Zheng He

Our last discussion for the history of China is about Zheng He. Zheng He was a Chinese mariner, explorer, diplomat, and fleet admiral. Zheng was probably the greatest explorer in Chinese history. He traveled widely through Asia and Africa.The explorer visited many countries of Asia and Africa, including Java, Sumatra, Sri Lanka, India, Persia, Arabia and Taiwan. He sailed with huge fleets of up to 300 ships, with 30,000 men under his charge and brought priceless treasures back to the China. My friend, Li, went on one of Zheng's ships. He said that his boat was the biggest wood constructed ship in history. He has many more after that. Suddenly, Zheng died at sea in 1435 AD, at the age 60, as he returned from an exploration of Africa. He was buried in a large tomb after that. This is Ming Ping. Thanks for listening!

The Sung Dynasty

Our next discussion is about the Sung Dynasty. This is the time period of 969 AD. This was founded by Zhao Kaungyin, the first Sung emperor. During the Dynasty, he created some new inventions. For example, the first creation was gun powder. The Europeans started to use the gun powder after it was made and use the powder for weapons. Also, The next creation was the clock. This was a useful invention because it taught how to tell time. This dynasty also brought Neo-Confucianism, the study of Confucius and his teachings/philosophy. Also, this enhanced education in schools for the growth of literature and the arts. The only bad part of the period was the weak military directly under the emperor's control. He feared that power hungry generals might want to rebel. When small barbarian tribes or nations would attack then the Sung would try to sign treaties with them. 

The Tang Dynasty

"The Han Dynasty just collapsed!" That's what I said when the Han fell to the Tang Dynasty. The Han fell because the central government was breaking down. This dates back towards 220 AD. This was led by the first Tang emperor, Li Yuan. His original name was emperor Gaozu. This Dynasty increased the production of farming. In my region, farming was scarce. In addition, Buddhists came to China during this time. Buddhism became a big influence in Chinese culture. I believed that this was the highest point in Chinese Civilization. Wow! there is a new store in town to get the latest invention. Its called "Woodblock Printing". Its a new way to text and write messages. The Tang will improve our economy and create a better central government.

The Mongols take China

Our next discussion is the invasion of mongols. They ruled a large empire for fifty years before invading my country. This happened in my neighborhood in Northern China. This was around my time in 1276 AD. The Mongol leader, Kublai Khan, led this group to invade China. Another concept is that Kublai was Genghis Khan's grandson. After the invasion, Kublai declared himself the emperor of China in 1281 AD. I was talking with some Chinese politician, and he said that Kublai's rule wasn't very successful. He said that the citizens of China got mad at Kublai for giving all of the jobs such as government to the Venetians. This politician was upset because Kublai should have gave the Chinese the government jobs. So, this was a negative impact when the Mongols took over.  

The Han Dynasty

Hi. I'm Ming Ping. Our discussion today is the Han Dynasty. This is the second imperial dynasty of my country, China. This was proceeded by the Qin dynasty, The dynasty I was talking about before. This was created by Liu Bang, the first emperor of the Han Dynasty. This dated back towards 206 BCE to 220 CE. I remember the first day of the dynasty. While the ruling of Liu Bang and his dynasty, this Dynasty changed the region of politics, economics, and technological advances. I also remembered what made the series of events remarkable is that Buddhism entered the country during the time. If you have any questions about this blog or about the other blogs I posted, comment your question. Thank you for your time!

Buddhism comes to China

Alot of Buddhists just migrated to china a month ago. This person named "Siddharta Guatama" spreaded his world religion to china. This is currently around 250 BCE. They translated my newspaper from Buddhist texts into Chinese. This was the emperor of the ming dynasty that wanted this for so long. Our emperor is Qin Shihuang. This changed politics, medicine, literature, and philosophy. Buddhism was first taught in China by my best friend, Emperor Ming. Buddhism will bring great things to my country. It would  bring peace, and love to our wonderful people.

The Unification of China

The Unification of China is happening right now in my country at 221 BC. This is unified in the Qin  Dynasty. This is actually the first dynasty of China. Our emperor of my country, Shi Huangdi, unified all of eastern China. The greatest advantage during this unification was writing, coinage, weights and measures. I was walking on the street near my house, and I asked this man about his opinion of this unification. He said it ended up well, making a strong agricultural economy, strong weapons and forces. Well there you have it. This unification will shape China the way it is in the future!