China Study Guide


Maps: know where the items are located on the map of China, know where the Silk Road existed and what maritime routes Chinese merchants took in the Han Dynasty


Terms: Know the definitions and why they are significant


Oracle bones

Veneration of ancestors

Mandate of Heaven

Book of Songs

Well-field System

Silk production

“Hundred Schools of Philosophy”

Yin/Yang

Shang di

Confucius

Analects

Dao

Daoism

Dao de Jing

Lao Tzu

Legalism

Wu wei

Filial piety

Eunuchs

Qin Shi Huangdi

Liu Bang/Han Gaozu

State Confucianism

Han Wudi

Wang Mang




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?


What do we know about the earliest Chinese dynasties, including the founding of the Shang?


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


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

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

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


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


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


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


How does Legalism compare to Confucianism?


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


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?


  1. 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?

  3. How was the new emperor to emerge in China after the Qin a “heroic founder”?


  1. How was the newly created Han Dynasty similar to and different from the Qin dynasty?

  3. 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?

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

  7. 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?

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

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



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


  1. Why did the Han empire eventually fall?

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


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

  3. How did people live in ancient China?


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




Big question that will help you review lots of details: How do the Shang, Zhou, Zin and Han dynasties fit the “dynastic cycle”? Be able to cite specific evidence of each dynasty in each part of the cycle.