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Warring States

Warring States

:Alternative meaning: Warring States Period (Japan) The Warring States Period (traditional Chinese: 戰國時代, simplified Chinese: 战国时代 pinyin Zhànguó Shídài) takes place from sometime in the 5th century BC to the unification of China by Qin in 221 BC. It is nominally considered to be the second part of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, following the Spring and Autumn Period. Like the Spring and Autumn Period, the king of Zhou acted merely as a figurehead. The name Warring States Period was named after Record of the Warring States compiled in early Han Dynasty. The date for the beginning of the Warring States Period is somewhat in dispute. While it is frequently cited as 475 BC, following the Spring and Autumn Period, 403 BC, the date of the tripartition of the State of Jin, is also sometimes considered as the beginning of the period. State of Jin The Warring States Period, in contrast to the Spring and Autumn Period, was a period when regional warlords annexed smaller states around them and consolidated their rule. The process began in the Spring and Autumn Period, and by the 3rd century BC, seven major states had risen to prominence. These Seven Warring States (戰國七雄/战国七雄 Zhànguó Qīxióng, literally "Seven Heroes among the Warring States"), were the Qi (齊), the Chu (楚), the Yan (燕), the Han (韓), the Zhao (趙), the Wei (魏) and the Qin (秦). Another sign of this shift in power was a change in title: warlords still considered themselves dukes (公 pinyin: gōng) of the Zhou Dynasty king; but now the warlords began to call themselves kings (王 pinyin: wáng), meaning they were equal to the Zhou king. The Warring States Period saw the proliferation of iron working in China, replacing bronze as the dominant metal used in warfare. Areas such as Shu (modern Sichuan) and Yue (modern Zhejiang) were also brought into the Chinese cultural sphere during this time. Walls built by the states to keep out northern nomadic tribes and each other were the precursors of the Great Wall of China. Different philosophies developed into the Hundred Schools of Thought, including Confucianism (elaborated by Mencius), Taoism (elaborated by Zhuang Zi), Legalism (formulated by Han Feizi) and Mohism (formulated by Mozi). Trade also became important, and some merchants had considerable power in politics. Military tactics also changed. Unlike the Spring and Autumn Period, most armies in the Warring States Period made combined use of infantry and cavalry, and the use of chariots gradually fell into disfavor. This was also around the time legendary military strategist Sun Tzu wrote The Art of War which is recognized today as the most influential, and oldest known military strategy guide. Along with this are other military writings that make up the 7 military classics of ancient China which are made up of T'ai Kungs Six secret teachings, The Methods of the Ssu-ma, Sun Tzu's Art of War, Wu Tzu, Wei Liao Tzu, Three strategies of Huang Shih kung, and The questions and replies of T'ang t'ai tsung and Li Wei-kung. Once China was unified, these 7 military classics were locked away and access was restricted due to their tendency to promote revolution. (Today all seven can be found in one book entitled "The Seven Military Classics of Ancient China" by Ralph D. Sawyer.)

Partition of Jin

In the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Jin (晉) was arguably the most powerful state in China. However, near the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, the power of the ruling family weakened, and Jin gradually come under the control of six large families (六卿). By the beginning of the Warring States Period, after numerous power struggles, there were four families left: the Zhi (智) family, the Wei (魏) family, the Zhao (趙) family, and the Han (韓) family, with the Zhi family being the dominant power in Jin. Zhi Yao (智瑶), the last head of the Zhi familiy, attempted a coalition with the Wei family and the Han family to destroy the Zhao family. However, because of Zhi Yao's arrogance and disrespect towards the other families, the Wei family and Han family secretly allied with the Zhao family, and the three families launched a surprise attack that annihiliated the Zhi family. In 403 BC, the three major families of Jin, with the approval of the Zhou king, partition Jin into three states (三家分晉): the State of Han, the State of Zhao, and the State of Wei. The three family heads were given the title of Marquess (侯), and because the three states were originally part of Jin, they are also referred to as the Three Jins (三晉). The State of Jin continued to exist with a tiny piece of territory until 376 BC when the rest of the territory was partitioned by the Three Jins.

Change of Government in Qi

In 389 BC, the Tian (田) family seized control of the State of Qi and was given the title of Duke. The old Jiang (姜) family's State of Qi continued to exist with a small piece of territory until 379 BC, when it was finally absorbed into Tian family's State of Qi.

Early strife in the Three Jins, Qi, and Qin

In 371 BC, Marquess Wu of Wei passed away without specifying a successor, causing Wei to fall into an internal war of succession. After three years of civil war, Zhao and Han, sensing an opportunity, invaded Wei. On the verge of conquering Wei, the leaders of Zhao and Han fell into disagreement on what to do with Wei and both armies mysteriously retreated. As a result, King Hui of Wei (he's still a Marquess at the time) was able to ascend onto the throne of Wei. In 354 BC, King Hui of Wei initiated a large scale attack at Zhao, which some historians believe was to avenge the earlier near destruction of Wei. By 353 BC, Zhao was losing badly, and one of their major cities--Handan (邯鄲), a city that will eventually become Zhao's capital--was being besieged. As a result, the neighbouring State of Qi decided to help Zhao. The strategy Qi used, suggested by the famous tactician Sun Bin (孫臏), who at the time was the Qi army advisor, was to attack Wei's territory while the main Wei army is busy sieging Zhao, forcing Wei to retreat. The strategy was a success; the Wei army hastily retreated, and encountered the Qi midway, culminating into the Battle of Guiling (pinyin: guì líng) (桂陵之戰) where Wei was decisively defeated. The event spawned the famous phrase "圍魏救趙", meaning attacking Wei to save Zhao. In 341 BC, Wei attacked Han, and Qi interfered again. The two generals from the previous Battle of Guiling met again, and due to the brilliant strategy of Sun Bin, Wei was again decisively defeated at the Battle of Maling (馬陵之戰). The situation for Wei took an even worse turn when Qin, taking advantage of Wei series of defeats by Qi, attacked Wei in 340 BC under the advice of famous Qin reformer Shang Yang (商鞅). Wei was devastatingly defeated and was forced to cede a large portion of its territory to achieve a truce. This left their capital Anyi vulnerable, so Wei was also forced to move their capital to Daliang. After these series of events, Wei became severely weakened, and the Qi and Qin became two of the dominant states in China.

Shang Yang's reforms in Qin

Around 359 BC, Shang Yang (商鞅), a minister of the State of Qin, initiated a series of reforms that transformed Qin from a backward state into one that surpasses the other six states. It is generally regarded that this is the point where Qin started to become the most dominant state in China. See Shang Yang's page for a summary of the reforms and policies that was instituted.

