Chinese Civilization
rulers, like the Yellow Lord (Huang Di), who
 During the long Paleolithic period, bands of
predatory hunter-gatherers lived in what is now
China. Homo erectus, an extinct species closely
related to modern humans, or Homo sapiens,
appeared in China more than one million years
ago. Anthropologists disagree about whether
Homo erectus is the direct ancestor of Homo
sapiens or merely related through a mutual
ancestor. In either case, modern humans may
have first appeared in China as far back as
200,000 years ago.
 Beginning in about 10,000 BCE, humans in
China began developing agriculture, possibly
influenced by developments in Southeast Asia.
By 5000 BCE there were Neolithic village
settlements in several regions of China. On the
fine, wind-blown loess soils of the north and
northwest, the primary crop was millet, while
villages along the lower Yangtze River in Central
China were centered on rice production in
paddy fields, supplemented by fish and aquatic
plants. Humans in both regions had
domesticated pigs, dogs, and cattle, and by
3000 BCE sheep had become important in the
north and water buffalo in the south.
 Over the course of the 5th to 3rd millennia BCE,
many distinct, regional Neolithic cultures
emerged. During the same period, Neolithic
cultures in the east produced pottery that was
rarely painted but had distinctive shapes, such
as three-legged, deep-bodied tripods.
 In many areas, stamped-earth fortified walls
came to be built around settlements, suggesting
not only increased contact between
settlements but also increased conflict. Later
Chinese civilization probably evolved from the
interaction of many distinct Neolithic cultures,
which over time came to share more in the way
of material culture and social and cultural
practices.
 Ancient Chinese historians knew nothing of
their Neolithic forebears, whose existence was
discovered by 20th-century archaeologists.
Traditionally, the Chinese traced their history
through many dynasties to a series of legendary
invented the key features of civilization-
agriculture, the family, silk, boats, carts, bows
and arrows, and the calendar. The last of these
kings was Yu, and when he died the people
chose his son to lead them, thus establishing
the principle of hereditary, dynastic rule. Yu’s
descendants created the Xia dynasty (ca. 2205
BCE- 1570 BCE), which was said to have lasted
for 14 generations before declining and being
superseded by the Shang dynasty.
 The Xia dynasty may correspond to the first
phases of the transition to the Bronze Age.
Between 2000 and 1600 BCE a more complex
Bronze Age civilization emerged out of the
diverse Neolithic cultures in northern China. No
written documents survive to link the earliest
Bronze Age sites unambiguously to Xia. With
the Shang dynasty, however, the historical and
archaeological records begin to coincide.
 Archaeological remains provide many details
about Shang civilization. A king was the religious
and political head of the society. He ruled
through dynastic alliances; divination (his
subjects believed that he alone could predict
the future by interpreting cracks in animal
bones); and royal journeys, hunts, and military
campaigns that took him to outlying areas. The
Shang were often at war with neighboring
peoples and moved their capital several times.
Shang kings could mobilize large armies for
warfare and huge numbers of workers to
construct defensive walls and elaborate tombs.
 The Shang directly controlled only the central
part of China proper, extending over much of
modern Henan, Hubei, Shandong, Anhui,
Shanxi, and Hebei provinces. However, Shang
influence extended beyond the state’s borders,
and Shang art motifs are often found in artifacts
from more-distant regions.
 The Shang king’s rule was based equally on
religious and military power. He played a
priestly role in the worship of his ancestors and
the high god Di. The king made animal sacrifices
and communicated with his ancestors by
 interpreting the cracks on heated cattle bones
or tortoise shells that had been prepared by
professional diviners. Royal ancestors were
viewed as able to intervene with Di, send
curses, produce dreams, and assist the king in
battle. Kings were buried with ritual vessels,
weapons, jades, and numerous servants and
sacrificial victims, suggesting that the Shang
believed in some form of afterlife.
 The Shang used bronze more for purposes of
ritual than war. Although some weapons were
made of bronze, the great bulk of the surviving
Shang bronze objects are cups, goblets,
steamers, and cauldrons, presumably made for
use in sacrificial rituals.
 The writing system used by the Shang is the
direct ancestor of the modern Chinese writing
system, with symbols or characters for each
word.
 In the 11th century BCE a frontier state called
Zhou rose against and defeated the Shang
dynasty. The Zhou dynasty is traditionally
divided into two periods: the Western Zhou (ca.
