|
Emperors Of China
Throughout Chinese history, "Emperor" () was the superlative title held by the monarchs of imperial China's various dynasties. In traditional Chinese political theory, the emperor was the " Son of Heaven", an autocrat with the divine mandate to rule all under Heaven. Emperors were worshiped posthumously under an imperial cult. The lineage of emperors descended from a paternal family line constituted a dynasty, and succession in most cases theoretically followed agnatic primogeniture. The emperor of China was an absolute monarch. During the Han dynasty, Confucianism gained sanction as the official political theory. The absolute authority of the emperor came with a variety of governing duties and moral obligations; failure to uphold these was thought to remove the dynasty's Mandate of Heaven and to justify its overthrow. In practice, emperors sometimes avoided the strict rules of succession and dynasties' purported "failures" were detailed in official histories written b ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Heirloom Seal Of The Realm
The Heirloom Seal of the Realm (), also known in English as the Imperial Seal of China, was a Chinese jade seal allegedly carved out of the '' Heshibi'', a sacred piece of jade.The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum, Beijing 30: Imperial Seals and Signets - Gugong Bowuyuan Cang Wenwu Zhenpin Quanji 30: Xi yin (Taiwanese Chinese) – 2008. by Beijing Palace Museum. , The Seal was created in 221 BC, shortly after Qin Shi Huang unified China and established the Qin dynasty, China's first imperial dynasty. The Heirloom Seal served as the imperial Chinese seal throughout the next millennium of Chinese history, and its possession was seen as a physical symbol of the Mandate of Heaven. The Heirloom Seal was lost around the end of the Tang dynasty (618–907) or during the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period (907–960). Creation In 221 BC, the Seal was created when Qin Shi Huang destroyed the remaining Warring States and united China under the Qin dynasty. Hes ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Imperial Cult
An imperial cult is a form of state religion in which an emperor or a dynasty of emperors (or rulers of another title) are worshipped as demigods or deities. "Cult (religious practice), Cult" here is used to mean "worship", not in the modern pejorative sense. The cult may be one of cult of personality, personality in the case of a newly arisen Euhemerus figure, or one of national identity (e.g., Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh or Empire of Japan) or supranational identity in the case of a multinational state (e.g., History of China#Imperial China, Imperial China, Roman Empire). A ''divine king'' is a monarch who is held in a special religious significance by his subjects, and serves as both head of state and a deity or head religious figure. This system of government combines theocracy with an absolute monarchy. Historical imperial cults Ancient Egypt file:Pharaoh.svg, 200px, Ancient Egyptian pharaohs were worshipped as god-kings. The Ancient Egyptian pharaohs were, throughout ancient ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Rites Of Zhou
The ''Rites of Zhou'' (), originally known as "Officers of Zhou" (), is a Chinese work on bureaucracy and organizational theory. It was renamed by Liu Xin to differentiate it from a chapter in the '' Book of History'' by the same name. To replace a lost work, it was included along with the ''Book of Rites'' and the '' Etiquette and Ceremonial'' becoming one of three ancient ritual texts (the "Three Rites") listed among the classics of Confucianism. In comparison with other works of its type, the Rite's ruler, though a sage, does not create the state, but merely organizes a bureaucracy. It could not have been composed during the Western Zhou. With a vision based on Warring States period society, Mark Edward Lewis takes it as closely linked to the major administrative reforms of the period. He and Michael Puett compare its system of duties and ranks to the "Legalism" of Shang Yang, which is not to say that they had any direct relation. Authorship The book appeared in the mi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Huang-Ming Zuxun
The ''Huang-Ming Zuxun'' (''Ancestral Instructions of the Ming Emperor'') were admonitions and exhortations left by the Hongwu Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang, the founder of the Chinese Ming dynasty, to his descendants. The text was composed in 1373 under the title ''Record of the Ancestor's Instructions''; this was changed to ''Huang Ming Zu Xun'' during the publication of the 1395 edition.Liao Xinyi (). "Huang-Ming Zuxun" (). ''Zhongguo Lishi: Zhongguo Da Baike Quanshu'' (), Vol. 1, p. 401. Zhongguo Da Baike Quanshu Chubanshe (Shanghai), 1992. Op. cit. Theobald, Ulrich.Chinese Literature: Huang-Ming zuxun. Accessed 12 Oct 2012. The book was divided into thirteen sections: # Preface (, ''Zhēnjiè'') # Harem (, ''Chíshǒu'') # Ritual Observance (, ''Yán Jìsì'') # Risk management (, ''Jǐn Chūrù'') # National Policy (, ''Shèn Guózhèng'') # Protocol (, ''Lǐyí'') # Legislation (, ''Fǎlǜ'') # The Inner Chambers (, ''Nèilìng'') # Eunuch (, ''Nèiguān'') # Administration (, ''Z ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ming-era
The Ming dynasty, officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China that ruled from 1368 to 1644, following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming was the last imperial dynasty of China ruled by the Han people, the majority ethnic group in China. Although the primary capital of Beijing fell in 1644 to a rebellion led by Li Zicheng (who established the short-lived Shun dynasty), numerous rump state, rump regimes ruled by remnants of the House of Zhu, Ming imperial family, collectively called the Southern Ming, survived until 1662. The Ming dynasty's founder, the Hongwu Emperor (1368–1398), attempted to create a society of self-sufficient rural communities ordered in a rigid, immobile system that would guarantee and support a permanent class of soldiers for his dynasty: the empire's standing army exceeded one million troops and the naval history of China, navy's dockyards in Nanjing were the largest in the world. H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Filial Piety
