First Dynasties of China

XiaShangZhouQin

Xia Dynasty2200 – 1750 BC/BCE

• The establishment of the Xia Dynasty is an important milestone in the history of Chinese civilization – marks the end of the Primitive Society – and the beginning of the Class Society. – It is the first dynasty in Chinese history,

• lasted nearly 500 years • including the reigns of 17 emperors.

During the Xia Dynasty, many achievements were made.

• People lived mainly through agriculture using tools made of stone or bone.

• The Jade ware at that time was quite delicate and bronze vessels were well smelted.

• Craftwork made of bronze embedded with jade also appeared.

• Commodity exchanges developed. • A calendar system was devised which used

both lunar and solar movements.

Xia Jie

• The Xia Dynasty ended under the reign of Jie, a very notorious tyrannical emperor in Chinese history. After he succeeded to the throne, he lived an extravagant life day and night without any thought for his country or its people.

Overthrow of Xia Jie

• He amused himself and his wife by ordering 3000 people to kill themselves by jumping into a lake of wine.

• In addition, he killed the patriotic ministers who presented him with good advice.

• All of his actions enraged the people so much that at last they rose up under the leadership of Tang – (the chief of the Shang tribe) – set up Shang Dynasty (16th - 11th century

BC) and overthrew the Xia Dynasty.

Shang Dynasty• The Shang ruled in city-states

which were, in turn, ruled over by a capital city.

– The king seems to have served many of the same functions that kings served in other cultures:

• he was a kind of head priest, • the leader of the military aristocracy,

• and in charge of the economy.

Religion

• The Shang worshipped the "Shang Ti."

– This god ruled as a supreme god over lesser gods,

• the sun, the moon, the wind, the rain, and other natural forces and places.

• Highly ritualized, ancestor worship became a part of the Shang religion.

Sacrifice to the gods and the ancestors was also a major part of

the Shang religion.

they were quite possibly the most blood-thirsty pre-modern civilization. – They liked human sacrifice -- a lot. – The Shang kings sacrificed a great number of

people to talk to their ancestors.» Some of those sacrificed were enemies,

captured in war. » Some were slaves or people who were

sick or deformed. » Some were merchants, craftsmen, or

farmers who had upset the nobles. » Some were nobles who had upset the

king. – If a king died, then more than one hundred

slaves would join him in the grave. » Some of them would be beheaded first. » Some of them were just thrown in still

alive.

Shang chariot burial with human sacrifice

High Priests• Authority to call nature deities and spirit of ancestors (Oracle)• To communicate with their ancestors, the Shang kings used oracle bones.

– The king or emperor would ask a question, for example, will it rain tomorrow

– The priest would carve the king's question on an oracle bone, which was just an animal bone or turtle shell. (Will it rain tomorrow?)

– Then, the priest would heat a bronze pin and hold the hot pin to the bone.

• This created a pattern of cracks over the bone.– The priest (who was usually a woman) would study the cracks to find

the answer to the question.

Innovations

They were the most advanced bronze-working civilization in the world

– Shang remains provide the earliest and most complete record of Chinese writing » scratched out on the shoulder blades

of pigs for oracular purposes;

» Writing is also found on bronze and stone, but the majority of the records have decayed as they were recorded

on bamboo strips.

Fall of Shang

• During the final period of the dynasty, the country was in turmoil and vassals from other countries began to rebel.

• Despite the turmoil and the impending uprising, King Zhou – (the last king of the Shang Dynasty) – led a luxurious life – and tortured both his ministers and his

people. • This intensified conflicts across the

kingdom and the Shang Dynasty was finally overthrown by Wu (chief of Zhou tribe), ending the long reign of the Shang Dynasty in Chinese history

Zhou Dynasty– The Zhou had a problem of legitimacy

• Shang considered them no more than barbarian– Zhou now controlled the Shang

• The Mandate of Heaven– a Chinese concept used to justify the rule of the

kings of the Zhou Dynasty and later the Emperors of China

– The concept was that a king's rule was based on the blessing of Heaven

– if a king ruled unwisely, Heaven would be displeased and would give the Mandate to someone else.

• The concept was first used by the Zhou dynasty to justify their overthrow of the Shang dynasty and was used by many succeeding dynasties to justify their rule. – Solves issue of legitimacy

• It was not necessary for a person to be of noble birth to lead a revolt and become a legitimate emperor

Hegemony– The Zhou actually didn't rule all of what

was then China.• China was then made up of a number of

quasi-independent principalities. – However, the Zhou were the most powerful

principality – played the role of hegemon in the area.

» 1 country exerting great influence on other countries in a given area

– They were located in the middle of the principalities, giving rise to what the Chinese call their country -- the Middle Kingdom.

– The Zhou were able to maintain peace and stability through the hegemon system for a few hundred years

In 771 BC, the capital was sacked by barbarians from the west.

its king was killed • With the royal line broken, the power

of the Zhou court gradually diminished;– Nobles become powerful

» Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the nobles did not even bother to acknowledge the royal family symbolically and declared

themselves to be kings.

Warring States

– This less than delicate balance among kingdoms created by the hegemon system fell into chaos in the century and a half that concluded Zhou rule.

– Alliances proved volatile and eventually fell apart as large states began to actively invade and swallow up the less powerful states. » By the beginning of the fourth century,

only eight or nine very large states remained.

» All of the conflict of the Warring States period resulted from the search to see who would control all of China.

China was on the path to a single, unified state, a single empire.

– The population of China had grown precipitously • the working of iron and its effects on agricultural production

had greatly increased the population – Warfare had become a large-scale affair

• No longer were armies small and led by an aristocracy. • They were huge, conscript armies led by professional soldiers.

Qin Shi Huangdi, First Chinese

Emperor– A ruler from the western state of

Qin • the most aggressive of the Warring

States• united and subjugated the Warring

States and formed Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty in 221 B.C.

– Once the king of Qin consolidated his power, he took the title Shi Huangdi (meaning First Emperor).

• He declared himself the first emperor of China

The good

• The Emperor standardized Chinese writing, bureaucracy, scholarship, law, currency, weights and measures.

• He expanded the Chinese empire,• a system of roads, massive

fortifications, and palaces. • To fend off barbarian intrusion from

the North – the emperor connected and extended the

old fortification walls » built by the various warring states

were connected » forming the Great Wall of China

The Bad

• Shi Huangdi (259-210 B.C.) was a cruel ruler– killed or banished those who opposed him

or his ideas. » He is notorious for burning virtually all

the books that remained from previous regimes.

» He even banned scholarly discussions of the past.

– The Qin dynasty ended 20 years after his death, but a unified China remained for over 2,000 years.

• China's name is derived from his short but seminal dynasty, Qin (pronounced Chin).