Ancient China

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Ancient China

• The Yellow River Valley

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AncientRiver Valley Cultures
Source
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Bronze Age Empires
Source
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Geography
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Modern China
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China vs. the U. S. in Size
China 3.7 mil sq miles
United States 3.6 mil sq miles
SOURCE Topic 5 The Awakening Giant by Dr.
Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Dept. of Economics
Geography, Hofstra University.
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Satellite View of China
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Percentages of Different Landforms
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Arable Land
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Population Density
2012
520 people per.sq. mile
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How would you characterize the geography of
China?

• In what way is the geography of China similar to
  the other innovative sites?
• In what significant way(s) is it different?
• What predictions can you make about the
  development of China?

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What features will be most significant in the
development of Ancient China?
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Tarim Basin endorheic basin (350,000 sq mi).
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Gobi Desert
Huang He
Himalaya Mountains
Yangzi
Pacific Ocean
Southeast Asian Jungle
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Monsoon Precipitation Patterns
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Prehistory China
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Peking Man
700,000yrs old?
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Where did Chinese culture begin?
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http//www.youtube.com/watch?vQie8SekyM1Efeature
related
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Yangshao
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Yangshao
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Yangshao Period
5000BCE? Matriclan Painted Pottery Culture
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Longshan Pottery
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Longshan
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Longshan Period

• 2500BCE?
• Black Pottery Period
• Bronze
• Patriarchy
• Cultural Origins of later Chinese Dynasties

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Development of a Complex Society and State

• Urban Revolution

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Chinas Innovative Civilization?

• What we dont know
• Did Qians mythological kings exist??
• Was the Xia Dynasty the forerunner of the Shang?
• How early did Chinese Civilization take root?

• What we Know
• Yellow River
• Millet (grain)
• Shang Civilization
• Oracle Bones
• Burial
• Religious beliefs
• Zhou Civilization
• Sima Qian (Han Records)

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The XSZ Project

• Chinese Antiquity?

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Xia Archeological Dig?
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Shang Dynasty
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Shang Dynasty1750 BCE 1050BCE

• Eastern Yellow River
• Anyang Zhengzhou
• 7 different successive capitals (30 Kings)
• Cities
• rulers palace in center
• surrounded by houses of artisans

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Archeological Evidence Suggests

• Bronze Age (weapons, fittings for chariots
  harness)
• Tools were of stone wood (No ploughs hoes,
  sickles)
• Massive public works projects (walls- 27 ft high)
• Sacrifice including human
• Oracle Bones divination (turtle shells)
• Earliest writing bamboo strips too
• Veneration of Ancestors- Highly ritualized
• Shang-Ti (Supreme god over lesser gods)

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Historians conclusions

• Shang King considerable power
• Clans warrior families
• Civilization held together by force
• Noble Families Noblewomen exercised power
• Merchant artisan class jade, silk, pottery
• Little diffusion of culture beyond Shang cities
• Deterioration gave way to Zhou dominance
• http//www.world-heritage-site.com/2011/10/30/yin-
  xu-video-gallery/

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Mandate of Heaven
"Oh! of old the former kings of Xia cultivated
earnestly their virtue, and then there were no
calamities from Heaven. The spirits of the hills
and rivers alike were all in tranquility and the
birds and beasts, the fishes and tortoises, all
enjoyed their existence according to their
nature. But their descendant did not follow their
example, and great Heaven sent down calamities,
employing the agency of our ruler- who was in
possession of its favoring appointment.
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ZHOU
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Zhou Dynasty 1050-256

• originally Semi-nomadic
• West of Shang
• Gained allegiance of discontented states
• Feudal System with vassal states
• Zhong Guo Middle Kingdom
• Tien Ming Mandate of Heaven
• Western Zhou (1050 771BC)

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Western Zhou (1050 771BC)

• Capital at Xian
• Adopted much of Shang civilization (writing,
  ritual, artisans, gods)
• Assimilation as opposed to force
• Banned sacrifice
• Promoted diffusion in and around the cities
  except for living quarters remained separate

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Later Periods Eastern Zhou

• Capital at Loyang
• Spring and Autumn Period (771-401 BC)
• Warring States Period (401-256 BC)
• "The Period of The Hundred Schools" (551-233 BC)
  Creative Period

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Creative Period

• unprecedented era of cultural prosperity
• reform and new ideas - attributed to the struggle
  for survival
• skilled, literate officials and teachers
• increasing economic production to ensure a
  broader base for tax collection
• commerce was stimulated through the introduction
  of coinage and technological improvements

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Zhou Dynasties Innovation

• Advances in farming/food production
• Ox-drawn ploughs
• large scale water projects for flood control and
  irrigation, canals
• Continued advances in weaponry/artisanry
• Cross-bows
• Iron metallurgy
• Lacquer-ware
• Prose, poetry, literature
• (I Ching, Book of Songs)
• Law and Government
• Codified law
• Shi men of service (bureaucracy)
• money economy facilitate exchange and economic
  growth

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Hundred Schools Period

• School of the Literati (Confucianism)
• Confucius, Mencius
• School of Law (Legalism)
• Xun Zi, Han Feizi
• Daoism (Taoism - Daoism)
• Lao Zi, Zhuang Zi
• Sun Tzu The Art of War
• What does the language of these texts tell us
  about early Chinese beliefs and values?

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Confucius, The Analects

• What the superior man seeks is in himself what
  the small man seeks is in others.
• By nature, men are nearly alike by practice,
  they get to be wide apart.
• To see what is right and not to do it is want of
  courage.
• Ignorance is the night of the mind, but a night
  without moon and star.
• I hear and I forget. I see and I remember. I do
  and I understand.
• The scholar who cherishes the love of comfort is
  not fit to be deemed a scholar.

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Lao-tzu, The Way

• Seek not happiness too greedily, and be not
  fearful of happiness.
• A journey of a thousand miles begins with a
  single step.
• He who knows others is wiseHe who know himself
  is enlightened.
• To have little is to possess.To have plenty is
  to be perplexed.
• People are difficult to govern because they have
  too much knowledge.

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Cultural Impact of Geography???

• Material force moves and flows in all directions
  and in all manners. Its two elements unite and
  give rise to the concrete. Thus the multiplicity
  of things and human beings is produced. In their
  ceaseless successions the two elements of yin and
  yang constitute the great principles of the
  universe.
• Source Chang Tsai, Cheng-meng, Ch.1, in
  Wing-Tsit Chan, Chinese Philosophy, Chapter 30 

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When the sun goes the moon comes when the moon
goes the sun comes. The sun and moon give way to
each other and their brightness is produced.
When the cold goes the heat comes when the heat
goes the cold comes. The cold and heat give way
to each other and the round of the year is
completed. That which goes wanes, and that which
comes waxes. The waning and waxing affect each
other and benefits are produced. -Ti Ching
Yin and Yang
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Sun Tzu, The Art of War

• All war is deception.
• He who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy
  who is not, will be victorious.
• All men can see these tactics whereby I conquer,
  but what none can see is the strategy out of
  which victory is evolved.

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What is significant???
How did the Ancient River Valley sites of China
work to develop the roots of Chinese Culture?