Ancient China
Early Chinese Civilization – Lesson 2
The Shang
Dynasty
2000 BC – farming settlements near
Huang He and Chang Jiang
Grew into villages – then kingdoms
1766 BC – Tang the Successful
brought villages under his rule beginning of Shang Dynasty
Lasted 600 years
The Shang
Dynasty
Invented writing, used bronze
Had social classes and
monarchy
Ruled by force
War chariots, bronze-tipped
spears helped conquer
kingdoms.
The Shang
Dynasty
Most people were farmers
grain, livestock, silk worms
Buildings made of wood and mud, so
none left
Artifacts: marble and jade figurines,
silk fabrics, bronze containers
Early Writing
and Oracle
Bones
Shang writing system consisted of
symbols to represent whole words
Present-day Chinese writing has roots
in Shang characters
Oracle bones – writing on animal bone
and turtle shells
Used by diviners to speak to gods and
ancestors.
The Zhou
Dynasty
Longest-ruling dynasty
1122 BC – 256BC
China became powerful
Began Wei River Valley
The Zhou
Dynasty
Worshipped a god Tian “Heaven”
King Wu won victory over Shang. –
began Zhou dynasty.
King Wu felt Tian let him win because
Shang kings were cruel
Mandate of Heaven = Tian gave certain
people power to rule as long as they
were virtuous
The Zhou
Dynasty
Rulers set up 3 class social structure
King
Nobles
Peasants
Each class were expected to show
virtue by offering services to other
classes
The Zhou
Dynasty
Each class were expected to show virtue
by offering services to other classes
Nobles got land from king in return for
military support
Peasants worked the nobles land and paid
them for its use with goods and services
Peasants had hard life – also expected to
serve in military
The Zhou
Dynasty
Each class were expected to show virtue
by offering services to other classes
This system in called feudalism –
exchanging land for loyalty
Decline of the
Zhou
By 800 BC Zhou kings weak
Nomads from north invaded
Power struggle within because nobles
began to rule own land and want
indepenedence
Warring Kingdoms Period
Decline of the
Zhou
Time of cultural growth
Introduced cavalry, iron tools and weapons,
plows pulled by animals
Kingdoms came up with different
governments:
Chu kings divided kingdoms into
counties and chose leaders based on skill
A Zheng king created first written laws in
China
The Ideas of
Confucius
Teacher and thinker during Zhou
dynasty
Concerned with fighting and
problems of government
He spent his life thinking about
how to return goodness and order
to China
The Ideas of
Confucius
He had short sayings to teach his
ideas
His goal was for people to live
and work well together
Confucius taught that the family
was a model for government
Filial piety = children honor and
respect their parents.
Rulers should love and protect
their subjects
Daoism = opposed violence
The Ideas of
Confucius
Lao Zi
Believe people should follow
laws of nature and the universe