Download China Basic Information: In ancient China there were two river

China
Basic Information:
 In ancient China there were two river systems that provided thousands of square miles of fertile
land.
 The two rivers were the Huanhe (Yellow) River, and the Yangzi River.
 The yellow river gets its name from the large amounts of yellow silt that builds up on the
bottom of the river and along the shore.
 The Yangzi river has extensive drainage, which results in land suitable for growing rice.
 In China geographers have identified at least eight different ecosystems.
 We have found archaeological sites that show neolithic settlements in China as early as 6500
B.C.
 Because China has so many different environments, each region of China grew different crops
and raised different animals.
 China in general raised dogs, cattle and pigs, but the north also raised buffalo, and the south
raised sheep.
 Northern China grew wheat and soybean, while South China grew rice.
 During the late Neolithic period in China (3,000-2,000 B.C.), the ancient Chinese started to
surround their settlements with hard-packed dirt.
 It was during this period that evidence has suggested that women started to lose status. This
evidence has come from burial sites where most of the people buried were men. Women and
men also started to have job differences. Men were buried with axes, etc. and women were
buried with needles, etc.
 Chinese legend states that the first technological advances were actually given to China by wise
rulers (known as the five sovereigns). The first Sovereign was named Huang Di, and he
invented writing, silk and pottery.
Shang Dynasty:
By the late Neolithic period in China, there were many different cultures in North China. By 1600 B.C.
There were still several cultures but one, the Shang , came to dominate the others. This culture would
create the Shang dynasty and rule from 1600- 1027B.C.
 The Shang may have rose to power when they overthrew the Xia.
 Despite the fact that Shang rule was not very extensive, the Shang kings were able to exercise
great power and influence over there subjects. An example would be the wall built around the
Shang capital Zhenzhou. The wall was 2385' long, 60' wide and 30' tall.
 The Shang had writing. They had over 4,000 characters, only about half of which we have
deciphered. Some of these characters derived from pictographs, or characters that depict an
object.
 Shang characters would represent sounds and words.
 Shang writing was extremely influential. It influenced writing in other far east cultures
including Japan and Korea.
 During the Shang dynasty we get a better picture of women's role in everyday life.
 Women made up 170/700 personal names on oracle bones. The oracle bones also show these
aristocratic women supervising sacrifices to ancestors, worrying about the harvest and
presenting tribute to the court.
 Not all women did this howver. Lady Hao was a queen who truly broke the mold. Lady Hao
was a successful general, a governor and was worshipped as an ancestor after her death.
 Even Lady Hao was subject to some sexism however. There are oracle bones that tell here when
she should give birth. The consequence for giving birth on an “unlucky” day is a girl.
 As China grew more complex, so too did the role of the king. Now the King was in charge of
taxing and governing a larger population and area.
 Writing helped Shang kings govern their territories. In fact writing became so important that
scribes became trusted officials, and when the King was away from the capital, scribes would
protect the king's power.
 Religion also played an important role in maintaining order. The King was at the top of the
social ladder because he was best able to communicate with the chief God.
 It wasn't just this connection that allowed Shang kings to keep charge though. Their control of
the land, metal working and the military all helped them keep power.
 By 1200 B.C, the Shang had chariots. The Shang made the wheel stronger by adding numerous
spokes to the wheels. The chariot would eventually be made obsolete however with crossbow
infantry and calvary archers.
 The sacrifices made to one's ancestors included either rich food or human offerings.
 The social ladder was constructed like this:
King
|
King's Family
|
Court Officials
|
Land-Owning Nobles
|
The “Multitude” (people who can't trace ancestry)
|
Prisoners of War (Slaves)
 Instead of praying to their ancestors the “multitude” prayed to local gods.
 While peasants in China were nominally “free”, there was no social mobility. Peasants did not
own the land they worked.
 The inequality of the Shang was replaced around 1027 B.C by the Zhou Dynasty.
The Zhou Dynasty (1027-221):
 The Zhou were originally a state outside of Shang control.
 The Zhou believed that their conquest of the Shang should be expected however. They
described the Shang as corrupt and they saw themselves as virtuous. They saw their conquest of
the Shang as inevitable. The Zhou leader announced that Heaven had told him to conquer the
Shang. According to Ancient Chinese tradition, Heaven indicated its will through natural
disasters and uprisings.
 The belief that kings ruled through Heaven's will is known as the Mandate of Heaven.
 Soon the Zhou king became known as the “Son of Heaven”
The Zhou were a powerful people and they used their military strength to take advantage of the Shang
dynasty's increasing weakness.
The new Zhou dynasty would last in one way or another for almost 900 years.
The Zhou were spread out over most of North China and the vast size of the Zhou domain made it
impossible to be ruled directly from the center. Instead areas far away from the center of Zhou
power would be ruled by relatives sent as representatives, or by local chiefs. These local chiefs
would be given hereditary titles, and would send tribute to the Zhou king.
 The Zhou kings would then solidify loyalty of these vassals by connecting them to the royal
family through marriage.
 The Zhou domain was so large that by 800 B.C, there were around 200 domains.
 The Zhou social structure was larger than earlier civilizations. The King was at the top and
below the king were the king's family, domain lords, major government officials, minor
government officials on through the peasants.
