Chinese Dynasties

The Zhou Dynasty The Zhou dynasty took over after the Shang dynasty and ruled China longer than any other dynasty.

The Mandate of Heaven The Zhou kings said they had the mandate of heaven. The mandate of heaven was a belief that heaven gave power to the king, and no one rule without heaven’s permission If the king was bad, heaven would send another leader.

Zhou Social Structure The kings gave land to the lords, people with high respect and wealth. The lords paid taxes and gave soldiers to the king when he needed them. The lords also gave small pieces of their land to peasants (farmers) The peasants would farm a little piece of land for themselves and some more land for the lord.

Zhou Social Structure For a long time, this system of ruling worked well for China. The kings had the lords control land and other people. After a while, though, the lords started to become very powerful, and they didn’t want to follow the king’s orders anymore. The lords were not loyal to the king anymore; they quit sending soldiers to help the king fight invasions.

The Decline of Zhou power Invaders attacked the capital city and the Zhou soldiers lost the battle The lords began fighting each other and soon all of China was fighting wars with their neighbors. This time of fighting was called the Warring States period. Large families began breaking up into groups and fighting each other Some sons and fathers were even fighting and killing one another China had no main ruler and was just a big mess! This chaos and disorder led to the creation of Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism

The Qin Dynasty The Warring State period went on for a long time, but finally the Qin people united China under their control.

The Qin Dynasty The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty was Shi Huangdi Shi Huangdi was a Legalist and made very strict rules He burned all books that disagreed with Legalism Shi Huangdi also had his armies take over more land to make China bigger

The Qin Dynasty Shi Huangdi took away all power from the lords. He made himself the only person with absolute, total power. He divided China into districts and each district had a governor. Each district was divided into counties that also had leaders chosen by the king.

Qin Achievements Shi Huangdi made a new money system so that everyone in China would have the same kind of money He also had more road and canals built, which helped travel in China

The Great Wall of China Shi Huangdi wanted to make sure no one could invade China, so he had the Great Wall of China built to keep invaders out. Actually, parts of the wall had already been built hundreds of years earlier, Shi Huangdi just had the parts joined together to create one BIG wall

The Decline of Qin Dynasty After Shi Huangdi died, many other people claimed to have the mandate of heaven. The capital was attacked and the new emperor surrendered. There was no leader again, and everyone in China started fighting each other again.