Chinese Civilization

 Chinese Civilization

   

The earliest times of Chinese civilization are very strange and full of mysteries.  Evidence suggests that the earliest human-like or human-like creatures with body-filled bodies, called Homo erectis, also lived here, dating to between ten and fifteen million years ago.

One 150000 year old skulls, teeth and bones of people have also been discovered.  Modern Chinese civilization can be divided into five major parts or periods.

Chinese Civilization

1. The Yang-Shao people

The Yang-Shao people  settled in the Huang-Ho River about 6,000 years ago, and the first village to be settled was named Yang-Shao, after which the history of the Yang-Shao Civilization began and gives brief  information about he Yang-Shao people. They were good hunters and fishermen, and they knew how to grow millet and some other vegetables and crops.  These people used to make earthenware pots and engrave on them. At the same time they used to make their houses very beautiful in the form of huts for which they brought mud from the river and the upper part of the huts with reeds.  They were closed in a circle.  

2. Long-Shan civilization

These people came from the east about 4500 years ago and occupied here. They were the first people in China to start cultivating rice.  These people  were much more intelligent and hard working  than the people of Yang-Shao, they knew how to tame horses and oxen and work with them, at the same time they knew how to farm sheep and goats and raise silkworms and get silk from them.  Were  About 4,000 years ago, the Ying Shao and Long Shan people were united under one king, known as the beginning of the Dia Period.  But even here history does not give much information because till then these people did not know how to write etc. due to which important events could not be saved.  

Chinese Civilization

3. Shang Dynasty

Shang People  come here almost three thousand  seven hundred and fifty year before they were worriers and had  long experience of wars, they were very intelligent with being cruel.

They conquered all the surrounding territories and states and established a regular Shang empire.  It is the first Chinese civilization to have a great deal of information.  Many beautiful pots were placed with them in the tombs of emperors.  These people also believed in life after death and after the death of a great man, his slaves were also killed and buried with them so that in the next life they could follow their master.  They also believed that life after death would be more glorious. Some graves have also been discovered in which about two thousand slaves were buried.  These people used horses and carts for travel and buried their slaves as well as horses and carts in the tombs of the rich so that they could use them in the next life.  The king who was in the Shang period was actually their highest priest.  And they believed that the king had direct contact with the gods so all the religious rites were performed by the king pastor.  Here the peasants were forcibly recruited into the king's army.  The Shang are the first Chinese civilization to invent regular writing, their clergy writing only for religious purposes.  People used to ask the clergy when it would rain, what time would be appropriate to invade and occupy another area, what time would be best for planting and harvesting crops.  People turned to the clergy for all such questions and purposes.  The priest took a piece of bone to answer questions or take the empty shell of the turtle and put some lines on which the questions actually to gods, then he striking the bone with a red-hot metal, the cord  the marks were made according to their faith, they were responding to questions by the gods and are believed to be that Chinese writing originated from these bones.  The Shang people also had a tendency to meet and learn from other nations, such as from the people of Central Asia, they learned the art of making pots,  which were initially used for religious purposes.  In which the rich people used to store food and wine, similarly the making and use of weapons and ornaments etc. was common among the nobles. 

4. The Zhou Dynasty 

The Shang people fought for a long time in the areas around them.  Even in 1122 BC, the Zhou state defeated all the states, and completely occupied China.  The Zhou dynasty ruled China for about a thousand years, and they founded the Zhou Empire.  These people were very cruel, they believed in feudal system. It was necessary for the common people to obey the king, and the king was the head of all state affairs.  The Zhou family was constantly engaged in fighting. If they conquered the area, they would set fire to the villages, fields, crops, grains, etc., and kill the people with great cruelty, the number of those killed  was in the millions.  Seeing the constant wars and the deteriorating situation of the state, political consciousness was awakened in some people and from there some thinkers were born.

Who wanted to save the people from the ravages of war.  They wanted to tell the people that not only war is necessary but there are many more ways and principles  to run the state.

 

i. Lao-tzu

Such philosophers came to the Empire about six hundred years before Christ.  Their teachings were very similar to those of Mahatma Gautama Buddha.  They taught people to give up the pursuit of wealth and consider other aspects of life.  And they made many discoveries and introduced many principles to make the difficult life of that time easier.  At the same time, they made a prescription that prolongs human life by combining different medicines.

ii. Confucius

Confucius came to the Zhou Empire about five hundred years before Christ, and it was he who founded the religion, mainly in ancient China, and his followers still exist.  He used to say that the state is like a family, the poor of the state should follow the rich, and they were supporters of the feudal system.

  

iii. Legalists

Such thinkers grew up in the Zhou Empire about three hundred years before Christ.  According to him, the existence of the state is the most important thing in the world and the importance of the common people is only that they serve the state.  According to him, the king should be very powerful and merciful. 

Chinese Civilization

5. Qin (Chen) Dynasty 

221 years before Christ , there were ten major states in China, one of whom was Qin (Chen).  Qin was actually the name of the king of this kingdom, whose real name was "Qin-shi-haung-di". King Qin took turns attacking and conquering all the other states.  And it brought all the states together, making China the first ruler of a united China.  He introduced a number of reforms during his short reign of almost 11 years.  He introduced the same specific script for the whole of China.  He also invented a number of state laws for the invention of the piano.  Another important achievement was the use of one-size-fits-all wheels, which made it mandatory in the state that all horse-drawn carriages, bullock carts or carts be the same size as before, according to King Qin.  That if the wheel of one cart breaks down on the way, can easily replace the other.  He completely abolished the feudal system. He was King Qin who completed many parts of the Great Wall of China.

Under his rule, ordinary people were not allowed to carry weapons, but he took back all the weapons and ammunition that people had and destroyed them.  It forbade students, scholars and teachers to read history or history books, and anyone who tried to read history books would bury them alive as a group, according to him.  The rebellious King Qin had decreed that after my death my slaves should not be killed or buried with me.  So after the death of King Qin, human statues and horses were buried in his tomb. 

Han Dynasty 

After the death of King Qin, Han people occupied the whole of China, and the empire lasted for about four hundred years.