43 Thematic Chapter Example: Learning about China
In this chapter, you are pretending to be in a class where you’re learning about China. You’ll be using the essential questions and strategies to complete several literacy tasks common in college classrooms.
Let’s begin!
Directions for this Chapter
- Use the Applicable Strategies to read the following two articles on China and listen to the lectures.
- Compare the ideas presented in each of the readings and the lectures. Evaluate the claims made by each author or lecturer.
- Write a Summary/Response Journal. Use at least three other sources in your response.
- Click on the link to the Textbook Chapter on China. Create a list of the most important vocabulary to study for a test. Take notes on the chapter to study for a test. (You won’t actually be taking a test in this chapter, but you will read and take notes as if you were going to be taking a test.)
Applicable Strategy: Evaluating Types of Reading Materials
There are three readings in this chapter. Using this strategy to describe the types of readings.
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Applicable Strategy: Asking Questions before Reading
Before you begin reading the two articles in this chapter, use the following strategies.
- What is my purpose for reading?
- What will I need to know when I finish?
- What will I be expected to do with the information, such as write a response, summarize, take a quiz, etc.?
- What is the topic of the material?
- What does the title suggest?
- What do the subheading, italics and summaries suggest?
- What do I already know?
- What do I already know about this topic or a related topic?
- Is this new topic a small part of a larger idea or issue that I have thought about before?
- How is the material organized?
- What is the general outline or framework of the material?
- Is the author listing reason, explaining a process, or comparing a trend?
- What will be my plan of attack?
- What parts of the textbook seem most important?
- Do I need to read everything with equal care?
- Can I skim some parts?
- Can I skip some sections completely?
- Turn the headings into questions so you have a plan for finding the main ideas.
- Make sure you have room to annotate for either finding vocabulary or developing a response.
Applicable Strategy: Reading Actively
As you read the two articles use the following strategies.
- Read to find the main ideas and support. Use your purpose to read actively.
- Find the answers to your questions.
- Find definitions for vocabulary.
- Make connections between the text and your experience, between parts of the text, and between the text and other lectures or text by annotating.
- Use headings and transition words to identify relationships in the text
Take a look back at now to read actively by annotating.
- Look for the big ideas such as the titles and headings.
- Write down the big idea of the article in your own words.
- Underline or highlight topic sentences.
- Connect ideas by drawing arrows between them.
- Put question marks by things you don’t understand.
- If you relate to something the author has said, make that connection in the margins.
- Draw a box around words you might need to add to vocabulary.
The more you interact with a text, the easier it will be to remember and understand what you’re reading.
Applicable Strategy: Reading for a Thesis
Take a look back at strategy of reading for a thesis.
Questioning the text you’re reading is a good place to start. When trying to isolate the thesis, or main idea, of your reading material, consider these questions:
- What is the primary subject of this text?
- Is the author trying to inform me, or persuade me?
- What does the author think I need to know about this subject?
- Why does the author think I need to know about this subject?
Write the thesis of each article here.
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Applicable Strategy: Finding the Supporting Points
Take a look back at the strategy for finding the supporting points. Write down the most important supporting points from each of the articles.
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Applicable Strategy: Evaluating Supporting Claims of Texts
Using the STAR Method to Evaluate Appeals to Logic
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Examples & Notes |
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Sufficiency |
Is there enough evidence cited to support the conclusion? |
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Typicality |
Is the cited evidence typical or representative? |
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Accuracy |
Is the cited evidence up to date and accurate? |
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Relevance |
Is the cited evidence directly relevant to the claim(s) it is being used to support? |
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Reading 1 Daily Life in Ancient China
by Emily Mark
Originally published April 27, 2016 in Ancient History Encyclopedia
Chinese culture is one of the oldest in the world today. Over 6,000 years ago this culture began to develop in the Yellow River Valley and many of those ancient practices are still observed in the present. The Chinese developed a society based on respect for the spirits of the earth, one’s ancestors, the gods, and other people. It was believed that the world was governed by spirits and deities and so people should behave as though they were in the presence of these spirits at all times.
Figure 1: Banpo Village, Xi’an, China
Daily life in ancient China changed through the centuries but reflected these values of the presence of the gods and one’s ancestors in almost every time period. In the prehistoric age (c. 5000 BCE) people lived in small villages in the Yellow River Valley. Villages like Banpo show evidence of a matriarchal society, where there was a priestly class dominated by women who governed and were the religious authorities. The people lived in small, round homes built into the ground, wore the skins of animals, and practiced an animistic form of religion. Small villages like Banpo grew into larger communities and then into cities. The Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BCE) is the first form of government in China which established large cities. It was thought to be mostly mythological until archaeological evidence was discovered which, according to some scholars, proves its existence (although this evidence continues to be debated). After the Xia came the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE), when writing was developed and the first written evidence appears of what life was like for people in ancient China.
