How Has China Changed Over Time Essay
Today, we live in a world that is run by computers and electronics. Whenever we wake up, we use some type of electronic, may it be a toaster or a car. China is one of the very few countries that has top notch technology and is still in roots with their past rituals and tradition. This project is based on their past traditions and rituals, and I will also cover what has changed since these times.
The actual population is quite large. China currently stands as the world's most populous country at a population of 1,190,431,106 people. While this was 1984, it is estimated that China's population today is estimated at 1,298,847,624. China has put a population control program into place in an attempt to control population. It still doesn't seem to work for them. …show more content…
The land area of China conflicts with China's population. China stands at an area of 9.6 million square kilometres. That is 135.296 people per square kilometre. I wouldn't want to live in such a crowded environment, unless I was an entrepreneur looking for business of course.
A famous trait of China is what is served on their plates at lunch time. Ever since ancient times, the Chinese have eaten rice, this is a tradition of China almost everyone in the world can recognize them for. But rice is more than what they eat, the Chinese were known for their hard work antics, making them extremely good farmers. The farmers were said to be friendly people. They grew crops on small pieces of land, and their food was sometimes given to the army. The people grew millet, wheat, and barley, and the people in southern China grew rice. A few of the Chinese farmers would keep pigs and chickens but not many did, as most meat served was wild bird and sometimes fish. The Chinese never obtained many good fertilizers, so they used their own excretion (poop) to fertilize their land.
China's currency is measured in CNY (yuan). One yuan is equivalent to 8.28 dollars US. Yuan is commonly mistaken for the Japanese yen, as yuan has much greater value than the Japanese yen. They have pretty much always used yuan, but before that they used simple trading practises. Food for clothes, clothes for weapons, weapons for supplies It can go either way.
The main religion in ancient China was Buddhism. Buddhism is when people think that they will get more lives than one. In order to get another life, you have to do many good thing in your current life. Buddhism was the real big one, not much is remembered about the other ones. Very few practise those today, and those who do, know very little about it. Many people believe that these religions are irrelevant compared to Christianity. Although, the fact remains that many people who were Christian have converted over to Buddhism. The other religions were Bodhidharma , Buddhism, Dalai Lama, Falun Gong, Gedun Drub, Guanyin , Mahayana, Shang Ti - Shaolin - Sonam Gyatso - Tibetan Buddhism - Vajrayana - Yami - Zen
The Chinese empire had existed for years and years, they had controlled the military and economy .
Emperors Kangxi and Quanlong supported Chinese art and culture (Which many countries traded China for), and kept up the civil service system. They were scared that things would change and people would rebel so they stuck with what they knew. In the late 1800s China was behind in technology and was being picked apart slowly bit by bit. In 1839, Chinese officials tried to stop Britain from bringing in opium. Opium is a drug that is addictive and when taken in certain concentrations It can kill you or leave you disabled. The British was trading the Chinese people opium for tea. Then later, Britain announced war against China and Britain ended with up as the victor. After that, Britain encouraged other countries to take over China's land. The Qing Dynasty could not stand the advanced technology that other countries had at the time, which meant they were forced to step down, China had extremely poor weapons. And then, In 1900 an army captured Beijing. In 1911, the Chinese threw out their helpless leaders and started a republic. The last emperor, Puyi, had to resign in 1912. That was the end of the great Chinese
Empire.
The workforce was mainly consisted of farmers. The primary reason for this is that China is an agricultural country, and fieldwork has been the main point of employment. Most Chinese men were farmers, they supported themselves and China's huge population. They provided enough food for almost all the people by growing two or more crops on the same land each year.
In order to get a high paying job you either had to be noble or educated or both. To have a career in high office in one of the multiple towns and villages, you had to pass the government exams. It was a route to riches and fame. On examination day, the day the tests were given.
The poorer community of the Chinese were extremely unfortunate. The poor lived in houses packed together, they had very little food. Many of the young guys joined street gangs. Gangs wore distinctive clothes and armour, that identified their gang. Teen gangs roamed the cities, terrorizing people.
The rich community was quite different. They built nice and large homes, decorated with drapery, and cashmere carpets. They furnished family tombs with stone lions. On the lions, and on other sculpture, they added inscriptions mentioning how much each item had cost.
