The Qin Dynasty
Before China was unified, this period was marked by rival kingdoms fighting one another.
What was the Warring States period?
This engineer designed an irrigation system that redirected the Min River to improve agriculture.
Who was Li Bing?
The Great Wall was designed in part to protect China from attacks by these groups living to the north.
Who were northern nomadic groups?
Thousands of these life-sized clay figures were created to guard Qin Shi Huangdi in the afterlife.
What were the Terracotta Warriors?
This dynasty followed the Qin and ruled China for several centuries.
What was the Han Dynasty?
This kingdom developed military advantages through improved horsemanship and the mass production of weapons.
What was the Qin (Chin) kingdom?
Li Bing's irrigation project helped solve this important problem facing the growing Qin kingdom.
What was the need to produce more food for the population and army?
Shi Huangdi connected and extended earlier defensive walls to help protect his unified empire.
What was the Great Wall of China?
Farmers made a remarkable archaeological discovery of the Terracotta Army in this year.
What was 1974?
This massive transportation project built under the Sui connected the Yangtze and Yellow River systems.
What was the Grand Canal?
This ruler, originally named Ying Zheng, unified China and became known as its First Emperor.
Who was Qin Shi Huangdi?
When a mountain blocked his planned irrigation channel, Li Bing used this method to break apart the rock.
What was heating the rock and then rapidly cooling it?
This building technique used layers of earth that were compressed by pounding them down.
What was tamped earth construction?
The warriors' differences in faces, armor, and poses suggest that they were modeled with this level of individuality.
What was individual detail, rather than making every warrior identical?
This Ming admiral led enormous Chinese naval expeditions across the Indian Ocean.
Who was Zheng He?
This title was adopted by Ying Zheng after he unified China.
What was Shi Huangdi, meaning “First Emperor”?
After years of construction, Li Bing's irrigation system improved this part of Qin society.
What was agricultural production, allowing more food to be grown?
Name two ways the Great Wall's military effectiveness could be limited.
Invaders could bypass sections of the wall, break through defenses, or sometimes get past guards through bribery.
Legends about the emperor's underground tomb describe rivers made of this dangerous liquid metal.
What was mercury?
Zheng He's voyages helped the Ming dynasty demonstrate China's power and develop these connections with distant regions.
What were diplomatic and trade connections?
Explain how the Qin's military innovations helped it defeat rival kingdoms and unify China.
Improved horsemanship, more effective weapons production, and larger infantry forces gave the Qin military advantages and helped it conquer rival states.
Explain the connection between Li Bing's engineering project and the Qin military's ability to expand.
Better irrigation increased food production, helping support a larger population and army, which strengthened the Qin kingdom's ability to wage war.
According to the video, the Great Wall was more than a military barrier. What larger cultural division did it represent?
What was the division between settled agricultural societies and nomadic ways of life?
Why might archaeologists be cautious about excavating the emperor's central burial chamber?
What are concerns about preserving the tomb and its artifacts, along with possible hazards such as mercury contamination? Accounts of traps and mercury rivers are described in historical reports and legends, and should not all be treated as confirmed facts.
After Zheng He's death, later Ming rulers ended the great voyages and dismantled or abandoned much of the fleet. What does this change illustrate about the relationship between government decisions and technological achievements?
Government priorities and leadership can determine whether major technologies and exploration programs continue or disappear.