Chinese Dynasties

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agricultural. They had a large army. Bronze casting was highly developed and a writing system had evolved. There commerce was highly developed and they used cowrie shells was used as currency. Shang art consisted of Bronze, pottery, and jade ornaments. Writing: The singular aspect of Shang civilization is their invention of writing. Almost all the written records of the Shang have disappeared, for the court records were kept on strips of bamboo. However, inscriptions on bronze and on the oracle bones still survive so we have specimens of the very first Chinese writings. The writing system was originally pictographic, that is, words were represented by pictures that fairly closely resembled the meaning of the word. The picture for "sun," for instance, looked much like the sun. This pictographic writing eventually developed into the more complex ideographic writing that we are more familiar with. Chinese writing is one of the only contemporary writing systems that still prominently ...

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when a king died. Lesser numbers were sacrificed at the founding of a palace or temple. F. Major reasons for decline and fall: 2. Chou: dynasty (1122-221 B.C.) that ruled ancient china from almost a thousand years establishing a distinctive political and cultural characteristics which would be identified with China for the next 2,000 years. A. Reason's for Rise: B. Territorial Location & size at height of power (map): The Chou people seemed to have been a group of semi-nomadic barbarians living on the western fringe of the north China plain. C. System of government & rule & names of noted rulers and their accomplishments: A series of feudal states: Primitive communications made it ...

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