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The Chinese thought that the barbarians attached themselves to the virtue of the Emperor, while the foreign governments sometimes disagreed. Along with provincial administrators, some foreign monarchs sent envoys to offer gifts to the Emperor of China and the Emperor returned compliments to them. The Qing Dynasty included parts of modern Russian Far East and Central Asia (west of Xinjiang). Since then, the territory has expanded outward in all directions, and was largest during the Tang, Yuan, and Qing dynasties.

The Zhou Dynasty, which preceded the unification of China by Shi Huangdi, was originally the region around the Yellow River. One of the oldest and most prominent of them, the China Support Network (CSN), was founded in 1989 by a group of concerned Americans and Chinese activists in response to Tiananmen Square. aim to bring democratic reform to China and relentlessly protest human rights violations that occur in the People's Republic of China. A number of NGOs based in the U.S.

Today, however, there is much more freedom in intellectual thought in non-political areas and propaganda, while still continuing, has lessened. The attempted eradication of the Falun Gong movement is also held by its supporters to be motivated by fear of Falun Gong's growing influence. In 1989, a popular demonstration held in Beijing at Tiananmen Square was violently put to an end by the CPC. Examples of this include the jailing of political opponents and journalists, general control of the press, regulation of religions and other non-party organizations, censorship of the press, literature and film, and suppression of independence/secessionist movements.

Nonetheless, the Communist Party still has absolute control over political aspects of society, and it continuously seeks to eradicate threats to its rule. However, post-1978 reforms have led to the relaxation, in varying degrees, of party control over many areas of society. From the beginning, the PRC has been a dictatorial one-party state under the Communist Party. Meanwhile, Mao Zedong, the leader of the communists, proclaimed the People's Republic of China (PRC) on October 1, 1949 in Beijing, saying China had stood up.

more environmentally friendly) and Blues are generally regarded as more conservative. However, Greens are generally more liberal (i.e. formal independence issue. But rather than the usual conservative-liberal policy distinctions that are the hallmarks of most democracies around the world, the main cleavage in ROC politics is the unification with China in the long-run vs.

Today, the political scene in the ROC is vibrant, with active participation by all sectors of society. Beginning in the late 1970s, Taiwan began the implementation of full, multi-party, representative democracy in the territories still under ROC control (i.e., Taiwan Province, Taipei, Kaohsiung and some offshore islands of Fujian province). By early 1950, the CPC had defeated the Kuomintang on the mainland, and the ROC government retreated to the island of Taiwan. In 1947, constitutional rule was established, but because of the ongoing Chinese Civil War between the Kuomintang and the Communist Party of China (CPC), many provisions of the 1947 ROC constitution were never put into actual practice on the mainland.

Ironically, both the Kuomintang and the CCP have heavy Leninist influences. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang with heavy Leninist influences. In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control, moving the nation's capital to Nanjing and implementing "political tutelage", an intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's program for transforming China into a modern, democratic state. Warlords in various regions exercised actual control over their respective territories.

After Yuan's downfall, China was politically fragmented, with an internationally-recognized, but virtually powerless, national government seated in Beijing (thus failing to fit the definition of a state). Before long, Yuan attempted to have himself proclaimed emperor of a new dynasty; however, he died soon of natural causes before fully taking power over all of the Chinese empire. However, Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who had defected to the revolutionary cause, soon forced Sun to step aside and took the presidency for himself (formally it was a negotiation where Sun agreed to step aside for what was then perceived as a strong reformer, Yuan). Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), was proclaimed provisional president of the republic.

On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China (ROC) was established, signaling the end of the Manchu-dominated Qing Empire. Chinese was the official language, though periods of Mongol and Manchu conquest saw the arrival of Mongol and Manchu as alternate official languages. Luoyang, Chang'an (today's Xi'an), Nanjing, and Beijing are the four cities most commonly designated as capitals of China over the course of history. (see section "Geography, Political" below for examples),.

