The Creation of China Explained
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 มิ.ย. 2024
- We will look at the creation of China. We start by looking at the Yellow River Civilization and how they spread to the Yang Tze River Basin. How the people formed a unified ethnic group called the Han Chinese. From there we look at the creation of the very first dynasty, the Shang Dynasty. How it was replaced with the Zhou Dynasty, and how it dissolved into the Warring States Period.
We then focus on the start of the Chinese Iron Age. And how it allowed the State of Qin to grow into one of the powerful states at the end of the Warring States Period.
We then follow the life of Qin Shi Huang, or Ying Zheng, how he was called at birth. We talk about how they conquered the other 6 states of the Zhao, Wei, Qi, Han, Chu, and Yan. And we look at how the Qin state unified China under the Qin Dynasty.
From there we look at how they unified Chines language, Chinese writing, and Chinese bureaucracy. And how it became an early centralized state.
After Qin the Chinese Empire collapsed and we see the emergence of the Han Dynasty.
Credits
- Research: Mrs Scope
- Animation: Petra Lilla Marjai
- Audio: Seb. Soto
- Writing and Voice Over: Avery from History Scope
Social Media
- Discord: / discord
- Twitter: / scopehistory
- Instagram: / officialhistoryscope
- Facebook: / averythingchannel
Sources
Websites
www.britannica.com/topic/Qin-...
www.khanacademy.org/humanitie...
www.worldhistory.org/Warring_...
core.ac.uk/reader/81146530
Books
J. Clements (2019) A Brief History of China. Tuttle Publishing. North Clarendon.
Articles
G. L. Mayhew - The Formation of the Qin Dynasty:A Socio-technical System of Systems. Procedia Computer Science 8 (2012) 402 - 412
Y. Guo - Contingency and Historical Inevitability in the Development of the Qin Dynasty. Journal of Education, Humanities and Social Sciences. Volume 8 (2023)
S. Feng - The Rise of Zhou and Qin Dynasties and the Change of the Position of the Qian Diagram in the Eight Diagrams. Asian Culture and History; Vol. 15, No. 1 (2023)
W. Huang, M. Xi, S. Lu, F. Taghizadeh-Hesary - Rise and Fall of the Grand Canal in the Ancient
Kaifeng City of China: Role of the Grand Canal and Water Supply in Urban and Regional Development. Water 2021, 13, 1932.
J. Huang - Research on the Causes of the Destruction of the Qin Dynasty. Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, volume 119.
Parveen, K., & Akram, H. (2021). Insight of Chinese culture by viewing historical picture of Qin Dynasty. Journal of Social Sciences Advancement, 2(1), 17-24.
Correction.
Qin Shi Huang according to many historians did NOT burn book because of revisionary history. Instead he burned books because of ideological conflict between Confuciusism vs Legalism.
During the Warring States era, Confucius teaching was popular because it preached the value that benefits nobility.
And you can guess why Qin people hated it.
Also, they didn’t burn all the books, nor kill all the scholars. They confiscated books and burned copies. And killed those scholars who pushed hard for Confucianism.
The books that Qin Shi Huang didn’t burn, got burned by the rebel leader Xiangyu after Qin fell. Because Shi Huang put them all in one place in a palace.
And btw although Qin eventually fell because of those fed up nobles(almost all of the rebel factions were led by toppled feudal lords, and the rest were mere opportunists who tried to capitalize on the chaos). The successor of Qin, Han dynasty was also largely a legalist state.
It was KNOWN that Liu Bang, the founder of Han, took a lot of Qin government documents and books when he conquered the capital. And most of Han policies were just milder version of what Qin had.
And BTW Liu Bang, a fugitive who eventually founded Han dynasty, joined the rebels only because his mates in the hometown wanted a scapegoat. The mayor of the town was worried that rebels would come for him, so his adviser came up with the idea to fake rebel so the rebels wouldn’t kill them. And they needed someone other than themselves in case Qin won, so they thought of Liu Bang. Upon the return of Liu Bang to the town, the mayor got cold feet, the adviser sought to kill the mayor and pushed to elect Liu as their leader.
