Ancient+China

**Eliza Strouse, Lindsay Nerby** **Date: 1800 B.C.- 200 B.C.**  **"Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it." -Confucious** **There was many important events that happened in Ancient China. The first dynasty is Shang which occured around 1750 B.C. It was mostly a farming society ruled by an aristocracy. Their major concern was war. They had large city walls, royal palaces, and large royal tombs. These were discovered by Archaeologists. They also found evidence of impressive cities in Shang China. Shang kings had more than one capital city at the time before settling at Anyang. It was close to the Huang He River in northern-central China.**

**The next dynasty that arose was the Zhou dynasty. They came into ruling because the last ruler of the Shang dynasty was a tyrant that led people to revolt. The Zhou dynasty was the longest lasting dynasty in Chinese history, lasting 800 years. The Zhou Kings thought that they ruled China because it possessed the "Mandate of heaven." The King was seen as the link between heaven and earth. To strengthen those links was the king's duties. Around 403 B.C. civil war broke out beginning age known as the "period of the warring states."**

**One of the greatest and most lasting was the Han dynasty which began around 202 B.C. This dynasty was founded by Liu Bang. He started out as a peasent, but then was known by his title of Han Gaozu. He was the "Exalted EMperor of Han." The dynastyquickly established control over the empire because of his strong ruling. They used confucian principles rather than legalism like the Qin dynasty followed. They did decide to keep some of the rules from the Qin. They also kept the system of local government that divided the empire into provinces and counties.**





__**Terms:**__ ** Analects: Recorded Confucious sayings that faithful followers copied from his own words. This was when we traveled in an attempt to persuade political leaders to follow his ideas.** ** Oracle Bones: Communicate with gods. Bones that priests scratched questions into and cracks showed the answers. They were inscribed with questions and anwsers and then preserved in the king's records.** ** Aristocracy: Upper class whose wealth is based on land and whose power is passed from generations to another.** ** Daoism: System of ideas based on teachings of Laozi. This made the ideas people associated with him became popular in the 15th century.** ** Regime: The goverment in power. It was part of the Chines politics and it adopted legalism. It was also an official ideology. ** __**Historical Peole:**__ ** Shang King: defended realm and he controlled large armies. Was buried with the corpses of their faithful servants in the royal tombs.** ** Confucius: known as the first teacher. He traveled around China in an attempt to persuade political leaders to follow his ideas.** ** Qin Shihuangdi: "First Qin Shihuangdi" He defeated the last of Qin's rivals and founded a new dynasty as he was emperor.** ** Han Wudi: He was one of the Han emperors. He was part of the process that added the southern regions below to the Chang Jiang into the empire.** ** Liu Bang: The founder of the Han dynasty. He was a man of peasant origin who became known by his title of Han Gaozu. The new dynasty quickly established its control over the empire under his strong rule.**

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**__Links:__** **[|Information]: Has facts about the geography.** **[|Country Facts]: About Chinas religion.** **[|Dynasties]About Chinese dynasties.** **Ancient China: About chinese people.** **ReligionReligions in acient china.**

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 * __Timeline:__ **
 * 1750: This was when the Shang dynasty was set up[[image:legitworldhistory/erq8u4.jpg width="323" height="220" align="right"]] **
 * 1045: This was when the Zhou dynasty was set up after the Shang dynasty was defeated. **
 * 403 B.C.: The Zhou dynasty began to fall because of the civil war. **
 * 221 B.C.: This was when the Qin dynasty was set up. **
 * 210 B.C: The emperor of the Qin dynasty died and the dynasty fell four years later. **
 * 202 B.C: This was when the Han dynasty was se up. **
 * 87 B.C.: The death of Han Wudi took place which followed with almost 150 years of relative peace. **
 * 170 A.D: This is the time when the Han dynasty begins to collaps and the power of the government began to decline. **
 * 190 A.D.: Rebel armies sacked the Han capital. **
 * Early Chinese history to 1912 A.D: China has been controlled by many different dynasties. **