6th Grade: Ancient China: Home

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The Chinese had settled in the Huang He, or Yellow River, valley of northern China by 3000 bc. By then they had pottery, wheels, farms, and silk, but they had not yet discovered writing or the uses of metals.

The Shang Dynasty (1600?–1046 bc) is the first documented era of ancient China. The highly developed hierarchy consisted of a king, nobles, commoners, and slaves. The capital city was Anyang, in what is now north Henan province. Some scholars have suggested that travelers from Mesopotamia and from Southeast Asia brought agricultural methods to China, which stimulated the growth of ancient Chinese civilization. The Shang peoples were known for their use of jade, bronze, horse-drawn chariots, ancestor worship, and highly organized armies.

Courtesy Academia Sinica, Taipei; photograph © Wan-go H.C. Weng

Like other ancient peoples, the Chinese developed unique attributes. Their form of writing, probably developed by 2000 bc, was a complex system that used characters that stood for words or parts of words. Such early forms of Chinese became known through the discovery by archaeologists of oracle bones, which were bones with writings inscribed on them. They were used for fortune-telling and record keeping in ancient China.

The Zhou Dynasty (1046–256 bc) saw the full flowering of ancient civilization in China. During this period the empire was unified, a middle class arose, and iron was introduced. The sage Confucius (551–479 bc) developed the code of ethics that dominated Chinese thought and culture for the next 25 centuries.

-taken from Britannica.com Username/password: trevor

 

All articles taken from Britannica.com username/password: trevor

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Shang Dynasty: The first dynasty in China for which there is both written and archeological evidence is the Shang dynasty. According to legend, there was an earlier Chinese dynasty named the Xia dynasty, but it might not have actually existed. Although historians are not certain exactly when the Shang ruled, the dynasty is thought to have begun about 1600 bc and ended in 1046 bc. The Shang created one of the earliest advanced civilizations in East Asia.

Taoism (Doaism) In Chinese the word dao means “way,” indicating a way of thought or life. There have been several such ways in China’s long history, including Confucianism and including Confucianism and Buddhism. Daoism (also spelled Taoism) is a philosophical and religious tradition that developed in China in ancient times under the influence of ideas credited to a man named Laozi. Like Confucianism, it has deeply influenced Chinese culture. Daoism began as a complex system of philosophical thought. In later centuries it also emerged as a communal religion and was integrated into popular folk religion as well.

 

 

Confucianism: By the 9th century ad, the influence of Confucianism, the philosophical tradition associated with the ancient sage Confucius, had sharply waned in China.  Buddhism and Daoism dominated Chinese culture. But a government official, Li Ao, and a prominent writer, Han Yu, ardently defended Confucianism’s place in Chinese culture and thus set the stage for the great revival known as Neo-Confucianism in the 11th century. Neo-Confucianism profoundly influenced Chinese thought for the next 800 years.

 

 

 

 

First Emperor: Emperor Win: The Qin (or Ch’in) Dynasty, from which the name China is derived, ruled for only a brief period—from 221 to 207 bc. But during that time it established the approximate boundaries and basic administrative system that lasted in China for the next 2,000 years.

 

 

 

 

 

Great Wall of China: One of the largest engineering and building projects ever carried out is the Great Wall of China. Originally a defensive system, it is today a major tourist attraction and a national symbol of China. The Great Wall is actually not one wall but many different walls built over time in northern China and southern Mongolia. Some of the walls run parallel to each other. The most extensive and best preserved version of the wall extends for some 5,500 miles (8,850 kilometers), often tracing the crestlines of hills and mountains as it snakes across the countryside. It extends from Liaoning Province in the east to Gansu Province in the northwest. Roughly 70 percent of the total length is constructed wall. Most of the rest consists of natural barriers such as rivers and mountain ridges, and a small portion consists of ditches and moats.

Han Dynasty: One of China’s great imperial dynasties, the Han dynasty ruled for more than 400 years, from 206 bc to ad 220, with only a brief interruption. During the Han period, the Chinese made outstanding artistic, literary, scientific, and technological advances. Chinese culture became firmly established—so much so that “Han” became the Chinese word meaning someone who is Chinese.

 

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