Prehistory | Ancient Bronze Age | The Shang Dynasty (ca. 1570 BCE- 1045 BCE) | The Zhou Dynasty (1045- 256 BCE) | Western Zhou (1045 BCE- 771 BCE) | Eastern Zhou (770 BCE- 256 BCE) | Spring and Autumn Period (770 BCE- 403 BCE) | The Hundred Schools of Thought | Warring States Period (403 BCE- 221 BCE) | The First Imperial Period (221 BCE- 220 CE) | Era of Disunity (220 CE- 589 CE) | Restoration of Empire (589 CE- 1279 CE)
- Prehistory
- Paleolithic period
- Bands of hunter gatherers lived in what is now China
- Homo- erectus first appeared in China about 1 million years ago
- Modern Humans first appeared about 200,000 years ago
- Agriculture
- 10,000 BCE
- Humans in China begin developing agriculture
- Influenced by developments in SE Asia
- Neolithic settlements begin to appear around China
- 5,000 BCE
- Millet is the primary crop in the north and northwest
- Production of rice began in paddies along the Yangtze River in the central areas
- Food supplemented with fish and aquatic plants
- Domestication of dogs, pigs, cattle
- 3,000 BCE
- Sheep in the north
- Water buffalo in the south
- 10,000 BCE
- Neolithic Period
- 4,000 BCE- 2,000 BCE
- Northern cultures
- Decoration of red pottery using black pigment in the form of spirals, sawtooth lines, zoomorphic stick figures
- Eastern cultures
- Pottery formed out of different shapes, three legged tripod vessels
- Jade ornaments, blades, ritual objects used
- Beginnings of stamped- earth fortified walls, indicates contact and conflict with other settlements
- Northern cultures
- Chinese civilization develops out of repeated and frequent contact with other settlements
- 4,000 BCE- 2,000 BCE
- Paleolithic period
- Ancient Bronze Age
- Series of legendary rulers
- The Yellow Lord (Huang Di)
- Invented key features of Chinese civilization
- Agriculture, the family, silk, boats, carts, the calendar and bows and arrows
- Invented key features of Chinese civilization
- Last of these kings was Yu
- The people chose his son to lead them
- Established principle of hereditary, dynastic rule
- Descendants created the Xia dynasty
- The people chose his son to lead them
- The Yellow Lord (Huang Di)
- Xia Dynasty 2205? BCE- 1570? BCE
- Said to have lasted 14 generations
- May correspond to the first phases of the transition to the Bronze Age
- Between 2000 BCE and 1600 BCE more complex Bronze Age civilizations emerged from Neolithic cultures in northern China
- Marked by writing, metalwork, domestication of horses, a class system, and stable political, religious hierarchy
- Developed both a writing system and a bronze technology with little stimulus from outside
- Other elements of early Chinese civilization reached China from places to the west
- Spoke-wheeled horse chariot
- No written documents link the earliest Bronze Age sites to the Xia
- Superseded by Shang Dynasty
- Series of legendary rulers
- The Shang Dynasty (1570?-1045? BCE)
- The Shang King
- Religious and political head of the society
- Rule based equally on religious, military power
- Played priestly role in worship of ancestors, high god Di
- Made animal sacrifices, communicated with ancestors by interpreting cracks on heated cattle bones or tortoise shells
- Prepared by professional diviners
- Royal ancestors were viewed as able to intervene with Di, send curses, produce dreams, assist king in battle
- Ruled through dynastic alliances, divination, royal journeys, hunts, military campaigns
- Used huge numbers of workers to construct defensive walls, elaborate tombs
- Buried with ritual vessels, weapons, jades, numerous servants, sacrificial victims
- Suggests belief of afterlife
- Religious and political head of the society
- Often at war with neighboring peoples
- Could mobilize large armies for warfare
- Moved their capital several times
- Directly controlled only the central part of China proper
- Modern Henan, Hubei, Shandong, Anhui, Shanxi and Hebei provinces
- Influence extended beyond the state’s borders
- Art motifs are often found in artifacts from more-distant regions
- Bronze Industry
- Required centralized coordination of large labor force to mine, refine, transport copper, tin, lead ores; produce and transport charcoal
- Required technically skilled artisans to make clay models, construct ceramic molds, assemble and finish vessels
- Largest weighed as much as 800 kg (1,800 lb)
- Used bronze more for purposes of ritual than war
- Cups, goblets, steamers, cauldrons
- Made for use in sacrificial rituals
- Decorated with images of wild animals
- 200 bronze vessels might be buried in single royal grave
