Chinese Civilization China during the Tang dynasty was a period of beauty and regality among the Chinese citizenry. One of the art forms which took on new importance during the era was in writing. Literature both in the form of stories and poetry became artistic and beautiful. Those who could write best were elevated themselves to the pantheon of artists. This attitude about the importance of writing is visible in some

Chinese Religious & Philosophical Leaders Confucius Confucius sought for himself and his disciples to become a superior man. This perhaps his most outstanding attribute -- a continuous striving for a perpetually unattainable perfection. Although this construct refers to superiority as measured against a man's peers, it is more focused on becoming superior to one's own self both in the present and in measure of the past. Striving for perfection, or a "perfect

Poetry and Politics in 1079: The Crow Terrace Poetry Case of SU Shih Charles Hartman in his article on the political fallout of the poetry of SU Shih acknowledges that all societies practice censorship in some degree and in some form. Western society has a history of confiscating, banning, destroying, controlling the distribution and punishing authors and individuals for the creation and possession of written texts that are deemed morally or

Chinese History The Shang dynasty marked one of the earliest recorded periods of history in ancient China, for which substantial archeological evidence exists. Although Chinese culture did not necessarily flourish during the Shang, a system of writing was first developed, its characters etched on the so-called oracle bones. The Shang dynasty was a bronze-based society that extended from 1700 to 1027 BCE. The form of government practiced during the Shang was

Chinese as the native language and culture to research. Include such information as the need to communicate, social organisation (tribes, cities, etc.) contacts with other cultures, development of a written language, nonverbal aspects of language (such as inflection and body language), changes over the centuries, etc. Chinese culture and language Chinese cultural values play an important role in shaping the community's social norms, with the majority of individuals in China being

Chinese Art By the fifth millennium BCE, China had developed the basic elements that were to identify it as a civilization, such as social structure, agricultural skills and the domestication of animals (Schmidt pp). It was also developing concepts related to the order of the natural environment, to life, death, and life after death (Schmidt pp). China's cultural identity, as it is known today, can be traced to the endeavors of