China

Dynasties

Xia (about 2200 -1800 BCE)– Only legend– Farming begins along Huang He

Shang Dynasty1800 - 1100 BCE • Built walled cities to keep

invaders out- Anyang, capital city

• Made ivory and jade statues

• Wove silk into elegant colored clothes

• Perfected metal casting- produced some of the finest bronze objects ever made

• many oracle bones

Map of the Shang

Oracle Bones

•1st known examples of writing in China•Used to predict the future- method of divination•Historical writing on tortoise shells and bones. This shows that a complete system of written signs was formed in this early age.

Zhou Dynasty

1100 - 220s BCE• Agricultural system- nobles own land & peasants

worked land– term feudal has often been applied to the Zhou period

(compared with medieval Europe)

• Iron came into general use• Iron plow, irrigation system, and flood control• Built roads & expanded foreign trade• Added crossbow (centuries earlier than

Europeans)

Mandate of Heaven

• Last Shang king considered corrupt and a fool

• Overthrown by a Zhou overlord• Justification for rule = “mandate of

heaven”• If the ruler does not rule well, he will lose

this mandate and will be overthrown

Schools of Thought

• Warring States Period– Toward end of the Zhou Dynasty

• Much strife, pain, death• Farmers had to fight in armies which produced

many crop failures and food shortages• Soon the empire became weak• AND brought about much political and philosophical

thought--how to best organize a society!– Confucianism– Daoism– Legalism

Confucianism

• Confucius– Taught social harmony and good government

would come to China if people lived according to principles of ethics, good conduct and moral judgment

Followers of ConfuciusMencius

Believed people are born GOODTherefore, society should nurture, educate, support people

Xunzi believe people are naturally BAD but can be guided/forced to goodness

Five Relationships

Ruler/SubjectParent/Child

Husband/WifeOld/Young

Friend/Friend

Each relationship has certain responsibilities to follow

Legalism

• Founder - Han Feizi – Studied Xunzi

• Strong, dominating government should rule

• FORCE order and take power• People by nature selfish and untrustworthy• Peace and prosperity only achieved by

threatening severe punishment – Cruelty = OK

Daoism

• Founder = Lao Zi• Harmonious living with the universe• Rejected formal social structures and idea

that people must fill specific roles in society• Yin and Yang

– opposites in harmony– believed to be present in all nature– Yin- cool, dark, female, & submissive– Yang- warm, light, male, & aggressive– For harmony, the two must be in balance

• Don’t take forceful action– Wuwei (“non-action”)

Qin Dynasty

• Duke of Qin dominates neighbors after Warring States period & unifies China (221 - 210 BCE)

• First emperor! Qin Shihuangdi• Capital = Xian• Centralized bureaucracy- less power to local lords

• Forced labor: Great Wall of China, roads, bridges, irrigation

• Standardized weights, measures, money, law, writing• Burned books and even burned alive his scholarly

critics!

Tomb of the 1st Emperor

• Emperor died in 210 BCE• 700,000 laborers built tomb in

Xian• Elaborate underground

palace!• Terra cotta soldiers (and

other sculpture)– Qin wanted the afterlife to

be the same as his life on earth

– To substitute for the actual humans, Qin ordered a massive clay army to be produced for his protection

Discovery• In 1974, workers digging a

well discovered a pottery head of a human figure

• Some 8,000 figures have been uncovered grouped in battle order

• The army consisted of 7,000 warriors: archers, foot soldiers, cavalrymen, and charioteers of various rank, 500 chariot horses, 130 war chariots, and 110 cavalry horses

Terracotta Army

Han Dynasty

• After Shihuangdi’s death, peasants revolted and formed a strong army to defeat the emperor thus ending the Qin Dynasty

• Liu Bang, a military officer from a peasant background, led the defeat of the Qin Dynasty and declared himself emperor of the new Han dynasty….

The Glorious Han

• 206 BCE - 220 CE (over 400 years!)• Balance between centralized control and

rule in local regions by lords• Followed Confucian ideals• Built roads, canals, and more Wall • Expanded empire- conquered lands to the

north, including Korea and Manchuria, south into Southeast Asia and as far as northern India

Education & Leadership

• Imperial university based on Confucianism• Government jobs were given to educated people

(in the past given to family members or the aristocracy)

• This system of government was called Civil Service (based on merit)

• Learning became the main focus of society- expanded the language and wrote the first Chinese dictionary

Fall of the Han Empire

• As the empire grew in size, its borders were often under attack. Eventually, the empire’s great expansion became its downfall.