Chinese

China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization, and became a large united country with an advanced culture at a very early stage, outpacing the rest of the world in areas like art and science.

Since around 1000 BC China consisted of many small kingdoms. All of these were unified under one emperor in 221 BC by the Qin state, ushering in the Qin Dynasty. Over the course of centuries, China underwent periods of unity and disunity, order and disorder.

In the 18th century, China achieved a decisive technological advantage over the peoples of Central Asia, while simultaneously falling behind Europe technologically. This set the stage for the 19th century, in which China adopted a defensive posture against European imperialism while simultaneously extending control into Central Asia.

In the early 20th century, the institution of the Emperor of China disappeared, and China entered a period of disunion started by the Chinese Civil War. There are now two nations which lay formal claim to the title of "China": the People's Republic of China (also called "Mainland China") and the pre-revolution government of the Republic of China which administers Taiwan and several small islands of Fujian.

See also: Timeline of Chinese history, History of Hong Kong, History of Macau, History of Taiwan

After the Qin Empire unification, China experienced about 13 more dynasties, many of which includes extensive system of kingdoms, principalities, dukedoms, earldoms, and marquisates. However, ultimately, the emperor had the centralized authority. The emperor also consulted civil and martial ministers, especially the prime minister. Sometimes political power, however, fell into the hands of the officials, eunuchs, or relatives.

Political relations with dependencies (tributary kingdoms) were maintained by international marriages, military aids, and gifts. (see section "Geography, Political" below for examples).

See also: Chinese sovereign, Chinese law

Physical map Larger version

China contains a large variety in landscapes, with mostly plateaux and mountains in the west, and lower lands on the east. As a result, principal rivers flow from west to east (Chang Jiang, the Huang He (of central-east), the Amur (of northeast), etc), sometimes to south (Pearl River, Mekong River, Brahmaputra, etc). All rivers empty into the Pacific.

In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are found extensive and densely populated alluvial plains; the shore of the South China Sea is more mountainous and southern China is dominated by hill country and lower mountain ranges.

To the west, the north has a great alluvial plain, and the south has a vast calcareous tableland traversed by hill ranges of moderate elevation, with the Himalaya, containing highest point Mount Everest. The southwest also has high plateaus feature among the more arid landscape of deserts such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert, which has been expanding. Due to a prolonged drought and perhaps poor agricultural practices dust storms have become usual in the spring in China.

During many dynasties, the southwestern border of China has been the high mountains and deep valleys of Yunnan, which separate modern China from Burma, Laos and Vietnam.

Over a hundred ethnic groups have existed in China. In terms of numbers, however, the predominant ethnic group in China is the Han. Throughout history, many ethnic groups have been assimilated into neighbouring ethnicities or disappeared without a trace. Several previously distinct ethnic groups have Sinicized into the Han, making its population increasing dramatically. The Han, however, continue to speak several mutually unintelligible languages (see Chinese languages). The government of the PRC recognizes 56 total ethnic groups.

Philosophy that have had extremely consequential impact on the Chinese culture, literary or illiterate, stems from Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism (in order of appearance).

China has a diverse religious tradition. Some of the religions or belief systems associated with China include ancestor worship, Buddhism, Chinese folk religion, Confucianism, Islam, and Taoism.

Chinese literature have the longest continuous history and had been more numerous than other cultures' for centuries because of the Chinese invention of printmaking. Prior to that, manuscripts of the Classics and religious texts (mainly Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist) were manually written by ink brushes and distributed. To comment on these works, printed or written, scholars formed numerous academies, many of which were sponsored by the empire, and some royalties constantly participated in the discussions.

Chinese philosophers, writers, and poets have been mostly highly respected, and considered to be those preserving and promoting the culture of the empire. Some classical scholars, however, were noted for their daring depictions of lives of the common people. (See List of Chinese authors, and List of Chinese language poets).

The Chinese created numerous musical instruments, such as zheng, xiao, that erhu, that have spread around East and Southeast Asia, especially to its dependencies. Sheng became the mother of several Western free-reed instruments.

The Chinese characters have had many variants and styles throughout the history of China, and was "simplified" in mid-20th century in mainland China.

Bonsai is a millennia-old art that spread to Japan and Korea.

See also: Buddhism in China, Chinese mythology, Chinese art, Chinese paper art, Chinese poetry, Chinese painting

In addition to the above mentioned cultural inventions, technological inventions from China include:

• Compass
• Printmaking / Printing Technology
• Paper
• Eastern abacus
• Gunpowder

• Chinese astrology and constellationss were often used for divination purposes.
• One of the main applications of mathematics in China have been architecture and geography.
• Alchemy was Taoist chemistry, very different from modern chemistry.
• Studies in biology has been extensive, and historic records are consulted upon today, such as pharmacopoeias of natural medicinal plants.
• Traditional medicine and surgery have been advanced. A well-known example is acupuncture. However, autopsy was unacceptable, because of the belief that the corpses should not be violated. Nonetheless, there were several doctors who increased the understanding of internal anatomy by violating this autopsy taboo.

Miscellaneous topics

• List of China-related topics
• Chinese name
• List of Chinese proverbs
• Chinese dragon
• Overseas Chinese
• Environment of China
• Imperialism in Asia

External links

Month  Zodiac Sign at Start
11     Sagittarius (by rule 4)
12     Capricorn
 1     Aquarius
 2     Pisces
 3     Aries
 4     Taurus
 5     Gemini
 6     Cancer
 7     Leo
 8     Virgo
 9     Libra
10     Scorpio

The problem here is that there is a month in which the sun enters two signs of the zodiac. I'll refer to such a month as a dual-entry month. If a given month is a dual-entry month or has a dual-entry month before it and no earlier than the preceding month 11, the above correspondence may fail, otherwise it holds.

• One day, the twelve animals fought over the precedence of the animals in the cycle of years in the calendar. The Chinese gods held a contest to see which should be first: they all lined up on the bank of a river, and were given the simple task of getting to the opposite shore. Depending on arrival, the first to get there would get the first year, and the order would depend upon how fast they finished.

• So all the animals lined up on the river bank and they all jumped in. The rat snuck up and climbed on the ox's back. Just as the ox came ashore, the rat jumped off and finished the race first. The lazy pig came to the far shore last. And so the rat got the first year named after him, the ox got the second year, and the pig ended up as the last.
• According to Chinese legend, the twelve animals quarreled one day as to who was to head the cycle of years. The gods were asked to decide and they held a contest: whoever was to reach the opposite bank of the river would be first, and the rest of the animals would receive their years according to their finish.
• All the twelve animals gathered at the river bank and jumped in. Unknown to the ox, the rat had jumped upon his back. As the ox was about to jump ashore, the rat jumped off the ox's back, and won the race. The pig, who was very lazy, ended up last. That is why the rat is the first year of the animal cycle, the ox second, and the pig last animal in the year cycle.

Radicals

Each character has a fundamental component, or radical (部首 bu4 shou3, literal meaning: "partial head (of the utmost importance)"), and this design principle is used in Chinese dictionaries to logically order characters in sets.

Full characters are ordered according to their initial radical, which fall into roughly 200 types. Then these are subcategorised by their total number of strokess.

This principle of categorisation is exploited by everybody who must learn to write Han characters: The vast number of Chinese characters can be much more easily memorized if they are mentally decomposed into their constituent radicals.

The earliest Chinese characters are the so called "Oracle Script" or (甲骨文) jia3gu3wen2 during the Shang Dynasty, followed by the Bronzeware Script or (金文) jin1wen2 during the Zhou Dynasty. These scripts no longer serve as anything but a curiosity.

