WORKSHEET: ANCIENT SOCIETIES                 CHINA

 

SIFT:            VOCABULARY and TERMS

Dynasty

Peasants

  

SIFT:             PLACES

Yangzi River

The Yellow River

Banpo

Ao (especially the wall)

Yin

Wei Valley

Anyang

 

SIFT:            BIOGR APHY

Yao

King Shun

Yu

The Yangshao Society

Xia Dynasty

Shang Dynasty

Zhou Dynasty

Qin Dynasty

Han Dynasty

  

SIFT:            CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS

  1. When was rice first domesticated?
  2. Where were the first Neolithic villages?
  3. Why is the Yellow River called “China’s Sorrow”?
  4. How did geographic conditions favor the development of complex societies?
  5. What was the important governmental impact of the Xia Dynasty.
  6. Why was the Shang Dynasty so much clearer to historians than the Xia?
  7. How did bronze impact the Shang Dynasty?
  8. Where did Shang horse-drawn chariots come from?
  9. Describe the way the Shang controlled the area and how it expanded its impact.
  10. Describe the Shang tombs.
  11. What is the difference between rule by law and rule by proclamation or decree?
  12. How did the Zhou become the primary rulers of the area?
  13. What is the “Mandate of Heaven”? What was the long-lived importance of the Mandate of Heaven?
  14. Describe the Zhou government.
  15. How and why did the Zhou weaken?
  16. How did iron hasten the end of the Zhour?
  17. How did nomads affect the Zhou  in the eighth century BCE?
  18. What was the Period of the Warring States? (can you think of a modern counterpart?)
  19. What were the hereditary aristocrats and how did this concept remain in Chinese history until modern times?
  20. Describe the early trade routes during the Shang Dynasty.
  21. What was the role of the peasants in the Shang?
  22. What was the importance of family and kinship groups?
  23. What is the influence of ancestor worship?
  24. Was China patriarchal or matriarchal? What was the role of women? (Did this last throughout Chinese history until modern times?)
  25. What was the impact of writing?
  26. What were the Oracle Bones?
  27. Describe early Chinese religion.
  28. Describe Shang literature. Why did it generally not survive?
  29. What was the difference between the people who migrated to the Steppelands and those who farmed the river valleys? (remember this)
  30. Describe the symbiotic relationship between the herders and farmers.
  31. Describe Southern expansion of the early Chinese. How did the southern Chinese relate to the traditional Yellow River societies?