Section One Glory of the Chinese Nation
Chinese nation has explored arduously and made brilliant achievements on the path to pursue prosperity and strength.In ancient times, Yellow Emperor, praised as humanity ancestor of Chinese nation, advocated extensive cultivation and diligent seeding.He led common people to plant five cereals and tame livestock to make people have ample food and clothing and live and work in peace and contentment. Ancestors constantly innovated means of production, improved pro duction technology, built water conservancy engineering, promoted crop planting, etc.in production and living.They accumulated abundant experience with wisdom and perspiration and created many miracles.In the later Spring and Autumn Period, use of cow ploughing and iron farm tools made social productive force experience leap-forward development.Waste lands were reclaimed and cultivated lands increased, disintegrating well-field system.Chinese society began to step into feudal society; extensive use of cow ploughing and iron farm tools in the Warring States Period drastically promoted social and economic development, laying material foundation for development and strength of China.
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Leap-forward development of agricultural economy and technology had been verified by archaeological materials in the era of Yellow Emperor.As we have known from existing archaeological discovery and research that, Longshan culture in Shaanxi, Henan, southern Shanxi, southern Hebei and middle reaches of the Yellow River in northwestern Anhui inherits Yangshao culture.Social economy had made drastic strides in the period and stone production tools were polished more exquisitely.There was rare chipped stone tool and earth-cutting tool ripping timber had been used.Stone battle-axe and triangle plough-shaped utensil were discovered in some historic sites.These improved means of production greatly boosted capacity of land reclamation.Extensive use of perforation stone knife, stone sickle, clamshell sickle and others indicated that agricultural production had certain scale and harvest yield increased.People's clothing materials at that time mostly evolved from animal skin to plant fiber.Villages were distributed more densely.Sacrificial vessels and musical instruments made of ceramics, stone, jade，paint, wood and other materials were amazing and even exquisite to the greatest extent.Some depictions and writing symbols could be roughly determined as prototype of Chinese characters.Variety and quantity of livestock raised increased and pig's heads were used to be buried with the dead sometimes.
I.Model of flourishing age in Chinese history
As one of great nations with the most innovative spirit in the world, Chinese nation once created advanced productive force, glorious technology achievements and brilliant spiritual cultures drawing attention of the world in the history.
1.“Rule of Wen and Jing”
“Rule of Wen and Jing”refers to the ruling period of Emperor Wen of Western Han Dynasty http://baike.sogou.com/lemma/ShowInnerLink.htm?lemmaId=21286（180 B.C.—157 B.C.）and Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty（157 B.C.—141 B.C.）.Economy was developed and society was peaceful in the period in Chinese history.Hence, it became a very important model of flourishing age in Chinese history.
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The lesson of destruction of Qin and the bankruptcy of Legalism made governors at the beginning of Han Dynasty alert.To recover national vitality, Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty adopted governing thought of“rehabilitating common people”of Huang-Lao Taoism.As for main contents of Huang-Lao study in Han Dynasty, the core idea is“Taoism”and“passive inaction”.Taoism is essentially reflected as an irresistible“natural”momentum, which becomes fundamental rule to dominate natural world and human society.People's political activities can only follow and learn from natural law, namely, “understanding Tao”and“following nature”.Passive inaction is politically reflected as noninterference or less interference and stresses following natural laws to govern the state and highlights application of“suitability”.For example, fishery should be developed in water area and forests should be planted in hilly area, livestock raised in valleys and agriculture in lands. Highlands should be taken as fields and lowlands should be taken as pools.Lands should be cultivated according to actual conditions and machinery should be used according to its purpose.All things should be utilized to the fullest extent.Among kings in the history, Dayu regulated rivers and watercourses according to topography; revolution of Emperor Wu of Zhou Dynasty defeating Emperor Tang of Shang Dynasty was desired by common people.Hence, “suitability”can be matchless in the world.Tedious and harsh government decrees were primary cause of social turmoil.It is county-governing value idea of Huang-Lao Taoism that there is no harsh decree in the royal court, no corrupt officers in the folk.Quietness is achieved and people are peaceful.
