So, you found my ancestors? Are you sure this time? epsos There has been much debate about how cats went from hunting in the wild to a much-loved pet. By Akshat Rathi / 12.16.2013 Former Science and Data Editor The Conversation There has been much debate about how cats went from hunting in the wild to a much-loved pet. That is because[…]
Ancient Chinese golf / Creative Commons The traditional culture not only influences the life of modern people, but also promotes the sports undertakings in China. By Dr. Jianqiang Guo and Dr. Rong Li / 10.12.2017 School of Physical Education Changzhou University Abstract The traditional culture not only influences the life of modern people, but also promotes[…]
Downtown Tokyo in the 1920s / Creative Commons During the 1920s, Soviet cultural authorities sought to develop a new, post-imperialist literature that would acknowledge a “new East”. By Dr. Katerina Clark Professor of :Comparative Literature and of Slavic Languages and Literatures Yale University Abstract Sergei Tretiakov (left) and Boris Pilniak (right) / Public Domain During[…]
Nanjing Jinling Arsenal 1865, built by Li Hongzhang / Wikimedia Commons In the 19th century, after a long period of isolationism, China and then Japan came under pressure from the West to open to foreign trade and relations. By Giulia Valentini / 12.2012 Contracts and Administrative Assistant European Climate Foundation In the 19th century, after a long[…]
Several of the newly identified stone tools – unearthed from a museum collection. Hu Yue A fresh look at museum artifacts fills in a gap in the Asian archaeological record and refutes the idea that an advanced technique was imported from the West by early modern humans. By (left-to-right): Dr. Ben Marwick, Dr. Bo Li, and Hu Yue /[…]
Chinese stamps commemorating Deng Xiaoping, a leader widely regarded to have modernized the country and made it a formidable economic power, 1998. Shutterstock China is one of the world’s largest economies, and Deng Xiaoping was arguably the man who made that happen through his visions of economic reform. By Dr. James Laurenceson / 10.07.2018 Deputy Director and Professor Australia-China[…]
This elaborate set of ritual bronzes, consisting of an altar table and thirteen wine vessels, illustrates the splendor of China’s Bronze Age at its peak. Shang dynasty–Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 B.C.). / Metropolitan Museum of Art China witnessed a sudden surge in mining, smelting, refining, and casting after a lengthy period of incipient development. By Dr. Ralph[…]
Ladies of a Mandarin’s family at cards, by Thomas Allom (1843) / Wikimedia Commons The emergence of nature tourism in early medieval China can be attributed to four major factors. By Dr. Libo Yan / 06.25.2018 Associate Professor Macau University of Science and Technology Introduction The origins of tourism have been a fascinating area for[…]
This article provides a clue on China’s criminal policy on lenient punishments in history, including the Confucianization of law and the alternatives to punishments in imperial era, the attack on Confucianism and the praise of the legalism in Mao era, and the shifts of criminal policy since reform and opening up, which may shed light[…]
Neolithic Banpo Village, Xi’an, China, flourished 5,000-3,000 BCE. / Photo by Ian Armstrong, Flickr, Creative Commons Chinese culture is one of the oldest in the world today. Over 6,000 years ago this culture began to develop in the Yellow River Valley and many of those ancient practices are still observed in the present. By Emily[…]
Handscroll, ink and color on silk, 24.4 x 343.8 cm / British Library Exploring some of the theories that arose in classical China concerning the ways in which normativity could be construed in ritual terms. By Dr. Michael Pruett / 09.19.2015 Walter C. Klein Professor of Chinese History and Anthropology Harvard University Introduction The goal[…]
The Japanese Tea Ceremony / Photo by mrhayata, Creative Commons Tea was first drunk by Chinese monks to aid meditation and those who valued its medicinal qualities. By Mark Cartwright / 07.10.2017 Historian Introduction Tea, still probably the world’s most popular prepared beverage, was first drunk by Chinese monks to aid meditation and those who[…]
Scene from the Song Dynasty Illustrations of the Classic of Filial Piety, depicting a son kneeling before his parents. / National Palace Museum, Wikimedia Commons Filial piety is a typical feature of Chinese civilization. By Dr. Miao Chungang China University of Political Science and Law Abstract Filial piety is a typical feature of Chinese civilization.[…]
The Mongol Empire expanded through brutal raids and invasions, but also established routes of trade and technology between East and West. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 08.29.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Rise of the Mongol Empire The Mongol Empire: Expansion of the Mongol empire from 1206 CE-1294 CE During Europe’s High Middle Ages the Mongol[…]
Luoyang longmen grottoes / Photo by Tgasrio, Wikimedia Commons Examining the Tang, Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 08.23.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief The Tang Dynasty, 618-907 CE Rise of the Tang Dynasty The Tang dynasty, generally regarded as a golden age of Chinese culture, was founded by the Lǐ family,[…]
The Great Wall of China / Photo by Jakub Halun, Wikimedia Commons The concepts and technology of defensive fortifications fitfully but continually evolved. By Dr. Ralph D. Sawyer Senior Research Fellow University of Massachusetts The Fortifications LONG VIRTUALLY DEFINED by the mythic aspects of its Great Wall, China’s tradition of wall building far exceeds the most exaggerated[…]
