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Ch. 7: Early China
The First Chinese Dynasty – The Shang Dynasty
pp. 173-175
Objective: 6.31 Locate and describe the origins of Chinese civilization in the Huang He
Valley during the era of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties
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1st civilizations started in the Huang He River Valley
Social Hierarchy
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Kings
– 30 Shang Kings
– ruled over the 1st cities
– Were the political, religious, and military leaders
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Shang Dynasty
Theocracies
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Ruled in dynasties - hereditary
Last Shang King = Di Xin Shang
• Cruel – cut out heart of his uncle for
disagreeing
• Killed many innocents
• Forced to pay high taxes
• Sent army to fight in the east but left the rest
of his kingdom unprotected
• Committed suicide when his army and slaves
turned against him and joined the Zhou attack
– Appointed warlords - military leaders to help keep
the king powerful
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Aristocrats
– Upper class, royal nobles (land owners)
– Warlords
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Farmers and Tenant Farmers ( Peasants )
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– Most people were farmers
– Lived outside the city in the country to farm
– Tenant Farmers - Rented the land from aristocrat
noble landowners
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Worked the land and paid part of what they harvested as payment to
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live and work on the land
Food harvested was given to all
Although peasant farmers in ancient China were one of the lowest
social classes, they were still considered important as they produced
the food that sustained the society.
Most peasants were very poor and led simple lives.
They worked very hard and rarely had a day off. Peasant men
worked in the fields and had to endure harsh conditions. They
worked through the burning heat of summer and the bitter cold of
winter. The harsh conditions could also ruin their crops and land. If
the crops were ruined, poor families had very little to survive on
during the winter
Even the poorest peasants were required to pay taxes, even if their
crops had not been successful. This often left many families with
very little to eat during the winter months.
Shang Religion
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Polytheistic
Shang Ti /Shang Di– supreme (chief) god – ruled over all other gods and
nature
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King – mortal god, was thought to be the messenger of the gods (similar to
how Egypt thought of the Pharaoh)
Gods lived in mountains, rivers, and seas – controlled nature
Honored ancestors or long-dead family
Human and animal sacrifices or offerings hoping that the ancestors would
bring good to them and would help make important decisions
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Seeking Guidance from Ancestors
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Kings believed they received their
power to rule from gods and their
wisdom from ancestors
Asked for help from oracle bones
– Turtle Shells & animal bones
– Asked a question, drilled hole
in bone, put it in the fire, then
read the cracks that resulted
– Question, answer, and date
was often carved into the bone
Oracle bones proved that the
ancient Chinese had a writing
system
Writing
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Pictographs - characters that represent objects
Ideographs - link two or more pictographs to express an idea
Written on wood – shaved off when needed to erase
Also wrote on bronze, pottery, bamboo, silk, bone, and later the Chinese will
invent paper
Also wrote on jade and kaolin (will show pics later in ppt)
This painting shows a group of
scholars copying documents for
their King during the Shang
dynasty.
Artisan Advances
• The Chinese were advanced early on in metallurgy
• During the Bronze Age, 1500 BC, created weapons, tools, and
objects made of bronze
Silk
• Legend says the king’s wife discovered silk
– One day, the king’s wife found little worms eating the mulberry leaves in her garden. A
cocoon dropped into her hot tea by accident. When she pulled it out, a long thin thread
unwound from the cocoon. She wove the strong silk threads into beautiful cloth.
• Women raised the silk worms and grew mulberry trees to feed the worms.
They boiled the cocoons and gathered the thread. They then wove large
amounts of the sild thread into cloth.
• Weavers made the silk into clothing.
• Invented a loom to help weave the silk faster.
• Secret – for more than 3,000 years
• Brought great wealth to China as a major trade item.
Kaolin
• Kaolin - fine, white clay
– made vases and dishes
Today, this fine pottery is called China.
Jade and Ivory
• Jade - a green stone
• Many elephants existed in Asia as well as
Mesopotamia, Persia, Africa, Egypt, and
India
– Killed for the ivory tusks
– Thutmose III (Egypt) is said to have killed over 120 elephants just
for their ivory
chopsticks
Religions of Multiple Civilizations
Civilization
Religion(s) +Description
Contrast it to another
civilization
Mesopotamia
Egypt
Egypt
India
India
China
China
Israel
Work on Research Questions