Confucians deeply reflected on the destruction of Qin at the beginning of Han Dynasty.They advocated that righteousness should be put first in governing the county and political morality and value idea should be reconstructed.They held that righteousness was the foundation to build the county.It played a critical role in formation of rule of Wen and Jing.For example, Lu Jia held that reason of destruction of Qin, in a word, was“cruel torture”.Qin took cruel torture and brutal law as basic policy of governing country and managing people.As a result, laws pampered crafty sycophant and many measures disturbed residents. People were abused to make the great disorder.He argued that morality should be put first and righteousness should be the essence.The liquor pool owned by Qin Dynasty could be used to yachting and grains heaped up.People standing on it can look in the distance.We could not say it was not affluent; Qin owned all powers in the whole county and possessed nine provinces.We could not say it was not strong.However, prosperity and power of Qin could not sustain itself and failed to defend itself in spite of power.Lu Jia held that it was not caused by poverty of Qin, but governors'lack of morality and righteousness on the whole county.Therefore, the country only increased its own wealth and governed without morality and its property was surely snatched by common people; if the country only stressed national power and acted unjustly, its power could not be maintained for a long time.Qin was put in the position without morality and finally destroyed by Han Dynasty; it was affluent in property and had no righteousness and finally punished by common people.Therefore, governors in Han Dynasty should learn lessons from destruction of Qin and take righteousness as cultivation essence.Historically, people of Yao and Shun could be praised and people of tyrants Jie and Zhou could be slaughtered, resulting from cultivation. People were obedient if the monarch was sagacious and people were malicious if the monarch was cruel.Therefore, morality cultivation should be taken as cultivation essence in governing the people.Punishment should be alleviated and reward should be enhanced.Kindheartedness thought of Confucian school should be taken as a value standard to unify regulations and government decrees to make subjects of feudal ruler act with principle of justice out-weighting benefit.Then a country can maintain prolonged stability.
Jia Yi held that both laws and discipline rites should be considered in governing a county, with the former as primary means.He argued that different ways should be pursued at the time of capturing and safeguarding the county.After Qin destroyed six states and became the king of the Whole China, its law and politics were not changed and still emphasized fraud and underestimated righteousness.It took tyranny as imperative of governing the country and we could stand aside to witness its destruction.After establishment of Han Dynasty, opportunity of aggression had passed and trend of annexing had gone.The world entered a period of conservatism and the country should be ruled by rites.Rites were accumulated when they were used to govern country and criminal penalties were accumulated when they were used to govern county.Social grievance was enormous when criminal penalties were accumulated.People were amicable when rites were accumulated.Rites could determine basic code of moral behavior and maintain social order.Therefore, it was the essence to govern a country.Morality and righteousness could not achieve its intended purpose without rites and lessons and customs were unprepared without rites.Rites had value functions of stabilizing a country and firming the state.
If rule by rites is implemented, we should love people with rites, put people first, and implement benevolent policy.One of the lessons for destruction of Qin was endangering of people, thus endangering the monarch.Qin governors did not pay attention to people and quieting people, applied harsh and numerous penalties to people and imposed tax infinitely.Common people felt insecure and people in danger were prone to serve the devil.Jia Yi held that people was the essence of all things.From ancient times till now, the people would surely win victory sooner or later. Governors could reform policies instead of exchanging the county, adjust appointment of government officials instead of exchanging common people. Therefore, the country should govern the people by virtue, implement benevolent policy, propagandize sense of propriety, justice, honesty, honor and other basic Confucian moral value codes among common people, highlight cultivation, transform social traditions to make common people in the world to turn attention to law of righteousness.
Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty adopted the thought of passive inaction of the school of the Emperor Huang and Lao Tzu and advocated the policies of benevolence and righteousness and loving the people, which enabled gradual recovery and development of productivity of the society of the Western Han Dynasty; thus there gradually appeared rare prosperous and rich scenes in the history.Ban Gu, the famous historian, described the situation of social wealth as“there are grains in national warehouse which cannot be eaten out and copper coins of the city cannot be used up, ”when Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty ascended the throne, there was a description
to the effect that“there are thousands and thousands of money stored in national treasury of the capital-Chang'an and ropes for stringing copper coins are worn out, copper coins are too many to be calculated; stored grains in national warehouse are too full to the extent that old and new grains are mixed together overflows out until rotted and uneatable.”Those are visual descriptions of wealthy of the country and improvement of the living standard of the people under the“Rule of Wen and Jing”.