Political relations with dependencies (tributary kingdoms) were maintained by international marriages, military aids, treaties, and gifts. This happened especially since the emperor often was many layers of power removed from the outside world, making him susceptible to manipulation because his sources for information could manipulate that information causing him to make incorrect decisions, especially when their age at becoming emperor often had no bottom limit, with rule passing heriditarily but also given "in trust" to another relative. Political power sometimes fell into the hands of powerful officials, eunuchs, or imperial relatives, often at the expense of a child heriditary emperor. The emperor also consulted civil and martial ministers, especially the prime minister.

However the emperor had ultimate, supreme, and unquestionable authority as the political and religious leader of China. The territory varied with several expansions and contractions depending on the strength of each emperor and dynasty. After the Qin, China experienced about 13 more dynasties, many of which continued the extensive system of kingdoms, dukedoms, earldoms, and marquisates. This ended with the Qin Dynasty unification, during which the office of the emperor was set up, and a system of bureaucratic administration established.

This is also the time of the beginnings of Confucian philosophy and that of many other philosophies that greatly influenced Chinese philosophy-political thought. Although there was a central king who held nominal power, and powerful hegemons sometimes held considerable influence, each state was ruled as an independent political entity. The Chinese civilization consisted of a patchwork of several states, each ruled by a king (王), duke (公), marquess (侯), or earl (伯). Before unification by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, "China" did not exist as a coherent entity.

Another is a partial skeleton from Minatogawa being only 18,000 years old. The earliest evidence examples of fully modern humans in China come from Liujiang, China where a cranium dates 67,000 years BCE. This model is known as Mitochondrial Eve Hypothesis. However it is now more widely accepted that all modern humans genetically share a direct ancestor, a female nicknamed "Mitochondrial Eve" from Eastern Africa 150,000 years BCE.

sapiens having archaic features. erectus to H. erectus populations (known as "multiregional") as some evidence in ancient bones show a transitional change from H. It remains a controversial subject to whether fully modern humans evolved from separate H.

By less than 100,000 years ago all proto-human populations disappeared as modern humans took over or drove other human species into extinction. By 100,000 to 50,000 years ago modern human beings settled in all parts of the Old world (including the New World, Americas 25,000 to 11,000 BCE). Homo sapiens idaltu). Fully modern humans (Homo sapiens) are believed to originally have evolved roughly 200,000 and 168,000 years ago in Ethiopia or Southern Africa (ei.

erectus settled into various areas in the Old World. By 2 million years ago the first wave of migration from the species in association with H. Originally it is thought that these early hominis first evolved in Africa during the Pleistocene and that human evolution first took place in Africa expanding 7 million years. erectus have been studied since the late 18th century to 19th century in various areas of Eastern Asia including Indonesia (in particular the Island of Java) and Malaysia.

Evidence of primitive stone tool technology and animal bones in association to H. One particular cave in Zhoukoudian (now known as Peking) has fossilised evidence dating to 300,000 and 550,000 years old. Archeological evidence suggests that the earliest occupants in China date as long as 2.24 million to 250,000 years ago by an ancient human relative (hominin) known as Homo erectus. Significant disputes persist as to the nature and extent of China, possible Chinese reunification and the political status of Taiwan.

The PRC has historically resisted the ROC's identification of itself as Taiwan, especially in light of the movement supported by residents of Taiwan and others who advocate Taiwan's identity as an independent political entity. On the other hand, the ROC—while never formally renouncing its earlier claims or changing official maps that show its territory as including both the modern-day PRC, Mongolia and Tibet—has moved away from this former identity representing its rule over all of China, and increasingly identifies itself as Taiwan. The PRC does not recognize the ROC, as it claims to have succeeded the ROC as the legitimate governing authority of all of China including Taiwan. The United Kingdom and Portugal transferred their colonies of Hong Kong and Macau on the southern Chinese coast to the PRC in 1997 and 1999, respectively.

Meanwhile, the disorganized and potentially corrupt ROC government of the Kuomintang fled to Taiwan, where it continued to be recognized as the legitimate government of all China by the Western bloc and the United Nations until the 1970s, when most nations and the UN switched recognition to the PRC. The CPC established a communist state—the People's Republic of China—that laid claim to be the successor state of the Republic of China. The latter ended in 1949 with the Communist Party of China in control of mainland China. The following three decades were a period of disunion — the Warlord Era, the Sino-Japanese War, and the Chinese Civil War.