SOCIAL CLASS, CLOTHING & ADORNMENTS
Silk is thought to have been invented c. 2696 BCE, when the goddess Leizu, wife of the supreme god Shangti, was having tea and a cocoon fell into her cup. As the cocoon unraveled, she saw it was all one thread and so planted mulberry trees for silkworms to spin their webs in to make silk. The nobles and royalty were the only people who could wear silk. Those who processed the silk into clothing, and even the merchants who sold it, were not allowed to wear it. Most of the population of China wore clothing made of hemp. Women wore long tunics which went to their ankles with a tie around their waists; men’s tunics were shorter, only to their knees, and sometimes they wore pants with cloth boots or sandals. In the colder seasons they would wear a thick jacket made of hemp, which was padded for additional warmth. Chinese women would sew an image of a tiger onto the clothing of their children as a sign of protection. The tiger was thought to be the king of the beasts and its image would ward off evil. Sometimes mothers sewed images of toads or snakes onto clothing along with the tiger to add more protection against danger. This practice spread to the upper classes where dragons and tigers were embroidered on silk gowns for the same purpose. In the Sui Dynasty (589-618 CE), the emperor decreed that there was too much similarity between what the peasants and the upper classes wore (even though the wealthy nobles were still the only ones who could wear silk) and passed a law that all peasants had to wear either blue or black clothing; only the wealthy were allowed to wear colors.
One’s social class was determined, more or less, by birth. If one’s father was a peasant, one would also be a peasant. The social division between a ruling class, nobles, merchants (business owners), and the working class peasants deepened further with the invention of writing; people became divided between an upper class who could read and an illiterate peasant population. From the Shang Dynasty on, though, a person could improve their station in life by passing the Imperial Examinations and working for the government. These exams were very hard to pass. Not only did one need to be literate but one had to almost memorize nine books (known as The Five Classics and The Four Books) to be able to answer questions concerning them. The wealthy and middle class were either nobility, merchants, politicians, or civil servants while the poor were the peasant farmers and laborers. Taverns and pubs were popular gathering places for men of all classes, but they each had their own type of tavern, the upper classes would not go to lower class pubs, and the lower class was not allowed into the higher class ones. Scholar Charles Benn writes:
In Changan westerners operated taverns favored by poets, in the wards along the southeast wall of the city. They employed white-skinned, green-eyed, blond women from Central Asia to sing and dance so that patrons would spend more money on ale. Aside from the taverns inside Changan’s walls, there were pubs where villagers living along some nineteen miles of the eastern road outside the city sold ale to travelers (57).
The urban taverns catered to the middle class and the rural to the lower. In the city of Changan during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) there was an area in the district of North Hamlet known as The Gay Quarters, which catered to the wealthy. The word ‘gay’ should be understood as “light of heart,” and the quarters were staffed by high-class and very expensive courtesans. Benn writes, “Prized more, or at least as much as, for their talents as entertainers at feasts than for their sexual services, they resembled Japanese geishas” (64). None of the lower class could enter The Gay Quarters, and if they did, they would not have been able to afford to visit any of the houses. Taverns were often operated by women but The Gay Quarters were run by men accountable to the mayor of the city. This was the standard arrangement throughout China where courtesans were strictly under the control of the government.
Distinctions between the classes in ancient times were also seen in hair styles and other personal choices. Men and women of all classes wore their hair long because it was thought that one’s hair came from one’s ancestors and it was disrespectful to cut it. In daily life, one would put one’s hair up in a bun, but it was never supposed to be cut. Wealthy women wore their hair up with elaborate pins made of ivory, gold, or silver while poorer women kept theirs up by knotting it or binding the bun with a piece of twine. Just like the hair, the body was thought to be a gift from one’s ancestors and should not be abused. One’s body was not one’s own to do with as one liked; it had to be treated with respect. For this reason, most people looked down on those with tattoos and also because marking the body with ink was associated with barbarian customs. Tattoos were used as a brand for criminals, though, and those branded had to carry the mark with them for the rest of their lives. Even if they had the actual brand burned off, the scar would remain.
There are records, though, of quite a few who chose to tattoo themselves as an artistic expression. Charles Benn writes about one man who “spent 5,000 cash to have an artist prick his chest and stomach so that he could sport a landscape replete with gazebos nestled in the mountains, pavillions soaring over rivers, trees, birds, and animals” and another who “had a snake tattooed all over his body in his youth. The image of the serpent began in his right hand, where the jaws of the beast drawn on his thumb and index finger gaped. The body of the snake wound around his wrist, arm, and neck. Then it slithered down his chest, stomach, thigh, and shin, where it terminated with a tail” (112-113). For the most part, though, tattoos were only worn by convicts or gang members. Benn cites an example of a street gang, who had shaved heads and tattoos, who would beat and rob people in the marketplace of Changan. After they were arrested, the mayor had them publicly beaten to death in the town square, and afterwards, many people in the city with tattoos had them burned off so as not to be associated with the gang.
