Download The Big Question aka the Essential Question… How did China

The Big Question
aka the Essential Question…
How did China maintain political unity despite changes
in dynasties?
Divide the terms up by category: Politics, Economics, and Intellect
Use the terms to help you come up with SPECIFIC examples to answer the
question.
Think about….
Politics: how did dynasties gain and maintain legitimacy in ways that helped maintain unity?
How did dynasties govern to help maintain political unity?
Economics: what systems contributed to prosperity & helped maintain unity despite
changes in leadership?
Intellect: how did the philosophies help maintain unity despite changed in leadership? How
did social values & education help maintain unity despite changes in leadership?
filial piety
bureaucracy
5 relationships
Silk Road
autocracy
Innovations
Golden Age
Great Wall
infrastructure
education
Mandate of Heaven
virtue
standardization
scholars
centralized government
civil service exams
written language
Chronological Order
You do not need to know dates for this test, but it is important that you
understand when events happened in relation to each other.
Place the following events in chronological order, from the one that happened
first (earliest) to the one that happened last (latest).
Shi Huangdi standardized
writing, making it easier to
The Han synthesized important
communicate across the empire.
ideas.
During the Tang Dynasty
The Zhou family tries to rule
movable type was invented,
using feudalism, but it fails to
allowing books to be printed
keep China united.
more easily.
The Chinese develop a system
Genghis Khan unites the
of writing during the Shang
Mongols for the first time.
Dynasty, as evidence by the
Oracle Bones.
Kublai Khan successfully
overthrows the Song Dynasty.
Instead of creating pastures for
horses, he establishes the Yuan
Dynasty.
Vocabulary Pictionary Station
At this station you and your group will use scrap paper to draw vocabulary
terms related to China.
 Each member of the group takes a turn as “artist”
 During his or her tern the artist may not speak
 The artist chooses one (or more) items from the list below and draws it
on scrap paper
 Other members of the group guess which term was drawn and then
define it
Bureaucracy
Civil service
Commercialization
Cultural diffusion
Daoism
Feudalism
Great Wall
Mandate of Heaven
Standardization
Middle Kingdom
moveable type
porcelain
regressive force
Silk Road
urbanization
Warring States Era
infrastructure
Philosophy Station
You and your group will read sayings or quotations from the
founders or leaders of four religions or philosophies practiced in
China during ancient times.
 Sort the sayings by philosophy or religion
 Each group should include the name of the religion or
philosophy and any leader associated with it
 Explain how each saying relates to the main ideas of each
religion or philosophy
 Explain how each religion or philosophy influenced
government or society in China
Have no friends not equal to yourself.
Let it be. Go with the flow.
Suffering can be overcome.
The fully enlightened one is the highest among all living
beings.
The best government is the one that is scarcely known.
While parents are alive, a son should not travel far from
home.
The progress of a superior person is upwards, the progress
of an inferior person is downwards.
Confucius
Confucianism
Daoism
Siddhartha Gautama (Buddha)
Buddhism
Legalism
Shi Huangdi
By nature people submit to authority, but only a few are
capable of cherishing moral principles.
Shedding tears and not wanting to punish may be humane,
but punishments must be applied; that is a matter of law.
In his dealings with the world the gentleman is never for or
against anything. He is on the side of what is moral in that
particular situation.
Make it your guiding principle to do your best for others and to be
trustworthy in what you say. Do not accept as friend anyone who is not as
good as you. When you make a mistake do not be afraid of mending your ways
When sure to be discovered, then even great robbers do not take the
gold hung in the marketplace. Therefore the enlightened ruler, in
ruling his country, increases the guards and makes the penalties
heavier; he depends on laws and prohibitions to control the people,
not on their sense of decency.
People are like parts of the great machine of the state, and must do
their jobs with precision, regulated at all times by laws and
punishment
Happiness does not come from having much, but from being
attached to little.
A mother cannot shield her son from old age, disease, and death; nor
can a son shield his mother from them.
If you think that you do not have enough, then you will never have
enough.
Geography Station
At this station you and your group will use a map to analyze the
importance of geography in ancient China
Use the map to answer these questios:
 Why were the earliest dynasties located near the Yellow and
Yangtze Rivers?
 Why was trading along the Silk Road a risky way to make a
living?
 How did geography affect the spread of Buddhism into China?
 Why was the Great Wall built?
 How did geography make political unity easy for Chinese
leaders?
 How did geography make political unity challenging for
Chinese leaders?
Mongols Station
 Find some scrap paper and make two columns.
 Brainstorm a list of evidence showing the Mongols were
agents of cultural diffusion
 Brainstorm a list of evidence showing the Mongols were a
regressive force.
 Use as many details as you can
 Make sure you and your group can explain why each piece of
evidence fits