Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Byzantine Empire

2007-07-16T03:13:38Z

Adndikdld:

The '''Byzantine Empire''' is the name given to the eastern part of the [[Roman Empire]], which survived until well into the [[Middle Ages]]. First split into an Eastern and Western divisions by [[Constantine]] in the 300s A.D., the Eastern Empire went on to outlive its Western half by 1000 years. The empire was multi-ethnic and predominantly Greek-speaking. The empire's heritage consisted of the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]], [[Greek]] philosophy, and Roman law.

The empire's history was extremely violent as it was often at war with at least one foreign power. As a result, its borders fluctuated greatly over time, but it was always centered in [[Constantinople]]. While taking on offensive position to "reunite" with the west under Justinian in the 500's, for the most part the positiion of the Empire was defensive in nature, having little desire to increase its borders. For years the cultured Byzantine Empire was the protector of Dark Age Europe, repelling Islamic armies that would stretch to control lands from Morocco to India. An important element in Byzantine survival was Greek Fire, a substance that could burn even in water and was a terror to enemy fleets. The contents were such a carefully guarded secret that to this day they are unknown. Another factor was that the Byzantines were the only European power during the Dark Ages to have a large, powerful, advanced army headed by brilliant commanders.

In 1453, the capital of the Byzantine Empire fell to the [[Ottoman Turks]] after a long cannon bombardament at a time when the Empire had been reduced to a mere shell of its former self. The conquerors renamed the city [[Istanbul]].

[[Category:European History]][[Category:Roman Empire]]

Byzantine Empire

2007-07-16T03:13:31Z

Adndikdld:

Mauryan Empire

2007-07-16T03:11:57Z

Adndikdld:

Empire of [[India]] founded by [[Chandragupta Maurya]]. [[Ashoka]], the advocate of Buddhism, was the third emperor of this dynasty.

[[Image:Mauryan-empire-map.gif]]

Mauryan Empire

2007-07-16T03:11:02Z

Adndikdld:

Empire of [[India]] founded by [[Chandragupta Maurya]]. [[Ashoka]], the advocate of Buddhism, was the third emperor of this dynasty.

[[Image:Mauryan-empire-map.gif]]

Shang Dynasty

2007-07-16T03:05:03Z

Adndikdld:

The '''Shang dynasty''' was a major ancient [[Chinese]] [[dynasty]] from about 1766 to 1122 BC.

The Shang dynasty built cities in northern China along the [[Yellow River]] and is sometimes called the Yellow River Civilization. The Shang empire consisted of [[city-states]] which were often at war with one another, and the capital city shifted as power changed hands.

The Shang dynasty had writing in the form of [[oracle bones]], questions and answers inscribed on a bone for the purposes of divination. These have been translated to the extent that they can be, and provide quite vivid accounts of Shang life and culture, although they record mostly the upper echelons of society, and some scholars believe that only the positive results of the divinations were recorded or kept - some use the evidence of the birth of the daughter of Lady Hao as evidence against, as the inscription reads "...on day 51, she gave birth. It really was not good. It was a girl" (having previously predicted that it would be a good birth - it would be "prolonged auspiciousness"). They used a pictographic form of writing from which modern Chinese writing is descended. In the later part of the dynasty, early printing presses were used more widely than oracle bones for record keeping, although oracle bones were still used for religious purposes.

The wheel was perfected by the Shang dynasty and used in chariots, some of which have been discovered at Anyang, near the site of the largest Shang cultural centre.

The Shang dynasty ended in 1122 BC and was replaced by the [[Zhou dynasty]], a dynasty of which scholars have much more accurate records, and which represents a flowering of Chinese culture and thought, even as the dynasty collapsed in the [[Spring and Autumn]] (春秋) and [[Warring States]] (战国） periods.

[[Category:Chinese History]]
[[Category:China]]
[[Category:Chinese dynasties]]

Shang Dynasty

2007-07-16T03:02:46Z

Adndikdld: Removed information that could be dubious and not referenced

Tang Dynasty

2007-07-16T03:01:32Z

Adndikdld: BTW, the information is incorrect. Li Yuan's ancestor is the founder of Western Liang Dynasty, Li Gao. The Tuoba clan of the Xianbei people (proto-mongol) founded the Northern Wei. Don't mix them.