Along with tattoos, body odor was also associated with barbarians and criminals, and the Chinese were very meticulous about perfuming themselves thoroughly. Benn writes, “Women and men perfumed themselves. Palace ladies applied scents so lavishly that when they went out on an excursion, the redolence of their cortege permeated the air for miles” (113). They also wore deodorant made of lime, frankincense, cloves, sweet gum, and birthwort. Benn writes, “The compound was packed into small bags that were slung under the armpits. The authorities also recommended washing the armpits with urine on New Year’s Day” (114). Bathing every day was thought to invite sickness, and the custom was to bathe only once every five days. For bad breath, the Chinese sucked on cloves, and it was mandated that anyone appearing in the emperor’s presence had to do so before speaking to him. Foot odor was another concern, which was controlled through perfumes or camphor.
The shoes of the wealthy were soft and made of silk, with upturned toes, while those of the peasant class were coarse boots or sandals made of straw, hemp, or wood. Inside the home, everyone wore slippers made either of straw, hemp thread, or silk. Both men and women of the upper classes grew their fingernails long to show that they did not have to work. They had servants do everything for them, even feed them, so they would not damage their nails. Rich women wore jewelry like earrings, bracelets, necklaces, amulets, and rings. Some women pinned the wings of a green beetle to their clothes to make them more attractive to men.
During the period known as the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms (907-960 CE) the practice of foot binding began. It probably started earlier but became a custom after the reign of the emperor Li Yu (937-978 CE) who had his consort Yia Niang bind her feet to resemble a crescent moon and perform a special dance for guests at one of his parties. Li Yu had erected a large golden statue of a lotus flower in his garden, and Yia Niang’s dance was to honor its unveiling. Her dance was so beautiful it made the other women there want feet as tiny and graceful as Yia Niang’s were, and soon the idea developed that a beautiful woman should have tiny feet.
Girls as young as toddlers would have their feet wrapped in bandages so tightly it broke their toes and curled them under the foot. Girls had to walk around stepping on their own toes and were in constant pain for years until they grew used to it. Although this practice started among the upper classes, it soon became common for all women in China. This made working in the rice fields or doing any kind of manual labor, very difficult. Women are shown in ancient paintings crawling in the rice paddies because they could not walk. Foot binding continued for centuries until it was outlawed in 1911 CE. Many women were interviewed in the late 19th early 20th centuries CE on footbinding and talked about crying from the pain for years and how it never made them feel any more beautiful.
FARMING, FOOD & DRINK
The principal crop of China was rice. Rice grew best in the southern part of China in flooded fields, and so canals were dug to flood more fields throughout the country. Rice was so important that it was used to pay one’s tax. Rice was eaten at every meal in some form and was even brewed to make wine. Wheat and other grains were also grown but were never as important as rice. The Chinese diet was (and still is) mostly vegetarian. The Chinese temples and monasteries taught people that a healthy diet led to a long life and emphasized vegetarianism as a humane and healthy way of eating. The Chinese did eat meat but it was rare, and one would never kill a chicken which was still laying eggs. Fish was the most popular dish served with rice and vegetables.
Figure 2: Chinese Tea Ceremony
Food was cooked over a low fire in the home in a three-legged pot called a ding. The ding could be placed directly over the fire and ingredients added to slow cook all day so the family would have their dinner ready when they came in from the fields. The wealthy people had servants cook for them who also used the ding but might also use pans and cook with ovens. The most important drink was tea which was first brewed c. 100 BCE from powdered leaves. Different leaves were blended for different tastes or to produce different effects. Tea was considered a powerful medicine but was also just a popular drink people enjoyed and relaxed with. The popularity of tea gave rise to the Tea Culture in China which is best known through the Tea Ceremony.
A legend claims that an ancient ruler named Yan Di would go out searching for medicinal herbs to help his people. One day he tasted a herb which poisoned him but, as he was dying, water from a tea tree dripped onto his tongue and cured him. He began planting tea trees after that and gave tea to his people. People would eat tea leaves with their meals as a vegetable, and tea was considered an acceptable religious offering at temples. Tea gardens became popular among the wealthy, and the Tea Ceremony developed, which is an elaborate ritual of respect in which people take tea together. The person who prepares the tea honors her guests through her preparations and presentation, and the guests pay her respect by participating properly.
HOME LIFE, GAMES, & SPORTS
The Tea Ceremony was performed in one’s home or garden where one would welcome guests. The home, just like today, was the center of the family’s life. Women took care of the home while men worked outside of the house. Women, men, and children of the peasant classes all worked in the fields. Chinese homes differed, like anything else, depending on one’s social class and how much money one had. Peasants lived in huts while merchants and other middle-class people lived in houses made of wood, which were built around a rectangular courtyard where a garden would be planted. The garden was usually a border around a patio which had trees and bushes in it.
