Transcript China Notes

China Notes
Take notes on the following slides.
Buddhism
Buddhism is a religion that began in
India and is based on the teachings of
Siddhartha Gautama. (Gow-tuh-muh)
Siddhartha became known as the
Buddha, or “Enlightened One.”
Teachings of Buddhism
Suffering is a part of life
Suffering is caused by desires
One can escape suffering through
meditation and by living a wise moral
life.
Buddhism spreads to China
During the first century A.D., Buddhist
monks and traders carried Buddhist
teachings to China along the Silk Road.
Buddhist teachings helped people
endure the suffering that followed the
collapse of the Han Dynasty.
Buddhism also spread to Korea and
Japan.
The Tang Dynasty Reunifies
China
Vocabulary – reunify: bring together a
group of people that have been divided
Under the Tang Dynasty, China
became unified for the first time over
350 years after the collapse of the Han
Dynasty.
Confucianism Influences
Chinese Life
Under the Tang Dynasty, Confucianism
ideas spread.
Confucianism focuses on respect for family
and older generation, education, and
proper conduct.
Imperial Rule in China
The Tang emperors adopted the
Confucian idea of how government
should be run. Candidates for
government jobs had to take civil
service exams.
A person who passed the exams could
become a scholar-official, and educated
person with a government position.
Chinese Inventions
The Chinese invented and discovered
many important things:
Tea, paper, wood-block printing, the
compass, and gunpowder.
Tea
Tea was first used in
China as a
medicine.
Eventually tea
became a very
important beverage
traded all over the
world.
Paper
The Chinese made
paper out of
bamboo, which grew
all over China.
Paper was used just
as it is today, to
write on.
Wood-block printing
The Chinese were
the first to invent
moveable type.
It was very difficult in
Chinese, because
there are over 5,000
characters.
English has only 26.
Compass
Chinese scientists had
studied and learned much
about magnetism.
With this knowledge, they
made the first compass.
The compass uses
magnets to always point
north.
The compass helped
sailors, which encouraged
trade.
Gunpowder
The invention of
gunpowder was by
accident. The
Chinese were
looking for
something that
would allow them to
live forever.
Gunpowder was first
used for fireworks
and then in
weapons.