Unit 3 PowerPoint

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1 Unit 3: China’s Classical Age

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2 Neolithic pottery figure Over the course of the fifth to third millennia B.C.E., many distinct regional Neolithic cultures emerged in China. For instance, in the northwest people made fine pottery vessels decorated in black pigment with bold designs, including spirals, sawtooth lines, and zoomorphic stick figures. Some scholars speculate that this image depicts a shaman wearing face paint. Note the snake depicted climbing the back of its head.

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3 Neolithic pottery figure Over the course of the fifth to third millennia B.C.E., many distinct regional Neolithic cultures emerged in China. For instance, in the northwest people made fine pottery vessels decorated in black pigment with bold designs, including spirals, sawtooth lines, and zoomorphic stick figures. Some scholars speculate that this image depicts a shaman wearing face paint. Note the snake depicted climbing the back of its head.

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4 Divination shell Many peoples of the ancient world believed that the gods controlled the forces of nature and shaped destinies. The Shang ruling class frequently sought information from shamans. Among the tools of divination used by a shaman were oracle bones or shells. After inscribing questions on the shell, the diviner would touch it with the heated point of a stick. The shell would crack, and the cracks were "read" as a divine response.

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5 Royal Anyang Tomb This was one of the eleven large tombs excavated at the royal burial ground at Anyang, from which the Shang kings ruled for more than two centuries. This grave, about 60 feet deep and 300 feet long, would have taken thousands of laborers many months to complete. But even more wealth was expended to fill it with bronze, stone, pottery, jade, and textile goods. Human victims were also placed in it.

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6 Ivory cup inlaid with turquoise The one royal Shang tomb not robbed before it was excavated was for Lady Hao, one of the many wives of the king Wu Ding (ca. 1200 B.C.E.). It contained sixteen human skeletons of both males and females sacrificed at her tomb, and a profusion of valuable objects, such as 460 bronze objects and nearly 750 jade objects. This ivory cup inlaid with turquoise was among the valuables.

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7 Jade piece from Lady Hao's tomb Among the valuables placed in royal Shang tombs were many jade objects, such as this figure. Since Neolithic times, jade has occupied the place of gold in China and in many other cultures; it is valued for its beauty, rarity, and endurance. This figure was one of 700 jade pieces in the tomb of Lady Hao.

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8 Women beating chimes This drawing of women beating chimes, a scene from a bronze vessel of the Zhou era, illustrates the important role of music in festivals, religious rituals, and court ceremonials. During the politically fragmented later (Eastern) Zhou era, many small states marked their independence by having their own musical scales and distinctive arrangements of orchestral instruments.

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9 Bells of Marquis of Yi Music played a central role in court life in ancient China. The tomb of the Marquis of Yi, who died about 400 B.C.E., contained 124 musical instruments, including drums, flutes, mouth organs, pan pipes, zithers, a set of 32 chime stones, and this 64-piece bell set. The bells bear inscriptions that name the two tones each bell could make, depending on where it was struck. Five men, using poles and mallets, and standing on either side of the set of bells, would have played the bells by hitting them from outside.

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10 Dagger depicting Taiyi Recent archaeological excavations of manuscripts from the Warring States Period (403-221 B.C.E.) have given us a much clearer understanding of religious beliefs and practices in early China. The deity Taiyi ("Grand One"), depicted on these drawings of a late-fourth-century B.C.E. dagger, was the god of the pole star. Sacrifices were made to Taiyi to avert evil or gain his protection in battle.

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11 China in the Shang and Zhou Periods, 1750-221 B.C.E. The Shang dynasty arose in the second millennium B.C.E. in the floodplain of the Yellow River. While Southern China benefits from the monsoon rains, northern China depends on irrigation.