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Chinas First Dynasties

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• Main Idea / Reading Focus
• Chinas Geography
• The Shang Dynasty
• The Zhou Dynasty
• Map Shang and Zhou Dynasties
• New Philosophies
• Faces of History Chinese Philosophers

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Chinas First Dynasties

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Chinas First Dynasties
Main Idea Chinas river valley civilizations
built the foundations of a long-shared Chinese
culture. The achievements of the Shang and Zhou
dynasties can be felt to this day.

• Reading Focus
• How did Chinas geography affect its early
  civilization?
• What were the achievements of the Shang dynasty?
• How did China change during the Zhou dynasty?
• What new philosophies were introduced in China?

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Chinas Geography
The development of civilization in early China
was aided by features like long rivers, fertile
soils, temperate climates, and isolated valleys.
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• Crops
• Most of eastern China covered with fertile soils
  some regions better suited than others for
  growing certain crops
• Southern Chinawarm, receives plenty of rainfall,
  excellent region for growing rice
• Further northclimate cooler, drier suitable for
  grains, wheat, millet

• Isolation
• Combination of rivers for irrigation, fertile
  soil for planting allowed Chinese to thrive, as
  did Chinas relative isolation
• Mountains, hills, desert protected China from
  invasion
• Himalaya Mountains separate southern China from
  India, rest of southern Asia vast Gobi Desert
  prevented reaching China from west

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Chinas Geography
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Summarize What geographic features influenced
life in early China?
Answer(s) Rivers deposited rich soil for
farming mountains, hills, and desert isolated
the area.
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The Shang Dynasty
According to ancient Chinese records, the Shang
dynasty formed around 1766 BC, although many
archaeologists believe it actually began somewhat
later than that.
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Shang Elite

• Leisure
• Ruling elite had free time to pursue leisure
  activities, hunting for sport
• Wealthy enjoyed collecting expensive bronze, jade
  objects

• Artifacts
• Much of what is known comes from studying royal
  tombs
• Contained valuable items made of bronze, jade

• Afterlife
• Tombs held remains of sacrificed prisoners of war
• Believed in afterlife where ruler would need
  riches, servants

• Ancestor Worship
• Shang offered gifts to deceased ancestors to keep
  them happy in afterlife
• Steam from ritual meals nourished ancestors
  spirits

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Oracle Bones

• As part of worship, Shang asked ancestors for
  advice
• Sought advice through use of oracle bones
• Inscribed bits of animal bone, turtle shell
• Living person asked question of ancestor
• Hot piece of metal applied to oracle bone
  resulting in cracks on bones surface
• Specially trained priests interpreted meaning of
  cracks to learn answer

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Shang Achievements and Decline

• Writing
• Development of Chinese writing closely tied to
  use of oracle bones
• Earliest examples of Chinese writing, questions
  written on bones themselves
• Early Shang texts used picture symbols to
  represent objects, ideas

• Bronze
• Shang religion led to great advances in working
  with bronze
• Highly decorative bronze vessels, objects created
  for religious rituals
• Also built huge structures like tombs created
  calendar, first money systems

• End of Dynasty
• Shang ruled for more than 600 years, until about
  1100 BC
• Ruling Chinas growing population proved too much
  for Shang
• Armies from nearby tribe, Zhou, invaded,
  established new ruling dynasty

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Summarize How did religion influence other
aspects of Shang culture?
Answer(s) ritual meals for ancestors oracle
bones connected to early writing bronze work for
rituals built stable tombs
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The Zhou Dynasty
Beginning around 1100 BC, the Zhou rules China
for several centuries. The Zhou dynasty is
divided into two periods. During the Western
Zhou, kings ruled from Xian in a peaceful period.
Later conflict arose, kings moved east to
Luoyang, beginning the Eastern Zhou period.
In that case, they said, it was the will of the
gods that that dynasty be overthrown and a new
one take power.
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Zhou Achievements

• Before Zhou, Chinese metalwork done almost
  exclusively in bronze
• Zhou learned to use iron, became backbone of
  economy
• Iron was strong, could be cast more cheaply,
  quickly than bronze
• Iron weapons strengthened Zhou army, as did new
  weapons like catapult and creation of Chinas
  first cavalry

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Small States Fight

• Result of rebellions was Warring States Period
• 403 BC to 221 BC, number of small states fought
  each other for land, power
• Zhou still nominally in charge, but power almost
  nonexistent by mid-200s BC
• Qin, new dynasty, arose to bring end to Warring
  States Period, Zhou dynasty

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Analyze How did China change under the Zhou?
Answer(s) iron technology, population grew, new
farm techniques, more food, cities grew, roads
and canals built, coins and chopsticks introduced
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New Philosophies
The conflicts of the late Zhou period led many
Chinese thinkers to question the nature of
society and peoples roles in it.
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Confucianism

• Confucius
• Confucianism based on teachings of scholar named
  Kongfuzi, better known as Confucius, who thought
  people should treat one another humanely
• Should express love, respect for others, honor
  ones ancestors

• Love and Respect
• Believed that love, respect had disappeared and
  was responsible for violence in society
  restoring respect for tradition would make
  society stable
• Thoughts on how to improve society collected in
  book, Analects

• Analects
• Ruler should treat subjects fairly subjects
  reward ruler with respect, loyalty
• People should respect members of family, devote
  selves to public service
• Confucian ideas spread elsewhere in Asia,
  including Korea, Japan, Vietnam

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Daoism
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Some Lasting Effects

• Daoism eventually proved less influential than
  Confucianism in Chinese history
• Still played major role in later dynasties
• Idea of balance key concept in China for
  centuries as result of Daoist teaching
• Daoist philosophy led many followers to work for
  preservation, protection of natural environment

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Contrast What is one difference between
Confucianism and Daoism?
Answer(s) Daoismretreat from society and
commune with nature Confucianismimprove society
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VideoThe Impact of Hinduism as a World Religion
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