Geography of China 

What information can be obtained by looking at this map of China? IsolationVideo Segment

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China vs. the U. S. in SizeChina vs. the U. S. in Size

1.3 Billion People

300 Million People

Geography of China• For thousands of years, the ancient Chinese thought they were

pretty much alone on the planet Earth.

• They knew there were people to the north, the Felt Tent People - the Mongols - but they did not know that other advanced ancient civilizations existed anywhere else. 

• China's natural barriers to the west, south, and east helped to protect these early people from invasion.

• China's natural barriers include seas - the China Sea and the  Yellow Sea, both located in the Pacific Ocean.

• These seas provide a huge coastline, which provided trade routes and easy access to food.  

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_NzFXFpCcc

• For thousands of years, the ancient Chinese thought they were pretty much alone on the planet Earth.

• They knew there were people to the north, the Felt Tent People - the Mongols - but they did not know that other advanced ancient civilizations existed anywhere else. 

• China's natural barriers to the west, south, and east helped to protect these early people from invasion.

• China's natural barriers include seas - the China Sea and the  Yellow Sea, both located in the Pacific Ocean.

• These seas provide a huge coastline, which provided trade routes and easy access to food.  

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_NzFXFpCcc

Early China & Xia Dynasty10,000 BCE to 1500 BCE

Chinese civilization started around 10,000 BCE, when a group called the Yangshao (yahng show) settled near the Huang He River.

Archaeologists have uncovered many Yangshao villages in northern China.

In one village, they found the remains of farmhouses, built partly underground, with plaster floors, and roofs held up with wooden posts.

• About 3,000 BCE, another farming group appeared, the Lungshan people.

• The Lungshan were very advanced for their time.

• They harvested silk, and used it to weave fine fabrics. They used the potters wheel. They baked strong bricks in ovens, and used them to build their homes.

Shang & Chou/Zhou Dynasties

Shang Dynasty About 1700 BCE to 1100 BCEChou (also called Zhou, pronounced "joe") Dynasty

About 1100 BCE to 250 BCE

Shang and Chou times are known for their use of jade, bronze, horse-drawn chariots, ancestor worship, highly organized armies, and human sacrifice. 

Cities were surrounded by protective walls. One city was surrounded by a wall 30 feet high, 65 feet thick, and 4 1/2 miles long!

Inside these walled cities lived the rulers, priests, and warriors.

Merchants and craftsmen lived in mud houses built up against the outside walls of the cities. Farmers lived in nearby villages.

Chopsticks were invented, which changed the way people ate their food.

Shang & Chou Families:• Family: For both the rich and the

poor, the family was all important. The oldest male was the head of the family.

• If one member of a family did something wrong, the entire family was in disgrace.

• In the nobles, marriages were arranged to strength or to create a union between two clans or families. 

• The young obeyed their parents without a fuss. This was important part of ancestor worship.

• Even a wealthy noble with many servants might patch his father's robe with his own hands.

• Children looked forward to the day when they would be parents, and their children would honor them. 

• The role of the woman was to be gentle, calm, respectful, and to obey her husband.

• In ancient China, home and family were so important that they were nearly sacred. 

Shang & Chou kings and nobles:

• The rich lived in large homes and palaces made of mud and wood.

• They had tall bronze candlesticks.

• They used bronze drinking cups. (Shang leaders were famous for their drinking bouts.)

• They loved to hunt.

Shang & Chou kings and nobles:

• Their bronze weapons were decorated with elaborate designs.

• Horseback riding was very popular, both as a sport and, in late Chou times, as a method of war.

• (Chariots had not worked very well as the landscape was rather bumpy and rugged.) 

Shang & Chou kings and nobles:

• The nobles wore elaborate gowns of silk and lived in large, brick homes with tiled roofs.

• They were lavishly decorated and furnished.

• Jugs of wine lined the walkways.

• The air was scented with flowers in the gardens and spices from pots of food steaming on stoves. 

Shang & Chou kings and nobles:

• They were buried in lavish tombs.

• Unlike the ancient Egyptians, the Shang and Chou were buried with living people.

• In their tombs, archaeologists have found entire chariots, objects of art, and the remains of guards and dogs who accompanied kings to their graves.

Shang & Chou kings and nobles:

• Warriors: The leaders of different clans were continually waging war with each other.

• Warriors were knights in bronze armor who went to battle in horse-drawn chariots made of wood and bronze.

Shang & Chou kings and nobles:

• They wore bronze helmets, and carried daggers, spears, and axes.

• Each chariot had a driver, a spearman, and an archer.

• Behind them, came the foot soldiers, who were usually peasants, forced to leave their fields.

• Foot soldiers wore tunics and trousers.

Shang & Chou Farmers, Merchants, and Craftsmen

• Farmers: Most people were farmers (peasants).

• Their life was very hard. Farmers lived in nearby villages.

• Their homes were very simple. In the summer, peasants lived on the land near their fields.

• Summer homes were made of bamboo branches.

Shang & Chou Farmers, Merchants, and Craftsmen

• In the winter, they moved to their permanent homes in the villages.

• Winter homes were drafty, one room houses with thatched or tile roofs, dirt floors and no furniture.

• The walls were made of mud. Doors faced south. Each family had their own winter home.

Shang & Chou Farmers, Merchants, and Craftsmen

• They farmed small plots of land with primitive stone and wood tools.

• They did not own the land. They worked the land assigned to them by the royals and the nobles.

• They had to give the nobleman part of the food they grew.

Shang & Chou Farmers, Merchants, and Craftsmen

• They were also expected to give gifts to the nobleman of wine or silk.

