Chinese Civilization

The Chinese civilization (also called Chinese world or quite simply China (/, Lagging-Gilles: Chung-kuo, EFEO: Tchong-kouo ; litt. “Country of the Medium”)) have recovered a whole of country and cultures being succeeded in Eastern Asia for 4.000 years. Today, the China can be considered, according to the points of view, like only one civilization or a whole of several civilizations. In the same way, they can be a nation or several nations joined together in the same unit.

China is still currently oldest civilization distinct from the the existing Far East; its history is characterized by a succession of divisions and reunifications, wars and peace, on a changing territory. During centuries, China was one of the most advanced civilizations whose influence is felt still today in many countries of Asia. It is today the third country of the world in surface, and the first by its population: human on five is Chinese (for the population resident only).

The last Chinese imperial dynasty Qing knew one period of decline during the phase of colonial expansion of the Western countries, carrying out the country of defeat in defeat starting from the Guerres of opium. It is only after the victory against the Japanese army in 1945 that China could constitute itself like nation and find all its independence.

Politically, two distinct States claim to hold sovereignty on China. First is what it is of use to call the continental China, which is in practice the Popular republic of China rested by the communist leader Mao Zedong in 1949 with Beijing. The second is the République of China, whose government carried out a long time by the nationalist leader Tchang Kaï-chek is established on the island of Taiwan since the victory of the Chinese Communists. It was founded in 1912 with Nankin (which remains always officially the capital) by Sun Yat-SEN on the debris of the Chinese empire of the dynasty of the Qing.

Today, China, with the restrictive or (RPC) broad direction of the term (the Chinese world), is the object of a fascination for the rest of the world; its economic development, engaged in 1978 by the reforms of Deng Xiaoping and its successors, does of it today one of the economic main actors and Géopolitique S world.

Presentation

The country is above all the very long history of people, of his very rich culture, of its language and sound so particular writing, of its thought which continues today to intrigue the Westerners. If those which are interested in such or such aspect of China, like the Martial arts, the Calligraphie or even the kitchen, are increasingly numerous, this “celestial Empire” so remote and different remainder often difficult to include/understand. “Chinese reality” escapes many Western observers, today as at the time of its discovery by the first missionaries. In second half of the 20th century, the many ideological quarrels around the Maoism and of the Cultural revolution did not contribute to clear up the debates. Today China is during one time of opening and accelerated economic development. Even if many problems remain to be solved, it seems that the reforms in progress made it possible to the Chinese people to deploy his industry and that its power is from now on comparable with that of the large Western countries. It today is often described as “factory of the world” and of the studies showed that the caddie of a French household, in its nonfood part, contained for half of the products made in China.

Geographically, China gradually reached since the dynasty founder of the Qin in 221 av. J. - C. the proportions of a continent. Its history is rythmée by movements of unification followed by disintegration, the long periods of stability corresponding to the great dynasties being intersected and being connected by periods of division and chaos. It is however the continuity of its culture and its relative political unit which make say today that it would be oldest alive Civilization of the world. One of its characteristics founders is probably the worship of the written thing, that one can make go back with the oracular practices of the Scapulomancie and to the Livre of the Changes, and who irrigates all the mental activity. On the thought of Confucius (551 av. J-C. - 479 av. J-C.), Main teacher, and on that of its disciples Mencius and Xunzi, the Confucianisme was based, then used as doctrines of State by the majority of the emperors who followed one another on the throne. Other currents of thought and other characters contributed to inform the Chinese culture, thus Lao-tseu and the Taoïsme, the Bouddhisme, the Néo-confucianisme and until the Marxisme more recently. The important contributions external of Buddhism or the Marxism show that, contrary to an generally accepted idea, China isolated itself from the rest of the world only during one short part of its history.

The Chinese Culture however is marked by a deep originality which returns it attracting at the same time and difficult access. Often obscure and misunderstood, difficult to interpret and analyze, it still too often acts as mirror of fears or the hopes fantasmatic of the Westerners. However, the “human experiment” Chinese, which was confronted with the same problems that the others, is of a width and of a richness such as one cannot hold it for negligible quantity. To paraphrase Simon Leys, quoted forward, China is another way of achieving the same thing: the Humanity.

Names

The Chinese used several names to indicate their country.

More running today is 中国 (Zhōngguó, marked /t ʂuŋkwo/). 中 (Zhōng) indicates the center, the axis, the medium, intermediary, and represents a line crossing a square in its medium. 国 (Guó) indicates the country, the nation, and thus represents the Jade part broken (symbol of being able deputy and sovereignty, the seal divided between the vassal one and the suzerain) surrounded by borders (: grounds). The Guó character in traditional C-W communication 國 represents a territory 口 defended by a wall 一 and weapons 戈. This term had in the beginning a number of more restricted directions, and widened later on to indicate the whole of the Chinese territory.

