Slide 3

Ancient China

• Ancient China was one of the first states on Earth.
• The inhabitants of Ancient China created an interesting and distinctive culture, both material and
• spiritual. They believed that life is the creation of a divine, supernatural force,
• that everything in the world is in motion and is constantly changing as a result of the collision of two opposing cosmic forces - Light and Darkness.

Slide 4

Life of the inhabitants of Ancient China

• Men and women in ancient China wore robes with a belt. The sleeves were long and wide. Pockets for small items were sewn inside the sleeves. Rich people wore silk or cotton robes with patterns. The emperor's clothes were decorated with images of a dragon. Servants and slaves wore blue and dark clothes.
• Chinese women gave themselves complex and bizarre hairstyles. The hair was secured on the head with hairpins and sticky aloe juice. This hairstyle stayed on my head for several days. In order not to wrinkle it during sleep, a hard porcelain or wooden stand was placed under the neck.

Slide 5

• For a long time in China, there was a custom of tightly bandaging the feet of girls so that the feet did not grow, but remained small.
• Such small mutilated legs were considered a sign of beauty and were called “golden lotuses” (lotus is a flower similar to a lily). Men wore sandals or boots.

Slide 6

• In ancient China, each person had several names. One of them - children's, or milk - was given by parents at the birth of the child. When a child grew up, the teacher or parents gave him an adult name, with which the person lived all his life. If a slave was sold, he took the surname of his new owner and a new name.
• It is customary for the Chinese to write the surname first, and then the given name. There were few surnames, but the parents could come up with any name, for example: Fan Lan - “Fragrant Orchid”, QiuRong - “Autumn Face”.
• The emperors had throne and posthumous names, as well as mottos of their reign, for example: Tai Ping - “Great Peace”, Shao Xing - “Continuation of Heyday”.
• When greeting, the Chinese clench their hand into a fist and bring it to their forehead.

Slide 7

Great inventions

• Paper
• Powder
• Compass
• Printing is rightfully considered the four great inventions of China.

Slide 8

Paper

Court eunuch Cai Lun invented a process for making paper using new raw materials. In the papermaking process, a boiling mixture of mulberry bark, hemp, old cloth and old fishing nets is pulped, ground to a paste and then mixed with water. A reed sieve in a wooden frame is lowered into the mixture, pulled out and shaken. The resulting sheets of paper are dried and then bleached by exposure to sunlight. The earliest known piece of paper with writing on it was discovered in the ruins of a Chinese tower.

Slide 9

Powder

• The earliest known recipe for gunpowder is recorded in a military manuscript.
• Gunpowder was used in incendiary bombs, which were fired from catapults, dropped from defensive walls, or hung down from iron chains used as levers.

Slide 10

The earliest artistic depiction of the first gunpowder weapon, the fire lance.

Slide 11

Compass

• During the Han Dynasty, the Chinese began using north-south oriented magnetic iron ore in bucket-type compasses for geomancy and other divination rather than for navigation.
• The compass was described as: “This instrument is like a spoon, and when placed on a plate on the ground, its handle points south.”

Slide 12

Model of a Chinese compass of the bucket-cup type, used in geomancy (a type of fortune telling).

Slide 13

Typography

• The illustration shows typesetting letters arranged in strict order according to the sectors of the round table
• Wood Board Printing: The oldest known example of wood board printing is a Sanskrit sutra leaflet that was printed on hemp paper.
• The earliest known standard size printed book is the Diamond Sutra

Slide 14

Rice cultivation

• In 2002, Chinese and Japanese scientists reported the discovery of a fossilized phytolith of domesticated rice in eastern China. Proven evidence suggests that rice was cultivated in 7000 BC. e.
• Currently, rice remains the mainstay of the diet in the southern and northeastern regions of China.

Slide 15

Chinese chopsticks

Emperor Di Xin was the first to use ivory chopsticks in the 11th century BC. e. The oldest bronze chopsticks were found by archaeologists in tombs.

Slide 16

Noodles

An archaeological excavation in 2005 discovered 4,000-year-old noodles made from millet (instead of traditional wheat flour) preserved in an upturned clay bowl, which created a vacuum between the bowl and the sediment in which it lay. The noodles resemble traditional modern Chinese lagman noodles, which are made by "repeatedly rolling and stretching the dough with your hands."

Slide 17

Bells

The bells were made from a previously existing ceramic prototype. Early metal bells were not only sources of sound, but also played an important cultural role. With the advent of other types of bells, they were assigned auxiliary functions, for example, to equip horses and chariots or as a part of dog collars.

Slide 18

Silk

The oldest silk in China was found in Henan Province. It belongs to the Neolithic period and dates back to approximately 3630 BC. e. Silk objects from excavations date back to approximately 2570 BC. BC, and include silk threads, woven silk belts, and pieces of woven silk.

Questions

• The inhabitants of Ancient China believed that everything in the world was in motion and was constantly changing as a result of the collision of two opposing cosmic forces, which?
• What did men and women wear in Ancient China?
• What did women want so as not to wrinkle their hair while sleeping?
• What do the Chinese bring to their foreheads when greeting them?
• 4 Great Inventions of Ancient China.

Slide 22

• Where was gunpowder used?
• What unusual purposes was the compass used for?
• Emperor Di Xin was the first to use chopsticks, what were these chopsticks made of?
• What were noodles made from in Ancient China?
• What was produced in the mountains of Fujian Province?

Slide 23

Answers

• Light and darkness
• Robes with belt
• A hard porcelain or wooden stand was placed under the neck.
• Fist
• Paper, Gunpowder, Compass, Printing.
• In the bombs
• Divination
• Ivory
• Millet
• White tea

Chinese culture is one of the oldest. The earliest cultural monuments found in China date back to the 5th-3rd millennium BC. On Chinese soil, one of the most ancient ancestors of modern man was formed - Sinanthropus, which existed about 400 thousand years ago. However, the civilization of Ancient China developed somewhat later than in. and India - only in 11 thousand BC. For a long time it was of a non-irrigation type: only from the middle of the 1st millennium BC. The Chinese began to create irrigation systems. In addition, until the middle of the 1st millennium BC. Chinese civilization existed in isolation, apart from other ancient civilizations.

Like other cultures, Chinese culture original and unique. Unlike the Indian one, it is more rational, pragmatic, addressed to the values ​​of real earthly life. Its second characteristic feature is its exceptional, enormous and defining the role of traditions, customs, rituals and ceremonies. Hence the existing expression - “Chinese ceremonies”.

Another feature of Chinese culture is related to religion and attitude towards nature. As in other religions, Chinese beliefs primarily deify the forces of nature. For the Chinese, the supreme deity is Heaven, the main temple is the Temple of Heaven, and they call their country the Celestial Empire. They have a cult of the Sun and other luminaries. Since ancient times, the Chinese have worshiped mountains and waters as shrines.

However, along with the deification of nature, Chinese culture, like no other, is characterized by its aestheticization and poeticization. That is why landscape painting, poetry and architecture appear in it first of all. One could even say that "landscape" view extends in China to all phenomena of life. In terms of the depth of aesthetic and poetic penetration into the life of nature, Chinese culture has no equal.