King Zhu of the Shang Dynasty Lights the Signal Beacons, a Perspective Picture / Museum of Fine Arts Boston Archaeological discoveries over the past several decades have suddenly infused life into previously shadowy remnants of ancient Chinese civilization. By Dr. Ralph D. Sawyer Senior Research Fellow University of Massachusetts Introduction When warriors battle over territory,[…]
Great Wall illustration from French translation of an 1843 book by Thomas Allorn / Wikimedia Commons Major Stone Age farming cultures had grown up in China since the 7th millennium BCE. Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 07.30.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief Timeline of Ancient Chinese History 1766 BCE: traditional date for the founding of the first[…]
The Great Wall of China, built 221 BCE-1664 CE. / Photo by Emily Mark, Creative Commons Mark of national pride, failure as originally intended. By Emily Mark / 08.22.2015 Historian The Great Wall of China is a barrier fortification in northern China running west-to-east 13,171 miles (21,196 km) from the Jiayuguan Pass (in the west) to the Hushan Mountains in[…]
East Roman Empire, 6th century CE, showing the territories of the Avars, Goths, Franks, Lombards, Saxons, Thuringians, Slavs. / Image by William R. Shepherd, Wikimedia Commons The Avars were a confederation of heterogeneous people consisting of Rouran, Hephthalites, and Turkic-Oghuric races who migrated to the region of the Pontic Grass Steppe (an area corresponding to modern-day Ukraine. By Dr. Joshua J. Mark / 12.17.2014[…]
Detail of the central embroidery work of a woman’s summer robe, c1875–1900. / Wikimedia Commons In China, as in much of the preindustrial world, women carried out most of the textile production. By Dr. Melanie Meng Xue / 06.27.2018 Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Economics Center for Economic History Northwestern University, Illinois Many societies suffer from the[…]
Tang and Shakespeare’s dramas are being blended together in a series of adaptions. Performance Infinity, Author provided Shakespeare was not the only famous dramatist to die in 1616. On the other side of theworld, in China, another theatrical legend was laid to rest. By Dr. Mary Mazzilli / 07.21.2016 Lecture in Theatre and Performance Goldsmiths, University of London In his 400th anniversary year, Shakespeare is still rightly celebrated as[…]
Armorial screen Qing dynasty, 1720–1730, Artists from Guangzhou (Canton), Guangdong province, China / Peabody Essex Museum via Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Susan Fernsebner Professor of Modern Chinese History University of Mary Washington An exploration of primary sources on childhood in late imperial China (framed broadly as the Song through Qing dynasties, ca. 960-1911 CE) offers a[…]
Damen bearbeiten neue Seide, by Meister nach Chang Hsüan / The Yorck Project via Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Anne Kinney Professor of East Asian Languages, Literature and Cultures University of Virginia The unprecedented interest in the child who assumed unique importance in the Han period was set into motion by a convergence of historically-specific conditions: (1)[…]
Curioso/Shutterstock The story of the silk road, ancient or modern, is as much the story of the sea as the dunes. By Dr. David Abulafia / 10.02.2017 Professor of Mediterranean History University of Cambridge Few images are more enduring in the historical imagination than the train of two-humped Bactrian camels plodding across desert sands from west[…]
No go zone. pixelflake/Flickr, CC BY-SA Explore the hidden origins of one of China’s most significant historic sites. By Jonathan Dugdale / 06.09.2017 PhD Candidate in Medieval History University of Birmingham An ancient site rooted in the heart of modern Beijing, the Forbidden City is one of China’s most famous attractions. Completed in 1420, the city served as the palace of Ming Dynasty emperor, Yongle.[…]
Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 04.05.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief 1 – The Middle Kingdom 1.1 – Overview: Art in China The art of China, once known as the Middle Kingdom, arguably has the oldest continuous tradition in the world. In China, the group of states in the central plain was commonly called Zhōngguó (中)[…]
Edited by Matthew A. McIntosh / 02.23.2018 Historian Brewminate Editor-in-Chief 1 – The Mythical Period 1.1 – Introduction 1.1.1 – Overview Early prehistoric China is called the “Mythical Period.” It encompassed the legends of Pangu, and the rule of the Three Sovereigns, and the Five Emperors. The period ended when the last Emperor, Shun, left[…]
Terracotta Army detail, Xi’an, China / Photo by Peter Morgan, Wikimedia Commons By Dr. Rolando Minuti / 05.03.2012 Fernand Braudel Fellow, Professor of History European University Institute Abstract The concept of Oriental Despotism has shaped the European interpretation and representation of Asiatic governments and societies for many centuries. Its origins can be found in Aristotelian[…]
These “oracle bone” fragments, some of which show an ancient Chinese script, are housed at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto. The pieces here are just a tiny fraction of the many thousands discovered thus far at a single site in China.Xinhua/Alamy Photos The bones of 3,000-year-old sacrificial victims in China are revealing unexpected new[…]