China did not waste its energy and resources trying to conquer everyone else. Instead, it traded with everyone, helping create a stable, wealthy, peaceful region. Even when it was conquered--which did happen--it made sense for the conquering people to integrate themselves into this stable, wealthy sphere which included China.
This is true, but it needs to be qualified to some extent. China conquered and converted everyone within the arable Chinese heartland, because there are no significant barriers that form natural barriers within the Chinese heartland. To the southwest, the Himalayas form an impenetrable barrier that separates Asia from the Indian subcontinent. To the west, the Gobi desert is a similarly challenging obstacle that prevented invasion from central Asia, much less European armies. The north is mountainous, but not like the Himalayas, hence the Great Wall of China. The southeast is jungle and relatively permeable, but also relatively unpopulated compared to agrarian China. The key difference is that China did its conquering and assimilation in what are largely prehistoric times, shaping the cultures of otherwise primitive people along Chinese lines. China progressed so quickly and raised their level of civilization so high that China stopped conquering and assimilating other peoples because it would have been too expensive to raise them up to Chinese standards. This holds true today, where China wouldn't want to annex somewhere like Afghanistan because it would cost them too much to redevelop and administer, with a low chance that their investment would produce a net benefit for China proper.
@@kampfer91 what they want to beg for? Ming emperors are quick to give up vietnam and eager to distant themselves from the political family rivlary there. sure, occasionally 1 emperor might come up with funny idea of military achievements, but other than the founding emperor, most of the time will get shoot down by their confucius minister that want nothing of giving power to military officer.
im impressed that theres a viewer that is so educated in Chinese history and is Western and young! theres hope for the West!! And hes a viewer that probably resides in the comments! Well done Matthew!!
China is has always been self sufficient. Rome and America could and cannot exist without outside economies supporting their core. They arent real nations to emulate. Most American workers can't even visit America.
@@aodhai this sounds like you are insinuating negatively. Why do people like to sound kinda vague. it can lead to different interpretation (leaning toward negativity) and mis-interpreations
You imagine China hasn't changed over all that 5,000 years of history? (Even granting your false premise that 'China', which really began in the 3rd century BCE with the Qin Dynasty, is actually '5,000' years old, which, tbh, I dispute! Its roots may go back that far, but those 'roots' were NOT 'China'!)
As a Chinese born and raise outside China, always feel proud of the strong egalitarian mindset and culture, so much even Monotheistic hierarchy religion could not developed nor popular when its being important. With strong egalitarian mindset, we just cannot being subjugated
@@chokwoo5720 “…As a Chinese born…with such a glorious egalitarian mindset and culture which cannot be subjugated, why are you wasting your time in a less worthy society ? Go back and enjoy the fruits, you deserve it.
@@blackconfucius888 I suppose he thinks that the CCP's propaganda = REAL egalitarianism, rather than being just the wool that is pulled over the eyes of the Chinese people to keep them all happy in their subjugation to the CCP. He certainly can't be thinking about any of the previous Chinese dynasties, all of which, as you say, were hierarchical. Feudally so!
The answer is very simple. Chinese view themselves as one single unified race and the changes in dynasty in the past has been ths eagerness of the Chinese to find an extremely capable leader who can bring pride and dignity to all.
@@freespeech8520yap.. i read some articles before,... Mongols because of their population size small and conquered huge population (Mongols was less than 5 percent meanwhile Hans 90+ percent), after many2 years many of them assimilated into Hans. The same with The Manchurian (Qing)... In the end there is no more Manchu, they became part of the Hans....
@@freespeech8520 Mongol Empire never in their entire history conquered all of China, only northern part of it, do not confused Yuan Dynasty with Mongol Empire even though nominally they were recognized as a successor to the Mongol Empire. First, the Yuan did have a Mongol "Golden Family" ruling it and as time passes, most of the ruler had more Chinese blood than Mongol one, and nominally they can tax other Kha'anates just like other Kha'anates can tax Yuan's subjects, but militarily, they were separated and not even formal alliance was formed, even though the rest of other Kha'anates acknowledge the Yuan as the successor, although just nominally, but no control. Second, the Yuan, unlike the other Kha'anates, was acknowledges as a Chinese Empire as well even by other Kha'anates and by the Yuan themselves. Borjigin Kubhlai wasn't called or labelled as "Kublai Kha'an" as modern western historian love to portray, officially, he was called "Yuan Chengzu" and Borjigin Temujin aka Chinggis Kha'an was even labelled as "Yuan Taizu" by the Yuan family themselves which means the "Founder of the Yuan Dynasty" even though the Mongol during the time of Chinggis didn't even have this label or thinking to call their leader as such. Third, it was the Southern Song Dynasty that fought and broke the "United Mongol Empire" into five different fragments by wounding and killing their "Last Great Kha'an aka Mongke Kha'an" in one of the many battles of the Fishing Fortress (Diaoyu Cheng). So technically or practically speaking, the United Mongol Empire was already gone decades before the fall of Southern Song Dynasty to the Yuan which was basically another Chinese Dynasty with Mongol ethnic rulers that proclaimed themselves as Chinese "Son of Heaven" instead of Mongol Kha'an, the Yuan bureaucracy was basically a Chinese Confucian one, which was different from the Mongol system. No forces from outside China had totally conquered entire China even when China was very weak and fragmented into small states fighting each others, at most only the northern half, or some part of the northeast and some eastern parts. The only example here were Northern Wei Dynasty (Tuoba Xianbei) invasion of Murong Yan Dynasty (Murong Xianbei) and conquered northern China, or the Mongols (Borjigin/Golden Family) invasion of Western Xia (Tangut Dynasty), Western Liao aka Kara Khitai (which wouldn't count since its location was in Western Central Asia and had been usurped by Kuchlug from Turkic Naiman tribe which fled from the Mongol) and Jin (Wanyan/Golden Jurchen Dynasty) and conquered Northern China, while the japanese invaded an even more fragmented weaker China which was in total chaos and japanese failed miserably despite getting the most help from traitors and collaborators and a better situation for them at the time compared to the Northern Wei and the Borjigin. During Age of Fragmentation, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms which became Northern Song/Southern Song - Xi Xia - Liao - Western Liao aka Kara Khitai - Jin - Yuan, or the Ming/Southern Ming - Shun - Da Xia - Jin/Qing didn't count either, these were all rebellions and civil wars or can be labelled as "Free for All Royal Rumbles" which happened and spread all over the places from within the Chinese Empire.
@@ZalshahZalshah Mongols didn't conquer China with such a small populations, but they indeed do conquer the "islamic Central Asia and a chunk of middle-west" + "european Russia and eastern europe and part of central europe with those small population and some minor prisoners of wars. But Mongols conquest of Northern China (Xi Xia & especially Jin) consist of massive armies from all over the places they can gather. Mongol even got help from the Southern Song to help them to totally put the Jin out of the world's map. Xi Xia on the eve of Mongol invasion was already a weak and decaying states that had been at war for near 3 centuries, while the Western Liao aka Kara Khitai was basically nonexistent as it had been usurped for many years by an unpopular "nestorian christian" Turkic Naiman person with the name "Kuchlug" that fled from the Mongol. While the worst was the Jin, on the eve of Mongol invasion from the north, their Great Wall soldiers which were basically nomadic Turkic + Tatar people all defected to the Mongols, their Khitan subjects rebelled in Manchuria, the Yellow river changed its course in Shandong province and killed 2 millions people in the massive flood, the Red Turban Rebellion wrecked Shandong and Central Plain, while the Western Xia attacked them for not helping when the Mongol invaded the Western Xia territory. And while all these happened, the Jin made the most stupid decision of using half of their entire armies attacking and fighting the war with Southern Song Dynasty which wasn't even involved in all those thing above and the Jin lost it so badly. Yet, they still manage to beat the Mongols on many fronts and held for more than two decades, it took the combined effort of the Mongols and the Southern Song to put an end to them. And the "United Mongol Empire" with an empire stretching from "sea of japan towards part of central europe, from Artic Circle in the North towards indian ocean in the south" waged war with the Southern Song Dynasty which barely ruled Southern China, the "United Mongol Empire" collapse and fragmented into 5 different Kha'anates and the largest one became another Chinese Dynasty called the Yuan which happened some 2 decades or so before the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty. It was totally a "MYTH" saying the Mongol had conquered Chinese Han ethnic Southern Song Dynasty with a small armies, you just need to look at the map of how massive the Mongol Empire at its peak was compared to the Southern Song Dynasty which only ruled Southern China when they waged war. Even against the Jin in the north, on many battles, the Mongol did outnumber the Jin on some occasions and still loses some times. Even the so called "invincible" by the west, general Subotai, with 2 tumen ( a small tumen of 3'000+ and a medium tumen 5'000+) some total roughly 8'000+ soldiers loses so badly to Wanyan Yi (Wanyan Cheng Heshang) who only had 400 cavalries supported by 1'000 infantries in battle of Dao Huigu (a pitch battle), Subotai loses nearly half of his troops. Ogodai wanted to punish him (Subotai) severely, but Torui intervened and saved him, so in order to atone for his lost, he was sent to the west which he together with Jebe became legends in the west, leading 3 small tumens of armies (roughly 3000+ each) and curb stomp the islamic kingdoms/armies and the christian kingdoms/armies without much difficulty.
@@ZalshahZalshah Actually, it's very simple why Romans disappeared and the Chinese flourished.. this is all thanks to Shih Huang Ti, who unified China.. there's plenty of bloodshed but SHT had vision and he was prepared to sacrifice any sects that refused to comform... So, unfortunately, for the Romans, they did not have a despot to unify Italy... in other words, if only the Venetians, Romans and Sicilians etc. think and behave as one, who knows? Luckily for the Koreans, SHT stopped his conquests in Manchuria... and if not for the Sea of Japan and the Typhoons, who knows???
Can't the Chinese defeat the nomads? Where did the nomadic tribes in history go? They were either driven away by the Chinese to the West, and those nomads then destroyed Rome and the Kingdom of Satisfaction in Europe. Or they were conquered and assimilated by the Chinese. You need to look at the map and population of China to know, how could a failed country have such a large territory and such a large population? China is almost always a winner in military terms.@@Adil_Turysbek_TVRC
@@Adil_Turysbek_TVRChit from behind & run fast like a mouse..😂😂😂thats how superior the coward & weak the Mongol, Turk or tungus armies was..in today modern day competition in Olympic game is like a war where it test all country nation young man & girl with physical & mentally challenge..& China always beat the shit out of these so called superiors barbarian nomad descendants country's who claims they are strong blahblah the Mongol or Turkish in swimming,jumping,running,gymnastic etc where all these required good physical & ofc also in technology field where they are always inferior compared to the Chinese throughout the human history..in the end the result speak for itself in everything..if you are not blind or stupid, just by looking at the map &the leading economic powerhouse of today it's crystal clear who are the superior nation & country..tell me where are the Mongol or tungus??? Even the Turkiye is just a lap🐩🐕to the West or US like the Mongol to the Russia or they are already been wiped out long long time ago from from the world map
@@Adil_Turysbek_TVRCthe Chinese hold back the Huns, the mongols, the Turks for over 2 thousands years while the Europeans and Roman’s fell to Huns and Turk and mongosl in a few years
China was conquered by nomadic people several times, e.g in Yuan and Qin danasty, but the culture outlasted throughout all their conquerors and thriving until today. Amazing!
First, you're thinking of the Qing, not the Qin. And the Qing was actually a rebellion of Ming forces - Aisin Gioro Nurhaci was a Ming subject before he started the Qing Dynasty. The Yuan is no doubt connected to the Mongol Empire, but it is not the Mongol Empire. The Mongols had to convert to Chinese systems and culture before they were finally able to take Luoyang (the orthodox definition of "ruling China"), spending four separate Khans in the process. For comparison, the Mongols were able to take Baghdad half a world away 20 years before the Yuan Dynasty was able to take out the Song.
In fact, the Yuan Dynasty gained Chinese recognition when Kublai Khan led the army of local landowning Han Chinese in central China to massacre Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire, and captured Ariq Böke (Аригбөх), the rightful Khan of the Mongol Empire, alive. Then he proclaimed himself Emperor of China and officially declared his succession to the orthodoxy of the previous Chinese dynasties and set his capital in Beijing. As a result, the Chinese regarded the Yuan Dynasty founded by Kublai as a part of the orthodox Chinese Empire, while the Mongols regarded Kublai Khan as a traitor.
The planet earth consists of 3 types of empires : 1) The one who works hard to find a common ground among each other and be united as a family, then flourishing together. That's The Great China. 2) The one who are so rich but remains divided to the extent of forever war and that's The Islamic Empire, Kingdom of Africa, South East Asia and Asia Pacific like Japan and Korea. This one, is the easy target for the next conquering empires of the west. But once they followed the footsteps of the first empire, they too, will rise again. 3) The one that doesn't know how to be profitable, is barbaric and greedy AF, and the only way for them to survive is by building their strength in military power. Once they become stronger, even their dumb ideas will be deemed as holier and civilized. But once they can't practice the slave systems, that's when they'll gradually then suddenly, be bankrupt and fallen again. This is the western empire; and once the world bank and world trade are fed up with them, or the rise of China and the Islamic empire, that will mark the end of their glory. They'll eventually be just another set of falling leaves in autumn. They are like a season, they'll rise again until this universe gives up on our existence.
The big reason why China survive, is its powerful culture, bureacy system and language. The liao come and they follow Chinese system , same as Jin of jurchen, yuan of mongol and Qing of Manchu.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 i was talking about rome not surviving as a country...in Chinese, different characters have the same meaning despite different readings, in latin alphabets, they all have different meanings.
@@Kuasarakyat2nope..it's the power & beauty of Chinese peoples culture & Confucius philosophy are the main factor that make the victorious powerful king of Mongol, Manchu & Jurchen to embraced & call themselves Chinese even they don't have to do so because all of these tribes also have theirs own language & writing system..in medieval time there's no freedom like today & these emperor word are the law & the most powerful man in whole China..they can always choose to make all the subjects under his rule to use his own language & writing system on entire empire by just 1 decree like how the Manchu emperor order the all the Han Chinese to tie up theirs hair like the Manchus but why they don't do it to use theirs own..but ofc those racists anti China or Chinese won't agree with this facts
Mongols , Khitan , Jurchen , Tangut Turkic want to be Chinese Emperor Civilization . Extended Japan and Joseon Korea . China was super regional power back then , everyone want to rule China and being part of Chinese Civilization
Tangut 黨項 origin is Tibet. They later develop their own written text, which "characters look like Chinese, coming closer I don't know a word", according to a Sung translator. Don't try the east Turk bs.
Chinese Civilization "Chinese character" and the confucisian which meaning respect the your parents love the weakness people deliver to the Whole Asia, in the history, other Asia also want to learn Chinese culture become it represent the Civilization.
@wslai7270 - the original Turk also Chinese nomads born from the Xia... look at current-day Turks whom have largely retained their ancient ethno-phenotype identity; Kygyz people, Yakuts, some of the Uyghurs, etc.
@@gotmilk91 only in Southern China was melting pot becuz it was diverse before Han people started their conquest and genocide against ancient people in Southern China.. it was well known in chinese history about ancient peopel in Southern China as known as "Hundred Yue" in english term "Hundred Barbarians" which is ancient people in Southern China are related to population in Southeast Asia today.. for example native people in Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia are well known with their curly hair and dark skin related to Aboriginal people in Australia.. current majority population in PH, Malaysia and Indonesia today as known as "Austronesian people" origin from Southern China during pre Han dynasty and started migrated to Taiwan down to Indonesia during Qin and Han dynasty conquest in Southern China.
During the Zhou Dynasty 3,000 years ago, each region was an independent state based on hereditary rule with a high degree of autonomy. After the Qin Dynasty unified China about 2,000 years ago, a unified system of town governors was established to manage taxation, resource allocation, and military management, which has continued to this day. If the Chinese emperor cannot govern the country well, he will be overthrown, and the new dynasty will continue to rule completely again, and will not let warlords take power unless they have lost control
When Qin Shi Huang unified China in 221 BC, he did away with hereditary rule and arbitrary judging, replacing it a professional corps (Buraucracy) and strict, uniform, formal code of laws (Legalism). While the Qin Dynasty didn't last long, the fundamental civilizational advantages of standardization and rule of law persist to this day.
