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The Society
The climate of Ancient China was different in different parts of China. Central and Southeastern China was hot but wet in the summer and cool but dry in the winter. Southern China was different Southern China was warm and humid most of the year. Two of the worlds longest rivers are found in Ancient China.
Ancient china was located in East Asia along Yangtze river and the yellow river and it had a natural barrier that maked them isolated from the western side of the world.
Culture
Early Chinese cultures worshiped gods of nature. They believed that the gods had the power to affect things like the weather, harvests, warfare, and the health of the king.
Confucianism became a popular and dominant philosophy in Chinese history and many emperors adopted its principles. Filial piety is an important principle practiced in early Chinese culture that comes from Confucianism. It is the idea of putting the family’s needs over the emperor.
Their beliefs were Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism.
Food
The staple crops that they ate were wheat, barley, rice, foxtail, millet, beans and broomcorn.
The fruits and vegetables they ate are melons, apricots, peaches, plums, bayberries jujubes, calabash, bamboo shoots .
They domesticated animals and ate ducks, pigs, dogs, camels and sheep. Out of rivers they eat turtles and fish.
Beer and yellow wine were also consumed regularly.
Key Inventions
China was the first civilisation to invent paper. Before its invention, words were written on natural materials by ancient peoples-on grass stalks by the Egyptians, on earthen plates by the Mesopotamians, on tree leaves by the Indians, on sheepskin by the Europeans
The inventions of umbrela was early as 3500 years ago in China. Legend has it, Lu Ban, a Chinese carpenter and inventor created the first umbrella.
Gunpowder was invented by Chinese Taoist alchemists about 1000 A.D. when they tried to find a potion to gain human immortality by mixing elemental sulfur, charcoal, and saltpeter.
Everyday Life
Everyday Life
The Chinese worldview was very different from the Western worldview. The Ancient Chinese Heaven was a kind of universal force. Heaven chose the dynasty to rule but it was a moral force. If the king or emperor were evil Heaven would send natural disasters as a warning. If the emperor failed to heed the warnings heaven would withdraw its mandate. Social and political order would break down and there would be a revolution. Heaven would choose somebody else to rule.
Chinese culture was heavily influenced by a man named Kong-Fuzi, known in the West as Confucius. Kong-Fuzi taught that everybody should accept their role in life and duties towards others. Rulers had a duty to be benevolent while subjects should be respectful and obedient. Children should honor their parents and everybody should honor their ancestors. Kong-Fuzi also believed that rulers should set a good example for their people.
Most of all Kong-Fuzi taught consideration for others. At the heart of his teaching was ‘ren’ which is usually translated as goodness or benevolence. Kong-Fuzi said ‘do not do to others what you do not want to be done to yourself’. Kong-Fuzi also taught the importance of courtesy and moderation in all things. Kong-Fuzi also taught that women should submit to their father when young, to their husband when married, and to their son if widowed. Later women in China were taught values such as humility, submissiveness, and industry.
The religion of Taoism was founded in Ancient China. Confucianism was a system of ethics but Taoism is a religion. Taoists believe in the Tao, which means the way. The Tao is an indescribable force behind nature and all living things. Taoists believe in Wuwei or non-action, which means going with the natural flow or way of things like a stick being carried along on a stream.
Taoism also teaches humility and compassion. Taoists worship a pantheon of gods. Buddhism reached China in the 1st Century AD.
The Ancient Chinese also believed in Yin and Yang. They believed that all matter is made of two opposite and complementary principles. Yin is feminine, soft, gentle, dark, receptive, yielding, and wet. Yang is masculine, bright, hard, hot, active, dry, and aggressive. Everything is a mixture of these two opposites. The Ancient Chinese also believed there were five elements, wood, fire, earth, metal, and water. During the Zhou period, the Chinese art of acupuncture was invented.
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