chinalinks

Paul Halsall's A Brief Chinese Chronology - by dynasty (with discussion of the problems with this form of historical periodization), by political frameworks, and economic basis (from Brooklyn College's Core 9 course in Chinese Culture)
Outlines of Early Chinese History (by Li Ung Bing, Eds. Joseph Whiteside of Soochow Univ. and Snow N. Snow),
Image of Yu the Great, legendary founder of the Xia (Hsia) dynasty. "Yu is best known for his organization of massive dike-building and irrigation projects to counter the floods which periodically devastated the north China plain. The authoritarian, highly centralized bureaucracy presumably necessary to execute and maintain large-scale irrigation and flood-control systems has led some scholars to label early China a "bureaucratic-hydraulic society." (From Paul Brians' Lecture 20: Zhou (Chou), Qin (Ch'in) & Han Dynasties, Washington State Univ.)
See also Map: Western Zhou Period (Univ. of Maryland)
History of China and History Timeline (Univ. of Maryland) with links to essays and maps of major dynasties and eras.
The Silk Road, "The story of one of the world's oldest and most historically important trade routes and its influences on the culture of China, Central Asia and the West" (Oliver Wild, 1992), a detailed and readable scholarly article, including pictures of the region. Wild states that the "most significant commodity carried along this route was not silk, but religion. Buddhism came to China from India this way, along the northern branch of the route."
"Indian versus Chinese Attitudes Towards History" (Charles Ess, Professor of Philosophy, Drury College)
History of Mathematics: China (annotated timeline)
100 Celebrated Chinese Women (Asiapac)
Women in Chinese History (a bibliography from Marilyn Shea, Department of Psychology, Univ. of Maine at Farmington)
Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Republican Era (1912-1949), and People's Republic of China (1949-present) with images (Chinese History Library, Robert Gray, Univ.of Michigan)

Visit Yuan Ming Yuan, imperial garden of the Qing emperors: "In 1709, emperor KangXi named the Yuan Ming Yuan himself and bestowed it on his son, emperor YongZheng. In traditional Chinese and the Confucius philosophy, Yuan (circle) means the doctrine of the mean; Ming (bright) means wisdom and insight. KangXi used this name to encourage the new emperor to follow Confucian philosophy and have a wise insight into state affairs." Though destroyed in 1860, the Garden of Centered Wisdom has been re-created by Lifeng Wang and Chih-An Chen, for your virtual pleasure.

Golden Legacy (Chinese Historical and Cultural Project, in partnership with San Jose Historical Museum), designed...to complement the California State Social Studies Framework, with links to 3 sample lesson plans:
1. Bound Feet: "In the tenth century in China, a prince began the practice of foot binding because he loved the small 'lily feet' of his concubine. Thus traditional Chinese values for over 1000 years dictated that the feet of young girls should be bound to keep them small. 'Lily feet', as they were called, were thought to be very dainty and beautiful and a symbol of gentility and high-class. Although the term sounded harmless, it was really very cruel. It began when a girl was between three and eleven years old...." (See picture, article "Those Doll-Sized Feet...," by Jane Kam Pang [scroll down], and bibliography.)
2. Abacus, background with examples of numbers done on the abacus, abacus pattern, and links to worksheets.
3. Lunar Calendar, background: "The Chinese Lunar Calendar is a yearly calendar like the western calendar, except that the start of the lunar year is based on the cycles of the moon....In traditional China, dating methods were cyclical, meaning that the years repeat according to a pattern. The repetition is in increments of twelve years. The Chinese Lunar Calendar goes further and names one of twelve animals [see diagram and worksheet] as a symbol for each year....[One] Chinese legend explains that all the animals of the world were invited to come and visit Buddha. Only twelve came. In order to reward these animals for their loyalty, Buddha named a year after each one in the order they appeared before him."
"Other topics include: Immigration, Chinatown, Survival (employment in railroad construction, mining and agriculture), Daily Life, Traditions, Education, and Lasting Legacy."