I mean, think about it. Of all the prominent local families, everyone agreed to elect a fugitive who’s been running in a mountain for years to be a leader… and the death of the mayor was definitely an inside job because Liu Bang was locked out of the city gate atm.
I'm pinning this comment because I think it's a very good critique. I had to cut down the section on book burning quite a lot. I think we'll cover some of this in a future video if we do a full series.
@@aleksakuljanin2442 ?
@@HistoryScopebooks and records prior to Qin were partially correct. Lots of history and records were indeed lost in Qin. There were attempts and creation to recreate these history later in Han dynasty and the prominent one was by shina qin. He was described as having a photographic memory and wrote everything from hwangti and every bit up to the take over of qin dynasty. He started a method in which he based his writing subjectively in moral assessment based on Confucius writing rather than objective records. This has been very bad for later assessments that ruined lots of Chinese history up to modern era. Besides his memories were too perfect when looked into deeply. However modern archeologists often found new evidence to contradict many things he wrote. Even worse the pre zhou era were written in mythological and supernatural ways and ignored cultures absorbed or conquered. that makes pre zhou history unstable and always updating when new things were found. The few hundred years in Han dynasty progressed basically wrote more about the past which were more progressive imaginative than anyone or any fact would support.
全文全部是胡说八道。。西方人善于伪造历史。。开篇就明显有错误，首先中国官方定义的正式历史为上下5000年，中国以国家形态存在已经有5000多年的历史。而开头最明显的错误就是说中国历史只有2000多年，但是中国第一个朝代商却是公元-1600年------1060年，距今已经3600多年了，你是欺负外国人不会算数学吗？中国的历史开篇就是100万年前-5万年前这段是时间是原始部落社会，5万年前-1万年前是城邦社会，1万年前--距今是创世纪文明，三皇（神农，伏羲，黄帝）和五帝（尧，舜，禹）--唐---禹---夏---商---周----春秋---秦---汉---三国---晋----南北朝----隋---唐---宋辽金-----元----明----清----民国----中共国
even burning books of other ideology r just a myth thats not fully proven. since following dynasty usually condemn previous one to justify their "mandate of haven" when they overthrown it.
I DEMAND A COMPLETE CHINESE DYNASTY SERIES
demand rejected
yes same
We demand
Video lenght : 20 hours
The History of China... MUST... BE... PRESENTED
I'd love to hear more history concerning Chinese history. I don't think enough people learn about World history, and with how prevalent China was/is on the global scale, learning more concerning their history and experiences is a personally exciting venture.
China was not actually prevalent on a global scale until modernity, you could argue the colonization of China made it important for other countries but China itself was a regional player for most of its history.
@@MustardAndFriesNot exactly.. much of old world history revolves around China, albeit indirectly. From the XiongNu - Huns contributing to the fall of the Romans, to the Mongol invasion and Black Death, to African trade networks, to the European exploration age (in order to find new trade routes to China, circumnavigating the Persians).
Globalization itself is a very recent phenomenon, but China's influence on the world is probably the closest thing we've seen.
@@AfghanPoppies none of this expressly deals with the Chinese state itself.
@@MustardAndFriesI think his wording is quite accurate. Influence doesn’t need direct China state involvement, but China’s state/dynasties has been well aware of their role in global trading since long time ago. Silk porcelain teas, all products were under state supervision and organization since long long ago.
