China (AWWA2)

The Celestial Empire of Great Ming (Chinese: 大明的天朝) (Also known as Ming China, or simply China) is a nation in far-east Asia. It borders the Russian Empire to the north, Korea, Japan and the Netherlands to the east, Burma, Siam, and Dai Nam to the south, and the British Raj to the east.

Etymology
The word "China" is derived from the Persian word Chin (چین), which in turn derives from the Sanskrit word Cīna (चीन). It is first recorded in 1516 in the journal of the Portuguese explorer Duarte Barbosa. The journal was translated and published in England in 1555. The traditional theory, proposed in the 17th century by Martino Martini, is that Cīna is derived from "Qin" (秦), the westernmost of the Chinese kingdoms during the Zhou Dynasty. However, the word was used in early Hindu scripture, including the Mahābhārata (5th century BCE) and the Laws of Manu (2nd century BCE).

The official name of the modern country is the Peoples Republic of China. The common Chinese names for the country are Zhōngguó (Chinese: 中国, from zhōng, "central" or "middle", and guó, "state" or "states," and in modern times, "nation") and Zhōnghuá (Chinese: 中华), although the country's official name has been changed numerous times by successive dynasties and modern governments. The term Zhōngguó appeared in various ancient texts, such as the Classic of History of the 6th century BCE, and in pre-imperial times it was often used as a cultural concept to distinguish the Huaxia tribes from perceived "barbarians". The term, which can be either singular or plural, referred to the group of states or provinces in the central plain, but was not used as a name for the country as a whole until the nineteenth century. The Chinese were not unique in regarding their country as "central", with other civilizations having the same view of themselves.

Prehistory
Archaeological evidence suggests that early hominids inhabited China between 250,000 and 2.24 million years ago. A cave inZhoukoudian (near present-day Beijing) exhibits hominid fossils dated at between 680,000 and 780,000 BCE. The fossils are of Peking Man, an example of Homo erectus who used fire. The Peking Man site has also yielded remains of Homo sapiens dating back to 18,000–11,000 BCE. Some scholars assert that a form of proto-writing existed in China as early as 3000 BCE.

Early Dynastic Rule
According to Chinese tradition, the first dynasty was the Xia, which emerged around 2100 BCE. However, the dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. It remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia Dynasty or of another culture from the same period. The succeeding Shang dynasty is the earliest to be confirmed by contemporary records. The Shang ruled the plain of the Yellow River in eastern China from the 17th to the 11th century BCE. Their oracle bone script (from c. 1200 BCE) represents the oldest form of Chinese writing yet found, and is a direct ancestor of modern Chinese characters. The Shang were conquered by the Zhou, who ruled between the 11th and 5th centuries BCE, though centralized authority was slowly eroded by feudal warlords. Many independent states eventually emerged from the weakened Zhou state and continually waged war with each other in the 300-year Spring and Autumn Period, only occasionally deferring to the Zhou king. By the time of the Warring States period of the 5th–3rd centuries BCE, there were seven powerful sovereign states in what is now China, each with its own king, ministry and army.

Imperial China
The Warring States period ended in 221 BCE, after the state of Qin conquered the other six kingdoms and established the first unified Chinese state. Qin Shi Huang, the emperor of Qin, proclaimed himself the "First Emperor" (始皇帝) and imposed reforms throughout China, notably the forced standardization of the Chinese language, measurements, length of cart axles, and currency. The Qin Dynasty lasted only fifteen years, falling soon after Qin Shi Huang's death, as its harsh legalist and authoritarian policies led to widespread rebellion.

The subsequent Han Dynasty ruled China between 206 BCE and 220 CE, and created a lasting Han cultural identity among its populace that has endured to the present day. The Han Dynasty expanded the empire's territory considerably with military campaigns reaching Korea,Vietnam, Mongolia and Central Asia, and also helped establish the Silk Road in Central Asia. Han China gradually became the largest economy of the ancient world. The Han Dynasty adopted Confucianism, a philosophy developed in the Spring and Autumn period, as its official state ideology. Despite the Han's official abandonment of Legalism, the official ideology of the Qin, Legalist institutions and policies remained and formed the basis of the Han government.

The Great Wall of China was built by several dynasties over two thousand years to protect the sedentary agricultural regions of the Chinese interior from incursions by nomadicpastoralists of the northern steppes

After the collapse of Han, a period of disunion known as the period of the Three Kingdoms followed. In 581 CE, China was reunited under the Sui. However, the Sui Dynasty declined following its defeat in the Goguryeo–Sui War (598–614).

