Technology in Early China

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering the key mythological figures, historical rulers, and major developments of the Shang, Zhou, Qin, and Han dynasties in ancient China.

Xiawangdu historic site

A ruin in Ningbo, China, dating from $5800\,BCE$ that presents more questions than answers about prehistoric China.

Heavenly Sovereign

One of the Three August Ones who used magic to fill the earth with water.

Earthly Sovereign

One of the Three August Ones who was responsible for making the sun and moon move correctly.

Human Sovereign

The member of the Three August Ones who divided China into provinces and coughed rice from his mouth.

Suiren-shi

One of the Shi who taught humans how to produce fire and cook with it.

Youchao-shi

One of the Shi who taught humans to build houses from wood, enabling them to leave caves.

Shennong-shi

One of the Shi known for teaching humans about cereals.

Fuxi-shi and Nuwa-shi

Siblings credited with creating humans and teaching them hunting, fishing, domestication, and cooking.

Yellow Emperor (Huang Di)

Chieftain of the Huaxia Chinese alliance ($2711\,BCE$ - $2598\,BCE$) considered the 'father' of China who created the centralized state, Chinese culture, and medicine.

Emperor Yao

One of the Five Emperors who initiated the system of determining successors by talent and virtue rather than family.

Shun

One of the Five Emperors who was renowned for his modesty and filial piety.

Yangshao Culture

A Painted Pottery Culture along the Yellow River that existed from $5000\,BCE$ to $3000\,BCE$.

Shang Dynasty

A dynasty ($1600$ to $1046\,BCE$) where the chariot entered China, and bronze was used for both weaponry and ritual vessels.

Shang-Di

The High God of the Shang religion, described as a pervasive, all-encompassing, and sometimes wrathful deity.

Renji ceremony

A Shang ritual used to placate the wrathful deity Shang-Di through the decapitation and burial of hundreds of war captives or slaves.

Oracle bones

Tortoise shells or cattle bones used by Shang kings to obtain divine guidance by interpreting patterns of cracks caused by heat.

Cheng Tang

A virtuous man who founded the Shang dynasty by overthrowing the corrupt Xia dynasty.

Mandate of Heaven

A doctrine formulated by the Duke of Zhou to justify the overthrow of the Shang, claiming rule is a divine right that can be lost if a dynasty treats people unfairly.

Spring and Autumn Period

The first subset of the Eastern Zhou dynasty ($771$ to $476\,BCE$), named after a chronicle of the state of Lu purportedly written by Confucius.

Warring States Period

The second subset of the Eastern Zhou ($476$ to $221\,BCE$) characterized by extreme brutality, large-scale armies, and technological innovation across states.

Legalism

A philosophy involving 'fixing the standards' and 'treating the people as one,' emphasizing absolute rule of law and state loyalty over family.

Shang Yang

A Prime Minister of Qin ($c.390$ to $338\,BCE$) who implemented centralizing Legalist reforms, land privatization, and merit-based military assignments.

Sun Tzu

The author of the military treatise 'The Art of War,' reaching prominence between $544$ and $496\,BCE$.

Qin Shihuangdi

The first emperor of unified China ($r.221$ to $210\,BCE$) who abolished feudalism, standardized weights, measures, and coinage, and began the Great Wall.

Emperor Gaozu (Liu Bang)

The first Han emperor ($r.202\,BCE$) who established the capital at Chang’an and potentially rose from humble origins.

Empress Lu Zhi

The widow of Gaozu who attempted a coup to favor her family, known for mutilating imperial mistresses and murdering Gaozu's other sons.

Han Wudi

Empereor ($141$ to $87\,BCE$) who expanded China into Xinjiang, founded a National University, and made Confucianism the state ideology.

Sima Qian

Historian who wrote the 'Shiji' (Historical Records), which set the standard for later government-sponsored Chinese histories.

Wang Mang

A usurper who seized the throne in $9\,CE$, established the Xin Dynasty, and attempted to reorganize the court along Zhou Dynasty lines.

Cai Lun

A court eunuch credited with inventing paper in $105\,CE$ using a slurry of rice pulp and tree bark.

Yellow Turban Rebellion

A massive peasant uprising ($184$ to $204\,CE$) led by Daoist faith healer Zhang Jue that signaled the Han Dynasty's loss of the Mandate of Heaven.

Dong Zhou

A warlord who seized control of the capital in $190\,CE$, killed the court eunuchs, and burned Luoyang to the ground.