Chinese history quiz!

[Knight-Dragon]

Well, since quizzes are now in vogue, let's see how much you know about Chinese history (this is the history forum afterall). Answer the following 10 questions. Try not to cheat though.

1) Name the seven strongest states of the Warring States period.
2) Name the Chinese general who expanded Chinese influence to its furthest extend in Central Asia (all the way to the Caspian Sea it was said) during the Later Han.
3) Name the greatest emperor of the Han; who consolidated imperial power, sent expeditions to the far west and drove back nomads in the steppes.
4) Name the founder of the Han.
5) Which dynasty began work on the Grand Canal?
6) Name the Chinese Muslim eunuch/admiral who commanded several of the Ming naval expeditions overseas.
7) Name the battle in which the Arabs defeated the Tang Chinese and Central Asia forever more became Islamic instead of Chinese.
8) Who was the Ming general who collaborated with the Manchus and helped them invade and conquer China?
9) Which dynasty invented the bank note for use in commerce?
10) Name the predecessor of the Kuomintang; which was founded, organised and led by Dr Sun Yat-sen.

 

[joespaniel]

OK, this is tough, but I think I know one answer;

#5 - Sui Dynasty.

I also think it was the communists who repaired the canal system in the 1960s.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Correct! But I would have thought that most of the rest are pretty easy too except for maybe 2, 7 and 10 since I made this quiz up on the spot. Hmmmm. Goes to show most Westerners don't really know (or care to know) much about Chinese history ...........
I am still waiting for your Russian quiz.

 

[joespaniel]

Doesn't mean I don't care at all. I just don't know!

Actualy China has more history due to its longevity than most civilizations. I think it has a mystique about it as well.

If you could recomend some good history books or sites, I would love to read them.

Also, schools in America teach American history! So its not my fault.

BTW - I Did use some searching to come up with some of my questions...

 

[Knight-Dragon]

You cheat!

Anyway I didn't learn any Chinese history in school either.
Msian national schools only taught local Msian (Malay and Islamic) history cos Chinese history is obviously so brilliant that it would dent the patriotism of Msian Chinese for their adopted homeland.

But I read a lot and history is one of my favourite subjects so over the yrs, picked up a lot of bits and pieces.

 

[Thunderfall]

1) I can only list a few: Zhao, Chu, and Qin States
3) Emperor Wu Di
9) Song dynasty. Can't be earlier than that because paper was invented in the Song Dynasty (I think).

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by Thunderfall
1) I can only list a few: Zhao, Chu, and Qin States
3) Emperor Wu Di
9) Song dynasty. Can't be earlier than that because paper was invented in the Song Dynasty (I think).

All correct but there are 4 more states to be named for 1). Also paper was invented much earlier during the Han. It was only later during the Tang when the Arabs defeated a Chinese army in 7) and captured Chinese papermakers that paper-making was brought to Baghdad and fr there, to the West.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Before I forget, here're the answers (if anyone cares) : -

1) Qin, Chu, Qi, Wei, Zhao, Han and Yan. The strongest, Qin, eventually unified China and formed the first Chinese empire (hence the name China from Ch'in - the old term for Qin) in 211 BC.
2) Pan Chao. At one time, he was trampling around Central Asia with a 70000 strong army of local levies. God knows why.
3) Han Wudi. He didn't do anything really but lived so long that a lot of important things took place. Sent an emissary who eventually made contact with the Kushans who ruled Northern India/parts of Central Asia and thus began the Silk Road. Also sent out numerous military expeditions to push back the Hsiung-nus who eventually appeared as the Huns in Europe.
4) Liu Pang. Originally a checkpoint guard, failed in a job so rebelled otherwise would have been executed. The rest is history.
5) The Sui dynasty. So much misery in its construction that it ignited massive rebellions. Another reason was the unpopular war to subdue Korea.
6) Cheng Ho. Eunuch and trusted lieutenant of the Emperor Yung Lo. The emperor had came to power by toppling his nephew, the rightful ruler, in battle. Rumors purported that he had escaped overseas so the emperor sent out the naval expeditions under Cheng Ho to search him out (and kill him).
7) Battle of the Talas River. The Tang had been pushing their weight around for some time now. Tang army led by an ethnic Korean general just defeated Tibetans. Same army defeated by newly-arrived Arabs. The Tang wasn't finished in Central Asia but simply lost interest. Apart fr some small action, didn't do anything. Later cemented a good relationship with the Arabs. Later when An Lushan revolted with 200000 frontier troops, the Arabs sent a couple of thousands of horsemen to help the Tang.
8) Wu San-kuei. Later revolted against Manchus but by then too late.
9) The Song dynasty, specially the Southern Song dynasty. An innovative dynasty too early for its time.
10) Tung-men Hui. Involved in the final toppling of the Manchus in 1911.