Ascension of the Kingdoms

In 334 BC, the rulers of Wei and Qi agreed to recognize each other as Kings (王), formalizing the independence of the states and the powerlessness of the Zhou throne since the beginning of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The King of Wei and the King of Qi joined the ranks of the King of Chu, whose predecessors had been Kings since the Spring and Autumn Period. From this point on, all the other states eventually declare their Kingship, signifying the beginning of the end of the Zhou Dynasty. In 325 BC, the ruler of Qin declared himself as King. In 323 BC, the rulers of Han and Yan declared themselves as King. In 318 BC, the ruler of Song declared himself as King. The ruler of Zhao held out until around 299 BC, and was the last to declare himself as King.

Chu expansion and defeats

Early in the Warring States Period, Chu was one of the strongest states in China. The state rose to a new level around 389 BC when the King of Chu named the famous reformer Wu Qi (吳起) to be his prime minister. Chu rose to its peak in 334 BC when it gained vast amounts of territory. The series of events leading up to this began when Yue prepared to attack Qi. The King of Qi sent a emissary who persuaded the King of Yue to attack Chu instead. Yue initiated a large scale attack at Chu, but was devastatingly defeated by Chu's counter-attack. Chu then proceeded to conquer the State of Yue (越). (in progress)

The Domination of Qin and the resulting Grand Strategies

Towards the end of the Warring States Period, the State of Qin became disproportionately powerful compared to the other six states. As a result, the policies of the six states became overwhelmingly oriented towards dealing with the Qin threat, with two opposing schools of thought: Hezong (合縱/合纵 pinyin: hézòng, "vertically linked"), or alliance with each other to repel Qin expansionism; and Lianheng (連橫/连横 pinyin: liánhéng, "horizontally linked"), or alliance with Qin to participate in its ascendancy. There were some initial successes in Hezong, though it eventually broke down. Qin repeatedly exploited the Lianheng strategy to defeat the states one by one. During this period, many philosophers and tacticians travelled around the states recommending the rulers to put their respective ideas into use. These "lobbyists" were famous for their tact and intellect, and were collectively known as Zonghengjia (縱橫家), taking its name from the two main schools of thought. In 316 BC, Qin conquers the Shu area. (in progress)

Zhao's military reforms

307 BC. Adoption of superior non-Chinese clothing and cavalry (胡服騎射) under the reign of King Wuling of Zhao (in progress)

Qin's conquest of China

In 230 BC, Qin conquers Han. In 225 BC, Qin conquers Wei. In 223 BC, Qin conquers Chu. In 222 BC, Qin conquers Yan and Zhao. In 221 BC, Qin conquers Qi, completing the unification of China, and ushering in the Qin Dynasty.

Films set in the Warring States Period

The 2002 movie Hero, one of mainland China's highest grossing films domestically, is set during this period. Other, older, movies that take place in this era and deal with events relating to it: The Emperor and the Assassin (1999) (Starring: Gong Li, Zhang Fengyi, and directed by Chen Kaige) dealing with the first Qin Emperor, and The Emperor's Shadow (1996) (Starring Jiang Wen, Ge You, and directed by Zhou Xiaowen).

External links

Category:Zhou Dynasty ko:전국시대 ja:戦国時代 (中国) nb:De stridende staters tid

Sengoku period

The Sengoku period (Japanese: 戦国時代, Sengoku-jidai) or Warring States period, is a period of civil war in the history of Japan that spans from the middle 15th to the early 17th centuries. It started in the late Muromachi period in 1467 with the Onin War (1467-1478), lasting through the entire Azuchi-Momoyama period, until final peace and order was achieved in 1615 of the Edo period. Starting with and continuing after the Onin War, the central ruling authority of the Ashikaga or Muromachi Shogunate in the capital of Kyoto was ruined, leading to a complete breakdown in social order and civil war throughout Japan. Outside of the capital, the provincial daimyo and magistrates that relied on the shogunate for their own authority and power, found themselves isolated and vulnerable to not only external, but internal forces as well.

Gekokujō

Many of the provincial daimyo, such as Takeda Shingen and Imagawa Yoshimoto, having ruled their lands under the authority of not only the Ashikaga shogunate, but also under the preceding Kamakura shogunate, established their own independent domains. However, many others, like the Hosokawa, Shiba, and Toki found their lands taken over by their own subjects and retainers, like the Oda, late Hojo, and Saito Dosan, who had seized the opportunity to establish their own name and become new Sengoku daimyo in their own right. Also, peasants throughout Japan united with religious leaders and monks of the Buddhist True Pure Land sect to form Ikko-ikki to rebel against and resist the rule of the daimyo. In some cases they succeeded in forming their own independent domains, of which the most famous ikko ikki in Kaga province lasted independently for almost 100 years. This phenomenon of social upheaval where the retainers and subjects came to reject traditions and values of the prior establishment and forcefully overthrow their leaders to establish their own independence became known as gekokujo (下克上). Literally, gekokujo; means "the lower overcomes/conquers the upper". Oda Nobunaga, of the Oda clan, came very close to conquering the daimyo; but he was killed by his own retainer, Akechi Mitsuhide. The Oda clan was taken over by Nobunaga's most trusted general, the ashigaru leader Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Hideyoshi eventually conquered all of Japan and received the title of kampaku. During his reign Japan twice waged war against China and Korea. But after Hideyoshi's death in 1598, Japan was again divided, and then ultimately united under the banner of Tokugawa Ieyasu, who became shogun in 1603.

Sengoku period in modern culture

- Kagemusha, the powerful film by Akira Kurosawa, takes place during this era.
- Onibaba, a film by Kaneto Shindo, is also set in this period.
- The video game mod Sengoku is a FPS with feudal Japan theme and samurai for Battlefield 1942.
- The video game Shogun: Total War is a real time strategy game set in Japan during Sengoku period.
- The anime and manga series InuYasha is set in the Sengoku period.
- The Soul Calibur series of video games are set in the period of transition between the Sengoku and Edo periods.
- The video game Samurai Warriors by Koei takes place in this era.
- The video game series Onimusha by Capcom takes place in this era, especially Onimusha 3.
- The anime and manga series Samurai Deeper Kyo takes place just after the unification of Japan under the Tokugawa Shogunate however some plot events take place during this time period and many characters participated in the Warring States era.
- The video game Sengoku Basara (Japan only; the game was released as Devil Kings in the United States and all Sengoku references removed) by Capcom, takes place during the Sengoku Period.
- Usagi Yojimbo by Stan Sakai takes place during (and after) this era.
- Several NHK historical dramas, such as Dokuganryu Masamune, Kasuga no Tsubone, Takeda Shingen, Oda Nobunaga: King of Zipangu, Hideyoshi, and Toshiie to Matsu takes place during this era.
- The Conquests expansion for Civilization III features a Sengoku scenario.
- The popular role-playing game Sengoku by Anthony Bryant and Mark Arsenault is set in 16th Century Japan.
This period is the latter part of the Muromachi and the entire Azuchi-Momoyama periods of the History of Japan.

< Nanboku-cho | History of Japan | Edo period > Category:Feudal Japan ja:戦国時代 (日本)

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.

