National Hockey League

While the league has always had a strong Canadian majority, the percentage of Canadian players has gone down slowly in the past 20 years since the arrival of European players.
. The league also voluntarily stops its season so that its players can play in the Winter Olympics to have the players represent their own country. Other areas of technological study:. Since the 1990s, the league has tried to promote itself throughout Europe with ads, media, and magazines.
. NHL is very proud of its players coming from all around the world. In addition to the cultural innovations mentioned above, technological inventions from China include:.

After Gretzky's induction, the NHL declared that he would be the last one to have the waiting period omitted. Calligraphy, sushi, and bonsai are all millennia-old art that later spread to Japan and Korea. In 1999 Wayne Gretzky became the last player to have the three years waived. See Chinese painting for more details. However, only 10 individual have been honoured in this manner. The great variation and beauty in the Chinese landscape is often the inspiration for great works of Chinese art. In the past, if a player was deemed significant enough, the pending period would be waived. Because of its association with elite scholar-official bosses, it later on became commercialized, where works by famous artists became prized possessions.

Three years after retirement, players are eligible to be voted into the Hockey Hall of Fame. Calligraphy is a major art-form in China, above that of painting and music. The National Hockey League presents numerous trophies per year; some are given to teams, and other are given to players. Chinese characters have had many variants and styles throughout the Chinese history, and were "simplified" in the mid-20th century on mainland China. If the penalized team is scored on during a minor penalty, the penalty immediately ends. The sheng is the basis for several Western free-reed instruments. A team is far more likely to score on a power play than during normal play. The Chinese have created numerous musical instruments, such as the zheng, xiao, and erhu, that have spread throughout East and Southeast Asia, and especially areas under its influence.

This is called a power play for the attackers and a penalty kill for the defenders. (See List of Chinese authors, and List of Chinese language poets). Normally, hockey teams have five skaters (excluding the goaltender), so if one penalty is called, play becomes five-on-four. Some classical scholars, however, were noted for their daring depictions of lives of the common people, often to the displeasure of authorities. In most cases, the penalized team cannot replace that player and is thus shorthanded for the duration of the penalty. Chinese philosophers, writers, and poets have been, for the most part, highly respected, and played a key role in preserving and promoting the culture of the empire. During a penalty, the player who committed the infraction is sent to the penalty box. Those who passed the highest level of the exam became elite scholar-officials known as jinshi, a highly esteemed socio-economic position.

In the NHL, the Linesman may call major intent-to-injure penalties that the referee may have missed. Imperial examinations required applicants to write essays and demonstrate mastery of the Confucian classics. A linesman may call only obvious technical infractions such as too many men on the ice. Nevertheless it was a system distinct from the European system of blood nobility. A referee makes all penalty calls. This led to a meritocracy, though in practice this was possible only among those who were not female or too poor to afford test preparation, as doing well still required tutorship. A penalty is a punishment for inappropriate behaviour. For centuries, opportunity for economic and social advancement in China could be provided by high performance on the imperial examinations.

Under the rules following the 2004-2005 lockout, if a team ices the puck under five-on-five conditions, they are not allowed to make a line change for the following faceoff. Tens of thousands of ancient written documents are still extant and more, from oracle bones to Qing edicts, are discovered each day. If the goalie on the side of the ice where the puck is being sent touches the puck, the icing is waved off. Members of royalty frequently participated in these discussions. A short handed team is not penalized for clearing the puck out of its zone during a powerplay. Academies of scholars sponsored by the empire were formed to comment on these works in both printed and written form. Play is resumed with a faceoff in the defending zone of the team that committed the infraction. Before that, manuscripts of the Classics and religious texts (mainly Confucian, Taoist, and Buddhist) were manually written by ink brush (previously scratching shells) and distributed.

When icing occurs, a linesman stops play. Chinese literature has a long and prolific continuous history, in part because of the development of printmaking during the Song Dynasty. Icing occurs when a player shoots the puck across both the red line and the opposing team's goal line without the puck going into the net. They regularly protest against their suppression, both domestically and internationally. The NHL in 2006 removed the offside pass or two-line pass which was a pass from inside a team's defending zone that crosses the red line. The Falun Gong says that it has approximately 70-100 million followers, which is a bit higher than estimates by outside groups, though exact numbers are unknown. When an offside violation occurs, the linesman blows play dead, and a faceoff is conducted in the neutral zone. The Falun Gong itself denies that it is a cult or a religion.

