The Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD) – Part 2/4

September 24, 2010

During the Sui (589-617) and Tang Dynasties, China went through a period of cultural and spiritual development.

The country’s ethnic groups along with Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism coexisted peacefully with foreign religions such as Islam.

Literature and the arts developed more than before.

The Han Dynasty (206 BC to 219 AD) opened the Silk Road for trade, and the civilizations of Rome, Ancient Egypt, of the Euphrates and Tigris Rivers and India continued trade with the Tang Dynasty.

According to Tang Dynasty records contact was maintained with more than 300 countries and regions across the known world, so the Silk Road was also known as the Envoy Road.

People from countries such as Japan, Korea, and India as well as Tehran came to China.

Many foreigners had positions in the central government of the Tang Dynasty, and they served both as civil officials and military officers.

The Tang Dynasty demonstrated respect for all foreign religions.  During this time, Christianity was introduced to China.

The Imperial family of the Tang Dynasty had been a military family in Northwest China for generations and they made Taoism the national religion.

Laozi, the founder of Taoism, advocated harmony between people and nature, which was reflected in the beliefs of the first rulers of the Tang Dynasty.

Continue with Tang Dynasty – Part 3 or return to The Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD) – Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

To subscribe to “iLook China”, look for the “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar, click on it then follow directions.

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Running toward the Tang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD) – Part 1/4

September 24, 2010

If we were to compare Chinese civilization to an amusement ride, it would be a roller coaster.

As each dynasty ended, there was usually a period of chaos, war and anarchy among rival factions.

After the collapse of China’s last Dynasty, the Qing, between 1911 and 1949, chaos, anarchy, warlords, rebellion and World War II tore at the fabric of China. See The Roots of Madness

Then Communist China was born, which eventually led to China’s Capitalist Revolution.

The Xia Dynasty (about 2205 – 1766 BC) ended with the reign of a tyrannical emperor, who lived an extravagant life. When patriotic ministers attempted giving him good advice, he killed them. Then the people rose in rebellion.

The Shang Dynasty (1766 – 1122 BC) ended in similar circumstances when the last emperor lived a luxurious life and tortured both his ministers and people. Another rebellion led by the chief of the Zhou tribe brought down the Shang.

The Zhou Dynasty (1122 – 221 BC) was divided between the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties, which fell apart during the Spring and Autumn (770 – 475 BC) Period and the Warring States Period (476 – 221 BC) when the Zhou Emperor didn’t have the power to control the nobles, who fought amongst themselves again leading to chaos and anarchy.

The short Qin Dynasty (221 to 207 BC) unified all China ending the Warring States Period.

However, Qin Shi Huangdi, China’s first emperor, was brutal and soon after his death, the Qin Dynasty was swept aside to be replaced by the Han Dynasty.

The Han Dynasty (207 BC to 220 AD) was divided into the Western and Eastern Han. Near the end of the Han, the last two emperors were weak. The rule of law broke down again and life was hard.

The Han ended with another rebellion leading to the Three Kingdom’s Period (220 – 280 AD), which meant more chaos and anarchy before China would be unified again under one emperor.

With the end of the Three Kingdoms Period, the Jin Dynasty (265 – 420 AD) ruled until the final emperors were too weak to control the warlords, which led to chaos and anarchy.

The Jin Dynasty was followed by four successive southern dynasties (420 – 589 AD)  and five northern dynasties (386 – 581 AD) followed by the Sui Dynasty that lasted for 38 years when the last emperor of the Sui yielded the throne to the Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty.

The early Tang emperors built an empire that pushed China’s boundaries to their farthest existence and a culture whose achievements would profoundly influence all Asia.

A thriving economy with complex international ties created one of the richest, strongest and most sophisticated states in world history.

The western capital of Chan-an, which had been the first capital of the Zhou, Qin and Han Dynasties, had a population of a million inside the city walls.

Continued in the Tang Dynasty – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Two Republics – Part 4/4

September 24, 2010

Mao Zedong ruled China from 1949 to 1976 when he died.  For a brief period between the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, Mao was forced to retire.  However, when he launched the Cultural Revolution, the people of China returned Mao to power.

Today, China has a one party system and there is a “small” body of citizens entitled to vote for the top leaders who then rule China. 

China has a Constitution but the language of that Constitution is different from the Constitution of the United States and that Constitution is still being Amended as in the U.S.

China does not have a monarch or a hereditary head of state. The fact that China has both term and  an age limit for holding political positions in the government is proof that China is not a dictatorship, which is a popular opinion held around the world.

Under Mao, who ruled for 27 years and who was known by some as “China’s Modern Emperor”, it would be safe to say a dictator ruled China.

Many may not agree with China’s legal system or laws, but that legal system and those laws were written and adopted by the elected representatives who rule China – not by a dictator or a monarch and they are still subject to change through future amendments as is the United States.

The United States and China are both Republics, and the evidence suggests that China is modeling their Republic after America, but  with a Constitution to fit Chinese culture as the elected leaders of China interpret the document that is China’s law of the land.

Dr. Sun Yat-Sen – China’s Democratic Revolutionary wrote that he wanted to model China’s government after America but by combining Western thought with Chinese tradition.

It appears that is exactly what is happening.

If America had more than two centuries to amend the U.S. Constitution, what will China’s Constitution look like one-hundred-and-seventy-two years from now?

What if China is the real republic transitioning from a socialist state while the US was becoming a socialist democracy.

Return to Two Republics – Part 3

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too.

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Two Republics – Part 3/4

September 23, 2010

In Part 2, we learned what being a Republic means, which proved that for decades, China has been a Republic.

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of China was adopted on December 4, 1982 and has been amended four times.

The first Amendment to China’s Constitution was approved on April 12, 1988. The second was approved on March 29, 1993. The third was approved on March 15, 1999, and the fourth on March 14, 2004. Source: People Daily.com

In comparison, The First Amendment to the United States Constitution was The Bill of Rights (Amendments 1 to 10), and it was ratified by three-fourths of the States on December 15, 1791.

In fact, there have been over 10,000 constitutional amendments introduced in Congress since 1789.

However, only twenty-six have been approved.

The Eleventh Amendment was approved in 1795.

The last Amendment, which limits congressional pay raises, was approved in 1992. Source: Wikipedia.org

It took the United States more than two centuries to amend the Constitution of the United States to the rule of law that guides America today.  China has only had a Constitution for twenty-eight years between 1982 and 2010.

Return to Two Republics – Part 2

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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Two Republics – Part 2/4

September 23, 2010

Soon after the Revolution and the formation of the United States of America “white, male property owners twenty-one or older could vote. Some colonists not only accepted these restrictions but also opposed broadening the franchise.”

Duke University professor Alexander Keyssar wrote in The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States: “At its birth, the United States was not a democratic nation—far from it. The very word “democracy” had pejorative overtones, summoning up images of disorder, government by the unfit, even mob rule. In practice, moreover, relatively few of the nation’s inhabitants were able to participate in elections: among the excluded were most African Americans, Native Americans, women, men who had not attained their majority, and white males who did not own land.”  Source: Voting in Early America

Correct me if I’m wrong, but nowhere in Article 1 of the Constitution of the United States, which is about “The Legislative Branch”, does it say that the Republic requires more than one political party to compete for “The Legislature” and “The House”. Source: USConstitution.net/Article 1

This means that political parties like the Republican and Democratic Parties in the United States do not have to exist for the United States to be a Republic.

In fact, the U.S. could have one political party as China does and still be a Republic.

Return to Two Republics – Part 1

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

If you want to subscribe to iLook China, there is a “Subscribe” button at the top of the screen in the menu bar.

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