Transcript Maps - Images

Chapter 5 Ancient China
Maps
• PG. 135
• The boundaries of ancient China are
marked by seas and mountains.
• What other geographical feature do you
notice about ancient China?
Gobu and Taklimakan deserts, North
China Plain, and Huang and Chang
Rivers.
Geography of China’s River Valleys
•Ancient Chinese people believed
that dragons were a respected spirit
that brought people good luck.
•They felt that they were responsible
for the rains to make the fields
fertile.
•They use dragons to represent the
rivers.
Contrasting Climate and Landforms
• Ancient China covered a large area, and the
climate, soil, landforms, and waterways varied
greatly.
• North China Plain is located in East Asia and it’s
a build up of soil deposits from the Huang River.
• It has a brief but intense summer rainy season
caused by monsoon winds, but the rest of the
year there is little rain so it is a dry climate.
• The climate in the South is warm and wet.
• Monsoons from south China Sea bring heavy
rains to southern China from March to
September. There is light rain the rest of the
year.
Effects of Civilization
• Mountains and seas separate China from other
lands.
• As a result China had little knowledge of the
civilizations of Egypt, India, Greece, and Rome
• They believed so strongly that they were the
center of the world that they called themselves
the Middle Kingdom.
• Like Egypt, the first farming villages developed
along the rivers of Haung and Chang (China’s
longest river.
• PG137 Why do you think they grew crops on
terraces in this part of China?
Yellow River
• Huang is the second-longest river in China.
• It is also the muddiest river in the world.
• It is called the Yellow River because of the loess
or yellow brown soil that its waterways carry along.
• When it floods it deposits loess on the plain.
• The Chinese grow a grain called millet which has
been a part of their diet for thousands of years.
• The Chinese also call this river China’s sorrow
because it brings destructive floods without
warning.
• These floods were so powerful at times that they
would cut new paths into the land.
Flood Control
• Early Chinese people built dikes or a
protective wall that holds back the
water.
• Eventually the loess grew thicker
which make the river rises and it
overflowed the dikes causing even
deadlier floods.
• Despite the danger, the early Chinese
continued to settle along the banks.
Early Civilization in China
• Early farmers of the North China Plain
probably were once nomads who
moved from place to place to hunt
and gather food.
• Historians do not know exactly when
the first farming settlements
developed in the Haung Valley.
Some think it was early as 5000 B.C.
The Shang Dynasty
• The Shang Dynasty was the first civilization in
China.
• It arose sometime around 1760 B.C.
• The Shang people built China’s first cities.
• Among their many accomplishments was the
production of some of the finest bronze work of
ancient China.
• They also produced the first Chinese writing system
that could be used for different languages like
cuneiform.
• This was helpful for communication, because China
had many regional languages.
• About 600 years after the founding of the Shang
Dynasty a new group emerged called the Zhou (joh).
Zhou Dynasty
• Territory partly bordered the Shang territory
• Sometimes they lived peacefully and the other times
they fought over territory.
• They conquered the Shang in about 1122 B.C.
• The Zhou dynasty ruled over ancient China for
almost 1,000 years.
• This long period is divided into 2 pars-the earlier
Western Zhou and the later Eastern Zhou dynasty.
• Later a period known as the Warring States began.
• Small kingdoms fought for control over one another
until a new dynasty emerged called Qin (chin).
Mandate of Heaven
• Sometimes Chinese rulers inherited the
throne and others fought for it.
• Chinese believed that rulers came to power
because it was their destiny, or fate. This idea
was called the Mandate of Heaven.
• A mandate is a law, or an order.
• It supported a leader’s right to rule his
people, and it gave a father authority over his
family.
Importance of Family
• The family was the center of the Chinese family.
It was considered to be of far more importance
than the individual or the nation.
• A person’s firs responsibility was always to the
family.
• A household may contain as much as 5
generations including the extending family or
closely related people such as aunts, uncles,
cousins, brothers, and sisters.
• In rich families they may live together in one
large home.
• But most of China’s people were poor. They
lived in separate one room cottages walking
distance from one another.
Family Authority
• The status of each person in a Chinese
extended family depended on his or her
age and sex.
• The center of authority was usually the
oldest man. He had the most privilege
and most power in the family. He
decided who his children and
grandchildren would marry.
• After the oldest male died all his lands
were divided among his sons.
Women’s Roles
• Women were considered to be lower status
than men.
• Women were bounded by what were called
the three obediences: to obey their fathers in
youth, their husband after their marriage and
their sons in widowhood.
• Four virtues also guided women’s behavior in
ancient China: mortality, modesty, proper
speech, and domestic skills.
• When a woman married she left her family
and became part of the husbands family.
• She must obey the husband and respect the
wishes of her mother-in-law.
Family Names
• In the 300s B.C., Chinese established the practice
of using inherited family names along with a
personal name.
• The inherited name was passed down from father to
child. The other one was for the individual.
• Examples of present-day family names include Mao,
Chan, and Lu.
• In US we have 2 names also but the family name in
the Chinese goes first. Example: the 1st president
would have been named Washington George.
• A great philosopher, or thinker, named Confucius
had ideas about the role of the family in Chinese
society that would have a great effect on the people.
Questions?
• How did the Huang River affect ancient
Chinese civilization?
Civilizations first developed there,
flooding caused fertile farm land but killed
thousands of people and cut new paths
over the land.
• What was the importance of family in
Ancient China?
The family was the center of the
society.