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Abby regan 9/17/10 2-4 WHCP

Loess: A fertile windblown soil. Oracle Bones: Bones in which the priests communicated with the gods with by scratching questions on them. Mandate of Heaven: The divine approval, which was also known as the basis of royal authority. Dynastic Circle: A pattern of the rise, fall, and decline of dynasties. Feudalism: A system in which nobles or lords were granted the use of land the legally belonged to the king.
 * Key words:**

//Yu:// The leader of the Xia dynasty, also a mathmatician and an engineer, who helped "tame" the Yellow River with his flood control and irrigation systems. __//**Summary:**//__
 * Key People:**
 * The Geography of China**
 * China is surrounded by natural barriers, such as the himalayas to the southwest, and the Gobi desert to the Northeast.


 * River Systems**
 * There are two main rivers-the Yellow river and the Yangtze. The yellow river desposites yellow silt over it's banks, which is why it's called "yellow".

-The Yellow rivers huge floods sometimes swallowed up entire villages, earning it the nickname "China's Sorrow". -Because of the natural barriers and geographic location, settlers had to supply their own good rather than trading for them. -China's natural barriers didn't completely protect them, because invaders from the north and west attacked them again and again.
 * Enviromental Challenges**
 * Some of the challenges China faced were:


 * China's Heartland**
 * The only land (10%) that is sutiable for farming is found between the Huang He (yellow river) and the Chang Jiang (yangtze). This is known as the North China plain, and it is China's heartland.


 * Civilization Emerges in Shang Times**
 * Fossils of the homo erectus show the people that lived there 1.7 million years ago.


 * The First Dynasties**
 * Around 2000 BC, the Xia dynasty came to be, along with it's leader, Yu, who helped control the Yellow river with his flood control and irrigation systems.
 * About the same time as the Mesopotamian, Egyptian, and Indus valley communites fell, the Shang Dynasty rose to power in China. The lasted from 1700 BC to 1027 Bc, and they were the first family to leave written records.


 * Early Cities**
 * One of the oldest and most important cities was Anyang, which was built mainly of wood. The higher classes lived in straw and timber framed houses, and the lower classes lived in huts outside the city.
 * The Shang surrounded their cities with huge earthern walls to keep out invaders. This showed how skilled the Shang dynasty was at bringing work forces together.
 * The chariot, which was first introduced by cultures from western Asia, was one of the major tools in war.


 * The Developement of Chinese Culture**
 * The Chinese saw anyone outside their country as barbarians, and they saw themselves as the center of the world, so they were called the Middle Kingdom.
 * In their culture, family came first, then obidence of the ruler of the Middle kingdom.


 * Family**
 * Family was extremely important in Chinese culture, as stated before. The elders controlled the family, and obidence of the parents was crutial. At age 13-16, a girl's parentswould arrange her marrige and marry her off.


 * Social Classes**
 * There were only two social classes, nobles and peasants, and the nobles controlled the land in exchange for the tributes to the royal family.


 * Religious Beliefs**
 * The chinese believed that the ancestors of their family members had the power to bring them good fortune. They were not regarded as gods.
 * The Shang communicated with their gods (the main one being Shang Di) through their ancestors and writing messages to the gods on oracle bones.


 * Developement of Writing**
 * Each character stands for one syllable or unit of the language.There were almost no links between China's spoken and writtn language.
 * The one major advantage of Chinese writing was that people in all parts of China could learn the same system of writing,even if they spoke different languages.
 * The disadvantage was that there wee lots of characters to memorize-a true schollar had to know 10,000 of them!


 * Zhou and The Dynastic Circle**
 * In 1027 BC, the Zhou dynasty overthrew th Shang, and made new ideas, although the culture didn't change much.


 * Mandate of Heaven**
 * A new idea that the Zhou came up with was that a just king had the divine approval called the Mandate of Heaven. A wicked or foolish king would lose this mandate, causing him to lose the right to rule.
 * The Mandate of Heaven became the Chinese explaination for rebellion, civil war, andthe rise of a new dynasty because bad things that happened might have been a sign of the Mandate's disproval of the King.


 * Control Through Fuedalism**
 * The Zhou gave control of certain lands to members of the royal family and other trusted nobles. This became a system called fuedalism.
 * The lords grew stronger as the towns they controlled became cities, and they fought among themselves for territory and wealth.

-Roads and canals were vuilt to encourage trading with others and agriculture. -Coined money was made, which further inproved trade. -Blast furnaces that produced cast iron were developed. -Cast iron was used for dagger-axes, swords, sickles, knives, ad spades.
 * Improvements in Technology and Trade**
 * The Zhou came up with many ideas that wouldn't be matched in Europe until the Middle ages.


 * A Period of Warring States**
 * The Zhou ruled peacefully frm 1027-256 BC until in 771 BC, nomads from the north came and captured the capital and killed the Zhou monarch.
 * Although some of the royal family escaped to Luoyang, they had no power, and lords picked fights with neighboring lords and claimed to be kings.
 * Love of order, peace, and respect for authority had turned into chaos, arrogance, and definance.