Chinese History and Mythology Quiz

China Overview

• Located in East Asia, spanning over 9,596,961 sq km of land
• Terrain: mountains, high plateaus, deserts, plains, deltas, and hills
• Elevation extremes: highest point Mount Everest (8,850 m), lowest point Turpan Pendi (154 m)

National Symbols and Language

• National symbol: Dragon, symbolizing potent and auspicious powers, particularly control over water, rainfall, hurricanes, and floods
• Official language: Mandarin (Putonghua based on the Beijing dialect) with many local dialects and minority languages

Ethnic Groups and Currency

• Ethnic groups: Han Chinese (91.5%), Zhuang, Manchu, Hui, Miao, Uighur, Tujia, Yi, Mongol, Tibetan, Buyi, Dong, Yao, Korean, and other nationalities (8.5%)
• Currency: Yuan or Renminbi (RMB)

Natural Hazards and Geography

• Frequent typhoons (about five per year along southern and eastern coasts)
• Damaging floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, droughts, and land subsidence
• Map of Asia and China shows geographical territory with a large variety of landscapes

Historical Figures and Dynasties

• Shih Huang di: China's first emperor, known as the builder of the Great Wall
• Sun Yat-Sen: founder and first president of the Republic of China
• Han Dynasty (206 BC): first dynasty to embrace Confucianism, made great advances in arts and sciences
• Northern and Southern Dynasty: China's architecture developed noticeably due to Buddhism
• Tang and Song Dynasty: building methods matured rapidly, architectural use of color and decoration became more exquisite

Architecture and Building Materials

• Timber: principal material in China
• Bamboo, pine, and Persia nanmu: commonly used trees
• Bricks, limestone, sandstone, glazed tiles, and majolica: also used building materials
• Clay tiles, colored and glazed with symbolic colors: black, red, azure, white, and yellow

Traditional Religions and Faiths

• Buddhism: accounts for 50% to 80% of the population
• Taoism: founded by Lao Tzu, doctrine of universal love
• Confucianism: new code of social conduct and philosophy of life, not a religion
• Islam: introduced 18 years after Muhammad's death, Muslims dominated the import/export industry during the Song Dynasty

Chinese Architecture

• Pagodas: also known as common oriental traditional buildings
• Three main purposes: palatial, religious, and funerary
• Curved roofs: to ward off evil spirits
• Three building types: Imperial Buildings, traditional residences/cave dwellings, and Religious Buildings

Temples, Tombs, and Palaces

• Temples: normal type consists of three lofty pavilions of one storey, with parallel open timber roofs
• Tombs: not of great architectural value, but created for ancestral worship
• Palaces: imperial palaces and official residents were erected isolated, one-storeyed pavilions resembling temples
• Houses: Chinese houses called Siheyuan, generally of one storey, constructed with timber supports, filled in with brickwork

The Great Wall of China

• Stretches over one-twentieth of the earth's circumference, from the Pacific Ocean to the Gobi Desert
• A barrier eight feet high (2.4m) and three feet thick (0.90m), constructed of gray granite blocks
• The wall snakes, loops, and doubles back on itself, meandering across plains and valleys, scaling mountains, plunging into deep gorges, and leaping raging rivers, for 3,700 miles