GLOBAL STUDIES …..East Asia The Land and People of China.

GLOBAL STUDIES…..East Asia

The Land and People of China

Confucius and his disciples

© Howard Sochurek/Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images

The Bund in Shanghai and the World’s FAIR EXHIBIT….2010

Ming dynasty great wall

Map of the Great Wall…most people recognize this feature…..

Five THEMES OF GEOGRAPHY…must know!!!!

MEMORIZE FOR NEXT CLASS….1/LOCATION-specific location/where2/PLACE/ unique properties of a place3/MOVEMENT/ spread, diffusion, expansion &

communications4/ REGION/ UNIFORM characteristics of a spatial

area5/ HUMAN-EARTH RELATIONSHIPS- human

interactions with an environment

Population Map…three observations that could be made???

Neolithic China

The First Villages in Early ChinaBefore the invention of writing systems, early humans sought to record events in their lives by means of pictures. Examples are the Neolithic cave paintings in France and Saharan Africa (see Chapters 1 and 8). This photo shows a house in Banpo, an early farming village in central China that was founded perhaps seven thousand years ago. Note that this house is enclosed by walls made of dried mud, a type of dwelling appropriate to a colder climate.

© William J. Duiker

The First Villages in Early ChinaBefore the invention of writing systems, early humans sought to record events in their lives by means of pictures. Examples are the Neolithic cave paintings in France and Saharan Africa (see Chapters 1 and 8). Shown here is a Neolithic cave painting of a village of stilt houses in Yunnan province in southern China.


Shell and Bone WritingThe earliest known form of true writing in China dates back to the Shang dynasty and was inscribed on shells or animal bones. Questions for the gods were scratched on bones, which cracked after being exposed to fire. The cracks were then interpreted by sorcerers. The questions often expressed practical concerns: Will it rain? Will the king be victorious in battle? Will he recover from his illness? Originally composed of pictographs and ideographs four thousand years ago, Chinese writing has evolved into an elaborate set of symbols that combine meaning and pronunciation in a single character.

© Werner Forman/Art Resource, NY

Shang China

The Afterlife and Prized PossessionsLike the pharaohs in Egypt, Chinese rulers filled their tombs with prized possessions from daily life. It was believed that if the tombs were furnished and stocked with supplies, including chairs, boats, chests, weapons, games, and dishes, the spiritual body could continue its life despite the death of the physical body. Here we see the remains of a chariot and horses in a burial pit in China’s Hebei province that dates from the early Zhou dynasty.

© Lowell Georgia/CORBIS

The Afterlife and Prized PossessionsLike the pharaohs in Egypt, Chinese rulers filled their tombs with prized possessions from daily life. It was believed that if the tombs were furnished and stocked with supplies, including chairs, boats, chests, weapons, games, and dishes, the spiritual body could continue its life despite the death of the physical body. In this photo, the papier-maˆche´ vehicle will be burned so that it will ascend in smoke to the world of the spirit.


The Afterlife and Prized PossessionsLike the pharaohs in Egypt, Chinese rulers filled their tombs with prized possessions from daily life. It was believed that if the tombs were furnished and stocked with supplies, including chairs, boats, chests, weapons, games, and dishes, the spiritual body could continue its life despite the death of the physical body. This photo shows a small boat from the tomb of Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. The tradition of providing items of daily use for the departed continues today in Chinese communities throughout Asia

© Egyptian National Museum, Cairo, Egypt/ The Bridgeman Art Library

Bronze AxheadThis axhead, manufactured during the second millennium B.C.E., was made by pouring liquid metal into an ax-shaped mold of clay or stone. When it had cooled, artisans would polish the surface to produce a sharp cutting edge.

© Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, UK/The Bridgeman Art Library

Confucius and Lao TzuIt is not likely that the two ancient Chinese philosophers ever met, for little is known about the life of Lao Tzu (shown on the left in the illustration), but according to tradition, the two allegedly held a face-toface meeting. The discussion must have been interesting, for their points of view about the nature of reality were diametrically opposed. Nevertheless, the Chinese have managed to preserve both traditions, perhaps a reflection of the dualities represented in the Chinese approach to life. A similar duality existed among Platonists and Aristotelians in ancient Greece (see Chapter 4).

© Topham/The Image Works

China During the Period of the Warring StatesFrom the fifth to the third centuries B.C.E., China was locked in a time of civil strife known as the Period of the Warring States. This map shows the Zhou dynasty capital at Luoyang, along with the major states that were squabbling for precedence in the region. The state of Qin would eventually suppress its rivals and form the first unified Chinese empire, with its capital at Xianyang (near modern Xian).