The first script that is still of relevance today is the "Seal Script" or 篆書[篆书] zhuan4shu1. It is the result of the efforts of the first emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang Di, in the standardization of the Chinese script. The Seal Script, as the name suggests, is now only used in artistic seals. Few people are still able to read the seal script, although the art of carving a traditional seal in the seal script remains an art in China today.

Scripts that are still used regularly for print are the "Clerk Script" or 隸書[隶书] li4shu1, the "Wei Monumental" or 魏碑 wei4bei1, the "Regular Script" or 楷書[楷书] kai3shu1, the "Song Style" or 宋體[宋体] song4ti3 (only in printing), and the "Running Script" or 行書[行书] xing2shu1. Modern Chinese handwriting is usually modeled on the Running Script.

• Traditional Chinese character
• Simplified Chinese character
• Chinese character encoding
• Chinese input methods for computer
• Eight Principles of Yong
• Chinese characters of Empress Wu
• Bliss symbols

External link

Sociolinguistics of spoken variations of Chinese

In general, Chinese in southern China are fluent speakers of both Mandarin and the local dialect, but use a different variation based on the social situation. Mandarin is usually considered more formal and is required when speaking to a person who does not understand the local dialect. The local dialect is generally considered more intimate and is used among close family members and friends and in everyday conversation within the local area. Chinese speakers will frequently code switch between Mandarin and the local dialect. Parents will generally speak to their children in dialect, and the relationship between dialect and Mandarin appears to be stable.

Knowing the local dialect is of considerable social benefit and most Chinese who permanently move to a new area will attempt to pick up the local dialect. Learning a new dialect is usually done informally through a process of immersion and recognizing sound shifts. Typically, a speaker of one dialect of Chinese will need about a year of immersion to understand the local dialect and about three to five years to become fluent in speaking it. Because of the variety of dialects spoken, there are usually few formal methods for learning a local dialect.

Within the People's Republic of China there has been a strong official policy of not discouraging the use of local dialect or to imply that local dialect is inferior. On the other hand, in the Republic of China, the government had a policy until the mid-1980s of promoting Mandarin as high status and the local languages -- Taiwanese and Hakka -- as low status, a situation which caused a great deal of resentment and has produced somewhat of a backlash in the 1990s as part of the Taiwanese localization movement.

See also:

• Tianlong, The Celestial Dragon
• Shenlong, the Spiritual Dragon
• Futs-Lung, the Dragon of Hidden Treasures
• Ti-Lung, the Underground Dragon
• Yinglong (應龍), the Winged Dragon
• Qiulong (虯龍), the Horned Dragon
• Panlong (蟠龍), the Coiling Dragon: inhabits the waters
• Huanglong (黃龍), Yellow Dragon, which emerged from the River Luo to show Fuxi the elements of writing

Spoken Chinese comprises many regional variants, broken into six dialect groups. (The use of the word "dialect" is disputed as these dialects are mostly mutually unintellegible and possess the same amount of variation as the different Romance languages. If these dialects are to be referred to as "languages", then they are to be referred to as the Chinese languages as a whole.) It is common for speakers of Chinese to be able to speak several variations of the language. Typically in southern China, a person will be able to speak the official Mandarin Chinese, the local dialect, and occasionally either speak or understand another dialect, such as Cantonese Chinese.

In addition, most educated Chinese will be able to read to some degree Classical Chinese.

In the field of software and communications internationalization, CJK is a collective term for Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. The computerized processing of Chinese characters involves some special issues both in input and character encoding schemes.

The notion of a "Chinese language" may seem at first to be a fiction. The term "Chinese" is employed for the classical written language known as "wen2 yan2 (文言 "literary language")" which was used by Confucius, as well as the modern standard known as "bai2 hua4 (白話 [白话] "vernacular")". It includes many different spoken variations which may be mutually unintelligible. The spoken language of Beijing is for example very different from Cantonese, the conversational language of Hong Kong.

Nevertheless, there are good reasons for using a collective name. The most important one is that Chinese themselves consider the language to be unified entity, and there are good reasons for treating it as such. The most important is that the distinctions between the different variations of Chinese are not very distinct. For example, in writing an informal love letter, one may use informal bai hua. In writing a newspaper article, the language used is different and begins to include aspects of wen yan. In writing a ceremonial document, one would use even more wen yan. The language used in the ceremonial document may be completely different from that of the love letter, but there is a socially accepted continuum existing between the two. Pure "wen yan", however, is rarely used.

There are similar continuums in spoken language. A person living in Taiwan for example, would commonly mix pronunciations, phrases, and words from Mandarin and Min-nan, and these mixtures would be considered socially appropriate under many circumstances. A person living in Hong Kong would use different combinations of Mandarin, colloquial Cantonese, and written Cantonese depending on the social situation.

Another distinctive aspect of the Chinese language is the complex relationship between the various spoken varieties, and the various written varieties. Chinese is written using a logographic script in which one character represents one word element, or morpheme. It is generally the case that a Chinese text written in bai hua would be readable by most educated Chinese, but again the relationship between written and spoken Chinese is complicated. For example, an educated person in Hong Kong would be able to write a text in written formal Cantonese which is readable by someone who is a Mandarin speaker. However, that written formal Cantonese, while similar to written formal Mandarin, would be very different from a word-for-word transcription of what the Cantonese speaker would speak and would also be different from written colloquial Cantonese. One might ask: "If formal written formal Cantonese is different from spoken Cantonese, then where does the Cantonese reader learn written formal Cantonese?" The answer is that the individual would learn it in school, just as an English speaker learns how to write and speak "proper" English in school.

• Chinese grammar
• Chinese dialect
• Chinese written language
• Chinese characters
• Four-character idiom
• Traditional Chinese
• Simplified Chinese
• Common phrases in different languages
• List of Chinese measure words
• Languages of China

References

External links

Ancient texts

Sì shū, 四書, the Four Books are

• 大學, Dà Xué, the Great Learning
• 中庸, Zhōng Yóng, The Doctrine of the Golden Mean, name of a chapter in the Lǐjì 禮記, aka The Pivot
• 論語, Lùn Yǔ, the Analects of Confucius, a book of pithy sayings attributed to Confucius and recorded by his disciples.
• 孟子, Mèng Zǐ, the Works of Mencius

• 詩經, Shī Jīng, the Classic of Poetry, made up of 305 poems divided into 160 folk songs; 74 minor festal songs, traditionally sung at court festivities; 31 major festal songs, sung at more solemn court ceremonies; and 40 hymns and eulogies, sung at sacrifices to gods and ancestral spirits of the royal house. This book is probably a compilation from Confucius.
• 書經, Shū Jīng, the Classic of History, is a collection of documents and speeches alleged to have been written by rulers and officials of the early Zhou period and before. It contains the best examples of early Chinese prose.
• 易經, Yì Jīng or I Ching, the Classic of Changes, a manual of divination based on the eight trigrams attributed to the mythical emperor Fu Xi. (By Confucius' time these eight trigrams had been multiplied to sixty-four hexagrams.) The I Ching is still used by adherents of folk religion.
• 禮記, Lǐ Jì, the Classic of Rites, social forms and ceremonies (also spelled Liki), a restoration of the original Lijing, lost in the third century B.C., describes ancient rites and court ceremonies.
• 春秋, Chūn Qiū (aka Lín Jīng, 麟經) the Spring and Autumn Annals, a historical record of the principality of Lu, Confucius' native state, from 722 B.C to 479 B.C written (or edited) by Confucius, with implied condemnation of usurpations, murder, incest, etc.
• 樂經, the Classic of Music ) is sometime referred to as the sixth classic, but is lost.