Wang er-min (王爾敏), historian of Academia sinica, listed the directions of the expression in the pre-imperial texts; it identified five of them, three more frequent being, by decreasing order: area occupied by the Hooted or the Xia (or Huaxia), first Chinese people according to the tradition; delimited territory; principal city, city. The two others are: countries located at the center and equal countries between them, primarily indicating the principal countries of the time of the Kingdoms combatants.

Nevertheless, Zhongguo never entered the official name of the political entity controlling the Chinese territory. One employed the name of the dynasty formerly, that of the Qin (秦) having given the word China and Sino- prefixes it after being last through many languages along the Silk route to reach the Europe finally. The founders of the Chinese kingdom of Liao, like Diego Barbosa (1516) and Garcia da Orta (1563) mention the word China .

When they considered the establishment of a republic, Sun Yat-SEN and its companions did not want to take again the term Zhongguo , however running, because it was employed by the powers Western imperialists; he wanted even less Shina (支那), reducing term used by the Japanese during the Sino-Japanese wars, impregnated colonialism, which one finds in the Chinese transcription of Indo-China (印度支那).

They chose to combine zhong with hooted (華 chin.trad. 华 chin.simpl.). The Sinogramme hooted , which can be also read like “splendid”, is one of the elements of Huaxia (華夏), term which designates in the writings of the Royaumes combatants the first Chinese, “the tribes of Huang di and Yandi”. Qian Driven (錢穆), historian, considers that it is about the name of their territory, Hua being a mountain of the Henan, Xia the old name of the river Han (漢水). Other historians think that the Xia ethnos group, which would have given its name to the first dynasty of the Chinese history, was described as hooted , of which one of the directions “is painted”, owing to the fact that its members tattooed themselves.

The term Zhonghua was mentioned for the first time in 1894 by Sun Yat-SEN with Hawaii in a speech. It is included in names of the République of China and the Popular republic of China.

In old works of philosophy and Chinese literature, one often finds the metaphor 天下, tiānxià, which wants to say under the sky and indicates also China. According to Marcel Granet, this word is in charge of the following connotation: the sky being round and the square ground in Chinese cosmogony, the four corners of the ground which are not covered by the sky (nor thus circumscribed by the cycles of the sun and the peregrinations of the emperor) are designed like populated uncultivated territories of not civilized beings. 天下 thus indicates the civilized part of the ground. Zhongguo and Tianxia is sometimes translated into Empire of the Medium and Celestial Empire in the old Western literary works.

Marco Polo had given two names to China: China of North is called Cathay (name which comes from Kithan) whereas China of the South is indicated under the name of Manzi or Manji. " Kithan" is at the origin of the Russian name of China: Китай. China was also identified with the " Sérica" , place of origin of silk according to the Romans.

Today, the word " Chine" fact generally reference to continental China (中國大陸, zhōngguó dàlù in Mandarin), or sometimes to the Popular republic of China, Hong-Kong and Macao included, more rarely still in the RPC and Taiwan, which corresponds then to the economic zone of the " Large Chine" (大中華地區).

The most current translation of " Chinois" is Zhongguoren (中國人), " nobody of Chine". Nevertheless, one often prefers to him Huaren (華人) for the Chinese of overseas, term which replaced Tangren (唐人), " nobody of the empire Tang " , that the Chinese immigrants of Asia and America had been given (however arrived under the Ming), because of the prestige of this dynasty. Hanren (漢人), " nobody of the empire Han " distinguish the Chinese itself from the others Nationalités of China.

History

See also: History of China, History of the Popular republic of China, Chronology of China, Organization of the Chinese empire

" 合久必分, 分久必合 " : " The plain China will divide; dispersed, recomposera". ( History of the Three Kingdoms )

As of the Neolithic existed in China of the sedentary organized companies which practiced agriculture and the breeding. The culture of rice appears towards 5000 av. J. - C.

The metallurgy appears towards 3000 av. J. - C. under the perhaps mythical dynasty of the Xia (- 2207 to -1766), and the Bronze Age is located under the Shang (- 1766 to -1122)

China is a major hearth of civilization. It became as of the foundation of the empire by the Dynastie of Qin a vast zone relatively unified politically and linguistically, with an advanced culture, preceding the rest of the world in many fields such as the Art S, the medicine and the Technique S.