The '''Tang dynasty''' ruled for nearly 300 years, from A.D. 618 to 907. This is known as the golden age of art and poetry in [[China]]. New territories were acquired, including Manchuria, Tibet, and northern Vietnam. This territory drew wealth from surrounding states through a ritualistic ''kowtow'', such that diplomats from surrounding states were expected to pay homage to the emperor by touching their forehead repeatedly to the ground beneath the emperor. The Tang dynasty accumulated vast wealth for China during this period.

Many roads were built at that time, along with inns, post offices and stables for the horses of travelers. The roads were used for trade and communication in a manner similar to the [[Persian Royal Road]] and the roads of the [[Roman empire]]. Foreign music, religion (Buddhism, primarily), clothes and even languages became popular in China at this time. Importantly, everything in the big cities of China at this time was somewhat state-controlled; curfews were imposed on the citizens, trade was conducted in government approved situations, using government-approved measures and weights.

One of the most prominent figures of the Tang dynasty was a general known as An Lushan - his name indicates that he was a Soghdian ("An" indicates his place of origin), and that his given name in Soghdia was "Rokhan", the male form of Roxanna, the name of Alexander the Great's wife. An Lushan is famous for the [[An Shi Rebellion]]; the most favoured [[concubine]] of the Tang Xuanzong Emperor, Yang Guifei, was in love with Lushan, and betrayed the Emperor by recommending Lushan to high military command. Lushan's troops entered Chang'an in 755 and forced the emperor on the run into [[Sichuan province]] with Guifei in tow. She was executed by Xuanzong's troops in 756 whilst on the run, as she was blamed for the rebellion. On reclaiming control of the Chinese state, Xuanzong wrote of his sorrow at her death in a famous poem; and the Tang state never regained the supremacy it had once had. Culturally, the late Tang was quite inferior to the high Tang period, although the fashions for foreign clothes and music remained the same. The curfews put in place were violated frequently, the weights and measures became forged and improperly regulated. Tax registers, an important method of adjusting tax so as to remain fair, but also to keep track of the population, were no longer kept up to date, as they had been every few years in the high Tang. The breakdown of the Tang took quite a while longer - from 756 to 907, government control was extremely lax, rebellions were reasonably frequent, and tax returns became less and less. The Li family was only nominally in charge.

The most powerful ruler during the Tang dynasty was [[Tang Taichung]] (A.D. 627-649). He gained power by killing his opponents, but then ruled in a benevolent or fair manner, keeping taxes low.

Government offices were filled with the Confucian civil service system that valued education. The three requirements were to learn the writings of Confucius, study the Chinese classics, and pass the civil service exam. Land was distributed based on fertility of the soil and the needs of the farmers, but eventually powerful families and Buddhist monasteries gained control of much of the land.

The Tang dynasty period was also a period of massive Chinese influence on Japan. The popular wrestling style of xiangpu developed in Japanese [[sumo]], Chinese musical instruments of the period became the Japanese shamisen and koto, and Chinese classics and interpretations of the classics of the Tang became the official standards in Japanese society. Similarly, the Chinese forms of Buddhism developing in this period - notably, chan, or, in Japanese, Zen, which came from a fusion of Daoist ideas and Buddhist ones in court-sponsored debates - became the more popular forms of Buddhism in Japan. "Karate", as well, originally used the Chinese characters for "Tang hand" (it was changed in the 1930s to mean "empty hand", both "Tang" and "empty" being homophones in modern Japanese in that context), implying not necessarily that Karate developed from Tang-era Chinese martial arts, but that it developed from Chinese martial arts at a later stage and that the word "Tang" was simply a common term when referring to China as a whole.

Ultimately the peasants rebelled over the misuse of funds by the government. In A.D. 907 the last Tang emperor gave up. Regional rule by warlords then prevailed over China for more than 50 years, in a period known as the [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/World_History_Lecture_Seven</ref> Unification by the first Song emperor came in 960 AD.

==References==
<references/>
[[Category:Chinese History]]
[[Category:Chinese dynasties]]

Tang Dynasty

2007-07-16T02:51:47Z

Adndikdld: Removed informations that are neither found in major reference works (Britannica, Columbia Encyclopedia...) or any other scholarly references.