“Rule of Wen and Jing”is one of the flourishing ages with very high economic and cultural development level in Chinese history. During this period of history, iron farm tools and cattle farming technology were widely used, advanced agricultural production tools and technologies were popularized in areas outside the central plain regions and farmland water conservancy facilities were repaired.For example, during the reign of Emperor Wen of Han Dynasty, Wen Weng dug Jian River in Sichuan for irrigating lands of Fan County. Owing to use of iron farm tools and cattle farming technology and construction of water conservancy facilities, social economy obtained significant development during the reigns of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jing of Han Dynasty; especially Guanzhong region was the richest place.While handicraft industry-the very important auxiliary product of agricultural development, was also developed significantly in the Western Han Dynasty.Metallurgical industry of the dynasty had used coal as the fuel and adopted“quenching method”in the aspect of technology, which greatly improved the degree of tenacity and keenness of irons; silk industry of the Western Han Dynasty was very developed and varied exquisite fabrics could not only meet material life needs of the people in hinterland, but were also delivered in batches to border areas through form of presenting as gifts, frontier trade or commercial trade, the fastest silk trade activities were held on Central Asian countries and even Daqin of European, namely Ancient Roman Empire in the history; lacquer craftworks of the Western Han Dynasty were also very exquisite; a large number of exquisite lacquers of the Western Han Dynasty were found in grave goods earthed from Wang Xu's Tomb of Lelang within the borders of current North Korea and grave goods earthed from Xiongnu Nobiity Noin Ula's Tomb within the borders of Mongolia.It was the creative labor of handicraftsmen that prompted the progress and prosperity of social material production.
Due to development of agriculture and handicraft industry deve-l opment, commerce in the Western Han Dynasty also flourished significantly, with very developed foreign trade, then a road for commercial intercourse from Hexi Corridor of Western China to Central Asia, West Asia and farther places in European through the north and the south of Mount Tianshan in Xinjiang and edge of Tarim Basin was established and opened, that is the famous“the Silk Road”in the history.
Through“the Silk Road”, the people of the Western Han Dynasty imported various wool fabrics and some articles of luxury from Central Asia, West Asia and other areas as well as exported Chinese silk.Frequent trade not only promoted economic development of the central plains regions, but also promoted society progress of the Western Regions; what's more, opening up of“the Silk Road”united the north and south areas of Mount Tianshan with the central plain regions into one at the first time, which has very far-reaching significance in the history of China.At the same time, sea transportation of the Western Han Dynasty was also established at that time, maritime trade volume accounted for an important proportion in commercial trade; Panyu（present Guangzhou）was an important port at that time, some amber and agate products were transported to China through sea transportation.
In the trade, people adopted Balanced Supply Method and Leve-l ing Method to make it convenient for economic life.So-called Balanced Supply Method is to set Balanced Supply Officer at each place to sell goods transported from each place to the capital from the place of origin to other places and then purchase other goods at the selling place to sell at other places, at last transport goods required by the capital to Chang'an after several times of exchange; which eliminated unreasonable phenomenon of many and disorder dealings of tributes from counties.So-called Leveling Method is to set Leveling Officer in the capital to accept balanced supplied goods and treat them according to fluctuation of market prices in Chang'an; namely sell them when they are expensive and buy them when cheap, so as to adjust supply and demand.Implementation of the two methods ensured that“common people bear no increase of taxes and the county has enough mon ey and grain.” Economic development enabled public people to enjoy more fruits of development.“If there are no disasters of floods and droughts, the people are self-sufficient, granaries of the city are full and government treasury has residual money, ”is the portraiture of rich people and full national treasury.According to calculation of scholars, from the last years of the Western Han Dynasty to later period of the Eastern Han Dynasty, annual grain yield of each agricultural labor force had reached 2,000 Jin, annual grain ration of each agricultural population had reached 485 Jin and annual occupied grain per person had reached 640 Jin.
