A significant aspect of China is its cultural history. The Chinese people have shared a common culture longer than any other group on Earth. For example, the Chinese writing system dates back almost 4,000 years.
Archaeology even suggests China is one of the cradles of the human race since the earliest known human in China, whose fossilized skull was unearthed in Shanxi Province in 1963, is believed to date back to 600,000 BC!
Chou Dynasty
Chinese history is coloured with lessons from the many dynasties which ruled China, from ancient to even modern civilization. One ancient dynasty is the Chou Dynasty (1122-221 BC), which saw the full flowering of ancient civilization in China. The sage Confucius (551-479 BC) developed the code of ethics that dominated Chinese thought and culture for the next 25 centuries. The Chou rule in China continued for nearly nine centuries. During that time great advances were made.
Han culture
Philosophies and institutions that began in the Chou and Ch'in periods reached maturity under the Han. During Han times, the Chinese distinguished themselves in making scientific discoveries, many of which were not known to Westerners until centuries later. The Chinese were most advanced in astronomy. They invented sundials and water clocks, divided the day equally into ten and then into 12 periods, devised the lunar calendar that continued to be used until 1912, and recorded sunspots regularly.
In mathematics, the Chinese were the first to use the place value system, whereby the value of a component of a number is indicated by its placement. Other innovations were of a more practical nature: wheelbarrows, locks to control water levels in streams and canals, and compasses. The Han Chinese were especially distinguished in the field of art. The famous sculpture of the "Han flying horse" and the carving of the jade burial suit found in Han period tombs are only two superb examples. The technique of making lacquer ware was also highly developed. The Chinese can also boast of the tradition of historical writing that began in the Han period.
T'ang Dynasty
Buddhist influence in art, especially in sculpture, was strong during the T'ang period. Fine examples of Buddhist sculpture are preserved in rock temples, such as those at Yongang and Longmen in northwest China. The invention of printing and improvements in papermaking led to the printing of a whole set of Buddhist sutras (discourses of the Buddha) by 868. By the beginning of the 11th century all of the Confucian classics and the Taoist canon had been printed. In secular literature, the T'ang is well known for poetry.
The T'ang period marked the beginnings of China's early technological advancement over other civilizations in the fields of shipbuilding and firearms development. Both reached new heights in the succeeding dynasty of Sung. Some historians even state that paper was a Chinese invention. Powder (not gunpowder, because guns were not yet known) and fireworks rockets were introduced into Europe in the 1200s but had been invented in China some years earlier.
Sung Period
The Sung period was noted for landscape painting, which in time came to be considered the highest form of classical art. The city-dwelling people of the Sung period romanticized nature. This romanticism, combined with a mystical, Taoist approach to nature and a Buddhist-inspired contemplative mood, was reflected in landscape paintings showing people dwarfed by nature.
Source: Guardian [October 01, 2010]