CHINESE

CIVILIZATIO
N
INTRODUCTION
 China is one of the world's oldest continuous civilizations that began
around 1500 BC.
 There are three main rivers :
1. Yellow river in the north
2. Yangtze river in south
3. Pearl River
 These rivers rise in the mountains of Tibet and flow eastward across
China.
 The basins of those rivers are separated in the west by mountains,
which gave way to hills and finally disappear altogether in the flat
country near the coast.
 China has lot of mountains, forests and tracts of jungle that make it to
be isolated from others. However, it is not completely tp be sealed off.
 For many centuries, esp. 7th -14 AD China was the world’s most
advanced civilization.
YELLOW
RIVER
YANGTZE
RIVER
DYNASTIES
SHANG DYNASTY
ZHOU/ CHOU DYNASTY
QIN DYNASTY
HAN DYNASTY
SUI DYNASTY
TANG DYNASTY
SONG/SONG DYNASTY
YUAN DYNASTY
MING DYNASTY
 THE SHANG
DYNASTY
1523-1027 B.C

 The Shang Were the first civilized

Chinese society
 It lasted almost six hundred years
with thirty-one kings over
seventeen generations.
 The chief of the Shang tribe, Tang
established the Shang Dynasty and
made Bo (present Caoxian County
in Shandong Province) his capital
city.
 This dynasty generally located at
the northern part of China and
around the eastern parts of the
Yellow River.
Cont.
 The Shang worshipped a figure
called "Shang Ti," or "Lord on
High.“
 This supreme god ruled over
lesser gods of the sun, the
moon, the wind, the rain, and
other natural forces. Shang-Ti
also regulated human affairs as
well as ruling over the material
universe.
Cont.
 The Shang were natives, very
closely linked to indigenous
Neolithic people. Therefore, most
of them sustained themselves with RULING CLASS
agriculture and animal King & bureaucrats
domestication.
 The capital was headed by a king, NOBLES
who was also a head priest,
military commander, etc. Warrior
 Social structure :
as demonstrated in the diagram. PEASANTS
 After the death of King Semi free slave
Wuding(the last king of Shang),
the prime day of the Shang
Dynasty did not go on a long time. SERFS & SLAVES
Toward the end, internal conflicts
intensified and ducal states
rebelled. The last Shang ruler, who
was a despot was dethroned by the
army of slaves in the 11th century
BC.
THE ZHOU DYNASTY
1027-221 B.C

