helped shape China's

civilizations

Rulers known as the Shang

became powerful because

they controlled land and had strong

armies

Chinese rulers claimed that the

Mandate of Heaven gave them the

right to rule

rich yellow soil carries from Mongolia to Pacific Ocean

flooded the land

good and bad

good - rich topsoil- large amounts of food

bad- overflowed- people and homes destroyed - "China's sorrow"

Chang Jiang- Yangtze River

flows for about 3,400 miles east and empties into Yellow Sea

valley of Chang Jiang- rich soil for farming

only 1/10 of its land can be farmed

mountains and deserts

Himalaya- southwest

Kunlan Shan and Tian Shan - mountain rangers on western border

Gobi- vast, cold, rocky desert spreads east from mountains

Huang He valley- first center of Chinese civilization

farming, numbers rose then first Chinese civilization began

first rulers- probably part of Xia (Shah) Dynasty

dynasty- line of rulers who belong to the same family

little known about Xia

next was Shang Dynasty (1750 BC- 1045 BC)

from time of Shang

Shang may have built first cities

Anyang- China's first capital

kings ruled from there

people of the Shang were divided into groups

most powerful was king and his family

Shang kings ruled over most of the Huang He Valley

Later Shang kings chose warlords to govern kingdom's territories

king's armies let him keep power

under king, warlords and other royal officials made up the upper class

aristocrats and nobles

traders, farmers, artisans

enslaved people

spirits- lived in mountains, rivers and seas

people believed- make spirits happy by making offerings of food and other goods

angry gods and spirits- cause farmers to have poor harvest or armies lose power

offerings to ancestors

religion and government closely entwined

early Chinese writing- used to be pictographs and ideographs

pictographs- characters that stand for objects

ideographs- another kind of character used in Chinese writing

join two or more pictographs to represent an idea

result, lost the support of the people in their kingdom

1045 Wu Wang (aristocrat) led rebellion against the Shang

After defeating the Shang, Wu began new dynasty called the Zhou

Zhou dynasty ruled for more than 800 years- longer than any dynasty 

in Chinese history

Zhou kings ruled much like Shang rulers

bureaucracy

Zhou king was in charge of defending the kingdom

divided kingdom into smaller territories

put aristocrats they trusted in charge of each territory

Chinese- king link between heaven and earth

chief duty- carry out religious rituals

talent and virtue

rule the people with goodness and wisdom

worked in two ways

people expected king to rule according to proper Way or "Dao"

duty was to keep gods happy

bad harvest - failed

people could turn him over

people had important rights

people had right to overthrow dishonest or evil ruler

iron plows

trade and manufacturing grew

Silk

stopped obeying kings

set up own states

403 BC- fighting broke out

200 years- Period of Warring States

221 BC ruler of Qin (CHIHN) used large cavalry

force to defeat other states and set up a new dynasty