In 1912, after a prolonged period of decline, the institution of the Emperor of China disappeared and the Republic of China was established. Image:China2C Mao .jpg. Although secretly supporting the rebels, the Empress, Ci Xi, made public efforts to aid foreign forces in suppressing the uprising. This second conflict was the Boxer Rebellion which aimed to repel Westerners.

Later, a second major rebellion took place, although this latter uprising was considerably smaller than the cataclysmic Taiping Civil War. Prior to this conflict a number of Islamic Rebellions, especially in Central Asia, had occurred. Although the imperial forces were eventually victorious, the civil war was one of the bloodiest in human history - costing at least twenty million lives (more than the total number of fatalities in the First World War). The civil war was started by an extremist believer in a school of thought partly influenced by Christianity who believed himself to be the son of God and the younger brother of Jesus.

Most prominent of these was the Taiping Civil War which lasted from 1851 to 1862. However the primary cause of the decline of the Chinese empire was not European and American interference, but rather the consequence of a series of internal upheavals. See Imperialism in Asia. This set the stage for the 19th century, in which China adopted a defensive posture against European imperialism while itself engaging in imperialistic expansion into Central Asia.

In the 18th century, China achieved a decisive technological advantage over the peoples of Central Asia, with which it had been at war for several centuries, while simultaneously falling behind Europe in that respect. However, these restrictions proved ineffective against the assimilation of Manchus into the Chinese identity and culture. For example, after the foreign Qing (Manchus) conquered China, because they were ever suspicious of the Han Chinese, the Qing rulers put into effect measures aimed at preventing the absorption of the Manchus into the dominant Han Chinese population. Oftentimes regime change was violent and strongly opposed and the ruler class needed to take special measures to ensure their rule and the loyalty of the overthrown dynasty.

After the Ming dynasty, came the Qing (Manchu) dynasty, which lasted until the overthrow of Puyi in 1911. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Mongols in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty, which lasted until 1644. The Mongols, under Kublai Khan, established the Yuan Dynasty. The Song Dynasty fell to the invading Mongols in 1279.

For a long period of time, especially between the 7th and 14th centuries, China was one of the most advanced civilizations in the world in technology, literature, and art. Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, China reached its golden age. In 580, China was reunited under the Sui. A period of disunion followed again.

After the fall of authoritarian Qin Dynasty in 206 BC came the Han Dynasty which lasted until 220 AD. This state, however, did not last for long, as its legalist approach to control soon led to widespread rebellion. They were all unified under one emperor in 221 BC by Qin Shi Huang, ushering in the Qin Dynasty, the first unified centralized Chinese state. The Shang were in turn invaded by the Zhou (12th to 5th centuries BC), whose centralized authority was slowly eroded by the ceding of state-like authority to warlords ruling small states; eventually, in the Spring and Autumn period, many strong independent states, in continuous war, paid but nominal deference to the Zhou state as the Imperial centre.

However, the first confirmed dynasty is the Shang, who settled along the Huang He river, dating from the 18th to the 12th centuries BC. But since then, archaeologists have uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs that point to the possible existence of the Xia dynasty at the same locations cited in ancient Chinese historical texts. Until scientific excavations were made at early bronze-age sites at Erlitou in Henan Province, it was difficult to separate myth from reality in regard to the existence of the Xia Dynasty. The first dynasty according to Chinese historical sources was the Xia Dynasty.

Chinese civilization was also one of the few to invent writing independently, the others being ancient Mesopotamia (Sumerians), India (Indus Valley Civilization), and, some hold, Ancient Egypt—though it may have been learned from the Sumerians. China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. In many contexts it may be more appropriate to speak of "mainland China" (中國大陸,zhōngguó dàlù in Mandarin), especially when contrasting it with other, politically different regions like Hong Kong, Macau, and territories administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan). Sinologists usually use "Chinese" in a more restricted sense, more akin to the classical usage of Zhongguo, or to the meaning of the "Han ethnic group", who make up the bulk of Mainland China.

