THE WORLD CIVILIZATIONS AND INDIA , PART-14

THE HISTORY AND MYSTERY OF CHINA

PAN GU or P’AN KU or PANGU was the first person who created this world . He was said to have come from a cosmic Egg ( Chaos ) with two horns , two tusks , and a body full of hair. He was said to have ruled the entire world by separating the Earth from Heaven . He set the Sun , the Moon , the Stars and the Planets on place . He also devided the four seas . The Earth was chiseled out by him and so was the Mountains . All these were created by him by the knowledge of YINYANG — a knowledge of inescapable duality in all things . Like the INDIAN mythology asserted that the entire universe has come out of the GOLDEN WOMBS , ( HIRANYAGARVA ) . Similarly , the CHINESE legends asserted that the entire universe was derived from the gigantic corpse of P’AN KU . His eyes became the Sun and the Moon . His blood formed the rivers . His hair grew into trees and plants . And His body became the soil . However , the artistic representations depicted frequently that P’AN KU was a dwarf clothed with leaves .

But the mainstream history of CHINA started with the legendary the YELLOW EMPEROR HUANG TI/HUANGDI ( 2697 BC TO 2598 BC ) . Before HUANG-TI , CHINA was divided into many small tribal fiefdoms always fighting each others . The credit goes to the YELLOW EMPEROR that he created a big empire by assimilating all those tribal fiefdoms . Since then the CHINESE society , culture and civilization , in real sense , came into existence . He is considered as the father of the CHINESE community in the real sense . And the CHINESE considered themselves the successors of that legendary EMPEROR HUANG-TI . The EMPEROR YAO ( 2356 BC TO 2255 BC ) , one of ‘ the Three Sovereign and Five Emperors ‘*, whose ancestral name was Yi-Qi or Qi , who was born in the Taotang clan as the second son of the EMPEROR KU and queen QINGDU , ruled over CHINA for 73 long years and , to some historians , for hundred of years . Then after the EMPEROR SHUN ruled over CHINA for more than 48 years . According to CONFUCIUS and MENSIUS , the two Emperors were the ideal rulers of their times . Longevity , surprisingly , may draw the attention of our readers as to how for so long period a man can survive ? But our readers will be surprised to know that there was a CHINESE scholar , whose name was TI MING YUN , who was born in 1660 AD and lived for 258 years . He married fourteen times and he had 180 children , all living together . Anyway , those were the days when every Emperors willingly abdicated the throne by handing over the Empire to their successors .

During the period of the EMPEROR YAO and SHUN , there was an old minister in called YU who constructed as many as nine canals to prevent flooding of the agricultural fields of the people of CHINA . The people of CHINA were so pleased with him that he was made the Emperor of CHINA who ruled for eight years and then abdicated the throne . He wanted to make one of his Ministers POYI as the Emperor of CHINA . But it could not happen as people of that time wanted to make CHI , the son of the EMPEROR SHUN , as the Emperor of CHINA . And since then the Kingship became ancestral as such . Now the age of hereditary rule was started in CHINA . Since then many Dynasties ruled over CHINA . But the CHO Dynasty ruled for more than 867 years over CHINA ranging from 1122 BC to 155 BC . During this Dynasty 37 Emperors sat on the throne of CHINA . These periods of history of CHINA , like the MAURYAN period of the history of INDIA, are called the Golden Period as such as the former got development in many fields . Many great saints and scholars like CONFUCIUS , LAO-TSE , MENSIUS , MOTU , HASUNTU etc were born and contributed to the knowledge of the mankind during that period . All the ten CHINESE philosophies were written during that period . That was the period of knowledge and thought .

The entire CHINESE Empire was divided into nine provinces and each under a King . The Kingship , now , had become patriarchal . And each King was duty-bound to send reports of his province about the well-being of their people and general affairs of the province . After each and every three years an officer was deputed to bring about the information of the well-being of the people of the province . If any complaint was found against a particular King of a particular province , he was dethroned forthwith . In this way the Emperor was so benevolent about the well-being of his subjects that entire country was united into one as such .

A very appreciating thing of the time was that the entire land was considered as the land of the people . Every piece of land was devided into nine parts . Out of the nine parts , eight were left for the families of that village and a part of it was left for the uses of the government or panchayat of that village . On that government land each farmer alternatively used to cultivate crops which was used by the the government for its own expenditures . Similarly , the rest of the lands were cultivated by the farmers for their own well-being as such . And the entire lands of the country were divided into such fiefs and cultivated accordingly . This system went on long in CHINA .

From 220 AD to 1911 AD , many Dynasties ruled over CHINA . Out of them TANG and SUNG Dynasties were important as many developments took place during that times . Porcelain pots and paintings were the most important things that were developed during that period . And then after 1911 came the age of democracy in CHINA , barring the age of communism for a few years or so .

NOTE : THE SOURCES OF THE BLOG ARE TEXT BOOKS AND OTHER WRITTEN MATERIALS ON THE SUBJECT .

TO BE CONTINUED …………………..

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