ANCIENT CHINA

• Northern China – Drier– Colder– shorter growing season– wheat

• Southern China– More rain– Warmer– longer growing season– rice

• Huang R.=Yellow R.

• Flows 2,900 miles , from west to east into the Yellow Sea

• Called the “Yellow River”, because loess gives it a yellow tint

• Loess: fine, fertile yellowish soil

• The Huang river is prone to violent, unpredictable floods.

• Because of this, it is often called “China’s Sorrow”.

• Early Chinese farmers built dikes to protect crops

• Dikes slowed the river’s flow• Thus more silt deposited on

the river bottom• This had the unintended

result of making the river level higher and higher

• Then the river flooded even more easily

• “ the government and the people go on building dikes until the level of the river becomes slightly higher than the surrounding country . . It would be better to follow the nature of the water. . . The water-ways would keep themselves in order and there would be much less danger from floods breaking through, with all the harm they bring about.” – Chang Jung, Engineer, 1BC

• Today the Huang flows 12 feet above the surrounding land.

• Chang (Yantze) River flows 3,434 miles, west to east. The river cuts a deep channel through its valley

• Xi River also flows w to e, about 1,200 miles long

• China separated from the civilizations of India, Mesopotamia, and Egypt by great distances, rugged mountains, and harsh deserts

• Thus China was isolated China from the civilizations and India, Mesopotamia and Egypt.

• China developed its own culture; it was probably influenced less by other cultures than any other people in ancient times.

• Influences from other cultures can be good, or bad.

• China did have regular contact with nomadic herders who lived north of China.

• Sometimes these northern nomadic herders traded peacefully with China.

• Often they attacked China.

• China considered the northern nomadic herders barbarians.

• China had a strong sense of its identity

• China called itself “Zhongguo” which means “Middle Kingdom”, because they thought of themselves in as in the middle of the world.

• Chinese history is traditionally divided into “dynasties”, families than pass leadership down through their family

XIA DYNASTY about 2200BC-1600BC

• No written records exist of this period, Chinese legend says this was the first dynasty

• The Xia dynasty centered on the Huang River.

XIA DYNASTY

• Myths/Legends from this period include Pangu and Yu– Pangu – creation story

• First there was chaos. The Chaos formed into an egg. Pangu was born from the egg.

• Eventually everything in the world was made from his body parts.

SHANG-Government & Military

• Centered on the Huang R. • Ruled by a king who was assisted by

complex bureaucracy• The government supervised irrigation

and flood control• Military used war chariots & bronze

weapons • Last capital - Anyang

XIA DYNASTY– Yu: water engineer who drained

away floodwater, and became a ruler.

• Was the son of Gun, a water-engineer • A terrible flood occurred, Gun was

unable to control it, and was executed

• The King appointed Yu to take his father’s place

• Instead of just building more dikes, Yu dug channels to take away the excess water, and to use for irrigation

• Yu worked constantly for 13 years, with backbreaking labor. It worked!

• The King appointed Yu as the next ruler

Xia (2200BC-1600BC )

• Achievements – Improved methods of agriculture – Made bronze from copper + tin – Buried nobles with many grave goods &

with sacrificed servants – Made offering to deceased ancestors

SHANG Dynasty: About 1600BC-1050BC

• First dynasty of which we have written records

Royal Shang Tombs

• Many royal Shang tombs have been found and excavated near Anyang.

• The tombs are large, with luxury items in them, as well as many bodies of people sacrificed.

• Often the people who were sacrificed were beheaded.

ROYAL SHANG TOMBS• Only royal tomb found that was not looted

by grave rovers was the tomb of Fu Hao, a wife of King Wu Ding.

• She was a warrior queen, who often led the army.

• The tomb is a modest size• Royal corpse in a lacquered coffin

– Remains of 6 dogs & 16 servants• Altogether Fu Hao's tomb contained:

– 468 bronze objects including weapons, bells, knives, mirrors,

– 755 jade objects– 63 stone objects– 5 ivory objects– 564 bone objects including nearly 500 bone hairpins – pottery objects– 6,900 pieces of cowry shell– Sixteen other skeletons, presumably sacrificed at Fu

Hao’s death.

SHANG-Agriculture

• Economy based on agriculture; raised millet & rice; raised pigs & chickens for meat; horses for labor.

• Used very simple tools of wood & stone; used irrigation.

