China for Physicists

Linked from the AIP Visual Archives. I think this photo was taken in Japan when they both were invited by Hideki Yukawa in 1954.

Yukawa with Einstein in Princeton (1953). Photo from Mainichi Shinbun.

• Chen Ning Yang used claim his interest in symmetry problems came from Chinese architecture. He used to show photos of Chinese decorations whenever he gave talks.

• Murray Gell-Mann's search for the quarks started from the concept of "Eight-fold Way," known to be derived from Buddhism. However, this concept could have come from the eight-angled object called "octagon" most commonly seen in Chinese decorations. You may ask Gell-Mann directly whether China has anything to do with his "Eight-fold Way."

• Hideki Yukawa was able to read the original writings on Taoism by Laotze and his disciples. It said that his original ideas in physics were formulated according to this ancient philosophy. It is well known how he developed the concept of mesons. Some Japanese physicists say that Yukawa formulated the concept of the string model. I am inclined to accept this view, but I choose not to elaborate on this at this time. You may visit my Yukawa page.

• I make some people happy and make some other people angry by saying Einstein's relativity has something to do with the ancient Chinese philosophy called Taoism. Einstein was not a Taoist, but it is well known that he had a Kantian base because he was very enthusiastic about Immanuel Kant's philosophy when he was very young.

  The question is in what way Kantianism and Taoism are the same, and in what way they are different. If different, Einstein was leaning toward Taoism which does not require "Ding an Sich" or absolute frame. See my webpage dedicated to this problem.

Yellow River and the Cradle of Chinese Civilization

• Because the Xian region is flat, the Yellow River changed its route many times throughout the history, creating many minor waterways throughout the region. Needless to say, these waterways provides an excellent transportation network. The River also spreads fertile soils. Thus, many people with different life-styles came to this region and started constructing the civilization of China.

• As early as 4000 BC (6000 years ago), there was a settlement of the people whose life-style was similar to that of American Indians. Thus, they were Mongolians. They had a degree of pottery technology. They knew how to make things from muds and clays by baking them.

• Unfortunately, they left no written materials. The recorded history of China started somewhat later.

The Earliest Dynasties and Feudalism

Food container during the Bronze era. Photo taken at the National Museum of China (Beijing).

1. Xia Dynasty (2070 -- 1600 BC). The earliest dynasty in China. Many tribes came to the Xian region through the waterways provided by the Yellow River and its branches. They started constructing communities. They attempted to communicate by drawing pictures. They became Chinese characters. As for the common language, singing played the major roles. This is the reason why spoken Chinese still has tones.

   People with different backgrounds had to live together. They therefore started the concept of harmony which plays the major role in the Chinese philosophy of Taoism.

2. Shang Dynasty (1600 -- 1046 BC). Chinese started developing metal tools. They found out how to extract bronze from raw minerals. With the bronze tools they could develop their farm fields more effectively.

3. Zhou Dynasty (1046 -- 771) developed organized farming. Thus, they were able to develop feudalism, and the king was the feudal lord.

Spring-Autumn and Warlords Periods (771 -- 221 BC)

It was a great honor for me to have a photo with Confucius in China.

• The organized agriculture of feudalism produced more food than the people can consume. Thus the community can feed those who do not work in the farm fields. Some of them could go out for deer hunting. The deer meats could enhance the food supplies. Thus, those feudal lords could transform their hunters into soldiers. The feudal lords became war loads.

• Thus, there came the period of war loads. While they fought, the people had to flee from the war zones This caused the spread of the initial civilization along the Yellow River toward the Shandong Peninsula south-east of Beijing in the Yellow Sea.

• In the Shandong area, some people sat down and did deep thinking. They even wrote down their thoughts, by carving the letters on wooden plates. Among them, the best known Chinese was Confucius. Did you know he was also a musician?

• During this difficult war period, China produced many other scholars who still influence our lives, particularly my life. The list is very long, including

  1. Laotze, who formulate the concept of harmony. His philosophy is known as Taoism. How did this philosophy develop? Chinese civilization was constructed by many different people who came to the banks of the Yellow River. They came with different languages, different letters, and different ways of thinking. In order to communicate, they drew pictures, which became Chinese characters. For oral communications, they sang songs. This is the reason why spoken Chinese has tones.

     How about different ideas? They divided into two opposite groups. This is how the concept of Yin and Yang was developed. The world therefore operates on the harmony of Yin and Yang.

     This is not unlike the way in which Americans developed their political system. People have many different opinions, but they can be divided into two different groups, since otherwise it is impossible to manage. Then, those two parties seek the harmony. This is known as America's bipartisanship.

  2. Suntzu, who wrote a psychology book based on human desire to fight and win. Some centuries later Sigmund Freud wrote a similar book based on human desire to talk to opposite genders.

     My maternal grandfather was quite fond of Suntzu's books and used to tell me the stories. During my long professional life since 1961, some of my colleagues attempted to play shady games on me. They got some tastes of my Suntsuism.

Qin and Han Dynasties

It was a great honor for me to have a photo with the first Emperor in history.

1. Emperor Chin started building the Great Wall.

2. He was a strong man and disliked criticisms from scholars. He burnt all the books and buried all the scholars alive. Before this event, Chinese fortune telling was very accurate. It is inaccurate these days, because all those good books were lost then.

3. Emperor Chin did not want to die, and sent a group of people to find a medicine which would keep him alive forever. Many people believe those people went to Japan and never went back.

