; Simplified Chinese: 繁体字; pinyin: fántǐzì), or, informally, old characters (老字; pinyin: lǎozì), with the implication that traditional Chinese characters have been replaced and are obsolete. Traditional character users argue that traditional characters cannot be called "complex" as they were never made more complex; the characters were preserved the way they were. Conversely supporters of simplified Chinese characters object strongly to the description of these characters as "standard," since they view the new simplified characters as the contemporary standard. They also point out that traditional characters are not truly traditional as Chinese characters have changed significantly over time. Curiously, although the character which is generally translated as "complex" is itself comprised of numerous, if not complex strokes, the character has not undergone simplification; this is perhaps intentional as it demonstrates the relative complexity of the Traditional characters in contrast to the Simplified versions. Additionally, while "complex" bears somewhat of a negative connotation in English, the Chinese character per se does not imply anything to the extent that it might be construed as "complex" or "troublesome"; rather, the meaning is rather vague and remains neutral unless coupled with other characters. Some older people refer to traditional characters as proper characters (正字; pinyin: zhèngzì) and simplified characters as simplified-stroke characters (Traditional Chinese: 簡筆字; Simplified Chinese: 简笔字; pinyin: jiǎnbǐzì) or reduced-stroke characters (Traditional Chinese: 減筆字; Simplified Chinese: 减笔字; pinyin: jiǎnbǐzì) (simplified- and reduced- are actually homonyms in Mandarin Chinese, both pronounced jiǎn).

Printed text

When printing text, people in Mainland China and Singapore mainly use the simplified system, which was developed by the People's Republic of China government in the 1950s. However, the PRC also prints material intended to be read outside of Mainland China using traditional characters. In handwritten text, most people use informal, sometimes personal simplifications. In most cases, an alternative character (異體字) would be used in place of one with more strokes, such as 体 for 體. Contrary to popular belief, most of these are still part of the set of traditional chinese characters, but informally and confusingly called simplified form (簡寫). Though not standard, these are usually accepted outside schools, and some are extremely widespread, notably the tai (台) in Taiwan as opposed to the standard character (臺).

Computer character encoding

In the past, Traditional Chinese was most often rendered using the Big5 character encoding scheme, a character encoding scheme that favors Traditional Chinese. Unicode, however, has become increasingly popular as a way to render Traditional Chinese. Unicode gives equal weight to both simplified and traditional Chinese characters and does not favor either over the other. There are various IMEs (Input Method Editors) available to input Chinese characters.

Usage in other languages

Traditional characters are also used in Korean Hanja, and moderately simplified traditional characters are used in modern Japanese Kanji.

See also


- Kaishu
- Chinese character Category:Chinese language Category:Logographic writing systems ko:번체자 ja:字体

Simplified Chinese

Simplified Chinese characters (Simplified Chinese: 简体字; Traditional Chinese: 簡體字; pinyin: jiǎntǐzì; also called 简化字/簡化字, jiǎnhuàzì) are one of two standard character sets of printed contemporary Chinese written language. The other set is Traditional Chinese characters. Simplified Chinese characters are the Chinese characters officially simplified by the government of the People's Republic of China in an attempt to promote literacy. This character set is used for most Chinese-language printing in Mainland China and Singapore whereas traditional characters are used in Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities. Simplified characters are gradually gaining popularity among many overseas Chinese communities as more mainland Chinese are emigrating from their homeland.

