Changes And Continuities In China

China has been a powerful empire for a very long period of time, China has not always stayed the same though. Throughout its expansive history China has evolved in many ways while retaining many of its original values. Some examples of this can be found in the way China conducted its economy, its openness to other ideas, and its methods of leadership. Specifically, there were very large amounts of change that took place between the warring states period in China and the Yuan dynasty. China's economy has varied throughout its history, some of the ways it has varied are in the types of currencies that they employed, along with the ideas of what their economic values should consist of. Throughout that majority of the time of the warring
states period to the Tang dynasty, China had relied on other forms of currency rather than paper money. This all changed when merchants wanted to find an alternative to promissory notes. Wealthy merchants began to use paper money. Furthermore, during the former Han period, China had a fairly prosperous economy, but that changed toward the end of the former Han. While, during the Tang and Song, China enjoyed a prosperous economy. During the Tang and the Song dynasties, a market economy began to form due to an increase in agricultural production, urbanization, population growth, and industrial production. Although this was a market economy, it was not a free-market economy and the government controlled many aspects of the way products were distributed.

Throughout the majority of Chinese history, China has been a major exporter of goods and ideas, but they usually did not embrace other ideals, although this was not always the case.
During the period of the Tang to the Yuan dynasties, China embraced other ideas and imported some goods from other countries. This helped China prosper and become more of a cosmopolitan country. This, however, reversed when the Ming dynasty came to power. One of the reasons for why China was more closed off to other ideas was that China was very advanced compared to some of the other countries that it could have exchanged ideas and goods with. This is not to say that China did not have monetary relationships with other countries, they have exported a large amount of goods to other countries via the Silk Road and via ship trade. One of China's most famous explorers, Zheng He aided in the trade process. Zheng He had a large fleet of ships that he lead many voyages on and this was one example of early sea
trade.

Throughout the warring states period to the Yuan dynasty there were various different types of leadership.
During the warring states period, there were various people jockeying for power, but there was no central government. Then, afterwards the Qin dynasty took over and instituted a strong, centralized government. Thereafter, the Han dynasty took power and then went from a strong rule like the Qin, to a looser rule that followed some principles from Confucianism. After the Han, the three kingdoms period caused a return to divided rule. Then, the Sui took power and in the same fashion as before, harsh rule was instituted. Then, once again, as before, looser rule returned with Tang dynasty. Then, as before, the five dynasties and ten kingdoms period caused a return to divided rule. If you look at all of these events together, you can identify a pattern, after a period of weakness, non-cohesive leadership a strong dynasty institutes a harsh rule. Then, after the harsher dynasty crumbles, a more open dynasty takes power and retains it for a decent amount of time. Then, the process repeats itself. Leadership changed many times throughout this period of Chinese history, but this overarching pattern was consistent throughout this
period.

To conclude, China has always been a dominant power throughout its history but it has evolved in many ways as well. China's economy had evolved from one based on agriculture to trade and the currency they used changed to paper. Furthermore, in some instances in Chinese history, China did not import goods or ideas from other countries, but during the period between the Tang to the Yuan dynasty they accepted some ideas from other countries. Also, China's leading dynasties followed a pattern of rule throughout its history however, China has had loose rule from dynasties such as the Song, strong rule from those such as the Sui, and no rule during times of instability.