Genie of my lamp @patriamreminisci posted an article titled Let's Dispense With this "China Is 5,000 Years Old" Myth, Shall We?
My Country's Older Than Yours
I mentioned above that if one takes the Xia Dynasty to be the genesis of Chinese civilization, then this makes China roughly 4,000 years old. This, as Lum points out, makes China much younger than Mesopotamia or ancient Egypt (p. 16). Basically, in the 1990's, Chinese head-of-state Jiang Zemin went on a state visit to Egypt and someone casually mentioned "hey, here's a country that can lay claim to an older civilization than yours," and the Chinese (who, after all, absolutely MUST be the superlative in all things) immediately and arbitrarily decided to add a millennium to their country's age (Chu, p. 25), and as it is apparently essential in China's eyes for the world to believe this fish-story, they have taken care to repeat it ad nauseum.
I agree with @ patriamreminisci's claim.
The modern Chinese government denies that Chinese civilization was born 2000 years later, compared to ancient Orient civilization.
The historical fact that Chinese civilization, the center of the world, was born later than other civilizations could not be admitted.I'm not good at English, but @patriamreminisci seems to argue that China's age is about 2000, similar to the Roman Empire.
Fun Fact: China has Almost Never Actually Been Called "China."
One of the biggest surprises for early students of Mandarin (or expats struggling to get a survival grasp on the language) is that no word even vaguely resembling "China" has ever existed in the Mandarin Language. The Mandarin word for the country, at least in its shortened form, is Zhong Guo (中国), which literally translates as "Central Nation," though the Chinese like to dress it up in a more palatable Tolkien-esque style as "Middle Kingdom" for Western listeners, and it is also worthy of note that this term never existed as a name prior to Sun Zhongshan's 1911 revolution. Prior to that, the nation we call "China" never even had a name other than the name of the ruling Dynasty, a fact much lamented by the 19th century reformer Liang QiChao (Lee, p. 46). Since the 1911 revolution was not only the first official use of the country's current name, but also a paradigm shift in its mode of government (from an imperial monarchy to at-least-nominally a republic), one might make a case for this being the beginning of "China as we know it," making the country a spry 108 years old, but considering that there was very little cultural discontinuity between pre-1911 and post-1911, that seems a bridge too far.
However, an examination of where the Western name "China" came from does give us some clues as to the country's actual genesis.
From about 475 B.C to 271 B.C., during what is known as the "Warring States Period (Metropolitan Museum of Art)," the plains of what is today called "China" were home to a collection of warring kingdoms that had nothing in common except the Han ethnicity and languages which were all derived from the same cave-drawings (Han J., p. 15 - 21). These kingdoms had different customs, laws, languages (2), religions and ways of life, and completely separate political agendas (Cao, 55). They even -quite frequently-fought wars against one another. Essentially, think of the Greek City-States, except more separate since the Greek city-states all spoke the same language and had the same pantheon of gods.
There was no country named China as @patriamreminisci claims. Only the dynasties'names that ruled China became the name of the country. The name of modern China was born after The Xinhai Revolution (Chinese: Chinese; pinyin: Xīnhài Gémìng) in 1911.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinhai_Revolution
However, with the birth of the first nationalist state in England, nationalism was prevalent all over the world.
With the collapse of feudalism in Europe and the emergence of nationalist countries, European empires began to conquer abroad.As @patriamreminisci claims, China before the 20th century was a system under which the kings ruled the feudal kingdoms under the emperor. China was similar to the Holy Roman Empire in medieval Europe.
As Europe developed through nationalism into a powerful unified empire, European empires began to conquer abroad.
Japan imitated European empires, and after creating Japanese nationalism, it transformed from a feudal state to a unified empire.
The Japanese Empire felt fear and anger in the strength of the American Empire that emerged beyond the Pacific Ocean.
The Qing Dynasty in China was plagued by the invasion of European empires, but by offering tribute to European empires, the Qing dynasty remained in power.
However, since the Joseon Dynasty on the Korean Peninsula was poor, the European Empire ignored it.
Japan was an island country far away from China, so it was possible to escape the invasion of European empires.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perry_Expedition
However, Japan was frightened by the invasion of the giant America, which appeared beyond the Pacific Ocean.
European empires, the British Empire and Russia are poor countries and cannot conquer Japan.
However, the United States was a very wealthy empire that dominated the entire new continent.
The Japanese realized that the United States possessed territories and wealth so vast that it was incomparable to Europe.
Europeans simply robbed slaves, territories, money and resources from East Asia.
However, the United States sent missionaries to East Asia to build churches, schools, and hospitals for Christian mission.
The Japanese were convinced that the United States would destroy Japan's indigenous faith, religion, and culture through Christian mission.
Christian Empire The United States uses Christianity to make Japanese slaves for the United States.
In the end, the United States has ambitions to conquer all of East Asia.
Japan, who came to this conclusion, made the Japanese emperor a human god in order to fight against American Christianity.
When Americans believe in Jesus as God, Japanese people must believe in Japanese emperor as God.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_Shinto
The Meiji Restoration reasserted the importance of the Emperor and the ancient chronicles to establish the Empire of Japan, and in 1868 the government attempted to recreate the ancient imperial Shinto by separating shrines from the temples that housed them. During this period, numerous scholars of kokugaku believed that this national Shinto could be the unifying agent of the country around the Emperor while the process of modernization was undertaken with all possible speed. The psychological shock of the Western "Black Ships" and the subsequent collapse of the shogunate convinced many that the nation needed to unify in order to resist being colonized by outside forces.
