Imperial China -- Qin to Ming Dynasties

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Ancient China
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Geography of China
China is located on the continent of Asia.
Asia
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Geography of China
China is divided into three regions.In the
western interior region of China there are
mountains and plateaus.
The mountains are called the Himalayas.
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The highest mountain in the world is in China -
Mount Everest.
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Geography of China
Tibetan Plateau
Just north of the Himalayas is the Tibetan
plateau.
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Geography of China
Tibet is the home of the Tibetan people.
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Geography of China
The people of Tibet live in the highest region in
the world.
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Geography of China
In Northeastern China, the land is mostly low.
There are large plains bordered by mountains.
This region is rich in mineral resources like
coal, iron and petroleum.
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Bodies of Water

• China has three important rivers, the Xi Jiang,
  the Chang Jiang and the Huang He.

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Geography of China

• The Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) is Chinas longest
  river and the main river in China.
• It flows for over 3000 miles.

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Geography of China
The Huang He or Yellow River in English was the
home of the ancient Chinese civilization. It is
called the Yellow river because the water looks
yellow due to the yellow soil it picks up as it
flows from the mountains.
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Geography of China
The early Chinese nomads, settled along the
Yellow river because it brought fertile soil to
the land around it every time it flooded.
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Geography of China
The Yellow River floods so much entire villages
are destroyed. The Chinese have built dams and
dikes, but during the summer rains, the Huang
He still floods.
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Geography of China

• Because of the terrible floods, Chinese have
  called the Yellow River Chinas Sorrow.

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Geography of China

• The flooding of the Huang He in 1931 is thought
  to be one of the deadliest natural disasters ever
  recorded.

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Geography of China

• Estimates of the number of people killed in the
  1931 flooding are from 1-2 million.

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The Great Wall of China

• The Great Wall of China was built and rebuilt
  between the 5th century BC and the 16th century
  AD.

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The Great Wall of China

• The Great Wall was built to protect the northern
  borders of the Chinese Empire from invasions by
  barbarians.

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The Great Wall of China
It is 1500 miles long and if was built in the USA
it would extend halfway across the country.
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The Great Wall of China
It is the world's longest human-made structure in
the world and the only one that can be seen
from space.
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It is said that every stone put into the Great
Wall of China cost one human life.
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China - 23 of World Population
China has the worlds largest population.
However, China is changing this. Since the 1950s
they have been running campaigns like -'One child
is good, two is OK and three is too many. ' This
was heavily promoted in the 1970s.
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China - 23 of World Population
They have a Planned Birth policy or the One-Child
Policy. Couples living in cities and having more
than one child are required to pay a "social
compensation fee." The Chinese government said
this is a way to solve the overpopulation.
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Ancient China

• Most of what we know about early Chinese society
  and culture comes to us through ancient legends.
  
• A legend is a story that is popularly accepted
  but cannot be checked.

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Ancient China

• The very first people reached China about 50,000
  BC. These people lived in caves, made fires, used
  stone and bone tools, and

wore fur and leather clothes. They were hunters
and gatherers.
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Ancient China

• Changes happened around 4000 BC, when people
  began farming rice and keeping animals like sheep
  and chickens.

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Ancient China

• Once people living in China began farming, they
  also began to live in villages and build small
  houses with reed roofs.
• Around 3000-2000 BC, they also began to make
  pottery.

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Ancient China

• Around 2000 BC, the Chinese learned how to make
  bronze out of tin and copper, so we call this the
  Bronze Age.

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Bronzes
Ritual Wine Vessel
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Chinese Writing

• The Chinese developed their own system of writing
  and painting.
• The Evolution of Chinese writing

Pictographs
Semantic-Phonetics
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Chinese Writing

• The Chinese speak many different dialects and
  they cannot always understand each other.
• When they write, they do understand each other
  because the writing is not based on sound but on
  pictures.

Chinese symbols for Peace
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Chinese Writing

• The Chinese written language contains over 50,000
  characters. The signs they used came from
  pictures, like Egyptian hieroglyphs.

Chinese symbols for Peace
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Chinese Writing

• In the Chinese writing system, each character
  corresponds to a single syllable which usually
  has a basic meaning.
• However, most words in all modern varieties of
  Chinese require two or more characters to write

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Chinese Writing

• The earliest writing from China was on turtle
  shells or animal bones, which are called oracle
  bones" because they were used to tell the future.
  

