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VOCABULARY
EVENTS
VARIETY
PEOPLE
MODERN HISTORY
100
In the U.S., we talk about history by giving names to time periods, such as the Colonial Period, the Revolutionary War Period, Reconstruction, the Gilded Age, the Great Depression, etc. When you talk about history in Imperial China, you talk about a period when a particular family group ruled. Such a period has a name.
What is a dynasty? (chao-dai)
100
The last imperial dynasty of China, the Qing Dynasty, was founded by this group of non-Han outsiders in 1644 and held power until they were overthrown in the 1911 revolution led by Dr. Sun Yatsen.
Who are the Manchurians?
100
This dynasty unified China for the first time.
What is the Qin Dynasty?
100
This social class had the lowest rank.
What are merchants?
100
After World War II ended in 1945, civil war broke out in China between these two political parties who espoused vastly different philosophies about how a country should be governed. One of the these parties believed in central planning of the economy and doing away with social class distinction. The other party believed in democracy and an economic system based on free enterprise capitalism.
What are the Communist Party and the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang or KMT).
200
The ruler of a dynasty was the . . . .
What is the emperor (huang-di) ?
200
This war was fought during the 19th century because the British forced China to purchase a drug from India to create a more favorable balance of trade since the British were buying so much tea from China.
What is the Opium War?
200
Chinese dialects in China are different than English dialects in this way, and led to the creation of a written language that was not dependent on sound symbols?
What is their mutually incomprehensible quality (people speaking different dialects couldn't understand each other)?
200
This person is known as the Sage or the Teacher. He believed that moral men made the best rulers, and that practice of virtue was the best quality a ruler could possess. He stressed behaving properly according to one's station in society, and believed that these five relationships were key to a stable harmonious society - ruler to subject, father to son, husband to wife, older brother to younger brother, and friend to friend. The wide acceptance of his teachings continue to have a profound influence on Chinese society even up to the present day. Followers of this philosophy believe that human beings by nature are good.
Who was Confucius? (Kongzi or Kong-fuzi) His philosophy is known as Confucianism.
200
This party won the civil war.
What is the Communist Party?
300
As long as an emperor remained in power, he was said to possess this.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?
300
This architectural structure was begun in pre-unified China feudal times and consolidated by later emperors to keep nomadic warriors in the north from invading China.
What is the Great Wall of China?
300
During this short but very important dynasty, which lasted from 221 - 206 BCE, China was unified for the first time. The ruler proclaimed himself as the first emperor, or Shi Huang Di. He began standardizing writing, weights, and measures. He also began standardizing thought. The philosophy of Legalism was officially sanctioned, and other schools of thought were outlawed. The story is told that Shi Huang Di so despised Confucianism that he urinated in a Confucian scholar's hat. He also burned the writings of all other schools of thought. He believed that everyone had to believe the same thing for the country to be strong. In recent years this emperor's tomb, full of life size terra cotta soldiers, was discovered near Xian.
What is the Qin Dynasty?
300
This philosophy is rooted in the idea that there is a principle by which everything in nature works. Therefore its followers believe in trying to live in harmony with nature, rather than forcing our intentions on it. They espouse "non-action" (wu wei) as the means of accomplishing anything and look upon ambition and desire as the causes of social unrest. They stress simplicity, humility, quiet, plainness, and peace and reject government as Confucius envisioned it.
What is Daoism?
300
The 1911 revolution against the imperial Qing Dynasty and for the establishment of China as a democratic republic was led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, who was born in China but educated in Hawaii and greatly influenced by the history that he learned in school about history and development of freedom and democracy in the West. He created this blueprint political philosophy for governing China as a republic.
What is The Three Principles of the People? (San Min Zhu Yi) First Principle: Democracy (min quan) Second Principle: Nationalism (min zu) Third Principle: Livelihood (min sheng)
400
This social class had the top rank.
What is a scholar/official?
400
This military expedition unified China after the revolution of 1911 by defeating warlords.
What is the Northern Expedition.
400
These two adjectives describe Chinese written language.
What is pictographic and ideographic?
400
This emperor adopted Legalism as the political philosophy by which he ruled.
Who was Qin Shi Huangdi?
400
The first of these persons was leader of the party which won the civil war in 1949 and became the leader of all China. The second of these persons was leader of the party which lost the civil war and moved the Republic of China government to Taiwan.
Who were Chairman Mao Zedong and Generalissimo Chiang Kaishek.
500
This was the method by which talented and intelligent individuals could be discovered and employed by the emperor to work in government administration.
What is the civil service examination?
500
This march by the Communist army to the Northwest became a very inspiring event and gained the Communists much popular support.
What is the Long March?
500
This Chinese dialect was chosen to be the national language.
What is the Peking dialect, (Mandarin)?
500
In traditional China, this social class was ranked second.
What are farmers?
500
This Chinese leader began the experiments with capitalism that have led to China's economic successes today.
Who was Deng Xiaoping?