Ancient Culture of China

1. Running Head: WORKSHOP THREE 1
Workshop Three
Ancient Culture of China
Silvia M. Velásquez
Maikel Milian
Aurora Martinez
Nelly Flores
Paulo Arieu
Universidad del Turabo
September 18th, 2014
HUMA 101
Professor: Dr. Joanverónika Valedón

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Ancient Culture of China
The influence of China and its culture in today’s world is felt in many areas: Economics,
philosophy, arts, sports, politics, to name a few. This influence can be traced to its ancient roots.
China is more than 5,000 years old. The origins of this culture date back to the Neolithic era,
with various regional centers along the Yellow River. China is known for its cultural richness
and diversity. This culture grew between eras of emperors and their dynasties. These rulers
watched after their territories and ensured their development. China is one of the most important
ancient civilizations.
In the next paragraphs, we will develop the following aspects of China’s ancient development:
History, Politics, Religion, Arts and Literature.
The Chinese culture is an extraordinary phenomenon of huge discoveries in paleontology
dating back thousands of years and whose evolution has maintained the fundamental principle of
caring to the extreme for mother earth. Chinese culture has been characterized by its progress in
maintaining order and trying to drive cross always to get science to help man maintain harmony
with the sacred and valuable environment from every manifestation of energy (Kaltenmark,
1982) and that man is bound to understand and respect. Only pretending to find the reason for the
phenomena and not wanting to dominate phenomena as does Western man. Because the great
unity (ecological and psychological unit) is the universal idea that does not look beyond it
understood every moment of evolution or Hui Shih (Gutiérrez J, 2004) to be consistent with the
nature of nature without being submissive but contravene. Looking for the depth of knowledge to
find the perfect fusion of human thought with what is not. Because everything back in that
special sense of unity and the universe is everything and it is cyclical. For that reason is fatal to

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consider studying Chinese prehistory starting at its history. But for academic purposes it can be
said that China's prehistory is divided into two periods: the first is the culture Yang Chao.
Northwest of China and 4000 years B.C. This was established on the Yangtze River. Farmers,
ranchers and some advanced techniques in sericulture. They developed silk weaving, jade
carving and polychrome ceramics. And the other is the Longshan culture (Lung shen). North of
China. This phase was identified from findings in excavation of black ceramic and writing found
on bones and tortoise shells (Gutiérrez J, 2004) and develops natural medicine. But this process
is part of the natural evolution of man since man stands in the standing position and your brain
starts to develop from the need to band together to hunt, cultivate, and develop physical fighting
skills and survival, preservation of fire and transmission of knowledge. After comes the ability to
use the stone as a tool, as a weapon and as an element that generated knowledge. But stone with
stone served as spectacular graphics texts in caves. And later man seeks to settle down and find a
space and has the need to grow crops near his home. Agriculture and society and created.
I – Politics:
In China's current politics, there are three main structures: Communist Party, People of
liberation and State Army. Actually, the head of State is the President of the Republic of China
Hu Jintao (García-Purriños, 2012). But, according to tradition, there were five dynasties, being
the first Chinese dynasty inherited, the tradition of the Xia (1994-1766 B.C.), but the Shang were
the first dynasty with historical evidence (Mauro, 11-25-2008). Instable politic period was the
characteristic of that political stage.

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a. Shang’s Dinasty (1766 a 1027 a. C.)
He ruled in the territory of the current provinces of Henan, Hubei, Shandong and northern part of
Anhui, in Central and North China (Mauro, 11-25-2008).Surely, it was a high civilization!
b. Zhou’s Dinasty (1122 a 256 a. C.)
The Zhou has exercised direct control over the region of the Valley of the river Yang-tse-Kiang.
They delegated authority to vassals (Mauro, 11-25-2008).This dynasty has the power in the
ancient China for approximated a millennium,
The Zhou of the east:
They maintained control over their domains until the 770 B.C., when some States rebelled and
expelled the Zhou. In this dynasty, China entered the iron age (Mauro, 11-25-2008).The event
that marks the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period was that they moved the capital to Luoyang.
c. The Qin dynasty (221-206 a C.):
In 221 BC, the King of Qin proclaimed himself Qin Shi Huangdi, or the first emperor of the Qin
dynasty. The word "China" is derived from this dynasty (Mauro, 11-25-2008).In this period, the
Qin has wished to create an imperial state that it will be political unified and able to support to
the military power.

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d. The Han’s dynasty (206 a. C. a 9 d. C.):
Liu Bang, a leader of humble origin, eliminated the other pretenders to the throne and
proclaimed himself emperor (206 A.C). This dynasty would be the most lasting of the Imperial
Era. In this dynasty Confucianism was set as official ideology (Mauro, 11-25-2008). That four
centuries segment period of the Han Dynasty was a golden age in Chinese history
II. Religion and philosophy
The first religion of China was the worship towards the unknown and strength that man may
have natural phenomena. The Chinese, they related the conduct by the individual with the
phenomena of the universe. Currently, religion in China is polytheistic and syncretic and
dominates Taoism, Buddhism and Christianity (Mauro, 11-25-2008). Although officially the
freedom of religion is a constitutional right of every Chinese citizen, certain current reports
speak of a strong intolerance toward Christianity (LleraVazques, n.d.). Three major religious
systems stand out in ancient China: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism:
a) Confucius: Confucius was Kong Qiu, or Kong Zhongni (551 BC - 479 BC). He was a wise
thinker, politician and educator of his time. In his old age, wrote the book annals of spring and
autumn and revised Li and Le, classics of China. After his death, his disciples collected his
sayings in the Analects book (Mauro, 11-25-2008).He was a great teacher, editor, politician and
philosopher of great spring and autumn period in Chinese history. He was famous about the early
gold rule: One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself.