4. Although strong, Emperor Chin did not have any governing rules or ideology. Everybody had to please him. Thus his empire collapsed soon after he died.

Han's territory extending toward Central Asia. Han was in control of the east-west trade route. This map is from Wikipedia.

Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius who organized his mission to China.

1. The early (west) Han started in 2006 BC and lasted until 25 BC, but was interrupted due to quarrels among the royal family. The later (east) Han lasted from 25 BC to 220 AD.

2. The Chinese identity as the cultured people was established during this dynasty. Even these days, Chinese take seriously whether a person has a Han ancestry or not. If yes, you are a proper Chinese called Han Chinese. Otherwise, you are not. Chinese still take this distinction seriously. This is the reason why there are still regional conflicts in China.

3. During this peaceful period, Chinese invented many good things for them. In 105, the Chinese scientist named Tsai Lun invented the paper on which we can write. This invention allowed Chinese to write many poems and stories. This also allowed them to draw and paint pictures. They could draw pictures before building houses. They also could paint beautiful women. Thus the development of arts and literature continued.

4. Also during this period, Chinese invented Tofu, which is becoming popular in the Western world these days.

5. The Han Dynasty was able to expand its territory to the northeastern region now called Manchuria, and also toward Central Asia. China established regular trade routes toward Syria and Turkey.

6. In 166 AD, the Han Emperor received a mission from Roman Emperor Antoninus Pius (called Andun in Chinese history). Antoninus died in 161 AD, but it could have taken more than five years to reach Rome to China. Those Romans could have come to Syria first and spent some years to arrange a transportation to China (This is my guess). For other stories, go to the Wikipedia page on this subject.

Transitional Period

1. Han got divided into three kingdoms. This period lasted less than 80 years, but left many interesting war stories.

2. The country got divided into many more kingdoms and warlords, and the period of confusion lasted until 581 AD. When there is a lack of the central authority, northern barbarians come in and participate in the Chinese affairs. During this process, the barbarians became absorbed into Chinese culture, and they become Chinese.

Sui (581 -- 618) and Tang (618 -- 907) Dynasties

The Grand Canal of China completed during the Sui period. This map is from Wikipedia.

• The most important accomplishment of the Sui Dynasty was the completion of the Grand Canal between Beijing and Hangzhou. The idea of building the canal was to connect the Yellow River (north) and the Yangtze River (south), and the project started 1000 years earlier during the Spring-Autumn period. The Sui Dynasty was strong enough to complete the job.

• During this period, Buddhism became popular among Chinese. Buddhism came to China earlier, but it started spreading during the Sui period. This process continued until recent times. These days, about eighty percent of Chinese are Buddhists of Buddhist-oriented.

• The Sui Dynasty made repeated military ventures toward its eastern neighbor called Koguryo, but was not successful. Koguryo was an early name of Korea. This is the reason why Korea did not get absorbed into China, and maintains its identify as an independent country. Koreans still honor their generals who defeated the invading Sui army.

In 618 AD, the Tang Dynasty inherited the Sui Dynasty.

• Like Han, Tang's governing principle was Confucianism, but the Tang elites were interested in Taoism. As a consequence, the ethics cook book of Confucianism was getting organized into scientific theory. Confucius tells how students should behave, and how teachers how teachers. The Tang elites were interested in why, for the sake of the harmony among the people.

  Buddhism continued flourishing during this period.

  Tang's architecture and Tang's furniture set the standards for China and other Asian countries until these days.

• Taoism was their basis for scientific reasoning. For instance, they developed a theory of medicine based on harmony. You are a healthy person if all the organs of your body is in harmony. You will become sick if the harmony is broken. These days, Chinese clinics use both the western medicine and their traditional Chinese medicine.

• Tang's literature was also based on harmony. There are more than 50,000 Tang poems known today. Most of them praise the harmony between the nature and humans, and also the harmony among humans. Koreans imported many poems from Tang. During this process, Taoism came to Korea. If I have a tendency to emphasize the harmony in my writings, it is due to Tang's influence on Korean way of thinking. I had to study many Tang poems during my high school years. Indeed, I made many webpages having to do with harmony. See
  1. Harmony in Acupuncture and in Physics,
  2. Physics and Music.

• The Tang Dynasty also developed the wet-field technology to grow rice. We still use this wet-field method to produce rice. Tang's idea was to let everybody eat rice. The word Mandarin means the privileged people who eat rice, instead of weeds.

• Tang's capital city was called Chang-An. It was a walled city within the present city of Xian. The population of this city was one million, and it was the largest city in the world during that period. The rectangular city wall is 4 km east-west and 3 km north-south. The old Japanese capital city of Nara was copied from Chang-An, as is well known.

  Even these days, Chang-An means the capital city to Chinese. When Chinese soldiers march on their national day of October 1, they march on a 100-wide street just north of the Tian-Anmin square. This important street is called Chang-An Street.

• Chang-An was the major trading place for silk-road merchants. People were dressed in silk, and Japanese women wanted look like the Chang-An women. Japanese kimono came from the fashion of Chang-An.

  Emperor Xuanzong.

  Yang Guifei was Tang's most beautiful woman, and was the Emperor Xuanzong's favorite wife. It was a great honor for me to have a photo with her at a hot-spring resort palace where she used to spend time with the Emperor.

