Celestial Empire

Celestial Empire (Chinese: 天朝; pinyin: Tiāncháo; "heavenly dynasty") is an old name used to refer to China, from a literary and poetic translation of the Chinese term Tianchao, one of many names for China.[1]

For the clipper ship, see Celestial Empire (clipper).
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Names of China

Accordingly, in the 19th century, the name "Celestial" was used to refer to Chinese emigrants to the United States, Canada, and Australia.[2] Both terms were widely used in the English-language popular mass media of the day,[3][4] but fell into disuse later on. Its usage has become popular again in the present day (2015), particularly among Chinese Internet users. It's used to refer to the current Communist regime, to imply either disapproval for its political suppression and arrogance or national pride in the country's emergence as a superpower in the twenty-first century, depending on the context.[5]

In modern times it has mostly fell into disuse, but the name Celestial Empire still appears in various media such as articles, stories, movies and television. This is a literal translation of TianChao into Chinese, as mentioned above. The origin of the name goes up to traditional Chinese religions. In China with a long history, the sky is often considered the highest god. Thus, the emperors are considered sons of Heaven (Tianji) and are born to govern the country. The emperors were also considered to be human beings of dragons. Therefore, the official name of the emperors should be the hand of the Heavenly Dragon of the Zhenlong Tienzi.[6]

Another original name associated with the origin of Celestial Empire is less known outside of China, but there is one more very common name in China. Cathay, or Hua Xia. As far as the name is concerned, theory calls China's first dynasty Xia and argues that anger means great and wonderful.[7]

Ideological background

The ideological background of term 'Celestial Empire' is Sinocentrism. In traditional Chinese history, the Chinese ruling class tended to perceive their country as a "great central kingdom."[8] Such trends have helped create the concept of Celestial empire, and these ideas have had a great influence on their neutralization ideas so far from generation to generation after generation. The so-called Central Kingdom Complex was based on the understanding of neo-authoritarianism that equates China as "everything under the sky."[9] According to Chinese studies, this concept of Chinese thought does not merely mean a glorious and powerful civilization. For them, they recognized their country as the only true civilization in all respects, including geography. Furthermore, the concept began to converge with the" noble race" to create boundaries between Chinese thought and other things. [10] For the emperors of the central kingdom of China, the world can be roughly divided into two broad and simple categories: civilization and non-civilization, which means the people who have accepted the emperor's supremacy, the Heavenly virtue and its principle, and the people who have not accepted it or have not accepted it.[11]

China's neighbors were obliged to pay their respects to the 'excellent' Celtic emperors within these boundaries on a regular basis. It can be said that this was the most important and important element of the East Asian order, which was implicit in the name of Celestial Empire in the past.[12] Under this order of China, the trade of goods between Empire and other dynasties took place in the form of the payment of tributes from neighboring states and the receipt of return goods from China. And this trade was sometimes more beneficial to tributaries than to China. [13]In general, the Qing Dynasty received special products from the Foreign Affairs Bureau, and the Qing Dynasty received books and silk. The Chinese emperor also exercised power over the surrounding dynasty under the name of Celestial Empire. Especially in the case of kings of ancient Korea, it was the subject of the Chinese emperor. The most representative dynasty of Korea, Joseon's aristocrats voluntarily used the term "Cheonjo," meaning Celestial Empire, in official diplomatic documents between the two countries for the Qing Dynasty. It was in the same vein that they called China's army a heavenly soldier. Meanwhile, another Korean dynasty, Goryeo, internally referred to the Heavenly Kingdom. Wang Geon, who founded the kingdom of Goryeo, named the unit Cheongun, which means the army of heaven, for the battle of Ilichon. In addition, the Buddhist monk of Goryeo, Myocheong, named the rebel army Chen Gyeon-chungun, and wanted to establish the people who were kings of Goryeo as the emperor of the Great Powers. They also called the marriage between royal families 'cheonin' in the sense of heavenly ties.The amnesty decree of the Goryeo Dynasty was believed to provide compassion to the entire world by the son of heaven.