On the basis of deep pockets accumulated in the“Rule of Wen and Jing”, the Successor of Emperor Wen and Emperor Jin-Employer Wu of Han Dynasty basically relieved the threat of Xiongnu to the Western Han Dynasty through several great wars and long-awaited peace reappeared in the northern border of the Western Han Dynasty. A large number of immigrations and border-defending soldiers reclaimed and planted on northern desert places and then advanced farming technology and production tools of the central plains regions spread over boundary county areas.Reclaimed-field areas, castles and beacon towers on borders were northern political and military strongholds of the Western Han Dynasty and also were spreading points of advanced economy and culture, which also played a certain role in social and economic development of Xiongnu and other adjacent nomadic nations.
2.“Control by Zhenguan”and“The Flourishing Kaiyuan Reign Period”
Tang Dynasty is the heyday and perfect period of China's feudal society and its political and economic systems have had a huge impact on later generations.Government of Tang Dynasty was composed of three departments, namely Department of State Affairs, Central Secretariat and Menxia Department and six ministries, namely the Ministry of Official Personnel Affairs, the Ministry of Revenue, the Ministry of Rites, the Ministry of War, the Ministry of Punishments and the Ministry of Works.Collective Prime Minister System was carried out and drove feudal centralized system to maturity stage.In the aspect of talents selection, Tang Dynasty selected state officials through examinations, abolished recommendatory system of Han Dynasty and nine-grade controller system of Wei and Jin dynasties to implement imperial examination system.In the aspect of economy, implementation of system of land equalization and zu-yong-diao system allowing farmers obtained lands through land equalization to serve in the army and be forced labors of the country at fixed period and other systems created famous“Control by Zhenguan”and“the Flourishing Kaiyuan Reign Period”in the history.
Zhenguan political group led by Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty（598 A.D.—649 A.D.）laid the development foundation for glorious age of Tang Dynasty.Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty has the thought of treasuring and loving people, under the precondition of affirming that the county needs to be solely dominated and governed by monarch, he admitted that monarch must work for benefit of common people and must adopt stabilizing people's livelihood as the basis of politics.Monarch and common people are a whole:monarch is like stomach and common people are like thigh; thigh can't be cut for filling stomach; otherwise, though the stomach is filled, the body is died.Wise monarch needs to protect common people and treasure financial resources of the people.Importance of common people to monarch is reflected in that common people can select the monarch.Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty personally experienced the Peasants'War in Late Sui Dynasty and witnessed the process of mighty Emperor Yang of Sui Dynasty being dragged down from high imperial throne by power of the people and ended up in dying with his boots regrettably.
Under the effect of treasuring-people thought, Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty carried out the strategy of running the state, with main contents of light punishment policy and less tax and introduced a series of treasuring-people policies, namely agriculture-oriented and rigorous enforcement of economy, which enabled the society with long-term conflict have a good rest and rehabilitation and then the nation and society were in prosperous, strong and stable situation. Reign title of Emperor Taizong of Tang Dynasty is“Zhenguan”（627 A.D.—649 A.D.）; thus flourishing age of this period is called as“Control by Zhenguan”in the history.
The Flourishing Kaiyuan Reign Period is the social prosperity appeared in the earlier stage under the government of Li Longji-Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty（685 A.D.—762 A.D.）.In Kaiyuan years（713 A.D.—741 A.D.）, Emperor Xuanzong of Tang Dynasty appointed able and virtuous ministers of Yao Chong and Song Jin, reformed system of official personnel affairs, developed economy, advocated culture and education, expanded diplomacy and enabled stable political situation, flourishing economy and prosperous culture and strong national power.Tang Dynasty entered the heyday of universal peace and order, which is known as“The Flourishing Kaiyuan Reign Period”in the history.
Through“Control by Zhenguan”and“The Flourishing Kaiyuan Reign Period”, economy of Tang Dynasty was greatly de veloped.In the 13 th year of Tianbao（754 A.D.）, number of households and total population controlled by Tang Dynasty had reached 9.06 million and 52.880 million, respectively.Manufacturing technology of porcelain was developed significantly in Tang Dynasty:celadon ware produced in Yuezhou is like jade and ice; ceramic white-ware produced in Dayi, Qiongzhou is superior to frost and snow; ceramic white-ware produced in Xingzhou is like silver and snow; porcelain produced in Changnan Town, Fuliang, Raozhou（present Jingdezhen of Jiangxi Province）is in green and white check and just like jade.
