Reading Guide Bentley Chapter 5AP World HistoryCorder 08-09
Early Society in East Asia
(1)What great deed was sage-king Yu famous for? Be specific in describing the way in which he completed this task? What was the name of the first ruling house of China founded by Yu?
(2)“Peoples of southern China and southeast Asia domesticated ______after about 6000 B.C.E. and by 5000 B.C.E. ______villages throughout the valley of the YangziRiver depended on ______as the staple item in their diet. During the same era, ______came under cultivation farther north, in the valley of the Yellow River, where Neolithic communities flourished by 5000 B.C.E In later centuries, wheat and barley made their way from ______to northern China.”
(3)“Like the ______, the Yellow River is boisterous and unpredictable. It rises in the mountains, bordering the high plateau of ______and it courses almost 4,700 2,920 miles before emptying into the ______Sea. It takes its name, Huange He, meaning “Yellow River” from the vast quantities of light-colored loess soil that it picks up along its route. ______is an extremely fine, powderlike soil that was deposited on the plains of northern China, as well as in other parts of the world, after the retreat of the ______at the end of the last ice age…So much loess becomes suspended in the Yellow River that the water turns yellow and the river takes on the consistency of a soup.” On your map, label the YangziRiver, Tibet, the Yellow River, and the Yellow Sea. Also draw in the path of all of the rivers.
(4)Why is the Yellow River often called “China’s Sorrow”?
(5)Describe the irrigation systems used in early agricultural society in China.
(6)What did the excavations at Banpo unearth in 1952?
(7)What were the three ancient Dynasties of China? Why were two of these dynasties not recognized by scholars for many years? What have archaeological studies of the Xia dynasty revealed? Study the map on page 115. Locate the region occupied by the Xia Dynasty. Color in purple and label the area on your map. Also, write in 2200 B.C.E., the approximate time of origin for this dynasty.
(8)Why do we know more about the Shang Dynasty than the Xia Dynasty? How did bronze metallurgy transform Chinese society during Shang times? What items traveled to China from southwest Asia? What group of peoples we have studied previously brought these items into China? Approximately when did bronze metallurgy and horse-drawn chariots reach China? Locate the map in your text. Color the area occupied by the Shang in green on your map. Be sure to label.
(9)How did the Shang overpower the Xia? Why didn’t ruling elites permit free production of bronze?
(10)What did the Shang kings use the surplus agriculture to support?
(11)Describe the Shang political organization.
(12)What did archaeologists find at the early Shang capital of Ao? What did this find suggest about the Shang ?
(13)Describe the tombs excavated at Yin near modern Anyang. What were some of the finds at this location? What do these finds reveal about the Shang? Be sure to look at the illustrations of these artifacts in your text.
(14)How did the Zhou Dynasty replace the Shang? The Zhou theory of politics rested on the “mandate of heaven.” Read carefully the description. Describe the “mandate of heaven” in your own words. According to the “mandate of heaven,” what happens when a ruler fails in his duties? What happens when he succeeds? How did the Zhou use the “mandate” to its advantage?
(15)Why did Zhou leaders rely on a decentralized administration, unlike the Shang? What is a decentralized government?
(16)In spite of the initial success of decentralized rule, why did the Zhou Dynasty weaken? Why is this period often called the Period of Warring States? In what way did iron metallurgy contribute to the weakening of the Zhou? Revisit the map. On your map, color and label the area occupied by the Zhou in orange.
(17)What five social classes existed in ancient China?
(18)Describe the diet of ruling elites. What did the less privileged elites eat? What was unique about the eating utensils of the privileged class? Describe the education of the privileged hereditary aristocrats.
(19)Why did many of the craftsmen and artisans live comfortably?
(20)What artifacts indicated that ancient China traded with other regions? From where did these items come?Locate and label the following trading areas on a map: Mesopotamia, the Malay peninsula, Burma (Myanmar), the MaldiveIslands, and the Indian Ocean on your map. Create symbols to show the items that were traded from these locations. Create a key for these items.
(21)What did the invention of oar-propelled vessels prior to 2000 B.C.E. support? Where were Chinese ships sailing by the time of the Shang dynasty? What science did early mariners learn? On your map, label modern-day Korea.
(22)On land, a “large class of semi servile peasants populated the Chinese countryside? What is meant by semi servile? Describe the duties of women in this peasant class.
(23)Who made up the slave class in ancient China? What duties did slaves perform? How were slaves used during the Shang Dynasty?
(24)“In China the extended family emerged as a particularly influential institution during ______times, and it continued to play a prominent role in the shaping of both private and public affairs after the appearance of the ______, ______, and ______states. Indeed, the early dynasties ruled their territories largely through family and kingship groups.” What does this line mean?
(25)What is meant by “Veneration of Ancestors”? Cite some specific examples from the reading that illustrate this tradition which took root in Neolithic times?
(26)In what ways did the family patriarch “possess tremendous authority”?
(27)Why were women honored in Neolithic times? How did this change during the establishment of the Shang and Zhou states?
(28)How did Chinese religion differ from the other complex societies? Be specific in answering this question.
(29)During which dynasty did writing come into extensive use? What were the two uses of writing in ancient China? How was this different from writing in Mesopotamia and India?
(30)Who used “oracle bones” and for what purpose in ancient China? Describe the process. What kind of information have historians gathered about the Shang royal court from these oracle bones? Discuss 2-3 examples from your text.
(31)Study the illustrations of oracle bone scripts in your text and review the passages describing the relationship between the early oracle bones and modern Chinese writing. Is there a relationship between the two? Explain
(32)What was the subject of the following works from the Zhou Dynasty: Book of Changes, Book of History, Book of Etiquette, and the Book of Songs? How was the book of songs different from other works? What was the purpose of the Book of Songs? What aspects of ancient Chinese life are revealed in works such as this one?
(33)“High ______ranges, forbidding ______, and turbulent ______stood between China and other early societies of the eastern hemisphere…Nevertheless, like other early societies, ancient China developed in the context of a larger world of ______and exchange.”
(34)“As Chinese communities brought new lands under cultivation and expanded the boundaries of agricultural society, they encountered ______and ______societies. Some of these foragers became cultivators and joined Chinese society. Others remained apart and sought to move beyond the range of Chinese agricultural society. As they migrated to the north and west, however, they entered the grassy ______of central Asia that were inhospitable to foragers as well as cultivators. These peoples gradually devised their own distinctive societies and economies based on the ______of domesticated animals that could consume grass. The steppes north and west of the fields cultivated by Chinese farmers thus became the home of the nomadic peoples—ancestors of the ______and Mongols—who herded horses, sheep, goats, and yaks in the thinly populated grasslands of central Asia.” Label this region on your map.
(35)In what way were the nomadic peoples of the grassy steppes “intermediaries in trade networks”?
(36)What did the nomadic peoples of the steppes trade with the ancient Chinese? In return, what did the Chinese provide?
(37)In spite of this trade relationship, the ancient Chinese and the nomadic people of the steppes had tense relations. Why? Be specific in answering this question.
(38)What political structure did these nomadic people use?
(39)“Known in China as the ______(“LongRiver”), the Yangzi carries enormous volumes of water from its headwaters in the lofty QinghaiMountains of Tibet to its mouth near the modern Chinese cities of ______and ______, where it empties into the East China Sea. The moist subtropical climate of southern China lent itself readily to the cultivation of ______: ancient cultivators sometimes raised two crops of rice per year.” On your map, label the Qinghai mountains, Nanjing, Shanghai, and the China Sea.
(40)What was the result of agricultural surpluses and growing populations?