Ancient Chinese Culture Quizlet

Where was Zhou located?

West of the Shang capital

Where was the capital moved to?

Just south of the Yellow River in the heart of the central plains

How was society organized during the Early Zhou Dynasty?

1. King
2. Rulers of states (duke and marquis)
3. Hereditary great officials of the states
4. Lower ranks of the aristocracy (shi)
5. Ordinary people (farmers, craftsmen, and traders)

How did religion during the Zhou dynasty differ from Shang practices?

Decline of burying the living with the dead, along with new deities and cults, especially in the southern state of Chu

What were the Songs of Chu?

A collection of fantastical poems full of images of elusive deities and shamans who could fly through the spirit world

Why can't we trace the early stages of writing?

Writing was done on wood, bamboo, silk, or other perishable materials

What did a written language make possible for China's government?

A bureaucracy capable of keeping records and corresponding with commanders and governors far from the palace

How did the invention of writing affect China's culture?

It preserved the learning, lore, and experience of early Chinese society and facilitated the development of abstract thought

What is a logographic script?

Where each word is represented by a single symbol

Why did China retain a logographic writing system even after encounters with phonetic ones?

- Read texts written centuries earlier without the need for translation
- Read books and letters by contemporaries whose oral language they could not comprehend
Analogy: Chinese characters are like arabic numerals

Why did regional lords gradually become independent from the king?

- As generations passed, ties of loyalty and kinship grew more distant
- They became so powerful that they no longer obeyed the commands of the king

Who killed the Zhou king?

An alliance of non-Chinese tribesmen and Zhou vassals

What was the Warring States Period?

Prolonged period without a strong central authority and with nearly constant conflict

What were some types of songs included in the Book of Songs?

- Hymns used in court religious ceremonies, such as offer
- Other poems clearly had their origins in folk songs
- Songs contain many references to seasonal changes, such as the appearance of insects like grasshoppers and crickets
- Some of these songs depict farmers clearing fields, plowing and planting, gathering mulberry leaves for silkworms, and spinning and weaving - Many of the folk songs are love songs

What made the crossbow so powerful?

The intricate bronze trigger of the crossbow allowed a foot soldier to shoot farther than could a horseman carrying a light bow

What caused the development of cavalry?

1. Shooting bows and arrows from horseback perfected by non-Chinese peoples to the north of China proper
2. Northern state of Jin developed its own cavalry to defend from the attacks of these horsemen
3. Jin started using cavalry against other Chinese states
4. Other Chinese states were forced to master the new technology

Why did rulers want to increase their populations as military competition intensified?

So that they would have more commonders to serve as foot soldiers and more craftsmen to supply weapons

What did Sun We argue about discipline in The Art of War?

That it is essential, and the entire army had to be trained to follow the orders of its commanders without questioning them

During the Warring States Period, how did states on the periphery of the Zhou realm differ from those in the center?

They had more room to expand, and with access to more resources, they were able to pick off their neighbors, one after the other

Why wasn't the final outcome of the outer warring states clear for so long?

Alliances among states were regularly made and nearly as regularly broken

What state was victorious at the end of the warring states period?

The Qin

What happened after the Zhou king was killed?

One of his sons was put on the throne, and then for safety's sake the capital was moved east

What did registering populations lead to?

An extension of family names to commoners at an earlier date than anywhere else in the world

During the warring states period, how did the remaining important states differ from their early Zhou predecessors and how many were there?

Seven, they were much more centralized

What did Literacy enable for rulers?

Control over a wide realm

What were some of the consequences of using a logographic script?

Many years were required to gain full mastery of reading and writing

What are some places that adopted the Chinese script?

Japan, Korea, and Vietnam

Where did most of Zhou culture come from?

- Cultural traditions: Neolithic cultures of the northwest
- Material culture: Shang

What side does the Book of Documents favor and how is this evident?

The Zhou

”Just and noble warriors” vs “decadent courtiers led by an irresponsible and sadistic king”

Who did Zhou kings sacrifice to and how does it relate to the Shang?

Their ancestors, but also to Heaven, same as the Shang

How do Zhou beliefs display deification of the king?

The king was called the Son of Heaven

What is the theory of the Mandate of Heaven?

- Heaven gives the king a mandate to rule only as long as he rules in the interests of the people
- Heaven took away the mandate from the last Shang king and gave it to the Zhou kings
- Likely propaganda by the early Zhou rulers to win over former subjects of the Shang

What system of government did the early Zhou rulers utilize?

Decentralized Feudal System

What is a decentralized feudal system?

Sent relatives and trusted subordinates with troops to established walled garrisons in conquered territories

What caused China's transition from the Zhou dynasty to the Warring states period after the death of the Zhou king and movement of the capital?

The revived Zhou Dynasty never fully regained control over its vassals

What were shi?

Men who could serve in either military or civil capacities

How did patrilineal family ties play into the lives of those in the upper part of society?

At the upper reaches, families made sacrifices to their ancestors' spirits

What was the Book of Songs?

A book containing the earliest Chinese poetry

What were some things involved in farming during the Early Zhou dynasty?

Cultivating crops like millet, hemp (for cloth), beans, and vegetables but also hunting small animals and collecting grasses and rushes to make rope and baskets

How were the walled citadels of the Zhou period laid out?

Thick earthen walls were built around the palaces and ancestral temples of the ruler and other aristocrats, and often an outer wall was added to protect the artisans, merchants, and farmers who lived outside the inner wall

What did the development of iron technology in the early Zhou Dynasty do?

It promoted economic expansion and allowed some people to become very rich

What were some uses of iron in the Zhou Dynasty?

Farm tools and weapons

What were some traded goods during the Zhou dynasty?

Furs, copper, dyes, hemp, salt, horses

Why would rulers in the Zhou dynasty want to promote trade and how could they accomplish this?

They wanted trade to bring prosperity to their states, so they welcomed traders and began casting coins to facilitate trade

What increased over the course of the Zhou period and how did this show? How did this impact the shi?

Social mobility—rulers often sent out their own officials rather than delegate authority to hereditary lesser lords. This created opportunities for social advancement for shi on lower end of the old aristocracy—created competition for talent, both with the rulers and the workers

What was a major focus during the Warring States Period?

Military technology, wars, and armies

What happened during the Warring States Period?

Fueled by the development of new weaponry and war tactics, the Chinese states destroyed each other one by one until only one was left standing—the state of Qin

What caused soldiers to begin to wear armor?

To defend against crossbows

What were some steps rulers took to increase agricultural output?

Brought new land into cultivation, drained marshes, and dug irrigation channels

What caused Serfdom's gradual decline?

Rulers tried to undermine the power of lords over their subjects to get direct access to the peasants' labor power

What did the development of infantry armies create a need for?

A new type of general

Who wrote The Art of War?

Sun Wu

How did Sun We describe the perfect general in The Art of War?

A master of maneuver, illusion, and deception

What did Sun Wu argue about heroism in The Art of War?

He said that heroism is a useless virtue that leads to needless deaths

What were Sun Wu's opinions on deceit during war in The Art of War?

He states that war is the way of deceit, and it is how military experts are victorious

How did the kings of the remaining states accomplish more centralized rule than during the Zhou dynasty?

By eliminating indirect control through vassals and in their place dispatching royal officials to remote cities, controlling them from a distance through the transmission of documents and dismissing them at will