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.

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

Pinyin

Pinyin (Chinese: 拼音, pīnyīn) literally means "join (together) sounds" (a less literal translation being "phoneticize", "spell" or "transcription") in Chinese and usually refers to Hànyǔ Pīnyīn (汉语拼音, literal meaning: "Han language pinyin"), which is a system of romanization (phonemic notation and transcription to Roman script) for Standard Mandarin. Pinyin was approved in 1958 and adopted in 1979 by the government in the People's Republic of China. It superseded older transcriptions like the Wade-Giles system (1859; modified 1912) or Bopomofo. Similar systems have been designed for other Chinese spoken variants and non-Han minority languages in the PRC. Since then, pinyin has been accepted by the Government of Singapore, the Library of Congress, the American Library Association, and most international institutions as the preferred transcription system for Mandarin. In 1979 the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) adopted pinyin as the standard romanization for modern Chinese. It is important to maintain the distinction that pinyin is a romanization and not an anglicization; that is, it is equally applicable for transcription into any language that uses a Roman alphabet, but that the precise pronunciation need not match that of any of these languages. For example, the sounds indicated in pinyin by b and p are distinguished from each other (by aspiration) in a manner different from that of both English (which has voicing and aspiration) and of French (which has voicing alone). Other letters, like j or q indicate a combination of sounds that do not correspond to any exact sound in English. Some of the transcriptions in pinyin such as the ang ending, do not correspond to English pronunciations, either. Pinyin has also become a useful tool for entering Chinese language text into computers.

Pronunciation

The primary purpose of pinyin in Chinese schools is to teach Mandarin pronunciation. Many in the West are under the mistaken belief that pinyin is used to help children associate characters with spoken words which they already know, but this is incorrect as many Chinese do not use Mandarin at home, and therefore do not know the Mandarin pronunciation of words until they learn them in elementary school through the use of pinyin. Pinyin uses the Roman alphabet, hence the pronunciation is relatively straightforward for Westerners. A pitfall for English-speaking novices is, however, the unusual pronunciation x, q, c and z (and sometimes i) and the unvoiced pronunciation of d, b, g, j. More information on the pronunciation of all pinyin letters in terms of English approximations is given further below. The pronunciation of Chinese is generally given in terms of initials and finals, which represent the segmental phonemic portion of the language. Initials are initial consonants, while finals are all possible combinations of medials (semivowels coming before the vowel), the nucleus vowel, and coda (final vowel or consonant).

Initials

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin. ^- and are interchangeable.

Finals

In each cell below, the first line indicates IPA, the second indicates pinyin for a standalone (no-initial) form, and the third indicates pinyin for a combination with an initial. Other than finals modified by an -r, which are omitted, the following is an exhaustive table of all possible finals. ¹ It is of interest to point out that the only syllable-final consonants in standard Mandarin are -n and -ng, and -r which is attached as a grammatical suffix. If you see a Chinese syllable ending with any other consonant, it is either a dialect (notably Cantonese), or a non-Pinyin Romanization system (where final consonants are used to indicate tones) is being used. ¹ /ər/ (而, 二, etc.) is written as er. For other finals formed by the suffix -r, pinyin does not use special orthography; one simply appends -r to the final that it is added to, without regard for any sound changes that may take place along the way. For information on sound changes related to final -r, please see Standard Mandarin.
² "ü" is written as "u" after j, q, or x.
³ "uo" is written as "o" after b, p, m, or f.
⁴ It is pronounced when it follows an initial, and pinyin reflects this difference.
In addition, ê is used to represent certain interjections.

Rules given in terms of English pronunciation

All rules given here in terms of English pronunciation are approximate.

Pronunciation of initials

Pronunciation of finals

The following is an exhaustive list of all finals, with or without final -r. To find the pronunciation of a final: #Look for the entire combination rather than the individual letters. For example, look for ian, not i + a + n. #For syllables starting with y- or w-, change the y- to i- and w- to u-, then take the i- and u- as part of the final. (E.g. yan -> ian, where "ian" is the final.) If this results in ii-, uu-, and iu-, change those to i-, u-, and ü- respectively. (E.g. yin -> in, wu -> u, yue -> üe) #If the initial is j-, q-, and x-, and the final starts with -u-, then change the -u- to -ü-.

Orthographic features

Pinyin differs from other romanizations in several aspects, such as:
- w is placed before syllables starting with u.
- y is placed before syllables starting with i and ü.
- ü is written as u when there is no ambiguity (such as ju, qu, and xu), but written as ü when there are corresponding u syllables (such as lü and nü)
- When preceded by a consonant, iou, uei, and uen are simplified as iu, ui, and un (which do not represent the actual pronunciation).
- Like zhuyin, what are actually pronounced as buo, puo, muo, and fuo are given a separate representation: bo, po, mo, and fo.
- The apostrophe (') is used before ɑ, o, and e to separate syllables in a word where ambiguity could arise, e.g., pi'ao (皮襖) vs. piao (票), and Xi'an (西安) vs. xian (先).
- Eh! alone is written as ê; elsewhere as e. Schwa is always written as e.
- zh, ch, and sh can be abbreviated as ẑ, ĉ, and ŝ. However, the shorthands are rarely used due to difficulty of entering them on computers.
- ng has the uncommon shorthand of ŋ.

Tones

ŋ The Pinyin system also incorporates suprasegmental phonemes to represent the four tones of Mandarin. Each tone is indicated by a diacritical mark above a non-medial vowel. Many books printed in China mix fonts, with vowels with tone marks rendered in a different font than the surrounding text, a practice that tends to give such Pinyin texts a typographically ungainly appearance. This style, most likely rooted in early technical limitations, has led many to believe that Pinyin's rules call for this practice and also for the use of "" (with no curl over the top) rather than the standard style of the letter "a" found in most fonts. The official rules of Hanyu Pinyin, however, specify no such practice. Note that tone marks can also appear on consonants in certain vowelless exclamations. # The first tone is represented by a macron (ˉ) added to the pinyin vowel: #:
# The second tone is denoted by an acute accent (ˊ): #:
# The third tone is symbolized by a caron (ˇ, also known as a reverse circumflex). Note, it is officially not a breve (˘, lacking a downward angle), although this misuse is somewhat common on the Internet. #:
# The fourth tone is represented by a grave accent (ˋ): #:
# The fifth or neutral tone is represented by a normal vowel without any accent mark: #:

:(In some cases, this is also written with a dot before the syllable; for example, ·ma.) Since most computer fonts do not contain the macron or caron accents, a common convention is to postfix the individual syllables with a digit representing their tone (e.g., "tóng" (tong with the rising tone) is written "tong2"). The digit is numbered as the order listed above, except the "fifth tone", which, in addition to being numbered 5, is also either not numbered or numbered zero, as in ma0 (吗/嗎, an interrogative marker). These tone marks normally are only used in Mandarin textbooks or in foreign learning texts, but they are essential for correct pronunciation of Mandarin syllables, as exemplified by the following classical example of five characters whose pronunciations differ only in their tones: The words are "mother", "hemp", "horse", "admonish" and a question particle, respectively.

