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The term 'Eastern world' refers very broadly to the various cultures, social structures and philosophical systems of "'the East'", namely Asia (including China, India, Japan, the Middle East, and surrounding regions).

Contents

Concept of "the East"

Problems of the concept

Foundations of Eastern culture

Achievements of Eastern culture

China

India

Middle East

References

Concept of "the East"

The division between "East" and "West" is a product of European cultural history, and of the distinction between European Christendom and the alien cultures beyond it to the East. Before the discovery of the Americas and the exploration of Sub-Saharan Africa by the Europeans, only North Africa and other Islamic countries to the East were known in detail, though India and China were vaguely known of. The crusades established what became a border between "Eastern" and "Western" peoples. With the European colonization of the Americas the East/West distinction became global. The concept of an Eastern, "Indian" (Indies) or "Oriental" sphere was emphasized by ideas of racial as well as religious and cultural differences. Such distinctions were articulated by Westerners in the scholarly tradition known as Orientalism and Indology. People from the East are known by certain regions in the West as "Oriental". Before the arrival of Islam in India, people from the Indian subcontinent were generally known as Hindus and the subcontinent was known as Hindustan or Bharat. During the Cold War, the term "Eastern world" was sometimes used as an extension of Eastern bloc, connoting the Soviet Union, China and their communist allies, while the term "Western world" often connoted the United States and its NATO allies such as the United Kingdom and France.

The concept is often another term for the Far East - a region that bears considerable cultural and religious commonality. Eastern philosophy, art, literature, and other traditions, are often found throughout the region in places of high importance, such as popular culture, architecture and traditional literature. The spread of Buddhism and Hindu Yoga is partly responsible for this.

Problems of the concept

Currently terms such as Western, Near East (or Middle East) and Far East are commonly used to distinguish different cultural spheres, based on the standard two-dimensional layout of the world-map, which has the Americas at the far left (West), Europe and Africa in the middle, and Asia to the right (East). This arrangement is arbitrary because the Earth is round, rather than flat (however this model does ensure that land regions are concentrated in the centre without Eurasia being split in two); therefore, by going west, one will eventually arrive in the east, and when one goes east, one will eventually arrive in the west, provided one keeps going long enough. This is true no matter where one is on the globe's surface (except the Poles, where all directions are either north or south). Because of this, the East/West division has been criticized for being Eurocentric, however the notional 'central-point' between East and West would be to the east of Europe itself. Some countries, in particular Russia, do not fit neatly into this opposition.
While Western Orientalist traditions included both Islamic and further Eastern cultures under the generic heading of "the East", the common Abrahamic traditions of Islam and Christianity mean that a case can be made that both Islam and Christianity together form a different cultural sphere from countries further to the East in which the concept of Dharma plays a far more important role than that of an authoritative God. In recent years the concept of "Eastern culture" has increasingly become restricted to East Asian traditions. However, the existence of Islam and Christianity as powerful forces in countries such as Indonesia and the Philippines makes this usage problematic.

Foundations of Eastern culture

Eastern culture has developed many themes and traditions. Some important ones are:

★ Buddhism - contributed to a concept of self wherein the importance of ego was diminished, and that suffering was regarded as an accepted part of life.

★ Confucianism - social hierarchy where position is based upon merit as determined through the imperial examination system. This social hierarchy promoted respect for elders and authority, and valued harmony within family.

★ Hinduism - the oldest surviving religion, which contributed the concept of Dharma and served as the origin of the Dharmic religions

★ Islam - the majority of the world Muslim population have always lived in Asia, due to the influence of the Islamic civilization

★ Martial arts

★ Taoism - concepts of good and bad energy, the connectedness of mind and body and nature, etc.

★ "Oriental Medicine" - reflexology, acupuncture, herbal medicine, etc.

★ Zoroastrianism - the oldest surviving monotheistic religion that was practiced in ancient Persia

★ Judaism - a religion having roots in Zoroastrianism and ancient semitic beliefs, one of the foundations of Islam.

