The Land and People of China

Directions: Read pages 64-70 in your textbook. Be sure to read the introduction to the chapter and the focus questions at the beginning of the reading. You should understand the significance of the following vocabulary terms:

“three sovereigns”	Yangtze River
Yellow River	Gobi Desert
Xia Dynasty / Yu	oracle bones
veneration of ancestors	“the old hundred names”

Think about where the vocabulary terms fit in context to the questions. Be prepared to write about and discuss the following guiding questions:

The Dawn of Chinese Civilization

1. What are the important aspects of the legend of the “three sovereigns”? How does this help us better understand early Chinese civilization?

The Land and People of China

2. How did geography influence the civilization that arose in China? What are the important landforms and/or bodies of water in Chinese civilization’s roots?

The Shang Dynasty

3. What do we know about the earliest Chinese dynasties, including the founding of the Shang? What do we NOT know?

Political Organization

4. How was the Shang dynasty organized? What values did this early dynasty have? How do we know this?

5. How did the early kings rule? How did they claim their legitimacy?

Primary Source: A Treatise on the Yellow River and its Canals – Sima Qian, Historical Records

6. What does this source tell us about the Yellow (Huang) River and its importance to early Chinese civilization? Be specific.

Social Structures

7. What was the basic social unit of ancient China? Why? How do we know this?

7. How was society structured? What advances were made during the Shang era?

The Zhou Dynasty

Directions: Read pages 70-73 up to “The Hundred Schools of Ancient Philosophy” in your textbook. You should understand the significance of the following vocabulary terms:

Zhou Dynasty	tyrant *
degenerate*	Rites of Zhou
mandate of Heaven	well field system
fallow*	The Book of Songs

Be prepared to write about and discuss the following guiding questions:

The Zhou Dynasty

1. Why did the Zhou dynasty come to power in the 11^th century BCE?

Primary Source: Life in the Fields – The Book of Songs

2. Who do you presume is the author of this document? What does it tell us about life during the Zhou dynasty? The roles of men and women?

Political Structures

3. What were the political structures of the Zhou dynasty? How were they similar to the Shang dynasty that preceded it?

4. How did the “mandate of Heaven” allow the Zhou kings to rule with more authority? What was the Chinese view of Heaven?

Economy and Society

5. What role did agriculture, trade and manufacturing, and technology play in the development of both the economy and society in the Zhou dynasty?

6. How did the growth of agriculture impact the development of the economy and the population?

7. Why was silk an important commodity in early China?

Primary Source: Life in the Fields from The Book of Songs

8. What are the different roles of men and women on the estate? What are the different job responsibilities on the estate? What does this tell us about peasant life in the Zhou dynasty?

Primary Source: Environmental Concerns in Ancient China from The Book of Mencius

9. What strategies does Mencius suggest to make the land more productive? How might his sovereign respond to Mencius’s suggestions? Why? How might the people on the land respond? Why?

The Hundred Schools of Ancient Philosophy

Directions: Read pages 73-77 in your textbook. You should know the significance of the following vocabulary terms:

“hundred schools”	Shang Di
T’ien	anthropomorphic*
yang and yin	fatalism*
shamans*	pragmatism*
Confucius	patron*
Analects	Dao
rapacity*	rule by merit
ambiguous*	Mencius
humanistic*	Legalism / School of Law
Daoism	Lao Tzu
Dao De Jing	wu wei

Be prepared to write about and discuss the following guiding questions:

BIG THOUGHT QUESTION: How were the Hundred Schools of Ancient Philosophy a debate over the nature of human beings, society and the universe?

Early Beliefs

1. How did the early religious beliefs evolve in ancient China? What roles did Heaven (T’ien) and yang and yin play.

Confucianism

2. Who was Confucius? How was his thinking more of a pragmatic approach to life than a religious one?

3. What role does Dao play in understanding Confucianism? Consider duty and human-heartedness.

4. Why might Confucius’s ideas of rule by merit have been so appealing during his lifetime? (and beyond?) How did Mencius build on Confucius’s ideas?

Primary Source: The Great Learning

5. How does this text show that good government begins with the cultivation of individual morality and proper human relationships at the basic level?

Legalism

6. How was the legalist view of human nature different from Confucius’s view? How did this impact their philosophy on how to govern?

Daoism

7. How is the philosophy of Daoism similar to Confucianism? How is it different? What role do Dao and wu wei play in understanding Daoism?

Primary Source: The Daoist Answer to Confucianism from The Way of the Tao

8. What does this document say about the basic nature of the universe? Is there a moral order that can be comprehended by human thought? What does this say about Confucius’s moral teachings?

