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Wednesday Seminars start this week, Monday
seminars start next week
Reading for next weeks lecture: Spence
chapter 6-7, Schoppa chapter 3
First essay due week 7
Language
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Seven major dialect groups in Chinese language
Mandarin– a state-sanctioned, standardized language,
based on a northern dialect. Now spoken as
“standard” Chinese in the People’s Republic
Cantonese—spoken in southern China and Hong
Kong
Hundreds of Mutually Unintelligible Dialects
One writing system throughout– a powerful force for
cultural unification
Pronunciation
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Pinyin vs. Wade Giles
Pinyin: most common romanization for
Chinese
C pronounced ts (tsar)
Z pronounced dz
Q pronounced ch (chin)
X pronounced sh
Mandarin
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妈 Ma 1
麻 Ma 2
马 Ma 3
骂 Ma 4
Romanization
Pinyin—widely used, especially in the PRC
 Wade Giles—an older form, used in Taiwan
Zhang Zuolin
Chang Tso-lin
Mao Zedong
Mao Tse-tung
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Chinese Dynasties
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Xia Dynasty About 1994 BCE - 1766 BCE
Shang Dynasty 1766 BCE - 1027 BCE
Zhou Dynasty 1122 BCE -256 BCE plus suppliment
Qin Dynasty 221 BCE - 206 BCE
Early Han Dynasty 206 BCE - 9 AD
Later Han Dynasty 25 AD - 220 AD
Three Kingdoms - Period of Disunion 220 AD - 280 AD
Sui Dynasty 589 AD - 618 AD
Tang Dynasty 618 AD - 907 AD
Song Dynasty 969 AD - 1279 AD
Yuan Dyansty 1279 AD - 1368 AD
Ming Dynasty 1368 AD - 1644 AD
Qing Dynasty 1644 AD - 1912 AD