The culture of Ancient China existed from the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC. and until 220 AD, when the Han Empire collapsed. Its immediate predecessor was culture Yangshao (3rd millennium BC) is a late Neolithic culture. Already at this stage, the Chinese tamed animals, cultivated fields, built dwellings buried in the ground, mastered many crafts, and mastered pictographic writing. They revered the cults of the Sun, Moon, mountains and other natural phenomena; they developed a cult of ancestors. Pottery reached a high level during this period. Ceramic vessels - dishes, bowls, amphorae, jugs - are decorated with complex geometric (zigzags, rhombuses, triangles, circles) and zoomorphic patterns.

In the 2nd millennium BC, along with the emergence of civilization, Chinese culture underwent profound changes. During this period, the collapse of primitive society and the formation of the first early class states took place. One of them was the city-state of Shan, which stood at the head of a large association. The remains of this city, discovered near Anyang, indicate that the cities were distinguished by a clear layout, surrounded by an adobe wall up to 6 m thick. The palace of the ruler (“wang”) of the “great Shang family” rose on an adobe platform, and its roof rested on rows of wooden columns, the bases of which were bronze disks. Stone sculptures of people and animals (bull, tiger), and wall paintings in bright red, black and white colors were also found in this palace.

IN Shang era The Chinese invent bronze casting techniques and create a system of hieroglyphic writing, as evidenced by the most ancient written monuments - inscriptions on stones, bones of sacrificial animals, and turtle shields. Religious and mythological ideas about the world are becoming significantly more complicated. In particular, the belief in the afterlife and the importance of ancestor cults are increasing. Burials become more complex. The tomb of Ruler Shang consists of two underground chambers located one above the other, guarded by totem guards in the form of half-beasts and half-humans. The chambers contained utensils made of bronze, ceramics and jade, there were swords and axes, chariots and many other items necessary in the afterlife so that it would be no different from earthly life.

Widespread during the Shang era bronze products also indicate the complexity of the religious and mythological ideas of the ancient Chinese. In particular, massive and heavy bronze vessels intended for sacrifices to the spirits of ancestors and the spirits of nature are decorated with geometric patterns that form only a background against which stand out patterns close to bas-relief depicting a bull, a ram, a snake, a bird, a dragon and a mask of a fantastic beast taote . The handles, lids and corners of such vessels were made in the form of bull heads and dragon bodies, and the vessels themselves were depicted with barbed teeth, fins and scales, which increased their magical meaning. Of all the totemic animals, the main patrons of humans are the tiger, ram and dragon.

In the 1st millennium BC. In all areas of life in Ancient China, the most significant shifts and changes took place. By the beginning of the 1st millennium BC. the Shang kingdom was conquered by the Western Zhous, as a result of which a large but fragile state formation arose Western Zhou, the rulers of which adopted the title “van” from the Shans.

At this time, the development of the religious doctrine about the divine origin of “royalty” and the sacred right to power of the Zhou Wangs, which was based on mythological ideas and proceeded from the Zhou cult of heaven as the supreme deity, was completed. Thus, for the first time, a unified and harmonious mythological history of China was created, which included the cult of the first ancestors and told about the golden age of the wise rulers of antiquity. The Zhou Wang was proclaimed the Son of Heaven and his only earthly incarnation. He was endowed with the magical power of de, which made him a mediator between heaven and people, as well as the ruler of the Celestial Empire. Later, in the 8th century. BC, Western Zhou came under the rule of Eastern Zhou, however, this new entity, and many other states, recognized the sacred priority of the Zhou ruler as the Son of Heaven. By the end of the first half of the 1st millennium BC. On the territory of the Middle Kingdoms, the Huaxia ethnic group is formed and the idea of ​​​​its superiority over the peoples of the rest of the periphery - “barbarians of the four countries of the world” arises. The resulting cultural ethnocentrism further intensifies.

In the middle of the 1st millennium BC. China is experiencing rapid socio-economic growth. New trade centers are emerging, and the population of many cities is approaching half a million. Iron smelting and the use of iron tools reach a high level. Crafts are successfully developing and hydraulic structures are being built. Irrigation systems are widely used in agriculture.

The so-called era deserves special mention "Warring Kingdoms"- “Zhangguo” (V-III centuries BC), when there was a struggle for hegemony between several strong states. In this struggle played a special role kingdom of qin: By the name of this kingdom, all ancient Chinese are called “Qin”. It also served as the basis for the name of China in European languages: Latin Sine, French Shin, German Hin, English China.

The era of the “Warring States” is considered classic in the cultural history of Ancient China. It is also called the era of the "Hundred Schools Rivalry". The country is truly experiencing an unprecedented spiritual and intellectual upsurge. Accelerates development of scientific knowledge. In astronomy, the duration of the solar year is clarified, a lunisolar calendar is created, a star catalog is compiled, lunar eclipses are calculated, and the concept of the movement of celestial bodies - “Tao” - is developed.

Mathematics and other sciences are developing successfully. In particular, the “Treatise on Mountains and Seas” is published. The growth of scientific knowledge leads to a weakening of religious and mythological thinking and even causes some religious skepticism. This is evidenced by the treatise “Questions to Heaven,” where mythological ideas are criticized.

The era of Zhanguo became , During this period, all the main philosophical movements took shape - Confucianism, Taoism and Legalism.

The founder - Kong Tzu (551-479 BC) - chose the theme of his reflections not the problem of being or knowledge, but the relationship between people. Observing around him the endless struggle of everyone against everyone, he saw the path to establishing peace, order, and social harmony in the revival of age-old traditions, customs and rituals. He believed that the main task of educating a person is to master strict norms and rules of relations between equals and unequals, elders and youngers, higher and lower, father and children.

He was a resolute opponent of any innovations and reforms. In his opinion, it is the past, the forgotten ancient wisdom, that holds the keys to solving the problems of the present. Mastering the experience of the past and traditions should help a person to correctly understand his place in life and understand the simple truth: “A ruler must be a ruler, a father must be a father, a son must be a son.” Confucius viewed the society-state as a large family, where the main bearer of norms and rules of behavior is the humane ruler.

The teaching created by Confucius and his followers goes beyond philosophy and religion and forms the basis of the entire way of life. In it you can find the answer to the question of the meaning of life and how to behave in a specific situation. Confucianism played a decisive role in the creation of the ancient Chinese education system, where clear preference was given to the humanities. Thanks to this system, a fairly broad class of educated officials was formed in Chinese society, constituting a privileged elite and reminiscent in its social role of the priestly caste in India. Confucianism contributed to the strengthening of Chinese cultural ethnocentrism.

Approximately simultaneously with Confucianism, another influential religious and philosophical movement arose in China - Taoism, the founder of which is considered to be the legendary Lao Tzu. The teaching focuses on the laws operating in nature. Taoism is based on the idea of ​​the Tao way, or the doctrine of the "way of nature"", about the eternal variability of the world. Jlao Tzu formulates his credo as follows: “Man follows the laws of Heaven. Heaven follows the laws of Tao. and Tao follows itself.”

