India and China, 3000 BCE to 500 CE

Early Civilization in India

New Empires in India

Early Chinese Civilizations

Rise and Fall of Chinese Empire

Early Civilization in India

Objectives:

1. Describe how India’s earliest cities provided the foundation for the

Aryans

2. Examine the caste system—a set of rigid

social categories in Indian society

The Land of India

The Indian subcontinent, isolated by the Indian Ocean,

the Himalaya, and dense jungle

*Himalaya, the highest mountains in

the world

*Ganges River, a chief region of Indian

culture

The Indus River valley, a relatively dry plateau

that forms the backbone of the modern state of

Pakistan

*Deccan, a plateau that extends from the

Ganges Valley to the southern tip of India

*Monsoon, a seasonal wind

pattern in southern Asia

Throughout history Indian farmers have depended on

these rains brought by the

Monsoons to grow their crops

India’s First Civilization

As in Mesopotamia and Egypt, early civilization in India and China emerged

in river valleys

Between 3000 BCE and 1500 BCE, the valleys of

the Indus River supported a flourishing civilization

The major cities Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro—the

Indus civilization

Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro

Harappa—35,000 inhabitants; Mohenjo-Daro—35,000 to

40,000

Walled cities and building made of mud brick; public wells, advanced drainage

systems

A system of chutes took household trash from houses to street-level garbage bins. Only a well-organized government could have maintained such

carefully structured cities

Rulers and the Economy

The Indus River flooded every year,

providing rich soil for the growing of wheat, barley, and peas, the

chief crops

Much of this trade was carried by ship via the

*Persian Gulf

The Arrival of the Aryans

Who Were the Aryans?

around 1500 BCE, a grouped of

nomadic peoples known as the

*Aryans moved south across the

Hindu Kush mountain range into the plains of northern India

Aryan Ways of Life

Organized in groups, the Aryans were a pastoral people with a strong warrior tradition

The introduction of iron, transforming regular farming

The creation of the iron plow, along with the use of irrigation, made it possible for the Aryans

to clear the dense jungle growth along the Ganges River and turn it into a rich farming

area

Aryans had no written language

by 1000 BCE, *Sanskrit—the

written language of the Aryans—was developed

Various Aryan leaders, known as

*rajas (princes), had carved out

small states

Society in Ancient India

India’s Social SystemThe *caste system of ancient India was a set of rigid social

categories that determined not only a person’s occupation and economic potential, but also his

or her position in society

*caste (jati)

In addition to the jati, Indian society was broadly divided into four major social classes

called varnas

The priests and the warrior (the top varna);

*Brahmans, priestly class; *Kshatriyas,

warriors

*Vaisyas, commoners (merchants or farmers)

*Sudras, peasants (manual labor)

*Untouchables, menial degrading tasks (trash,

dead bodies, non-human)

The Family in Ancient India

Equal-class marriage

Arranged marriage

Dowry

Suttee—required a wife to throw herself

on her dead husband’s flaming funeral pyre

Hinduism*Hinduism had its origins in the

religious beliefs of the Aryan peoples who settled in India after

1500 BCE

Early Hindus believed in the existence of a single force in the

universe—Brahman

It was the duty of the individual self, the atman, to seek to know this

ultimate reality

*Reincarnation is the belief that the individual soul is reborn in a

different form after death

*Karma, the force generated by a person’s actions that determined how the person will be

reborn

The concept of *dharma, or divine law, ruled

karma—requiring all that they do their duty

Reincarnation provided a religious basis for the

rigid divisions in Indian society

*Yoga, a method of training designed to lead to a union, or oneness, with God

Hundreds of deities were included in

Hinduism—including the three chief deities: Brahma the Creator,

Vishnu the Preserver, and Shiva the Destroyer

—often seen collectively as the

Brahman

Buddhism

In the sixth century,

*Buddhism appeared in

northern India and soon became a

rival of Hinduism

*Siddhartha Gautama, known

as the Buddha—”Enlightened

One”

