| China is one of the areas where civilizationdeveloped earliest. It has a recorded history of nearly 5,000 years. More than a million years ago, primitive humanbeings lived on the land now called China. About 400,000 to 500,000 yearsago, the Peking Man, a primitive man that lived in Zhoukoudian southwestof Beijing, was able to walk with the body erect, to make and use simpletools, and use fire. Six to seven thousand years ago, the people livingin the Yellow River valley supported themselves primarily with agriculture,while also raising livestock. More than 3,000 years ago these people begansmelting bronze and using ironware.
In 221 B.C., Qin Shi Huang, the first emperorof the Qin Dynasty, established a centralized, unified, multi-nationalfeudal state. This period of feudal society continued until after the OpiumWar in 1840. During these 2,000 years, China's economy and culture continuedto develop, bequeathing a rich heritage of science and technology, literatureand the arts. The four great inventions of ancient China - paper-making,printing, the compass and gunpowder - have proved an enormous contributionto world civilization. Chinese civilization peaked at Tang Dynasty(618-907) when Tang people traded with people all over the world. Thisis why Chinese residing overseas often call themselves Tang Ren, or thePeople of Tang. In 1840, anxious to continue its opium tradein China, Britain started the Opium War against China. After the war, thebig foreign powers forcibly occupied "concessions" and divided China into"spheres of influence"; thus, China was transformed into a semi-colonial,semi-feudal society. In 1911, the bourgeois democratic revolution(the Xinhai Revolution) led by Sun Yat-sen abolished the feudal monarchy,and established the Republic of China, therefore starting the modern historyof China. In 1949, Chinese Communist Party establishedthe People's Republic of China, driving Kumingtang Party to Taiwan Island. In 1978, China adopted the Open Door policy,ending the 5000 thousand's history of self seclusion. |
InChina, slave society began around the 21st century B.C. Over the next 1,700years, agriculture and animal husbandry developed greatly and the skillsof silkworm-raising, raw-silk reeling and silk-weaving spread widely. Bronzesmelting and casting skills reached a relatively high level, and iron smeltingbecame increasingly sophisticated. The Chinese culture flourished, as agreat number of thinkers and philosophers emerged, most famously Confucius.