Since endurance and stamina was required for farming, most women didn't have any work. Manual labour was definite through the process of ploughing and harvesting. Irrigation, fertilizers and soil conservation were practiced extensively without the assistance of any machine. Exceptional stamina has been a definite for being a farmer, men were much more qualified for it. Women could not challenge men's supremacy in that male occupation. Pregnancy and nursing of children took up women's energies and time. A Woman's social activity was limited, they couldn't work outside their homes. They could not / did not contribute to the family income. Men gained control over women by being the sole earners in families, A woman's incapacity to make money affected their positions in society.
Chinese culture played a major role in the roles of genders. It resembled principles of Confucianism, a major religion in China. Confucianism viewed the family as a microcosm of the world. Unity in human relationships was a source or order and control to avoid chaos in the country. Confucianism taught that in the husband-wife relationship, the wife should love and obey commands of the husband, and must love and guide every member in his family. Therefore, the wife became a family member below her husband. She was stuck to by him. She had to show her husband respect, subservience and loyalty . A respectable Chinese wife had no voice in family decisions and no absolute right to ask for a divorce. The wife was a means of producing children, the number of baby boys she could produce showed her value. If the wife failed in giving birth to sons, she would be regarded as a useless woman. The husband could divorce her for her failure and marry other women who were capable of carrying.
The first Chinese writing was dated back to about 1200 BCE. The writings were found by the Shang capital. They found bones with writing on them, they were for healing people at this point of time. After a while, the Chinese people were getting better and better at writing, Soon after that people started to write on bronze, the writing was used for sacrifices. Writing on bronze may have been nice but people did not write much. In the fifth century BCE people wrote on bamboo. Strips of them were put together to make a roll. Writing was also found on silk cloth and tablets. When the first emperor came into power, he made a language called clerical script. Before that people wrote whatever they wanted. That meant that each person had a language all their own.. But luckily the Chinese invented paper around 200 BCE.
The Chinese people went through constant changes. They were able to keep up with their times and still keep their traditions they have always owned. Like for example, their instruments such as the flute and the harp were changed many times to keep up with their lifestyle but still had the same constant perfect tone. They managed to fight off the Mongols and many other threats from other groups for a long time; At the same time keeping all their rituals. Chinese people still celebrate the same holidays, still wear the same kinds of clothes, use some of the same materials of Ancient China, and have the same kind of art and music.
The Chinese people also had a very different wedding tradition. The groom would propose to her in a detailed way, she would then accept it. When the boy's parents identified a likely bride-to-be, they would send the go-between to present gifts to the girl's parents and to sound out their feelings about the match. If the proposal was well-received, the go-between would obtain the date and hour of the girl's birth recorded on the ancestral alter for three days. If any feuds happened between the two families or a loss property happened during this time; The wedding would be called off. But if all went well, the parents would give the information to a astrological expert to confirm that the young woman and their son would make a good match. If the boy's family found the horoscope to be favourable, they gave the boy's birth date and hour to the go-between to bring to the girl's family, who would go through the same process. Only after both outcomes were favourable, would the two families arrange to meet. Finally face-to-face, each family evaluated the other in terms of appearance, education, character, and social position. If both were satisfied they would proceed to the betrothal.
Most of China still follows these traditions. Very few however uses the traditional marriage, they use a system similar to ours. Women cruelty is still high however, it has been reduced but women are seen as the lowest in China more than any other country.
Art in ancient China was very highly valued. It was valued by emperors and their wives and the rest of their family. It was valued by both rich and the poor. Art was used to determine your emotions and actions. You would also get an animal that was just like you. For example, if you were rich you would get a horse that meant that you were high ranked, and you had speed. A water buffalo meant that you were a peasant. Birds that could fly meant that you had freedom. Most people had a dragon in their home to pray to or to keep them safe.
Chinese houses were made of simple materials. They harvested silk and used it to weave fine fabrics for decorations and other purposes. They baked strong bricks in ovens and used them to build their homes. They worked together as a team to control floods and securing the house of bacteria. They had excellent engineering skills. Legend has it that their Great Engineer, Yu, founded the Xia (sometimes called the Hsia in other cultures)
Music in china goes back as far as 1600 BCE. People played their music at the palace, court and sometimes at banquets. Some have said that music was as needed as food to the Chinese. It was also said that music was your inner harmony. Some music lead to violent behaviour. There were a lot of instruments like the flute, yang, gin, and the lyrical lute. The majority of instruments stayed the same over many centuries like the harp and the flute. Others went away like the sheng.