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Chinese Writing

• Oracle bones were written by fortune tellers.
• The writing on these oracle bones is the same
  writing that people use in modern China, just in
  an earlier version.

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Chinese Writing

• Since 1958, the Chinese government has made an
  effort to get the people to use pinyin, which
  uses the Roman alphabet that we use to simplify
  their written language.

Chinese symbols for Luck
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Chinese Writing
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Chinese Medicine

• Chinese medicine began as long ago as Egyptian or
  Mesopotamian medicine.
• Ancient Chinese people used herbs to cure people.
  

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Chinese Medicine

• An herb is a plant grown from a seed and used for
  medicine or to season food.

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Chinese Medicine

• Some cures are still used to day, like
  acupuncture, a treatment involving sticking
  needles in people. This is supposed to cure
  pains.

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Chinese Medicine

• Ginger root is often used in traditional Chinese
  medicine to treat symptoms of indigestion, the
  common cold, and other ailments.

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Chinese Medicine

• This acupuncture chart from the Ming dynasty
  shows areas of the body to insert the thin
  needles.

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Chinese Medicine

• Inserting the needles into specific points on the
  body relieves pain and brings harmony or peaceful
  feelings.

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Chinese Religion

• The religion of early China had many gods who
  represented the forces of nature and they
  believed that the god who ruled over all of them,
  like Zeus, was called Ti.

The Supreme Ruler of Heaven YU-HUANG-SHANG-TI
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Chinese Religion

• The early Chinese also believed in life after
  death. Tombs have been found that were filled
  with the remains of servants and slaves who were
  beheaded or buried alive so that they could serve
  their masters in the afterlife.

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Chinese Religion Taoism

• Taoism can be translated from Chinese as THE ROAD
  or THE WAY.
• It started as a combination of psychology and
  philosophy but evolved into a religious faith in
  440 CE when it was adopted as a state religion.

Lao Tze, Father of Taoism / Daoism  
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Chinese Religion Taoism

• Taoism, along with Buddhism and Confucianism,
  became one of the three great religions of China
  and it did not end until about 1911.

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Chinese Religion Taoism

• Taoism was opposed to authority and government
  coercion.
• Humans should live simply according to the laws
  of nature.
• The Three Jewels of the Tao/Dao compassion,
  moderation, and humility.

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Yin and the Yang
Taoism
In Christianity the cross is a symbol of God. One
symbol of Taoism is the yin and the yang. The
black and white halves in the circle, the Yin and
Yang, represent feminine and masculine energies
whose interplay gives birth to the world.
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Chinese Calendar

• The Chinese calendar is the oldest in history,
  dating from 2600 BC.
• Like the Western calendar, the Chinese calendar
  is a yearly one, with the start of the lunar year
  based on the cycles of the moon.
• Because of this kind of dating, the beginning of
  the year can fall anywhere between late January
  and the middle of February. A complete cycle
  takes 60 years and is made up of five cycles of
  12 years each.

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Chinese Calendar

• The Chinese Calendar names each
• of the twelve years after an animal.
• Legend has it that the Buddha summoned the
  animals to him
• before he departed from earth.
• Only twelve came and as a reward
• he named a year after each one in the order
  they arrived.
• The Chinese believe the animal ruling the year a
  person is born has a huge influence on
  personality.

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Animal
Dates
Characteristics
1948, 1960, 1972, 1984, 1996, 2008
Rat
charming, bright, creative, thrifty
1949, 1961, 1973 1985, 1997, 2009
steadfast, dependable, methodical
Ox
1950, 1962, 1974, 1986, 1998, 2010
dynamic, warm, sincere, a leader
Tiger
Hare/Rabbit
humble, artistic, clear-sighted
1951, 1963, 1975, 1987, 1999, 2011
1952, 1964, 1976, 1988, 2000, 2012
flamboyant, lucky, imaginative
Dragon
1953, 1965, 1977, 1989, 2001, 2013
discreet, refined, intelligent
Snake
1954, 1966, 1978, 1990, 2002, 2014
social, competitive, stubborn
Horse
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Animal
Dates
Characteristics
1955, 1967, 1979, 1991, 2003, 2015
artistic, fastidious, indecisive
Sheep
1956, 1968, 1980, 1992, 2004, 2016
witty, popular, good-humored, versatile
Monkey
1957, 1969, 1981, 1993, 2005, 2017
aggressive, alert, perfectionist
Rooster
1958, 1970, 1982, 1994, 2006, 2018
Dog
honest, conservative, sympathetic, loyal
1959, 1971, 1983, 1995, 2007, 2019
Boar/Pig
caring, industrious, home-loving
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Chinese Dynasty

