diaz+china

China__**
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__**Family**__ __**Social Class**__ __**Religion**__ __**Mandate of Heaven**__ __**Feudalism**__ __**Technology and Trade**__ __**A Period of Waring States**__
 * __Geography__**
 * The Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and the Pacific Ocean are natural barriers
 * Mountains and deserts dominate 2/3 of china
 * Two major rivers flow through china
 * The Huang He,whose names means yellow sea, deposits huge amounts of yellowish silt when it over flows
 * __Enviromental Challenges__**
 * The huang he's floods could be disastrous, floods sometimes devored whole villages, gaining the nick name china's arrow
 * China had to supply them selves with supplies rather than trade with othwer people becu\ause of their relative geographic location
 * __Heartland__**
 * 10% of china's land is farm land
 * Most of the land lies in beetween the Huang he and the chang jiang in east china
 * The heartland was the cenmter of the chinese civilization
 * Political boundries have exspanded and contracted over the years
 * __The First Dynasties__**
 * Around 2000 b.c the first chinese settlements grew into China's first cities
 * The first chinese Dynasty, according to legend was the Xia (shyah) dynasty
 * It's the leader was a mathmatician and engineer named Yu
 * His irragation projects help to tame the Huang He
 * The Shang dynastiy lasted from around 1700 b.c to 1027 b.c
 * They were the first dynasty to leave written records
 * __Early Cities__**
 * The oldest and most important Shang City was Anyang, one of the capitals in the Shang Dynasty
 * The city was made of mostly wood
 * The hiogher class lived in timber framed houses in the city while low peasants lived out side the city
 * THe Shang surrounded their cities with massive earthen walls for protection
 * The walls demonstrate that the rulers had much control over their people
 * Shang people neede walled cites becuase the were always at war.
 * The family was central to Chines society
 * The most important virtue was respect for one's elders
 * The men in the family controlled the family's properties and made impotant decisions
 * The women had to respect the men
 * Only by bearing sons did a women gain or improve her status
 * The Shang society was sharply divided between nobles and peasants.
 * A ruling class of warrior-nobles headed by the king governed the shang
 * They governed over the scattered villages of the Shang
 * In china the family is linked closley related to religion, they believed that the spirits of their ancestors had the power to bring good fortune or disaster to the living family
 * The spirits were not mighty gods but regarded as troublesome or helpful neighbors who demanded attention and respect
 * The fathers ancestors were worshipped but not the females
 * The Shang worshipped a supreme god Shang Di as well as many lesser gods
 * Shang kings consuleted the gods through oracle bones by writing a question on the bones then bvranding them and interpretating the cracks
 * __Writing__**
 * In chinese writing each character staood for a syllable or unit of language
 * One could read Chinese with out being able to speak a word of it
 * The major advantage to this style of Chines writing was every body could learn the same system of writing
 * Thus the language unified much of china
 * The disadvantage was the nuber of characters you had to memerize
 * Around 1027 b.c people called the Zhou over threw the shang and established their own dynasty. The zhou didin't change mush of the Shang culture.
 * To justify their conquest, the zhou leaders declared that the final shang king had been such a poor ruler that the gods had taken away the Shang's rule and given it to the Zhou.
 * A just ruler had the divine approval or the MAndate Of Heaven.
 * The Mandate wasThe chinese eplanation of rebellion, civil war, and the rise of a Dynasty
 * This cycle is known as the Dynastic Cycle
 * Feudalism is a political system in which nobles, or lords are granted the use of lands legally belong to the king. In return the nobles owe loyalty and milatry service to the king and protection to the people in the estate
 * Roads and canals were built to stimulate trade and agriculture
 * Coined money was introduced to further improve trade
 * Blast furnaces were made to create stronger and more realiable irons
 * The Zhou ruled from 1027 to 256 B.C and their rule was generally peaceful and stable
 * In 771 B.C the nomads from the north and west sacked the the Zhou captial annd killed the Zhou monarch
 * The noble families after the down fall sought every oppurtunity to pick fights with neighboring cities
 * As their power grew the lords called them selves kings of their own land. As a result the later years are often called the time of the warring states