Ancient China Essay

Q1. How did China’s environment help a civilization to develop there? Because of the areas with a good climate and rich soil, China’s civilization was able to flourish. Although most of china is made up of mountains and deserts, there are some places like the river valleys with good climate and soil that is perfect for farming. These river valleys are formed by the Huang, Yangtze, and Xi Rivers. When they knew they could farm there, people began to settling along the Huang about 5000bc. They learned to make dikes and irrigation systems and started jobs like herding sheep and cattle. Sometimes, the dikes created would not be enough to hold the water, and the Huang would destroy towns and crops. The trials and rewards that the Huang River brought gave it its name, The River of Sorrows. Along with civilization came invasion. China’s civilization was invaded many times by nomads from Mongolia and Manchuria. But even if some of these invaders worked their way up to government, they kept the Chinese culture because it was so strong. Q2. What do we know of China’s first historic dynasty? The Shang Dynasty was China’s first historic dynasty. It began in the Huang River Valley at about 1500bc. They started off only ruling a small portion around the city of Anyang, but even though they didn’t rule certain places, they still promised to fight against all invaders. They had bronze weapons and chariots to help in battle. They slowly gained more power as the population grew, and by 1200bc, the Shang rulers became great. Q3. How was China governed during the Zhou Dynasty? The Zhou Dynasty began at about 1027bc and because of their strong dynasty, they ruled for 800 years. They took over the Shang Dynasty with the help of a few Chinese city-states whose leaders where very powerful, so the ruled their city-states independently. The Zhou Dynasty weakened because of small wars within kingdoms. By 400s bc the Zhou Dynasty was so weak the only ruled over their own city state. These years of weakening were called the Years of the Warring States. China’s government developed the Mandate of Heaven which said that each dynasty would have their own government. A dynasty could rule only as long as it kept its mandate. When a dynasty’s mandate was taken by the gods, the new ruler would have to defeat the old to begin his own dynasty.