• In order to improve the quality of the government, Tang introduced the civil service exam system. In order to become a government official, a young man should study hard and pass a tough examination. Because of this, Chinese still believe that one has to study hard in order to achieve a higher position in the society.

  Indeed, Tang's prosperity reached its highest point during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong (712-756). Chang-An's streets were bright during the nights. Everybody was wearing silk dress. Song-and-dance parties every night. Their happiness was well recorded by Tang poems, especially by Li Bei, who was quite fond of praising the harmony between the moon and himself.

• Among the Emperor's wives, the most beautiful woman was Yang Guifei. They used to spend time together at a hot-spring palace some distance away from Chang-An. Here is the Emperor's private bath tub. Yang Guifei had her own bath house and bath tub.

• An Lushan eventually led his troops to march into Chang-An, and Emperor Xuanzong had to flee. During this process, Chang-An was completely burnt down.

• An Lushan claimed himself to be the Emperor, and chose one of his two sons to be the crown prince. The other son became unhappy and killed his father. This was the end of An Lushan's revolt.

• While this was happening in Chang-An, both Xuanzong and Yang Guifei died in exile.

• The royal family came back to Chang-An and started reconstructing the city by collecting taxes from the farmers. This caused the revolts from many different regions. Nevertheless, the dynasty lasted 150 years after this tragedy until 907 AD. The Dynasty was declining slowly.

  The wall of Chang-An, rebuilt by the Ming Dynasty in the 14th Century.

• Here again, we can see the mood of the country from the poems written after the An Lushan's revolt. There was a poet named Tu Fu. In contrast to Li Bei's poems before the An Lushan revolt, Tu Hu's poems talk about human sufferings. People were sad and unhappy.

• Chang-An remained ruined until the Ming Dynasty in the 14th Century rebuilt the city as a military base against Mongolians, and reconstructed Tang's rectangular wall. This reconstructed wall is still in good shape. The city was remained as Xian. While Chang-An was meaning "eternal capital," Xi An means "western capital." The capital city of the Ming Dynasty was Beijing.

Transitional Period

1. The Tang Dynasty collapsed in 907 AD, and the country got divided into five kingdoms. Some run by the Tang's ruling class, and some by barbarian tribes.

2. The confusion lasted until until the Tang people and the invading barbarians reached an agreement.

Song Dynasties (907 -- 1207)

When the government is unstable, people become more religious.

These young ladies in Hangzhou claimed that they were dressed like the ladies in the Tang era (top). One of the towers built during the Song era seen from Hangzhou's West Lake.

Zhu Xi (1130-1200 AD). His plaque is in the main lobby of Moscow State University, along with those of other great scholars including Socrates, Aristotle, and Marx.

• Northern Song (907-1127). The Tang people and the barbarians from the north eastern region (Manchuria) formed a coalition government with a new capital city located between Chang-An and Manchuria. This is now called the northern Song Dynasty.

• Within this Dynasty, the Manchu barbarians became strong, and the Tang people started to flee to southern provinces. Northern Song became totally Manchurian with the Manchurian ruling family. This is called to the Jin Dynasty.

• Southern Song (1127-1279). After the exodus from northern Song, those Tang people set up a new country called the southern Song with Hangzhou as the capital city.

• Hangzhou is one-hour train ride from Shanghai these days. Shanghai was a fishing village at that time. Southern Song therefore started developing Shanghai as a trading port. You know where Shanghai stands in world trades these days.

• This area was and still is blessed with natural resources. The weather there is ideal for silk worms. The best silk products still come from this area.

• There are two provinces south of Hangzhou with blessed natural resources. One of them is Jiagnxi province with white clays, like the Limoges region in France. Some of the best dinner plates come from this area, and they are still called China plates.

• Fujian province consists of beautiful mountains and beautiful lakes. They provide great intellectual resources. Fujian is an ideal place to spend retirement years while writing books. There was a Chinese scholar who just did this. His name was Zhu Xi (1130 -- 1200). What did he do?
  1. He was a government official in Hangzhou. After his retirement we went to a village in Fujian province and started writing books. He noticed that Tang's political development was operating according to Taoism. The government and society should operate according to a set of written rules. However, those rules should be applied to maintain the harmony among the people. In so doing, he transformed the set of Confucian rules into a coherent theory of society and government.

  2. In other words, he combined Confucianism and Taoism into a scientific Confucianism, which is known to us the neo-Confucianism.

  3. The first beneficiary of Zhu Xi's neo-Confucianism was Korea's last dynasty which started in 1392. This dynasty lasted more than 500 years until 1910. The dynasty maintained its stability using Zhu Xi's ideas.

     The second beneficiary was Tokugawa's shogunate which lasted from 1620 to 1860. The third beneficiary was China's Qing (Manchu) Dynasty which lasted from 1664 to 1911.

  4. The concept of freedom is not explicating mentioned in neo-Confucianism, but it is not difficult to see that the degree of freedom increases as as you move higher in social ranks, quite different from the Jeffersonian concept. An interesting theory, but not far from the real world. These days, your freedom will increase if you have more money and power. Zhu Xi was interested in the stability of the society by maintaining its balance.

  5. In the main lobby of the Lomonosov campus of Moscow State University, there are plaques of great scholars in the world, including Socrates, Aristotle, and Marx. You will see also Zhu Xi's plaque. To Russians, Zhu Xi is that great.