Like Confucianism, Taoism is not limited to philosophy and religion, but constitutes a special way of life. He borrowed a lot from Buddhism and yoga, in particular the system of physical and breathing exercises. In this regard, the ultimate goal for its adherents is to achieve immortality. Taoism develops theory of passivity and inaction, encourages the refusal of active participation in life, to escape from the bustle of everyday life, to contemplation. The principle of non-action also applies to the ruler: “The best ruler is the one about whom the people only know that he exists.”

The interests of Taoism included not only natural science, but also the so-called occult sciences, in particular alchemy. The experiments of Chinese alchemists eventually led to invention of gunpowder. Also occupied a special place geomancy - the science of the connection between space and the earth's topography. Here, the knowledge and recommendations of Chinese magicians were not only of great importance for farmers and architects, but also led to invention of the compass. Astrology also played an important role, especially in drawing up horoscopes for all occasions.

Many principles of Taoism created the philosophical basis of famous Chinese martial arts. including woo-shu. It was Taoism that played a key role in the aestheticization and poeticization of nature, which became one of the main principles of man’s relationship with nature in Chinese culture.

Another influential philosophical movement was Legalism, which initially acted as an opponent of Confucianism, but later almost completely dissolved in it. Unlike Confucianism legalism in building a strong state, he relied not on morality and tradition, but on strict and harsh laws, believing that politics is incompatible with morality.

For legalists, the main methods of managing a person, society and the state were coercion, strict discipline, diligence and obedience, cruel punishments, personal responsibility and merit. The legalists developed the concept of a despotic state, which, with Confucian amendments, was implemented in Ancient China and, with minor changes, existed until the beginning of the 20th century.

Artistic culture of Ancient China

The era of the “Warring States” is also characterized by significant events in the field artistic culture. IN This period significantly expands the range of topics covered by art. The first treatise on architecture"Zhouli." which sets out strict principles for a clear city layout, indicating the size and location of buildings, the width of main streets and roads.

Achieves great success literature. By this time, the creation of the famous monument of Chinese literature - the Book of Songs - Shijing (X1-VI centuries BC), which included more than 300 poems, the selection and editing of which is attributed to Confucius, was completed.

During this period, the great Chinese poet Qu Yuan (340-278 BC), who was both a lyricist and a tragedian, worked. The sources of his work were folk poetry and myths. His works are distinguished by their exquisite form and deep content. Finding himself in exile, Qu Yuan created the ode “The Sorrow of an Exile,” which became a poetic confession of the elder. The second great poet was Sup Yu (290-222 BC), whose works are filled with hope and cheerfulness. He became the first singer of female beauty and love.

The culture of Ancient China reached its highest rise at its final stage - from the 111th century. BC. up to 111 v. AD This was facilitated by profound changes in other areas of life.

The minister of the Qin kingdom, Shang Yang, based on the ideas of legalism, initiated broad reforms, as a result of which uniform legislation and legal proceedings were established; hereditary titles and privileges were abolished; the place of chariots and bronze weapons in the army was taken by cavalry and iron weapons, etc. The reforms were carried out using the methods of the most severe violence and coercion, but thanks to them, the kingdom of Qin, relying on the strongest army, was able to subjugate all the other “fighting kingdoms”, becoming a powerful and centralized power. In 221 BC. The Qin ruler adopted a new title “Huangdi” - “Emperor Qin”. In 206 BC. Qin dynasty gives way to new Han dynasty, which remains in power until the end of the existence of Ancient China - until 220 AD.

During the Han era The Chinese empire becomes one of the strongest in the world. Its population reached 60 million inhabitants, which was 1/5 of the world population. Modern Chinese call themselves Han Chinese.

During this period, China experienced real socio-economic prosperity. The country is covered by a network of roads that connect provincial centers with the capital. Numerous canals were built as cheap transport arteries, which stimulated trade exchanges.

Agriculture uses the most advanced cultivation technologies using fertilizers and crop rotations. Crafts reach a high level. Deserves special mention silk production, where China had an absolute monopoly. Neighboring countries tried in vain to uncover the secrets of silk technology. By the 1st century BC. Silk production volumes reach enormous proportions. It is becoming the main Chinese export product.

Much the same can be said about varnish production. The varnish created by the Chinese had no equal. It was used to cover weapons and military equipment, wood and fabrics, increasing their shelf life and giving them a wonderful aesthetic appearance. Lacquer products were in great demand both within the country and abroad.

The greatest achievement of ancient China was invention of paper(II-I centuries BC), which caused a real revolution in the entire culture. Equally important was the perfection of hieroglyphic writing, adopted in Korea, Vietnam and Japan.

In the artistic crafts of this period, the features of mature and high perfection were established, which became the main stylistic properties of subsequent eras. In particular, bronze vessels have more streamlined and simpler shapes; they lose their magical meaning. Ornament gives way to inlay with multi-colored metals.

During the Qin-Han era, China established broad and intensive ties with other states. Played a special role in this The Great Silk Road with a length of 7 thousand km, along which trade caravans traveled to Central Asia, India, Iran and the Mediterranean countries. In addition to silk, China supplied iron, nickel, precious metals, lacquer, bronze, ceramics and other products to the international market.

During the Han period, favorable conditions developed for development of science. Chinese scientists seem to be summing up the results, systematizing the already accumulated knowledge about the world and boldly moving on. IN mathematics The treatise “Mathematics in Nine Books” is created, where for the first time in the history of mathematical science negative numbers are discussed and rules for operations on them are given.

IN astrology The map of the starry sky is refined and expanded, on which 28 constellations are marked, a record is made of the observation of sunspots, and the first celestial globe is invented. IN medicine a catalog of medical books is being compiled, which lists 36 treatises. containing information on various diseases, the first Chinese treatise on pharmacology was written. To this should be added the invention of the world's first seismograph.

They are developing no less successfully humanitarian sciences. In particular, philology and poetics emerged, and the first dictionaries were compiled. Sima Qian (145-86 BC) - the “father” of Chinese history - creates a fundamental work “Historical Notes” (130 volumes), which not only sets out almost the entire ancient Chinese history, but also provides information on the history of neighboring countries and peoples

Artistic culture is experiencing an unprecedented rise. In the Qin-Han era, the classical forms of traditional Chinese architecture, which persist to this day. Urban planning is reaching a high level. The main centers of the empire - Luoyang and Chang-an - are distinguished by their clear layout and beautiful streets. Chinese architects successfully built houses of two or three floors or more, with a multi-tiered roof made of colored tiles. The most famous architectural monument of ancient China was The great Wall of China. Its most famous section (750 km) is located near Beijing, where it is 5-8 m wide and up to 10 m high. The entire length of the wall with all its branches is more than 6 thousand km.

An equally amazing monument is the burial complex of Emperor Qin Shi Huang. It amazes not only with its grandiose scale, but also with the contents of a gigantic underground palace. The premises of this palace are filled with rows of life-size figures of ceramic warriors, horses and chariots standing shoulder to shoulder. This entire clay army numbers three thousand infantry and horsemen.

Reaches a significant level sculptural relief. The most interesting are the reliefs from Shandong, discovered in the funerary temple of the noble Wu family, as well as stone reliefs of their burial crypts in Sichuan. The first depict scenes on religious and mythological themes, scenes of battles, hunting, receiving guests, etc. On the second there are scenes from folk life - harvesting, hunting, hard work in salt mines.

