Legolas

Whether Legolas of Gondolin was of Noldorin or Sindarin descent is debatable.
. The Silmarillion, in describing Turgon's founding of Gondolin, states that Turgon took with him up to a third of the people under Fingolfin, but an even larger number of the Sindar. Other areas of technological study:. But the others, led by one Legolas Greenleaf of the house of the Tree, who knew all that plain by day or by dark, and was night-sighted, made much speed over the vale for all their weariness, and halted only after a great march.
—"The Fall of Gondolin", The Book of Lost Tales, Volume 2.
. The names are very similar, but the characters were different: Legolas of Gondolin was a Ñoldorin Exile, of the House (kindred) of the Tree. In addition to the cultural innovations mentioned above, technological inventions from China include:.

His name (Laiqalassë in its pure form) comes from the primitive Quenya (Qenya) words laica, green, and lassë, leaf. Calligraphy, sushi, and bonsai are all millennia-old art that later spread to Japan and Korea. The Legolas of Gondolin, who Tolkien would have likely renamed, has a different etymology. See Chinese painting for more details. Because Tolkien had reused the name in The Lord of the Rings, this Legolas was not included in the published Silmarillion. The great variation and beauty in the Chinese landscape is often the inspiration for great works of Chinese art. The character is mentioned only once and is unrelated to the character discussed above. Because of its association with elite scholar-official bosses, it later on became commercialized, where works by famous artists became prized possessions.

The name Legolas Greenleaf first appeared in The Fall of Gondolin, one of the "Lost Tales". Calligraphy is a major art-form in China, above that of painting and music. No definitive evidence is given, either way. Chinese characters have had many variants and styles throughout the Chinese history, and were "simplified" in the mid-20th century on mainland China. Thranduil did let him leave Mirkwood to found a new elf-community in Ithilien, suggesting to some that he was not his heir; but then others opine that given the longevity of Elves and the relative safety of Middle-earth after Sauron's downfall, Thranduil could go on ruling the Woodland Realm as long as he liked or until he felt the sea-longing. The sheng is the basis for several Western free-reed instruments. Some assume that he is an only child; however, he could be only one of Thranduil's children. 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.

(Blond hair was mostly exclusive to the Vanyar.) However, the "blond" camp points out that the above quote takes place at night, and opines that his head may have appeared "dark" due to shadows, rather than his actual hair color. (See List of Chinese authors, and List of Chinese language poets). According to this camp, his hair must be either dark brown or black, as was the norm for the Sindar. Some classical scholars, however, were noted for their daring depictions of lives of the common people, often to the displeasure of authorities. However, Tolkien describes his head as "dark" when he shoots down a Ringwraith's fell beast in The Fellowship of the Ring in the following quote, suggesting the contrary to some:. 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. His father Thranduil was blond, so many assume that Legolas must have been blond also (Indeed, both Ralph Bakshi and Peter Jackson make him blond). Those who passed the highest level of the exam became elite scholar-officials known as jinshi, a highly esteemed socio-economic position.

For them, this might be a sign that he was born in the First Age, since the Appendices only record dates from the Second Age onwards. Imperial examinations required applicants to write essays and demonstrate mastery of the Confucian classics. Also, some readers point out that his birthdate is not recorded in the Appendices. Nevertheless it was a system distinct from the European system of blood nobility. However, even the minimum figure of 500 can still apply here, since Tolkien could have had the English oak in mind, and it can live up to about 500 years. 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. Also, he speaks of watching oaks grow from acorns to "ruinous age", suggesting that he is in fact old, though possibly young for Elves (some kinds of oak can live for a very long time):. For centuries, opportunity for economic and social advancement in China could be provided by high performance on the imperial examinations.

He does call Aragorn (87) and Gimli (139) "children" while in Fangorn Forest, and says that he does not feel young:. Tens of thousands of ancient written documents are still extant and more, from oracle bones to Qing edicts, are discovered each day. It is certainly possible that he was older than what many fans imagine him to be, at least (probably due to the influence of Bloom and his portrayal). Members of royalty frequently participated in these discussions. At face value, his statement says nothing about his age - to go further would only be speculation. Academies of scholars sponsored by the empire were formed to comment on these works in both printed and written form. However, he could be merely commenting on the contrasting viewpoints of Men and Elves on time ("and but a little while does that seem to us"); also, 500 years is here clearly the time elapsed since Meduseld was built. 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.

