story
advertisement
YEAR 7 HISTORY ANCIENT CHINA BRITISH MUSEUM ANCIENT CHINA WEBSITE ACTIVITIES NAME: ________________________________________________ CLASS:____________ Go to: www.ancientchina.co.uk CRAFTS AND ARTISANS 1. Write down at least TWO interesting points about each of the following: Jade Bronze Silk Ceramics STORY 1 2. What is a bi? ________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. What did the Marquis use it for? ________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPLORE Jade Workshop Read how jade was worked in ancient China. 4. Why was jade so precious in ancient China? B_____________ to look at W________ to the touch Quite r_______ D_____________ material to work C__________ to anything good, pure or virtuous. 5. Who wore jade? The ancient Chinese _________ wore jade belts, plaques and ornaments to show their status. It was a _________ of their earthly power. They were also ___________ with many jades. They believed that it would give them _________________ from _______ ______________. 6. Choose one of the artefacts at the bottom of the Jade Worskshop picture. Draw and briefly describe it. _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ Ceramic Workshop 2 7. Briefly describe the processes used to make ceramics. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ What Happens Next? The clay vessels, once shaped and decorated, had to be __________ in a kiln to make them hard. The _____________ of the Chinese kilns meant that they could reach very high _________________ while staying evenly _______________ throughout. This played a very important part in ancient China's ability to produce such high quality ceramics. 8. Choose one of the artefacts at the bottom of the Ceramic Worskshop picture. Draw and briefly describe it. _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ The Bronze Workshop How Bronze Objects Were Cast 9. What other material was necessary for craftsmen to use to create bronze objects? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 3 10.How many people would have worked in the workshop? _________________________________________________________________________ 11.What objects were made from bronze? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 12.Choose one of the artefacts at the bottom of the Bronze Worskshop picture. Draw and briefly describe it. _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ _____________________________________________ CHALLENGE 13.What is the legend regarding the discovery of silk? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 14.Play the Sericulture game (if it works!) 4 GEOGRAPHY Modern China is a vast country. It is the world's fourth largest country and is home to approximately 1.25 billion people - nearly a quarter of the world's population. It has a great _________ of climates and terrains. The south is wet and ___________, with some rainforest coverage. North-west China is covered in _________. In the very far northeast, close to Russia, the temperature can drop to -50ºC in the winter. In the west of China there are the _______________, with some of the highest mountains in the world. China's lowest point is in the Turfan Depression, at -154 metres below sea level. The Turfan Depression is also known as one of the 'furnaces' of China because of its incredible _________. The melting snows from the mountains in the west create the headwaters for two of China's most important rivers, the Yellow River and the Yangzi River. The Yellow River gets its name because of the yellow windborne clay dust called ________ that is blown across the north of China from the steppes of Central Asia. The loess is blown into the river and gives it a yellow appearance. The Yangzi River is the ___________ in China and third longest in the world. The Yangzi River irrigates the ______ _____________ regions in the south of China. STORY 1. Choose one myth and transform it into a cartoon strip. (Ask your teacher for a blank comic strip to use.) EXPLORE 2. Look at the maps. During which period had China expanded its territory the most? ______________________________________________________________________ CHALLENGE 3. Play the “Geography Challenge.” 5 TIME 1. Complete the time line 221BC 221BC 256BC 771BC 1050BC 1500BC 2000BC 2. Why do archaeologists find the Shang dynasty so interesting? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. How did the Zhou rule such a large area? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 4. What happened when the Zhou King was killed? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 6 5. Who was Qin Shi Huangdi? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ STORY 6. Who is Pan Gu and why was he important in Chinese history? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPLORE 7. Use the different timelines to match the date to the event. Xia Dynasty 132AD Wheelbarrows invented 1050BC Zhou conquest of Shang Dynasty 700-800AD Gunpowder discovered c.500/600BC Confucius born 2200-2100BC Earthquake detector invented 0-100BC CHALLENGE 8. Play the Shang Calendar game. 7 TOMBS AND ANCESTORS 1. What archaeological evidence illustrates the ancient Chinese belief of life after death? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 2. Why were ancestors so important? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ STORY 3. Describe THREE ways the people in the story try to please the ancestors. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ 8 EXPLORE 4. Briefly describe the rooms of the tomb and their contents 9 CHALLENGE 5. Complete the “Furnishing Tombs” Challenge. WRITING The Chinese use a very different writing system to English. English words are made up of a collection of letters that each has its own sound. The Chinese use logograms - where a symbol represents a meaning or a word. Good examples of logograms that you might use every day are numbers. If you see '2' written, you know that it means 'two'. A French person looking at the same symbol would say it meant 'deux'. The basic principles behind Chinese writing have remained unchanged for thousands of years. Each character consists of a number of strokes or lines set inside an imaginary square. Thousands of bones from the Shang dynasty have been unearthed with writing on them. Many of the characters on these bones still exist (in a slightly altered state) today. STORY 1. What is the secret of the “dragon bones”? Were they really bones from a dragon? ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ EXPLORE 2. Choose one of the artefacts. Explain what it was used for and why the inscription on the artefact is significant. ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________ CHALLENGE 3. Play “The Symbols Game” 10