1045 BCE- 771 BCE), when the capital was near
modern Xi’an in the west, and the Eastern Zhou
(770 BCE- 256 BCE), when the capital was
moved further east to modern Luoyang. The
Easter Zhou is divided into two sub- periods:
The Spring and Autumn Period (770 BCE- 403
BCE) and the Warring States Period (403 BCE-
221 BCE), which are collectively referred to as
'China's Golden Age'.
 Like the Shang kings, the Zhou kings sacrificed
to their ancestors, but they also sacrificed to
Heaven (Tian). The Shu jing (Book of History),
one of the earliest transmitted texts, describes
the Zhou’s version of their history. It assumes a
close relationship between Heaven and the
king, called the Son of Heaven, explaining that
Heaven gives the king a mandate to rule only as
long as he does so in the interest of the people.
 In these books, which became classics of the
Confucian tradition, the Western Zhou dynasty
is described as an age when people honored
family relationships and stressed social status
distinctions.
 The Zhou kings maintained control over their
vassals for more than two centuries, but as the
generations passed, the ties of kinship and
vassalage weakened.
 In 770 BCE several of the states rebelled and
joined with non-Chinese forces to drive the
Zhou from their capital. The Zhou established a
new capital to the east at Chengzhou (near
present-day Luoyang), where they were safer
from barbarian attack, but the Eastern Zhou
kings no longer exercised much political or
military authority over the vassal states. In the
Eastern Zhou period, real power lay with the
larger states, although the Zhou kings continued
as nominal overlords, partly because they were
recognized as custodians of the Mandate of
Heaven, but also because no single feudal state
was strong enough to dominate the others.
 In 770 BCE several of the states rebelled and
joined with non-Chinese forces to drive the
Zhou from their capital. The Zhou established a
new capital to the east at Chengzhou (near
present-day Luoyang), where they were safer
from barbarian attack, but the Eastern Zhou
kings no longer exercised much political or
military authority over the vassal states. In the
Eastern Zhou period, real power lay with the
larger states, although the Zhou kings continued
as nominal overlords, partly because they were
recognized as custodians of the Mandate of
Heaven, but also because no single feudal state
was strong enough to dominate the others.
 To maintain and increase power, state rulers
sought the advice of teachers and strategists.
This fueled intellectual activity and debate, and
intense reappraisal of traditions. Though this
time in Chinese history was marked by disunity
and civil strife, an unprecedented era of cultural
prosperity- the "golden age" of China
flourished.
 The atmosphere of reform and new ideas was
attributed to the struggle for survival among
warring regional lords who competed in
building strong and loyal armies and in
increasing economic production to ensure a
broader base for tax collection.
 So many different philosophies developed
during the late Spring and Autumn and early
Warring States periods that the era is often
known as the time when the “hundred schools
of thought contended.”
 From the Hundred Schools of Thought came
many of the great classical writings on which
Chinese practices were to be based for the next
two and one half millennia.
 There were thinkers fascinated by logical
puzzles; utopians and hermits who argued for
withdrawal from public life; agriculturists who
argued that no one should eat who does not
plough; military theorists who analyzed ways to
deceive the enemy; and cosmologists who
developed theories of the forces of nature,
including the opposite and complementary
forces of yin and yang. The three most
influential schools of thought that evolved
during this period were Confucianism, Daoism,
and Legalism.
 The body of thought that had the most
enduring effect on subsequent Chinese life was
that of the School of Literati (ru), often called
the Confucian school in the West. The written
legacy of the School of Literati is embodied in
the Confucian Classics, which were to become
the basis for the order of traditional society.
 Kongfuzi, or Confucius as he is known in the
West, lived from 551 BCE- 479 BCE. Also called
Kong Zi, or Master Kong, Confucius was a
teacher from the state of Lu (in present-day
Shandong Province), revered tradition and
looked to the early days of Zhou rule for an
ideal social and political order. He believed that
the only way such a system could be made to
work properly was for each person to act
according to prescribed relationships. "Let the
ruler be a ruler and the subject a subject," he
said, but he added that to rule properly a king
must be virtuous. To Confucius, the functions of
government and social stratification were facts
of life to be sustained by ethical values.