If anyone wants to cont the quiz as a cumulative one, he's very welcomed to it.

 

[joespaniel]

What year did the Communists defeat the Nationalists and take power in Bejing (effectively creating 'Red China')?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

That's easy. 1949.

 

[joespaniel]

Easy for you, you walking Chinese encyclopedia!

Whay year did the Communists start fighting the nationalists, then?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Eh, 1928?

 

[joespaniel]

Yep. They actualy helped fight the Japanese for awhile, before kicking Shang's butt to Taiwan, right?

 

[Knight-Dragon]

The story is a bit longer and more complicated than that. When Dr Sun reformed his organisation as the Kuomintang in the mid 20s; he had three principles as his political ideology - democracy, nationalism, socialism. Socialism in this case was akin to communism. All communists then were members of the Kuomintang as well - the communists were nationalistic as well.

At that time, the KMT only controlled the Guangdong province in the south and was generally considered a weak power compared with all the warlords controlling the different parts of China. At this time, Chiang Kai-shek was commandant of the Whampoa military academy. I think he had gone to the Soviet Union for his military training/studies and had come back to set a military academy for the KMT.

The Whampoa academy only produced a few classes of grads I think but these formed the original core officer corps for the future KMT army (and Chiang's support base in the army). Then Dr Sun died and Chiang took over. The KMT was joined by a few warlord armies - those in Guangxi, Fujian and Hunan (I think). Then began the KMT Northern Expedition in 1926 and the KMT armies marched northwards - to reunify the country by force.

The KMT armies were extremely successful, considering the odds. They were also aided by the Communists who organised pickets and planned sabotage and acted as intelligence behind enemy lines. I am not very sure about this part but eventually the KMT defeated most of the warlords (some joined the KMT with their armies) in the Yangzi and the northern Chinese plains up till Beijing. The warlord of Manchuria also joined the KMT I think, along with those in Sichuan.

Sometime before this in 1928, the KMT approach on Shanghai worried the business magnates there and also the foreign powers cos it was seen as pro-Communist. Then suddenly Chiang began a massive crackdown on the Communists, within and without the KMT. There were massive daily street executions and thousands of Communists lost their lives. Not sure why but I think Chiang wanted to appease the western powers and the rich powerful business magnates of Shanghai and get their support for the KMT.

Hence the KMT and what remained of the Communists became sworn enemies. The Communists organised "soviets" in the inland provinces and began fighting against the KMT but Chiang threw armies after them to destroy them. One of this was the Jiangxi Soviet where Mao Zedong was one of the leaders. So the KMT encircled this soviet and began to apply systematic pressure to destroy them.

The Communists then decided on their famous Long March - to break out of the KMT encirclement and regroup in a safe area. Along the way, they were harassed by KMT attacks. Out of 100000 who began the March, only 20000 survived to reach Yenan, the ultimate destination. In the process, Mao became the overall leader of the Communists. Participation in the Long March became a kind of initiation as a Communist officeholder.

More later.......

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Continue .......

By then the Japanese had already occupied Manchuria and then launched a massive invasion of China. Chiang wanted to annihilate the Communists before fighting against the Japs but Marshal Chang Tso-Lin (who just passed away last week or so in Hawaii BTW) kidnapped the Generalissmo in the Xi'an Incident. Thereupon forcing Chiang to form a united front with the Communists to fight back against the Japanese invaders. The Communist forces were reorganised as the 8th Route Army.