@@MustardAndFriesThe world you are referring to is only the Western world, but in ancient times the West was the edge of the world. Because it is too developed, China itself is the center of the world
Not only Confucius, Shang Yang is definitely one of the most important figure in Chinese history. With his legalism policies, he with Qin monarchs had made Qin from a backwater country into the strongest warring state and then finally united China. And Qin Shi Huang is no doubt the greatest emperor in Chinese history because his work had laid a sturdy foundation for Chinese civilization
In fact, from the map, Qin is not the most isolated kingdom. In terms of geographical location, Qin's location is quite ideal. First of all, Qin only needs to guard against Wei in the east. The west and north of Qin are relatively backward. Tribal residents, the south of Qin State is separated from the powerful Chu State by the ancient and neutral Shu State and Ba State. Shu State, Ba State and Qin State have long-term trade cooperation relations, but due to changes in Qin State's economic policy , refused to obtain the rice produced by Shu through purchase, and attempted to control Shu through military power to obtain lower-cost rice, thus opening up the route for Chu to attack Qin. The excessive desire of the king of Qin made Qin Citizens were under great threat and had to embark on a militaristic plan of aggression.
He did but he made two fatal mistakes that ruined all that his clan built.
1. He didn't pick a proper successor.
This means the empire will guarantee turmoil when he's dead or temporarily out of power.
And that's happening. (He's very paranoid and fears his eldest son because from the record...His eldest son was from the state of chu linage and had many political views that contrasted with his)
2. Use over used his authority.
His unification creates a concept of divine authority which during that time no one knew how exactly it worked and what the terrifical outcome it could bring.
I mean...Well, labour for one month wasn't bad but the work that guarantees your death before you reach the destination is much more terrifying.
In ancient time, people usually died from starvation and sickness when outside that climate.
Qin forced relocation of the population to prevent rebellion causing massive casualties among the population, then forcing entire male in the village to travel to some desolate area to die was a big no.
And Qin Shi Huang was drunk on his power and did a lot of unreasonable things. Those who can's do it will die but if you can get the emperor favour, you can survive.
That's a problem for sure
@@hidefreek6905u miss the thing is Qin Shi Huang was the FIRST Emperor of united China. And he was undoubtedly making mistakes along the way because there was nothing he could rely on from history. Qin Shi Huang and his court almost built everything from scratches for the united China. But no doubt majority of his policies had worked because China today was built based on his foundation.
That's why caution and patience come in handy.
The first yes.
But no one dare to challenge him during his reign but what about after that?
Build an empire must do step by step. (Like many people said Rome wasn't build in a day)
Same as Qin conquest.
Qin Shihuang nearly unleashed what his ancestors built upon his enemy.
So his role in the conquest was low.
Then, what about his administration?
Indeed, effective but also not at the same time.
In history, Qin Shihuang had very bad upbringing and he himself had mental illness.
Born among carnibals, his mother intended to kill him and ruin Qin's destint.
His only friend wanted to kill him and his father-in-law betrayed him at the peak of Qin unification of China.
All of these affect his mental state during his reign. And he no longer listen to anyone.
When the time the people can't talk directly to the leader and must see his face and emotion before anything else.
That nation is halfway to its doom already.
Not civilization, but the foundation as ine unified and centralized kindom
I am leaving this comment here so that after some hours, days, weeks, months or years when someone likes or comment on it, I will be reminded to watch this video again
Its been 5 hours watch the video ya goon
Its been 8 hours watch the video ya goon
Its been 12 hours watch the video ya goon
Its been 14 hours watch the video ya goon
Its been 16 hours watch the video ya goon
Kendrick and history scope dropping in the same week that’s crazy
Truly blessed week
A full series would be incredible cool
okay a slight little (i hope) constructive criticism that came to my mind,
the 1st few minutes seem to suggest that the Han ethnic identity was universal to all peoples of the yellow river valley from the get go,
which as far as i know was not the case. Han being so dominant is only a later development of politics within the region.
I think saying "(...)they started to develop their own ethnicities, chineese ethnicities one of which is (some flowery sentence if u will) Han(...)" and later the video could go on as it does.
Imo it would save people that little bit of confusion... but it could just be me. aside from that little thing great video!
Hell, a lot of people now called Han wouldn't have been considered so even as recently as the Qing Dynasty. The very idea of an ethnic Han identity as opposed to a cultural one based on language, education, religion, and lifestyle is largely a late-19th-century nationalist retcon rather than long-established reality.
11:20 11:23
@@alexv3357What is a retcon?