History

China's history, which was not completely politically unified and was divided into several feudal states (the Warring States Period of 476~221 BC or the Three Kingdoms Period of 220~264 AD), had a great influence on the creation of the concept of Celestial Empire. Ironically, the idea of the Central Kingdom originated in the Zhou Dynasty, when China had a nominal central government but was, in fact, a collection of feudal states along the Yellow River. In addition, even if China was politically unified, its territory and power declined, and during the heyday, the early days of the Han, Tang, and Qing, and the North and South Song periods, almost the smallest of the countries, during the period of the North and South Song, the territory and power declined even during the course of modern pre-modern history.[14]

Especially during the Qing Dynasty, China was ruled by the Manchurian people, a people across the border. The Manchurians sought to rule the vast Chinese territory by integrating China's traditional bureaucracy and the tribal structure of Manchuria and Mongolia.[15] The administrative posts were open to everyone in principle, but at the top of the central bureaucracy were held by two officials whose ministries were Chinese and Manchurian. The rulers, at the same time, aimed at portraying themselves as legitimate successors following the will of heaven in the tradition of the Chinese dynasty, have developed the Chinese ideology, which serves as the basis for the Celestial Empire, not forgetting their separate national identity.[16] During the era of Celestial Empire, people were able to interact with their past by collecting calligraphy, paintings and cultural artifacts. For many, traveling to the empire was an opportunity to see various places of historical significance.[17] Information about written traditions also greatly influenced people's lives. Young people preparing for government posts studied philosophy, history and poetry. The study of historical figures, for example, allowed candidates to reflect on past choices. Only through this tradition could they leave their own footprints in history.

By the end of the eighteenth century China's Tianxia was still safe, but it was not until the middle of the nineteenth century that China, Celestial Empire, began to realize that they were no longer the dominant forces in the world. China's defeat in the Opium War (1840–1842, 1856–1860) forced them to reassess their opponents. At this time, at the same time, Tianxia was redefined, and China's political circles and scholars began to study the outside world where they had drawn boundaries.[18]

Since the arrival of the Western colonial power in the mid-19th century during the advent of the Celtic Empire as a modern country, sports have generally spurred and contributed to the creation of nationalism and the construction of national consciousness, which became the machine for the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912.[19] In the turn of the 20th century, the relationship between sports and Chinese nationalism is close, and sports creates modern China in a historical context. The history of the late Qing and early republics clearly showed the close relationship between sports, nationalism and politics, reflecting the changes in Chinese society, the identity and mindset of the Chinese people. Sports had great importance not only in cultivating China's nationalism and national consciousness, but also in ultimately transforming China from heaven into a modern state. It played an important role in the strategy of restoring state power by Chinese nationalists.[20]

Cheonjojeonmu system

The term "Cheonjojeonmu system" means a series of systems covering land, politics, society, and military as a whole (1853) announced by the Celestial empire, Taiping Heavenly Kingdom after occupying Nanjing and setting up the capital here. The system is rich in values that Chinese Celestial emperors have pursued in history.

The land system is called Cheonjojeonmu system separately, or the entire system announced by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1853 is also called Cheonjojeonmu system. The land system is represented by the Cheonjojeonmu system as mentioned earlier. The principle of this system is that all land should be divided equally as needed in accordance with the principle of gender equality. As a result, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom completely denied the old landlord protection system, and at the same time refused to recognize the ownership of the land, it decided to distribute a certain amount of land to farmers free of charge. Such a move by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, of course, caused fierce opposition from the former Qing Dynasty's ruling class and the landlord class, and caused the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to retreat from its original purpose.

The social system is represented by the Yangsama system. The Yangsama system is an active reflection of the Chinese people's idea of the Zhou Dynasty as the most ideal period. Twenty-five families were set up as one group and a higher group was assigned to control one group. He was responsible for various tasks such as administration, production, distribution, religion, judicial, education, reward and punishment, past examination, and recommendation. In the Yangsama system, the government marriage system, the support of the elderly, the elderly and the child widows were all defined as social and common responsibilities based on the traditional homily. It was the first attempt by the Taiping Heaven to embody the idea of Daedong, an ideal society where China's traditional great road is realized.

The military system is represented by the single system of military and agricultural rule. In wartime, it was a system that allowed soldiers to return to the peasantry, and had the advantage of very cheap defense. By completing this system as a social system, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom tried to build an ideal society where land was shared as much as needed, the rich and the poor did not exist, and the socially disadvantaged were protected. However, due to the resistance of the vested interests, the lack of will to implement the system, and the lack of leadership, these systems gradually become distant from the original purpose of establishment. As the kingdom of Taepyeong grew further away from its original ideal, farmers withdrew their support for the kingdom, providing a decisive cause for the collapse of the kingdom.