  In Hong Kong, the British influence appears to be strong. Do they all speak English? No. They speak Cantonese, different from Mandarin. They speak like the Tang Chinese who used to live in the Xian (called Chang-An at that time) area from 600 to 900 AD. Those Tang people came to the south to avoid northern barbarians.

• I have an interesting story to tell you about the strength of Tang's influence in southern provinces of China. In August of 2011, I was sitting between two Chinese young ladies at a breakfast. One came from Beijing and speaks Mandarin Chinese, and the other came from Guangzhou and speaks Cantonese. They use the same letters, but speak differently.
  1. I asked them how to pronounce some Chinese letters and names. The Cantonese pronunciation is much closer to the way Korean pronounce. I asked them why Korean pronunciation is so while Beijing is geographically close to Korea, and Canton is far away. They did not know the answer, but the answer is very simple.

  2. In Canton, they still speak the original Tang Chinese, while the Chinese language got mixed up in the north dues to repeated barbarian invasions. Koreans still maintain the Tang pronunciation, because they imported Tang poems and bulk of Chinese culture during the Tang Dynasty (600 -- 900 AD).
     1. In this photo, I am closer to the Beijing lady, because Korea is closer to Beijing geographically, and the Canton lady got turned off.
     2. I then moved closer to the Canton lady, because we speak in the same way. She became very happy.

Transitional Period and Yuan Dynasty (1271 -- 1368)

Genghis Khan and his grandson Kublai, who conquered China.

• While the Chinese mainland was divided into two empires, Jin and Southern Song, Mongolians in the northwest became very strong, under the leadership of Genghis Khan. His horse-riding troops swept much of the European lands, but his effect on China was rather minimal. Genghis never attempted to invade China. To him, China was too strong.

• His grandson named Kublai Khan came with his troops to China set up a new dynasty called Yuan in 1271. This dynasty lasted only 97 years until 1368.

• Kublai also conquered Korea and forced Koreans to build ships for them to cross the Korean Strait to Japan. Taiphoon wiped out those ships while sailing to Japan from Korea. Japanese call this Taiphoon "Kamikaze" or God-given wind to protect their country.
  Click here for a story about those Korean-built ships.

• Those Mongolians were interested in changing the entire Chinese mainland into grass fields to feed their horses. This did not sit very well with the cultured Chinese.

• Their lasting contribution was to develop Beijing as the capital city. Beijing was not an empty place. The Lugo bridge on the River Xiao was built before Mongolians came. Yet, Beijing grew rapidly after Mongolians started using it as their capital city.

• Marco Polo came to China during this Yuan period. Yuan was interested in trading with Venice, and there is a theory that Marco Polo came on a conformable carriage provided by the Mongolian army.

Ming Dynasty (1368 -- 1636)

Zhu Yuanzhang was the first emperor of the Ming Dynasty (top). His tomb in Nanjing is guarded by strong animals like elephants.

Inside the Forbidden City. The gold-colored roof means the building was used by the Emperor (top). The north-eastern corner of the Forbidden City.

• As the culture-less Mongolians consolidated their power in the central land, the resentment grew among the Han Chinese with traditions of Tang and Song. The resistance became numerous and organized.

• Zhu Yuanzhang was a farmer's son, and led a revolt. His revolt was supported by a large number of Han Chinese in southern provinces. In 1368, Zhu set up a country with Nanjing as the capital city not far away from Hangzhu which served as Song's capital city. This is the beginning of the Ming Dynasty. Zhu was born in 1328 and lived for 70 years. His tomb is in Nanjing.
  1. This is the entrance to the tomb. The roof is gold-colored, meaning that he was the emperor under heaven.

  2. There is a walkway about one kilometer long between the tomb and the entrance to the tomb park. This walkway is guarded by
     • camels,
     • elephants,
     • generals ,
     • scholars.

• He had a number of wives and 27 sons. After he died in 1399, there was a bitter power struggle among his sons. During this process, one of them moved to Beijing and proclaimed to be the Emperor. This is how Beijing became the capital city of the Ming Dynasty.

• The Ming Dynasty then built their imperial palace. This is now known as the Forbidden City, and its south gate is called Tian-Anmin (gate of heavenly peace). This palace is China's No. 1 show piece to the world, and and I was inside in 1995. I went there again in April of 2003, and I met some interesting people.
  1. Tourists from Lithuania. They became very happy to hear that I have been to their country. I even mentioned "Gintara," which is the Lithuanian word for amber. Lithuania is the world No. 1 amber producing country. It was their first time in China who knows where their country is.
  2. This lady came from China's Yunnan Province. She was wearing the Yunnan dress. She could not speak English, but she came with her granddaughter who was fluent in English. We exchanged some kind words.
  3. These two students studying Spanish. They want to go to South America and manage properties there.

• In order to express their contempt toward Mongolians, the Ming rulers completely destroyed the palace of the Yuan Dynasty and covered the rubbles with muds. This became the hill just north of the Forbidden City.

• To keep Mongolians out, the Dynasty rebuilt the Great Wall, and reconstructed the old capital city of Chang-An and converted it to a military base. The city was renamed as Xi-An.

• In addition, the Ming Dynasty started building a strong navy and strengthened its effective control of Taiwan. Shanghai became one of the major trading ports of the world. Silk and porcelain products started using sea routes to the Western world.

