Stiefel's+China+Dynasty

No Name's Domain


 * China: **

-Geography-
 * North of China is the desolate Gobi Desert and the Mongolian Plateau.
 * West of China lays the Taklimakan Desert and the icy 15,0000 ft Plateau of Tibet.
 * East of China/yellow seas.
 * Southwest of China is the Himalayas.
 * Mountain ranges and deserts dominate about 2/3 of China's landmass.
 * Two major river systems flow from the mountainous west to Pacific Ocean.
 * Haung He (Yellow River) in the north.
 * Chang Jiang (Yangtze) flows east to the Yellow sea.
 * The Haung he deposits large amounts of yellow silt, which is fertile soil, called loess.
 * Winds from the deserts to the north and south blows the silt around.
 * Only about 10% of China's land is suitable for farming.

-Environmental Challenges-
 * The Haung He's floods could be disastrous, sometimes floods devoured whole villages, earning the river the nickname "China's Sorrow".
 * Because of China's relative geographic isolation, early settlers had to supply their own goods rather than trading with outside people.
 * China's natural boundaries did not completely protect these settlers from outsiders. Invasions from the west and north occurred again and again in Chinese history.

-Time-
 * People settled in the river valley as much as 500,000 years ago.
 * 2,000 B.C., settlements grew into China's first cities. (Around that time, it was said the first Chinese dnasty, the Xia Dynasty was created.
 * Shang dynasty formed about the time the civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the Indus Valley fell to outside invaders.
 * Shang dynasty lasted from 1,700 B.C. to 1,027 B.C.
 * Around 1,026 B.C., people called the Zhou overthrew the Shang and established their own dynasty.

-Buildings-
 * The city Anyang, one of the capitals of the Shang Dynasty, was unlike other cities because it was built mainly of wood.
 * The higher classes lived in timber-framed houses with walls of clay and straw, located inside of the city.
 * The peasants and crafts-people lived in huts outside of the city.
 * Remains of one city included a wall of packed earth, 118 feet wide at its base, that encircled an area of 1.2 Square Miles.
 * Just like Mesopotamia and Egypt, the construction of these massive earthen walls clearly showed the Shang rulers' ability to raise and control large forces of workers.

-Culture-
 * Culture that grew up in China had strong unifying bonds
 * In a family the most important virture was respect for ones parents.
 * The elder men of the family controlled the familys property and made important decisions.
 * Women were treated as inferiors.
 * Women were expected to obey their husbands, tfathers, and later, their sons.
 * When a girl is in a age range of 13 and 16 years old, she gets an arranged marriage, and then moves into the house of her husband.
 * The only way of improving a women's status is by bearing sons for her husband's family.

-Social Classes-
 * Sharply divided between nobles and peasants
 * Ruling class of warrior-nobles headed by a king, governed the Shang.
 * Noble families owned land.
 * Noble families governed the scattered villages within the Shang land.
 * In return of this power to control these local lands, the noble families must pay tributes to the Shan ruler.
 * These tributes consist of warriors, money, and protection.

-Religion-
 * The Chinese believed that the spirits of their family ancestors had the ability to bring good or bad fortune to the living members of the family.
 * These spirits were not regarded as mighty gods, rather they were considered more like troublesome or helpful neighbors who demanded attention and respect.
 * Every family paid respect to the father's ancestors and made sacrifices in their honor.
 * Through the spirits of the ancestors, the Shang contacted the gods.
 * The Shang worships one supreme god, Shang Di, and also lesser gods.
 * Shang kings consulted with the gods using oracle bones.
 * Oracle bones were tortoise shells or animal bones with etchings of questions on them, after the questions were written on it, they would apply a hot poker to the bone and it would crack. They would then interpret the crack and see if the gods answered their question.

-Writing-
 * The method of the Chinese language is that generally, each character represents one syllable or unit of langauge.
 * There was no connection between China's spoken language and written language.
 * Someone could read and understand something written but not be able to speak it.
 * One major advantage to the written language is that many different areas of China could learn how to write all the same language and understand it, even if they speak a different language from one another.
 * The written language helped unify a large and diverse land, and made control much easier.
 * The disadvantage is that there were an enormous amount of written characters to be memorized - a different one for each language.
 * A person needed to know about 1,500 characters to be barely literate.
 * A true scholar needed to know atleast 10,000 characters.
 * Generally, a nobleperson's children would learn to write but peasant children would not.

-Mandate of Heaven-
 * When the Zhou overthrew the Shang and created their own dynasty, they justified their cause by stating that the gods had taken away the Shang's rule and had given it to the Zhou.
 * In due time, this justification had developed and people began to believe that royal authority came from heaven.
 * A just ruler that had been approved by the gods would get the Mandate of Heaven, which is basically the divine seal of approval to be king.
 * A wicked or foolish king could easily lose the Mandate of Heaven and then people would think that the king is a bad ruler and try to overthrow him and find a new ruler that has the Mandate of Heaven.

-Feudalism-
 * China is such a vast land. In order to control all of the large amounts of land successfully, the Zhou Dynasty gave various noble families the power to rule minor villages in specific areas.
 * The lands that the noble families rule is still legally under the ownership of the king, the noble families however get rewards from controlling these villages and minor areas.
 * The peasants who lived in the villages would have to work for the noble family that they were controlled by, they would be payed very little money but they were given protection by the noble family.
 * The noble family would receive the produce of the peasant workers and pay them small amounts of money. Now, in order to keep control of these villages, the noble family have to pay tributes to their king. They would return the favor by giving the king protection by warriors, they would give the king back money, and produce.
 * This system is called Feudalism.

-Dynastic Cycle in China-

The dynasty's of China went through a said cycle, this shows how old dynastys are put to rest and new dynastys come to rule After 6, the cycle goes back to 1, where the whole Dynastic cycle begins and starts all over.
 * 1) Strong dynasty establishes peace and prosperity; it is considered to have Mandate of Heaven.
 * 2) In time dynasty declines and becomes corrupt; taxes are raised, power grows weaker.
 * 3) Disasters such as floods, famine, peasant revolts, and invasions occur.
 * 4) Old dynasty is seen as having lost Mandate of Heaven; rebellion is justified
 * 5) Dynasty is overthrown, through rebellion and bloodshed, new dynastys has come.
 * 6) New dynasty gains power, restores peace and order, and calims to have Mandate of Heaven.

-Technology-
 * Roads and Canals (both used for trade and agriculture)
 * Blast furnaces that produced cast iron
 * Tools for farming
 * Coined money
 * Weapons - swords and axes