My radiant padlet by Kinleigh Winckel

The Shang Dynasty

winckelkinleigh — 2025-09-10 16:06:48 UTC

The Shang Dynasty had a government where king and queens hold a position where it runs all throughout the family lines, with 20-30 in total. In the social classes there were 3 different groups. First it was the aristocracy, they were the highest and most respected class. The middle class were artisans and craftsmen, they worked with the bronze. The last one was the poorest class which were named the peasants, they were mainly used as slaves, but also worked as farmers. The Shang Dynasty started facing way more challenges. Due to those challenges they started to get less powerful, so the Zhou Dynasty basically took out the goverment, taking over and ending the Shang Dynasty.

https://courses.lumenlearning.com/suny-hccc-worldcivilization/chapter/society-under-the-shang-dynasty/

https://ancienthistoryhub.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-the-shang-dynasty-an-overview-of-ancient-chinas-first-recorded-royal-dynasty/

https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/the_shang_dynasty_1600_to_1050_bce

The Zhou Dynasty

winckelkinleigh — 2025-09-11 14:13:08 UTC

The Zhou Dynasty defeated the Shang, and made their own Dynasty. The Zhou had many similarities with the Shang, since they did they preformed similar rituals, used bronze ritual vessels and practiced divination. The Mandate of Heaven was a source of authority, and the right to rule china and their kings. The god selected a certain individual to rule earth, although the ruler was given a lot of power he also had responsibilities to use it for the good of his people. If he didn't not do so he would get serious consequences and suffer terribly, making him lose the rights he had. The Dynastic Cycle contained 3 dynasties, They were the Old Dynasty, Aging Dynasty and New Dynasty. The Old Dynasty would displease heaven which resulted in floods and hunger crisis, and not being able to defend the people trying to invade which caused corruption. The Aging Dynasty lost control of official, started over taxing people and treated people unfairly. They started destroying the things they had rebuilt which had made things worse for the group. Lastly the New Dynasty, They protect people from others who try to invade and they had rebuilt everything and restored the orders. The Inventions/ Innovations Zhou dynasty had started to stop using bronze objects for religious rituals, and started to mainly use them for local rulers to display their status and health. They also had paper made in year 105. The fall had happened when the Qin gained control of China 221 BC and created a new Dynasty.

https://asia-archive.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/explore-by-dynasty/zhou-dynasty/

https://www.worldhistory.org/Mandate_of_Heaven/

The Qin Dynasty

winckelkinleigh — 2025-09-11 14:13:24 UTC

After many years of the war, The Qin overcame everyone in 25 years. It was China's first unified state whose power was centralized instead of being split between different kingdoms. The first emperor of the Qin Dynasty was Qin Shihuangdi, the capital was Xianyang. The Great Wall began by a emperor Qin Shi Huang around 221 BCE which who was also the first emperor of unified China. They made the wall to slow down and prevent attacks from other territories. Many soldiers were taken and forced to make the wall, which was about 300,000 that had created the wall with rammed earth. The Terracotta Army was discovered in 1974, there were more than 2,000 warriors and around 6,000 horses still buried underground. It added to the mystery which led to people saying it was the 8th wonder of the world. They had been untouched for more than 2,200 years. With how many numbers of warriors were found none of them looked alike, they were all different in some type of way. All of the warriors were painted and covered in lacquer, and you could also see the traces of paint indicating their ranks. The Qin Dynasty era was short, it came to a end around only 15 years, because of a harsh rule. It had influenced a good amount of the next thousand years of Chinese history.

https://asia-archive.si.edu/learn/for-educators/teaching-china-with-the-smithsonian/explore-by-dynasty/qin-dynasty/

https://www.history.com/articles/qin-dynasty

https://www.chinahighlights.com/greatwall/history/qin-dynasty-wall.htm

https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/stories/top-10-facts-about-terracotta-warriors