World History

China

China’s Geography

• The Huang He (yellow river) extends 2,900 miles across China. The name of the river comes from the rich soil.

• The Chang Jiang is even longer at 3,400 miles. • Rivers have been important in all ancient

societies. Similarly flooding occurred drowning many people. As a result Huang He is called “China’s sorrow.”

China’s Geography

• The rich soil along the rivers is mainly the area they can farm in China. Mountains and deserts cover most of the land in China.

• The Himalayas close off China from the east. The Gobi is a vast, cold, rocky, desert spreads back from the mountains. This landscape acted like a wall around the Chinese separating them from most other people.

The Middle Kingdom

• Little is known about how Chinese civilization began. There is some evidence of pottery dating back thousands of years.

• Over time the people in China united together to form one kingdom. They called their homeland the “middle Kingdom. ”

The Shang Dynasty

• China’s first rulers were a dynasty. A Dynasty is a line of rulers who belong to the same family. The first dynasty in China was the Xia Dynasty, but not much is known about this dynasty.

• The Shang dynasty ruled from 1750 BC to 1045 BC. Huge royal walls, royal palaces, and royal tombs have been found from this era.

The Shang

• The Shang may have built the first Chinese cities. One of them was Anyang in northern China.

• Originally the Shang family were the most powerful group. They used armies and chariots and bronze weapons to take over nearby areas.

Shang

• Later, the king chose warlords to govern the kingdom’s territories. These are military leaders who command their own armies. And the king controlled larger armies that defended the borders and helped the king stay in power.

Shang

• Under the king, a social class developed. The warlords made up the aristocrats. This means nobles whose wealth came from the land they owned.

• Other people were traders and artisans. • Most Chinese were farmers. They worked the

land of the aristocrats.• There were also a small number of slaves.

Shang

• People in the Shang China worshiped gods and spirits. Spirits lived in mountains, rivers, and seas. The people believed they had to keep the spirits happy by making offerings of food and other goods.

• If the spirits were angry they might cause farmers to have a poor harvest or armies to lose a battle.

Ancestor

• Ancestors are the departed family members. • Offerings were made in the hope that

ancestors would help in times of need and bring good luck.

• Even today many Chinese still remember their ancestors by going to the family temple and burning small paper copies of food and clothing. These things are what they need in the afterlife.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aWb7Rvvtblc

Telling the Future

• Shang kings believed that they received power and wisdom from the gods, the spirits, and their ancestors. The religion and the government were closely related.

• A duty of the Shang kings was to contact the gods, the spirits, and ancestors before making decisions.

Telling the Future

• The king communicates with the gods’ using oracle bones. They had priests scratch questions on the bones. They placed metal rods inside the bones and caused them to crack. The patterns of the cracks formed the answers from the gods.

Oracle Bones

Quiz

1. What river is known as “China’s sorrow?”2. What nickname did the Chinese people give

themselves/their civilization? 3. What type of material is used in weapons that

have helped people advance throughout history? 4. What else are aristocrats called? 5. What role did the spirits play? 6. How did the kings receive answers from the

gods?

The Chinese Language

• Originally Chinese writing used pictographs and ideographs to write.

• Pictographs: are characters that stand for objects.

• Ideographs: other characters used in Chinese writing that join two or more pictographs to represent an idea.

• In Chinese symbols represent whole words rather than using an alphabet for sounds.

The Zhou Dynasty

• The Shang dynasty treated the people poorly. The rich lived luxurious while the poor were treated cruelly. As a result they lost the support of the people.

• Wu Wang led a rebellion against the Shang and after their defeat he started the Zhou Dynasty.

The Zhou

• The Zhou Dynasty ruled for more than 800 years. It was the longest dynasty.

• It organized a bureaucracy. • Bureaucracy: is appointed officials who are

responsible for different areas of government. • The king is the link between heaven and earth.

They ruled because they had the mandate of heaven.

Silk Trade

• Silk is made from cocoons of the silkworm that is carefully unraveled and spun into cloth.

• Pieces of Chinese silk have been found all the way in Greece to suggest that they traded far and wide.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-wbmEjTvszI

Fall of the Zhou

• Similar to the way the Shang were arranged the Zhou delegated local leaders, but they became very powerful and stopped obeying the king. Fighting broke out and for about 200 years the states fought each other. They invented things like saddle and stirrups to fight better.

• The Qin defeated the other states to set up the new dynasty.

Chinese Thinkers

• During the 200 years of wars violence became very common. It was so violent that whole villages of men, women, and children were beheaded. Many started to look for ways to restore order.

• Thinkers developed 3 major theories about creating peace: Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism.

Confucius

• Confucius was an ancient Chinese thinker and teacher. He wanted to end the problems and bring peace. He believed that people needed to have a sense of duty.

• Duty meant the needs of the family and community came before their own.

• Children owed parents honor and parents owed children love.

• Rulers set the example.

Confucianism

• If each person did their duty society as a whole would do well.

• This is similar to the “Golden Rule” do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

• Confucius traveled around trying to get all who had a talent for leadership to take part in government, but that was not popular with the aristocrats. After his death his ideas spread. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O--AFCI4HCU

Daoism (Taoism)

• This is a Chinese philosophy that promotes a peaceful society. The teachings came from Laozi or the Old Master.