As an old Chinese, I admire the depth of research undertaken by Mathew. He even knows about ‘Yangminism’ a sort of revolutionist thinker. ‘Zhong Yuan’ literally means ’center of origin‘. Han Chinese consider all nomads ‘Hu people’ and westerners ‘Fan people’ as less civilized. It amazes me to see the traditional Korean and Japanese dress styles that preserved the Tang dynasty cultural influence.
中国和其他文明古国的一个明显的区别是，高三学生可以直接阅读2000年前的历史记录。而其他古国，要么遗失了记录、变为神话传说，要么只有考古学家才能读懂一点。中文从来没有断绝。 An obvious difference between China and other ancient civilizations is that high school students can directly read historical records from 2,000 years ago. As for other ancient countries, their records have either been lost and turned into myths and legends, or only archaeologists can understand them. Chinese language never breaks.
@@awu92 What stroked me was when I read those poems written 3000 years ago they still rhyme using today’s pronunciation. This means I speak the same pronunciation as ancient Chinese did. If I take time machine going back 3000 years, I can understand them without too much difficulty.
Western Europe ended up having the dark age because the history became fragmented when the end of the Roman Empire began in 410 AD & gradually worsened by the time of the Byzantium era when the dimming of the sun before any fragments of history could be reconstructed. The pre-Islamic tribes hadn't experienced such fragmentation.
Going by the number of countries in europe, it's a tribalistic place. The inter-tribe conflicts means it can never stay as a single unit. Hence, ww1, ww2, and now ww3 all happened in europe. The key to staying together is the elimination of tribalism. This was accomplished in china early on.
Rome fragmented into very little pieces, and each piece emerged with their own identity and vision of its place in the world, with little connection to former glory that was Rome. China was conquered by Mongols and Manchus in 13th century and again in 16th century. Each time China overthrow its yoke and rebuild/renew itself, while the rememants of Mongols and Manchus submerged well into Chinese civilization over the centuries. It is the culture things.
I think the most obvious difference is that China comprises its own people, cultures, customs and traditions. Most importantly is that it is large and old. Even conquerers like the Mongols and Manchus were absorbed to become Chinese. While Rome was a small tribe in Europe conquering various tribes and kingdoms. The Roman Empire had no unified culture, custom and tradition like China. You cannot find people you can call Roman nowadays. Latin was no longer used, except in Vatican. While in China, people speak Mandarin as lingua franca with dialects for socialising. All Chinese around the world identified themselves as Chinese regardless of their official nationalities. But, no one can be identified as Roman these days.
This is a strange 'out' where we admit China was conquered but insist it doesn't really 'count' and actually China was the 'victor' as you see, they 'absorbed' the conquerors. Ok, so then this would be true for the Romans and really everyone else. So Mexico 'absorbed the conquerors' and then conquer nearly becomes meaningless IF we apply this Chinese 'asterisk' which 'reverses' or 'erases' the conquering.
In China's circumstance: Barbarians "We want to be Chinese because Chinese culture is good!" Barbarians "Let's get into China and give Han Chinese names for ourselves!" And then the barbarians were become Chinese. In Europe's circumstances: Gallians "We are the successor of Roman Empire!" Germanic people “No! We are! Slavic people "No! We are!" Anglo-Saxons "No! We are!" Gallians "Ah shug it! Let's decide this by war!" And then no one become Roman Empire.
It’s difficult to apply western definition of a state to China. “China” has been conquered by northern countries multiple times (i. E., Mongolia/Yuan dynasty, Manchuria/Qing dynasty), however both got domesticated by the Han culture. Therefore, it’s the very gentle yet erosive “Chinese culture” rooted from 中原 （Chunquan) that included Confucius which was very useful for securing imperialism that rulers promoted, thus sustain the continuity of China. Even the modern communist China is actually practicing the same imperial tradition underneath the communist facade (the way college entrance exam, official hierarchy , how officials evaluated and promoted…are all identical to Han or Tang dynasty).
@@frankyyaggabot6222assuming you are talking about recent event it is purely western propaganda. They are doing the ethnic cleansing but they tell you China is
The information is well-presented. It is indeed accurate that both the Mongol and Qing Dynasties were thoroughly sinicized, as evidenced by their proclamations and official documents being recorded in both Chinese and their native languages. Both dynasties upheld Confucian principles and adhered to Confucian teachings. Civilization is defined by its people, not merely by those who govern it. It is a reflection of culture and is accessible to anyone willing to embrace it. This explains, in part, why there are 56 ethnic minorities in China.
Community is a micro Culture, which is short term Civilization. China's civilizational roots go back millennia with the longest continuous written record in the world.
Correction - Communities. Look up the Taiping Rebellion - lot of different communities massacring each other in the millions. Happened plenty of times in China's History.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 both things are true, now those communities live in peace with each other, unlike europe that could never become an actual union or united, they still think of every other state as the enemy, sad.
@@jayzee316 Yes - the killing of 3 million defenceless Hakka after hostilities had ceased was described to me by a Chinese person as necessary to ensure they did not become a threat again. The imprisonment and re-education of almost the entire Uyghur population in Xinjiang was described in similar terms. Totalitarian States always live in peace (as in Yugoslavia) ... it's the coming to pieces at the end that reveals what the people who lived in those States desired all along.
Another very important reason for the reunification of China is the characters. Chinese characters are pictograms, and each character is a single unit, which can be combined with whatever is needed. However, the way of writing Chinese characters does not change, and the particularity of Chinese characters makes Chinese characters very easy to extend. However, it does not change the writing of Chinese characters, because each Chinese character has a unique meaning, and the writing of Chinese characters in this combination will not change, which leads to two results: Second, even if two people speak different languages, as long as they write Chinese characters, another person can understand the meaning of the word through Chinese characters. On the contrary, English or European languages are composed of letters, which have two completely opposite disadvantages of Chinese characters: The composition of English is too simple, but the combination of words must be learned to know what it means, otherwise it is impossible to know what the combination of these letters means. In addition, the composition of English is too simple, only 26 letters, as long as the shape of the letters can be changed to get a new language, which leads to the fact that as long as Europe is separated for a period of time, Different regions will produce new languages and writing methods because of their own habits, which is why there are many European languages, which are completely different from Chinese characters. The writing method of Chinese characters is fixed, and the meaning can be learned. As long as you learn to write Chinese characters, no matter the ever-changing Chinese words, anyone who learns Chinese characters can see what it means. This is the characteristic of Chinese characters: the way they are written is fixed and cannot be changed, and as long as the meaning of Chinese characters is learned, the composition of Chinese characters is ever-changing, and anyone who has learned Chinese characters can see what it means at a glance. The way the European alphabet is written is too simple, only 26 letters, which means that a slightly more powerful country can create its own language in this way, as long as there is a geographical division, Europe can easily create a variety of characters. The meaning of a word in Europe has nothing to do with the way it is formed, as long as a new word is created, it is impossible for a person who has not learned the word to know what it means unless he learns it. The European writing system made it very easy for people in different places to form their own characters, which led to the fact that every place would become a kingdom in the case of inconvenient transportation in ancient times. The Chinese characters led to the fact that no matter how far away you were, as long as you used Chinese characters, we were still the same people. Maybe I could not understand what you said, but I knew what you wrote, and we were together. Therefore, culture is also an important reason why China will not split
Confucius philosophy and teachings allow the Chinese culture to stay true to itself at its core while still accepting of foreign cultures on the outside.
Confucius teachings were the first thing to go in Mao's China. Quote - the origins of “bad elements, rightists, monsters, and freaks.”. China was notoriously averse to foreign culture (the Middle Kingdom) - it was part of China's famous hubris that saw it brought low several times in History. Chinese culture was never true to itself - numerous revolts (usually kin-based) caused great civil strife in China in it's past. The commentary here is just baffling - completely at odds with History - is this the product of brain-washing from the notorious Confucius Institutes set up in the West?
@@frankyyaggabot6222 Your knowledge on Confucius teachings and Chinese traditions is shallow and incomplete. The teachings and traditions have nothing to do with current China’s politics. We, the overseas Chinese in South East Asia, still uphold them till now and they allow us to stay true and thrive despite being under colonial rules for the past century. In fact, China is also trying to bring back the traditions bit by bit. I think you are the one being brain-washed by your western media about Chinese culture and its people.
@@nghianja Yes - I am familiar with overseas Chinese (and I do enjoy learning the nuances in their culture from Hakka, Cantonese, indigenous from Hainan, Yunnan, Taiwan, ... residents from Xinjiang, Tibet, ... Malay Chinese, Singapore Chinese, ... ). I also have the fortune (misfortune🤔) to be married to a Chinese person. I have one friend whose walls are adorned with Confucius teachings, Christian teachings and Communist Party Slogans. A bit of Philosophy, Religion, Ideology and Nationalist fervour all fused into one and he's oblivious as to the contradictions at their source just manifestly proud that they represent his vision of China today. Chinese approach philosophy the same way they approach food - a banquet that provides a bit of everything with everything clearly marked on the menu so everyone knows what it is they are ordering. I see a lot of contradiction and confusion and China is currently, a country of contradictions wrestling with transitioning from one role to another.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 In that case, you should not have fallen for the western media rhetoric of tying Confucius with Communism, even though they do have some similarities in parts of their philosophies. Confucius talked about 大同世界, a world of equal treatment and harmony, which the western media misconstrued to Communism. We are taught to embrace different cultures, religions and even ideologies such as communism/socialism, while not forgetting our old customs and traditions. We treat Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists, living among us the same way. We don't preach that our god is better than your god and ask you to convert. You are free to join and leave in the most democratic way. And in no period of human history has there been a Chinese dynasty or empire having more military outposts or bases outside of its territories than the Spanish, British and now the Americans. Hence I have come to understand that western civilisations/ideologies center around power and control, using money and military as their tools. And you are right. Our philosophy is just like our cuisine. 满汉全席 is synonymously a banquet of all people for all people and this is how the world should be.
If an culture that is so famous and prominent that even the conquerors of this civilization (the Yuan and the Manchu) want to be better Chinese than the Chinese themselves and did everything to punish those who pinpoint them of being NOT chinese, then you know the civilization is indeed very influential and powerful. In Europe every king and queen wanted to mimic the grandeur of the french kings (king Louis XIV and the magnificent palace of Versaille), so they build palaces, mimic the french lifestyle, wear french haute culture, speak french to be like the french kings. All the countries of the sinosphere (Vietnam, Korea, Japan) wanted to mimic the Chinese Son of Heaven, to be true confucians, write classical Chinese, to wear Chinese style clothes. The Manchus conquered the Ming, but admired the advanced culture they managed to make them obedient, but wanted to be like the Chinese and after a few generations only a few could speak Manchu as most of the higher society spoke only Chinese, wanted to be like the chinese. This alone gives you a feeling how influential the Chinese culture is even to barbarian conquerors.
Very interesting details in the complex Chinese history. China's culture and history is fascinating. Its almost like there's still many new things to discover.
@@gamingtideX “Very interesting details in the…”. Mostly made up or embellished. Archeology comes with simple villages and primitive agriculture. The Wall’s the giveaway.
This is a great video. I have wondered about this, as someone from the Sinosphere (South Korea) who is now actually studying English literature in a Western country. I think there are some distinct features of China. My view is that China has developed and maintained two of its fundamental ideologies - confucinism and legalism. Those two ideas founded the fundamentals of a strong central state government and the legal structure necessary to operate and maintain the central government. Contrary to this, the outsiders that conquered China, whlie good at warfare, lacked such a highly sophisticated and effective hierarchical system to govern such a vast land and so many people for a long time. Hence, every time the outsiders conquered China, they eventually found confucinism and legalism of China far more practical and applicable for the sustainment of their dynasty. If we follow the political history of China, the fundamentals of governing never really changed, no matter which peoples was sitting at the throne of the empire of China. Even the current CPC, who at one stage denounced the influence of confucinism, never actually removed it completely from their method of rule, either.
I'dd add that China's government and people has never let religion took over drastically. Instead it's lead by solid values and principles, then adopted some ideologies/philosophies ... and not screwed into molded religions which never evolve through times, that's why they can adapt to many dynasties and eras.
You’ll find at dozens of great answers mentioned in the comments why this is so. The two things I want to add for better context was that; 1. Rome was not as stable on the top to sustain political continuity. The civilization itself was about a thousand years, but as a civilization-state it was very volatile. 2. What helped with China’s political continuty was that they rejected the god-emperor/king idea 3,000 years ago when the Zhou clans defeated the Shang dynasty. The king/emperor instead was a son of heaven and not divine himself, so his and his family’s rule was justified to change if the land wasn’t governed well. Hence, it wasn’t enough to just rule as you please, but you actually gotta work, and get the best advisors/officials out there, to make life better for the people… this help with maintaining continuty for China. Many civilizations and states took a long time to figure this out, but the Chinese knew this very early on.
If Chinese emperors failed to rule the country well, they would be overthrown and the new dynasty would continue to rule intact and not allow warlords to take power
A couple of comments: 1. Roman civilization should be divided into Republic of Italian Roman citizens, and the subsequent poly-ethnic Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was not able to absorb and assimilate non-Romans into a cohesively unified Roman society, so the internal pressures led to fracture and ultimate collapse. We see similar challenges in the West today, as the US and Europe take in vast numbers of immigrants and refugees of completely alien cultures, unable to agree amongst themselves. 2. China did not suffer a Dark Ages when theocratic rule under the Roman Catholic Church existed for centuries, so there was no such cultural concept in China. China was always ruled by men, none of whom would be seen as literal gods above the people. Instead, it was a grand bargain, where the people pledge obedience, and the ruler reciprocates with benevolence. We see this today, where 90-95% of Chinese people support the government, and the government acts on their behalf, resulting in 4 decades of the biggest and fastest rise in living standards the world has ever seen. In short, nothing has fundamentally changed in the past 2,000-odd years for Europe, or the past 5,000-odd years for China.
@@ZweiZwolfChinese history shows that whenever a ruler failed to govern the country well, he was overthrown. The Chinese government is very aware of this, so any measures they take are based on the interests of the people, so that stability can be effectively maintained. Several important reforms and policies of the Qin Dynasty that established a unified country were imported from civilian elites in other countries. At that time, an ideological revolution similar to the "Renaissance" occurred in China, and a wave of "a hundred schools of thought contended" emerged, which became the beginning of elite politics instead of hereditary aristocracy. Later, it experienced an era of aristocratic revival and created the "imperial examination system" for selection through examinations. Until now, in a large country with one-seventh of the world's population, competition has been fierce. Whether it is an official or a senior executive, they hope that the people or candidates who vote are selected from those who are capable or have outstanding performance. Rather than choosing someone who is not sure whether he has the ability and does not like to try his luck next time. Even if the plan is not perfect sometimes, as long as the execution efficiency is high, the trial and error can be completed at the lowest cost, and the plan can be adjusted
not really accurate either, Chinese civilisation is as volatile following your logic since chinese royalties always end up like hermit in the palace while information withheld by the ministers, and without proper education heritage, it always end up with rulers that has no knowledge to rule and thus being overthrow, the cycle of dynasty isnt really a great thing for the people at the time. what different is the population of chinese remain dominance even after each collapse and the "barbarians" eventually diluted and merged. the only exception is the qing machu, which try so hard to retain their purity... for the time being.
@@yzy8638 To talk about it separately, deceiving the emperor is a serious crime, but there are always people who try to evade the law. A wise emperor does not need to be an omnipotent genius himself, but must learn to balance the power of ministers, let them compete and supervise each other, if any party has too much power, you can't control it. They can't help but find some crimes of the other party to help them eliminate their political enemies
In my opinion, till the recent Chinese history, in general common Chinese population was highly educated and literated, which is one of the reasons why there exists vast volume of ancient written artifacts and documents that helped keep the civilization carrying on and lasting, such as Sun Tz' art of war, Lao Zi' Daode Jing, each dynasty' documents and files, etc. comparatively, till Martin Luther reform, in West only some of churches clarks were literate
Agree with your thesis. I myself have come to this conclusion after a life time of studying Chinese history and culture. This is the source of the reasoning to argue that Chinese culture is not an expansionist one, and very much inward looking. It functions as a glue, as you will to hold the culture/people together, but can also hinder it's growth by rejecting new ideas arrived from foreign lands.
Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire became the leader of multiple khanates, but other khanates were unwilling to recognize his status, so after he unified China, he split off and established the Yuan Dynasty, which was dominated by Han Chinese. To rule China, he had to be assimilated to China. This not only increased his legitimacy in this region, but also accelerated the division of the Mongol Empire, and each was defeated. Until the last khanate was driven away by Russia 200 years later, the Russian tsar inherited a large uninhabited area in Siberia.
