Transcript RIVER DYNASTIES IN CHINA

RIVER DYNASTIES IN
CHINA
(based on Ch.2, sec.4)
Ancient China – Physical
Geography
Natural Resources and Agriculture
• North China plane (the Yellow River /
North China Plane) = millet and wheat
(loess)
• South China (the Yangzi River Valley) =
rice
• Agriculture =
collective labor
Xia Dynasty (2183-1752 BCE?)
• Mythical?  Not enough evidence
• Chinese vs. Non-Chinese interpretation
• Shang Sources (Xia people – opposite)
The Shang Dynasty
(also known as the Yin Dynasty
1750 BCE – 1045 BCE)
The Shang Dynasty –
Religious Beliefs
Religious Beliefs (cont.)
• Oracle Bones / Scapulimancy
Examples of Inscriptions on Oracle
Bones:
• Crack-making on jiashen (day 21), Que
divined: “Lady Hao’s (a consort of Wu
Ding) childbearing will be good.”
(Prognostication:) The king read the
cracks and said: “If it be on a ding-day that
she gives birth, there will be prolonged
luck.” (Verification:) (After) thirty-one days,
on jiayin (day 51), she gave birth; it was
not good; it was a girl.
Religious Beliefs (cont.)
- Burial Tombs
• Practiced Human and Animal Sacrifice (to
appease an “angry ancestral spirit”)
• Human sacrifice – mostly prisoners of war
• Buried were the objects useful in the
afterlife
Religious Beliefs – Burial Tombs
(cont.)
Model Family = Model Society
• Community (family) > individual
• Respect / obedience for parents = respect
/ obedience to government
• Men > Women (preference for boys over
girls)
Social Classes
• Highly stratified society (by hereditary rank
and occupation)
KINGS
(SCHOLARS? – probably not yet!)
ARISTOCRATS (NOBLES)
PEASANTS
ARTISANS
MERCHANTS
Shang Dynasty – Perception of the
World (Us vs. Them)
• Political control
through direct
confrontation and
“tribute”
• Circles of civilized
people
• Shang towns – square
– Zhangguo – The
Central Country
(sinocentric view!!!)
Ancient Chinese Characters –
connections to modern Chinese
Characters
The Zhou Dynasty
1045 BCE – 221 BCE
Zhou Dynasty – Accounts Vilifying
the Shang
• From Chinese sources on the last Shang king:
“. . . [was] dominated by women, given up to
sensual self-indulgence with his 'pools of wine
and forests of meat,' oppressing the people with
his taxes, carving open a pregnant woman to
examine the fetus, and killing or imprisoning all
who remonstrated against him. He was also
famous for his great speed and strength and
fond of battling wild animals, and he was a noted
devourer of human flesh who fed several feudal
lords to his court and even duped King Wen into
eating his own son.”
The Zhou Rule
• “Feudal” system
• More decentralized as the time went on
• Zhou kings continued supremacy in
sacrifice rituals (other kings claimed their
connection to them)
• Same culture, though different political
territories
• Education – luxury for the rich, until
Confucius’ ideas become popular
Zhou Dynasty - Feudalism
• Exchange of land for loyalty (King grants
pieces of land to his nobles (vassals) in
exchange for loyalty)
The Concept of Heaven
• Gradually replaces Shangdi (Di) in the
writings of Zhou aristocracy
• Replaced with TIAN (English translation
“HEAVEN”)
• Heaven (in Chinese culture) – does NOT
mean “a place to which one's soul goes, or
a state of being one's soul attains, after
death”
The Dynastic Cycle and the
Mandate of Heaven
The Mandate of Heaven (cont.)
The Warring States Period
(480 BCE -221BCE)
Qin Dynasty and Han Dynasty
• See Textbook:
• Qing Dynasty – Ch.4, sec.4
• Han Dynasty – Ch.7, sec.3