Origins and history

Mainland China

Although associated with the People's Republic of China (PRC), character simplification predates 1949. Cursive written text almost always includes character simplification. Simplified forms used in print have always existed (they date back to as early as the Qin dynasty (221 - 206 BC), though early attempts at simplification actually resulted in more characters being added to the lexicon). In the 1930s and 1940s, discussions on character simplification took place within the Kuomintang government, and a large number of Chinese intellectuals and writers have long maintained that character simplification would help boost literacy in China. In many world languages, literacy has been promoted as a justification for spelling reforms. The People's Republic of China issued its first round of official character simplifications in two documents, the first in 1956 and the second in 1964. In the 1950s and 1960s, while confusion about simplified characters was still rampant, an elusive set of transitional characters (which basically mixed simplified parts with yet-to-be simplified parts of characters together) appeared briefly, then disappeared. Within the PRC, character simplification became associated with the leftists of the Cultural Revolution, culminating in a second round of character simplifications (known as erjian 二简, or "Second round simplified characters", which were promulgated in 1977. It was poorly received, and in 1986 the authorities retracted the second round completely, at the same time making six revisions to the first round of simplified characters (including the restoration of three characters that had been simplified in the First Round: 叠, 覆, 像). Although no longer recognized officially, second round characters do occasionally occur in handwritten signs, as many people learned second round simplified characters in school. Simplification initiatives have been aimed at eradicating the ideographic system and establishing Hanyu Pinyin as the official written system of the PRC, but the reform never gained quite as much popularity as the leftists had hoped. After the retraction of the second round of simplification, the PRC has stated that it wishes to keep Chinese orthography stable and does not appear to plan any further reforms in the future nor restore any characters that have already been simplified. People unfamiliar with how the PRC deals with simplified versus traditional characters erroneously claim that the PRC permits only simplified characters and has "banned" traditional characters. Although the PRC does view Traditional characters in domestic published material in the same way as errors or misprints, the Law of the People's Republic of China on National Language and Common Characters explains that traditional characters are not banned altogether on mainland China; instead, their usage is relegated to certain aspects and purposes. In Mainland China, traditional characters are used mainly for ceremonies, cultural purposes (e.g. calligraphy), decoration, and commercial purposes such as shopfront displays and advertisements, though the latter is technically discouraged. The PRC also tends to print material intended for Taiwanese, people in Hong Kong and Macao, and overseas Chinese in traditional characters. For example, the PRC prints versions of the People's Daily in traditional characters and both the People's Daily and Xinhua websites have versions in traditional characters using Big5 encoding. Other examples include milk from a mainland company which is for distribution in Hong Kong, for example, has traditional characters printed on it instead of simplified. Also, as part of the one country, two systems model, the PRC has not attempted to convert Hong Kong or Macau into using simplified characters.

Singapore and Malaysia

Singapore underwent three successive rounds of character simplification, eventually arriving at the same set of simplified characters as Mainland China. The first round, consisting of 498 Simplified characters from 502 Traditional characters, was promulgated by the Ministry of Education in 1969. The second round, consisting of 2287 Simplified characters, was promulgated in 1974. The second set contained 49 differences from the Mainland China system; those were removed in the final round in 1976. Singapore has also followed Mainland China in the six revisions to its set of Simplified characters in 1986. Malaysia promulgated a set of Simplified characters in 1981, which were also completely identical to the simplified characters used in Mainland China.

Method of simplification

Simplified Chinese characters were developed in one of 5 or so ways, here we list : #By reducing the number of brush strokes of a character, either by logical revision or by importing ancient, simpler variants or obscure forms. (e.g. 葉 maps to 叶; 萬 maps to 万)¹ #Combining several complicated characters into one, simpler character (a process known as "Character Conflation"). (e.g. 隻, a measure word for certain animals) and 衹 (variant form of "only") conflate to 只, a previously existing character. Note that the traditional character 只 merely replaces these two lesser used characters in Simplified. #Giving a new meaning to a traditional character with small number of strokes. [E.g. 丰(beauty) becomes used as 豐 (richly) and 余 (I) becomes used as 餘 (remain)]. This is especially common when the character with fewer strokes is very rare or is no longer used. Note that in the case of the simplification of 餘 into 余, confusion may be raised when classical Chinese texts are printed in simplified characters, as 余 is used as the first-person pronoun in classical Chinese. For example, a phrase like 獨餘余一人(only I am left alone) will become 独余余一人 when simplified. ¹In rare instances, simplified characters actually became one or two strokes more complex than their traditional counterparts due to logical revision. An example of this is 搾 mapping to the previously existing variant form 榨. Note that the "hand" radical on the left (扌), with three strokes, is replaced with the "tree" radical (木), with four strokes. However, one of the primary goals of the character simplification is to reduce the number of strokes if possible. Historically, characters which represented an object often appeared instead as a character for an abstract idea, while the original meaning was re-formed by making the idea even more concrete. An example of this is 然 which originally had the meaning "to burn", but its meaning changed to the prepositional "thus" while "to burn" gained the additional semantic unit of 火—燃.