The Japs conquered all the important parts of China - the Yangzi valley, most of northern China, Fujian, Guangdong etc. The KMT lost a lot of good ppl and their best troops and retreated to Sichuan. By now, the KMT forces had degenerated badly and corruption ran rife amongst the KMT. Even with US aid, the KMT couldn't do much out of Sichuan cos their economic base was in the Yangzi valley. Also the KMT was facing the brunt of the Jap attacks although they did launch one or two major counter-offensives.

The Jap invasion was a major life-saver for the Communists. As the Japs concentrated on the KMT, the Communists began building up their power bases among the peasants of northern China. They did launch one offensive against the Japs but it failed. The Japs had an effective stranglehold on China. Even so, the KMT and Communists also fought against each other.

Then Japan surrendered after the nuking of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. And Chiang got the Americans to airlift/transport his troops to seize all of China - the cities especially. He even took back the cities of Manchuria. THAT was a major mistake, looking back in hindsight. The KMT had the numbers and they were well-equipped by the Americans. But they spread their troops a little too thinly and morale was low. He shld have concentrated his forces in the Yangzi and the south; instead of spreading them betw cities in a sea of Communist-indoctrinated peasants all cross northern China.

The Communists struck first in Manchuria. Isolated cities were individually surrounded and captured; garrison, equipment and all. In most cases, the KMT troops joined the Communist forces. In China, it's considered normal for a defeated army to be joined to a victorious one - had been so since the time of the Three Kingdoms. Then the Communist tide swept south fr there.

The KMT fought a major battle in the Huai river valley against the Communists (involving millions of men on both sides) but lost. That was the last straw considering at least 500000 more KMT troops joined the enemy. The Communists swept south again and then Chiang evacuated to Taiwan, with about 500000 of his best remaining troops, intending to return some day. He never did. About 2 million plus ppl joined him. Also some fled to HK.

One reason the support for the KMT eroded was becos when the KMT strode into the cities which had been under Jap occupation, they treated everybody there as collaborators. There were many arrests, executions, imprisonments, confiscation of porperties etc. As mentioned before, the KMT as a political force had been diminished cos of the long war with the Japanese invaders.

The Communists then swept into the rest of China, clearing out the remaining KMT and warlord forces. One KMT force was chased out into Burma where they remained and readied to fight for decades, supposedly to link up with the main offensive fr Taiwan. They eventually became drug overlords there.

The Communists also sent forces to recover the rest of Imperial Qing territories - Tibet, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia. About the only areas not recovered were Outer Mongolia which effectively seceded in the 20s under Soviet sponsorship. Also unrecovered were huge areas betw the Soviet Maritime Province and Chinese-held Manchuria and the Ili Valley in the far west. These unresolved issues led to the Sino-Soviet break in the 60s and there were a few skirmishes.

So now we have the Nationalists in Taiwan who couldn't retake China anymore and the Communists in China who couldn't take Taiwan cos of US protection. Also they would prefer to gain Taiwan economically whole rather than ravage thru the island.

Any further questions?

 

[joespaniel]

Actually, I think its your question.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

I mean questions about my 'story' on China fr the 20s thru to 49. So I'll ask the next question <insert evil laugh here> : -

The Manchus once sent an army to subdue this mountain kingdom in the 18th century. Name it (no, it's not Tibet).

 

[Julien]

That was very interesting SKM ! I have learned a lot ! As you said, Westerners aren't enough interested or taught about Chinese history at school. Now that I am living in Japan, I become really interested in Chinese history as well.

Please tell me more -about anything !

 

[Knight-Dragon]

If you want to know more about Chinese history, you shld do some reading on your own. My 'lectures' may tend to be a little biased. Anyway I can't read Chinese so have picked up all my reading fr English books by Western authors so I think you can do the same. Of coz, if you have questions, can always ask here but can't guarantee if I know the answers .... After all, I am not a professional historian. More of a Chinese chauvinistic hobbyist.

 

[Knight-Dragon]

Originally posted by SKM
I mean questions about my 'story' on China fr the 20s thru to 49. So I'll ask the next question <insert evil laugh here> : -

The Manchus once sent an army to subdue this mountain kingdom in the 18th century. Name it (no, it's not Tibet).

Since nobody even attempted to answer, well it's Nepal. Anybody want to give the next question(s)? China has 2500 yrs of recorded history so shld be easy to think of something to ask. At least for me.