first dynasties of chin a
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First Dynasties of Chin a. Xia Shang Zhou Qin. Xia Dynasty 2200 – 1750 BC/BCE. The establishment of the Xia Dynasty is an important milestone in the history of Chinese civilization marks the end of the Primitive Society and the beginning of the Class Society. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
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First Dynasties of China
XiaShangZhouQin
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Xia Dynasty2200 – 1750 BC/BCE
• The establishment of the Xia Dynasty is an important milestone in the history of Chinese civilization – marks the end of the Primitive Society – and the beginning of the Class Society. – It is the first dynasty in Chinese history,
• lasted nearly 500 years • including the reigns of 17 emperors.
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During the Xia Dynasty, many achievements were made.
• People lived mainly through agriculture using tools made of stone or bone.
• The Jade ware at that time was quite delicate and bronze vessels were well smelted.
• Craftwork made of bronze embedded with jade also appeared.
• Commodity exchanges developed. • A calendar system was devised which used
both lunar and solar movements.
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Xia Jie
• The Xia Dynasty ended under the reign of Jie, a very notorious tyrannical emperor in Chinese history. After he succeeded to the throne, he lived an extravagant life day and night without any thought for his country or its people.
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Overthrow of Xia Jie
• He amused himself and his wife by ordering 3000 people to kill themselves by jumping into a lake of wine.
• In addition, he killed the patriotic ministers who presented him with good advice.
• All of his actions enraged the people so much that at last they rose up under the leadership of Tang – (the chief of the Shang tribe) – set up Shang Dynasty (16th - 11th century
BC) and overthrew the Xia Dynasty.
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Shang Dynasty• The Shang ruled in city-states
which were, in turn, ruled over by a capital city.
– The king seems to have served many of the same functions that kings served in other cultures:
• he was a kind of head priest, • the leader of the military aristocracy,
• and in charge of the economy.
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Religion
• The Shang worshipped the "Shang Ti."
– This god ruled as a supreme god over lesser gods,
• the sun, the moon, the wind, the rain, and other natural forces and places.
• Highly ritualized, ancestor worship became a part of the Shang religion.
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Sacrifice to the gods and the ancestors was also a major part of
the Shang religion.
they were quite possibly the most blood-thirsty pre-modern civilization. – They liked human sacrifice -- a lot. – The Shang kings sacrificed a great number of
people to talk to their ancestors.» Some of those sacrificed were enemies,
captured in war. » Some were slaves or people who were
sick or deformed. » Some were merchants, craftsmen, or
farmers who had upset the nobles. » Some were nobles who had upset the
king. – If a king died, then more than one hundred
slaves would join him in the grave. » Some of them would be beheaded first. » Some of them were just thrown in still
alive.
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Shang chariot burial with human sacrifice
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High Priests• Authority to call nature deities and spirit of ancestors (Oracle)• To communicate with their ancestors, the Shang kings used oracle bones.
– The king or emperor would ask a question, for example, will it rain tomorrow
– The priest would carve the king's question on an oracle bone, which was just an animal bone or turtle shell. (Will it rain tomorrow?)
– Then, the priest would heat a bronze pin and hold the hot pin to the bone.
• This created a pattern of cracks over the bone.– The priest (who was usually a woman) would study the cracks to find
the answer to the question.
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Innovations
They were the most advanced bronze-working civilization in the world
– Shang remains provide the earliest and most complete record of Chinese writing » scratched out on the shoulder blades
of pigs for oracular purposes;
» Writing is also found on bronze and stone, but the majority of the records have decayed as they were recorded
on bamboo strips.
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Fall of Shang
• During the final period of the dynasty, the country was in turmoil and vassals from other countries began to rebel.
• Despite the turmoil and the impending uprising, King Zhou – (the last king of the Shang Dynasty) – led a luxurious life – and tortured both his ministers and his
people. • This intensified conflicts across the
kingdom and the Shang Dynasty was finally overthrown by Wu (chief of Zhou tribe), ending the long reign of the Shang Dynasty in Chinese history
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Zhou Dynasty– The Zhou had a problem of legitimacy
• Shang considered them no more than barbarian– Zhou now controlled the Shang
• The Mandate of Heaven– a Chinese concept used to justify the rule of the
kings of the Zhou Dynasty and later the Emperors of China
– The concept was that a king's rule was based on the blessing of Heaven
– if a king ruled unwisely, Heaven would be displeased and would give the Mandate to someone else.
• The concept was first used by the Zhou dynasty to justify their overthrow of the Shang dynasty and was used by many succeeding dynasties to justify their rule. – Solves issue of legitimacy
• It was not necessary for a person to be of noble birth to lead a revolt and become a legitimate emperor
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Hegemony– The Zhou actually didn't rule all of what
was then China.• China was then made up of a number of
quasi-independent principalities. – However, the Zhou were the most powerful
principality – played the role of hegemon in the area.
» 1 country exerting great influence on other countries in a given area
– They were located in the middle of the principalities, giving rise to what the Chinese call their country -- the Middle Kingdom.
– The Zhou were able to maintain peace and stability through the hegemon system for a few hundred years
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In 771 BC, the capital was sacked by barbarians from the west.
its king was killed • With the royal line broken, the power
of the Zhou court gradually diminished;– Nobles become powerful
» Towards the end of the Zhou Dynasty, the nobles did not even bother to acknowledge the royal family symbolically and declared
themselves to be kings.
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Warring States
– This less than delicate balance among kingdoms created by the hegemon system fell into chaos in the century and a half that concluded Zhou rule.
– Alliances proved volatile and eventually fell apart as large states began to actively invade and swallow up the less powerful states. » By the beginning of the fourth century,
only eight or nine very large states remained.
» All of the conflict of the Warring States period resulted from the search to see who would control all of China.
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China was on the path to a single, unified state, a single empire.
– The population of China had grown precipitously • the working of iron and its effects on agricultural production
had greatly increased the population – Warfare had become a large-scale affair
• No longer were armies small and led by an aristocracy. • They were huge, conscript armies led by professional soldiers.
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Qin Shi Huangdi, First Chinese
Emperor– A ruler from the western state of
Qin • the most aggressive of the Warring
States• united and subjugated the Warring
States and formed Qin (Ch'in) Dynasty in 221 B.C.
– Once the king of Qin consolidated his power, he took the title Shi Huangdi (meaning First Emperor).
• He declared himself the first emperor of China
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The good
• The Emperor standardized Chinese writing, bureaucracy, scholarship, law, currency, weights and measures.
• He expanded the Chinese empire,• a system of roads, massive
fortifications, and palaces. • To fend off barbarian intrusion from
the North – the emperor connected and extended the
old fortification walls » built by the various warring states
were connected » forming the Great Wall of China
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The Bad
• Shi Huangdi (259-210 B.C.) was a cruel ruler– killed or banished those who opposed him
or his ideas. » He is notorious for burning virtually all
the books that remained from previous regimes.
» He even banned scholarly discussions of the past.
– The Qin dynasty ended 20 years after his death, but a unified China remained for over 2,000 years.
• China's name is derived from his short but seminal dynasty, Qin (pronounced Chin).