Download 2.4 Reading Questions Why was China a good place to start a

2.4 Reading Questions
1. Why was China a good place to start a civilization? Give examples.
China had natural barriers: Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific Ocean is in the East, the
Taklimakan Desert and the Plateau of Tibet is in the West, SW are Himalayas, and to North are
Gobi Desert and Mongolian Plateau
2. What are the 2 rivers? What is loess?
The Huang He (Yellow River) in North and Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) in Central China. When
the Yellow River overflows it deposits yellowish silt called loess, which is very fertile soil.
3. What were the 3 environmental challenges that the first Chinese civilization faced?
1-Yellow River often overflowed and caused disastrous flooding, giving it the nickname “China’s
Sorrow” 2-Little trading because of isolation, had to supply own goods 3-China was invaded
many times from the north and West-natural barriers weren’t invader proof
4. What was the “Peking Man”?
First human skeleton found in China-shows ppl settled in China as much as 500,000 yrs ago
5. What was the first dynasty? What do we know about it?
First dynasty was 2000 BC-Xia Dynasty. known for irrigation and flood control projects-no
written records
6. What was the second dynasty? Characteristics? What are oracle bones?
1700-1027 BC was Shang Dynasty; first to leave written records, waged war constantly (built
large earthen walls for protection), strong and organized gov’t (could control large group of
workers); oracle bones are animal and tortoise shells on which priests inscribe a question, then
apply a hot poker, which cracks the bones=priests interpret the cracks to see how gods
answered
7. What is the “Middle Kingdom”? Describe Chinese cultural practices and beliefs
Chinese culture started to develop around this time; they saw themselves as center of the
civilized world so called themselves the “middle kingdom”-everyone else are barbarians. Other
aspects of Culture include group is more important than individual, family is central unit
8. Describe the Chinese writing system
Characters stand for one syllable or unit of language-no links between spoken and written
language; advantage is it unified large, diverse land, made control easier; disadvantage was
large number of characters to learn-needed 1,500 to be considered barely literate, 10,000 for
scholar! Limited the number of literate, educated Chinese
9. What dynasty came after the Shang? What technological innovations did they have? Explain key
terms of Mandate of Heaven, Dynastic Cycle, and Feudalism.
Zhou Dynasty came next, overthrew Shang in 1027. They created idea of Mandate of Heaven: a
just ruler has divine approval-royal authority came from heaven; used as a justification when
they overthrew the Shang. This idea became central to Chinese view of gov’t: natural disasters,
rebellion, war, all could be signs that the ruler had lost mandate of heaven.
Dynastic Cycle: refers to this pattern of rise, decline, and replacement of dynasties
The Zhou used feudalism in order to govern the large amount of land: a political system in which
nobles, or lords, are given land that legally belongs to the king, in return nobles owe loyalty and
military service to the King; also took place in Europe and Japan
Technological advances: roads, canals, coined money, furnaces for cast iron
10. What was the “warring states period”?
The warring states period was the later years of the Zhou Dynasty, when nobles fought among
themselves for land and power, and the Zhou were too weak to stop it. Traditional values
collapsed, replaced with chaos.