• During the Ming period, there was a visitor from Italy named Mateo Ricci. He was a Jesuit priest, and went from Naples to the southern Chinese city of Macau where Portuguese merchants established their trading base. It was in 1582. He spent many years in China until he was invited to the Forbidden City in 1601. He was course interested in spreading Christianity in China.

  Mateo Ricci was an Italian priest. He came to China and wrote a book in Chinese about Christianity.

  1. In order to make Christianity understandable to Chinese, he studied Confucianism thoroughly and worked hard to find common grounds for both doctrines.

  2. He wrote a book in Chinese whose title means "True meaning of the Lord in Heaven." This is the first Christian book written in Chinese. However, Chinese did not pay much attention to this book. They felt they had enough wisdom of their own, and did not feel it necessary to import strange Western ideas.

  3. Mateo Ricci also met a number of Koreans while in Beijing. Unlike Chinese, Koreans were quite interested in his book and brought its copies to Korea. This became the seed of Christianity in Korea. Korea is now a strong Christian country. Scholars are studying why. In my opinion, the Confucian base in Korea was stronger than those in China and in Japan, and Confucius and Jesus say the same thing.

     My photo with Underwood's grandson. My grandfather was one of Underwood's trusted Korean friends.

  4. Korean Christianity picked up its acceleration with Protestantism. In 1885, the first American missionary came to Korea. He was Horace Underwood sent from the Brooklyn Presbyterian Church in New York. His brother was one of the pioneers in typewriter industry. Underwood typewriters once dominated desktops in the United States, like Dell Computers these days.

     Korea's Yonsei University was built by Horace Underwood. My grandfather was a strict Confucian, but was one of his most trusted Korean friends. Here is my photo with Underwood's grandson taken in 2004. I am in a position to say something about the root of Korean Christianity.

• Toward the end of the 16th Century, Ming's ruling class became quite corrupt. Their bureaucracy became totally ineffective. To make things worse, Ming had to send troops to Korea against Japanese invasion. How did this happen?

  Toyotomi Hideyoshi was not a nice-looking man. According to Japanese, he looks like a human to monkeys, but like a monkey to humans. In either case, he was able to unify Japan.

  1. In 1590, Toyotomi Hidesyosi unified Japan, and he thought Japan was too small for him. He then appointed himself as the Emperor of the central land (China) and wanted to go to Beijing to sit on the throne.

  2. He sent 150,000 Japanese troops to Korea to provide a safe route for his travel to Beijing. Koreans resisted, but China had to send troops to Korea to stop those Japanese invaders. The war lasted for seven years until Toyotomi died. This was a costly war for Japan, Korea, and China. It took Koreans 100 years to rebuild their country.

  3. China's Ming Dynasty had to collect additional taxes from the farmers to finance this war.

• The corruption and heavy taxes caused large-scale revolts by farmers. As a consequence Ming's emperor committed suicide by hanging himself. The farmers came to the palace and attempted to run the country, but those farmers could not read or write. How could they run the country?

Transitional Period

Entrance to the Nuruhachi shrine in Shenyang.

• While the Ming Dynasty became weak, a Manchurian tribe chief named Nuruhachi set up a new country in Shenyang and started his dynasty in 1559. He was quite proud of his Manchurian heritage, and called his country "Later Jin." Jin is the name of the Manchurian empire (1127 -- 1279) in northern China during the Song period .

• His throne was inherited by his son named Hong Taiji (1592), but he had been the effective ruler with his father as the figure head. Nuruhachi was 108 years old when he died.

• Hong Taiji's son, thus Nuruhachi's grandson, moved to Beijing to take over the Chinese government without military operations. This became the Qing Dynasty.

• Click here for more about Shenyang.

Qing Dynasty (1644 -- 1911)

One of the buildings in the Forbidden City. A Manchurian name was added to the Chinese name (top). I am standing in front of Emperor Qianglong's poem praising the moon at the entrance to the Lugo bridge in Beijing.

China plates produced during the Qing era. These plates set the stage for the French porcelain industry. If you do not trust me, go to a French store for dinner plates and compare them with this photo, taken at the National Museum in Beijing. The photo is fuzzy because these items were in a glass cage.

• The Ming Dynasty was without government after the last emperor hanged himself. He was not able to deal with the farmers' revolts. The farmers came into Ming's palace in Beijing, and attempted to run the country. But they were totally incompetent to deal with government affairs.

• The third emperor of the Manchu's later Jin (grandson of Nuruhachi) came to the palace from Shenyang to started running the country. This is the beginning of the Qing Dynasty.

• The Manchurian rulers of the Qing Dynasty did not destroy anything from the Ming Dynasty and became integrated into the main stream Chinese. However, they wanted to keep their Manchurian heritage. This is the reason why every building in the Forbidden City has the name written in both Chinese and Manchurian.

• The golden era of Emperor Qianlong. Qianlong was the Emperor for sixty years from 1735 to 1796 when his son inherited his throne, but he remained as the the effective ruler for three more years until his death in 1799. Qianlong was a decision-making politician.
  1. During 64 years of his reign, China enjoyed the prosperity never seen before. The northern and western borders became secure. The trade routes to the Western world expanded on both land and sea.

  2. Qianlong was a scholar and loved to compose Tang-style poems. He was in love with the life style of the Song Dynasty, and constructed in his summer palace a lake modeled after the West Lake of Hangzhou which served as the center for Song's luxurious life.