In fact, the Yuan Dynasty gained the recognition of the Chinese when Kublai Khan led the army of local landowning Han Chinese in central China to massacre Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire, and captured Ariq Böke (Аригбөх), the rightful Khan of the Mongol Empire, alive. Then he proclaimed himself Emperor of China and established his capital in Beijing. Therefore, the Chinese considered the Yuan Dynasty founded by Kublai as part of the orthodox Chinese Empire, while the Mongols regarded Kublai Khan as a Mongol traitor.
@@ZhangXuanyiYou said there were Chinese troops, It should be that after occupying China. Mongolia took 46 years to attack the Song Dynasty,Kublai Khan participated in the last 10+ years after he took.
partly thanks to the sacking of constatinople by the europeans and their pretend of deaf to the calling of aids. europe than begins their renaissance by help from the fleeing Byzantium nobles, bringing their roman knowledge and technique long forgotten by the barbarians tribe that overthrow roman rules.
@@anngcampbellbower4385the Byzantine Empire is a direct continuation of the Roman Empire just like how the Southern Dynasties are a direct continuation of the Chinese Empire
China is a machine of adapting and changing foreign concepts to their own reality, keeping the ball rolling. It has been doing that for 2 thousand years. I think that a good reason for that was the standardized writing and the huge central flat plan that could not stay disunited long enough for a new culture be born.
What Westerners like Matthew still miss is that the "Five Hus" of historic China are distant nomadic cousins of the agrarian Han people, stemming from the Xia; even the original Turks are born of the Xia. So it was very natural for the Wu Hus to assimilate into advanced and more-comfortable agrarian Han culture, AND Old Chinese wasn't so far-off from the lingo of nomadic tribes of north and central Asia way-back then. The barbarian people that invaded Europe on the other hand, were famously Asiatic, including Attila the Hun and the Mongols... all descendants of the Xia... and the Europeans seem them as completely different ethnicity/races. The Chinese did not have this problem. Today, many European-types try to pride themselves as the "Wuhus that invaded China", and that's where they continue to falter in their racial-political and ethno-religious relations today.
Wuhus are not Aryans. Aryans tried to invade China around 1200 BC, slightly later than the time Aryans invaded India. It was a 100 years war, and eventually the Aryans lost partly because Chinese at the Shang dynasty had elephant calvary to counter-fight the horsemans. The Shang Chinese also invented two-horse chariot with one driver and two warriors (bow and spear). The other ancient cultures, India, Egypt, and Babylon, were all undermined by Aryan invasion. It’s interesting to note that one lead general of the Shang dynasty to lead victory in the war with Aryans was a female, a queen to the king of the Shang empire.
Indeed, it's significant that the Chinese people and rulers self-identified as "Chinese" by language, culture, and tradition for 1,000s of years. This is completely unlike Europe, wherein Spanish, French, British, German, and Italians all have completely different cultures and mindsets rather than being unified politically, legally, and culturally under the EU flag.
@justintw888 the original Aryans were the Parthians, Sogdians, Tocharians, etc... ancestors of modern-day Iranians for the most part... and interacted w/China since at least Han Dynasty times...
@@gotmilk91 Yes, you’re right. Somehow the definition of Aryans was distorted before WW2. But there are recent archeological discoveries showing that the original Aryans originating from Central Asia had serious conflicts with Chinese people in the Shang dynasty more than 3,000 years ago. Somehow the Chinese culture survived. You can tell the Shang dynasty still uses similar written form language (albeit different) to the Chinese written language today. If the Aryans had succeeded, then the culture would have been destroyed. I’m a Taiwanese and we still study this Chinese written language form today. We’re legacy of the outcome of the great war 3,000 years ago.
Wait so you mean that the people that were escaping the slaughter of the Huns were Chinese? China was responsible for the Roman collapse cause it couldn't defend its people from the Huns only to hide in cities for months waiting for the Huns to retreat 😲
thank you for ths well researched presentation. I finally can understand something about China's long history and the bias opinions northern chinese have against southern chinese and vice versa. Thank you
Another view of Kublai Khan is not his deep reverance for the Northan Han culture, Just that his brother kicked him out of the Great Khan's Mongolian Empire
Basically, they had no outward expansion. It was the inverse. Other people conquered them, then adopted their culture/language. The steppe invaders, the mongols, the Huns, Tartars. China proper didn't expand into those territories, they rather expanded into China. They were so ahead of their neighbors that everyone automatically adopted their culture after conquering them hence making theirs the dominant culture
The barbarians, who occupied northern China for 300 years (approximate 317-581 AD), were totally assimilated by the Chinese in the end. The reason is very simple: when nomads settled down, they had to learn and accept the advanced farming skills accompanied with relevant Chinese civilization such as the Chinese calendar regarding when to sow and reap. Needless to say, only the Chinese have a unique written system that is able to afford complicated philosophy, literature, technology and religion et al. Like a phoenix, China is always reborn from ashes.
China has been able to govern large areas separated by mountains and rivers with different cultures. Unlike the west, even those conquered China became China. The difference is Roman culture like the typical western culture is to conquer other culture and destroy them. Just like Roman, the western culture has a superior complex dividing and oppressing other "inferior people and countries" to work for them and provide them with resources and wealth. Those conquered Roman just did what Roman would have done. China has always been able to manage different cultures, even different languages and religions.
And yet you type in Roman text using a Western Language on a Western Technology. Think you need to work on a bit of self-awareness before you attempt to pontificate.
@@TAL142 The point would be that if you want to widen your critique of the West you might like to explain why just about everything that surrounds you (83% according to a Japanese study) comes form the West. Not only the script you are using ... the Internet you are communicating on, the device that you are entering text, I would wager pretty much everything that you engage in in your day. A modicum of self-awareness before engaging in the usual anti-Western diatribe is my point. In a study in contrasts you might like to explore the debacle of the Taiping Rebellion and explain that in the context of what you said.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 83% according to a Japanese study? Japanese culture came from mostly Chinese culture. Even Japanese is using Chinese characters. Chinese culture is over 5000 years old. Chinese culture invented paper money almost 3000 years ago. And China had been paving roads and building bridges, and "high rises" for thousand of years. Even world's oldest open-spandrel segmental arch bridge made of stone is in China. China had building structures 9 stories high thousand years ago. China invented paper, compass, gun powder, printing plus many more that China invented independent of the west. By your argument, many of the stuffs you used nowadays came from China including the cultivation of tea and first solid fuel rocket. Also porcelain was first made in China. China was a leading economic power for most of the two millennia from the 1st to the 19th century, accounting for about one-quarter to one-third of the world's GDP. And to be honest just because someone invented something doesn't mean he get credit for being widely use. Much of western technology have involvement from all over the world including Chinese scientists and engineers. Even much of the Japanese animation they got a lot of their inspiration from Chinese literature like Journey to the west and book of mountain and sea.
@@TAL142 clap clap ... I'm sure the Egyptians can top that; now tell us something we don't know. BTW what Science and Math does China use to launch it's satellites into space? What building techniques does it employ to build it's road and rail today (or skyscrapers)? What languages does it use to code it's computers that are at the heart of everything in modern China? Fundamentally, China is what it is today because it Westernised - welcome to the modern world!
As Matthew points out, the center of Chinese civilization is the Central Plain, an agriculturally productive floodplain surrounded by more land, into which Chinese people and culture spilled outwards. Rome, in contrast, is on a narrow peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea, with modest agriculture of its own, but easy access to the rest of the Mediterranean, if you have a navy. This meant, in China, there was a continuity of settlement and civilization around the Central Plain, and Chinese people from different areas had kinship with each other; even if they were somewhat different, they were still long-time neighbors. In Europe, although the Roman empire extended from France to Egypt, nobody really believed that Europeans and Africans were the same people, or that they were even neighbors; the Mediterranean was a big barrier, and the people on the other side were the Other. There was also the Latin west and the Greek east, again divided by mountains and seas. Furthermore, the Mediterranean area went through profound deforestation over the centuries, and timber use persistently exceeded sustainable rates of harvesting. You needed trees to build a navy, and trees were increasingly scarce. This meant, over time, it became more and more difficult to build and maintain a Mediterranean empire. If you try to march your army around the Mediterranean, there were plenty of mountainous choke-points that were easy to hold and difficult to cross. In China, in contrast, you can march from one end to the other without much trouble. Note that China is surrounded by oceans, mountains, and deserts; in other words, when you get to a place where you couldn't easily march across, that's where China's borders were. Comparing China with Rome is not really a good comparison. China is a civilization, whereas Rome is a collection of civilizations temporarily brought under a single political leadership, i.e. an empire. China has civilizational continuity the same way France and Egypt does. China has never been much of an empire, mostly it made some of it's closest neighbors into self-governing tributaries, and that's about it.
China is an empire in the sense that China assimiliated countless tribes which would have grown to literally 100s of walled cities and microstates in India or Europe. You can look at pre-Raj maps of the Indian subcontinent, or the 300-odd German Kleinstaaterei during the Holy Roman Empire.
@@ZweiZwolf You need to differentiate between culture and politics. An empire is a political construct. The ancient Greeks were politically independent city states, but they recognised a certain common Greek cultural identity. The Germans were, at times, likewise politically separate but culturally coherent. At other times the Germans were politically unified, more or less. Ditto Indians. Ditto ancient Chinese. China was sometimes unified, sometimes divided into warring kingdoms, but they all understood they were Chinese kingdoms with a common culture. While it's true that China has, at times, exerted some political influence and even control over neighboring cultures, this was to a much more modest extent than the Roman Empire. My point is that culture is much more persistent than politics, and that's why China (the culture, not the political dynasties that come and go) has persisted much longer than the Roman Empire. The borders of China grew and shrank over time, but the Central Plain remains Chinese. The Roman Empire grew and shrank, too, and also Rome is still Rome; you can fly to Italy and see the old buildings of the Roman Empire. But the empire that exerted political control from France to Egypt is gone, Rome no longer controls France or Egypt. The culture of the Italians persist, though their empire is no more.
@@sckchui Chinese civilization transcends whatever political constructs happen to be in vogue at any given time. China acts as a nation state today only because that is how the rest of the world is organized. Chinese cultural influence was entirely dominant over eastern Asia, which is why Vietnam and Korea read and wrote in Chinese until they were colonized by France and Japan, respectively. Vietnam was an actual province of China for over 1,000 years, while northern Korea was a province of China for centuries. Chinese political influence via the tributary system kept Asia largely stable for centuries. In contrast, Indians have never been politically unified except as slaves under the Muslim Mughuls or the British Raj; there is no cultural concept of unity within India and their cultures are all separate and distinct. This is why India has to use English taught to them by the colonial British to communicate amongst themselves. Germany has also been culturally distinct, with what used to be Prussia (now northern Poland) having different characteristics to western and southern Germans (including Austrians).
@@ZweiZwolf I think your conclusions overreach the evidence. China was not as dominant as you suggest, East Asia was not as stable as you imply, and the Indians and Germans were not as disorganised as you say. I also think you're overestimating the ability of humans to determine culture and politics, as opposed to culture and politics being the consequence of geography and technology. For example, the fact that India has oceans on three sides, whereas China only has oceans on one side, that makes a huge difference in the ability of seafaring colonial powers from Europe to invade those places. Or the fact that Germany has many other cultures all around it in every direction who are equally productive in agriculture, versus China which has a very productive Central Plain surrounded by much less productive deserts and mountains beyond; that's why you can have a big China dominating smaller neighbours, whereas Germany could not do the same in Europe (and its not like they didn't try).
@@sckchui You completely misunderstand Europe vs Asia. In a Chinese context, Germany would have been the Qin , France would have been the Chu, Spain Wei, Austria Han, Italy Yan, and Portugal Qi. It is no accident that China's provinces are directly comparable to European countries.
This is exactly how Cheikh Anta Diop described the difference between Western and African civilizations that also out lived Rome, particularly Kush and Ghana-Mali. He argued that while every people have had a nomadic period in their history, Africans and Chinese transitioned into sedentary life as a natural evolution rather than the sudden conquest of sedentary populations by a nomadic one as in the case of the Greeks and Romans, who never truly evolved a sedentary mentality, thus paving the way for Western behavioral patterns.
its geography. China has natural barriers like mountain, deserts and sea. where roman empire was literally conquered and stolen lands that rome walked through.
@@joepup8348 China did build the walll. Where are the Mongolian and Manchurian rulers today? lol do you see how those conquered China? did they go though a natural barrier or did they walk into China?
@@joepup8348 they didnt stop mongols from winning the war, they did kill the mongol khan, forcing the mongols to hold election, and the mongols horde that are going to invade europe retreat and start their infighting in the steppe ya, so they stop the mongols from conquering all of europe.
@@michaeltse321 You didn't get my point; I'm on China's side. My point is that the argument that China was never conquered because of geography is false, because China was in fact conquered. So there must be an explanation for why China prevailed in the end, and did not fall like Rome and disappear as an empire and political entity. The reasons are numerous: the tremendous cultural power of China, which attracted and converted even the conquerors; the strong and well-designed meritocratic bureaucracy; the unifying nature of the ideographic language; the tremendous wealth; the large, relatively homogeneous population; and so on. All these factors and others served to keep the nation together and helped integrate the very people who tried to conquer China.
It was not a question of survival and continuity in China compared to the Roman fall. China was destroyed at the end of each dynasty and reconstituted itself. The Qin empire lasted just a few years and survived the death of Qin Shi Huang by… two or three years. Li Bang, the founder of the Han was a peasant and had nothing to do with the dynasty. The only time when China avoided disintegration was if a new dynasty came by a coup, as it was the case with the founding of the Tang. So the answer I think is rather that China always was broken and reconstituted itself after periods of civil war, whereas the attempts to reconstitute the Roman Empire all failed. Hence European fragmentation and incomplete attempts, like Mussolini’s Roman ambition and even our beloved EU.
In fact, the Roman Catholic Church rebuilt Western Europe through religion, the invading Nordic peoples later gave up their faith and assimilated into Catholicism, and the other Eastern Roman Empire was replaced by the Ottoman Empire, which continues to this day.
China's reconstituted success is due to a dominance identity, in each unified period, people live there view all of them as one people, even in reality they are different race, and each collapsed and civil war, people there view the rivalry faction fighting for their own good, not due to racial or religion, thus reconciliation after each civil war can mend the wounds faster. until now, now western puppets trying to instigate a different identity by making it seems like theres 2 different race across the strait. with the "democratic, humane, civilised" islander calling the mainland people using slander and racist slang used by the imperial japan,
China is too big and has a huge homogeneous population base so it makes it difficult to divide and control like what the British did to India, which was basically divided into many small kingdoms... which the British use to their advantage for over a century. It is also hard to brainwash and control a civilization of thousands of years of history and culture that is deeply engrained into the population! The Mongols figured out that they had to adopt the chinese system and put their people in charge to rule China, the Manchus also followed the same formula.... becuz that is the only formula that works since the han chinese population was greater than the conquerors. To come to this conclusion, everyone need to understand during these ancient period and not use our current modern period and understanding to look at this view from the Mongolians and Manchu's perspective.
China is actually very diverse with a huge number of cultures and even dialect groups. They also have different tribes and split loyalties. But China is a unified civilization because it has already completed its nationhood when the First Emperor formed the first Chinese empire. So to say China is homogenous is false but it is unified in the most important ways that makes it a civilizational nation: language, bureaucracy, and a culture that has formed its centralization system long ago. The shared aspects of Chinese culture is what allowed China dynastic cycles and each dynasty brought something new to the table, something to add to the history that further enhanced its cultural unity and unique identity. Indeed, that cultural depth and strength is why all the conquerors became sinicized instead of the other way around. Event then, it is not entirely fair to say the Roman empire did not endure but that the Romans while inclusive of the nations they conquered as in they allowed some of them to become Roman citizens, but not ALL of them became Roman citizens and get completely integrated. China had the benefit of the short lived Qin dynasty that unified the country as a language and then the long 400 years Han Dynasty that completed the philosphical (Confucius) and religion (Taoism then later Buddhism) under a centralized bureaucracy that allow effective governance complete integration. Even then, you can argue that the Roman empire had all these ingredients too. But even as the Romans endured as the Byzantines for many centuries, their downfall was them being conquered by the Arab caliphates. In the end, despite their long historical and cultural dominance in East Europe, they could not Romanized their Muslim conquerors the same way China was able to sinicize the Mongols and Manchus and their unified culture and language was broken. By that time, western Roman empire was also gone long ago because they also could not Romanized the Visigoths, the Gauls and other outsiders. It will be interesting to imagine how the world will be if the Romans was able to do what the Han Dynasty did and completed the integration of the European continent. However, we must also acknowledge that the real civilization of the Europeans is actually Christendom, not a singular state nationhood. Despite the differences in language and culture, they were unified under Christendom, and today that legacy became the western liberalism. They might be different countries, but they are still identifiable as the "west" and that's not a coincidence. The Chinese need to acknowledge that the same way the west need to acknowledge the Chinese civilization lest China becomes arrogant and treat them as disunited barbarians and repeat THEIR mistakes of underestimating the Chinese people. They are very much united as a people under western liberalism.