• It tells people to give up worldly desires. They should turn to nature and the Dao. The Dao is the force that guides all things.

• It is opposite from Confucianism because it calls for people to give up their concerns about the world and live in harmony with nature.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmaTP1KpMes

Legalism

• Legalism argues for a system of laws to bring peace to society. They did not trust in honorable men. It is also called “the School of Law.”

• This was developed by Hanfeizi. He taught that humans were naturally evil. They needed harsh laws and stiff punishment to do their duty. Strong leaders were needed. It encouraged force and power. Cruel laws.

Mandate of Heaven• This was when the king was chosen by deity to rule. • This was conditional. If the king proved unfit for his

job he would lose his mandate and be overthrown and replaced by a new ruler.

• The mandate of heaven started with kings of the Zhou Dynasty.

• This Idea was well accepted by the people of china. It kept good leaders in rule and if they weren't good it gave them the right to overthrow them.

Qin Shihuangdi

• This Qin ruler was a member of his own state during the period of fighting. His name means “the First Qin Emperor.”

• He based his rule on the idea of Legalism. He punished or killed all who opposed him. He appointed all his commanders they did not pass from father to son like they did in other areas.

Qin

• Qin Shiluangdi unified China. He created on currency, to use throughout the empire. He built buildings and roads. And he built a huge canal that connected southern China to central China.

• Qin started a wall to keep out the Xiongnu but this wall is not the great wall that was built 1,500 years later.

Quiz 2 China

1. In English we use letters to represent sounds that make up words, but in Chinese they use what?

2. Who led the people to overthrow the Shang dynasty?

3. What is a bureaucracy?4. What is Confucianism? What do they believe? 5. What is the Dao? 6. Name one thing the Qin Emperor did to unify

China?

Movie on the Qin Emperor

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yb1CcvqJ0gc

Group Project

• For this project you need to do additional research on the different teachings of China and as a group present the basic concepts and teachings of those systems.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dShb8LAVMvs

Requirements

• Provide a detailed explanation for the main schools of thought. Legalism, Taoism, Confucianism, and the Mandate of Heaven.

• Act out the explanations with pictures or live action. Make a movie that lasts at least 5 mins.

• Explain how each have influenced the culture and history of China

Mulan

• Many people have seen the Disney movie Mulan and do not realize that it is actually telling the story of an ancient Chinese poem titled the Ballad of Mulan. Because it is a legend, it is unknown when Mulan may have lived although she was believed to have lived during the Northern Wei dynasty which lasted from 386CE to 534CE.

Mulan

• Mulan’s father was a soldier and raised Mulan like a boy. She not only learned weaving and embroidery from her mother, but also practiced martial arts, equitation, archery, and fencing with her father. In her spare time she liked to read her father’s manuals on military strategy.

The Forbidden City

• Construction of the Forbidden City began in relatively modern times, in the year 1406. The construction took an estimated one million workers 14 years to build hundreds of perfect and beautiful buildings. The Forbidden City served as the seat of government for the Ming Dynasty. Today, it is a museum. There are 800 buildings that have in total about 9,000 rooms. The Forbidden City is the world's largest palace complex. Millions of people visit this incredible place each year and gaze in awe.

Forbidden City

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPfYrmcfvYE

Dragons• Dragons are an important part of many

Chinese festivals, including Chinese New Year. • Countries use dragons in their art, especially

China, Korea and Japan. It's easy to tell the difference between Chinese, Korean and Japanese dragons. Just count the dragon's toes. Rule of toes ...Chinese dragons have five toes! Korean dragons have four toes!Japanese dragons have three toes!

Civil Service Exams

• To obtain a civil service position, a scholar generally required a provincial degree, which would take years of study, and even a candidate could not reasonably expect to do so before he was thirty.

Civil Service Exam Project

• You need to create your own civil service exam. This exam should test a person on their ability to lead the people in a government position.

• Requirements: You need to come up with 20 questions. Make copies for 5 people you will test them next class. Be sure you know the answers to your own questions.

21st Century Quiz

1. What dynasty built the forbidden city?2. True or False: Ancient Chinese people believed

dragons were real?3. Why was China not as technologically advanced?4. Who was the first president of the Chinese Republic? 5. What are the 3 political groups that tried to control

China?6. Who led the communist revolution in China? 7. What is a commune?

Tiananmen Square

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40bI6wzCTck

Foot Binding

This was a common practice among upper class women. It was a sign of status. Legend has it that it started because the emperous had a club foot. Women with small feet were considered attractive.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnmOqpoDFEw

One Child Policy

• This is the population control policy of the People's Republic of China. It restricts urban couples to only one child.

• This policy was introduced in 1978. It was created by the Chinese government to alleviate social, economic, and environmental problems in China

One Child Policy Video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4OWJlyaHt0

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_bsVlNVidI

Quiz

1. What 4 areas did Deng modernize? 2. What did Deng do that helped business?3. What happened at Tiananmen Square?4. When was Hong Kong Returned to China?5. Name 2 Human Rights violations?