Appears in the Han period easel painting, as evidenced by the found part of a painting depicting a girl, a phoenix and a dragon on silk. The invention of the hair brush and ink was of great importance for the development of painting and fine arts.

The Han era was a heyday of literature, and its last decades (196-220 AD) are considered the golden age of Chinese poetry. Many emperors encouraged the development of literature and art. brought the best poets, writers and scientists closer to the court. This is exactly what Emperor Wudi did. who created a large library and a music chamber at his court, where folk songs were collected and processed, and new musical works were created.

The most outstanding poet of the Han era was Sima Xiangru (179-118 BC). He sang the vast expanses and beauty of the Empire, its power, as well as the “great man” himself - Emperor Wudi. The most famous works are the ode “Beauty” and the song “Fishing Rod”, created in imitation of folk lyrical songs. Lu Jia and Jia Yi were also brilliant poets. Along with poetry, the first major works of fiction, legends, fairy tales, books of miracles and fantasy were created in the Han period.

Chinese culture would reach its highest rise and prosperity later, in the middle of the century, but all the necessary foundations and prerequisites were already laid in ancient Chinese civilization and culture. The Zhanguo-Qin-Han era had about the same significance for China and all of East Asia as Greco-Roman culture did for Western Europe.

Section - I - SHORT DESCRIPTION

Section - II -CHINA IN THE III CENTURY BC - II CENTURY AD

Section - III - Culture of Ancient China

Section - IV -The Art of Ancient China in Brief

Section - V -Religion of Ancient China in Brief

Ancient China is one of the most majestic civilizations of the Ancient World. The origins of ancient China are similar to those of Sumer, Ancient India, and Ancient Egypt. The majestic Yellow River constantly brings particles of fertile soil - loess - from the mountains.

An ancient civilization arose in the Yellow River Valley (Huang He). The first kingdom appeared in the second millennium BC and was called Yin or Shang.

Modern archaeologists carried out excavations, as a result of which they were able to unearth the capital of this kingdom, the Great City of Shang, and the tombs of some Shang kings - their names were Vans. Van was buried in a fairly deep (up to 10 meters) pit, into which a ladder led. Gold jewelry, jewelry made of jade, jasper were placed in the grave, and huge bronze vessels were also installed. The responsibilities of the bath included the following: governing the state, performing special religious rituals, as well as the supreme court.

Wang was considered a sacred and inviolable person. In one thousand one hundred and twenty-two BC, a tribe called Zhou, led by Wu-wan, inflicted a great defeat on the Shang, thereby establishing their dominance, and most of the inhabitants of the Shang-Yin state were enslaved. In the eighth century BC, the Zhou state collapsed under the attacks of nomads; Now, one or another kingdom is being promoted to the main role, of which the largest state was a kingdom called Jin (seventh - fifth centuries BC). After the collapse of the Jin state, the difficult period of Zhanguo (translated as “Warring States”) began, when ancient China was divided into two dozen small principalities that were constantly at odds with each other, and were practically not subordinate to the Zhou Wang.

6-5 centuries BC - the time when the first philosophical teachings began to appear in ancient China. In the sixth century BC, a great sage lived in China, his name was Confucius, he was very revered among the Chinese, both at that time and in all subsequent centuries. Confucius's teachings about respect for elders, about the "noble person", about the importance of education, about modesty, etc. subsequently became an important standard for relationships in China between people - both in the family and in the country itself.

In 221 BC. e. The Qin ruler Ying Zheng began to unite vast territories into a single empire and took the title Qin Shi Huang, which means “First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty.” This
the ruler rather cruelly destroyed all resistance, using the most terrible types of execution. If a person did not comply with the law, then in this case the entire family of this person was subject to punishment: his family members were simply turned into slaves and forced to work on heavy construction work.

When Qin Shi Huang established his own power in the empire, he began a war with the nomadic Huns, who often attacked his borders from the north. He decided to consolidate his victory forever by building a powerful border wall, which was called the Great Wall of China. After the fall of the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang comes to power. He reduced taxes and repealed some of the most brutal laws that had been introduced in ancient China by Emperor Qin Shi Huang. Liu Bang, who was then succeeded by eleven of his descendants, became the founder of the Han Dynasty. During the era of the Han Dynasty, the main features of the Ancient Chinese state took shape. The foundations of Chinese civilization and its culture - art, literature, science - were laid in Ancient China. In the year two hundred and twentieth, the Han dynasty declined, and several states independent from each other were formed throughout its territories. This event is considered the end of the ancient period in Chinese history.

Natural conditions of Ancient China briefly

The ancient Chinese inhabited the North China Plain, located in the extreme east of Asia. From west to east, the plain was crossed by the Yellow River (Yellow River), which carried a lot of fertile silt. As it settled, the silt filled the channel and forced the river to change it. The Yellow River flooded fields, washing away villages. The people called it "China's grief." Through hard work, cutting down forests, draining swamps, strengthening river banks, the ancient Chinese turned their homeland into a country of developed agriculture. The valley of the Yangtze River (Blue River), located south of the Yellow River, was conquered by the Chinese later. The rivers, especially the Yangtze with its many tributaries, served in ancient times as the most important routes of communication.

Occupations of the population.

In the middle of the second millennium BC. uh, the area of ​​the Yellow River and its tributaries was inhabited by numerous tribes of hunters and fishermen. One of these tribes, the Yin tribe, managed to subjugate its neighbors. Recently, archaeological scientists have excavated dozens of Yin settlements. Many thousands of inscriptions on animal bones and turtle scutes have been discovered. This allows you to study the life and occupations of the ancient population of China.

The main occupation of the ancient Chinese who settled in the Yellow River Valley was agriculture. This was favored by a mild, temperate climate, fertile soil and plenty of moisture.

Millet, wheat, barley, and rice grew in the fields. During the year, two crops were harvested: in the first half of the year, millet was harvested, and in the second, wheat. The land was cultivated with a wooden plow, wooden hoes, and stone sickles.

Cattle breeding, fishing, and hunting acquired auxiliary significance. In addition to cattle and horses, the ancient Chinese raised sheep, goats, and pigs. In ancient times, the Chinese did not use dairy products for food.

Initially, farmers themselves made the simplest agricultural tools, pottery, and fabrics. Over time, craft turns into a special, independent branch of production. The first thing that stood out was the foundry craft, which required special skills and abilities. Bronze foundries melted and forged metal and made weapons and various utensils from it. Potters began to make beautiful and durable dishes using a potter's wheel and oven. Since ancient times, the Chinese have been able to make thin
silk fabrics. This skill was kept secret.

With the development of agriculture and crafts, trade arises and develops. Trade was carried out not only with immediate neighbors, but also with peoples on the shores of the Pacific Ocean. At first, the role of money was played by precious shells. It was difficult to get them. Therefore, they began to make artificial shells from precious stones and bones. Then they began to cast bronze ingots in the shape of shells and other objects. This is how metal money appeared in China.

The most ancient slave states.

In the second millennium BC. e. Slavery occurs among the Chinese. Its main source is wars with neighbors, especially with northern nomadic tribes. Slaves were also received as tribute from conquered tribes.

