Download Ancient China - Pascack Valley Regional High School District

Ms. Jerome
Ancient China
Yellow River
 Ancient China was an agricultural society
 Yellow River is boisterous and unpredictable.
 Courses almost 2,920 miles.
 Gets name from the vast quantities of light-colored
loess soil (a sediment/silt) that it picks up along the
route.
 This next part will shock you…
 The river enabled the development of a complex
civilization and the fertile soil assisted in its growth.
Chinese Dynasties
 Chinese legends speak of three ancient dynasties—the
Xia, the Shang, and the Zhou.
Shang and Zhou Dynasty
 Tradition assigns the
Shang dynasty to the
period 1766 to 1122 b.c.e.
 Xia Dynasty is legendary
 China’s first recorded
history
 The basic features of
early Chinese society
come into much clearer
focus than the preceding
Xia Dynasty.
Bronze Metallurgy and Horse
Drawn Chariots
 Bronze metallurgy transformed Chinese society during
Shang times—rulers monopolized bronze production
 It is what enabled Shang rulers to displace Xia rulers.
 Chariots, carts, horse drawn wagon, taken from
southwest Asia
 “Charioteers were the first great aggressors in human
history”- historian John Keepgan
Shang Chariots
Bronze Knives
Bronze Weapons/Tools
Political Organization
 Shang society was composed of numerous peasant





communities, dominated by strong noble class with
monarchy.
Not highly centralized
Local rulers had authority over towns
Local rulers recognized rule of the king
King was an intermediary between heaven and earth
Nobility was the warrior class
Religious Organization: Shangdi, the supreme deity
during Shang China- controlled heaven and earth
Border Sacrifice
 The King sacrificed a bull once a year as an offering to
Shangdi
 There was a single high god of of heaven
 There were regional gods and ancestral veneration
 * See handout on Border Sacrifice writing
Ancestral Veneration
 What is of value to Ancient Chinese culture:
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWb7Rvvtblc
Ancestral Veneration
 “in the absence of organized
religion or official priesthood
in ancient China, the
patriarchal head of the family
presided at rites and
ceremonies honoring
ancestors’ spirits.”
 Therefore, the family
patriarch possessed
tremendous authority.
 No organized religion in
ancient China (change from
other river valley
civilizations)
Oracle Bones
 In Mesopotamia and
India, merchants
pioneered writing
 In China, the earliest
known writing served
the interests of rulers
rather than traders.
 One medium for writing
was oracle bones.
Oracle Bones
 Used by fortune-tellers in ancient China
 Specially prepared bones (turtle shells, bones of
sheep) to inscribe questions.
 Subjected to heat
 When heated, the bone cracked
 Fortune tellers then studied the patterns and
determined answers
Will the harvest be productive?
Chinese writing
 The earliest form of Chinese writing was the
pictograph
 The characters used in contemporary Chinese writign
are direct descendants of those used in Shang times.
Out with the Shang in with the
Zhou (1122-256 BCE)
 The Zhou overthrew the Shang and setup their own
dynasty in 1027 BCE.
 Claimed to have the Mandate of Heaven or divine
right of rule
 Mandate of Heaven later used to describe Dynastic
Cycle
Zhou Dynasty
Zhou Political Organization
 Much larger than Shang
 Zhou rulers relied on decentralized administration
 Entrusted power to subordinates and expected tribute,
allegiance and military support.
 Ultimately became the undoing of the Zhou—
subordinates became too independent. Failed to
uphold their end of the bargain.
 What does this sort of political organization remind
you of?
 Essentially a feudal type state
Iron Metallurgy
 Iron Metallurgy spread during the Zhou Dynasty
 Made bronze weapons obsolete
 Iron ores are cheaper and abundant—so Zhou kings
couldn’t control who had access.
 Empowered subordinates could resist their central
government – assisted in breaking down the central
Zhou government
Social Structure
 What was striking about the previous chart?
 Merchants—considered unskilled
 Peasants—biggest population b/c an agricultural
society
 Semiservile—owned land but provided agricultural
and military service to lords in exchange for plots of
land
 Peasants used stone tools-bronze too expensive until
iron became more accessible
Women
 Peasant women—domestic duties
 Mostly indoor activities
 Wine making, weaving, cultivation of silkworms,
 Men—fields, hunting, fishing
 Extremely male dominated society
Warring States Period 403-221 bce
 Dispersion of iron and an empire too big to manage
led to the decline of the Zhou
 Ushered in a period known as the Warring States
Period.
 China was divided between warring states and no
central figure