The Story of the Buddha

The foothills of the Himalaya in c. 563 BCE to a ruling family

Protected from pain and suffering, but suddenly

encountered both

In reaction, he followed the example of the *ascetics who

practiced self-denial, but nearly starved to death

Entered a period of meditation, through which he reached

enlightenment

The Basic Principles of Buddhism

To reach *nirvana, one must believed the Four Noble

Truths and the Eightfold Path

1. Ordinary life is full of suffering

2. This suffering is caused by our desire to satisfy ourselves

3. The way to end suffering is to end desire for selfish goals and to see others as extensions of

ourselves4. The way to end desire is to

follow the Middle Path

1. Right view: We need to know the Four Noble Truths

2. Right intention: We need to decide what we really want

3. Right speech: We must seek to speak truth and to speak well of others

4. Right action: The Buddha gave five precepts—”do not kill, steal, lie, be

unchaste, drink alcohol, take drugs”5. Right livelihood: We must do work

that uplifts our being6. Right Effort

7. Right mindfulness: keep our minds under control

8. Right concentration: we must meditate to see the world in a new

way

Objectives:

1. Describe how India’s earliest cities provided the foundation for the

Aryans

2. Examine the caste system—a set of rigid

social categories in Indian society

The priestly class of Indian society was

A. the VaisyasB. the BrahmansC. the SudrasD. the Kshatriyas

Reincarnation is the Hindu belief that the individual soul

A. is reborn in a different formB. must follow the teachings of SiddharthaC. must worship the leader as a godD. of a woman is superior

In Hindu belief, karma is a force that

A. emanates from the BuddhaB. brings rains in summerC. determines how a person will be rebornD. serves the god Vishnu

Siddhartha denied the reality of

A. the AryansB. bodhi, or wisdomC. nirvana, the end of selfD. the material world

The Aryans developed a writing system called Sanskrit

A.to record their religious writings and legendsB. to keep track of the monsoonsC.to suppress the UntouchablesD.to maintain the rigid class structure

New Empires in India

Objectives:

1. Discuss why the Mauryan dynasty

flourished under asoka

2. Summarize how the Kushan kingdom

prospered

3. Identify the contributions of the Gupta

Empire in the areas of literature, architecture,

and science

The Mauryan Dynasty

India faced new threats from the west, first from

*Persia, which extended its empire into western India

Alexander the Great’s conquest into western

India gave rise to the first dynasty to control much of

India—a consequence of external incursion leading

to unification

The Founding of the Mauryan Dynasty

Chandragupta Mauryadrove out the foreign

forces and established the capital of his new

Mauryan Empire in northern India

The king divided his empire into provinces,

using large armies and a secret police that followed

his orders

The Reign of Asoka

The Mauryan Empire flourished during the reign of *Asoka, the grandson of Chandragupta Maurya—

greatest ruler in the history of India

Buddhism set up hospitals for both people and animals

After Asoka’s death in 232 BCE, the Mauryan Empire

began to decline

The Kushan Kingdom and the Silk Road

A number of new kingdoms arose along the edges of India in Bactria, known today as Afghanistan

Nomadic warriors seized power and established a new Kushan kingdom

The Kushans spread over northern India as far as the

central Ganges Valley

The Kushans prospered from trade between India and the Mediterranean Sea—largely through the *Silk Road (called so because silk was China’s

most valuable product)

The Silk Road, which had arisen sometime between 200 BCE and 100

CE, from *Changan, through Mesopotamia, to the Mediterranean

Only luxury goods were carried on the Silk Road, due to the danger and

expense of travel

silk, spices, teas, ivory, textiles, pepper, and porcelain

The Kingdom of the Guptas

The Kushan kingdom came to an end in the third century CE, when invaders from Persia

overran it

Samugragupta, expanded the empire into surrounding areas

Eventually the new kingdom of the Guptas became the dominant

political force throughout northern India

The greatest of its culture was reported by Chinese traveler,

*Faxian, who spent several years there in the 5th century

The Gupta Empire actively engaged in trade with China,

Southeast Asia, and the Mediterranean

Much of their wealth came from religious trade as

*pilgrims from across India and as far away as China came to

visit the major religious centers

Beginning in the late fifth century CE, invasions by nomadic *Huns from the

northwest gradually reduced the power of the empire

The World of Indian CultureLiterature:

