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5 key features of Chinese religion
Importance of Chinese culture
Trade Along the Silk Road
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“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” ~ Confucius Although these are just a few words on a page, they represent the basis for all of Chinese culture. It symbolizes the belief system that China was born from and the way beliefs affected every aspect of their lives. The philosophy, Confucius, was one of the three main beliefs in Ancient China, still being taught today. The Ancient Chinese engineered one of the strongest, most vast Empires the world has ever seen. Ancient China has developed themselves and influenced modern society through the use of trading systems and technology. Ancient China pioneered their own development through use of the Silk Road, the Great Wall, and the Grand Canal. These three systems of trade and protection helped to keep China a thriving dominion. The Silk Road was one of the most important trading routes established in Ancient China. It was the biggest trafficker of trade between the existing kingdoms which allowed for China’s food, art, inventions and philosophies to spread all across the world. This augmented their riches and …show more content…
Art and literature has influenced modern society through calligraphy, bronzes, lacquers, jade and ivory carvings, painting, and poetry. Calligraphy originated in China and travelled across to the Americas. It is a form of literature and art, considered a very precise skill based upon perfectionism. Jade and ivory carvings, bronzes and lacquers are seen everywhere, modern day. They were invented in China and now are used in all types of art across the world. Painting and Poetry was based upon the three ways, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism. They were seen as ways of expressing their beliefs through simple words or strokes of a paint brush. Landscapes were often painted in Ancient China. Today’s art resembles and duplicates similar ways of creating
The Silk Road made sure if you didn’t trade items you can hold, then you can trade items you can cherish. Finally, in the western civilizations (Rome), it was accessed by boat. Boats could carry a ton more items and it was less of a walk for the merchants/traders. However, the Silk Road did lead a small backup path up north of Parthia. Around 27 B.C.E., the Roman Empire had only begun, but the silk road had been a thing for a very long time before that.
As told by the roman historian Cassius Dio, Silk was used in Caesar’s celebration. (doc. 1). When Dio talks about the silk he calls it a “device of barbarian luxury.” This proves that a well educated roman was oblivious to the advancements that the Chinese had made, including The Great Wall and Grand Canal. Not to mention that the Chinese have existed thousands of years prior to the Roman civilization. Secondly Sima Qian who wrote The Records Of the Grand Historian clearly hints that Zhang Qian may have started the Silk Road. According to the document, Zhang Qian travels several thousand li (1 Li is equivalent to a bit more than one third of a mile.) Zhang brings back crops such as wheat and rice, and even find out about wine and grapes. Zhang was the first person to bring a clear account of present day Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, claiming it was people settled on the
To begin, Confucianism is a system of philosophical and ethical teachings founded by Confucius. Confucianism was the code of ethics accepted as the certified religion of most of the immense empires in the territory since the Han Dynasty. Confucianism provided an outline of ethical and religious beliefs that most of the Chinese expanded to make other religions such as Daoism and Legalism. To expand, Confucianism was founded by Confucius and his beliefs on the political and social order of China. Confucius believed that everything would fall into place if children had respect for their parents and if the rulers were honest. In Confucianism, specific roles were followed by each person in the family. The head of the family, the father, was the one primarily in control and then it was the oldest son that was next in line. Confucius had the belief that a ruler has to be everything he wants
Confucius was a philosopher, political intellect and an educator whose philosophies have significantly prejudiced not only the Chinese principles but the entire world evolution. He lived through the “Spring” and “Autumn” epoch of Chinese history, when east central China was separated over a dozen fighting states. The inordinate ailment and grief he saw swayed his political thoughts, which highlighted command, grading and the rule of a compassionate self-governing state.
The Mongols influenced the world in many great ways, one of them was their vast trade system. They relied quite heavily on trade, not only to gain resources, but also to get their inventions and objects to the Europeans and then hopefully spread from there. The Mongols enhanced the trading system by composing the “Silk Road”. The Silk Road was a path/road that the Mongols had control of and it was a trade route that many travelers and traders took. Along the Silk Road, the main resource that was traded was silk, hence the name “Silk Road.” The
As in terms of economics, China grew prosperous through trade, military expansion, invention of tools and other means of convenience and through the market economy. From the Han Dynasty China began to build again. The Sui Dynasty constructed the Grand Canal. The Grand Canal was an artificial canal that extended 1,240 miles. It enabled merchants and farmers to travel by water, selling an abundance of rice and other crops. This canal was extremely expensive but throughout the years paid itself off by providing travel routes north and south of China. The Sui Dynasty also built palaces, granarie...