"...warning: as all the Taoist writers tell us, it is in the nature of the Tao that it cannot be spoken of. Talking about Taoism in a clear and rational way is, in fact, not to talk about Taoism.
That aside, Taoism is, along with Confucianism, the most important strain of Chinese thought through the ages. It is almost entirely different from Confucianism, but not contradictory.
It ranges over entirely different concerns,
so that it is common for individuals, philosophers, Chinese novels or films, etc.,
to be both Confucianist and Taoist.
The Taoist has no concern for affairs of the state,
for mundane or quotidian matters of administration, or for elaborate ritual;
rather Taoism encourages avoiding public duty...
in order to search for a vision of the transcendental world of the spirit."

The Catholic Encyclopedia's Confucianism (by Charles F. Aiken, electronic rpt. 1996).
Confucius Page, with biography, teachings, images, and bibliography ("'Confucius' comes from Kong Fu Zi, roughly 'Our Master Kong' -- the form of address his disciples would have used.")
Kong Fu Zi -- Confucius, with links to electronic texts.

Brooklyn's Core 9 19th century compilation of "The Gospel of Buddha" (Buddha, ca. 500 BCE); Buddha's First Sermon - The Middle Path (c. 6th Century BCE); the Dhammapada (trans John Richards, 1993), an anthology of 423 Buddhist verses from The Theravada Pali Canon (Khuddaka Nikaya) embodying Buddhist ethical and spiritual precepts; and "The True Nature of the Buddha" from The Lotus Sutra, "one of the best-loved sacred texts of Mahayana Buddhism," the original Sanskrit text "translated many times into Chinese (the earliest being in 225 CE), as well as into Tibetan and other languages." The passage linked is a "key one for the development of the idea of the cosmic form of the Buddha. Note that 'Tathagata' "(which means 'Thus Gone,' ie, having achieved Nirvana) is one of the titles of Buddha."
See also image of the Bodhidharma, founder of Ch'an Buddhism, and Peter N. Gregory's essay on Doctrinal classification (p'an-chiao), which "has often been said to be the hallmark of Chinese Buddhism."
The Buddhist-Confucian Conflict in the Early Choson and Kihwa's Syncretic Response: The Hyon chong non
(paper by A. Charles Muller, Toyo Gakuen Univ., presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Chicago, Nov 20, 1994)

arts "Once freed from the distractions
of this world, I was at one with harmony;
my garden gate opened on a bamboo grove."Zhu Xi - 12th century
World Art Treasures: China (Photos: Jacques-Edouard Berger, 1994)
Timelines of Art History (Michael D. Gunther, 1997) offers "selective resources on the art history of ancient and non-Western civilizations" including China, India, and Japan, but also more. See China Resources; and follow links for history, images, and texts of Early China: Prehistoric to Western Zhou (3000-771 BC) and China: Qin, Han (221 BC - 589 AD)
Introduction to Asian Art (Prof. Katheryn M. Linduff, Dept. of Art History, Univ. of Pittsburgh) will yield rich cultural backgrounds on China, India, and Japan, if one follows with patience the frames of the illustrated course notes.
Buddhist Studies and the Arts with many useful links (hosted by Randall R. Scott, B.S., M.Div., M.A. Research Associate in Buddhist Studies and Classics, Washington University in St. Louis; & The Doyle Gallery)
Many riches await those who browse Asian Arts, an on-line journal "for the study and exhibition of the arts of Asia," with virtual galleries and illustrated article abstracts.

