Chapter 4 - The First
Civilizations: Ancient China (3000 B.C. - 500 A.D.)
1. The Dawn of Chinese Civilization
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Approximately 4,000 years ago and similar to the civilizations
in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and India, China also emerged along the fertile
lands between two great river systems - the Huang (Yellow) and the Yangtze
in East Asia.
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The first Chinese dynasty, the Xia, began to rule over 4,000
years ago and was replaced by the Shang dynasty that governed from about
1750 - 1122 B. C.
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The Shang rulers, who built urban centers with large palaces
and royal tombs, decorated with magnificent bronze objects, basically presided
over a mostly farming society.
2. The Zhou
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The Zhou dynasty, which followed the Shang, lasted almost
900 years (1122-256 B.C.) - the longest in the history of China.
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The theory of government adopted by this dynasty was that
they ruled because they had the mandate of heaven. Yet the ruler was expected
to rule according to the proper way, thus opening the door to revolution,
if the ruler was thought to be corrupt or inept, in other words he had
lost the "mandate of heaven."
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The family served as the basic economic and social unit and
members of the family had to obey the oldest male head of the family.
3. The Development of the Chinese traditions
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Confucius developed one of the three schools of thought in
China and felt that rulers should be benevolent and subjects loyal as a
parent to a child or a husband to a wife.
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Lao Tzu founded a philosophy called Taoism
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A third philosophy during this period (500 - 200 B.C.) was
legalism which stipulated that rulers be authoritarian and have hard laws
and severe punishments since human d beings were evil by nature.
4. The Rise and Fall of the Chinese Empires: The Qin and
the Han