Download 2) Xia dynasty

AP World History: Xia and Shang dynasties in
ancient China
Presentation Outline
Xia dynasty
1) Geography and origins
2) Characteristics
Shang dynasty
3) Geography and origins
4) Characteristics
5) Common features
6) Zhou dynasty and Warring States Period
1) Xia dynasty: Geography and origins
• Lasted from 2070-1600 B.C.E
• Founded by Yu the Great who would
become the dynasty’s first emperor
• Located along the Yellow river in
north central China
2) Xia dynasty: characteristics
• Yu the Great implemented a flood control system to
tame the waters of the Yellow river
• Irrigation channels were built to sustain agriculture
• The concept of the mandate of heaven was first
proclaimed that all Chinese emperors rule by divine
(god) right
• No written records- Xia China was an oral culture
• Very much a Neolithic civilization though bronze was
cast in the later period
• Belief in natural spirits
Xia irrigation system
3) Shang dynasty: Geography and origins
• Lasted from 1600 to 1046 B.C.E
• Established by an army which
overthrew the Xia emperor
• Larger dynasty located between
two major river valleys: The Yellow
river and the Yangtze river
4) Shang dynasty: characteristics
• Developed first written Chinese language (character system)
• Bronze age civilization which refined the use of iron and bronze to
create weapons, cooking ware, and art
• The Bronze age developed much later in China than in the fertile
crescent and Egypt
• Hierarchical society (Nobles
Commoners
Slaves
• Religion was based on a belief in spirits and ancestor worship
• Belief in the afterlife
• Shang rulers were concerned about the “uncivilized” nomadic peoples
who lived outside the dynasty’s borders
• Shang emperors created first Chinese government system by
imposing and collecting taxes
• The emperor’s decisions were recorded by court stenographers
Uses of bronze and iron
5) Common features
• Agricultural societies which depended on the cultivation of rice
• Belief in spirits
• Yellow river valley civilizations
• Permanent settlements
Question:
1) Why do historians know much more about the Shang dynasty but
relatively little about the Xia dynasty?
6) Zhou Dynasty and Warring States Period
• The Zhou Dynasty followed the Shang Dynasty when the Zhou
replaced the Shang emperor in battle and assumed the mandate of
heaven
• The Zhou Dynasty lasted from 1046-246 B.C.E
• During the Zhou period new Chinese philosophies emerged:
1) Confucianism
2) Daoism
Confucius- Founder of
Confucianism
Laozi-Founder of Daoism
Warring States Period
• The Zhou Dynasty was plagued by disunity towards the end, as the
Zhou split into Eastern and Western Zhou, and other states such as
the Qin emerged as a more powerful ruling alternative to the Zhou
• This period is known as the Warring States Period
• In 221 B.C.E. finally unified China and established the Qin Dynasty