The Japanese empire believed that conquering China would make it an equal empire with the United States.
So, first Japan invaded Korea. When Korea was conquered by Japan without help, China interfered with Japan.
China and Japan fought a war in 1884 to take over Korea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Sino-Japanese_War
The First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895), also known as the Chino-Japanese War, was a conflict between the Qing dynasty of China and the Empire of Japan primarily over influence in Joseon Korea.[1] After more than six months of unbroken successes by Japanese land and naval forces and the loss of the port of Weihaiwei, the Qing government sued for peace in February 1895.
Japan, which won China, again fought the Russians and won, and eventually Korea became a Japanese colony.
The Russo-Japanese War (Russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, romanized: Rússko-yapónskaya voyná; Japanese: 日露戦争, romanized: Nichiro sensō; "Japanese-Russian War") was fought during 1904 and 1905 between the Russian Empire and the Empire of Japan over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea.[4] The major theatres of operations were the Liaodong Peninsula and Mukden in Southern Manchuria and the seas around Korea, Japan and the Yellow Sea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russo-Japanese_War
After the Japanese Empire won the war against China and Russia, the Japanese Empire was placed on a par with the Western Empires.
The Chinese were shocked when Japan pushed China out and became a central country in East Asia.
What causes China to lose to Japan?
The Chinese found the cause in Japanese nationalism.
The Japanese Empire was strong because the Japanese created a nation-state called Japan.
China will have to transform the feudal system divided into tribes into a single Chinese nation-state.
So, the Chinese end the feudalism that has been maintained for 2000 years, and a unified Chinese people creates the Republic of China.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Republic_of_China
The History of the Republic of China begins after the Qing dynasty in 1912, when the formation of the Republic of China as a constitutional republic put an end to 4,000 years of imperial rule. The Manchu-led Qing dynasty ruled China proper from 1644 to 1912. The Republic experienced many trials and tribulations after its founding which included being dominated by elements as disparate as warlord generals and foreign powers.
Modern China = the Republic of China was born in 1912.
In order for Japan to become an empire on par with the United States, it has transformed itself into a nationalist state.
After Japan won the war with China, China also imitated Japan and transformed itself into a nationalist country.
After all, by the U.S. invading Japan, China has transformed itself into a modern China.
In the end, the United States played a crucial role in the modernization of East Asian civilization.
Great historical research, and I am grateful for this post.
I must note, however, that Europe was a hodge podge of little feudal states up until WWI. In 1911 in Russia there were a thousand princes in little principalities from the Baltic Sea to the Urals. In 1921 there were none.
Thanks!
Honored senior, thank you for always complimenting my clumsy English article. I try to write nice English sentences like you, but I still lack my abilities.
As you see, I am awkward with links and coding. Also, There are many English typos. I appreciate your compliments, but I would more appreciate it if you taught me how to correct English writing and coding.
I didn't know the concept and usage of blockchain and cryptocurrency, so I frequently asked @roleerob. Because I speak English at the elementary school level in the United States.
Thank you for your many compliments. However, it seems to make me forget my lack of experience and ability, and make me arrogant. Hahaha
You are right. Two world wars created the communist empires of the Soviet Union and China.
However, I think the Japanese Empire was born because of the appearance of the United States.
So, Japanese people now reject and hate American Christianity.
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There are some historical points here that could be debated, but your historical research to back them up is certainly compelling. The comparison between Imperial China and the "Holy Roman Empire (which I thought was always a funny name, considering it rarely ever included Rome)" is insightful. I wish I'd thought of that, because the notion of a hegemon-king (the literal translation of China's "Ba-Wang" who, though not recognized as sovereign beyond his borders, claims rulership over them by patronage and self-anointed Divinity, is a perfect match.
As for the US's role in creating modern China, there are some other layers to that. Sun Zhongshan, founder of the ROC and leader of the rebellion against the Qing, was such an unabashed protege of America that you find American slogans written into his work and even carved into his tomb, like "let there be liberty and justice for all," and "of the people, by the people, for the people." Also, his "Revive China Society (whose slogan roughly translated into 'Make China Great Again,' funnily enough)" was funded more by Americans and Japanese than by Chinese.
And less benignly, it must also be noted that the Communist Party of China would have been annihilated in Yan'an shortly after WW2 by Chiang's air force and artillery if American general George Marshall had not urged Chiang to come to peace talks with Mao instead. It's not something to be proud of, but the US did, in many ways, create modern China. Without us, the Qing Dynasty's fall would have come later and it would have broken into numerous smaller kingdoms, as China has done so many times in history. And frankly...
...East Asia would probably be better off that way.
My genie, are you living well in Texas?
As your argument, the United States has contributed to the development and revival of modern China. Since the establishment of diplomatic relations between the United States and China in 1979, China, which has received US dollars and technology, has now become a great power.
Koreans resent the United States because modern China has become a superpower with the help of the United States. hahaha
I don't know how to use Steemit and Hive right now.
I look forward to your next work.