 Confucius exalted virtues such as filial piety
(reverent respect and obedience toward
parents and grandparents), humanity an
unselfish concern for the welfare of others),
integrity, and a sense of duty.
 His ideal was the junzi (ruler's son), which he
redefined to mean gentleman; a man of moral
cultivation was a superior man, rather than a
man of noble birth.
 He encouraged his disciples to master historical
records, music, poetry, and ritual. He tried in
vain to gain high office, traveling from state to
state with his disciples in search of a ruler who
would employ him.
 There were to be accretions to the corpus of
Confucian thought, both immediately and over
the millennia, and from within and outside the
Confucian school. Interpretations made to suit
or influence contemporary society made
Confucianism dynamic while reserving a
fundamental system of model behavior based
on ancient texts. The eventual success of
Confucian ideas owes much to Confucius's
followers in the two centuries after his death,
particularly to Mencius and Xun Zi.
 Mencius (372 BCE- 289 BCE), or Meng Zi, was a
Confucian disciple who made major
contributions to the humanism of Confucian
thought. Mencius, like Confucius, traveled to
various states, offering advice to their rulers.
 Mencius proposed concrete political and
financial measures for easing tax burdens and
otherwise improving the people's lot. With his
disciples and fellow philosophers, he discussed
other issues in moral philosophy. Mencius
declared that man was by nature good, arguing
strongly, that everyone is born with the
capacity to recognize what is right and act upon
it.
 The effect of the combined work of Confucius,
the codifier and interpreter of a system of
relationships based on ethical behavior, and
Mencius, the synthesizer and developer of
applied Confucian thought, was to provide
traditional Chinese society with a
comprehensive framework on which to order
virtually every aspect of life.
 Diametrically opposed to Mencius, for example,
was the interpretation of Xun Zi (ca. 300 BCE-
 237 BCE), another Confucian follower. Xun Zi
preached that man is innately selfish and evil
and that goodness is attainable only through
conduct befitting one's status and education,
that they learn to put moral principle above
their own interests.
 He also argued that the best government is one
based on authoritarian control, not ethical or
moral persuasion. Xun Zi stressed the
importance of ritual to social and political life,
but took a secular view of it. Xunzi took the
opposite view of human nature, arguing that
people are born selfish and that it is only
through education and ritual that they learn to
put moral principle above their own interests.
 Legalism differed from both Confucianism and
Daoism in its narrow focus on statecraft. The
doctrine was formulated by Han Fei Zi (ca. 280
BCE- 233 BCE) and Li Si (d. 208 BCE), who
reasoned that the extreme disorders of their
day called for new and drastic measures. The
Legalists exalted the state and sought its
prosperity and martial prowess above the
welfare of the common people. Legalism
became the philosophic basis for the imperial
form of government. When the most practical
and useful aspects of Confucianism and
Legalism were synthesized in the Han period
(206 BCE- CE 220), a system of governance
came into existence that was to survive largely
intact until the late 19th century.
 The doctrines of Taoism (Daoism), the second
great school of philosophy that emerged during
the Warring States Period, also developed
during the Zhou period and set forth in the
Daodejing (Classic of the Way and Its Power),
which is attributed traditionally to the
legendary sage Lao Zi (ca. 579 BCE- 490 BCE), or
Old Master, and in the compiled writings of
Zhuangzi (369 BCE- 286 BCE).
 The focus of Taoism is the individual in nature
rather than the individual in society. It holds
that the goal of life for each individual is to find
one's own personal adjustment to the rhythm
of the natural (and supernatural) world, to
follow the Dao of the universe. In many ways
the opposite of rigid Confucian moralism,
Taoism served many of its adherents as a
complement to their ordered daily lives. A
scholar on duty as an official would usually
follow Confucian teachings but at leisure or in
retirement might seek harmony with nature as
a Taoist recluse.
 Another strain of thought dating to the Warring
States Period is the school of yin-yang and the
five elements.
 Still another school of thought was based on
the doctrine of Mo Zi (ca. 470 BCE- 391 BCE), or
Mo Di. Mo Zi believed that "all men are equal
before God" and that mankind should follow
heaven by practicing universal love.
