Section+2-4+River+Dynasties+in+China

Key Words:

 * __Loess__: Silt that is also fertile soil.
 * __Oracle Bone__: How kings would communicate with the gods, they were bones of animals with words scratched on by their priests.
 * __Mandate of Heaven__: When the gods decide you are not fit to rule any longer, and others are sent to take your place.
 * __Dynastic Circle__: The rise, recline, and replacement of dynasties.
 * __Fuedalism__: When higher class men ruled a region that was still under control of the central government.

Key People:

 * __Shang__: The first dynasty to control China.
 * __Zhou__: The second dynasty that also brought along Mandate of Heaven.

Key Terms:

 * The Geography of China:**
 * Ancient China was remote from the rest of the world, they had the Pacific Ocean, the Yellow, and the East China Sea to the east, the west held the Taklimakan Desert and Plateau of Tibet, the north had the Gobi Desert and the Mongolian Plateau, and the south had the Himalayas.


 * River Systems:**
 * The two big rivers included the Yellow River, which got its name from carrying yellow silt to its banks, which is blown away by the wind, and the Yangtze River, which flows towards the Yellow River, both flow down the mountain.


 * Environmental Challenges:**
 * Their first civilization started along a river, and the challenges includes; flooding, no trade, thanks to the surrounding geography, and the barriers did not keep out intruders in the west and the north.


 * China's Heartland:**
 * About 10% farming land, mostly between the two rivers, this is known as both North China Plain and China's Heartland, was always the center of its civilization.


 * Civilizations Emerges in Shang Times:**
 * People started to live by the river about 500,000 years ago, archeologists can tell because the Peking man (//homo erectus//) was found in northern China, modern human ancestors were found in southwest China and the remains tell us that they lived there 1.7 million years ago.


 * The First Dynasties:**
 * China began building farms around 2000 B.C., which grew into cities, and the dynasty Xia arrived, as well as its leader: Yu, who was an engineer and a mathematician, who built irrigations to help stop flooding from the Yellow River.
 * Shang was the next dynasty and ruled from 1700 B.C. to 1027 B.C., they built palaces, tombs, and started the written language in China.


 * Early Cities:**
 * Anyang was one of Shang's capitals, it was built out of wood**,** the higher class lived in timber framed houses, while the lower classes lived in huts.
 * The cities were protected by a large earthen wall, which at some points, were 118 feet wide, and protected an area of 1.2 square miles, it took 10,000 men and 12 years to build the wall.
 * Walls were important, since was was a constant in China, the chariot was an important for war, and the men went through hard training for the army.


 * The Development of Chinese Culture:**
 * China named themselves the Middle Kingdom because they believed they were the center of civilization, and that everyone else was barbarians.
 * The group was more important then an individual, a person's first priority and loyalty was to their family and the Middle Kingdom.


 * Family:**
 * Family was most important: the elders controlled the family's property, but women did not have a say in anything, they had to follow instructions from any man in their family, and they were arranged to marry between the ages of 13 and 16, they would only improve their status by having sons.


 * Social Classes:**
 * Warrior-nobles ruled the government, and they owned all the land and told the lower classes what to do.


 * Religious Beliefs:**
 * Chinese believed that their ancestors from beyond the grave would bring them good fortune or disaster, they would honor the father's ancestors, and would make sacrifices.
 * Talked to gods through ancestors, multiple gods, but their was only one supreme god: Shang Di, kings would communicate with them through oracle bones, and by the way that they cracked, they would be answered by the gods.


 * Development of Writing:**
 * Each character stands for a symbol/unit, the Chinese written language had to spoken language to go with it.
 * One advantage: all the different spoken languages could have the same written language, better for communication.
 * Disadvantage: had to memorize 10,000 character to be a scholar, the nobles learned to write, but the lower class men did not.


 * Zhou and the Dynastic Circle:**
 * In 1027 B.C., the Zhou overthrew the Shang, they had the same culture, but they brought new ideas.


 * Mandate of Heaven:**
 * They said that the Zhou had been put into power because the gods believed Shang was a bad ruler, this was called Mandate to Heaven.
 * Became the Chinese view of government, and whenever there was a natural disaster, a new noble family would take place of the last since the last was no longer fit to rule.


 * Control Through Feudalism:**
 * Since the Zhou controlled so much, they had a noble families in charge of each of the regions, they remained loyal, and the government would protect them with their armies, which is how feudalism came to be.
 * The territories became stronger and larger as time went on, they started to fight among each other and stopped listening to the government, while still following Zhou ways.


 * Improvements in Technology and Trade:**
 * Roads and canals built for travel, a money currency introduced, furnaces invented (made cast iron).
 * They used the iron to create weapons, farming tools, which made farming easier and faster.


 * A Period of Warring States:**
 * Zhou ruled from 1027 to 256 B.C., slowly started to become weak, in 771 B.C., nomads attacked, but Zhou was able to create a new capital: Luoyang.
 * The government didn't have enough power to control their people, and warlords became to take control.
 * Chaos took over, and culture started to disappear.