1. Ancient India and China
Chapter Three
Ancient India and China
2600 B.C.-550 A.D.

2. Rise of Civilization in China
Section Four
Rise of Civilization in China

3. The ancient Chinese called their land the Middle Kingdom.
The ancient Chinese believed China was the center of the Earth and the source of its civilization.
At left is a 1763 copy of a 1418 Chinese map. Many modern Chinese world maps position China at the center. Ancient China was not organized into city-states. It was ruled by kings.

4. Book II of The Counsels of the Great Yu offers insights into early China.
Yu the Great was a legendary ruler in ancient China famed for his introduction of flood control, inaugurating dynastic rule in China by founding the Xia Dynasty, and for his upright moral character.
Like all the river civilizations of the ancient world, the ancient Chinese had to cope with flooding and design systems for irrigating their fields.
This is Yu the Great as imagined by the Song Dynasty painter Ma Lin (about 1180 to after 1256 A.D.). The painting is a hanging silk scroll.

5. Yu sacrificed a great deal to control the floods.
Yu had only been married for four days when he was given the task of fighting the flood. He said goodbye to his wife, not knowing when he would return.
This is Yu the Great controlling the flood.
At right is a bronze sculpture of Yu the Great and his wife. The statue stands in a garden in Wuhan in central China’s Hubei Province. Yu founded China’s first dynasty in 2070 B.C.

6. Thirteen years of flooding passed
Thirteen years of flooding passed. Yu walked past his family’s doorstep three times. He did not step inside.
The first time he passed, he heard that his wife was in labor.
The second time he passed, his son called out to him. His family urged him to return home.
A depiction of Yu the Great from the Han Dynasty (206 B.C. to 220 A.D.)
The third time he passed, his son was older than ten.

7. Each time, Yu refused to go in the door
Each time, Yu refused to go in the door. The flood was rendering countless numbers of people homeless and he could not rest.
The king was so impressed by Yu’s irrigation and engineering work - and his diligence, that he gave his throne to Yu.

8. The king said, “The inundating waters filled me with dread, [but then] you … completed your service - thus showing your superiority to other men. … You are without any prideful assumption… I see how great is your virtue, how admirable your vast achievements.”
This is the Yu the Great statue at Wenchuan, Ngawa prefecture in south central China.

9. Yu agreed to become the new king. Yu established a capital at Anyi.
Yu founded the Xia Dynasty. It is traditionally considered China’s first dynasty.
The ruins of Anyi are in modern Xia County in China’s southern Shanxi Province.

10. The Xia Dynasty was replaced by the Shang Dynasty
The Xia Dynasty was replaced by the Shang Dynasty. The Shang Dynasty began in 1766 B.C. and lasted until 1122 B.C.
The Shang Dynasty is the first dynasty for which scholars have found solid archeological evidence.
This is the burial pit of a Shang Dynasty queen. It was unearthed in at the Shang capital at Yinxu in northernmost Henan province, near the modern city of Anyang.

11. During the Shang Dynasty, Shang rulers shared power with the loyal princes and local lords who controlled most of China.
This is a bronze mask from the Shang Dynasty.
In 1122 B.C. the Zhou Dynasty replaced the Shang Dynasty.

12. An artist’s depiction of a ruler and his advisors.
The Zhou Dynasty created a new concept to make their rule seem legitimate.
The rulers of the Zhou Dynasty claimed to have the “Mandate of Heaven,” or the right to rule given by the gods.
An artist’s depiction of a ruler and his advisors.
The rise and fall of China’s ruling dynasties is called the Dynastic Cycle.
Many rulers have made similar arguments. In Europe they called it the Divine Right of Kings.

13. As long as a dynasty provided good government, it had the Mandate of Heaven.
If a dynasty’s rulers became weak or corrupt, or if floods or famines occurred, a dynasty could lose the Mandate of Heaven. When a dynasty lost the Mandate of Heaven, a new leader would rise up and create a new ruling dynasty.
King Wu, at left, was the first of the Zhou dynasty kings. He was the first to invoke the Mandate of Heaven to legitimize his rule.
This is another painting on silk by Ma Lin. Ma Lin was active during the early to mid-Thirteenth century.