• 道德經, Tao Te Ching or Dao De Jing, the Classic of The Way and its Virtue, attributed to Lao Zi.
• 孝經, Xiao Jing), the Classic of Filial Piety.

Classic Novels

• List of Chinese language novelists

• 红楼梦, A Dream of Red Mansions, a.k.a. Dream of the Red Chamber and The Story of the Stone (石頭記 Shitou Ji)) by 曹雪芹 Cáo Xuěqín
• 水浒传 All Men Are Brothers a.k.a. Water Margin and Outlaws of the Marsh) by 施耐庵 Shī Nài'ān
• 三国演义, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, by 罗贯中 Luó Guànzhōng
• 西游记, The Journey to the West a.k.a. Monkey King and Monkey, by 吴承恩 Wú Chéng'ēn.
• 聊齋志異, Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio, by 蒲松齡 Pú Sōnglíng.
• 金瓶梅, Jin Ping Mei, by 蘭陵笑笑生 Lánlíng Xiàoxiàoshēng.

Classical Poetry

• Classical Chinese poetry
• List of Chinese language poets

Modern

• 嚴 復 Yan Fu (1853-1924)
• 劉 鶚 Liu E (1857-1909)
• 王 國 維 Wang Guowei (1877-1927)
• 蘇 曼 殊 Su Manshu (1894-1918)
• 魯 迅 Lu Xun (1881-1936)
• 許 地 山 Xu Dishan (1893-1941)
• 茅 盾 Mao Dun (1896-1981)
• 徐 志 摩 Xu Zhimo (1896-1936)
• 郁 達 夫 Yu Dafu (1896-1945)
• 郭 沫 若 Guo Moruo (1892-1978)
• 老 舍 Lao She (1897-1966)
• 朱 自 清 Zhu Ziqing (1898-1948)
• 田 漢 Tian Han (1898-1968)
• 聞 一 多 Wen Yiduo (1899-1946)
• 巴 金 Ba Jin (1905- )
• 沈 從 文 Shen Congwen (1902-1988)
• 曹 禺 Cao Yu (1905- )
• Lin Yutang
• Gao Xingjian, Nobel Prize in Literature laureate, 2000
• Bing Xin (冰心)
• Wang Zengqi (汪曾祺)
• Tie Ning (铁凝)

• 盘古开天辟地 Pangu cleaves open heaven and earth -- the traditional story of the Earth's creation in Chinese mythology.
• The Three Pure Ones The highest deities of Daoism.
• Yu Huang The August Jade Emperor, Ruler of Heaven and Earth.
• 女娲补天: Nüwa seals the broken sky using stones of seven different colours -- the patch becomes the rainbow.
• 女娲造人: Nüwa creates humanity -- the story has been retold through many Chinese cartoons.
• 仓颉造字: Cangjie creates the characterss
• 大禹治水: Great Yu regulates the courses of rivers (to control floods)
• The Eight Immortals.
• The Cowherd and Weaver Girl.
• Xi Wang-mu (西王母) The Queen Mother of the west.
• Yi the archer The saviour of China. A great archer. (See note in solar deity)
• Chang E Yi's wife. Goddess of moon.
• Shen Nong Inventor of agriculture.
• Zao Jun popular god of the Kitchen.
• Matsu (Tin Hau)
• Guan Yin
• Wong Tai Sin
• Sun Wukong The Monkey King from the story Journey to the West
• Guan Yu
• Gong Gong Evil water demon who crushed Mount Buzhou.
• Chi You (蚩尤 chi1you2) A war god who fought Huang Di. Inventor of metal weapons.
• Nü Ba Ancient goddess of drought.
• Tam Kung, sea god
• Sam Po, sister of Matsu
• God of North (Bei Di, Pak Tai)
• Bi Fang (必方 bi4fang1) mythical god of fire (also write as 畢方).
• Huang Di (黃帝) fathers of medicine
• Hai Re (海若 hai3re4) god of the sea.
• Zhong Kui (鍾馗 [zhong1kui2) mythical person reputed for subjugating demons.
• Lei Gong (雷公 lei2gong0) god of thunder
• A Xiang (阿香 a4xiang1) the girl driver of the chariot of God of Thunder
• Xuan Nu (玄女 (xUan2nU3) who assisted Huang Di (黃帝) to subdue Chi Yau (蚩尤).
• Yan Luo (閻羅 yan2luo2) ruler of Hell (short from 閻魔羅社 Sanskrit Yama Raja).

Mythical creatures

• Ba She (巴蛇 ba1she2) a snake reputed to swallow elephants
• Birds:
  • Fenghuang (Chinese Phoenix)
  • Ji Guang (吉光 ji2guang1)
  • Jian (鶼 jian1) A mythical bird supposed to have only one eye and one wing: 鶼鶼 a pair of such birds dependent on each other, inseparable, hence, represent husband and wife.
  • Jing Wei (精衛) a mythical bird which tries to fill up the ocean with twigs and pebbles.
  • Shang-Yang (a rainbird)
  • Su Shuang (鷫鵊 su4shuang3) a mythical bird, also variously described as a water bird, like the crane.
  • Peng (鵬, a mythical bird of giant size and terrific flying power)
  • Qing Niao (青鳥 qing1niao3) a mythical bird, the messager of Xi Wang Mu.
  • Zhu (a bad omen)
• Chinese Dragon
  • Ying Long, a powerful servant of Huang Di.
  • Dragon King
  • Futs-Lung, the treasure dragon
  • Shen-Lung, the rain dragon
  • Ti-Lung, the earth dragon
  • Tien-Lung, the celetial dragon
• Kirin
• Kui (夔 kui2) a mythical one legged monster.
• Kun (鯤 kun1) a mythical giant monsterous fish.
• Hopping corpse
• Fox Spirit
• Nian, the beast
• Ox heads & horse faces 牛頭馬面 messenger boy in Hell.
• Rui Shi (瑞獅)
• Tao Tie (饕餮 tao1tie4) a mythical gargoyle like figure, often found on ancient bronze vessels, representing greed.
• Xiao (魈 xiao1) A mythical mountain spirit or demon.

Mythical places

• Xuan Pu (玄圃 xUan2pu3), a mythical fairyland on Kunlun Mountain (崑崙).
• Yao Chi (瑤池 yao2chi2), abode of immortals where Xi Wang Mu lives.
• Fu Sang (扶桑 fu2sang1), a mythical island, often interpreted as Japan.
• Que Qiao (鵲橋 qUe4qiao2) the bridge formed by birds across the milky way.
• Peng lai (蓬萊 peng2lai2) the paradise, a fabled Fairy Isle on the China Sea.
• Long Men (龍門 long2men2) the dragon gate where a carp can transformed into a dragon.

See also:

During Ming and Qing dynasties (when Arabic numerals were first introduced into China), some Chinese mathematicians used Chinese numeral characters as positional system digits. After Qing dynasty, both the Chinese numeral characters and the Suzhou numerals were replaced by Arabic numerals in mathematical writings.

Traditional Chinese numeric characters are recognized and used in Japan where they are used in much the same formal or decorative fashion that Roman Numerals are in Western cultures. In Japan, Chinese numerals often appear on the same signs or documents as the more commonly used Western style numbers.

• Heavenly Stems
• Earthly Branches
• Numeral system
• Arabic numerals
• Armenian numerals
• Babylonian numerals
• Greek numerals
• Hebrew numerals
• Indian numerals
• Mayan numerals
• Roman numerals

External links

• Poems and other Chinese constrained writings.