There were sleeping quarters inside the home, a kitchen, and a hall (sometimes very large) which was a dining room and entertainment area. Families would eat in the hall and talk and listen to music or read in the company of their pet cat. Cats were the most popular pet in ancient China, and almost every home had one. Dogs were kept more for security and as a source of food, although there is some evidence that the ancient Chinese played with their dogs as pets. They would also play games like mahjongg, go (a kind of Chinese Chess) or checkers. The Chinese also enjoyed playing kickball, football (as defined everywhere in the world except America), wrestling, and archery. Swimming was not a popular sport in China because of the belief in the type of ghost known as the Shui Gui, the spirit of a person who had drowned who waited in the water to drown someone else in order to be set free. The Chinese did practice swimming but it was not a popular past-time.
In every home, there was a shrine to the ancestors of the family, the local Tudi Gong, and the gods the family followed. In the kitchen, there was always the paper image of the kitchen god known as Zao Shen. Zao Shen was probably the most important god of the home because his job was to keep watch over the family, keep them safe, but also report on their daily conduct to the other gods. He was like a little spy for the gods in the home, who also protected those he spied on. Once a month, Zao Shen would leave the house to report to the local gods on how the people were doing, and during this time the family was very careful not to do anything to invite evil spirits into the house because they had no protection. Once a year, on New Year’s Eve, Zao Shen left to make his full report to Shangti and the other gods in heaven. His image would be offered food and drink, and then his mouth would be smeared with honey so only a good report would come out when he reached the heavens. The paper image would then be burned to send him on his way, and firecrackers would be lit to make him go faster and give only the best report of how the family was conducting themselves. The next morning, on New Year’s Day, the eldest and most honored woman of the house would make a new image of Zao Shen to place over the stove and keep watch over the family for the next year.
RELIGION
Chinese religion began in the prehistoric age when people practiced a form of animism. This practice evolved into ancestor worship and the development of gods and goddesses who personified natural forces. The Tudi Gong were earth spirits one needed to respect and honor at all times. They were the spirits of a certain place, sometimes the spirit of a great person who had once lived there, who blessed those who honored them and cursed those who did not. Veneration of the earth spirits was probably the oldest form of religion but ancestor worship began shortly after or maybe even before it.
People who died were thought to live with the gods and had powerful influence in the world of the living. The practice of divination became popular during the Shang Dynasty where people would go to mystics who could tell the future through oracle bones. The belief that those who died lived on also gave rise to a belief in ghosts. Ghosts were (and still are) a very important concept in Chinese culture. The Ghost Festival is still observed each year in China during which people prepare special meals for the departed, burn incense to please the ghosts or drive away evil spirits, and even close their shops so that the ghosts can browse in peace without being disturbed by the living. Tomb Sweeping Day is observed during the Festival of Qingming, (held 4 or 5 April), and is a very old practice. During Qingming, one visits the graves of one’s relatives and shows them proper respect by caring for the grave and leaving gifts including food. If one neglects the graves of one’s ancestors, one risks being haunted by them.
The land of the afterlife which souls went to (or, as ghosts, were prevented from reaching) and the heavens and the earth were presided over by gods and goddesses the people worshipped. A very popular goddess was Xi Wang Mu, The Queen Mother of the West, goddess of immortality who lived in a great golden palace in the Kunlun Mountains and had a peach orchard of immortality she walked in. People would wear amulets and build shrines to the Queen Mother to be considered worthy of her protection and the long life she rewarded followers with. Shangti was the supreme god of creation, law, and justice. He was also known as the Yellow Emperor and was thought to have given the people culture and language. Cai Shen was the god of wealth who rewarded those who behaved with a happy life and the Menshen were gods of peaceful sleep who watched over people and warded off evil spirits and bad dreams.
Some of these gods and goddesses were worshipped in shrines and temples and others were acknowledged only through charms and bracelets or statues and wall paintings. The Menshen, for example, are still painted on either side of doorways to protect against ghosts and evil spirits. Lei Shen, god of thunder, and Dian Mu, goddess of lightning, were feared while Zhong Kui, the god of healing, was regularly prayed to and worshipped probably as much as Cai Shen. Among the most popular deities were Guanyin, goddess of mercy and compassion who helped everyone and became the patron goddess of sailors, and Niu Lang and Zhi Nu, god and goddess of love who inspired one of the most popular festivals in China, The Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon (also, the Double Seventh Festival), where women would pray for skill in weaving and sewing officially but unofficially was a romantic night for lovers. People would gaze at the stars and tell the story of Niu Lang (the star Altair) and Zhi Nu (the star Vega) who were separated by the Milky Way all year long except on that one night. Astronomers and astrologers both regarded the stars as expressions of embodiments of deities. Astonomers were always male while astrologers could be male or female.