Achievements of Eastern culture

Eastern culture, especially China, India, and the Middle East, had and still have a major impact on world civilization.

China

It was China that invented paper, compass, gunpowder and printing (the Four Great Inventions of ancient China) that had profound effects on civilizations worldwide. Among the technological accomplishments of China were early seismological detectors, dry docks, sliding calipers, the double-action piston pump, cast iron, the iron plough, the multi-tube seed drill, the wheelbarrow, the suspension bridge, the parachute, natural gas as fuel, the raised-relief map, the propeller, and the crossbow. Chinese astronomers were also among the first to record observations of a supernova. It was eastern culture that first invented the abacus, planetarium, book, ink, first cannon, bomb (using gunpowder), nest cart, spaghetti, fireworks, brandy, whiskey, cards, Paper money, saddle, toothbrush, [1] [2]. The blue light-emitting diode was invented in Japan. In medicine, the elixir formulation, herbal medicine, craniotomy, and acupuncture are all attributed to the East. It was Easterners who first discovered methamphetamine, adrenaline, sodium glutamate, and Vitamin B1.

India

Four of the world's major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated in India. Hinduism, the successor of the ancient Vedic religion, is considered to be the world's oldest existing religion. Though Buddhism originated in India, it is one of the most practiced religions in East Asia and South East Asia and helped spread Indian philosophical theories like Karma and Dharma to other parts of Asia. Yoga, a family of ancient spiritual practices, originated in India and is one of the six schools of Hindu philosophy. Indian thinkers made great work and effort in mathematics among others and Indian mathematics described and theorized many mathematical concepts and applications. Indians first invented the decimal notation that is 0, 1, 2, 3, 4,...etc.
India is home to some of the greatest and some of the earliest inventions in mathematical concepts, astronomy, physics, medicine, and applications. It is now generally accepted that India was the birth place of several mathematical concepts, including zero, the decimal system, algebra, algorithm, square root and cube root. It was Indians who theorized about gravity, determining sun is a star among others. Aryabhatta is considered to be the first mathematician to use letters of the alphabet to denote unknown quantities and to conclude the pi is an irrational number. Other Indian mathematicians, such as Brahmagupta and Bhaskara too made significant contributions to field of mathematics. Acharya Sushruta, author of Sushruta Samhita, is believed to be the first person to carry out a surgery. Ayurveda, an ancient Indian medical practice, depicts the achievements Indians had made in the field of medical science. The most commonly held view is that Chess originated in India. For instance Āryabhaṭa is widely regarded as one of the famous and influential thinkers, mathematicians and astronomers who for instance described the solar eclipse, who first described the reason for movement of stars, who first calculated the circumference of the earth with only 0.2% difference from the current prediction.

Middle East

★ Ancient Near East

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★ Mesopotamia

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★ Sumerian architecture

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★ Art and architecture of Assyria

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★ Social life in Babylonia and Assyria

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★ Babylonian law

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★ Babylonian literature

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★ Babylonian mathematics

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★ Babylonian influence on Greek astronomy

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★ Persian Empire

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★ Iranian art

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★ Iranian architecture

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★ Persian literature

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★ Middle Persian literature

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★ Science and technology in Iran

★ Islamic Golden Age and Arab Empire

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★ Islamic art

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★ Islamic architecture

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★ Islamic literature

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★ Islamic philosophy

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★ Islamic science

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★ Alchemy (Islam)

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★ Islamic astronomy

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★ Islamic mathematics

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★ Islamic medicine

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★ Ophthalmology in medieval Islam

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★ Muslim inventions

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★ Pre-Columbian Islamic contact theories

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★ Timeline of science and technology in the Islamic world

References

★ Guy Ankerl, ''Coexisting Contemporary Civilizations: Arabo-Muslim, Bharati, Chinese, and Western. Geneva: INUPRESS, (2000), ISBN 2881550045