Chinese grammar

• Chinese character
• Chinese language
• Chinese input methods for computer
• Nu shu
• Han unification
• Japanese language
• Korean language
• List of writing systems

External links

References

• Dong Cheng (simplified and traditional Chinese: 董承 dong3 cheng2) - father of Concubine Dong of Emperor Xian of Han China and known for his abortive coup d'etat with Liu Bei against Cao Cao.
• Cai Mao (simplified and traditional Chinese: 蔡瑁 cai4 mao4) - brother-in-law of the warlord Liu Biao.

• Yang Jun (simplified Chinese: 杨骏 yang2 jun4) - father-in-law of Emperor Wu of Jin China
• Yu Liang (simplified and traditional Chinese: 庾亮 yu3 liang4) - brother of Empress Dowager Yu

Martial arts film - Wu Xia film

Chinese classic texts - Chinese poetry - List of Chinese language poets - List of Chinese proverbs

American Chinese cuisine - Boba milk tea - Cantonese cuisine - Cardamom - Chinese Buddhist cuisine - Chinese Islamic cuisine - Chiuchow cuisine - Chopsticks - Chop suey - Dim sum - Double steaming - Fingerroot - Five spice powder - Fortune cookie - Ginger root - Hakka cuisine - Hot salt frying - Hot sand frying - Hunan cuisine - Longan - Lychee - Mandarin cuisine - Monosodium glutamate - Shanghai cuisine - Soy sauce - Stir frying - Szechuan cuisine - Szechuan pepper - Taiwanese cuisine - Tofu - Wok

Ethnic groups and regionalisms

• List of Chinese ethnic groups
• Ethnic groups in Chinese history
• Overseas Chinese

Games

Che Deng - Chinese checkers - Chinese dominoes - Go (board game) - Go proverb - Gwat Pai - Kap Tai Shap - Keno - Mah Jong - Pai Gow - Pai gow poker - Shanghai solitaire - Tangram - Tien Gow - Tiu U - Xiangqi

Origins of Chinese Civilization - Chinese prehistory - Dongyi - Hunn-Xianpi - Khitan - Jurchen - Tabgach - proto-Sino-Tibetan - Shang-Chu Kingdom - Yuezhi - Yue Kingdom - Nanyue Kingdom - Wu Kingdom

Chinese input methods for computer - Chinese numerals - Chinese written language - Classical Chinese - Pinyin

Bodhidharma - Buddhism - Dalai Lama - Falun Gong - Gedun Drub - Guanyin - Mahayana Buddhism - Shang Ti - Shaolin - Sonam Gyatso - Tibetan Buddhism - Vajrayana - Yami - Zen

Sima Qian's account, Records of the Grand Historian, dates the founding of the Xia to some 4,000 years ago, however this date has not yet been corroborated. Some archaeologists connect the Xia to excavations at Erlitou in central Henan province, where a bronze smelter from around 2000 BC was unearthed. Early markings from this period, found on pottery and shells, are alleged to be ancestors of modern Chinese language, however these claims are unsupported. With no clear, written records such as the Shang's oracle bones or the Zhou bronze vessel writings, the Xia remains poorly understood.

At present, archaeological findings provide evidence for the existence of at least the Shang (1600-1046 BC). Shang archaeological evidence is divided into two sets. The first, from the earlier Shang (circa 1600 to 1300) comes from sources at Erligang, Zhengzhou and Shangcheng. The second set, from the later Shang or Yin period consists of a large body of oracle bone writings. Anyang, Henan (1300-1046 BC), has been confirmed as the last of the six capitals of the Shang.

Historians living in the Imperial Chinese period were accustomed to the notion of one dynasty succeeding each other, while the actual political situation in early China is known to be much more complicated. Hence, as some scholars of China suggest the Xia and the Shang can possibly refer to political entities that existed at the same time just as the later Zhou (successor state of the Shang), is known to have existed at the same time as the Shang.

By the end of 2nd millennium BC, the Zhou began to emerge in the Huanghe valley, overrunning the Shang. The Zhou appeared to have begun their rule under a semi-feudal system. Nevertheless, power became decentralized during the Spring and Autumn Period when larger states assimilated smaller states. The Hundred schools of thoughts of Chinese philosophy and knowledge blossomed during this period, which saw the foundation of Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism and Mohism. As the political consolidation continued, there remained seven prominent states by the end of 5th century BC, and the period in which these few states battled each other is known as the period of the Warring States. Though there a nominal Zhou king remained until 256 BC, his position was largely one of title, and he held little power.

Meanwhile neighboring territories of these warring states were gradually annexed, including areas of modern Sichuan and Liaoning, and governed under the new local administrative system of commandery and prefecture (郡縣), which had been in use since the Spring and Autumn Period and was very loosely a primitive prototype of modern system of Sheng Xian (province and county). A further expansion began during the reign of Ying Zheng, the king of Qin managed to conquer the other states and proclaimed himself the First emperor of Qin (Qin Shi Huang Di) after his unification and annexations in modern regions of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong and Guangxi in 214 BC, thereby the Chinese empire was formed under the Qin Dynasty.

Though unified reign of Qin Dynasty lasted only 12 years, he managed to subdue great parts of what constitutes the core of Han Chinese residence and to unite them under a tightly centralized government seated in Xian. His sons, however, were not as successful; soon the Qin ended, the Qin imperial structure collapsed.

The Han Dynasty emerged in 202 BC - it was the first dynasty to embrace Confucianism, which became the ideological underpinning of all regimes until the end of imperial China. Under the Han dynasty, the Chinese civilization experienced a giant leap on historiography, arts and science. Emperor Wu of Han China (Han Wudi) consolidated and extended the Chinese empire by pushing back the Xiongnu (sometimes identified with the Huns) into the steppes of modern Inner Mongolia and wrested modern areas of Gansu, Ningxia and Qinghai from Xiongnu, which in turn facilitated the first time ever opening of the Silk Road — trading connections between China and the occident.

Nevertheless land acquisitions by elite families had gradually drained the tax base. In AD 9 the usurper Wang Mang founded the short-lived Xin Dynasty and zealously redistributed land to peasants and put groundbreaking monetary and economical reforms into effect; however his reformations were never supported by land-holding families and, though aided the peasant and lesser gentry, was too vigorous and constantly modified such that chaos and upraisings broke loose. Emperor Guangwu of Han China reinstated the Han dynasty with the support of land-holding and merchant families at Luoyang, which located east of Xian and hence coined the new era Eastern Han Dynasty. Han power declined again in the midst of land acquisitions, invasions and struggles of consort clans and eunuchs. Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out in AD 184, ushering in an era of warlords. In the ensuing turmoil, three states tried to gain predominance in the Period of the Three Kingdoms.

Though these three kingdoms were reunited temporarily in AD 280 (Western) Jin by the (Western) Jin dynasty, the contemporary non-Han Chinese (Wu Hu) ethnicities ravaged the country since early 4th century and provoked large-scale Han Chinese migrations to south of the Chang Jiang. In 303, Di ethnicity rebelled and later captured Chengdu. Xiongnu under Liu Yuan rebelled near today Linfen County; his successor Liu Cong captured and executed the last two Western Jin emperors. More than Sixteen states were established by these ethnic groups. The chaotic north was temporarily unified by Fu Jian and later by Emperor Taiwu of Northern Wei after the former was defeated at the Battle of Feishui. The later started off a sequence of local regimes, all ruled over regions north of Chang Jiang and hence coined the Northern Dynasties.

Along with the immigrants and residents of the south, Emperor Yuan of Jin China reinstated the Jin regime at Nanjing which later developed into the sequence of Southern dynasties of Song, Qi, Liang and Chen that all seated at Jiangkang (near today Nanjing). China was ruled by two independent dynasties, one in the south and the other in the north, and hence coined the era of Southern and Northern Dynasties. The short-lived Sui Dynasty managed to reunite the country in AD 589 after almost 300 years of disjunction.

