Transcript Chinese Dynasties

Chinese Dynasties
From the Mandate of Heaven
to the Great Wall
Chinese Dynasties
The Chinese “Adam”
The sky and earth
were subjected to
the opposing forces
of the yin (passive/
female) and yang
(active/male)
The interaction gave
birth to Pangu,
causing the egg's
shell to crack
Xia Dynasty (2100-1700 BC)
No evidence was
found of it until 1959
when excavations
uncovered their
capital city
The Xia Dynasty
included 17
emperors spanning
fourteen
generations, all of
whom were blood
descendants
Shang Dynasty (1700-1027 BC)
The Shang Dynasty
consisted of 30
kings and seven
different,
successive, capitals
Rather than passing
from father to son,
the Shang form of
descent passed
from the eldest
brother to the
youngest brother
Shang Writing System
A question was written on the bone, which was
then fired and a T-shaped crack was produced
which was interpreted, and the interpretation was
then written on the bone
Shang Cultural Life
Zhou Dynasty (1027-221 BC)
The WESTERN ZHOU era (1027-771 BC)
ended when they were forced east by
barbarians from the north
The capital was moved east, which began
the period known as the EASTERN ZHOU
era (770-221 BC)
The Eastern Zhou is further divided into
two time periods…
The Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC)
The Warring States Period (475-221 BC)
Sun Tzu (544-496 BC)
Sun-Tzu came from
a noble family that
lost their dukedoms
during the Spring
and Autumn Period
After Sun Tzu was
hired by King Helu
as a military
advisor, the
kingdom of Wu
went on to become
the most powerful
state of the period
Confucius (551-479 BC)
Confucius' death as
recorded in the
royal genealogy at
age 72 is a ‘magic
number’
Confucius
supposedly became
active in politics in
his adopted home
province of Lu, and
apparently offended
the nobility
Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC)
Much of what came
to constitute China
Proper was unified
for the first time
under the Qin
The Qin used a
LEGALIST form of
government
China was divided up
in 36 commanderies
which were then
subdivided into
counties
Great Wall of China
The Wall was slowly built over a 2000-year period
and was basically an attempt to keep invading
armies out…different walls built by different states
were connected by the Qin’s first emperor
Chinese Tradition
 The “silk road” became legendary
for its ability to maintain contact with
other cultures even during times of
dynastic change
 When the Han
Dynasty overthrew the
Qin, they kept some Qin
improvements… such
as the Legalism form of
government
 The whole idea of passive-aggression
comes from the ideas of Yin and Yang, which
are never separated from each other