  3. During his reign, the upper-class people enjoyed a similar life style. China supplied silk products and fine dinner plates. Those porcelain products are called China in the Western world, and you now know the reason.

• Alas, the Chinese rulers did not understand how the Western countries were progressing. Even after 1800, Chinese rulers understood the trade as the gifts to the Emperor from those minor countries and the Emperor's rewards to them. When Britain proposed a diplomatic relation, the Chinese Emperor flatly rejected by saying China cannot recognize those pirates as civilized people.

• In 1800, China was totally unprepared for the challenges from the Western powers.

  Hong Kong Breakfast consists of Chinese noodles and British fried eggs. Excellent combination!

  1. Britain totally ignored the authority of Chinese government and started selling opium to Chinese, using the port of Guangzhou (near Hong Kong). While the government was incompetent to do anything about the opium abuse, there were many local officials who felt something had to be done to stop the opium trade.

  2. Lin Zexu was the governor general of the southern provinces. Without authorization from the central government, he arrested all opium dealers and burnt a stockpile of opium products in British possession. Using Lin's action as an excuse, Britain started the war against China in 1939 which lasted until 1842. There was another war from 1856 to 1860, because of China's treaty violation.

     As a consequence, China had to open its door completely to British commercial ventures. In addition, Britain obtained the territorial concession on the Hong Kong district. Hong Kong was under British control until 1997.

     Beijing Hotel built first by a French firm in 1885 as "Hotel de Pekin." Many foreign dignitaries stayed here. The hotel runs the continuous video about its history. The history of this hotel is the history of modern China.

  3. In 1884, there was a conflict between China and France over who controls the Tonkin Gulf east of Vietnam. The war did not last long, and Chinese army did not lose all the battles, but the result was that China had to open the door to French merchants. The Beijing Hotel (near the Tian Anmin Square) was built in 1885 as "Hotel de Pekin."

  4. In 1885, China had to fight a war against Japan. With its new industrial power, Japan was eager to control the Korean peninsula, threatening China's north-east. China had to send the troops to Korea, but China was defeated, and Taiwan went to Japanese control. This was a major set back for China, and the Qing Dynasty started its disintegration.

• In 1900, a group of Chinese patriots became angry at the central government powerless to foreign interests, and they marched into Beijing and destroyed the embassies of Japan and Western powers. Apparently there were many boxers among those patriotic people. Thus, it is called the "Boxer Rebellion" in the Western world, but Chinese have their own name which means "an organization for justice and harmony." The Chinese government had to pay compensations to those foreign countries.

  Former British Consulate built in Shanghai (right) and the original Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.

• After this, Japan and Western powers became more reckless toward China, and the Qing Dynasty started its disintegration. Those foreign powers established their control zones in Shanghai and practiced discrimination against Chinese people. For instance, Chinese were not allowed to Shanghai's subways trains.

• The Qing Dynasty ended when General Yuan Shikai seized the Imperial palace and kidnapped the boy emperor in 1912. He proclaimed himself to be the emperor, but his emperorship lasted only three months.

  Yuan Shikai made his military fortune when China was building up the army in the north-eastern region against the Japanese invasion in 1885. But Yuan was transferred to a different position before the war the Sino-Japanese war started in 1885, and his military reputation remained intact even though China lost the war.

Transitional Period

Sun Yat-Sen (idealist), Chiang Kai-Shek (military man).

1. Sun Yatzen was an American-educated medical doctor. He thought China could become like the United States. He became the first president of a new country called "Republic of China" in 1911. With the supports from those who had the same idea, he formed a political party called Kuomintang (Chinese Nationalist Party). He played the central role during the post-Qing era, until his death in 1925.

2. At the same time, in Beijing, Yuan Shikai arrested Qing's boy emperor and claimed he was Qing's new emperor, but his throne lasted only three months. China's north was again a battleground of warlords. Yet, the Kuomintang government did not have enough military resources to extend its influence to Beijing.

3. After Sun died in 1925, Chiang Kai-Shek became the president. He was a military man of some degree, and he chose Nanjing as the capital city of his republic. He then started a speedy military advance toward the north. Seeing Chiang's impressive performance, the warlords in the north decided to submit themselves to Chiang's Kuomintang government. Chiang's China covered the entire territory of China.

4. Chiang was quick to establish a friendly relation with Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union, and received a bulk of military supplies from him. He used those Soviet-made weapons to suppress the communists in his own country.

5. In 1921, Chinese communists held its secret meeting in Shanghai while the country was under the Kuomintang (nationalist) regime. This group then surfaced as the agricultural reformers. They then penetrated into the Chinese army and was able to control one of the major units called the 8th regional army stationed in Jiangxi province (south of Hangzhu).

   Long March by Chinese communists from Jiangxi to Yenan (north of Xian).

   Former Japanese military headquarters in Shenyang. This city is known to Japanese as "Manshu Hoten."

6. Alarmed by the communist activity, Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang regime started arresting those communists. With the Soviet-suppled weapons, Chiang was ready to destroy the communist base in the Jiangsi province. The communists had to run away from Jiangxi to Yenan (north of Xian) through the mountain terrains where Chiang's influence could not reach. They had to walk without supplies. Many people died.

   This is known as the Long March of 1934-35. The leader of this long march was a young communist named Mao Zedong. In Yenan, the communists started consolidating their position.