Informally, in economic or business contexts, "the Greater China region" (大中華地區) refers to Mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. In many contexts, "China" is commonly used to refer to the People's Republic of China or mainland China, while "Taiwan" is used to refer to the Republic of China. The term "China" can narrowly mean China proper, or, often, China proper and Manchuria, Inner Mongolia, Tibet, and Xinjiang, a combination essentially coterminous with the 20th and 21st century political entity China; the boundaries between these regions do not necessarily follow provincial boundaries. The Western "China", transliterated to Shina (支那) was also used by Japanese from the nineteenth century, but is now obsolete and is regarded as an offensive term by the Chinese.

In any circumstance, the word China passed through many languages along the Silk Road before it finally reached Europe and England. Alternate theories on the origin of the word "China" exist. Despite the fact that the Qin dynasty was short-lived and was often regarded as overly tyrannical, it unified the written language in China and gave the supreme ruler of China the title of "Emperor", hence, the subsequent Silk Road traders would identify themselves by that name. English and many other languages use forms of the name China (and the prefix Sino-), which is believed to have derived from the name of the Qin dynasty that first unified the country, even though it is not completely resolved and the origins are still controversial to an extent [1].

Their disparate histories are collectively the history of Zhongguo. Thus it is asserted that all 56 officially recognized ethnic groups are Zhongguo ren (中國人), or Zhongguo people. The Republic of China, as it controlled mainland China, and later, the People's Republic of China, have used Zhongguo as an entity existing theoretically to mean all the territories and peoples within their political control as well as those outside of it (people in the Republic of China on Taiwan now usually use Zhongguo to refer to the PRC and use Taiwan to refer to itself). The term Zhongguo came to be related to geographic, cultural and political identity and less to ethnic origin.

It was used in this manner from the tenth century onwards by the competing dynasties of Liao, Jin and Song. In this way Zhongguo came to represent political legitimacy. The southern dynasties, for their part, recently exiled from the north, called the Northern Wei Lu (虜), meaning "criminal" or "prisoner". For example, the Xianbei called their Northern Wei regime Zhongguo, contrasting it with the Southern Dynasties, which they called the Yi (夷), meaning "barbarian".

This was doubly so after the loss of the Yellow River valley, the cradle of Chinese civilization, to these peoples. During the period of division after the fall of the Han Dynasty, the term Zhongguo was subjected to transformation as a result of the surge of nomadic peoples from the northern frontier. During the Han Dynasty and before, Zhongguo had three distinctive meanings:. Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, and Tibet, and the island of Taiwan, over time, came to be dominated (to a greater or lesser extent) by, or officially ruled by, imperial China, and are often included as a part of Zhongguo, though acceptance or denial of such claims remains politically controversial, especially where Zhongguo means PRC.

Thus Zhongguo quickly came to include areas farther south, as the cultural and political unit (not yet a "nation" or "country" in the modern sense) spread in a southerly direction, including the Yangtze River and Pearl River systems, and by the Tang Dynasty it even included "barbarian" regimes such as the Xianbei and Xiongnu. The "Chinese" thus defined their nation as culturally and politically distinct from - and as the axis mundi of surrounding nations; a concept that continued well into the Qing Dynasty, although being continually redefined while the central political influence expanded territorially, and its culture assimilated alien influences. During the Spring and Autumn Period, it was used only to describe the states politically descended from the Western Zhou Dynasty, in the Yellow River (Huang He) valley, to the exclusion of states such as Chu and Qin. The term has not been used consistently throughout Chinese history, however, and carries certain cultural and political connotations both positive and negative, some ideological, and early states considered part of Chinese history are not called "Zhongguo".

Zhong (中) means "middle" or "center" while guo (国 or 國) means "country," "kingdom," "state," or "land", referring to the claim that China stood at the centre of that society's "known world", surrounded by lesser tributary states. China is called Zhongguo in Mandarin Chinese (Simplified: 中国, Traditional: 中國; also romanized as Jhongguo or Chung-kuo), which is usually translated as "Middle Kingdom", but could also be translated as "Central State" or "Central Country". . Since then, the ROC has maintained administrative control over Taiwan, the Pescadores, several islands off the coast of Fujian province, and some islands in the South China Sea.