 As the king’s political authority declined, the
states on the periphery of the old heartland
gained the most power because they had room
to expand their territory. During the 7th and 6th
centuries BCE, brief periods of stability were
achieved through alliances among states, under
the domination of the strongest member. By
the late 5th century BCE, however, the system
of alliances had proved untenable. The years
from 403 BCE to 221 BCE became known as the
Warring States Period because the conflicts
were particularly frequent and deadly.
 In addition to warring with and sometimes
absorbing other Zhou states, the peripheral
states of Chao, Yen, Qin, and Chu expanded
outward, extending Chinese culture into a
larger area.
 Much of what came to constitute China Proper
was unified for the first time in 221 BCE In that
year the western frontier state of Qin, the most
aggressive of the Warring States, subjugated
the last of its rival states (Qin; the Wade-Giles
romanization is Ch'in, from which the English
China probably derived.). To fend off barbarian
intrusion, the fortification walls built by the
various warring states were connected to make
a 5,000-kilometer-long great wall. (What is
commonly referred to as the Great Wall is
actually four great walls rebuilt or extended
during the Western Han, Sui, Jin, and Ming
periods, rather than a ingle, continuous wall. At
 its extremities, the Great Wall reaches from
northeastern Heilongjiang Province to
northwestern Gansu. A number of public works
projects were also undertaken to consolidate
and strengthen imperial rule. These activities
required enormous levies of manpower and
resources, not to mention repressive measures.
Revolts broke out as soon as the first Qin
emperor died in 210 BCE His dynasty was
extinguished less than twenty years after its
triumph. The imperial system initiated during
the Qin dynasty, however, set a pattern that
was developed over the next two millennia.
 After a short civil war, a new dynasty, called
Han (206 BCE- CE 220), emerged with its capital
at Chang'an. The new empire retained much of
the Qin administrative structure but retreated a
bit from centralized rule by establishing vassal
principalities in some areas for the sake of
political convenience. The Han rulers modified
some of the harsher aspects of the previous
dynasty; Confucian ideals of government, out of
favor during the Qin period, were adopted as
the creed of the Han empire, and Confucian
scholars gained prominent status as the core of
the civil service.
 The Han dynasty, after which the members of
the ethnic majority in China, the "people of
Han," are named, was notable also for its
military prowess. The empire expanded
westward as far as the rim of the Tarim Basin (in
modern Xinjiang-Uyghur Autonomous Region),
making possible relatively secure caravan traffic
across Central Asia to Antioch, Baghdad, and
Alexandria.
 The paths of caravan traffic are often called the
"silk route" because the route was used to
export Chinese silk to the Roman Empire.
Chinese armies also invaded and annexed parts
of northern Vietnam and northern Korea
toward the end of the second century BCE Han
control of peripheral regions was generally
insecure, however.
 After 200 years, Han rule was interrupted
briefly (in 9 CE- 24 CE by Wang Mang, a
reformer), and then restored for another 200
years. The Han rulers, however, were unable to
adjust to what centralization had wrought: a
growing population, increasing wealth and
resultant financial difficulties and rivalries, and
ever-more complex political institutions.
Riddled with the corruption characteristic of the
dynastic cycle, by 220 CE the Han empire
collapsed.
 The collapse of the Han dynasty was followed
by nearly four centuries of rule by warlords. The
age of civil wars and disunity began with the era
of the Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu, and Wu,
which had overlapping reigns during the period
220 CE- 80 CE). In later times, fiction and drama
greatly romanticized the reputed chivalry of this
period. Unity was restored briefly in the early
years of the Jin dynasty (265 CE- 420 CE), but
the Jin could not long contain the invasions of
the nomadic peoples. In 317 CE, the Jin court
was forced to flee from Luoyang and
reestablished itself at Nanjing to the south. The
transfer of the capital coincided with China's
political fragmentation into a succession of
dynasties that was to last from 304 CE to 589
CE. During this period the process of sinicization
accelerated among the non-Chinese arrivals in
the north and among the aboriginal tribesmen
in the south. This process was also accompanied
by the increasing popularity of Buddhism
(introduced into China in the 1st century CE) in
both north and south China. Despite the
political disunity of the times, there were
notable technological advances. The invention
of gunpowder (at that time for use only in
fireworks) and the wheelbarrow is believed to
date from the sixth or seventh century.
Advances in medicine, astronomy, and
cartography are also noted by historians.
