Ancient China

Question 1

Peking Man

Answer 1

• Homo Erectus
• Found near Beijing

Question 2

Yuanmao Man

Answer 2

• Subspecies of Homo Erectus
• Found in Southwestern China
• first fossil evidence of humans in China

Question 3

Yellow River

Answer 3

• Drainage basin 750,000 square km
• Frequent flooding
• Northern China
• Marks the beginning of the Yu dynasty, because Yu the great was able to create systems to control the flooding

Question 4

Yangtze River

Answer 4

• Longest river in both China and Asia
• Flows West to East from Tibet to the East China Sea

Question 5

Shang Dynasty

Answer 5

• Oracle bones/Dragon bones
• Stratified society/government
• Bronze technology
• Eventually encompassed all of Northern China
• Evidence of human sacrifice - servants would be buried with Kings and Nobles when they dies in order to assist them in the afterlife
• Capital city was Yin
• Tomb of Fu Hao
• Fell because the last Kings were lazy and self-indulgent, with the last King being King Zhao

Question 6

Oracle Bones

Answer 6

• Oldest written Chinese ever found
• Pictographic writing which had undergone simplification
• Bones wee used for divination. They wee placed into a fire and interpreted based on how they cracked

Question 7

Yin

Answer 7

• Capital City during the late Shang period
• Conflicting records as to when the city was really built
• Temple complex used for official and ceremonial purposes with 53 buildings for housing and storage. Temple was made of stone pillars with rammed Earth foundations
• Divided into craft and kin based neighborhoods called Yi
• Advanced water systems such as fountains and pool gardens
• No evidence of palatial walls; rather there was a buffer zone around the palace where normal people could not live, and a ditch that surrounded and protected the whole city. this ditch was also good for flood control

Question 8

Tomb of Fu Hao/Burial Traditions

Answer 8

• Royal cemeteries and the earliest sacrificial pits were placed to the North of Yin on high ground
• These are the first Chinese evidence of large scale graveyards and subsequently a belief in the afterlife
• Tomb of Fu Hao is the best preserved and most undisturbed Shang tomb
• Bult in 1200 BC
• Fu Hao was a great military leader and the wife of the king
• The tomb is a wooden chamber with a wood coffin and many artefacts
• Discovered in 1976 by Zhen Zhenxiang

Question 9

Rammed Earth

Answer 9

• Heavily compacted subsoil
• Mixed with lime or chalk to make it stronger, and rammed in layers
• Technique used since the neolithic period

Question 10

Zhou Dynasty

Answer 10

• 1046-256 BC
• Divided into Western Zhou period and Eastern Zhou period
• Spring and Autumn period where life was good but Nobles started taking power from kings
• Warring State period where kings had essentially no power and there was constant war
• Zhou period was considered the zenith of bronzeware
• Major philosophies were created: Confucianism, Taoism, and Legalism
• The Mandate of Heaven was introduced, which means that Heaven bestows its power on a mandated ruler who becomes a universal monarch. Different from divine kingship because it also means that there was a right to change rulers if the leader was defeated or was not virtuous, because it means they lost their divine right. Leadership could jump between lineages and cultural groups, which is how the Zhou justified taking over from the Shang
• Small sections of wall were put up to control trade and provide protection

Question 11

Qin Dynasty

Answer 11

• Overthrew the Zhou in 221, lasted less than 20 years
• Ruler Quin Shi Huangdi was the first to call himself emperor rather than king
• He fully centralized governance to himself
• Connected the smaller walls into the first version of the Great Wall
• Standardized weights, measurements, and writing, as well as organizing administrative units
• Built many roads and canals
• Massive tomb built over 36 years, incredibly complex with many artefacts. It was under a massive pile of earth with essentially a whole city in it
• This tomb contained the terracotta warriors
  He was obsessed with the idea of immortality

Question 12

Subsistence Patterns

Answer 12

• Started as a few grains and animals and developed from there
• Earliest evidence of Rice growing was 8000 years ago in Southern China because it had enough ground water to make rice paddies
• In Northern China millet was a staple, and millet cropping began around 7000 BC
• Pigs and dogs domesticated first, already domesticated cattle and sheep were brought in later from the West
• Fruit trees