Distribution and use

Mainland China and Singapore generally use simplified characters. They appear very sparingly in printed text produced in Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, and overseas Chinese communities, although they are becoming more prevalent as China opens to the world. Conversely, the Mainland is seeing an increase in the use of traditional forms, where they are found aesthetically appealing and often used on signs and in logos. For persons learning Chinese as a foreign language, instruction varies greatly: most universities on the west coast of the United States teach the Traditional character set, most likely due to the large population of Chinese-Americans who continue to use the Traditional forms. (The largest Mandarin Chinese Program in North America, at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, switched to Simplified at least a decade ago, even though the majority of ethnic Chinese at that time were Traditional users.) In places where a particular set is not locally entrenched—for example, Europe, and some of the east coast of the US—instruction is swinging towards Simplified, as the economic importance of the Mainland increases, and also because of the availability of cheap high-quality textbooks printed in Mainland China. For overseas Chinese going to Chinese school, which character set is used depends very much on which school one attends. Not surprisingly, parents will generally enroll their children in schools that teach the script they themselves use. Descendants of Hong Kong people and people who emigrated before the simplification will therefore generally be taught Traditional (and in Cantonese), whereas children whose parents are of more recent Mainland origin will probably be taught Simplified. In all areas, most handwritten text will include informal character simplifications, and some characters (such as the "Tai" in Taiwan: traditional 臺 simplified 台) have informal simplified forms that appear more commonly than the official forms, even in print. In December 2004, Beijing's educational authorities [http://beijing.qianlong.com/3825/2004/12/08/118@2411471.htm threw back a proposal] from a Beijing CPPCC political conference member. The proposal would have called for elementary schools to teach traditional Chinese characters in addition to the simplified ones, but to use simplified characters exclusively. The conference member pointed out that most mainland Chinese -- especially the youth of today -- have difficulties with traditional Chinese; rather than discouraging it, the characters should be taught so that they can understand them; this is especially important in dealing with non-mainland communities such as Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau where traditional Chinese is used. The proposal would also make it easier for Chinese on the mainland to read older text before simplification. The educational authorities slammed the recommendation, saying that it did not fit in with the "requirements as set out by the law". The authorities also claimed that the proposal could potentially complicate the curricula by adding excess content. Despite this, junior school dictionaries published in mainland China are on sale in bookshops showing both simplified and their traditional counterparts. Some traditional character publications other than dictionaries are published on mainland China, for domestic consumption. Moreover, it is possible for residents in Guangdong to receive Chinese language television in Cantonese from Hong Kong (though the politically sensitive issues in news and other current affairs programs may be censored). The use of traditional form characters is flourishing in Hong Kong, and through such encounters, mainlanders are exposed to the use of traditional characters in television subtitling.

Pros, Cons, and Problems

The effect of Simplified Characters on the language remains controversial decades after their introduction:

Pros


- Proponents praise the simplification because they believe it allows less educated people to read. Literacy rates since simplification have risen steadily in rural and urban areas. Opponents argue that the literacy rates of Mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan compare favorably, so simplification seems not to correlate with the improvement. Some have suggested that the greater etymological coherence of the traditional set might even pose an advantage when learning how to write.
- Fewer strokes gives a less cluttered appearance, preventing an overflow of useless information and thus making reading and writing easier and faster. Opponents claim that the simplifications make distinct characters more similar to each other in appearance, giving the "shape recognition" mechanism of the reading part of the brain less unique clues. Note, however, that some might say the same about traditional characters.
- Simplified characters are easier to view, for example on web pages. See the comparisons between simplified and traditional characters above.

Cons


- Opponents complain that by merging many characters into one and hence offering new meanings to a traditional character, simplified characters jeopardise the study of ancient literature by creating a discontinuity between modern texts and literary texts. However, proponents argue that the amount of spoken and written deviation from Classical Chinese and the modern vernacular is a greater factor, and has already brought about incompatibility with ancient texts. They also claim that the discontinuity brought about by the sporadic merger of characters is minimal.
- Some opponents have complained about the sheer difficulties posed by having two concurrent writing systems. Translating an entire document written using simplified characters to traditional characters, or vice versa, is not a trivial task. For human translators, simplified Chinese characters can look vastly different from their traditional counterparts to the extent that the two have no signs of simplification and instead appear completely irrelevant to each other. Proponents claim that this poses no problem to anyone who has had some reading experience with both systems. For computer automated translation, one simplified character may equate to many traditional characters, and vice versa. Some knowledge of the context of the word usage is required for correct mapping; but it has been difficult for computers to work with word usage perfectly. As a result, direct computer mapping from simplified to traditional is not trivial and requires sophisticated programming. (This line of reasoning is used both by traditional Chinese advocates opposed to simplification, and simplified Chinese advocates opposed to the continued use of traditional characters.)
- As computers are increasingly used to write text, the speed advantage of writing fewer strokes becomes less relevant.

