Early China,
2000-221 BCE
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The loess life is more
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Civilization emerged in China somewhat later
than in the Middle East and India, and
centered around the northern Huang He
River (Yellow River, so named because of
its yellowish-brown dust called loess that’s
suspended in its waters).
Yellow River known as “China’s Sorrow”
because it altered course many times,
bringing tremendous destruction.
Geography and early China
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China is isolated from the rest of Eastern
Hemisphere: natural boundaries include Himalayas
to the southwest, Pamir and Tian mountains and
Takla Makan Desert to the west, Gobi Desert and
Mongolian steppe to the northwest … and the Pacific
Ocean to the east.
Neolithic cultural complexes have been identified but
not understood, and stories of ancient dynasties
including the Xia are hard to assess, so Chinese
history proper begins with the Shang dynasty
around 1750 BCE.
Shang rulers
dominated
central and
northern China
for more than six
centuries and
were the first to
leave written
records.
A warrior aristocracy
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The Shang fought its northern and western
neighbors (considered barbarians) with the help of
its bronze weapons and horse-drawn chariots.
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A longstanding Chinese tradition of ethnocentrism
arose: The Shang viewed themselves as superior,
as being at the center of the universe – and China
was seen as the “Middle Kingdom.”
Trade from the outset
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The Shang traded fairly extensively – perhaps even
with peoples as far away as Mesopotamia – and
early on became experts in the production of pottery
and silk. Shang pottery has been found in India.
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Chinese system of writing with pictograms started
with the Shang and fundamentally endures to this
day. (The Chinese written language can be read
everywhere in China, regardless of regionally
spoken variants such as Mandarin and Cantonese. It
now contains more than 50,000 characters.)
Oracle bones
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Earliest evidence of Chinese
writing
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Animal bones and tortoise
shells on which priests would
scratch questions for the
gods
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Answers interpreted
depending on how the bones
cracked when touched with a
hot poker
Shang kingship – tied to the heavens
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The Shang ideology of kingship glorified the king as
the indispensable intermediary between the people
and the gods.
Royal family and aristocracy worshipped the spirits
of their male ancestors, believing they had an “in”
with the gods – to whom they practiced animal and
even human sacrifice!
Using oracle bones was part of divination,
determining the future through the will of the gods.
Shang sets the tone
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The family has been one of civilization’s most
important institutions, and nowhere was that more
true than in Shang China. This first dynasty set the
tone for China’s patriarchal society, in which the
husband and father dominated and multiple
generations of the same family lived under the same
roof.
Began practice called well field system: peasants
worked on lands owned by their lord but also had
land of their own they cultivated for their own use.
Shang bronze
The Shang are perhaps
best known for their
mastery of the art of
bronze casting. Utensils,
weapons and ritual
objects made of bronze
have been found in royal
tombs in urban centers
throughout their sphere
of influence.
Shang dynasty
bronze pot with lid
and handle
The Zhou dynasty
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The Zhou (joe) line of kings (c. 1027-221 BCE) was
the longest lasting and most revered in China’s
dynastic history.
The last Shang king was defeated by Wu, the ruler
of Zhou, which was a dependent state in the Wei
(way) River Valley.
It might be said of the Zhou that they were some of
the first to use propaganda to legitimize their rule 
new theory: “Mandate of Heaven.”
“Mandate of Heaven”
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The ruler (“Son of Heaven”) had been chosen by the supreme
deity (“Heaven”) and would remain in his good graces so long
as the ruler was a wise and just guardian of his people.

Proof of this divine favor was in the pudding: prosperity and
stability  continuation of the dynasty … but corruption,
violence, arrogance, natural calamities, insurrection meant
divine displeasure (the mandate was lost) and a new dynasty.
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Strictly speaking, this is a tautological (or circular) argument,
one that begins by assuming its own proof … but it became
central to the Chinese view of government.
Bureaucratic decentralization
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The Zhou kings continued many of the Shang traditions but
separated religion (and divination) from government.
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Like the Shang, their rule was decentralized: nobles were given
protection and power over smaller regions in return for loyalty to
the king  very much like feudalism, which would later
emerge in Japan and Europe.
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More than a hundred of these largely autonomous territories,
where bureaucracies grew to administer government
efficiently. (Ruling through bureaucracy would prove to be a
Chinese tradition for thousands of years.)
Zhou innovations in trade and
technology
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Roads and canals were built
to stimulate trade and
agriculture.
Coined money further
improved trade (though most
people continued to barter
and taxes were often paid
with grain).
Blast furnaces produced
cast iron that wouldn’t be
matched in Europe until the
Middle Ages.
Zhou-era bronze coins
Zhou trade
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While the well field system carried on (and later was
characterized as the ideal by Confucian scholars),
trade and manufacturing was done by merchants
and artisans living in walled towns under the direct
control of the local lord.
Merchants were not independent; instead,
considered property of the lord and sometimes were
even bought and sold.
Although slavery was probably not extensive, a class
of slaves performed menial tasks and perhaps
worked on irrigation projects.
