» China was one of the earliest centers of human civilization. It became a large united country with a large number of cultural and historical heritage, outpacing most of the world in areas such as art and science. Since around 1000 BC China consisted of many small kingdoms. All of them were unified under one emperor in 221 BC by the Qin state, ushering in the Qin Dynasty. Over the course of centuries, China underwent periods of unity and disunity, order and disorder. In the 18th century, China achieved a decisive technological advantage over the peoples of Central Asia, while simultaneously falling behind Europe technologically. This set the stage for the 19th century, in which China adopted a defensive posture against European imperialism while simultaneously extending control into Central Asia .
» During the Zhou Dynasty, China was originally the region around the Yellow River . Since then, the territory expanded outward in all directions, and was largest during the Tang, Yuan, and Qing dynasties.
China proper is generally thought to be bounded by the Great Wall and the edge of the Tibetan plateau; Manchuria and Inner Mongolia are found to the north of the Great Wall of China, and the boundary between them can either be taken as the present border between Inner Mongolia and the northeast Chinese provinces.
» The Chinese created numerous musical instruments, such as the zheng, xiao, and erhu, that have spread around East and Southeast Asia , especially to its dependencies. The sheng became the mother of several Western free-reed instruments. Chinese characters have had many variants and styles throughout the history of China , and were "simplified" in the mid-20th century on mainland China .
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