During two millenia, China was subject to the alternate influence of centrifugal forces and centripetal. When the central capacity of the emperor was surbedded and that the court was the prey of the rival factions and the intrigues, that the administration could not cure the famines any more and to the natural disasters and that she did not manage any more to contain the pressure of the “barbarians” who operated vast raids in the border regions, of the movements of revolt of famished peasants tore the country, of the Secte S millenarists were born, and the remote provinces were found under the cut of war leaders not recognizing more the authority of the emperor. Lastly, those proclaimed themselves Fils of the Sky , dividing the empire in rival kingdoms being devoted to ceaseless wars and showing thus that the emperor had lost the Mandat of the Sky. When a war leader, sometimes resulting from the farming community like Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of Ming, appeared more skilful than the others and managed to take again the control of the entirety of the country, it was considered that it had received a new Mandate of the Sky and that it could found a new dynasty. In nearly two millenia, several kingdoms were founded on the territory Chinese by ethnos groups not Han or mixed, and two great dynasties are of foreign origin: that of the Yuan, Mongolian, and that of the Qing, Manchu.

Under the Han, the Tang, the Song, the Ming and the Qing (Manchu dynasty) the country knew long periods of peace. Except for the Qing, these dynasties correspond to booms during which one can consider that China was largest, most stable and the richest State of the world.

Even for the periods of unit, the Chinese culture always consisted of a very composite fabric, and the variety of the kitchens, dialects, practices and lifestyles should not be eclipsed by the astonishing cultural, administrative unit and policy of this country on a continent scale. This unit and continuity are not without relationship with the use of a writing relatively detached from the phonetics, which makes it possible in the same way to note very different languages and dialects.

The rise of modern China

At the time of the Industrial revolution initiated in England, China of the Qing was closed with the foreign influences: that undoubtedly contributed, in a context of internationalization of the exchanges and colonialism, with its economic and technological decline. Following the Wars of opium), the unequal Traités forced the Qing empire to divide its territory into zones of influence allotted to the Eight foreign armies allied , opened without conditions with the foreign trade: Germany, for example, occupied the Shandong, France the Yunnan. The economy of the country, centered on the trade of opium, was ruined, its abolished political autonomy de facto .

In 1851 began the rebellion of the Taiping, supplied with the beliefs of the secret societies of southernmost China, and preaching a movement of radical reforms. Badly organized, the army of Taiping was demolished in 1864, with the support of the Franco-British troops.

At the time of the first Sino-Japanese War), the Japan overcame the imperial troops, and obtained the island of Taiwan and the Penghu islands through the treaty of Shimonoseki. In 1898, the United Kingdom obtained a 99 years concession on the New Territories (including New Kowloon and Lantau). The United Kingdom, Russia, Japan, France, Germany and Belgium benefitted from the state of increasing dereliction of the country to widen each one its sphere of influence.

Under the pressure of intellectuals and politicians progressists, the choice of a republican mode is decided in 1911 and the Republic is proclaimed in 1912 by Sun Yat-SEN; the last emperor, Pu Yi, abdicates. Yuan Shi-kai, become president, proclaims the re-establishment of monarchy in 1915. Its death, in 1916, contributes to the economic and political chaos of the country: the conference of Paris, in 1919, allots Shandong, asserted by recently demolished Germany, in Japan. The movement of May 4th, 1919 bursts in sign of protest.

In 1921, the Chinese Communist party is created in Shanghai. Meanwhile, Sun Yat-SEN multiplied the contacts and requests for assistance near the young person Soviet Union. In 1923, it founds in Canton the academy of Huangpu, and trains its successor, Tchang Kaï-chek. To died of Sun Yat-SEN in 1925, this one carries out the Forwarding of North successfully, taking again to the lords of war the northern half of the country. In April 1927, he proclaims the establishment of the capital with Nankin, founding the period known as of the Republic of Nankin. The communist capital, Wuhan, are taken again in 1928 by the army of the Guomindang: the nationalist party has the nominal control of the worldwide and obtains an international recognition.

At the end of 1931, Mao Zedong proclaims the Chinese Soviet republic of Jiangxi. At the end of 1934, it starts Long walk (12 500 kilometers), managing to rejoin approximately 100.000 men progressively. At the end of 1935, it is fixed with them at Yan' year. In 1932, the kingdom marionette of Manchukuo whose Pu Yi was the nominal sovereign had been established by the Japanese in Mandchourie, reducing considerably the industrial support of Guomindang. At the summer 1937, the massive invasion of the oriental party of China by Japan started the second war Sino-Japanese. Threatened by the Japanese occupation and the mutinies of its troops, the nationalist party was combined to the Communists against the invader. Exacerbated by the Massacre of Nankin in December 1937 and the multiple exactions against the civilians, the fight antijaponaise strengthened this alliance until 1940, where conflicts between Communists and nationalists began again episodically.

