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Project Paper:
“The Usage of Curriculum Guides for Seniors”

for HUMN-410 by Wanda Jackson Oct. 22, 2008

SECTION I:
The purpose of this paper is to enlighten individuals on China regarding dynasties, unification, leadership, political philosophies, government structure and international relationships. The country has an extensive history. China also has many customs we would consider to be unacceptable. Come with me and let’s explore the up and coming global power.
SECTIONII:
There were many dynasties that have ruled China since 2033BC. Xia dynasty is one that people did not want to admit it existed. Xia ended with its leader being overthrown, imagine that. People can only put up with so much oppression. The monarch was a typical imbecile with money and power at his fingertips; he was overthrown.
The Shang dynasty was ruled by a corrupt leader; he was overthrown. The longest lasting dynasty in China was the Zhou dynasty; they were in charge from 1027-221BC (www.google.com). A writing system and bronze metallurgy were invented. The king was assassinated by rebels (www.paulnoll.com).
Power equals money which in turn, equals demise especially regarding dynasties. China dynasty rulers when overthrown are usually exiled or murdered. One Zhou ruler was overthrown and killed by rebel lords. With the royal line broken the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished (www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty-Zhou.html).
The Qin dynasty was a ruthless one. They relied heavily on standardizing legal codes and bureaucratic procedures (www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty-Qin.html). Wow! One could say that China is communist due to this dynasty. What is it with the mentality all or nothing?
IIan was the dynasty that followed Qin; Not only in sequential order, but also characteristically. Han leaders were even more corrupt than the previous Qin dynasty. Man, I am beginning to wonder if the poor Chinese people are going to get a break.
The Tang dynasty ruled from AD 618 to 907. The Tang period was one of art and literature. Domestic economic instability and military defeat in 751 by Arabs at Talas, in Central Asia, marked the beginning of centuries of steady military decline for the Chinese empire (www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Tang). Following the Tang dynasty there were the Later Jin, Later Han and Later Zhou dynasties.
China’s government today is a socialist, pig headed, organization. The mainland of China, Red China is ruled by the People’s Republic of China(www.wikipedia.com). Everything thing and everyone is controlled by the government. Really, it is kind of sad that we as Americans take our freedom for granted enlightened by other’s plight to be free.
SECTION III:
There was a period of 399 years from AD220 – 618 that China was not unified (www.paulnoll.com). China was unified in 221 BC under the Ch’in dynasty. Many items were standardized such as money, weights, and measures (wsu.edu). Ch’enga had books burned, teachers were executed, and Confucianism was outlawed. Ch’in ruthlessness was unbelievable. When the emperor died, his most powerful administrators, Li Ssu and Chao Kao took over the government (www.wsu.edu). The political philosophy that seems to be standard with dynasties is either you are for or against me.
SECTION IV:
Formosa, commonly known as Taiwan wanted independence from the harsher rule of the Communist Party. In 1912, they started to separate; it was founded in 1949. Following the Chinese Cold War, Taiwan was formed. Taiwan is a multi-party democratic state as compared to the communist side of Red China. The Republic of China (which administers Taiwan) and the People’s Republic of China (which administers mainland China) do not officially recognize each other’s sovereignty (www.wikipedia.org/twochinas). Taiwan was a better trading partner back in day compared to mainland China. When Red China was threatening a hostile military takeover, the US sent forces over there to contend with the mainland army. We supported Taiwan against Red China by providing weapons, funds, and ops. The United States of America is presently on thin ice with Red China. Basically, they threatened to revoke trade relations if we continue to help Taiwan. In 1998, the US military had the biggest naval showing since WWII. We pulled out the big guns, and they backed off. The USA is really stuck between a rock and a hard place because both are facilitating our needs.
SECTION V:
The government structure of the People’s Republic of China is that it is socialist. All office is held by officers appointed by the czar. Taiwan has a democratic process by which a leader is elected. Most of the governmental offices are under citizens’ rule as opposed to government rule in Red China. The Chinese political policy is that they are in charge and not putting up with opposition from an opposing party. The government has been known to jail opposition.
USA has a touchy relationship with China. They believe that Taiwan belongs to them. We of course, do not want anymore communist countries so we back the financially to evade a takeover. The good old American philosophy that communists are bad and anti-communists are good makes us tend to stick our nose in where it does not belong.