In AD 618, the Tang dynasty was established and a new age of flourishing began. Buddhism, which had slowly seeped into China in the first century, became the prominent religion and widely adopted by the royal family. Xian, the national capital, was supposedly the world's biggest city. Finally, however, the Tang dynasty declined as well and another time of political chaos followed, the Five dynasties and the Ten kingdoms. The Tang and Han are often referenced as the prosperous ages of China; the Tang, similar to the Han, also established jurisdiction on trade routes.

In AD 960, the Song Dynasty (960-1279) gained power over most of China and established its capital in Kaifeng whereas the Khitan Liao Dynasty ruled over modern Manchuria and eastern Mongolia. In AD 1115 the Jurchen Jin Dynasty (1115-1234) emerged to prominence. Not only did it annihilate the Liao Dynasty in 10 years, the Song also lost power over northern China and Kaifeng to the Jin Dynasty and moved its capital to Hangzhou. The Southern Song Dynasty also suffered the humiliation of having to acknowledge the Jin Dynasty as formal overlords. In the ensuing years China was divided between the Song Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty, and the Tangut Western Xia. Southern Song was a period of great technological development which can be explained in part by the military pressure that it felt from the north.

Zhu Yuanzhang, (Hongwu Emperor of China or Hong-wu) the founder of the dynasty, laid the foundations for a state disinterested in commerce and more interested in extracting revenues from the agricultural sector. Perhaps because of his background as a peasant, the Ming economic system emphasized agriculture, unlike that of Song, which had preceded the Mongolian and relied on traders and merchant for revenues. Neo-feudal land-tenure developments of Song and Mongol period were expropriated with the establishment of the Ming. Great landed estates were confiscated by the government, fragmented, and rented out; and private slavery was forbidden. Consequently, after the death of Yongle Emperor of China, independent peasant landholders predominated in Chinese agriculture. These laws might have paved the way to social harmony and removed the worst of the poverty during the previous regimes. The laws against the merchants and the restrictions under which the craftsmen worked, remained essentially as they had been under the Song, but now the remaining foreign merchants before Ming era also fell under these new laws, and their influence quickly dwindled.

The emperor's role became even more autocratic, although Zhu Yuanzhang necessarily continued to use what he called the Grand Secretaries to assist with the immense paperwork of the bureaucracy, which included memorials (petitions and recommendations to the throne), imperial edicts in reply, reports of various kinds, and tax records.

During the Mongol rule, the population had dropped 40 percent, to an estimated 60 million. Two centuries later it had doubled. Urbanization thus progressed as population grew and as the division of labor grew more intricate. Large urban centers, such as Nanjing and Beijing contributed to the growth of private industry as well. In particular, small-scale industries grew specialized often in paper, silk, cotton and porcelain goods. For the most part, however, relatively small urban centers with markets proliferated around the country rather than the growth of a few large cities. Town markets mainly traded food with some necessary manufactures such as pins or oil.

The most extraordinary venture, however, during this stage was the dispatch Zheng He's seven naval expeditions, which traversed the Indian Ocean and the Southeast Asian archipelago. An ambitious Muslim eunuch of Mongol descent and a quintessential outsider in the establishment of Confucian scholar elites, Zheng He led seven maritime expeditions from 1405 to 1433 with six of them under the auspices of Emperor Yongle, probing down into the South Seas, across the Indian Ocean and traversing perhaps as the Cape of Good Hope. His appointment in 1403 to lead a sea-faring task force was a triumph the commercial lobbies seeking to stimulate conventional trade, not mercantilism. The interests of the commercial lobbies and those of the religious lobbies were also linked. Both offensive of the neo-Confucian sensibilities of the scholarly elite, religious lobbies encouraged commercialism and exploration to divert state funds from the anti-clerical efforts of the Confucian scholar gentry. The first expedition in 1405 consisted of 62 ships and 28,000 men — then the largest naval expedition in history. Zheng He's multi-decked ships carried up to 500 troops but also cargoes of export goods, mainly silks and porcelains, and brought back foreign luxuries such as spices and tropical woods.

By the end of the 15th century, Chinese imperial subjects were forbidden from either building oceangoing ships or leaving the country. The consensus among historians of the early 21st century is that this measure was taken in response to piracy and in any case restrictions on emigration and shipbuilding were largely lifted by the mid-17th century.

Some historians have viewed the Qing as continuing the decline started in the Ming, while others have argued that the early and mid-Qing were periods of growth rather than decline. Emperor Kangxi commanded the most complete dictionary of Chinese characters ever put together at the time, and under Emperor Qianlong, the compilation of a catalogue of all important works on Chinese culture was made. The Qing Dynasty also continued the growth of popular literature such as the Dream of the Red Mansions and agricultural advances such as triple cropping of rice which caused the population of China to more than double from between 180 million in 1700 to 400 million in 1800.

During the 19th century, Qing control weakened, and prosperity diminished. China suffered massive social strife, economic stagnation, explosive population growth, and Western penetration and influence. Britain's desire to continue its illegal opium trade with China collided with imperial edicts prohibiting the addictive drug, and the First Opium War erupted in 1840. China lost the war; subsequently, Britain and other Western powers, including the United States, forcibly occupied "concessions" and gained special commercial privileges. Hong Kong was ceded to Britain in 1842 under the Treaty of Nanjing. In addition, the Taiping rebellion and Nian rebellions, along with a Russian-supported Muslim separatist movements in Mongolia and Muslim Xinjiang, drained Chinese resources and almost toppled the dynasty.

China was not a backward country unable to secure the prerequisite stability and security for western-style commerce, but a highly advanced empire unwilling to admit western and often drug-pushing commerce, which may explain the West's contentment with informal "Spheres of Influences". China, unlike tropical Africa, was a securable market without formal control. Following the First Opium War, British commerce, and later capital invested by other newly industrializing powers, was securable with a smaller degree of formal control than in Southeast Asia, West Africa, and the Pacific. In many respects, China was a colony and a large-scale receptacle of Western capital investments. Western powers did intervene military there to quell domestic chaos, such as the horrific Taiping Rebellion and the anti-imperialist Boxer Rebellion. For instance, General Gordon, later the imperialist 'martyr' in the Sudan, was often accredited as having saved the Manchu dynasty from the Taiping insurrection.

By the 1860s, the Qing dynasty had put down the rebellions with the help of militia organized by the Chinese gentry. The Qing dynasty then proceeded to deal with problem of modernization, which it attempted with the Self-Strengthening Movement. In the Sino-French War (1883-1885) and the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895), the New Armies created by the Qing were defeated, which produced calls for greater and more extensive reform.

• The History of the People's Republic of China and the History of the Republic of China/History of Taiwan for their respective histories after 1949.
• List of China-related topics for a collection of Wikipedia articles on China.
• Wikipedia talk:Naming conventions (chinese) for discussions and improvements on how to correctly name Chinese related articles. Those standards should be followed to provide a uniform title format.
• Chinese sovereign for comprehensive lists and proper naming conventions of Chinese rulers.
• Ethnic groups in Chinese history for lists of other groups of people usually not considered as Han Chinese.
• Chinese historiography for an article on scholarship influenced by post-modernism and periodization.
• Timeline of Chinese history for a chronological list of major events and figures.
• History of Hong Kong
• History of Macau

External link

Religions

Note that some of these ethnic groups hold belief systems that cannot be distinctly classified based upon the following system.

