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Ancient China
Isolated by natural barriers…the Gobi…
the Himalayas…the sea….
Watered by rivers…the Huang He…the Chang
Jiang…the Xi
The Huang He River…called
China’s Sorrow due to many floods…
Also called the Yellow River due to
the fine silt called loess
1766 BCE…the
Shang kingdom
with Anyang as
the capital
Rich silt from
floods makes
farming the basis
of the economy for
centuries.
Oracle Bones…
• carved with China’s earliest writing,
found near the river, proved the existence of
the Shang Dynasty…before thought to be
only legend.
Questions would be
written on the bones,
and the oracle, often a
woman, would heat the
bones and put a heated
copper pin to them,
causing cracks to
appear. She would
then answer the
question according to
how she “read” the
cracks. Often human
sacrifices were made
to insure the ancestors
and gods would be
pleased.
Jade…
•
…and bronze
objects were found in
tombs of the rich.
After 466 years of Shang rule, the Zhou
Dynasty rose to power…for the next 901 years!
c. 1050-400 BCE
The Mandate of Heaven
gave Zhou rulers the blessings
of the gods to rule.
The Zhou brought order to society.
In exchange for loyalty, military support
and other services…
• The king
granted land to nobles
and people
of high rank.
Peasants
(people with small farms)
were at the bottom of the social order.
Each peasant family got a small plot
of land and had to farm extra land for
the noble.
Eventually the lords began to reject the
authority of the Zhou kings, bringing about
the Warring States Period…200 years of
civil war.
Confucius, who became the most
influential teacher in Chinese history,
lived during this time.
He was upset by the chaos and people’s
lack of morality and felt people needed to
return to ethics, or moral values.
The ideas of Confucius are known as
Confucianism.
A book called The Analects contain
his teachings.
The Analects
The followers of Confucius placed their teacher’s sayings
together in a work called in Chinese the Lun Y and in English
The Analects. The word analects means “writings that have
been collected.”
“Yu, shall I teach you what knowledge is? When you know a
thing, say that you know it; when you do not know a thing, admit
that you do not know it. That is knowledge.”
“Is there any one word that can serve as a principle forlife?
Perhaps the word is reciprocity [fairness]: Do not do to others
what you would not want others to do to you.”
“I do not enlighten anyone who is not eager to learn, nor
encourage anyone who is not anxious to put his ideas into
words.”
–Confucius, from The Analects
Confucius taught the importance of
family.
People give thanks before their family shrine. Only the men participate.
Competing for followers at the same time,
Taoism takes its name from the “Tao,” which
means “the way.”
Taoism beliefs:
• People should live in harmony with the Tao,
considered to be the guiding force of all reality.
• No one should interfere with nature or each
other.
• Government should not interfere with people’s
lives.
• The universe is a balance of opposites.
Taoism
teaches
that
humans
are just
a part of
nature…
No
better
than an
any
other
thing.
Laozi, the most
famous Taoist
teacher, wrote the
basic text of
Taoism,
The Way and
Its Power.
And yet another belief system
competed for followers:
LEGALISM…
The belief that people are bad by
nature and need to be controlled.
Not only the guilty should be
punished by their neighbors and
relatives as well. Then everyone
would obey the laws.
The Warring States period ends
when the Qin kingdom …
C. 221-206 BCE
Defeats the other 7 kingdoms…
..And China is unified into an
empire…
Under the rule of Ying Zheng.
Ying declared himself to be
Shi Haungdi…“first emperor”
Following
his legalistic
beliefs, he
created a
strong
government
with strict
laws.
He
standardized
law, writing,
money,
weights, and
axle widths
throughout
his empire.
Accomplishments under the 15year reign of Qin Shi Haungdi:
• Unified China
• Built a network of roads and canals
• Built an irrigation system to improve
farming
• Built the Great Wall across northern
China, which kept invaders out for
over a thousand years
THE GREAT WALL
Click on slide for hyperlink to Great Wall
Qin Shi Huangdi died in 210 BC
In 1974, after over 2,000 years, his tomb
was discovered, surrounded by over 6,000
life-sized terra cotta warriors, as well as
cavalry and chariots.
The next dynasty, theHan. Would
last more than 400 years…
From 206BCE until 220
CE.
Liu Bang,
the first
Han
emperor,
was the
first
peasant to
rule China.
Liked by
peasants and
soldiers, he
came to
power due to
the
Mandate of
Heaven
When Wudi came
to power
In 140 BCE…
He made Confucianism
the official government
Philosophy of the Han
kingdom.
If a person could pass a test on
Confucian teachings…
He could get a good job
working for the government.
And peasants got promoted!
Highest class: The emperor, his
court and scholars
Second class: The peasants, who produced
the food
Third class: The artisans, who produced
needed items for daily life
Fourth class: The merchants, who produced
nothing!
Han Achievements
Figure
painting
bronze art
objects
Seismograph
ACUPUNCTURE
Silk Weaving
The Chinese kept the art of silk-making a
secret for centuries. Revealing the secret
was punishable by death.
An ancient craft…
In a modern world.
Silk Worm Humor
The Silk Road
It wasn’t easy!
Traders with camels loaded down with
valuable items such as jade and silk
traveled together in caravans. Armed
guards were hired for protection against
thieves. An equally valuable item likely to
be stolen if attacked was water!
Weather was also a concern as the
travelers endured icy blizzards, scorching
heat and blinding sandstorms.
An ancient Silk Road map…
Watchtower
Taklimakan Desert
Gobi sunset
Buddhism Comes to China
The Silk brought more than trade
to China. Buddhist
Missionaries brought the
religion there from India in the
first century AD.
This is a great example of cultural
diffusion, (the spread of ideas
from one culture to another.)
The offer of rebirth and relief
from suffering was the main
reason the Chinese embraced
Buddhism.
The Period of Disunion
220-589 CE
• The fall of the Han Dynasty
brought with it a period of disorder.
• Again there was cultural diffusion
as nomadic people moved into north
China, and Chinese people moved to
escape their rule.
• New types of art and music
developed and new styles of food and
clothing became popular.
The Sui, Tang and Son
• During the Sui Dynasty
(589-618 CE) the Grand
Canal was begun, linking
northern and southern
China.
• The only woman to rule
China, Empress Wu, came
to the thrown during the
Tang Dynasty.
Chinese Inventions
Paper money
gunpowder
porcelain
compass
The Yuan Dynasty
Conquerors from the North
The Ming Dynasty
The Forbidden City, a complex of over a
thousand buildings, is built in China’s
capital. Built for the royal family, his court
and servants, ordinary people were forbidden
to enter.
Improved shipbuilding aids
Zheng He on seven great
Sea voyages.
Isolationism and the End of the
Dynasties
• In the 1430’s a new Ming emperor forced
Zheng He to return to China and
dismantle his fleet of ships. He also
ceased foreign trade, thus cutting off
contact with other countries. China’s doors
closed to the outside world. The Ming
Dynasty ended in 1644. The growth of
European influence greatly expanded in
China.
Links
http://www.artsmia.org/world-myths/
http://depts.washington.edu/chinaciv/timeline.htm
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/chinamum/
http://www.npm.gov.tw/en/collection/selections_01.htm
http://www.mrdowling.com/613chinesehistory.html
http://www.chinapage.com/china.html
http://www.ancientchina.co.uk/menu.html
Bibliography
• World History. Austin, TX: Holt, Rinehart &
Winston, 2008.
• PowerPoint by
Marty Masker
The End