BRIEF HISTORY

OF CHINA
 CHINA

 located in East Asia, is known officially as

People's Republic of China. The republic was
established in 1949, but the name china,
which is commonly used by foreigners, is
probably derived from Qin ( Ch'in) dynasty
(221-206 BC), which first unified the nation.
 History of the Chinese language
 Most linguists classify all varieties of
modern spoken Chinese as part of the Sino-
Tibetan language family and believe that
there was an original language, termed
Proto-Sino-Tibetan, from which the Sinitic
and Tibeto-Burman languages descended.
The relation between Chinese and other
Sino-Tibetan languages research, as is
Proto-Sino-Tibetan. the is an attempt area
of active to reconstruct


-Mandarin is now spoken by virtually all young

and middle-aged citizens of mainland China and
on Taiwan. Cantonese, not Mandarin, was used
in Hong Kong during the time of its British
colonial period (owing to its large Cantonese
native and migrant populace) and remains today
its official language of education, formal speech,
and daily life, but Mandarin is becoming
increasingly influential after the 1997 handover.
-Classical Chinese was once the lingua franca
in neighboring East Asian countries such as
Japan, Korea and Vietnam for centuries,
before the rise of European influences in the
19th century. In Korea and Vietnam official
documents Chinese until the colonial period.
were written
 Influences

 Throughout history Chinese culture

and politics has had a great influence
languages such as on unrelated East
Asian Korean, Japanese, and
Vietnamese. Korean and Japanese
both have writing systems employing
Chinese characters (hanzi), which are
called Hanja and Kanji, respectively.


-In South Korea, the Hangul alphabet is generally used, but

Hanja is used as a sort of boldface. In North Korea, Hanja has
been discontinued. Since the modernization of Japan in the
late 19th century, there has been debate about abandoning
the use of Chinese characters, but the practical benefits of a
radically new script have so far not been considered
sufficient.

-Languages within the influence of Chinese culture also have

a very large number of loanwords from Chinese. Fifty percent
or more of Korean vocabulary is of Chinese origin, likewise
for a significant percentage of Japanese and Vietnamese
vocabulary.
 Land

 Its vast area of more than 3,690,000 square

miles make the china the third largest country
in the world after Russia and Canada. with an
estimated population of 1,177,584,537 (1993
census), it is the earth's most populated
country.
-In an effort to lower the alarming annual population growth,
the government exerted efforts to promote late marriages
and more recently, to induce the Chinese family to have only
one child. This program has been coupled with continual
expansion of public health facilities that provide birth -
control information and contraceptive devices at little or no
cost.

-China shares a land border of about 21,260 km. with

fourteen countries, namely: Russia, Mongolia, Laos, North
Korea, Vietnam. Burma, India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyztan, and Kazakhstan
 Geography:

 The Himalayas stretch across the

northeastern portion of India. They cover
approximately 1,500 mi (2,400 km) and pass
through the nations of India, Pakistan,
Afghanistan, China, Bhutan and Nepal.

-Mountains occupy about 43% of China's land

surface. The Himalayas along China's
southwestern frontier with India are the
world's tallest mountains. 22% walker ethnic
There are three major rivers in China:
 Yangtze

 Huang Ho

 Xi-Jiang
 1. Yangtze is the longest river in Asia. It is
3,400 miles and is considered the world's
fourth longest. It is a major transportation
artery.

 2. Huang Ho is traditionally referred to as

"China' s Sorrow" because throughout Chinese
history, it has periodically devastated large
areas by flooding.

 3. Xi Jiang is the most important river of

southern China. It has a discharge three times
as great as that of Huang Ho.
 Religion

Traditionally,
the major
religions of China were
Confucianism,
Buddhism, and Taoism.
 Confucianism
 was founded based on the teachings of Confucius (Kong Qiu), the
greatest philosopher and the most influential teacher of China. He
taught his followers the virtues of good life such as sincerity
(being truthful and faithful); benevolence (kind regard for others);
filial piety (love and respect for our parents); and propriety (always
do the right thing in the right place).

 He held the traditional view that all men are born good. For him,
what spoiled men was bad environment and evil example.

