Download Notes on the Huang He/ Chang River Valley Civilizations…

Notes on the Huang He/ Chang River Valley Civilizations…..
It is debated but, but most historians believe civillization
began in China, along the Huang He river in 1700 BCE. The
seasonal floods of the Huang-He and Chang are both very unstable.
They may over-flood, or cause drought. Though the
Chinese have tried many different ways, they have never been able to
tame the rivers. However they both bring much silt/loess, so
much so, that the Huang-He is also known as the Yellow
River. The fields of agriculture along the rivers are full of
crops such as millet and rice.
The first documented Dynasty was the
Shang. A dynasty is when a ruler passes power down to
their son. The Shang Dynasty ruled over the towns and cities along
the Huang He river for about 1,000 years, and was then
replaced by the Zhou Dynasty.
The Shang dynasty had several important pieces. The dynastic
rulers, or Emperors, were buried in tombs like the Egyptians. They
had a form of writing that was mostly symbols, pictographs.
They were skilled with a metal called bronze, many things from
statues to charriots to swords have been found by
Paleontologists that were made out of bronze.
The people of the Shang Dynasty greatly believed in the power
of their Ancestors - - they did not so much believe in gods,
rather their former relatives that now controlled things on earth from
the heavens. Shang priests also used Oracle Bones. They
would heat a sheep bone until it cracked and then read the cracks to
see the future or advice from ancestors. Shang rulers always had priests look at
oracle bones before they made an important decision.
The Huang-He/Chang River valley civilizations never came to
prominence because of unstable rivers, and outside
invaders.