Slave labor began to be used on the farm. During this period, slaves were still collectively owned by the community. Slaves were not only forced to work until exhaustion, but were also sacrificed to the gods. Archaeologists have excavated burial sites containing hundreds of people who died violent deaths. These were sacrificed slaves.

Along with burials containing rich things, as well as “sacrificed slaves,” graves were excavated in which there were no things. This suggests that rich and poor, slaves and slave owners appeared in society.

To keep slaves and the poor in obedience, the slaveholding nobility creates a state. The ancient Chinese state was headed by a military leader, the wang. His support was the nobility and numerous officials. They collected unaffordable taxes from the population. For his service, Van gave away land and slaves to those close to him. This led to the development of large land ownership.

In the 12th century. BC e. The Zhou tribe, living to the west of the Shan-Yin state, subjugates the Yin. The state of Zhou was formed. In addition, many other slave states appeared in China.

Farmers in these states lived in communities, but each family received a plot of land for use. Tools, livestock, seeds were also privately owned by the department

noah family. The clan and tribal nobility, taking advantage of their position as community leaders, began to seize the best lands. Free community members were exhausted by the lack of land and fell into debt dependence to their rich neighbors - large landowners.

The discontent of the peasants was reflected in songs condemning the greed and cruelty of the rich. One such song compares large landowners to a horde of rats eating the fruits of human labor:

“Our rats, our rats, Don’t gnaw our millet. We have been living with you for three years, And we don’t see any worries from you... Our rats, our rats, Don’t gnaw the crops. We’ve been living with you for three years, but we don’t see any rewards from you,”

Skilled artisans lived in the cities. They made beautiful dishes from clay and metals. From the middle of the first millennium BC. e. The Chinese knew varnish. Furniture and other wooden products were varnished. The sap of the lacquer tree was poisonous, so artisans who made beautiful, elegant things died early.

In the first half of the first millennium BC. e. Chinese trade relations are expanding. The development of trade was facilitated by the appearance of the first metal coins. Gradually, cities turned into centers of crafts and trade.

The northern borders of China were constantly attacked by nomads who later became known as the Huns. The Chinese states entered into alliances with each other, since it was impossible to fight the nomads with the forces of one state. But these alliances were fragile. Often Chinese states fought with each other. Internecine wars ruined the Chinese economy and led to even greater exploitation of the working masses.

Features of home life

The fundamental idea of ​​Chinese civilization - the idea of ​​the inextricable unity of man and the natural world, the individual and society - is nowhere manifested as fully and convincingly as in the architectural tradition. The Chinese house - and the Ming era, of course, was no exception here - always appears inscribed in the natural environment and, moreover, in a single universal order, where there is complete continuity between man, family and the cosmos. The choice of a place for a house has long been determined by the rules of the so-called geomancy or, in Chinese, the science of “winds and waters” ( Feng Shui), which established correspondences between human activity and natural processes. At the same time, the house embodied the foundations and values ​​of social life, primarily family life. For the ancient Chinese, it was even a clear illustration of the social structure. “An almighty sovereign is like a hall; his subjects are the steps, and the commoners are the foundation of the house,” wrote the ancient historian Ban Gu.

Note that the term “family” in Chinese literacy is denoted by the hieroglyph “jia”, which is graphically a combination of the characters “roof of the house” and “pig”. Thus, ideographic etymology well conveys the economic and ritual significance of the family in China: it was rare that a peasant did not keep pigs in his house, and the same pig was the main sacrificial animal among the Chinese, thanks to which, on the days of family celebrations, communication between the living and deceased ancestors was carried out. Thus, the word “jia” reflects the most important signs of a family: relationship by blood or marriage, community of property, economic and religious independence.

In China, the small family has long prevailed. Judging by official statistics, the size of the average family in the Ming Empire was five to six people. This is somewhat at odds with the traditional and hallowed Confucian wisdom ideal of the family, in which representatives of at least three generations were supposed, as they said in China, to “live under the same roof and eat from the same pot.” Such extended families, which included married couples of three or even four generations, were extremely rare in practice and were considered exemplary.

The structure and transformation of the Chinese family was determined by the need, on the one hand, to gain economic independence that met the interests of the married couple, and on the other, to maintain continuity through the male line. The traditional way of life in China can be seen as a set of means designed to ensure the reconciliation of these two contradictory principles of family life. The dual nature of family organization in China is evidenced, in particular, by the coexistence in each family of the cult of ancestors, which embodied the common origin of its members in the male line, and the cult of the god of the hearth, Zao-shen, which reflected the economic autonomy of the family (note that the household god of the hearth, according to Chinese beliefs, was directly subordinate to the supreme deity of the folk pantheon - the Jasper Emperor). Although ancestor worship on major holidays was the prerogative of the eldest male in the family, routine offerings at the home altar - such as lighting incense sticks and candles - were usually the responsibility of women, probably because men did not want too close contact with the souls of their ancestors.

In accordance with the general orientation of Chinese culture not on individual entities, but on structure, the relationship of things to each other (with the Great Emptiness appearing as a pure, diffuse structure), architectural form in China is primarily composition, and the basic unit of architecture was not the house as such, but a courtyard or estate, in other words, a complex of buildings where the center of the planning environment was the courtyard, that is, an open, empty space around which residential, utility and decorative buildings were located in a certain hierarchical order. The entire estate was certainly surrounded by a blank wall with a single gate. Thus, the house clearly embodied the supremacy in the Chinese consciousness of the idea of ​​family - a hierarchical and closed community, reproducing in its way the universal principles of the universe. This kind of “family” organization of the house serves as a prototype of the urban layout, and the social structure, and the “heavenly pattern” of the universe, and the nature of all things - the Great Emptiness.

Therefore, the persistent hostility of the Chinese to monumentality in architecture seems completely natural. At all times, the first kings of Zhou were considered exemplary builders, whose ancestral temple had a thatched roof and stood on unpainted pillars. Chinese emperors were supposed to glorify themselves not with grandiose palaces, but with great virtues. As for the educated elite, its tastes were expressed in the 17th century by the writer Li Yong, who argued that a house should be “proportionate to a person,” that it is valued for “grace, not luxury,” and that “if a house shelters from wind and rain, this enough".

In a word, for the Chinese, the house embodied not physical, but symbolic qualities - it was the visible “shadow” of the invisible body of the clan, which continues through a series of generations. The purpose of human life is to constantly return to one’s ancestors and, therefore, to one’s home: the time of the race does not flow progressively, but backwards. It is noteworthy that architecture was not considered a true art in China - perhaps precisely because it was called upon to return to a miraculous, completely artless life. The house was built by nameless, albeit very skilled craftsmen; was built, as a rule, according to strictly defined canons without taking into account the individual tastes of the customer. In Chinese society, gender has always determined personality.

Giving preference to spatial composition - that is, in a certain sense, the “emptiness” between buildings - Chinese architects never used stone in the construction of residential buildings. They worked with materials that were light and pliable, but at the same time fragile and relatively short-lived, primarily “commensurate to a person” - wood, tiles, clay. If stone in China was usually used for graves - “houses of the dead”, then the tree acted as a symbol of vital growth and the “body of the clan” itself, branching through generations. Due to the availability and cheapness of materials, houses were often built very quickly, but could just as quickly disappear or change their purpose.

