China’s River Dynasties

GEOGRAPHY!! Natural Barriers? Pacific Taklimaken desert Tibet Himalaya Mountains Gobi Desert (North)

Yellow River Huang He is called the Yellow River because of it’s yellow colored silt. Flooding is both positive and negative one million dead

Shang Dynasty B.C. Great palaces and cities. Surrounded cities with huge walls made of earth. What does this show about the Shang?

Chinese Culture CENTERED AROUND GROUPS, NOT INDIVIDUAL Family was the center of society. Loyalty to family and ruler. Women?

Religion Oracle Bones- tortoise shells or bones. Priests scratched questions to the gods on them. Cracked the bones and read the answer by interpreting the cracks.

System of Writing Each character stands for an idea, NOT A SOUND. You could read the language without being able to speak it, so many people could take part in Chinese culture. The problem was that you had to memorize over a thousand characters to be barely able to read the language.