Ancient China (50-55) Flashcards
Describe China’s main natural barriers
- Mountain ranges and deserts- 2/3 of Chins’s landmass
- West China- Taklimakan Desert
- Icy 15,000 foot Plateau of Tibet
- Southwest- Himalayas
- North- Gigi Desert and Mongolian Plateau
What is loess?
Yellowish silt (fertile soil) deposited from the Huang He, brought fertility to the soil
What are the two major rivers in China?
The Huang He/Yellow River (north)
The Chang Jiang/Yangtze (centra China, flows east to Yellow Sea)
What environmental challenges did China face?
- Huang He floods
- Isolation- early settlers supplied own good instead of trading with outsiders
- Some invasions despite natural boundaries
What/ where is the North China Plain?
- Between the Huang He and the Chang Jiang
- “China’s Heartland”
- Most of China’s arable land is here
- Always remained center of civilization
Who was Yu?
- Leader of the first Chinese dynasty, Xia
- Flood control/irrigation projects helped tame the Huang He so its settlements could grow
What was the city of Anyang?
- Old and important Shang city (one of the capitals)
- Built mainly of wood
Which dynasty was the first family of Chinese rulers to leave written records?
The Shang Dynasty
Why did the Shang need massive walls surrounding their cities?
They were constantly waging war
What was Chinese family like for men vs women?
Men: elder men controlled family’s property and made important decisions
Women: treated as inferiors, obeyed the men
What were the roles of nobles?
- Ruling class of warrior-nobles headed by a king governed the Shang
- Owned the land
- Governed scattered villages
What were the Chinese beliefs about religion?
- Believed that the spirits of family ancestors had the power to bring good fortune or disaster to living family members
- Spirits were not regarded as mighty gods- instead they were troublesome/helpful neighbors who demanded attention/respect
What were oracle bones used for?
- Shang Kings used them to consult the gods (Shang Di)
- Animal bones/tortoise shells
- Priests scratched questions on a bone, applied hot poker to it, priests then interpreted the cracks
What is the major disadvantage to the Chinese writing system?
- Many characters need to be memorized (minimum: 1,500 characters)
- This limited the number of literate Chinese people
What is the major advantage to the Chinese writing system?
- People in all parts of China could learn the same system of writing, even if their spoken languages were very different
- This helped unify a large and diverse land and made control much easier
What was the Mandate of Heaven?
- Divine approval to rule
- Justified rulers’ rights to rule
- Natural disasters- sign that the spirits were unhappy with the ruler
- Central to Chinese view of government
- Created by the Zhou
What is the dynastic cycle?
The pattern of rise, decline, and replacement of dynasties
What is feudalism?
- A political system in which nobles/lords are granted use of lands that legally belong to the king (nobles owe services in return)
- Zhou used feudalism to govern the lands far the rivers by giving control in different regions to members of the royal family
What innovations did the Zhou Dynasty produce?
- Roads/canals- trade/agriculture
- Coined money- improved trade
- Blast furnaces that produced cast iron- used to create weapons and agricultural tools (more food = thriving cities)
What is the period of warring states?
- Zhou rule weakened
- Nomads from north/west sacked Zhou capital and murdered Zhou monarch
- Some royal family members escaped and set up new capital in Luoyang-kings almost powerless there, could not control noble families
- Lords picked fights with neighboring lords- claimed to be kings in their own territory
- Order, harmony, respect lost
