Chapter 2.4 Flashcards
What was in China’s east
Yellow Sea
East China Sea
Pacific Ocean.
West China geography
Taklimakan desert and 15000 icy plates of Tibet.
Southwest Himalayas
North China geography
Go I desert and Mongolian plateau
What are the two main river systems that flow from the west to the Pacific Ocean?
The huang he River also known as the yellow River found in the north and the chiang jiang also called Yangtze flows east to the Yellow Sea.
What does the huang he deposit
Huge amounts of yellow silt called loess blown by winds from deserts west to north.
Environmental challenges of China
Huang he’s floods could be disastrous devouring whole villages.
Bc of isolation settlers had to supply their own goods
China’s natural boundaries didn’t completely protect them from outsiders.
Where and what is the north China plain?
Located within the small plain between huang he and the Chjiang Jiang in eastern China. Where people farm (China’s heartland).
What is the Peking man
Remains from a man that show people settled in the river valley as much as 500,000 yrs ago.
What year where some of China’s first settlements emerging?
2000 bc along the huang he
What and when was the first dynasty in China
The Xia dynasty 2000 bc
Who was the leader of Xia dynasty
Yu a mathematician and engineer.
What did yu do?
His flood control and irrigation projects helped tame the huang he and its settlements could grow.
Around the time civilizations in Mesopotamia fell what dynasty formed in northern China
The Shang dynasty which lasted from 1700 bc to 1027 bc.
What was the oldest and most important Shang city
The Anyang one of the capitals of the Shang dynasty.
What was Anyang built out of and where did each class live
Wood
Higher classes lived in timber framed houses with walls of clay and straw inside city walls
Peasants and craftspeople lived in huts by the city.
What was their own name for China and why
The Middle Kingdom bc they saw it as barbaric to not be a part of Chinese culture.
What was the center of Chinese society
Family
What did the Chinese believe in doing
The most important virtue to respect one’s parents.
How women were viewed
As inferiors
Expected to obey their fathers, their husbands, later their own sons.
Marriage was arranged between 13 and 16
Social classes
Divided between nobles and peasants
Religion in China
Family believed family was closely linked to religion
Spirits of family ancestors had power to bring good fortune, or disaster to living members of family.
Spirits were no mighty gods.
Every family payed respect to family ancestors and made sacrifices in their honor.
Who did the Shang worship?
The supreme God Shang Di.
How did Shang kings consult gods
Using oracle bones, animal bones and tortoise shells on which priests had scratched questions for gods. A hot poker was applied to the bone and depending on the way the bone cracked was the answer to the question.
Writing
Each character stands for one syllable or unit.
No links between China’s written and spoken language.
Advantage that people in all party’s of China could learn the same system of writing .
