What's new

History of China

Playing devil's advocate here: ancient China was once a cultural hegemon (much like the US today). And today's mass media will only make the job even easier for a resurgent China.
While we should not allow the US to remain as the sole global cultural hegemon, China should not seek to supplant the US as the next global cultural hegemon, as any form of hegemony is bad.

From the emergence of China as a unified state in the third century
B.C. until the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in 1912, China
stood at the center of an East Asian international system of
remarkable durability. The Chinese Emperor was
conceived of (and recognized by most neighboring states)
as the pinnacle of a universal political hierarchy, with all
other states’ rulers theoretically serving as vassals.

2 Any attempt to understand China’s
twentieth-century diplomacy or its twenty-first-century world
role must begin—even at the cost of some potential
oversimplification—with a basic appreciation of the
traditional context.

--Henry A. Kissinger
New York, January 2011[/QUOTE]

The concept of "Danegeld" is central to my understanding of Chinese Imperia policy. In England, protection money or Dane geld was payed to the Vikings (Danes) to keep them from looting and conquering. The Danes looted and conquered anywayl It formed a basic attitude off all Anglo governments since, that, "once you pay Danegeld, you never get rid of the Dane!"
China, on the other hand, used the imperial largesse it "paid for protection," to make the people on the fringe dependent on China. It mostly seems to have worked, aside from Gheghis Khan and the Manchus, and that is not a bad record.
This is demonstrated most by that genius who became the #1 Slave and the Mongols by teaching them how to collect taxes instead of killing everyone, like they had to do in those lunatic monotheists states. Anglos think it is better to be dead than a slave. I prefer a broader range of choices.
For these reasons, I look forward to the Pax Sinica. We know how China will tend to behave as world hegemon, because, for most of the last two thousand years, they were arguably the hegemon
 
New Section of Great Wall Discovered in Mongolia

26 Feb 2012

10s4sy9.jpg


An explorer has discovered a previously uncharted section of the Great Wall "marooned" in the deserts of Mongolia, the first part of the wall believed to have been found outside China.

William Lindesay led an expedition into the Gobi desert last Autumn in search of a wall that had been lost for almost a thousand years.

What he found was that a section of the Great Wall, last recorded in a 12th century atlas of Genghis Khan’s battles, still stands.

“We reached it on the middle of the second day,” he said. “We found a wall that was around shin-high. But as we followed it for ten minutes, we came over a rise and there was a wonderful section, taller than my shoulders and stretching for several hundred feet,” he said.

The news of his discovery is likely to cause a sensation in China and will be published next month as the lead story in the country’s National Geographic magazine.

The section of the wall he discovered runs for around 62 miles, built from a mash of earth and branches of “saksoul”, a local shrub.

Mr Lindesay arrived in China in 1986 to make a 1,530-mile journey, by foot, along the remnants of the Great Wall. He has been researching and conserving the wall ever since and was awarded an OBE for his work in 2006.

“I have been looking at this area since 1997, when a friend gave me a copy of an atlas showing the red lines of Genghis Khan’s attacks and counter-attacks, and underneath those are the strands of wall,” he said.

However, when he began making enquiries about sections of wall in Mongolia, he was repeatedly told that no structures had survived.

Eventually a Dutch historian mentioned a retired Mongolian geographer, Professor Baasan Tudevin, who had travelled extensively through the Gobi desert.

“The problem was that we could not find him. Eventually, as a last resort, we put a notice in the newspaper. And a couple of hours later, he turned up, wearing all the medals he had been awarded for his work. He told us there were various structures in the desert, and we could look for them using Google Earth,” he said.

After spotting what looked like a “black pen line”, an expedition was mounted, and the Mongolian government granted them permits to explore the region, which lies in a sensitive border area.

“It is an intimidating stretch of territory,” said Mr Lindesay. “We had two Landcruisers, with 60 litres of spare petrol for each and 200 litres of water. The Gobi means “flat and stony” and often that was the landscape.