Like I said before, the ancient Chinese were not on top of the technology game. They had ancient weapons in the war against the British as compared to the British weaponry. The current China is as high up on technology as we are, an example of this is the great "firewall" of China. A firewall system their government intervened to filter unwanted/unneeded things into and out of China.
China may have been lacking in technology, but when they built the great wall of China, their hard work made up for it. The great wall of China is the largest man made structure ever made in history. The wall stretches 4,000 miles and it's thickness ranged from 4.5 meters to 9 meters (15 feet to 30 feet) and was up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) tall. No structure on earth is that large; Which is why the Great wall of China has gone down in the history books as one of the wonders of the worlds. The structure itself can actually be seen from space! The main purpose of this wall was to defend against enemies. Many historians now believe that the wall, or walls, was built to mark territories, similar to the way that forts are built in Canada or United States.
The great wall itself was started in 688 BCE. The wall was completed over a process of 200 years; Because of restricted funding, they had to constantly keep delaying construction. The construction was on and off over the years, but at the end of it all The wall was completed!
During the construction of the great wall, they could of benefited from multiple things from out time. The entire construction was done by hand! Had they had things like hammers, metals, and proper work attire, (hard hats and boots) Less injuries could of possible occurred and would have been done in time for one of the first worker's sons to be able to admire the completed wall. The Ancient Chinese people were very creative, intelligent and interesting. They invented many interesting different things like the medical test used to determine if you were someone that could be a doctor, the medical book, the wheelbarrow, silk, gun powder, paper, and steel to name a few. They were really picky and choosey about their clothing, they would only wear certain clothes on specific occasions. White could only be worn if you were in the mourning or if your parents had passed away. If you were rich you wore silk, and if you were unfortunate or poor you would wear old cotton clothes. They were extremely intelligent because they had superb ways of doing things such as their mathematics and astronomy systems. Probably the one thing that most people know about China is The Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China was one of the most beautiful, complicated, and sad works that China has ever done. The Great Wall is probably the thing that most people know about and like about China. China and it's technology had never interfered with their rituals or traditions. This may be because they had went so long without good technology, they hadn't been exposed to it much so it didn't spoil them and make them abandon their past. Chinas rituals live on, and are still continued as of today.
The actual population is quite large. China currently stands as the world's most populous country at a population of 1,190,431,106 people. While this was 1984, it is estimated that China's population today is estimated at 1,298,847,624. China has put a population control program into place in an attempt to control population. It still doesn't seem to work for them. …show more content…
The land area of China conflicts with China's population. China stands at an area of 9.6 million square kilometres. That is 135.296 people per square kilometre. I wouldn't want to live in such a crowded environment, unless I was an entrepreneur looking for business of course.
A famous trait of China is what is served on their plates at lunch time. Ever since ancient times, the Chinese have eaten rice, this is a tradition of China almost everyone in the world can recognize them for. But rice is more than what they eat, the Chinese were known for their hard work antics, making them extremely good farmers. The farmers were said to be friendly people. They grew crops on small pieces of land, and their food was sometimes given to the army. The people grew millet, wheat, and barley, and the people in southern China grew rice. A few of the Chinese farmers would keep pigs and chickens but not many did, as most meat served was wild bird and sometimes fish. The Chinese never obtained many good fertilizers, so they used their own excretion (poop) to fertilize their land.
China's currency is measured in CNY (yuan). One yuan is equivalent to 8.28 dollars US. Yuan is commonly mistaken for the Japanese yen, as yuan has much greater value than the Japanese yen. They have pretty much always used yuan, but before that they used simple trading practises. Food for clothes, clothes for weapons, weapons for supplies It can go either way.
The main religion in ancient China was Buddhism. Buddhism is when people think that they will get more lives than one. In order to get another life, you have to do many good thing in your current life. Buddhism was the real big one, not much is remembered about the other ones. Very few practise those today, and those who do, know very little about it. Many people believe that these religions are irrelevant compared to Christianity. Although, the fact remains that many people who were Christian have converted over to Buddhism. The other religions were Bodhidharma , Buddhism, Dalai Lama, Falun Gong, Gedun Drub, Guanyin , Mahayana, Shang Ti - Shaolin - Sonam Gyatso - Tibetan Buddhism - Vajrayana - Yami - Zen
The Chinese empire had existed for years and years, they had controlled the military and economy .
