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new paper unraveled emperor qin s new empire the culture of the shang important effects of geography oracle bones unraveled confucius how does he think our daily life the han step up the zhou dynasty makes changes the yangshao and lungshah zachary t zachary t zachary t reilly o reilly o julie m julie m xander w xander w xander w.

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new paper unraveled in the earlier years the chinese people wrote on silk bamboo or turtle shells but now our chinese people the han have made an important discovery a new cheaper paper the new paper is a much cheaper affordable alternative for expensive silk or bulky bamboo now people can afford to write more in fact authors have already begun to write more essays and poems the new cheaper paper is ideal for calligraphy the art of fine handwriting which is an important art calligraphy is considered both writing and painting to make the new paper silk fibers hemp bamboo straw and seaweed are boiled into a soupy pulp a screen is then dipped into the pulp continually and then laid out to dry the result is paper zachary t emperor qin s new empire our chinese people the qin have a powerful governmental organization emperor qin shihuangdi divided the empire into 36 provinces each province has two officials a governor and a defender this action has provided qin with firm control over the entire empire qin has also done more to gain more power over his empire people in other parts of china have been developing their own systems of measurement money and even different writing to fix this growing problem qin has set new standards for all of china all measurements have to be the same and only one money is legal qin also decreed standard written characters now people all over china can communicate with writing qin also changed the rules about the ownership of land he fears that nobles are a threat of power so he took away land from thousands of noble families now qin s government not the lords control the peasants any man rich or poor can own land if they pay land taxes qin has also set up a system of bureaucracy in which each worker is appointed to a job and is trained for that job each worker is given a salary follows strict rules answers and reports to a superior and supervises people below their level eleven chamberlains manage the emperor s household and three high officials hold the highest government and military post one high official is the defender-in-chief who is responsible for supervising the generals and the armies that are under him their jobs are to defend and protect china another high official is the counselorin-chief under him are the administrators governors defenders,

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and magistrates they are responsible for administering and upholding the law the last high official is the censor-inchief and the attendant censors they are responsible for supervising and maintaining the government the bureaucracy system has many advantages and disadvantages one major advantage of bureaucracy is how it has united and stabilized the states another major advantage of bureaucracy is how much power it has given qin over his empire one major disadvantage of bureaucracy is that qin s harsh cruel and sometimes unjust laws make unhappy citizens that could possibly lead to rebellion zachary t the culture of the shang our chinese people the shang have strong religious beliefs they worship their ancestor s and several other nature gods in the images of directions and elements their chief god is called shang di which literally means god on high to worship their ancestors they spend a great deal of time building bronze ritual vessels with inscriptions on the that tell which ancestor it worships and who made it the shang also held human sacrifices in the shang community there are people called diviners diviners are people who have abilities to speak with spirits of the dead and read oracle bones an oracle bone is usually a turtle shell or shoulder blade of an animal to begin the process the diviner is asked a question the diviner then presses a hot stick onto the oracle bones that creates a series of cracks that are then read to answer the question the shung also believe in the afterlife when an emperor dies he is buried in a tomb with his servants slaves and animals he is also buried with food weapons and other items essential for daily life even a chariot the shang society can be divided into six classes at the top of the top are the emperor and his relatives below them are the nobles craftspeople traders farmers and slaves nobles fought in the emperor s army provided weapons foot soldiers and chariots in return nobles received a life of luxury they lived in great palaces and were often invited to hunt with the emperor craftspeople were mainly bronze and jade workers potters and stonemasons traders were like craftspeople but traveled to other parts of china and instead traded with cowry shells instead of goods farmers are the largest social class they farm small plots of land and provide the main food supply slaves who had been captured in war spent their lives building tombs and palaces the shang have two major accomplishments one is that the shang discovered bronze this is significant because bronze provides a military advantage because it makes stronger weapons the shang also created walled cities that protect them from invaders the wall took 10,00 workers 18 years to build and they are 30 feet high 65 feet thick and 4.5 miles long these walls are as hard as cement zachary t.

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the important effects of geography the sand and grit flies into your eyes as you try to make your way through the hot dry gobi desert near the center of china this kind of weather and geography is part of the network of natural barriers that isolates china from other countries and has created many separate regions in china deserts are hot dry and incredibly hard to cross which makes transportation and communication between civilizations nearly impossible the sandstorms are brutal and can last hours or even days and the only way to protect yourself is to wrap yourself in a blanket and lie down to wait it out this is why very few people attempt to cross through when one is occurring unfortunately these sandstorms happen often creating a very harsh environment and effectively isolating the people that live around the desert the brutal deserts aren t the only thing preventing chinese people from interacting with each other though mountains are another important feature what with the conditions at the op being rocky icy and very hard to cross two of china s mountain ranges the taihang mountains which run north to south through the center of china and the qinling mountains which run east to west through the center roughly close off china into four sections they are so effective at isolation because they are almost as dangerous to cross as the himalayas the world s highest mountains which are located in southern china and isolate regions on their own other land features in china that contribute to the separation of china s regions include various basins and plateaus both of which are natural barriers that are hard to cross the one natural feature that links the civilizations are the rivers rivers provide minerals that enrich the soil as well as water for irrigation they link the regions by providing opportunities for trading being completely separated over the years has caused china s regions to develop separately as well and they continue to develop away from each other today with this isolation has come the opportunity for new and different dialects to form in each region and each civilization has also developed its own cultures which are the advantages of china s geographic isolation the main disadvantage is that it is very hard to control and govern china as one country making it practically impossible to unify reilly o the mystery of