Problems


- Character simplification merged some characters that do not have the same pronunciations in Standard Mandarin. For example, 尽 is a merger of 儘 jǐn and 盡 jìn; 只 is a merger of 隻 zhī and 祇 zhǐ; 发 is a merger of 發 fā and 髮 fà. Other characters that were merged are pronounced identically in Standard Mandarin, but not in other varieties of Chinese, such as 松, a merger of 松 and 鬆, which are pronounced identically in Standard Mandarin but differently in Cantonese.
- The Chinese characters used in modern Japanese have also undergone simplification, but generally to a lesser extent than with Simplified Chinese. Reconciling these different character sets in Unicode became part of the controversial process of Han unification. Not surprisingly, some of the Chinese characters used in Japan are neither 'traditional' nor 'simplified'. In this case, these characters cannot be found in Traditional/Simplified Chinese dictionaries.
- In Hong Kong, a majority of secondary school students are fond of writing in simplified Chinese characters, particularly in examinations, for the sake of the 'quickness' of writing. However, this is generally frowned upon, as there are teachers who believe that Simplified Chinese is an "inferior" system of writing, designed for uneducated people (which bears some truth). Also, some teachers admit that quite a few simplified Chinese characters were derived illogically.
- In addition to those practical considerations, many minds link simplified characters with the idea of communism and traditional characters with anticommunism. This often hampers rational debate about the relative merits of the two systems.
- Teachers of international students often recommend learning both systems. Their experience is that students who start with Traditional characters understand Simplified forms without much difficulty, while students who begin with Simplified characters tend to have more trouble when they encounter Traditional forms.

Computer encoding

In computer text applications, the GB encoding scheme most often renders simplified Chinese, while Big5 most often renders traditional characters. Although neither encoding has an explicit connection with a specific character set, the lack of a one-to-one mapping between the simplified and traditional sets established a de facto linkage. Since simplified Chinese conflated many characters into one and since the initial version of GB, known as GB 2312-80 contained only one code point for each character, it is impossible to use GB 2312-80 to map to the bigger set of traditional characters. However, it is theoretically possible to use Big5 code to map to the smaller set of simplified character glyphs, however there is little market for such a product. Newer and alternative forms of GB have support for traditional characters. In particular, mainland authorities have now established GB 18030 as the official encoding standard for use in all mainland software publications. The encoding contains all of the characters of Unicode 3.0. Since Big-5 and GB characters are both included in Unicode, the GB 18030 encoding contains both simplified and traditional characters, including characters found in Japanese and Korean encodings. Unicode deals with the issue of simplified and traditional characters as part of the project of Han unification by including code points for each. This was rendered necessary by the fact that the linkage between simplified characters and traditional characters is not one-to-one. While this means that a Unicode system can display both simplified and traditional characters, it also means that different localization files are needed for each type.

See also


- Chinese character
- Stroke order

External links


- http://www.sungwh.freeserve.co.uk/hanzi/index.html
- [http://www.cjk.org/cjk/c2c/c2cbasis.htm The Pitfalls and Complexities of Chinese to Chinese Conversion]
- [http://xahlee.org/lojban/simplified_chars.html a list of non-trivial Simplified Chars (and their traditional form)] Category:Chinese language Category:Logographic writing systems ko:간체자 ms:Tulisan Cina Mudah ja:簡体字

907

Events


- Oleg leads Kievan Rus' in a campaign against Constantinople
- Yelü Abaoji establishes Liao (Khitan) dynasty
- Fall of the Tang Dynasty

Births

Deaths

Category:907 ko:907년

China

to protect the north from nomadic invaders and has been rebuilt several times since.]] China () refers to a number of states and cultures that have existed and are viewed as having succeeded one another in continental East Asia, dating back at least 3,500 years. China as it exists today has been variously described in different points of view as a single civilization or multiple civilizations, as a single state or multiple states, and as a single nation or multiple nations. With one of the world's longest periods of mostly uninterrupted civilization and the world's longest continuously used written language system, China's history has been largely characterized by repeated divisions and reunifications amid alternating periods of peace and war, and violent imperial dynastic change. The country's territorial extent expanded outwards from a core area in the North China Plain, and varied according to its moving fortunes to include multiple regions of East, Northeast, and Central Asia. For centuries, Imperial China was also one of the world's most technologically advanced civilizations, and East Asia's dominant cultural influence, with an impact lasting to the present day throughout the region. By the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, China's political, economic, and military influence declined relative to growing regional power Japan and the influence of Western powers. Semi-colonialism developed by the late nineteenth century in parts of China, and the country was invaded by the Empire of Japan during World War II. The imperial system in China ended with the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC) under Sun Yat-sen in 1912; however, the next four decades of ROC rule were marred by warlord control, the Second Sino-Japanese War (WWII), and the Chinese Civil War which pitted Chinese Nationalists against the Communist forces. After its victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, forcing the Republic of China (ROC) to retreat to the island of Taiwan, which it had governed since the end of World War II. Since then, the ROC has maintained administrative control over Taiwan, the Pescadores, several islands off the coast of Fujian province, and some islands in the South China Sea.