Mr Lindesay believes this section of the wall may originally have been built in the Han dynasty, around 120BC, in a bid to defend the area against the Xiongnu, a federation of nomad warriors that China had been battling.

Carbon testing on the samples that the team brought back, however, dated the wall to the 11th or 12th centuries. Mr Lindesay believes the wall may have been rebuilt either by Genghis Khan’s third son, Ogedei Khan, to stop gazelles migrating into China, or by the Western Xia dynasty, which was obliterated by Genghis Khan’s armies.

“We definitely need more research,” he said. “We are already planning another trip.”

Telegraph

---

China finishes sequencing Genghis Khan descendant's genome

China said Sunday that it has finished sequencing the genome of a direct descendant of Genghis Khan.


In 1206, a man known as Temujen was crowned Genghis Khan. His mounted Mongol army swept out of the steppes of Asia in an apocalyptic wave to conquer two-thirds of the known world, the Royal Alberta Museum said.

Zhou Huanmin, project leader and head of the biological research lab at the Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, said Sunday that this was the first individual genome sequencing of a Mongolian, Xinhua reported.

The blood donator was a male only identified as one of Genghis Khan's 34th-generation offspring from the Sunit tribe, which is based in Inner Mongolia's Xilingol prefecture.

Zhou said the research team will continue to sequence the genomes of another 199 ethnic Mongolians and build a database consisting of Mongolian genetic codes.

Zhou said the results of the genome mapping are important for the detection of ethnicity-specific genome inheritances and the evolutionary features of Mongolians, and will also contribute to medical research linked to the control of certain diseases.

There are about 10 million ethnic Mongolians living around the world, mainly in China's Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous regions and Qinghai province, as well as Mongolia and Russia.

IANS
 
The Boxer Rebellion and the U.S. Navy, 1900-1901

vsmj4h.jpg


The origins of anti-Western attitudes in China are difficult to trace, but widespread dislike by the population at large goes back to at least the Opium War between Britain and China (1839-1842). These feelings worsened over the course of the 19th century as Western colonial powers, as well as Russia and Japan, negotiated for, leased, and even seized portions of the Chinese Empire. Following the 1895 Sino-Japanese War, several European powers secured territorial and commercial concessions from China, including the 1897 seizure of Kiaochow and Tsingtao by Imperial Germany. This intervention precipitated a new wave of even bolder efforts to force concessions from China, further exacerbating tensions.

Anti-foreign sentiment resulted in the rapid growth of a Chinese secret society (which had existed for centuries) known as the I Ho Ch'uan (Righteous Harmonious Fists), but referred to by the Westerners as `Boxers.' The Boxers called for the expulsion of the `foreign devils' and their Chinese Christian converts. The society stressed the ritualistic use of the martial arts and traditional Chinese weapons. Anti-foreign incidents, including the burning of homes and businesses, increased dramatically in 1898 and 1899, and was primarily directed at Chinese Christians. The number of killings by the Boxers continued to grow, and on 30 December 1899 included a British missionary. Western governments lodged strong protests with the Chinese Dowager Empress, Tzu Hsi. She responded on 11 January 1900, with a declaration that the Boxers represented a segment of Chinese society, and should not be labeled a criminal organization. Her unenthusiastic support for the Chinese Army's attempts at quelling the violence and the influence of Boxer sympathizers at the Imperial court, led Western governments to deploy military forces on the Chinese coast to protect their citizens and interests.

By spring 1900, Boxer violence was virtually unchecked by Chinese authorities. On 30 May, the foreign ministers at Peking (today known as Beijing, but at the time referred to as Pekin) called for troops to protect the legations at Peking. Four hundred and thirty Sailors and Marines (including fifty-six Americans from USS Oregon and USS Newark) from eight countries arrived at the legations on 31 May and 4 June. On 9 June, the Boxers began attacking foreign property in Peking, and the senior foreign minister, Great Britain's Sir Claude MacDonald, requested a sizable relief force just before the telegraph lines were cut.