In ice hockey, play is said to be offside if a player on the attacking team enters the attacking zone before the puck. In recent years, Falun Gong, a spiritual practice drawing upon Buddhism and Taoism, has attracted great controversy after the government of the People's Republic of China labeled it an evil cult and began an attempt to eradicate it. If the game is still tied after the three shootout rounds, the shootout continues, but becomes sudden death. Historically, Taoism and Buddhism have been the dominant religions of Chinese society, and continue to be so in Chinese societies outside direct PRC control. The team with the most goals during this shootout wins the game. While the People's Republic of China is officially atheist it does allow religion under strict supervision. Three players for each team in turn perform a penalty shot. The major religions of China are:.

If the game is still tied at the end of overtime, the game enters a shootout. Other than Standard Mandarin, spoken variants are usually not written; the exception is Standard Cantonese, which is sometimes written as Written Cantonese in informal contexts. If the game is tied at the end of regulation time, a 5 minute, 4-on-4 sudden death overtime period is played, where the first team that scores a goal wins the game. Classical Chinese is no longer the predominant form of written Chinese, though it continues to be a part of high school curricula and is hence intelligible to some degree to many Chinese people. The team that has the most goals at the end of 60 minutes wins the game. In addition, another, more ancient written standard, Classical Chinese, was used for writing Chinese by the literati for thousands of years before the 20th Century. A goal is scored when the puck passes the goal line and enters the net. The various spoken varieties of Chinese share a common written standard, "Vernacular Chinese" or "baihua", which has been used since the early 20th Century and is based on Standard Mandarin, the standard spoken language, in grammar and vocabulary.

It is used to judge goals and icing calls. The Han speak several mutually unintelligible tongues, classified by modern linguists as being separate languages, but regarded within the Chinese languages as "dialects" or "local languages" (topolects) within a single Chinese language (the word for "area languages" has an implication of dialect rather than a separate language, although on the basis of use, these topolects can be found to be separate and mutually unintelligible, and are so classified by many linguists). Near each end of the rink, there is a thin red goal line spanning the width of the ice. As a response to the problems this is causing, the government of the PRC has enacted a birth control policy, commonly known as the One-child policy. They divide the ice into zones. The lack of birth control and promotion of population growth during the rule of Mao Zedong resulted in a demographic explosion, culminating in over 1.3 billion people today. There are two blue lines that divide the rink roughly into thirds. With the global human population currently estimated at about 6.4 billion, China is home to approximately 20%, or one-fifth of the world's population.

The red line is used to judge icing violations. China's overall population is 1.3 billion. The red line divides the ice in half lengthwise. The government of the People's Republic of China now officially recognizes a total of 56 ethnic groups, of which the largest is the Han Chinese. The hockey rink is an ice rink which is rectangular with rounded corners and surrounded by a wall . The term Zhonghua Minzu is sometimes used to describe a notion of a "Chinese nationality" transcending ethnic divisions. Each team may also take one 30 second time-out which may only be taken during a normal stoppage of play. Many times in the past millenia many foreign groups have, in turn, shaped Han language and culture, for example the queue is a pig tail hairstyle strictly enforced by the Manchurians on the Han populace.

Between stoppages of play, teams have 25 seconds before substituting their players except for referee stoppages for TV commercials. Several previously distinct ethnic groups have been Sinicized into the Han, causing its population to increase dramatically; at the same time, many within the Han identity have maintained distinct linguistic and cultural traditions, though still identifying as Han. Between each period there is a 15 minute intermission. Throughout history, many ethnic groups have been assimilated into neighbouring ethnicities or disappeared without a trace. Each game is 60 minutes composed of three 20 minute periods. In terms of numbers, however, the pre-eminent ethnic group in China is the Han, which is a group so diverse in its culture and language that some conceive of it as a larger overarching group bringing together many smaller, distinct ethnic groups sharing common traits in language and culture. While the National Hockey League follows the general rules of Ice hockey, it differs slightly from those used in international games organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation such as the Olympics. Over a hundred ethnic groups have existed in China.

