China: Notable Concepts and Developments (Political, Economic, Social, Militaristic, Legal, etc.; inc. Policies, Laws, Technologies, Inventions, Routes and Roads, Foods and Drinks, etc.) and Notable Groups (Civilizations, Peoples, Alliances, Leagues, Types of People, Types of Places, Types of Professions, Military Groups, etc.)

The Dynasty in which the particular concept applies is placed prior to the concept in the terms...

Shang (All Facts)

• Gained ascendancy over other tribes in the Yellow River Valley around 1650 BCE - 1600 BCE

• Made inscriptions on oracle bones and bronze ritual vessels, were the first people in the region from which writing emerged, around 1390 BCE

• Society that was powerful but cruel, it was located in the Henan Honan province 75 miles north of the Yellow River

• Society that was centered on the king, a semi-divine ruler who was regarded as the channel of communication with the ancestors of the royal clan

• Offered human sacrifices, usually in the form of prisoners taken from neighboring people with whom they waged constant war, in order to keep on good terms with their powerful gods

  • Their sacrifices were carried out in a solemn ritual by the priest-warriors of the ruling caste

  • They held offerings of food and wine in beautiful bronze vessels that were decorated with animal designs

• Conversed with their gods by writing questions on bones and tortoise shells, applying a hot iron and then analyzing the resultant cracks

  • The answer given by the cracks is written on the bone or shell which is then carefully filed

  • The questions, and the gods to which such questions are being asked, controlled every aspect of their lives

• Their “oracle bones” were consulted whenever

  • Their army set out on a campaign

  • They started an elephant hunt

  • They asked the gods for rain

• Characterized by their

  • highly regarded craftsmanship, with bronze and jade being worked into utensils and jewelry

  • silk-based clothing, which was impressive given that the peoples that surrounded them still wore only coarse hemp clothes

  • cultivation of mulberry trees

  • rulers’ servants and concubines being buried alongside their dead masters, to serve them in the afterlife, along with the rulers’ weapons and cooking utensils

• Society and dynasty characterized by inequality, with the lower classes living in pit-dwellings with few possessions, spending their days laboring in the fields while the ruling aristocrats live in luxury and devote themselves to warfare and ritual

Crossbow (All Facts)

• Weapon that dominated and transformed Chinese warfare by the 300s BCE, it became the means and the end of war in China

  • Chinese armies quickly equipped themselves with it

• Remarkably accurate arrow-firing device so deadly that a soldier could rely on a bolt fired from it to kill or maim an enemy on the other side of a battlefield

  • The key to its effectiveness is the pressure-sensitive trigger that releases the string of the short bow mounted crosswise on a wooden stick

  • Mass production of these triggers and other components for the namesake weapon turned Chinese cities into centers for the manufacture of and trade in weapons

    • This led to military commanders concentrating campaigns on capturing cities in order to destroy their opponents’ ability to wage war

      • This led to the development in siege warfare techniques

• Chinese infantrymen were thus equipped with this item as well as with armor and sword

First Great Wall of China (All Facts)

• Built by the northern states during the Warring States Period of the Zhou Dynasty to protect themselves against barbarian invasion starting around 287 BCE

  • Was built to keep out the fierce hordes of nomads who threatened China from the North

• Was 2,600 miles long

• 300K men were conscripted to build it

  • Did not have to start entirely from scratch, as they were able to incorporate smaller-stake fortifications constructed in past centuries

• Was made of packed earth

• Stretched from Laiodong in East China to Lintao in West China

• The idea of a unified defense system covering the whole of northern China was quite new at the time of its construction in the 200’s BCE

• Was garrisoned, in which

  • It had

    • manned soldiers who had an important intelligence-gathering role

    • regular patrols sent out to watch nomad movements

    • areas of raked sand being maintained in case they ever revealed the tracks of enemy scouts creeping in under the cover of darkness

    • watchtowers, which were manned to pass messages by a complex system of flag, smoke signals, and/or torches

Xiongnu (All Facts)

• Ancestral group of the Huns, they were nomads who formed the namesake Confederacy in present-day Mongolia and north China, which threatened and were often enemies of or at war with China

  • They were the feared warrior nomads of Mongolia 

• By the 100s CE, they suffered a series of defeats at the hands of a dangerous neighboring people called the Xianbei 

• Their downfall was partly brought about by their warlike nature, for centuries of fighting weakened them and left them open to attack 

• They also divided their forces, having enabled the Han armies to drive their northern tribes to the west and to defeat all their tribes one by one 

• Their southern tribes formed themselves into a confederation, but it was not enough for the new alliance between the Han and the Xianbei and they succumbed to defeat 

• Warrior nomads which settled as confederates in the north continued to present a threat to China by 195 CE 

• Taking advantage of the political chaos under the Jins, their leader around 311, Liu Cong, pilled the imperial capital at Loyang, burnt the imperial palace, and took the Western Jin Emperor prisoner

• One of the warring Jin princes princes made the fatal mistake of employing Liu Cong as a mercenary, only for him to turn against his employer

Xianbei (All Facts) 