 China was reunified in CE 589 by the short-lived
Sui dynasty (CE 581- 617), which has often been
compared to the earlier Qin dynasty in tenure
and the ruthlessness of its accomplishments.
The Sui dynasty's early demise was attributed to
the government's tyrannical demands on the
people, who bore the crushing burden of taxes
and compulsory labor. These resources were
 overstrained in the completion of the Grand
Canal, a monumental engineering feat, and in
the undertaking of other construction projects,
including the reconstruction of the Great Wall.
Weakened by costly and disastrous military
campaigns against Korea in the early seventh
century, the dynasty disintegrated through a
combination of popular revolts, disloyalty, and
assassination.
 China was reunified in 589 CE by the short-lived
Sui dynasty (581 CE- 617 CE), which has often
been compared to the earlier Qin dynasty in
tenure and the ruthlessness of its
accomplishments. The Sui dynasty's early
demise was attributed to the government's
tyrannical demands on the people, who bore
the crushing burden of taxes and compulsory
labor. These resources were overstrained in the
completion of the Grand Canal- a monumental
engineering feat- and in the undertaking of
other construction projects, including the
reconstruction of the Great Wall. Weakened by
costly and disastrous military campaigns against
Korea in the early seventh century, the dynasty
disintegrated through a combination of popular
revolts, disloyalty, and assassination.
 The Tang dynasty (618 CE- 907 CE), with its
capital at Chang'an, is regarded by historians as
a high point in Chinese civilization- equal, or
even superior, to the Han period. Its territory,
acquired through the military exploits of its
early rulers, was greater than that of the Han.
Stimulated by contact with India and the Middle
East, the empire saw a flowering of creativity in
many fields. Buddhism, originating in India
around the time of Confucius, flourished during
the Tang period, becoming thoroughly sinicized
and a permanent part of Chinese traditional
culture. Block printing was invented, making the
written word available to vastly greater
audiences. The Tang period was the golden age
of literature and art.
 By the middle of the 8th century CE, Tang
power had ebbed. Domestic economic
instability and military defeat in 751 by Arabs at
Talas, in Central Asia, marked the beginning of
five centuries of steady military decline for the
Chinese empire. Misrule, court intrigues,
economic exploitation, and popular rebellions
weakened the empire, making it possible for
northern invaders to terminate the dynasty in
907. The next half-century saw the
fragmentation of China into five northern
dynasties and ten southern kingdoms. But in
960 a new power, Song (960- 1279), reunified
most of China Proper. The Song period divides
into two phases: Northern Song (960- 1127) and
Southern Song (1127- 1279). The division was
caused by the forced abandonment of north
China in 1127 by the Song court, which could
not push back the nomadic invaders.
 The founders of the Song dynasty built an
effective centralized bureaucracy staffed with
civilian scholar-officials.
 The Song dynasty is notable for the
development of cities not only for
administrative purposes but also as centers of
trade, industry, and maritime commerce.
 Culturally, the Song refined many of the
developments of the previous centuries.
Included in these refinements were not only the
Tang ideal of the universal man, who combined
the qualities of scholar, poet, painter, and
statesman, but also historical writings, painting,
calligraphy, and hard-glazed porcelain.
 The Song Neo-Confucian philosophers, finding a
certain purity in the originality of the ancient
classical texts, wrote commentaries on them.
The most influential of these philosophers was
Zhu Xi (1130-1200), whose synthesis of
Confucian thought and Buddhist, Taoist, and
other ideas became the official imperial
ideology from late Song times to the late 19th
century.
 By the mid-thirteenth century, the Mongols had
subjugated north China, Korea, and the Muslim
kingdoms of Central Asia and had twice
penetrated Europe. With the resources of his
vast empire, Kublai Khan (1215- 1294), a
grandson of Genghis Khan (ca. 1167- 1227) and
the supreme leader of all Mongol tribes, began
his drive against the Southern Song. Even
 before the extinction of the Song dynasty,
Kublai Khan had established the first alien
dynasty to rule all China- the Yüan (1279-1368).
Dynasties
 Xia Dynasty - The Xia Dynasty(2000 BCE-1600
BCE) was the first dynasty in Chinese history. It
lasted around 500 years and included the reigns
of 17emperors--an emperor is similar to a king.
The Xia people were farmers, with bronze
weapons and clay pottery.
