Thursday, October 21, 2010
Time Traveling Adventure
Well hello :) My name is Maggie Ridenour, and I'll be time traveling through the most important times of Chinese history. I can fast forward and push play whenever, so I can go through large spans of time. I hope you enjoy my journey, for it was an amazing experience! Sometime's I'll meet emperors, and other times I'll interact with the common people. Please enjoy yourself as you read through history!
Lao Zi and Taoism
Lao Zi was born in 585 BCE. This guy would be the beginning of my time traveling adventure, and I couldn't have wished for a better start. I met him at the point when he worked in a library, and we became rather close. He told me he had been born in the state Chu during the Zhou Dynasty. He told me he wanted to be a member of the court, and I persuaded him to go for it. As he did, and he was rewarded the job.
Every once in a while, Confucius ( a great man I will visit later) would come to this man for advice. He did give the best advise.
Not only did I talk to Lao Zi, but people who lived around him. They said that there were stories Lao Zi had been in the womb for 80 years before he was actually born, so he was 80 years old when he came out.
One day, when Lao Zi and I were traveling west, we were stopped by a man of the name Yin Xi. Yin Xi, I later found out, was a follower of Lao. Anyways, he asked us for a permit to leave and we did not have one. Instead, Lao Zi wrote a 5,000 word essay about his philosophy so we could pass. This essay later became Dao De Jing (book of virtue.) The concept of this book was to explain all the changes in the universe.
My favorite quote of Lao Zi's was this, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao Zi created Taoism. Taoism was said to be the way, or the path. The word "Tao" deemed the mysterious source of idea of all existence. Tao is the birth of all things, but independent from all other things. People who believe in Taoism believe you should go with the flow, don't try and change life, obedience, no conflict, harmony, yin and yang, and nature is very good and should not be destroyed.
http://www.accschinese.com/accsblog/?cat=3
Every once in a while, Confucius ( a great man I will visit later) would come to this man for advice. He did give the best advise.
Not only did I talk to Lao Zi, but people who lived around him. They said that there were stories Lao Zi had been in the womb for 80 years before he was actually born, so he was 80 years old when he came out.
One day, when Lao Zi and I were traveling west, we were stopped by a man of the name Yin Xi. Yin Xi, I later found out, was a follower of Lao. Anyways, he asked us for a permit to leave and we did not have one. Instead, Lao Zi wrote a 5,000 word essay about his philosophy so we could pass. This essay later became Dao De Jing (book of virtue.) The concept of this book was to explain all the changes in the universe.
My favorite quote of Lao Zi's was this, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Lao Zi created Taoism. Taoism was said to be the way, or the path. The word "Tao" deemed the mysterious source of idea of all existence. Tao is the birth of all things, but independent from all other things. People who believe in Taoism believe you should go with the flow, don't try and change life, obedience, no conflict, harmony, yin and yang, and nature is very good and should not be destroyed.
http://www.accschinese.com/accsblog/?cat=3
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Buddhism comes to China
Buddha was one interesting guy. When I met him, before he became enlightened one, his name was Siddhartha Gautama. He was born in 563 BCE. Unlike many other religious figures, Siddhartha was handsome and grew up very wealthy. At the time, I wasn't so much interested in him and I was in his father.
One day I asked him. "Sir, your a king. And yet you pay so much attention to your son, and he is never allowed to leave the castle. At least not without heavy protection and many people going in front of him. I have a feeling it's not all done for your son's safety?"
His response was shaky, like he didn't want to admit to it. "I'm afraid you're right. When Siddhartha was born I took to a fortune teller, and she said he would either become a great king and unify all of China or become 'awake' and influence the world in a religious way. I, of course, wanted him to become the king. Up until he was 16, my plan worked. He was married and happy. Then my guards let me down, and on his walks he saw 4 horrible things. Sickness, old age, and death. The last one isn't horrible, just something I wish he hadn't seen. He saw a monk, and I believe that is what he wants to be. I won't let him, so he become more unhappy with every passing day."
This was true, and at the age of 29 Siddhartha leaves for a forest and stays in it for 6 years being a Hindu monk, looking for the realm of life in which there is neither death nor sickness. Eventually he sits under this tree, which is now known as his immovable spot. He sat there and remembered all of his previous lives, and was able to end the cycle. He became enlightened. And here comes Buddhism.
It comes out of Hinduism, preached against ritual, preached against reincarnation, 4 noble truths (Dukkha, Tanha, Overcoming, and Eightfold path), and Nirvana. The Buddha dies in 483 BCE.
