Geography

Ancient China was in the Eastern part of Asia. Ancient China didn’t have any relations to other countries because it was isolated, there was huge mountains called the Himalaya's that are on one side of ancient China didn’t allow anyone to cross over. The Pacific ocean, South China sea, East China sea, Num Lake, Qinghai Lake, Dongting Lake, and Poyang Lake were all surrounding ancient China. In ancient China the summers were hot and the winters were cold. In the Northern parts of ancient China the summers were colder than in the main part but still warm and the winters were also colder than the main part of ancient china. In the south parts of ancient China the summers were hot and rainy and the winters were cooler than the summer. In ancient China there are two powerful and huge rivers that were in ancient China, they were called the Huang He river and the Chang Jiang river. There is a huge mountain the no one can get by called the Himalaya Mountains. In ancient China there is a Taklamakan Desert and the Plateau of Tibet.

History

Ancient China started in 2000 B.C and ended in 1911 A.D. The civilization ended because Britain started a war with ancient China, but ancient China lost so Britain took over. Ancient China only had two enemies because no one else could get in, there enemies were Britain and the Mongols. Ancient China make a lot of things like paper, silk, gunpowder, the compass, the wheelbarrow, steel, and started calligraphy. They also learned how to move water for farming and how to predict earthquakes. Ancient China had a big impact on the ancient world and other civilizations like Confucius’s religious ideas that spread across Eastern Asia. The reason why the ancient Chinese built the Great Wall of China is because they wanted to keep people from invading.

People

In the Xia Dynasty there was 13.55 million people, in the Qin Dynasty there was 20 million people, and in the Han Dynasty there was 59.59 million people. The ancient Chinese people spoke Chinese, Mandarin, and Mongolian. Men in ancient China were in charge and got to go to work. Women in ancient China had to stay at home and look after the children and they barely got to go to work. Girls were expected to get married. Rich boy’s got educated so that they could get good jobs. Poor boys went to work as a farmer. If a girl was not wanted she would be put outside to die.

Culture

In ancient China both rich and poor ate vegetables, fruit, bread, and drank water. The rich people ate pork, chicken, lamb, geese, snakes, dogs, snails, small, birds, and drank tea. The poor people ate the animals they hunted, chickens when they stopped laying eggs, but they rarely ate meat. In ancient China they had a lot of festivals like the Chinese New Years festival, the Spring festival, the Lantern festival, and many more festivals. They also had a lot of traditions like Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism. In ancient China they believed in spirits and demons, meditation, reincarnation, and Taoism. They also believed that if they went to temples they would make they relatives happy and they also worshiped their relatives. They believed that they had to keep spirits happy or else something bad would happen to them. In ancient China both poor and rich wore robes, in the summer they would wear robes that were thin and in winter they wore padded robes. Only the rich wore expensive robes that were beautiful and long.The rich also wore silk robes. The poor wore regular robes with that were not made out of silk. They poor also wore either flat shoes or none at all. The women had to have their feet wrapped tightly with cloth once they were born and they rich men wore nice shoes. In ancient China they drew art, made sculptures out of clay, they made the Terracotta Army, The Three Perfections, calligraphy, and they painted.

Government

In ancient China there were a lot of great emperors like Qin Shi Huang who ruled from 221 B.C to 210 B.C, Gaozu of Han who ruled from 202 B.C to 195 B.C, Wu of Han who ruled from 141 B.C to 87 B.C, Taizong who ruled from 626 A.D to 649 A.D, Empress Wu Zetian who ruled from 690 A.D to 705 A.D, Kublai Khan who ruled from 1260 A.D to 1294 A.D, Hongwu Emperor who ruled from 1368 A.D to 1398 A.D, and Kangxi Emperor who ruled from 1661 A.D to 1722 A.D. To become an emperor they had the people had to vote on a new emperor, but sometimes when they had to vote people got killed over disputes. Also when the emperor died and he had a son or sons the oldest son would get to be the new emperor. In the social class the emperor was above everyone else, they highest class was the officials, the second highest class was the farmers, the third highest class the artisans, and the lowest class was the merchants. Even though the farmers were the second highest class most of them were poor. In ancient China there were laws like the poor people couldn’t wear silk, the emperor was the only person that could wear the color yellow, and all crimes had a punishment.

Economy

In ancient China people had jobs like being a farmer, working for the government, being a doctor, a warrior, craftsmen, merchants, and artisans. The people in ancient China shells and coins with ancient Chinese symbols on them for currency. They used shells because they were light enough to carry, but then they started to use coins instead. Ancient China traded teas and other nice things but they mainly traded silk. They traded silk to ancient Rome, Asia, Japan, Europe, and Hong Kong. They also traded their inventions to other parts of ancient China.

Leisure

In ancient China the Chinese people liked to play music, dance, play board games, play cards, fly kites, make art, and sing. Farmers farmed all year long but only farmed for the government once a month every year. Rich boys went to school and poor boys went and farmed or went to trade with their fathers. Women and girls stayed home all day. Men went to work or went to train for wars. Men either worked for the government or went and traded.

Today

The unique effects that ancient China has made on life today is starting calligraphy, making silk, making paper, and making the compass. Recently people have found European DNA in the parts ancient China use to be. People are rewriting history of the great emperor who created the Terracotta Army. People have found ducks, swans, and cranes made out of bronze on the Terracotta Army tombs that the ancient Greeks might have influenced the ancient Chinese to do. A metal bolt was found inside an ancient Chinese prince’s skull.