Shang Dynasty (1766 – 1122 B.C.) 2/3

August 31, 2010

The excavations of several rammed earth palace foundations at Xin Xu revealed the Shang Dynasty was a highly developed slave society.

The most valuable discovery was oracle bones, the evidence of China’s earliest writing system.

Tortoise shells, due to their hardness and longevity, were used for the oracle inscriptions.   However, tortoise shells were not the only material.  Animal bones were also inscribed.

The inscriptions carved into bones and tortoise shells were questions to the high God Shang Di, lesser gods and ancestors. 

These questions were on issues that concerned the dynasty such as harvests, childbirth, and from everyday advice to military campaigns.

Oracle bones, also known as dragon bones, were often ground into powder and used in Chinese medicines, which explains why oracle bones were also a myth at one time.

What makes the oracle bones important today is the script carved into the shells or bones—the roots of the Chinese writing system.

The Chinese writing system is the only language that still uses the same methods used more than three thousand years ago. The narrator of the video explains briefly how Chinese characters evolved.

See The Han Dynasty

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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. 

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6 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, cultural differences, history | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Shang Dynasty (1766 – 1122 B.C.) 1/3

August 31, 2010

It is commonly believed that ancient Chinese civilization started with the Hsia Dynasty 5,000 years ago.

However, in archeological terms. Hsia is a myth because no evidence has been found that this dynasty existed.

The Shang Dynasty was also a myth until about a hundred years ago with the discovery of the dynasty’s last capital, Xin Xu.

Xin Xu was the capital for about three hundred years.

Tomb robbers discovered the Shang tombs first.  Although most of the tombs excavated by archeologists had already been looted, the site still provided evidence of Shang culture and rituals.

The narrator of the video takes you on a tour of a Shang tomb. She says it is like a pyramid upside down.

Sacrifice to the gods and ancestors were a major part of Shang social and domestic life.

Bronze artifacts have been unearthed that represent the highest level of technology for the dynasty.

The Shang people used elaborate and dramatic rituals and music was one of the most important elements of ceremony.

Three thousand years ago, the Shang people cooked food in ceramic steamers.

Archeologists have also discovered that the Shang capital had a complex walled city structure.  It even had an underground, piped water supply in some areas.

See Measuring Earthquakes During the Han Dynasty

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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2 Comments | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, history | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Discrimination Against the Chinese in America

August 30, 2010

The first major wave of Chinese immigrants came to the US after the California gold rush of 1849.

Then in 1882, The Chinese Exclusion Act formalized an ugly American prejudice.  In fact, there are still Americans who feel this way evidenced by a few comments left on this Blog. However, we are fortunate that more Americans appear open minded and accepting than those who do not feel that way.

This act stayed in effect de facto until 1965, when racist provisions of U.S. immigration law were removed during the Civil Rights era, liberalizing immigration by all non-European groups.

Most of these Chinese immigrants worked hard in industries like railroads, mines and canneries.  The Chinese were willing to work for lower wages than European immigrants were demanding.

When there were labor strikes, companies often used Chinese workers as strikebreakers.  This led to hate among European immigrants and demands that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese laborers from entering the US.

This was the first time the US passed a law to bar a specific race or ethnicity from entering the country. Source: Tenement Museum

See Cultural Differences and the Ignorant American

_______________

Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

His latest novel is the multiple-award winning Running with the Enemy.

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Sign up for an E-mail Subscription at the top of this page, or click on the “Following” tab in the WordPress toolbar at the top of the screen.

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China’s Holistic Historical Timeline

4 Comments | America, American culture, China, Chinese Culture, cultural differences, history, politics | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by Lloyd Lofthouse

Hsuan-tsang – From China to India for Enlightenment

August 27, 2010

I mentioned Hsuan-tsang (Xuanzang) when I wrote about China’s Three “Journey’s to the West”. However, in that post I did not go into detail about the real Buddhist monk who made the journey.

While doing some research about his life, I discovered an intellectual discussion at Philosophy and Marxism Today.  If this topic interests you and you want to learn more about Buddhism I recommend reading this conversation between Thomas Riggins and Fred.

Thomas starts with, “I’ll start with background based on Chan’s introductory remarks.

“Hsuan-tsang (596-644) was quite a character. He entered a Buddhist monastery when he was thirteen. Then moved around China studying under different masters. Finally, he went off to India to study Buddhism at its source and with Sanskrit masters.

“He spent over ten years in India, wrote a famous book about his journey, and returned to China with over six hundred original manuscripts.

“He spent the rest of his life with a group of translators rendering seventy five of the most important works into Chinese. All of this work was sponsored by the Emperor of the newly established T’ang Dynasty (618 – 906 AD).”

The book I have on Hsuan-tsang says he lived from 602 to 664 AD.

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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. 

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Leave a Comment » | Buddhism, Buddhist, China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, cultural differences, history, India, religion | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
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Train to Tibet

August 26, 2010

Many know Tibet as the Roof of the World. For centuries, Tibet was isolated mostly because it was difficult for anyone to go there—even armies.

In 1903, the British Empire sent an army to Tibet to protect its interests, and it took a year for Sir Francis Younghusband’s invasion force to reach Lhasa in August 1904.

A book was written about that invasion, The British Empire & Tibet 1900-1922. Asian Affairs says, “The great value of Dr. Palace’s study is to highlight the much neglected China angle to the Tibetan issue … [this book is] helping to indicate the very important place of the Tibetan affair in the story of Western imperialism”

Today, the journey to Tibet is not as daunting.  Besides an airport, there is the train to Tibet that leaves Beijing and arrives in Lhasa forty-eight hours later. 

Tourists, both foreign and Chinese, take the train to Tibet to learn more about the people while others stay—changing the demographics.

The train sometimes reaches elevations over 5,000 meters (16,404 feet).

One Western tourist, who had been to Tibet twice, said that the ethnic groups in Tibet are not mixing together. She said there was a Chinese area and another where Tibetans lived.

Makes sense—in American cities emigrants tend to stay close to their kind. In the past, there have been Irish areas, Jewish, German and today there are Vietnamese or Latin or Chinatowns in the U.S.

See Traveling to Tibet

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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.

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1 Comment | China, Chinese Culture, Chinese history, history, politics, Tibet, tourism | Tagged: , , , , , | Permalink
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