7. Grand Coalition against Japan (1937 -- 1945). When Japan started a full-scale invasion of China in 1937, the communists proposed a grand coalition of all military factions in China against Japan. Chiang was initially against the proposal, but was forced to accept the proposal.

8. The United States welcomed this coalition, and supplied weapons to Chiang's headquarters in Chungking, through the Burmese route. Mao maintained his liaison office in Chungking in order to maintain contacts with the United States. However, Chiang's army did not put up any fights against Japan, but was only interested in suppressing communists.

   On the other hand, the communists staged guerrilla wars against Japanese army units. In so doing, they developed the technique of capturing weapons from the enemy side. They captured weapons from the Japanese army and stole American-made weapons from Chiang's nationalist army.

   The tide was turning toward the communists, and there were small and large-scale defections from Chiang's army to Mao's "People's Liberation Army."

   George Marshall and Mao Zedong in Yenan (1945).

9. Marshall Mission to China (1945-47). Alarmed by the prospect of a civil war after the coalition against the Japanese invasion, the United States sent a mission headed by General George Marshall to arrange a peaceful union of the Chiang's nationalist government and the communist group headed by Mao. He went to Yenan to see Mao, and received a positive response from him.
   • On the other hand, Chiang Kai-Shek was totally against the government that would allow communists in the cabinet. Instead, Chiang demanded military aids from the United States to eliminate the communists in the north.

   • To make things worse, against Marshall's advice, Chiang sent two best-equipped divisions of his army to Manchuria to secure the northeastern region. This resulted in diluting the defense of the capital city of Nanjing.

   • George Marshall gave up his hope for a coalition government, came back to Washington in January of 1947 to become the secretary of state. He continued to be in charge of the U.S. policy toward China. He came to the conclusion that the United States could not do anything to save Chiang's Kuomintang government.

   • In 1949, Dean Acheson succeeded Marshal as the secretary of state. He edited a book called "China White Paper," consisting of all relevant documents on the Sino-American relations during the period 1944-49. I have a copy of this book.

   Mao's People's Liberation Army entering Beijing in 1949.

10. Civil War (1946 -- 1949). Even though the communists enjoyed popular supports, it was not an easy job for Mao to deal with Chiang's well-equipped army. His People's Liberation Army had to rely on captured weapons. people. Mao's army had to stage bitter battles against Chiang's army in the northern provinces, before entering Beijing in January of 1949.
    • After defeating Chiang's army in northern provinces, Mao's Peoples Liberation Army quickly moved toward Chiang's capital city of Nanjing. Nanjing was defenseless because Chiang's best troops were in Manchuria and were eliminated by Mao's army.

    • Mao's army reached the Yangtze River in 1949, and Chiang's Kuomintang government moved its capital to Guangzhou. Chiang proposed a negotiated settlement, but Mao came up with solutions unacceptable to Chiang. While the negotiation was dragging on, Mao assembled one million soldiers on the shore of the Yangtze River north of Nanjing. Chiang did not have enough strength to defend Nanjing, because his best army units were in Manchuria and were eliminated earlier.

    • Mao then ordered those one million soldiers to cross the River at once with whatever means available to them. They used small and large boats, wooden doors, wooden rafts, and whatever that can float. Yes, they had to face gun fires from the opposite side, but they were only minor disturbances.

      Monuments at the River-crossing Museum in Nanjing. (top). Statues of the river-crossing committee members. Deng Xiaoping is second from left.

      I saw this scene from Walter Cronkite's TV program in 1961, but never again. I went to the River-crossing point when I went to Nanjing in April of 2013. There is a museum dedicated to this final chapter of the Chinese civil war. I took some photos.

      • These monuments tell Mao's troops did not have motor boats. Tall monuments are for sails boats, and short ones are for whatever that can float.

      • These are the statues of the staff members who planned and executed the river-crossing operation. I was very happy to see one name familiar to me and to all. He was Deng Xiaping (second from left).

      • This is another monument at the one of the busy traffic circles in the city. The river-crossing museum is at an isolated place and it is very difficult to reach.

    • This YuTube depicts the river-crossing operation. The background music is the March of the People's Liberation Army, composed by a Korean musician.
    • Another YuTube for the March, with the composer's name.

    • After this, the communist army swiftly captured Shanghai and went on toward Guangzhou. Chiang Kei-Shek had to flee to Sichuan and then to Taiwan.

Communist China (1949 -- now)

Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai in Beijing (1949.10.1). Mao is proclaiming the inauguration of the government of the People's Republic of China.

Eisenhower and Chiang Kai-Sek in 1960. Eisenhower went to Taiwan during his 1960 Asian trip.

Chinese Red Guards during Mao's Cultural Revolution.

Mao Zedong greets Richard Nixon in 1972.

1. In 1949, China became unified under the communist regime headed by Mao Zedong.

   The British government was quick to recognize Beijing's communist regime as the legitimate government of China, and was able to maintain the British interest in Hong Kong.

2. On the other hand, to the United States, Chiang Kai-Shek's Kuomintang group in Taiwan remained as the sole government of China including the mainland.

   • During the Korean war (1950 -- 53), China sent "volunteers" to Korea to fight against American troops. Neither side won the war. This was the cause of the animosity between the two countries for years to come.

   • The United States continued supporting Chiang's Kuomintang regime, and provided a treaty in 1954 to defend Taiwan against military attacks from "Red China." Here is a 1960 photo of Dwight Eisenhower with Chiang Kai-Shek in Taiwan. Eisenhower was the president of the United States from 1963 to 1961.

