Many other great civilizations , Egypt , Rome , Sumerians have all crumbled. Although Chinese civilization has not , what elements contributed to the preservence and success of the chinese empire?

Confucianism

Complete utterly indestructable awesomeness.

Having lots and lots of sex

ahhh , i see what your saying.

God mode basically?

Communism. It was the second coming of the Chinese Empire.

In addition, they incorporated bastards like meself.

Arrogance.

Their cool, appealing, culture.

Population, cultural attraction, stubborn identity maintenance, etc. You know the basic yadda yadda list. Essentially China has survived everything a nation state can go through which is why most scholars unanimously agree that China is the world's oldest living civilization today.

an innate belief that we are superior culturally compared to others

due to evolution

^^Yeah you need to have strong faith towards your own group to help make it strong. Hence the Han chauvinism.

its only common sense that we are culturally and genetically fit for this world. we are one of evolution's finest, and have the ingenuity to be very progressive. the indians are as well , they are a ancient civilization just like chinese.

but then again, the Han ethnicity itself is very diverse and consists of a broad range of different peoples. I think it was a mixture of feelings of cultural superiority as well as an open-ness towards others.

That extra dose of "awesomeness" that nobody else has.

^ And thus fight for China.

or fight for chinese.

Barbarians: WE'VE COME TO CONQUER YOU.
Chinese: Welcome, do look at our extravagant culture and wealth.
Barbarians: Wow awesome. Where do I sign up?

Barbarians : Wow , how do I sign up for myspace?
Chinese : Yes , to use chinese myspace you have to read chinese.

^Kubilai Khan was an intelligent man. He didn't touch Chinese culture at all and allowed cultural and religious freedom. The only way to rule China is to let it rule itself.

"chinese myspace? why yes i've heard of it"

Less Han, more China, especially after the fall of the Qing and the PRC>

the mongolian era of chinese history is one of the most interesting parts to me. i preferred the yuan dynasty over the qing (manchu) dynasty.

A lot of people don't know but the Qing conquered A LOT, I mean A LOT of territory.

Filial piety is what keeps us in check....something westeners can never understand

Yes, but they also sliced off a lot of territories from the Chinese empire and handed it to foreigners. HK, Macau, etc to Europeans.

i know. the qing conquered as far north as lake baikal which is in siberia and in the northeast, we used to have access to the pacific ocean. russia took a lot of damn territory and never gave it back.

the qing, as with most chinese dynasties, were awesome in the beginning but went to crap at the end. and the qing gets more crap than most for obvious reasons.



not really. the koreans and japanese and vietnamese, actually most asians, have filal piety too. chinese arent the only peoples who hold strong family ties.

chinese culture is contagious

yet 5,000 years of history and culture was almost completely destroyed within a span of 20 years, scary...

It's all good, because we've got those territories back.



So the net benefit goes to our favor.

^But the act of being taken away and coming back seemed to have affected the heart of the Chinese spirit. HK Chinese hating on mainlanders and vice versa, and as much as Taiwan is Chinese, they'd rather be recognized as a separate ethnicity altogether than to be grouped with the Chinese in PRC.

I think we should just be grateful that chinese civilization survived and didn't disappear.

There was a real danger during the late Qing era when China really looked like it was going to turn into another Africa.

It was a very humiliating and dark time in chinese history.

Taiwan was acquired and lost during the Qing, and I have a feeling that it will be added again during the PRC's time. Hong Kong, Macau, etc, will eventually start seeing themselves as less as xxxx and more as Chinese. We won't have to make a distinction between Mainlanders and Hong Kongers in 50 years.

^^Indeed. I was going to go on a rampage about those humiliating times, but I digress.

^By the beard of Zeus I hope your prediction is right. To be honest, I'm sick of all the different Chinese from different areas not getting along and $hitting on each other instead of watching out for each other like they ought to.

^ lol, I thought Shanghai folk are rude to people of other provinces by discrimination, turns out they're just rude in general.

the bright side is that i believe that from now on, china is truly going to get better and better. we'll never be humiliated like that again. and if other countries threaten china in any way, whether militarily or economically, they'll really have to deal with 1.3 billion united people, not just a few elite, corrupt political families.

what mao said was the truth when he delivered his speech in tianenmen square in 1949, "the chinese people have stood up."

Several things I might add:

common written script.
unique geographical location.
large population.
strong centralized government.
"Mandate of Heaven".

Indeed, while other nations were duking it out, we rarely fought with other nations equal to us. India for the most part was pretty peaceful, and the only pwnage we got were from underestimating our enemies.

"Yeah right, like Mongols are going to defeat us, a ha ha ha ha...hey, where'd they get siege equipment? OH SNAP!"

^And somehow believing that we're in the center of the universe "Middle Kingdom"

if you think Shanghai folks are rude, try Shandongese ppl lol. a 10 yo Shandong girl can make a grown man cry.

taiwan wasn't "won" during the qing. the qing was actually quite reluctant to incorporate taiwan into its borders. at the time, taiwan provided no strategic or economic benefits. so in that respect, the qing didn't really "conquer" taiwan as part of its long term expansionist agenda. however, the qing did lose taiwan.

the only chinese government that rule taiwan is the ROC, and it will stay that way for a long time, because it is not up to the PRC to decide the fate of people whom they do not govern.

^ So you're saying it was never annexed into the Fujian province.

it was annexed. but "conquered" or "won" would not be a suitable term. the qing emperor was fairly reluctant.

Really how?

Usually territories involved military conquest, but I don't see how it's any less Chinese territory if it were taken peacefully or violently.

aiya, i never said it's not. i merely wanted to point out that the use expansionist terms such as "conquer" or "won" is inaccurate in describing the annexation of taiwan by the qing.

Alright I'll change it.

^Culturally, Taiwan still practices and majority of the people who inhabit Taiwan are "Chinese." This whole politics getting in the way of the same people getting along with each other is so freaking annoying.


Just talk to MadGhoul on AF. He's Shandongnese and will make you wish you were never born lol.

oh man you dont be knowing?? I remember when first time my little brother and I went to Guangdong to visit family. My little brother was crying because my cusin kept staring at him and asking, "ne ting tho ma?" again and again
My cusin, shes only 6 lol

it wasn't really their acquirement of chinese technology and using it against us that caused them to win. the main thing was that the mongol armies were naturally mobile. they lived on their horses pretty much. and they were trained in cavalry combat since they were old enough to sit on a horse.

the chinese calvary had much smaller horses than the central asian breeds that the mongols used. also, chinese were already an agricultural nation and used to living in villages and farming. a horse was just used as a means of getting from point A to point B.