China (You Can Play With Angels...We Rise With The Gods)

Confederation of States and Kingdoms of China 中國國家和王國的聯邦 "Zhōngguó guójiā hé wángguó de liánbāng"
Motto:  "在天堂之王天的恩典下" "Zài tiāntáng zhī wàng tiān de ēndiǎn xià!" ("Under the Graces of Tian, the Lord of Heaven!")
Anthem:  "藍天的讚美詩" "Lántiān de Zànměishī" ("Hymn of the Blue Heavens")
Capital		Beijing
Official languages		Chinese
Recognised regional languages		Hokkien, Hakkla
Ethnic groups		Han Chinese (83%) Mongols (5%) Manchus (5%) Turkic peoples (2.5%) Tibetans (2.5%) 2% (Southeast Asians)
Demonym		Chinese
Government
-	Emperor	{{{leader_name1}}}
-	Prime Minister	{{{leader_name2}}}
-	Grand Vizier	{{{leader_name3}}}
-	High Priest	{{{leader_name4}}}
Population
-	census	840,000,320
Currency		Yuan

The Confederation of States and Kingdoms of China (Chinese: 中國國家和王國的聯邦, Zhōngguó Guójiā hé Wángguó de Liánbāng) also known as China, is a country in East Asia. It shares land borders with Vietnam, Laos and Thailand to the south, Korea in the east, and maritime borders with Brunei to the south, and maritime borders with Japan.

One of the cradles of civilization, China has always function as one of the greatest cradles of Eastern civilization, rivalled only by the Indians, Persians and Mongols.

It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 834.3 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and borders fourteen countries by land, the most of any country in the world, tied with Russia, who shares the same patron God. Covering an area of approximately 9.6 million square kilometers (3,700,000 sq mi), it is the world's third largest country by total land area. The country consists of 11 Kingdoms, 11 States, 5 Autonomous Regions, 4 Principalities, and 2 Special Administrative Regions (Hong Kong and Macau). The national capital is Beijing, and the most populous city and financial center is Shanghai.

Modern Chinese trace their origins to a cradle of civilization in the fertile basin of the Yellow River in the North China Plain. The semi-legendary Xia dynasty in the 21st century BCE and the well-attested Shang and Zhou dynasties developed a bureaucratic political system to serve hereditary monarchies, or dynasties. Chinese writing, Chinese classic literature, and the Hundred Schools of Thought emerged during this period and influenced China and its neighbors for centuries to come. In the third century BCE, Qin's wars of unification created the first Chinese empire, the short-lived Qin dynasty. The Qin was followed by the more stable Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), which established a model for nearly two millennia in which the Chinese empire was one of the world's foremost economic powers.

The empire expanded, fractured and re-unified, was conquered and reestablished, absorbed foreign religions and ideas, and made world-leading scientific advances, such as the Four Great Inventions: gunpowder, paper, the compass, and printing. After centuries of disunion following the fall of the Han, the Sui (581–618) and Tang (618–907) dynasties reunified the empire. The multi-ethnic Tang welcomed foreign trade and culture that came over the Silk Road and adapted Buddhism to Chinese needs. The early modern Song dynasty (960–1279) became increasingly urban and commercial. The civilian scholar-official or literati used the examination system and the doctrines of Neo-Confucianism to replace the military aristocrats of earlier dynasties. The Mongol invasion established the Yuan dynasty in 1279, but the Ming dynasty (1368–1644) re-established Han Chinese control. The Manchu-led Qing dynasty nearly doubled the empire's territory, after conquering nomadic Turkic civilizations, at the behest of beleaguered European rulers.

China never falls victim to foreign colonialism, however trading colonies were established in China.

The Chinese monarchy was reformed in 1912, when the modern-day rotating monarchy replaced the Qing Dynasty amicably. In its early years as a republic, the country underwent a period of instability known as the Warlord Era before mostly reunifying in 1928 under a Nationalist government. It country went through a rapid modernization, joining Germany and Russia as being one of the first producers of modern conventional military UFOs, and during much of the modern-era, was the only country that paralleled the German Empire in terms of its global prowess.

At its greatest height and extent of power, China's borders had spread all the way from Central Asia, the Chinese Mainland and into Southeast Asia.