 Shang Dynasty - The Shang Dynasty (1600 BCE-
1046 BCE) was originally a clan living along the
Yellow River during the Xia Dynasty. A clan is
group of very close families that are often
viewed as one big family. The Shang conquered
Xia land and gained control of Chinese
civilization. The Shang Dynasty lasted over 600
years and was led by 30 different emperors. The
Shang were the oldest Chinese civilization to
leave behind written records, called oracle
bones—turtle shells, cattle shoulders or other
bones on which were written important clues to
Chinese history. Oracle bones were often used
to determine what the gods/nature wanted. If
the kingdom needed to know something such
as 'will the king have a son' or 'should we go to
war', it would be carved into bone or
shell. They would then heat the bone until it
cracked. The crack lines would reveal the
wishes of the gods--this process of learning
what the gods want is called divination. During
the Shang Dynasty people worshipped many
gods. Ancestor worship was very important
since they believed their family members
became god-like in the after life. Shang
government invented new ways to make bronze
crafts. Thousands of bronze artifacts have been
found including some that weigh nearly 2000
pounds. Its important to understand that other
smaller cultures existed in the same time as the
Shang in different parts of China, but the Shang
left written records and seem to be the most
advanced. Eventually, the Shang were defeated
by the Zhou clan.
 Zhou Dynasty - The Zhou Dynasty (1046 BCE-
256 BCE) lasted longer than any other dynasty
in Chinese history. The Zhou time period is
divided into parts called the Western Zhou and
Eastern Zhou because there was a brief
disruption in their control of the
government. The Zhou battled with invading
armies from the north (Mongolians), so they
built large mounds of dirt and rock as barriers
that would slow down the enemy--this was not
the Great Wall yet, but the idea came before
the wall. The crossbow was another invention
of this time--it was extremely effective and
feared by enemies. During the Zhou, the use of
iron was introduced to China, which begins
the Iron Age in China. Iron tipped weapons
were much stronger, and the iron plow helped
to increase food production.
Agriculture was usually directed by the
government. All farming lands were owned
by nobles (wealthy). They allowed peasants to
farm the land similar to the feudal system that
developed in Europe in the Middle Ages. The
government directed farming by dividing a
piece of land into nine squares in the shape of
the character for "water well," (井), with the
grain from the middle square taken by the
government. The individual farmers kept the
square of grain in the surrounding squares and
worked the middle square together. This
allowed the government to store extra food in
case disaster struck.
Taoism (also spelled Daoism)
and Confucianism developed—the two most
important Chinese philosophies. The great
Chinese philosopher Confucius developed a way
of life called Confucianism. Confucianism says
that all people can be taught and improved if
they do the right things. People should focus
on doing the right thing for others, make family
the most important, and respect elders of
society. Confucianism is still important today,
but it did not become widely followed in China
until the Han Dynasty.
The founder of Taoism was named
Laozi. Taoism is all about following the "Tao",
 which means the "way" or "path". The Tao is
the driving force behind all things in the
universe. The Yin Yang symbol is usually
associated with Taoism. Taoists believe you
should live in harmony with nature, be humble,
live simply without too many possessions and
have compassion for all life. These philosophies
are different from religions because they don't
have an all powerful god or gods, although the
idea of ancestors and nature are often treated
like gods. The power of the emperor was also
related to religious beliefs. The Zhou talked
about the Mandate of Heaven as the law that
allowed Chinese emperors to rule—it said that
the ruler was blessed by Heaven to rule the
people. If he lost the blessing of heaven he
should be removed. Things that proved the
ruling family had lost the Mandate of Heaven
were natural disasters and rebellions. For
example, if a draught or flood
was particularly bad, people may begin to think
the ruling family had lost the Mandate of
Heaven.
By 475 BCE the provinces/states of the Zhou
kingdom were more powerful than the Zhou
central government. The states rebelled and
fought one another in a series of brutal wars,
which began a period of over 200 years of war
called the Warring States Period. Eventually,
one family (Qin) united all others into one
empire. This is usually recognized as the first
empire of China, which begins a new time
period called Imperial China. Imperial basically
means "empire of".