Terminology

"Zhongguo"

South China Sea China is called Zhongguo in Mandarin Chinese (Simplified: 中国, Traditional: 中國; also romanized as Jhongguo or Chung-kuo), which is usually translated as "Middle Kingdom", but could also be translated as "Central State" or "Central Country". Zhong (中) means "middle" or "center" while guo (国 or 國) means "country," "kingdom," "state," or "land", referring to the claim that China stood at the centre of that society's "known world", surrounded by lesser tributary states. The term has not been used consistently throughout Chinese history, however, and carries certain cultural and political connotations both positive and negative, some ideological, and early states considered part of Chinese history are not called "Zhongguo". During the Spring and Autumn Period, it was used only to describe the states politically descended from the Western Zhou Dynasty, in the Yellow River (Huang He) valley, to the exclusion of states such as Chu and Qin. The "Chinese" thus defined their nation as culturally and politically distinct from - and as the axis mundi of surrounding nations; a concept that continued well into the Qing Dynasty, although being continually redefined while the central political influence expanded territorially, and its culture assimilated alien influences. Thus Zhongguo quickly came to include areas farther south, as the cultural and political unit (not yet a "nation" or "country" in the modern sense) spread in a southerly direction, including the Yangtze River and Pearl River systems, and by the Tang Dynasty it even included "barbarian" regimes such as the Xianbei and Xiongnu. Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet, and the island of Taiwan, over time, came to be dominated (to a greater or lesser extent) by, or officially ruled by, imperial China, and are often included as a part of Zhongguo, though acceptance or denial of such claims remains politically controversial, especially where Zhongguo means PRC. During the Han Dynasty and before, Zhongguo had three distinctive meanings: # The area around the capital or imperial domain. The Book of Poetry explicitly gives this definition. # Territories under the direct authority of the "central" authorities. The Historical Records states: "Eight mountains are famed in the empire. Three are with the Man and Yi barbarians. Five are in Zhongguo." # The area now called the North China Plain. The Sanguo Zhi records the following monologue: "If we can lead the host of Wu and Yue (the area of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang) to oppose Zhongguo, then we should break off relations with them soon." In this sense, the term is synonymous with Hua (華) and Xia (夏). During the period of division after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the term Zhongguo was subjected to transformation as a result of the surge of nomadic peoples from the northern frontier. This was doubly so after the loss of the Yellow River valley, the cradle of Chinese civilization, to these peoples. For example, the Xianbei called their Northern Wei regime Zhongguo, contrasting it with the Southern Dynasties, which they called the Yi (夷), meaning "barbarian". The southern dynasties, for their part, recently exiled from the north, called the Northern Wei Lu (虏), meaning "criminal" or "prisoner". In this way Zhongguo came to represent political legitimacy. It was used in this manner from the tenth century onwards by the competing dynasties of Liao, Jin and Song. The term Zhongguo came to be related to geographic, cultural and political identity and less to ethnic origin. The Republic of China, as it controlled mainland China, and later, the People's Republic of China, have used Zhongguo as an entity existing theoretically to mean all the territories and peoples within their political control as well as those outside of it (people in the Republic of China on Taiwan now usually use Zhongguo to refer to the PRC and use Taiwan to refer to itself). Thus it is asserted that all 56 officially recognized ethnic groups are Zhongguo ren (中國人), or Zhongguo people. Their disparate histories are collectively the history of Zhongguo.

"China"

Song in ancient times, was the imperial capital of 13 different historical dynasties (including the Han and Tang dynasties) in China.]] English and many other languages use forms of the name China (and the prefix Sino-), which is believed to have derived from the name of the Qin dynasty that first unified the country, even though it is not completely resolved and the origins are still controversial to an extent [http://www.bartleby.com/61/80/C0298000.html]. Despite the fact that the Qin dynasty was short-lived and was often regarded as overly tyrannical it unified the written language in China and gave the supreme ruler of China the title of "Emperor", hence, the subsequent Silk Road traders would identify themselves by that name. Alternate theories on the origin of the word "China" exist. In any circumstance, the word China passed through many languages along the Silk Road before it finally reached Europe and England. The Western "China", transliterated to Shina (支那) has also been used by Japanese since the nineteenth century, and has since evolved into a derogatory term in that language. The term "China" can narrowly mean China proper, or, often, China proper and Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang, a combination essentially coterminous with the 20th and 21st century political entity China; the boundaries between these regions do not necessarily follow provincial boundaries. In many contexts, "China" is commonly used to refer to the People's Republic of China or mainland China, while "Taiwan" is used to refer to the Republic of China. Informally, in economic or business contexts, "the Greater China region" (大中華地區) refers to Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. Sinologists usually use "Chinese" in a more restricted sense, more akin to the classical usage of Zhongguo, or to the meaning of the "Han ethnic group", who make up the bulk of Mainland China. In many contexts it may be more appropriate to speak of "mainland China" (中國大陸,zhōngguó dàlù in Mandarin), especially when contrasting it with other, politically different regions like Hong Kong, Macau, and territories administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan).

