Social classes: The bottom was slaves, then farmers, artisans, warriors and leaders, nobles, and the king.

Religion and Culture: The Chinese people believed in supernatural forces when the rulers could get help in worldly affairs. They believed it was important to treat the spirits of their ancestors so that it would bring good fortune to the living family member, and hopefully not bad.

The Fall: The ruler of the state called Zhou rebeled against the Shang.

Mandate of Heaven: The king ruled by the authority to command from the Heavens.

The Dynastic Cycle: It talks about the Old Dynasty, Aging Dynasty, and the New Dynasty. The New Dynasty- Protects people from people who try to invade and rebuild everything, and restores the orders. Aging Dynasty- loses control of official, over taxes the people, treats people unfairly, and allows everything they just rebuilt to fall apart. Old Dynasty- Displeases Heaven which results in floods and hunger crisis's, unable to defend against people trying to invade, and allows corruption.

Inventions / Innovations: Paper- made in the year 105, one of the most defining inventions of all time, and the oldest surviving piece of paper was found in a Tomb near Xian in the year 1957. It is as old as 140-87 BC. Gunpowder- Originally known as "black powder", invented around 1000 BC, Wei Boyang described it in 142 AD as something that could 'fly and dance'.

The Fall: After around 800 years, the dynasty collapsed. In 403 BC, a civil war broke out which started the age known in the Chinese history as the Period of the Warring States. The Warring States Period was an intellectual golden age that led to the development of new philosophies that were known as the Hundred Schools of Thought. The Qin gained control of China 221 BC and created a new dynasty.

Significant Leaders: The first emporer of the Qin Dynasty was known as Qin Shihuangdi who was literally the first emperor who ruled 259-210 BCE. Shihuangdi had harsh rules to make sure to maintain his control. He also had his chief advisor burn all the books that were not written on subjects that Shihuangdi thought was useful. The subjects were agriculture and medicine.

Great Architectural Works:

• Great Wall- The wall was first began by Emperor Qin Shi Huang around the year 220 BC, who was the first emperor of unified China. With Qin Shihuangdi as the emperor, the walls that were between states were removed and some were reused to form a border between China and something called the "barbarians" to the north. Around 300,000 soldiers that were captured were forced to make the wall. The wall was mostly made of rammed earth.

• Terracotta Army- There was more than 2,000 warriors and horses that was evacuated from three seperate burial pits and there was an estimated 6,000 that are still buried underground. There was also no historical evidence that the Terracotta Army was even a thing. The discovery was a complete surprise to everyone. The Army sat untouched for around 2,200 years. The Army was discovered on the 29th of March in 1974 when a farmer was digging up a well and found pottery pieces. There was also no two figures that were identical (or exactly alike).

  
  

The Fall: The Qin Dynasty only lasted around 15 years.