China

China:

8000 BCE: River valley civilizations crop up around the Yangtze and Yellow rivers

//Xia dynasty (8000 BCE)// Founded by "Yu," who introduced irrigation

//Shang dynasty (1600 BCE)// Government: "big affairs of state consist of sacrifice and soldiery" territories governed by aristocratic chieftiens, appointed by kings capital at **Anyang** Religion: Earliest chinese **writing** has been found on **oracle bones** (divine intervention) Social: Evidence of **veneration of ancestors** Villages organized by clans, not by nuclear families
 * Bronze casters**

//Zhou dynasty (1040 - 221 BCE)// Government: territories governed by officals appointed by king (decentralized) capital at **Xian, Luoyang Mandate of Heaven:** selected to rule for talent; if failed, could be overthrown Economy: well-field system "The Art of War" is written fell because central government couldn't control the territories

//The Period of the Warring States:// Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism at this point

//Qin (221 - 206 BCE)// Capital at Xianyang Government: centralized - standarized writing and measurement; peasants taxed; nobles had to live in the city; roads built. -**Qin-Shi-Hungadi**: burned books, first emperor Religion: Legalism Expanded into s. asia (Vietnam); built a canal there; worried about invaders from north; thus, great wall


 * Sima Qin:** Chinese historian (comparable to Herodotus)

//Han (//202 - 221 CE) Civil Service Exam - Confucianism Trade expanded Wang Mang - tried to make life better for the peasants by seizing power; a factor in the fall of the Han. //Warring States period
 * Han Wudi** - Long reign; expanded the empire by bringing in territory south of yangstze

Sui (581-618 CE)// -Built grand cnal