 Chinese civilization was begun in the early second
millennium BCE. The Shang dynasty was the first dynasty
to develop a civilization. They were situated on the banks
of the Huang he (Yellow River).
The Yellow River region formed the heart of the Chinese
world.
The capital of the Shang dynasty was Tang yang.
The city was different from other
cities because the builders didn’t use
brick stones, only wood.
This is the Chinese countryside. The Shang dynasty had
a very strict social class system.
 The majority of the Chinese people in that civilization
were farmers. The farmers were very busy harvesting
and maintaining the paddy fields.
 Warm climate and rainy weather was suitable for
farming .
 They domesticated water buffaloes, pigs, oxen or
mules for agricultural purposes.
 They practiced agriculture on the banks of the Huang
He river, which is also known as the Yellow River
because 2/3 of China is covered by deserts or
mountains which are not suitable for agriculture.
 In the southern part of China the Yangtze river flows
off the Himalayan mountains and into the Pacific
Ocean. Directly to the north off the plateau of
Tibet the Huang He river flows into the Pacific
Ocean; it is also called the Yellow River because of all
the desert sands that are yellow that blow into the
river. Most of the Chinese people made more crops on
the banks of the Yellow River because when it floods a
yellow silt was left that became the fertile soil of China
and that’s why the ancient civilization grew up among
the crops on the banks of the Yellow River.
 Their challenge was to make crops.
 They grew wheat and rice. In the 16th century new
crops such as sweet potatoes, maize and peanuts were
introduced.
 Their culture was the Chinese religion, philosophy and
politics.
 Religions in China
China is a multi-religious country. Taoism, Buddhism,
Islam, Protestantism, and Catholicism have all
developed into culture-shaping communities
throughout Chinese history. Many of them
worshipped the god called Shang D but they believed
that Zhang D was in charge of the other gods and they
believed in other gods for the sun and moon.
 The Chinese culture features spiritual values that have
changed over the years.
 China became the birthplace of gunpowder, paper,
silk, precious stones and oriental spices. China traded
these things to India, Persia, Arabia, North Africa and
even Europe. China also exported teas, salt, sugar.
And they also imported or bought goods like cotton,
ivory, wool, gold and silver.

In the department of technology and art
the Chinese are the masters at making
weapons, jewelry and clothing from silk.
 The Chinese civilization’s transportation was with wheel
barrows, oxcarts, horse carriages, ships and the
rickshaw.
 These types of transportation determined the status of
the person or a family. Common people used wheel barrows.

 The Chinese civilization has the top position in nature and
in inventions. These are the inventions they made:
 Paper: this was first invented in 105 AD in China. It was
invented by the Chinese emperor's official named Ts’ai
Lun.
 Movable type printing: woodblock printing was used
before the Tang Dynasty, until the Song Dynasty when a
man named Bi Sheng invented the movable printing.
 Gunpowder: it was invented by Chinese Taoist alchemists,
about 1000 AD. They made it by mixing elemental sulfur,
charcoal, and saltpetre (potassium nitrate) .
 Compass: it was invented between the second century BC
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and first century AD. This was mostly used in Chinese
ships.
Mechanical clock: the world’s first mechanical clock, with
water driven spherical birds, was invented by a Chinese
monk called Yi Xing. It was invented around 725 AD.
Tea: it was invented by the Chinese father of agriculture,
Shennong, around 2737 BC.
Silk: it was discovered about 6000 years ago. Scientists
believed that it was made by the queen of China, at that
time.
Umbrella: it was invented before 3500 years ago in China.
Lu Ban, a Chinese carpenter, invented the umbrella.
 Porcelain: it was invented at the time of the Shang
Dynasty. At that time, Chinese porcelain was very
expensive.
 Silk: is a material that is produced from a worm called the
silkworm. When the worm starts to make himself into a
butterfly it will create a pupa. The pupa is made from shiny
and smooth strings called silk.
 China was also known as the land of silk.
There are other inventions like the earthquake detector,
rocket, bronze, kite, seed drill, row crop farming etc.
SILK
Chinese paper
Movable type printing
Mechanical
clock
Gun powder
porcelain
 Mandarin Chinese was the official language of ancient
China and even now.
 But there are two types of Chinese: one is simplified
Chinese and the other is traditional Chinese.
 Simplified: this was the language which was first
brought out by the Chinese government between 1950
and 1960. This is the world’s easiest language to learn.
 Traditional: this was the one that was used in ancient
China and this is hard to learn. It is the world’s hardest
language to learn.
MANDARIAN CHINESE
TRADITIONAL
SIMPLIFIED