A History of the World: Chapter 10: Early China

The rich soil helps farmers grow large amounts of food on small plots of land. As a result, the Huang He valley emerged as one of the great wheat-producing areas of the ancient world.

According to myths, Yü dug the first channels to control the floodwaters of the Huang He.

As the Shang kingdom grew, kings sent out large armies to defend the kingdom's borders. They appointed people called warlords to govern local territories.

Warlords are military leaders who lead their own armies.

Shang kings relied on the warlords to stay in power.

Under the king, warlords and other royal officials formed the upper class. They were aristocrats, people of noble birth whose wealth came from the land they owned. Aristocrats passed their land and power to their children or to younger family members.

The Chinese also honored their ancestors, or long-dead family members. They made offerings to their ancestors. They hoped that their ancestors would bring good luck and help in difficult times.

The ancient Chinese wrote in pictographs and ideographs. Pictographs are characters that represent objects.

Ideographs are another kind of character used in Chinese writing. They link two or more pictographs to express an idea.

The king led the government, ruling with the help of a bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is made up of officials who carry out the tasks of government.

The positions the aristocrats held were hereditary. This meant that when an aristocrat died, a son or another member of his family governed the territory.

The Mandate of Heaven is the belief that the Chinese king's right to rule came from the gods. The Mandate stated the idea that the gods chose a wise and good person to rule.

Between 500 B.C. and 200 B.C., Chinese thinkers developed three major philosophies. They were Confucianism, Daoism, and legalism. These philosophies were different from one another. However, the philosophies had the same goal. Each philosophy aimed to create a well-run and peaceful society.

Duty is a central idea of Confucianism. Duty means that a person places the needs of family and community above his or her own needs. Each individual has certain duties to fulfill.

To Confucius, the right way to live was similar to the idea known as the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you."

A third philosophy stressed the importance of a system of laws. This philosophy became known as legalism, or the "School of Law."

A social class includes people who have the same economic and social position. In ancient China, these social classes were landowning aristocrats, farmers, artisans, and merchants.

Chinese families practiced filial piety. Filial refers to a son or daughter.

Piety refers to duty or devotion. Therefore, filial piety refers to people's responsibility to respect and obey their parents.

Qin wanted to strengthen and unify China.

Writings that displeased Qin were burned. Qin also increased the power of his government by appointing officers known as censors.

He created a currency, or type of money, that everyone had to use.

He recruited dedicated and talented people for civil service, government workers who were chosen on the basis of competitive tests.

When farmers died, their land was divided among their sons. Gradually, over several generations, the amount of land farmed by a family became smaller and smaller.

Tenant farmers work land owned by someone else.

Millers invented waterwheels to grind more grain, and miners fashioned iron drill bits to mine more salt.

Doctors also relieved pain by piercing patients' skin at vital points with thin needles. This treatment is known as acupuncture. Acupuncture renews the body by increasing the flow of energy.

The Silk Road was not just one road. It was a network of trade routes.

For more than 1,000 years, the Silk Road was the main trade link between Asia and Europe.