First Dynasties of China

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First Dynasties of China

• Xia
• Shang
• Zhou
• Qin

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Xia Dynasty2200 1750 BC/BCE

• The establishment of the Xia Dynasty is an
  important milestone in the history of Chinese
  civilization
• marks the end of the Primitive Society
• and the beginning of the Class Society.
• It is the first dynasty in Chinese history,
• lasted nearly
• 500 years
• including the
• reigns of 17
• emperors.

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During the Xia Dynasty, many achievements were
made.

• People lived mainly through agriculture using
  tools made of stone or bone.
• The Jade ware at that time was quite delicate and
  bronze vessels were well smelted.
• Craftwork made of bronze embedded with jade also
  appeared.
• Commodity exchanges developed.
• A calendar system was devised which used both
  lunar and solar movements.

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Xia Jie

• The Xia Dynasty ended under the reign of Jie, a
  very notorious tyrannical emperor in Chinese
  history. After he succeeded to the throne, he
  lived an extravagant life day and night without
  any thought for his country or its people.

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Overthrow of Xia Jie

• He amused himself and his wife by ordering 3000
  people to kill themselves by jumping into a lake
  of wine.
• In addition, he killed the patriotic ministers
  who presented him with good advice.
• All of his actions enraged the people so much
  that at last they rose up under the leadership of
  Tang
• (the chief of the Shang tribe)
• set up Shang Dynasty (16th - 11th century BC) and
  overthrew the Xia Dynasty.

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Shang Dynasty

• The Shang ruled in city-states which were, in
  turn, ruled over by a capital city.
• The king seems to have served many of the same
  functions that kings served in other cultures
• he was a kind of head priest,
• the leader of the military aristocracy,
• and in charge of the economy.

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Religion

• The Shang worshipped the "Shang Ti."
• This god ruled as a supreme god over lesser gods,
  
• the sun, the moon, the wind, the rain, and other
  natural forces and places.
• Highly ritualized, ancestor worship became a part
  of the Shang religion.

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Sacrifice to the gods and the ancestors was also
a major part of the Shang religion.

• they were quite possibly the most blood-thirsty
  pre-modern civilization.
• They liked human sacrifice -- a lot.
• The Shang kings sacrificed a great number of
  people to talk to their ancestors.
• Some of those sacrificed were enemies, captured
  in war.
• Some were slaves or people who were sick or
  deformed.
• Some were merchants, craftsmen, or farmers who
  had upset the nobles.
• Some were nobles who had upset the king.
• If a king died, then more than one hundred slaves
  would join him in the grave.
• Some of them would be beheaded first.
• Some of them were just thrown in still alive.

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Shang chariot burial with human sacrifice
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High Priests

• Authority to call nature deities and spirit of
  ancestors (Oracle)
• To communicate with their ancestors, the Shang
  kings used oracle bones.
• The king or emperor would ask a question, for
  example, will it rain tomorrow
• The priest would carve the king's question on an
  oracle bone, which was just an animal bone or
  turtle shell. (Will it rain tomorrow?)
• Then, the priest would heat a bronze pin and hold
  the hot pin to the bone.
• This created a pattern of cracks over the bone.
• The priest (who was usually a woman) would study
  the cracks to find the answer to the question.

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Innovations

• They were the most advanced bronze-working
  civilization in the world
• Shang remains provide the earliest and most
  complete record of Chinese writing
• scratched out on the shoulder blades of pigs for
  oracular purposes
• Writing is also found on bronze and stone, but
  the majority of the records have decayed as they
  were recorded on bamboo strips.

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Fall of Shang

• During the final period of the dynasty, the
  country was in turmoil and vassals from other
  countries began to rebel.
• Despite the turmoil and the impending uprising,
  King Zhou
• (the last king of the Shang Dynasty)
• led a luxurious life
• and tortured both his ministers and his people.
• This intensified conflicts across the kingdom and
  the Shang Dynasty was finally overthrown by Wu
  (chief of Zhou tribe), ending the long reign of
  the Shang Dynasty in Chinese history

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Zhou Dynasty

• The Zhou had a problem of legitimacy
• Shang considered them no more than barbarian
• Zhou now controlled the Shang
• The Mandate of Heaven
• a Chinese concept used to justify the rule of the
  kings of the Zhou Dynasty and later the Emperors
  of China
• The concept was that a king's rule was based on
  the blessing of Heaven
• if a king ruled unwisely, Heaven would be
  displeased and would give the Mandate to someone
  else.
• The concept was first used by the Zhou dynasty to
  justify their overthrow of the Shang dynasty and
  was used by many succeeding dynasties to justify
  their rule.
• Solves issue of legitimacy
• It was not necessary for a person to be of noble
  birth to lead a revolt and become a legitimate
  emperor

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Hegemony

• The Zhou actually didn't rule all of what was
  then China.
• China was then made up of a number of
  quasi-independent principalities.
• However, the Zhou were the most powerful
  principality
• played the role of hegemon in the area.
• 1 country exerting great influence on other
  countries in a given area
• They were located in the middle of the
  principalities, giving rise to what the Chinese
  call their country -- the Middle Kingdom.
• The Zhou were able to maintain peace and
  stability through the hegemon system for a few
  hundred years

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In 771 BC, the capital was sacked by barbarians
from the west.

• its king was killed
• With the royal line broken, the power of the Zhou
  court gradually diminished
• Nobles become powerful
• Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the nobles
  did not even bother to acknowledge the royal
  family symbolically and declared themselves to be
  kings.

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Warring States

• This less than delicate balance among kingdoms
  created by the hegemon system fell into chaos in
  the century and a half that concluded Zhou rule.
• Alliances proved volatile and eventually fell
  apart as large states began to actively invade
  and swallow up the less powerful states.
• By the beginning of the fourth century, only
  eight or nine very large states remained.
• All of the conflict of the Warring States period
  resulted from the search to see who would control
  all of China.

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China was on the path to a single, unified state,
a single empire.

• The population of China had grown precipitously
• the working of iron and its effects on
  agricultural production had greatly increased the
  population
• Warfare had become a large-scale affair
• No longer were armies small and led by an
  aristocracy.
• They were huge, conscript armies led by
  professional soldiers.

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Qin Shi Huangdi, First Chinese Emperor

• A ruler from the western state of Qin
• the most aggressive of the Warring States
• united and subjugated the Warring States and
  formed Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty in 221 B.C.
• Once the king of Qin consolidated his power, he
  took the title Shi Huangdi (meaning First
  Emperor).
• He declared himself the first emperor of China

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The good

• The Emperor standardized Chinese writing,
  bureaucracy, scholarship, law, currency, weights
  and measures.
• He expanded the Chinese empire,
• a system of roads, massive fortifications, and
  palaces.
• To fend off barbarian intrusion from the North
• the emperor connected and extended the old
  fortification walls
• built by the various warring states were
  connected
• forming the Great Wall of China

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The Bad

• Shi Huangdi (259-210 B.C.) was a cruel ruler
• killed or banished those who opposed him or his
  ideas.
• He is notorious for burning virtually all the
  books that remained from previous regimes.
• He even banned scholarly discussions of the past.
• The Qin dynasty ended 20 years after his death,
  but a unified China remained for over 2,000
  years.
• China's name is derived from his short but
  seminal dynasty, Qin (pronounced Chin).