India was first to take in Buddhism in about 300 BCE. It came to China by being spread along the silk road, and actually reached China during the later Han Dynasty ( 206-220 AD).
http://www.mokeytree.org/silkroad/mindbody/buddhism.html
One day I asked him. "Sir, your a king. And yet you pay so much attention to your son, and he is never allowed to leave the castle. At least not without heavy protection and many people going in front of him. I have a feeling it's not all done for your son's safety?"
His response was shaky, like he didn't want to admit to it. "I'm afraid you're right. When Siddhartha was born I took to a fortune teller, and she said he would either become a great king and unify all of China or become 'awake' and influence the world in a religious way. I, of course, wanted him to become the king. Up until he was 16, my plan worked. He was married and happy. Then my guards let me down, and on his walks he saw 4 horrible things. Sickness, old age, and death. The last one isn't horrible, just something I wish he hadn't seen. He saw a monk, and I believe that is what he wants to be. I won't let him, so he become more unhappy with every passing day."
This was true, and at the age of 29 Siddhartha leaves for a forest and stays in it for 6 years being a Hindu monk, looking for the realm of life in which there is neither death nor sickness. Eventually he sits under this tree, which is now known as his immovable spot. He sat there and remembered all of his previous lives, and was able to end the cycle. He became enlightened. And here comes Buddhism.
It comes out of Hinduism, preached against ritual, preached against reincarnation, 4 noble truths (Dukkha, Tanha, Overcoming, and Eightfold path), and Nirvana. The Buddha dies in 483 BCE.
India was first to take in Buddhism in about 300 BCE. It came to China by being spread along the silk road, and actually reached China during the later Han Dynasty ( 206-220 AD).
http://www.mokeytree.org/silkroad/mindbody/buddhism.html
Unification Of China
China became unified by the Qin Dynasty in 221 BCE. The first emperor was Ying Zheng, but he later renamed himself Qin Shi Huangdi. At 13 years-old he becomes emperor because his father was killed. This troubles him a bit, he begins to always worry about people wanting to kill him. Later, this will drive him into madness. Huangdi had three great feats. 1. Unifying China. 2. The Great Wall, and 3. his tomb. Unifying China was obviously the biggest. Visiting this time period was a little tricky, I had to go over a wide span of time. I started rather early, in 475 BCE. This is when warring states had many conflicts, and there were 7 kingdoms. This period ended in 221 BCE when the Qin Dynasty came into play.
As I was saying, at 13 Huangdi was rather troubled. Not only had his father been murdered, but people wanted to murder him too. At the age of 22, he found out that his mother was included in that group of people. He banned her from China, along with her new husband and the sons. This is where it really got interesting, and when I started talking to Huangdi. I became a close personal friend of his. After banning his mother, he was very confused. I finally got him talking, and he decided to take his hard past and turn it into something big. he decided he wanted to finish unifying China. For a while, there had been a conflict between Qin and Chu. In the end, Qin won. China was finally at peace, at least for the time being.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/151/09qinimag.htm
As I was saying, at 13 Huangdi was rather troubled. Not only had his father been murdered, but people wanted to murder him too. At the age of 22, he found out that his mother was included in that group of people. He banned her from China, along with her new husband and the sons. This is where it really got interesting, and when I started talking to Huangdi. I became a close personal friend of his. After banning his mother, he was very confused. I finally got him talking, and he decided to take his hard past and turn it into something big. he decided he wanted to finish unifying China. For a while, there had been a conflict between Qin and Chu. In the end, Qin won. China was finally at peace, at least for the time being.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/151/09qinimag.htm
Great Wall
China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huangdi began the Great Wall in 220 BCE. This wall is one of the greatest engineering feats, so I just had to go see how it was made. The great wall in China is "Cheng Cheng." For the great wall, I found it necessary to interact with the common people and find their views. I declare myself pretty stupid for doing this.
Back breaking labor. Starvation. Literally working to your death. This is what the common Chinese people suffered during the building of the Great Wall. People worked in rags, and over 1 million people worked on the wall. 1/4 of them died, and the dead were buried in the wall. This first great wall doesn't look like the one standing today. At the time of Huangdi's death, it was 3,000 miles long. This first wall was built with a wooden frame, and gravel and mud were poured in and then beaten until hard, ect. Concrete was then poured on the top of this. This was not as strong nor as high as the wall that stands today.
Talking to the common people of China, I found that they had a suspicion about this wall. This suspicion was that the wall was not only meant to keep people out, but also to keep people in. This caused many people to hate the wall, and some even planed to kill Huangdi. This drove him to madness. He buried people alive to show he still had power, and wanted to finish building his tomb. He ended up building a total of 4,000 people alive, including his own son.
