Chapter 2 Section 4 Natural barriers isolated China

Chapter 2 Section 4

Natural barriers isolated China from the rest of the world � Two major rivers flow from the mountainous west to the Pacific � � The Huang He or Yellow � Yangtze is central River is in the North These rivers would deposit huge amounts of yellowish silt when it overflows its banks and this made the soil fertile and was called loess � Faced flooding like other civilizations and sometimes was so bad it was known as China’s Sorrow � Settlers had to supply their own goods rather than trade with outside peoples � Their boundaries did not really protect them from invasions �

� Fossils remains show that modern humans lived in SW China about 1. 7 million years ago � They have found Homo Erectus fossils near Beijing

� Even before the Sumerians settled in Mesopotamia China was farming and setting up shop � According to legend the first Chinese dynasty was the Xia Dynasty � Its Yu leader was an engineer and mathematician named � His flood control and irrigation projects helped tame the Huang He � Around the time the other civilizations were falling, the people called the Shang rose to power in China � This group was the first to leave written records

� Oldest and most important city was Anyang and the capital � Anyang was built mostly of wood and stood in a forest clearing � Higher classes lived in timer framed houses with walls of clay and straw peasants had huts � Shang surrounded their cities by walls for protection �They needed this because they were constantly at war �Chariot was invented here

� Anyone living outside of China were considered barbarians � Chief loyalty in life was the family �Aside from that they owed allegiance to the ruler just as they did their elders � Family �Family was central (most important virtue was respect for one’s parents �Elder men in the family controlled the Family's property and made important decisions �Women were treated as inferiors and when she was between 13 -16 her marriage was arranged and she moved in with her husband �Only by bearing sons could improve her status

� Sharply divided between nobles and peasants � Ruling class of warrior -nobles headed by a king governed the Shang � They owned land governed scattered villages

� Family was linked closely to religion � Believed that the spirits of family ancestors had the power to bring good fortune or disaster to living members � Every family paid respect to the father’s ancestors and made sacrifices in their honor � Shang worshiped a supreme god Shang Di � Shang kings consulted the gods through the use of oracle bones, animal bones and tortoise shells on which priests had scratched questions for the gods �After inscribing the question on the bone, a priest applied a hot poker to it, which cracked it Priests then interpreted the cracks to see how the gods had answered

� Each character generally stand for one syllable or unit of language � No link between the written and spoken language � You could read the language without being able to speak it � The main advantage was that anyone could learn the system of writing which helped unify the large diverse land � Disadvantage was the large number of written character to be memorized �A person needed to know over 1, 500 character to be barely literate and to be a scholar you had to know at least 10, 000

� 1027 people called the Zhou overthrew the Shang and had their own dynasty � Adopted the Shang culture and brought new ideas

� To justify their conquest they declared that the Shang king had been such a poor ruler that the gods had taken away the Shang’s rule and gave it to Zhou � A just ruler had divine approval, known as the Mandate of Heaven � Wicked or foolish king could lose the Mandate of Heaven and so lose the right to rule � This was the central view of government � The mandate of heaven might pass to another noble family and this was the explanation for rebellion, civil war, and the rise of new dynasties and this is known as the dynastic cycle

� Zhou controlled lands that stretched past the river and far south. � To govern they gave control to different members of royal families and other nobles � This is feudalism and is a political system in which nobles, or lords are granted the use of lands that legally belong to the king and in return the nobles owe loyalty and military service to the king and protection to the people who live on their estates

� Roads and canals were built to help with trade and agriculture � Coined money was introduced � Blast furnace produced � Cast iron production would not be matched in Europe until the middle ages

� Zhou was generally peaceful and stable � Gradually weakened � Nomads from the North and West sacked the capital and murdered the monarch �Few members of the royal family escaped and set up a new capital �They were powerless though �Lords sought any opportunity to fight with other lords to grow in power and they started to claim to be kings of their own areas � Love of order, harmony and respect for authority had been replaced with chaos, arrogance, and defiance