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the china choice weekly by connor p owen b nick v alex l.

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oracle bones by alex the shang people believed in oracle bones oracle bones were a way to tell the future it was helpful for answering the king s questions a holy man took either took a turtle shell or a shoulder blade of a cow and pressed a hot needle on the back of the shell or bone once the oracle bone cracked the holy man could tell the future according to the crack and what the question was usually the holy man would carve the message of the crack on the bone or shell what might have happened to the reader of their bones is that they might have not predicted the future correctly i might have asked the holy man are the crops going to grow well this season he might answer me yes they will grow well but insects will get to some of them a second thing i might ask is what will the weather be like tomorrow the holy man might answer me with it will be sunny with some clouds in the sky another thing i might ask is should we go to war the reader of the bone might say no this is not a good time for they are strong one more question i might ask is is it a good day for hunting he might answer me like today is not a good day for hunting but tomorrow will be fantastic my final question might be will the costumers be plentiful in my bakery shop the holy man might say yes there will be many customers zhou changes by alex the zhou took over the shang dynasty and started a new religion they believed in tian or heaven the king put his realities or nobles in charge of land the nobles in return gave portion of wheat supply to the king and promised to send soldiers in time of war methods of farming improved and the wheat and the noble s surplus of grain grew the zhou dynasty is the earliest surviving chinese books the zhou made new characters so that they could communicate with other parts of china better they used pictures or characters to make a whole word the writing language was 3,000 characters in the zhou dynasty there government structure was very simple the king nobles and the peasants king kheng made the earliest chine s laws the laws were meant to tell what was right and wrong that is how zhou changed china.

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qin s government by alex the emperor is the top of the government pyramid he is in charge of defender in-chief chamberlains counselor-in-chief and censer-in-chief the defender-in-chief is in charge of the generals and the generals are in charge themselves the censor­in-chief is in charge of attendance censors who have no one else to look after some advantages are that there is only one person that rules everyone else another advantage is that it is a system that keeps everyone in line some disadvantages are that if one person messes up it will effect everyone one more disadvantage is the emperor makes all the decisions of the armies the chamberlains are not in charge of anyone except for themselves the counselor-in-chief is in charge of the administrators who are in charge of the defenders and governors the defenders and governors take care of the magistrates who takes care of themselves.

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interviewing confucius by nick q what are the five basic relationships a husband to wife father to son older sibling to younger sibling friend to friend and ruler to subject q how do you think officials should act a i think officials should have to earn their job they should also lead by example and act like a good father q what saying do you think is the most important a do not do to others what you would not want others to do to you q how can people get along better a if only they follow the rules of good behavior q did you earn your spot as an official a no my parents were nobles but i believe that i deserved my spot as a government official q what is your book of sayings called a translated to english it is the analects your opinions by nick dear editor my name is han and i bake bread i am 31 and i think confucius is a good teacher government officials should have to earn their spot rulers should also act like good fathers confucius also has good advice like practice what you preach then preach what you practiced from han dear editor i am 18 and i am a government official we should not have to earn our job being smart about the economy is in our blood why should we allow people with lowlife parents join the government what if they just got lucky on a test and looked like they were smart from qin dear editor i think confucius was a very wise man anyone who argues with him is just someone who is jealous that some people are smarter than them and can t admit that we need wise people to run our country from meng

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dear editor why does anyone think confucius is smart why should we focus on the past we need to focus on the matters at hand and what could happen in the future and even if he is right about needing wise people why would the guide the ruler why can t they be the ruler it would be better to have no ruler than one that can t think for themselves from xiangru getting to know the shang dynasty by nick the shang dynasty is the most important dynasty in china so far after we overthrew the last king we have learned a lot like writing characters that are more like symbols easier to understand and won t get confused with other pictures we also figures out that with a bit of wood we can make chariots that can be ridden in war and archers can stand on the back we can also protect our cities by making walls around it that protect from intruders we also found out how to grow more crops and have better watering systems lastly we learned how to tell the future and contact our ancestors with oracle bones!

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daily life of a chinese citizen by connor in china there are different social classes farmers had less money then people who lived in the city had more money farmers had to get food for there family and they also had to sell food for money they all had houses made of mud and not very stable but they cant afford much more they had hemp curtains and rough and scratchy clothes that they bought with there extra money they also lived with other family instead of with just there family so they could get a bigger farm for winter they stuffed there clothes with cloth so they didn t get cold but they couldn t always afford full shoes but life in china wasn t all bad because you might live in the city and they were able to eat over boiling water they ate a little fish they ate millet very rarely but they mostly ate wheat they had nice brick houses that are sometimes even two stories they enjoyed shows like people juggling and acrobats while they ate is our government fair by connor the ruler of our empire is gauzu but im not to sure that we can trust him because he is just as feared as he is respected he is a legalist and he believes that having strict rules that should never be broken gets peace if you break one of the rules he will have you killed but you are rewarded if you follow all of them kings are overthrown a lot so he got the whole army on his side incase someone tries to overrule him he cares about silk so much that if you tell anyone outside of the kingdom about the silk he will have you banished from the kingdom and you will never be able to come back but he isn t all that bad he conquered other northern parts of asia to be under his command he also believed that kings should have the same respect a child gives his parents.

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china s geography by owen china s is greatly influenced by its geography some of the largest deserts in the world are in china some of the world s largest mountains are in china including mt everest reaching an incredible height of over 29,000 feet most of china s crop growing is in the east because of the low elevation and water many natural blockades surround china in the north there are the gobi and tamakalen deserts in the east there is the pacific ocean in the south there is also the pacific ocean in the west are enormous mountains and a giant plateau many armies have died trying to cross the barricades by starving to death being heated to death or even being buried alive in the deadly deserts with all this protection comes downfalls too as china is hard to move into out of and hard to trade with among the first to make houses out of plaster later a tribe known as the lungshan arrived although the lungshan didn t live far from the yangshao they were much smarter and more advanced they learned to make silk into clothes and then dye them brilliant vibrant colors these few things made them advanced in their time period of history chinese art by owen paper making is very important in china even so paintings and language are even more important the first written chinese language was developed years ago it first used pictures but has now been simplified chinese language is very developed seems to be ahead of its time both paintings and writing use a brush and ink that can be the palest gray to the darkest black the early chinese tribes by owen early in china s history there was a tribe called the yangshao this tribe lived along the huang he river and were farmers they grew crops and were

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bibliography armento beverly j and gary b nash the messages of ancient days boston houghton mifflin co 1991 boehm richard and claudia hoone ancient civilizations orlando harcourt brace co 2002 history alive palo alto teachers curriculum institute 2004

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