During the Second world war, the United States granted a massive financial aid to Guomindang within the framework of the effort of war antijaponais; the unequal treaties were abolished by the Americans and the British in 1943. In February 1945, the conference of Yalta authorized the Soviet Union, with the tacit agreement of the Chinese Communist party, to drive out the Japanese army of Mandchourie.

In 1947, the American assistance, proving to be ineffective, ended. In 1948, the troops of Guomindang were demoralized, exhausted by the war antijaponaise and the corruption of the nationalist party. After his installation with Yan' year, Mao Zedong had undertaken to apply the principles Marxist-Leninists to the management of the territories which it occupied, carrying out a country Guérilla and rejoining the rural masses. In January 1949, its movement had rejoined the majority of the country and Beijing was taken without combat by the popular Army of release; it became again capital of China under the international name of Beijing. Between April and November, the majority of the other cities fell without much resistance to the hands from the Communists.

October 1st, 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the Popular republic from China in Beijing. In December, Tchang Kaï-chek proclaimed provisional Taipei capital of the République of China.

Territory

See also: Contenu=Pour administrative areas of the Popular republic of China, to see the article ''' [[Provinces of China]] '''

Historic insight

The dynasties Shang and particularly Zhou, first geopolitical entities at the origin of the future Chinese empire founded by Qin Shi Huang di, were located in the area of the Yellow Fleuve. Since, the territory extended in all the directions, with periods of contracting or divisions, reaching its apogee lasting the dynasties Dynastie Han, Dynastie Tang and Qing. China of Qing included territories currently located in the Russian Far East, Central Asia and Mongolia.

The emperor of China regarded himself in general as the suzerain of the surrounding areas. Many ethnos groups known as “cruel” were subjected to the tribute. The embassies and gifts sent by the foreign sovereigns were sometimes also interpreted like signs of allegiance.

The territorial importance of the Great wall of China was reduced with the accession with the capacity of the Qing dynasty, which includes the Mandchourie, located at the north of the wall, in its territory.

In 1683, with the rendering of the short Kingdom of Tungning established by Koxinga with Taiwan where the establishment Han had just begun, the island became part of the empire Qing, the archipelago of Pescadores included. Sit of one, then two provincial prefectures, Taiwan was yielded to Japan after the first Sino-Japanese war in 1895. In 1945, at the end of the second Sino-Japanese war, Japan gave up its claims on the island by the peace treaty of San Francisco, and the République of China took control of it, before settling there in 1949 after the seizure of power by PCC. Since, the sovereignty of the territory is the object of a conflict unsolved between RPC and the RC. The rise of the Taiwanese independence movement, which does not dispute only the authority of the RPC, but the principle even of the fastening of Taiwan in China, makes the problem even more complex.

See also: Taiwan, Tibet

Historical political divisions

The administrative cutting of China varied with the liking of the changes of administrations. The first level of division was the provinces, then the prefectures, sub-prefectures, departments, commanderies, districts and finally cantons. The most recent divisions added the statute of city-prefecture, city-canton, cities and urban areas.

Historically, the majority of the Chinese dynasties took their rise in the heart of China, from one of the two principal rivers, the Yellow Fleuve and the Yangzi Jiang. Several dynasties had expansionist wills, beginning in areas such as the Inner Mongolia, the Mandchourie, the Xinjiang, and the Tibet. The Manchu dynasty of the Qing and its successors, the Republic of China and the Popular republic of China, cemented incorporations of these territories. These territories were delimited by files rather than of the rigid, well-known borders then in the industrialized countries. This problem of delimitation gave place to a series of criticisms on the integration of certain territories in RPC, in particular that of Tibet and Xinjiang (which means “new Chinese borders”).

Geography and climate

China includes/understands an immense variety of landscapes, with plates and mountains with the west, and plains in the east. Thus, the principal rivers run of west in is, of which the Yangzi Jiang (or Chang Jiang, “long river”), the Yellow Fleuve (center-is), the Amour (north-eastern); some run towards the south (river of the Pearls, Mekong, Brahmapoutra…). The majority of these rivers are thrown in the China Sea.

The majority of the Chinese arable lands are around the two principal rivers, Yangzi Jiang and the Jaune river, which are also the principal hearths of old Chinese civilizations.

In the east, on the littoral of the Yellow Sea and the oriental party of the China Sea, is vast alluvial plains always densément populated; the littoral of the southernmost part of the China Sea is more mountainous.

In the west large alluvial plains are, with large plates limestones in the area Tibetan, where is drawn up the Mount Everest. To the North-West the deserts extend from Takla-Makan and Gobi, which gained in surface, undoubtedly because of the dryness and the influence of agriculture.

