Download chapter-5-section-3

Bell Ringer
• Using p.147 of your textbook, answer the following questions:
•1. What is Taoism?
•2. Who is the founder of Taoism?
Copy the chart below into your notebook
QIN DYNASTY HAN DYNASTY
The Terra-cotta Army
• Discovered in 1974
• 6,000 life-sized statues of soldiers,
horses, bronze chariots and weapons
• These soldiers were placed here to
watch over the tomb of
Shi Huangdi: founder of the Qin
Dynasty and China’s first Emperor.
The Qin Dynasty
• Only lasted two generations but had huge accomplishments
• Shi Huangdi means, “First Emperor” (original name was Zhao Zheng)
• Built the Great Wall of China to protect the Empire from nomads on
the Northern border – connected walls that previous rulers had built
• Took 10 years to complete
• Some experts believe it is about 1,500 miles long!
The Qin Dynasty
• To help put down rebellions in the
Empire, Shi Huangdi put thousands
of farmers to work building roads –
this allowed his army to rush to the
scene of any uprisings
• Divided China into areas called
districts – each district had a
government run by the Emperor’s
trusted officials
• Killed or imprisoned any local rulers
who opposed him
Qin Dynasty
• Shi Huangdi declared that one currency: type of money, be used
throughout China (also common weights and measures, an
improved system of writing and a law code.)
• Made it easier for one region of China to trade with another
• He tried to control the thoughts of his people
• Outlawed the ideas of Confucius and required that people learn
the philosophies of the Qin scholars
• Practiced a brutal form of Legalism: the idea that people should be
punished for bad behavior and rewarded for good behavior
• Ordered all books in China to be burned except those about
medicine, technology, and farming and killed hundreds of scholars
that protested the order.
The End of the Qin Dynasty
• After the death of Shi
Huangdi (210 B.C.),
there was four years of
chaos and civil war
• His son was murdered
and his grandson could
not hold the Empire
together – ending the
dynasty after only 15
years
A new dynasty
rises
A period of
violence follows
The dynasty
falls
The new
dynasty rules
The dynasty
grows weak
The Han Dynasty
• Liu Bang: The founder of the
Han Dynasty (was one of the
rebels who helped overthrow
the Qin dynasty)
• Born a peasant
• Created a stable, lessharsh government (lasted
400 years)
• Set up the civil service
system again
The Han Dynasty
• Wudi: Chinese emperor
who brought the Han
Dynasty to its greatest
strength.
• Liu Bang’s greatgrandson who took
throne at 15 years old
• Main interests were
war and military
matters
• Expanded the Empire
The End of the Han Empire
• Over time the Empire began to weaken
with a series of very young rulers
• Roads and canals fell into disrepair
• As the rule of the emperors weakened,
warlords: local leaders of armed groups,
gained power.
• Cao Pei – tried to control the empire
by ruling through the emperor
• 220 A.D. declared and end to the Han
and beginning of the Wei Dynasty
(only lasted 50 years)