QOTD: Your favorite Chinese dynasty

[atlasien]

Here's a question for those with any knowledge, basic or advanced, of Chinese history.

What is the dynastic period that strikes you as most interesting?

Here are a few lists for quick reference.

http://english.people.com.cn/aboutchina/history.html
http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/time_line.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_China

[Scowl]

Are we counting the CCP?

[atlasien]

Sure, why not.

You just have to mention why you find your period the most interesting.

[blockthebox]

Haha. I'm gonna go with the PRC (specifically the Deng period) since that's what my thesis was about and understanding it required studying every period prior to it.

[Lum]

Yuan dynasty, the time of my family's "founding ancestor".

[atlasien]

It would be the Song dynasty (960-1276) for me. From what I've read, this was a time when social mobility, social justice, education and scientific inventiveness really flowered. Literacy rates were high. The examination system worked the best that it ever worked. Later it began a slow decline. People would say that it was possible for a poor farmboy to become a governor through examination success, but in reality that was practically impossible in later periods because of the need for expensive private tutoring and lack of state-funded schools.

[SamuraiJack]

It would be the Song dynasty (960-1276) for me. From what I've read, this was a time when social mobility, social justice, education and scientific inventiveness really flowered. Literacy rates were high. The examination system worked the best that it ever worked. Later it began a slow decline. People would say that it was possible for a poor farmboy to become a governor through examination success, but in reality that was practically impossible in later periods because of the need for expensive private tutoring and lack of state-funded schools.



same here.. this was right before the mongol invasion right?

[ZhuBaJie]

that's kind of a difficult question, isn't it? even within most dynasties, there were good periods and bad periods, good rulers and bad rulers. the better question to ask i think would be who your favourite Chinese ruler was. for me, a few come to mind:

1. Wang Mang, for being probably the world's first socialist.
2. Wu Zetian, for being the first and only Chinese Empress in history.
3. Kangxi, just for being a great ruler that really increased China's influence.

[Lum]

The key words were "most interesting". I had to re-read the question myself hehe. Most of the dynasties would have probably been pretty rough, unless you were just born lucky.

[nskripchun]

No Tang Dynasty fans?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty

After watching "Curse of the Golden Flower", I'm convinced one of the greatest Chinese inventions ever was the b00b-tastic, cleavage-enhancing dresses for courtesans.

[Subwaybrum]

I'm interested in all of them, but i guess i'd have to say Ming Dynasty.

[maogirl]

No Tang Dynasty fans?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty

After watching "Curse of the Golden Flower", I'm convinced one of the greatest Chinese inventions ever was the b00b-tastic, cleavage-enhancing dresses for courtesans.

dude, i love the tang dynasty, two of my tattoos are from engravings from that era, but sadly, i would've had to pass as a boy...

[cattygurl]

2. Wu Zetian, for being the first and only Chinese Empress in history.

No favorite dynasties in particular, but I did enjoy studying up on Empress Wu in College (I took a history class on women in power (BC to 1600). couldn't take the other class, which covered 1600-modern) . Incidentally, she was one of my bedtime stories (a very cleaned up version) from my dad, the history buff! :D

[ZhuBaJie]

No Tang Dynasty fans?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tang_Dynasty

After watching "Curse of the Golden Flower", I'm convinced one of the greatest Chinese inventions ever was the b00b-tastic, cleavage-enhancing dresses for courtesans.

the Tang Dynasty was very interesting indeed. it was a time of western expansion, and you can see from Tang artefacts that some of the Tang aesthetics was influenced by Central Asian/Turkish culture.

[warcry111]

It would have to be any of the dynasties before the Song (960-1279 AD). Bluntly put, and this is being very general, ever since the Song and all the dynasties after it, Hua ("Chinese") culture placed much more emphasis on wen ("civil pursuits") rather than wu ("martial pursuits" - no, not necessarily just martial arts, but martial culture in general, meaning militaristic/war-like/violent). The stereotypical effeminate Confucian scholar/literati image may date from the Song and afterwards, as at this time the original hybrid official-warrior aristocracy that had ruled China in the dynasties before the Song had been almost totally eliminated and replaced by a civilian bureaucracy that extolled only peaceful, non-physical, civil, pacifist virtues. This is important in the Asian American identity because one of the stereotypes of Asian American men in America/Western society is that they are effeminate/weak/can't fight, etc. Although this stereotype also draws from the historical situation of Asian Americans (i.e. the Chinese bachelor societies of the late 19th-early 20th centuries in America as a result of racist US laws at the time), Western soldiers and Christian missionaries in China did no less to add to the power of this stereotype by indicating that China at the time (mid-late 19th century, early 20th century) was militarily weak and attributed many, often erroneous reasons to explain the situation in China at the time, one of them being that the Chinese were simply racially inferior and couldn't fight or weren't warriors or that they made terrible pathetic soldiers. Other reasons seem to appear to be less erroneous but are still myths and far from the truth, such as that Chinese culture had always placed peaceful pursuits above everything else and totally condemned martial/warrior values, or that China lacked a warrior culture; while there is some truth to these reasons, it is totally false in the case of Hua/"Chinese" culture before the Song dynasty.

But, back to the topic, my personal favorites, ie empires/dynasties/kingdoms, would have to be the Zhao and Qin states of the Warring States Period, the Qin dynasty, the Western Han, Cao-Wei, Northern Wei empire, Western Wei/Northern Wei, Sui, and the Tang empire. Especially the Tang empire (618-907 AD). An empire that seemed to be quite similar in terms of power to the American USA empire of today, only that Tang government was not subject to racism, since racism as we know it today did not exist back then, and the liberal attitude and freedom of women in the Tang empire was simply unparalleled in history until the social and political changes in the West in modern times (20th century), as compared to the conservative, oppressive, and sexist Western society back then. Shortly put, it was a time when the West was third-world, when China, East and Central Asia was at the center of the world at the time and were first-rate powers. During its height in the early 660's AD, the Tang was undoubtedly the largest, most technologically advanced, and most powerful empire in the entire world and the single unipolar polity at the time.

[Liang]

The Han Dynasty was the perfect mix of everything. China was militarily strong as well during this time. It was one of the three great empires in the world during that time (the others being the Roman Empire and the Gupta Dynasty in India). I also give props to the Tang and Ming Dynasties, though the Ming emperor was an idiot for stopping Admiral Zheng He's expeditions to the West.

I also love the fact that there were Liang Dynasties.

[kimtae]

Ah, but what great art the Song produced.

[aelward]

I'd have to go with the PRC, followed by the Tang Dynasty.

I chose the latter because that was the "peak" of Chinese culture, when it was being spread throughout Asia.

I have to agree with the Curse of the Golden Flower observation :P Though we know that Tang babes were supposed to be plump....

[ZhuBaJie]

I chose the latter because that was the "peak" of Chinese culture, when it was being spread throughout Asia.

well, as much as the Tang dynasty spread its culture, it also absorbed a lot of culture from the peoples that it traded with and peoples that it absorbed during it's geographical expansion.