Download Ancient China

Ancient China
3000 BC – 1500 AD
Geography
Dynastic Cycle
Shang Dynasty
~1750 – 1122 BC
• Farming society w/
aristocratic ruling class
• Veneration of ancestors
and belief in life after
death
– Burning of objects
– Oracle Bones
• Very warlike
• Most famous for artistic
bronze castings
Shang Dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
1122 – 256 BC
• Longest dynasty in Chinese history
• Mandate from Heaven (must know
this!)
• Technology of the Zhou
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Massive canal and irrigation projects
Use of iron in tools, utensils, & weapons
Crossbow
Extensive trade route
• Feudalism (define this term)
Zhou Dynasty
Chinese Family Life
• Central to Chinese Society
• Worshiping of ancestors
• Men had dominant role and could take additional
wife
• Parents choose career of their children
• Parents of women paid a dowry to future
husbands
• Filial Piety
– Children take care of their parents
Chinese Language
• Pictographic
– Symbols to represent people, things, etc.
• Over 100,000 of characters
Ch’in (Qin) Dynasty
221 – 206 BC
• Shi Huangdi (1st and only Qin leader)
• Defeated rivals in a civil war and set-up a
centralized government
– Very paranoid
– Had gov’t officials spy on each other
• Started the Great Wall of China
• Created a uniformed money & expanded
borders
• Burned books and attached intelectionals
• Buried with the Terracotta Army
Qin Dynasty
Han Dynasty
202 BC – 221 AD
• Removed legalistic practices of
Qin
• Promoted Confucianism (more on
that later)
• Civil Service Exam
– Used to train future Chinese gov’t
officials
• 3 sets of exams over a period of years
• Memorization and explaining moral
lessons
• Schools set-up to help the poor
(usually only helped rich)
– Used Confucian Practices
• Expanded the empire
– Wudi Han = expanded south into
present day Vietnam & further north
Han Dynasty
Han Dynasty (cont.)
• Freed the peasants from noble
landowners
– Peasants made to pay taxes to the state
– Population grew, many poor farmers sold land
to aristocrats
• Technology
– Textile manufacturing, water mills, iron
casting, paper
• Increased trade
Silk Road
Han Dynasty (cont.)
• Culture & Family
– Family was the center of economic base
– History written down and taught to children
– Confucian classes
• Fall of the Hans (220 – 221 AD)
– 300+ years of chaos & civil war
– Sui Dynasty (581 – 618 AD)
• Canal linking Huang He & Yangtze Rivers
Sui Dynasty
Tang Dynasty
618 – 907 AD
• Restored Civil Service Exam
• Broke up large landowners
• Expanded boundary in Northern
Himalayan Mountains (Tibet)
• Painting & Poetry
• End of Dynasty results in more civil war
Tang Dynasty
Song Dynasty
960 – 1269 AD
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Lost Tibet
Lost land to the Uighurs in Northern China
Lost Manchuria to Jurchen people
Mongols
– Nomads from Gobi Desert
– Defeated Jurchen
– Overthrew Song Dynasty
Song Dynasty
Economy & Society of the
Dynasties
• New lands gave more agriculture advantages
• Manufacturing & textiles in cities
• Trade routes to many region (Silk Road)
– Horses, furs, raw hides, silk (duh!)
• Steel, cotton, silk, & gun powder developed
• Paper money
• Private traders (guilds)
Mongols
• Pastoralists, lived in clans
• Genghis Khan (Temujin – universal
ruler)
– Unified clans in 1206 AD
– Conquered central Asia in 21 years
– Died in 1227 AD
• Sons set up an empire that stretched
from Poland to China
• Pax Mongolica – mid 1200’s to 1300’s
(Peace & Stability)
• Kublai Khan
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Conquered China & began Yuan Dynasty
Did not change Chinese culture
Attempted take over of Japan
Marco Polo
Mongol Empire