 He also advised his people to preserve the family because it is the

foundation of a nation. There are six arts which he considered
man must master. These are rites, music, archery, chariot riding,
calligraphy, and mathematics. cold
 Kong Qiu-Confucius (/kənˈfjuːʃəs/
kən-FEW-shəs; Chinese: 孔夫子 ; pinyin:
Kǒng Fūzǐ, "Master Kǒng"; 551–479 BCE) was
a Chinese philosopher and politician of the
Spring and Autumn period who was
traditionally considered the paragon of
Chinese sages.
 Confucius was a Chinese philosopher
and politician of the Spring and Autumn
period who was traditionally considered the
paragon of Chinese sages. The philosophy
of Confucius—Confucianism—emphasized
personal and governmental morality,
correctness of social relationships, justice,
kindness, and sincerity.
 Mencius(Chinese: 孟子 ); born
Mèng Kē (Chinese: 孟軻 ); or
Mengzi was a Chinese Confucian
philosopher who has often been
described as the "second Sage", ...
 Taoism was founded by Lao Tzu. His
teachings are found in the book "The Way of
Virtue" He believed that man can find lasting
happiness if he possesses humility,
calmness, and patience. He encouraged
people to live simply and according to
nature.
 Buddhism reached China from India.
The Chinese accepted the new religion
because they found no conflict between
it and Confucianism. The religion
improved government and society by
improving the spiritual life of the people.

 Because of the Buddhist influence,

beautiful temples were erected. They are
called pagodas
 People
 China is a multi-racial state in which the Han ethnic Chinese
constitute nearly 92% of its total population. The remaining
8% belongs to some smaller ethnic groups such as Huis,
Mongols, Uygurs, Tibetans, Miaos, Manchus, Uis, Buyis, and
Koreans.

 Generally speaking, habits and customs associated with

weddings, funerals, celebrations, seasonal changes, and
special occasions are much the same from North to South
and East to West. Only the Mongols, Tibetans, and Uygurs
have customs relatively distinct from those the rest of China,
but these differences have steadily diminished over time.
 Currency
 line of the British Trading Treaty of The
Chinese unit of currency is the "Yuan or
renminbi.". The banking system is
completely under government control. The
people's Bank of China is the central
financial institution and the sole source of
currency issue.
 Chinese characters

According to legend, Chinese characters

were invented by Cangjie, a bureaucrat
under the legendary Yellow Emperor.
Inspired by his study of the animals of
the world, the landscape of the earth
and the stars in the sky, Cangjie is said
to have invented symbols called zì ( 字 )
– the first Chinese characters
Chinese characters, also known as Hanzi
( 漢字 ) are one of the earliest forms of
written language in the world, dating back
approximately five thousand years. Nearly
one-fourth of the world’s population still
use Chinese characters today. As an art
form, Chinese calligraphy remains an
integral aspect of Chinese culture.
 Thereare 47,035 Chinese characters in the
Kangxi Dictionary ( 康熙字典 ), the standard
national dictionary developed during the
18th and 19th centuries, but the precise
quantity of Chinese characters is a
mystery; numerous, rare variants have
accumulated throughout history. Studies
from China have shown that 90% of
Chinese newspapers and magazines tend
to use 3,500 basic characters.
 Evolution of Chinese Characters