If we are to infer that Elves can have concrete memories at a younger age than humans do, Legolas could conceivably have remembered the last 500 autumns that have passed, starting when he was very young. Chinese literature has a long and prolific continuous history, in part because of the development of printmaking during the Song Dynasty. By their first year, elf-children can already walk, speak, and even sing. They regularly protest against their suppression, both domestically and internationally. In his essay Laws and Customs among the Eldar, found in Morgoth’s Ring, one of the volumes of The History of Middle-earth, Tolkien states that the mental development of elf-children is much quicker than those of human children. 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. To see their reasoning for an age of 800-900 years, see the articles referred to below. The Falun Gong itself denies that it is a cult or a religion.

The figure of 500 years minimum was derived from the following — at one point he says that the leaves have fallen in Mirkwood 500 times since Meduseld was built, and he appears to be describing it as if he actually experienced this:. 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. While Legolas' age is never given in Tolkien's writings, some Tolkien scholars have estimated he is at the most 800–900 years old by the time of the War of the Ring, and at least 500, though probably more; however, many others disagree on the maximum figure. Historically, Taoism and Buddhism have been the dominant religions of Chinese society, and continue to be so in Chinese societies outside direct PRC control. He is absent from the 1980 animated version of The Return of the King. While the People's Republic of China is officially atheist it does allow religion under strict supervision. Legolas was voiced by David Collings in the BBC Radio 4 adaptation. The major religions of China are:.

However, many viewers have criticized his performance as wooden; ironically (and humorously, one might add), his character is fittingly a Wood-elf. 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. Although the disproportionate popular reaction to Legolas met with mixed reactions from fans, many debaters on the Internet during earlier stages of production were worried, like Tolkien's complaint above, that a film portrayal of Legolas might render him as far too effeminate for popular consumption, and many were simply happy that Orlando Bloom was able to avoid this entirely. 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. His good looks and Legolas' "coolness", so to speak, as depicted in the film, have led to the character becoming a unprecedented fan favorite with both fangirls and fanboys, not to mention other Tolkien fans. 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. Playing Legolas in the trilogy was Orlando Bloom's breakout route to superstardom. 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.

This idea subsequently spread to fanfiction; however, it is pure fanon, and is nowhere to be found in Tolkien's writings, and is often simply meant as a joke; in any case, Elven eye color was most likely restricted to grey, as no other color is explicitly stated in Tolkien's writings. 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). This was justified by the notion that Elves' eyes change colour with their mood. 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. Due to technical mishaps involving Orlando Bloom's contact lenses, in the films Legolas' eye colour sometimes changes between brown, purple, and blue. 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. Curiously, this directly contradicts The Hobbit, where his father's own servants are shown to pass out after drinking powerfully heady Dorwinion wine (a brief line in the same passage mentions that drinks must be "powerful indeed" to affect Elves, like the Dorwinion wine, but still this does nothing to validate the implication that it is impossible for Elves to become intoxicated). 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.

He wins, because Elves are not affected by alcohol. China's overall population is 1.3 billion. In the Extended Edition of The Return of the King, Legolas and Gimli have a drinking contest at Meduseld after the events at Helm's Deep. 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. He bears two long knives, while in the book he bears only one. The term Zhonghua Minzu is sometimes used to describe a notion of a "Chinese nationality" transcending ethnic divisions. He wears green and grey clothes and uses boots, in contrast to Tolkien's "light shoes". 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.

The film-makers later stated that the entire scene of Legolas killing the Oliphaunt and its entire crew was filmed during pick-ups (months after original filming) to insert a major action scene showcasing him, because at that point they realized that he simply doesn't get to do much in the third part of the trilogy. 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. Aside from shooting the fell beast, he undertakes no major actions other than to make peace with Gimli, overcoming their longstanding mutual racial animosity — he and Gimli are followers, rather than leaders. Throughout history, many ethnic groups have been assimilated into neighbouring ethnicities or disappeared without a trace. However, in the books Legolas's exploits in battle are not presented in great detail. 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. For example, in the Battle of the Hornburg, he slides down a staircase using a shield, shooting arrows all the while, and in the Battle of the Pelennor Fields, he takes down an Oliphaunt all by himself. Over a hundred ethnic groups have existed in China.

He is presented as an unstoppable fighter, arguably to the point of stealing the show; he performs show-stopping yet implausible stunts in battle scenes. In the Liaodong and Shandong Peninsulas, there are basaltic plateaux. Curiously, the year 2931 of the Third Age is the year Aragorn was born; the writers may have picked the number at random from the Tale of Years (the timeline) in the Appendices. Groups of volcanic cones occur in the Great Plain of north China. 3018. 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. This date for Legolas' birth was made up by the movie writers, as in the books there are no known dates concerning Legolas before T.A. The southern zone (within which lies Guangzhou and other southern provinces) has a generally subtropical climate.

This would make him 2931 years old at the time of the War of the Ring. The central zone (within which Shanghai is situated) has a generally temperate climate. In the "official movie guide" for The Lord of the Rings, a birthdate for Legolas is set to 87 of the Third Age. The northern zone (within which lies Beijing) has a climate with winters of Arctic severity. In Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movie trilogy (2001–2003), Legolas was portrayed by Orlando Bloom. The climate of China varies greatly. Here, he is apparently from Rivendell, because he answers to Elrond; he is not identified as a Wood-elf. 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.

In the film, he takes Glorfindel's place in the Flight to the Ford sequence; he meets Strider and the hobbits on their way to Rivendell, and sets Frodo on his horse before he is chased by the Nazgûl to the ford of Bruinen (In Peter Jackson's version, Arwen takes Glorfindel's place and rides to the Ford herself with Frodo). Dust blows all the way to southern China, Taiwan, and has even been measured on the West Coast of the United States. Legolas was voiced by Anthony Daniels (who had voiced the droid C-3PO of Star Wars fame) in Ralph Bakshi's 1978 animated version of The Lord of the Rings. Due to a prolonged drought and perhaps poor agricultural practices, dust storms have become usual in the spring in China. In Sindarin, that would be Legolas Thranduilion, -ion meaning "son of". The northwest also has high plateaus among more arid desert landscapes such as the Takla-Makan and the Gobi Desert, which has been expanding. In English, therefore, a fuller name would be "Legolas son of Thranduil" or "Legolas Thranduil's son". 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.

Men and Elves alike used the patronymic (son of) formula. 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. Apparently, only Hobbits (and the Men of Bree) used surnames (like Baggins or Gamgee), as recorded in the Red Book. 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. It may be that Thranduil named his son Legolas to at least in part refer to this people, who were remote kin and ancestors of the later Silvan Elves, the people Thranduil ruled and to whom - very likely - Thranduil's wife belonged. 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. Calenhad, mutated Parth Galen and plural Pinnath Gelin) and is otherwise almost only preserved in Laegrim, Laegel(d)rim (Sindarin form of Quenya Laiquendi), the Green Elves of the First Age. 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.

There might, however, be a certain meaning to his name: laeg is a very rare, archaic word for green, which is normally replaced by calen (cf. 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). The Quenya form (mentioned in the Book of Lost Tales in the context of another character of that name) is Laiqualassë. 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. It consists of the Sindarin words laeg, green; and golas, a collection of leaves, foliage (being a prefixed collective form of las(s), leaf). These territories are separated by borders that are vague at best, and do not correspond well to contemporary political divisions. The name Legolas is a Silvan dialect form of pure Sindarin Laegolas, which means Greenleaf (thus, Greenleaf is not his surname, as is sometimes erroneously believed; nor is it an epithet (like Oakenshield), but a translation of his name). 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.

Logically, as a retcon he could quite conceivably have been present in his father's halls at the time, and may have even fought at Erebor. Various dynasties also exhibited expansionism by engaging in incursions into peripheral territories like Inner Mongolia, Manchuria, Xinjiang, and Tibet. The events in The Hobbit take place less than one hundred years before the Quest of Mount Doom, and at that point Legolas was at least 500 years old, and possibly older. Historically, most Chinese dynasties were based in the historical heartlands of China, known as China proper. However, some have theorized that he may well have fought in the Battle of the Five Armies. Recent divisions also include prefecture-level cities, county-level cities, towns and townships (see below for examples). Of course, his character had not been created yet (though his name had; see below). Below that, there have been prefectures, subprefectures, departments, commanderies, districts, and counties.

Though his father and his kingdom appear in The Hobbit, he does not appear himself. Top levels included circuits and provinces. However, as given in Unfinished Tales, the author himself states that Legolas "probably accomplished the least of the Fellowship", compared to the rest (Frodo endured the Ring's temptations and took it to the Crack of Doom, Gandalf was an angelic agent from Valinor who worked against Sauron for centuries, Aragorn restored his ancestors' old kingdom, and even Merry helped kill the Witch-king, et cetera). Historically, top-level political divisions of China have altered as the administration changed. 2), his father wrote the following comment protesting a "pretty" or "ladylike" illustration of Legolas:. Since then, the de jure sovereignty of Taiwan has been under dispute between the PRC, and the now democratic ROC and Taiwan independence supporters. As Christopher Tolkien recounts in The Book of Lost Tales (Vol. 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.

In Lothlórien, he receives a new longbow from the Galadhrim, along with the other gifts that Galadriel and Celeborn give him and the rest of the Fellowship, such as special cloaks and lembas. Taiwan was subsequently ceded to Japan after the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895. As the Fellowship sets out, he is armed with a short bow, and a long knife. 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. Tolkien first describes him as "a strange Elf, clad in green and brown". 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. The Sindarin minority in that realm, who should have been more noble and wise than the Silvan Elves, can be seen as having "gone native" at the end of the First Age: after Morgoth was defeated and all of the grand Elf-kingdoms of Beleriand were destroyed, they can be seen as going back to "a simpler time" in their culture. 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.

A small minority of Sindarin Elves ruled the predominantly Silvan Woodland Realm of Northern Mirkwood, a minority which Thranduil headed. The Chinese thought that the barbarians attached themselves to the virtue of the Emperor, while the foreign governments sometimes disagreed. His father Thranduil had originally come from Doriath; he and his son were actually Sindarin Elves. Along with provincial administrators, some foreign monarchs sent envoys to offer gifts to the Emperor of China and the Emperor returned compliments to them. Although he lived among them and was exposed to their culture, Legolas was not one of the Silvan Elves (Wood-elves). The Qing Dynasty included parts of modern Russian Far East and Central Asia (west of Xinjiang). It is told in the Red Book (first written by Bilbo Baggins, continued by Frodo Baggins and supposedly finished by Samwise Gamgee) that after the death of King Elessar, Legolas builds a grey ship in Ithilien, and leaves Middle-earth to go over the Sea to Valinor, the Blessed Realm, and Gimli the Dwarf goes with him. Since then, the territory has expanded outward in all directions, and was largest during the Tang, Yuan, and Qing dynasties.

Eventually, Legolas comes to Ithilien with some of his people, with his father's leave, to live out his remaining time in Middle-earth helping to restore the devastated forests of that war-ravaged land. The Zhou Dynasty, which preceded the unification of China by Shi Huangdi, was originally the region around the Yellow River. Later, Legolas and Gimli go off travelling together through Fangorn Forest. 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. After the destruction of the One Ring, he stays in Minas Tirith for some time, as Aragorn is crowned King of the Reunited Kingdom as King Elessar and marries his love Arwen. aim to bring democratic reform to China and relentlessly protest human rights violations that occur in the People's Republic of China. He fights in the Battles of the Pelennor Fields and the Morannon, and watches as Sauron is defeated and Barad-dûr collapses. A number of NGOs based in the U.S.

After Aragorn summons the Dead Men of Dunharrow to fight for him, he watches them scare away the Corsairs of Umbar from their ships at Pelargir. Today, however, there is much more freedom in intellectual thought in non-political areas and propaganda, while still continuing, has lessened. In The Return of the King, he and Gimli accompany Aragorn on the Paths of the Dead, along with the Grey Company. 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 the Battle of the Hornburg, he and Gimli engage in an Orc-slaying contest (Gimli wins by one with 42, but the real result is stronger mutual respect). In 1989, a popular demonstration held in Beijing at Tiananmen Square was violently put to an end by the CPC. They meet the revived Gandalf and the Rohirrim, fight in the Battle of the Hornburg, and witness Saruman's (partial) downfall at Isengard, where they are reunited with the two. 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.

