The Return of Chow-Chow

Presented by:Judith, Dulip,

Deepa, Sathya and Sandhya

St. James High School

Around 4,500 years ago…The earliest civilizations grew up along the banks of great rivers: the Nile, the Tigris and Euphrates, the Indus, and the Huang He. Three of these civilizations—the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Indus—were geographically close and may have influenced each other. The fourth, China, lay thousands of miles from the other three and yet grew into an amazing civilization.

Chinese society in 7th century bc

The emperor was the boss! The soldiers were important people , along with the nobles, merchants, craftsmen, farmers and slaves. People lived in groups and had great respect for elders and ancestors.Ancestor worship was widely practiced. Oracles were the holy priests who were believed to talk with the gods.

Confucius

Confucius was a very popular religious leader. He taught his disciples to be happy with the present world and cultivate the values of hard work, modesty and thoughtfulness towards others. The movement came to be known as Confucianism.

Jobs in Ancient ChinaFarming: The ancient Chinese people were mostly farmers. The crops they grew were rice, wheat, millet, barley and soya bean. The Chinese were the first to cultivate tea.Sericulture: The Chinese were the first to make silk cloth. Silkworms were bred for their thread and were world famous.

More Jobs

Pottery: The Chinese developed the art of making a special type of pottery called porcelain. They were the first to make cups, saucers and bowls.Woodwork: The Chinese were very good at making things with wood. They crafted beautiful furniture inlaid with ivory.

Chinese Script and The Great Wall of China

Chinese Script: The Chinese language does not have any alphabets. It is in the form of picture writing. In the beginning, there were 40,000 word pictures making the script very difficult. That is why many people in ancient China did not know how to read and write and only a few could study.The Great Wall of China: It was built by Emperor Shih Hwangdi. It is about 2,400 km long with 10,000 watch towers at regular intervals. It is the only man made structure that can be seen from the moon and is one of the 7 wonders of the world.

Contributions of the Chinese Civilization

Some of the major contributions are:

Invention of paper and ink: Books were being printed by 9th century ADThe art of block printingGunpowderThe mariner’s compassThe umbrellaKitesThe seismographThe water millThe wheelbarrowThe porcelain cups, saucers and bowls

How do the contributions of the Chinese civilisation impact our life? 

Some of the contributions of Chinese civilisation that we still use today are:Printing: Our favourite comic books are printedThe umbrella: We use it to protect ourselves from heat, and rain.Kites: We eagerly wait for the kite flying festival every year. Fireworks: Every celebration – marriage, festivals, new year is so much fun with firecrackers. Tea: A refreshing drink elders enjoy every day.Silk: Saris that make our mothers look like Miss Universe!

Resources

"Shang Dynasty in China (1766-1027 BC)," Microsoft« Encarta« Encyclopedia 2000. ⌐ 1993-1999 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.http://office.microsoft.com/clipart/results.aspx?lc=en-us&Scope=MC&Query=chinesehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chinese_inventions Microsoft EncartaYesterday, Today, Tomorrow. Devi Kar, Davitya Datta. Orient Longman. New Delhi. 2005A Combined Textbook of History and Civics. D.N.Kundra.Goyal Brothers Prakashan. New Delhi 1999.History and Civics for the Middle School. Jayanti Sengupta. Oxford University Press. New Delhi. 2004.