China and Korea have a solid relationship. China is North Korea’s most important ally, biggest trading partner, and main source of food, arms and fuel. Everything looks good on the surface, but North Korea has proven they cannot be trusted especially Pyongyang. If Pyongyang starts a war, it will get ugly. China has the upper hand in this relationship; North Korea gets 90% of its energy imports from China (www.china.org).
China and Japan are trying to have a copasetic relationship. Japan is trying to convince China to become a more constructive partner (www.mofa.go.jp.region/asia-paci/china/index.html). They are working on understanding each other’s positions. Typically, I would say I could see their relationship grow, but there is a lot of tension and competition amongst each other. China and Russia have a stressed relationship dating back to the 60s. In 1960, the Soviets tried to limit scientific and technologic information to China. The Sino-Soviets relationship was demolished; in open, international forums, there were disputes (www.china.com). After someone betrays you, it is really difficult to trust them again. Hong Kong is an important trading partner. Hong Kong has a free market economy highly dependent on international trade (www.cia.gov). Companies in China can list stock in the Korean market. The mainland has long been Hong Kong’s largest trading partner accounting for 46% of Hong Kong’s total trade by value in 2006(www.cia.gov).
SECTION VI: There are many societal factors unique to China such as citizens can not enjoy speaking their mind against the government, one child policy in urban areas, rural/urban workers, and religion. China is considered a “closed society” because of its authoritarianism that takes place such as jailing opposition and reporters, and fining the media. Citizens who oppose the government are often sent to prison, tortured, or forced to do labor. I am glad America is not like this. If I feel they made a bad decision, I can voice my opinion.
The one child policy, makes having more than one child, unless the first one is a girl or disabled, illegal. People have been forced to serve jail time. Some people claim they have had forced abortions. In America, we have as many children as we please. What if you kept trying for a boy, but got a girl every time in China? There are many rumor s floating, but nobody is really willing to discuss the subject. Chinese government classifies you as one type of worker either rural or urban. In November 2005, Jiang Wenran, acting director of the China Institute at the University of Alberta, said, “this system was one of the most strictly enforced “apartheid” structures in modern world history. He stated “Urban dwellers enjoy a range of social, economic and cultural benefits while peasants, the majority of the Chinese population, are treated as second-class citizens.” The hukuo system also enforced pass laws similar to those in South Africa with “rural” workers requiring six passes to work in provinces other than their own, and periodic police raids which rounded up those without permit, placed then in detention centers, and deported them(www.Wikipedia.com). This would not be heard of in America. Some of us switch jobs like we change underwear. I could not imagine someone telling me that I could not transfer to a different location without prior permission.
The People’s Republic of China continually tries to control religion by selecting bishops & spiritual leaders. Communist party members are required to be atheist. Many church members get harassed by government officials. The only legal churches are under communist rule. I am glad religion rights are freely exercised in the USA.
SECTION VII:
In summation, I would like to state that socialist countries like the People’s Republic of China believe that individuals are selfish and need structure. I believe there is a thing as too much structure. I see China as an up and coming global power regarding technology, the wave of the future. The Republic of China citizens enjoy most of their basic rights. Citizens are in control of police and security. America seems like we are losing more and more of our alienable rights every day. Let’s face it; it’s great to be an American, but let’s not turn into socialists.

The Xia dynasty was the first dynasty of China. Some people did not want to admit that it existed. Scientists have proof that the dynasty existed by artifacts found in the 1960’s and 1970’s. The first prehistoric dynasty is said to be the Xia, from about the twenty-first to the sixteenth century BC. Until scientific excavations were made at early bronze-age sites at Anyang, Henan Province, in 1928, it was difficult to separate myth from reality in regard to the Xia. But since then, and in the 1960s and 1970s, archaeologists have uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs that point to the existence of Xia civilization in the same locations cited in ancient historical texts. At minimum, the Xia period marked an evolutionary stage between the late Neolithic cultures and the typical Chinese urban civilization of the Shang Dynasty. Tradition names the Xia Dynasty as the first hereditary Chinese Dynasty, which ended only when a Xia ruler fell into debauchery, mistreated his people, and was subsequently overthrown. However, there is no archaeological record to confirm this story; the Shang is the earliest dynasty for which reliable historical evidence exists(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Xia.html).