Due to developed industry and commerce, there appeared cosmopolitan international metropolises in some political and military centers, water and land traffic arteries at that time and Chang'an, the capital of Tang Dynasty, is a simple.Capital Chang'an of Tang Dynasty was divided into three parts, namely palace city, imperial city and outer city.Vicinity of the outer city had the scale about 70 li. Palace city was palace area and imperial city was central governing area of Tang Government, the two parts constituted the core of Chang'an City.Outer city had one hundred and eight lanes and composed of eleven north-south streets and fourteen east-west streets;lane was residential area.There were markets outside the lane, where was the places of handicraft industry and commerce.West Market of Chang'an was very prosperous and exceeded East Market. Starting from Chang'an at that time, wide courier route for delivering goods was opened to the whole country.There would be a courier station at the intervals of thirty li.Transportation situation of courier route was that Chang'an was the center; there were many persons from Asian countries to engage in trade in Chang'an, mainly includes Persian, Arab and persons of Zhaowu States.Many of them gathered in Chang'an and developed Chang'an into international metropolis at that time.According to some historical records, merchant prince and rich businessmen of Tang Dynasty were famous and fabulously wealthy, “they have stores, gardens and houses all over the country.”
Along with prosperous economy and stable society, national power of Tang Dynasty was promoted greatly.Tang Dynasty established system of military governor at border districts to defense invasion of Tubo, Tujue and Qidan troops.In the 4th year of Kaiyuan（716 A.D.）, Qidan got rid of the control of Turkic aristocracy and made peace with Tang Dynasty; Tujue was defeated by Huihe later and Huihe made peace with Tang Dynasty; Tang Dynasty established strong defense at Hexi and Longyou.Along with strong and power of Tang Dynasty, standoff battle line of Tang Dynasty and Tubo was pushed to the region of Shibao City with the borders of Qinghai.
During the periods of Zhenguan to Kaiyuan of Tang Dynasty, the people's living standard had basically exceeded adequate or ample food and clothing, which were unimaginative in other countries of the world in 6th century A.D.Based on rich material life, culture of Tang Dynasty was brilliant, achievements were gained in religions thought, literature and art, science and technology and other aspects and there sprung up distinguished figures of Li Bai, Du Fu, HsuanTsang, Liu Zhiji, Seng Yihang and Sun Simiao and everywhere can see“the phenomenon of prosperous Tang Dynasty”.
3.Political reform for strengthening of Song Dynasty
Despite Song dynasty suppressed Five Dynasties Disturbances, the society was in domestic strife and foreign aggression and threat ened by growing crisis, with all kinds of corrupt practices prevailing. Scholar-bureaucrat group had a strong sense of anxiety.They were concerned about social and personnel contradictory conflicts and chaos with a kind of rich humanistic feeling.Facing realistic difficulties, they were on the thorns, extremely upset with sorrow and urgent to find a way of getting rid of social distress to bring order out of chaos and reestablish normal order.
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Scholars in Song Dynasty attached great importance to giving the rein of traditional Confucian school of which the spirit is kind and gentle, emphasizing realistic care, active socialization, and benefit to mankind. Most of them had a strong sense of responsibility and awareness of unexpected development, and their purpose of studying Confucian classics was not only to provide literary explanations of words about these classics and annotations about its argumentations, but also to explore the morality of great justice and absolute equity, providing theoretical instructions for governing and benefiting the people.For instance, Fan Zhongyan proposed that“be the first to worry about the troubles across the land, the last to enjoy universal happiness.”Zhang Zai hoped that“thinking of the world, living for the people, carrying for the lost knowledge for those saints passed away and creating peace for all generations to come”; Cheng Yi, at the age of eighteen, submit his written statement to Emperor Ren Zong; Si-ma Guang, by compiling History as a Mirror, expecting the governors to take history as reference and improve their political rule; “explore the rule behind objects”by Zhu Xi and“study of deeds”by Zhang Liang and Ye Shi, all stressing the idea of humanistic pragmatism and serving realistic society.
