Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Zheng He
Zheng He was the admiral of the Ming Naval Fleet. Zheng He traveled to Arabia, East Africa, India, Mecca, South Africa and some say he even went to the Americas. When Zheng He was 11 his home town was conquered by the Ming, and he was sent to live with the Emporer. He rose to General and then even to Emporer himself. 1405 he set sail for the world. He visited about 37 different countries. 1433, Zheng He mysteriously dies in India. After his death, the Ming discontinued their Naval explorations.
Mongols Take China
The Mongol invasion of China lasted over 6 decades and particularly involved the defeat of the Jin Dynasty, Western Xia, the Dali Kingdom, and the Southern Song, which finally fell in year 1276. The Mongols under Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty in China and crushed the last Song resistance in 1279, which marked the onset of all of China under the Yuan. This was the first time that whole China was ruled by the foreign state. People say the Mongol warrior is less then a person and more of a blood-thirsty monster. Although the mongols were vicious warriors, they wern't terrible leaders, they just wanted to raise money and leave, but Genghis Kahn, Kublai Kahn's grandfather, was a vicious and beast of a ruler and raised one of the greatest empires in all of history. The reason the Mongolians were so good at taking over is because of the shooting horseman. They invented the modern day sturrupts for a horse sattle which allowed them to stand and menouver with the bow & arrow and shoot down any person.
Buddhism Comes to China
Althought the exact date in which Buddhism reached China is unclear, it was obviously a factor as early as first century BCE. Buddism reached China through the silk road and other larege trading routes by late Han Dynasty. One account of Buddhism's entry into China describes the Han Emperor Ming's dream during the first century CE. It is said that Buddha appeared to the emperor in a dream and that the very next day he ordered some his officials to travel west in an attempt to find what had caused his vision. The officials west traveled along the Silk Road and eventually came upon two Buddhist monks with two white horses. The monks carried with them a picture of Buddha and their horses were loaded with holy Buddhist scriptures. The Chinese officials invited the monks to return with them to China's capital, Chang'an, to introduce Buddhism to the emperor.Upon there return to Chang'an, the emperor identified the picture of Buddha as the figure he had seen in his dream. The emperor asked the two monks to translate their texts into Chinese. The emperor built a temple for the two monks to stay in while they translated their texts. The temple that became known as the White Horse Temple in honor of the two white horses that had carried Buddhist scriptures all the way from China. No one knows forsure if this is true or a myth, but it would make sense as to how Buddism reached China.
Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China os started in 220 BCE by Shi Huangdi with over one million workers, but only 3/4 of the people survived. The people who were working on it who died were buried inside of the wall to help support it and make it stronger. IT was built to defend the Qin dynasty from any invaders who wanted to end it because almost everybody hated them especially the people of the Qin. After the Qin, the people of the Han extended the wall to the Gobi Desert. The Ming Dynasty makes the wall a lot stronger to fend off even tougher enemies.
Confusius
Confusius was born in 551 BCE in Northwest China. His father died when Confusius was only 3, and was left to live in poverty with his mother. As the Chou Dynasty ends, the rival warlords start fighting. There were mass executions, wars, and multiple people were used as various items during those times. At a young age Confusius develops ideas of goodness used to hold society together, and society would be in harmony is everyone did only what they were supposed to do or just perform their own duty. Confusius soon gets a governement job, he feels he can finally put his ideas into pratice, but many in the governemtn do not like his ideas. Confusius encourages subordinates to speak out if superior makes a mistake. He is fired. He spends the rest of his life as a wnadering teacher. Confusius dies in 479 BCE at the age of seventy-two. The Han Dynasty makes Confusianism the offical state philosophy.
Unification of China
"Qin's wars of unification" were a series of military campaigns ordered during the late 3rd century BC by the Qin state against the other six major states (Han, Zhao, Yan, Wei, Chu, Qi) in China. By the end of the wars in 221 BC, Qin had unified most of China and also conquered some lands south of the Yangtze River. The territories annexed by Qin became the homeland of the Chinese nation and formed the basis of the Qin Dynasty.
Sung Dynasty
(960 BCE) The new dynasty is in and it is the Sung. Rumors are that it is going to be another monarchy, and the rulers have great ideas that could be advances in modern technology, they are paper money, a currency that is used on paper, a navy which could help in the protection of China, gunpowder, which helps shoot small and large round balls out of the barrell of a gun, and the compass which helps show you what way you are going. It is going to contain about 60% of the chinese population and has a majority of all the productive agriculture. This is what the empire hopes to aspire to
Tang Dynasty
(618 BCE) I was hangin' with my boys from the Li family and they told me the coolest thing: They're gonna be leaders in the Tang Dynasty!! They said they're gonna establish Chang'an as the capital and their Dad the Dynasty will bring at most 80 million people!! But he is also going to establish a moncarchy. I think it is going to be just as "golden" as the Han. But I heard that the Au Shi people aren't going to be very happy under Mr. Li's rule, but this is what he hopes to conquer:
Han Dynasty
(206 BCE) I was talking with my man Lui Bang about his new Dynasty, The Han Dynasty, and he told me about extending the Great Wall of China. Many empires fought to get into the exact position that Lui is in right now. People say this is going to be an amazing dynasty for many generations. Some even say that we'll get to about fifty million people! That sounds spectacular. Lui even tells me about a new "religion" he has taken an interest in, its called Buddhism and he plans to introduce it to all of China. As you all know, we are entering only the second imperial dynasty of our great nation, and already people say that this is going to be a so called "golden age" of China. This is what Lui hopes to accomplish with his new opportunity:
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