Nicholas Rivero
AP WH
Period 4
08/30/11
Chapter 2 Study Guide
Terms
1. Loess: A fine, light silt deposited by wind and water. It constitutes the fertile soil of
the Yellow River Valley in northern China. Because loess soil is not compacted, it can be
worked with a simple digging stick, but it leaves the region vulnerable to devastating
earthquakes.
2. Divination: Techniques for ascertaining the future or the will of the gods by
interpreting natural phenomena such as, in early China, the cracks on oracle bones or, in
ancient Greece, the flight of birds through sectors of the sky.
3. Oracle Bones: a natural phenomenon that is a tool used for divination.
4. Pictograms: pictures representing objects and concepts.
5. “Mandate from Heaven”: a rule from the Shang clan. The ruler had been chosen by
the supreme deity and would retain his backing as long as he served as a wise, principled,
and energetic guardian of his people.
6. “Warring States Period”: saw the rise of the school of thought known as Daoism.
7. Legalism: In China, a political philosophy that emphasized the unruliness of human
nature and justified state coercion and control. The Qin ruling class invoked it to validate
the authoritarian nature of their regime and its profligate expenditure of subjects’ lives
and labor. It was superseded in the Han era by a more benevolent Confucian doctrine of
governmental moderation.
8. Confucianism: the dominant political philosophy and the core of the educational
system for government officials during the era of the early emperors.
9. Daoism: Chinese school of thought, originating in the Warring States Period with
Laozi. Daoism offered an alternative to the Confucian emphasis on hierarchy and duty.
Daoists believe that the world is always changing and is devoid of absolute morality or
meaning. They accept the world as they find it, avoid futile struggles, and deviate as little
as possible from the path of nature.
10. Yin and Yang: yin is for the male, representing the bright, shining and active part,
while the female represents the moon, being passive and shaded. They are both
considered alternately dominant, like the day and night, creating the balance in the world.
11. Llamas: A hoofed animal indigenous to the Andes Mountains in South America. It
was the only domesticated beast of burden in the Americas before the arrival of
Europeans. It provided meat and wool. The use of llamas to transport goods made
possible specialized production and trade among people living in different ecological
zones and fostered the integration of these zones by Chavín and later Andean states.
Individuals/ People
12. “Barbarians”: nomads that were morally inferior to the Chinese, as well as
“culturally backward,” were referred to by the Chinese as barbarians. They occupied the
steppe and desert regions to the north and west were periodically rolled back and were
given a demonstration of Shang power.
13. Confucius (Kongzi): Confucius is a Chinese philosopher, nicknamed Kongzi. His
doctrine of public duty and public service had a great influence on Chinese thought and
served as a code of conduct for government officials.
14. Mencius (Mengzi): one of Confucius’s followers, Mencius, who opposed despotism
and argued against the “authoritarian political ideology of Legalists,” made Confucius’s
teachings much better known.
15. Laozi: the creator of Daoism is believed to be from the 6th century B.C.E, though
some scholars doubt that he seized to exist. He sought to stop the warfare of the age by
urging humanity to follow the “Dao,” or path.
Places
16. Huang He (Yellow River): Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and Egypt depended on
the Yellow Huang He River. It helped with the rise of cities, specialization of labor,
bureaucratic government, writing, and other advanced technologies to support its
agriculture.
17. Anyang: the last and most important capital of the Shang Kingdom. It was of
political control and religion. Surrounded by massive walls of pounded Earth, they
contained places, administrative buildings, and store houses, royal tombs, shrined of gods
and ancestors, and houses of the nobility.
Empires/ Kingdoms
18. Shang Dynasty: the dominant dynasty in the earliest Chinese dynasty for which we
have written records. Ancestor worship, divination using oracle bones, and the use of
bronze vessels for ritual purposes were major elements of Shang culture.
19. Zhou Dynasty: the dynasty that took over the dominant position of the Shang, and
created the concept of Mandate from Heaven to justify their rule is the Zhou dynasty.
The Zhou Period was divided into two periods: Eastern and Western. The Eastern was
divided into another two periods: Spring and Autumn Periods. The Zhou Era,
particularly the early period (1027-771 B.C.E.), was remembered in Chinese tradition as
a time of prosperity and benevolent rule. In the later Zhou period (771-221 B.C.E.),
centralized control broke down, and warfare among many small states became frequent.
20. Egyptian New Kingdom: During the New Kingdom (ca. 1532-1070 B.C.E.), the
Egyptians penetrated more deeply into Nubia. They plundered through Nubian forces,
capturing Kush, as well as its capital, and expanded all the way to the Fourth Cataract.
21. Nubia: it was the name of the land stretching across the Nile. Nubia had wonderful
agriculture, because of the effects of the annual flooding of the Nile. Nubia is divided
into two capitals: Napata (8th century-4th century B.C.E.) and Meroë (4th century B.C.E.4th century C.E.).
22. Kush: an Egyptian name for Nubia. It was deeply influenced by Egyptian culture,
and the times in which it is controlled by Egypt, that led to the gold deposits carried
upstream by the current.
23. Meroë: the capital of a prospering nation in Southern Nubia from the 4th century
B.C.E. to the 4th century C.E. During this period, Nubian culture shows more
independence from Egypt and the influence if Sub-Saharan Africa.
24. Olmec Civilization: the first Mesoamerican civilization. The Olmec people of
central Mexico constructed a vibrant civilization that included intense agriculture, wideranging trade, ceremonial centers, and monumental construction from ca. 1200-400
B.C.E. They passed on their artistic styles, religious imagery, sophisticated astronomical
observations for the construction of the calendars, and a ritual ball game.
25. Chavin Civilization: the first major urban civilization in South America (900-250
B.C.E. Chavin became politically and economically dominant in a densely populated
region that included two distinct ecological zones, the Peruvian coastal plain and the
Andean foothills.
26. Mesoamerica: a region of great geographic and climatic diversity. The mountain
ranges break the region into smaller pieces. It is geologically active, meaning that there
are a lot of volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.
Questions to Outline
1. The major political characteristic of the Zhou Dynasty was Legalism, which is mainly
a philosophy that emphasizes the unruliness of human nature.
3. According to Confucius, women only “cook the five grains, heat the wine, look after
her parents-in-law, make clothes and that is all! . . . [She] has no ambition to manage
affairs outside the house. . . . She must follow the ‘three submissions.’ When she is
young, she must submit to her parents. After her marriage, she must submit to her
husband. When she is widowed, she must submit to her son.” That is a pretty fair
philosophy that people can live off of.
4. The Olmec Region was strongest between 1200-400 B.C.E. Olmec power rested on
the control of certain commodities and the popularity of their religious practices.
Although their technology wasn’t so advanced back then, their architecture was
impressive.