@@gelinrefira - I am not a history expert, but I like History. Ok, lets compare the wars in Europe vs the wars before the Qin dynasty conquerored the whole of China. Just in size and the assimilation of the different kingdoms into the Qin and there are differences between all the 6 different dynasties which the Qin conquered. The French under Napoleon managed to conquer almost the whole of Europe but Europe was never united and homogeneous they dont identify as being Europeons first and French or Germans second. For the chinese, they identify as han people and the dialect are just different shades of the same color! My point is simply, there needs a glue to bind the people together, and language is the glue, the other detraction to bind people together is the difference in color and race! If u are not seen as being the same as the main group than u become the minority and for the chinese, its easily distinguish even today the term is use hua-ren, which means chinese people and immediately there acceptance. U wont find it for the Europeons they dont feel kinship being describe as Europeons. For the Americans, there is this kinship defined as Americans, but than the racism in the US has been always lurking in the background primarily because of silos of the different communities banding together and not integrated together as one people. There is inherent distrust in the US system, WW2 Japanese Americans were put in concentrations camps just for having Japanese ancestory, now its the chinese Americans that are being single out and demonized... Talking about Chistianity, the spiritual aspect might help unify the people but the main and key differences still remains as fault lines and not as a homogeneous society so I dont buy your argument its too shallow and simplistic. A test is when there is an invasion or threat to the very existent of that society or civilization how will the people ban and react together and does it last thousand of years? Chinese civilizations and the many dynasties lasted thousand of years which society or civilization has that endurance and ability?? There is none in the world and u wont find another even in today's modern world. China has evolved under the CCP but the main difference of China now under the CCP is the mandate of heaven to now the mandate of the people that justifies the ruling party of China. In China the approval of the government is more than 90% u wont find that level of support anywhere in the world by any government, as long as the interest of the people are taken care of which u also see in the many different dynasties that thrive, and the dynasties that failed to popular revote both within and by the people to change dynasties that is how China has evolved thousands of years. Western liberalism has been exposed as a fraud and pipedream, look at Gaza conflict, look at the double standards in the so called western liberalism condeming Russia yet are silent when it comes to Gaza and the mass slaughter of the Palestinian people. The difference is Ukrainians are white, the Palestinians are brown! To your last point, if u study the fall of the Qing dynasty u will understand that the Qing dynasty thought that it was so superior that it can shut its doors to the west and it took the gunboats of the west, the cannons and muskets to wakeup the Qing Empress that they are not the superior society... so no China will not be making that same mistake again, China still respects the US and the west but it seems that the US and the west does not respect China!
The population was not always homogeneous; even now, there are dozens of mutually unintelligible languages. The strength of Chinese culture, from the written language to the meritocracy, brought not only formerly foreign, non-Han peoples but conquerors under the Chinese sphere, a process that took centuries.
You are foolish. China ethnic Han core remains unchanged, they followed the same civilisation basis (Confucius, Taoism, Zen Buddhism) for thousands of years and Chinese language evolved less than European languages over that time. The change of rulers and regime doesn't change the civilisation. China is more stable than any other Empire in history.
The Graeco-Roman World continues today in the arts, medicine, science and technology. Modern China is built around it and most modern Chinese lean towards it rather than the superstitions that guided their ancestors.
I think a major reason that gets missed is that no one in europe wanted to be ruled by the Romans but they wanted the same power and prestige. So they rejected reforming the roman empire but kept wanting to tie themselves to it as a true successor to it to which others would oppose because they dont want to be ruled by this group wanting to call themselves the romans and would rather call themselves the romans.
Agreed. western roman civilization and the holy roman empire were not contiguous.Voltare summed it up very accurately. The longevity of the eastern roman empire would be a better comparison with china.
Rome, as a civilization lives on, it's Latin became French etc, and English in many ways. It's ideas evolved, unlike the Chinese, which remains nearly the same For a long periods of time. Today constantly telling people it's word for wood 木looks like a tree. Please memorize the sound for this character mù. So proud of this ancient writing..
Chinese civilisation has something that other civilisations did not have which is morals. Confucius, Lao Zi, Mencius and many other scholars emphasized the need for good morality in every governance, without this even the Heaven would take away the mandate of governing the people. You can see at the end of every dynasty, it's always caused by the deterioration of morality. This has served as a constant reminder to the rulers later: If you wish to make China great, always use good morals as the foundation of governance. China has the most complete records of its history compared to any other countries, or civilisations. In the records, even the bad things done by the emperors were not spared. The tai shi recorded everything, the good and the bad of the emperors. This serves as lessons too how not to be a bad ruler that can bring down a country.
China has been killing female infants since ancient times. Even Han Feizi mentions atrocious practice. Females could be bought and sold. Early Confucian texts discuss the regulation of the practice.
Have no idea what "morals" you are referring to. Confucius was fine with the barbaric practice of sacrificing lambs, even though others during his time opposed it.
Confucius also said that the "upright" son conceals the crimes of his father. Thus, it would be immoral in Confucius' eyes to report your father to the authorities for engaging in illegal activities.
@@blackconfucius888 Confucius stopped human sacrificing. Humans are known to sacrifice animals. We eat meat every day, don't we? Of course not including vegetarians here. Read The Analects and you will understand better.
My first exposure to the morals of modern China were pretty girls crushing rabbits placed under glass table tops by sitting on them. All for cash of course. Then there were the first hordes of Chinese tourists that would openly defecate on the street in Hong Kong in front of astonished onlookers. This was also the civilisation that made a science out of torture. Are these the Chinese morals you speak of?
China's geography made it relatively easy to unite, consisting of vast fertile plains that could support a very large population. and surrounded by mountains, deserts, tundra, oceans, where the population is small so it is not a significant competitor.
The answers is one because of Confusian as basic religion and socio rule. Even next China major religion like Buddhism is a very pacific dogma that bring harmony between China's society.
China was conquered by the Mongols and then by the Manchurians The difference is that conquerors adopted China’s culture and language rather than destroying it
The first Chinese empire was the consolidation of different Chinese kingdoms, the Roman Empire was on the other hand extremely diverse. So Chinese having a large population of an original stock of people means it always had a legitimate reason for a reunification even after a dynasty is destroyed. It also means foreigners be it migrants or invaders will eventually be assimilated as well. With a large population the Chinese was able to conquer majority of the lands that is suitable for agriculture and established their colonial settlements there, the Chinese was able to retain their identity all throughout the ages
Yuan dynasty means it had already ceased to be China, it was ruled by foreigners (those considered to be foreign). Qing dynasty is also considered 'foreign' by the majority Han. Basically China had ceased to be after the Mongol invasion and rule.
The Chinese were attacked by Muslim Expeditionary forces and defeated but Muslims did not perused on the victory because it was very unknown world at the time . Although trading from China to the world was huge it was really hard to surveil on the Chinese for attack. Chinese was a close society and is the same almost today although as not much . The second reason was the mountains around China and Sea on the other hand . At the time Sea based operations were consuming a lot of resources and risky much more than today so no one tried to invade through the sea. Also Chinese were producing a lot of technologies of the time and upgraded their arms and ammunitions and they had the population advantage too. Chinese were savers and still as a nation are mostly savers so they had all the resources to defend and run the empire so long .
The Universe is Not a Hierarchical Pyramid of Mathematic Quantities The Universe is a Wholarchical Sphere of Spheres of Consciousness Qualities The Beauty of Timeless and Formless Consciousness Shines in the Form in Time ❤️ 💚 💜
I politely differ from your view. The universe is very hierarchical but in the opposite sense, i.e. inverted pyramid. The universe started on a very basic set of rules which then expanded and extended from that basis hence the fundamentals do not change thus the inverted hierarchy.
@@skydragon23101979 I Agree with Your Mental Perception Which it Means a Virtual Creation of Reality as a Simulacrum From Bottom Up or Top Down It remains a Mental Creation and therefore Artificial and Temporary But... From Atoms to Molecules to Cells to Organisms to Organs to Tribes to Societies to Cultures are the Expressions of Spheres of Consciousness that Integrate and Transcend Spheres of Consciousness that Differentiate to Integrate and Transcend Generating New Spheres of Qualities of Consciousness always Towards the Beauty of Timeless and Formless Consciousness ❤️💚💜
Many of China's expansions were passive. When resolving border conflicts, they are generally more willing to support the original country to regain power and become a vassal state, unless there is no suitable opportunity. If the country is too large or the border is too far, it is not easy to manage warlords, and agricultural immigrants are unwilling to move. As long as there is no conflict, this is the best choice. Because the border is too long, there is no problem in frontal battles, but it is very passive to be attacked in many places, so it often suffers in battles with nomads dominated by cavalry, and is occasionally invaded by them, The Great Wall of China plays a certain buffer time
China was actually conquered by the Mongols and the Manchus, but the most interesting thing is that in the end both conquerors were assimilated into the Chinese culture and became part of the Chinese culture, which is very interesting
Hmmm this again. Well the Mongols definitely changed and 'mongolized' much of Chinese culture and the Manchu most definitely made Chinese change in dramatic ways. And wouldn't this be 'very interesting' for nearly all conquerors everywhere? In this context, compared to Rome, indeed the Barbarians 'absorbed into Rome'. "neither holy nor Roman' our narrator reminds us.These were really Germanic conquerors into Rome. Speaking Roman, acting like Romans, insisting they were part of Rome's history, really, entirely absorbed into Rome. Or this weird 'absorbed them' rule only seems to work when its about China. very interesting indeed.
@@theasianjaywalker4455 Well, the core of the Chinese culture is its unique writing characters, famous classical articles and poems created all along history. The Mongols or Manchus all started to read and write in Chinese shortly after their conquers, within few generations, til today. You don't see the other way around, do you?
@@robertlee6529 no, there is no rule about conquerors and using the native language. The barbarians conquering the Roman empire soon spoke Latin. The Romans conquered Greece and used Greek to administer and enjoyed and involved themselves in Grecian art and poetry. So they no less conquered. This would go on many many places and times in history but for some strange reason Chinese have decided to make up some new rule that actually they defeated the Manchus! Heheh actually they werent defeated because the Qing used native Chinese characters? No. Thats not a thing, a rule, that doesnt mitigate China being invaded, conquered, annexed and defeated by the foreigners.
@@robertlee6529 nope, I reject your offer about 'whatever one wants to believe' and instead, and this isn't very Chinese but that we ought to believe what we know to be true. You failed to 'tell me facts' of any meaning or distinction, no 'facts' you brought up mitigate being conquered, defeated and taken over. Also, you being 'Manchu and Chinese' is just silly so stop that.
Gibbons said that one reason the Roman Empire fell was the rise of Christianity. That's why some US missions and missionaries ate so keen to convert Chinese. Not for the right reasons. 😂
Both the Manchus and Mongols ruled China before but both assimilated into China at the end. China lost the battles but won the wars at the end. Mongolians are far worse after USSR broke up.
As an african with distant nubian blood (nubia is the world oldest ciivlisation starting from 3300 B.C Ta-seti with the world's oldest proof of a monarchy and sites like Nabpta playa dating from 8000 B.C showcasing already astronomy in ancient Africa) I admire chineese civilisation because they refused to westernise or arabize their culture no matter what.
For China people living in modern civilized society, in fact, many of them have been westernized. Compare the thoughts of China people in ancient times and China people now.
China did not waste its energy and resources trying to conquer everyone else. Instead, it traded with everyone, helping create a stable, wealthy, peaceful region. Even when it was conquered--which did happen--it made sense for the conquering people to integrate themselves into this stable, wealthy sphere which included China.
This is true, but it needs to be qualified to some extent. China conquered and converted everyone within the arable Chinese heartland, because there are no significant barriers that form natural barriers within the Chinese heartland. To the southwest, the Himalayas form an impenetrable barrier that separates Asia from the Indian subcontinent. To the west, the Gobi desert is a similarly challenging obstacle that prevented invasion from central Asia, much less European armies. The north is mountainous, but not like the Himalayas, hence the Great Wall of China. The southeast is jungle and relatively permeable, but also relatively unpopulated compared to agrarian China. The key difference is that China did its conquering and assimilation in what are largely prehistoric times, shaping the cultures of otherwise primitive people along Chinese lines. China progressed so quickly and raised their level of civilization so high that China stopped conquering and assimilating other peoples because it would have been too expensive to raise them up to Chinese standards. This holds true today, where China wouldn't want to annex somewhere like Afghanistan because it would cost them too much to redevelop and administer, with a low chance that their investment would produce a net benefit for China proper.
Vietnam region beg to differ .
China never had opportunity to exhaust itself like Rome.
How the hell did it get so big without conquering? Please get a delusion check. Ask the neighbour of china. Ask the old kingdoms now dedtroyed.
@@kampfer91 what they want to beg for? Ming emperors are quick to give up vietnam and eager to distant themselves from the political family rivlary there.
sure, occasionally 1 emperor might come up with funny idea of military achievements, but other than the founding emperor, most of the time will get shoot down by their confucius minister that want nothing of giving power to military officer.
We in Malaysia Chinese support our motherland Da great wall of China ❤❤❤❤❤❤
You mean China should be limited inside that "great wall"?
天涯若比鄰，祝全球華人同胞中秋快樂！
拥抱大马华人！
华夏不会忘记大马华人的贡献
Careful, some people might get triggered
im impressed that theres a viewer that is so educated in Chinese history and is Western and young! theres hope for the West!! And hes a viewer that probably resides in the comments!
Well done Matthew!!
China is has always been self sufficient. Rome and America could and cannot exist without outside economies supporting their core. They arent real nations to emulate. Most American workers can't even visit America.
Agree! He looks different.
Chinese culture is full of wisdom accumulated throughout five thousands years history.
Of course no other culture has wisdom or history.
What a shame all that was redacted for the good of the people ahem the totalitarian regime of CCP ahem
@@aodhai this sounds like you are insinuating negatively. Why do people like to sound kinda vague. it can lead to different interpretation (leaning toward negativity) and mis-interpreations
@@aodhaiquit shadow boxing in the comments section, your inferiority complex is showing
You imagine China hasn't changed over all that 5,000 years of history?
(Even granting your false premise that 'China', which really began in the 3rd century BCE with the Qin Dynasty, is actually '5,000' years old, which, tbh, I dispute! Its roots may go back that far, but those 'roots' were NOT 'China'!)
As a Chinese born and raise outside China, always feel proud of the strong egalitarian mindset and culture, so much even Monotheistic hierarchy religion could not developed nor popular when its being important. With strong egalitarian mindset, we just cannot being subjugated
Give it time... 😐
@@chokwoo5720 “…As a Chinese born…with such a glorious egalitarian mindset and culture which cannot be subjugated, why are you wasting your time in a less worthy society ? Go back and enjoy the fruits, you deserve it.
China has never been egalitarian. What are you talking about?
@@blackconfucius888 I suppose he thinks that the CCP's propaganda = REAL egalitarianism, rather than being just the wool that is pulled over the eyes of the Chinese people to keep them all happy in their subjugation to the CCP. He certainly can't be thinking about any of the previous Chinese dynasties, all of which, as you say, were hierarchical. Feudally so!
@@theseustoo5000 years is not enough time? Lmaooooooo
The answer is very simple. Chinese view themselves as one single unified race and the changes in dynasty in the past has been ths eagerness of the Chinese to find an extremely capable leader who can bring pride and dignity to all.
Chinese view themselves as a civilization. Mongolians conquered China for a period of time but then became Chinese.
@@freespeech8520yap.. i read some articles before,... Mongols because of their population size small and conquered huge population (Mongols was less than 5 percent meanwhile Hans 90+ percent), after many2 years many of them assimilated
into Hans. The same with The Manchurian (Qing)... In the end there is no more Manchu, they became part of the Hans....
@@freespeech8520 Mongol Empire never in their entire history conquered all of China, only northern part of it, do not confused Yuan Dynasty with Mongol Empire even though nominally they were recognized as a successor to the Mongol Empire.
