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China’s Geography

China is a huge country, but there is very little farmable
land
 A lot of mountains like the Himalayas
 A lot of deserts like the Gobi desert
 Yellow River- a.k.a. Huang He river
• Yellow from pollen and silt that floods the river
• River of Sorrows
• Important to China’s economy.
• Northern China
 Long River- a.k.a. Yangtze river
• Longest river in China
• Flows through central China
China’s First Civilizations

Yang-Shao Culture
• Earliest Neolithic Culture along the Yellow
River.
• 5000 b.c.- 3000 b.c.
• They domesticated pigs and dogs

Hemudu Culture
• same time as Yang-Shao Culture, along the
Long River
• Rice Farmers
China’s First Civilizations


Eventually these 2 cultures began to
associate with each other and in about 3000
b.c. They officially joined and became
known as the Middle Kingdom.
Out of this came China’s first Dynasty: the
Xia Dynasty
Shang Dynasty

After the Xia Dynasty, the Shang Dynasty ruled
from 1750 b.c. to 1045 b.c.
 Their capital was at Anyang
 They had a social class system, similar to others of
the world.
 Polytheistic- believed in many spirits and godsthey also honored ancestors with offerings. Shang
kings believed they received wisdom and power
from these gods, spirits, and ancestors.
Shang Dynasty

Oracle Bones
• Beginning of Chinese writing.
• This is where we get most of our information about the Shang
Dynasty.
• Inscriptions have been found on the shoulder blades of Oxen and
sometimes on turtle shells.
• These are considered Sacrificial rites.
• They would scratch a statement or prediction into the bone,
heat it with a bronze tool that would crack the bones. These
cracks were interpreted as a response to the question or
prediction.
• These inscriptions are about kings, weather, wars, crops, etc.
• They use over 3000 ideographs and pictographs.
Zhou Dynasty

The Shang lived very richly, while their subjects were very
poor- this caused unrest throughout China.
 Wu Wang, an aristocrat, led a rebellion of the unhappy
against the Shang and created the Zhou Dynasty.
 The Zhou Dynasty lasted longer than any other dynasty in
Chinese history.
 They divided their kingdom into small territories with their
own officials so that they could better govern.
 They also used the Mandate of Heaven to keep control.
They used this to say that the gods told them they were to
have all power in China.
Zhou Dynasty

Good things that came out of the Zhou
Dynasty:
• Irrigation and flood control systems
• Farm tools such as the plow
• Silk was an important trade item.

Period of the Warring States- towards the
end of the Zhou, the local rulers began
fighting with each other over land.