World History: 5. Early Civilizations of China, Lessons 1–3

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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. loess
    a fine accumulation of clay and silt deposited by the wind
    Loess is a fine, dustlike material that can form soil.
  2. dike
    a barrier constructed to contain the flow of water
    They built dikes, or walls to hold back water.
  3. oracle
    an authoritative person who divines the future
    The earliest written records from China are oracle bones from the Shang dynasty.
  4. pictograph
    an image or drawing used to represent a word or phrase
    Instead, some characters were pictographs; that is, pictures that represent words or ideas.
  5. logograph
    a symbol that represents a whole word or phrase
    A logograph is a written character that represents a complete word or phrase.
  6. interpret
    make sense of; assign a meaning to
    The king or a priest would interpret the cracks to get an answer.
  7. challenge
    a demanding or stimulating situation
    Chinese writing requires more memorization because it has thousands of characters, making it a challenge to learn.
  8. mandate
    a formal statement of a command to do something
    In their view, heaven was the highest force of nature that gave dynasties the right to rule. They called this right to rule the Mandate of Heaven.
  9. survive
    continue in existence after
    With the help of other nobles, the Zhou survived this attack.
  10. warlord
    a military leader who controls a region or territory
    Fighting broke out between warlords. Warlords are military rulers of small states.
  11. minor
    of lesser seriousness or danger
    Eventually, minor battles escalated into full-scale warfare.
  12. chaos
    a state of extreme confusion and disorder
    China entered an era of chaos—total disorder and confusion.
  13. philosophy
    a belief accepted as authoritative by some group or school
    Two important belief systems, Confucianism and Daoism, developed during the Zhou. Each is a philosophy, that is, a set of beliefs about the world and how to live.
  14. income
    the amount of money one makes over a period of time
    After paper money came into use, they burned fake "spirit" money to give them ancestors income in the afterlife.
  15. stable
    resistant to change of position or condition
    The heart of Confucianism lay in a vision of a stable, orderly society based on five relationships...
  16. filial
    relating to or characteristic of or befitting an offspring
    The devotion of children to their parents is called filial piety.
  17. piety
    righteousness by virtue of being religiously devout
    The devotion of children to their parents is called filial piety.
Created on Mon Jun 28 14:06:22 EDT 2021 (updated Fri Jul 02 11:07:27 EDT 2021)

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