First, the Yuan did have a Mongol "Golden Family" ruling it and as time passes, most of the ruler had more Chinese blood than Mongol one, and nominally they can tax other Kha'anates just like other Kha'anates can tax Yuan's subjects, but militarily, they were separated and not even formal alliance was formed, even though the rest of other Kha'anates acknowledge the Yuan as the successor, although just nominally, but no control.
Second, the Yuan, unlike the other Kha'anates, was acknowledges as a Chinese Empire as well even by other Kha'anates and by the Yuan themselves. Borjigin Kubhlai wasn't called or labelled as "Kublai Kha'an" as modern western historian love to portray, officially, he was called "Yuan Chengzu" and Borjigin Temujin aka Chinggis Kha'an was even labelled as "Yuan Taizu" by the Yuan family themselves which means the "Founder of the Yuan Dynasty" even though the Mongol during the time of Chinggis didn't even have this label or thinking to call their leader as such.
Third, it was the Southern Song Dynasty that fought and broke the "United Mongol Empire" into five different fragments by wounding and killing their "Last Great Kha'an aka Mongke Kha'an" in one of the many battles of the Fishing Fortress (Diaoyu Cheng). So technically or practically speaking, the United Mongol Empire was already gone decades before the fall of Southern Song Dynasty to the Yuan which was basically another Chinese Dynasty with Mongol ethnic rulers that proclaimed themselves as Chinese "Son of Heaven" instead of Mongol Kha'an, the Yuan bureaucracy was basically a Chinese Confucian one, which was different from the Mongol system.
No forces from outside China had totally conquered entire China even when China was very weak and fragmented into small states fighting each others, at most only the northern half, or some part of the northeast and some eastern parts. The only example here were Northern Wei Dynasty (Tuoba Xianbei) invasion of Murong Yan Dynasty (Murong Xianbei) and conquered northern China, or the Mongols (Borjigin/Golden Family) invasion of Western Xia (Tangut Dynasty), Western Liao aka Kara Khitai (which wouldn't count since its location was in Western Central Asia and had been usurped by Kuchlug from Turkic Naiman tribe which fled from the Mongol) and Jin (Wanyan/Golden Jurchen Dynasty) and conquered Northern China, while the japanese invaded an even more fragmented weaker China which was in total chaos and japanese failed miserably despite getting the most help from traitors and collaborators and a better situation for them at the time compared to the Northern Wei and the Borjigin.
During Age of Fragmentation, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms which became Northern Song/Southern Song - Xi Xia - Liao - Western Liao aka Kara Khitai - Jin - Yuan, or the Ming/Southern Ming - Shun - Da Xia - Jin/Qing didn't count either, these were all rebellions and civil wars or can be labelled as "Free for All Royal Rumbles" which happened and spread all over the places from within the Chinese Empire.
@@ZalshahZalshah Mongols didn't conquer China with such a small populations, but they indeed do conquer the "islamic Central Asia and a chunk of middle-west" + "european Russia and eastern europe and part of central europe with those small population and some minor prisoners of wars.
But Mongols conquest of Northern China (Xi Xia & especially Jin) consist of massive armies from all over the places they can gather. Mongol even got help from the Southern Song to help them to totally put the Jin out of the world's map.
Xi Xia on the eve of Mongol invasion was already a weak and decaying states that had been at war for near 3 centuries, while the Western Liao aka Kara Khitai was basically nonexistent as it had been usurped for many years by an unpopular "nestorian christian" Turkic Naiman person with the name "Kuchlug" that fled from the Mongol.
While the worst was the Jin, on the eve of Mongol invasion from the north, their Great Wall soldiers which were basically nomadic Turkic + Tatar people all defected to the Mongols, their Khitan subjects rebelled in Manchuria, the Yellow river changed its course in Shandong province and killed 2 millions people in the massive flood, the Red Turban Rebellion wrecked Shandong and Central Plain, while the Western Xia attacked them for not helping when the Mongol invaded the Western Xia territory. And while all these happened, the Jin made the most stupid decision of using half of their entire armies attacking and fighting the war with Southern Song Dynasty which wasn't even involved in all those thing above and the Jin lost it so badly. Yet, they still manage to beat the Mongols on many fronts and held for more than two decades, it took the combined effort of the Mongols and the Southern Song to put an end to them.
And the "United Mongol Empire" with an empire stretching from "sea of japan towards part of central europe, from Artic Circle in the North towards indian ocean in the south" waged war with the Southern Song Dynasty which barely ruled Southern China, the "United Mongol Empire" collapse and fragmented into 5 different Kha'anates and the largest one became another Chinese Dynasty called the Yuan which happened some 2 decades or so before the fall of the Southern Song Dynasty.
It was totally a "MYTH" saying the Mongol had conquered Chinese Han ethnic Southern Song Dynasty with a small armies, you just need to look at the map of how massive the Mongol Empire at its peak was compared to the Southern Song Dynasty which only ruled Southern China when they waged war. Even against the Jin in the north, on many battles, the Mongol did outnumber the Jin on some occasions and still loses some times. Even the so called "invincible" by the west, general Subotai, with 2 tumen ( a small tumen of 3'000+ and a medium tumen 5'000+) some total roughly 8'000+ soldiers loses so badly to Wanyan Yi (Wanyan Cheng Heshang) who only had 400 cavalries supported by 1'000 infantries in battle of Dao Huigu (a pitch battle), Subotai loses nearly half of his troops. Ogodai wanted to punish him (Subotai) severely, but Torui intervened and saved him, so in order to atone for his lost, he was sent to the west which he together with Jebe became legends in the west, leading 3 small tumens of armies (roughly 3000+ each) and curb stomp the islamic kingdoms/armies and the christian kingdoms/armies without much difficulty.
@@ZalshahZalshah Actually, it's very simple why Romans disappeared and the Chinese flourished.. this is all thanks to Shih Huang Ti, who unified China.. there's plenty of bloodshed but SHT had vision and he was prepared to sacrifice any sects that refused to comform... So, unfortunately, for the Romans, they did not have a despot to unify Italy... in other words, if only the Venetians, Romans and Sicilians etc. think and behave as one, who knows?
Luckily for the Koreans, SHT stopped his conquests in Manchuria... and if not for the Sea of Japan and the Typhoons, who knows???
Chinese military were also the most powerful most of time. Chinese know how to fight and win.
They were always inferior to Turco-Mongol-Tungus armies.
@Adil_Turysbek_TVRC they held out longer than anyone else. Hard to fight mobile nomadic armies.
Can't the Chinese defeat the nomads? Where did the nomadic tribes in history go? They were either driven away by the Chinese to the West, and those nomads then destroyed Rome and the Kingdom of Satisfaction in Europe. Or they were conquered and assimilated by the Chinese. You need to look at the map and population of China to know, how could a failed country have such a large territory and such a large population? China is almost always a winner in military terms.@@Adil_Turysbek_TVRC
@@Adil_Turysbek_TVRChit from behind & run fast like a mouse..😂😂😂thats how superior the coward & weak the Mongol, Turk or tungus armies was..in today modern day competition in Olympic game is like a war where it test all country nation young man & girl with physical & mentally challenge..& China always beat the shit out of these so called superiors barbarian nomad descendants country's who claims they are strong blahblah the Mongol or Turkish in swimming,jumping,running,gymnastic etc where all these required good physical & ofc also in technology field where they are always inferior compared to the Chinese throughout the human history..in the end the result speak for itself in everything..if you are not blind or stupid, just by looking at the map &the leading economic powerhouse of today it's crystal clear who are the superior nation & country..tell me where are the Mongol or tungus??? Even the Turkiye is just a lap🐩🐕to the West or US like the Mongol to the Russia or they are already been wiped out long long time ago from from the world map
@@Adil_Turysbek_TVRCthe Chinese hold back the Huns, the mongols, the Turks for over 2 thousands years while the Europeans and Roman’s fell to Huns and Turk and mongosl in a few years
China was conquered by nomadic people several times, e.g in Yuan and Qin danasty, but the culture outlasted throughout all their conquerors and thriving until today. Amazing!
Yuan and Qing were Chinese minorities themselves though.
@@qqziek9909 they became Chinese minorities after they conquered China and assimilated into Chinese culture.
@@qqziek9909 Only AFTER they were assimilated into Chinese culture.
First, you're thinking of the Qing, not the Qin. And the Qing was actually a rebellion of Ming forces - Aisin Gioro Nurhaci was a Ming subject before he started the Qing Dynasty.
The Yuan is no doubt connected to the Mongol Empire, but it is not the Mongol Empire. The Mongols had to convert to Chinese systems and culture before they were finally able to take Luoyang (the orthodox definition of "ruling China"), spending four separate Khans in the process. For comparison, the Mongols were able to take Baghdad half a world away 20 years before the Yuan Dynasty was able to take out the Song.
In fact, the Yuan Dynasty gained Chinese recognition when Kublai Khan led the army of local landowning Han Chinese in central China to massacre Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire, and captured Ariq Böke (Аригбөх), the rightful Khan of the Mongol Empire, alive. Then he proclaimed himself Emperor of China and officially declared his succession to the orthodoxy of the previous Chinese dynasties and set his capital in Beijing.
As a result, the Chinese regarded the Yuan Dynasty founded by Kublai as a part of the orthodox Chinese Empire, while the Mongols regarded Kublai Khan as a traitor.
The planet earth consists of 3 types of empires :
1) The one who works hard to find a common ground among each other and be united as a family, then flourishing together. That's The Great China.
2) The one who are so rich but remains divided to the extent of forever war and that's The Islamic Empire, Kingdom of Africa, South East Asia and Asia Pacific like Japan and Korea. This one, is the easy target for the next conquering empires of the west. But once they followed the footsteps of the first empire, they too, will rise again.
3) The one that doesn't know how to be profitable, is barbaric and greedy AF, and the only way for them to survive is by building their strength in military power. Once they become stronger, even their dumb ideas will be deemed as holier and civilized. But once they can't practice the slave systems, that's when they'll gradually then suddenly, be bankrupt and fallen again. This is the western empire; and once the world bank and world trade are fed up with them, or the rise of China and the Islamic empire, that will mark the end of their glory. They'll eventually be just another set of falling leaves in autumn. They are like a season, they'll rise again until this universe gives up on our existence.
The US is an example of the 3rd one.
@@zetareticulan321 like it or not, that's the only axis of the west.
ngl, western's colonialism was a parasite (at its worst form)
lol i wish you had learned about Islamic caliphates
@@sultan__8636 why wouldn't I? If I didn't learned it, then why i'm a Muslim now?
The big reason why China survive, is its powerful culture, bureacy system and language.
The liao come and they follow Chinese system , same as Jin of jurchen, yuan of mongol and Qing of Manchu.
Language is main factor
@@Kuasarakyat2agreed, the fact that it was logogram helps too, if it was alphabetical like rome then it might not had survived
@@lyhthegreat ... what ... you do know you are typing in roman script!
@@frankyyaggabot6222 i was talking about rome not surviving as a country...in Chinese, different characters have the same meaning despite different readings, in latin alphabets, they all have different meanings.
@@Kuasarakyat2nope..it's the power & beauty of Chinese peoples culture & Confucius philosophy are the main factor that make the victorious powerful king of Mongol, Manchu & Jurchen to embraced & call themselves Chinese even they don't have to do so because all of these tribes also have theirs own language & writing system..in medieval time there's no freedom like today & these emperor word are the law & the most powerful man in whole China..they can always choose to make all the subjects under his rule to use his own language & writing system on entire empire by just 1 decree like how the Manchu emperor order the all the Han Chinese to tie up theirs hair like the Manchus but why they don't do it to use theirs own..but ofc those racists anti China or Chinese won't agree with this facts
Mongols , Khitan , Jurchen , Tangut Turkic want to be Chinese Emperor Civilization .
Extended Japan and Joseon Korea .
China was super regional power back then , everyone want to rule China and being part of Chinese Civilization
Yes, China was the great Asian Melting Pot back then.
Tangut 黨項 origin is Tibet. They later develop their own written text, which "characters look like Chinese, coming closer I don't know a word", according to a Sung translator. Don't try the east Turk bs.
Chinese Civilization "Chinese character" and the confucisian which meaning respect the your parents love the weakness people deliver to the Whole Asia, in the history, other Asia also want to learn Chinese culture become it represent the Civilization.
@wslai7270 - the original Turk also Chinese nomads born from the Xia... look at current-day Turks whom have largely retained their ancient ethno-phenotype identity; Kygyz people, Yakuts, some of the Uyghurs, etc.
@@gotmilk91 only in Southern China was melting pot becuz it was diverse before Han people started their conquest and genocide against ancient people in Southern China.. it was well known in chinese history about ancient peopel in Southern China as known as "Hundred Yue" in english term "Hundred Barbarians" which is ancient people in Southern China are related to population in Southeast Asia today.. for example native people in Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia are well known with their curly hair and dark skin related to Aboriginal people in Australia.. current majority population in PH, Malaysia and Indonesia today as known as "Austronesian people" origin from Southern China during pre Han dynasty and started migrated to Taiwan down to Indonesia during Qin and Han dynasty conquest in Southern China.
During the Zhou Dynasty 3,000 years ago, each region was an independent state based on hereditary rule with a high degree of autonomy. After the Qin Dynasty unified China about 2,000 years ago, a unified system of town governors was established to manage taxation, resource allocation, and military management, which has continued to this day.
If the Chinese emperor cannot govern the country well, he will be overthrown, and the new dynasty will continue to rule completely again, and will not let warlords take power unless they have lost control
When Qin Shi Huang unified China in 221 BC, he did away with hereditary rule and arbitrary judging, replacing it a professional corps (Buraucracy) and strict, uniform, formal code of laws (Legalism). While the Qin Dynasty didn't last long, the fundamental civilizational advantages of standardization and rule of law persist to this day.
As an old Chinese, I admire the depth of research undertaken by Mathew. He even knows about ‘Yangminism’ a sort of revolutionist thinker. ‘Zhong Yuan’ literally means ’center of origin‘. Han Chinese consider all nomads ‘Hu people’ and westerners ‘Fan people’ as less civilized. It amazes me to see the traditional Korean and Japanese dress styles that preserved the Tang dynasty cultural influence.
I believe traditional Korean clothing is based on Ming Dynasty clothing.
中国和其他文明古国的一个明显的区别是，高三学生可以直接阅读2000年前的历史记录。而其他古国，要么遗失了记录、变为神话传说，要么只有考古学家才能读懂一点。中文从来没有断绝。
An obvious difference between China and other ancient civilizations is that high school students can directly read historical records from 2,000 years ago. As for other ancient countries, their records have either been lost and turned into myths and legends, or only archaeologists can understand them.
Chinese language never breaks.
and China has this good (maybe bad) habit to record everyhting in details. So Chinese history may not looks too goloriuos and shiny. 😂
Chinese secondary student can read 《詩經》which is 1100BC
@@awu92 What stroked me was when I read those poems written 3000 years ago they still rhyme using today’s pronunciation. This means I speak the same pronunciation as ancient Chinese did. If I take time machine going back 3000 years, I can understand them without too much difficulty.
Western Europe ended up having the dark age because the history became fragmented when the end of the Roman Empire began in 410 AD & gradually worsened by the time of the Byzantium era when the dimming of the sun before any fragments of history could be reconstructed. The pre-Islamic tribes hadn't experienced such fragmentation.
算上甲骨文是4000年的历史记录好吗
Fascinating quick summary. Cheers👍
Going by the number of countries in europe, it's a tribalistic place. The inter-tribe conflicts means it can never stay as a single unit. Hence, ww1, ww2, and now ww3 all happened in europe. The key to staying together is the elimination of tribalism. This was accomplished in china early on.
Look up the Taiping Rebellion and get back to us.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 The Taiping tribe failed, proving tribes don't work.
This is so cogent and educational!
Rome fragmented into very little pieces, and each piece emerged with their own identity and vision of its place in the world, with little connection to former glory that was Rome.
China was conquered by Mongols and Manchus in 13th century and again in 16th century. Each time China overthrow its yoke and rebuild/renew itself, while the rememants of Mongols and Manchus submerged well into Chinese civilization over the centuries. It is the culture things.
I think the most obvious difference is that China comprises its own people, cultures, customs and traditions. Most importantly is that it is large and old. Even conquerers like the Mongols and Manchus were absorbed to become Chinese. While Rome was a small tribe in Europe conquering various tribes and kingdoms. The Roman Empire had no unified culture, custom and tradition like China. You cannot find people you can call Roman nowadays. Latin was no longer used, except in Vatican. While in China, people speak Mandarin as lingua franca with dialects for socialising. All Chinese around the world identified themselves as Chinese regardless of their official nationalities. But, no one can be identified as Roman these days.