The overtime is sudden death with the game ending when either team scores a goal. In the Liaodong and Shandong Peninsulas, there are basaltic plateaux. Overtimes are also full periods of twenty minutes (of five-on-five hockey), rather than the five minutes (of four-on-four hockey, followed by a shootout) in the regular season. Groups of volcanic cones occur in the Great Plain of north China. If the score is tied at the end of an overtime period, additional overtime periods are played until a winner is determined. The Palaeozoic formations of China, excepting only the upper part of the Carboniferous system, are marine, while the Mesozoic and Tertiary deposits are estuarine and freshwater or else of terrestrial origin. During playoff games if the score is tied at the end of the third period an overtime period is played. The southern zone (within which lies Guangzhou and other southern provinces) has a generally subtropical climate.

Four of the seven games are played at this team's home venue - the first and second, and, where necessary, the fifth and seventh, with the other games played at the lower-ranked team's home venue. The central zone (within which Shanghai is situated) has a generally temperate climate. In each round the higher-ranked team is said to be the team with the home-ice advantage. The northern zone (within which lies Beijing) has a climate with winters of Arctic severity. In the third round, the conference finals, the two remaining teams in each conference play each other, with the conference champions proceeding to the Stanley Cup Finals. The climate of China varies greatly. In the second round, or conference semifinals, the NHL re-seeds (unlike the NBA) the teams, with the top remaining conference seed playing against the lowest remaining seed, and the other two remaining conference teams pairing off. During many dynasties, the southwestern border of China has been the high mountains and deep valleys of Yunnan, which separate modern China from Burma, Laos and Vietnam.

The first round of the playoffs, or conference quarterfinals, consists of the first seed playing the eighth seed, the second playing the seventh, third playing the sixth, and the fourth playing the fifth. Dust blows all the way to southern China, Taiwan, and has even been measured on the West Coast of the United States. The Stanley Cup Playoffs is an elimination tournament, where two teams battle to win a best-of-seven series in order to advance to the next round. Due to a prolonged drought and perhaps poor agricultural practices, dust storms have become usual in the spring in China. The division winners are seeded one through three, and the next five teams with the best records in the conference are seeded four through eight. The northwest also has high plateaus among more arid desert landscapes such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert, which has been expanding. At the end of the regular season, the three division champions and the five other teams in each conference with the highest number of points, 8 teams in each conference, qualify for the Stanley Cup playoffs. To the west, the north has a great alluvial plain, and the south has a vast calcareous tableland traversed by hill ranges of moderate elevation, with the Himalayas, containing the highest point Mount Everest.

At the end of the regular season, the team that finishes with the most points in each division is crowned the division champion. In the east, along the shores of the Yellow Sea and the East China Sea are found extensive and densely populated alluvial plains; the shore of the South China Sea is more mountainous and southern China is dominated by hill country and lower mountain ranges. Points are awarded for each game as follows:. Most of China's arable lands lie along the two major rivers, the Yangtze and the Huang He, and each are the centers around which are founded China's major ancient civilizations. The two divisions from the opposite conference which each team plays against will be rotated every year, much like interleague play in baseball. As a result, principal rivers flow from west to east, including the Yangtze (central), the Huang He (central-east), and the Amur (northeast), and sometimes toward the south (including the Pearl River, Mekong River, and Brahmaputra), with most Chinese rivers emptying into the Pacific. Teams play 32 games within their division (8 games against four other teams), 40 games against non-divisional, conference opponents (4 games against 10 other teams) and 10 interconference games, 1 game against each team in two of the three divisions in the opposite conference. China is composed of a vast variety of highly different landscapes, with mostly plateaus and mountains in the west, and lower lands on the east.

Each team in the NHL plays 82 regular season games, 41 games at home and 41 on the road. China is also traditionally thought of as comprising North China (北方) and South China (南方), the geographic boundary between which north and south is largely generalized as Huai River (淮河) and Qinling Mountains (秦嶺). For a list of previous teams see List of defunct NHL teams. China proper is generally thought to be bounded by the Great Wall and the edge of the Tibetan Plateau; Manchuria and Inner Mongolia are found to the north of the Great Wall of China, and the boundary between them can either be taken as the present border between Inner Mongolia and the northeast Chinese provinces, or the more historic border of the World War II-era puppet state of Manchukuo; Xinjiang's borders correspond to today's administrative Xinjiang; and historic Tibet is conceived as occupying all of the Tibetan Plateau. Over the years many different organizations have existed. These territories are separated by borders that are vague at best, and do not correspond well to contemporary political divisions. The National Hockey League currently has 30 teams divided into two conferences, and 6 divisions, an organization that started in the year 2000. The Manchu-established Qing Dynasty and its successors, the Republic of China and the People's Republic of China cemented the incorporation of these territories into China.