• Nomadic people who defeated the Xiongnu multiple times 

• Allied with the Han to defeat their Xiongnu neighbors in the 100s CE

Paper (All Facts)

• Invented by Cai Lun, a eunuch who served under Emperor He of Han during the Han Dynasty in China in 105 CE

  • After having made it, he further worked to refine its color and texture

• It was made by soaking and pounding flat the bark of trees, rag, hemp, and old fishing nets

• Invention which made it so that large quantities of cheap, easily transportable writing material could be manufactured 

  • Up to that point, heavy tablets of bamboo and expensive pieces of silk were used to write instead

• Became known as “the namesake of Marquis Cai”

Shang Fang Si (All Facts)

• Position in the imperial court during the Han Dynasty

• Position in which one was considered the controller of instruments and weapons

Coal (All Facts) 

• Discovered during the Han Dynasty 

• Enables China to produce greater amounts of cast iron goods 

• Allowed China to have the greatest manufacturing capability in the world

Gunpowder (All Facts) 

• Accidentally discovered in China during the Tang Dynasty 

• It was originally used for fireworks before it was used for warfare

Tributary System (All Facts)

• Established by the Han Dynasty, it was an economic system

  • In which other states had to pay money or provide goods to honor the Chinese emperor

  • Which cemented China’s economic and political power over several foreign countries, but also created stability and stimulated trade for all parties involved 

• By the time of the Song Dynasty, it was an economic system which 

  • Brought Japan, Korea, and other SE Asian Kingdoms into itself as states that would pay money or provide goods 

Kowtow (All Facts)

• Ritual in which anyone greeting the Chinese emperor must bow his or her head until it reached the floor to demonstrate their respect to him when representing their tributary state

Civil Service Exam System (All Facts)

• By scoring well on them, a young man could obtain a highly desired job in the bureaucracy

• Were based on knowledge of Confucian texts

• Was meritocratic in that officials obtained their positions by demonstrating their merit on the namesake

• Although the poor were vastly underrepresented in the bureaucracy, the namesake allowed for more upward mobility than any other hiring system of its time

• First instituted by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty

• Became the bedrock of Chinese governance for centuries

Grand Canal (All Facts)

• Inexpensive and efficient internal waterway transportation system that extended over 30,000 miles and which, by being expanded, it enabled China to become the most populous trading area in the world during the Song Dynasty

• Supported a vibrant internal trade

Guns (All Facts) 

• First made in China during the Song Dynasty 

Champa Rice (All Facts)

• Fast-ripening and drought-resistant strain of rice 

• Strain of rice which

  • Allowed farming to spread to lands where rice could not previously grow including lowlands, riverbanks, and hills 

  • Allowed farmers to grow two crops of rice per year in the summer and winter

  • Expanded agricultural production in China, especially during the Song Dynasty 

  • Was developed through experimentation, along with other similar strains

  • Originated in the namesake kingdom in Vietnam

Steel (All Facts)

• The Chinese learned how to take the carbon out of cast iron and manufacture the namesake 

• The Chinese used the namesake

  • To make or reinforce bridges, gates, and ship anchors

  • For religious items such as pagodas and figurines

  • To strengthen agricultural equipment, contributing to the abundance in food production

Porcelain (All Facts) 

• Highly desired because it was

  • light-weight yet strong

  • light-colored, so it could be easily painted with elaborate designs

Paper Navigation Charts (All Facts)

• Made seafaring possible in open waters, out of sight of land, making sailors become less reliant on the sky for direction

Taxes (All Facts)

• During the Song Dynasty

  • Instead of requiring that people labor on public projects, such as roads and irrigation canals, the government paid people to work on them

  • This increased the amount of money in circulation, promoting economic growth

Scholar Gentry (All Facts)

• New Social Class that formed during the Song Dynasty

• They were educated in Confucian philosophy 

• They eventually outnumbered the aristocracy 

• They became the most influential social class in China 

• They had increased access to books and literature by the time of the Song Dynasty due to the development of paper and woodblock printing

Song Dynasty: Hierarchy (All Facts) 

• Scholar Gentry 

• Aristocracy / Landowners / Farmers

• Artisans 

• Merchants 

• Peasants and the Urban Poor

Merchants (All Facts)

• They were the lowest class in China because their work did not require physical strength or endurance as they simply exchanged goods without growing or making anything new, reflecting the Confucian respect for hard work and creating value 

Foot Binding (All Facts)

• Practice which became common by the time of the Song Dynasty

• It was most common amongst aristocratic families

• From a very young age, girls had to undergo this in order that their bones did not grow naturally

• It signified social status, something suitors particularly desired

• It also restricted women’s ability to move and hence to participate in the public sphere

• The practice continued until it was officially banned in 1912

Woodblock Printing (All Facts)

• Process invented by the Chinese during the Tang and Song Dynasties 

• A Buddhist scripture was the world’s first printed work made via this process 

• During the Song Dynasty, this process helped print booklets on how to farm efficiently, which were distributed throughout rice-growing regions 

Jingshi Degree (All Facts)

• Highest and final degree in the imperial examination in Imperial China, it was institutionalized by Emperor Yang of the Sui Dynasty