The Shang Dynasty was next in line. The Shang Dynasty ruled the territory of the present-day north-central provinces of Henan, Hubei, and Shandong and the northern part of Anhui. The capital, from about 1384 BC on, was situated at Anyang near the northern border of Henan. The economy was based on agriculture, augmented by hunting and animal husbandry, millet, wheat, barley, and, possibly, some rice was grown. Silkworms were cultivated, and pigs, dogs, sheep, and oxen were raised. Bronze vessels, weapons, and other tools have been found, indicative of a high level of metallurgy and craftsmanship. Two important events of the period were the development of a writing system, as revealed in archaic Chinese inscriptions found on tortoise shells and flat cattle bones (commonly called oracle bones), and the use of bronze metallurgy. The Shang was an aristocratic society. At the head was a king who presided over military nobility. Territorial rulers were appointed by him and compelled to support him in military endeavors. Between this aristocratic class and the commoners was a literate priestly class that kept the records of government and was responsible for divination. Shang people worshiped their ancestors and a multitude of gods, the principal of whom was known as Shang Ti, the Lord on High. A vigorous King of Chou, a state on the Wei River Valley overthrew the last Shang monarch, a cruel and debauched tyrant(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Shang.html).
Distinction in the ranks is typical in dynasties such as the Zhou. A chieftain of a frontier tribe called Zhou, which had settled in the Wei Valley in modern Sha'anxi Province, overthrew the last Shang ruler, a despot according to standard Chinese accounts. The Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other, from 1027 to 221 BC (807 years). It was philosophers of this period who first enunciated the doctrine of the "mandate of heaven," the notion that the ruler (the "son of heaven") governed by divine right but his dethronement would mean that he had lost his mandate. This doctrine explained and justified the demise of the two earlier dynasties and at the same time supported the legitimacy of the present and future rulers. In 771 BC, the Zhou court was sacked, and its king killed by invading barbarians who were allied with rebel lords. The capital was moved eastward to Luoyang. Because of this shift, historians divide the Zhou era into Western Zhou (1027 to 771 BC) and Eastern Zhou (770 to 221 BC). With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou court gradually diminished; the fragmentation of the kingdom accelerated. Eastern Zhou divides into two sub periods. The first, from 770 to 476 BC, is called the Spring and Autumn Period, after a famous historical chronicle of the time; the second is known as the Warring States Period (475 to 221 BC) (http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-West-Zhou.html).
Power equals money which in turn, equals demise especially regarding dynasties. Much of what is China proper was unified in 221BC. In that year, the most aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated the last of its rival states. Qin (formally known as Ch'in, from the English word China probably derived). In subjugating the six other major states of Eastern Zhou, the Qin kings had relied heavily on standardizing legal codes and bureaucratic procedures. To silence criticism of imperial rule, the kings banished or put to death many dissenting Confucian scholars and confiscated and burned their books. Qin aggrandizement was aided by frequent military expeditions pushing out the frontiers in the north and south. To fend off barbarian intrusion, the fortification walls built by various Warring States were connected to make a 5,000-kilometer Great Wall. The Great Wall is actually four great walls rebuilt or extended during the Western Han, Sui, Jin and Ming periods. A number of public works projects were also undertaken to consolidate and strengthen imperial rule. These activities required enormous levies of manpower and resources, not to mention repressive measures. Revolts broke out as soon as the first Qin emperor died in 210 BC. The dynasty was extinguished less than twenty years after its triumph but the imperial system initiated set the pattern for the next two millennia(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Qin.html).
After a short civil war, a new dynasty, called Han (206 BC to 220 AD), emerged with its capital at Chang'an. The new empire retained much of the Qin administrative structure but retreated a bit from centralized rule by establishing vassal principalities for the sake of political convenience. The Han rulers modified some of the harsher aspects of the previous dynasty. Technological advances also marked this period with two inventions, paper and porcelain. The Han dynasty was notable for its military prowess. The empire expanded westward to modern Xinjiang Province. After 200 years, Han rule was interrupted briefly (in AD 9 to 24 by Wang Mang, a reformer), then restored for another 200 years. The Han rulers, however, were unable to adjust to what centralization had wrought: a growing population, increasing wealth and resultant financial difficulties and rivalries, and ever-more complex political institutions. Riddled with corruption characteristic of the dynastic cycle, by AD 220, the Han Empire collapsed(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Han.html).
There was a period of 399 years from AD 220 – 618 were China was not unified. The country split into 3 sections (http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-disunity.html).
