PREHISTORIC CHINA

YangshaoYangshao

• Began 10,000 B.C.E• Settled near the Huang He (Yellow) River

in north central China.• Were farmers in China• Had houses built partially underground

with plastered floors and roofs supported by wooden beams

• Created painted pottery with geometric designs on it They used a kiln but no potter’s wheel

YangshaoYangshao

LungshanLungshan• About 3000 B.C.E• Settled near the Huang He (Yellow) River in

northeast China.• Farmers that raised cattle, sheep, pigs, and

dogs and grew wheat and millet• Eventually settled in southern China to grow rice• Leaders arose to complete projects to control

flooding• Created black pottery using a kiln and a potter’s

wheel• First to harvest silk from silkworms to weave

fabric which became a major export of China

LungshanLungshan

Xia Xia • Last of the Prehistoric settlements around 2000 B.C.E.

(ruled for about 300 years)• Settled near the Huang He (Yellow) River in north central

China.• Know about them from legends and eventually what

archeologists have found• Had bronze weapons and tools• Were farmers• Made pottery• Rulers communicated with spirits for help and guidance• Defeated by the Shang, China’s first dynasty

Could eventually become China’s first dynasty when and if more evidence is found about them

Xia Xia

The Shang Dynasty

A Shang dynasty tortoise shell with pictographs. The Shang dynasty is the earliest Chinese dynasty supported by archeological and written evidence.

The ruins of Yin date back to the Shang dynasty. A number of tombs were discovered at this site, but only one, that of Fuo Hao, was undisturbed.

A jade carving discovered in Fuo Hao's tomb. Fuo Hao was a wife of King Wu Ding during the Shang dynasty and is reported to have served as a military leader. Her tomb was untouched when discovered in 1976.

Evidence of human sacrifice is common in elite tombs of the Shang dynasty.

A Shang dynasty bronze zun or wine vessel, shaped in the form of an elephant with uplifted trunk.

A Chinese archeologist works at a newly discovered pit of chariots and horses in the ruins of Yin. Five of the seven pits are arranged in a line, with chariots and horses facing eastward.

SHANG DYNASTY

1) 1700-1050 BCE

2) On the Huang He River in the North China Plain

4) A series of rulers from the same family

5) From the tombs and artifacts we have found

3) The Shang dynasty is important because . . .

CHINA’S FIRST DYNASTY

ZHOU DYNASTY

1) farmers

lived in the Wei Valley on the Huang He River

2) In 1050 BCE Wu the Martial and the Zhou conquered the Shang

3) China’s longest lasting dynasty

4) Tian – impersonal power (heaven) worshiped by the Zhou that demanded right behavior and good government

Mandate of Heaven – getting heaven’s (tian) support if you ruled well

owned all of the land and granted Nobles complete control of the land given them, protects and defends the land and people, govern in the interest of the people

controls the land given to him from the king which consisted of a walled town and the farms around it, must give the king a portion of what the peasants produce from his land, must send the king soldiers in times of war

work the farmland and give the noble some of what they produce/make, are the soldiers

KING

NOBLES

PEASANTS

6) Dialects are different forms of the same language

7) Communication from region to region was difficult because people could not always understand each other when they spoke

8) Expanded the use of writing so no matter how a word was pronounced in the different regions of China, its written form would be the same and understood. This allows China’s culture to grow and spread.