RIVER DYNASTIES IN CHINA

(based on Ch.2, sec.4)

Ancient China – Physical Geography

Natural Resources and Agriculture• North China plane (the Yellow River /

North China Plane) = millet and wheat (loess)

• South China (the Yangzi River Valley) = rice

• Agriculture = collective labor

Xia Dynasty (2183-1752 BCE?) • Mythical? Not enough evidence• Chinese vs. Non-Chinese interpretation • Shang Sources (Xia people – opposite)

The Shang Dynasty(also known as the Yin Dynasty

1750 BCE – 1045 BCE)

The Shang Dynasty – Religious Beliefs

Religious Beliefs (cont.)

• Oracle Bones / Scapulimancy

Examples of Inscriptions on Oracle Bones:

• Crack-making on jiashen (day 21), Que divined: “Lady Hao’s (a consort of Wu Ding) childbearing will be good.” (Prognostication:) The king read the cracks and said: “If it be on a ding-day that she gives birth, there will be prolonged luck.” (Verification:) (After) thirty-one days, on jiayin (day 51), she gave birth; it was not good; it was a girl.

Religious Beliefs (cont.)- Burial Tombs

• Practiced Human and Animal Sacrifice (to appease an “angry ancestral spirit”)

• Human sacrifice – mostly prisoners of war• Buried were the objects useful in the

afterlife

Religious Beliefs – Burial Tombs (cont.)

Model Family = Model Society

• Community (family) > individual

• Respect / obedience for parents = respect / obedience to government

• Men > Women (preference for boys over girls)

Social Classes

• Highly stratified society (by hereditary rank and occupation)

KINGS(SCHOLARS? – probably not yet!)

ARISTOCRATS (NOBLES)PEASANTSARTISANS

MERCHANTS

Shang Dynasty – Perception of the World (Us vs. Them)

• Political control through direct confrontation and “tribute”

• Circles of civilized people

• Shang towns – square – Zhangguo – The Central Country (sinocentric view!!!)

Ancient Chinese Characters – connections to modern Chinese

Characters

The Zhou Dynasty 1045 BCE – 221 BCE

Zhou Dynasty – Accounts Vilifying the Shang

• From Chinese sources on the last Shang king: “. . . [was] dominated by women, given up to

sensual self-indulgence with his 'pools of wine and forests of meat,' oppressing the people with his taxes, carving open a pregnant woman to examine the fetus, and killing or imprisoning all who remonstrated against him. He was also famous for his great speed and strength and fond of battling wild animals, and he was a noted devourer of human flesh who fed several feudal lords to his court and even duped King Wen into eating his own son.”

The Zhou Rule• “Feudal” system • More decentralized as the time went on• Zhou kings continued supremacy in

sacrifice rituals (other kings claimed their connection to them)

• Same culture, though different political territories

• Education – luxury for the rich, until Confucius’ ideas become popular

Zhou Dynasty - Feudalism• Exchange of land for loyalty (King grants

pieces of land to his nobles (vassals) in exchange for loyalty)

The Concept of Heaven

• Gradually replaces Shangdi (Di) in the writings of Zhou aristocracy

• Replaced with TIAN (English translation “HEAVEN”)

• Heaven (in Chinese culture) – does NOT mean “a place to which one's soul goes, or a state of being one's soul attains, after death”

The Dynastic Cycle and the Mandate of Heaven

The Mandate of Heaven (cont.)

The Warring States Period (480 BCE -221BCE)

Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty

• See Textbook:

• Qing Dynasty – Ch.4, sec.4• Han Dynasty – Ch.7, sec.3