A Lasting LegacyThe earliest known Indian literature comes from the

Aryan tradition in the form of the *Vedas

After the Aryan conquest of India and the development of a writing system, the Vedas

were written down in Sanskrit

India’s great historical epics—Mahabharata and Ramayana

The Mahabharata consists of over ninety thousand stanzas, making it

the longest poem in any written language

The most famous section of the book, the *Bhagavad Gita, is a

sermon by the god Krishna

The Ramayana is an account of the fictional ruler Rama, banished from the kingdom and forced to live as a

hermit in the forest

One of ancient India’s most famous authors was *Kalidasa, who lived

during the Gupta dynasty

The desire to spread the ideas of Gautama Buddha inspired the

creation ofgreat architecture: the pillar, the

stupa, and the rock chamber

Many stone pillars were erected along side roads to mark sites

related to events in Buddha’s life

A stupa was originally meant to house a relic of Buddha

Early architecture was the rock chamber, carved out of rock cliffs

in which monks lived

Architecture

Science

Many recognized that Earth was a sphere that rotated on its axis and

revolved around the sun

*Aryabhata, the most famous mathematician of

the Gupta Empire, was one of the first scientists

known to have used Algebra

the concept of Zero (0) and the adoption of it by Arabs

Objectives:

1. Discuss why the Mauryan dynasty

flourished under asoka

2. Summarize how the Kushan kingdom

prospered

3. Identify the contributions of the Gupta

Empire in the areas of literature, architecture,

and science

The Mauryan Empire flourished under Asoka who did all of the following except

A. convert to Buddhism B. build up India’s role in regional tradeC. set up hospitalsD. fear assassination

Silk was especially desired by

A. the ChineseB. the RomansC. BuddhistsD. Changan

Chinese merchants traded luxury goods for

A. spices, teas, porcelainB. woolen and linen clothes, glass, precious stonesC. silk from RomeD. Vedas

By the late fifth century AD, invasions by nomadic Huns

A. reduced the power of the GuptasB. earned large profits for the GuptasC. resulted in the rise of architectureD. drove out the Aryans

In the first century AD, in Bactria, known today as Afghanistan, the Kushan kingdom

A.fought the HunsB. invaded PersiaC. prospered from trade along the Silk RoadD. traded to obtain ivory, pepper, and textiles

Early Chinese Civilization

Objectives:

1. Characterize the rise and fall pattern of Chinese dynasties

2. Identify how the three schools of

thought about the nature of humans and the universe

emerged

The Geography of China

The *Huang He, or Yellow River, stretches across China for more

than 2,900 miles—yellow silt from *Mongolia to the Pacific

Ocean

The *Chang Jiang, or Yangtze River which empties into the

*Yellow Sea

Only 10 percent of the total land area is suitable for farming,

compared with 19 percent of the United States—the rest being

mountains and deserts

Geographical barriers—mountains and deserts—

isolated the Chinese people from peoples in

other parts of Asia

Contact with the Chinese were often marked by conflict. The northern

frontier of China became one of the areas of conflict in Asia as

Chinese armies tried to protect their precious

farmlands

The Shang Dynasty

Early Chinese civilization traditionally was founded by

the *Xia dynasty four thousand years ago

The second dynasty, the *Shang dynasty (c. 1750 to 1045 BCE), largely farming

society ruled by an *aristocracy—is an upper class whose wealth is based on land

and whose power is passed on from one generation to

another

Political and Social Structures

The king was also responsible for defending

the realm, and he controlled large armies,

which often fought on the fringes of the kingdom

These kings communicated with the gods through the use of

oracle bones

The king and his family were at the top of Shang society supported by the aristocracy—ruling over

the peasants

Religion and Culture under the Shang

The early Chinese had a strong belief in life after death. Remains of human sacrifices

found in royal tombs

From this belief in an afterlife would come the idea of the

veneration of ancestors

“ancestor worship”

