Chinese Legacies There were many inventions created by the Chinese, which helped them in every day life, and eventually spread to Europe through trade. Examples: silk cloth, writing system, compass, paper, and porcelain.

Zhou Dynasty No Centralized Government Rulers were given positions normally by heredity. When people got greedy they would fight. Zhou Dynasty made dykes which helped to stop the flooding.

Writing Writing Chinese culture developed a written language during the Shang dynasty. At first, it used pictures for words (like cuneiform). Later it was reformed to shapes, called characters, which don’t look exactly like what they represent. There are over 50,000 characters!

Qin Dynasty Took over China by force from the Zhou. Autocracy- the emperor held all the power. (this was created to deal with the problems in the Zhou dynasty.) Created the Great Wall of China to keep out invaders. The Great Wall connected the city of Bejing to Hanzhou.

Han Dynasty Took control over the Qin Dynasty. They kept the same government and had so much influence, that people today even consider themselves “people of Han”. Silk Road- developed because by trade of silk along the Han Dynasty borders. - the silk road was about 4000 miles and proposed many natural problems for the travelers. (sandstorms, heat, robbers)

Han Continued Leveling- economic policy to help the failing farm crops. (first sign of government help) Civil Service System- System that runs the day-to-day business of the government. People were elected to this service. It was put in place to help people get on board with the government.