The Qin Empire, 221–206After a struggle of several decades, the state of Qin was finally able to subdue its rivals and create the first united empire in the history of China. The capital was located at Xianyang, near the modern city of Xian.

Flooded Rice FieldsRice, first cultivated in China seven or eight thousand years ago, is a labor-intensive crop that requires many workers to plant the seedlings and organize the distribution of water. Initially, the fields are flooded to facilitate the rooting of the rice seedlings and to add nutrients to the soil. Fish breeding in the flooded fields help keep mosquitoes and other insects in check. As the plants mature, the fields are drained, and the plants complete their four-month growing cycle in dry soil. Shown here is an example of terracing on a hillside to preserve water for the nourishment of young seedlings.


Flooded Rice FieldsRice, first cultivated in China seven or eight thousand years ago, is a labor-intensive crop that requires many workers to plant the seedlings and organize the distribution of water. Initially, the fields are flooded to facilitate the rooting of the rice seedlings and to add nutrients to the soil. Fish breeding in the flooded fields help keep mosquitoes and other insects in check. As the plants mature, the fields are drained, and the plants complete their four-month growing cycle in dry soil. This photo illustrates the backbreaking task of transplanting rice seedlings in a flooded field in Vietnam today.


Heartland of Ancient ChinaThe Yellow River valley and its neighboring regions have always been viewed as the heartland of ancient Chinese civilization. Rich clay soils, known by geologists as loess and carried southward by the winds from the vast Gobi Desert, created a thick blanket of rich loam in which to plant the grain crops that sustained the Chinese people. As seen here, even the walls of the village are constructed of this rich yellow earth.


Heartland of Ancient ChinaThe Yellow River valley and its neighboring regions have always been viewed as the heartland of ancient Chinese civilization. Rich clay soils, known by geologists as loess and carried southward by the winds from the vast Gobi Desert, created a thick blanket of rich loam in which to plant the grain crops that sustained the Chinese people. The hills in the background are pockmarked with cave dwellings that have housed the local inhabitants since prehistoric times.


A Shang Wine VesselUsed initially as food containers in royal ceremonial rites during the Shang dynasty, Chinese bronzes were the product of an advanced technology unmatched by any contemporary civilization. This wine vessel displays a deep green patina as well as a monster motif, complete with large globular eyes, nostrils, and fangs, typical of many Shang bronzes. Known as the taotie, this fanciful beast is normally presented in silhouette as two dragons face to face so that each side forms half of the mask. Although the taotie presumably served as a guardian force against evil spirits, scholars are still not aware of its exact significance for early Chinese peoples.


The Tomb of Qin Shi HuangdiThe First Emperor of Qin ordered the construction of an elaborate mausoleum, an underground palace complex protected by an army of terra-cotta soldiers and horses to accompany him on his journey to the afterlife.


The Tomb of Qin Shi HuangdiThe First Emperor of Qin ordered the construction of an elaborate mausoleum, an underground palace complex protected by an army of terra-cotta soldiers and horses to accompany him on his journey to the afterlife. This massive formation of six thousand life-size armed soldiers, discovered accidentally by farmers in 1974, reflects Qin Shi Huangdi’s grandeur and power.

© Martin Puddy/Getty Images

Pictographs in Ancient CulturesVirtually all written language evolved from pictographs—representations of physical objects that were eventually stylized and tied to sounds in the spoken language. This chart shows pictographs that originated independently in three ancient cultures and the stylized modern characters into which the Chinese oracle pictographs evolved.

Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC//Photo © William J. Duiker

Music in the Confucian EraAccording to Confucius, ‘‘If a man lack benevolence, what has he to do with music?’’ The purpose of music, to followers of the Master, was to instill in the listener a proper respect for ethical conduct. Foremost among the instruments in the Confucian era were bronze bells. Shown here is a collection of bells dating from the Zhou dynasty.


Music in the Confucian EraAccording to Confucius, ‘‘If a man lack benevolence, what has he to do with music?’’ The purpose of music, to followers of the Master, was to instill in the listener a proper respect for ethical conduct. Foremost among the instruments in the Confucian era were bronze bells. This photo highlights the stylized face of a dragon on this bell from the ninth century B.C.E. The monster motif, known as the taotie, with its globular eyes, nostrils, and fangs, is characteristic of both Shang and Zhou bronze objects.


GLOBAL STUDIES …..East Asia The Land and People of China.

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