Download Xia Dynasty and Ancient Beliefs Xia Dynasty

Xia Dynasty and Ancient Beliefs
Xia Dynasty
The first group to settle in China was the Yangshuo.
 Settled near Huang He River – mostly farming communities
 These people learned how to work with jade and plaster
 Silk is harvested from silk worms
 Potter’s wheel is invented
 Bricks are baked for buildings
o Women were highly valued in the society
Each village had a “wise woman” who would be consulted in times
of difficulty
o Each spring, young men and women from all villages would come
together to meet and find a wife or husband
If you did not marry at this festival, you had to wait until the next
year
o Around 2,000 BC, the “Great Engineer”, Yu, founded the Xia dynasty
Dynasty is a line of rulers who belong to the same family and pass
control from one generation to the net
 There are no written records from this time period because they had no written
language!
o All of our knowledge comes from ruins of towns, and ancient stories and
legends
Ancient Beliefs
Luck
 The Ancient Chinese believed in the idea of luck and fell back on this quite frequently
o If something went wrong, their bad luck was to blame
o If something good happened, their good luck was responsible
Good luck was always meant to be shared
 If you did not share your good luck, you would lose it
 This built a culture of cooperation and sharing
o Everyone made sure everyone else had enough
Gods
 Gods of Nature – these gods were responsible for the events that happened in nature
o God of heaven, war, fire, and thunder
o Goddess of mercy
 Household Gods
o Smaller gods were connected to almost every aspect of daily life
God of the well, god of the door, god of the oven
 These gods would help people and also spy on them
o Each year, household gods would travel to heaven to report
one people to the Jade Emperor of Heaven
Your luck was directly related to the report you
received
Ancestor Worship
 All people in ancient China believed in ghosts
o The ghosts they believed in were their dead family members
These ancestors would watch them, help them and even punish them with
bad luck if they were bad
Chinese found this belief to be comforting
 To keep ancestors happy, people would leave gifts and offerings at
temples
 Believed ancestors could tell the future
o Sent visions of the future through dreams and signs to help
them find happiness
Oracle Bones
 One way to communicate with ancestors was to your oracle bones – if you were an
emperor!
o Oracle bones came from an animal – usually a larger one like a cow or ox, or
from a turtle’s shell
The emperor would ask a question about the future, their priest would
carve the question into the bone
The priest would heat a bronze pin and place the pin on the bone. This
created a pattern of cracks on the bone
The priest would study the pattern to find an answer