Nomads to the north and west
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The Zhou had seized power in part because of
military prowess honed against pastoral nomads to
the west.
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For millennia the Chinese had a unique relationship
with these nomadic peoples from the arid, grassy
steppes of central Asia: quarreling but also trading
(e.g., goods for horses) as the nomads served as
intermediaries in the central Asian trade network.
Zhou in decline
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Power already started to wane as early as 800 BCE
as the Zhou a) fought increasingly with nomads to
the northwest, and b) had to deal with local rulers
hording power, becoming more independent within
their own kingdoms and fighting neighboring rulers.
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The following 500 years: Eastern Zhou era  capital
moved to more secure location in the east.
Fragmentation leads to war
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Fierce competition and eventually warfare among
small, independent kingdoms within China (Zhou
rulers couldn’t keep a lid on it all)  “Warring
States Period” 480-221 BCE
* When China finally unifies in 221 BCE under Qin Shi Huangdi,
the First Emperor, he orders the destruction of all books that
don’t carry utilitarian value. He feared poetry, history,
philosophy might undermine his government … so much of
China’s early literary tradition – which reflects society’s social
and cultural legacy – is lost.
China’s Axial Age
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Axial Age – term coined by German philosopher
Karl Jaspers, referring to a 600-year period during
the first millennium BCE when profoundly influential
ideas about religion and philosophy sprang forth:
monotheism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism,
Greek philosophical rationalism.
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In China, amid the troubled times of the declining
Zhou dynasty, (into the Qin Dynasty – 221BCE. –
206 BCE. three social or ethical belief systems
arose: Legalism, Confucianism, Daoism.
Legalism
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Authoritarian political philosophy
Human nature is essentially wicked.
People keep in line only if compelled by prospect of
severe punishment, instituted by a strong central
government run by an absolute ruler.
Practical matters sustained society: farmers and
fighters the ideal professions.
Basis of the unified Qin dynasty (which we’ll discuss
later on), but resentment of its harshness led to
wider acceptance of Confucianism and Daoism.
Confucianism
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Confucius considered
himself a failure, but his
disciple Mencius
spread his ideas and
influence later on.
Confucius (551-479 BCE)
was a scholar who wanted
to restore the order and
moral living of earlier times.
Disciples collected his words
in the Analects.
His doctrine of duty and
public service became
central to Chinese society
and politics, and it also
influenced Korea and Japan.
Confucianism
Relationships rule
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Most important concepts:
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Ren – appropriate feelings (sense of humanity, kindness,
benevolence)
Li – correct actions (sense of propriety, courtesy, respect,
deference to elders)
Xiao – filial piety, or respect for family obligation
Confucius believed that administrators could rule through
enlightened leadership, modeling these traits for the larger
society.
Confucianism
Five key relationships
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Order is achieved when people know their
proper role and relationship to others:
1. Ruler to subject
2. Father to son
3. Husband to wife
4. Older brother to younger brother
5. Friend to friend
Confucianism
Family and state
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Confucius drew a parallel between the family
and the state:
family hierarchy – father at the top, sons next,
then wives and daughters in order of age
 state hierarchy – ruler at the top, public officials
as the sons, common people as the women
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Confucianism
Not a religion
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Confucianism is an ethical belief system – a
political and social philosophy – not a
religion.
It arose within the unique culture of China, so
its influence remained there (and in
surrounding regions in East Asia).
Its flexibility was key (i.e., Buddhists could
accept Confucianism, too).
Daoism
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Laozi (low-dzuh) may
have founded this
philosophy in the sixth
century BCE.
Literal translation of the
Dao: the way, the way
of nature, or the way of
the cosmos.
Humans should exist in
harmony.
Daoism
Relax … don’t worry
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Daoism advised people to relax and get in
harmony with the Dao.
Don’t worry about the troubled times … you
can’t do anything about it anyway.
Wuwei – concept meaning act by not acting:
–
–
do nothing and problems will solve themselves,
like nature.
be like water, soft and yielding yet naturally
powerful.
Daoism
The less government the better
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Daoists believed institutions were unnatural and
dangerous.
The ideal state: a small, self-sufficient town.
Daoism added to the complexity of Chinese culture and
provided an alternative to the proper (and
hierarchical) behavior of Confucianism, but these
two philosophies were not mutually exclusive in
practice: people could be Confucian at work and
Daoist at home.
Authoritarian Olmecs
The Olmecs were polytheistic,
carved out Colossal Heads
(up to 9 feet tall and
weighing 20 tons each – no
small feat considering they
had no large draft animals)
presumably in homage to
their authoritarian leaders,
and apparently had a social
structure indicated by
clothing and ornaments (i.e.,
the more elaborate the dress
and decoration, the higher
the social class).
Sources
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The Earth and Its Peoples: A Global History (Bulliet
et al.)
Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective on
the Past (Bentley & Ziegler)
World History (Duiker & Spielvogel)
Patterns of Interaction (McDougal Littell, publisher)
AP World History review guides: The Princeton
Review, Kaplan and Barron’s