• Most people were subsistence farmers

CRAFTS-Silk

• Made Silk• Grew mulberry trees. • Fed leaves to silk

caterpillars • Caterpillars spin cocoons• Boiled the cocoons • Unwound the cocoons • Spun the silk thread• Wove thread into

beautiful, strong cloth.

• It is believed that the Chinese first started making silk around 2,700BC. Legend has it that Empress Si Ling Chi discovered silk when a silkworm moth cocoon fell from a mulberry tree into her tea. After some experiment, she finally managed to weave the silk filament into a piece of fabric.

• Silk was considered China’s most valuable trade commodity, resulting in the famous Silk Road trading route. Silk making was a closely-guarded government secret until AD300 when it was leaked out to India. Then other people began making it

Other CRAFTS

• Made jade ornaments, including burial ornaments. Jade was believed to have magical properties

• Making bronze weapons & ornaments

• Making fine pottery from kaolin (fine white clay) with a hard glaze

CALENDAR• Used 2 calendars: Lunar calendar and Solar

calendar• Lunar month had 29 days. • The king’s skilled priest-astronomers

determined the number of days to be added to 12 lunar months to make up a solar year

• A king’s popularity depended upon the success of the harvest, which depended in part on when the people planted, which depended upon the accuracy of the calendar.

RELIGION• Polytheistic Religion. Chief God –

Shang di. There were gods of natural forces under him.

• Ancestor veneration. • Also believed in kindly dragons,

including one who protected rivers

• Animism: religious belief that spirits inhabit natural things

Ancestor veneration

• People could not pray directly to Gods.

• People prayed to ancestors, who talked to the Gods for them.

• Set up an altar to the ancestors, with plaques with the names of the ancestors on them.

• Made offerings to the ancestors, asking for good fortune or advice.

CHINESE WRITING –ORACLE BONES

• First Chinese writing was on Oracle Bones• Oracle bones were animal bones or tortoise

shells on which a priest had written a question• Used to ask the ancestors a question• Then the bone or shell was touched with a hot

poker & it cracked• The crack was interpreted to give the answer:

yes or no. • Many questions were asked by the Shang kings.

The questions have taught historians a lot about Shang history.

ORACLE BONES

EARLY CHINESE WRITING

• The first characters were pictographs-simple drawings of objects

• Then they developed ideographs- symbols that represented an idea

• Pictographs & ideographs represented the thing or idea, but had no relationship to the sound of the spoken word. Some ideographs added a phonetic sound sign to show how to pronounce it.

• Symbols could be combined to form new ones

FALL OF THE SHANG-1050BC

• The Shang were weakened from continually battling northern barbarians

• The Zhou, a people who lived to the West of the Shang Empire, made an alliance with nearby tribes.

• The Zhou overthrew the Shang and started a new Chinese dynasty

• Zhou justified their overthrow of the Shang by the Theory of the Mandate of Heaven.

“MANDATE OF HEAVEN” and the “DYNASTIC CYCLE”

• A dynasty is founded by a powerful leader, who is energetic & conscientious

• The is a period of power and prosperity• With each generation the rulers become lazier and less

competent* higher taxes* fewer social services* natural disasters begin

• Heaven removes the “Mandate of Heaven” from the old dynasty and gives it to someone new

• There is a rebellion, and the old dynasty if overthrown• The new dynasty, that has the Mandate of Heaven, takes

over

MANDATE OF HEAVEN & THE DYNASTIC CYCLE

• It is self justifying. If someone manages to successfully overthrow a dynasty, it is “proof” that the new dynasty has the mandate of heaven.

Mandate of Heaven and the Dynastic Cycle

• The Zhou dynasty historians made up this theory to justify the overthrow of the Shang dynasty by the Zhou.

• For instance, they said that that the last ruler of the Shang dynasty was horribly corrupt, drank too much, had wild orgies. He would devise horrible punishments, and even made a girl who refused him into a paste which he ate.

ZHOU DYNASTY-Government

• Long dynasty: 1050-256BC, but Zhou did not really rule all China the whole time.

• Zhou king gave large pieces of land to relatives & friends, who became the nobles.

• These relatives & friends ruled their lands, In exchange, they give the King loyalty military service when he requests it.

• The relatives & friends of the King, who held lands, passed them to their descendants, but each generation renewed its pledge of loyalty to the Shang King.

• This type of de-centralized government is often called feudalism, a system in which the main ruler delegates authority over lands to nobles.

ZHOU-change in status• 1050BC- Zhou king ruled with the help of nobles, who were loyal

to him. This began the period of the period of Western Zhou

• Gradually some nobles became less loyal & more independent.