• Islam: the Bonan, Dongxiang, Hui, Kazak, Kirgiz, Salar, Tajik, Tatar, Uygur and Uzbek.
• Buddhism: the Dai, Mongolian, Naxi (including Mosuo), Tibetan and Yugun.
• Shamanism: the Daurs, Ewenkis, and Oroqens.

• Demographics of China
• Languages of China
• Chinese ethnic groups of the past
• Zhonghua minzu
• List of ethnic groups

External link

Cantonese proverbs

好心冇好報，好柴燒爛灶 (penkyamp: How2 samp1 mow5 how2 bow3, how2 cai4 siu1 lan6 zow3)

• Meaning: Good deeds may not be rewarded; even good firewood may ruin the stove.

Note: 'reward' and 'stove' rhyme in Cantonese.

寧教人打仔，莫教人分妻 (penkyamp: Nenk4 gau3 yant4 fant1 cay1, mog6 gau3 yant4 da2 zay2)

• Literally: It is okay to teach someone how to discipline a child, but don't teach how to divorce one's wife.

Note: 'child' and 'wife' rhyme in Cantonese

妻賢夫禍少，損友狗不如 (penkyamp: Cay1 yin4 fu1 wo6 siu2, sont2 yaw2 gaw2 bat1 yeu4)

• Literally: With a good wife, the husband won't get in trouble; a bad wife is worse than a dog.

千金難買心頭好 (penkyamp: Cin1 gamp1 nan4 mai5 samp1 taw4 how2)

• Literally: A thousand pieces of gold may not buy you what you like.

Moral: Money isn't everything.

事急馬行田 (penkyamp: Si6 gap1 ma5 hang4 tin4)

• Literally: In case of emergency, the horse (馬) can move in the field (田).

Explanation: This is in reference to the rules in Chinese Chess. Normally the horse piece can only move in the 'sun' character (日 or a 1x2 rectangle) pattern.

Moral: In an emergency, one can break the rules.

狗上瓦坑有條路 (penkyamp: Gaw2 seong5 nga5 hang1 yaw5 tiu4 low6)

• Literally: When a dog climbs to the roof, it takes its usual path.

Meaning: A villain uses his usual tricks, or behaves like any other villain.

Usage: often used to imply an improper relationship, such as adultery.

天上雷公地下舅公 (penkyamp: Tin1 seong6 loy4 gonk1, dey6 seong6 kaw5 gonk1)

• Literally: In heaven, there is the thunder god; on earth, there is brother of your mother.

Explanation: In the old Chinese social hierarchy, one can be disciplined by the brothers of one's mother. Even the parents could not spoil a child in front of that uncle.

樹大有枯枝，族大有乞兒 (penkyamp: Seu6 dai6 yaw5 fu1 zi1, zok6 dai6 yaw5 hat1 yi1)

• Literally: On a big tree, there are dead branches; in a big clan, there are beggars.

Note: 'branch' and 'beggar' rhyme in Cantonese

秤不離鉈 (penkyamp: Cenk3 bat1 ley4 to4)

• Literally: a steelyard always goes with the weights.

Usage: X always goes with Y.

落地喊三聲，好醜命生成 (penkyamp: Log6 dey6 ham3 sam1 seng1, how2 caw2 meng6 sang1 seng4)

• Literally: When a baby is born, after the third wail, its good or bad fate is determined.

Moral: There is no free will, your fate is pre-determined.

Note: The last syllable of the two phrases rhyme in Cantonese

風吹雞蛋殼，財散人安樂 (penkyamp: Fonk1 coy1 gay1 dan2 hog3, coi4 san3 yant4 ngon1 log6)

• Literally: Like wind blows on egg shells, when the money is gone a person feels light (at ease).

Moral: Money is a burden.

Usage: This is usually used by a gambler who just lost all his money, but needs a philosophy to make themselves feel better.

Note: the last syllables of the two phrases rhyme in Cantonese

冤豬頭都會遇到聞鼻菩薩 (penkyamp: Yeun1 zeu1 taw4 dow1 wui5 yeu6 dow2 mank4 bey6 pow4 sad3)

• Literally: Even a rotten pig head for offering will someday meet a bodhisattva with stuffed nose.

Moral: Regardless of any shortcoming, there will be someone who doesn't mind.

Usage: Usually used in the context of matchmaking.

夫妻本是同林鳥，大難臨頭各自飛 (penkyamp: Fu1 cay1 bun2 si6 tonk4 lamp4 niu5, dai6 nan6 lamp4 taw4 gog3 zi6 fey1)

• Literally: Husband and wife are like birds in the woods, when trouble comes, they flee separately.

Explanation: This view reflects the lack of love in arranged marriages in ancient China.

兒女眼前冤，夫妻渡客船 (penkyamp: Yi4 noy5 ngan5 cin4 yeun1, fu1 cay1 dow6 hag3 seun4)

• Literally: Children are eye sores; marriage is like an encounter on a ferry.

Meaning: Marriages sometimes lead to disasters.

Note: 'eye sore' and 'boat' rhyme in Cantonese

兄弟如手足，夫婦如衣服 (penkyamp: Henk1 day6 yeu4 saw2 zok1, fu1 fu5 yeu4 yi1 fok6)

• Literally: Brothers are like arms and legs; husband and wife are like clothing

Meaning: You're stuck with your family, but it's easy to change your spouse.

Note: 'leg' and 'clothes' rhyme in Cantonese

Hakka proverbs

Taiwanese language proverbs

Imperial times

• Aixinjueluo Puyi, the last emperor
• Empress Dowager Cixi, Qing dynasty de facto leader
• Dou Xian
• Fu Hsi
• Genghis Khan, Mongolian emperor
• Gao Lishi, Tang, corrupt
• Han Gao Zu
• Han Shangdi
• Hongwu Emperor of China
• Hong Tianguifu, king of Taiping
• Hong Xiuquan, king of Taiping
• Kangxi Emperor of China, Emperor of the Qing Dynasty
• Kublai Khan
• Li Hongzhang, Qing statesman
• Li Zicheng, Ming rebel leader
• Empress Dowager Lü of Han Empire
• Qin Shi Huangdi, first emperor
• Sima Guang
• Emperor Tang Taizong of China
• Wang An-shih
• Wu Zetian, Empress of China
• Yan Song, corrupt prime minister
• Yang Guozhong, Tang official by guanxi
• Yongle Emperor of China
• Zheng Chenggong

• Chen Duxiu
• Deng Nan
• Deng Pufang
• Deng Xiaoping
• Deng Yingchao
• Gang of Four
  • Jiang Qing
  • Wang Hongwen
  • Yao Wenyuan
  • Zhang Chunqiao
• Hu Jintao
• Hu Yaobang
• Hua Guofeng
• Jiang Zemin
• Kang Sheng
• Li Peng
• Liu Shaoqi
• Mao Zedong
• Tung Chee Hwa
• Wen Jiabao
• Xie Fuzhi
• Zhao Ziyang
• Zhou Enlai
• Zhu Rongji

Republic of China

• Chen Shui-bian
• Chiang Ching-Kuo
• Chiang Kai-shek
• Chu Mei-feng
• H. H. Kung
• Lee Teng-hui
• Lien Chan
• Ma Ying-jeou
• Qiu Jin, female revolutionary
• James Soong
• Soong sisters
  • Soong Ai-ling
  • Soong Ching-ling
  • Soong May-ling
• Sun Yat Sen
• Sung Chiao-jen
• Wang Chien-shien
• Wang Jingwei
• Yen Chia-jin
• Yuan Shi-Kai