The first attempt to relieve the foreign legations at Peking consisted of over 2,100 men (mostly Sailors and Marines) from Great Britain, Germany, Russia, France, the United States, Japan, Italy, and Austria. The allied force departed the city of Tientsin on 10 June, under the command of British Admiral Sir Edward Seymour. However, strong Boxer and Imperial Chinese opposition forced Seymour to return his battered column to Tientsin on 22 June. The allied powers worked to assemble a stronger force, and on 5 August 1900, it departed Tientsin with 20,000 men, including 2,000 Americans (over 500 of these were U.S. Navy Sailors and Marines). After fighting two major battles against huge Chinese forces, the relief force reached the foreign legations at Peking on 14 August.

Over the next several months, the forces of the Western powers and Japan in China continued to grow. They completed their occupation of Peking and spread out into the countryside of northern China, breaking up concentrations of Boxers. On 1 February 1901, the Chinese authorities agreed to abolish the Boxer Society, and on 7 September signed the Peace Protocol of Peking with the allied nations, officially ending the Boxer Rebellion.

China suffered a devastating blow to her prestige and power, which allowed foreign nations to consolidate their interests and previous territorial gains. The weakened Chinese state could not interfere in the war (1904-1905) between Russia and Japan that secured Japanese dominance in the Far East.

The United States was able to play a significant role in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion because of the large number of American ships and troops deployed in the Philippines as a result of the US conquest of the islands during the Spanish American War (1898) and subsequent Philippine insurgent activity. In the minds of many American leaders, the Boxer Rebellion reinforced the need to retain control of the Philippines and to maintain a strong presence in the Far East.

history.navy.mil
 
i've always wonderd why our ancient trading partner, failed in 1900's. you were fu**ed up by some retarded Portuguese and British and retarded Austrians as well.:flame:

Wow we have a comon hatered, a common enemy.:D
 
China invented chrome-plating technology 2,200 years ago. Germany: 1937. US: 1950.

5 Things You Didn’t Know About China’s Terra-Cotta Army

"5 Things You Didn’t Know About China’s Terra-Cotta Army
Relics from the legendary Chinese archaeological site are now on display in New York. Here's what you need to know.
By Kate Springer | @katespringer | May 4, 2012

KzmJk.jpg

Excavation continues in the largest pit, which is home to the majority of unearthed figures (Kate Springer)

While digging a well near Mount Li in Shaanxi, China, in 1974, a farmer stumbled upon one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the century: the tomb of Qin Shi Huang Di, an emperor who died in 210 BC and was buried with a terracotta entourage. Since then, archaeologists have spent the last 40 years carefully uncovering the life-size warriors from 22 square miles of earth-and-wood pits.

So far, excavations at the Museum of the Terracotta Army, located about 25 miles east of Xian, China, have unearthed about 2,000 of the 6,000 figures thought to exist. Alongside the subterranean armies lie horses, chariots, weaponry — even acrobats meant to entertain Emperor Qin in death. Scholars say the warriors were buried with China’s first emperor to protect him in the afterlife, and were never meant to be seen. Today, this “eighth wonder of the world” attracts an estimated 2 million tourist per year.

iZQjK.jpg

Up close with one of the terracotta soldiers near Xian, China (Kate Springer)

For those who can’t make it to Xian, a handful of figures are on display in New York City from April 27 to August 26, as the centerpiece of an immersive exhibit in Times Square. The show will feature artifacts dating back to 221 BC, including 10 of the authentic, 6-ft.-tall clay soldiers and their armor. In honor of the exhibit, here are 5 important bits of terracotta trivia:

1. Preservation Power Archeologists have unearthed roughly 40,000 bronze weapons from the terracotta pits. From spears to battle axes, crossbows to arrowheads, these exquisitely made pieces have been preserved with the help of a protective chromium coating. Though both the Germans and Americans invented this chrome-plating technology in 1937 and 1950, respectively, it existed in China 2,200 years ago.

(article continues)"
 

Pakistan Defence Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom