Chinese culture
Chinese culture is one of the world's earliest cultures, said to originate five thousand years ago. The culture prevails across a large geographical region in East Asia called the Sinosphere as a whole and is extremely diverse, with customs and traditions varying greatly between regions. The terms 'China' and the geographical landmass of 'China' have shifted across the centuries, before the name 'China' became commonplace. Chinese civilization is historically considered a dominant culture of East Asia. Chinese culture exerted profound influence on the philosophy, customs, politics, and traditions of Asia. Chinese characters, ceramics, architecture, music, dance, literature, martial arts, cuisine, arts, philosophy, etiquette, religion, politics, and history have had global influence, while its traditions and festivals are celebrated, instilled, and practiced by people around the world.
Identity
As early as the Zhou dynasty, the Chinese government divided Chinese people into four classes: gentry, farmer, craftsman, and merchant. Gentry and farmers constituted the two major classes, while merchant and craftsmen were collected into the two minor. Theoretically, except for the position of the Emperor, nothing was hereditary.China's majority ethnic group, the Han Chinese, are an East Asian ethnic group and nation. They constitute approximately 92% of the population of China, 95% of Taiwan, 76% of Singapore, 23% of Malaysia, and about 17% of the global population, making them the world's largest ethnic group, numbering over 1.3 billion people.
In modern China, there are 56 officially labelled ethnic groups. Throughout Chinese history, many non-Han foreigners like the Indo-Iranians became Han Chinese through assimilation, other groups retained their distinct ethnic identities, or faded away. At the same time, the Han Chinese majority has maintained distinct linguistic and regional cultural traditions throughout the ages. The term Zhonghua minzu has been used to describe the notion of Chinese nationalism in general. Much of the traditional identity within the community has to do with distinguishing the family name.
The characteristics of Chinese culture
China is one of the world's four "cradles of ancient civilization" and has maintained unique continuity. The Chinese people, remarks one scholar, in the spirit of "continuous self-renewal," "self-discipline and social commitment," "inclusiveness to diversity," and "realism and adaptation to changes," created cultural traditions of abundant content, sophisticated structure, and various forms.Regional
During the 361 years of civil war after the Han dynasty, there was a partial restoration of feudalism when wealthy and powerful families emerged with large amounts of land and huge numbers of semi-serfs. They dominated important civilian and military positions of the government, making the positions available to members of their own families and clans. The Tang dynasty extended the imperial examination system as an attempt to eradicate this feudalism. Traditional Chinese culture covers large geographical territories, where each region is usually divided into distinct sub-cultures. Each region is often represented by three ancestral items. For example, Guangdong is represented by chenpi, aged ginger and hay. The ancient city of Lin'an, is represented by tea leaf, bamboo shoot trunk, and hickory nut. Such distinctions give rise to the old Chinese proverb: "十里不同風, 百里不同俗/十里不同風": "praxis vary within ten li, customs vary within a hundred li". The 31 provincial-level divisions of the People's Republic of China are grouped by its former administrative areas from 1949 to 1980, and are now known as traditional regions.Social structure
Since the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors period, some form of Chinese monarch has been the main ruler above all. Different periods of history have different names for the various positions within society. Conceptually each imperial or feudal period is similar, with the government and military officials ranking high in the hierarchy, and the rest of the population under regular Chinese law. From the late Zhou dynasty onwards, traditional Chinese society was organized into a hierarchic system of socio-economic classes known as the four occupations.However, this system did not cover all social groups and the distinctions between the groups became blurred after the commercialization of Chinese culture in the Song dynasty. Ancient Chinese education also has a long history; ever since the Sui dynasty, educated candidates prepared for the imperial examinations and exam graduates were drafted into government as scholar-bureaucrats. This led to the creation of a meritocracy, although success was available only to males who could afford test preparation. Imperial examinations required applicants to write essays and demonstrate mastery of the Confucian classics. Those who passed the highest level of the exam became elite scholar-officials known as jinshi, a highly esteemed socio-economic position. A major mythological structure developed around the topic of the mythology of the imperial exams. Trades and crafts were usually taught by a shifu. The female historian Ban Zhao wrote the Lessons for Women in the Han dynasty and outlined the four virtues women must abide by, while scholars such as Zhu Xi and Cheng Yi would expand on this. Chinese marriage and Taoist sexual practices are some of the rituals and customs found in society.