Chinese characters have evolved over several

thousands of years to include many different
styles, or scripts. The main forms are: Oracle
Bone Inscriptions (Jia Gu Wen 甲骨文 ), Bronze
Inscriptions, (Jin Wen 金文 ), Small Seal
Characters (Xiao Zhuan 小篆 ), Official Script (Li
Shu 隸書 ), Regular Script (Kai Shu 楷書 ),
Cursive Writing or Grass Stroke Characters (Cao
Shu 草書 ), and Freehand Cursive (Xing Shu 行
書)
Oracle Bone Inscriptions refers to the writings
inscribed on the carapaces of tortoises and
mammals during the Shang Dynasty (1600 –
1046 B.C.). This is the earliest form of Chinese
characters. Because Oracle Bone inscriptions
mainly recorded the art of divination, this
script is also called bu ci ( 卜辭 ), divination
writings. Over one thousand of the over four
thousand characters inscribed on excavated
oracle bones have been deciphered.
Bronze Inscriptions are the characters
inscribed on bronze objects, such as
ritual wine vessels, made during the
Shang (1600 – 1046 B.C.) and Zhou
(1046 – 256 B.C.) dynasties. Over two
thousand of the nearly four thousand
collected single characters from these
bronze objects are now understood.
Small Seal Characters refer to the written
language popular during the Qin Dynasty (221-
207 B.C.). In the Warring States Period (475-221
B.C.), different scripts were in use in different
parts of the Chinese empire. Following the
conquest and unification of the country, the first
emperor of the Qin Dynasty simplified and
unified the written language. This unification of
the written language during the Qin Dynasty
significantly influenced the eventual
standardization of the Chinese characters.
Official Script is the formal written
language of the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. –
220 A.D.). Over time, curved and broken
strokes gradually increased, becoming
distinct characteristics of this style. Official
Script symbolizes a turning point in the
evolution history of Chinese characters,
after which Chinese characters transitioned
into a modern stage of development.
Regular Script first appeared at the end of the
Han Dynasty. But it was not until the Southern
and Northern Dynasties (420-589 A.D.) that
Regular Script rose to dominant status. During
that period, regular script continued evolving
stylistically, reaching full maturity in the early
Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D.). Since that time,
although developments in the art of calligraphy
and in character simplification still lay ahead,
there have been no more major stages of
evolution for the mainstream script.
 Cursive Writing first appeared at the beginning
of the Han Dynasty. The earliest cursive
writings were variants of the rapid, freestyle
form of Official Script. Cursive Writing is not in
general use, being a purely artistic,
calligraphic style. This form can be cursive to
the point where individual strokes are no
longer differentiable, and characters are
illegible to the untrained eye. Cursive Writing
remains highly revered for the beauty and
freedom it embodies.
 Freehand Cursive (or semi-cursive writing)
appeared and became popular during the
Three Kingdoms Period (220-280 A.D.) and
the Jin Dynasty (265-420 A.D.). Because this
style is not as abbreviated as Cursive Writing,
most people who can read Regular Script can
read semi-cursive. Some of the best examples
of semi-cursive are found in the work of Wang
Xizhi (321-379 A.D.), the most famous
calligrapher in Chinese history, from the
Eastern Jin Dynasty (316-420 A.D.).
 Simplified Chinese characters ( Jianti Zi, 简体字 )
are standardized Chinese characters used in
Mainland China. The government of the People’s
Republic of China began promoting this form
for printing use in the 1950s ’60s in an attempt
to increase literacy. Simplified characters are the
official form of the People’s Republic of China
and in Singapore; traditional Chinese characters
are still used in Hong Kong, Macau and the
Republic of China (Taiwan). Since 1954, over
2,200 Chinese characters have been simplified.
The Formation of Chinese Characters
The presumed methods of forming characters was
first classified by the Chinese linguist Xu Shen ( 許慎 ),
whose etymological dictionary Shuowen Jiezi ( 說文解
字 ) divides the script into six categories, or liushu
( 六書 ): pictographic characters, (xiangxing zi 象形
字 ), self-explanatory characters (zhishi zi 指示字 ),
associative compounds (huiyi zi 會意字 ),
pictophonetic characters (xingsheng zi 形聲字 ),
mutually explanatory characters (zhuanzhu zi 轉注
字 ), and phonetic loan characters (jiajie zi 假借字 ).
The first four categories refer to ways of composing
Chinese characters; the last two categorizes ways of
using characters.
It is a popular myth that Chinese writing is
pictographic, or that each Chinese character
represents a picture. Some Chinese characters evolved
from pictures, many of which are the earliest
characters found on oracle bones, but such
pictographic characters comprise only a small
proportion (about 4%) of characters. The vast majority
are pictophonetic characters consisting of a “radical,”
indicating the meaning and a phonetic component for
the original sound, which may be different from
modern pronunciation.
example of how some of the earliest Chinese
characters were built

-A woman holding a newborn in her arms,

symbolizing goodness and happiness
Amazing Facts About The Chinese Language:
1) Chinese is one of the most ancient languages still in use
today.

2) Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world.

3) The word “Mandarin” originates from Sanskrit.

4) Mandarin isn’t the only “Chinese language”.

5) Chinese is a major language in numerous Southeast Asian

countries.

6) It’s the only modern pictographic language.

7) The Chinese language doesn’t have an alphabet.

8)There are over 50,000 distinct Chinese characters.

9) You don’t need to learn all 50,000 characters!
use, you only need 20,000

Chinese characters and 2,500 to read a newspaper in

China. chinese characters - Facts About The Chinese
Language
10)Chinese has no articles, verb inflections, or plurals.

11) There are two sets of Chinese characters. Chinese

characters are classified according to two groups: the
first is Simplified and the second is Traditional.
Simplified characters are more modern versions curated
in the mid-20th century during Mao Zedong’s time.
Traditional characters were used in the ancient times.
Majority of people in mainland China use the simplified
version. In countries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, and
Chinese communities in other countries, traditional
characters are used.

12) New Chinese characters are being added every year.

13) Chinese is an official UN language.

14) Challenging but not hard to learn.

15) Chinese is a tonal language.

16) Chinese follows different calligraphy styles.

17) There is no gender in Chinese!

18) The most complicated Chinese character is

biang.
19) Chinese characters aren’t exclusive to the
Chinese.

20) Chinese has borrowed words from

English.

21) The world’s most famous people are

learning Chinese as a second language!

22) Ancient Chinese texts were written from

top right to bottom left.

23) The Chinese language has number

symbols.
24) Learning Chinese makes you smart! As
you grow older, your brain particularly dreads
understanding complex subjects. Learning
Chinese is one of the best forms of mental
exercise. It sharpens your brain by activating
your left and right hemispheres to
differentiate words from each other. Research
suggests that people who speak and write
Chinese have heightened cognitive abilities.