Imperial China
 Qin Dynasty - From 221 BCE to 206 BCE the Qin
Dynasty (pronounced "chin") gained control of
civilized China. The Qin didn’t last very long,
but made an important impact on China’s
future. The Qin expanded their territory and
created China’s first empire. The brutal leader
Qin Shi Huang declared himself the first true
emperor of China. This dynasty
designed standard currency (money), standard
wheel axle size (to make roads all one size), and
standard laws that applied to the entire empire.
Standardize means to make the same. The Qin
also standardized the different systems of
writing into one system called small seal script
that much of China still uses today. Qin Shi
Huang enforced a philosophy called
Legalism that focuses on people following laws
and taking instructions from the government.
However, many followers of Confucianism were
more loyal to their family and other Confucian
traditions. To silence their protests, the
emperor banished or put to death many
Confucian teachers and burned their Confucian
books. At one point Qin Shi Huang killed 460
Confucian teachers by burying them alive!
 Mongolian invasions from the north were a
constant problem in China. The Qin
government ordered walls built in the past to
be connected to make a larger and stronger
wall. This is usually recognized as the beginning
of the Great Wall of China. Despite what you
might think, the building of the Great Wall was
unpopular with the people who saw it as a
waste of resources. Each dynasty built new wall
or improved the previous dynasty's wall. Most
of the Qin Wall is gone today or been
replaced. The wall that still exists today was
mainly built by a later dynasty called the
Ming. A number of public projects, including
canals and bridges, were also built to help
strengthen trade and transporation.
 An amazing tomb larger than a football field or
anything in Ancient Egyptwas made for the
emperor. It is still sealed, but legend says there
are rivers of mercury and models of the entire
Chinese empire inside. Outside the tomb is a
life-sized army of clay soldiers, discovered in
1974 CE. This is known as the Terra Cotta
Army. Terra cotta means baked clay. There are
over 8,000 unique soldiers, over 600 total
horses, 130 chariots, as well as acrobats and
musicians--all made of clay! Archeologists are
still trying to put them back together as most
were broken into pieces over time. Although
the Qin Dynasty was short-lived, its
 standardization of Chinese life left a deep  The paths of caravan traffic are often called the
impact on later dynasties in China. It is from this "Silk Road" because the route was used to
dynasty that we get the name “China”. The first export Chinese silk. The Han dynasty also
emperor died in 210 BCE and was replaced by a extended and fortified the Great Wall to protect
weak and young son. Eventually, rebellion the Silk Road. Another important product of the
started and a member of the Qin army took Silk Road was the religion of Buddhism which
control of the empire, which began a new reached China during this period.
dynasty.
 Han Dynasty - began in 206 BCE and lasted 400 How did it end?
years until 220 CE and is considered to be one  Chinese dynasties would continue to rule China
of the greatest periods in the entire history of until Medieval times when the Mongolians
China. LIke the Zhou Dynasty, the Han Dynasty finally conquered China. Chinese families
is divided into Western Han and Eastern Han eventually fought back and regained control,
because of a short disruption when someone which they maintained until 1911 when China
tried to replace the Han family--they were experienced a civil war. Again, China is unique
unsuccessful. Han culture defines Chinese because they have continued the same culture
culture today. In fact, most Chinese citizens since ancient times. There are very few
today claim "Han" as their ethnic examples of architecture from Ancient China or
background. The government made even Imperial China. The reason is because
Confucianism the official belief system of the China primarily used wood as its main building
empire. The empire grew greatly during material. Similar to Ancient Iraq
this time, conquering land in modern Korea, (Mesopotamia), very few ancient structures
Mongolia, Vietnam, and even into Central Asia. exist today.
The empire had grown so much the emperor
needed a larger government to rule it. He
started a system of examinations (tests) to find
qualified people to do civil (government) jobs
such as tax collecting. This system
called Imperial Examinations. In fact, most
nations use a similar system to find qualified
people in a fair way.
 Many things were invented during this time
including paper, steel, the compass, and
porcelain. Porcelain is a very hard type of
ceramic (clay pottery) used to make crafts that
were highly valued by people around the world.
Porcelain is made from special clay that is
heated until it melts and basically turns to glass.
Porcelain dishes, cups, and bowls are often
called "China" because until a few hundred
years ago, all porcelain was produced China.
The Han Dynasty was also known for its military
power. The empire expanded westward as far
as the edge of the Taklimakan Desert, which
allowed the government to guard the trade
traffic across Central Asia.