# GEP1005 Week 6 Part 1

**Channel:** BAUGO
**Source:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99NxCzA05mo
**Transcript page:** https://www.withtranscript.ai/video/99NxCzA05mo

## Chapters

- 0:16 — Origins of Chinese River Civilization
- 3:51 — Shang Dynasty Society and Beliefs
- 9:32 — Zhou Rule and Mandate of Heaven
- 12:14 — Eastern Zhou Decline and New Ideas

## Transcript

**[0:16]:** hello in this chapter you are going to learn about one more riverale civilization which is in china before talking about china let me make a brief summary of what we have covered up until now we saw the reasons of the emergence of civilizations around the rivers in the middle east and asia in the bronze age the first civilization emerged in mesopotamia in the form of different states and empires around the euphrates and tigris rivers its neighbor egypt became home to another civilization around the nile river you also learned about the indian civilization around the indus and kanji servers today you are going to listen emergence of another civilization in asia around the yellow river the chinese civilization key concepts of this chapter are yellow river shang kingdom the zoo deity above city-state confucius taoism ken han about 4000 bc in the bronze age agriculture began in china on the bands of the yellow river asia

**[1:26]:** had four great river systems yellow river is located in the northern part of the others youngs the westerner and the red river are the others in the same age with aryan invasions of india the largest and most enduring civilization in human history was formed around the yellow river in china approximately 1500 bc the yellow river was named for its fertile color of soil which is washed into the river there were rich soil and water supplies around the yellow river that made the land very fertile its creeks made the region around the order's desert suitable for the settlement and cultivation controlling the river by building dykes was the main preoccupation of the chinese peasants and rulers nomadic warriors established chinese civilization in the north china plain among the various kingdoms shanking them on the yellow river survived and became a unified and continuous civilization there were three phases in the chinese civilization the shang dynasty the

**[2:38]:** western zoo the eastern zoo let's begin with the shang dynasty in the early bronze age the chinese water tradition that is the construction of the irrigation channels they expect to much further in time till some four thousand years ago when their famous leader eu the great successfully managed to control the fluid from the yellow river afterwards he established a new chinese dynasty according to the semi-legendary sources you established china's first kingdom zaya however there is no archaeological evidence for the existence of xayah which might be created by later writers the chinese water tradition included large engineering achievements like the grand channel for the transportation of the goods between the north and the side of the country especially rise from the fertile north to the south in the north chinese workers constructed the great wall against the intrusive nomads and soldiers struggled to defend china against them the political center was also established in the north

**[3:51]:** in beijing before 1500 bc various small kingdoms emerged around the orders desert they were ruled by nomadic tribal groups during this time distinctive chinese culture formed with its cooking vessels cuisine and domestication of silkworm and use of it as a fabric for clothing brush appeared in china in 2000 bc one thousand years later than mesopotamia and five thousand years later done in india bronze was used for making weapons armor chariot and for ceremonial vessels like in other river valley civilizations controlling of nature through agriculture led to the emergence of a socially stratified society in the social stratification kings and lords were at the top the officials and warriors in the middle and peasants and slaves were at the bottom there was another aristocrat class that monopolized the use of weaponry class hierarchy determined the lives of people in china the shang tribe among them conquered most of other tribes and founded the shang kingdom it

**[5:12]:** became the base of the chinese civilization in the 1920s archaeological excavations revealed the capital city of the shang dynasty and yang like aryams the shanks were warlike numbers however they managed to establish an empire whose rule lasted more than six centuries in this period the irrigation systems that were established by earlier inhabitants of the yellow river were improved and greatly expanded how was the political organization in china in the bronze age political organization of china was city-state the sea states were ruled by strong kings they were considered as the highest periods of the state the kings were accepted as an intermediary between the supreme being and ordinary people people viewed the kingdom they lived in as the center of the humankind and its ruler as the ruler of all human beings the king and his officers lived in the fortified section of the city in addition to the rule of the state affairs shankings were

**[6:25]:** responsible of directing rituals for their fertility of the country and well-being of the subjects they held political economic and religious authority they were succeeded by their brothers and sometimes by sons there was a large bureaucracy in the capital anyang and enjoying cities most of the peasants and artisans were administered by the vessels who were the subordinated local rulers shared to the king the distinctive and specialized elite was supported by a peasant majority spread of trade growth of towns and cities and formulation of a written language indicated emergence of a major civilization in china by the 11th century bc the decentralized political system of china that is the city state was in decline for a long time that xiang came to an end in 1022 bc what kind of writing people developed in china chinese writing dates back to the period of shang dynasty they use tortoise shells or oracle bones and animal bones for the

