History 105: The Rise Of China
Kristelle Cagbabanua
Professor Daly
History 105: The Rise of the West
8/8/14
Why Not China? The various innovations and advances many humans encountered, emerged in large cities and civilizations. The largest civilizations began in the Near East, India, and China. However, none of these civilizations were capable of rising to the top like how Europe and the New World were able to. For centuries, China transformed and developed the world with its many great inventions and discoveries. China has been the longest civilization to ever exist on earth because of its many inventions, but how come those inventions did not help China transform like how the West did? How come China became the world’s largest economy only now in the twenty-first …show more content…
Even though its dominant position declined during the collapse of the Later Han Dynasty in the early third century, Confucianism always makes its way back and influences the way of life for the Chinese people (Taylor and Arbuckle, 350). The philosophy’s core value is humanistic. It laid out people’s practical principles of life. It taught people that they were able to find the way independently in amenity of oneself, family, society, and the whole universe. Cultural conformity and “harmony” was what held the civilization together. “Community of mutual respect, concern, and trust” (Taylor and Arbuckle, 347) is the heart of this doctrine. This way of thinking helped Chinese people have good communications and relationships with each other. They shared many ideas and thoughts and learned different things from one another. Being able to communicate and respect each other was what helped them discover and invent new technologies. However, Chinese artisans began to lack on their crafts for inventions after the Northern Song era. They started to focus their talents more on literacy than just …show more content…
Confucianism is to blame for China’s weakness for all these centuries and not being able to exceed the West, until now of course. It was difficult for China to just change their economic system and be a part of modernization because their culture has thrived for the longest time. China finally gave up Confucianism in able to survive in the modern world and it has not been regretted ever since. China is now one of the highest economy of the world, beating many Western civilizations. If China converted its economic system a long time ago and gave up on Confucianism principles, then it would have been able to rise and dominate with the
Professor Daly
History 105: The Rise of the West
8/8/14
Why Not China? The various innovations and advances many humans encountered, emerged in large cities and civilizations. The largest civilizations began in the Near East, India, and China. However, none of these civilizations were capable of rising to the top like how Europe and the New World were able to. For centuries, China transformed and developed the world with its many great inventions and discoveries. China has been the longest civilization to ever exist on earth because of its many inventions, but how come those inventions did not help China transform like how the West did? How come China became the world’s largest economy only now in the twenty-first …show more content…
Even though its dominant position declined during the collapse of the Later Han Dynasty in the early third century, Confucianism always makes its way back and influences the way of life for the Chinese people (Taylor and Arbuckle, 350). The philosophy’s core value is humanistic. It laid out people’s practical principles of life. It taught people that they were able to find the way independently in amenity of oneself, family, society, and the whole universe. Cultural conformity and “harmony” was what held the civilization together. “Community of mutual respect, concern, and trust” (Taylor and Arbuckle, 347) is the heart of this doctrine. This way of thinking helped Chinese people have good communications and relationships with each other. They shared many ideas and thoughts and learned different things from one another. Being able to communicate and respect each other was what helped them discover and invent new technologies. However, Chinese artisans began to lack on their crafts for inventions after the Northern Song era. They started to focus their talents more on literacy than just …show more content…
Confucianism is to blame for China’s weakness for all these centuries and not being able to exceed the West, until now of course. It was difficult for China to just change their economic system and be a part of modernization because their culture has thrived for the longest time. China finally gave up Confucianism in able to survive in the modern world and it has not been regretted ever since. China is now one of the highest economy of the world, beating many Western civilizations. If China converted its economic system a long time ago and gave up on Confucianism principles, then it would have been able to rise and dominate with the