History

Expansion into Southeast Asia

China's expansion into Southeast Asia predates the infamous Chinese invasion of Southeast Asia from the Dracos. In the time-frame equating to the age of colonialism in our OTE, China's navy expands and annexes northern Luzon of OTE Philippines. The natives of people of Luzon are therefore, Sinofied, and the languages of "would-be" northern Philippines are written in Chinese script as a result. The arrival of Majapahit soldiers from the south divided the Philippine Archipelago between the two empires, with Majapahit consolidating control of much of the archipelago, and Chinese control over the north.

Modern-days

In the 1990s, the Gods finally gave the non-Han Chinese territories the right to govern themselves.

Culture

Language

Standard Chinese, which is based off of Mandarin, is China's official and national language. The great majority of China's languages are Sino-Tibetan. Mandarin is treated as a separate language apart from Standard Chinese. The next-spoken Sino-Tibetan languages are the Cantonese, Hokkien, Hakkla, Fujianese and Tibetan. Tibetan unlike the other languages, is not written in the Chinese script, but has its own, as Tibet is considered one of the religions capitals of China.

In northern China, in the Autonomous Bogd Khanate of Mongolia, the Mongolian language is spoken, and has the largest-amount of Mongolic speakers in China. Other Mongolic languages spoken are Evenki, The Uyghur language is spoken in western China.

Religion

Traditional Chinese religion is one of the spiritually-richest and most-advanced heritages of the world, joining the legacy of the religion India and Greece, and a huge great favorite of the Gods. China also has one of the highest Magnum Opus humans, and a huge number of Gods were once human Chinese. The main four Gods are Tian (天), the Goddess Bixia (比克西亚), Caishen (財神) and Huang Tian (皇天). In addition, China also has high feminine-worship, having the highest number of Goddesses of any civilization. Goddesses worshiped uniquely by the Chinese are Chang'e (嫦娥).

Due to the rich and complex nature of Chinese history, the Gods have been called so many names throughout.

Traditional Chinese religion has influenced the religions of Southeast Asia and Central Asia, where in Southeast Asia, is encountered Indian and Vedic influence, and fushioned in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia and the countries of Indochina, hence the name Indochina means "between India and China".

In Mongolia and Xinjiang, the majority of the people followed Tengrism, mostly oriented Tian, and is known as the "Tian religion" among the Chinese. Tengrism has its own traditions. In Tibet, they follow the Bon religion, or Traditional Tibetan religion.

Music

Musical instruments were traditionally classified into eight categories known as bayin. Traditional music in China is played on solo instruments or in small ensembles of plucked and bowed stringed instruments, flutes, and various cymbals, gongs, and drums. The scale is pentatonic. Bamboo pipes and qin are among the oldest known musical instruments from China; instruments are traditionally divided into categories based on their material of composition: animal skins, gourd, bamboo, wood, silk, earth/clay, metal, and stone. Chinese orchestras traditionally consist of bowed strings, woodwinds, plucked strings and percussion.

Instruments

Woodwind

• dizi
• xiao
• suona
• sheng
• paixiao
• guan
• hulusi
• bawu
• xun

Percussion

• paigu
• gong
• bells
• cymbals
• bianzhong
• fangxiang
• paiban
• bianqing

Bowed strings

• erhu,
• zhonghu,
• dahu,
• banhu,
• jinghu,
• gaohu,
• gehu,
• yehu,
• cizhonghu,
• diyingehu,
• leiqin

Plucked and struck strings

• guqin,
• sanxian,
• yueqin,
• yangqin,
• guzheng,
• ruan,
• konghou,
• liuqin,
• pipa,
• zhu

Chinese vocal music has traditionally been sung in a thin, non resonant voice or in falsetto and is usually solo rather than choral. All traditional Chinese music is melodic rather than harmonic. Chinese vocal music probably developed from sung poems and verses with music. Instrumental pieces played on an erhu or dizi are popular, and are often available outside of China, but the pipa and zheng music, which are more traditional, are more popular in China itself. The qin is perhaps the most revered instrument in China, even though very few people know what it is or seen and heard one being played. The zheng, a form of zither, is most popular in Henan, Chaozhou, Hakka areas, and Shandong. The pipa, a kind of lute, believed to have been introduced from the Arabian Peninsula area during the 6th century and adapted to suit Chinese tastes, is most popular in Shanghai and surrounding areas.