Cultural features

When we talk about China's Celestial Empire, the map produced during the Qing Dynasty, which is chosen as the most representative dynasty, serves as an indicator of the understanding and order of territory. Examples of Western teaching techniques could be seen in the Qing Dynasty, but this had a considerable limited impact on traditional Chinese teaching. In their maps, geographical or artificial structures and forms were expressed in pictures, which show the influence of painting techniques. Text was also an integral part of map interpretation, which remains on the map of the entire empire based on the works of Huang Qianren 黃千n (1694–1771).[21]

The printing culture of the Qing Dynasty inherited some of the achievements made by former Celestial emperors, but the format was not the same.[22] Some of the finest examples of Qing printing were destroyed at the beginning of the dynasty. Landscape portrayals were also their targets, with Cheng's officials able to travel to a wide range of areas while performing their duties, and to appear in historical records, taking the opportunity to visit historic sites throughout the empire represented by poetry and prose.

These exquisite print works contrast sharply with the crude examples of printing used for mass consumption. Popular religious print works can show considerable quality and elegance, while almanacs and cheap educational prints have limited and low quality.[23]

See also

References
  1. "Chances in China; Standard Oil Man Says Celestial Kingdom Needs Much American Funds" (PDF). The New York Times. February 15, 1914.
  2. "Celestial" capitalized (Celestial Empire, old name for China): of or relating to China or the Chinese Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
  3. ""The Wyoming Massacre" New York Times; 6 September 1885; pg. 7, ProQuest Historical Newspapers The New York Times Retrieved 12 March 2007.
  4. "The Chinese Massacre," The National Police Gazette, September 19, 1885, no. 418, pg 6.
  5. "Decoding the Chinese Internet: A Glossary of Political Slang" (PDF). 2015. p. 13.
  6. "Why China is Also Called Celestial Empire?". Chinesesession. 2008-06-23.
  7. Pound, E., Bush, C., & Saussy, H. (2019). CHINESE POETRY. In Billings T. (Ed.), Cathay: A Critical Edition (pp. 325-332). New York: Fordham University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv8jnzm5.10
  8. BOON, H. (2018). THE ORIGINS OF CHINA’S GREAT-POWER IDENTITY. In China's Global Identity: Considering the Responsibilities of Great Power (pp. 1-28). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
  9. Ng, C. (2017). Information and Knowledge: Qing China’s Perceptions of the Maritime World in the Eighteenth Century. In Boundaries and Beyond: China's Maritime Southeast in Late Imperial Times (pp. 191-204). SINGAPORE: NUS Press. Retrieved November 20, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv3wdbw4.11
  10. BOON, H. (2018). China's Global Identity: Considering the Responsibilities of Great Power. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
  11. "What Kind of Empire Will China Be?". Literary Hub. 2017-03-17.
  12. Lee, Seokwoo; Lee, Hee Eun (2016-05-02). The Making of International Law in Korea. Brill | Nijhoff. ISBN 978-90-04-31575-4.
  13. Faure, G. (2017). China in Central Asia: Negotiating Cooperation for Mutual Benefits? In Hampson F. & Troitskiy M. (Eds.), Tug of War: Negotiating Security in Eurasia (pp. 53-68). McGill-Queen's University Press.
  14. BOON, H. (2018). THE ORIGINS OF CHINA’S GREAT-POWER IDENTITY. In China's Global Identity: Considering the Responsibilities of Great Power (pp. 1-28). Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
  15. Wang, Y. (2018). CONQUERING CHOSŎN: The Rise of the Manchu Regime as the Middle Kingdom, 1616–43. In Remaking the Chinese Empire: Manchu-Korean Relations, 1616–1911 (pp. 21-49). ITHACA; LONDON: Cornell University Press.
  16. "Culture of rule | National Library of Australia". www.nla.gov.au.
  17. "Inheriting the past | National Library of Australia". www.nla.gov.au.
  18.   Fay, P. (1975). The Opium War, 1840-1842 : barbarians in the Celestial Empire in the early part of the nineteenth century and the war by which they forced her gates ajar . University of North Carolina Press.
  19.   Zhouxiang, L. (2010). From Celestial Empire to Nation State: Sport and the Origins of Chinese Nationalism (1840-1927). International Journal of the History of Sport, 27(3), 479–504. https://doi.org/10.1080/09523360903556766
  20.   Lu, Z. (2014). Sport and nationalism in China . Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315857053
  21. "East Asian History". www.eastasianhistory.org.
  22. Moll-Murata, C. (2018). Printing in the Service of the State. In State and Crafts in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911) (pp. 213-244). Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. doi:10.2307/j.ctv6hp2q9.13
  23. Lars Peter Laamann. (2015). Christianity, Magic and Politics in Qing and Republican China. Central Asiatic Journal, 58(1-2), 89-105. doi:10.13173/centasiaj.58.1-2.0089


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