Rules for placing the tone mark

The rules for determining on which vowel the tone mark appears are as follows: # If there is more than one vowel and the first vowel is i, u, or ü, then the tone mark appears on the second vowel. # In all other cases, the tone mark appears on the first vowel (y and w are not considered vowels for these rules.) The reasoning behind these rules is in the case of diphthongs and triphthongs, i, u, and ü (and their orthographic equivalents y and w when there is no initial consonant) are considered medial glides rather than part of the syllable nucleus in Chinese phonology. The rules ensure that the tone mark always appears on the nucleus of a syllable.

Miscellanea

An umlaut is placed over the letter u when it occurs after the initials l and n in order to represent the sound [y]. This is necessary in order to distinguish the front high rounded vowel in lü (e.g. 驴/驢 donkey) from the back high rounded vowel in lu (e.g. 炉/爐 oven). Tonal markers are added on top of the umlaut, as in lǘ. However, the ü is not used in other contexts where it represents a front high rounded vowel, namely after the letters j, q, x and y. For example, the sound of the word 鱼/魚 (fish) is transcribed in pinyin simply as yú, not as yǘ. This practice is opposed to Wade-Giles, which always uses ü, and Tongyong Pinyin, which always uses yu. Whereas Wade-Giles needs to use the umlaut to distinguish between chü (pinyin ju) and chu (pinyin zhu), this ambiguity cannot arise with pinyin, so the more convenient form ju is used instead of jü. Genuine ambiguities only happen with nu/nü and lu/lü, which are then distinguished by an umlaut diacritic. Many fonts or output methods do not support an umlaut for ü or cannot place tone marks on top of ü. Likewise, using ü in input methods is difficult because it is not present as a simple key on many keyboard layouts. For these reasons v is sometimes used instead by convention. Occasionally, uu (double u) or U (capital u) is used in its place. See also:
- Postal System Pinyin (unrelated)
- Combining diacritic marks Unicode #U0300

Pinyin in Taiwan

The Republic of China on Taiwan is in the process of adopting a modified version of pinyin (currently Tongyong Pinyin). For elementary education it has used zhuyin (also known as bopomofo), and for romanization there is no standard system in general use in Taiwan despite many efforts to standardize on one system. In the late-1990s, the government of Taiwan formally decided to move from zhuyin to pinyin. This has triggered a very heated discussion of which pinyin system to use: hanyu pinyin of People's Republic of China or some other system. Much of the controversy centers on issues of national identity because of political interests. Proponents for adopting pinyin maintain that it is an international standard that is already used throughout the world. Proponents for adopting a new system maintain that Taiwan should have its own identity and culture separate from the People's Republic of China. A new system Tongyong Pinyin was created in Taiwan in 1998. Tongyong Pinyin is mostly similar to Hanyu Pinyin with a number of changes in the letters and digraphs representing certain sounds. In October 2002, the ROC government adopted Tongyong Pinyin through an administrative order that local governments can override. Localities with governments controlled by the Kuomintang, most notably Taipei City, have overridden the order and converted to Hanyu Pinyin (although with a slightly different capitialization convention than the Mainland). As a result, English signs have inconsistent romanization in Taiwan, with many places using Tongyong Pinyin but some using Hanyu Pinyin, and still others not yet having had the resources to replace older Wade-Giles or MPS2 signage. This has resulted in the odd situation in Taipei City in which inconsistent pinyin are shown in freeway directions, with freeway signs, which are under the control of the national government, using one pinyin, but surface street signs, which are under the control of the city government, using the other. As of 2003, no form of pinyin is used in elementary education on Taiwan to teach pronunciation. Although the ROC government has stated the desire to use romanization rather than zhuyin in education, the lack of agreement on which form of pinyin to use and the huge logistical challenge of teacher training has stalled these efforts.

Other languages

Pinyin-like systems have been devised for other variants of Chinese. Guangdong Romanization is a set of romanizations devised by the government of Guangdong province for Cantonese, Teochew, Hakka (Moiyen dialect), and Hainanese. All of these are designed to use letters in a similar way to Pinyin. In addition, in accordance to the "Regulation of Phonetic Transcription in Hanyu Pinyin Letters of Place Names in Minority Nationality Languages" (《少数民族语地名汉语拼音字母音译转写法》) promulgated in 1976, place names in non-Chinese languages like Mongol, Uyghur, and Tibetan are also officially transcribed using Pinyin. The pinyin letters (26 Roman letters, ü, and ê) are used to approximate the non-Chinese language in question as closely as possible. This results in spellings that are different from both the customary spelling of the place name, and the Pinyin spelling of the name in Chinese:

Controversy

Debate continues about the actual suitability of pinyin as a Chinese romanization method. This argument revolves around pinyin's unconventional use of Roman letters, of which the phonological values of some phonemes are quite different from that of most languages utilizing the Roman alphabet. Some sinologists praise this as pinyin's flexibility in that it allows the entire Roman alphabet to be adapted to the Chinese sound system (compared to Wade-Giles, which leaves out or underuses many letters). Others point out that pinyin letter values are so unconventional that for a person unfamiliar with Chinese, they result in a larger number of mispronunciations when compared to Wade-Giles. However, as not only the PRC but by now most institutions and publications have adopted it, the debate seems increasingly obsolete. Pinyin, like all systems of romanization, has certain limitations that users should be aware of:
- Like the spelling systems of any other language, pinyin does not represent English pronunciation and should not be pronounced according to English conventions. Readers are advised to learn pinyin phonetic conventions, bearing in mind that many sounds have no equivalents in English.
- Chinese characters can indicate semantic cues. But since pinyin is based on the sounds of Mandarin alone, these semantic cues are no longer preserved. For speakers of other Chinese spoken variants, it becomes unsuitable for use in reading and writing because these sounds do not necessarily correspond to their speech.
- The phonotactics of spoken Mandarin dictate a relatively small set of possible syllables and there is a potential for homonyms. Because of this, pinyin can be ambiguous, especially when transcribing Standard Written Chinese, which uses formal constructions not often found in speech. However, this should not be an issue in the transcription of normal spoken Mandarin conversation since speakers would not use such ambiguous constructions in speech. Computer systems long provided the most convincing argument in favor of pinyin; early computers were able to display nothing but 7-bit ASCII (essentially the 26 letters, the 10 digits, and a handful of punctuation marks). Most contemporary computer systems are now able to readily display characters from not only Chinese, but from many other writing systems as well. In addition, multiple input method editors exist that use standard keyboards to type them (pinyin being one such method). Now, PDAs and digitizing tablets allow users to write characters with a stylus, which can then be stored and edited like any text. Thus, this justification is no longer as strong as it used to be. Nonetheless, pinyin has gained wide acceptance, and supporters believe it is useful for students of Chinese as a second language.