With the rise of European economic and military power beginning in the mid-19th century, non-Chinese systems of social and political organization gained adherents in China. Some of these would-be reformers totally rejected China's cultural legacy, while others sought to combine the strengths of Chinese and European cultures. In essence, the history of 20th-century China is one of experimentation with new systems of social, political, and economic organization that would allow for the reintegration of the nation in the wake of dynastic collapse.
Spiritual values
Most spiritual practices are derived from Chinese Buddhism, Taoism and Confucianism. The relative influence of each school of practice is a subject of debate and other practices, such as Neo-Confucianism, Buddhism and others, have been introduced. Reincarnation and other rebirth concepts are a reminder of the connection between real-life and the after-life. In Chinese business culture, the concept of guanxi, indicating the primacy of relations over rules, has been well documented. While many deities are part of the tradition, some of the most recognized holy figures include Guan Yin, the Jade Emperor and Buddha.Chinese Buddhism has shaped some Chinese art, literature and philosophy. The translation of a large body of foreign Buddhist scriptures into Chinese and the inclusion of these translations, together with works composed in China, into a printed canon had far-reaching implications for the dissemination of Buddhism throughout China. Chinese Buddhism is also marked by the interaction between Indian religions, Chinese folk religion, and Taoism.
Religion
During the Xia and Shang dynasties, Chinese religion was oriented to worshipping the supreme god Shang Di, with the king and diviners acting as priests and using oracle bones. The Zhou dynasty oriented religion to worshipping the broader concept of heaven. A large part of Chinese culture is based in the belief in a spiritual world. Countless methods of divination have helped answer questions, even serving as an alternative to medicine. Folklores have helped fill the gap between things that cannot be explained. There is often a blurred line between myth, religion and unexplained phenomenon. Many of the stories have since evolved into traditional Chinese holidays. Other concepts have extended beyond mythology into spiritual symbols such as Door god and the Imperial guardian lions. Along with the belief in the divine beings, there is belief in evil beings. Practices such as Taoist exorcism fighting mogwai and jiangshi with peachwood swords are just some of the concepts passed down from generations. A few Chinese fortune telling rituals are still in use today after thousands of years of refinement.Taoism, a religious or philosophical tradition of Chinese origin, emphasizes living in harmony with the Tao. The Tao is a fundamental idea in most Chinese philosophical schools; in Taoism, however, it denotes the principle that is the source, pattern and substance of everything that exists. Taoism differs from Confucianism by not emphasizing rigid rituals and social order. Taoist ethics vary depending on the particular school, but in general tend to emphasize wu wei, "naturalness", simplicity, spontaneity, and the Three Treasures: 慈 "compassion", 儉/俭 "frugality", and 谦 "humility". The roots of Taoism can be traced back to at least the 4th century BCE. Early Taoism drew its cosmological notions from the School of Yinyang, and was deeply influenced by one of China's oldest texts, the Yijing, which expounds a philosophical system of human behavior in accordance with the alternating cycles of nature. The "Legalist" Shen Buhai may also have been a major influence, expounding a realpolitik of wu wei. The Tao Te Ching, a compact book containing teachings attributed to Laozi, is widely considered the keystone work of the Taoist tradition, together with the later writings of Zhuangzi.
Philosophy and legalism
Confucianism, also known as Ruism, was the official philosophy throughout most of Imperial China's history, and mastery of Confucian texts was the primary criterion for entry into the imperial bureaucracy. A number of more authoritarian strains of thought have also been influential, such as Legalism.There was often conflict between the philosophies, e.g. the Song dynasty Neo-Confucians believed Legalism departed from the original spirit of Confucianism. Examinations and a culture of merit remain greatly valued in China today. In recent years, a number of New Confucians have advocated that democratic ideals and human rights are quite compatible with traditional Confucian "Asian values".Confucianism is described as tradition, a philosophy, a religion, a humanistic or rationalistic religion, a way of governing, or simply a way of life. Confucianism developed from what was later called the Hundred Schools of Thought from the teachings of the Chinese philosopher Confucius, who considered himself a retransmitter of the values of the Zhou dynasty golden age of several centuries before. In the Han dynasty, Confucian approaches edged out the "proto-Taoist" Huang-Lao, as the official ideology, while the emperors mixed both with the realist techniques of Legalism.