1. 8/16 EQ: How were religion and government related in Ancient China?
Do Now: Study the physical map of China, then answer the questions on your handout!

3. Ancient China: Geography
China’s earliest civilization developed along the Huang He (yellow river) river as well as the Yangtze river.
The yellow river flooded unpredictably and provided much needed fertile soil but was called China’s sorrow because when it flooded, dams sometimes broke and killed crops and causing starvation.
The Himalayas to the south kept China’s early civilization Isolated from the Indus valley civilization.

4. The Shang Dynasty
Religious Beliefs – The ancient Chinese were like earlier other river valley civilizations in that they were Polytheistic They prayed to many gods and nature spirits, but believed that gods would not respond to the pleas of mere mortals. Therefore, the Chinese began Ancestral Worship because it was believed that they could get the ears of the gods.

5. The Oracle Bone
[Charge:] In the next ten days will there be a disaster? [Prognostication:] The king, reading the cracks, said, "There will be no harm; there will perhaps be the coming of alarming news." [Verification:] When it came to the fifth day, ding-you, there really was the coming of alarming news from the west. Zhi Guo, reporting, said, "The Du Fang [a border people] are besieging in our eastern borders and have harmed two settlements." The Gong-fang also raided the fields of our western borders.

7. The Zhou Dynasty
In 1027 B.C a group of people claiming ancestry to the Zhou family marched out of their kingdom on the western frontier to overthrow the Shang. They set up the Zhou Dynasty.
To justify their rebellion against the Shang, the Zhou promoted the idea of the Mandate of Heaven, or the divine right to rule. In other words, they believed that their ancestors chose them to rule.
The Zhou rewarded their supporters by granted them control over different regions. This is called Feudalism in which local lords governed their own lands and owed loyalty in return.