Another important feature of Chinese architecture was the predominance of horizontal lines. The vast majority of buildings in old China were one-story; only individual buildings in cities could have two or occasionally three floors. This was explained by the fact that the house should not rise above the surrounding buildings and especially the bureaucratic offices, since “The sky is equally distant from everyone.”

The basic design principles of architecture have shown extraordinary stability throughout Chinese history. Chinese houses are of the frame-and-pillar type, which developed back in the Neolithic era. The frame of the house was based on four pillars located along its perimeter. When constructing large buildings, columns were often installed with a slight (1–2°) inclination inward. Transverse and longitudinal beams were placed on the pillars, and racks were strengthened on the transverse beams, which supported the ridge beam. However, the main weight of the ridge beam fell on the internal columns that stood along the main axis of the house. By the way, the ridge beam was considered a symbol of the well-being of the family living in the house. They raised it only on “lucky” days, performing magical rituals, and then attached a spell written in red hieroglyphs to it. The beams holding the roof were attached to the longitudinal beams. In the Middle Ages, a complex system of consoles appeared that fastened columns and beams and made it possible to flexibly vary the slope of the roof.

It must be said that not only the raising of the main beam, but also all construction operations were accompanied by the performance of magical rituals designed to ensure the happiness and prosperity of the inhabitants of the house. For the same reason, the owner should not offend the workers, who otherwise could take revenge on him by depriving the new house of “happiness.”

As for the walls, they were not load-bearing and in peasant dwellings in Northern China they were usually built from clay, and in the South - from wicker bamboo or reeds coated with clay. Ancient manuals forbade erecting walls before pillars, among other things, also because in this case the building under construction took on the appearance of the hieroglyph “difficulty.” One of the traditional attributes of buildings in China is an open gallery with a balustrade surrounding them. The windows had bamboo frames and in Southern China could occupy the entire width of the openings between the columns. In the North, the distance between the windows had to correspond to some lucky number. Entrance doors, especially in the South, could occupy a significant part of the wall facing the courtyard. The number of steps on the porch was necessarily odd so that the yang power was present in the house. The wooden structure of the buildings was highly elastic, which allowed them to withstand fairly frequent earthquakes.

The architecture of China is most characterized by simplicity and frankness: the load-bearing supports of the building were left open to the eye even when they were built into the walls; There was no suspended ceiling that would hide the ceilings. We can say that the physical form of the building turns out to be reduced here to its constructive principles, to its own limit - a kind of analogue of the self-transformation of things into their symbolic type, which was essentially the action of the “Great Path” of the universe. The house in Chinese life exists as if under the sign of oblivion. They don't think about it - they use it.

After all that has been said, it will not seem accidental that in the design and appearance of a Chinese house, special importance was attached to elements that delineated the physical boundaries of the building. One of these elements was the rectangular platform on which the house stood. In most cases it was built from compacted earth, in special cases - from stone. Another remarkable detail of a Chinese house is the roof - high, protruding far beyond the perimeter of the walls and therefore not devoid of that pathos of monumentality that the lower part of the building lacks. In the North, the roofs of residential buildings are usually straight and almost flat. In Southern China, curved cornices became widespread - perhaps the most famous feature of Chinese architecture, which imparts a special lightness and airiness to the entire structure of the house. Often both ends of the roof ridge are also bent upward. This roof shape is difficult to explain by any practical needs. Most likely, it arose as a result of the Chinese love for the decorative finishing of objects in general and the curved line in particular, and also, perhaps, as a reminder that the roof of the house belongs to the heavenly principle. However, the long eaves of the houses were not completely useless: they protected both from rain and from the scorching rays of the sun.

Finally, the third important consequence of the principle of “self-transformation” of form in architecture is the Chinese love for bright and rich colors and decorative decoration. According to tradition, the columns were covered with red or black varnish - the quintessence of the element of wood (besides, the varnish protected the wood from damage). The roof was usually covered with yellow, green or blue - the color of the sky - tiles. The ceilings were also covered with colorful patterns - a very appropriate decoration, since there were no ceilings in the proper sense of the word in Chinese buildings. Figures of mythical animals and celestial beings, which had both a magical and aesthetic purpose, were installed on the ridge and eaves of the roof. Decorative decoration was also noticeable in many other details of the building: the windows were covered with patterned grilles, door sashes, porch and gallery railings, and sometimes the columns were decorated with intricate carvings, bricks with relief images were widely used, the corners of the roof were crowned with tiled disks with ornaments or inscriptions and etc.

One of the important principles of the design of Chinese houses is the repeated repetition of individual, relatively small sections or building modules, for example, the intervals between columns and ceiling beams, and within the entire architectural complex - between individual buildings of the same type. The same principle is even more clearly embodied in the design of one of the most original creations of Chinese architecture - pagodas. Construction using the method of “accumulating” segments allowed Chinese architects to maintain proportionality of the building to human scale by varying standard elements. This proportionality is captured in medieval construction manuals, which contain detailed instructions on the most appropriate sizes and proportions of building elements. The reference point was taken to be a conventional space determined by the thickness of the ceiling beam; the length of each beam was divided into 15 conventional segments, and the thickness of the beam had to correspond to ten such units. On this basis, the main elements of the building’s structure were calculated: the height and depth of the roof, its bend, the dimensions of the building itself, etc. This made it possible to ensure the flexibility and mobility of the architectural composition, which are so important in the context of Chinese culture, and thus the unity of buildings and the surrounding area.

As already mentioned, the main compositional unit in Chinese architecture was not a separate building, but an entire estate, or household ( xy), in which several small families lived together. According to tradition, the entrance to the estate was located in the southern wall, the main compositional axis ran in the south-north direction, and the main buildings of the estate were located perpendicular to it. Their number, depending on the size of the family, could reach three or more. The side buildings were also, as a rule, residential and intended for younger members of the family. Thus, the main buildings of the estate formed a closed courtyard, called the “sky well” ( tian jin). The inhabitants of the house had to observe certain prohibitions regarding the construction of the “heavenly well”. It was impossible to plant a tree in the center of the courtyard, because this could create “difficulties” in life. (The hieroglyph “difficulty” is an image of a tree standing in the center of an enclosed space.) It was also considered a bad omen if the trees in the courtyard blocked the sun. Plums and apricots were supposed to be planted on the northern side of the estate, and plums and jujubes on the southern side. Behind the main house there was often a vegetable garden and outbuildings. Every estate had a well. Rainwater was also collected into the “sky well” pool. Sometimes the main building was directly adjacent to the north wall, and then there were no windows in its rear wall. On all sides the estate was surrounded by a blank wall taller than a man; Often a defensive tower was built in the corner of the wall or opposite the main entrance. The house of a resident of old China, no less than the house of an Englishman, was his fortress. The laws of the empire even prohibited officials from breaking into a private home without special authority.

Clay models of estates from ancient burials suggest great stability of their traditional composition. Here you can see the internal walls of the estate, separating the living quarters and outbuildings, observation towers, and separate kitchens, from which probably all the inhabitants of the estate fed. The architectural features already known to us made it possible to easily create new courtyards in the space of the estate, intended for newly emerging families. In the rich houses of old China there were up to a dozen or more “sky wells”. The largest family estate that has survived to this day, the Lu family estate in Dongyang town, Zhejiang province, covers an area of ​​150 thousand square meters and consists of several thousand buildings. Large clan estates, numbering hundreds of buildings, which appeared in the Ming era in some areas of the northern province of Shanxi, have also survived to this day.