History

:Main articles: History of China, History of the Republic of China (1912–1949; 1949–Present on Taiwan), History of People's Republic of China (1949–Present) History of People's Republic of China China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing independently, the others being ancient Mesopotamia (Sumerians), India (Indus Valley Civilization), the Mayans, and, some hold, Ancient Egypt—though it may have been learned from the Sumerians. The first dynasty according to Chinese historical sources was the Xia Dynasty. Until scientific excavations were made at early bronze-age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province, it was difficult to separate myth from reality in regard to the existence of the Xia Dynasty. But since then, archaeologists have uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs that point to the possible existence of the Xia dynasty at the same locations cited in ancient Chinese historical texts. However, the first confirmed dynasty is the Shang, who settled along the Huang He river, dating from the 18th to the 12th centuries BC. The Shang were in turn invaded by the Zhou (12th to 5th centuries BC), whose centralized authority was slowly eroded by the ceding of state-like authority to warlords ruling small states; eventually, in the Spring and Autumn period, many strong independent states, in continuous war, paid but nominal deference to the Zhou state as the Imperial centre. They were all unified under one emperor in 221 BC by Qin Shi Huang, ushering in the Qin Dynasty, the first unified centralized Chinese state. This state, however, did not last for long, as it was way too authoritarian, destroying many sources of competition for power that were also sources of good governance and development, such as scholars and intellectuals. After the fall of authoritarian Qin Dynasty in 207 BC came the Han Dynasty which lasted until 220 AD. A period of disunion followed again. In 580, China was reunited under the Sui. Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, China reached its golden age. For a long period of time, especially between the 7th and 14th centuries, China was one of the most advanced civilizations in the world in technology, literature, and art. The Song Dynasty fell to the invading Mongols in 1279. The Mongols, under Kublai Khan, established the Yuan Dynasty. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty, which lasted until 1644. After the Ming dynasty, came the Qing (Manchu) dynasty, which lasted until the overthrow of Puyi in 1911. Oftentimes regime change was violent and strongly opposed and the ruler class needed to take special measures to ensure their rule and the loyalty of the overthrown dynasty. For example, after the foreign Qing (Manchus) conquered China, because they were ever suspicious of the Han Chinese, the Qing rulers put into effect measures aimed at preventing the absorption of the Manchus into the dominant Han Chinese population. However, these restrictions proved ineffective against the assimilation of Manchus into the Chinese identity and culture. In the 18th century, China achieved a decisive technological advantage over the peoples of Central Asia, which it had been at war with for several centuries, while simultaneously falling behind Europe in that respect. This set the stage for the 19th century, in which China adopted a defensive posture against European imperialism while itself engaging in imperialistic expansion into Central Asia. See Imperialism in Asia. However the primary cause of the decline of the Chinese empire was not European and American interference, as the ethnocentric Western historians would lead many to believe. On the contrary it was a series of internal upheavals. Most prominent of these was the Taiping Civil War which lasted from 1851 to 1862. The civil war was started by an extremist believer in a school of thought partly influenced by Christianity who believed himself to be the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus. Although the imperial forces were eventually victorious, the civil war was one of the bloodiest in human history - costing at least twenty million lives (more than the total number of fatalities in the First World War). Prior to this conflict a number of Islamic Rebellions, especially in Central Asia, had occurred. Later, a second major rebellion took place, although this latter uprising was considerably smaller than the cataclysmic Taiping Civil War. This second conflict was the Boxer Rebellion which aimed to repel Westerners. Although secretly supporting the rebels, the Empress, Ci Xi, aided foreign forces in suppressing the uprising. Ci Xi, 1949.]] In 1912, after a prolonged period of decline, the institution of the Emperor of China disappeared and the Republic of China was established. The following three decades were a period of disunion — the Warlord Era, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War. The latter ended in 1949 with the Communist Party of China in control of mainland China. The CPC established a communist state—the People's Republic of China—that laid claim to be the successor state of the Republic of China. Meanwhile, the disorganized and potentially corrupt ROC government of the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan, where it continued to be recognized as the legitimate government of all China by the Western bloc and the United Nations until the 1970s, when most nations and the UN switched recognition to the PRC. The United Kingdom and Portugal transferred their colonies of Hong Kong and Macau on the southern Chinese coast to the PRC in 1997 and 1999, respectively. China used in a modern context often refers to just the territory of the PRC, or to "Mainland China" (the territory of the PRC excluding Hong Kong and Macau). The PRC does not recognize the ROC, as it claims to have succeeded the ROC as the legitimate governing authority of all of China including Taiwan. On the other hand, the ROC—while never formally renouncing its earlier claims or changing official maps that show its territory as including both the modern-day PRC, Mongolia and Tibet—has moved away from this former identity representing its rule over all of China, and increasingly identifies itself as Taiwan. The PRC has historically resisted the ROC's identification of itself as Taiwan, especially in light of the movement supported by residents of Taiwan and others who advocate Taiwan's identity as an independent political entity. Significant disputes persist as to the nature and extent of China, possible Chinese reunification and the political status of Taiwan.