EDUCATION & HEALTHCARE
Only males received an education in ancient China; which is why astronomers, who were highly educated, were always men. Girls were expected to stay home and learn how to be housewives and mothers. In the early days, young boys stayed home as well and helped with outdoor work, and only young men in their teens attended school and only those of the upper classes. Confucius began teaching young men the principles of how to be the best person they could be, and this set the standard for the basics of Chinese education. Everyone was expected to know the Five Virtues of Confucius by heart. These were Li (manners) considered the most important; Ren (kindness); Xin (loyalty); Yi (honesty) and Zhi (knowing the difference between right and wrong, moral knowledge). In the early days of schools, the students would write on wooden sticks and then on wood scrolls bound together. In 105 BCE paper was invented, and during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 CE) the process of woodblock printing made it possible to mass-produce books of paper, which were then used in schools. The books which were required reading were the texts known as The Five Classics and The Four Books: The I-Ching, The Classics of Poetry, The Classics of Rites, The Classics of History, The Spring and Autumn Annals, The Analects of Confucius, The Works of Mencius, The Doctrine of the Mean, and The Great Book of Learning, most of which were based on the writings of Confucius.
Since only men were taught to read and write, and one needed to be literate to read medical texts, doctors were also all males by the time of the Tang Dynasty. Herbalists in rural areas could be women but the medical profession was dominated by men. Most doctors were priests or had a background in religious practices. Prior to the Tang Dynasty, doctors were essentially shamans who cured the sick through herbal remedies and exorcisms. They believed illness was caused by evil spirits or ghosts. After Buddhism arrived in China, Buddhist priests presided over establishments known as Fields of Compassion which were hospitals, clinics, orphanages, retirement homes, and counseling centers all at the same time. These were usually operated out of or adjoining a monastery. The second emperor of the Tang Dynasty, Taizong (626-649 CE) established medical schools and added the medical profession to the list of occupations one needed to pass the Imperial Examinations for. These doctors were more secular than the earlier shamans and were held to a high standard of conduct.
A long and healthy life was greatly valued by the Chinese. Priests, monks, shamans, and secular doctors all emphasized diet as the most important factor in a person’s health. A vegetarian diet was considered the most healthy and also the most humane in that one was not killing animals to sustain one’s self. People did eat meat and often sacrificed animals to the gods and spirits, but doctors, especially secular physicians, discouraged this. The prevailing belief in the Tang Dynasty was that a long and harmonious life of balance could only be achieved by refraining from meat dishes and living off the gifts of agriculture which the gods had given to people. In gratitude for these gifts and all the others the Chinese honored their gods, and to celebrate life they held a number of festivals throughout the year.
FESTIVALS
Figure 3: Lantern Festival
There were national festivals, which everyone observed, regional festivals, and local festivals. A local festival might be a celebration of the birthday of some famous citizen who had done good works for the town or a poet or artist. Regional and local festivals could also be held to honor the Tudi Gong. Taoist festivals were observed to cleanse a village, town, or city of evil spirits, to appease the restless dead, or honor the ancestors and invite their blessings.
The most important national festival was New Year’s Day, which was observed between the 1st and the 15th days of the first lunar month. Firecrackers and fireworks were set off to welcome the new year and to speed Zao Shen on his journey to the heavens. These fireworks also served to drive away evil spirits. The firecrackers were dried bamboo, which were thrown into fires early in the morning and popped loudly when they burned. Every home would set off firecrackers and, if they could afford them, fireworks but each municipality had some kind of public fireworks display. New Year’s Day allowed for people to slaughter chickens and sheep on a large scale to ensure fertility of the land for the coming year. Government officials were given a seven-day vacation, and shops closed or operated on limited hours. The focus of the festival was to give thanks for the past year and make provision for the new one. This provision emphasized protection against evil spirits and ghosts. Slaughtered chicken and sheep skins were hung up outside of homes as offerings, incense was burned, and a special ale was brewed called Killing Ghosts and Reviving Souls. Drinking this ale in large amounts was thought to protect one from illness caused by evil spirits or restless ghosts.
The Lantern Festival was held on the 15th day of the first lunar month to conclude the New Year’s celebration. This was a festival of light honoring the full moon when people would float lighted lanterns on ponds, lakes, or streams, watch the full moon, play games, dance, and hold feasts. According to their status and wealth, some people would erect huge displays for the celebration. Charles Benn writes:
If one could afford it, no expense was spared in celebrating the Lantern Festival. A good festival would mean prosperity for the coming year.