• 771BC-Zhou China was invaded by northern barbarians. The King killed, but his son fled to the east, sets up a new capital, and ruled a smaller area. This began the period of the Eastern Zhou

• From this point the Zhou kings loose power and prestige.

• By 400sBC – Nobles no longer obeyed the Zhou King at all, although he continued to “reign”. This began the period of the “Warring States”. – Nobles toke the title King in their own lands– Nobles waged contual war on each other--This was (ironically) a time when great ideas and philosophies arose:

* Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism.

GREAT ACHIEVEMENTS OF ZHOU Dynasty

* Economic & technological progress* Began to use iron-better farm tools- more food-

population

* Began to use money – increased trade & prosperity Coins had holes and were strung on strings of 1000

coins each.

* The feudal nobles built roads, canals, and some built walls to protect their lands.

MORE ACHIEVEMENTS OF ZHOU DYNASTY

CULTURAL ACHIEVEMENTS:

* Scholars and poets wrote great, classic books. They were written on slivers of wood bound together.

* Most important philosophies established: • Confucianism-Respect!• Daoism-FOLLOW THE WAY OF NATURE!• Legalism-OBEY THE RULES OR ELSE!

QIN DYNASTY: 221BC-206BC

• 200sBC: China was a collection of “warring states”• CHENG, the ruler of QIN (one of the feudal states)

began conquering and defeating the others. • CHENG followed Legalist philosophy (strict laws and

harsh punishments are necessary to keep order)• By 221BC, CHENG, ruler of Qin, had defeated all the

other “warring states”. • CHENG took the title Shi Huangdi –Qin Shi Huang Ti-

1st Emperor!!!!• Established Qin dynasty, a short dynasty, only about 15

years. (“China” comes from Qin, also spelled Chin)

QIN GOVERNMENT

• Abolished the old feudal states & divided China into 36 districts over which he exerted total control.

• Established an autocracy-emperor had total control

• forced all nobles families to live in his capital-Chang-an

• Imposed strict laws, harsh punishments, high taxes

Qin – imposed uniformity

• Imposed uniformity throughout China in

- Weights and measures

• -Money

• -Style of Chinese writing

• -Even the axle widths of carts!

QIN- Represssion of dissent

• Banned and burned all books he considered useless, that is, all books other than practical “how-to” manuals.

• Killed – buried alive – about 400 Confucian scholars, so they could not disagree with him.

Qin – Big Building Projects

*Repaired and extended roads and canals

*Connected walls across the north to form one long wall – the “Great Wall”- over 1500 miles long. Built by forced labor of peasants, many of whom died.

* Built his own incredible tomb, guarded by army of terra-cotta warriors.

QIN: Fall in 206

• Qin Shi Huangdi died. His son briefly took over.

• Anger boiled over and a rebel army overthrew the Qin dynasty.

• Several leaders struggled for power. Liu Bang, a commoner who had risen to become a general, won the power struggle and took power. He started the Han dynasty.

HAN DYNASTY 206BC-220AD

• Founded by Liu Bang (the general who won the power struggle following the overthrow of the Qin dynasty)

• Lasted about 400 years!! Much longer than the Qin dynasty!!

• The Han emperors kept the tightly centralized government started by Qin Shi Huangdi.

• However, in general, the Han emperors were milder & more moderate in the way they ruled.

• Han rulers followed the philosophy of Confucianism, rather than Legalism

Chinese “Civil Service System”

• System of giving government jobs to men who passed a difficult written exam

• These government officials who passed it handled the day-to-day business of government throughout China.

• The exam was based on knowledge of Chinese Confucian philosophy, literature, poetry.

• Theoretically, the test was open to any male, but most men who passed it were from upper class families.

• Eventually, the exam was in 3 stages: local, regional, national

• Emperor Wudi (Wu-ti) started a university to prepare men to take the exam.

Emperor Wudi (Wu-ti) (140BC-87BC): Economic policies

• Leveling*Economic policy of price control on basic food products

*Government bought up grain in years of good harvest, stored it,

and sold it to people in bad years at a fixed price. Food prices stayed the same.

• Government Monopolies* Established a government monopoly on the production of iron, salt, and alcoholic beverages in order to get more revenue for the

government without raising taxes

Wudi: Military Achievements

• Fought and defeated the Xiongnu (Huns)

• Expanded the borders of China

• Used arranged marriages of Chinese princesses to foreign chieftains to help insure peace.