Chinese Pre-history

Archeological evidence suggests that the earliest occupants in China date as long as 2.24 million to 250,000 years ago by an ancient human relative (hominin) known as Homo erectus. One particular cave in Zhoukoudian (now known as Peking) has fossilised evidence dating to 300,000 and 550,000 years old. Evidence of primitive stone tool technology and animal bones in association to H. erectus have been studied since the late 18th century to 19th century in various areas of Eastern Asia including Indonesia (in particular the Island of Java) and Malaysia. Originally it is thought that these early hominis first evolved in Africa during the Pleistocene. It is thought that human evolution first took place in Africa expanding 7 million years. By 2 million years ago the first wave of migration from the species in association with H. erectus settled into various areas in the Old World. Fully modern humans (homo sapiens) are believed to originally have evolved roughly 200,000 and 168,000 years ago in Ethiopia or Southern Africa (ei. Homo sapiens idaltu). By 100,000 to 50,000 years ago modern human beings settled in all parts of the Old world (including the New World, Americas 25,000 to 11,000 BCE). By less than 100,000 years ago all proto-human populations disappeared as modern humans took over or drove other human species into extinction. It remains a controversial subject to whether fully modern humans evolved from separate H. erectus populations (known as "multiregional") as some evidence in ancient bones show a transitional change from H. erectus to H. sapiens having archaic features. However it is now more widely accepted that all modern humans genetically share a direct ancestor, a female nicknamed "Mitochondrial Eve" from Eastern Africa 150,000 years BCE. This model is known as Mitochondrial Eve Hypothesis. The earliest evidence examples of fully modern humans in China come from Liujiang, China where a cranium dates 67,000 years BCE. Another is a partial skeleton from Minatogawa being just 18,000 years old.

