Ancient Chinese GovernmentsEssay Preview: Ancient Chinese Governments1 rating(s)Report this essayChina is one of the worlds oldest civilizations, with written records going back as far as 1,500 BC. Consequently, some form of Chinese government has been present before written records; and this paper covers the different Chinese systems of government from 2,100 BC – 200 AD. China, all the way from the beginning of its recorded existence, has been under the control of dynasties. These dynasties were controlled by the central family and were the ruling of the country. Famous dynasties include the Xia, Shang, Qin, and Zhou.
The first known dynasty of Ancient China is under much speculation, as a lack of written records makes the Xia Dynasty poorly understood. In fact, so much remains controversial about the Xia Dynasty that many people question its existence. The Xia Dynasty was founded when the leader of China, Yu, passed the throne to his son soon before his death. By refusing to give the throne to the person most capable of ruling, and passing it to his son, Yu began the dynastyic rule. Thus, the first Dynasty had been born; its traditions set for later families to rise to power. During the Xia families ruling, a civilian government was founded. Here we can see the first recorded form of Chinese order. Protection was offered to civilians, punishment for legal transgressions was strictly enforced, and early forms of legal codes came into existence.
The Shang people overthrew the last Xia leader in about 1,600 BC. The Shangs were a very spiritual ruling family. The Shang were the first of the Chinese dynasties to develop writing. The majority of the writing has decayed; the Shang mostly wrote on bamboo strips. However, they also used some bronze and stone, and thats how we know they actually invented a form of writing. We dont know exactly how the common people were treated during the Shang dynasty. Public works were implemented by the Shang King such as public restrooms, and a 27 foot wall built around the city for protection. Many experts speculate that some sort of forced labor was used to build these Perhaps, the Shang forced the public to work on them… Sort of like a tax; the public enjoys their benefits, but must also build them. Others speculate that slaves were used. No one knows for sure.
In about 1040 BC, the Shang were overthrown by the Zhou. Whats interesting about the Zhou is how they validated their violent takeover. They created a “Mandate of Heaven”, which basically says that Heaven places a mandate to rule on any family that is morally worthy of responsibility. The only way to know if it was removed was to overthrow the family; after the ruling family is overthrown, the victors had the Mandate of Heaven. The government was very strict… people could not make human sacrifices. Their religion, the cult of Heaven, was forced upon everyone who wished to liveÐ in Xian. There was a lot of culture in this dynasty, as Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism sprung from this
Many of the Zhou people was killed, as a punishment for all of their brutality. Although this dynasty was created by a young man who is not the grandfather of your father, it is clear that its death-blow to Sun Shulun was because of his son, he killed Sun Shulun to put down the power of his government. It is also important to note that some of the Zhou dynasty’s laws were very different from those in the Ming dynasty. The government did not punish a prince who had committed a crime. For example, the Chinese Civil Code did not have provisions to punish those who did it, and that was part of what gave the Zhou dynasty the wealth and power. In fact, it said that anyone who committed a personal crime would be imprisoned, but for those who didn’t do the crime, punishment was harsh and it could be life, death, or exile. The laws forbade any personal attacks, the only type of personal attacks being assassination, theft, rape, and even extortion for a certain family. These laws were quite lenient, to the point that some were even passed into law. In fact, if a prince committed a crime, the other prince would be charged with a crime. If one committed a crime, the other prince wouldn’t get to jail. This became a powerful way of punishing the Zhou family. In this way, it meant that, not only did the government have less power than the Ming-Yun dynasty, but those who were involved committed very severe crime, and those who were not were imprisoned more often than not.
In the time since, the Yuan Dynasty has been heavily involved in the economic development of the Yuan. There were changes in the world. By the late 19th century, that was when things like “treating the poor like cattle” started to change. This was also the era when people began to pay attention to the Chinese food industry, which included rice, which is a staple within the national diet. In addition, this opened the way to some of the innovations that made China a successful industrial country in the world’s first industrial era. Many things changed since then and China’s economy was even more prosperous than that of the Ming Dynasty. This is the place where the Westerners started to get excited about the idea of China becoming a real power in the world in the future. It was so great that nobody had any doubts about what they were doing at that time.
Some may say, “I thought China was a dictatorship of the proletariat, but the Xia dynasty didn’t have anyone in it.” It should be noted that, in China, most of those who were interested in socialism would only work