@@johnlacey3857 Retroactive continuity. A re-explaining of something at a later date. It's a commonly-used word in fandoms for when a franchise changes or clarifies something after the fact in later seasons or movies, especially as a way of smoothing out plot inconsistencies.
Nationalists around the world do this when they create narratives of their nations, since no nation period existed before the age of mass literacy and mass transportation. Nations are not the same as cultures or societies or states in general, but rather a specific arrangement of standardised (hence national) institutions across the whole of a state's territory, including a standardisation of language and religion and so on. Saying that one's nation has a proud history extending back thousands of years is a recasting of events in ways that the people who lived through those events would not necessarily understand or agree with.
@@alexv3357 except this is just wrong? han as an ethnicity started to exist after han dynasty cuz during wuhuluanhua the huns and mongols and 3 other nomadic tribes invaded the started to kill chinese people based on their ethnicity aka han ethnicity. it's like how black is created as a race because white people needed a reason to enslave them aka a social construct.
You pronounced “Zhao” more or less correctly in this video, but the vowel in “Zhou” is pronounced more like “oh” like the name “Joe”
Oh that's interesting! I couldn't find good pronunciations of Zhou and just used the one used in Avatar the last Airbender (for Admiral Zhao).
I youtubers people would simply use Google translate for foreign names we wouldn't have to repeatedly have to call this out. Pinyin words get pronunciations get so tortured.
@@HistoryScopeGoogle translate?
@@zhubajie6940 Unfortunately, I can't write in Mandarin.
I instead google 'how to pronounce' followed by the word I want to pronounce. In the case of Zhou, it gave me the same as Zhao.
As for google translate: it sounds like a badly put-together audio clip. Considering how terrible it's with English, Dutch, and German pronunciations, I don't trust it with anything else either.
@@comradeofthebalance3147 see my previous comment, please :)
i love that history youtube isn’t afraid to make content about a subject that has been covered (specifically china) because all of them tell the story in a different way/perspective. also i want to hear all of this info again without watching the same video. (this sounds so back handed but being sincere and i love this video)
I love that your videos cover the most important aspect of history that lots of high school history skips on - the WHY things happened. I wish these videos were available when I was in high school.
Always dropping videos on my birthday, that's hype.
Thanks! 🍫
Of course, anything for sushi!
Yeah, make this a series👏🏾✊🏾
Me: “Honey! History Scope just dropped!! Get the lube!”
My wife: 👁️👄👁️
Nani?
Que?
Yes, officer, this comment right here
Nini?
Yeah new History Scope video!! History Scope rocks
A series of top tier juicy history videos on Chinese dynasties sounds amazing.
Awesome video, I always look forward to watching them!
Thanks for your content man really informative ❤
Slight correction. Rice farming occurred around the Yangtze. Around the yellow river they farmed wheat
Once again, your animators are talented.
@@pquummand? 🤨
@@pquummDude, i was just complimenting the talent of the animator, not the historical accuracy, but sure, I’ll take your word on it.
What?… Look, I’m done debating. And if I didn’t start a debate, then I’m definitely not going to start one.
@@pquumm yeh, I can see that now. I’m someone who often don’t know how to respond to comments, so I really don’t understand why I do so.
We need the full series!! Thank you for making this video
Great job!
Please give us more!
Thank u lord history scopes for dropping new heat again
Qin in the last stage against other seven kingdoms were using the tactics by rewarding the merits in battles. They were treated by the numbers of enemies they killed. And peasants and commoners were rewarded by counting the actual human heads at the end of each battle. If they could provide 20 or thirty heads then they would move a rank up with rewards of acres of land for farming. Since families is still a unit of life- even if they die their families would still pass the land the front soldiers earned. There were several strange patterns happening: you see soldiers fought between them for human heads and corpses for counting, young men dressed light without armours and kills enemies aggressively without taking care of their own safety but their best mobility, soldiers in the front line writing letters back for shoes and equipment back home as provision because families now seen them human as investments for rewards to a family. Even nowadays these reward system, although it’s meritocracy based, are still seen as weird and inhuman and haven’t been used afterwards in two thousand years of china.