Reference

Yin Binyong 尹斌庸, Mary Felley: Chinese Romanization. Pronunciation and Orthography (Hanyu pinyin he zhengcifa 汉语拼音和正词法; Sinolingua, Beijing 1990), ISBN 7-80052-148-6 / ISBN 0-8351-1930-0.

External links

Auto-converters

- [http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/annotation.html Chinese characters to Pinyin (with tone marks and English meaning)]
- [http://www.pinyin.info/unicode/marks3.html Pinyin with tone numbers to Pinyin with tone marks] (can handle 5 for neutral tone)
- [http://www.foolsworkshop.com/ptou/index.html Pinyin with tone numbers to Pinyin with tone marks]
- [http://www.rikai.com/perl/HomePage.pl?Language=Zh Rikai.com] A web-mediator that adds mouseover pinyin readings to Chinese web-pages.
- [http://www.mandarintools.com/dimsum.html DimSum Chinese Reading Assistant] Add pinyin (or bopomofo, etc.) to text, web pages, or RTF files. Includes dictionary, flashcards.

Other

- [http://www.pinyin.info/ Pinyin.info] — very complete explanation of Unicode pinyin.
- [http://www.pinyin.info/unicode/unicode_test.html Pinyin info Unicode testpage]
- [http://www.math.nus.edu.sg/aslaksen/read.shtml Read/Write using Unicode]
- [http://research.chtsai.org/papers/pinyin-comparison.html Tongyong and Hanyu Pinyin]
- [http://www.sinosplice.com/lang/pronunciation.html Sinosplice - Pronunciation of Mandarin Chinese]
- [http://www.fdicts.com/dictlist1.php?k1=126 Fdicts] Simplified Chinese Dictionary
- [http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php MDBG free online Chinese-English dictionary]
- [http://www.mandarintools.com/pyconverter.html Chinese Romanization Converter] - Convert between Hanyu Pinyin, Wade-Giles, Gwoyeu Romatzyh, and other common Romanization systems. Category:Chinese language romanization Category:Latin-derived alphabets Category:Mandarin terms ko:병음 ja:ピン音 th:พินอิน

221 BC

Centuries: 4th century BC - 3rd century BC - 2nd century BC Decades: 270s BC 260s BC 250s BC 240s BC 230s BC - 220s BC - 210s BC 200s BC 190s BC 180s BC 170s BC Years: 226 BC 225 BC 224 BC 223 BC 222 BC - 221 BC - 220 BC 219 BC 218 BC 217 BC ---- Events
- State of Qin conquered the state of Qi. The king of Qin unifed China and proclaimed himself First Emperor, as he was the first Chinese sovereign able to rule the whole country. He is known by historians as Qin Shi Huang.
- Hannibal succeeds his brother-in-law as commander of Carthaginian Spain.
- Philip V becomes king of Macedonia.
- Gaius Flaminius builds a second racetrack for Rome, the Circus Flaminius. Births Deaths
- Hasdrubal, Carthaginian general (assassination) Category:220s BC

Spring and Autumn Period

The Spring and Autumn Period () represented an era in Chinese history between 722 BC and 481 BC. The period takes its name from the Spring and Autumn Annals, a chronicle of the period whose authorship was traditionally attributed to Confucius. During the Spring and Autumn Period, power became decentralized. This period was filled with battles and annexation of some 170 smaller states. The slow crumbling of nobility resulted in widespread literacy; increasing literacy encouraged freedom of thought and technological advancement. This era is followed by the Warring States Period. One thing must be understood, China was not considered an empire at this time. It wasn't until the first emperor of China, Emperor Qin of the Qin Empire (秦), that China ended its feudal period. During the Zhou Dynasty, the center of power was, or was supposed to have been, in the hands of the king of the Zhou Dynasty. Note that king and emperor are not the same at all. As the king of Zhou, he enjoyed tributes from his nobilities who ruled regions inherited from their ancestors. These ancestors who were appointed nobilities or dukes of states were often officers who had achieved great deeds for the king of the ruling dynasty, in this case the Zhou Dynasty. The king of Zhou did not exactly have direct control over his tributary states. Instead, the collective loyalty of the dukes and nobilities made up the power of the king of Zhou. As loyalty deteriorated, so did the power of the king. It is important to understand that the first emperor of China saw that the feudal system would eventually lead to a weak king and a chaotic situation. As a result, the empire that he built ruled China with a strong centralized institution that did not rely on the loyalty of local dukes.

The Autumn Period

After the capital was sacked by western barbarian tribes, crown prince Ji Yijiu (姬宜臼) fled to the east. During the flight from the western capital to the east, the Zhou king relied on the nearby lords of Qin (秦), Zheng (鄭) and Jin (晉) for protection from barbarians and rebellious lords. He moved the Zhou capital from Zongzhou (Hao) to Chengzhou (today Luoyang) in the Yellow River valley. The fleeing Zhou elite did not have strong footholds in the eastern territories; even the crown prince's coronation had to be supported by those states to be successful. With the Zhou domain greatly reduced, limited to Luoyang and nearby areas, the Zhou court could no longer support six groups of standing troops (liu4 jun1 六軍). Subsequent Zhou kings had to request help from neighbouring or powerful states for protection from raids and for resolution of internal power struggles. The Zhou court would never regain its original authority; the Zhou court was relegated to being merely a figurehead of the feudal states. Though Zhou nominally retained the Mandate of Heaven, the title held no power.

Rise of the hegemons

The first nobility to help the Zhou kings was the Duke Zhuang of Zheng (鄭莊公) (r. 743 BC-701 BC). He was the first to establish the hegemonical system (ba4 霸), which was intended to retain the old proto-feudal system. Traditional historians justified the new system as a means of protecting weaker civilized states and the Zhou royalty from the intruding "barbarian" tribes. Located in the south, north, east and west, the barbarian tribes were, respectively, the Man, Yi, Rong and Di. All so-called "civilized" states, however, were actually composed of a substantial mix of ethnicities; hence, there was no fine line between a "civilized" state and a "barbarian" one. Nevertheless, these ethnically and culturally different tribes had their own unique civilizations in some areas. Some ethnic groups were so substantially civilized and powerful by traditional Chinese standards that their political entities, including Wu and Yue, are even included in some versions of the five overlords (see below). Yue The newly powerful states were more eager to maintain aristocratic privileges over the traditional ideology of supporting the weak ruling entity during times of unrest (匡扶社稷 kuang1 fu2 she4 ji4), which had been widely propagated during imperial China to consolidate power into the ruling family. Dukes Huan of Qi (r. 685 BC-643 BC) and Wen of Jin (r. 636 BC-628 BC) made further steps in installing the overlordship system, which brought relative stability, but in shorter time periods than before. Annexations increased, favoring the several most powerful states, including Qin, Jin, Qi and Chu. The overlord role gradually drifted from its stated intention of protecting weaker states; the overlordship eventually became a system of hegemony of major states over weaker satellites of Chinese and "barbarian" origin. The great states used the pretext of aid and protection to intervene and gain advantages over the smaller states during their internal quarrels. Later overlords were mostly derived from these great states. They proclaimed themselves master of their territories, without even recognizing the petty figurehead of Zhou. Establishment of the local administration system (Jun and Xian), with its officials appointed by the government, gave states better control over the dominion. Taxation facilitated commerce and agriculture more than proto-feudalism. The three states of Qin, Jin and Qi not only optimized their own strength, but also repelled the southern state of Chu, whose rulers had proclaimed themselves kings. The Chu armies gradually intruded into the Yellow River Basin. Framing Chu as the "southern barbarian", Chu Man, was merely a pretext to warn Chu not to intervene into their respective spheres of influence. Chu intrusion was checked several times in three major battles with increasing violence - the Battle of Chengpu, the Battle of Bi and the Battle of Yanling; this resulted in the restorations of the states of Chen and Cai.