Popular Beliefs

9. What role did heaven, gods, and spirits play in popular religious beliefs? Why did these other beliefs exist in addition to Confucianism and Daoism?

The Rise of the Chinese Empire: The Qin Dynasty

Directions: Read pages 77-81 up to “The Han Dynasty” in your textbook. You should know the significance of the following vocabulary terms:

Period of the Warring States	titular*
Qin Dynasty	Qin Shi Huangdi
ideology*	malfeasance*
Xiongnu	animal husbandry*
yurts	Great Wall
eunuchs	orthodoxy*

Be prepared to write about and discuss the following guiding questions:

1. Why did the Period of Warring States play an important role in the Qin dynasty that was to emerge?

Primary Source: The Art of War – Selections from Sun Tzu

2. Why are the ideas of Sun Tzu about the art of war still so popular among military strategists after 2,500 years? How might he advise U.S. and other statesmen to deal with the problem of international terrorism today?

The Qin Dynasty (221-206 BCE)

3. What kind of man was the new emperor of the Qin dynasty?

Political Structures

4. How did the adoption of Legalism influence the political structures that were adopted by the Qin? What were those structures, and why were they adopted?

Primary Source: Memorandum on the Burning of Books – Historical Records by Sima Qian

5. Why does the Legalist thinker Li Su feel that his proposal to destroy dangerous ideas is justified? Are there examples of similar thinking in our time? Are there occasions when it might be permissible to outlaw unpopular ideas?

Society and Economy

6. How did Qin Shi Huangdi centralize the society and economy of China? How did the new government policies impact the people of China, particularly the peasants and merchants? What roles did the military play?

Beyond the Frontier: The Nomadic Peoples and the Great Wall

7. Why did the threat of nomadic peoples become greater during the Qin dynasty? What did the emperor do to combat these invasions?

The Fall of the Qin

8. Why was the eunuch system put in place in the Qin dynasty? How did this, and his Legalist doctrine contribute to the ultimate fall of the Qin dynasty?

The Rise of the Chinese Empire: The Glorious Han Dynasty

Directions: Read pages 81-84 and p. 274-77 (Equal Opportunity…) in your textbook. You should know the significance of the following vocabulary terms:

hegemony*	Han Dynasty
Liu Bang / Han Gaozu	State Confucianism
tripartite	civil service examination
factionalism*	scholar-gentry
nepotism*	tribute missions
Han Wudi	Wang Mang
coup d’état	Cao Cao

Be prepared to write about and discuss the following guiding questions:

The Glorious Han Dynasty (202 BCE – 221 CE)

1. How was the new emperor to emerge in China after the Qin a “heroic founder”? How was the newly created Han Dynasty similar to and different from the Qin dynasty?

Confucianism and the State

2. How did Confucius doctrine merge with Legalist ideas to form State Confucianism? What were the main structures? What role did the civil service examination play in the new state structures?

3. Why were the Han leaders unable to resolve all the problems of the past?

Equal Opportunity in China: The Civil Service Examination (p. 274-77)

4. What was the purpose of the civil service examination? How did it work? What were the strengths and weaknesses of this system?

Society and Economy in the Han Empire

4. What were the social and economic policies of the Han emperors? How successful were they? Why was the Han dynasty one of great productivity and prosperity? What role did the state play in the economic policies?

4. What new technologies were developed in the Han era?

Expansion Abroad

4. In what ways did the Han expand their empire beyond its earlier borders?

The Decline and Fall of the Han

4. What was the Wang Mang interregnum? Why did it occur?

4. Why did the Han empire eventually fall?

Daily Life in Ancient China

Directions: Read pages 84-87 and conclusion on p. 92-93. You should know the significance of the following vocabulary terms:

microcosm*	filial piety
“five relationships”	bulwark*
Bao-jia system	loess
Mao Zedong	Chang’an

Be prepared to write about and discuss the following guiding questions:

The Role of the Family

1. What was the role of the family in ancient China? How did it differ over time?

2. What was the relationship between the family and society as a whole?

Lifestyles

3. How did people live in ancient China?

Cities

4. What were the cities like?

The Humble Estate: Women in Ancient China

5. What was the role of women in ancient China? In what ways did women have power (or not)?

IN ADDITION… Please read the introduction to the section on Chinese Culture in the next section. You will also read ONE of the following sections in your textbook. Please take good reading notes and determine what are the most important key terms and vocabulary. You will teach these to others in the class.

Group 1: Metalwork and Sculpture, p. 87-89.

Group 2: Language and Literature, p. 89-91.

Group 3: Music, p. 91-92.