Patricians sought to outdo each other in providing the grandest lamps. An aristocratic lady of the mid-eighth century had a lamp tree with several hundred branches that was eighty feet tall. When she lit it on Lantern Festival, its light was visible for miles. It could not compare, however, with that of Emperor Ruizong. He had a lantern wheel 200 feet tall erected outside a gate of Changan in 713 CE. The apparatus was clothed in brocades and silk gauze, and adorned with gold and jade. When he had its 50,000 oil cups lit, the radiance burst forth like the blooms on a flowering tree (151)
There was also the Lustration Festival which took place on the third day of the third moon when the people drove away evil spirits by drinking enormous quantities of ale. The entire day was devoted to feasting and drinking to excess. The Qingming Festival was observed in April honoring the ancestors, and the Fifth Day of the Fifth Moon Festival (Dragon Boat Festival) was held in July to honor a respectable statesman who chose a dignified death over a life of dishonor. The Hungry Ghosts Festival, in August, recognizes the spiritual dimension of life and honors those who have passed on.
The Seventh Night of the Seventh Moon Festival honored the god and goddess of love, and the Mid-Autumn Festival paid tribute to the moon. The Last Day of the Twelfth Moon Festival was the ritual of sending Zao Shen on his way to the gods on New Year’s Eve and corresponds to many New Year’s Eve parties in the present day. People began drinking the Killing Ghosts and Reviving Souls Ale, had feasts, and lit off fireworks. Festivals kept the people in touch with their past, grounded them in their cultural values, and were a very important aspect of the lives of those in ancient China. In the present day, many of these same celebrations are observed every year. The rituals involved go back hundreds or even thousands of years and continue to be performed in very similar, or exactly the same, ways.
CC LICENSED CONTENT, ORIGINAL Revision and Adaptation. Provided by: Lumen Learning. License: CC BY: Attribution
CC LICENSED CONTENT, SHARED PREVIOUSLY Daily Life in Ancient China. Authored by: Emily Mark. Provided by: Ancient History Encyclopedia. Located at: http://www.ancient.eu/article/890/. License: CC BY-NC-SA: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike
Image of Chinese village. Authored by: Ian Armstrong. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/4XhWdm. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Image of tea tray. Authored by: Oleksii Leonov. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/9cdHn4. License: CC BY-SA: Attribution-ShareAlike
Image of lanterns. Authored by: gill_penney. Located at: https://flic.kr/p/4k316z. License: CC BY: Attribution
Reading 2 What Is Cultural Heritage?
Figure 4Leonardo da Vinci, Mona Lisa, c. 1503–05, oil on panel 30-1/4 x 21 inches (Musée du Louvre)
By Elena Franchi Published in 2014 in smarthistory
Cultural Heritage: A Shared Bond
We often hear about the importance of cultural heritage. But what is cultural heritage? And whose heritage is it? Whose national heritage, for example, does the Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci belong to? Is it French or Italian? First of all, let’s have a look at the meaning of the words. “Heritage” is a property, something that is inherited, passed down from previous generations. In the case of “cultural heritage,” the heritage doesn’t consist of money or property, but of culture, values and traditions. Cultural heritage implies a shared bond, our belonging to a community. It represents our history and our identity; our bond to the past, to our present, and the future.
Tangible and Intangible Cultural Heritage
Cultural heritage often brings to mind artifacts (paintings, drawings, prints, mosaics, sculptures), historical monuments and buildings, as well as archaeological sites. But the concept of cultural heritage is even wider than that, and has gradually grown to include all evidence of human creativity and expression: photographs, documents, books and manuscripts, and instruments, etc. either as individual objects or as collections. Today, towns, underwater heritage, and the natural environment are also considered part of cultural heritage since communities identify themselves with the natural landscape.
Moreover, cultural heritage is not only limited to material objects that we can see and touch. It also consists of immaterial elements: traditions, oral history, performing arts, social practices, traditional craftsmanship, representations, rituals, knowledge and skills transmitted from generation to generation within a community.
Intangible heritage therefore includes a dizzying array of traditions, music and dances such as tango and flamenco, holy processions, carnivals, falconry, Viennese coffee house culture, the Azerbaijani carpet and its weaving traditions, Chinese shadow puppetry, the Mediterranean diet, Vedic Chanting, Kabuki theatre, the polyphonic singing of the Aka of Central Africa (to name a few examples).
The Importance of Protecting Cultural Heritage
But cultural heritage is not just a set of cultural objects or traditions from the past. It is also the result of a selection process: a process of memory and oblivion that characterizes every human society constantly engaged in choosing—for both cultural and political reasons—what is worthy of being preserved for future generations and what is not.
All peoples make their contribution to the culture of the world. That’s why it’s important to respect and safeguard all cultural heritage, through national laws and international treaties. Illicit trafficking of artifacts and cultural objects, pillaging of archaeological sites, and destruction of historical buildings and monuments cause irreparable damage to the cultural heritage of a country. UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), founded in 1954, has adopted international conventions on the protection of cultural heritage, to foster intercultural understanding while stressing the importance of international cooperation.
The protection of cultural property is an old problem. One of the most frequently recurring issues in protecting cultural heritage is the difficult relationship between the interests of the individual and the community, the balance between private and public rights.
