Ancient Chinese Dynasties Essay

There were many Chinese dynasties that rose and fell throughout China’s history. The history of China, in a way, is a history of battles and wars. These wars were so important that they changed the structure of Chinese culture both then and now. Three dynasties that rose and fell during ancient China were the Han, the Tang, and the Song. The rise and fall of these great dynasties form a link that runs through Chinese history. The Han period was one of the golden ages of Chinese civilization. The Han dynasty lasted from 206 B. C. to A. D. 220. It began when the prince of Han, Liu Bang, took the title Gao Zu and began to restore order and justice to his new empire. He lowered taxes and reduced the Qin emperor’s harsh Legalist policies. These policies created a strong basis for the Han dynasty. The most famous emperor, Wudi took China to a new level. During his reign from 141 BC to 87 BC, he strengthened both the government and economy. Economic expansion, strengthening the palace at the expense of the civil service, weakening the states hold on the peasantry and the rise of the rich and the gentry were all factors that led to the adoption of Confucian ideals. Han emperors made Confucianism the official belief system of the state. Under Wudi, China conquered many lands, expanding their power and influence. The Han Dynasty now controlled northern Vietnam and the Korean Peninsula. Wudi sent explorers toward Central Asia, eventually opening up the famous trade route known as the Silk Road. However, signs of decay began to appear throughout the dynasty which put an enormous burden on the economy. Weak emperors allowed canals and roads to fall into disrepair. Burdened by heavy taxes, and crushing debt, many peasants revolted. Thousands of rebellious peasants abandoned their villages and fled to the mountains. In AD 220 warlords overthrew the last Han emperor. After four hundred years of unity, China broke up into several kingdoms. The Han dynasty was over. After the Han dynasty collapsed, China remained divided for nearly four hundred years. It was not until the development of the Tang dynasty, in 618 that China was restored to its earlier glory. The tang was an imperial dynasty of China. Its territory was acquired through the military campaigns of its early rulers and was greater than that of the Han period. Tang rulers carried empire building to new depths. Chinese armies forced the neighboring lands of Vietnam, Tibet, and Korea to become tributary states. It is estimated that the population had grown by the 9th century to about eighty million people. The Tang Dynasty was largely a period of progress and stability. They rebuilt the bureaucracy and enlarged the civil service system to recruit talented officials trained in Confucian technology. Chinese culture flourished and further developed during the Tang era. It is considered the greatest age for Chinese poetry. Tang emperors began to lose territories in Central Asia to the Arabs. Corruption, high taxes, drought and famine all contributed to the downfall of the Tang Dynasty. In 1907, a rebel general over through the last Tang emperor, which brought the dynasty to an end. The Song Dynasty lasted for more than three hundred years. It began in 960, when a educated general reunited most of China. The Song controlled less territory than the Tang dynasty did. The dynasty was constantly threatened by invaders in the north. Despite military obstacles, the culture brought rise to a new religion. Education expanded the growth of literature and the arts. Foreign trade flourished and Chinese cities prospered as centers of trade. Positions in government were no longer held by aristocrats and were instead given to people with experience and degrees. This made the government stronger and formed new concepts. Chinese wealth and culture lead East Asia even when its militaries did not. Most problems in this dynasty were due to military power. A combination of corrupt officials and weak emperors contributed to its downfall. China has a long and mysterious history of almost five thousand years. China can trace her culture back to a blend of small original tribes which have expanded until they became the great country we have today. Each rise and fall of a dynasty created new leaders, new laws, new rules, and usually new expansion. Chinese history is that of alternating periods of political unity and disunity. The rise and fall of many dynasties created a rocky path in Chinas history.

Harmonic Motion-Elastic spring Lab Report Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Harmonic Motion-Elastic spring - Lab Report Example The plot resulted in a straight line that was used to determine the elastic constant of the spring and its accuracy based on the slope. In this harmonic motion experiment, the spring oscillated up and down with amplitude and a time period measured as t. The theory underlying the phenomenon being studied here was that of Hooke’s law for an elastic spring (Wilson & Hall, 2009). In setting up the experiment, a spring, set of weights, a stand and timing mechanism were used. In releasing the weights, and starting the oscillations, an electromagnet was used. The procedure was to connect the weight to the spring and power the electromagnetic with the metal weight sticking to the electromagnet, and when the button is released, oscillations started. The hypothesis was that there is a dependence period in the mass of the oscillator. This is proven given that, with the addition of extra mass, the time increased from 8 in the first experiment to 12 in the last experiment. Averagely the time increase from 0.76 to 1.2 in the last experiment. This proves the null hypothesis that time period is dependent on the mass of