Many people with breadth of vision had the wish of“revolution”and“saving the nation”in Song Dynasty, among Which Wang Anshi is the most famous political reformer.His political reformation mainly includes contents of two aspects such as nation wealth and military reinforcement.In nation wealth, he carried out law of young crops, law of irrigation and water conservancy, law of exemption from service, law of equal tax in surveying of land, law of adjusting relation of requirements and supply as well as controlling goods price and suppressing merchants and law of market sales; in military reinforcement, there are law for general and soldiers and law of conscription.In all of them, making fortune and managing the fortune are main contents of Wang Anshi's“reformation”.Wang Anshi thought that developing production is the basic solution to increasing state revenue and the key point of managing the fortune is to suppress the despotic ones.Besides, he carried out law of recruitment and law of market sales and took averaging taxes and corvees as the main means to suppress the despotic ones.
The era during the Two Song Dynasties was the unprecedented gold time of development, innovation and cultural prosperity of Chinese nation.During this period, the Chinese nation has made great achievements in agricultural civilization and urban civilization and other aspects and its urban commerce and handicraft industry are in rapid development.As a result, new class of the rich in which merchants are representatives came into being and people were in happy, comfortable and rich living.In their spare time of production and work, they began to enjoy life and entertainment and the cooking culture, tea culture, architectural culture and others were developing by leaps and bounds.At that time, our nation was one of the largest and the most developed countries with the highest productive forces in the world.
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At that time, the capital Bianjing of the Northern Song Dynasty was in extremely prosperous economic development and four rivers passed through inside and outside of the city and land transport also extended in all directions, which was the traffic center of land and water at that time and was also center of business and commerce.At that time, Bianjing had a population of more than 1 million and Riverside Scene at Qingming Festival of Zhang Zeduan, a famous painter in the Northern Song Dynasty, presented prosperity of Bianjing at that time.
Zhang Zeduan chose Qingming Festival which is an important fest-i val and painted in particularity of the scene of water and land transportation in Bianjing as well as prosperous businesses.As we can see from Riverside Scene on Qingming Festival, Bianj ing, being capital of Northern Song, was equipped with a number of hilarious downtown streets with vast crowd walking on it.Along the streets there were plenty of various stores and even a night market has arisen.On Bian River, there were good deals of boats coming up and down, which may be called as“hundreds of boats sailing in one river”“thousands of vessels start their course for competition”.Riverside Scene on Qingming Festiva l gives us a true-to-life portray of the busy and tense transportation on Bian River, demonstrating us the flourishing vitality of Bianjing during Northern Song period in full scale.
4.Booming and golden age during the reign of Emperor Kangxi and Qianlong
“Booming and golden age during the reign of Emperor Kangxi and Qianlong”is a flourishing age under earlier stage government of Qing Dynasty, spanning from the scouring of Revolt of the Three Feudatories in the twentieth year of the reign of Emperor Kangxi（year 1681）to outburst of revolt of White Lotus Society at Sichuan, Shaanxi and Chu Region in the first year of the reign of Emperor Jia Qing（year 1796）, lasting as long as 115 years from beginning to end, marking the peak of government of Qing Dynasty.During such period, Chinese society was fundamentally stable, and economy developed rapidly, population of society increased fast and national territory was vast.
The sixty-one-year reign of Emperor Kangxi has laid important foundation for the formation of this glorious age.Emperor Kangxi ascended the throne at the age of eight.Young as he was, the great Emperor showed his sophistication:uprooting Ao Bai the powerful Minister at the age of sixteen; then pacifing Revolt of the Three Feudatories, stabilizing southwest border areas of the nation; recapturing Taiwan, stabilizing southeast cost defense of the nation; rejecting Tsarist Russia at the north and signed on Treaty of Nerchinsk;conquering Mongolia situated at the west, further stabilizing northwest border defense of Qing Dynasty.
Being studious and excelsior and diligent in government affairs, Emperor Kangxi was talented and great minded, as well as economyadvocated.In respect of production, he attached importance to agriculture by regulating rivers, constructing water conservancy and developing production.In terms of culture, he has organized the compilation of books, calendars and maps including Kangxi Dictionary, Collection of Ancient and Modern Books, preserving abundant cultural heritage for Chinese nation.On account of his political and military achievements, the situation of unified multiple nationalities of the nation was reinforced and developed, and social economy became prosperous.