The practice of burning replicas of physical objects to

accompany the depart on their journey to the next world; It was important to treat the

spirits well

The Zhou Dynasty

According to legend, the last of the Shang rulers

was a wicked tyrant who swam in “ponds of

wine”

This led the aggressive ruler of the state of Zhou

to revolt against the Shang and establish a

new *Zhou dynasty (800 years) the longest-lasting

dynasty in Chinese history

Political Structure

The Zhou dynasty continued the

political system of the rulers it had

overthrown

They fashioned an increasingly large

and complex bureaucracy—the

king was seen as the link between Heaven

and Earth

The Mandate of Heaven The Zhou dynasty claimed that it ruled China because it possessed

the *Mandate of Heaven

“Heaven”—impersonal law of nature through which order in the universe is kept through the Zhou

king

The king was expected to rule according to the proper “way”

called the *Dao—the duty to keep the gods pleased to keep natural

disaster

It set a “right to revolution” to overthrow a corrupt or evil ruler

Each founder of a new dynasty would

say that he had earned the Mandate

of Heaven

A continual cycle—a new dynasty

established its power, ruled

successfully for many years, and

then began to decline

The Fall of the Zhou Dynasty

The Zhou kingdom had been divided into several

small territories, and some of these territories began to evolve into powerful states that challenged the Zhou

ruler

Iron weapons, more powerful than bronze

weapons weapons, came into use—crossbow, a

Chinese invention

Life during the Zhou Dynasty

The peasants worked on lands owned by their

lord, but they also had land of their own, which

they farmed for their own

Trade in this period involved the exchange of local products that were

used on an everyday basis

Economic and Technological Growth

Significant economic growth and technological change

Irrigation was in wide use and large scale water project were set

in motion

The use of iron had led to the development of iron plowshares, which made it possible to plow land that had not yet been used

for farming

One of the most important items of trade in ancient China was silk,

found as far away as Athens, Greece

The Family in Ancient China

The family served as the basic economic and social unit

At the heart of the concept of family in China was the idea of

*filial piety—the duty of members of the family to

subordinate, a system in which every family member had his

or her place

Male supremacy was a key element in the social system of

ancient China

The Chinese Written Language

The most important cultural contribution of ancient China to later Chinese society was

the creation and development of the Chinese written

language

It was primarily pictographic and ideographic in form

Characters and Ideographs are characters that combine two or more pictographs to represent

an idea

The Chinese Philosophies

Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism

Hindus and Buddhists focused on the human

soul and rebirth, Chinese philosophers were concerned the

immediate world and how to create a stable

order

Confucianism

*Confucius, the “First Teacher” born in 551

BCE—he hoped to get a job as a political adviser

A faithful band of followers revered him as a great teacher, recorded

his sayings in the Analects

*Confucianism—fashioned around his

teachings

China was faced with one basic question: how to restore order

to this society

Confucius’s interest in philosophy was political and

ethical—not spiritual

The key to proper behavior was to behave in accordance with the Dao: duty and humanity

Five relationships: parent and child, husband and wife, older

sibling and younger, older friend and younger, ruler and

subject

Daoism

a system of ideas based on the teachings of *Laozi, a

contemporary of Confucius

The chief ideas of Daoism are discussed in a short work

known as Tao Te Ching

Daoists believe that the true way to follow the will of Heaven is not action but

inaction—act spontaneously and let nature take its course

by not interfering with it

Legalism

proposed that human beings were evil by nature

—harsh laws and stiff punishments

Legalists believed that a strong ruler was required to

create an orderly society

People were not capable of being good—fear of harsh punishment would cause

the common people to serve the interests of the

ruler

Objectives:

1. Characterize the rise and fall pattern of Chinese dynasties

2. Identify how the three schools of

thought about the nature of humans and the universe

emerged

Chinese script used pictographs, which were

A. based on Tao Te ChingB. duty and humanityC. symbols or characters representing an objectD. sound symbols

The Legalists believed that a strong ruler was needed

A. to support DaoismB. to trade with the Indian EmpireC. to keep orderD. to Show compassion

Confucianism encouraged the idea of

A. duty and humanityB. the evil nature of humansC. aristocratic warlordsD. following universal order

Harmony with nature and the universal order are belief of

A. DaoismB. ConfucianismC. ZoroastrianismD. the Legalists

All of the following were used in ancient China except

A. the crossbowB. alphabetic scriptC. silk clothD. iron plows

Rise and Fall of Chinese Empires

Objectives:

