Download China’s Early civilizations:

Early China, part 1
Geography
 Location:
Early civilization
arouse on
Huang He and
Yangtze Rivers
(Yellow River
Valley)
Geography
 Himalaya MTS
 Gobi Desert
 Irregular coastline
Location Affecting Life
 Mountains/desert
have isolated
China from
outsiders
 Called itself the
Middle Kingdom
 Very ethnocentric
Environmental Problems:
• isolated  cannot rely
on trade, must provide
own goods (Where is
everybody???)
• Rivers flooding
• Invasions from East
and West where
mountains do not exist
• Little farming land
10% is useable
– Mountains are not
good farmland
The dynastic cycle:
• 1) Group claims mandate of Heaven
• 2) Time of prosperity change
• 3) As time goes on, corruption in
government takes over people believe
they have lost mandate rebellion
• 4) New group takes over power and
claims mandate
Early Dynasties
 Xia Dynasty—1st
dynasty
•irrigation and
flooding methods to control
river and let settlements
grow

Qin dynasty –221- 206 BC
creation of wall for protectionGreat Wall begins
They will be followed by the
Han (206BC -222 AD)
Terracotta Army
Discovered in 1974
8,000 soldiers, 100 chariots
with 400 horses and 300
cavalry horses
Chinese Culture:
 Families: Respect
your elders (parents)
from Confucianism
 Women were not
equal men have
power ( BAD
WOMEN!!)
Social classes:
 Nobles and Peasants
 Merchants are lowest
Religion:
 Traditionally Chinese
were spiritual in form
of ancestor worship
(oracle bones)

Today:
Buddhism and
Confucianism
Writing System:
 good things- unified
people
 Bad- instead of the
26 letters we have,
can you remember
over 10,000
characters?
Tang Dynasty 618-907
Stress education
 Civil Service exam
 Created movable type
 Mechanical Clock
Song Dynasty 960- 1279
 Improved farming methods of rice
 10 cites of 1 million each
 Porcelain
 Compass
 Gun powder
Other Technology:
 Canals and
Roads
 Coined money
 Furnaces to
produce iron
Trading: Along the Silk Road
 Only
link to
west
Early Chinese Civilizations will
eventually fall to the Mongols
(Mughals)
 Mongols famous leader: Genghis Khan and
Kublai Khan
Mongolians were nomadic
barbarians
- Weapon technology: Bow and
Arrow
Pax Mongolia
 Time of peace in China under Mongol rule
Marco Polo visits China
 Polo’s visit and
journal of his visit to
China increases
European desire to
interact with China
 Took 24 years