• Chinese history is divided into dynasties of
  rulers.
• A dynasty is a series of rulers from the same
  family, or group

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Chinese Dynasty

• Shang Dynasty 1766 BCE - 1027 BCE
• Zhou Dynasty 1122 BCE -256 BCE
• Qin Dynasty 221 BCE - 206 BCE
• Early Han Dynasty 206 BCE - 9 AD
• Xin Dynasty 9 AD - 24 AD
• Later Han Dynasty 25 AD - 220 AD
• Three Kingdoms - Period of Disunion 220 AD - 280
  AD
• Sui Dynasty 589 AD - 618 AD
• Tang Dynasty 618 AD - 907 AD
• Sung Dynasty 969 AD - 1279 AD
• Yuan Dyansty 1279 AD - 1368 AD
• Ming Dynasty 1368 AD - 1644 AD
• Manchu or Qing Dynasty 1644 AD - 1912 AD

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Shang Dynasty 1766 BC - 1027 BC

• The first Chinese ruler recorded in history was
  the Shang dynasty, which ruled for about 700
  years.

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Shang Dynasty 1766 BC - 1027 BC

• Some Shang dynasty accomplishments
• Earliest glazed pottery, industrialized bronze
  casting, advanced jade carving, determined the
  year was 365 1/4 days, made reports on diseases,
  first appearance of Chinese script, oracle bones
  and war chariots.

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Foot-Binding in China

• Legend has it that the origins of foot binding go
  back as far as the Shang dynasty.

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Foot-Binding in China

• The Shang Empress had a clubfoot, so she demanded
  that foot binding be made compulsory
• in her court.

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Foot-Binding in China

• Foot binding
• meant that a
• young girls feet
• would be broken
• and bound in
• bandages so that
• the feet would
• grow no longer than
• 3 to 4 inches long.

Baby born with a clubfoot
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Foot-Binding in China

• But historical records from the Song dynasty
  (960-1279 A.D.) date footbinding as beginning
  during the reign of Li Yu, who ruled over one
  region of China between 961-975.

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Foot-Binding in China

• It is said his heart was captured by a concubine,
  Yao Niang, a talented dancer who bound her feet
  to suggest the shape of a new moon and performed
  a "lotus dance."

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Foot-Binding in China

• Mothers bound their daughters feet. The process
  started for young girls anywhere from the age of
  four to six.
• It was done so early so that the arch did not
  have much time to develop.

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Foot-Binding in China

• The daughters' feet would first be soaked in warm
  water or animal blood and herbs.

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Foot-Binding in China

• The special potion that was used for this caused
  any dead flesh to fall off.

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Foot-Binding in China
She would have her toe nails cut as short as
possible therefore not allowing them to grow into
the foot.
A Chinese woman with her feet unwrapped.
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Foot-Binding in China
After she received a foot massage, the four
smallest toes on each foot were broken.
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Foot-Binding in China
The mother soaked bandages in the same liquid the
girl's feet were soaked in. The bandages, which
were ten feet long and two inches wide, were
wrapped around the smallest toes and pulled
tightly to the heel.
A bandaged bound foot
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Foot-Binding in China
Then the mother would make the girl walk on her
broken feet. Every two days, the binding was
removed and rebound. This process went on for 2
years.
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Foot-Binding in China
The results of foot binding
By this time her feet were three to four inches
long. To assure the feet staying small, the
ritual continued for at least ten more years.  
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Foot-Binding in China

• The process was very painful every time the feet
  were rebound the bandages were pulled tighter.
  The pain of bound feet never stopped.

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Foot-Binding in China
The most common consequence was infection. There
were many ways a girl could get an infection.
One was the ball of the foot would fold
directly into the heel.
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Foot-Binding in China

• A second was that the toenails continued to grow,
  eventually curling into the skin. This led to
  flesh rotting off, and sometimes even a toe would
  rot away.