During many dynasties, the south-western border of China was delimited by the high mountains and the deep valleys of Yunnan, which separate modern China from Myanmar (ex- Burma), from the Laos and the Vietnam.

China comprises many climates: in north, a dry climate with severe winters; in the center, a more moderate climate; in the south, a subtropical climate.

The paleozoic formations of China are for the majority navy; the deposits of Mesozoic and the tertiary sector come from estuaries and fresh water, or grounds. Volcanic groups compose certain parts of the large plains of north. In the peninsulas of Liaodong and Shandong are basaltic plates.

The consequences of industrialization and deforestation are considered to be at the origin of the sandstorms coming from the Gobi Desert which strike the capital, and of the increase in the violent ones typhoons who strike the south of the country. The country thus lost 1,6 billion tons of ground in 2004; 800.300 hectares of arable land disappeared, including 145.000 hectares because of real construction and 63.700 following natural disasters. From 1997 to 2004, the surface of the arable grounds decreased of 5,7%, that is to say a net loss of 7,46 million hectares over this period.

See also: Geography of China, Towns of China

Economy

China is in October 2005 the most dynamic economy of the world, with a growth of 9% on the whole of the year 2004 (however, this figure is to be taken with prudence, because large doubts remain on the veracity of the official documents, which could according to certain economists, being minimized).

For the year 2005, the Gross domestic product (GDP) was approximately 2.000 billion dollars (approximately 2.600 billion dollars in 2006), which makes of China, and for the first time, the fourth world economic power after the the United States, the Japan and the Germany, and in front of the France and the Great Britain.

See also: Economy of China

Historic insight

China, the first civilization to use paper with currency, has a long story of international economic relations. Some useful benchmarks will be retained:

  • the Mongolian dynasty of Yuan organized a system of roads and with station effective, contributing to the modernization of the Chinese economy
  • At the beginning of the Ming era, the fleets of the admiral Zheng He reinforced the bonds existing already on the road of spices, between India, the Eastern African coast, the Indonesia and supposément Australia as well as Americas (before Europeans, cf charts of the Admiral of this time).
  • Following one period of fold under Ming, the Qing dynasty saw its economic deficit increasing with the arrival of the Western colonizers. In the middle of the 19th century, the Chinese economy was in its greater part controlled to the trade of opium for the interests of the colonizers, precipitating the country in an economic and political chaos.
  • the reign of Mao Zedong was synonymous with a new period of economic quasi-autarky, in-outside certain exchanges with the countries of the communist sphere.
  • Deng Xiaoping ratified starting from 1979 a progressive economic opening, which corresponds today to a “socialist market economy”, or a Chinese paradigm associates wild capitalism and control of the Chinese Communist party.

The workshop of the world

China has been called for a few years the workshop of the world because of many companies sub-contract the manufacture of manufactured goods and thus reduce their costs enormously. The majority of the factories have at disposal a labor available in the great number permitted by largest Rural migration ever observed in the history. The work conditions are often prone to critical sharp on behalf of foreign observers. The industrialization and the development of the country are often done at the expense of the agricultural world and rural: witness, of the thousands of country revolts, the majority unknown factors of media, which have affected the country these last years, in particular because of real expropriations.

However, China is in lack growing of skilled labor and cheap, with for direct consequence the rise in the salary costs: the minimum wage, for example, was raised to 850 RMB in April in the town of Shenzhen. The improvement of the quality of the products and the control of state-of-the-art technologies seem today the only choice for China to maintain its position competitive of workshop of the world.

Demography

China is a vast country, and which is populated of Chinese

It is often the colossal proportion of the Chinese demography which nourishes more fears and the phantasms of the Westerners. Today the companies fight to obtain an access to its market considered to be potentially immense, whereas yesterday with the “yellow peril” one feared the Asian surge in occident. Country with traditionally prosperous agriculture, China very early could develop a dense rural population and important agglomerations. Under the Song, cities as Guangzhou (Canton) at the time knew one population density as well as an administrative organization without equal.

More than one hundred of ethnos groups existed in China, the Han ethnos group remaining always majority. This ethnos group, made up of a nebula of assimilated people, does not resist however the concept of a homogeneous Han ethnos group, and could be itself divided into subcategories dividing the same cultural features. Much Han maintained their traditions, in particular their language, while continuing to be identified with the Han ethnos group. The term Zhonghua minzu (/) is used like a concept of “sinity” transcending ethnic divisions within China.

The government of the RPC currently recognizes 56 official ethnic minorities, plus the Han ethnos group. Its population is largest of the world, exceeding the 1,3 billion individuals, that is to say approximately 20% of the 6,4 billion individuals currently living according to the estimates of WHO.