The NHL, despite negative press generated during the lockout, has success attracting fans to the initial games of the season and extends fan bases into non-traditional markets in the US such as Nashville, Atlanta, and the Carolinas. Various dynasties also exhibited expansionism by engaging in incursions into peripheral territories like Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Xinjiang, and Tibet. Of those 15 games, 11 were in front of sell out crowds. Historically, most Chinese dynasties were based in the historical heartlands of China, known as China proper. On October 5, 2005, the first post-lockout NHL season got under way with 15 games. Recent divisions also include prefecture-level cities, county-level cities, towns and townships (see below for examples). A new collective bargaining agreement was ratified in July 2005 with a term of six years with an option of extending the collective bargaining agreement for an additional year at the end of the term, allowing the NHL to resume as of the 2005-06 season. Below that, there have been prefectures, subprefectures, departments, commanderies, districts, and counties.

With no new agreement in hand when the existing contract expired on September 15, 2004, league commissioner Gary Bettman announced a lockout of the players union and cessation of operations by the NHL head office, causing the NHL to lose an entire season. Top levels included circuits and provinces. The league vowed to install what it dubbed "cost certainty" for its teams, but the National Hockey League Players Association countered that the move was little more than a euphemism for a salary cap, which the union initially said it would not accept. Historically, top-level political divisions of China have altered as the administration changed. Negotiations to replace the contract that expired in 2004 turned into one of the most contentious collective bargaining sessions in the history of professional sports. Since then, the de jure sovereignty of Taiwan has been under dispute between the PRC, and the now democratic ROC and Taiwan independence supporters. The resulting collective bargaining agreement was set for renegotiation in 1998 and extended to September 15, 2004. At the end of the second Sino-Japanese War in 1945, Japan relinquished the sovereignty of the island in the San Francisco Peace Treaty, and the Republic of China took over.

A lockout at the start of the 1994-95 forced the league to reduce the schedule from 84 games to just 48, with the teams playing only intra-conference games during the reduced season. Taiwan was subsequently ceded to Japan after the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895. The first was a strike by the National Hockey League Players Association in April 1992 which lasted for 10 days, but the strike was settled quickly and all affected games were rescheduled. In 1683 after the surrender of the Kingdom of Tungning established by Koxinga, Taiwan including the Pescadores became a part of the Qing Empire, originally as one prefecture, then two, and later a province. There have been three work stoppages in NHL history, all happening between 1992 and 2005. The Qing Empire reduced the territorial value of the Great Wall of China as a barrier of China proper after they merged their homeland (Manchuria) north of the wall with China proper south of it. Approaching the new millennium, the NHL added another four teams; the Nashville Predators (1998), the Atlanta Thrashers (1999), the Minnesota Wild and the Columbus Blue Jackets (both added in 2000) bringing the total to 30 teams. Since the end of the 19th century, China has tried to reinterpret this relationship as suzerainty or suzerainty-dependency, but this no longer has any real conception in modern international political theories.

In 1993, the NHL added an additional two teams, the Anaheim Mighty Ducks and the Florida Panthers. The Chinese thought that the barbarians attached themselves to the virtue of the Emperor, while the foreign governments sometimes disagreed. The San Jose Sharks debuted in 1991, a season later the Ottawa Senators would join the NHL along with the Tampa Bay Lightning. Along with provincial administrators, some foreign monarchs sent envoys to offer gifts to the Emperor of China and the Emperor returned compliments to them. In the early 90's the NHL expanded further with five new franchises. The Qing Dynasty included parts of modern Russian Far East and Central Asia (west of Xinjiang). As of 2005, the Oilers are the last remaining original WHA franchise still playing in the city where they began in the NHL. Since then, the territory has expanded outward in all directions, and was largest during the Tang, Yuan, and Qing dynasties.

