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Post by Gregory Hewett on Mar 14, 2012 15:16:36 GMT 5.5
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?
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Post by vishnu on Mar 15, 2012 11:42:40 GMT 5.5
1. The barriers around Ancient China prevented the Zhou and the Shang from trading or doing business with other civilizations. This caused foreign civilizations did not know about the Chinese cities along the Huang He and Yangtze. This also caused the Chinese to have no trade with other peoples.
2. Because the river gave them fertile soil which allowed them to have a lot of food. The surplus of food allowed the Chinese develop more.
3. Originally they would read scratch marks written on bones to interpret the will of the gods. This later developed into a written language which helped unify the Chinese people under Shang rule.
4. There would be a lot of cataclysmic events. Such as floods, foreign invasion, plague, and earthquakes. This would make the local people think that the rulers have lost the Mandate of Heaven and the people choose a new ruling family.
5. Because there was a lot of terrible events leading up to the Zhou invasion of the Shang capital. These events caused the locals to believe the Shangs were out of favor. Which allowed the Zhou invasion to run smoothly without a lot of killing.
6. It is similar to many civilizations in that time, such as the Mesopotamians and the Egyptians. The Egyptians settled along the Nile River; which gave them fertile soil just like the Huang He and the Chinese. Also the Mesopotamians settled around the Tigris and Euphrates rivers which also gave them fertile soil to farm.
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joy
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Post by joy on Mar 15, 2012 11:45:30 GMT 5.5
1. How did geographic barriers affect Shang and Zhou relations with outside people? The geographic barriers like the seas, mountains, and deserts affected them by making them isolated. They also could not pass on ideas and receive different ideas or beliefs from others easily. They also could not sell goods to each other as it was hard to bring. Causing, Chinese civilisation to develop on distinct lines. 2. Why did Shang settlements begin along the Huang He? The Shang settlements begin along the Huang He because the yellowish silt the river deposited makes fertile soil. This helps the villagers’ crops grow faster and better. It also helps them to prevent starvation in their village. 3. How did the Shang develop a Chinese language? They first developed language with the oracle bones. On this bone, the priests and priestess would write questions and answers to the gods to tell the future. That was the earliest form of writing. Later on, they developed pictographs. Pictographs are systems of writing with simple drawings or symbols. In the modern pictographs, a normal person would need to know at least 1,500 characters. An educated person needed to know at least 10,000 characters. 4. How would the Chinese people know that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven? They would know this because there would be earthquakes, invasions,and floods in their villages. They believe this showed disapproval from the gods. The Zhou kings thought trouble would come to those who lost heaven’s favor. But a good ruler gains approval. 5. How did the belief in the Mandate of Heaven help the change in government form the Shang to the Zhou? The belief changed from Shang to Zhou because, when Shang started losing power the people believed that the Shang lost the Mandate of heaven. Later on, the Zhou kings came and the people then believed the new dynasty has god’s approval. 6. In what ways was the settling of the Huang He Valley similar to settlements in other world regions? It is similar to settlements because they all started near river as it was the most convenient. It provided food, water, and fertile soil for them to use. So, the people in China and other world regions would not starve. Eventually, the villages get bigger, and turn into cities. ;D
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ilari
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Post by ilari on Mar 15, 2012 11:47:13 GMT 5.5
1. How did geographic barriers affect Shang and Zhou relations with outside people? The affect was not getting interference from outside. It also disabled them from getting goods from outside. The Zhou and Shang dynasties were living in one area and blocked from the other parts of China because of the barriers. The advantage was at wars for the Zhou because the attackers would have to go past the obstacles and they would know where the Shang were
2. Why did Shang settlements begin along the Huang He? Because the land around the Huang He (Yellow River) area was extremly fertile. It made a good place for farming, so it slowly developed into small settlements and then evolved into a city.
3. How did the Shang develop a Chinese language? The Shang needed a form of communicating with writing. The early form that they came up with were scratch marks.This developed into pictographs (images) for different objects. The pictograph language consisted of over 10,000 characters which meant that people had to know alot of the characters to speak/write the language.
4. How would the Chinese people know that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven? The people would know that their ruler had lost their Mandate of Heaven when there were simultanious natural disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis, storms, or bad weather. Also peasent uprising would symbol the removal of 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? When the Shang dynasty was attacked by the Zhou, in this kind of situation the people thought that the current leader was not capabled of holding away attacks and he would have to be replaced.
6. In what ways was the settling of the Huang He Valley similar to settlements in other world regions? Because many other settlements in the world depened on water, fertile lands, and food from the river such as fish. Many people live close to rivers because it would support their life needs.
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kate
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Post by kate on Mar 15, 2012 11:53:02 GMT 5.5
1. How did geographic barriers affect Shang and Zhou relations with outside people? They were not able to trade properly as the geographic barriers blocked their way. Also, the way they developed language was totally different to others.
2. Why did Shang settlements begin along the Huang He?
Around 2000 B.C farming settlements along the Huang He began to grow into cities. Shang settlements began there because in the Huang He River there was water and silt so the land around it was fertile; that way people could grow crops for food. The people who lived there could also bathe in the river. The North China plane was also fertile and was north to the river. This is why the Shang settlements began along the Huang He.
3. How did the Shang develop a Chinese language? Shang kings received messages from the gods through oracle bones. Oracle bones are animal bones or turtle shells. Royal priests used to scratch questions to the gods on the oracle bones. Next they touched the bones with heated rods to make them crack, and scratched the answers. These scratch marks were an early form of writing. Shang kings even developed their own pictographs. This system of writing uses simple drawing or characters as ideas. An educated Chinese person should know at least 10,000 characters.
4. How would the Chinese people know that a ruler had lost the Mandate of Heaven? The people believe that when the Mandate of heaven is lost disasters will occur. An example of the disasters are floods and earthquakes. Also, if the kings don’t rule properly they believe they have lost gods approval. When this occurs usually invaders would come and take over.
5. How did the belief in the Mandate of Heaven help the change in government form the Shang to the Zhou? Because the commoners would have some control over the rulers.
6. In what ways was the settling of the Huang He Valley similar to settlements in other world regions? They all built civilasations along the river banks. They also all used the fertile land for growing crops. They also bathed in the water.
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