China—Moving into the
Modern Age
Chris Anderson
Randolph-Henry H. S.
Three Great Dynasties

1100 BC—AD 200, China will be ruled by 3
very powerful dynasties
– 1.) Zhou—ruled China for 800 years—the
longest dynasty in Chinese history
– 2.) Qin
– 3.) Han
1.) Zhou Dynasty
 1028 BC—the Zhou Dynasty took power away
from the Shang Dynasty
 Zhou leaders claimed to rule because of the
Mandate of Heaven

– Kings received their right to rule from the gods
Zhou kings were called the Son of Heaven
 Created a very large empire
 To control the large kingdom, the Zhou created
an agricultural system to keep the people under
control

– Nobles would own the land
– Serfs would work the land
– The nobles would control the serfs
Map of the Zhou Dynasty

Zhou kings gave their family members positions
in the government
– Each family member was given a city-state to govern
Some of these family members were not good
rulers
 Local lords lived in the city-states

– These local lords could have their own land and
armies
– At first, the local lords pledged loyalty to the Zhou
kings
– Later the lords will use their armies to challenge the
kings and try and take the kings’ powers

771 BC: one Zhou king was killed by his
own stupidity—emperor Yu
– Yu was the 13th emperor of the Zhou Dynasty
– If the emperor was in trouble, he was to light
a signal fire as an alarm to his troops to come
and help him
– Yu would light the fires when he was NOT in
trouble, making his army come as a practical
joke—Yu would be laughing at his soldiers
when they showed up
One day, Yu was really being attacked
 He lit the fires, but his army thought he
was playing a joke again
 The army refused to come
 Yu had no help and will be killed by the
invaders
 “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” story

After the death of Yu, the Zhou dynasty
had no real power
 The nobles and lords had more power
than the kings
 The nobles began to fight with themselves
for power—civil war
 By 200s BC, many city-states were at war
with each other
 This civil war allowed for one city-state to
rise and take power over China—Qin

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Zhou introduced new ideas to China and
the world
– Horses were brought into China and used for
travel and work
– Added the crossbow to the military
– Started using iron plows
2.) Qin Dynasty
 221 BC—the city-state of Qin rose up and
took power away from the Zhou leaders
 The Qin Dynasty united China for the 1st
time
 The Qin created a very strong central
government
 China is named after the Qin Dynasty

Map of the Qin Dynasty
The 1st Qin emperor—Qin Shihuangdi
 Shihuangdi wanted a China totally under
his control
 He divided China into 36 military
districts—he was trying to keep power
away from the local lords
 Each district had their own governor

Qin Shihuangdi

Shihuangdi tried to standardize China
– Created a standard set of weights and
measures
– Standardized coins
– Created a uniform writing system
– Established a law code for China
– Constructed canals and roads in China

Shihuangdi’s greatest achievement was
the Great Wall of China
– The wall was built to protect China from a
northern invasion
– Many of China’s early leaders built small walls
for protection
– Shihuangdi connected the different walls to
created the Great Wall
– It took over 300,000 people to finish the wall
– Many people died in its construction
– The Wall is 1400 miles long and 50 feet wide
in spots

To have absolute power in China,
Shihuangdi had to take power away from
the lords
– He took away the lords’ land
– Lords who still owned land were heavily taxed
– Shihuangdi began burning books to cut the
people off from their past--except on
medicine, agriculture, and magic
The Chinese people did not like
Shihuangdi
 The nobles were angry at the loss of their
power
 The peasants were angry at being forced
into hard labor—working on the Great Wall
 210 BC—Shihuangdi died and his empire
soon fell apart

Terracotta soldiers in Shihuangdi’s tomb
Shihuangdi’s Mausoleum Mound
3.) Han Dynasty
 207 BC—Liu Bang drove the Qin Dynasty out of
power

– He was from a poor peasant family—not royalty

202 BC—Bang had eliminated all of his enemies
and made himself emperor—created the Han
Dynasty which ruled China from 202 BC—AD
220
– Han rulers were tolerant—unlike Qin Shihuangdi
– Han leaders made China prosperous and powerful
Liu Bang
The height of the Han Empire came under
the 6th emperor of the dynasty—Wudi
(141-87 BC)
 He expanded China by taking over nonChinese lands

– Manchuria
– Korea
– Parts of India
Wudi

139 BC—Wudi sent out an expedition to
find new areas to conquer
– The leader of the expedition was Zhang Qian
– Qian returned 13 years later with a wonderful
tale
 He and his troops were nearly destroyed by a
group of barbarians
 Qian had served in the barbarians'’ prisons for 10
years
Qian’s “barbarians” were the Romans
 For the 1st time, China realized they were
not the only advanced civilization in the
world
 China and Rome began trading, creating
the Silk Road—trade route between the
east and west

