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Since
Marco
Polo, the fabled markets of China have drawn
the west like a magnet. This ancient culture has been colonized
by foreign powers, buffeted by war and revolution - yet China
remains one of the most constant of international influences.
It is a sleeping giant. Many fear and some welcome its awakening.
These tapes examine both the changing and the constant face
that China has offered to the world.
- 17th-11th
Century B.C.-The Shang Dynasty: court, calendar,
army, metal industry.
- Ca.
1025-225 B.C.-Chou Dynasty (900 years). Mandate
of Heaven. Confucius,
Lao-Tse.
- Ca.
800 B.C.-Ch'in Dynasty in the far west: Legalism
(tyranny), warfare and conquest. Unified state (222 B.C.).
Ch'in is source of the name China. Shih Huang Ti
(ca 246 B.C.) begins the Great Wall (and burns China's Books).
- Ca.200
B.C. - 245 A.D.-Han Dynasty: bureaucracy, mandarins.
Chinese Renaissance of scholarship and arts in 1st-
3rd centuries.
- 650-950-Tang
Dynasty, called China's "Golden Age"; painting, sculpture,
poetry.
- 950-1100-Five
rival dynasties, including Southern Sung and Northern
Sung. Printing, paper money, gunpowder; the height of Chinese civilization.
- 1224-Genghis
Khan leads Mongol invasion from the northwest and conquers
China. Khanbaliq is renamed Beijing (1260).
- 1280-1368-Yuan
Dynasty, established by Mongols (Kublai Khan).
Roads, canals built throughout much of China.
- 1368-1661-Ming
Dynasty. Last of the native emperors; international exploration,
decadence..
- 1516-First
Westerners (Portuguese adventurers) arrive.
- 1661-1911-Ch'ing
Dynasty (Manchus, i.e. Turkic nomadic invaders).
- Early
1800s-Opium trade thrives among British merchants
in China.
- 1839-1842-Britain
defeats China in Opium War. Hong Kong ceded to Britain;
opium trade surges.
- 1850-1864-Tai
P'ing rebellion. 60 million Chinese die; half of China
laid waste.
- 1894-1895-First
Chinese-Japanese War.
- 1900-"Boxer"
Rebellion is suppressed by an international force.
- 1911-Provisional
Chinese Republic proclaimed under Sun Yat-sen.
- 1928-Kuomintang
regime established.
- 1931-Japan
seizes Manchuria, renames it Manchukuo.
- 1945-1949-After
Japanese surrender in WWII,
China's Nationalist and Communists fight in
civil war.
- Oct
1, 1949-People's Republic of China proclaimed under Mao
Zedong. Nationalists flee to Formosa (Taiwan).
- 1950-1951-One
million Chinese die in
Korean War. 3 to 5 million
purged, jailed, or executed.
- 1972-U.S.
opens dialogue with China, followed by full diplomatic relations
in 1979.
- 1976-Mao
Zedong dies. China opens and begins experiments with market
economy.
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