China was fairly a unified country during the onset of the imperial times. Integration of china was facilitated by a number of factors such as, commonly well embraced cultural practices, well understood political orientations that, facilitated order and tranquility and a fairly strong social and economic foundations.
Even though, China had little tranquility before the formation of its republic. It can be argued that it was fairly unified. This is due to the fact that, it was not characterized by chronic divisions. Moreover elements that breed divisions in most states were lacking. For example, sssssthere was an absence of ethnic tensions and racial strains. The founding of China republic in came with an overthrow of Qing dynasty. And these episodes in China’s historical making, led to further disruption of peace and order in the country. For the three years that the republic of china governed her. China which was formerly a unified empire was fractured and remained barely on the verge of civil war. The conflict that ensued was between the communists and the nationalists. With civil conflict that plagued the country, that state cannot be said to have been well knit into a nationalistic body polity. At the same time, China was not defined by serious and far reaching divisions as it may appear. Thence, it is only worth making note, that China was fairly integrated. Valerie [2000]
The stalemate caused by he communists also known as the ‘koimtang’ and the nationalists of China came to a near end in 1949. It was at this point in time when the communists defeated the nationalists. With their victory, they formed The Peoples Republic of China. After this success they relocated the Republic of China to Taiwan. They were therefore a force that made the Republic f China have its jurisdiction limited to Taiwan, Matsu together with the Islands in the outer land. But, this too is only strength to my argument that, China was subject to about have peace and order to half conflict and tension.
Since, the defeat of the Republic of China, she remained largely contended in her independence between the communists and the capitalists. The two factions, have both engraved in consistent strive for international recognition and even, internally they have posited claims on each others regions or territory. Save, from the struggle on who should exercise sovereignty over China. The opposing political divide have also, battled on the political condition of Taiwan. Yet these tensions are not in absolute a definition of China as a divided state. It is still imperative to make note of the looming truth that, she is fairly united. Ankerl [2000]
China also boasts of an elaborate culture and a way of life that has acted as pointers to its unity. These have been upheld by all and sundry of Chinese descent irrespective of their distinct natures. These elements of her culture have also made her citizens transcend their defend political; onions and divisions. For example, the archeological artifacts like, the famous’ tomb guardian animal’ which is a sculpture that is placed before a large or a big tomb. This is a represents of an image intended to exorcise evil spirits. These are indicators to the evidence that, there was reasonable integration among the Chinese.
Moreover, riddles have been a good tool in preservation of Chinese history and it has also helped in the promotion of unity among the citizens of china. Like the riddle of Hefei which is a story about an imperial concubine. There are also narrations about the generals of ancient China. In addition, there are stories told about powerful impresses her history. Lastly, they have closely and probably well related languages. Their languages remain overly unintelligible. Even though, most of them belonged to the Sino- Tibetan family, there are still distinct defenses in dialect between and among them. These cultural divides have slowed down the rate of national integration in china. From this illustration, China was fairly united in its imperial periods.
Confucianism was a social cultural philosophy that, led to stronger relationships among people of Chinese descent. This philosophy propagated brotherhood based on relationship and kinship. This social orientation highly stressed on duty, loyalty, filial piety among other values. But it still remained limited in creating cohesion and integration since it was not all encompassing. Next, Chinese culture also upheld collectivism visa viz individualism. This led to development of group feelings, attachment and concerned that equally built ties among those of Chinese descent. Lastly, they also had a common etiquette that dictated their code of conduct in many aspects of life. These though sere unifying factors, they were v very weak forces in the face of difference in political opinion and philosophy. In spite of these unifying elements China still remained fairly integral.
Economically, China was somewhat average in spite of its circus of economic decline and prosperity. During Shang’s reign [1600-1045] and Zhou‘s [1045-771BCE] or its Neolithic times it boasted of stratified bronze period. Fairbank & John King [1992] They practiced agriculture and excesses agricultural production helped support the handicraft and the rising urban areas plus the armies. It can therefore be claimed that, there was existence of economic unification at these times. Not long after, this economic fluidity of began to disintegrate after the fall Western Zhou Dynasty in 771BCE. This was preceded with the onset of spring and autumn coupled with the warring states. Therefore, there was only reasonable integration in china in the pre-colonial period. Valarie [2000]
With the collapse of feudalism, a lot of legislative political power was transferred to the local kings from the nobles. In the same period, the Chinese society began to degenerate into classes with the emergence of the Merchant class. With profiled society, china’s unity was tampered with. Malkov & Korotayev [2006]
Moreover, during Song’s Dynasty in [960-1279] a number of economic reforms were instituted that promoted individual enterprise. Like, the introduction of paper money and the compass. Development of technological know how facilitated communications and trade. The state also lost much control on money this economic policy development led to increased profit and GDP per car pita income. But this was also interrupted by the war crisis caused but him Mongols conquest of 1929. Hence China remained in partial unity across its economic history. Ramson [2008]
In conclusion, China was reasonably integrated during the imperial period. In spite the fact that, there were also factors that tampered with her unity. These factors are language differences, consistent wars, social stratification and excreta.
Work cited
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