Emperors Kangxi and Quanlong supported Chinese art and culture (Which many countries traded China for), and kept up the civil service system. They were scared that things would change and people would rebel so they stuck with what they knew. In the late 1800s China was behind in technology and was being picked apart slowly bit by bit. In 1839, Chinese officials tried to stop Britain from bringing in opium. Opium is a drug that is addictive and when taken in certain concentrations It can kill you or leave you disabled. The British was trading the Chinese people opium for tea. Then later, Britain announced war against China and Britain ended with up as the victor. After that, Britain encouraged other countries to take over China's land. The Qing Dynasty could not stand the advanced technology that other countries had at the time, which meant they were forced to step down, China had extremely poor weapons. And then, In 1900 an army captured Beijing. In 1911, the Chinese threw out their helpless leaders and started a republic. The last emperor, Puyi, had to resign in 1912. That was the end of the great Chinese
Empire.
The workforce was mainly consisted of farmers. The primary reason for this is that China is an agricultural country, and fieldwork has been the main point of employment. Most Chinese men were farmers, they supported themselves and China's huge population. They provided enough food for almost all the people by growing two or more crops on the same land each year.
In order to get a high paying job you either had to be noble or educated or both. To have a career in high office in one of the multiple towns and villages, you had to pass the government exams. It was a route to riches and fame. On examination day, the day the tests were given.
The poorer community of the Chinese were extremely unfortunate. The poor lived in houses packed together, they had very little food. Many of the young guys joined street gangs. Gangs wore distinctive clothes and armour, that identified their gang. Teen gangs roamed the cities, terrorizing people.
The rich community was quite different. They built nice and large homes, decorated with drapery, and cashmere carpets. They furnished family tombs with stone lions. On the lions, and on other sculpture, they added inscriptions mentioning how much each item had cost.
Since endurance and stamina was required for farming, most women didn't have any work. Manual labour was definite through the process of ploughing and harvesting. Irrigation, fertilizers and soil conservation were practiced extensively without the assistance of any machine. Exceptional stamina has been a definite for being a farmer, men were much more qualified for it. Women could not challenge men's supremacy in that male occupation. Pregnancy and nursing of children took up women's energies and time. A Woman's social activity was limited, they couldn't work outside their homes. They could not / did not contribute to the family income. Men gained control over women by being the sole earners in families, A woman's incapacity to make money affected their positions in society.
Chinese culture played a major role in the roles of genders. It resembled principles of Confucianism, a major religion in China. Confucianism viewed the family as a microcosm of the world. Unity in human relationships was a source or order and control to avoid chaos in the country. Confucianism taught that in the husband-wife relationship, the wife should love and obey commands of the husband, and must love and guide every member in his family. Therefore, the wife became a family member below her husband. She was stuck to by him. She had to show her husband respect, subservience and loyalty . A respectable Chinese wife had no voice in family decisions and no absolute right to ask for a divorce. The wife was a means of producing children, the number of baby boys she could produce showed her value. If the wife failed in giving birth to sons, she would be regarded as a useless woman. The husband could divorce her for her failure and marry other women who were capable of carrying.
The first Chinese writing was dated back to about 1200 BCE. The writings were found by the Shang capital. They found bones with writing on them, they were for healing people at this point of time. After a while, the Chinese people were getting better and better at writing, Soon after that people started to write on bronze, the writing was used for sacrifices. Writing on bronze may have been nice but people did not write much. In the fifth century BCE people wrote on bamboo. Strips of them were put together to make a roll. Writing was also found on silk cloth and tablets. When the first emperor came into power, he made a language called clerical script. Before that people wrote whatever they wanted. That meant that each person had a language all their own.. But luckily the Chinese invented paper around 200 BCE.
The Chinese people went through constant changes. They were able to keep up with their times and still keep their traditions they have always owned. Like for example, their instruments such as the flute and the harp were changed many times to keep up with their lifestyle but still had the same constant perfect tone. They managed to fight off the Mongols and many other threats from other groups for a long time; At the same time keeping all their rituals. Chinese people still celebrate the same holidays, still wear the same kinds of clothes, use some of the same materials of Ancient China, and have the same kind of art and music.