Map of the Silk Road
Han China was very stable and prosperous
for 400 years
 This 400 year period is called the Pax
Sinica—Chinese Peace
 During the Pax Sinica, Wudi developed a
new way to get qualified government
workers—he created the civil service
system

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Wudi wanted the best people working in his
government
In the civil service system, applicants for
government jobs take a test
Those who score higher on the tests get the
better jobs
With the civil service system, Wudi was insuring
he had the best people working in government
The civil service system also made education
important in China
– If you wanted the best job, you needed a good
education to ensure a good score on the test
A new class of Chinese arose—
mandarins
 The mandarins were the educated Chinese
civil servants who ran the government of
China
 The mandarins controlled China’s
government until the early AD 1900’s

When Wudi died in 87 BC, the Han
Dynasty slowly began to fall
 The land owning lords began gaining
power
 AD 220—the Han dynasty came to an end
 The landowners began a civil war that tore
China apart

Three ways of Life

China is also the home of 2 philosophies
that have helped shape the culture of
many Asian nations
– Confucianism
– Taoism (Daoism)
Confucianism
 Kongzi laid the foundations for
Confucianism
 People in western China called Kongzi by
his more famous name—Confucius

551 BC—Confucius was born into a poor
family
 @ age 16, he left home, wandering China
looking to be a political advisor
 He wanted to end the political, personal,
and social disorder that he had seen in his
wanderings
 He failed to find a job, so @ age 22 he
began teaching

Confucius’ main concerns were order and
the promotion of order
 He said everyone had a proper role in
society and all political and social disorder
would end if everyone would accept their
role in life
 He said people should live their lives
according to ethics

Confucius wanted people to respect their
family, the past, and traditions
 He said there were 5 relationships that
everyone must know and follow

– Ruler and subject
– Parent and child
– Husband and wife
– Old and young
– Friend and friend
The Zhou Dynasty did NOT like Confucius’
teachings
 479 BC—Confucius dies, but his ideas
continued
 The Qin Dynasty did NOT like Confucius’
ideas
 The Han Dynasty DID like Confucius’ ideas

– The Han used Confucianism as the basis for
their civil service system
– Confucian ideas will be the basis for Chinese
society until the AD 1900s
Taoism (Daoism)
 Developed by Laozi
 Taoism seems to be the direct opposite of
Confucianism
 Laozi did not accept formal social
structures and people’s roles in society
 Laozi did not like living in public
 He wrote his ideas in the Dao De Jing

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Laozi said Taoists (Daoists) should
– Reject wealth
– Reject power
– Reject ambition
– Reject social structures
– Reject formal codes of behavior
– Get in touch with nature

Taoism also believes in the Yin and
Yang—2 opposite forces of nature that
must be in harmony
– Yin
 Cool, dark, female, passive
– Yang
 Warm, light, male, aggressive

Although Confucianism and Taoism seem
opposite, a person could be both
– Use Confucianism for government and one’s
place in the social order
– Use Taoism to achieve harmony with nature
Chinese Society and Culture
Family Life
 The Han family lived and worked together
–
–
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1.)
2.)
3.)
4.)
5.)
father was dominant—head of the household
eldest son
younger sons
females (mother before daughters)
youngest daughter or childless daughter-in-law
there were very strict rules between husbands
and wives, parents and grandparents, uncle and
aunts, etc.
 a nuclear family existed in Han China

– father, mother, and children
Women
 subordinate to men
 girls began life as servants to father and
brothers
 baby girls were valued less than boys
 women in the dynasty could inherit
property and remarry if the husband died

Society
 1.) landowners
 2.) peasants (90% of the people)

– farmers gave produce to landowners as rent

3.) merchants
– lowest class because they were out for a
profit—not a Confucian ideal
– Confucian values governed all aspects of Han
China
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Literature
1.) Book of Songs (1000-600 BC)
– 305 Chinese poems

2.) Book of Documents
– political speeches of the Zhou Dynasty

3.) Book of Changes
– book on how to tell the future
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4.) Spring and Autumn Annals
– Confucian writing about Chinese History
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5.) Historical Record
– written during the Han dynasty
– done by Sima Qian
– 1st true History of China
Science and Technology
 Astronomers calculated the length of the
solar year at 365 ¼ days
 240 BC: discovered Haley’s Comet
 acupuncture to restore yin and yang
 developed veterinary medicine to save
farm animals

3 most important Chinese inventions
 Silk
 Paper
 Porcelain
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the Chinese were also the 1st to create:
– printed books
– suspension bridges
– compass
– wheel barrow
– gunpowder