I only seen 2 videos but thus far this has been the best history channel to date. Keep up the good work
This was great! I really enjoyed this video!
Nice stuff, keep up the good work.
Wow, what an amazing video! Thanks for making my day brighter.
So happy to see a new video!
PLEASE make a complete series!!!
Prior to the warring period, all battles fought between the 140 minor vassal kingdoms were exclusive to the professional military nobles. When the warring states started, part time soldiers and peasants were conscripted or paid to go into wars. This is parallel to the Hundred Years’ War between the Britain and France where peasants and commoners were trained at using the bows while the French were still using largely nobles and Calvary system.
Very interesting video I was waiting for someone to upload a comprehensive yet simple video diving into chinese history.
Thank you and hope you get the necessary likes 👍
Bravo, great work Avery!
love your channel, you cover aspect of history I love to learn more about, but also cover history I haven't learn much about. definitely cover all of Chinese history!
The funny thing is that China the state is named after the Qin dynasty, rhetorical Han the ethnic group is named after the Han dynasty which is the dynasty immediately following Qin.
It is clear, where the Qin replaced the idea of having kingdoms with the idea of having an empire, the subjects still identified with the conquered kingdoms. This can be seen from the names of the rebellion armies at the end of Qin Dynasty. This only changed after the very long and stable rule of the Han dynasty
fav topic fr!!!!
Wheat n millet was grown along the Yellow river. Rice was grown in the South along the Yangtze river. Only much later was rice introduced in the North.
I am obsessed with your channel now.
It is a sad thing for a Chinese not to know their history. Thank you for a brief history of each dynasty.
Fantastic video! I really enjoy your history content. And I absolutely would love a Chinese Dynasty series.
In the fall the most important factor that frequently gets ignored: Shortly after the emperors death, the Prime minister killed the Crown Prince and the Chief of the military, purged there factions from government. Then only a few months later the chief Eunuch killed the Prime minister and purged his faction from the government, largely because the Prime minister wanted to use funds to fight rebellion while the Eunuch wanted to not fight rebellion and build himself palaces. There is debate as if this was deliberate to end the dynasty, or he just underestimated the threat.
In any event within a few months of the emperors death, his government was dead or exiled and the man in power deliberately sabotaged efforts to fight rebellions. Many of which were carried out in the name of the crown prince or other killed officials, suggesting that the chaos in government itself was one of the main drivers behind much of the rebellion.
Great video, thanks Avery.
You haven’t come up on my feed in months! I was wondering where you went but you were uploading this whole time!
Great vid!! Really interesting and detailed!
This was such an amazing video
absolutely loved this !! please make more china related content
About 600,000 were shipped to the north to rebuild the walls. The prince and emperor encumbrances were sent to overlook the process. About 300,000 were sent after two years of unification to the south to conquer nowadays Guangdong and guangxi and Vietnam regions. The 300,000 perished. Qin emperor then sent another 400,000 soldiers and prisoners to conquer again and this time it was a success. But by that time fortresses and administrators were set up Qin was in all internal fighting and rebellious mode. The south general decided to set up a kingdom of its own and the kingdom has survived for 200 years with four successive kings. Thanks to the natural barrier because of the large range of mountains between yangzi river and pearl rivers. The weather were also different from the north therefore there were diseases and sickness where most people from the north won’t survive. This south kingdom was amazingly adaptable because the largely male invaders married the local southern local tribes women and having mixed blood the people from the north could pass off and stay much longer. Because of the mountainous barrier and the isolated situation from the north, the extreme south were often ignored from the centra region up north. Even much later when there were western civilisation such as Portugal asked for trade possibilities, places like Guangzhou or Macau were often semi opened to the outsiders to avoid tainting the uniformity with chaos in the northern or central region way of life.
Favorite topic - commenting for algorithm
New Subscriber. Keep the videos coming
1.7K likes in 4 hours? You have 2 days to start working on the next video in this series.
Lol anyone come here after reading Kingdom.