Historians regard the Tang Dynasty (AD 618 to 907), with its capital at Chang'an, as a high point in Chinese civilization -- equal, or even superior, to the Han period. The Tang period was the golden age of literature and art. Tang rule perfected a government system supported by a large class of Confucian literati selected through civil service examinations. They designed this competitive procedure to draw the best talents into government. By the center of the 8th Century AD, Tang power had ebbed. Domestic economic instability and military defeat in 751 by Arabs at Talas, in Central Asia, marked the beginning of centuries of steady military decline for the Chinese empire. Misrule, court intrigues, economic exploitation, and popular rebellions weakened the empire, making it possible for northern invaders to terminate the dynasty in 907. The next half-century saw the fragmentation of China into five northern dynasties and ten southern kingdoms(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Tang.html).

Five Dynasties Period - (AD 907 to 960 - 53 Years) - Page 1
Ten Kingdoms Period - (AD 907 to 979 - 62 Years)
Liao Dynasty (AD 907 to 1125 - 218 Tears)
Period Dynasty Years Character Five Dynasties
Later Liang Dynasty 907 to 923 - 17Years Later Tang Dynasty (Shatuo Turk) 923 to 936 - 13 Years Later Jin Dynasty 936 to 946 - 10 Years
Later Han Dynasty 947 to 950 - 3 Years
Later Zhou Dynasty 951 to 960 - 10 Years

Ten Kingdoms Wu Kingdom 920 to 937 - 17 Years
Wu Yue Kingdom 907 to 978 - 72 Years Southern Han Kingdom 907 to 971 - 65 Years Chu Kingdom 907 to 951 - 45 Years Qian Shu Kingdom 907 to 925 - 18 Years Min Kingdom 909 to 945 - 35 Years
Jingnan Kingdom 924 to 963 - 40 Years
Shu Kingdom 934 to 965 - 32 Years
Southern Tang Kingdom (formerly Wu) 937 to 975 - 39 Years Northern Han Kingdom 951 to 979 - 29 Years Liao Liao Dynasty 907 to 1125 - 218 Years http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-five-dynasties.html In 960 AD, a new power, the Song (960-1279 AD), reunited most of China proper. The Song period divides into two phases, Northern Song (960 to 1127), and Southern Song (1127 to 1279). The division was caused by the forced abandonment of north China in 1127 by the Song court, which could not push back the nomadic invaders. The founders of the Song Dynasty built an effective centralized bureaucracy staffed with civilian scholar-officials. This system of civilian rule led to a greater concentration of power in the emperor and his palace bureaucracy than had been achieved in the previous dynasties. The Song Dynasty is notable for the development of cities, not only for the administrative purposes, but also as centers of trade, industry, and maritime commerce. A new group of wealthy commoners -- the mercantile class -- arose as printing and education spread, private trade grew, and a market economy began to link the coastal provinces and the interior. Landholding and government employment were no longer the only means of gaining wealth and prestige. Zhu Xi's philosophy became official imperial ideology and evolved into a rigid official obligation of obedience and compliance of subject to ruler, child to parent, wife to husband, and younger brother to elder brother. The effect was to inhibit the societal development of premodern China, resulting both in many generations of political, social, and spiritual stability and in a slowness of cultural and institutional change up to the nineteenth century. Kublai Klan defeated the Southern Song to begin the Yuan Dynasty in 1279 AD(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Song.html).
In 1206 an assembly of all Mongol tribes convened in Outer Mongolia to confirm Mongol unity under the leadership of Genghis Khan. In China the alien Jin Dynasty fell to the Mongol armies. He captured the Jin capital in 1215 and extended his power over all of North China. The conquest of the Southern Song was not completed until 1279, after Kublai Khan, his grandson, had succeeded to Mongol leadership. Kublai moved the capital to Beijing, adopted much of the Chinese administrative machinery that existed under the Song. They ruled as Chinese monarchs under the dynastic title of Yuan (1279-1368 - 90 years). Communications were vastly improved. The Central Asian trade routes were secured. Traffic from West to East increased. Missionaries and traders came to China, bringing new ideas, techniques, foods, and medicines. Marco Polo arrives to write about the splendor of the Mongol Empire of the West. However, discontent was growing in China(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Mongol.html).