The fast fall of mortality and the delay of the birth control under Mao Zedong, encouraging on the contrary a time the Chinese to procreate an army of “small soldiers”, contributed to a demographic strong growth. At the end of the years 1970, the policy of the single child, steady in the cities, was the answer to this explosion, slowing down the demographic development of the country. New age structure of population has increased considerably rate of employment which is today one of highest world, which contributes to explain strong investment rates, of saving and economic growth observed since 1980. But this policy of the single child is not without posing sociological problems and future problems with an accelerated ageing of population envisaged since 2030.

The February 28th 2006, the Office of State of statistics (BES) Chinese announced that the Chinese population had increased by 7,68 million people in 2005, that is to say a natural growth of 5,89 per thousand, against 5,87 per thousand in 2004. With the December 31st 2005, the Chinese population reached people, including 562 million people living downtown and 745 million people in the rural regions. On this total figure, one counts 674 million men (either 51,5%) and 634 million women (or 48,5%). In 2005, China recorded more than 16 million births and approximately 8,49 million death.

Medicine

The Chinese traditional Medicine, constitutes one of the most attractive aspects of Chinese civilization. The approaches different on the treatment from pathologies (diagnosis starting from the Pulse, of the complexing of the face), include/understand in particular an active participation of the patient, who has to change his food if need be.

The decoctions of traditional medicine, prescribed at the end of a consultation, are intended “to rebalance the vital principles”, to counterbalance the movements of heat and cold, following the example medicines Présocratiques in Occident.

Another mode of intervention of the Chinese doctor is the Acupuncture: according to the Meridian S or lines of vital flow traversing the body, of the needles is planted through the skin to restore an optimal circulation of the vital breath or IQ. In China, it is often combined with the use of the traditional drugs.

One can regard traditional Chinese medicine as primarily indirect in his means and preventive in his ends. Contrary to the Western practice which wants that one forgets his body when all is well and that one is worried any only in the event of disorder, the Chinese tend to being constantly attentive in their state, with the mounting of signs of imbalance which they will seek to correct by the food or the use of traditional remedies or " alternatifs". That explains the enormous demand for natural products or dietetic particularly, visible in the field them produced supposed to improve the sexual performances, which constitute in fact only the visible part of the iceberg. Various lotions, ointments, potions and remedies are often brought back like travel souvenirs by the Chinese.

See also: Chinese Medicine

Religions, philosophies, rites

China was a single center of religious radiation: the majority of the great religions of the world crossed it or occurred there: the concept even of religion was questioned there on several occasions, in particular with regard to the Confucianism; however, the weather is not today there is no doubt that during the etymology of the word (religion as “bond”) there either than checked more through interpretation, transfiguration or the acclimatization which China proposed to him during several millenia.

See also: Religions in China

The Yi Jing

Many specifically Chinese religious features were canonized through the Yi Jing , or Traditional of the Chinese Changes. Resulting from the scapulomancie or interpretation from signs of natural origin, this work generated generations of interpretative traditions. The reign of the complementary elements, Yin and Yáng, are declined there through its chapters, of hermetic nature. Intrinsically related to ritual the divinatoires, it is a handbook of chamanic interpretation, where the virtues metaphysics of the Chinese characters find their birth academic.

Taoism

The Taoism, or rather the currents taoists, appeared as from the 2nd century, inspired by the currents of the Yin-Yang and the Five elements, like in the writings of the philosopher Lǎo Zi (or Lao-tseu ) (老子), whose famous Livre of the Way and the Virtue , ( Dàodé Jīng ), is, with the Livre of the Changes (Yì Jīng), with the sources of the Chinese esotericism. These currents grew constantly rich by new influences and provided to the whole of the Chinese religion much of its concepts and practices as well as a certain number of divinities. The Masters taoists deal with much specialized rites. There would be today more than 1.500 temples taoists in China.

See also: Taoism

Confucianism

Based on the teaching of the life of Confucius, in particular through its Talks and the works of its disciples such as Mencius, the Confucianisme was set up in doctrines of State, finding its paroxysm under the Dynastie Song. Naturally dedicated with interpretations of the reigning dynasties, the original doctrines of Confucius are not however necessarily synonymous with tender at the institutions, as certain contemporaries observe it. Historically, the Confucianism however contributed to impose the ideology of the " five relations" between subjects, intended to strengthen the social order and the cosmic bond between hierarchical position and celestial virtue.

