Transcript File - Hawk History

Where is China???
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4OlYyR
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Geographic and Cultural
Influences
The Physical Setting
China is a land of enormous
size, great geographic variety,
and widely contrasting climate
patterns

Snow capped mountains, desert
plateaus and coastal regions
China Geography
Mountain range that cuts from
the west to east across China is
called the Qinling Shandi
 Mark boundary between
Northern and Southern China
 North: less rain, temperatures
more extreme, growing season
shorter, wheat is principal
crop
 South and Central: rainfall
is more plentiful, rice is the
leading farm product
China Geography
Two great rivers in China,
the Huang and the Chang,
or Yangtze
What we call China has consisted
of many different geographic and
political sections over time

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The heart of China is called
China Proper
Three great rivers wind through
China Proper
Huang, Chang, and Xi
Other political sections of China

Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia,
Manchuria, and northern Korea
The Rivers of China
Huang, Chang and Xi have
played major roles in Chinese history
Huang River flows over 2,900 miles
across China emptying into the Yellow
Sea
 Produces fertile yellow soil called
loess
 Loess gives the river a yellow tint
 Huang means “Yellow” River
 Also known as “China’s Sorrow”
because of the devastating floods
The Rivers of China
Early farmers built earthen dikes,
or walls, along the Huang River
to protect crops from floods
Dikes had unintended effect,
however, of slowing the river
down
This built up more silt at bottom of
river making the river level higher
Chinese engineer, Chang Jung,
determined the Chinese needed to
let the river run its course instead
of building dikes higher

He was ignored
The Rivers of China
Rain would flood the
even higher dikes and then
would not be able to return
back to the river because
the river was now 12 feet
above the surrounding land
Chang River and Xi
River form important
commercial waterways
China’s Isolation
Great distance, rugged mountains, and
harsh deserts, such as the Gobi, isolated
China from the civilizations of India and the West

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Developed distinct culture
Probably influenced less by other cultures than any other
people in ancient times
On China’s northern
borders they were in
contact with nomadic
people who traded with
them and sometimes
warred against them

Considered them barbarians and inferior
China’s Isolation
Infrequent contact with foreigners
gave China a sense of identity and
superiority
Believed they were the only civilized land,
calling it Zhongguo, or Middle Kingdom,
meaning center of the world
Believed other cultures only
became civilized when they
learned the Chinese language
and adopting Chinese customs
The Shang Dynasty
China’s early history of development
were legends
One was of Pangu the first man
who awoke from an 18,000 year
sleep to create the universe
Another is of Yu a mythological
figure who drained away floodwaters
so people could live in China

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Yu established a line of kings called a Xia
Xia ruled over a late Neolithic people who
lived in the Huang River region (2200 BC)
Shang Dynasty
Little evidence exists to support
legends but scholars agree that the
Xia people existed and made great advancements

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Improved agriculture
Used written symbols
Little control of flood prevention measures
Invaders in the 1750 BC and 1500 BC
called the Shang swept into the Huang
River Valley

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Introduced simple irrigation and flood-control systems
Created China’s first historic dynasty
Shang Government and Culture
Shang kingdom stretched
over 40,000 sq miles
Changed capital city many
times in their history

Avoid invaders and floods
Shang rulers created a complex
bureaucracy, a government organized
into different levels and tasks

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King ruled over land
Shang army used chariots
and bronze weapons
Government and military allowed
Shang dynasty to gain much territory
Shang Economy and Handicrafts
Economy based mainly on agriculture
 Millet and rice
Domesticated animals
 Pigs, chickens, and horses
 Raised silkworms for silk thread
to make silk cloth
Many merchants and artisans
lived in the capital city
 Worked in bone, ivory and jade
 Ceramic art, Shang potters used
kaolin, a fine white clay, and could
glaze pottery to give it a shiny
finish, also made pottery more
durable
Astronomy and the calendar
Used two calendars, one based
on the sun and the other based
on the movements of the moon
Lunar calendar kept tract of
important dates such as births
and deaths
Calendars also used to predict
flooding
Priests-astronomers added
days to make calendar work
Religion in the Shang period
The religion that developed during the Shang
period combined animism, the belief that spirits
inhabit everything, with ancestor worship
People believed in an all-powerful dragon that
lived in the sea and river

Became the symbol of Chinese rulers
Also worshipped gods of the wind,
sun, clouds, an moon

Honored many in festivals
The Shang also believed in Shangdi,
a great god who controlled human
destiny and the forces of nature

People pleaded with ancestors to
plead on their behalf with Shangdi
Religion in Shang period
Priests also played an important
role in Chinese religion

Predict future events and interpret
divine messages
Priests wrote questions on
oracle bones, the shoulder bones
of cattle or tortoise shells
Heated bones and interpreted the
cracks that appeared on the bones
 Priest marked their interpretations
on the bone or shell

Language and Writing
The Chinese of the Shang period
were among the few early peoples
to develop a written language
Spoke many dialects, or variations
of their language
Developed a written language that
could be used for all these dialects
First used pictographs which
later became complex

Then they developed ideographs
Ideographs
Ideographs consisted
of two parts
A signifier, or idea sign,
and a phonetic sign
Signifier showed the meaning
of the character and the
phonetic sign told how to
pronounce it
Could invent new characters
by combining existing signs
Ideographs
Each character, however
had to be memorized
 Earlier these were clerks, scribes,
and teachers
 Scribes recorded special events
and composed literary works
 Wrote from the top to the bottom
of the page, beginning on the right
side
 Writing became an art called
calligraphy
Fall of the Shang Dynasty
Shang exhausted their efforts
by fighting continually with
herders that had settled near
the Shang territory
In 1050 BC a people called the Zhou
formed an alliance with nearby tribes
and overthrew the Shang dynasty
The Zhou justified this overtaking
by saying the Shang were corrupt
and unfit to rule