PP Notes India/China

India

Harappa
Harappa - Indus River Valley, North of Mohenjo-Daro.
Grid patterns, walled, construction standardized
Citadels - public meeting houses (assemblies/worship)
Public bath houses, granaries, and track housing
Advanced sewage system

Complex social structure
Pantheon religion
May have spawned Yoga
priest class (fertility)
Traded with Mesopotamia, China, Burma.



Down fall:
Flooding, climate change (monsoons)
Earthquakes
Immigrant populations
Decline in planning, building and destruction of dikes and canals




Four classes in society:

Brahmans (Priests)

Warriors

Merchants/Commoners

Untouchables (Darker skinned people)





Polytheists
Most important warrior god: Indra
Gods were related to specific duties. (Did also have female gods.)
Animal sacrifice
Songs of worship
Eventually hymns were written: Vedas


Did NOT believe in reincarnation
Discouraged then outlawed inner-mixing
Hinduism derives from Aryan religion, combined with Indus beliefs
Later Buddhism would emerge.

CHINA
Warrior Kings
Huanghe River
Shang 1500 – 1122 BCE
Nomadic warriors
Advanced military techniques
Ruler - intermediary between gods and people
Ruler responsible for fertility of nation
Shang Society
Anyang – capital city
Complex bureaucracy, local leaders
Royals lived in walled towns (compounds)
Vassals provided tribute & soldiers for king, from commoners
Royalty, artisans, farmers, merchants, shamans, slaves
Traditional housing sunken earth dwellings


Land worked in teams
Miller, wheat, beans and rice
Marriage and family patrilocal
Domesticated silk worm, made silk, used bronze and pottery


Religion
Focused on ritual, sacrifice (including human) and oracles
Shamans helped leaders in asking for successful crops and offspring
Offerings: grain, wine, incense and animals (placed in elaborate bronze vessels)
Human sacrifice: war and in burial with King

Oracles functioned: harvests, wars, journeys and marriages
Spiritual readings taken from cracked animal bone and tortoise shell
Writing emerged and consisted of 3000 characters by 1100 BCE
Bones, bamboo, silk, wood and eventually paper were used for recording writing

Zhou Dynasty
Zhou Dynasty
Turkic-speaking nomadic people, originally vassals to the Shang
By 12th century BCE, overpowered the Shang, and maintained a dynasty until 3rd millennium BCE
Wu – first ruler who expanded eastern and southern boarders (claimed Zhou lost Mandate)


Two capitals: Xian and Loyang
Originally tried to separate from indigenous people
Used forced labor for roads, irrigation projects and military service

Changes Under Zhou
More rigid hierarchy – government more centralized
More patriarchal society
Shi emerged (men of service) – scholar administrators
Emphasis placed on refined manners and decorum
Human sacrifice ended

All vassal states were annexed
Trouble makers were forced to migrate to secure Zhou land
Feudalism- Formal oaths of allegiance, fief granting
Zhou rulers gained loyalty and military service in exchange for fiefs

Religion
Mandate of Heaven
Annual fertility sacrifices in capital cities
Ancestor worship
Elaborate ceremonies and rites used to receive “divine blessings”
Writing continued to be important


Agriculture
Improved agricultural techniques:
Four pronged hoe
Improved irrigation
Millet, wheat and rice
Increased productivity (farms)
Farms further away had much greater freedom