Political history

Before unification by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, "China" did not exist as a coherent entity. The Chinese civilization consisted of a patchwork of several states, each ruled by a king (王), duke (公), marquess (侯), or earl (伯). Although there was a central king who held nominal power, and powerful hegemons sometimes held considerable influence, each state was ruled as an independent political entity. This is also the time of the beginnings of Confucian philosophy and that of many other philosophies that greatly influenced Chinese philosophy-political thought. This ended with the Qin Dynasty unification, during which the office of the emperor was set up, and a system of bureaucratic administration established. After the Qin, China experienced about 13 more dynasties, many of which continued the extensive system of kingdoms, dukedoms, earldoms, and marquisates. The territory varied with several expansions and contractions depending on the strength of each emperor and dynasty. However the emperor had ultimate, supreme, and unquestionable authority as the political and religious leader of China. The emperor also consulted civil and martial ministers, especially the prime minister. Political power sometimes fell into the hands of powerful officials, eunuchs, or imperial relatives, often at the expense of a child heriditary emperor. This happened especially since the emperor often was many layers of power removed from the outside world, making him susceptible to manipulation because his sources for information could manipulate that information causing him to make incorrect decisions, especially when their age at becoming emperor often had no bottom limit, with rule passing heriditarily but also given "in trust" to another relative. Political relations with dependencies (tributary kingdoms) were maintained by international marriages, military aids, treaties, and gifts. (see section "Geography, Political" below for examples), Luoyang, Chang'an (today's Xi'an), Nanjing, and Beijing are the four cities most commonly designated as capitals of China over the course of history. Chinese was the official language, though periods of Mongol and Manchu conquest saw the arrival of Mongol and Manchu as alternate official languages. On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China (ROC) was established, signaling the end of the Manchu-dominated Qing Empire. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), was proclaimed provisional president of the republic. However, Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who had defected to the revolutionary cause, soon forced Sun to step aside and took the presidency for himself (formally it was a negotiation where Sun agreed to step aside for what was then perceived as a strong reformer, Yuan). Before long, Yuan attempted to have himself proclaimed emperor of a new dynasty; however, he died soon of natural causes before fully taking power over all of the Chinese empire. After Yuan's downfall, China was politically fragmented, with an internationally-recognized, but virtually powerless, national government seated in Beijing (thus failing to fit the definition of a state). Warlords in various regions exercised actual control over their respective territories. state In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control, moving the nation's capital to Nanjing and implementing "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's program for transforming China into a modern, democratic state. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang with heavy Leninist influences. Ironically, both the Kuomintang and the CCP have heavy Leninist influences. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China (CPC), many provisions of the 1947 ROC constitution were never put into actual practice on the mainland. By early 1950, the CPC had defeated the Kuomintang on the mainland, and the ROC government retreated to the island of Taiwan. Beginning in the late 1970s, Taiwan began the implementation of full, multi-party, representative democracy in the territories still under ROC control (i.e., Taiwan Province, Taipei, Kaohsiung and some offshore islands of Fujian province). Today, the political scene in the ROC is vibrant, with active participation by all sectors of society. But rather than the usual conservative-liberal policy distinctions that are the hallmarks of most democracies around the world, the main cleavage in ROC politics is the unification with China in the long-run vs. formal independence issue. However, Greens are generally more liberal (i.e. more environmentally friendly) and Blues are generally regarded as more conservative. environmentally friendly Meanwhile, Mao Zedong, the leader of the communists, proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949 in Beijing, saying China had stood up. From the beginning, the PRC has been a dictatorial one-party state under the Communist Party. However, post-1978 reforms have led to the relaxation, in varying degrees, of party control over many areas of society. Nonetheless, the Communist Party still has absolute control over political aspects of society, and it continuously seeks to eradicate threats to its rule. Examples of this include the jailing of political opponents and journalists, general control of the press, regulation of religions and other non-party organizations, censorship of the press, literature and film, and suppression of independence/secessionist movements. In 1989, a popular demonstration held in Beijing at Tiananmen Square was violently put to an end by the Chinese government. Tiananmen_Square_protests_of_1989 The attempted eradication of the Falun Gong movement is also held by its supporters to be motivated by fear of Falun Gong's growing influence. Today, however, there is much more freedom in intellectual thought in non-political areas and propaganda, while still continuing, has lessened.

Territory

Historical overview

propaganda The Zhou Dynasty, which preceded the unification of China by Shi Huangdi, was originally the region around the Yellow River. Since then, the territory has expanded outward in all directions, and was largest during the Tang, Yuan, and Qing dynasties. The Qing Dynasty included parts of modern Russian Far East and Central Asia (west of Xinjiang). Xinjiang Along with provincial administrators, some foreign monarchs sent envoys to offer gifts to the Emperor of China and the Emperor returned compliments to them. The Chinese thought that the barbarians attached themselves to the virtue of the Emperor, while the foreign governments sometimes disagreed. Since the end of the 19th century, China has tried to reinterpret this relationship as suzerainty or suzerainty-dependency, but this no longer has any real conception in modern international political theories. The Qing Empire reduced the territorial value of the Great Wall of China as a barrier of China proper after they merged their homeland (Manchuria) north of the wall with China proper south of it. In 1683 after the surrender of the Kingdom of Tungning established by Koxinga, Taiwan including the Pescadores became a part of the Qing Empire, originally as one prefecture, then two, and later a province. Taiwan was subsequently ceded to Japan after the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895. At the end of the second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Japan relinquished the sovereignty of the island in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the Republic of China took over. Since then, the de jure sovereignty of Taiwan has been under dispute between the PRC, and the now democratic ROC and Taiwan independence supporters.

Historical political divisions

Historically, 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, commanderies, districts, and counties. Recent divisions also include prefecture-level cities, county-level cities, towns and townships (see below for examples). Historically, most Chinese dynasties were based in the historical heartlands of China, known by the politically-correct term of China proper (since it doesn't include places it doesn't control, such as Mongolia or Taiwan). Various dynasties also exhibited expansionism by engaging in incursions into more peripheral territories like Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Xinjiang, and Tibet. The Manchu-established Qing Dynasty and its successors, the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China cemented the incorporation of th