- Cups, goblets, steamers, cauldrons
- Shang Writing
- Writing system used is direct ancestor of modern Chinese writing system
- Symbols, characters for each word
- Never became purely phonetic system like Roman alphabet
- Mastering written language required learning to recognize, write several thousand characters
- Literacy a highly specialized skill requiring many years to fully master
- Writing system used is direct ancestor of modern Chinese writing system
- The Shang King
- The Zhou Dynasty (1045?-256 BCE)
- Defeated Shang as frontier state called Zhou
- The Zhou kings sacrificed to their ancestors, also sacrificed to Heaven (Tian)
- The Mandate of Heaven (Tian Ming)
- Close relationship between Heaven, king
- King called the Son of Heaven
- Heaven gives king mandate to rule, in best interest of subjects
- Last Shang king decadent, cruel to subjects
- Lost Mandate of Heaven
- Zhou history
- Version described in Shu jing (Book of History)
- Earliest transmitted texts
- Praises first three Zhou rulers
- King Wen (the Cultured King)
- Expanded the Zhou domain
- Son of King Wen, King Wu (the Martial King)
- Conquered the Shang
- Brother of King Wu, Zhou Gong (referred to as Duke of Zhou)
- Consolidated the conquest, served as loyal regent for Wu’s heir
- King Wen (the Cultured King)
- The Shi jing (Book of Poetry)
- 305 poems include odes celebrating exploits of early Zhou rulers
- Hymns for sacrificial ceremonies, folk songs
- Folk songs are about ordinary people in everyday situations
- Working in fields, spinning, weaving, marching on campaigns, longing for lovers, etc.
- Folk songs are about ordinary people in everyday situations
- Version described in Shu jing (Book of History)
- Traditionally divided into two periods
- Western Zhou (1045?-771 BCE)
- Capital near modern Xi’an in west
- Age when family relationships honored, social status distinctions stressed
- Early Zhou rulers did not attempt to control entire region conquered
- Secured position by selecting loyal supporters, relatives to rule walled towns and surrounding territories
- Rulers known as Vassals
- Lands could be passed hereditarily
- Domain became vassal state
- Noble houses within held hereditary titles
- Rulers of states, members of nobility linked both to one another, ancestors by bonds of obligation based on kinship
- Below nobility were officers (shi), peasants
- Also hereditary statuses
- Rulers known as Vassals
- Zhou kings maintained control over vassals for two centuries
- Ties of kinship, vassalage weakened
- Several states rebelled, joined non-Chinese forces, drove Zhou from their capital, 770 BCE
- Eastern Zhou (770 BCE- 256 BCE)
- Capital was moved east to modern Luoyang
- Eastern Zhou kings no longer exercised political or military authority over vassal states
- Continued as nominal overlords
- Recognized as Mandate of Heaven custodians
- No single feudal state was strong enough to dominate others
- Divided into two sub periods
- Spring and Autumn Period (770 BCE- 403 BCE)
- Warring States Period (403 BCE- 221 BCE)
- Spring and Autumn Period (770 BCE- 403 BCE)
- Known as China's Golden Age of Philosophy
- Period witnessed social, economic, military advances
- Iron-tipped, ox-drawn plows; improved irrigation techniques produced higher agricultural yields
- Supported steady population growth
- Circulation of coins for money
- Private ownership of land
- Growth of cities
- Crossbow, methods of siege warfare developed
- Cavalry warfare adopted from nomads in north
- Breakdown of old class barriers
- Development of conscripted infantry armies
- Brief periods of stability were achieved through alliances among states in 6th, 7th centuries BCE
- Under domination of strongest member
- By late 5th century BCE, alliances too complex to maintain
- The Hundred Schools of Thought
- Confucius
- Wrote Analects
- Mencius
- Declared, 'Humanity is naturally good'
- Xun Zi
- Opposed Mencius teaching
- Developed doctrine known as 'Legalism'
- Daoism (Taoism)
- Set forth in the Daodejing (Classic of the Way and Its Power)
- Attributed to Lao Zi (ca. 579 BCE- 490 BCE), Zhuangzi (369 BCE- 286 BCE)
- Set forth in the Daodejing (Classic of the Way and Its Power)
- Yin- Yang
- Theories of this school explained universe in terms of basic forces in nature, the complementary agents
- Mo Zi (ca. 470 BCE- 391 BCE)
- Believed that "all men are equal before God"
- Confucius
- Warring States Period (403 BCE- 221 BCE)
- King’s political authority declined
- States on the periphery of old heartland gained power
- Had room to expand territory