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oracle bones unraveled shang people rely on oracle bones to give them guidance from their ancestors and predictions of the future they believe that their dead ancestors have the power to help or harm the living they really have no reason to fear this power though because they often make sacrifices which include wine food or sometimes even humans and they also rely on their ancestors advice which is where the oracle bones come into play the way the oracle bones work is that a priest sometimes called a diviner carves the king s question into an animal bone or turtle shell and carefully heats it with a hot stick or needle the heated bone cracks creating an intricate pattern that the priest reads forming an answer for the question the kings ask a wide variety of questions but almost all of them include something about daily life some questions might include where to hunt where to build new cities and when and where to go to war others may be as simple as will the weather be fine tomorrow the priests end up being right a lot of the time and whether they are right or wrong is sometimes recorded in the bone as well oracle bones are very useful for the shang people because they are a way for them to face and solve their problems if i ever have the privilege of getting advice from my ancestors with the oracle bones there are five questions i particular that i would ask them the first one would be what will the weather be like tomorrow an answer the priest might give me is that it would rain in the morning and then be cloudy or overcast for the rest of the day my second question would be will my family and i have good fortune the priest s answer might be that yes your crops will do well this year enabling you to provide for your family and have a good life my third question would be will my king make a good decision when deciding whether or not to go to war an answer might be that yes he will be confident in his decision and the outcome will be good my fourth question would be will my brother be safe if he hunts in the eastern section of the forest the priest s answer might be that no if my brother hunted there he would be destined to trip over a rabbit falling into and eventually drowning in the fast-flowing river that flows through that part of the forest finally my fifth question would be will i always

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be a farmer for the rest of my life the priest s answer would probably be yes but i would have a good life on my farm overall the shang people believe very strongly in the oracle bones they rely heavily on the guidance of their ancestors to get them through their daily life reilly o.

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confucius how does he think my name is wong hi i am privileged to be interviewing the most successful philosopher in all of china confucius konfuzi was born in lu and is here with me today older-younger siblings friendfriend and ruler-subject everybody should respect and honor those above them wong what are some of the things you said that will be valuable in the future confucius some of my many sayings are do not do to others what you would not want done to you and the gentleman first practices what he preaches then preaches what he practices but i hope all of my teachings will be used wong last one what do you think is the most important act someone can do confucius there is really no answer to that i believe there are many important acts some are kind honest wise and faithful wong thank you confucius confucius my pleasure wong confucius how did you attempt to keep china in order confucius well wong my original idea was that people get along peacefully if only they follow the rules of good behavior the ruler should act as he wants his people to act wong what is the basis of your teachings confucius there are 5 different relationships husband-wife father-son julie m.

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our daily life here in china city life is much different from farming life housing in the cities can range from small closely packed houses for the poor to huge stone houses for the rich out on the farmland houses are usually mud with thatched roofs and bunched together in small communities on the farms the wealthy use oxen metal tools and simple machines to work while the poorer use wooden tools and manpower in the cities most people either are or enjoy musicians jugglers and acrobats people wear robes with long sleeves and in the winter furs and silk sandals on the farms people in the north eat wheat and millet people in the south have mostly rice nearly everything is steamed from rice to meat they also eat steamed dumplings and fish although fish is a very rare thing if people do eat meat it is in a very small amount they also plant garden plots for herbs to season food or to sell in market clothes are different also people living on farms wear simple rough clothes of scratchy cloth and sandals of straw in cold weather they wear padded clothing city people in the cities have much more meat they eat rice and dumpling also but not as many steamed things the cities themselves are a work of art they are laid out with a compass the squares are filled with bustling markets cities are also our centers of government education and trade just outside of the town are our

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tombs people are buried with painting of everyday life and small pottery houses showing housing and furniture while only 1 out of 10 people have homes in the city both places are very nice to live in julie m.

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the han step up there are three types of rulings in china and the han dynasty is using three of them they are using legalism and confucianism two opposites like ying and yang at first the han dynasty used confucianism but they soon found out that confucianism alone was not enough to guide their government confucianism is the belief in moral behavior and to rule with people respecting you confucius created confucianism confucius believed that the government should be ruled by respect and he wants a more peace full society with the king that they should be punished with these two the han dynasty conquer greats amount of land like some of the gobi desert they also crossed the great wall these two opposites were combined because the han want to make sure that they didn t have to cause battles with in their own people with the han having peace and power other cultures were frightened to face them xander w the zhou dynasty makes changes the zhou dynasty made many changes over time they changed their way of getting land they use feudalism to gather more money more soldiers and more land the zhou are also changing by their new written language that uses characters and pictures as words the zhou worship a dragon god named tian the zhou priests can t communicate with tian if tian is displeased he will cause destruction to the zhou another change the zhou made is the family classes their classes are the king nobles and the other guide is legalism legalism was created by hanfeizi he believed that the government should de guided by their fear of the king he also believed that if people disagreed

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the peasants of course the king is the highest ranked of the three then there s the noble with are the second highest ranked lastly there s the peasants the zhou dynasty is a powerful and smart dynasty with all the changes they made over time they accomplished many amounts of land too with their changes xander w yangshao and lungshah the yangshao and the lungshah cultures are two cultures with some similarities and differences the yangshao culture is small that is located near a river and is up in the mountains they are mostly farmers because of the rich soil they get from the river their main product is millet but they also make wheat the yangshao domesticate the pig and the dog the pig is more important than the dog the yangshao use painted pottery witch means that their pottery was painted the lungshah culture is also small and is near a river but is in the valleys they are also mostly farmers for the same reason as the yangshao they farm millet and wheat the lungshah domesticate the pig the dog the sheep and the ox.

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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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