Chinese River Valleys

Geography Natural barriers protect from East  Himalayas and Taklamakan Desert  Isolation = self-sufficient  “Middle Kingdom” Huang He (Yellow River) and Yangtze River  Fertile soil called loess – blown by the winds from deserts  10% of land is arable  Flooding could be disastrous, nicknamed: “China’s Sorrow” Fertile land support large population

FLOODING, FISHING, AND TOXIC RUNOFF The Yellow and Yangtze Rivers Today

…?

The control of water is becoming a point of conflict between neighboring countries

SHANG ZHOU QIN Early Chinese History

The Shang Dynasty BCE Big claim to fame!  First rulers to leave written records  Oracle bones Built cities of wood  Wealthy within the city walls  Poor outside the city walls Constantly at war – overthrown by the Zhou ( BCE) who created the Mandate of Heaven

Oracle Bone from the Shanghai Museum

Family Religious Beliefs People outside China = barbarians  Ethnocentrism (belief that your civilization is superior) Loyalty to the family Filial Piety Women inferior  Arranged marriages Mulan - Honor Mulan Family ancestors influenced life (+/-) Spirits were not gods Paid respect to spirits Mulan - Family Spirits Mulan Chinese Culture

Writing System No connection between China’s spoken and written language  AKA – One can read Chinese without being able to speak a word of it  People all over China could read it even if the spoken language was very different  Written language helped unify a large, diverse land 1,500 characters to be barely literate 10,000 to be a scholar

1) Traditional 2) Simplified 3) Pinyin 4)English

These have been translated to pinyin

Easy to figure out Still easy to figure out

Look what I found as a result?

And…I’m lost