Vocabulary
This is a system from ancient India that arranges people into hereditary groups. People are born into their group, and it determines things like their job and who they can marry.
What is the caste system?
These are the three mountains that provide an eastern border for China. These are also used to protect the people of Ancient China.
What are the Taihang, Qinling, and Nanling Mountains?
This is the name of the birth period of India's religious and cultural customs.
What is the Vedic Period?
This is both a religion and a philosophy that gained popularity in the 500s BCE. It was founded by a morality teacher who believed the warfare in the Warring States Period was due to the loss of morality and broken relationships among the Chinese people. His followers created the book of his teachings called "The Analects."
What is Confucianism?
This was the main form of government within the Zhou Dynasty. This form of government is based on a strict hierarchy that goes Emperor, Noble, Commoner, Slave.
What is feudalism?
This was an important mathematical advancement made by Indian scholar Aryabhata. This invention created a placeholder digit to make adding and counting easier.
What is 0?
This is a large landmass that is smaller than a continent. It can be connected to a continent or disconnected.
What is a subcontinent?
These are the two mountains that separate India from the rest of Asia. (2 answers)
What are the Himalayas and the Hindu Kush Mountains?
This is the name of the period where the nobles from each area of China began to fight over control over China. This period led to the end of the Zhou Dynasty and the beginning of the Qin Dynasty.
What is the Warring States Period?
This is a religion and philosophy from India that was founded by Siddhartha Gautama. It centers around human suffering and finding enlightenment.
What is Buddhism?
This was the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty. His name means "First Emperor," and he was known for his harshness in executing political rivals and Confucian scholars.
Who was Qin Shi Huang Di?
This was a development in ancient China (Han Dynasty) that allowed people to know if an earthquake was happening. We still have these today and can now detect the magnitude as well.
What is a seismograph?
This is an ancient Indian language. Many Hindu texts are written in it including the Vedas. Today, it is still used to write but not often to speak.
What is Sanskrit?
These are the two deserts that provide China's northern borders. One desert is actually covered in bare rock, not sand. The other desert is covered in sand, but has a much milder climate.
What is the Gobi and Takla Makan Deserts?
This is the names of the classes in the Indian caste system. The first class is priests and teachers, the second is rulers and warriors, the third is merchants, farmers, herders, and artisans, and the fourth is laborers. (4 answers)
What are Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras?
This belief system began around 500 BCE. It was founded by Laozi, who historians argue if he existed or not. Its teachings are found in the Daodejing and emphasizes the yin and yang balance.
What is Taoism/Daoism?
This was the role of women in the Han Dynasty. These roles are based on the Confucian belief of parental authority.
What is not educated, not working outside the home, raising children, and tending to the home?
This was an Indian advancement mainly for men, but some wealthy women as well. It focused on teaching science, math, culture, poetry, and art. It is also where two famous Indian poems were written.
What is university?
This is a hierarchical system where work flows through a chain of command. It is made up of unelected government officials and workers (sometimes called civil servants).
What is bureaucracy?
These are the three bodies of water in India. One is a large body of water, the second runs from the Himalayas into the valley (allowing for the creation of a large civilization), and the third also begins in the Himalayas, but carries its water into the first body of water. (3 answers)
What is the Bay of Bengal, Indus River, and Ganges River?
This finding from the tomb of Qin Shi Huang Di reminded archeologists of ancient Egyptian pyramids and tombs. These were in the tomb to provide Qin Shi Huang Di an army in the afterlife.
What is 8,000 terracotta soldiers?
This is a dominant religion in India and the third largest religion in the world. It centers around a belief in a Supreme Being that is the creative force of the universe.
What is Hinduism?
This is the belief, popularized by the Zhou Dynasty, that gave their emperors the divine right to rule. This idea would be used by later dynasties to give their rule legitimacy.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?
This was a trade route in ancient China that connected previously isolated China to the Roman Empire. It was known for the transportation of China's most precious good- silk.
What is the Silk Road?
This is the idea that, after a person dies, their soul is reborn in another form. It can be a human body or another form like an animal or plant. It is a core belief in Hinduism and Buddhism.
These are China's neighbors to the north. They ride horseback and attacked China many times in early history, eventually conquering China in the 1200s CE. China built the Great Wall to protect against them.
Who are the Mongols?
This is the name of one of India's most famous empires. This empire was founded by Chandra Gupta I following his marriage, and is known to have been an era of peace, stability, and cultural and intellectual advancement.
What is the Gupta Empire?
This belief was popular in the Qin Dynasty between 475-221 BCE. It focuses on the rulers and people of China needing strict rules and absolute control. It was founded by Han Feizi.
What is Legalism?
This was constructed by the Qin Dynasty to defend against Mongol invasions. It creates a border to the north of China.
What is the Great Wall of China?
This is the name of an influential Indian scholar who invented the number 0 and more accurate calendars.
Who is Aryabhata?
This is a command or official order that grants rights. It can be written or unwritten.
What is a Mandate?
This is the main weather pattern that hits India. It is a massive, heavy wind pattern that can bring heavy rain or intense winds depending on the season and the direction of the wind. Farmers in India use this weather pattern to farm; plant in summer, harvest in fall.
What is a monsoon?
This is the main political challenge which led to the fall of the Han Dynasty in 220 CE.
What is most emperors were 15 or younger?
These are two concepts that are popular in Indian religion and philosophy. One comes from the Sanskrit word for "act" and is something a soul can collect to reincarnate into a better life. The second describes how people should live to maintain the world order. (2 answers)
What is Karma and Dharma?
This is the form of government mainly used by the Han Dynasty. It focused on the merit or ability over family connections and mainly affected the government officials or civil servants who went through the imperial university. This system did have some downsides, as some families were still able to gain an advantage with money or connections.
What is a meritocracy?
This Han Dynasty advancement allowed for the imperial university to decide what students were able to move on to become civil servants for the government. These would be improved over time to be sure it accounted properly for ones merit.
What is the civil service exam?