Ancient Romans established that a work of art could be considered part of the patrimony of the whole community, even if privately owned. For example, sculptures decorating the façade of a private building were recognized as having a common value and couldn’t be removed, since they stood in a public site, where they could be seen by all citizens.
Figure 5Lysippos, Apoxyomenos (Scraper), Hellenistic or Roman copy after the original, c. 390–306 B.C.E. (Museo Pio-Clementino, Vaticana)
In his Naturalis Historia the Roman author Pliny the Elder (23–79 A.D.) reported that the statesman and general Agrippa placed the Apoxyomenos, a masterpiece by the very famous Greek sculptor Lysippos, in front of his thermal baths. The statue represented an athlete scraping dust, sweat and oil from his body with a particular instrument called “strigil.” Emperor Tiberius deeply admired the sculpture and ordered it be removed from public view and placed in his private palace. The Roman people rose up and obliged him to return the Apoxyomenos to its previous location, where everyone could admire it.
Our right to enjoy the arts, and to participate in the cultural life of the community is included in the United Nation’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Whose Cultural Heritage?
The term “cultural heritage” typically conjures up the idea of a single society and the communication between its members. But cultural boundaries are not necessarily well-defined. Artists, writers, scientists, craftsmen and musicians learn from each other, even if they belong to different cultures, far removed in space or time. Just think about the influence of Japanese prints on Paul Gauguin’s paintings; or of African masks on Pablo Picasso’s works. Or you could also think of western architecture in Liberian homes in Africa. When the freed African-American slaves went back to their homeland, they built homes inspired by the neoclassical style of mansions on American plantations. American neoclassical style was in turn influenced by the Renaissance architect Andrea Palladio, who had been influenced by Roman and Greek architecture.
Let’s take another example, that of the Mona Lisa painted in the early sixteenth century by Leonardo da Vinci, and displayed at the Musée du Louvre in Paris. From a modern point of view, whose national heritage does the Mona Lisa belong to?
Leonardo was a very famous Italian painter, that’s why the Mona Lisa is obviously part of the Italian cultural heritage. When Leonardo went to France, to work at King Francis I’s court, he probably brought the Mona Lisa with him. It seems that in 1518 King Francis I acquired theMona Lisa, which therefore ended up in the royal collections: that’s why it is obviously part of the French national heritage, too. This painting has been defined as the best known, the most visited, the most written about and the most parodied work of art in the world: as such, it belongs to the cultural heritage of all mankind.
Cultural heritage passed down to us from our parents must be preserved for the benefit of all. In an era of globalization, cultural heritage helps us to remember our cultural diversity, and its understanding develops mutual respect and renewed dialogue amongst different cultures.
Lecture 1: The Lives of Workers in China
In the ongoing debate about globalization, what’s been missing is the voices of workers — the millions of people who migrate to factories in China and other emerging countries to make goods sold all over the world. Reporter Leslie T. Chang sought out women who work in one of China’s booming megacities, and tells their stories. In her reporting and writing, Leslie T. Chang explores the lives of workers in China, focusing on the experience of women.
Lecture 2: The Generation that’s Remaking China
Yang Lan, a journalist and entrepreneur who’s been called “the Oprah of China,” offers insight into the next generation of young Chinese citizens — urban, connected (via microblogs) and alert to injustice. Yang Lan is often called “the Oprah of China.” The chair of a multiplatform business empire, Yang is pioneering more-open means of communication in the communist nation.
Lecture 3: Globalizing the Local, Localizing the Global
Sheikha Al Mayassa, a patron of artists, storytellers and filmmakers in Qatar, talks about how art and culture create a country’s identity — and allow every country to share its unique identity with the wider world. As she says: “We don’t want to be all the same, but we do want to understand each other.” Sheikha Al Mayassa is the young and progressive force behind Qatar’s mission to become the Middle East’s foremost destination for the arts and culture.
Applicable Strategy: Taking Focused Notes
Listen to the three lectures on China and take Focused notes using the Cornell Method of notetaking.
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Phase 2: Processing notes. This step involves thinking about the notes. Review and revise notes in order to clarify content and make connections. Underline, circle, delete, add, chunk, and highlight to identify, sort, organize, and classify the main ideas and supporting details.
Phase 3: Connecting Thinking. Phase three involves thinking beyond the notes.
Ask questions and make connections to deepen content knowledge. Add your own thinking to identify places of confusion and to make connections to prior knowledge. Note that within each of the above note formatting options, this step [connecting thinking] is already built in to the process.
Phase 4: Summarizing and Reflecting on Learning. Think about the notes collectively. Pull out the most important pieces from the notes and write a summary that includes the meaning and importance of the content.
- As you summarize and reflect, consider the following prompt: What have I learned?
- Answer the original essential question.
- Think about how your set of notes will be useful.
Phase 5: Applying Learning. You’ll be using your lecture notes along with the notes from the readings to develop a summary response, so hold onto them.