Outside the Yellow River Plain, there are several local types of residential buildings. Thus, in the South, especially in mountainous regions, family estates and villages had a freer layout, houses were placed on long stilts, and the space under the floor of the house served as a pen for livestock. In the provinces of Fujian, Guangdong and Jiangxi, where the Hakka ethnic group lives, there are fortified estates that are completely unusual for Northern China: the houses in them form continuous concentric circles, which, according to local belief, resembled a “coiled dragon.” The number of such circular buildings reached three or more, and the outer wall of the outer ring also served as a defensive wall for the entire village. The gates in such estates - also in contrast to the customs of the northerners - were located in the northern part of the wall.

The interior of a Chinese house in its main features was the embodiment of the same idea of ​​family life, which left such a deep imprint on all aspects of the public and private life of the Chinese. Its organizational center was the home altar, which was located opposite the entrance doors in the central room of the main building of the family estate. This was always the largest and highest room in the house, in which there were no ceilings, because walking over the altar, as if trampling it underfoot, would be a great blasphemy. This main, or “high,” hall of the house was intended for family ceremonies and feasts, as well as for receiving honored guests. The floor was earthen, and in rich houses it was lined with stone slabs. The doors looked like wide panels and occupied a significant part of the wall opposite the altar. In the South, the doors were usually kept open, so that the family altar was clearly visible from the courtyard and from the side buildings - a gesture of cordiality and unity, which is by no means superfluous in a large family. The situation in the main hall was regulated especially strictly and was, as a rule, subject to the requirements of tradition and the laws of symmetry. The furniture was located along the walls and was limited mainly to tables with two armchairs on either side of them, separate chairs and tables for reading or playing mahjong or checkers, stands for incense burners and vases, etc. Naturally, this room looked special solemn and festive, its decoration was dominated by golden, red (the colors of happiness) and brown tones, paintings hung on the walls, antique objects, vases with flowers, etc. were also displayed here.

On both sides of the main hall there were rooms in which separate small families lived, with the older generation having rooms in the eastern part of the house. The internal walls of the main hall divided the house into three almost equal-sized rooms. If necessary, the side rooms were divided in two by partitions, so that the number of rooms in the house increased to five. Thus, in a traditional Chinese interior, unlike a European one, the rooms hardly differed functionally; each of them served as a habitat for a separate family and had to satisfy all the needs of family life. In city houses there were often no separate toilet rooms, and their inhabitants washed and relieved themselves in the same room where they lived.

Multifunctionality of empty space is the main principle of the interior of a Chinese house. It is a sign of the organic completeness of tribal existence and, therefore, the primacy of the ethical principle in life, embodied in the family-clan hierarchy. But this completeness appears as a collection of specific places - a mobile collection, indicating continuous “self-renewal”, the discovery of new qualities of space. That is why in the interior of a Chinese house, as in a Chinese garden, there are no general rules of organization. “Things in a house can be placed densely or sparsely, in the cold and in the heat the situation is not the same, there are special needs in the arrangement of a high hall or interior rooms,” Wen Zhenheng wrote in his treatise on home economics. Each object and each room in the house, like each building in the estate, has its own individuality, but they are only part of the stylistically consistent variety of rhythms and forms. Hence another important feature of the Chinese interior: noble restraint. Home life as an effort for moral improvement required self-restraint not only in personal needs, but also in the organization of the subject environment. However, we are not talking about prohibitive measures, but rather about revealing the nature of things: in order to reveal the fullness of being in itself and through itself, a thing must set a limit to experience, lead it into the void, confront it with the eternally absent. To achieve this goal, it was necessary, first of all, to carefully handle the interior space - for example, to use the same object in different functions and different places in the room. In the 17th century, Li Yu stated that “the secret of organizing a home is the ability to change the furnishings in it every month and every day,” for “if things enliven the eye, then the heart will also be enlivened.”

Carrying out everyday household duties was the simplest and at the same time the most visual illustration of the presence of an ethical principle in everyday life. Servants or younger family members brought water for washing and carried out jugs of waste, lit the fireplace and cleaned the braziers, swept the rooms and courtyard of the estate. In peasant houses, in the corner of the yard there was usually a latrine, or, more precisely, a cesspool, fenced on three sides. It was considered desirable to have a common kitchen for all inhabitants of the house, which was located in one of the side buildings. However, in the Chinese house there was no dining room intended for the common meal of everyone who lived in it.

In the late Middle Ages in the North, such a remarkable interior detail as a heated couch (kan) appeared. Since then, the expression “bright windows and warm kan” has become a symbol of home comfort in Chinese literature. The 14th-century poet Sun Zhou-qing, for example, argued that happiness is “a thick mat on a warm cane,” a glass of good wine and a beautiful wife with children. Residents of the South, including the lower Yangtze region, warmed themselves with braziers and copper hot water bottles.

In Chinese life, a big role was played by the division of the space of the house into “external” (male) and “internal” (female) halves. In practice, this meant that almost the entire life of women and children in old China was spent in the living quarters and kitchen, while men spent the day outside their family room. In peasant houses, the distinction between “internal” and “external” space was often indicated by a curtain covering the entrance to the kitchen.

The traditional reluctance of the Chinese to destroy the potential of clean space, which corresponds to the completeness and self-sufficiency of family life, has led to the absence of bulky furniture in their homes. In ancient times, the latter was generally limited mainly to low square or rectangular trestle beds, which also served as tables and beds. Judging by ancient books and images, the favorite pose of learned men was “to sit in thought, leaning on a table.” Such low tables made of stone slabs of irregular - natural - shape can still be found in Chinese parks. In ancient times, the floor of the room was covered with mats, so that when entering you had to take off your shoes; They usually sat on the floor, kneeling down. It was customary to sit on a trestle bed, but to squat or stretch out your legs in front of your interlocutor was considered the height of indecency. Each guest or family member was given a separate mat; Only people of equal status could sit together on the same mat. Over time, the trestle bed was transformed into a wide, rectangular wooden bed covered with a canopy. In this form, the ancient trestle bed existed in the houses of Southern China until the 20th century. A rectangular table was usually placed near the bed, which could be used for eating, for the toilet, and for literary studies. Minsk contemporaries did not place a pillow under their heads, but a special headrest made of hard material. This headrest could have the shape of a bench or a rectangle with rounded edges - ceramic, wooden, or more often wicker.

In contrast to the low bed - a direct descendant of the ancient trestle beds - other attributes of furniture have undergone dramatic changes over the two millennia of the history of imperial China. From the early Middle Ages, folding seats, which were initially called “barbarian,” and then European-style chairs came into everyday life. However, at first only the head of the house and his wife were allowed to sit on a chair, while stools were provided for younger family members, especially women. The appearance of the chair entailed an increase in the height of the table. Armchairs, often equipped with armrests, also came into use. Following the new chairs and tables, tall double-leaf wardrobes appeared instead of low chests of drawers - a must-have accessory for a wealthy home. Along with wardrobes, high hangers, high stands for vases with flowers, incense burners, antique items or washbasins with separate stands for drying towels (according to tradition, the Chinese washed their faces with a wet towel, and in addition, there was a custom of washing daily) entered into Chinese life. feet in a special bucket). Another almost indispensable detail of the living room furnishings were massive chests for storing dresses and various household items. The obligatory accessories of a scientist's office were a rectangular desk and bookshelves. The dining table most often had a round shape. Another common type of dining table is the “eight immortals table”: it has a rectangular shape, where two people can sit on each side.

