Transcript ANCIENT CHINA - Palmdale School District

ANCIENT CHINA
Prepared by Anita Billeter
Palmdale School District
with funding from
Jordan Fundamentals Grant
Keeping 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 characterbased 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.