Education Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

Education - Essay Example ommon problem in any profession, especially any profession linked to the medical field is that sometimes students who are excellent in theoretical knowledge lack aptitude and practical knowledge required for the course. There are also frequent changes happening in the medical field in terms of technology used for equipment and testing, procedures etc.A good learner needs to be well equipped with the latest knowledge on the same. Teachers sometimes find it difficult to meet the needs of non traditional students. This could be in the form of language difficulties, knowledge gaps or international students who are from a different cultural background. As the article clearly points out, empowering the learner is always better than enabling him/her in the process. When the faculty acts as a tool for empowerment, it enhances its professional and social standing. When the faculty acts as a tool for empowerment of the learners, there is a raising of consciousness and increased self esteem among the learners. They also learn political skills required to negotiate and change healthcare system.[ Glass] The faculty should be the facilitator of learning rather than just instructor and evaluator in the learning process. The goal of empowering is to help them develop autonomy and a sense of accountability for professional practice. A faculty that would have tried to humanize the education process by reducing expectations and shouldering some of the responsibility for learning that should actually have been done by the students might actually undermine the confidence and autonomy (independence) of the students Enabling is defined as behavior of others that perpetuates dependent behavior.[Haber etal,1997].The term enabling might not be used in a positive sense. Many researchers feel that enabling is a component of codependency. Codependency is when a person allows another’s behavior(generally not conducive) to affect him/her.(Beatie,1987).80% of nurses had problems of

Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5 lines 17-51. How does this extract reflect the Essay

Macbeth Act 5 Scene 5 lines 17-51. How does this extract reflect the development of Macbeth's character Link this extract with the rest of the play - Essay Example After all, the witches had told him that â€Å"none of woman born shall harm Macbeth† (Act IV, scene 5, l. 80) and that â€Å"Macbeth shall never vanquishd be until/Great Birnam wood to high Dunsinane hill/Shall come against him† (ll. 91-93). In Act V, Scene 5, however, the unthinkable happens as Birnam wood comes to Dunsinane, heralding the downfall of Macbeth. Act V, scene 5 is, as may have been deduced from the introductory paragraph, the turning point of the play, that one scene where everything comes to a head. At the outset of the scene, Macbeth orders his men to hang his banners on the castle walls, confidently expressing conviction in his own immunity, his invincibility. The castle will hold and he will not be harmed, not only because the wood can never come to the hill but because no mortal, no man of woman born, has the power to harm him. At the height of his confidence in his own immortality, however, he learns of Lady Macbeth’s death. Reality is trying to break into Macbeth’s delusions and illusions but he staves it off and, in his own way, escapes confrontation with the reality of his wife’s death: Macbeth is not acting as unfeelingly to his wife’s death as these lines would suggest. Instead, as he stands at a crossroads between mortality and immortality (will he die or will his interpretation of the prophecy prove true) he rejects the thought of immortality, of the inevitability of death. Added to that, with what he is confronting at the moment, he cannot, at the psychological and emotional levels, deal with his wife’s death. Macbeth, as evident in the two lines quoted in the preceding – in his reaction to his wife’s death, has changed. Earlier in the play, he was seemingly entirely dependant on Lady Macbeth, it was her ambition which drove him to action, and her words which mapped out the nature of his acts. He

The Likelihood of Success That Halliburton Can Achieve Essay

The Likelihood of Success That Halliburton Can Achieve - Essay Example There is an increasing concern among corporate houses to manage the current and the emerging issues that are being faced by them. This is required in order to create an effective management and maintain a competitive edge over its competitors. If the issues are not resolved by the management in a timely manner then this is likely to impact the financial performance of the company and raise the question of the credibility of the corporate governance. The most important task of the management is to identify the prioritized critical issues that are being faced by the organization. The effectiveness of resolving the issues depend on the identification of the problems and allocation of the top management in resolving that issue. Corporate scandals have an immense impact on the credentials of a business. The past decade had witnessed a major increase in the rate of the corporate scandals which had significantly impacted the profitability of a business. Corporate scandals have become an imp ortant source of loss of investor confidence in the company. A root cause of this failure has been identified in the â€Å"command and control† nature of these corporations which follows a top-down approach to management with a single board dictating the policies. Owing to these complex procedures that raise the chances of corporate scandals, organizations are now being increasingly forced to adopt a simpler managerial structure that is guided by flexibility. This is essentially a secondary research that will use data from secondary resources and interpret the problems that have been faced by the company and the way in which it has been successful or unsuccessful in handling the issues. The report tries to analyze the likelihood of success that Halliburton can achieve. This report will use the academic framework of SWOT to identify the issues that are being faced by Halliburton.