 When the Chou overthrew the Shang,

they led China into the historical
period.
 The invented a new system of authority
to legitimize their power called
(mandate of Heaven). This system
became later an integral aspect of
Chinese theories of authority
 Mandate of Heaven means
 They extended Chinese rule beyond the
boundaries of the Shang.
 They adopt much of Shang culture.
 In fact, most of the Zhou were farmers
like the Shang. But, they were also
culturally masters of bronze and horse-
drawn chariots.
 Roads and canals were built to import
foods and goods to the city.
Cont.
 The Zhou could not rule the whole of
their new territory directly so they
sent out relatives or trusted friends to
represent them.
 These Zhou representatives became
powerful in their own right; some of
them became just as powerful as the
Zhou emperors.
 The king of the Zhou gave huge
tracts of land to the members of the
royal family and to others who had
demonstrated their talent and loyalty.
Cont.
 The king at that time was:
 A Landlord
 A supreme religious leader
 A political leader
 New careers were developed like ministers, officials, civil
workers, tax collectors and many more.
 The Zhou also brought their religion with them. They
banned human sacrifice. They practiced the cult of Heaven.
The worship of sun and stars was the most important thing.
Some of the popular Shang gods became incorporated into
this system..
 In 771 B.C, The Zhou’s king had been defeated and killed
by the rebel lords.
QIN DYNASTY  The Qin came to power in 221
B.C. They were one of the western
221 B.C – 206 B.C states that existed during the
Warring States Period. They
conquered the other Warring
States, unifying China for the first
time.
 The Qin are sometimes called the
Ch'in, which is probably where the
name China originated.
 The Qin made many changes that
were meant to unify China and aid
in administrative tasks.
 the Qin implemented a Legalist
form of government, which was
how the former Qin territory had
been governed. The area was
divided up in 36 commanderies
which were then subdivided into
counties.
Cont.
Cont
 These commanderies had a civil governor, a military
commander, and an imperial inspector.
 The Legalist form of government involved rewards and
punishments to keep order. Also, the state had absolute
control over the people, and the former nobility lost all of
their power.
 The Qin rule came to an end shortly after the First
Emperor's death. Shi huangdi had only ruled for 37 years,
when he died suddenly in 210 B.C. His son took the throne
as the Second Emperor, but was quickly overthrown and
the Han dynasty began in 206 B.C.
  Qin Shi Huangdi, named Ying
Zheng, was King Zheng of Qin
during the Warring States Period
SHI HUANG DI 
prior to becoming an emperor.
He unified China and proclaimed
himself the First (shi) Emperor
(huangdi) of the Qin Dynasty, as
he was the first Chinese sovereign
able to rule the whole country. He
reigned from 246 BC to 210 BC.
 Huang" and "Di" were titles once
reserved for the eight legendary
kings (three Huang and five Di), so
by employing the term "Huangdi",
Ying Zheng indicated that he was
even greater than the eight
legendary kings combined.
 He believed that his family would
rule China forever and so he
wanted his successors to be titled
"Emperor of China II", "Emperor
of China III", etc.
Cont.
Cont
 The First Emperor was almost always portrayed as a brutal tyrant,
superstitious, and sometimes even as a mediocre ruler.
 He gave China a common currency and a standardized systems of
weights and measures, writing characters and local prefecture
administration.
 Endless labor in the later years of his reign (including the link-up of the
Great Wall of China and construction of the first canal (Lingqu) in
today's Guangxi Province, an inconclusive campaign against the Huns,
and the widening and paving of countless roads all over China) started
to provoke widespread discontent.
 The emperor was still barely able to maintain stability by his tight grip
on every aspect of lives of the Chinese. He also travelled frequently to
large cities in Northern China to inspect the efficiency of the
bureaucracy and to symbolize the presence of Qin's prestige.
 Nevertheless his trips provided chances for assassins, the most famous
of whom was Zhang Liang.
Cont.
 In legend, He died suddenly so two of his high officials to
take advantage of this. They forged the Emperor's order
to kill his heir and then they chose his another son to be
a puppet emperor. Everything went well except that they
were not able to depress the rebels. Qin Dynasty soon
collapsed.
 He was believed to be buried with the Terracotta Army
near Xian, but his body has yet to be discovered.
THE HAN
DYNASTY
206 B.C – 220 A.D

 The history of the Han Chinese ethnic group is closely tied to that of
China. Han Chinese trace their ancestry back to the Huaxia, people who
lived along the Yellow River in northern China.
 The reign of the Han Dynasty, lasting 400 years, is commonly
considered within China to be one of the greatest periods in the entire
history of China.
 The Han empire began in 206 B.C. when Liu Pang, prince of Han,
defeated the Qin army in the valley of Wei. The defeat was part of a
larger rebellion that began after the First Emporer's death. The people
were dissatisfied with the tyranny of the Qin leaders and their Legalist
form of government.
 There was a period of great military expansion. It expanded beyond the
borders of Vietnam and Korea. The expansion also led to trade with the
people of inner Asia. Thereafter, the Silk Road was developed.
 To make sure travel was safe, the army took control of parts of North
Vietnam and North Korea.
  To assure peace with the non-
Chinese people along the route, a
mutual system of tribute was

Cont.
established.
 The non-Chinese people
symbolically acknowledged that
the Chinese were superior and paid
them tribute; the Chinese in return
gave them gifts and ties which
strengthened the culture by inter-
marriages of the ruling class.
 The success of the Han kept their
dynasty going for nearly four
hundred years. With a growing
population, increased wealth, and
huge numbers of allies (and
enemies), the Han lost control of
their society.
 Corruption ran rampant in the
highest levels of authority as public
happiness waned.
 The dynasty collapsed in 220 AD.
This period was called the Era of
Disunity.
WRITING
WRITING SYSTEM
  The singular aspect of Shang
WRITING civilization is their invention of
writing. Almost all the written
SYSTEM records of the Shang have
disappeared, for the court
records were kept on strips of
bamboo.
 The writing system was
originally pictographic, that is,
words were represented by
pictures that fairly closely
resembled the meaning of the
word. The picture for "sun," for
instance, looked much like the
sun.
 This pictographic writing
eventually developed into the
more complex ideographic
writing that we are more
familiar with.
 The basic principles
behind Chinese writing
have remained
unchanged for
thousands of years. Cont.
 Each character consists
of a number of strokes
or lines set inside an
imaginary square.
 Chinese is an extremely
ancient system of
writing. What is even
more amazing that it
only went through
relatively small amount
of change through its
3500 years of evolution,
which can be divided
into several major
stages: Jiaguwen, or
Oracle Bone Script,
Dazhuan, or Greater
Seal, Xiaozhuan, or
Lesser Seal, Lishu, or
ORACLE BONE
 Oracle bones provide us
with one of the earliest
examples of writing in
Ancient China. They also
have given historians useful
information about the
Shang dynasty.
 Oracle bones were usually
made from the shoulder
blades of oxen, or
sometimes the shell of a
tortoise was used. They
were used to divine the
future like leadership,
harvest, weather etc.
 Thousands of bones from
the Shang dynasty have
been unearthed with writing
on them.
 Many of the characters on
these bones still exist (in a
slightly altered state) today.
CHINESE
SCHOOL OF THOUGHTS
CONFUCIONISM
TAOISM
LEGALISM
  Confucianism means “the

