Ancient Civilizations in Credo: Asia

Major river of India and Bangladesh; length 2,510 km/1,560 mi. It drains a fertile and densely populated basin, approximately a quarter of the total area of India, and is the most sacred river for Hindus. The Ganges River flows eastward along the border separating the Himalayan complex and the flat expanse of the Indian subcontinent.

Ancient civilization that flourished from about 2500 B.C. to about 1500 B.C. in the valley of the Indus River and its tributaries.

Literary works written in Sanskrit constituting the main body of the classical literature of India.

Chang Jiang or Yangtze Kiang; longest river of China and Asia, and third longest in the world, flowing about 6,300 km/3,900 mi from Qinghai on the Tibetan Plateau to the Yellow Sea. It is a major commercial waterway and, with its tributaries, is navigable for 30,000 km/18,640 mi; Yichang is considered the head of navigation, but ocean-going vessels can reach inland as far as Wuhan.

Mandarin Zhonghua Renmin Gongheguo [central glorious people's united country; i.e., people's republic], officially People's Republic of China, country. Since the 2d millennium B.C. a unique and fairly uniform culture has spread over almost all of China. Today, one in five people in the world lives in China. This vast country is almost the same size as the whole of Europe, and is the third largest country in the world after Russia and Canada. China has a 4,000-mi (6,400-km) coast that fronts on the Yellow Sea, the East China Sea, and the South China Sea.

From Chambers Dictionary of World History
Shang Dynasty (1766–1122 BC);Zhou (Chou) Dynasty (1122/1066–256 BC); Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty (221–206 BC);Han Dynasties (206 BC–AD 220); Jin (Chin/Tsin) Dynasty (AD 266–317); Sui Dynasty (581–618); Tang Dynasty (618–907); Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms Period (907–60)

Fortifications, c.1,500 mi (2,400 km) long, winding across N China from Gansu prov. to Hebei prov. on the Yellow Sea.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
In Chinese history, a period in which small feuding kingdoms or fiefdoms struggled for supremacy. The period was dominated by seven or more small feuding Chinese kingdoms.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Aborigines of Japan who may be descended from a Caucasoid people who once lived in N Asia. More powerful invaders from the Asian mainland gradually forced the Ainu to retreat to the northern islands of Japan and Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in what is now the Russian Far East.

It is the second largest, northernmost, and most sparsely populated of the major islands of Japan.

The largest of the four main islands of Japan, between the Pacific and the Sea of Japan; regarded as the Japanese mainland.

Jap. Nihon or Nippon, country, 145,833 sq mi (377,835 sq km), occupying an archipelago off the coast of E Asia. The capital is Tokyo, which, along with neighboring Yokohama, forms the world's most populous metropolitan region. Historically, the divine design of the empire—supposedly founded in 660 B.C. by the emperor Jimmu, a lineal descendant of the sun goddess and ancestor of the present emperor—was held as official dogma until 1945.

An island of SW Japan: the southernmost of Japan's four main islands, with over 300 surrounding small islands; coalfield and chemical industries.

From The Hutchinson Unabridged Encyclopedia
Smallest of the four main islands of Japan, south of Honshu, east of Kyushu; area 18,800 sq km/7,250 sq mi; population (2000 est) 4,154,000.

[Skt.,=the enlightened One], usual title given to the founder of Buddhism. He is also called the Tathagata [he who has come thus], Bhagavat [the Lord], and Sugata [well-gone]. He probably lived from 563 to 483 B.C.

Religion and philosophy founded in India c.525 B.C. by Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha. There are over 300 million Buddhists worldwide. One of the great world religions, it is divided into two main schools: the Theravada or Hinayana in Sri Lanka and SE Asia, and the Mahayana in China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan. A third school, the Vajrayana, has a long tradition in Tibet and Japan. The basic doctrines of early Buddhism include the "four noble truths": existence is suffering (dukhka); suffering has a cause, namely craving and attachment (trishna); there is a cessation of suffering, which is nirvana; and there is a path to the cessation of suffering.

Moral and religious system of China. Its origins go back to the Analects, the sayings attributed to Confucius, and to ancient commentaries including that of Mencius. In its early form (before the 3d cent. B.C.) Confucianism was primarily a system of ethical precepts for the proper management of society.

[Skt.,=song of the Lord], Sanskrit poem incorporated into the Mahabharata, one of the greatest religious classics of Hinduism.

Hindu culture began about 4000 BCE on the Indian subcontinent; today some 900 million followers worldwide practice Hindu traditions, or the “Vedic dispensation.” This religious tradition developed during the first millennium and intertwined with the history and social system of India. Hinduism does not trace its origins to a particular founder, has no prophets, no set creed, and no particular institutional structure. It emphasizes the right way of living (dharma) rather than a set of doctrines, and thus embraces diverse religious beliefs and practices.

Classical Sanskrit epic of India, probably composed between 200 B.C. and A.D. 200. The Mahabharata, comprising more than 90,000 couplets, usually of 32 syllables, is the longest single poem in world literature.

From The Columbia Encyclopedia
Ancient native religion of Japan still practiced in a form modified by the influence of Buddhism and Confucianism.

Chinese philosophy, traditionally founded by the Chinese philosopher Lao Zi in the 6th century BC, identified with the Tao-chia (School of the Way). The philosophical system stems largely from the Tao-te-ching, a text traditionally ascribed to Lao Tzu but probably written in the mid-3d cent. B.C. Taoists believe that (1) there is a way the world should be, a way that, in some deep sense, it is; (2) human beings can understand this and need to have and follow such knowledge if they and the world are to exist in harmony; and (3) the world was once in such a state. Taoism is one of the four major religions of China (with Confucianism, Buddhism, and Chinese popular religion).

The term Veda, derived from the root vid, “to know,” means “knowledge.” The Veda functions in Hindu traditions as an authoritative category that is ascribed the status of transcendent knowledge and has both textual and supratextual dimensions.

From Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Ancient religion of India that was contemporary with the composition of the Vedas and was the precursor of Hinduism.

The Chinese concept that everything is explicable in terms of two complementary but opposing principles. Yang represents heaven, and is the positive, male force.