Lesson 4Confucius Changes China

Vocabulary

• Confucianism• Mandate of Heaven• Grand School• Seismograph

• Han Gaozu• Confucius• Wudi

The Han Dynasty

• In 206 B.C. the Qin Dynasty was overthrown

• Farmer turned general Han Gaozu overthrew it

• Began the powerful Han Dynasty

• Ruled for over 400 years• Followed the ideas of

Confucius

Confucius• Lived between 551 B.C. and

479 B.C.• Both parents died when he

was young• He had a passion for learning• Same time as Buddha in

India• His education lead to a job in

the government but later he devoted himself to teaching

Confucianism

• Confucius’s ideas became known as Confucianism

• Not really a religion but more of a way of life

• He felt that the Chinese people had lost their traditions

• His ideas were written in The Analects

Ideas from The Analects• Education would teach people to

be good• Central idea = respect for family• Children should respect parents• Confucius applied this to rulers

and subjects too…a subject should respect his ruler

• Mandate of Heaven = the belief that the gods gave emperors the right to rule

Han Dynasty

• Han rulers wanted to rule more fairly unlike Shihaungdi

• They also wanted to lessen the power of the nobles

• They allowed educated people to have jobs in the government

Wudi and The Grand School

• Wudi was the first strong emperor of the Han Dynasty

• Ruled from 140 B.C. – 87 B.C.

• Created schools for government service run by Confucian teachers

• The best students went to The Grand School.

Learning Blossomed under Han rule

• Grand School went from 50 students to 30,000

• Predicted eclipses• Discovered new

medicines• Chinese language grew

from 3,000 to 9,000 characters

• 100 A.D. = first Chinese Dictionary

Inventions of the Time

• Chinese invented paper made from trees

• Made from Mulberry tree

Chinese Inventions• Invented during the Han Dynasty• Used to detect earthquakes• The vase held a long, metal

pendulum• The pendulum hit a rod inside the

vase that would hit a ball out of the dragon’s mouth

• The ball came out in the direction the earthquake occurred

• Rulers could send food and supplies to the area immediately

Seismograph

Silk• Chinese farmers

discovered how to make silk around 2500 B.C.

• Silkworms start eating mulberry leaves in the spring

• They then spin their cocoons

• Women unwound the cocoons an twisted the strands into threads