Four of the remaining six WHA teams merged with the NHL: The Hartford Whalers, Québec Nordiques, Edmonton Oilers, and Winnipeg Jets. The Zhou Dynasty, which preceded the unification of China by Shi Huangdi, was originally the region around the Yellow River. The two leagues fought for the services of hockey players and fans until the WHA folded in 1979. 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. The dilution of the talent pool, however, caused the overall quality of play to suffer. aim to bring democratic reform to China and relentlessly protest human rights violations that occur in the People's Republic of China. In response to that, the NHL decided to rush its own expansion plans by adding the New York Islanders and Atlanta Flames that year, along with the Kansas City Scouts and Washington Capitals two years later. A number of NGOs based in the U.S.

Though it never challenged for the Stanley Cup, its status as a viable NHL rival was unquestionable. Today, however, there is much more freedom in intellectual thought in non-political areas and propaganda, while still continuing, has lessened. In 1972, the World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed. 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. Three years later, the NHL added the Vancouver Canucks and Buffalo Sabres as franchises. In 1989, a popular demonstration held in Beijing at Tiananmen Square was violently put to an end by the CPC. Louis Blues, Minnesota North Stars, Los Angeles Kings, Oakland Seals, and Pittsburgh Penguins. 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.

They were the Philadelphia Flyers, St. Nonetheless, the Communist Party still has absolute control over political aspects of society, and it continuously seeks to eradicate threats to its rule. Six new teams were added to the NHL roster, and placed in their own newly-created division. However, post-1978 reforms have led to the relaxation, in varying degrees, of party control over many areas of society. The rise of the Western Hockey League, which many pundits thought planned to transform into a major league and challenge for the Stanley Cup, spurred the NHL in 1967 to undertake its first expansion since the 1920s. From the beginning, the PRC has been a dictatorial one-party state under the Communist Party. With these developments and the onset of World War II, the NHL was reduced to six teams during its 25th anniversary year of (1942) – six teams still known today, if somewhat inaccurately, as the Original Six: The Canadiens, Maple Leafs, Red Wings, Bruins, Rangers, and Blackhawks. 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.

However, the Great Depression took a toll on the league; teams such as the Pirates, Americans and Ottawa Senators folded. more environmentally friendly) and Blues are generally regarded as more conservative. By the end of the 1930-31 season, the NHL featured a total of 10 teams. However, Greens are generally more liberal (i.e. Canadian additions included the Montreal Maroons and Hamilton Tigers. formal independence issue. The league had also expanded into the United States, with the Boston Bruins in 1924, the New York Americans and the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1925 and the New York Rangers, Detroit Cougars (later to become the Red Wings), and Chicago Blackhawks in 1926. 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.

By 1926, having increased player salaries to a level that couldn't be matched by other Canadian leagues, the NHL was alone in Stanley Cup competition. Today, the political scene in the ROC is vibrant, with active participation by all sectors of society. (The 1918-19 competition was cancelled because of the Spanish Flu epidemic that had hit Seattle). 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). Though the league struggled to stay in business during its first decade, NHL teams were quite successful on the ice, winning the Stanley Cup seven out of its first nine years. By early 1950, the CPC had defeated the Kuomintang on the mainland, and the ROC government retreated to the island of Taiwan. With the Bulldogs and Wanderers out, the NHL operated with just three teams for the remainder of its opening year, and through the second season. 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.

The Wanderers, already a shadow of its former self, folded in the wake of the fire, ending one of the most storied franchises in the early years of Canadian professional hockey. Ironically, both the Kuomintang and the CCP have heavy Leninist influences. On January 2, 1918, the Westmount Arena in Montreal, home to the Wanderers and Canadiens, was destroyed in a fire. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang with heavy Leninist influences. The NHL endured a rocky inaugural season in 1917-18, starting with the temporary shuttering of the Bulldogs. 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. Arguments and discussions ensued which eventually led to the formation of the National Hockey League at on November 26, 1917, with the Montreal Canadiens, Montreal Wanderers, Ottawa Senators, Quebec Bulldogs and newly-renamed Toronto Arenas as founding members. Warlords in various regions exercised actual control over their respective territories.