After its victory in the Chinese Civil War, the Communist Party of China under Mao Zedong established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, forcing the Nationalists to retreat and relocate the ROC government to the island of Taiwan, which it had governed since the end of World War II. The imperial system in China ended with the establishment of the Republic of China (ROC) under Sun Yat-sen in 1912; however, the next four decades of ROC rule were marred by warlord control, the Second Sino-Japanese War during which the Empire of Japan occupied large parts of China, and the Chinese Civil War which pitted Chinese Nationalists against the Communist forces. By the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, however, China's political, economic, and military influence declined relative to the growing regional power of Japan and the influence of Western powers. For centuries, Imperial China was also one of the world's most technologically advanced civilizations, and East Asia's dominant cultural influence, with an impact lasting to the present day throughout the region.

The country's territorial extent expanded outwards from a core area in the North China Plain, and varied according to its changing fortunes to include multiple regions of East, Northeast, and Central Asia. With one of the world's longest periods of mostly uninterrupted civilization and the world's longest continuously used written language system, China's history has been largely characterized by repeated divisions and reunifications amid alternating periods of peace and war, and violent imperial dynastic change. With over one-fifth of the world's population, the majority of China exists today as a state known as the People's Republic of China, but it also refers to a long-standing civilization comprising successive states and cultures dating back nearly 5,000 years. China (listen (help·info); Traditional Chinese: 中國; Simplified Chinese: 中国; Hanyu Pinyin: Zhōngguó; Wade-Giles: Chung-kuo) is a geographical region in East Asia.

Military innovations include the crossbow and the grid sight, crossbow stirrup, repeating crossbows, poison gas (smoke from burning dried mustard), tear gas made from powdered lime, relief maps for battle planning, manned kites, fire lance, rockets, gunpowder incendiaries, gunpowder grenades, proto-handguns, various gun-related ammunition types and the cannon. Chinese astrology and constellations were often used for divination. Alchemy was Taoist chemistry, very different from modern chemistry. Nevertheless, there were several doctors who have increased the understanding of internal anatomy by violating this autopsy taboo.

However, this autopsy was unacceptable, because of the common belief that a corpse should not be violated. An example is acupuncture, although it is somewhat controversial in some quarters. They continue to play a growing role in the international medical community, and have achieved recognition over the last few decades in the West as alternative and complementary therapies. Traditional medicine and surgery were highly advanced at various points in history, and in some fields are still seen as innovative.

Studies in biology have been extensive, and historic records are consulted even today, such as pharmacopoeias of medicinal plants. "Pascal's" Triangle was discovered by mathematician Liu Ju-Hsieh, long before Pascal was born. The decimal system was used in China as early as the 14th Century BC. Pi (π) was calculated by 5th century mathematician Zu Chongzhi to the seventh digit.

The main applications of mathematics in traditional China were architecture and geography. Claimed numbers of followers of the Falun Dafa are also regarded as unreliable.). Falun Gong - exact numbers unknown (claimed not to be a "religion", though from a scholarly perspective is a spiritual practice. Islam - 1% to 2%.

Christianity - 2 to 4% (from Western sources; the Chinese official number is much smaller than 1%). Buddhism - exact numbers unknown [about 8%]. Taoism - exact numbers unknown. Confucianism - exact numbers unknown.

The Sanguo Zhi records the following monologue: "If we can lead the host of Wu and Yue (the area of southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang) to oppose Zhongguo, then we should break off relations with them soon." In this sense, the term is synonymous with Hua (華) and Xia (夏). The area now called the North China Plain. Five are in Zhongguo.". Three are with the Man and Yi barbarians.

The Historical Records states: "Eight mountains are famed in the empire. Territories under the direct authority of the "central" authorities. The Book of Poetry explicitly gives this definition. The area around the capital or imperial domain.