14. Zhou Dynasty rulers maintained their power through feudalism.
The ancient Chinese chariot was invented during the Zhou Dynasty in about 1200 B.C.
At right is a painting of a powerful feudal lord in his chariot from China’s Hebei province. It was created during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25 to 220 A.D.).
Under feudalism, ancient Chinese dynasties allowed local lords to govern in their lands in exchanged for a promise to support the king.
If a war broke out, peasants had to leave their fields and fight for their lords.

15. When a dynasty was threatened, its ruler called upon those feudal lords for military support.
Sometimes those feudal lords decided that the old dynasty had lost the Mandate of Heaven. Then they tried to overthrow the old dynasty and begin a new one.

16. The rulers of China’s ancient dynasties gave gifts to their lords to try to keep them loyal.
This is a ceremonial bronze of cooking-vessel form inscribed to record that the King of Zhou gave a fiefdom to Shi You, ordering that he inherit the title as well as the land and people living there.

17. The Zhou dynasty ended in 256 B. C
The Zhou dynasty ended in 256 B.C. After the Zhou dynasty fell, rival warlords fought for decades to gain control of all of China.
China’s last dynasty was the Qin Dynasty. The Qin Dynasty unified China. It lasted from 221 to 206 B.C.

18. Ancient Chinese civilization had an organized religion.
The people of ancient China prayed to many gods and spirits.
China’s kings were thought to be a link to Shang Di, ancient China’s supreme god.
At right is a traditional depiction of Shang Di.
Shang Di has also been identified as “Heaven,” the “Universe,” and the “Great All.” The Temple of Heaven (above) was built from to 1420 to honor Shang Di.

19. Buddhism came to China in about 100 A. D. By 400 A. D
Buddhism came to China in about 100 A.D. By 400 A.D., Buddhism was the dominant religion in China.
Buddhism is a nontheistic religion. Buddhism has a variety of traditions, beliefs, and spiritual practices based upon the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha - but Buddhism does not have gods.

20. Confucius was a Chinese philosopher who lived during the Zhou dynasty.
Confucius was not a religious leader. Confucianism is a philosophy.
It is easy to hate and it is difficult to love. This is how the whole scheme of things works. All good things are difficult to achieve; and bad things are very easy to get.
- Confucius
This is a portrait of Confucius by Wu Daozi, a Tang Dynasty artist who lived from 680 to 740 A.D.

21. Confucius taught that harmony was created when people accepted their place in society.
Confucianism teaches rules for maintaining good government and social order.
Confucius did not write down his ideas, but his students collected many of his sayings in the Analects. At left is a page from the Analects of Confucius. In Chinese, analects literally means “edited conversations.”

22. Confucius taught that there are five key relationships.
Confucianism emphasizes the importance of law and social order.
Confucius’ first key relationship is between the ruler and the ruled:
“Let the ruler be a ruler, the subject a subject, the father a father, the son a son.”
This is a photograph of a priest paying his respects at an altar of Confucius in about 1900.

23. Confucius’ second key relationship was between the father and the son:
Confucius put filial piety, or respect for parents, above all other duties.
Confucius’ second key relationship was between the father and the son:
“…Being good as a son and obedient as a young man is, perhaps, the root of a man’s character.”
This is a scene from the Song Dynasty Illustrations. It shows the concept of filial piety. In the painting the son kneels before his parents. This painting on silk is traditionally attributed to Ma Hezhi ( A.D.).

24. Specific duties were prescribed to each of the participants in these sets of relationships.
Confucius’ other key were relationships were those between a husband and a wife, an elder brother and a younger brother, and between friends.
This is an illustration created to accompany Confucius’ instruction about choosing friends.

25. Laozi founded a philosophy called Daoism. Daoism means “The Way.”
Laozi was a Chinese philosopher who also lived during the Zhou Dynasty.
According to Chinese legend, Laozi left China for the west on a water buffalo.
This is Confucius Meeting Laozi, by Shih K’ang of the Yuan Dynasty.

26. Laozi taught that people should reject conflict.
Laozi used water as a metaphor for describing “The Way.”
Water does not resist; it yields to outside pressure - yet it is an unstoppable force At left is the Colorado river as it meanders through the Grand Canyon it created. At right is The Wave, a sandstone formation created by water erosion. It is located in Arizona near its border with Utah on the slopes of the Coyote Buttes on the Colorado Plateau.
Laozi: “Nothing in the world is as soft and weak as water, and yet in attacking what is hard and strong, there is nothing that can surpass it.”

