Incredible Chinese History Facts

[wyq614]

Here is the list of some Chinese Historic Facts that will surprise 99% of the Chinese people, and even the people from all over the world.

- Qin Shi Huang Di did not reunify China. He failed to annex the independent Wei State in the actual northern Henan Province in his reign.

- The most "powerful" minister all over the Chinese history was Yuwen Hu, who killed 3 emperors in his serve.

- The Tang Dynasty (618-907 A.D) was famous for its prosperity. But in fact, even in the middle of the 8th Century, which is considered as the most developed period of the Tang Dynasty, most of the economic indexes were actually lower than that of Sui Dynasty (581-618 A.D.)

- In Chinese history textbooks for the high school students, the military forces of Song Dynasty (960-1279) was described as "weak", but in fact, during Song Dynasty, the rate of victory of Chinese army in the wars was higher than 70%, while the prosper Tang Dynasty, the rate was lower than 50%.

- During Song Dynasty, the load for a Chinese soldier is 32kg, the load for training is even higher. But now it is said that the load for an American soldier is no more than 15kg?...

- During the year 1078-1085, the Chinese urbanization rate was 30%, much higher than that of the 18th Century (9%), the next time that China ever reached the 1078 value is in the first years of 21st Century.

- During the year 1078-1085, the production of steel of northern China reached 150, 000 tons, compared with the production of the Great Britain in 1788 when its Industrial Revolution had already completed: 76, 000 tons.

- During 1127-1279, China did not have an official capital. The residence of the emperors and the central government, Lin'an City (now in Hangzhou, China) is only a "temporary government residential city"

- During Southern Song Dynasty, the salary of a skilled worker is higher than that of a municipal official.

- In the middle of 13th Century, the area controlled by Southern Song Dynasty (more or less, the Southern China) occupied 15% of the world population but 75% of the world economy amount, as for the China today, we occupy 21% of the world population, but only 4% of the world economy amount...

- In 13th Century, around 200, 000, 000 people were killed by Mongolian forces, among which 60, 000, 000 were Chinese, while approximately 6, 000, 000 Jews were killed in the World War II.

- During 1592-1620, the then Chinese emperor did not participate in decision-making for 28 years, this was a Chinese history record. But surprisingly enough, during these years, Chinese army was never defeated in a war.

- During the Late Ming Dynasty (i.e. around late 16th Century and early 17th Century), Chinese army had ever tried to invent something like tank.

[HurricaneBill]

- In 13th Century, around 200, 000, 000 people were killed by Mongolian forces, among which 60, 000, 000 were Chinese, while approximately 6, 000, 000 Jews were killed in the World War II.

Was the Great Wall built as a result of this?

[wyq614]

Of course not. The Great Wall was built in 3rd Century B.C. although what now we can see is the walls reconstructed during Ming Dynasty (mid 14th century to mid 17th Century). However, the motivation of the Great Wall construction was exactly a kind of defence work against the invasion of the ethnic tribes from the north (e.g. the Huns)

[Ptarmigan]

Interesting. Where did you get those information? I know the Mongolians killed a lot of people.

[Squarethecircle]

Wikipedia got similar information from this source:

Ping-ti Ho, "An Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China", in Études Song, Series 1, No 1, (1970) pp. 33-53.

There is quite a lot of uncertainty; however, it appears that the population dropped by about 60 million between the times before and after the invasion. How much of this can be directly or indirectly attributed to the Mongol invasions is supposedly unknown. I personally don't have the paper entitled "An Estimate of the Total Population of Sung-Chin China" on hand, so I can't vouch for it.

Regardless, however, it appears that the Mongols killed some tens of millions of the Chinese.

[Ptarmigan]

I know China was quite diverse. There were Caucasian/White emperors and shamans and poems about them. They had light colored or red hair. I know Western China had Tocharians, who are of Indo-European origin and look like Caucasians. I know the Tang Dynasty had ethnic Koreans as top generals. Even today, there are prominent Chinese, who are ethnic Koreans.

[wyq614]

Well, according to the Chinese history books written hundreds of years ago, it was a Mongolian tradition, or custom, to kill all the residents of the city recently occupied by them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelu_Chucai

What's more, all the Chinese have to remember this person, He was a man that had ever changed the Chinese history with his advice for the Mongolian Khans about the policy towards Chinese people and land, without his advice being followed by the khan, the Chinese people in the mid 13th Century, as the Mongolians wished, may had either been killed or been made to serve as slaves. And all the Chinese agricultural fields would be destroyed and then become Monglian-styled pastures.