Under the succeeding Tang and Song dynasties, Chinese technology and culture entered a golden age. The An Shi Rebellion in the 8th century devastated the country and weakened the dynasty. The Song Dynasty was the first government in world history to issue paper money and the first Chinese polity to establish a permanent standing navy. Between the 10th and 11th centuries, the population of China doubled in size to around 100 million people, mostly due to the expansion of rice cultivation in central and southern China, and the production of abundant food surpluses. The Song Dynasty also saw a flourishing of philosophy and the arts, as landscape art and portrait painting were brought to new levels of maturity and complexity, and social elites gathered to view art, share their own and trade precious artworks. The Song Dynasty saw a revival of Confucianism, in response to the growth of Buddhism during the Tang.

Detail from Along the River During the Qingming Festival, a 12th-century painting showing everyday life in the Song Dynasty's capital city, Bianjing (today's Kaifeng)

In the 13th century, China was gradually conquered by the Mongol empire. In 1271, the Mongol leader Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty; the Yuan conquered the last remnant of the Song Dynasty in 1279. Before the Mongol invasion, the population of Song China was 120 million citizens; this was reduced to 60 million by the time of the census in 1300. A peasant named Zhu Yuanzhang overthrew the Yuan Dynasty in 1368 and founded the Ming Dynasty. Under the Ming Dynasty, China enjoyed another golden age, developing one of the strongest navies in the world and a rich and prosperous economy amid a flourishing of art and culture. It was during this period that Zheng He led explorations throughout the world, reaching as far as Africa. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, China's capital was moved from Nanjing to Beijing. During the Ming Dynasty, philosophers such as Wang Yangming further critiqued and expanded Neo-Confucianism with concepts of individualism and innate morality.

In the mid to late 1600's, Ming China saw an era of expansion following a failed Manchu invasion and the subsequent conquest of the Manchu kingdoms. Under the Longdi Emperor China began to enter a second period of prosperity following the conquests of Mongolia, Dzungharia and Tibet, respectively.

Political Geography
Work in progress...

Provinces, Prefecture, Subprefecture, County
The Ming emperors took over the provincial administration system of the Yuan dynasty, and the thirteen Ming provinces are the precursors of the modern provinces. Throughout the Song dynasty, the largest political division was the circuit (lu 路).[83] However, after the Jurchen invasion in 1127, the Song court established four semi-autonomous regional command systems based on territorial and military units, with a detached service secretariat that would become the provincial administrations of the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties. Copied on the Yuan model, the Ming provincial bureaucracy contained three commissions: one civil, one military, and one for surveillance. Below the level of the province (sheng 省) were prefectures (fu 府) operating under a prefect (zhifu 知府), followed by subprefectures (zhou 州) under a subprefect. The lowest unit was the county (xian 縣), overseen by a magistrate. Besides the provinces, there were also two large areas that belonged to no province, but were metropolitan areas (jing 亰) attached to Nanjing and Beijing.

The Chunliming Emperor's Reforms Following the ascent of Zhū Rong-Zhi to the Imperial throne, the (Later known as) Xianfeng Emperor enacted a reformation on the Chinese administration system. He redrew Provincial borders, regulated the tax collectors to prevent corruption within the taxation system.

Politics during the Late Imperial Era
During the Late Imperial Era (1805-1895) the politics of China had changed radically with the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor and his increasingly liberal reforms. Under the Xianfeng Emperor, Public Education was introduced, a draft was implemented for all males aged 18 (While there was a volunteer army also which usually numbered in the hundred thousands, the draft still existed in the face of Japanese aggression should war come.) The Late Imperial era is typically characterised by increased meritocracy, greater social mobilisation, and the Great Leap Forward in which China saw a great expansion of industry, wealth, and experienced what is known to the Chinese as the Sinocentric Renaissance. During this politics became increasingly centralised as the Xianfeng Emperor became worshiped by much of the peasants and the bureaucracy. This was brought to an abrupt end with a military coup of 1895.

Politics during the Military Regime
With the rise of the Nationalist Front (Chinese: 國民陣線 Pinyin: Guómín zhènxiàn) Chinese politics continued to centralise. While the Emperor remained the de jure leader of China, all of the true political power rested in the hands of the Tèjíjiàng and the council of Marshals. The military regime ruled over China without much opposition as many peasants and the bureaucrats believed that Tèjíjiàng Li Hongzhang acted as an appointed regent and acted in the will of the Xianfeng Emperor while he was supposedly taking a self-imposed exile to reconnect with heaven. (In reality the Emperor was under house arrest until he committed suicide in 1903.)

Politics during the Chinese Republic
When reports reached the populace of the suicide of the Emperor under military custody, there was widespread discontent, which was resolved by Sun Yat-Sen's storming of Beijing and the establishment of the Chinese Republic, under which China became a presidential democratic republic, with a bicameral legislature and a multiparty system. After the revolution Sun was elected as the Republic's first president, and both he and his Communist Party rule China to this day.