1. Describe the establishment of the strong central

governments of the Qin and Han dynasties and why they became the basis for future

dynasties

2. Summarize the technical and cultural achievements made during the Qin and

Han dynasties, including the invention of paper and written literary classics

The Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE

400 to 200 BCE, China experienced bloody civil

war

In 221 BCE, the Qin ruler declared the creation of a

new dynasty

*Qin Shihuangdi—the first Qin Emperor

Changes under the Qin Dynasty

*The Qin dynasty changed Chinese

politics. Legalism was adopted as the

regime’s official ideology

Books presenting ideas opposed to the official views were publicly

burned

Fashioning of a centralized state and the creation of a *censorate—inspectors who checked

on government officials to make sure they were

doing their jobs which reported directly to the

throne

Qin Shihuangdi unified the Chinese world and

was particularly aggressive in foreign

affairs—advancing into Vietnam and extending

the Chinese borders

The Great WallThe Qin emperor’s major foreign concern was in the

north

A nomadic people known to the Chinese as the *Xiongnu lived

to the north near the *Gobi desert

The Xiongnu had mastered the art of fighting on horseback

*Great Wall of China—the defense against the tribes to the

North, constructed of loose stone, sand, or piled rubble

The Fall of the Qin Dynasty

Following Qin Shihuangdi’s

death, a period of civil war erupted resulting in a new

dynasty taking power

The Han Dynasty (202 BCE to 220 CE)

One of the greatest and most long-lasting dynasties in Chinese history is the *Han

dynasty founded by *Liu Bang, a peasant origin who became

known by his title of Han Gaozu

Political Structure

Confucian principles, rather than Legalism, soon became the basis for the creation of a

new state philosophy

The Han rulers also kept the system of local government that divided the empire into

provinces and counties

Under the Han dynasty, China was a vast empire

whose population increased dramatically

Expansion of the Empire

In addition to providing a strong

central government, the Han emperor

continued to expand the Chinese Empire

*Han Wudi added the southern regions below

the Chang Jiang into the empire

Technology in the Han Empire

New technology added to the economic prosperity of

the Han Era

Textile manufacturing, water mills for grinding grain, iron

casting, rudder and fore-and-aft rigging

Heavy cargoes to travel, particularly into the *Indian

Ocean

The Fall of the Han Empire

Han Empire began to fall into decay

Weak rulers amused themselves with the pleasures of court life,

the power of the central government began to decline

Nomadic raids on Chinese territory continued in the north

Rebel armies sacked the Han capital in 190 CE; A general seized control but was unable to solidify

power, leading to civil war

Culture in Qin and Han China

terra-cotta (hardened clay) soldiers — a re-creation of Qin Shihuangdi’s imperial guard and was meant to be with the emperor on his journey to the next

world

Six thousand figures were found in the first pit alone

—molded, fired, and painted

Objectives:

1. Describe the establishment of the strong central

governments of the Qin and Han dynasties and why they became the basis for future

dynasties

2. Summarize the technical and cultural achievements made during the Qin and

Han dynasties, including the invention of paper and written literary classics

They system of walls linked by Qin Shihuangdi

A. the civil divisionB. terra-cottaC. the military divisionD. the Great Wall of China

All of the following existed during the Han Empire except

A. water millsB. paper C. gunpowderD. iron casting

The Qin and Han dynasties both

A. had strong central governmentsB. established religionsC. started civil warsD. chose officials by birth

In the Han Empire, land-owning farmers

A. provided free laborB. paid heavy taxesC. had their farms enlargedD. traded by sea

In 1974, farmers east of Xian discovered

A. Confucian classicsB. terra-cotta statuesC. the first rudderD. the Great Wall