Ancient China

Geographic barriers on all sides surround China, which at some points helped isolate it from even its near neighbors.

BODIES OF WATER Oceans: Pacific Ocean, Yellow Sea, East China Sea on the east coast Rivers: Huang He in northern China and Chang Jiang in central China.

LAND FORMSDeserts: The Gobi and Taklimakan form barriers to the north and east. Mountains: The Himalaya, Tan Shan, and Pamir mountain ranges form barriers in the west.

Ancient China

The dynastic cycle was a pattern of the rise and fall of dynasties in China, in which one dynasty would rise, grow strong, experience crisis, weaken, and be overthrown by a new power.

5 Agosto 201

Shi Huangdi was the first emperor of China and established the Qin dynasty.*He was a strict but strong ruler. *He practiced Legalism over Confucianism, and practiced censorship of ideas he didn’t like. Most of the people in Qin dynasty were peasants. *Qin dynasty divided empire into 36 areas and enforced strong central government. * The Great Wall was built during Qin dynasty with forced peasant labor. *Qin dynasty lasted under 20 years.

QIN DYNASTY

Liu Bang was a peasant who seized control during a rebellion, established the Han dynasty. *He established Confucianism, and a bureaucracy in which appointed officials ran the offices of government. Most people during Han dynasty were peasants. *The Han dynasty was more decentralized. The government used labor of peasants only one month per year to build roads, canals, and irrigation systems. *Han dynasty lasted 400 years. *He feared being killed by his enemies and died by taking pills that were meant to let him live forever

HAN DYNASTY

The purpose of the Great Wall was to protect China’s northern border from nomadic tribes who might attack it. The peasants built the Great Wall and other projects. During the Qin they worked all the time, suffered hunger, and died from exhaustion. With Han Dynasty, they had to work for only one month a year on projects like building roads. He conquered new lands, expanded and united the empire, and build roads and canals to link different parts of the empire. He also built irrigation systems and the Great Wall. Empress Lü was the first female ruler of China. She ruled while her young son was emperor in name only. The Han Dynasty made daily life better for the Chinese, and ruled wisely for 400 years of China’s ancient period. The compass was invented during the Han period.

THE GREAT WALL

Many traders meet from different parts of the world. The routes become a network for the exchange of goods as well as ideas. Chinese ideas about papermaking, metalwork, and farming techniques spread. The ideas stretch as far as Western Europe. They absorbed ideas about Buddhism from India, and styles in sculpture, painting, and temple building from Greece and India. Silk Roads main route, 150 B.C.-A.D. 500 moving silk, paper, iron, bronze, spices, gold, silver, grapes, rugs, ideas, honey, pottery, gun powder

SILK ROADS and trade products

5 Agosto 2018