27. The balance of opposites, Yin and Yang, are central concepts in Daoism.
This is the taijitu is a Chinese symbol for the concept of yin and yang. Because yin and yang are central to Daoism, the taijitu is also a symbol of Daoism. The statue of Laozi above is in China’s Henan Province.
Laozi taught that forces that seem to be opposites should be seen as connected.

28. Light and dark, fire and water, and expanding and contracting are examples of yin and yang.
These are wildflowers blooming the spring after the Sheep Fire (The fire started near Sheep Canyon Road) in California’s San Gabriel Mountains. When a fire burns a forest it destroys the life there, but because of the fire the forest begins again with new life. The fire is necessary to the forest’s survival.

29. Ancient China had a complex writing system. 中国古代有一个复杂的书写系统。
Zhōngguó gǔdài yǒu yīgè fùzá de shūxiě xìtǒng.
Written Chinese includes tens of thousands of symbols called characters.
中国文字包括所谓的文字符号数以万计。
Zhōngguó wénzì bāokuò suǒwèi de wénzì fúhào shù yǐ wàn jì.

30. Chinese characters constitute the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world.
The government in China today is aware that this complicated writing system needs reform. It issued its first round of official character simplifications in Another simplification came in 1964.
Translations from Chinese usually come in two forms, traditional and simplified.

31. Chinese scholars turned writing into an elegant art form called calligraphy.
This is the Lantingji Xu, a famous work of calligraphy by Wang Xizhi, composed in the year It is among the best known and most often copied pieces of calligraphy in Chinese history.

32. some final exam questions…
and now…
some final exam questions…

33. Which civilizations were organized into city-states?
a) Ancient Greece and Mayans
b) Rome and Egypt
c) Phoenicia and India
d) Ancient China and Ghana

34. Which civilizations were organized into city-states?
a) Ancient Greece and Mayans
b) Rome and Egypt
c) Phoenicia and India
d) Ancient China and Ghana

35. The most common farming feature shared by all river civilizations of the ancient world was
a) using cattle for work.
b) designing and using irrigation in fields.
c) the practice of sifting grain from a screen.
d) the use of plows only made from stones.

36. The most common farming feature shared by all river civilizations of the ancient world was
a) using cattle for work.
b) designing and using irrigation in fields.
c) the practice of sifting grain from a screen.
d) the use of plows only made from stones.

37. Which is a characteristic shared by the Ancient Egyptian Civilization, Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, Ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and Ancient Chinese Civilization?
a) Anyone who wasn’t wealthy was a slave.
b) Each had an organized religion.
c) They used the same coins for money.
d) They spoke the same language.

38. Which is a characteristic shared by the Ancient Egyptian Civilization, Ancient Mesopotamian civilizations, Ancient Indus Valley Civilization, and Ancient Chinese Civilization?
a) Anyone who wasn’t wealthy was a slave.
b) Each had an organized religion.
c) They used the same coins for money.
d) They spoke the same language.

39. Read the quote below and answer the question.
“In his [the leader’s] personal conduct, he was respectful. In his serving his superiors, he was reverent. In his nourishing the people, he was kind. In governing the people, he was righteous.”
- The Analects - Confucius
The quotation above shows an ancient society that placed a great deal of importance on
a) business and trade.
c) law and social order.
b) family.
d) commitment to salvation.

40. Read the quote below and answer the question.
“In his [the leader’s] personal conduct, he was respectful. In his serving his superiors, he was reverent. In his nourishing the people, he was kind. In governing the people, he was righteous.”
- The Analects - Confucius
The quotation above shows an ancient society that placed a great deal of importance on
a) business and trade.
c) law and social order.
b) family.
d) commitment to salvation.

41. Which of the following practices and beliefs are associated with Daoism?
a) worship must take place in a church
b) shunning of idols and images of gods
c) belief in one god
d) balance of opposites - yin and yang

42. Which of the following practices and beliefs are associated with Daoism?
a) worship must take place in a church
b) shunning of idols and images of gods
c) belief in one god
d) balance of opposites - yin and yang

43. The Egyptian system of writing is referred to as
a) cuneiform.
b) hieroglyphs.
c) Linear B script.
d) characters.

44. The Egyptian system of writing is referred to as
a) cuneiform.
b) hieroglyphs.
c) Linear B script.
d) characters.