This is a strange 'out' where we admit China was conquered but insist it doesn't really 'count' and actually China was the 'victor' as you see, they 'absorbed' the conquerors.
Ok, so then this would be true for the Romans and really everyone else. So Mexico 'absorbed the conquerors' and then conquer nearly becomes meaningless IF we apply this Chinese 'asterisk' which 'reverses' or 'erases' the conquering.
In China's circumstance:
Barbarians "We want to be Chinese because Chinese culture is good!"
Barbarians "Let's get into China and give Han Chinese names for ourselves!"
And then the barbarians were become Chinese.
In Europe's circumstances:
Gallians "We are the successor of Roman Empire!"
Germanic people “No! We are!
Slavic people "No! We are!"
Anglo-Saxons "No! We are!"
Gallians "Ah shug it! Let's decide this by war!"
And then no one become Roman Empire.
It’s difficult to apply western definition of a state to China. “China” has been conquered by northern countries multiple times (i. E., Mongolia/Yuan dynasty, Manchuria/Qing dynasty), however both got domesticated by the Han culture. Therefore, it’s the very gentle yet erosive “Chinese culture” rooted from 中原 （Chunquan) that included Confucius which was very useful for securing imperialism that rulers promoted, thus sustain the continuity of China. Even the modern communist China is actually practicing the same imperial tradition underneath the communist facade (the way college entrance exam, official hierarchy , how officials evaluated and promoted…are all identical to Han or Tang dynasty).
你以为你们为什么会有公务员考试
Don't you domesticate animals? Is that what was happening when ethnic groups were being massacred in their millions. They were being domesticated?
@@cherishyards1483 to manifest the spirit of Hong Xiuquan aka brother of Jesus Christ
@@frankyyaggabot6222assuming you are talking about recent event it is purely western propaganda. They are doing the ethnic cleansing but they tell you China is
The information is well-presented. It is indeed accurate that both the Mongol and Qing Dynasties were thoroughly sinicized, as evidenced by their proclamations and official documents being recorded in both Chinese and their native languages. Both dynasties upheld Confucian principles and adhered to Confucian teachings. Civilization is defined by its people, not merely by those who govern it. It is a reflection of culture and is accessible to anyone willing to embrace it. This explains, in part, why there are 56 ethnic minorities in China.
The Reason: Deep Sense of Community
family, 国家 is the translation of country in chinese, literally composed of 2 characters - STATE&FAMILY.
Community is a micro Culture, which is short term Civilization. China's civilizational roots go back millennia with the longest continuous written record in the world.
Correction - Communities. Look up the Taiping Rebellion - lot of different communities massacring each other in the millions. Happened plenty of times in China's History.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 both things are true, now those communities live in peace with each other, unlike europe that could never become an actual union or united, they still think of every other state as the enemy, sad.
@@jayzee316 Yes - the killing of 3 million defenceless Hakka after hostilities had ceased was described to me by a Chinese person as necessary to ensure they did not become a threat again. The imprisonment and re-education of almost the entire Uyghur population in Xinjiang was described in similar terms. Totalitarian States always live in peace (as in Yugoslavia) ... it's the coming to pieces at the end that reveals what the people who lived in those States desired all along.
Another very important reason for the reunification of China is the characters. Chinese characters are pictograms, and each character is a single unit, which can be combined with whatever is needed. However, the way of writing Chinese characters does not change, and the particularity of Chinese characters makes Chinese characters very easy to extend. However, it does not change the writing of Chinese characters, because each Chinese character has a unique meaning, and the writing of Chinese characters in this combination will not change, which leads to two results: Second, even if two people speak different languages, as long as they write Chinese characters, another person can understand the meaning of the word through Chinese characters. On the contrary, English or European languages are composed of letters, which have two completely opposite disadvantages of Chinese characters: The composition of English is too simple, but the combination of words must be learned to know what it means, otherwise it is impossible to know what the combination of these letters means. In addition, the composition of English is too simple, only 26 letters, as long as the shape of the letters can be changed to get a new language, which leads to the fact that as long as Europe is separated for a period of time, Different regions will produce new languages and writing methods because of their own habits, which is why there are many European languages, which are completely different from Chinese characters. The writing method of Chinese characters is fixed, and the meaning can be learned. As long as you learn to write Chinese characters, no matter the ever-changing Chinese words, anyone who learns Chinese characters can see what it means.
This is the characteristic of Chinese characters: the way they are written is fixed and cannot be changed, and as long as the meaning of Chinese characters is learned, the composition of Chinese characters is ever-changing, and anyone who has learned Chinese characters can see what it means at a glance.
The way the European alphabet is written is too simple, only 26 letters, which means that a slightly more powerful country can create its own language in this way, as long as there is a geographical division, Europe can easily create a variety of characters.
The meaning of a word in Europe has nothing to do with the way it is formed, as long as a new word is created, it is impossible for a person who has not learned the word to know what it means unless he learns it.
The European writing system made it very easy for people in different places to form their own characters, which led to the fact that every place would become a kingdom in the case of inconvenient transportation in ancient times. The Chinese characters led to the fact that no matter how far away you were, as long as you used Chinese characters, we were still the same people. Maybe I could not understand what you said, but I knew what you wrote, and we were together.
Therefore, culture is also an important reason why China will not split
Simple, Chinese have root, that's culture of ancestry
Confucius philosophy and teachings allow the Chinese culture to stay true to itself at its core while still accepting of foreign cultures on the outside.
Outside cultures were not accepted. They were seen as uncivilized.
Confucius teachings were the first thing to go in Mao's China. Quote - the origins of “bad elements, rightists, monsters, and freaks.”. China was notoriously averse to foreign culture (the Middle Kingdom) - it was part of China's famous hubris that saw it brought low several times in History. Chinese culture was never true to itself - numerous revolts (usually kin-based) caused great civil strife in China in it's past. The commentary here is just baffling - completely at odds with History - is this the product of brain-washing from the notorious Confucius Institutes set up in the West?
@@frankyyaggabot6222 Your knowledge on Confucius teachings and Chinese traditions is shallow and incomplete. The teachings and traditions have nothing to do with current China’s politics. We, the overseas Chinese in South East Asia, still uphold them till now and they allow us to stay true and thrive despite being under colonial rules for the past century. In fact, China is also trying to bring back the traditions bit by bit. I think you are the one being brain-washed by your western media about Chinese culture and its people.
@@nghianja Yes - I am familiar with overseas Chinese (and I do enjoy learning the nuances in their culture from Hakka, Cantonese, indigenous from Hainan, Yunnan, Taiwan, ... residents from Xinjiang, Tibet, ... Malay Chinese, Singapore Chinese, ... ). I also have the fortune (misfortune🤔) to be married to a Chinese person.
I have one friend whose walls are adorned with Confucius teachings, Christian teachings and Communist Party Slogans. A bit of Philosophy, Religion, Ideology and Nationalist fervour all fused into one and he's oblivious as to the contradictions at their source just manifestly proud that they represent his vision of China today.
Chinese approach philosophy the same way they approach food - a banquet that provides a bit of everything with everything clearly marked on the menu so everyone knows what it is they are ordering.
I see a lot of contradiction and confusion and China is currently, a country of contradictions wrestling with transitioning from one role to another.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 In that case, you should not have fallen for the western media rhetoric of tying Confucius with Communism, even though they do have some similarities in parts of their philosophies. Confucius talked about 大同世界, a world of equal treatment and harmony, which the western media misconstrued to Communism.
We are taught to embrace different cultures, religions and even ideologies such as communism/socialism, while not forgetting our old customs and traditions. We treat Muslims and Hindus, Buddhists and Taoists, living among us the same way. We don't preach that our god is better than your god and ask you to convert. You are free to join and leave in the most democratic way.
And in no period of human history has there been a Chinese dynasty or empire having more military outposts or bases outside of its territories than the Spanish, British and now the Americans. Hence I have come to understand that western civilisations/ideologies center around power and control, using money and military as their tools.
And you are right. Our philosophy is just like our cuisine. 满汉全席 is synonymously a banquet of all people for all people and this is how the world should be.
If an culture that is so famous and prominent that even the conquerors of this civilization (the Yuan and the Manchu) want to be better Chinese than the Chinese themselves and did everything to punish those who pinpoint them of being NOT chinese, then you know the civilization is indeed very influential and powerful. In Europe every king and queen wanted to mimic the grandeur of the french kings (king Louis XIV and the magnificent palace of Versaille), so they build palaces, mimic the french lifestyle, wear french haute culture, speak french to be like the french kings. All the countries of the sinosphere (Vietnam, Korea, Japan) wanted to mimic the Chinese Son of Heaven, to be true confucians, write classical Chinese, to wear Chinese style clothes. The Manchus conquered the Ming, but admired the advanced culture they managed to make them obedient, but wanted to be like the Chinese and after a few generations only a few could speak Manchu as most of the higher society spoke only Chinese, wanted to be like the chinese. This alone gives you a feeling how influential the Chinese culture is even to barbarian conquerors.
Thanks!
Very interesting details in the complex Chinese history. China's culture and history is fascinating. Its almost like there's still many new things to discover.
@@gamingtideX “Very interesting details in the…”. Mostly made up or embellished. Archeology comes with simple villages and primitive agriculture. The Wall’s the giveaway.
This is a great video. I have wondered about this, as someone from the Sinosphere (South Korea) who is now actually studying English literature in a Western country. I think there are some distinct features of China. My view is that China has developed and maintained two of its fundamental ideologies - confucinism and legalism. Those two ideas founded the fundamentals of a strong central state government and the legal structure necessary to operate and maintain the central government. Contrary to this, the outsiders that conquered China, whlie good at warfare, lacked such a highly sophisticated and effective hierarchical system to govern such a vast land and so many people for a long time. Hence, every time the outsiders conquered China, they eventually found confucinism and legalism of China far more practical and applicable for the sustainment of their dynasty. If we follow the political history of China, the fundamentals of governing never really changed, no matter which peoples was sitting at the throne of the empire of China. Even the current CPC, who at one stage denounced the influence of confucinism, never actually removed it completely from their method of rule, either.
Very informative. Thank you.
I'dd add that China's government and people has never let religion took over drastically. Instead it's lead by solid values and principles, then adopted some ideologies/philosophies ... and not screwed into molded religions which never evolve through times, that's why they can adapt to many dynasties and eras.
You’ll find at dozens of great answers mentioned in the comments why this is so. The two things I want to add for better context was that;
1. Rome was not as stable on the top to sustain political continuity. The civilization itself was about a thousand years, but as a civilization-state it was very volatile.
2. What helped with China’s political continuty was that they rejected the god-emperor/king idea 3,000 years ago when the Zhou clans defeated the Shang dynasty. The king/emperor instead was a son of heaven and not divine himself, so his and his family’s rule was justified to change if the land wasn’t governed well. Hence, it wasn’t enough to just rule as you please, but you actually gotta work, and get the best advisors/officials out there, to make life better for the people… this help with maintaining continuty for China. Many civilizations and states took a long time to figure this out, but the Chinese knew this very early on.
If Chinese emperors failed to rule the country well, they would be overthrown and the new dynasty would continue to rule intact and not allow warlords to take power
A couple of comments:
1. Roman civilization should be divided into Republic of Italian Roman citizens, and the subsequent poly-ethnic Roman Empire. The Roman Empire was not able to absorb and assimilate non-Romans into a cohesively unified Roman society, so the internal pressures led to fracture and ultimate collapse. We see similar challenges in the West today, as the US and Europe take in vast numbers of immigrants and refugees of completely alien cultures, unable to agree amongst themselves.
2. China did not suffer a Dark Ages when theocratic rule under the Roman Catholic Church existed for centuries, so there was no such cultural concept in China. China was always ruled by men, none of whom would be seen as literal gods above the people. Instead, it was a grand bargain, where the people pledge obedience, and the ruler reciprocates with benevolence. We see this today, where 90-95% of Chinese people support the government, and the government acts on their behalf, resulting in 4 decades of the biggest and fastest rise in living standards the world has ever seen.
In short, nothing has fundamentally changed in the past 2,000-odd years for Europe, or the past 5,000-odd years for China.
@@ZweiZwolfChinese history shows that whenever a ruler failed to govern the country well, he was overthrown. The Chinese government is very aware of this, so any measures they take are based on the interests of the people, so that stability can be effectively maintained.
Several important reforms and policies of the Qin Dynasty that established a unified country were imported from civilian elites in other countries. At that time, an ideological revolution similar to the "Renaissance" occurred in China, and a wave of "a hundred schools of thought contended" emerged, which became the beginning of elite politics instead of hereditary aristocracy. Later, it experienced an era of aristocratic revival and created the "imperial examination system" for selection through examinations. Until now, in a large country with one-seventh of the world's population, competition has been fierce.
Whether it is an official or a senior executive, they hope that the people or candidates who vote are selected from those who are capable or have outstanding performance. Rather than choosing someone who is not sure whether he has the ability and does not like to try his luck next time. Even if the plan is not perfect sometimes, as long as the execution efficiency is high, the trial and error can be completed at the lowest cost, and the plan can be adjusted
not really accurate either, Chinese civilisation is as volatile following your logic since chinese royalties always end up like hermit in the palace while information withheld by the ministers, and without proper education heritage, it always end up with rulers that has no knowledge to rule and thus being overthrow, the cycle of dynasty isnt really a great thing for the people at the time.
what different is the population of chinese remain dominance even after each collapse and the "barbarians" eventually diluted and merged.
the only exception is the qing machu, which try so hard to retain their purity... for the time being.
@@yzy8638 To talk about it separately, deceiving the emperor is a serious crime, but there are always people who try to evade the law. A wise emperor does not need to be an omnipotent genius himself, but must learn to balance the power of ministers, let them compete and supervise each other, if any party has too much power, you can't control it. They can't help but find some crimes of the other party to help them eliminate their political enemies
In my opinion, till the recent Chinese history, in general common Chinese population was highly educated and literated, which is one of the reasons why there exists vast volume of ancient written artifacts and documents that helped keep the civilization carrying on and lasting, such as Sun Tz' art of war, Lao Zi' Daode Jing, each dynasty' documents and files, etc. comparatively, till Martin Luther reform, in West only some of churches clarks were literate
This is very good actually. 👍🏻
this was a significant piece of history why the mongols could create such a large empire...
Rome never treated the people they conquered as romans, but lower class outsider and slaves. that's what led to the eventual downfall of roman empire.
Every Chinese empire fell as well.
@@blackconfucius888 But they still consider themselves chinese, who still consider themselves romans these days?
@@blackconfucius8882024 and China is about to become the top world power!! And what we can say about this small country in decline called Italy 😅
@@blackconfucius888 and rise again, stronger than before, where is rome now ?
@@jasonmonge9969 We could say you are using their script.
Agree with your thesis. I myself have come to this conclusion after a life time of studying Chinese history and culture. This is the source of the reasoning to argue that Chinese culture is not an expansionist one, and very much inward looking. It functions as a glue, as you will to hold the culture/people together, but can also hinder it's growth by rejecting new ideas arrived from foreign lands.
China has been expanding its borders for thousands of years. What are you talking about?
结果上来看是这样的，但它是被动扩张的，先是解除、然后是被入侵、之后就是统一同化，慢慢才有这么大的国土。
中国扩大的边界都是被迫扩大的哈哈，侵略不成反被统治
Kublai Khan of the Mongol Empire became the leader of multiple khanates, but other khanates were unwilling to recognize his status, so after he unified China, he split off and established the Yuan Dynasty, which was dominated by Han Chinese. To rule China, he had to be assimilated to China.
This not only increased his legitimacy in this region, but also accelerated the division of the Mongol Empire, and each was defeated. Until the last khanate was driven away by Russia 200 years later, the Russian tsar inherited a large uninhabited area in Siberia.
Kublai Khan's Mongols lacked a professional bureaucracy corps, and had no choice but to depend on the Han bureaucracy to administer things.
Kublai was a huge Han culture fan. That was the reason.
In fact, the Yuan Dynasty gained the recognition of the Chinese when Kublai Khan led the army of local landowning Han Chinese in central China to massacre Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Empire, and captured Ariq Böke (Аригбөх), the rightful Khan of the Mongol Empire, alive. Then he proclaimed himself Emperor of China and established his capital in Beijing.