The Chinese people also had a very different wedding tradition. The groom would propose to her in a detailed way, she would then accept it. When the boy's parents identified a likely bride-to-be, they would send the go-between to present gifts to the girl's parents and to sound out their feelings about the match. If the proposal was well-received, the go-between would obtain the date and hour of the girl's birth recorded on the ancestral alter for three days. If any feuds happened between the two families or a loss property happened during this time; The wedding would be called off. But if all went well, the parents would give the information to a astrological expert to confirm that the young woman and their son would make a good match. If the boy's family found the horoscope to be favourable, they gave the boy's birth date and hour to the go-between to bring to the girl's family, who would go through the same process. Only after both outcomes were favourable, would the two families arrange to meet. Finally face-to-face, each family evaluated the other in terms of appearance, education, character, and social position. If both were satisfied they would proceed to the betrothal.
Most of China still follows these traditions. Very few however uses the traditional marriage, they use a system similar to ours. Women cruelty is still high however, it has been reduced but women are seen as the lowest in China more than any other country.
Art in ancient China was very highly valued. It was valued by emperors and their wives and the rest of their family. It was valued by both rich and the poor. Art was used to determine your emotions and actions. You would also get an animal that was just like you. For example, if you were rich you would get a horse that meant that you were high ranked, and you had speed. A water buffalo meant that you were a peasant. Birds that could fly meant that you had freedom. Most people had a dragon in their home to pray to or to keep them safe.
Chinese houses were made of simple materials. They harvested silk and used it to weave fine fabrics for decorations and other purposes. They baked strong bricks in ovens and used them to build their homes. They worked together as a team to control floods and securing the house of bacteria. They had excellent engineering skills. Legend has it that their Great Engineer, Yu, founded the Xia (sometimes called the Hsia in other cultures)
Music in china goes back as far as 1600 BCE. People played their music at the palace, court and sometimes at banquets. Some have said that music was as needed as food to the Chinese. It was also said that music was your inner harmony. Some music lead to violent behaviour. There were a lot of instruments like the flute, yang, gin, and the lyrical lute. The majority of instruments stayed the same over many centuries like the harp and the flute. Others went away like the sheng.
Like I said before, the ancient Chinese were not on top of the technology game. They had ancient weapons in the war against the British as compared to the British weaponry. The current China is as high up on technology as we are, an example of this is the great "firewall" of China. A firewall system their government intervened to filter unwanted/unneeded things into and out of China.
China may have been lacking in technology, but when they built the great wall of China, their hard work made up for it. The great wall of China is the largest man made structure ever made in history. The wall stretches 4,000 miles and it's thickness ranged from 4.5 meters to 9 meters (15 feet to 30 feet) and was up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) tall. No structure on earth is that large; Which is why the Great wall of China has gone down in the history books as one of the wonders of the worlds. The structure itself can actually be seen from space! The main purpose of this wall was to defend against enemies. Many historians now believe that the wall, or walls, was built to mark territories, similar to the way that forts are built in Canada or United States.
The great wall itself was started in 688 BCE. The wall was completed over a process of 200 years; Because of restricted funding, they had to constantly keep delaying construction. The construction was on and off over the years, but at the end of it all The wall was completed!
During the construction of the great wall, they could of benefited from multiple things from out time. The entire construction was done by hand! Had they had things like hammers, metals, and proper work attire, (hard hats and boots) Less injuries could of possible occurred and would have been done in time for one of the first worker's sons to be able to admire the completed wall. The Ancient Chinese people were very creative, intelligent and interesting. They invented many interesting different things like the medical test used to determine if you were someone that could be a doctor, the medical book, the wheelbarrow, silk, gun powder, paper, and steel to name a few. They were really picky and choosey about their clothing, they would only wear certain clothes on specific occasions. White could only be worn if you were in the mourning or if your parents had passed away. If you were rich you wore silk, and if you were unfortunate or poor you would wear old cotton clothes. They were extremely intelligent because they had superb ways of doing things such as their mathematics and astronomy systems. Probably the one thing that most people know about China is The Great Wall of China. The Great Wall of China was one of the most beautiful, complicated, and sad works that China has ever done. The Great Wall is probably the thing that most people know about and like about China. China and it's technology had never interfered with their rituals or traditions. This may be because they had went so long without good technology, they hadn't been exposed to it much so it didn't spoil them and make them abandon their past. Chinas rituals live on, and are still continued as of today.