WH Chapter 3 Section 3 Notes

The Geography of China
 The ancient Chinese called their land
“Zhongguo”---Middle Kingdom
 China was isolated by long distances and
physical barriers---the ancient Chinese
believed that China was the center of the
Earth and the sole source of civilization

 Physical barriers---
 West and Southwest---high mountain ranges
(Tien Shan and Himalayas)
 Southeast---thick jungles
 North---Gobi desert
 East---Pacific Ocean
 All of these physical barriers helped to
contribute to Chinese isolation

 The Chinese heartland lay along the east
coast and the valleys of the Huang He River
(Yellow River) and theYangzi River
 In ancient times as today, these fertile
farming regions supported the largest
populations
 The rivers provided water for irrigation and
served as transportation routes

Geography of China
 Beyond the heartland are the outlying
regions of Xinjiang, Mongolia, and Manchuria
 China also extended its influence over the
Himalayan region ofTibet, which the Chinese
called Xizang

 Chinese history began in the Huang He
(Yellow River) valley, where Neolithic people
learned to farm
 The needed to control the flooding of the
river
 TheYellow River got its name from the loess
that it carries eastward from Siberia and
Mongolia
 Nicknamed the “River of Sorrows”

 As loess settles to the river bottom, it raises
the water level
 Chinese peasants labored constantly to build
and repair dikes that kept the river from
overflowing
 If the dikes broke, flood waters burst over the
land, destroying crops and bringing mass
starvation

China Under the Shang
 The Shang dynasty ruled from 1650-1027BC
 Shang China probably more closely
resembled the city-states of Sumer than the
centralized government ruled by the
Egyptian pharaohs
 Shang society---royal
family, warriors, artisans and
merchants, peasants

Religious Beliefs
 Prayed to many gods and nature spirits
(polytheistic)
 The prayers of rulers and nobles to their
ancestors were thought to serve the
community as a whole, ensuring good
harvests or victory in war
 Many westerners saw this as “ancestor
worship”

Religious Beliefs
 The Chinese believed the universe reflected a
delicate balance between two forces, yin and
yang
 Yin was linked to Earth, darkness, and female
forces
 Yang stood for Heaven, light, and male forces
 The well-being of the universe depended on
maintaining balance between yin and yang
(they were not opposing forces)

System of Writing
 Writing, like religious beliefs, was an early
development that continued to influence
cultures in China throughout history
 The system used both pictographs and
ideographs
 Shang priests wrote on oracle bones
 The questions were addressed to the gods or the
spirit of an ancestor
 Priests heated the bone or shell until it cracked
and then interpreted the pattern of cracks to
provide answers or advice from the ancestors

System of Writing
 Written Chinese took shape almost 4,000 years
ago and it evolved to include tens of thousands
of characters
 Each character represented a word or idea and
was made up of a number of different strokes
 The Chinese have simplified their writing over
the years
 Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to
learn---students must memorize over 10,000
characters to read a newspaper!!!

The Zhou Dynasty
 Battle-hardened Zhou people overthrew the
Shang dynasty
 Last from 1027-256BC
 Used the Mandate of Heaven idea to justify
their overthrow of the Shang
 Mandate of Heaven---rulers got the divine
right to rule from the gods---if a ruler was
cruel or unjust Heaven would withdraw its
support for the rulers

The Zhou Dynasty
 The Zhou rewarded their supporters by
granting them control over different regions
 China became a feudal state
 Feudalism---system of government in which
local lords governed their own lands but
owed military service and other forms of
support to the ruler

The Zhou Dynasty
 China’s economy grew
 Iron axes and ox-drawn iron plows replaced
stone, wood, and bronze tools allowing
farmers to be more productive
 New crops such as soybeans
 Began to use money, built new roads, built
new canals
 Economic expansion led to an increase in
population and territory

Chinese Achievements
 Calendar was composed of 365 ¼ days
 By 1000BC, the Chinese had discovered how
to make silk thread from the cocoons of
silkworms
 Women did the laborious work of tending the
silkworms and processing the cocoons into
thread and weaving the threads into a
smooth cloth that was then dyed
 Only royalty and nobles could afford this silk

 Silk became China’s most valuable export
 The trade route that eventually linked China
and the Middle East became known as the
Silk Road
 To protect their control of this profitable
trade, the Chinese kept the process of silk-
making a secret

 Under the Zhou, the Chinese made the first
books
 They bound thin strips of wood or bamboo
together and then carefully drew characters
on the flat surface with a brush and ink
 Among the greatest Zhou works is the Book
of Songs---many of its poems describe such
events as planting, harvesting, praise kings
and describe court ceremonies, and also
includes sad love songs!!!

WH Chapter 3 Section 3 Notes

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WH Chapter 3 Section 3 Notes