Therefore, the Chinese considered the Yuan Dynasty founded by Kublai as part of the orthodox Chinese Empire, while the Mongols regarded Kublai Khan as a Mongol traitor.
@@ZhangXuanyi Yes, I said at the beginning that other tribes did not recognize his status
@@ZhangXuanyiYou said there were Chinese troops, It should be that after occupying China.
Mongolia took 46 years to attack the Song Dynasty,Kublai Khan participated in the last 10+ years after he took.
Thank you for the video🙏👍🙏
The Roman Empire survived until 1453 when Constantinople fell to the Ottomans.
Eastern Empire was different from Western Empire.
partly thanks to the sacking of constatinople by the europeans and their pretend of deaf to the calling of aids.
europe than begins their renaissance by help from the fleeing Byzantium nobles, bringing their roman knowledge and technique long forgotten by the barbarians tribe that overthrow roman rules.
That was the Byzantium Empire that lost to the Ottomans.
Which had no allegiance to Rome.
@@anngcampbellbower4385the Byzantine Empire is a direct continuation of the Roman Empire just like how the Southern Dynasties are a direct continuation of the Chinese Empire
Italian/roman is not spoken much outside italy. So not really comparable with the chinese empire
One common script, a mainstream civilization, a system of bureaucracy cultivation that’s based on the mainstream civilization.
China is a machine of adapting and changing foreign concepts to their own reality, keeping the ball rolling. It has been doing that for 2 thousand years. I think that a good reason for that was the standardized writing and the huge central flat plan that could not stay disunited long enough for a new culture be born.
Good video but one error, Wang Yangming was born in Ming Dynasty 200 years after Song. The school of heart stared with Lu Jiuyuan in Song Dynasty.
The Chinese have a unique guiding philosophy that enabled a sense of continuity. An example is the concept of a transferrable "Mandate of Heaven".
What Westerners like Matthew still miss is that the "Five Hus" of historic China are distant nomadic cousins of the agrarian Han people, stemming from the Xia; even the original Turks are born of the Xia. So it was very natural for the Wu Hus to assimilate into advanced and more-comfortable agrarian Han culture, AND Old Chinese wasn't so far-off from the lingo of nomadic tribes of north and central Asia way-back then. The barbarian people that invaded Europe on the other hand, were famously Asiatic, including Attila the Hun and the Mongols... all descendants of the Xia... and the Europeans seem them as completely different ethnicity/races. The Chinese did not have this problem. Today, many European-types try to pride themselves as the "Wuhus that invaded China", and that's where they continue to falter in their racial-political and ethno-religious relations today.
Wuhus are not Aryans. Aryans tried to invade China around 1200 BC, slightly later than the time Aryans invaded India. It was a 100 years war, and eventually the Aryans lost partly because Chinese at the Shang dynasty had elephant calvary to counter-fight the horsemans. The Shang Chinese also invented two-horse chariot with one driver and two warriors (bow and spear). The other ancient cultures, India, Egypt, and Babylon, were all undermined by Aryan invasion. It’s interesting to note that one lead general of the Shang dynasty to lead victory in the war with Aryans was a female, a queen to the king of the Shang empire.
Indeed, it's significant that the Chinese people and rulers self-identified as "Chinese" by language, culture, and tradition for 1,000s of years. This is completely unlike Europe, wherein Spanish, French, British, German, and Italians all have completely different cultures and mindsets rather than being unified politically, legally, and culturally under the EU flag.
@justintw888 the original Aryans were the Parthians, Sogdians, Tocharians, etc... ancestors of modern-day Iranians for the most part... and interacted w/China since at least Han Dynasty times...
@@gotmilk91 Yes, you’re right. Somehow the definition of Aryans was distorted before WW2. But there are recent archeological discoveries showing that the original Aryans originating from Central Asia had serious conflicts with Chinese people in the Shang dynasty more than 3,000 years ago. Somehow the Chinese culture survived. You can tell the Shang dynasty still uses similar written form language (albeit different) to the Chinese written language today. If the Aryans had succeeded, then the culture would have been destroyed.
I’m a Taiwanese and we still study this Chinese written language form today. We’re legacy of the outcome of the great war 3,000 years ago.
Wait so you mean that the people that were escaping the slaughter of the Huns were Chinese? China was responsible for the Roman collapse cause it couldn't defend its people from the Huns only to hide in cities for months waiting for the Huns to retreat 😲
thank you for ths well researched presentation. I finally can understand something about China's long history and the bias opinions northern chinese have against southern chinese and vice versa. Thank you
Another view of Kublai Khan is not his deep reverance for the Northan Han culture, Just that his brother kicked him out of the Great Khan's Mongolian Empire
Basically, they had no outward expansion. It was the inverse. Other people conquered them, then adopted their culture/language. The steppe invaders, the mongols, the Huns, Tartars. China proper didn't expand into those territories, they rather expanded into China. They were so ahead of their neighbors that everyone automatically adopted their culture after conquering them hence making theirs the dominant culture
The barbarians, who occupied northern China for 300 years (approximate 317-581 AD), were totally assimilated by the Chinese in the end. The reason is very simple: when nomads settled down, they had to learn and accept the advanced farming skills accompanied with relevant Chinese civilization such as the Chinese calendar regarding when to sow and reap. Needless to say, only the Chinese have a unique written system that is able to afford complicated philosophy, literature, technology and religion et al. Like a phoenix, China is always reborn from ashes.
其实中国能保持5000年的文化主要是农耕时代的中原文明，大概区域就是内陆地区的平原文化和江南地区，因为他能带来更多的粮食满足更多的人温饱养育更多的人，而周边地区的国家粮食不足，周边的游牧民族更适合战争，当中原王朝太过腐败安逸时就会从内部被推翻或者被金元清这些朝代给颠覆统治，但是这些国家没有太多管理人才，所以他们离不开汉族的人才来管理，人口也没有汉族多，久而久之就被汉族同化，当然有些他们民族的习惯也会保留下来，更重要的是这些朝代都没有像其他大陆那样去信仰一些外来宗教，也没有强迫老百姓，对于老百姓就是更换管理者没啥大的区别。从清朝后期开始，欧美俄，日本。经过工业文明创作船只，枪支大炮登陆中国开始一切就都改变了，欧美地区的西方人的到来只是掠夺财产，国家还在，老百姓还没有太大的反应，更多的是国家间的交涉。日本人的到来一切就变了，他不分平民老弱妇孺，所到之处，烧杀掠夺贱淫妇女。无恶不作，这对于生活在这片土地上的人来说是不可接受的，民族意识的觉醒，老百姓都参加到了抵抗日本侵略者的行动中。日本军国主义的失败，是过于残忍。一个岛国，野心太大贪心不足蛇吞象。
Super informative video!
China has been able to govern large areas separated by mountains and rivers with different cultures. Unlike the west, even those conquered China became China.
The difference is Roman culture like the typical western culture is to conquer other culture and destroy them. Just like Roman, the western culture has a superior complex dividing and oppressing other "inferior people and countries" to work for them and provide them with resources and wealth. Those conquered Roman just did what Roman would have done. China has always been able to manage different cultures, even different languages and religions.
And yet you type in Roman text using a Western Language on a Western Technology. Think you need to work on a bit of self-awareness before you attempt to pontificate.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 I can write in several languages. So what is your point.
@@TAL142 The point would be that if you want to widen your critique of the West you might like to explain why just about everything that surrounds you (83% according to a Japanese study) comes form the West. Not only the script you are using ... the Internet you are communicating on, the device that you are entering text, I would wager pretty much everything that you engage in in your day.
A modicum of self-awareness before engaging in the usual anti-Western diatribe is my point.
In a study in contrasts you might like to explore the debacle of the Taiping Rebellion and explain that in the context of what you said.
@@frankyyaggabot6222 83% according to a Japanese study? Japanese culture came from mostly Chinese culture. Even Japanese is using Chinese characters.
Chinese culture is over 5000 years old. Chinese culture invented paper money almost 3000 years ago. And China had been paving roads and building bridges, and "high rises" for thousand of years. Even world's oldest open-spandrel segmental arch bridge made of stone is in China. China had building structures 9 stories high thousand years ago. China invented paper, compass, gun powder, printing plus many more that China invented independent of the west.
By your argument, many of the stuffs you used nowadays came from China including the cultivation of tea and first solid fuel rocket. Also porcelain was first made in China.
China was a leading economic power for most of the two millennia from the 1st to the 19th century, accounting for about one-quarter to one-third of the world's GDP. And to be honest just because someone invented something doesn't mean he get credit for being widely use. Much of western technology have involvement from all over the world including Chinese scientists and engineers.
Even much of the Japanese animation they got a lot of their inspiration from Chinese literature like Journey to the west and book of mountain and sea.
@@TAL142 clap clap ... I'm sure the Egyptians can top that; now tell us something we don't know.
BTW what Science and Math does China use to launch it's satellites into space? What building techniques does it employ to build it's road and rail today (or skyscrapers)? What languages does it use to code it's computers that are at the heart of everything in modern China?
Fundamentally, China is what it is today because it Westernised - welcome to the modern world!
ancient Chinese was racist but not that racist.
if you embrace their culture, they will treat you as a Chinese.
As Matthew points out, the center of Chinese civilization is the Central Plain, an agriculturally productive floodplain surrounded by more land, into which Chinese people and culture spilled outwards. Rome, in contrast, is on a narrow peninsula in the Mediterranean Sea, with modest agriculture of its own, but easy access to the rest of the Mediterranean, if you have a navy.
This meant, in China, there was a continuity of settlement and civilization around the Central Plain, and Chinese people from different areas had kinship with each other; even if they were somewhat different, they were still long-time neighbors. In Europe, although the Roman empire extended from France to Egypt, nobody really believed that Europeans and Africans were the same people, or that they were even neighbors; the Mediterranean was a big barrier, and the people on the other side were the Other. There was also the Latin west and the Greek east, again divided by mountains and seas.
Furthermore, the Mediterranean area went through profound deforestation over the centuries, and timber use persistently exceeded sustainable rates of harvesting. You needed trees to build a navy, and trees were increasingly scarce. This meant, over time, it became more and more difficult to build and maintain a Mediterranean empire. If you try to march your army around the Mediterranean, there were plenty of mountainous choke-points that were easy to hold and difficult to cross. In China, in contrast, you can march from one end to the other without much trouble. Note that China is surrounded by oceans, mountains, and deserts; in other words, when you get to a place where you couldn't easily march across, that's where China's borders were.
Comparing China with Rome is not really a good comparison. China is a civilization, whereas Rome is a collection of civilizations temporarily brought under a single political leadership, i.e. an empire. China has civilizational continuity the same way France and Egypt does. China has never been much of an empire, mostly it made some of it's closest neighbors into self-governing tributaries, and that's about it.
China is an empire in the sense that China assimiliated countless tribes which would have grown to literally 100s of walled cities and microstates in India or Europe. You can look at pre-Raj maps of the Indian subcontinent, or the 300-odd German Kleinstaaterei during the Holy Roman Empire.
@@ZweiZwolf You need to differentiate between culture and politics. An empire is a political construct. The ancient Greeks were politically independent city states, but they recognised a certain common Greek cultural identity. The Germans were, at times, likewise politically separate but culturally coherent. At other times the Germans were politically unified, more or less. Ditto Indians. Ditto ancient Chinese. China was sometimes unified, sometimes divided into warring kingdoms, but they all understood they were Chinese kingdoms with a common culture. While it's true that China has, at times, exerted some political influence and even control over neighboring cultures, this was to a much more modest extent than the Roman Empire.
My point is that culture is much more persistent than politics, and that's why China (the culture, not the political dynasties that come and go) has persisted much longer than the Roman Empire. The borders of China grew and shrank over time, but the Central Plain remains Chinese. The Roman Empire grew and shrank, too, and also Rome is still Rome; you can fly to Italy and see the old buildings of the Roman Empire. But the empire that exerted political control from France to Egypt is gone, Rome no longer controls France or Egypt. The culture of the Italians persist, though their empire is no more.
@@sckchui Chinese civilization transcends whatever political constructs happen to be in vogue at any given time. China acts as a nation state today only because that is how the rest of the world is organized. Chinese cultural influence was entirely dominant over eastern Asia, which is why Vietnam and Korea read and wrote in Chinese until they were colonized by France and Japan, respectively. Vietnam was an actual province of China for over 1,000 years, while northern Korea was a province of China for centuries. Chinese political influence via the tributary system kept Asia largely stable for centuries.
In contrast, Indians have never been politically unified except as slaves under the Muslim Mughuls or the British Raj; there is no cultural concept of unity within India and their cultures are all separate and distinct. This is why India has to use English taught to them by the colonial British to communicate amongst themselves.
Germany has also been culturally distinct, with what used to be Prussia (now northern Poland) having different characteristics to western and southern Germans (including Austrians).
@@ZweiZwolf I think your conclusions overreach the evidence. China was not as dominant as you suggest, East Asia was not as stable as you imply, and the Indians and Germans were not as disorganised as you say.
I also think you're overestimating the ability of humans to determine culture and politics, as opposed to culture and politics being the consequence of geography and technology. For example, the fact that India has oceans on three sides, whereas China only has oceans on one side, that makes a huge difference in the ability of seafaring colonial powers from Europe to invade those places. Or the fact that Germany has many other cultures all around it in every direction who are equally productive in agriculture, versus China which has a very productive Central Plain surrounded by much less productive deserts and mountains beyond; that's why you can have a big China dominating smaller neighbours, whereas Germany could not do the same in Europe (and its not like they didn't try).
@@sckchui You completely misunderstand Europe vs Asia. In a Chinese context, Germany would have been the Qin , France would have been the Chu, Spain Wei, Austria Han, Italy Yan, and Portugal Qi. It is no accident that China's provinces are directly comparable to European countries.
This is exactly how Cheikh Anta Diop described the difference between Western and African civilizations that also out lived Rome, particularly Kush and Ghana-Mali. He argued that while every people have had a nomadic period in their history, Africans and Chinese transitioned into sedentary life as a natural evolution rather than the sudden conquest of sedentary populations by a nomadic one as in the case of the Greeks and Romans, who never truly evolved a sedentary mentality, thus paving the way for Western behavioral patterns.
its geography. China has natural barriers like mountain, deserts and sea. where roman empire was literally conquered and stolen lands that rome walked through.
This did not stop the Mongols and Manchus from conquering all of China.
and did not explain how they embraced Chinese civilisation
@@joepup8348 China did build the walll. Where are the Mongolian and Manchurian rulers today? lol do you see how those conquered China? did they go though a natural barrier or did they walk into China?
@@joepup8348 they didnt stop mongols from winning the war, they did kill the mongol khan, forcing the mongols to hold election, and the mongols horde that are going to invade europe retreat and start their infighting in the steppe
ya, so they stop the mongols from conquering all of europe.
@@michaeltse321 You didn't get my point; I'm on China's side. My point is that the argument that China was never conquered because of geography is false, because China was in fact conquered. So there must be an explanation for why China prevailed in the end, and did not fall like Rome and disappear as an empire and political entity. The reasons are numerous: the tremendous cultural power of China, which attracted and converted even the conquerors; the strong and well-designed meritocratic bureaucracy; the unifying nature of the ideographic language; the tremendous wealth; the large, relatively homogeneous population; and so on. All these factors and others served to keep the nation together and helped integrate the very people who tried to conquer China.
because China has a creative way to call all their conquerors... dynasties...
wow! very logical and accurate history!
It was not a question of survival and continuity in China compared to the Roman fall. China was destroyed at the end of each dynasty and reconstituted itself. The Qin empire lasted just a few years and survived the death of Qin Shi Huang by… two or three years. Li Bang, the founder of the Han was a peasant and had nothing to do with the dynasty. The only time when China avoided disintegration was if a new dynasty came by a coup, as it was the case with the founding of the Tang.
So the answer I think is rather that China always was broken and reconstituted itself after periods of civil war, whereas the attempts to reconstitute the Roman Empire all failed. Hence European fragmentation and incomplete attempts, like Mussolini’s Roman ambition and even our beloved EU.
In fact, the Roman Catholic Church rebuilt Western Europe through religion, the invading Nordic peoples later gave up their faith and assimilated into Catholicism, and the other Eastern Roman Empire was replaced by the Ottoman Empire, which continues to this day.
