Ancient

ChinaBy Rachel McNeight And

Bella Marconato

Map 800 ADChina

The Great Wall of China

Beijing, the capital of China Means there will be a Fun Fact later on.

BackgroundIn about 50,000 BC, people first

came to China from Central Asia and India . These people were called Stone Age people. They lived in caveswith their dogs and wore fur and leather. They hunted and gathered their food. By about 3000 BC, they were using pottery and living in houses. They soon afterward learned from people in Central Asia how to use horses to pull wheeled chariots.

Terracotta Warrior

Social StructureFrom the Qin to the late Qing dynasty, the Chinese

government separated its people into four categories;  landlords, peasants, craftsmen, and merchants. Landlords and peasants were the two major classes, and merchants and craftsmen were the two minor. The only position that was hereditary was the Emperor.

During the civil war, after the Han Dynasty , there was a partial restoration of feudalism when wealthy and powerful families emerged with large amounts of land and huge numbers of semi-serfs. They dominated important civilian and military positions of the government, making the positions available to members of their own families and clans. After the Tang dynasty's emergence, the government extended the Imperial examination system as an attempt to eradicate this feudalism.

Painting of Qin

HousingThere were only two kinds of houses in

ancient China; poor people's houses and rich people's houses. Poor people's houses were normally just one room, made of mud. The roof was usually made of thatch. These houses had a fire pit in the middle of the floor. Rich people's houses were much bigger. They had high walls made of mud all the way around them. They had with no windows and just one door, to keep the family safe. As soon as you went through this door, you

would see another short wall in front of you. This was the screen wall, which kept people from seeing into your courtyard as they walked by. This system was for privacy.

A rich persons house

Wealthy LivingIn ancient China, it was very easy to

tell who was rich. From head to toe, the wealthiest had the finest clothes. Members of the royal family and high-ranking officials dangled jade, gold, or silver bracelets from their arms.

They ate more and better-tasting food and had more leisure time. China's richest man was the emperor. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the emperor lived in the Forbidden City.

FoodMillet wine came very popular

even more popular then to drink tea. In about 100 AD, the Chinese started to make there wheat and rice into long noodles. Generally, Northern Chinese dishes tend to be oily, although they are not cloyingly so, and garlic and vinegar flavouring are more pronounced

Chinese Dish

Food (Continued) Northern Chinese food also includes

a lot of pasta; some of the favourite flour-based treats being steamed bread; fried meat dumplings; steamed stuffed buns; dumplings resembling ravioli; and noodles. The best known cooking styles of Northern Chinese food are perhaps the methods used in Shantung, Tientsin, and Peking. The Chinese wish for satiation and plenitude is symbolized by an elaborately made stuffed chicken.

Chinese noodles

Family LifeIf you were a boy in ancient China, that

meant you were lucky. Boys especially if they were the oldest, became the head of the house. Boys were considered as superior to girls, and as head of the household, they were expected to keep up religious sacrifices to their family ancestors. Girls didn’t have very nice lives, as wherever they went the had to obey all males. They first had to obey their father, then their husband, and finally their eldest son. Women had practically no power back then; they weren't allowed to own any property, and when they became old the only power they had was being able to boss their daughter-in-law around.

A Chinese Family

MarriageAs for marriage, young people

today generally choose their own marriage partners on the basis of shared interests and mutual attraction. However, parents still play a role in arranging some marriages, especially in rural areas. Any couple today would at least consult their parents about such a major decision.

Childbirth Practices Chinese women traditionally labour in an armchair or futon. Once the baby is born they will often pray to the goddess who helped them conceive with an offering of sweet meats and incense. When a child is born is also important to Chinese custom. The hour, day, month and year the baby is born dictate which of the Eight Characters he is born under. The Eight Characters are considered so important they will rule the child's life. Chinese

baby

Childbirth Practices (Continued)

They predict if a child will be successful, wealthy, or blessed with good fortune. Parents may also hire fortune tellers or soothsayers to read their baby's fortune. The Chinese believe that each person is made up of some of the five elements - metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. If a fortune teller finds a child is lacking an important element, the missing element is incorporated in her name - unless the missing element is fire or water. If water or fire is absent, that is considered a good omen. It is believed that a child with too much fire could be injured by fire in his life; a child with too much water needs to be watched, for she might drown.

Water and fire

ChildhoodAs for marriage, young people today generally choose their own marriage partners on the basis of shared interests and mutual attraction. However, parents still play a role in arranging some marriages, especially in rural areas. Any couple today would at least consult their parents about such a major decision.

EducationMost kids in Ancient China never got a

chance to go to school at all. They had to work in the field, planting rice or millet, weeding the vegetables, feeding the chickens, or taking care of their brothers or sisters.

But if you were a boy, and your father could spare you from the fields, then he would send you to school. If there wasn't a school in your village, you might have to go live with your relatives or with strangers in a bigger town. Beginning in the Han Dynasty, many schools were free, paid for by the Emperor.

Education (Continued)Boys usually started school when they were about

six years old. Elementary schools were very small, with only one teacher for the whole school. Most schools were in temples. You went to school every day, with no weekends, from about 6:00 in the morning until about 4:00 in the afternoon.

There was one chair for the teacher, but the boys all sat on stools. There weren't any math, or science lessons. They learned how to read and write, and then they had to memorized page after page of Confucian philosophy and learned to write essays and poetry, and how to paint pictures. You would stay in they school until you were sixteen or seventeen.

Religion• In the Shang dynasty, about

2000 BC, people in China worshipped their gods. People who lived during the Shang dynasty, believed that their ancestors became gods after they past. Every family worshipped their ancestors.

