Questions tagged [ancient-china]
Ancient China refers to the oldest period in Chinese history, prior to unification under the Qin Dynasty (221 B.C.) and the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. – A.D. 220).
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Does Chinese history really span the past 5000 years?
Chinese kids the world over are frequently taught that there is "5000 years of Chinese history". What basis is there for this claim?
user3521
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Did Chinese Hundred Schools of Thought influence Ancient Greek Philosophy?
As a beginning student of Chinese I am also learning a bit more about Chinese history. As such I am more and more impressed by the quality of thought that has been left behind by Chinese philosophers ...
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Why does the Great Wall of China follow such a bendy route?
Why does the path of the Great Wall of China bend back and forth so much? Naïvely, it would have taken less material and guards to defend if it had taken a straighter path, so there must have been ...
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Why did non-monarchic rule meet with so little success in ancient China?
In the ancient world, the states around the Mediterranean were ruled by various forms of monarchy, aristocracy and democracy, each of which had varying levels of success. Meanwhile, in China, monarchy ...
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Song school vs. Han school of Confucian thought in the Qing dynasty
The Song school eventually prevailed due to favor from the Qing emperor and also because some Han texts were determined to be not genuine by scholars of the time.
My question is, were the scholars ...
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Are fiefdoms near the Capital assigned to trusted allies or the opposite, and why?
Our professor of Chinese History (in a document you can't access without a university account) when talking about feudal age China (before 221 BCE) makes a passing remark. She says in Ancient China ...
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The history of toys: Who invented the first porcelain dolls?
I've been reading about the history of toys online, as part of a personal project. One thing that surprised me was that every article I've found lists porcelain toys as having been invented by ...
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Did Chinese emperors wear a rectangular hat with suspended gems?
The mythical Jade Emperor is sometimes depicted as wearing a mortarboard hat with strings of jewels suspended from its edges:
According to Shen Yun's post:
Hanging from the front and back of the ...
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When did Northern India and N. China begin to dominate in global demographics?
Video: Human Population Through Time
This simple video says that there were 170 million people in the world at the beginning of the current era. Each dot represents a million people -there are about ...
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What was the standard spoken language (dialect) in the Three Kingdoms period?
Mandarin is the standard spoken language (dialect) in today's China, meaning distinct regions may have their own dialect, but they can all use Mandarin to communicate with each other.
Since all ...
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What is the historical evidence for asserting Huns were one and the same as Xiongnu?
This question is very close to a previous question, Who were the Huns and/or Xiongnu?, but I hope it is clear that I'm not asking the same point.
In fact, I'm asking about the common assumption such ...
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How historical are early Chinese (Shang dynasty and earlier) dynastic records?
Early Chinese dynastic records look like actual history in some places (in particular the exact dating of reigns, back to and including the Yellow Emperor). Elsewhere, there is clearly a lot of myth ...
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What was the de facto rule by which the imperial title was transmitted in various Chinese dynasties?
I seek to find information about which rules or trends - if any - applied in Chinese imperial succession during different dynasties.
I found this source, but I can’t get access and what I see in the ...
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What are the best resources for studying oracle bone inscriptions?
Can someone please recommend the best resources for studying Chinese oracle bone inscriptions?
Rather than general or specific information about oracle bones, I'm looking for collections or catalogs ...
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Is there any idea of why Cao Cao's parents would give him a nearly identical name to the family name?
I've been doing a lot of reading up about the Three Kingdoms era of China, and Cao Cao stuck out to me as an interesting name. After some research I found that the words in Chinese are different, and ...
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What are the oldest primary sources of recorded history in China?
There is for instance Sima Qian, according to Wikipedia the first Chinese historian, who wrote the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) in 109 BCE.
But does this primary source still exist, or do ...
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Where is an image of the oracle bone that describes the nova?
(Related to my previous question)
Does anyone have a link to an image of the oracle bone that has this specific inscription:
The inscriptions include the oldest observation of a nova (1300BCE) ‘A ...
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Why did emperors of India and China have so many mistresses?
Some Indian and Chinese emperors had more than 50 mistresses. Wasn't it difficult to please so many women and maintain peace among them? What caused them to have so many women?
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