Mongols take China

In 1368, the Ming dynasty was started. I sat down with the founder of the Ming dynasty was a peasant, one of only three ever to become a emperor, his was known is Hongwe Emperor.

Q- Who did you have to take or to start your new dynasty?

A- I had to defeat the Mongols, and the Yuan dynasty.

Q- Did you creat any new laws?

A- Yes, I created new laws that help the peasants and improve their life style, by keeping the taxes low.

During this time period, dictionaries were written. The one that influenced our time period today was written in 1615 AD. Hongwe also decreased the number of chinese characters to 214.

While the Mongols had the power, they made it so only mongols can serve in the military and government, to make sure that no one with high power could threaten them. The Mongols used horses to take over China. They were able to ride on a horse with no hands and balnce and shoot arrows at you. This allowed them to attack fast and from a range. Allowing them to have a strong army.

Zheng He

Just after arriving in Mecca, we got a little break, some allow time, so i finally got to catch up with our captain Zheng He.

Q- When did you make your first trip?
A- in 1405, i sailed to India and Vietnam, on a fleet of chinese boats called junks.

Q- What were you trading with and for?
A- I carried cargos of silk, porcelain, and lacquer, and i wanted to trade for pearls, spices, ivory and timber.

Q- With all of those goods where did you store some of it?
A- I had storgage complexes nea the Strait of Malacca.

Q- What was one of the weirdest things that you got?
A- While in east africa I got a giraffe and brought it back to the Chinese Court, where they thought of it as a unicorn.

He later died in 1433 on his seventh voyage where he was buried at sea and we got orders to turn back and head to China where the new emperor wanted nothing to do with teh explorations and to deal with problems within China and build China up before focusing on the outside world. So he destoryed all of the ships and burned all of the shipping logs.

Sung dynasty

Today it was my pleasure to sit down with Marco Polo. One of the great inventors of the Sung Dynasty (the true Golden Age) in 960 AD - 1280 AD. Some of the many inventions of that time period are the rainbow bridge, gun powder, allowed people to defend themselves from a distance, paper money, didnt have to carry cows and 100 grains of rice from Beijing to India, compass, allowed people to tell inwhich direction they have to head with out reading the sun or stars, blockprinting, movable type, and a mechanical clock.

Tang dynasty

Today for dinner i had the honor to take out Li Po. One of the greastest poets every to live. He was born and lived in the T'ang dynasty or the golden age of poetry in 618 AD- 907 AD. The main thing was that the Tang dynasty brought China together to be one. Farmers developed better ways to grow rice, which made greater crop yields, and allowed the population to increase.
During the Tang dynasty, the social class was created.

Han dynasty

While playing a game of Chinese checkers with Lui Bang, founder of the Han dynasty I got to ask him some questions and he told me some key things about his dynasty.

Q- What made you want to extend the Great Wall?
A- In 206 BC I extended the wall, continuing it to the west and adding guard towers. to provide more protection from the Mongols. And the guard towers will help alert my army if there is any sign of attack.

Q- What are some inventions that took place in this time period.
A- My people CREATED PAPER.

The people of their time made sure to give us good information about how they lived by burying clay models of their homes and belongings in their tombs. And finally the creation of the silk road allowed trade to flourish with the Roman Empire.

Buddhism comes to China

Buddhism comes to China through mercants from India allong the silk road and many other trade routes. It is said that the Buddah come to the emperor by a dream. And the very next day he ordered some of his officials to travel west to find his vision. Where they founded monks and invented them to the palace, where Buddhism meet China

During the Han dynasty in 67 AD Buddhism comes to China. This is important because it becomes one of the top three religions in China.

Great Wall

Its 220 BC and we just got word from China's first emperor Ying Zheng or Qin Shi Huangdi that we have to start constructing the Great Wall. At first we had no clue how great Great was. I questioned him

Q- Whats the main purpose of connecting all of theses walls, and have no walls around the south.
A- The main purpose was to provide a defence against descendants of Genghis Khan and the Mongols. We have no wall allong our south border because there is no threat and need to build one.

To make the Great Wall we had to connect a lot of smaller but still large walls of the northern states of China. During the process my uncle and a couple of his friends died so we had to bury them in the wall. The great wall has improved greatly over time, it went from a wall of mud, to using sticky rice to glue bricks together and to put up guard towers. This is important because its the greatest defensive stucture ever built. And a great place for tourists to learn abouts China's history.

Confucius

While walking downtown Beijing between 551 BC and 479 BC, I saw a guy balancing a pencil on his nose riding a unicycle. I went up to him and watched him do it for ten minutes straight.

He eventually got off to go to the bathroom but when he got back I asked him how he did that.

He said, shouldn't you know my name first.

I said sorry then asked for his name.

He said, My name is Kong Qiu, but my friends call me Confucius. Then he answered my first question and said life is about balance and goodness. Once you take out pleasure, you will find out you will be much more happy and be able to focus on other things. While he was talking to me he kept emphasizing the importance of goodness. I asked him:

Q- How he thought of these ideas.
A- I blended my ideas with Traditional Chinese ideas.

Q-What else does you religion focus on?
A- We focus on five relationships, three with the family.

I told him how the Han dynasty made Confucianism the official state philosophy. And how confucianism is in the top three religions in China.

Unification of China

Today in 221 BC, I was sitting outside watching my dad plant rice, and then The Great Shi Huangdi passed by heading in to take over the last fighting state. He stopped by to have some tea and told me about how strong his army was, how he used cavalry to have the upper advantage on other chinese armies.
And for some reason when I thanked him for stopping by, he gave me a horse. I asked him why they do that and he said that is how I like to have my government run. Legalism. Rewarding the good and punishing the bad.

Q- Was it weird being the ruler of a country at the age of 13.
A- I guess you just have to be ready, and I also guess it was in my blood to be a ruler and it was just my time.

Q- How hard was it to feed all of the soldiers?
A- Feeding every soldier was very hard.

Q- Are there any other things that you did to help unifie China?
A- Yes, i took all of the walls that the states of China made and made one great wall.

But before he left he told me of a dream that he had. He told me that he would be buried in an amazing tomb filled with liquid mercury and traps. And he would have his people build him Terra Cota soldiers that would protect him.
This is important because for once China is under one rule, China has their first emperor, and China is now the biggest country in the world.

Loa Zi and Taoism

Today walking past Beyond Tea, i happened to see my BOY Loa Zi. He was sitting there drinking' his tea injected smoothie. He was preaching' his new religion that he found Taoism. I sat down and asked him a few questions

Q-What are the main ideas of Taoism?
A-If everything is done in natural, proper way; peace and harmony will be the result.

Q-Does your religion have a holy book?
A- The holy book is the Tao Te Ching.

Q- When were you born?
A- Around 604 B.C.

He was later telling me how Taosim is all about humility, harmony and nature.

I asked him about yin and yang. And he told me about how its about opposing forces and that life results when opposing forces collide. This is important because its later grows up to be a top 3 religion in China.