See also: Confucianism

Buddhism

Appeared as of the first century after Jesus-Christ, the Bouddhisme deeply marked the religious beliefs in China, sometimes generating violent anti-Buddhist waves of repression. China constituted one of the major centers of Buddhist civilization in the world, by its work of translation and expansion of the religion through many areas of Asia. Japan and Korea in particular largely profited from the richness of transmission of the Buddhist traditions in China. Chinese Buddhism belongs in majority to the current mahâyâna. One of its forms, the Buddhism Tibetan (or lamaïsme), widespread especially with the Tibet and in Inner Mongolia, has recruited more and more followers among the Han S for a few decades. Buddhism of the Petit Vehicle is also present, but definitely minority. It is estimated that there are approximately 13.000 Buddhist temples in China.

See also: Buddhism in China

The chan

The chan (禅) results from the synthesis between the Taoïsme and the Bouddhisme. The founder of these doctrines is Bodhidharma the 28e patriarch of Indian Buddhism which, come from the India, went between 520 and 526 to Shaolin to China to create the monastery of the same name there. It is there that it develops the bases of a Chinese martial art: the Shaolin quan, martial art resting on a fine knowledge of the initiatory rules resulting from the meeting of the taoism and Buddhism. The conceptual lesson of Chan is communicated by the kōan , short aphorisms which have the appearance of poems pain-killers but which synthesize to the maximum the prototypes and coding of the lesson transmitted by the monks of this monastery. The tour of Bodhidharma is the subject many publications. Chan is resulting the Zen, with the Japan.

the popular religion

The religious practice of the majority of the population (before 1949 for continental China) consists in fact in a mixture of taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and local traditions, often called popular religion .

See also: Chinese popular Religion

Islam

To leave 7th century, Islam constituted another vector of exchanges cultural particularly rich in China, in particular through the Silk route, where pluri-cultural cultures emerged for example in the area of Tarim, still alive today. The Yunnan was also one of these sino-Islamic terminal points: the famous navigator Zheng He was a Moslem originating in Yunnan. The members of the ethnos group Today, into any point similar culturally to the current Han in-outside theirs religion, resulting from Hans are converted having absorbed Moslems not-Chinese.

Islam knew its stronger expansion under the dynasty of the Yuan (元) (1271 - 1368). One counts today nearly 30.000 mosques in the country.

Christianity

The first traces of the Christian culture in China go back to steles nestoriennes 7th century. Then came at the 13th century from the Franciscain S, whose missionary activity was stopped one century later on order of the emperor. It is starting from the missionaries Jesuits, first of all Portuguese, that regular contacts were maintained between the Chinese and Western worlds, China remaining relatively impermeable with Christian expansionist inclinations. In 1601 Matteo Ricci and its companions were allowed in Beijing, but the missions were closed in 1773 on papal order. Protestantism was introduced starting from the wars of opium through British missionaries. There is now more than 4.600 churches and catholic sites of meeting and 12.000 temples and more than 25.000 Protestant places of worship. There exists an official Catholic church, not recognized by the Vatican and a primarily clandestine Roman Catholic church. The orthodoxe Église is present to meet the needs for the Chinese of origin Russian, installed in the Northern and Western borders of the country, but remains very marginal.

See also: Christianity in China

Judaism

Like the Christians, the Jews had to arrive to China for the first time at the 7th century while following the Silk route. Four Jewish communities exist in China, with Harbin, Shanghai, Canton and Kaifeng; the latter, discovered by Matteo Ricci at the 17th century, would go back to the Dynastie Song. A more recent community exists in Hong-Kong.

Other religions

The Zoroastrisme and the Manichéisme also penetrated in China and influenced the popular religion, in particular the second.

At the beginning of the 20th century, several syncretistic movements (Confucianism-taoism-Buddhism, even Christianity or Islam) appeared, but were quickly eliminated because of the policy options from their leaders. More recently, in spite of the mistrust of the PCC with respect to the organizations or civil movements of great scale, a new religion - or sect - syncretistic, Shelly sand gong, emerged in 1992. According to the ministry for Public safety (1998), it would count 80 million sympathizers.

The Chamanisme is practiced mainly by the Chinese minorities; the Dongba is a kind of lamaïsé paganism, survival of an old religion practiced by the Naxi, one of the many ethnic minorities of China, of origin Tibetan, alive in the Yunnan.

See also: Manicheism in China, New Chinese religions

Culture

As a linguistic and cultural entity relatively homogeneous and continues, whose longevity surprises (and upsets the theories of the decline necessary of civilizations), China developed an original and immense culture, which explored all the known modes of expression almost: literature, Penmanship, painting, music, etc

She moreover invented the Calligraphie, art considered as noblest and more refined. Its saving in means (a brush, black ink, a sheet of paper absorbing) and its very constraining framework (the order and the provision of the features are given) make some, paradoxically, an art in which the expressivity is with its roof: the brush holds to with it place of “seismograph of the heart”.