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b) Taoism and Confucianism: Confucius was Kong Qiu, or Kong Zhongni (551 BC - 479 BC).
After his death, his disciples collected his sayings in the Analects book. The second religion in
China was that of Lao-Tse is the reason founded in the rationalist doctrines of Tao (Mauro, 11-
25-2008). It’s interesting to know, that the expression “Tao” means "way", "path" or "principle"
and it can be founded in other philosophies or other religions than Taoism.
c) Buddhism: It is the philosophy adopted by Siddhartha Gautama (ca. 566-486 BC) in Nepal. It
is based on the four Buddha’s visions: a) a sick man, b) an old man, c) a dead man and d) a
roving ascetic (Ramos, n.d.). It appeared in China for the first time during the Han dynasty,
having entered China from India (Tudiscovery, n.d.).The Buddhists don’t revere a man as God or
worship at a god, but follow a system of thought, meditation and exercises based on the
teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha, the Enlightened One) spirit. Buddha wasn’t a god; he
was only a good oriental philosopher. So, Buddhism is the only major religion that not theorizes
about a Creator God or a cult addressed to it
Language and Writing (China Culture)
Like the other manifestations, "Mandarin" Chinese language is the first language spoken
in the world in a number of active speakers. The Chinese language, based on symbols, is one of
the most beautiful dialect and artistic languages on the planet. It gives rise to its geographical,
phonetic, and dialectic variants with more than 55 languages and 2000 dialects. Chinese
characters emerged in pictograms recorded on bones and tortoise shells. This symbols appeared
as simplifications graphs of the environment perceived. Later, inscriptions are produced in stone,
metal, bronze and later began to record in bamboo. The Chinese script has no alphabet, since

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Chinese characters are not formed by letters, but by strokes. Each character corresponds to a
single syllable or a few syllables. The size of these symbols are very important since each
character has to be written within an imaginary picture, which means that depending on the size
of the character, length, position, is the meaning of this. Other important aspects are that the
writing is done in columns, from the top to the bottom, and from left to right. Each symbol refers
to the minimum unit of significance (monema). Currently there are dictionaries of the Chinese
language that contains more than 47000 characters, and according to studies to be able to master
this language need to be tried between three and four thousand characters. As many cultures
China has a beautiful graphic and phonetic, language that allows communication between human
beings. Like other many important discoveries like fire, agriculture, the wheel, writing is one of
the greatest discoveries of the human being.
ART
Art in ancient china had a significant boom in the Tang dynasty, turning to the city in a symbol
of the rise of power. In its temples you will find many architectural styles mainly devoted to
Buddhism, Taoism, and ancestral religions. The funerary art was a feature of Chinese culture
from Neolithic times. The paintings at this time were drawings on lines and landscapes with
flowers and birds, endowed with great vividness and energy. It should be mentioned that there
were lots of skills in the work of mostly silk fabrics. The sculptures of miss began as a majestic
representation on animal funerals and major roads that represented the social strata. To
illuminate the paths of the dead, lamps were placed with different human figures and offerings of
items in jade used to cover body orifices.

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The China that we know today, as we have seen, has developed in many directions in
politics, in art, in writing, in religion, and other different areas. The importance of Chinese
culture in today’s world is still present and dominant in other areas as well like sports (i.e. recent
Chinese Olympics), and global domination of world economic activity. Chinese culture remains
an influence today. To quote former Vice President Dick Cheney, a reporter asked him why the
United States has an economic relationship with China. He replied: “China is the world’s second
largest economy.”

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References
Hutong School Ltd. (2014). http://www.hutong-school.com. Retrieved from http://www.hutong-school.
com/es/sobre-el- idioma-chino
Biblioteca Virtual Suagm. (2014). http://bibliotecavirtualut.suagm.edu/. Retrieved from
http://bibliotecavirtualut.suagm.edu/: http://bibliotecavirtualut.suagm.edu/
Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. . (2014). Retrieved from http://www.britannica.com/
Significados. (2014). http://www.significados.info. Retrieved from http://www.significados.info/
García-Purriños, Tomás V. Sistema Político en China. (2012) Retrieved from
http://www.lavueltaalgrafico.com/2012/10/sistema-politico-en-china.html
Llera Vázquez, Pedro L. Persecuciones. (n.d.). Catholic.net. Retrieved from
http://www.es.catholic.net/escritoresactuales/916/802/articulo.php?id=48484
Mauro. China Antigua. (11-25-2008). Retrieved from
http://historiantigua.obolog.es/china-antigua-164457
Ramos, Marcos Antonio. Nuevo Diccionario de Religiones, Denominaciones y Sectas. (n.d.)
Tudiscovery.China Antigua. (n.d.) Retrieved from
http://www.tudiscovery.com/guia_china/china_religion/china_budismo/