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Ancient China

Geography & Culture

What will we learn?

1. Geography of China

2. The earliest dynasties (Xia, Zhou, Shang)

3. Development of Chinese culture

Satellite Image

Geography & Culture

1. Setting the Stage:

a. China’s first city walls were built 1000 years after the walls of Ur, the great

pyramids, and the planned cities on the Indus River.

b. Unlike most cultures on earth, the civilization that began in China 4000

years ago still thrives there today.

Geography & Culture

2. The Geography of China

a. Natural barriers isolated ancient China

b. East: The Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific Ocean

c. West: Taklimakan Desert and 15,000 ft Plateau of Tibet

d. Southwest: Himalayas

e. North: Gobi Desert and Mongolian Plateau

f. Mountain ranges and desert dominate 2/3 of China’s landmass

Geography & Culture

g. River Systems

i. Huang He (Yellow River) in the north

1. Deposits large amounts of yellowish silt called loess.

2. Loess is blown by winds from deserts into the river

Huang He (Yellow River)

Geography & Culture

i. Chang Jiang (Yangtze) in central China

1. Flows east from the Yellow Sea

2. At 3,988 miles long, it is the longest river in Asia

Geography & Culture

h. Environmental Challenges

i. Disastrous floods from the Huang He

ii. Trade was difficult so settlers became self-dependent

iii. Geography did not make invasion impossible

Geography & Culture

i. Only 10% of China’s land is suitable for farming

j. Most of farmable land is on North China Plain between Yellow River and Yangtze

Earliest Dynasties

Zhou & Shang Culture

Geography & Culture

3. The Development of Chinese Culture

a. Fossils show that modern humans lived in SW China 1.7 million years ago

b. According to legend, the first Chinese dynasty, The Xia Dynasty, started

about 2000 B.C.

c. Chinese viewed everyone outside of their culture as barbarians

d. Viewed themselves as center of civilized world

e. Chinese name for China was Middle Kingdom

f. Family is central to Chinese society; respect for one’s parents

g. Women treated as inferiors

h. Girls were arranged to be married between 13 and 16

Geography & Culture

i. Religion: Spirits of ancestors had power to bring good fortune;

not seen as gods

j. Use of Oracle Bones- priests scratch question on bones, apply hot poker,

bone would split, interpret the cracks

Geography & Culture

k. No links between spoken and written language

l. One could read Chinese without being able to speak the language

m. All parts of China learned the same system of writing even if spoke different

language thus unifying parts of China

n. Needed to know 1500 characters just to be considered literate; scholars knew

10,000 characters

Chinese alphabet

Zhou dynasty

Mandate of Heaven

Dynastic Cycle

Geography & Culture

4. Zhou and the Dynastic Cycle

e. The use of royal families controlling different regions was known as feudalism

f. Zhou Dynasty innovated roads/canals, coined money, blast furnaces

g. The Zhou were generally peaceful

h. Later years of Zhou Dynasty known as warring states period due to

weakened power of Zhou kings, attacking nomads and greedy lords

Warring States period

Geography & Culture

• Result: China’s culture has been shaped by the geography surrounding it’s people. A highly

evolved culture that began with the Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties will become one of the

world’s oldest. This unique people will be regularly disrupted by rise and fall of governments,

that will later be known as the dynastic cycle. Some notable dynasties: The Qin, The Han,

The Tang, The Song, and the Yuan.

Constructive Response Question

1. Describe China’s geography and give

examples as to how the Chinese

adapted to it?