BellringerJanuary 30, 2012

Take out Chapter 7 Notes Guide

Take out your writing utensil

Bellringer January 30, 2012

Chapter 7, Section 3:The Qin and Han Dynasties

January 26, 2012

Today, we will be learning about the

Qin and Han dynasties.

Objectives

*Qin Shihuangdi, “the First Qin Emperor,” took over one by one & changed gov’t to legalism.

*Those who opposed him were punished/killed.

Emperor Qin Shihuangdi

*Books opposing him were burned

Strong central government

*Appointed censors

*Made sure government officials did their jobs.


Qin abolished the officials’ authority to pass their posts on to their sons.

He became the only person authorized to fill empty posts.


*Unified China by creating one currency & building roads.

*Qin connected the Chang Jiang to central China by a canal at Guangzhou.


*Built the Great Wall◦ *Started by several

Chinese rulers in the north

◦ *To keep out Xiongnu Nomads who lived in the

Gobi Masters at fighting on

horseback◦ *Forced farmers to

build it Work on connecting and

strengthening walls


• The end to the Qin dynasty–Aristocrats angry– Farmers hated him– 210 B.C. people

overthrew his dynasty–Civil War


• *Founded by Liu Bang

– *Peasant who became a military leader

– *Threw out Qin’s harsh policies

– *Liu Bang declared himself Han Gaozu, “Exalted Emperor of Han.”

The Han Dynasty

• *Han Wudi– *Created hard test

for government jobs

– *Students began preparing for the test at age 7

– *One in five passed

The Han Dynasty

The empire grew rapidly Division of farm land

◦ Large families◦ 1 acre of land◦ Families could not grow

enough to live on.◦ Farmers sold their land to

aristocrats ◦ Became tenant farmers

Work on land owned by someone else and pay rent in crops

◦ Aristocrats forced more farmers to sell land

The Han Dynasty

Peaceful living for 150 years◦ Han armies added land◦ The dynasty made the

country more secure

Inventions◦ *Waterwheels◦ *Iron drill bits◦ *Steel◦ *Paper◦ *Acupuncture◦ *Rudder◦ *New way to move the

sails of ships

The Han Dynasty

*Acupuncture is the practice of easing pain by sticking needles into patients’ skin.

Large network of trade routes

Carried Chinese goods as far as Greece and Rome

*Silk was the most valuable trade product

The Silk Road

*An expensive trip◦ Merchants had to

pay taxes to many kingdoms

◦ *Carried *Silk *Spices *Tea *Porcelain

The Silk Road

*Buddhism came to China from India via merchants & teachers.

*People believed in Buddhism as the Han dynasty fell.

Major Changes in China

*Civil wars & emperors after Wudi were weak & foolish.

*Central gov’t = lost respect & power.


*Luoyang, the Han capital, was attacked by a rebel army in AD 190.

*Civil war broke out, nomads in the north, & Han dynasty collapsed


*The Chinese felt unsafe, so they found refuge in Buddhism.


Documents

BellringerJanuary 30, 2012