Livingstone, unable to attend the meeting because of illness, was shocked to learn that owners had chosen to effectively eject him and the Blueshirts from the NHA. 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). The owners met in Montreal's Windsor Hotel to consider the league's future on February 11, 1917. 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. Livingstone and the owners of the other teams. 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). The National Hockey League was founded in 1917 in Montreal after a series of disputes within the (Canadian) National Hockey Association (NHA) between the Toronto Blueshirts' owner Edward J. 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. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues of North America.

. Chinese was the official language, though periods of Mongol and Manchu conquest saw the arrival of Mongol and Manchu as alternate official languages. It is generally regarded as the premier professional ice hockey league in the world. 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. The National Hockey League (NHL) is a professional sports organization composed of hockey teams in the United States and Canada, where it is also known by its French name, Ligue Nationale de Hockey (LNH). (see section "Geography, Political" below for examples),.

The Lester Patrick Trophy has been presented by the National Hockey League since 1966 to honour a recipient's contribution to hockey in the United States. Political relations with dependencies (tributary kingdoms) were maintained by international marriages, military aids, treaties, and gifts. Jennings Trophy (1982 - present) -- goalkeeper(s) for the team with the fewest goals against them. 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. William M. Political power sometimes fell into the hands of powerful officials, eunuchs, or imperial relatives, often at the expense of a child heriditary emperor. Vezina Trophy (1927 - present) -- voted to be the most outstanding goaltender. The emperor also consulted civil and martial ministers, especially the prime minister.

Roger Crozier Saving Grace Award (2000 - present) -- best save percentage by a goalkeeper. However the emperor had ultimate, supreme, and unquestionable authority as the political and religious leader of China. NHL Plus/Minus Award (1968 - present) -- highest plus/minus statistic. The territory varied with several expansions and contractions depending on the strength of each emperor and dynasty. Maurice 'Rocket' Richard Trophy (1999 - present) -- to the goal-scoring leader during the regular season. After the Qin, China experienced about 13 more dynasties, many of which continued the extensive system of kingdoms, dukedoms, earldoms, and marquisates. Pearson Award (1971 - present) -- most outstanding player as selected by peers. This ended with the Qin Dynasty unification, during which the office of the emperor was set up, and a system of bureaucratic administration established.

Lester B. This is also the time of the beginnings of Confucian philosophy and that of many other philosophies that greatly influenced Chinese philosophy-political thought. Lady Byng Memorial Trophy (1925 - present) -- player combining ability and sportsmanship. 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. King Clancy Memorial Trophy (1988 - present) -- leadership and humanitarian contribution. The Chinese civilization consisted of a patchwork of several states, each ruled by a king (王), duke (公), marquess (侯), or earl (伯). James Norris Memorial Trophy (1954 - present)-- most outstanding defenceman. Before unification by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BC, "China" did not exist as a coherent entity.

Jack Adams Award (1974 - present) -- coach of the year. Another is a partial skeleton from Minatogawa being only 18,000 years old. Hart Memorial Trophy (1924 - present) -- most valuable player during the regular season. The earliest evidence examples of fully modern humans in China come from Liujiang, China where a cranium dates 67,000 years BCE. Selke Trophy (1978 - present) -- top defensive forward. This model is known as Mitochondrial Eve Hypothesis. Frank J. 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.

Conn Smythe Trophy (1965 - present) -- most valuable player during the playoffs. sapiens having archaic features. Calder Memorial Trophy (1933 - present) -- rookie of the year. erectus to H. Bill Masterton Memorial Trophy (1968 - present) -- perseverance and sportsmanship. erectus populations (known as "multiregional") as some evidence in ancient bones show a transitional change from H. Art Ross Memorial Trophy (1948 - present) -- regular season league scoring champion. It remains a controversial subject to whether fully modern humans evolved from separate H.

The O'Brien Trophy was awarded in the NHL before it was retired following the 1949-50 NHL season. By less than 100,000 years ago all proto-human populations disappeared as modern humans took over or drove other human species into extinction. Presidents' Trophy (1986 - present) - best regular season by a team. 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). Prince of Wales Trophy -- Eastern conference playoff champion. Homo sapiens idaltu). Campbell Bowl -- Western conference playoff champion. 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.

Clarence S. erectus settled into various areas in the Old World. Stanley Cup -- overall playoff champion. By 2 million years ago the first wave of migration from the species in association with H. Zero points for a loss in regulation time. 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. One point for losing in overtime or a shootout. 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.

Two points are awarded for a win. 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.