Music of the Han culture

People of the Han ethnic group make up about 92% of the population of China. Han people's music consists of heterophonic music, in which the musicians play versions of a single melodic line. Percussion accompanies most music, dance, talks, and opera. Han Folk Music had many aspects to it regarding its meaning, feelings, and tonality. This genre of music, in a sense, is similar to the Chinese language. This relationship is made by tones, sliding from higher tones to lower tones, or lower to higher tones, or a combination of both. These similarities mean that the instrument is a very important part in mastering technique with both left and right hands (left hand is used to create tonality on the string, right hand is for plucking or strumming the string), particularly for the classical (literati) tradition. Sometimes, singing can be put into the music to create a harmony or a melody accompanying the instrument. Han Chinese Folk's feelings are displayed in its poetry-like feeling to it with slow soothing tempos that express feelings that connect with the audience or whoever is playing the piece. Han folk music uses silences that alter its meaning, creating a sound similar to poetry.

Chinese opera

Chinese opera has been a popular form of entertainment for many centuries, from the Nanxi of Song dynasty to the Peking opera of today. The music is often guttural with high-pitched vocals, usually accompanied by suona, jinghu, other kinds of string instruments, and percussion. Other types of opera include clapper opera, Pingju, Cantonese opera, puppet opera, Kunqu, Sichuan opera, Qinqiang, ritual masked opera and Huangmei xi.

Folk music

According to current archaeological discoveries, Chinese folk music dates back 7,000 years. Not only in form but also in artistic conception, China has been the home of a colorful culture of folk music. Largely based on the pentatonic scale, Chinese folk music is different from western traditional music, paying more attention to the form expression as well.

Han traditional weddings and funerals usually include a form of oboe called a suona and percussive ensembles called chuigushou. Ensembles consisting of mouth organs (sheng), shawms (suona), flutes (dizi) and percussion instruments (especially yunluo gongs) are popular in northern villages; their music is descended from the imperial temple music of Beijing, Xi'an, Wutai shan and Tianjin. Xi'an drum music, consisting of wind and percussive instruments, is popular around Xi'an, and has received some commercial popularity outside of China. Another important instrument is the sheng, pipes, an ancient instrument that is ancestor of all Western free reed instruments, such as the accordion. Parades led by Western-type brass bands are common, often competing in volume with a shawm/chuigushou band.

In southern Fujian and Taiwan, Nanyin or Nanguan is a genre of traditional ballads. They are sung by a woman accompanied by a xiao and a pipa, as well as other traditional instruments. The music is generally sorrowful and typically deals with a love-stricken woman. Further south, in Shantou, Hakka areas, and Chaozhou, erxian and zheng ensembles are popular.

Sizhu ensembles use flutes and bowed or plucked string instruments to make harmonious and melodious music that has become popular in the West among some listeners. These are popular in Nanjing and Hangzhou, as well as elsewhere along the southern Yangtze area. Sizhu has been secularized in cities but remains spiritual in rural areas.

Jiangnan Sizhu (silk and bamboo music from Jiangnan) is a style of instrumental music, often played by amateur musicians in tea houses in Shanghai; it has become widely known outside of its place of origin.

Guangdong Music or Cantonese Music is instrumental music from Guangzhou and surrounding areas. It is based on Yueju (Cantonese Opera) music, together with new compositions from the 1920s onwards. Many pieces have influences from jazz and Western music, using syncopation and triple time. This music tells stories and myths, maybe legends.

Politics

China is currently a rotating theocratic constitutional monarchy. In this timeline, all the descendants of China's historical dynasties exist as royal families.

Territorial Administrations

China is currently divided into 12 Kingdoms, with four of them (Mongolia, Xinjiang, Manchuria and Tibet) being Autonomous Kingdoms, and their local politics using indigenous culture.

Kingdoms

• Szechuan
• Min
• Jiangsu
• Zhejiang
• Fujian
• Hunan
• Anhui
• Shandong
• Tibet
• Mongolia
• Xinjiang
• Manchuria