Culture

Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History

Biography of Empress Deng

This biography details the childhood of Empress Deng of the Later Han dynasty. Here she is noted for her precocious intelligence, beauty, and filial piety. She was named empress to Emperor He in 102 CE.

The Book of Rites, The Birth of a Child

The "Patterns of the Family," is drawn from The Book of Rites, a text that defined Confucian rituals of all kinds.

Learning begins in the Womb: Fetal Instruction

Han dynasty intellectuals such as Liu Xiang (c. 77-6 BCE) advocated "fetal instruction" [taijiao] as a means to influence the moral development of the child at the earliest possible opportunity.

Marxists Internet Archive

The Child in Early Chinese Social Hierarchy: The Biography of Li Shan

The society of early China was organized into a hierarchy where elders were generally deemed superior to and expected deference from their juniors, principles that also guided the relationship between men and women, parents and children, and nobles and commoners.

Sieyès, "What Is the Third Estate?" (1789)

Emmanuel–Joseph Sieyès was born at Fréjus, 3 May 1748. He was educated at a Jesuit school, became a licentiate of the canon law, and was appointed vicar–general by the bishop of Chartres.

Voltaire, "On the Church of England"

Voltaire was the pen name of François–Marie Arouet (1694–1778), an Enlightenment writer known for his plays and histories and his acerbic criticism of the French Catholic Church.

Montesquieu’s The Persian Letters (1721)

Charles–Louis de Sécondat, Baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu (1689–1755), was born into a family of noble judges near Bordeaux.

The Magna Carta

King John of England granted the Magna Carta ("the great charter") on 15 June 1215. Leading nobles had demanded confirmation of their liberties and had threatened war if their demands were not met.