Interstate relations

See main article: Interstate relations during the Spring and Autumn period. During the period a complex system of interstate relations developed. It was partially structured upon the Western Zhou system of feudalism, but elements of realpolitik were emerging. A collection of interstate customary norms and values, which can perhaps be loosely termed international law, was also evident. As the operational and cultural areas of states expanded and intersected, diplomatic encounters increased.

Changing tempo of war

After a period of increasingly exhaustive warfare, Qi, Qin, Jin and Chu finally met for a disarmament conference in 579 BC, where the other states essentially became satellites. In 546 BC, Jin and Chu agreed to yet another truce. During the relatively peaceful 6th century BC, the two coastal states in today's Zhejiang, Wu and Yue, gradually grew in power. After defeating and banishing King Fu Chai of Wu, King Gou Jian of Yue (r. 496 BC-465 BC) became the last recognized overlord. This era of peace was only a prelude to the maelstrom of the Warring States Period. The four powerful states were all in the midst of power struggles. Six elite landholding families waged war on each other in Jin. The Chen family was eliminating political enemies in Qi. Legitimacy of the rulers was often challenged in civil wars by various royal family members in Qin and Chu. Once all these power strugglers firmly established themselves in their dominions, the bloodshed among states would continue in the Warring State Period. The Warring States Period officially started in 403 BC when the three remaining elite families in Jin - Zhao, Wei and Han - partitioned the state; the impotent Zhou court was forced to recognize their authority.

List of overlords, or Ba

Traditionally, the Five Overlords of Spring and Autumn Period (春秋五霸 Chun1 qiu1 Wu3 Ba4) include:
- Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公)
- Duke Wen of Jin (晉文公)
- King Zhuang of Chu (楚莊王)
- Duke Mu of Qin (秦穆公)
- Duke Xiang of Song (宋襄公) While some other historians suggest that the Five Overlords include:
- Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公)
- Duke Wen of Jin (晉文公)
- King Zhuang of Chu (楚莊王)
- King Fu Chai of Wu (吳王夫差)
- King Gou Jian of Yue (越王勾踐) Order is not important.

List of prominent states

The name following the name of the state is the capital(En., TC. and SC.). :Qi (state) 齊 - Linzi 臨淄临淄 :Chu (state) 楚 - Ying 郢郢 :Qin (state) 秦 - Xianyang 咸陽咸阳 :Jin (state) 晉 :Lu (state) 魯 - Qufu 曲阜曲阜 :Chen (state) 陳 - Chenqiu 陳丘陈丘 :Cai (state) 蔡 - Shangcai 上蔡上蔡 :Cao (state) :Song (state) 宋 - Shangqiu 商丘商丘 :Wei (state)魏 :Wu (state) 吳 - Suzhou 姑蘇姑苏 :Yue (state) 越 - Kuaiji 會稽会稽 :Huaguo 滑 :Zheng (state) 鄭 - Xinzheng 新鄭

List of important figures

Bureaucrats or Officers :Guan Zhong (管仲), statesman and advisor of Duke Huan of Qi and regarded by some modern scholars as the first Legalist. :Bai Li Xi (百里奚), famous prime minister of Qin. :Bo Pi, the corrupted bureaucrat under King He Lu and played important diplomatic role of Wu-Yue relations. :Wen Zhong and Fan Li, the two advisors and partisans of King Gou Jian of his rally against Wu. :Zi Chan, leader of self-strengthening movements in Zheng Influential scholars :Confucius :Laozi or Lao tse, founder of Daoism :Mozi, known as Motse (墨子 Mo4 Zi5) or "Mocius" (also "Micius") to Western scholars, founder of Mohism Historians :Confucius Engineers :Mozi :Lu Ban Wielders :O Ye Zi, literally means O the wielder and mentor of the couple Gan Jiang and Mo Xie Entrepreneurs and Commercial personnel :Fan Li Generals, military leaders and authors :Rang Ju, elder contemporary and possibly mentor of :Sun Tzu, the author of The Art of War Assassins :Yao Li, sent by He Lu to kill Qing Ji. :Zhuan Zhu, sent by He Lu to kill his cousin King Liao :Mo Xie See also: Hundred Schools of Thought

