Transcript First Dynasties of China

First Dynasties of China
Xia
Shang
Zhou
Qin
Xia Dynasty
2200 – 1750 BC/BCE
• The establishment of the Xia Dynasty is
an important milestone in the history of
Chinese civilization
– marks the end of the Primitive Society
– and the beginning of the Class Society.
– It is the first dynasty in Chinese history,
• lasted nearly
500 years
• including the
reigns of 17
emperors.
During the Xia Dynasty, many
achievements were made.
• People lived mainly through agriculture using
tools made of stone or bone.
• The Jade ware at that time was quite delicate
and bronze vessels were well smelted.
• Craftwork made of bronze embedded with jade
also appeared.
• Commodity exchanges developed.
• A calendar system was devised which used both
lunar and solar movements.
Xia Jie
• The Xia Dynasty ended
under the reign of Jie, a
very notorious tyrannical
emperor in Chinese history.
After he succeeded to the
throne, he lived an
extravagant life day and
night without any thought
for his country or its people.
Overthrow of Xia Jie
• He amused himself and his wife by
ordering 3000 people to kill themselves
by jumping into a lake of wine.
• In addition, he killed the patriotic
ministers who presented him with good
advice.
• All of his actions enraged the people so
much that at last they rose up under the
leadership of Tang
– (the chief of the Shang tribe)
– set up Shang Dynasty (16th - 11th century
BC) and overthrew the Xia Dynasty.
Shang Dynasty
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The Shang ruled in city-states
which were, in turn, ruled over by
a capital city.
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The king seems to have served many
of the same functions that kings
served in other cultures:
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he was a kind of head priest,
the leader of the military aristocracy,
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and in charge of the economy.
Religion
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The Shang worshipped the
"Shang Ti."
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This god ruled as a supreme god
over lesser gods,
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the sun, the moon, the wind, the rain,
and other natural forces and places.
Highly ritualized, ancestor
worship became a part of the
Shang religion.
Sacrifice to the gods and the
ancestors was also a major part of
the Shang religion.
they were quite possibly the most blood-thirsty
pre-modern civilization.
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They liked human sacrifice -- a lot.
The Shang kings sacrificed a great number of
people to talk to their ancestors.
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Some of those sacrificed were enemies,
captured in war.
» Some were slaves or people who were sick or
deformed.
» Some were merchants, craftsmen, or farmers
who had upset the nobles.
» Some were nobles who had upset the king.
If a king died, then more than one hundred slaves
would join him in the grave.
» Some of them would be beheaded first.
» Some of them were just thrown in still alive.
Shang chariot burial with
human sacrifice
High Priests
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Authority to call nature deities and spirit of ancestors (Oracle)
To communicate with their ancestors, the Shang kings used oracle bones.
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The king or emperor would ask a question, for example, will it rain
tomorrow
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The priest would carve the king's question on an oracle bone, which was
just an animal bone or turtle shell. (Will it rain tomorrow?)
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Then, the priest would heat a bronze pin and hold the hot pin to the bone.
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This created a pattern of cracks over the bone.
The priest (who was usually a woman) would study the cracks to find the
answer to the question.
Innovations
They were the most advanced bronzeworking civilization in the world
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Shang remains provide the earliest and most
complete record of Chinese writing
» scratched out on the shoulder blades of
pigs for oracular purposes;
» Writing is also found on bronze and
stone, but the majority of the records
have decayed as they were recorded on
bamboo strips.
Fall of Shang
• During the final period of the dynasty,
the country was in turmoil and vassals
from other countries began to rebel.
• Despite the turmoil and the impending
uprising, King Zhou
– (the last king of the Shang Dynasty)
– led a luxurious life
– and tortured both his ministers and his
people.
• This intensified conflicts across the
kingdom and the Shang Dynasty was
finally overthrown by Wu (chief of Zhou
tribe), ending the long reign of the
Shang Dynasty in Chinese history
Zhou Dynasty
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The Zhou had a problem of legitimacy
Shang considered them no more than barbarian
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Zhou now controlled the Shang
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a Chinese concept used to justify the rule of the kings
of the Zhou Dynasty and later the Emperors of China
The concept was that a king's rule was based on the
blessing of Heaven
if a king ruled unwisely, Heaven would be displeased and
would give the Mandate to someone else.
The Mandate of Heaven
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The concept was first used by the Zhou dynasty to
justify their overthrow of the Shang dynasty and
was used by many succeeding dynasties to justify
their rule.
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Solves issue of legitimacy
It was not necessary for a person to be of noble
birth to lead a revolt and become a legitimate
emperor
Hegemony
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The Zhou actually didn't rule all of what
was then China.
China was then made up of a number of quasiindependent principalities.
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However, the Zhou were the most powerful
principality
played the role of hegemon in the area.
» 1 country exerting great influence on other
countries in a given area
They were located in the middle of the
principalities, giving rise to what the
Chinese call their country -- the Middle
Kingdom.
The Zhou were able to maintain peace and
stability through the hegemon system for
a few hundred years
In 771 BC, the capital was sacked by
barbarians from the west.
its king was killed
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With the royal line broken, the power
of the Zhou court gradually diminished
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Nobles become powerful
» Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty,
the nobles did not even bother to
acknowledge the royal family
symbolically and declared themselves t
be kings.
Warring States
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This less than delicate balance among
kingdoms created by the hegemon system
fell into chaos in the century and a half
that concluded Zhou rule.
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Alliances proved volatile and eventually fell apart
as large states began to actively invade and
swallow up the less powerful states.
» By the beginning of the fourth century, only
eight or nine very large states remained.
» All of the conflict of the Warring States
period resulted from the search to see who
would control all of China.
China was on the path to a single,
unified state, a single empire.
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The population of China had grown precipitously
the working of iron and its effects on agricultural production
had greatly increased the population
Warfare had become a large-scale affair
No longer were armies small and led by an aristocracy.
They were huge, conscript armies led by professional soldiers.
Qin Shi Huangdi,
First Chinese
Emperor
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A ruler from the western state of
Qin
the most aggressive of the Warring
States
united and subjugated the Warring
States and formed Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty
in 221 B.C.
Once the king of Qin consolidated
his power, he took the title Shi
Huangdi (meaning First Emperor).
He declared himself the first emperor
of China
The good
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The Emperor standardized Chinese
writing, bureaucracy, scholarship, law,
currency, weights and measures.
He expanded the Chinese empire,
a system of roads, massive
fortifications, and palaces.
To fend off barbarian intrusion from
the North
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the emperor connected and extended the
old fortification walls
» built by the various warring states were
connected
» forming the Great Wall of China
The Bad
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Shi Huangdi (259-210 B.C.) was a cruel
ruler
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killed or banished those who opposed him or
his ideas.
» He is notorious for burning virtually all
the books that remained from previous
regimes.
» He even banned scholarly discussions of
the past.
The Qin dynasty ended 20 years
after his death, but a unified China
remained for over 2,000 years.
China's name is derived from his short
but seminal dynasty, Qin (pronounced
Chin).