China's reconstituted success is due to a dominance identity, in each unified period, people live there view all of them as one people, even in reality they are different race, and each collapsed and civil war, people there view the rivalry faction fighting for their own good, not due to racial or religion, thus reconciliation after each civil war can mend the wounds faster.
until now, now western puppets trying to instigate a different identity by making it seems like theres 2 different race across the strait. with the "democratic, humane, civilised" islander calling the mainland people using slander and racist slang used by the imperial japan,
In short, whoever conqurered China eventually became China.
China is a civilization disguised as a country. I forget who said it
China is too big and has a huge homogeneous population base so it makes it difficult to divide and control like what the British did to India, which was basically divided into many small kingdoms... which the British use to their advantage for over a century. It is also hard to brainwash and control a civilization of thousands of years of history and culture that is deeply engrained into the population! The Mongols figured out that they had to adopt the chinese system and put their people in charge to rule China, the Manchus also followed the same formula.... becuz that is the only formula that works since the han chinese population was greater than the conquerors. To come to this conclusion, everyone need to understand during these ancient period and not use our current modern period and understanding to look at this view from the Mongolians and Manchu's perspective.
China is actually very diverse with a huge number of cultures and even dialect groups. They also have different tribes and split loyalties. But China is a unified civilization because it has already completed its nationhood when the First Emperor formed the first Chinese empire. So to say China is homogenous is false but it is unified in the most important ways that makes it a civilizational nation: language, bureaucracy, and a culture that has formed its centralization system long ago. The shared aspects of Chinese culture is what allowed China dynastic cycles and each dynasty brought something new to the table, something to add to the history that further enhanced its cultural unity and unique identity. Indeed, that cultural depth and strength is why all the conquerors became sinicized instead of the other way around.
Event then, it is not entirely fair to say the Roman empire did not endure but that the Romans while inclusive of the nations they conquered as in they allowed some of them to become Roman citizens, but not ALL of them became Roman citizens and get completely integrated. China had the benefit of the short lived Qin dynasty that unified the country as a language and then the long 400 years Han Dynasty that completed the philosphical (Confucius) and religion (Taoism then later Buddhism) under a centralized bureaucracy that allow effective governance complete integration.
Even then, you can argue that the Roman empire had all these ingredients too. But even as the Romans endured as the Byzantines for many centuries, their downfall was them being conquered by the Arab caliphates. In the end, despite their long historical and cultural dominance in East Europe, they could not Romanized their Muslim conquerors the same way China was able to sinicize the Mongols and Manchus and their unified culture and language was broken. By that time, western Roman empire was also gone long ago because they also could not Romanized the Visigoths, the Gauls and other outsiders. It will be interesting to imagine how the world will be if the Romans was able to do what the Han Dynasty did and completed the integration of the European continent. However, we must also acknowledge that the real civilization of the Europeans is actually Christendom, not a singular state nationhood. Despite the differences in language and culture, they were unified under Christendom, and today that legacy became the western liberalism. They might be different countries, but they are still identifiable as the "west" and that's not a coincidence. The Chinese need to acknowledge that the same way the west need to acknowledge the Chinese civilization lest China becomes arrogant and treat them as disunited barbarians and repeat THEIR mistakes of underestimating the Chinese people. They are very much united as a people under western liberalism.
@@gelinrefira - I am not a history expert, but I like History. Ok, lets compare the wars in Europe vs the wars before the Qin dynasty conquerored the whole of China. Just in size and the assimilation of the different kingdoms into the Qin and there are differences between all the 6 different dynasties which the Qin conquered. The French under Napoleon managed to conquer almost the whole of Europe but Europe was never united and homogeneous they dont identify as being Europeons first and French or Germans second. For the chinese, they identify as han people and the dialect are just different shades of the same color!
My point is simply, there needs a glue to bind the people together, and language is the glue, the other detraction to bind people together is the difference in color and race! If u are not seen as being the same as the main group than u become the minority and for the chinese, its easily distinguish even today the term is use hua-ren, which means chinese people and immediately there acceptance. U wont find it for the Europeons they dont feel kinship being describe as Europeons. For the Americans, there is this kinship defined as Americans, but than the racism in the US has been always lurking in the background primarily because of silos of the different communities banding together and not integrated together as one people. There is inherent distrust in the US system, WW2 Japanese Americans were put in concentrations camps just for having Japanese ancestory, now its the chinese Americans that are being single out and demonized...
Talking about Chistianity, the spiritual aspect might help unify the people but the main and key differences still remains as fault lines and not as a homogeneous society so I dont buy your argument its too shallow and simplistic.
A test is when there is an invasion or threat to the very existent of that society or civilization how will the people ban and react together and does it last thousand of years? Chinese civilizations and the many dynasties lasted thousand of years which society or civilization has that endurance and ability?? There is none in the world and u wont find another even in today's modern world. China has evolved under the CCP but the main difference of China now under the CCP is the mandate of heaven to now the mandate of the people that justifies the ruling party of China. In China the approval of the government is more than 90% u wont find that level of support anywhere in the world by any government, as long as the interest of the people are taken care of which u also see in the many different dynasties that thrive, and the dynasties that failed to popular revote both within and by the people to change dynasties that is how China has evolved thousands of years.
Western liberalism has been exposed as a fraud and pipedream, look at Gaza conflict, look at the double standards in the so called western liberalism condeming Russia yet are silent when it comes to Gaza and the mass slaughter of the Palestinian people. The difference is Ukrainians are white, the Palestinians are brown!
To your last point, if u study the fall of the Qing dynasty u will understand that the Qing dynasty thought that it was so superior that it can shut its doors to the west and it took the gunboats of the west, the cannons and muskets to wakeup the Qing Empress that they are not the superior society... so no China will not be making that same mistake again, China still respects the US and the west but it seems that the US and the west does not respect China!
the WEST overall is far more homogeneous than China
The population was not always homogeneous; even now, there are dozens of mutually unintelligible languages. The strength of Chinese culture, from the written language to the meritocracy, brought not only formerly foreign, non-Han peoples but conquerors under the Chinese sphere, a process that took centuries.
@@albertwong1919They are all Christians
I think the simplest answer might be Chinese are really good at agriculture throughout history
This is a foolish comparison. China survive in name only. China's boundaries, cultures, and rulers were never fixed.
You are foolish. China ethnic Han core remains unchanged, they followed the same civilisation basis (Confucius, Taoism, Zen Buddhism) for thousands of years and Chinese language evolved less than European languages over that time.
The change of rulers and regime doesn't change the civilisation. China is more stable than any other Empire in history.
China is not just an empire or nation/state. China strength is its culture, people, and identity. And that withstood the test of time.
Roman never collapsed. It became england now US.
Where is Romania?😂😂😂
The Graeco-Roman World continues today in the arts, medicine, science and technology. Modern China is built around it and most modern Chinese lean towards it rather than the superstitions that guided their ancestors.
I think a major reason that gets missed is that no one in europe wanted to be ruled by the Romans but they wanted the same power and prestige. So they rejected reforming the roman empire but kept wanting to tie themselves to it as a true successor to it to which others would oppose because they dont want to be ruled by this group wanting to call themselves the romans and would rather call themselves the romans.
Agreed. western roman civilization and the holy roman empire were not contiguous.Voltare summed it up very accurately. The longevity of the eastern roman empire would be a better comparison with china.
You need to first define China before making comparisons.
@@blackconfucius888 Every dynasties after the Qin is China, even one founded by invaders like Yuan Mongols and Qing Manchu become Chinese in the end.
Rome, as a civilization lives on, it's Latin became French etc, and English in many ways. It's ideas evolved, unlike the Chinese, which remains nearly the same For a long periods of time. Today constantly telling people it's word for wood 木looks like a tree. Please memorize the sound for this character mù. So proud of this ancient writing..
The lack of an absolute despotic power over all domains - like in China - was a key element for the flourishment of Western civilization.
I mean I guess the Yuan and Qing dynasties count as being conquered, but it cancels out as the manchus and Mongols became sinaboos.
Nobody really, really tried. Not even the Mongols - they settled for partial occupation.
Chinese civilisation has something that other civilisations did not have which is morals. Confucius, Lao Zi, Mencius and many other scholars emphasized the need for good morality in every governance, without this even the Heaven would take away the mandate of governing the people. You can see at the end of every dynasty, it's always caused by the deterioration of morality. This has served as a constant reminder to the rulers later: If you wish to make China great, always use good morals as the foundation of governance. China has the most complete records of its history compared to any other countries, or civilisations. In the records, even the bad things done by the emperors were not spared. The tai shi recorded everything, the good and the bad of the emperors. This serves as lessons too how not to be a bad ruler that can bring down a country.
China has been killing female infants since ancient times. Even Han Feizi mentions atrocious practice. Females could be bought and sold. Early Confucian texts discuss the regulation of the practice.
Have no idea what "morals" you are referring to.
Confucius was fine with the barbaric practice of sacrificing lambs, even though others during his time opposed it.
Confucius also said that the "upright" son conceals the crimes of his father. Thus, it would be immoral in Confucius' eyes to report your father to the authorities for engaging in illegal activities.
@@blackconfucius888 Confucius stopped human sacrificing. Humans are known to sacrifice animals. We eat meat every day, don't we? Of course not including vegetarians here.
Read The Analects and you will understand better.
My first exposure to the morals of modern China were pretty girls crushing rabbits placed under glass table tops by sitting on them. All for cash of course. Then there were the first hordes of Chinese tourists that would openly defecate on the street in Hong Kong in front of astonished onlookers. This was also the civilisation that made a science out of torture. Are these the Chinese morals you speak of?
China's geography made it relatively easy to unite, consisting of vast fertile plains that could support a very large population.
and surrounded by mountains, deserts, tundra, oceans, where the population is small so it is not a significant competitor.
The civilization persisted because the culture persisted.
Rome had no natural resource, not too many farmlands of her own, the most important, not enough manpower.
The answers is one because of Confusian as basic religion and socio rule.
Even next China major religion like Buddhism is a very pacific dogma that bring harmony between China's society.
Rome ran out of spaghetti?
China got plenty of noodles
TBF the dynasties died and nation fragmented into many. Then reunited again, this cycle went on for ages....
answer is in Russells' book Problem of China. And it is: cultural civilization and rule by culture. Period.
China was conquered by the Mongols and then by the Manchurians
The difference is that conquerors adopted China’s culture and language rather than destroying it
Yup, China didn’t break up but expanded.
The first Chinese empire was the consolidation of different Chinese kingdoms, the Roman Empire was on the other hand extremely diverse. So Chinese having a large population of an original stock of people means it always had a legitimate reason for a reunification even after a dynasty is destroyed. It also means foreigners be it migrants or invaders will eventually be assimilated as well. With a large population the Chinese was able to conquer majority of the lands that is suitable for agriculture and established their colonial settlements there, the Chinese was able to retain their identity all throughout the ages
Yuan dynasty means it had already ceased to be China, it was ruled by foreigners (those considered to be foreign). Qing dynasty is also considered 'foreign' by the majority Han. Basically China had ceased to be after the Mongol invasion and rule.
The Chinese were attacked by Muslim Expeditionary forces and defeated but Muslims did not perused on the victory because it was very unknown world at the time . Although trading from China to the world was huge it was really hard to surveil on the Chinese for attack. Chinese was a close society and is the same almost today although as not much . The second reason was the mountains around China and Sea on the other hand . At the time Sea based operations were consuming a lot of resources and risky much more than today so no one tried to invade through the sea. Also Chinese were producing a lot of technologies of the time and upgraded their arms and ammunitions and they had the population advantage too. Chinese were savers and still as a nation are mostly savers so they had all the resources to defend and run the empire so long .
Same category of reasons why the USSR died and the PRC survived and thrived.
The Universe is Not a Hierarchical Pyramid of Mathematic Quantities
The Universe is a Wholarchical Sphere of Spheres of Consciousness Qualities
The Beauty of Timeless and Formless Consciousness Shines in the Form in Time ❤️ 💚 💜
I politely differ from your view. The universe is very hierarchical but in the opposite sense, i.e. inverted pyramid. The universe started on a very basic set of rules which then expanded and extended from that basis hence the fundamentals do not change thus the inverted hierarchy.
@@skydragon23101979
I Agree with Your Mental Perception
Which it Means a Virtual Creation of Reality as a Simulacrum
From Bottom Up or Top Down It remains a Mental Creation and therefore Artificial and Temporary
But...
From Atoms to Molecules to Cells to Organisms to Organs to Tribes to Societies to Cultures
are the Expressions of Spheres of Consciousness that Integrate and Transcend Spheres of Consciousness that Differentiate to Integrate and Transcend Generating New Spheres of Qualities of Consciousness always Towards the Beauty of Timeless and Formless Consciousness ❤️💚💜
Many of China's expansions were passive. When resolving border conflicts, they are generally more willing to support the original country to regain power and become a vassal state, unless there is no suitable opportunity. If the country is too large or the border is too far, it is not easy to manage warlords, and agricultural immigrants are unwilling to move. As long as there is no conflict, this is the best choice.
Because the border is too long, there is no problem in frontal battles, but it is very passive to be attacked in many places, so it often suffers in battles with nomads dominated by cavalry, and is occasionally invaded by them, The Great Wall of China plays a certain buffer time
China was actually conquered by the Mongols and the Manchus, but the most interesting thing is that in the end both conquerors were assimilated into the Chinese culture and became part of the Chinese culture, which is very interesting
Hmmm this again. Well the Mongols definitely changed and 'mongolized' much of Chinese culture and the Manchu most definitely made Chinese change in dramatic ways.
And wouldn't this be 'very interesting' for nearly all conquerors everywhere? In this context, compared to Rome, indeed the Barbarians 'absorbed into Rome'.
"neither holy nor Roman' our narrator reminds us.These were really Germanic conquerors into Rome. Speaking Roman, acting like Romans, insisting they were part of Rome's history, really, entirely absorbed into Rome.
Or this weird 'absorbed them' rule only seems to work when its about China. very interesting indeed.
@@theasianjaywalker4455 Well, the core of the Chinese culture is its unique writing characters, famous classical articles and poems created all along history. The Mongols or Manchus all started to read and write in Chinese shortly after their conquers, within few generations, til today. You don't see the other way around, do you?
@@robertlee6529 no, there is no rule about conquerors and using the native language. The barbarians conquering the Roman empire soon spoke Latin. The Romans conquered Greece and used Greek to administer and enjoyed and involved themselves in Grecian art and poetry. So they no less conquered.
This would go on many many places and times in history but for some strange reason Chinese have decided to make up some new rule that actually they defeated the Manchus! Heheh actually they werent defeated because the Qing used native Chinese characters?
No. Thats not a thing, a rule, that doesnt mitigate China being invaded, conquered, annexed and defeated by the foreigners.
@@theasianjaywalker4455 Yeah, whatever you believe, bro. I'm Manchu and a Chinese. Not trying to persuade you but just telling you a fact.
@@robertlee6529 nope, I reject your offer about 'whatever one wants to believe' and instead, and this isn't very Chinese but that we ought to believe what we know to be true.
You failed to 'tell me facts' of any meaning or distinction, no 'facts' you brought up mitigate being conquered, defeated and taken over.
Also, you being 'Manchu and Chinese' is just silly so stop that.
Asia be aware of hormone disrupters contained in grains and seed oils.
they’re moving away from the western food chain- cancelling millions of dollars worth of US & Canadian crops - soon they’ll cut us off completely
😂😂 what a comment
Gibbons said that one reason the Roman Empire fell was the rise of Christianity. That's why some US missions and missionaries ate so keen to convert Chinese. Not for the right reasons. 😂
But many Chinese still don't believe in Christianity. In fact most are atheist
Everybody in the comment section knows everything 😂😂😂
We know who are the chosen one
Both the Manchus and Mongols ruled China before but both assimilated into China at the end. China lost the battles but won the wars at the end. Mongolians are far worse after USSR broke up.
Ummm…. The mongols did…the manchus did….🤷♂️
Because Chinese had absolute advantage at both population and level of development over the other ethincs around them, but rome didn't.
We have the 1st emperor to thank, I think 🤔
Probably the only place in the world that didnt have there history and books destroyed
MY APOLOGY, TYPO! "HOLY"
As an african with distant nubian blood (nubia is the world oldest ciivlisation starting from 3300 B.C Ta-seti with the world's oldest proof of a monarchy and sites like Nabpta playa dating from 8000 B.C showcasing already astronomy in ancient Africa) I admire chineese civilisation because they refused to westernise or arabize their culture no matter what.
For China people living in modern civilized society, in fact, many of them have been westernized. Compare the thoughts of China people in ancient times and China people now.
Could you suggest a few authentic resources and books to learn about Chinese history and its socio-political evolution?
Cheers!