This guy was brilliant for unifying China, but the power went to his head and turned him mad.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/151/09qinimag.htm
Back breaking labor. Starvation. Literally working to your death. This is what the common Chinese people suffered during the building of the Great Wall. People worked in rags, and over 1 million people worked on the wall. 1/4 of them died, and the dead were buried in the wall. This first great wall doesn't look like the one standing today. At the time of Huangdi's death, it was 3,000 miles long. This first wall was built with a wooden frame, and gravel and mud were poured in and then beaten until hard, ect. Concrete was then poured on the top of this. This was not as strong nor as high as the wall that stands today.
Talking to the common people of China, I found that they had a suspicion about this wall. This suspicion was that the wall was not only meant to keep people out, but also to keep people in. This caused many people to hate the wall, and some even planed to kill Huangdi. This drove him to madness. He buried people alive to show he still had power, and wanted to finish building his tomb. He ended up building a total of 4,000 people alive, including his own son.
This guy was brilliant for unifying China, but the power went to his head and turned him mad.
http://www2.hawaii.edu/~kjolly/151/09qinimag.htm
Han Dynasty
The Han Dynasty came after the Qin Dynasty in 206 BCE. This dynasty returned peace after Qin Shi Huangdi's death. The first and only emperor of this dynasty was Liu Bang. He was a tiny bit crazy. Not in a bad way of course! Liu Bang decided to extend the great wall that Huangdi had started. I'm not going to lie, when we talked about it, it sounded like a great idea! First, Liu decided to expand the great wall to the west. He also made the distance between watch towers closer, the distance between them was now 1-3 miles. In some areas the distance was decreased to 500 yards between watch towers. This normally occurred where war and conflicts happened a lot. Watch towers now had stairs and rooms for food and soldiers to stay. People could also use flags, smoke, drums, and symbols to warn everyone else of enemies coming, different signals were used for different reasons. This all was quite genius, and made the great wall much more effective than it use to be. Many people were killed during the re-making of the wall. The wall built in the Han Dynasty looks like what the wall now looks like, just less eroded and less old and broken looking.
Than Han Dynasty also consumed and changed the east. In 184, there was a peasant rebellion and the Han Dynasty came to an end. The peace that had been created during this dynasty was over, and turmoil, once again, began.
Than Han Dynasty also consumed and changed the east. In 184, there was a peasant rebellion and the Han Dynasty came to an end. The peace that had been created during this dynasty was over, and turmoil, once again, began.
Http://library.thinkquest.org/C005742/PaintHist_1content.htm
Confucius
Confucius was one of my favorite people to meet, ever. He was born in northwest China during the Chou Dynasty in 551 BCE before China was unified. And, at the age of three, is when I first looked at this boy. His father past away, and he was left to live with his mom in poverty. This is much like Muhammad, I remembered. As he grew, and as I fast forwarded through his life, the Chou Dynasty ended. Many rival warlords would fight, there was many wars, and people fighting all the time. This fighting would continue from his child hood into his teenage years. And somehow, out of all this madness, Confucius develops this idea of goodness. This is where I press play on my little remote. How could someone who had been through so much end up with goodness on their mind? Especially when people had done them so much wrong...
So, I went up to him, and I asked him, what does this goodness mean? And he responded with, well, it would hold society together. Society would find its harmony if everyone preformed their duties. If rulers are good, the people will follow their example. Goodness means humanity is the center of Haven and Earth. Family, which is very important, is the foundation of society. That is what goodness is.
Wow. So goodness isn't just being good, but so much more. Well, to continue with the story of his life, Confucius got a government job, and tried to put his ideas of goodness into practice. This resulted in him being dismissed from his job, and spent as the worst thing ever, a wandering teacher. He died in 479 BCE. It wasn't until 200 years later that the Han Dynasty would make Confucianism the official state Philosophy. So, to someone who met Confucius during his life wouldn't think him of much, being a wandering teacher and all. But this man influenced not only the Han Dynasty, but also the Tang and Sung Dynasty's, which were the two golden ages of China.
So, I went up to him, and I asked him, what does this goodness mean? And he responded with, well, it would hold society together. Society would find its harmony if everyone preformed their duties. If rulers are good, the people will follow their example. Goodness means humanity is the center of Haven and Earth. Family, which is very important, is the foundation of society. That is what goodness is.
Wow. So goodness isn't just being good, but so much more. Well, to continue with the story of his life, Confucius got a government job, and tried to put his ideas of goodness into practice. This resulted in him being dismissed from his job, and spent as the worst thing ever, a wandering teacher. He died in 479 BCE. It wasn't until 200 years later that the Han Dynasty would make Confucianism the official state Philosophy. So, to someone who met Confucius during his life wouldn't think him of much, being a wandering teacher and all. But this man influenced not only the Han Dynasty, but also the Tang and Sung Dynasty's, which were the two golden ages of China.
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