Henry the VIII and the English Reformation Research Paper

Henry the VIII and the English Reformation - Research Paper Example Henry thus needed a male heir who could succeed him and help protect the English legacy from the potential enemies within Europe. The frustrations of Henry in his search for a male heir is a story worth telling due to a dramatic twist of events that finally led to major reformation in England and beyond. Henry was a man full of drama and he always ensured that he gets what he wanted and this is the reason why he broke from the Catholic Church to form the protestant church. The decisions Henry took in his quest for what he wants to have a lot of impact on the implications for English policy and the monarchy. About Henrys Life According to Knowles and Hadcock (1972), he was a young boy who would later become the king after the death of his father was born in 1491 as the second son and he became an heir to the throne in 1502. He was described as an intelligent boy and an athlete with a good understanding of French, Latin, Spanish and was a very religious man due to his upbringing as a s trong Catholic. He was a go getter who was extremely fond of hunting and never takes a diversion without tiring eight to ten horses. His scholarly interests included writing books and music and thus was accomplished a player of many instruments and a composer of various songs. About that time (1500AD) Enduring social order of the early modern church depended entirely on the production of male heirs in most of the cultural settings since most people do not believe in the leadership of a woman. In most cultural settings, women are forbidden from taking the crown and its thus required that the hair to the throne be a man. For some communities, lacking a surviving male heir is like inviting a curse, uncertainty, political disorder, and ultimately war that may lead to tremendous loss of lives. England learned the cost of women's leadership when an infant took the leadership in the year 1442 that eventually led to wars and the rise of the Tudor dynasty that destabilized their power system (MacCulloch, 2003). Most English people also feared giving power to women since they can be married to foregin land thus diluting the culture, heritage and the influence of their country. Divorce in the ancient Catholic Church was highly disregarded and it was unimaginable for ordinary people. Divorce could only be considered for the rich, powerful and the royal but only when sanctioned by the catholic pope himself and thus it was equally hard for everybody. Those who tried divorce without papal approval were highly trading on the dangerous path by inviting severe punishment and excommunication by the church (Knowles, 1979). The Catholic Church and its leadership faced a test of their time when the king himself needed a divorce, considering the power and authority he has over the land. The refusal to grant Henry permission to divorce his first wife who could not sire a man to be the heir of the throne made Henry break ranks with the Catholic Church (Knowles, 1979; Rex, 2006; Skidmo re, 2007). This marked the beginning of protestant churches and the split of the Catholic Church that used to be the sole church for the people of England. The rebellion of the pope was considered illegal and liturgical and thus was considered by most of the churchgoers as an invitation for a curse in England. The Catholic Chu

Professional engineers Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Professional engineers - Assignment Example The modern day Engineer has the obligation to conduct their operations in an ethical manner. Several accidents result from negligence on the part of the Engineer or from not following the standards set out for conducting these activities. One such accident was the 1986 Space Shuttle Challenger disaster in which the vehicle burst into flames shortly after taking off killing all the crew. The president of the United States set up a commission to investigate the cause of the accident that found that the accident was as a result of the failure of the O-ring seals and that the seals had been cited as a potential hazard years before the accident. The commissions report to the president indicated that since managers and engineers had prior knowledge of the O-ring danger, lack of proper communication between management and the engineers and poor management practices were the principle causes of the disaster. This interpretation is however insufficient if the history of how NASA and contracto r’s engineers had detected and dealt with the defects on the O-rings before the launch. According to Andrew Dunar and Stephen Waring in Power To Explore-History of Marshall Space Flight Center 1960-1990, ‘Allowing Marshall engineers and managers to offer their side of their story, based on documents before and after the accident testimony and interviews leads to a more realistic account of the events leading up to the accident than that found in the previous studies.’ It is therefore important that I highlight some of the ethical issues raised in order to understand the obligations of professional engineers as a way of preventing the occurrence of such disasters. While engineering ethics principles are easy to formulate, they are sometimes hard to apply and decisions made by professional engineers must be considered on the context of the technical details of the design. It should be seen that ethical principles are not violated to avoid the probability of acciden ts due to such considerations as of finance. The NASA space Shuttle Challenger burst into flames about 73 minutes after liftoff killing seven people on board. The crew team included: Francis R. Scobee as the commander, Michael John Smith ( who was the pilot), Ellison Onizuka ( the missions 1st Specialist ), Judith Resnik (Mission 2nd Specialist), Ronald McNair (Mission third Specialist ), Christa McAuliffe (Payload 1st Specialist ), and Gregory B. Jarvis (Payload 2 nd Specialist ). The commission realized that on the evening prior to the launch Morton Thiokol, the contractor supplying the seals had recommended during a teleconference that the launch be delayed due to concerns about the performance of the seals. This recommendation was however reversed during the teleconference leading to the disaster. In trying to understand, the probable causes of the accident during investigations care take care not to such as the myth of perfect engineering practice and that of retrospective fall acy. There is no such thing as perfect engineering practice and simply identifying what standard steps were not followed during the design is not enough in assigning the cause of accident. Moreover, looking back in retrospect at what important decisions should/could have been made is sometimes misleading, as investigators will always try to assign blame. In order to underst