The Splendors of Imperial China: Treasures from the National Palace Museum, Taipei.
( http://www.asianart.com/splendors/index.html) "An unsurpassed survey of Chinese art treasures from one of the greatest collections in the world...on view at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. from January 27 to April 6, 1997. Heralded by scholars and critics as the greatest exhibition of Chinese art ever presented in America, the exhibition spans over 4.000 years of Chinese history and features nearly 350 of the finest and most famous works from the National Palace Museum, Taipei."
Asian Art Museum of San Francisco claims to be the largest museum in the western world devoted to the arts and cultures of Asia, with permanent collections representing over 40 Asian countries spanning 6,000 years of history. See exhibitions and follow links to special exhibits like Splendors Of Imperial China: Treasures From The National Palace Museum, Taipei; 1997: the Chinese Year of the Ox, or tour Mongolia: The Legacy of Chinggis Khan.

Exhibition of Chinese textiles from the Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties, "Heavens' Embroidered Cloths: One Thousand Years of Chinese Textiles" (http://www.asianart.com/textiles/textile.html), held at the Hong Kong Museum of Art and jointly organised by the Oriental Ceramic Society of Hong Kong and the Urban Council.

The Art of China (Remy Rong Guo, a Ph.D. student at Purdue Univ., with cross-section of images of Chinese "visual art, crafts, music, cooking, calligraphy and other modes of expression, from a wide range of time periods," as well as sections on the zodiac (based on a twelve year cycle --- each year being represented by an animal), Chinese scenery, and "brief tours of the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, and the Imperial Gardens)
China the Beautiful, featuring Classical Chinese Art, Calligraphy, Poetry, History, Literature, Painting and Philosophy

Fu Xuan's "Woman" (ca. 3rd Century CE)
from Arthur Waley, Chinese Poems, (New York: 1946), pp 84-85, repr in Albert M. Craig, et al, The Heritage of World Civilizations, 2d ed., (New York: Macmillan, 1990), p. 217. "Chinese civilization has often been considered one of the least favorable toward women, yet their problems are largely common from culture to culture. At least a number of Chinese women were able to articulate their plight in poems that came to be considered classics. Here the theme of distance is used throughout the poem to emphasize the emotional isolation that is women's lot" (from Selected Chinese Poetry).

How sad it is to be a woman!!
Nothing on earth is held so cheap.
Boy stand leaning at the door
Like Gods fallen out of Heaven.
Their hearts brave the Four Oceans,
The wind and dust of a thousand miles.
No one is glad when a girl is born:
By her the family sets no store.
When she grows up, she hides in her room
Afraid to look at a man in the face.
No one cries when she leaves her home --
Sudden as clouds when the rain stops.
She bows her head and composes her face,
Her teeth are pressed on her red lips:
She bows and kneels countless times.
She must humble herself even to the servants.
His love is distant as the stars in Heaven,
Yet the sunflower bends towards the sun.
Their hearts are more sundered than water and fire--
A hundred evils are heaped upon her.
Her face will follow the years changes:
Her lord will find new pleasures.
They that were once like the substance and shadow
Are now as far from Hu as from Ch'in [two distant places]
Yet Hu and Ch'in shall sooner meet
That they whose parting is like Ts'an and Ch'en [two stars]

Writings of Confucius - KongZi [Kung Tze] (China the Beautiful)
Confucius (Keith Ammann): "Superior and alone, Confucius stood/Who taught that useful science -- to be good."--Alexander Pope

