Ancient China The Geography The Shang Dynasty The Chou Dynasty Government and Daily Life

Ancient China: The Geography  China’s size reflects the diversity of its terrain  Terrain is the type of land described by their physical features  South is comprised has of dense rainforests, north is covered with deserts and west is covered with mountain ranges  In north Gobi Desert is comprised mostly of mountains not deserts

The Yellow River

Ancient China: The Geography  Himalayans Mountains highest in the world  Melting snow from mountains creates the Yellow and Yangzi Rivers  Yellow river gets coloration from yellow dust from mountains  Rainfall decided on crop that would grow (wheat, millet and rice)

Ancient China: The Geography  Civilization in ancient China similar to Mesopotamia, Egypt and Indus Valleys  Created irrigation canals from Yellow River to water fields similar to other civilizations  Used geographic surveys to predict annual flooding of Yellow and Yangtze Rivers

The Shang Dynasty B.C.  Succeeded the last Xia ruler by rebellion  Economy was based on agriculture, silk trade, jade jewelry, and bronze  Shang kings ruled the capital and surrounding region  Appointed relatives to rule areas surrounding the capital  Relied on an organized military and cities surrounded by protective walls to maintain order in empire

The Shang Dynasty: Cultural Achievements  Writing system used ideograms  Ideograms were illustrations that stood for a sound  Had over 50,000 characters  Bronze pottery and weaponry high achievements in craftsmanship

The Shang Dynasty: Religion  Believed Pang-Gu, a great dragon created the earth  Goddess Nuwa created the people but there were class distinctions  Majority of gods are connected to nature to answer the mysterious of the world  Also had demons, ghosts and monsters

The Shang Dynasty: Religion  Ancestor worship dead relatives were contacted to intervene and influence the gods through prayer  Sought to honor deeds, memories and sacrifice of dead  Chinese sought to read future through oracle- bones

The Shang Dynasty: Daily Life  Family was most important social unit  One members bad behavior disgraced entire family  Male’s had voice in family affairs  Children respected parents and long to raise own families  Females obeyed husbands

The Shang Dynasty: Society  Royalty and nobles lived in lavish tiled homes and palaces  Homes were scented by gardens or spices  Horses and clothes of silk signified social rank  Elaborate tombs like Egyptians but had guards and animals buried alive with them

The Shang Dynasty: Society  Warriors were of a special class (specialized soldiers)  Outfitted with best bronze weaponry and war chariots  Farmers worked land assigned to them by nobles  During harvest period lived in bamboo homes near fields and served nobles requests  Extremely poor even expected to pay homage to nobles

The Shang Dynasty: Society  Merchants and Craftsmen did not contribute food to nobles nor part of nobility  Placed outside of class system  Not valued as men and during times of war not considered worth protecting

The Chou Dynasty: B.C.  Defeated the Shang in 1115 B.C.  To legitimize their rule they introduced the Mandate of Heaven, the idea of rule by divine right  Mandate of Heaven, stated that Heaven was concerned with welfare of humans and that it appointed specific people to rule fair and wisely  If they ruled unfairly a family member or families could revolt and overthrow them  Winner of conflict was the one who had favor from Heaven and destined to rule

The Chou Dynasty: B.C.  Chou was longest ruling dynasty  Expanded their rule by building national road system and canal system to unify country  Introduced government control of agriculture, which provided government with surplus food for times of famine or war