• Size 5 ½ shoe on the right

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Foot-Binding in China
A comparison between a woman with normal feet
(left) and a woman with bound feet in 1902.
The worst part of the process was that the feet
would practically die after three years. The
feet being dead caused a terrible smell the girl
carried with her everywhere.
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The Results of Foot-Binding
Diseases followed infections, and death could
even result from foot binding. Notice how the
toes are folded under the foot.
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Zhou Dynasty 1122 BC256 BC

• The next dynasty was the Zhou dynasty, the
  longest in Chinese history about 800 years.
• The Zhou rulers claimed they had a Mandate of
  Heaven, which gave them the right to rule.
• The period is sometimes
• called the Golden age
• of Chinese culture.

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Zhou Dynasty 1122 BC256 BC

• All farming lands were owned by nobles, who then
  gave them to their serfs, a situation similar to
  European feudalism.
• This was also called the Age of Philosophers
  -Confucianism, Daoism,
• Legalism, Mohism,
• Yin and Yang.

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Chin Dynasty 221 BC206 BC

• The name China comes from the next dynasty that
  overthrew the Zhou dynasty, the Chin Dynasty.
• The newest ruler in the Chin dynasty was Shi
  Huangdi.

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Chin Dynasty

• He divided China into districts and appointed a
  governor over each.
• All of China was put under the same laws and had
  the same system of taxes, money and writing.

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Chin Dynasty

• He also built a canal that connected the Yellow
  River with the Chang Jiang and he started the
  Great Wall of China.

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Chin Dynasty

• Shi Huangdi was only 13 years old when he came to
  power in 221 B.C.
• He ruled for 14 years.

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Chin Dynasty

• When he become emperor, he began preparing for
  his death.
• He ordered more than 700,000 workers to build his
  underground tomb.
• The grandest tomb of any emperor, it stood more
  than 15 stories high and covered about three
  acres.

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The Clay (Terra Cotta) Army

• Day and night, for more than 2,000 years, these
  soldiers have kept watch over the tomb of Shi
  Huangdi, the first emperor of the Qin dynasty and
  the unifier of China.

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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
The army of clay soldiers stands guard near the
Chinese city of Xian.
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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army

• To surround the tomb, artists fashioned a clay
  army of thousands of soldiers, horses, and
  chariots.
• Just as Shi Huangdi's real army protected the
  emperor in life, his clay army was to guard him
  death.

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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army

• Each clay figure was made one at a time.
• No molds were used.
• Each soldier had a different face, probably the
  likeness of a real soldier.

• Each soldier was slightly larger than the real
  person. Some carried real spears and swords.

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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
Cavalry
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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
Individual Soldiers
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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
Individual Tombs
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Shi Huangdis Terra Cotta Army
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The Grand Canal Today
The canal that connects the Yellow River with the
Chang Jiang built by Shi Huangdi
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The Great Wall of China
The Great Wall of China was built to keep
barbarians out.
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The Great Wall of China
More than 700,000 slaves and unpaid workers
endured intense heat and brutal cold to build
the Great Wall.
They worked day and night.
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The Great Wall of China
The roadways were wide enough to hold ten
soldiers side by side.
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Many died building it, and it is said that their
bodies were used as filler in the wall.
The Great Wall of China
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Han Dynasty 206 BC 200 AD

• Buddhism developed in this dynasty and was
  probably brought to China by Indian merchants
• who came
• to China on
• the Silk
• Road, a
• trade route
• that went
• from China
• to Europe.

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Han Dynasty 206 BC 200 AD

• Buddhist missionaries came to China to teach the
  new faith and Chinese converts went to India
• to
• study.

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Silk

• Chinese invented silk
• Silk was exotic and expensive, so it was good for
  trading with the rest of the world.

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Silk

• It is made from silk worms.
• Silk also makes paper

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Paper
The Chinese invented paper.
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Paper

• The word paper is derived from papyrus.
• Silk was transformed into paper by a process of
  pasting, but because silk was expensive, wool and
  cotton came to be used instead.

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Paper
They steeped mulberry or bamboo bark in water,
then kneaded it to produce a paste from which
they obtained smooth thin sheets of paper.