Download File - Ms. McLoughlin

Bell Ringer
• Name 3 inventions of the Egyptians
• Explain why natural barriers were important
to the Egyptians
• Why was Egypt called the “Gift of the Nile”?
Name the Continents
1
2
4
3
5
7
6
Middle Kingdom – Ancient China
Emergence of River Valley Civilizations
Geographical Features
Natural Borders
– Himalayas, Kunlun Shan,Tian
Shan (mountains)
– Gobi desert
– Pacific Ocean to east
• Chinese isolation contributed to the Chinese belief that China was at
the center of the earth and the sole source of civilization.
• Lack of contact with foreigners helped give the Chinese a strong
sense of identity and superiority.
• They regarded their land as the only civilized land and called it
Zhongguo or the Middle Kingdom.
Geographical Features
• Rivers
– Hwang Hu (Yellow),
– Chang Jiang (Yangtze),
– Xi Jiang (West)
• Yellow silt and favorable
climate make good farming
• Water routes enabled
trade and travel
Ancient Chinese Dynasties
• Dynasty – ruling family
or group
• Xia (first)
2100 BCE – 1800 BCE
• Shang
1500BCE- 1100BCE
• Zhou (longest)
1100BCE – 256BCE
• Qin (Chin)
221 BCE
Bell Ringer
• What did the Chinese people call their civilized
land?
• What caused the Chinese people to be
isolated?
• What is it called when a civilization has a
ruling family?
• What is the Mandate of Heaven?
Xia Dynasty
• The Xia were agrarian
people (farmers), with
bronze weapons and
pottery.
• The Xia Dynasty had no
formal written language, so
it was a prehistoric
civilization.
• The rulers often acted as
shamans, communicating
with spirits for help and
guidance
Shang China
1600 BC – 1122 BC
Ruler Tang
overthrew the Xia
Dynasty and
established the
Shang Dynasty in
1750 BCE.
Shang Dynasty
• The Shang civilization consisted of farmers who also
used bronze tools, merchants and artisans.
• The cities were surrounded by walls.
• The Shang Dynasty developed a writing system based
on characters.
• The Shang Dynasty began ancestor worship; the people
believed in life after death.
Zhou (Joh) Dynasty
• The Zhou people rebelled against the Shang Dynasty in 1045 BCE
• The Zhou Dynasty developed the principle of the Mandate of
Heaven – the belief that they were ordered by deities in heaven to
replace the Shang ruler.
• According to the Mandate of Heaven, the king, later called emperor,
ruled by divine right.
• Divine right means that a ruler’s powers come from the gods.
• Eventually the Mandate of Heaven gave the people the right to rebel
against unjust rulers. This led to the cycle of the rise, rule and fall of
future dynasties.
• The Mandate of Heaven became the basis for the way Chinese
changed rulers.
Mandate of Heaven
• Family of rulers have the approval of the ancestors or
gods, thus dynastic rule is a theocracy
• However, as earthly events appear and have a
negative impact, then it is assumed that the emperor
has lost the approval of the ancestors
Qin (Chin) Dynasty
• Ruled in western China in 221 BCE
• Zheng claimed himself the first emperor and named himself Shi
Huangdi.
• Shi spent 20 years conquering warring states to unify China.
• Shi embraced the Legalism philosophy
– Legalism- strict obedience of legal system
• To further unify China Shi abolished feudalism, in which local lords
ruled their land and had their own armies.
• Shi began the construction of the Great Wall of China to show how
the government could rally the people to comply
• The Qin Dynasty began to fall with Shi Huangdi’s death in 210 BC.
• China gets its name from this dynasty
The first true emperor of China,
was Shi Huangdi.
Shi Huangdi’s most remarkable
achievement was the Great Wall.
Mandate of Heaven Activity
• I will split you into groups. I will choose one group to be the “ruling
dynasty”. I will give your group 3 cards. Each card will have an event on it.
For each card, you will have 1 minute to plan a response to the event.
– If it’s a bad event, you should come up with solutions to the problem
in an attempt to explain why you should continue to rule.
– If it’s a good event, you should explain how this shows you are a
great ruler and how you might use your good fortune.
• Each group will take a turn as the ruling dynasty. While the ruling dynasty
is planning, the rest of the class should discuss with their group how you
would respond if you were the ruling dynasty.
• At the conclusion of one minute planning, a speaker from the ruling
dynasty will explain their plan to the class. You will have two minutes to
make your explanation and, if time permits, take questions.
• When three minutes is up, the class will vote whether they think the
dynasty still has the Mandate of Heaven (approval from Gods to rule).
• When the ruling dynasty has gone through your three cards, if they have
a majority of positive votes, they have proven effective rulers. If they
have a majority of negative votes, they’ve lost the Mandate of Heaven.
What Have you learned?
Create a chart comparing the Chinese Dynasties.
- The first column should name the dynasty.
– The second column should display the dates.
– In the third column, draw a picture that
represents the dynasty.
– In the last column describe the dynasty.