CONFUCIANISM
school of the scholars” or “less
accurately”. It brought the most
profound impact on China.
 A teacher named Kangzi or
K’ung Fu-tsu was called
“Confucius” in the 6th and 5th
centuries, taught the beginnings
of a system of thought and
behavior that developed into a
sophisticated ethico-religious
tradition.
 In this system, human beings
are understood as essentially
human beings, and human
fulfillment involves perfecting
the moral nature of both the
individual and society.
Cont.
 He also considered that the
family is the basic unit of
society
 After he died, his teaching were
propagated by his followers
and entered the current of
intellectual debates.
 In the 2nd century, Confucianism
was adopted by the Han
dynasty as the intellectual basis
for its system of government
and its educational program for
training officials.
  Taoism means the way or the road.
 In the 6th century, Lao-Tzu was the
person who founded this school of
TAOISM thought. Taoism was concerned
with direct experience of universe,
accepting things as they are not
setting the standard of morality and
not labeling things as good or bad.
 Taoism argued that political
authority cannot bestow peace and
order if it restricts itself to the rules
and custom of society.
 The only effective social control
stems, according to him from
adherence to the ultimate nature of
reality.
 According to Taoist, people could
be happy only if they abandoned
the world and reverted to nature,
living simply and alone.
 Taoist were convinced that
government could do most
for people by doing as little


as possible.
He argued that public work
Cont.
and services, from road
building to law courts, led
to higher taxes which in
turn led to unhappiness.
 Taoist, argued that the
fewer law and rules are
better.
 Taoism was most popular
among the rulers and
ministers who actually
governed the Chinese
society because the religion
gave them a way if coping
with the extreme pressures
with they faced.
 Later, Taoism became a
philosophy of consolation.
The elite often adopted
Taoism for consolation (to
make felt of unhappy or
disappointed became less.
  Legalism was founded by Han Fei-
Tzu and Li Ssu, and they both were
heavily influenced by Taoism.
LEGALISM They were pragmatic realists who
thought that the state should
possess as much power as possible
and extend it relentlessly.
 Their ideal state was authoritarian :
the sensible ruler, in their view
should root cut all intellectual and
all competing political ideas. The
people should be treated but not to
be educated.
 Legalism was ruthless in its
approach to the problems of the
government.
 Legalism was realistic and offered
Chinese rulers practical solutions
to the problems of governing large
population over great distance.
 Both founders were high officials
in a position to put legalist theories
into practice.
CHINESE CONTRIBUTIONS
DYNASTY SHANG
DYNASTY ZHOU
DYNASTY QIN
DYNASTY HAN
THE SHANG DYNASTY
1523-1027 B.C

 Writing system.
 Ceramic production.
 Bronze objects.
 High-quality silk fabric.
 The Shang people also made significant progress in
medicine, mathematic, transportation and astronomy.
During this period, important events were recorded on
tortoise shell and animal bone using Oracle Script, which is
the oldest known Chinese form of written communication.
THE ZHOU DYNASTY
1027-221 B.C

 Memorable poetry and prose.

 Full records of daily activity.
 The development of iron, and tools made of iron.
 Chinese astrology.
 Horse-drawn Chariot.
Grass tree know spring soon return
Every way red purple contend beauty
Poplar flower elm seeds without beauty
Only know overflow sky make snow fly
The plants all know that spring will soon return,
All kinds of red and purple contend in beauty.
The poplar blossom and elm seeds are not
beautiful,
They can only fill the sky with flight like snow.
Horse-Drawn Chariot
DYNASTY QIN
221 B.C – 206 B.C

 Standardization of the language and

writing of all over China.
 Currency became standardized.
 Great Wall of China.
 Shi HuangDi mausoleum and Terra-cotta
Army.
THE HAN DYNASTY
206 B.C – 220 A.D

 Paper invented.
 Silk Road.
 Compass.