Yes!!! Funny how we’re still pretty early in the story after so many chapters.
This is a great video which touches upon very important but often overlooked factors which were critical to how China evolved from one dynasty to the next.
Also the two minor general mentioned in your story were actually moving cartloads of prisoners who were punished by probably minor or trivial crimes. The route delayed because of rain falls. They would become punishable themselves because of the delay. Thanks to the prisoners now they had a small man power to start a rebellion. Otherwise they couldn’t have the confidence to do that. And we could also see the lower ranks of the administrators weren’t that harsh on the actual prisoners on treatment.
I really like your content so much continue ❤ your brother from morocco
This was a quality video, from the script, the narration, and the animation. You have a new subscriber, and I shall watch your career with great interest.
PLS THEN IT INTO A SERIES PLS PLS PLS!!!
This video was so cool! More people should know about why china is the way it is today by studying their history, i personally never studied this topic in school
MORE CHINA
Lets go! I would love more china content
i only recently learned that, before qin's wars of unification and especially han dynasty, each chinese state used a slightly different writing system, but closely related to each other. even today, many various dialects across china are mutually unintelligible, making them almost like different languages but with the same written language, thanks to this guy qin shi huang. thanks for explaining how it all began
中国在几千年前统一了文字所以中国不管怎么分裂最终都会再次统一
yep, china unified the writing system in 221 bc, so 2244 years ago, but before that, there was no unified writing system, in fact there was no china, but a collection of various warring chinese states. similar to classical ancient greeks in my mind
I like that Yes Minister line, it is very true indeed. "Power goes with permanence. Sir Humphrey: Impermanence is impotence. Sir Arnold: And rotation is castration."
Please make full series!!
This was great please make more!!
Amazing video
Nice!
Thanks for this amazing video! I've been following you for a few years and these videos are always a treat. Many more thanks for uploading them so often now :)! I'd love to see a next one.
Maybe an idea: it might be interesting to create a similar video on the history of the Indian subcontinent. I think there is a lot of history there that most people in the west have no clue about.
Just want to say thank you for citing your sources i see and appreciate that
Those army numbers are crazy, especially for the time period.
Yes we would all love a china series
Yes!!! We need china series!!!!
very cool! do the log version!
nice work
Fantastic.
I would definitely love to see a china series. Even as a history nerd, i know so little about china considering their importance
This video is so awesome!!!! Ancient Chinese history is truly fascinating
Make this a series :)))
Yes more videos please! China was a topic on my final exams in history, but we just started in 1800. I would realy like to know how it develioped in comparison to europe or the south american civilisazions at roman and medival times, or even before.
I've been waiting for this since Oversimplified dropped the War of the 3 Kingdoms vid
Yes please create a series
Excellent video!
Great and very thorough video. We learn very little about the history of China here in Holland, so a series about the entire history of China would be very nice!
Cool.
Cant wait for the three kingdoms period video
And of course, after realizing the mistakes that led to the collapse of the first unified China, subsequent rulers would learn from what came before and not make the same mistakes again.
...Right?
Yes make a series
Make it a series ❤️❤️❤️
like this vid!
HELL YEAH FOR THE CHINA SERIES!! ❤
series please
I dropped a "like" (becaused I actually liked your presentation of the topic), and I'm sure you'll get 20k, but don't oblige yourself to make a follow-up video for this reason. Do it only if you deem the topic worthy. As on "Whose line is it anyway" - the likes don't matter.
Geweldig, hoe je moeilijke onderwerpen in behapbare brokjes opdeelt. Kudos!
I would love a full series, I find Chinese history is very interesting
Yea need that series
I second the motion for a complete Chinese dynasty series
I want a series about dynasties 🤩
I love your content. I particularly love ancient Chinese culture.
PLS COVER THE HISTORY OF EVERY COUNTRY YOUR SO GOOD
Series needed
Very informative and entertaining ❤❤❤
Series! Series! Series!
CHINA. WILL. BE. UNITED - you saying it never gets old!
This is really great