Big offline project. Dynastic Rulers of China: Compared & Contrasted

Running head: DYNASTIC RULERS OF CHINA1
Dynastic Rulers of China: Compared & Contrasted
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Dynastic Rulers of China: Compared & Contrasted
Tracing China's dynasties is an exercise in understanding state development, warring, unity, and political dynamics. Spanning millennia, China's dynastic rule, most ancient of which is anecdotal and controversial, is not a straightforward reporting of historical events. Instead, China's dynastic rule is an intricate exercise of identifying patterns, consolidating evidence, and comparing records to report, as honestly as possible, different dynastic "facts" to a modern reader. The Chinese history, extended and winding as is, raises questions as much as gives answers not only to the country's political system yet also, perhaps more importantly, to the country's culture and worldview. The study and analysis of dynastic rule in China should, accordingly, be understood not so much as a purely academic exercise of reporting "historical facts," important as is. Instead, dynastic rule in China should be an important initial step to, first, gather credible information about China's dynastic rule and, second and more importantly, to uncover underlying concerns, dynamics (political, economic, and cultural) and motivations informing any given dynastic rule, ruler and/or period. The attempt to identify "solid," clearly-marked lines separating each and every dynastic is, as a consequence, futile if only given
a lack of evidence for much earlier dynasties and rulers. Instead, studying one or more dynasty or ruler should be such as to showcase similarities and differences over extended periods between dynasties and rulers and, in doing so, stepping closer to a more accurate understanding of China's political – and, for that matter, economic and cultural development – past, present and future. To put matters into more perspective, a closer examination is required of specific examples. Three rulers, each from a different dynasty, are, for current purposes, examined, namely, Yu The Great (Xia Dynasty), King Wu of Zhou (Zhou Dynasty), and Emperor Qin Shihuang (Qin Dynasty). This paper aims,
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accordingly, to compare and contrast Yu The Great of Xia dynasty, King Wu of Zhou dynasty, and Emperor Qin Shihuang of Qin dynasty in an attempt to understand China's state development, warring activities, unity, and political dynamics. More accurately.
Yu The Great, King Wu, and Emperor Qin Shihuang lived and ruled in drastically different eras. The political systems, state of unity, warring factions, and economic development
each ruler had or developed, were just as different. Then again, just as differences exist, striking similarities can also be found. To properly compare and contrast rulers in question, one does not need, in fact, to state, in perhaps a list form, ruling periods, advisors, achievements, and so on and so forth. Instead, a more panoramic overview of each ruler's rule is necessary in order to step forward into a deeper comparison and contrast between rulers in question. The rulers in question are chosen, in fact, based on each ruler's extraordinary place in and contributions to China's dynastic history. The rulers in question are, more specifically, chosen given each ruler's pioneering efforts as a founder of a different lineage of dynasty departing radically from earlier forms of rule and, for that matter, dynasties. In plain English, Yu The Great, King Wu, and Emperor Qin Shihuang are founders of the three most powerful and impactful dynasties in Chinese dynastic history: Xia, Zhou, and Qin, respectively. Separated by millennia, Xia, Zhou, and Qin dynasties each ruler represented and founded usher in deeper understandings of China's development as a state over an extended period, an understanding often lost to a special focus on one or a few dynasties separated by a few years only.
The central similarity Yu The Great, King Wu, and Emperor Qin Shihuang share is, in fact, about a state of Great Founder, head of a dynasty, and Great Unifier each ruler shares. In essence, Yu The Great, King Wu, and Emperor Qin managed, respectively, to lay the founding
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geographical contours of China a state by putting under more strict control natural flooding of Yellow River and Yangtze River ("Yu the great," n.d.), consolidating east and west provinces under one rule ("Zhou Wuwang, King Wu of Zhou," n.d...