- States of Chao, Yen, Qin expanded outward
- Extended Chinese cultural influence into larger area
- Southern state of Chu
- Expanded rapidly in Yangtze Valley
- Defeated and absorbed at least 50 small states
- Extended its reach north to the heartland of the Zhou territory
- Extended east to absorb the old states of Wu and Yue
- On forefront of cultural innovation by 3rd century BCE
- Produced greatest literary masterpieces
- Later collected in the Chu ci (Songs of the South)
- Anthology of fantastical poems
- Later collected in the Chu ci (Songs of the South)
- Produced greatest literary masterpieces
- Western Zhou (1045?-771 BCE)
- The First Imperial Period (221 BCE- 220 CE)
- Qin Dynasty
- Qin Shihuangdi unified former warring states into what is considered China
- Manufactured Terra- Cotta army for burial tomb near Xi'an
- Western word for China derived from the name, Qin
- Great Wall of China constructed
- Lasted 20 years after death of first emperor
- Imperial system
- Qin Shihuangdi unified former warring states into what is considered China
- Han Dynasty
- Modified some harsher aspects of previous dynasty
- Civil service examination system initiated
- Period produced China's most famous historian, Sima Qian (ca. 145 BCE- 87 BCE)
- Authored Shiji (Historical Records)
- provides detailed chronicle from time of a legendary Xia emperor to the Han emperor Wu Di (141 BCE- 87 BCE)
- Authored Shiji (Historical Records)
- Paper, porcelain invented during Han Dynasty
- Majority of Chinese 'Han', named after period
- The Silk Road established trade routs to West, Roman Empire
- Complex dynastic system resulted in corruption, end of Han Dynasty
- Qin Dynasty
- Era of Disunity (220 CE- 589 CE)
- Collapse Han dynasty followed by nearly four centuries of rule by warlords
- Age of civil wars, disunity began with era of the Three Kingdoms (Wei, Shu, and Wu, which had overlapping reigns during the period 220 CE- 80 CE)
- Unity was restored briefly in early years of Jin dynasty (265 CE- 420 CE)
- Could not contain Nomadic peoples
- Jin court was forced to flee from Luoyang
- Reestablished at Nanjing in 317 CE
- Buddhism introduced into China in 1st century CE
- Invention of gunpowder, wheelbarrow dates from 6th or 7th century CE
- Advances in medicine, astronomy, cartography also noted during period
- Restoration of Empire (589 CE- 1279 CE)
- Sui dynasty (581 CE- 617 CE)
- Compared to the earlier Qin dynasty in tenure and the ruthlessness of its accomplishments
- Demise was attributed to the government's tyrannical demands on the people
- Tang dynasty (618 CE- 907 CE)
- Capital at Chang'an
- Regarded by historians as a high point in Chinese civilization
- Equal, or even superior, to the Han period
- Contact with India and the Middle East
- Buddhism flourished
- Block printing invented
- Scholar- officials appear
- Functioned as intermediaries between grass-roots level and government from then until 1912
- Tang power ebbs, middle of the 8th century CE
- Domestic economy unstable
- Military defeat in 751 by Arabs at Talas, in Central Asia
- Beginning of five centuries of steady military decline for Chinese empire
- Popular rebellions weaken empire
- Northern invaders terminate dynasty in 907
- Five northern dynasties and ten southern kingdoms
- Song dynasty (960- 1279)
- Reunified most of China Proper
- Development of cities as centers of trade, industry, and maritime commerce
- The mercantile class appears
- Landholding and government employment no longer the only means of gaining wealth and prestige
- Divided into two phases
- Northern Song (960- 1127)
- Southern Song (1127- 1279)
- Division caused by forced abandonment of north China in 1127 by Song court
- Refinement of historical writings, painting, calligraphy, and hard-glazed porcelain
- Decline of Buddhism
- Renewed interest in Confucian ideals and society of ancient times
- Zhu Xi (1130- 1200)
- Most influential philosopher of Song Neo-Confucian philosophers
- Synthesis of Confucian thought, Buddhist, Taoist, and other ideas becomes official imperial ideology from late Song times to late 19th century
- Neo-Confucian doctrines play dominant role in intellectual life of Korea, Vietnam, and Japan
- Mid-13th century
- Mongols subjugate north China, Korea, the Muslim kingdoms of Central Asia
- Kublai Khan (1215- 1294)
- Grandson of Genghis Khan (ca. 1167- 1227), supreme leader of all Mongol tribes
- Begins drive against Southern Song
- Establishes Yüan dynasty (1279-1368)
- First alien dynasty to rule all China
- Sui dynasty (581 CE- 617 CE)