**[7:41]:** aim of domination the character is of the chinese alphabet composed of leather pictures by 1400 bc the script included some 2 500 to 3 000 characters most of which can be read to this day their writings on the bamboo were lost the shangri-chord on the bronze and oracle bond survived these writings gave considerable information about the political economic social and religious life of the shang how about their religion they believe in a supreme deity above who had the authority over the people and universe there were lesser natural deities such as the moon sun earth rain wind and clouds from shang times to the present the religion based on cosmology in china observing the movements of the planets and stars people noted eclipses based on their calendar which had month of 30 days and a year of 360 days in chinese religion the cosmos is single and continuous it includes heaven earth and human beings the

**[8:59]:** heaven is a bow human being was guided by a wise and virtual ruler who mediates between cosmological forces of heaven and earth he is able to do this through his virtual power and performing sacrifices the earth is below today this type of cosmology can be seen in the city of beijing the temple of hemon in is in the south the imperial palace is in between the temple of earth is in the right the western zoo in

**[9:32]:** late bronze age is the second period in china in the volley away river which was one of the tributaries of the yellow river the zoo people used to live they were more warlike and less developed than the shang the zoo had founded a vassal state which initially recognized the shang reign according to one argument the zoo were believed to be turkic-speaking people of central asia by 12th century bc the zoo established a dynasty and dominated the political power until the 3rd century bc taking advantage of the weakness cruelty and tyranny of the last shang rulers the zoo made alliances with the city-states and conquered the shang territories in general politics of the zoo inherited the shank pattern of ruling in life the zoo ruling kept the sty-state based on agriculture they appointed kinsmen and aristocrats to other city-states as rulers the zhu king was responsible from conducting sacrifices to the dtfo for his entire family

**[10:47]:** the social hierarchy was the same of the shank kings and lords were at the top to officers and warriors in the middle and peasants and slaves were at the bottom the zoo founded the capital at lu yang in the early period of zurin a distinctive class of scholars and brokerage called the shi began to emerge and chinese civilization expanded towards youngs river under the royal house of zoo civilized development was enriched and extended as the chinese people migrated east and south from their original yellow river heartland the shang and the zoo kings differed in terms of the source of their political legitimacy the shang kings descended from shaman rulers and they did not need to justify their political and religious authority however since the zoo invaded the shang they had to justify why they were the righteous rulers not the shang the zoo argued that heaven the name of the supreme being of the zoo

**[11:56]:** was replaced the deity above the shang the heaven was terrified by the cruelty of the last shankings therefore it took the source of his power and gave it to the zoo every dynasty appealed to the concept of mandate

**[12:14]:** heaven until the 21st century the third period in the history of china is the eastern zoo in 771 bc the waywale of the zoo was invaded by barbarian nomads the zoo lost their political unity and various territorial states were established over time some states formed alliances to defend themselves against more powerful and aggressive territorial states finally by the 4th century bc 8 or 9 territorial states survived and there was a question of which one of these would unify china since the rulers focus on the survival of their kingdoms they reserved their sources for warfare they neglected public works such as dikes channels and granaries peasants were under the pressure of the heavy taxation of the rulers who put very heavy taxes to support their armies most kingdoms were dependent on the outside trade for vital materials such as horses salt and iron trade continued to exist in spite of the political fragmentation and social disorder

**[13:36]:** the usage of copper money and growing of private property were in favor of the chinese merchant class which supported armies and urban population prominent merchant families became tax collectors on behalf of the kings hence prosperity and political connections of these merchants gave them considerable power in due time centralized state structure replaced the city-state one three changes in china led to the emergence of large territorial states first the expansion of population and agriculture led to the emergence of large territorial states by the third century bc china had about 20 000 million people which made the china the most populous country of the world which is still well it second the rise of commerce was another factor that led to the emergence of territorial states roads were built and products were transported in various ways by horses ox cars camels and river boats which entered into the country in the third century bc this made possible the

**[14:51]:** transfer of products of one region to another third one another development that led to the annihilation of the city street structure was the rise of a new style army the cavalry with crossbows replaced the war chariots of the old aristocracy armies of the territorial states were numbered in the hundreds of thousands instead of all nobility professional commanders emerged with new military tactics the process of long decline of the zoo composed of political rivalries continuing wars cruelty and rewards during this long process of decline there had been debates about the solutions for the political and social ills of china in the last centuries of the eastern zoo period thinkers such as confettius and laiosi expressed their ideas and offered some suggestions in order to provide social order in china the teachings of these great philosophers blended with the ideas of some other thinkers and constituted the backbone of an ideology that still prevails in

**[16:14]:** china