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In over 100 years of early stage of Qing Dynasty, continuous deve-l opment of agricultural production and cultivated land was primarily manifested in vast reclamation of wasteland and expansion of agricultural acreage.In 1661（the eighteenth year of reign of Emperor Shun Zhi）, agricultural acreage throughout the country was 5.26 million Qing; in 1722（the sixty first year of reign of Emperor Kangxi）, the maximum statistical figure about cultivated land in Ming Dynasty has been exceeded, reaching 8.51 million Qing; till year 1725（during the reign of Emperor Yong Zheng）, agricultural acreage throughout the country was 5.26 million Qing; improvement upon agricultural cultivation method brought substantial increase in grain yield.At some areas and in Guangdong, farmers transplanted late rice after reaping early rice; and after reaping late rice, they started planting oilseed rape or sweet potato which brings in three harvests a year.Soil in Jiangxi is thin, and it is impossible to continue growing late rice after reaping early rice, and then farmers planted buckwheat which yields two crops a year.Due to generalization of multiple cropping in southern areas, increase of grain production of more than 6 billion kilograms could be realized each year.
Thelink above is quoted from “SogouEncyclopedia”
Qing Dynasty turned to its greatest prosperity during the reign of Emperor Qianlong.After the enthronement, Emperor Qianlong carried out governance with the concept of“fierce force with mercy, pacified rebellion at Mongolia and Sinkiang areas, regulated Tibet, constructed seawall, and take charge of compilation of Imperial Collection of Four, which, along with Collection of Ancient and Modern Books, becoming one of the most enormous reference books in the world.During this period, Qing Dynasty had the vastest territo ry and the highest social economic development level with growing population; till last years of the reign of Emperor Qianlong, population of the whole nation broke above 300 million, accounting for approximately one third of total population in the world at that time. All these make significant symbols of the grand age.
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“Flourishing Period of Kangxi and Qianlong”was mainly shown in its population growth.In the 61st year of reign of Emperor Kangxi（in 1722）, the country's population hit one hundred and fifty million and three hundred million at the time of the 55th year of reign of Emperor Qianlong with basically stable living.Meanwhile, after several times of expansion, the territory of the Qing Dynasty had exceeded the previous dynasty.In the 24th year of reign of Emperor Qianlong（in 1759）, Xinjiang was pacified leading to the unprecedented expansion of territory in the Qing Dynasty with the south of Stanovoy Ridge to the north, the North Sea to the northeast, Sakhalin island to the east and the east of Balkhash Lake to the west, all of which inherited the boundary of Zunghar Khanate in 1758 forming a unprecedented multi-ethnic country of“grand unification”known to history“no time like this since the Han Dynasty and the Tang Dynasty”.The gross domestic product recovered to one third of the world after“Flourishing Period of Kangxi and Qianlong”.The American scholar Kennedy wrote in his book The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers that the industrial output of that time in China accounted for 32% of the world.Adam Smith said that China's and India's manufacturing technique was backward, but it doesn't seem to be much behind any European country even after the industrial revolution.
“Flourishing Period of Kangxi and Qianlong”had pushed traditional Chinese society to a new high with regard to politics, econo my, culture and many other aspects, creating a miracle in Chinese history.At that time, China had finally completed national unity, highly prosperous social economy, comprehensive trend of academic culture which were the most significant historic characteristics in“Flourishing Period of Kangxi and Qianlong”, especially the national unification, which is the basic principle of the supremacy in the Chinese history.The relationship problem of national unification, especially that of frontier minority regime and the central government in the central plains were solved efficiently in the reign of Kangxi and Qianlong which could be a model of the flourishing age.