At the time of the Han Dynasty, general trade began over the Silk Road, which was a network of trails that stretched 4,000 miles from China extending to the Roman Empire. At the time the Chinese were unique in their knowledge of how to raise silkworms and weave silk. Chinese silk was extremely expensive. In fact it was worth its weight as gold in Rome! Europeans also preferred other Asian luxury goods including but not limited to exotic sp...
During the 300 years the Silk Road did not prosper, until the Tang Dynasty. The reason why so many dynasties dominated the Silk Road was because of the claim of Mandate of Heaven, which gave the emperor of china the right to rule, if the emperor who claim the Mandate of Heaven does not fulfill his obligations as emperor, then he loses the Mandate and thus the right to be emperor, giving the right to rule over to another dynasty. Whichever dynasty ruled China controls the Silk Road. Genghis Khan the leader of a pastoral nomadic group called the Mongols conquered China. Under the control of the Mongols the Silk Road prosper because the Mongols made traveling along the Silk Road safer and easier to
(www.discovery.com) By extending the Great Wall they opened China up to great expansion of trade. Trade of ideas, knowledge, and physical goods.
The geneses of the three philosophies were based on the teachings of Confucius, and show how the nature of Chinese history is cyclical. Confucius was born in 551 BCE during the Chao dynasty, about 100 years after a period known as the Warring States. Political unity was unstable during Confucius’ time and consequently, China had broken into small states that were constantly at war with one another. Confucius wanted to solve these political problems and help restore order in his country and therefore created his “school of thought” ...
Confucianism is a philosophy and way of life formed in China by Confucius, an early Chinese philosopher. It began as a simple concept with ideals of personal virtue, simple filial piety, and basic gender distinctions and social inequalities. But, over time with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism it began to transform into a way of life that was degrading towards women with certain hostilities towards rivaling religions. In its early period, from around 500 B.C.E to the Common Era, Confucianism changed in that it became the leading belief system and a major part of Chinese tradition. From the transition into the Common Era to the end of the Classical time period, Confucianism was altered because of a loss of popularity following the collapse of the Han dynasty and the corruption in the governing political system. In its ending period, the post-classical era, Confucianism underwent perhaps its biggest adjustments with the emergence of Neo-Confucianism. The ideas and virtues presented in the “rebirth of Confucian philosophies” of intolerance of foreign religions and extreme filial piety...
Regarding religion, Chinese culture saw the emergence of Confucianism and Buddhism as the major influence. Confucianism stressed filial piety which meant respecting elders and superiors, ruling righteously, and obeying commands and orders. Confucianism was introduced by the Chinese thinker Confucius. Buddhism was brought to China, but originated in India and was founded by Siddhartha Gautama. Followers of Buddhism worshipped Buddh...
During this time in China the Han dynasty was responsible for the greatest expansion of China, to what is now southern China, northern Vietnam, and parts of Korea and had trade with Central Asia, India, Persia. Because of the expansion of the territory they were able to trade with more countries. This was furthered by the discovery of the Silk Road in 2nd century BC. The Silk Road, discovered by a Chinese ambassador Zhang Qian, was a series of trade routes from China to the Mediterranean Sea. The Silk Road got its name from the amount of silk used for trade during the Han dynasty. This route was used to travel from West to East on land they traveled to India, Persia, Arabia, and Europe, while traveling by sea they traveled through Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines. These paths were used by merchants, pilgrim, monks, soldiers, nomads, and urban dwellers.
Confucian culture, also known as Confucianism, was founded by Confucius during the Spring and Autumn Period, which was developed gradually after the Han Dynasty with benevolence as the core. Since the Han Dynasty, Confucianism was the official ideology and the basis of mainstream ideology in the vast majority of historical periods of China, and it also influenced many southeast Asian countries in history. After a variety of shocks, Confucianism was still the core values of China's social public, and represented the Chinese culture and national tradition in the world (Littlejohn, 2010). In the contemporary society, the Confucian culture in China increasingly spread, at the same time, its modern value is excavated by many countries in the world, and its international influence is also growing with the rise of China.
Confucianism is a religion derived from Daoism by the great Chinese sage Confucius (551–478 B.C.E.). It began as philosophical and ethical thought and was conceived in a society undergoing social turmoil. Confucianism is a newer religion that came to be around the same time as Buddhism. Its values and morals have had an enormous impact on the culture of many countries in Eastern Asia. All of Confucius’ teachings are recorded in the Analects, one of the four main texts of Confucianism. China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan are only a handful of the countries that have been influenced by Confucianism. Personally, I come from a culture who does not practice Confucianism. However, its concepts, such as being respectful to your elders and mentoring your younger siblings were prevalent in my childhood. Studying this religion more in depth gives me a better understanding of the philosophy that my family embraces. Of the eight elements discussed in Molloy, the two that interest me the most in this context are ethics and the belief system.