The '''Tang dynasty''' ruled for nearly 300 years, from A.D. 618 to 907. This is known as the golden age of art and poetry in [[China]]. New territories were acquired, including Manchuria, Tibet, and northern Vietnam. This territory drew wealth from surrounding states through a ritualistic ''kowtow'', such that diplomats from surrounding states were expected to pay homage to the emperor by touching their forehead repeatedly to the ground beneath the emperor. The Tang dynasty accumulated vast wealth for China during this period.

Many roads were built at that time, along with inns, post offices and stables for the horses of travelers. The roads were used for trade and communication in a manner similar to the [[Persian Royal Road]] and the roads of the [[Roman empire]], and trade in the Tang was quite a large part of life - it is estimated that over 1/3 of all inhabitants of Chang'an, the Tang capital, now Xi'an, were non-Han merchants, and mosques and even [[Nestorian]] churches were built in the city. Foreign music, religion (Buddhism, primarily), clothes and even languages became popular in China at this time. Importantly, everything in the big cities of China at this time was somewhat state-controlled; curfews were imposed on the citizens, trade was conducted in government approved situations, using government-approved measures and weights.

One of the most prominent figures of the Tang dynasty was a Turkic general known as An Lushan - his name indicates that he was a Soghdian ("An" indicates his place of origin), and that his given name in Soghdia was "Rokhan", the male form of Roxanna, the name of Alexander the Great's wife. An Lushan is famous for the [[An Shi Rebellion]]; the most favoured [[concubine]] of the Tang Xuanzong Emperor, Yang Guifei, was in love with Lushan, and betrayed the Emperor by recommending Lushan to high military command. Lushan's troops entered Chang'an in 755 and forced the emperor on the run into [[Sichuan province]] with Guifei in tow. She was executed by Xuanzong's troops in 756 whilst on the run, as she was blamed for the rebellion. On reclaiming control of the Chinese state, Xuanzong wrote of his sorrow at her death in a famous poem; and the Tang state never regained the supremacy it had once had. Culturally, the late Tang was quite inferior to the high Tang period, although the fashions for foreign clothes and music remained the same. The curfews put in place were violated frequently, the weights and measures became forged and improperly regulated. Tax registers, an important method of adjusting tax so as to remain fair, but also to keep track of the population, were no longer kept up to date, as they had been every few years in the high Tang. The breakdown of the Tang took quite a while longer - from 756 to 907, government control was extremely lax, rebellions were reasonably frequent, and tax returns became less and less. The Li family was only nominally in charge.

The most powerful ruler during the Tang dynasty was [[Tang Taichung]] (A.D. 627-649). He gained power by killing his opponents, but then ruled in a benevolent or fair manner, keeping taxes low.

Government offices were filled with the Confucian civil service system that valued education. The three requirements were to learn the writings of Confucius, study the Chinese classics, and pass the civil service exam. Land was distributed based on fertility of the soil and the needs of the farmers, but eventually powerful families and Buddhist monasteries gained control of much of the land.

The Tang dynasty period was also a period of massive Chinese influence on Japan. The popular wrestling style of xiangpu developed in Japanese [[sumo]], Chinese musical instruments of the period became the Japanese shamisen and koto, and Chinese classics and interpretations of the classics of the Tang became the official standards in Japanese society. Similarly, the Chinese forms of Buddhism developing in this period - notably, chan, or, in Japanese, Zen, which came from a fusion of Daoist ideas and Buddhist ones in court-sponsored debates - became the more popular forms of Buddhism in Japan. "Karate", as well, originally used the Chinese characters for "Tang hand" (it was changed in the 1930s to mean "empty hand", both "Tang" and "empty" being homophones in modern Japanese in that context), implying not necessarily that Karate developed from Tang-era Chinese martial arts, but that it developed from Chinese martial arts at a later stage and that the word "Tang" was simply a common term when referring to China as a whole.

Ultimately the peasants rebelled over the misuse of funds by the government. In A.D. 907 the last Tang emperor gave up. Regional rule by warlords then prevailed over China for more than 50 years, in a period known as the [[Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms]].<ref>http://www.conservapedia.com/World_History_Lecture_Seven</ref> Unification by the first Song emperor came in 960 AD.

==References==

<references/>
[[Category:Chinese History]]
[[Category:Chinese dynasties]]