3. In 1964, China conducted the first nuclear test. China's enlightened communists thought their country was secure militarily, and decided to pursue an open-door policy toward the West.
   • However, this approach did not sit well with Mao's revolutionary goals: to throw out all Western influences. This is known as Mao's Cultural Revolution. In realty, it was Mao's move to get rid of his political opponents from the communist party.

   • Zhou Enlai's ideology was basically pro-Western, but he remained on Mao's side throughout the Cultural Revolution. In so doing, he was able to eliminate all of his rivals among the pro-Western politicians. Zhou emerged as the most powerful figure after the Cultural Revolution. He was ready to invite to China the president of the United States.

4. In 1972, Richard Nixon visited China, and China started an open-door policy toward the United States. Chinese students started going to the United States for PhD degrees.

5. In 1978, the United States formally recognized Beijing's communist regime as the legitimate government of China. Taiwan's UN Security Council seat was replaced by Beijing's communist government. This transition took place very quietly.

6. China's open-door policy led many young Chinese to believe China could have an American-style political system. In 1989, they gathered in Beijing and demanded an immediate reform, but their communist government brutally suppressed them. This is known as the Tian-Anmin Square incident. This incident raised a human-rights issue in the United States.

7. During the election campaign of 1992, Bill Clinton promised not to trade with China until the tangible improvement in human rights in China. In 1994, Clinton broke his campaign promise and allowed the trades with China. Clinton's broken promise did not become his political liability, because the economic necessity was too strong.

Dynamics of Chinese History When civilized Chinese set up a dynasty, northern barbarians come down and destroy the dynasty. However, those barbarians become integrated into Chinese culture. They become civilized Chinese. The history of China consists of a series of dynasties. One dynasty disappears and a new dynasty comes in. There is then a transitional period between the two dynasties. This is the most important aspect of the history. The transition happens because The ruling class of one dynasty becomes separated from the farmers, and the farmers revolt. The central administration becomes weak. When the central authority is weak, northern barbarians invade and try to run the country. However, those barbarians become integrated into the Chinese main stream, and they become Chinese. They all claim to be "Han" Chinese. During the 19th and 20th centuries, China was invaded by Western powers and Western ideologies. After the Opium War of 1840-42, Britain established a firm foothold in China and ruled the district of Hong Kong until 1997. France also established an interest in China in 1884. The Beijing Hotel near the Tian-Anmin Square started as a French hotel called "Hotel de Pekin" right after the Sino-French war of 1883-4. In 1931, Japanese established their puppet regime in Manchu, and started a massive military invasion of China in 1937. Traditional money god, and Shanghai's IFC (idol for money and wealth). Shanghai's IFC leads you to believe in money, while the Aya Sofia in Constantinople led people to believe in Jesus for 1100 years. We all know how the Chinese people dealt with those military adventures. These days, China is one of the three military superpowers in the world. In addition, there were two ideological invasions from the West. One is communism, and the other is capitalism. The question is how these foreign ideologies are being absorbed into Chinese own culture. Like all human races, Chinese have the tradition of worshipping idols. Among the many idols, their god of money is still thriving. Go to a respectable Chinese restaurant. You will see a small alter for the god of money and wealth. The alter decoration includes models of circular Chinese coins with square holes in the middle. I do not know anyone who became rich by worshipping this money god. However, in recent years, Chinese created another idol along this direction. Look at Shanghai's IFC (International Financial Center). You will be led to believe in money. Look at the Aya Sofia Cathedral of Istanbul built in the 6th century. Everybody was led to believe in Jesus at that time. China's Mao Zedong regarded himself as a Marxist who pointed out labor is equivalent to money, just like Einstein who established the mass-energy relation. Thus, Mao attempted to transform China's vast labor resources into money, and ordered every Chinese family to build a backyard steel mill. This idea did not work out. Zhou Enlai and other enlightened Chinese leaders came up with the idea that Mao's back yard could be in Western consumerism. In this way, China was quite successful in transforming their money god from restaurant decorations to Shanghai's IFC. In the Western world, it is important to argue about communism or capitalism. However, from the Chinese point of view, they are not relevant variables. Chinese have their money god, and both ideologies got absorbed into their traditional value. This young lady is working for one of the major banks in Hong Kong. When I asked her whether she wants to marry a rich man or a smart man, she said "smart man." She said there are many smart physicists working in her financial world. Important Question. Is the money everything to Chinese? Not to every Chinese. I was sitting next to this young Chinese lady on an airport express train in Hong Kong (August 2011). She is working for one of the major banks in Hong Kong as a financial analyst. I asked her whether she wants to marry a rich man or a smart man. She said "smart man." She said there are many physicists working in the financial industry, and they are all smart. She was born in Shandong Province (south-east of Beijing), studied in Singapore, and speaks fluent English. Physicists have their place in China. This is also the trend in the United States. Many physicists are working for Wall-Street firms. I hope those physicists will come up with a correct theory of money which can make accurate economic forecasts.

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How did I talk to Einstein?

• Click here for his home page.
• His photo-biography.
• His Einstein page.
• His Princeton page.
• His Style page.

  
  I received my PhD degree from Princeton in 1961, seven years after high school graduation in 1954. This means that I did much of the ground work for the degree during my high school years.