Ⅱ.Horizontal comparison:contribution of China's“wealth and power”to the world
China's wealth and power can also contribute to the world. From the economic development level, economic aggregate of ancient China once accounted for more than half of the global economic aggregate; until the late 18th century, China's economy scale was still the biggest in the world.Due to developed economy, at the end of 10th century, the earliest paper money-Jiaozi had appeared in Chinese civil society, which made China the first country in the world to use paper money.After the reunification of the Yuan Dynasty, fourteen articles of Zhiyuanbaochao Circulation Code were published, which are the world's first relatively complete currency regulations.During the 16th century to 18th century, China was the largest commodity exporter in the world; at that time, commodity gross sold by British to China was not enough to offset one item in teas sold by China to Britain.Among 10 big cities with population more than 500 thousand, China accounted for 6.In the late Ming Dynasty, Matteo Ricci, a missionary described China in Reading Notes about China, “here material production is super abundant and nothing needed is lacking; sugar is whiter than that of Europe, cloth is exquisite than that of Europe…The people wear colorful clothing and are dapper in appearance; they are euphoric, courteous and elegant in speech”, thus it can be seen that economy of the ancient China was thriving and prosperous.
Data source:data before（in）1973 comes from Maddison（2007, p.379, table A.4; p.382, table A.7）; data after 2003 comes from World Bank Database（http://data.worldbank.org/）.
Seen from the scientific and technological achievements, there are many significant technological inventions in ancient China, which not only enable China's farming, textile, metallurgy, manual manufacturing technology to be in the world's advanced level for a long term, but also have important influence on production and life of the surrounding countries.Joseph Needham, the famous British history expert, pointed out in the preface of Science and Civilization in China that Western Europeans originally thought“development of scientific thought is derived from multi-ethnic experience and achievements of ancient Mediterranean”, but later gradually realized existing relatively mature scientific thoughts that have been benefited from ancient Egypt's pioneering work and benefited from multiple nationalities of crescent zone; they could relatively fair appraising for rare achievements of India, but could not understand the contribution to science and scientific thought of Chinese civilization for a long time. He pointed out“in all civilizations before modern times, no country had more developed and more advanced civilization than China.”
List of Main Scientific Achievements in Ancient China
In the aspect of foreign exchange, the ancient China actively developed foreign exchange, which had extremely far-reaching influence on neighboring countries.During Han Dynasty, Zhang Qian was twice sent to the Western Regions on diplomatic mission, who opened the door of exchange of China with Central Asia, West Asia, South Asia, Europe and other countries, prompted exchange between the eastern and western cultures and injected new vitality to the world civilization and progress.Through the Silk Road, Chinese silk, silk fabric, damask, satin, spun silk and silk products were continuously transported to Central Asia and Europe, which not only brought huge wealth for Chinese but also made it possible for China to establish friendship with the Asia and many countries in Europe. During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Chinese culture widely affected neighboring countries and Japan once sent several emissaries of Tang Dynasty to learn Chinese culture.Chinese character, costume, ar chitecture and ideology and other aspects had exerted a profound influence on Japan, which still can be seen now.
However, we must clearly recognize that it was due to the longterm rich and strong development situation of China, all kings regarded China as the center of the world and asked neighboring countries to pay tribute to their worship.The system allowing neighboring countries envoys to regularly visit Chinese emperors and present tribute witnessed the power and prosperity of the ancient China, but also restricted ideas and vision of China's rulers and buried the seed of leading the thousand-year Reich to go to the dogs.Therefore, when Britain's Industrial Revolution sprung up and western countries entered to industrial civilization from agricultural civilization in succession, China still immersed in the past prosperity, wrongly implemented the“close-door”policy and separated them from the increasingly advanced world.After the Opium War in 1840, China gradually descended to semi-colonial and semi-feudal society.Since the signing of Sino-British Treaty of Nanj ing,1182 unequal treaties and agreements in total were signed by China and foreign invaders before the foundation of new China.Once-glorious ancient country boasted as the Great Kingdom began to sue for peace through continuously ceding territory and paying indemnities and paid the Eight-Power Allied Forces 1 billion taels for invasion of China.Complacency and pride in the deep of the heart were abruptly turned to be inferiority and shame, leavening influence of such pain had continued to the present time.The reason to advocate“wealth and power”as the core value in the construction of socialist core values is to express the strong desire of Chinese nation for strengthening nation and the people and realizing the relentless pursuit of“Chinese dream”—the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation.