Chinese language is based on characters rather than on an alphabet, and is said to be the world’s oldest continually-used writing system. Young men who wanted to become civil administrators in China entered training schools that concentrated on calligraphy and the teachings of Confucius. Figure: The Liji or Book of Rites was one of the five Classic Confucian texts. The imperial courts sent thousands of highly-educated administrators throughout the empire and China was ruled not by hereditary nobles or even elected representatives, but by a class of men who had received rigorous training and had passed very stringent examinations to prove themselves qualified to lead. The early establishment of a professional administrative class of “scholar-officials” was a remarkable element of imperial Chinese rule that made it more stable, longer-lasting, and at least potentially less oppressive than empires in other parts of the world. The social stability that allowed Chinese culture to produce these innovations was based on not only the imperial form of government, but on an elaborate system of professional civil service. China held a monopoly on the creation of silk, which was a closely-held state secret for millennia, and led the world in iron, copper, and porcelain production as well as a variety of technological inventions including the compass, gunpowder, paper-making, mechanical clocks, and moveable type printing. The early imperial governments began construction of the called Long Walls, and dug the Grand Canal to connect the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers in the sixth century CE. Beginning in 221 BCE, the Chinese created an empire that lasted over two thousand years under a series of more than a dozen dynasties. This population was originally divided into several small kingdoms whose ruling families were connected through political marriages. Based on irrigated rice agriculture, the population of China grew to 50 to 60 million people as early as 2,000 years ago. So, let’s look at how Asia achieved that global preeminence.Īs mentioned in the Introduction, civilization began in India about 4,600 years ago and China’s recorded history began about 2000 BCE. But before we do that, it’s important to understand that the histories of China and India are as old as western history if not older, and Asia has always been the center of world population. Don’t worry, we’ll add Europe, Africa, and the Americas to the story soon enough. This may surprise many who grew up believing that most of the important events of modern history happened in the West. We begin our survey of modern world history in Asia. \)įigure:, discovered in 1974 by farmers in Xi’an China.
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