Artistically, Chinese furniture reached the pinnacle of its development during the Ming era. Examples of furniture of this time are distinguished by elegant simplicity and almost mathematically verified harmony of forms, characteristic of the best examples of Chinese architecture. The work of the cabinetmakers of that time deserves equally high praise - careful and at the same time emphasizing the natural properties of wood. Their favorite materials were tropical hardwoods: sandalwood, mahogany and ebony, which had a smooth surface and were able to withstand sudden climate fluctuations. Thanks to the use of special varnishes and etching techniques, Chinese craftsmen were able to give wood a noble dull gloss, which, however, required a lot of time. But it is not without reason that the favorite saying of Chinese craftsmen says: “What is done without haste is done well.”

The vast majority of residents of old China made do with furniture made of bamboo - a cheap material, but at the same time flexible, durable and beautiful in its own way. Almost all home furnishings were made from bamboo, from beds and washbasin stands to wardrobes. Wicker bamboo chairs and children's high chairs were ubiquitous. In addition, all kinds of boxes and household baskets were woven from bamboo, in which Chinese peasants (and more often peasant women) showed extraordinary skill and taste. Most often in a Chinese home one could see wicker boxes of oval or round shape. Also worthy of mention are the elegant flower baskets, shaped like a boat with a towering bow and stern.

The interior of a residential building brilliantly expresses the main idea of ​​the Chinese artistic worldview - the revelation of the symbolic depth of experience. Technically, this goal was achieved thanks to the effect of interchangeability of internal and external space. In the Chinese house we observe the play of light, movable partitions and screens, which confronts the gaze with the limit of vision, every moment reporting the Unified Metamorphosis of being. It is not for nothing that screens of various shapes and sizes play such an important role in the interior of a Chinese house.

The learned people of old China were characterized by a constant search for new and fresh impressions in everyday life, a desire to discover something new and wonderful in the ordinary and familiar. Li Yu in his notes provides a long list of his own inventions; Among them are a memorial tablet for a home altar made of a banana leaf with black veins and gold hieroglyphs, a new type of incense burner, a new way of applying varnish to woodwork, a heated chair and a “cooling seat.” Li Yu's contemporary, the writer Dong Yue, was proud of having invented “smokeless steamed incense” and a certain “peach milk for feeding babies” for his family. The 18th-century writer Shen Fu advised creating unexpected visual effects in the house - for example, making a path that seems like a dead end lead to an open space, or opening the back door in the kitchen to reveal a wonderful garden. Li Yu even suggested leaving the living room directly into a secluded grotto.

In a Chinese house one can find many signs of the direct intrusion of the natural world into the living room space. The screens and screens located there, the doors of cabinets and chests of drawers, the backs of chairs, the lids of boxes and other objects were covered with paintings and inlays depicting landscape paintings. Decorative flows and growths on chairs and chests of drawers reminded of the universal dynamism of life. There were decorative stones and dwarf trees growing on the tables in special trays. There were vases of flowers along the walls, and good manners required that the bouquet placed in the vase “look as if it were depicted in a painting.” An elegant bouquet should have consisted of two or three, rarely more, stems and should not offend the eye with deliberate orderliness or, conversely, with variegation. Walls and even the backs of chairs were often decorated with polished cuts of decorative stones, whose whimsical pattern vaguely resembled the classical views of “mountains and waters.” And of course, not a single room in the scientist’s house was complete without a landscape painting. “When you enter the home of a husband with refined taste, you are immediately filled with sublime feelings, and you forget about the vulgar world,” concludes Wen Zhenheng.

In the Ming era, the custom spread to give doorways the shape of a circle, as if balancing the rectangle of the front door and giving the best view. This custom also reflected the desire of the Chinese to introduce forms that were perfect in their naturalness into the house. Such round openings, nicknamed “moon doors” and as if symbolizing the “heavenly” perfection of existence, seemed to remind us that human habitation exists on a par with the emptiness of heaven. In the South, doors in the form of an octagon or a gourd were not uncommon - signs of the fullness of being. It was customary to bring a garden into the house: the central part of one of the roof slopes was shortened slightly, the part of the room open to the sky was surrounded by a wall and trees were planted there. In turn, garden pavilions served as living spaces for most of the year or even all year round.

The motif of “the unity of Heaven and Man” or, in other words, “silent communication in the heavenly” is one of the most important in the Chinese tradition. It corresponds to ritual behavior, which requires one to comprehend unity precisely in difference. It also explains the emphasis on self-control and restraint, modesty and inexhaustible patience, so characteristic of Chinese traditional education, and the ability to hide one’s feelings. The same motive predetermined the strict separation of the sexes in the old Chinese society, the subordination of women to men (parents were considered “Heaven” for children, and the husband for his wife) and at the same time a certain recognition of the needs and feelings of women.

Children were brought up in the spirit of unconditional devotion to elders and a willingness to sacrifice everything personal for the sake of the interests of the family. However, as is customary in ritual, that is, symbolic, communication, verbal instructions were, rather, only a commentary on practice and intuition. At first, the child’s physical contact with his mother and partly his father was very important: he stayed with his mother all day, ate and slept with his parents. Later, he learned how to properly perform his duties simply by watching his elders. Parents' explanations could boil down to monosyllabic orders. It is not for nothing that the wife of the founder of the ancient Zhou dynasty was considered an exemplary mother, who began to raise her son in the womb - of course, through a silent “heartfelt suggestion.” At the same time, from a very early age, children began to feel various restrictions and prohibitions. They were swaddled, they were put on clothes that restricted their movements, and they were severely punished for disobedience. The disciplinary influence of elders sharply increased with the start of school, which often happened already in the fifth year of a child’s life. In the family instructions of the late Ming time from Southern China one can read, for example:

“When boys reach five years of age, they should begin to read their ABC books and not show insolence or laziness. Upon reaching the age of six, girls should be taught “Admonitions to Women”; they should be prohibited from leaving their chambers. If children are allowed to eat and have fun often, they will become spoiled and grow up bad and self-willed.”

The custom of dividing family property equally among all heirs, the system of competitive examinations as the main channel for selecting the ruling elite, and the vicissitudes of bureaucratic service inspired Minsk contemporaries with far from unreasonable concern for the future of their family. Since the Ming era, the fear of the inevitable decline of one's family, and even the excruciatingly detailed depiction of this decline - rapid or gradual - has constituted one of the main motifs of Chinese literature.

A reaction to the well-known instability of the position of individual families was a noticeable strengthening of the clan organization during the Ming period as a means of mutual assistance among related families. In many places, especially in the South, clans were the center of ritual life and education, and they also owned considerable land. Clans had genealogical books and sets of regulations concerning the common life of their members, and sometimes even their own fighting squads.