List of important events

770 B.C.E - the nobilities of the Zhou Dynasty supported King Píng of Zhou (周平王)as the new king of the Zhou Dynasty. King Píng moved the capital to luò yì (雒邑). The era of Eastern Zhou, or Spring Autumn, began. King Píng appointed the son of the nobility Yíng Qí (贏其) to the northwestern part of the Zhou Dynasty. He was named Duke Xiāng of Qin (秦襄公). The kingdom of Qin (秦) was born. 763 B.C.E - Duke Zhuang of Zheng (鄭莊公) attacked and destroyed the barbarian kingdom of hú (胡國). Duke Zhuang relied on his famous officer Zhài Zhòng (祭仲). 750 B.C.E - Duke Wén of Jin (晉文侯), Jī Chóu (姬仇), attached and destroyed the kingdom of Yú Chén Zhou (余臣周) 704 B.C.E - Duke of Chǔ (楚), Mǐ Xióng Tōng (羋熊通), saw the weakened power of the King of Zhou as an opportunty to break free from being a tributary state of the Zhou Dynasty and claimed the title of king himself. He announced the kingdom of Chǔ (楚國) and called himself King Wu of Chu (楚武王). 701 B.C.E - Duke Zhuang of Zheng (鄭莊公) died. His son Jī Hū (姬忽) succeeded the title of Duke and was known as Duke Zhāo of Zheng (鄭昭公). Because Lady Yōng (雍氏) of Song (宋國)was married to Duke Zhuang of Zheng and had a son named Ji Tū (姬突), the King of Song thought that he could extend influence in Zheng by helping to support a new ruler who had relations with Song. Zhài Zhòng (祭仲), who had the respect and influence in the state of Zheng, was lured and captured by Song and was forced to support Jī Tū as the successor to the throne of Zheng. Duke Zhāo of Zheng was forced down from his rank as Duke and fled. Jī Tū became the new ruler and was known as Duke Lì of Zheng (鄭厲公). 694 B.C.E - Duke Xiāng of Qi (齊襄公), Jiāng Zhu Er (姜諸兒), gathered many dukes at Shǒu Zhi (首止) and murdered Duke Huan of Lu (魯桓公). 686 B.C.E - Duke Xiāng of Qi (齊襄公) was assassinated. Jiāng Wú Zhī (姜無知) became the new Duke of Qi. 685 B.C.E - Duke of Qí Jiāng Wú Zhī (姜無知)was assassinated. Jiāng Xiǎo Bái (姜小白) became the new duke known as the famous Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公). 684 B.C.E Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公) appointed Guan Zhong (管仲) as Xiang (相), or prime minister. 681 B.C.E Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公) and Duke Zhuang of Lu (魯莊公), Ji Tong (姬同), met and negotiated at Kē (柯). 679 B.C.E Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公) invited and gathered all of the dukes from central China to his alliance and began his legend as the leader of the dukes. In the same year, the local ruler of the region of Qu Wo (曲沃) of the Jin State (晉), Ji Dai (姬代), murdered the Duke of Jin, Ji Fun (姬湣). Ji Dai bribes the King Li of Zhou (周釐王), Ji Wu (姬胡), and was officially appointed by the royal court as the new ruler of the Jin State. He was known as Duke Wu of Jin (晉武公). 668 B.C.E Duke Xain of Jin (晉獻公), who succeeded Duke Wu of Jin (晉武公), moved the Jin capital to Jiang (絳). 667 B.C.E King Hui of Zhou (周惠王), Ji Liang (姬閬), granted the titled of Ba (霸), or Overlord, to Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公). He continued to lead the alliance of dukes to serve and protect the Zhou Kingdom. 660 B.C.E Duke Cheng of Qin (秦成公) died. Ying Ren Hao (嬴任好) become the new Duke or Qin and was known as Duke Mu of Qin (秦穆公). 656 B.C.E Because the state of Cai (蔡) chose to pay tribute to the kingdom of Chu (楚國) instead of allying itself with Qi (齊), (Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公) led his army of alliance of dukes into the state of Cai . Cai lost completely and the alliance was going to attack kingdom of Chu. Under the brilliant strategy of the Qi prime minister Guan Zhong (管仲), Chu had no choice but to swear alligence with Qi. Duke Huan of Qi return in victory and hosted another coalition meeting at Kui Qiu (葵丘). 651 B.C.E Duke Xain of Jin (晉獻公) died. One of his sons named Ji Xi Qi (姬奚齊), who was born to one of his wives Lu Ji (驢姬), succeed the title of duke. An officer of Qi, Li Ke (里克), murdered him soon after the new duke came into power. Lu Ji commited suicide. Ji Zhuo Zi (姬卓子) became the new duke of Jin but was also murdered soon. Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公) led his army of alliance of dukes into the state of Jin and wanted to ended the killing spree. He was too late, however, because Duke Mu of Qin (秦穆公) had already done so by supporting a new duke in Jin with this army led by his high ranked officer Bai Li Xi (百里奚). The name Duke of Jin was named Ji Yi Wu (姬夷吾), and this title was Duke Hui of Jin (晉惠公). In the same year, Duke Huan of Song (宋桓公) died. His son Zifu (子茲甫) inherete the title of duke and was known as Duke Xiang of Song (宋襄公). 643 B.C.E (Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公) died. In his later years, after the death of his prime minister Guan Zhong (管仲), the Duke of Qi made some bad choices and used incompetent people in his court in high places. As a result, these people seized power of the state during the last days of the duke by murdering loyal and competent officers in the court. The duke’s will was to let his younger son be his successor. However, the same people who seized power changed his will and supported the duke’s oldest son, Jiang Wu Kui (姜無虧), to be the new duke. 642 B.C.E Jiang Wu Kui (姜無虧), the successor of Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公), was murdered. Jiang Zhao (姜昭) became the next duke and was known as Duke Xiao of Qi (齊孝公). 641 B.C.E After the death of Duke Huan of Qi (齊桓公), no one was really the leader of the dukes and the title of Ba, or Overlord, was up for grabs. Duke Xiang of Song (宋襄公) announce a new alliance of dukes in an atempt to become Ba. However, the state of Song was not as strong or big as Qi nor was Duke Xiang of Song as competent as the Duke Huan of Qi. In addition, Duke Huan of Qi had the help of Guan Zhong (管仲) who helped his lord manage his state into the most powerful and successful state in the whole period of Spring and Autumn. To begin his reign, Duke Xiang of Song captured the lord of Teng and murdered the lord of Whei or no good reason. Note that this was a huge mistake instead of a sign of power because the Overlord must be benevolent, powerful, advocant of the King of Zhou, and respectable. Every action of an Overlord must be rightous and heoric like those of Duke Huan of Qi. under construction

External links

Category:Zhou Dynasty ja:春秋時代

Figurehead

:For the metaphorical use, see Figurehead (political) Figurehead (political) Figurehead (political) A figurehead is a carved wooden decoration, often female or bestiary, found at the prow of ships of the 16th to the 19th century. The practice was introduced with the galleons of the 16th century, although earlier ships had often had some form of bow ornamentation the figurehead as such could not come to be until ships had a head structure to place it on. As with the stern ornamentation, the purpose of the figurehead was often to indicate the name of the ship in a non-literate society (albeit in a sometimes very convoluted manner); and always, in the case of naval ships, to demonstrate the wealth and might of the owner. At the height of the Baroque period, some ships of the line boasted gigantic figureheads, weighing several tons and sometimes twinned on both sides of the bowsprit. A large figurehead, being carved from massive wood and perched on the very foremost tip of the hull, adversely affected the sailing qualities of the ship. This, and cost considerations, led to figureheads' being made dramatically smaller during the 1700s, and in some cases they were abolished altogether around 1800. After the Napoleonic wars they made something of a comeback, but were then often in the form of a small waist-up bust rather than the oversized full figures previously used. The clipper ships of the 1850s and '60s customarily had full figureheads, but these were relatively small and light. Figureheads as such died out with the sailing ship. Early steamships, however, did sometimes have gilt scroll-work and coats-of-arms at their bows. This practice lasted up until about World War I. Category:Sailboat anatomy Category:Sailing ship elements

Record of the Warring States

Zhàn Guó Cè (Traditional Chinese: 戰國策 ;Simplified Chinese: 战国策) was a renowned ancient Chinese historical work on the Warring States Period compiled in late Western Han Dynasty by Liú Xiàng (劉向). It is an important literature in the research of Warring States Period as it accounts the strategies and political views of the school of negotiations and reveals the historical and social characteristics of the period. Alternative English titles include
- Zhanguoce,
- Stratagems of the Warring States,
- Intrigues of the Warring States,
- Chronicles of the Warring States,
- Records of the Warring States,
- Record of the Warring States,
- Annals of the Warring States,
- The Strategies of the Warring States,
- Strategies of the Warring States,
- Strategics of the Warring States,
- Collection of Strategies of the Warring States,
- Book of Warring States,
- Legends of the Warring States and
- Chan-kuo Ts'e (Wade-Giles).