A Han Chinese peasant and former Buddhist monk turned rebel army leader, founded the Ming Dynasty (1368 to 1644 AD). Having its capital first at Nanjing, and later at Beijing, the Ming reached the zenith of power during the first quarter of the fifteenth century. The Chinese fleet sailed the China seas and the Indian Ocean, cruising as far as the east coast of Africa. Internally, the Grand Canal was expanded to its farthest limits and proved to be a stimulus to domestic trade. The stability of the Ming Dynasty, which was without major disruptions of the population (then about 100 million), economy, arts, society, or politics, promoted a belief among the Chinese that they had achieved the most satisfactory civilization on earth and that nothing foreign was needed or welcome. Long wars with the Mongols, incursions by the Japanese into Korea, and harassment of Chinese coastal cities by the Japanese in the sixteenth century weakened Ming rule, which became, as earlier Chinese dynasties had, ripe for alien takeover. In 1644 the Manchu took Beijing from the north and became masters of North China, establishing the last imperial dynasty(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Ming.html).

Although the Manchus were not Han Chinese, they realized that to dominate the empire they would have to do things the Chinese way and so they retained many of the institutions of the Ming and earlier dynasties. Ever suspicious of Han Chinese, the Qing rulers put into effect measures aimed at preventing the absorption of the Manchu into the dominant Han Chinese population. Han Chinese were prohibited from migrating into the Manchu homeland, and Manchu were forbidden to engage in trade or manual labor. Intermarriage between groups was forbidden. The Qing regime was determined to protect itself not only from internal rebellion but also from foreign invasion (http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Qing.html).
Failure of reform from the top and the fiasco of the Boxer Uprising convinced many Chinese that the only real solution lay in outright revolution, in sweeping away the old order and erecting a new one patterned preferably after the example of Japan. The revolutionary leader was Sun Yat-sen. Sun's political philosophy centered on the Three Principles of the People: "nationalism, democracy, and people's livelihood." The principle of nationalism called for overthrowing the Manchus and ending foreign hegemony over China. The second principle, democracy, was used to describe Sun's goal of a popularly elected republican form of government. People's livelihood, often referred to as socialism, was aimed at helping the common people through regulation of the ownership of the means of production and land. The republican revolution broke out on October 10, 1911, in Hubei Province, among discontented modernized army units whose anti-Qing plot had been uncovered. The revolt quickly spread to neighboring cities. By late November, fifteen of the twenty-four provinces had declared their independence of the Qing Empire. On January 1, 1912, Sun was inaugurated in Nanjing as the provisional president of the new Chinese republic. But power in Beijing already had passed to the commander-in-chief of the imperial army, Yuan Shikai, the strongest regional military leader at the time. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention from undermining the infant republic, Sun agreed to Yuan's demand that China be united under a Beijing government headed by Yuan. On February 12, 1912, the last Manchu emperor, the child Puyi, abdicated. On March 10, in Beijing, Yuan Shikai was sworn in as provisional president of the Republic of China. (http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-ROC.html).
Despite the failure of the Autumn Harvest Uprising of 1927, Mao continued to work among the peasants of Hunan Province. Without waiting for the sanction of the CCP center, then in Shanghai, he began establishing peasant-based soviets (Communist-run local governments) along the border between Hunan and Jiangxi provinces. In collaboration with military commander Zhu De (1886-1976), Mao turned the local peasants into a politicized guerrilla force. By the winter of 1927-28, the combined "peasants' and workers'" army had some 10,000 troops(http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-PRC.html).

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WORKS CITED PAGE www.google.com www.paulnoll.com www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty-Zhou.html www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty-Qin.html www.paulnoll.com/China/Dynasty/dynasty-Tang www.wsu.edu www.wikipedia.com www.wikipedia.org/twochinas www.china.org www.mofa.go.jp.region/asia-paci/china/index.html www.cia.gov Dynasties Timeline -- Page 1 Found on www.google.com
Dates Dynasty Years Chinese Character ca.
2033-1562 B.C. Xia 441
1562-1066 B.C. Shang 655
1066-771 B.C. Western Zhou 295
770-256 B.C. Eastern Zhou 514
770-476 B.C. Spring and Autumn Period 294
475-221 B.C. Warring States Period 254
221-207 B.C. Qin 14
206 B.C.-A.D. 8 Western Han 214
A.D. 9-25 Xin 16
A.D. 25-220 Eastern Han 195