Others

• Wuer Kaixi,
• Li Lu

Non-politician royalties

• Yang Guifei, emperor's consort
• Concubine Qi
• Xishi, melancholy beauty

Artists and perfomers

Painters and calligraphers

• Wang Xizhi, calligrapher
• Xue Wei, painter
• Wei Shuo, female calligrapher

Actors and actresses

• Jackie Chan
• Sammi Cheng
• Leslie Cheung
• Maggie Cheung
• Chow Yun-Fat
• Gong Li
• Sammo Hung
• Leon Lai
• Andy Lau
• Bruce Lee
• Tony Leung Chiu Wai
• Jet Li
• Ling Bai
• Anita Mui
• Zhang Ziyi

Film-makers

• Ang Lee
• Jackie Chan
• Samson Chiu
• King Hu
• Ringo Lam
• Ng Wui
• Tsui Hark
• Wayne Wang
• Wong Kar-wai
• John Woo
• Zhang Yimou

Singers

• Roman Tam
• Faye Wong

• Ch'eng Mao-yün, violinist and composer

Martial Artists

• Cheng Man-ch'ing, Tai Chi
• Leung Sheung
• Wong Fei Hung, kung fu during the Qing dynasty
• Yip Man
• Zhang Sanfeng

Athletes

• Fu Mingxia, diver
• Sun Wen, woman footballerer
• Wu Qingyuan (Go Seigen), go player
• Xie Jun, chess player
• Yao Ming, NBA Basketball player, Houston Rockets

Educators

• Cai Yuanpei, chancellor
• Chang-lin Tien, chancellor

Entreprenuers

• Tung Chao Yung

Explorers

• Zheng He

Military officers and soldiers

• Guo Ziyi, Tang general
• Huang Gai
• Lin Biao
• Liu Huaqing
• Ma Chao
• Song Zhe Yuan
• Sun Ce
• Zhang Xueliang
• Zhang Zizhong
• Zhu De

• Bai Shouyi, historian
• Chang San-feng
• Ch'ien Mu
• Confucius, philosopher
• Gao Xingjian
• Gongsun Longzi, one of the Logicians of the Warring States Period
• Hu Shih, writer
• Jin Shengtan, editor and critic
• Jinyong, novelist
• Lao She
• Lao Zi, philosopher
• Li Ao, writer
• Li Po, poet
• Lin Yutang, writer
• Lu Hao-tung
• Lu Xun, novelist
• Mao Dun, writer
• Qian Xuantong, phonetician
• Qian Zhongshu
• Qu You, Ming novelist
• Sima Qian, historiographer
• Su Dongpo, poet
• Sun Tzu, philosopher
• Tu Wei-ming, ethicist
• Wang Pi, Three Kingdoms philosopher
• Zhang Ailing, woman novelist
• Zhuang Zi, philosopher

• Woo Tsin-hang, linguist
• Zhang Binglin, phonologist
• Y. R. Chao, phonologist and dialectologist

Religion

• Xuanzang, Buddhist monk
• Liang Fa, Christian preacher
• Witness Lee, Christian founder of the Local Church
• Gong Shengliang, Christian preacher

• Cai Lun, inventor of paper
• David Ho, AIDS researcher
• Charles Kao, inventor of optical fiber
• I. M. Pei, architect
• An Wang, computer scientist
• Zhang Heng, astronomer, mathematician, artist and literature scholar
• Zhu Shijie, mathematician
• Zu Chongzhi, mathematician and astronomer

Others

• Ching Shih, woman pirate
• Jing Ke, assassin
• Wan Hu, would-be astronaut

Fictional Chinese people

• Charlie Chan, detective
• Kai Lung, of stories by Ernest Bramah
• Kato of Pink Panther series of films.
• Li Kao and Number Ten Ox, of novels by Barry Hughart
• Fu Manchu, criminal mastermind
  • parodied in the radio series Round the Horne as "Dr Chou En Ginsberg MA (failed)"
• Xuanzang and his disciples (including Sun Wukong and Zhu Bajie), of Journey to the West

See also

In the PRC, the language is known as Putonghua (普通話, "the common language") or Han yu (漢語, the language of the Han). (Note that while the term Han yu is commonly used to refer to Mandarin, this terminology is sometimes contested by speakers of other Chinese dialects, who feel the name implies that the language is somehow closer to ancient Chinese than other dialects. Some speakers of Hakka, for example, will object that their own dialect should carry the name Han yu, as its grammar is closer to that of ancient texts.) On Taiwan, the language is officially known as Guoyu (國語,"the national language"). Among overseas Chinese communities, particularly in South East Asia, the language is known as Huayu (華語 "the Chinese language"),

The standard form of Mandarin Chinese uses the sounds of Beijing but there are regional variations in pronunciation. Nevertheless, Mandarin is also sometimes incorrectly known as Beijingese (Beijing hua or Beijing fangyan), or Jing pianzi (京片子). In Taiwan, those espousing complete independence from mainland China often insist on using the term Beijing hua instead of Guoyu in order to promote the idea that Taiwanese should be the new national language.

Until the mid-20th century, most Chinese living in southern China did not speak any Mandarin. However, despite the mix of officials and commoners speaking various Chinese dialects, Beijingese Mandarin became dominant at least during the officially Manchu-speaking Qing Empire. Since the 17th century, the Empire had set up Orthoepy Academies (正音書院 Zhengyin Shuyuan) in an attempt to make pronunciation conform to the Beijing standard. But these attempts had little success.

This situation changed with the creation (in both the PRC and the ROC) of an elementary school education system committed to teaching Mandarin. As a result, Mandarin is now spoken fluently by most people in Mainland China and in Taiwan. In Hong Kong, the language of education and formal speech remains Cantonese but Mandarin is becoming increasingly influential.

Most Chinese, including the Chinese political leaders themselves, do not speak Mandarin with a Beijingese accent, and there are many local variations of Mandarin. In northern China and Sichuan, these local variations predated the era of mass education in Mandarin. In the south, the interaction between Mandarin and local dialects has produced combinations which are rather different from official standard Mandarin in pronounciation and grammar. For example, Mandarin in Taiwan is usually spoken with a grammar and accent that renders it different from the Kuoyu standard, creating a version of Mandarin commonly known as Taiwan Mandarin.

Although Mandarin is considered the standard dialect, speaking Mandarin without the local accent or speaking Mandarin instead of the local dialect can mark a person as being an outsider.

Tones

1. First tone, or high-level tone (阴平 yin1 ping2, literal meaning: yin-level):

   sounds a brighter, higher tone, as if it were being sung instead of spoken.

2. Second tone, or rising tone (阳平 yang2 ping2, literal meaning: yang-level), or linguistically, high-rising:

   is a sound that rises from low tone to very high (i.e: What?!)

3. Third tone (low tone, or low-falling-raising, 上声 shang4 sheng1, literal meaning: "up tone"):

   has a high-to-low descent ending with a rising tone. Its tone can be found in saying "w-e-l-l" thoughtfully or inviting an answer.

4. Fourth tone, falling tone (去声 qu4 sheng1, literal meaning: "away tone"), or high-falling:

   features a sharp downward accent ("dipping"), and is a short, sharp tone, similar to curt commands. (i.e: Stop.)

5. Fifth tone, or neutral tone or zeroth tone (轻声 qing1 sheng1, literal meaning: "light tone"):

   sounds short and light. It is not technically a tone. This is the least occurring tone in Mandarin.

See also: Chinese grammar

External links

After World War II, the Chinese Civil War between the Communist Party of China and the Kuomintang ended in 1949 with the Communists in control of mainland China the Kuomintang in control of Taiwan and some outlying islands of Fujian. On October 10, 1949, Mao Zedong declared the People's Republic of China and established a communist state. While ensuring China's sovereignty, Mao's administration imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people through disastrous policies such as the Great Leap Foward and Cultural Revolution.