Beijing Opera or Peking Opera (Xu-Ming Wang, Syracuse Univ., 1995-1997; now sponsored by Geocities)
http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/8692/index0.html
...Roles in Beijing Opera: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/8692/roles.html
...Arias and Dialogues: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/8692/aria.html
...Famous Players [Actors]: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/8692/actor.html
Considered "the lowest class in society," musical theater and Beijing opera performance has been "male dominated" and mixed male-female performance prohibited until very recently. Typically, male performers entered training schools as "apprentices in their childhood because their parents could not feed them." Strict obedience to school masters and teachers was expected; boys' instruction and practice of voice and performance skills began before dawn every morning, and any failure or "even success would result in some heavy lashes or other punishment....Director CHEN Kai-Ge's film Farewell my Concubine gives a picture of the situation....It is said that a flash in the stage is a reflection of ten years' unremitting hard work."
...Opera Stories: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/8692/story.html
"...Beijing Opera covers the whole history of China," some taken from history texts, "but most...adopted from the literature and classical novels."
...Influence of Other Entertainments: http://www.geocities.com/Vienna/Opera/8692/other.html
After the Cultural Revolution, Beijing Opera began losing modern audiences for several reasons: for example, younger Chinese could not understand the special Yun Bai pronunciation used in operatic dialogue, they lacked relevant historical and literary knowledge needed to appreciate the dramatic stories, and many prefer the more elaborate staging and fast pacing of modern film and concert entertainments.

Paul Halsall’s Core 9 online course: Movies Addressing Chinese History and Culture, with annotations
http://acc6.its.brooklyn.cuny.edu/~phalsall/chinbib.html
From The Internet Movie Database Tour: Country Browser: China
Yellow Earth (Huang Tu Di, China, 1984), dir. Chen Kaige, with cinematography by Zhang Yimou.
Farewell My Concubine (Ba Wang Bie Ji, China / Hong Kong, 1993), dir. Chen Kaige (b. 1952, Beijing, China). Farewell My Concubine is based on the novel by Lillian Lee. For a listing of other Chinese films dealing with the Cultural Revolution, click here.
Red Sorghum (Hong gao liang, China, 1987), dir. Zhang Yimou. Both Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou attended the Beijing Film Academy, Beijing, China. Red Sorghum is based on the novel by Mo Yan.
To Live (Huozhe, China / Hong Kong, 1994), dir. Zhang Yimou, (b. 1950, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China), Bin Wang and Xleochun Zhang. Based on the novel by Yu Hua.
Gong Li (b. 1965) - Actress Filmography. While still a student at the Central Drama Academy in Beijing (from which she graduated in 1989), Gong Li was cast as the female lead in Red Sorghum (1987), the initial directing effort by Zhang Yimou. China's best-known actress in the West, she was named Best Actress at the 49th Venice International Film Festival for her role in The Story of Qiu Ju (Qiu Ju da guan si, China/Hong Kong, 1992; dir. Zhang Yimou). She also earned the New York Film Critics award for Farewell My Concubine (1993). Gong Li made a series of successful films with Zhang Yi-mou, a collaboration that apparently ended with the breakup of their personal relationship in 1995.

AsianLinks pages were first prepared in 1998
& are slowly being updated in Winter 2001

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URL of this webpage: http://www.cocc.edu/cagatucci/classes/hum210/asianlinks/china.htm

*china links*	*india links*	japanlinks
To what can our life on earth be likened? To a flock of geese, alighting on the snow, sometimes leaving a trace of their passage." Su Dong Po, 11th c.	"Stare at the underbelly of Asia and behold the Indian behemoth: 950 million people - one-sixth of the world's population - who live in a country one-third the size of the U.S., who speak more than a thousand languages and dialects, and who support more than 21 political parties in the world's biggest and perhaps boldest experiment in democracy. India became independent on August 15, 1947, from Britain."	"The time has now come to honor Japan's culture and recognize the true strength of her art: subtlety, inventiveness and audacity, but also severity and humility. The cube, to evoke the measure of . . . what is human. The sphere, without beginning or end, to evoke the world of the Gods. Death is the only time at which one might aspire to both the human and the divine."
World Art Treasures: China (Photos: Jacques-Edouard Berger, 1994)	India: The Country I Love the Most Vipul Kapadia, Northern Arizona Univ.	World Art Treasures: Japan (Photos: Jacques-Edouard Berger, 1994)

Humanities 210 MIC/WIC- Cora Agatucci Cultures & Literatures of Asia

Humanities 210 MIC/WIC- Cora Agatucci
Cultures & Literatures of Asia