Chinese Religion sign. The “Yin Yang”.

Common God~Cheng H uang

Each city or village in China had its own Cheng Huang god to protect it. Many of them were based on real men from that town who had been well known while they were alive. After a great man died, if he became a god, he would send dreams to people who were still alive to let them know.

Common God (Continued)

Cheng-Huang protected the moats and walls of towns when enemies were attacking them. He also made sure the King of the Dead didn't take any souls away without Cheng-Huang's permission. And if anyone was doing anything bad in the town, Cheng-Huang would send you dreams about who it was so you could stop them.

ClothingFor boys, loose cotton pants in blue

or black, and a matching cotton jacket – pyjamas may be the easiest way to find this, or an athletic outfit with sweatpants.

For girls, a long white nightgown is a good place to start – it should reach her ankles. Over it, maybe a long embroidered robe, like a kimono, tied at the waist.

ArtArt in Ancient China was usually linked to

religion and ritual. A lot of pottery figures and elaborate carvings in marble, jade, and ivory were found in tombs. Some of the most interesting finds are the rich ornamental bronze vessels used in ancestors worship. Beautifully decorated with mythical beasts and formal patterns, these vessels are often inlaid with gold and silver. People made special bronze jars of their ancestors, and wrote long inscriptions about their own lives so their ancestors and descendants would know what they had done.

Art (Continued)A lot of the jars were in animal shapes

like birds and dragons. In the Eastern Chou period people in china first began to make other kinds of art. Especially in southern china, people began to make things out of lacquer the coloured red sap of the lac tree painted onto wood. You used lacquer to make beautiful light weight boxes, dishes, and even small statuettes. And at the end of the Eastern Chou period, about 300 BC, people also began to paint scenes with people and landscapes onto silk.

MusicAn ancient Chinese myth tells of the

discovery of the "foundation tone," which, in addition to being a musical note of specific pitch, also had political implications, since each dynasty was thought to have its own "proper pitch." Tones are an indispensable part of Chinese literature, as characters in poetry and prose were chosen according to tones and rhymes for their euphony. This use of language helps in reconstructing the pronunciation of Old Chinese and Middle Chinese, since the Chinese writing system is logographic.

Festivals• Chinese New Year~The Chinese New Year is the most important of all the

festivals. It falls somewhere between late January and late February, depending on the Lunar (moon) calendar.

• Ching Ming~The Ching Ming festival is celebrated in April and is known as

"Remembrance of Ancestors Day". Thousands of Chinese visit cemeteries to clean the graves of their loved ones. On Ching Ming, willow twigs and branches are hung in doorways to ward off the evil spirits.

• Tin Hau (T'ien Hou)~The Tin Hau festival is celebrated on the 23rd day of the

Third Moon (late April, early May). The day is set aside to honour a young girl named Mo Niang. She was re-named Tin Hau, the "Queen of Heaven", and is the "Mother" of boat people and sailors.

Festivals (Continued)

• Birthday of Buddha• It is observed on the eighth day of the Fourth Moon Buddha

is the sacred name given to a man called Siddhartha Gautama, the founder of the Buddhist religion. He is called Buddha by his followers, which means "The Enlightened One".

• Cheng Chau Festival (Festival of the Bun Hills)• The Cheung Chau Festival begins on the eighth day of the

Fourth Moon and lasts for four days. It is one of the most unusual and dangerous of all Chinese festivals

• Huge structures towering in the sky have been built and covered to the top with bread buns. In the past, a signal was given and the young scrambled up the towers, picking as many buns as they could hold. It is believed the more buns you grabbed, the more good luck blessings you received

Festivals (Continued)

• Tuen Ng (Dragon Boat) Festival• Dragon Boat Festival is held on the fifth day of the Fifth Moon,

usually in June. The day is set aside to honour the death of Wut Yuan, the famous Chinese port and patriot. Dragon Boats are decorated with colourful pennants and a fierce head of a dragon at the front of the boat

• Mid Autumn Festival• This festival is held on the fifteenth day of the Eight month.

People travel to high places to make sure they have a good view of the moon. Traditionally, children carried lanterns of animal shapes lit by candles.

• "Mooncakes" are also an important part of the festivities. In the 14th Century, a revolt against the Mongols developed, and messages of the revolution were written on paper, then baked into the cakes. The secret messages were smuggled to the revolutionists. Now the mooncakes are given to friends and relatives during the festival.

ScienceIn Ancient China science seems to have been oriented mainly towards engineering and practical inventions, and not so much towards theoretical ideas about how the natural world worked. About 450 BC, during the Warring States period, Chinese blacksmiths invented the crossbow. It was in Han Dynasty China that paper was first invented, and about the same time that the magnetic compass, for telling north from south, was also invented there.

Scientists in China also invented gunpowder. During the Three Kingdoms period, about 250 AD, Zhuge Kongming invented an early hot air balloon that people also used in war.

ConclusionWe learned that ancient China is like

modern Canada, there are a lot of similarities. Like that you both have to work, (Canada, chores. China, working in the fields). But beside the fact that there are similarities, there are also differences. Such as, you cant go to school unless your father could spare you and that you have to go to school. In conclusion, this project has taught us a lot of interesting things we never knew before.

Fun FactsGreat wall of china is not a continuous wall, it’s a collection of short walls that often follow the crest of hills on the southern edge of the Mongolian plain.

Beijing held the 2008 summer Olympics. There mascots were Beibei, the fish, Jingjing, the Panda, Huanhuan, the Olympic Flame, Yingying, the Tibetan Antelope, and Nini, the Swallow.

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