Transcript The Geography Of China*s River Valleys

THE GEOGRAPHY OF CHINA’S
RIVER VALLEYS
Chapter V Section I
Entrance Slip-4/9
 Define “loess”
KWL- Use your webquest!!
 Fold a piece of white paper into 3
 K: What do you know about ancient china?
(Use what you learned from your webquest!)
 W: What would you like to learn more about?
 L: At least 3 facts you’ve learned this week!
Vocabulary
 Monsoon
 Loess
 3 obediances
Climate And Landforms
 The North China Plain is located in East Asia;
built of soil deposits from the Huang River
 There is very little rain each year, causing the
North China Plain to be very dry and hot
 The climate in the south is the opposite
 Monsoons from the South China Sea bring
heavy rain to the land
Huang And Chang Rivers
 The Chang River is the longest river in China
 The Huang River is the second longest river in
China
Huang River
 The word Huang means “yellow” in Chinese
 It is called the “Yellow River” because of the
yellow-brown loess (or yellow-brown soil)
that its waters carry along with its flooding
China’s Sorrow
 The Chinese people also called the Huang
River “China’s Sorrow”
 It brought life to land, but also took life away
 Destructive floods could come without
warning, sometimes as often as every two
years
 The course of the river could increase by
hundreds of miles
Early Civilization In China
 Early farming societies formed as early as
5000 b.c.
 These early farming societies later formed
full-fledged civilizations
The Shang Dynasty
 First civilization in China
 Arose around 1760 b.c.
 The Shang Dynasty produced the first
Chinese writing system
 Built China’s first cities
 Among their many accomplishments was the
production of China’s finest bronze work
The Shang Dynasty
(Continued)
 Like Mesopotamia’s cuneiform and our
alphabet, the Chinese writing system could
be used for different languages
 This could help for communication, because
China had many regional languages
The Shang Dynasty
(Continued)
 About 600 years after the founding of the
Shang Dynasty, the Zhou people emerged,
lived in the Wei Valley west of the Shang
people
The Zhou Dynasty
 The Zhou conquered the Shang in about 1122
b.c.
 The Zhou Dynasty ruled over ancient China
for almost 1000 years
 This long period was divided into two partsthe earlier Western Zhou Dynasty and the
later Eastern Zhou Dynasty
The Zhou Dynasty (Continued)
 During that time, small kingdoms fought for
control over one another until a new dynastythe Qin- finally emerged
 It was near the end for the Eastern Zhou
Dynasty that a period known as the Warring
States began
Women’s Roles
 Women were to be considered a lower status
than men
 According to tradition, women were bound
by what were called the three obediences- to
obey their fathers in youth, their husbands
after marriage, and their sons in widowhood