Wudi & the Silk Road

• Wudi sent Zhang and 100 men west from Chang-an (Xi’an) the capital to make alliances with neighboring people against the Xiongnu.

• Made contacts with people to the west & started the famous trade route called the Silk Road

INVENTIONS DURING THE HAN

• Paper. Made from ground-up plant material.

• Magnetic compass. Originally a piece of lodestone floated on water or placed on a bronze disk. Aligned N-S.

• Wheel-barrow

• Seismograph: detected earth quakes.

• Chang-An (Xi’an)

• A million people

• Narrow streets, markets, temples

• Rich –large luxurious houses

• Poor – often homeless

Philosophies/Religions of China

• Ancient Chinese beliefs

• 3 great philosophies developed in China between 600BC-300BC

Confucianism

Daoism

Legalism

* Buddhism came into China from India

Ancient Chinese Beliefs

• Polytheism-Ancient Chinese Gods

• Prayer (veneration) to Ancestors

• Belief that there should be always bea balance ofYin & Yangfemale maledark lightpassive active

Confucius – “Kong”

• Started by Kong Fuzi (551BC-479BC) whom we call Confucius

• Born 551BC,in state of Lu, ,during the period of the Warring States

• His father died when he was 3, family left in poverty

• Nonetheless, he was very intelligent & received a good education

• Married & had 3 children

Confucius – “Kong”

• Developed ideas about what would make a society, a government, and individual, good and just.

• Became a traveling teacher, teaching his ideas.

• Held several public offices, where he tried to put his ideas into practice.

• Jealous political enemies got him removed from his political office.

• He returned to his home in Lu, and died at age 72.

Confucianism:

• Analects-teachings of Confucius.

• What Confucius did not talk about:

God(s), life after death

• What Confucius emphasized:

Ethics (right behavior);

How to have a good and just society & government

CONFUCIAN-Virtues• Kind-heartedness; humaneness. empathy for others

(Ren)• Carrying out old traditions and rituals; using good

manners toward everyone; treating people properly, taking care of inferiors, showing respect to superiors. (Li)

• Doing what is right for it’s own sake, not for any personal gain (Yi)

• Filial piety-Extreme respect for parents (Hisiao) • Education-learning as much as you can so that you are

in a better position to help others.

5 Relationships• Society is made up of 5 basic relationships:

ruler to subjectfather to sonolder brother to younger brotherhusband to wifefriend to friend

* Only the last relationship is equal. In the others is a superior and an inferior.

* Superiors should take care of inferiors, and set a good example. Inferiors should obey and respect superiors.

• If we do this, society will be stable and just, & people will be happy. There will be very little need for punishment.

• Filial piety is the extreme respect for parents.

• Allowing Mosquitoes to Feast on His BloodDuring the Han Dynasty a boy named Wu Meng (1) was already serving his parents in exemplary filial piety although he was just eight years old. The family was so poor that they could not even afford a gauze net against the mosquitoes. Therefore every night in the summer swarms of mosquitoes would come and bite them. Wu Meng let them all feast on his naked stomach. Even though there were so many, he did not drive them away. He feared that the mosquitoes, having left him, would instead bite his parents. His heart was truly filled with love for his parents. – The Twenty-Four Examples of Filial Piety were chosen

and compiled by Kuo Chü-ching during the Yuan Dynasty (1280-1368 CE)

Confucianism-Government & Education

• Rulers should have virtue and rule mainly by example. The ruler’s main concern should be the well-being of the people.

• People should obey the ruler. If the ruler has virtue, the people will willingly obey him. The ruler is like the “father” of the people.

Education

• Men should seek education. Education can make a morally good even better. It can put a man in a position to be of more help to others.

Confucianism,cont

• Confucianism as taught by Kong is a philosophy, not a religion.

• Later, however, Confucian temples were established where Confucius and his followers were worshiped

• Mencius was his most famous follower. He emphasized* people are good by nature* A good environment brings out the goodness

in people.* People will willingly obey good rulers.

If rulers oppress the people, people have the right to rebel against them. * Book of the teachings of Confucius-Analects

• Mencius said, “Water, it is true is not inclined to flow either east or west, but does it not have a preference for flowing downward? Goodness is to human nature like flowing downward to water. There are no people who are not good and no water that does not flow down . Still water if splashed can go higher than your head; if forced, it can be brought up a hill, However, this isn't the nature of water; it is the specific circumstances. Although people can be made to be bad, their basic nature is to be good and does not change.

