Geography Shapes Life in Ancient China

[Gregory Hewett]

Respond to the following questions to the best of your abilities. Be sure to respond in statement-example-explanation format whenever applicable.

1. How did geographic barriers affect Shang and Zhou relations with outside people?
2. Why did Shang settlements begin along the Huang He?
3. How did the Shang develop a Chinese language?
4. How would the Chinese people know that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven?
5. How did the belief in the Mandate of Heaven help the change in government form the Shang to the Zhou?
6. In what ways was the settling of the Huang He Valley similar to settlements in other world regions?

[kaviyan]

;D

1. How did geographic barriers affect Shang and Zhou relations with outside people?
Ans: All of the geographic features that were there were blocking them from the world outside. The mountains, the oceans, and the deserts were vast land (or sea) That was used as a “barrier”.

2. Why did Shang settlements begin along the Huang He?
Ans: Because the soil around the Huang He was good fertile soil. The fertile soil was good for farming and it gave them many good crops. These places later became bigger and bigger.


3. How did the Shang develop a Chinese language?

ANS: They used animal bones to carve questions to the gods. They used oracle bones. The priests opened the bones and the shape of the broken bone told them the answer. The scratch marks were the questions. The Chinese used lot of characters to develop the actual Chinese language. A person who knew the language well had to know 10,000 characters.


4. How would the Chinese people know that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven?
Ans: If disasters occur and the king grows weaker it shows a bad sign. Disasters include floods, rain floods earthquakes, and tsunamis. Then people say that the dynasty lose their Mandate and start to not worship them. Then the dynasty is lost and a new dynasty comes.


5. How did the belief in the Mandate of Heaven help the change in government form the Shang to the Zhou?
Ans: they ruled better because they were scared and they were horrified. They didn’t want to lose their ruling thing.


6. In what ways was the settling of the Huang He Valley similar to settlements in other world regions?

[sihyun]

1. How did geographic barriers affect Shang and Zhou relations with outside people?
The geographic barriers isolated the Shang and the Zhou because of natural land forms and bodies of waters, and it was hard to spread ideas and goods to other places. In the East there were Yellow Sea, East China Sea, and Pacific Ocean, in the West there was Takilmakan Dessert, and In the North there was te Gobi Dessert.
2. Why did Shang settlements begin along the Huang He?
Shang settlement began along the Huaun He because the river had yellowish silt that was full of lots of nutrients in it, and then this nutrient helped for farming.

3. How did the Shang develop a Chinese language?
Shang believed that he could influence god to help people and he scratched pictographs in the oracle bones (animal bones or turtle shells) which was the first form of writing system in China.

4. How would the Chinese people know that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven?
The people knew that the king lost the Mandate of Heaven when natural disasters occurred like earthquakes, tornadoes, tsunami, and famine. Also when the king was defeated by other king, and when the king was being selfish.

5. How did the belief in the Mandate of Heaven help the change in government form the Shang to the Zhou?
When the Zhou defeated the Shang the culture continued and the government were relatives of kings and also people who the king trusted.

6. In what ways was the settling of the Huang He Valley similar to settlements in other world regions?
The settlement in Huang He valley was similar to some other settlements like Egypt, because large cities and civilization formed near Nile River which contained a lot of silt like Huang He.

[katrina]

1. How did geographic barriers affect Shang and Zhou relations with outside people?

In the western mountain ranges (Pamir, Tian Shan, and the Himalayas), didn’t let the Chinese to cross over the west, in the north there were the vast desert (Gobi Desert) which made hard to go north to Mongolia. In the east, large water bodies, and this was hard to cross over; and this made it hard to trade with other countries.


2. Why did Shang settlements begin along the Huang He?

The Shang settled in the Huang He, because the rivers’ flood depositing silt, which made the soil rich and good for farming.

3. How did the Shang develop a Chinese language?

The royal priests scratched questions on a turtles’ shell, or animal bones. The next day, they used heated rods to crack the oracle bone, and then scratched answers in there. Also, the Shang used pictographs, which is a form of writers using simple drawings, or characters.

4. How would the Chinese people know that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven?

The Chinese people believed that the gods took one’s mandate away when there were earthquakes, invasion, floods, or peasants uprising.

5. How did the belief in the Mandate of Heaven help the change in government form the Shang to the Zhou?

As the Shang became weaker, the Zhou’s head, Wu Wang let a force that defeated Shang in 1027 B.C. The king made a tied family or trusted people control a region. As the villages grew bigger into cities, the local rulers or the lords’ power became more stronger, and when they became powerful enough, they were not dependent to the kings, and started fight among themselves.


6. In what ways was the settling of the Huang He Valley similar to settlements in other world regions?

They were similar because, they also farmed. The soil near the river was rich and good for farming. Also, they set up empires near the river.