After Boromir is killed and Merry and Pippin are captured by Orcs in The Two Towers, he, Aragorn and Gimli set forth in pursuit of the two (Frodo the Ring-bearer and Sam had gone ahead on the road to Mordor). Nonetheless, the Communist Party still has absolute control over political aspects of society, and it continuously seeks to eradicate threats to its rule. While the Fellowship is travelling over the River Anduin, he shoots down a nearby fell beast with one shot. However, post-1978 reforms have led to the relaxation, in varying degrees, of party control over many areas of society. They take leave of Lothlórien, but not before recieving several gifts. From the beginning, the PRC has been a dictatorial one-party state under the Communist Party. Legolas and Gimli become friends, however, when Gimli greets the Lady of the Golden Wood with gentle words. 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.

Within the Fellowship, there is friction between Legolas and the dwarf Gimli, because of the ancient quarrel between Elves and Dwarves after the destruction of Doriath in the First Age, and also because his father, Thranduil, once threw Gimli's father, Glóin, in prison (as described in The Hobbit). more environmentally friendly) and Blues are generally regarded as more conservative. Legolas serves as the initial spokesperson for the company, speaking with the inhabitants, the Galadhrim. However, Greens are generally more liberal (i.e. After Gandalf is lost while facing the Balrog, Aragorn takes charge of the Fellowship and leads them to the Elven realm of Lothlórien, the Golden Wood. formal independence issue. Once in Moria, he helps fight off the Orcs whom they encounter there, and recognizes Durin's Bane as a Balrog of Morgoth. 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.

Before they reach Moria, however, Legolas helps fend off an attack of Sauron's wolves. Today, the political scene in the ROC is vibrant, with active participation by all sectors of society. After their attempt to cross Caradhras is foiled, their leader Gandalf takes them on an underground journey through Moria, an ancient Dwarf-kingdom, though some (including Legolas) do not wish to go there. 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). Unlike them, he is little affected by the blowing winds and snow; he does not even wear boots, only light shoes, and his feet scarcely make imprints on the snow. By early 1950, the CPC had defeated the Kuomintang on the mainland, and the ROC government retreated to the island of Taiwan. When the Fellowship is snowed down while crossing Caradhras, he scouts ahead to find the Sun, while Aragorn and Boromir drive a path through the snow. 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.

He accompanies the others in their travels from Rivendell to Amon Hen. Ironically, both the Kuomintang and the CCP have heavy Leninist influences. Legolas volunteers or is chosen to become one of the members of the Fellowship that sets out to destroy the One Ring. Effectively, political tutelage meant one-party rule by the Kuomintang with heavy Leninist influences. He is introduced in the first part of The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, at the council of Elrond of Rivendell, where he comes as a messenger from his father to discuss the escape of Gollum from their guard. 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. Legolas is the son of King Thranduil of the Woodland Realm of Northern Mirkwood, who appears as "the Elvenking" in The Hobbit; his father rules over the Silvan Elves who dwell there. 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). Legolas serves as a link to the earlier story, The Hobbit, because he (like Gimli the Dwarf) is the son of a character from the previous tale. 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. Tolkien himself states, however, that Legolas accomplishes the least of the nine members of the Fellowship. 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). With his keen telescopic eyesight, sensitive hearing, and great skill at arms, particularly bowmanship, Legolas is a valuable resource to the other eight members of the Fellowship. Sun Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (KMT or Nationalist Party), was proclaimed provisional president of the republic.

Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, Legolas Greenleaf is a Sindarin Elven prince who becomes a member of the Fellowship of the Ring. On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China (ROC) was established, signaling the end of the Manchu-dominated Qing Empire. R. Chinese was the official language, though periods of Mongol and Manchu conquest saw the arrival of Mongol and Manchu as alternate official languages. R. 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. In J. (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.