• They worked without pay on the noble's house, roads, and bridges.

• They pretty much worked all the time.

Shang and Chou Religion

• Their gods were the gods of nature, the river god, the rain god, the earth god.

• They believed in many gods, but the most powerful was the sky god, T'ien, the king of gods.

• To the peasants, T'ien was more brilliant and more powerful than any earthbound king.

Spring Festival/Chinese New Year

• As in Xia times, the earliest times, each year they celebrated the Spring Festival.

• Several villages would gather for the Festival.

• Unlike the nobles, marriages were rarely arranged.

• Boys and girls met each other at the Spring Festival.

Spring Festival/Chinese New Year

• This is when young boys and girls found husbands and wives.

• Girls were about 15 years old when they married.

• Boys were about the same age, or a little older. 

Merchants and Craftsmen

• Since this group did not produce food and were not part of the nobility, they were outside the class structure.

• Like slaves, they were hardly considered men.

• In times of war, when the city was attacked, they were not taken inside the protective walls, but were left to fend for themselves as best they could.

Shang/Chou Dynasty Wrap-Up

• Shang Dynasty About 1700 BCE to 1100 BCE– The kingship was very odd. Instead of going from father to son, it

went from brother to brother or from brother to nephew.  – Mandate of Heaven Two of the most important contributions of

the Shang Dynasty are the use of bronze and a system of writing.

• Chou (also called Zhou) DynastyAbout 1100 BCE to 250 BCE– This dynasty was divided into feudal states.– Literature flourished. – People began to study astronomy. – Roads and canals were built to move supplies over long

distances.

Qin Dynasty 221 BCE - 206 BCE

(pronounced “Chin”) – from which came the name China

Many dynasties in Ancient China lasted for hundreds of years. But the Qin Dynasty lasted for only 15 years. Yet, First Emperor Qin accomplished an amazing amount of change!  

Qin Dynasty

• Qin was the first man to control all of China.

• He did not want to be called a king. he called himself First Emperor Qin.

• He died of natural causes.

• But in the short time that he ruled China, he readied China to be pulled together as one country. But at what cost?

Qin Dynasty

• First Emperor Qin was a legalist. Legalists believe that people are basically bad.

• They believe that it is necessary to control and regulate every minute of people's lives.

Qin Dynasty

• Qin ran his dynasty with absolute control and swift harsh punishment.

• It was illegal to whine about Qin's government. If you simply suggested that things might be improved, you could be put to death without a trial.

Qin Dynasty

• Qins’ changes– Bureaucracy - He divided his empire into 36

provinces. Each province was divided into districts. He put two government officials in charge of each province.

– Spy System - People had to spy on each other - it was the law.

– Land: First Emperor Qin took land away from the nobles. Argued = Work on Great Wall

– Standardization: He introduced one system of weights, measures, money, written language, and laws.

Qin Dynasty

• Qins’ changes– Law Code: He introduced a new law code that

applied to everybody – Peasants: Peasants were assigned a job. They were

either assigned the job of farmer or of silk maker.– Censorship: Qin practiced total censorship. All books

he considered useless were burned. – The more time people spent studying, the less time

they had to grow food.

End of Qin Dynasty

• Qin did not think his rule was cruel.

• He did do many good things – Dams, Canals, Great Wall began.

• Saved thousands of lives• He died of natural causes in

210 B.C.E.• Son took over• Was overthrown by a man who

started a new dynasty – The Han Dynasty./

Qin Dynasty Wrap-Up

•  Qin (also called Ch'in) Dynasty  221-207 BCE 

• End of the Feudal System

• Forced labor to begin the Great Wall

• Standardized money and system of measurement

• Burned books, including Confucius texts

Han Dynasty200 BCE to 200 CE

Han Dynasty

• Han Introduction: This was not the Golden Age of China, but life was very good for many of the people because of the demand for Chinese silk.

• The creation of the "silk road" - the trade routes across the fierce deserts -  allowed trade to flourish more easily with the Roman Empire.

• People bonded together into one civilization during Han times.

• They had a common culture. Even in remote sections, district officials copied the manner of the imperial court. Peasants built homes and plowed their fields in the same way all over China.

Han Dynasty

• The Arts & Sciences: – They created new works of literature and music. – Beautiful murals were painted on the walls of palaces. – Iron was used for making plows and other cast iron objects. – Their medicine was advanced. – They invented acupuncture. – these ancient people invented paper. – They also invented an instrument that told them when an

earthquake was happening, somewhere in the Empire, so they could send troops and food to help.

– It was called a seismograph – All-in-all, the Chinese invented many, many items.

Han Dynasty

• Public Schools: One of the Han emperors (Emperor Wudi), around 100 CE, agreed with Confucius that education was the key to good government.

• He started a system of public schools, for boys only, taught by Confucian teachers.

Han Dynasty

• Jobs: Jobs were given to educated people, as well as nobles.

• People were paid for their work.

Han Dynasty

• Merchants & Craftsmen: As in Shang times, merchants were hardly recognized as men.

Han Dynasty

• Life in the Country: Country folk were farmers.

• Several families lived in one house to allow them to work their fields together. 

Han Dynasty

• families had learned to team up. This solved a major problem.

• Together, they were able to produce more food, some years, than they needed, which allowed them to trade food for other items. 

Han Dynasty

• They steamed much of their food over boiling water on stoves.

• In the south, they ate rice, steamed dumplings, and fish, flavored with garlic and onions.

• In the north, they ate much the same, only they ate wheat instead of rice.