Applicable Strategy: Writing a Summary Response to an Academic Text
Refer back to this strategy to write a Summary/Response journal addressing the following questions. What is Cultural Heritage? How do art and culture create a country’s identity? Describe the culture of China…both ancient and modern. Compare the ideas presented in each of the readings and the lectures. Evaluate the claims made by each author or lecturer. Use at least three other sources in your response.
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Applicable Strategy: Citing Sources
Refer back to the Strategy: Citing Sources to create your “in text citations”.
Applicable Strategy: Documenting Sources at the End of Your Paper
Create a List of References for your Summary/Response journal. Refer back to the Strategy for documenting sources at the end of your paper.
Applicable Strategy: Editing Up Close—Best Practices
Lastly, make sure that you have edited your Summary/Response before you turn it in!
- Are there any grammar errors? (have you been consistent in your use of tense, do your pronouns agree?)
- Have you accurately and effectively used punctuation?
- Do you rely on strong verbs and nouns and maintain a good balance with adjectives and adverbs, using them to enhance descriptions but ensuring clear sentences?
- Are your words as accurate as possible?
- Do you define any technical or unusual terms you use?
- Are there extra words or clichés in your sentences that you can delete?
- Do you vary your sentence structure?
- Have you accurately presented facts; have you copied quotations precisely?
- If you’re writing an academic essay, have you tried to be objective in your evidence and tone?
- If writing a personal essay, is the narrative voice lively and interesting?
- Have you spellchecked your paper?
- If you used sources, have you consistently documented all of the sources’ ideas and information using a standard documentation style?
Reading 3: A Textbook Chapter on China
The following link will take you to a chapter from a textbook on Chinese History. You will practice three reading strategies while you’re reading this chapter. Make sure to also use other relevant strategies before you read and while you read. You should also keep in mind your ultimate purpose for reading this chapter is to take a test. After clicking on the link, scroll to Chapter 4 on Page 111. You may want to print this chapter (60 pages) in order to read actively.
Textbook Chapter on Chinese History:
Applicable Strategy: Reading Effectively in the Social Sciences
Refer back to the Strategy for Reading Effectively in the Social Sciences. This is a longer assignment, so make sure you read through this textbook chapter over a few days.
Begin any reading assignment by reading the abstract, preface, introductions, and conclusions.
Pre-reading (of a book or article):
- Look at the title page and the preface
- Study the table of contents to obtain a general sense of a book’s structure
- Check the index
- Skim the summary statements in the opening and closing paragraphs.
- What do you already know? What do you consider the essential points and key explanatory factors?
Analytical reading
- Classify the book or article according to kind and subject matter. Into what genre does that work fit? What is the book about?
- Number the major parts in their order and relations. Outline these as you have outlined the whole.
- Define the specific problem or problems the author has tried to solve. What question does the author claim to address? You might also want to think about how this reading fits into the course. Why did the instructor place the reading at this point in the course? What is the topic on the syllabus? How does this reading provide an answer or information for this topic?
- What theoretical statements does the author make? A theoretical statement proposes a relationship. For example, structural theories of deviance suggest that deviance (that which is to be explained) is a consequence of the structure (organization of the parts) of a society. In other words, social structure produces deviance.
- What are the concepts and variables used? Become familiar with the author by defining key words. Know the details of the argument. In the example above: what is social structure? What is meant by deviance? Do structural theorists/ writers assume the reader knows what is meant by social structure? Do you need to find out what this means in order to understand the reading?
- How does the author’s argument/ position compare with that of others who address the same question or related questions? Where are the points of similarity and difference?
- What value judgments does the author make? What values does the author assume readers will share? What assumptions does the author make that may be contestable?
- What is the author’s methodology? (Here you should be concerned not only with the methods used but the kinds of arguments implied or given about what methods are more or less appropriate.) What constitutes evidence in this reading? Know the author’s arguments by finding them in, or constructing them out of, sequences of sentences.
- Determine which of the problems the author has solved and which she has not. Of those not solved, decide which the author knows she has failed to solve. If you disagree with the author, on what basis do you rest your disagreement? Is the author uninformed, misinformed, illogical, imprecise, or incomplete? Criticize fairly; do not pass judgment based on personal opinion, taste, or preference. Is the argument internally consistent? Does the evidence (both that presented by the author and other evidence in the field) support the argument?
Applicable Strategy: Using Context Clues
Refer back to this strategy to use context clues to understand difficult vocabulary in the textbook chapter on Chinese history. Find an example of each kind of clue.
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Applicable Strategy: Learning Vocabulary
Refer back to the strategy for learning vocabulary. You might pretend that you have a vocabulary quiz coming up for this chapter. Create a list of vocabulary that might be on this quiz. You might use any of the following strategies for learning this vocabulary.
Acronyms
Acrostics
Rhymes
Jingles
Mental images
Or this chart
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