Title and Versions

The author of Zhàn Guó Cè still cannot be verified. In late Western Han Dynasty, six versions of written works from the school of negotiations were discovered by Liu Xiang during his editing and proofreading of imperial literary collection. Those works of political view and diplomatic strategies from the school of negotiation were in poor condition, comprised of confusing contents and missing words. Liu Xiang proofread and edited them into the new book Zhan Guo Ce; Zhàn Guó Cè is therefore not written by a single author at a time. Significant contents of Zhàn Guó Cè were lost in subsequent centuries. Zeng Gong of the Northern Song Dynasty reclaimed some lost chapters, proofread and edited the modern version. Some writings on cloth were excavated from the Han Dynasty tomb at Mawangdui (py) or Ma-wang Tui (wg) near the city of Changsha in 1973 and edited and published in Beijing in 1976 in the 27 chapter Zhanguo zonghengjia shu (py) or Chan-kuo Tsung-heng-chia Shu (wg) (works from the school of negotiations during the Warring States Period) (201 pp.), 11 of which was found to be similar to the contents in ZGC and the Records of the Grand Historian. That publication appeared in Taiwan in 1977 as the Boshu Zhanguoce (py) or Po-shu Chan-kuo Ts'e (wg).

Format

ZGC recounts the history from the conquest of the Fan clan by the Zhi clan in 490 BC up to the failed assassination of Qin Shi Huang by Gao Jianli in 221 BC. The book comprises of approximately 120,000 words in 497 sections of 33 chapters (卷, juàn). The twelve Cè are:
- Dong Zhou Ce (lit. Strategies of Eastern Zhou) - 1 chapter
- Xi Zhou Ce (lit. Strategies of Western Zhou ) - 1 chapter
- Qin Ce(lit. Strategies of Qin) - 5 chapters
- Qi Ce (lit. Strategies of Qi) - 6 chapters
- Chu Ce (lit. Strategies of Chu) - 4 chapters
- Zhao Ce (lit. Strategies of Zhao) - 4 chapters
- Wei Ce (lit. Strategies of Wei) - 4 chapters
- Han Ce (lit. Strategies of Han) - 3 chapters
- Yan Ce (lit. Strategies of Yan) - 3 chapters
- Song and Wei Ce (lit. Strategies of Song and Wei) - 1 chapter
- Zhongshan Ce (lit. Strategies of Zhongshan) - 1 chapter In Chan-kuo Ts'e (see bibliography for full citation) by J. I. Crump, the text is categoried into 11 books: :The Book of Chou :The Book of Ch'in :The Book of Ch'i :The Book of Ch'u :The Book of Chao :The Book of Wei, or Liang :The Book of Han :The Book of Yen :The Book of Sung :The Book of Wei, the lesser :The Book of Chung-shan

Literary Criticism

ZGC displays the social aspects and scholaristic habitat of the Warring States Period. Not only a brilliant historical work, it is also an excellent historical literature and novel. Major events and historical information of the period are represented in objective and vivid descriptions. Detailed records of speeches and deeds of followers of school of negotiations reveals their mental makeup and intellectual expertise. Righteousness, bravery and determination of numerous characters are also recorded. Sophisticated intellectual contents of ZGC mainly discloses the intellectual inclination of followers of the School of Negotiation and illustrates the intellectual prosperity and multicultural aspects of the period. The literary achievement of the ZGC is also outstanding - it signifies a new era in the development of ancient Chinese literature. Among other aspects, character description, language usage and metaphorical stories demonstrates strong and clear literary quality. ZGC greatly influenced the format of the Record of the Grand Historian. Nevertheless, its intellectual aspects have also been disputed, mainly due to its stress on fame and profit and its conflicts with Confucian ideology. The book tends to overemphasize historical contributions from the School of Negotiation, devaluing the book's historical importance. The four-character idiom "Three men make a tiger" had its origin in the Wei section of ZGC.

Bibliography

- Chan-kuo Ts'e [CKT] (1996). Translated and annotated with an introduction by J. I. Crump. Revised ed. (Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies, 77, ISBN 1081-9053 ). Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. ISBN 0-89264-122-3 (hardcover alkaline paper)
- Crump, J. I. (1964). Intrigues of the Warring States: Studies of the Chan-kuo Ts'e. University of Michigan Press. Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 64-17440.
- Crump, J. I. (James Irving) (1998). Legends of the Warring States: Persuasions, Romances, and Stories from Chan-Kuo Tse (Michigan Monographs in Chinese Studies, 83). Center for Chinese Studies, The University of Michigan. ISBN 0-89264-129-0 (paperback). ISBN 0-89264-127-4 (hardcover alkaline paper).
- Hawkins, David. Review of Intrigues of the Warring States. JAOS. 86 (1966) : 1.
- He, Jianzhang (1990). Zhan Guo Ce Zhu Yi (Annotated translation of ZGC). Zhonghua Shuju (Chinese Book Company). ISBN 710100622.
- He, Jin (2001). Zhan Guo Ce Yan Jiu (ZGC research). Beijing Daxue Chubanshe (Peking University Press). ISBN 730105101.
- Lan, Kaixiang (1991). Zhan Guo Ce Ming Pian Shang Xi (Commendations and accounts of famous chapters in ZGC). Beijing Shiyue Wenyi Chubanshe (Beijing October Literary Press).
- Meng, Qingxiang (1986). Zhan Guo Ce Yi Zhu (Connotations and translations of ZGC). Heilongjiang Renmin Chubanshe (Heilongjiang Peoples' Press). Tongyi Shuhao (Unified Book Number) 10093·701.
- Qian, Guoqi (2000). Zhan Guo Ce Ping Jie (Comments and Introductions of ZGC). In Wei Liangtao (Ed.), Shi Zhu Ying Hua (Zhongguo Dianji Jinghua Congshu) 1, pp. 157?239. Zhongguo Qingnian Chubanshe (Chinese Youth Press). ISBN 750063764.
- Wang, Shouqian (1992). Zhan Guo Ce Quan Yi (Complete translations of ZGC). Guizhou Renmin Chubanshe (Guizhou Peoples' Press). ISBN 722102444.
- Xiong, Xianguang (1988). Zhan Guo Ce Yan Jiu Yu Xian Yi (ZG