Before ROC

As introduced by the Yearbook of Republic of China:

Historical Background

Since the appearance of writing in China some 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, Chinese people have been recording the history of their families, clans, and dynasties. As time passed, many Chinese rulers and the large bureaucracies under them collated these various historical materials to create macro histories that highlighted the ruler's place in Chinese history. Despite the fact that many Chinese rulers have challenged each other's legitimacy, that many times China was not being ruled by any central authority at all, and that non-Chinese peoples occasionally conquered Chinese states, Chinese historians filled in any blanks and thus linked China's present firmly together with her past. The resulting histories showed a cycle that began with the fall of a corrupt ruler and a weak dynasty followed by the rise of a new moral ruler and a strong dynasty. This historical pattern is called a "dynastic cycle," and all traditional Chinese histories were written in accordance with this formula. Many of these traditional histories are still extant and intelligible to readers of Chinese today. The Chinese people are thus the proud inheritors of the world's longest unbroken historical tradition.

The historical focus on political legitimacy and continuity was a powerfully conservative force in China. Traditional histories provided successive dynasties and governments with a set of precedents by which to rule. So, even though ruling power passed hands quite often in China, the way the country was ruled remained roughly the same. This lent a degree of stability (some would say inertia) to Chinese culture that was absent in the cultures bordering on China.

One common explanation of the phenomenal endurance of Chinese civilization is that China was actually governed by an aristocracy of intelligentsia which had been continuously revitalized by the introduction of new personnel. A civil service examination system, first implemented in the Sui dynasty over 1,000 years ago, allowed young men who were well schooled in China's historical and literary traditions to enter the government bureaucracy, regardless of their family's social, political, or economic status. Theoretically, even the son of a farmer, butcher, or blacksmith could become prime minister one day as long as he could pass a series of imperial examinations. When an emperor was deposed, it mattered little who took his place, since the Chinese bureaucratic system continued to function.

Equally insulated from political infighting was the village economy, upon which China's agricultural civilization was based. Peasants seldom troubled themselves with national affairs unless war or imperial mismanagement threatened the livelihood of the village and its ability to raise grain, produce goods, and render the services of labor.

Chinese Dynasties and Their Capitals