The Land of China
This river, also called the Yellow River, gets its name from the rich yellow soil it carries.
What is the Huang He River?
According to legend, he spent 13 years digging channels to control the floods of the Huang He.
Who is Yu?
The first Chinese dynasty with strong archaeological evidence; ruled ~1750–1045 B.C.E.
What is the Shang dynasty?
This dynasty overthrew the last Shang king in 1045 B.C.E. and ruled longer than any other.
What is the Zhou dynasty?
Shang and Zhou people worshipped this as the supreme god above lesser gods.
Who is Shang Ti?
This major southern river is about 3,915 miles long and important for rice farming and trade.
What is the Yangtze River?
Yu’s work controlling the rivers helped lead to the founding of this legendary first dynasty.
What is the Xia dynasty?
Shang capital city and center of power.
What is Anyang?
The belief that the gods chose a wise and good person to rule.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?
Writing system using pictures (pictographs) and combined ideas.
What are Chinese characters?
These geographic features (plus deserts) acted like walls, limiting contact with other civilizations and helping create a unique culture.
What are mountains?
The Chinese called their land this, meaning it was the center of the world.
What is the Middle Kingdom?
These artifacts (heated until they cracked) were used by kings to ask gods/ancestors questions.
What are oracle bones?
Zhou rulers used this system of government officials to help run the large kingdom.
What is a bureaucracy?
Material woven from silkworms; a major trade good.
What is silk?
Only about this fraction of China’s land can be farmed due to mountains and deserts.
What is one-tenth?
This quote is from the story of Yu: he worked with the water, not against it.
(Accept any reasonable summary of the flood control legend)
Shang kings were the political, religious, and military leaders; they relied on these military governors.
Who are warlords?
Positions passed from parent to child.
What is hereditary?
Green stone carved into statues and objects.
What is jade?
This fertile soil helped make the Huang He valley one of the great wheat-producing areas.
What is loess?
Early Chinese honored these long-dead family members with offerings, hoping for good luck.
Who are ancestors?
Famous Shang artworks made by pouring melted metal into clay molds.
What are bronze objects?
Period at the end of Zhou when rival states fought for power.
What is the Period of the Warring States?
The idea that the king represented the people before the gods and had to perform ceremonies.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?