Chinese examination system In China, system of competitive examinations for recruiting officials that linked state and society and dominated education from the Song dynasty (960-1279) onward, though its roots date to the imperial university established in the Han dynasty (206
bc-ad 220). Candidates faced fierce competition in a series of exams dealing primarily with Confucian texts and conducted on the prefectural, provincial, and national levels. Despite a persistent tendency to empha¬ size rote learning over original thinking and form over substance, the exams managed to produce an elite grounded in a common body of teach¬ ings and to lend credibility to claims of meritocracy. Too inflexible to be capable of modernization, the system was finally abolished in 1905. See also Five Classics; Four Books.
Chinese languages or Sinitic languages Family of languages comprising one of the two branches of Sino-Tibetan. They are spoken by about 95% of the inhabitants of China and by many communities of Chi¬ nese immigrants elsewhere. Linguists regard the major dialect groups of Chinese as distinct languages, though because all Chinese write with a common system of ideograms, or characters (see Chinese writing system), and share Classical Chinese as a heritage, traditionally all varieties of Chinese are regarded as dialects. There is a primary division in Chinese languages between the so-called Mandarin dialects—which have a high degree of mutual intelligibility and cover all of the Chinese speech area north of the Yangtze River (Chang Jiang) and west of Hunan and Guang¬ dong provinces—and a number of other dialect groups concentrated in southeastern China. Far more people—more than 885 million—speak a variety of Mandarin Chinese as a first language than any other language in the world. The northern Mandarin dialect of Beijing is the basis for Modem Standard Chinese, a spoken norm that serves as a supradialectal lingua franca. Important dialect groups other than Mandarin are Wu (spo¬ ken in Shanghai), Gan, Xiang, Min (spoken in Fujian and Taiwan), Yue (including Cantonese, spoken in Guangzhou [Canton] and Hong Kong), and Kejia (Hakka), spoken by the Hakka. The modern Chinese languages are tone languages, the number of tones varying from four in Modem Standard Chinese to nine in some dialects.
Chinese law Law that evolved in China from the earliest times until the 20th century, when Western socialist law (see Soviet law) was intro¬ duced. The oldest extant and complete Chinese law code was compiled in ad 653 during the Tang dynasty. Traditional Chinese law was influenced both by Confucianism, which allowed variability in moral conduct accord¬ ing to status and circumstances, and by Legalist, or Fajia, principles, which stressed reliance on uniform objective standards. The law also was affected by the emperor’s divine role in the universe. The emperor was considered responsible to heaven for any disturbance in the earthly sphere; whenever a disturbance occurred, punishment was considered a means of restoring the cosmic equilibrium. All citizens were obliged to denounce wrongdoers to the local magistrate’s office. The magistrate studied the facts of a case and, using the penal code, determined punishments, includ¬ ing beatings and torture. A profession of advocates, or lawyers, never developed in China. Traditional law continued to exert influence even after the communists gained power in China in 1949.
Chinese medicine, traditional System of medicine at least 23 cen¬ turies old that aims to prevent or heal disease by maintaining or restoring yin-yang balance. Detailed questions are asked about a patient’s illness and such things as taste, smell, and dreams, but close examination of the pulse, at different sites and times and with varying pressure, is paramount. Of Chinese medicine’s numerous remedies, Western medicine has adopted many, including iron (for anemia) and chaulmoogra oil (for lep¬ rosy). Use of certain animal remedies has seriously contributed to the endangered-species status of some animals (including tiger and rhinoc¬ eros). Chinese medicine used inoculation for smallpox long before West¬ ern medicine. Other practices include hydrotherapy, acupuncture, and ACUPRESSURE.
Chinese mustard See bok choy Chinese Nationalists See Guomindang Chinese New Year See New Year's Day
Chinese writing system System of symbols used to write the Chi¬ nese language. Chinese writing is fundamentally logographic: there is an exact correspondence between a single symbol, or character, in the script and a morpheme. Each character, no matter how complex, is fit into a hypo¬ thetical rectangle of the same size. The Chinese script is first attested in divinatory inscriptions incised on bone or tortoise shells dating from the Shang dynasty. Early forms of characters were often clearly pictorial or iconic. Shared elements of characters, called radicals, provide a means of classifying Chinese writing. It is thought that an ordinary literate Chinese
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
Ch'ing dynasty ► Chiron I 395
person can recognize 3,000-4,000 characters. Efforts have been made to reduce the number of characters and to simplify their form, though the fact that they can be read by a speaker of any Chinese language and their inextricable link with China’s 3,000-year-old culture makes abandonment of the system unlikely. Chinese characters have also been adapted to write Japanese, Korean, and Vietnamese.
Ch'ing dynasty See Qing dynasty Chinggis Khan See Genghis Khan Ch'ing-hai See Qinghai
Ch'ing-hai Hu See Koko Nor
chinoiserie \shen-'waz-re\ Fanciful European interpretations of Chi¬ nese styles in the design of interiors, furniture, pottery, textiles, and gar¬ dens. The expansion of trade with East Asia produced a lively vogue for Chinese fashions in the 17th—18th centuries. The most outstanding chi¬ noiserie interior was the Trianon de Porcelaine (1670-71), built for Louis XIV at Versailles. The style featured lavish gilding and lacquering, the use of blue and white (as in delftware), asymmetrical forms, unorthodox per¬ spective, and Asian motifs. In the 19th century, the fashion gave way to Turkish and other styles considered exotic.
Chinook \sh3-'nuk\ Northwest Coast Indian people of Washington and Oregon, U.S. At the time of first contact, the Chinook—who were in fact composed of several smaller groups, including the Lower Chinook, the Clatsop, the Clackamas, and the Wasco—lived along the lower Colum¬ bia River and spoke Chinookan languages. They were famous as traders, with connections stretching as far as the Great Plains. They traded dried salmon, canoes, shells, and slaves. Chinook Jargon, the trade language of the Northwest Coast, was a combination of Chinook with Nootka and other Indian, English, and French terms. The Chinook were first described by the explorers Lewis and Clark, who encountered them in 1805. The basic social unit was the clan. Chinook religion focused on salmon rites and guardian spirits, and the potlatch was an important social ceremony. Following a smallpox epidemic in the early 19th century that brought about the collapse of Chinook culture, most of the remaining Chinook were absorbed into other Northwest Coast groups and many were removed to reservations. Only some 600 individuals claimed sole Chi¬ nook descent in the 2000 U.S. census. In 2001 the Chinook gained fed¬ eral recognition of tribal status.