See also: Chinese Culture, Contemporary art Chinese, modern Chinese Music, Chinese Kitchen

Literature

A negligible part of the written production of Chinese civilization is accessible in Western languages and well few works are known general public. Being given the particular context of this country, its literature in the broad sense knew evolutions different from that of the other areas of the world. The epopee, for example, is singularly absent there. On the other hand, the various anecdotes, tales, facts, short biographies, as well as the tests, the comments of traditional, the treaties, compilations are plentiful kinds.

Among the Chinese books and authors who were translated and read in Occident, one can note: the Voyage in Occident ( Peregrinations towards the West ), At the edge of water , the Dream with the red House , the poetry of Of Fu and Li Bai, as well as the major modern author who is Lu Xun.

See also: Chinese Literature

See too

Bank holidays and traditional festivals

Sciences

Inventions

; Gunpowder: The first mention of the formula of the gunpowder (coal, salpetre and sulfur) appears in Wǔjīng zǒngyào 武經總要 of 1044, and it will be necessary to wait the year 1285 to find the same mention in a European text. The discovery seems to have for origin of the research made in the taoists middle of the time of Táng, but was followed soon by a military application in the years 904-906. They were then projectiles named flamers " fires volants" (fēihuǒ 飛火). ; Printing works: Before being an invention of Johannes Gensfleisch (known under the name of Gutenberg ), printing works is a Korean invention. But China had already known printing works in mobile matters (at the 9th century) well a long time before Korea and the occident do not discover the latter (at the 15th century). However this technique was given up by the Chinese at the time because this system was not adapted to the Chinese writing (the Idéogramme S) whereas in occident this technique was adapted to the Alphabet.

; Bonsai: Japanese undoubtedly invented the word bonsai but the invention of this small shrub is well of Chinese origin.

; Kite: It was the first invention has to exploit the wind and the airspace.

; Compass: It made it possible to locate the direction: north, south, are and western. It was an essential instrument for the orientation and the voyages.

; Match: This simple object had to require for its manufacture of knowledge in chemistry, mechanics, wood etc a completely ecological invention, which undoubtedly constitutes the avant-garde of what one currently indicates by the term of Biodégradable.

; Civil servant: This system of selection per contest is well a Chinese invention which made it possible to choose the best well-read men of the country…

; the Porcelain: the Chinese are the first people in the world to know the techniques of the manufacture of the porcelain towards the Tang dynasty (- Xe century). Europe will control in its turn the technique at the 18th century. ; Pastes: still an ignored or badly known invention of the public which does not take its origins in Italy.

; Rudder of stern post: The Chinese developed this instrument facilitating the navigation of which will serve Christophe Colomb to discover America.

See too

Related articles

External bonds

  • Franco-Chinese Friendship Site Franco-Chinese Friendship
  • lechinatown.com Forum on the Chinese cultures and civilizations.
  • Chine-informations.com Gate of information dedicated to Chinese, China and its civilization.
  • Chine-nouvelle.com
  • Today China information on China.
  • China Discovered: To live, study, work in China
  • charts of China (lexilogos)
  • 1000+ Charts of China
  • Card of statistics and charts on China
  • China.org .cn official gate of China
  • official gate of French China
  • Chinese right on Jurispedia
  • Right and culture in China
  • China and World Trade organization
  • Chinese Prospects, re-examined social sciences on the Chinese world.

Media

  • Newspaper Index - the best of China
  • Clouded DIGITAL Times
  • Radio China international

Vidéos

  • impacts of the rise of China 11 conferences video onlines of academics on the impacts geopolitical, military, economic, ecological of the rise of China

  • intellectuals and capacity in China of the reforms the Sinologist of CERI (IEP PARIS) described the evolution of the Chinese democratic movement since 1919 until today.
  • is the democracy possible in China? Conference on line of the Sinologist of the UQAM Andre Laliberté.
  • Voyage in China: Beijing, Xi' year & Shanghai Travel to China illustrated of many photographs and vidéos. Discover the big cities of Beijing, Xi' year and Shanghai.

Others

  • To discover and learn Chinese painting and penmanship
  • China, rise of a super power in the number 14 of International the Socialisme review
  • Faits and figures on China
  • Chinaorbit.com gate with articles on the Chinese culture
  • Islam in China yesterday and today
  • Human rights in China and Beijing 2008 - Olympic Watch
  • the annexation of Tibet by China, more.
  • China in paintings of propaganda

Simple: clouded Zh-classical: 中國 Zh-min-nan: Tiong-kok Zh-yue: 中國

Random links:Nutcase | Daniel Féret | Administration of funds | List establishments of higher education in Nancy | CFDT Frameworks