Filial piety is the virtue of exhibiting love and respect for one's parents, elders, and ancestors, particularly within the context of Confucian ethics, Confucian, Chinese Buddhism, Chinese Buddhist ethics, Buddhist, and Daoism, Daoist ethics. The Confucian ''Classic of Filial Piety'', thought to be written around the late Warring States-Qin dynasty, Qin-Han dynasty, Han period, has historically been the authoritative source on the Confucian tenet of filial piety. The book—a purported dialogue between Confucius and his student Zengzi—is about how to set up a good society using the principle of filial piety. Filial piety is central to Confucian role ethics. In more general terms, filial piety means to be good to one's parents; to take care of one's parents; to engage in good conduct, not just towards parents but also outside the home so as to bring a good name to one's parents and ancestors; to show love, respect, and support; to display courtesy; to ensure male heirs; to uph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chinese Eunuch
A eunuch ( ) is a man who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. In China, castration included removal of the penis as well as the testicles (see emasculation). Both organs were cut off with a knife at the same time. Eunuchs existed in the Chinese court starting around 146 AD during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, and were common as civil servants as early as the time of the Qin dynasty. From those ancient times until the Sui dynasty, castration was both a traditional punishment (one of the Five Punishments) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. Certain eunuchs gained immense power that occasionally superseded that of even the Grand Secretaries such as the Ming dynasty official Zheng He. Self-castration was a common practice, although it was not always performed completely, which led to it being made illegal. It is said that the justification for the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Scholar-officials
The scholar-officials, also known as literati, scholar-gentlemen or scholar-bureaucrats (), were government officials and prestigious scholars in Chinese society, forming a distinct social class. Scholar-officials were politicians and government officials appointed by the emperor of China to perform day-to-day political duties from the Han dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty in 1912, China's last imperial dynasty. After the Sui dynasty these officials mostly came from the scholar-gentry (紳士 ''shēnshì'') who had earned academic degrees (such as ''xiucai'', ''juren'', or '' jinshi'') by passing the imperial examinations. Scholar-officials were the elite class of imperial China. They were highly educated, especially in literature and the arts, including calligraphy and Confucian texts. They dominated the government administration and local life of China until the early 20th century. Origins and formations Origins of ''Shi'' (士) and ''Da fu'' (大夫) as a concept ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Civil Service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service official, also known as a public servant or public employee, is a person employed in the public sector by a government department or agency for public sector undertakings. Civil servants work for central and local governments, and answer to the government, not a political party. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the "civil service" varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom (UK), for instance, only The Crown, Crown (national government) employees are referred to as "civil servants" whereas employees of local authorities (counties, cities and similar administrations) are generally referred to as "local government officers", who are considered public servants but not civil servants. Thus, in the UK, a civil servant is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Twenty-Four Histories
The ''Twenty-Four Histories'', also known as the ''Orthodox Histories'' (), are a collection of official histories detailing the dynasties of China, from the legendary Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors in the 4th millennium BC to the Ming dynasty in the 17th century. The Han dynasty official Sima Qian established many of the conventions of the genre, but the form was not fixed until much later. Starting with the Tang dynasty, each dynasty established an official office to write the history of its predecessor using official court records, partly in order to establish its own link to the earliest times. As fixed and edited in the Qing dynasty, the whole set contains 3,213 volumes and about 40 million words. It is considered one of the most important sources on Chinese history and culture. The title ''Twenty-Four Histories'' dates from 1775, which was the 40th year in the reign of the Qianlong Emperor. This was when the last volume, the '' History of Ming'', was reworked and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Confucianism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism or Ru classicism, is a system of thought and behavior originating in ancient China, and is variously described as a tradition, philosophy, Religious Confucianism, religion, theory of government, or way of life. Founded by Confucius in the Hundred Schools of Thought era (c. 500 BCE), Confucianism integrates philosophy, ethics, and social governance, with a core focus on virtue, Harmonious Society, social harmony, and Filial piety, familial responsibility. Confucianism emphasizes virtue through self-cultivation and communal effort. Key virtues include ''Ren (philosophy), ren'' (benevolence), ''Yi (philosophy), yi'' (righteousness), ''Li (Confucianism), li'' (propriety), ''Wisdom, zhi'' (wisdom), and ''Xin (virtue), xin'' (sincerity). These values, deeply tied to the notion of ''tian'' (heaven), present a worldview where human relationships and social order are manifestations of sacred moral principles.. While Confucianism does not emphasize an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Han Dynasty
The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC) and a warring interregnum known as the Chu–Han Contention (206–202 BC), and it was succeeded by the Three Kingdoms period (220–280 AD). The dynasty was briefly interrupted by the Xin dynasty (9–23 AD) established by the usurping regent Wang Mang, and is thus separated into two periods—the #Western Han (202 BC – 9 AD), Western Han (202 BC9 AD) and the #Eastern Han (25–220 AD), Eastern Han (25–220 AD). Spanning over four centuries, the Han dynasty is considered a Golden ages of China, golden age in Chinese history, and had a permanent impact on Chinese identity in later periods. The majority ethnic group of modern China refer to themselves as the "Han people" or "Han Chinese". The spoken Chinese ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