After the death of Mao, Deng Xiaoping succeeded to power and mainland China remained under Communist rule. Since then, the government has gradually loosened governmental control over people's personal lives and engaged in reforms to transform its planned economy into a market-based one. Nevertheless the government remains intent on maintaining the political control of the Communist Party of China and has maintained repressive policies against groups which it feels are a threat to its political control. (see Falun Gong and Tibet).

The People's Republic of China adopted its current constitution on December 4, 1982.

In the technical terminology of political science the PRC was a communist state for much of the 20th century, and is still considered a communist state by many, though not all, political scientists. Attempts to simply characterize the nature of the political structure of China fail. The regime has variously been described as authoritarian, communist, socialist and various combinations of the those terms. It has also been described as a communist government.

The PRC is a republic in that the government has some democratic forms, especially at the local level, but it is controlled by the Communist Party of China, which makes the local election quite ineffective. Lack of electoral campaign, voters usually know nothing about the candidates. In addtion, almost all of the candidates are members of CPC. Together with localism, this kind of election is quite random and symbolistic. The state uses authoritarian methods to deal with dissent, while at the same time attempting to reduce dissent by improving the economy, allowing expression of personal grievances, and rather lenient treatment for persons expressing dissent whom the regime does not believe are organizers.

The People's Republic of China maintains diplomatic relations with most countries in the world, but makes acknowledging its claim to Taiwan and severing any official ties with the Republic of China (ROC) government a prerequisite for diplomatic exchanges. It also actively opposes foreign travels by Taiwan independence proponents and the Dalai Lama.

In 1971, the PRC replaced the Republic of China as the sole representative for "China" in the United Nations and as one of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council. (See China and the United Nations)

See also: Political status of Taiwan

The PRC maintains the largest standing army in the world. The People's Liberation Army (PLA) includes the PRC's navy and air force. The PRC's military budget was estimated to be $60 billion (in purchasing power parity) in 2003, second only to the United States of nearly $400 billion. The PRC, despite possession of advanced nuclear weapons and delivery systems, lacks the ability to project military power beyond its borders and is not a superpower.

Mainland China has 22 provinces (省), though the government of the People's Republic of China considers Taiwan (台湾) to be its 23rd province. (See Political status of Taiwan for more information.) The government also claims the disputed South China Sea Islands. Apart from provinces there are 5 autonomous regions (自治区) containing concentrations of several minorities; 4 municipalities (直辖市) for China's largest cities and 2 special administrative regions (SAR) (特别行政区) governed by the PRC.

The following are a list of administrative divisions of areas under the control of the People's Republic of China.

Provinces Anhui (安徽) Fujian (福建) Gansu (甘肃) Guangdong (广东) Guizhou (贵州) Hainan (海南) Hebei (河北) Heilongjiang (黑龙江) Henan (河南) Hubei (湖北) Hunan (湖南) Jiangsu (江苏) Jiangxi (江西) Jilin (吉林) Liaoning (辽宁) Qinghai (青海) Shaanxi (陕西) Shandong (山东) Shanxi (山西) Sichuan (四川) Yunnan (云南) Zhejiang (浙江)

Autonomous regions Guangxi Zhuang (广西壮族) Inner Mongolia (内蒙古) Ningxia Hui (宁夏回族) Xinjiang Uighur (新疆维吾尔族) Tibet (西藏) Municipalities Beijing Municipality (北京) Chongqing Municipality (重庆) Shanghai Municipality (上海) Tianjin Municipality (天津) Special Administrative Regions Hong Kong (香港) Macau (澳门)

Areas controlled by the PRC (in skin colour) and ROC (in rice colour) (Larger, detailed image with provincial boundaries)

The PRC is the fourth largest country in the world and as such contains a large variety in landscapes. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are found extensive and densely populated alluvial plains; the shore of the South China Sea is more mountainous and southern China is dominated by hill country and lower mountain ranges. In the central-east are found the deltass of China's two major rivers, the Huang He and Chang Jiang. Other major rivers include the Xi Jiang, Mekong, Brahmaputra and Amur.

To the west, major mountain ranges, notably the Himalaya with China's highest point Mount Everest, and high plateaus feature among the more arid landscape of deserts such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert. Due to a prolonged drought and perhaps poor agricultural practices dust storms have become usual in the spring in China. According to China's Environmental Protection Agency, the Gobi Desert has been expanding and is a major source of dust storms which affect China and other parts of northeast Asia such as Korea and Japan.

Beginning in late 1978 the Chinese leadership has been moving the economy from a sluggish Soviet-style centrally planned economy to a more market-oriented economy but still within a rigid political framework of Communist Party control. To this end the authorities have switched to a system of household responsibility in agriculture in place of the old collectivization, increased the authority of local officials and plant managers in industry, permitted a wide variety of small-scale enterprise in services and light manufacturing, and opened the economy to increased foreign trade and investment. This has resulted in mainland China's shift from a command to a mixed economy.

The government has emphasized raising personal income and consumption and introducing new management systems to help increase productivity. The government also has focused on foreign trade as a major vehicle for economic growth, for which purpose it set up over 2000 Special economic zones (SEZ) where investment laws are relaxed in order to attract foreign capital. The result has been a quadrupling of GDP since 1978. In 1999, with its 1.25 billion people and a GDP of just $3,800 per capita, the PRC became the sixth largest economy in the world by exchange rate and third largest in the world after the US and the European Union by purchasing power. The average annual income of a Chinese worker is $1,300. Chinese economy development is believed to be one of the fastest region in the world, about 7~8% per year by the statistic of Chinese government. And mainland China is now a member of World Trade Organization.

The People's Republic of China, in an attempt to limit its population growth, has adopted a policy which limits urban families (ethnic minorities such as Tibetans are an exception) to one child and rural families to two children when the first is female. Because males are considered to be more economically valuable in rural areas, there appears to be a high incidence of sex selective abortion and child abandonment in rural areas to ensure that the second child is male.

The official language of the PRC is Mandarin Chinese which is taught in schools, thereby making it the native language of more people than any other language on Earth.

This has resulted in a sex ratio of 115 boys being born for every 100 girls which is considerably different from the natural rate, but which is comparable to the ratios in South Korea. The PRC government is attempting to mitigate this problem by emphasizing the worth of women and has gone so far as to prohibit medical providers from disclosing to parents the sex of an expected baby.

The PRC has several emerging public health problems: the recent development of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a progressing HIV-AIDS epidemic and hundreds of millions of cigarette smokers. The HIV epidemic, in addition to the usual routes of infection, was exacerbated in the past by unsanitary practices used in the collection of blood in rural areas. The problem with tobacco is complicated by the concentration of most cigarette sales in a government controlled monopoly. The government, with limited resources, and dependent on tobacco revenue seems sluggish in its response to the tobacco and other public health problems; this characteristic has drawn unfavorable international attention in the case of SARS.

Hepatitis B is endemic in mainland China, the majority of the population eventually contracting the disease, with about 10% being seriously affected. Often this causes liver failure or liver cancer, a common form of death in China. A program initiated in 2002 will attempt over the next 5 years to vaccinate all newborns in mainland China.

• Chinese language
• Chinese written language
• List of famous Chinese people
• Chinese art
• Music of China
• Chinese cuisine

• Chinese law
• Communications in China
• Environment of China
• Human rights in China
• Science and technology in China
• Police in China
• Religion in China
• Sports in China
• Transportation in China

References

Further reading

External links