 The early Zhou Kings were strong effective rulers who kept their vassals loyal. After about 200
years though a series of weak kings took the throne. During this time period they started to lose
power. Vassals were independent in all but name, and Zhou officials started to take more power
for themselves. Since they wrote the documents that defined hierarchy and order it was easy for
these officials to provide for their own families' futures but this of course weakened the king's
power.
 In 771 B.C. Zhou royal power disappeared when dis-loyal vassals and tribesmen destroyed the
capital and killed the king. Part of the royal family survived however and moved eastward
where they were little more than figure heads that performed religious rituals.
 Eventually some of the stronger vassals started to call themselves kings ending Zhou
dominance. These smaller kings led to a period of China known as the Warring States (403-221)
During this period the ruler of the Qin, the largest of the seven former vassal states, started to
conquer all of his neighbors until 221 B.C, when he established a unified empire of which he
was the undisputed ruler.
 During the Seventh Century B.C. The Zhou mastered iron working and by the third Century
B.C items of iron created from molds were in widespread use.Iron-tipped plows, along with
better irrigation, and the use of manure as fertilizer resulted in higher crop yields and a more
dependable source of food.
 Zhou leaders also recognized the importance of building canals and did so with gusto.
 By the end of the dynasty small round coins with square holes in the middle were being used as
currency.
 During the Zhou dynasty merchants and artisans played an important role in spreading wealth
beyond nobles and court officials. This is indicative of increased economic stability.
 The Zhou still worshipped their ancestors. Nobles would even have bells and bowls created that
had inscriptions of their deeds in them. These were for the benefits of their ancestors and
possibly their descendants.
 Magicians also became prominent during the Zhou. These magicians attempted to control the
world's two forces, yin and yang. Eventually yang came to mean the sun and all things male,
while yin stood for the moon and all things female, dark, cold and passive.
 Men were allowed more than one wife, though eventually they would be limited to one primary
wife. The other wives would not have the rights of the primary wife.
 Divorce was legal, and either spouse could start a divorce, though men always retained the
property and children so men were more likely to start a divorce.
 Aristocratic wives were often expected to mediate between their birth families and the families
they married into. This left wives in a difficult situation however.
 Women did have a power of a sort however. There are tales of both treacherous and virtuous
women. The treacherous women would use their beauty and influence to lead kings to ignore
the proper affairs of state in order to gain power for their families.
 Between 1000 and 600 B.C. The world's first poetry collection was composed. They included
poems about love, the government and even everyday life. One poem in particular discusses a
“treacherous woman”:
Clever men build cities
Clever women topple them...
Disorder does not come down from heaven;
It is produced by women
 It was during this time that many thinkers started looking for more stability. Like the stability
that was present when the Zhou held all of the power (that time was called the Western Zhou).
 The people who benefitted most from the order and social hierarchy supported these thinkers.
 Some of the rulers of the warring states started to create more centralized government and some
even started rewarding peasants for good work with freedom from serfdom. These rulers started
to come out on top of their neighbors.
Confucianism:
 Started by Kong Fuzi, whose latinized name was Confucius
 Kong Fuzi was a thinker who wanted to get into government but never could find a ruler who
would accept him.
 Instead he taught others.
 He taught that the ideal man should be a Junzi (“gentleman”): kind, polite, wise, brave
 He taught that people should have li (“manners”)
 A rulers primary responsibility was to his subjects
 There were five relationships:
 Parent and Child
 Ruler and Subject
 Husband and Wife
 Elder Brother and Younger Brother
 Friend and Friend
Legalism:
 Placed a huge emphasis on laws
 Thought that rulers should not treat their subjects with kindness but should apply laws equally
 Set of laws with fixed punishments
 Laws should be posted clearly and punishment should never vary
 The power did not lie with the king but with the office
Daoism:
 Focused on natural harmony
 Did not welcome rulers' interventions. Just make sure nature ran its course
 Dao (“the way”) was achieved by non-action and silence
 Do not honor the worthy, and people will not compete
 Do not value rare treasures, and the people will not steal
 Engage in no action, and order will prevail
Qin Dynasty:
 The Qin dynasty followed the Zhou and re-united China.
 The Qin dynasty lasted for 15 years
 The rise of the Qin started 140 years before the start of the Qin dynasty.
 361 B.C.: Qin was a state during the warring states period. Th king appointed Lord Shang as
chief advisor
 Lord Shang was a legalist and he wanted to reduce the power of the nobles.
 Government offices were given to those who killed enemies of Qin
 A draft was instituted for those 15 and older
 Peasants were given the land they worked on.
 In 247 B.C, King Zheng took the throne, he was somewhere between 9 and 13 years old.
 By 221 B.C. He had united all of the states, and started the Qin Dynasty. He changed his name
to Shi Huangdi (“First Emperor”)
 The first emperor enlarged China. He conquered land as far south as the southern coast of
China, and had military excursions into Mongolia and Vietnam.
 He forced noble families to move to the capital.
 He put families into groups of ten with everyone in that group responsible for everyone else.
 Under the first emperor the economy boomed. He used forced labor to create thousands of miles
of canals and 4000 miles of roads.
 He also standardized writing.
 The first emperor banned confucianism as it was sympathetic to the Zhou dynasty. He burned
confucian texts and killed its scholars.
 Despite all of his power he was terrified of death and actively sought a way to live forever.
 He had an enormous tomb and terracotta army constructed for him.
 After his death in 210 his son inherited the throne. His son was inept and the empire soon
collapsed under numerous revolts.