ANCIENT CHINA

Prepared by Anita BilleterPalmdale School District

with funding from Jordan Fundamentals GrantKeeping History Alive Grant

GEOGRAPHY

Mountains and deserts separated regions in China and led them to develop separately from each other.Rivers serve to link the different regions.Flooding rivers provide minerals that enrich the soil but also sometimes bring disaster.

EARLY CULTURES

The Yangshao settled in farming villages and built houses with plaster floors and roofs supported by wooden posts.The Lungshan farmers harvested silk, wove fabric, made pottery, and used simple written symbols and numbers.

According to legend, a Lungshan engineer named Yu founded the first great Chinese dynasty called the Xia, around 2000 B.C.

THE SHANG DYNASTY

The Shang Dynasty followed the Xia and ruled for more than 700 years.

The Shang built some great walled cities, developed bronze, devised a money system, and developed a class of skilled artisans.

The Shang people believed in an afterlife, many gods, ancestor worship, and the use of oracle bones to predict the future.

THE ZHOU DYNASTY

Wu the Martial attacked the Shang king and established the Zhou Dynasty, the longest in China’s history.

The Zhou worshiped tian, and established the mandate of heaven as the right to rule.

The Zhou spread their rule through feudalism, and used a character-based written language to unify communication.

AN AGE OF CHANGE

Independent lords invaded the Zhou capital, driving the Zhou rulers out.The heads of the strongest feudal states became the true rulers of China, and it was a time of chaos.During this period of unrest, a number of great thinkers sought ways to put Chinese society back in order. Confucious was one of these great thinkers.

CONFUCIOUS

Confucianism, a code of behavior, has influenced Chinese thought for over 2,500 years.Confucius taught that sincerity, loyalty, and mutual respect should be the center of all relationships, and that obedience to one’s parents was vital.

Confucius taught that rulers should rule by good example, and act like a father to his people.

Mencius spread the ideas of Confucianism.

OPPONENTS OF CONFUCIANISM

Moists believed in equal love for all people, and that such universal love would bring benefits, such as peace.Legalists believed people were naturally bad and required a government of strict laws and harsh punishments to keep their evil under control.

Daoists believed human nature was neither good nor bad, and that people should live a simple and thoughtful life in harmony with nature.

The Qin Dynasty

The king of the state of Qin conquered all other feudal kings and became the first emperor of China.The emperor, Qin Shuhuangdi, worked to maintain power over the many warring states by dividing the empire into provinces with governors who reported to him.

THE LEGACY OF QIN

Qin ended the Chinese feudal system, and set up a system of government by bureaucracy.

Qin determined a set standard measurements, set one form of money, and decreed standard written characters.

Qin censored books and ideas that he believed challenged his power.

Qin oversaw the building of the Great Wall, which stretches for over 1,500 miles.

REVIVAL OF CONFUCIANISM

The Qin government was harsh and was overthrown and replaced by the Han dynasty in 206 B.C.The Han lifted the ban on books and encouraged the study of Confucianism.The Han rulers combined Legalism with Confucianism to create a strong government with strict laws led by an emperor who set a good example for his people.

DAILY LIFE IN THE EMPIRE

Only one in 10 Chinese people lived in a city. Most Chinese were farmers, living in the country.Cities were centers of government, education, entertainment, and trade.

ACHIEVEMENTS OF THE HAN DYNASTY

Under the Han Dynasty, China expanded the Silk Road trade, and invented the seismograph and paper.Han writers increased the number of Chinese characters, and created the first Chinese dictionary.The Han civilization created important works in medicine, mathematics, poetry, history, and art.