Daoism (also spelled Taoism)

• Founded by Laozi. When he lived is not certain

• Dao (also spelled Tao)-the way of nature, a force that governs the universe.

• Of all creatures, only humans resist the Dao. We should instead go with the Dao

Laozu-the “Old Master”, the “One who left no traces”

• Everything in the universe follows the Dao except human beings, who willfully resist the Dao. People should live in harmony with the Dao.

• This means withdrawing from the world, living simply, and contemplating nature.

• People should not strive for material wealth or power, and should shun politics. This is the principal of “wuwei”-not doing.

• People should be humble, quiet and kind.

Dao de Jing• 1• The tao that can be told

is not the eternal TaoThe name that can be namedis not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.Naming is the originof all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestationsarise from the same source.This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.The gateway to all understanding.

Daoism

• Follow the way of nature• People should be humble, quiet, live simple

lives, contemplate nature.• Appealed to peasants, artists & poets• Thought people should not bother with

government. The best government was the one that did the least.

• Some Daoists studied nature and natural things; became “alchemists” who mixed natural things and observed the results. Daoist priests invented gunpowder (they liked the pretty sparks!)_

LEGALISM

• Founded by Hanfeizi in 300sBC• Philosophy;

People are basically selfish; Without rules, people will destroy each

other; People need strict rules & harsh

punishments.* Qin Shi Huangdi followed Legalist

philosophy.

BUDDHISM

• Missionaries from India brought Buddhism into China during the Han dynasty

• Adopted Mahayana Buddhism-Buddha is a savior who helps people escape the misery of the world and reach nirvana.

• In China, Buddhism had fit in with Confucianism. Buddhism took on values of family that went with Confucianism.

• In China, many people followed Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism all at the same time. Confucianism – ethical behavior, values of familyDaoism – appreciation for natureBuddhism – hope for release from suffering & salvation

Confucianism, Daoism, Buddhism“The Vinegar Tasters”

Family life

• Family was the most important unit in society and in the state.

• Family was more important than the individual. • Family: father (or grandfather), his wife, his sons and

their wives and children, his unmarried daughters• Father (or grandfather) ruled the family• Father (or grandfather) decided: who his children

married, how & what kind of education, sons’ careers• Children (including adult children) had filial piety

(extreme respect for parents) and accepted the decisions of the elder family members.

FAMILY, cont.

• Patrilineal – descent traced through father’s line

• Patriarchal- oldest male, father or grandfather, ruled the family

Family: role of ancestors

• When family members died, they became ancestors

• Most families kept a genealogy-record of their family tree.

• Most families had altars with tablets with the name of their ancestors, where they made offerings of food and wine,& prayed.

Women in Chinese Family & Society

• Girls & women were expected to be beautiful, calm, dignified & obedient.

• When a girl married, she became a member of her husband’s family, and obeyed him and his parents, & was almost a servant in her husband’s family until she had children.

• Once a woman had children, she was respected and had more power within the household.

• Women were not allowed to own property.

Ban Zhau

• “Lessons for Women”

• She was an historian and a female Confucianist. This seems like a contradiction in terms.

• She advised women to be humble, serve and obey their husband and his parents.

ECONOMY

• Most families lived in villages & lived by farming. Farming was difficult and farmers used simple tools.

• A family owned and worked the land together. • A group of families in a village might cooperate to work

fields, using ox-drawn plows and complex irrigation. • Taxes were paid in farm produce, and days of labor for

the government on canals, roads & other projects.• Trade increased when weights, measures & money were

standardized during the Qin dynsaty.• Trade increased even more during the Han dynasty

when the Silk Road trade was started.

Important Chinese Books

• “Five Classics”:

Book of Poems

Book of History

Book of Changes “I Ching”

Spring and Autumn Annals – more history

Book of Rites-manners & ceremonies

* “Analects” of Confucius

Chinese Science & Inventions

• Astronomy: determined the solar year was slightly more than 365 days. Observed sunspots; tracked the movements of the planets

• Paper-150BC-made from plant material• Magnetic Compass-lodestone aligned N-S

• Seismograph-detects earthquakes• Acupuncture: Based on Daoist idea of the

movement of life-force energy. Tiny needles inserted to enable life energy to move properly.

Paper making

Ancient Chinese compass

• A spoon-shaped piece of lodestone or magnetite on a bronze disk.

• Acupuncture

• Seismograph