EARLY CHINA
This river valley became one of the major cradles of early Chinese civilization.
What is the Yellow River?
This valuable metal was used by Shang craftsmen to create elaborate ritual vessels and weapons.
What is bronze?
This long period saw rival Chinese states fight constantly for territory and supremacy.
What is the Warring States Period?
This term describes the extraordinary flowering of competing Chinese philosophies during the late Zhou period.
What are the Hundred Schools of Thought?
This religion began in India with the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama.
What is Buddhism?
This mountain range forms a massive geographic barrier southwest of China.
What are the Himalayas?
This dynasty overthrew the Shang and became the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history.
What is the Zhou Dynasty?
This powerful Chinese state eventually defeated its Warring States rivals and unified China in 221 BCE.
What is Qin?
This philosopher taught that social harmony depended on moral behavior, education, family duties, and proper relationships.
Who was Confucius?
This title, meaning “Awakened One,” was given to Siddhartha Gautama.
What is the Buddha?
Chinese tradition remembers this as China’s earliest dynasty, although archaeological evidence for it remains debated.
What is the Xia Dynasty?
This idea taught that rulers governed with divine approval only as long as they ruled justly.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?
This weapon became increasingly important in Chinese warfare because it could be used effectively by large infantry armies.
What is the crossbow?
This philosophy emphasizes living in harmony with the natural way of the universe.
What is Daoism?
According to Buddhism, this condition is an unavoidable part of ordinary human existence.
What is suffering?
This dynasty left behind the earliest widely accepted written records of ancient China.
What is the Shang Dynasty?
According to the Mandate of Heaven, disasters, rebellion, and disorder could indicate that a ruler had lost this.
What is Heaven’s approval?
Competition between rulers encouraged improvements in agriculture, government, military organization, and this technology-advancing metal.
What is iron?
This philosophy argued that strong laws and harsh punishments were necessary to control human behavior.
What is Legalism?
These teachings explain the existence of suffering and the possibility of overcoming it.
What are the Four Noble Truths?
These inscribed objects were used by Shang rulers to seek guidance from ancestors and the spirit world.
What are oracle bones?
This repeating pattern of a dynasty rising, prospering, declining, and being replaced became a traditional explanation of Chinese history.
What is the dynastic cycle?
The violence and political disorder of this era helped inspire Chinese thinkers to search for this above all else.
What is order?
This Confucian virtue describing respect and duty toward parents and ancestors is central to family relationships.
What is filial piety?
This Buddhist goal describes liberation from suffering and the cycle of rebirth.
What is nirvana?