Analytical Essay on Ancient Chinese Dynasties: The Xia Dynasty, Shang Dynasty, Qin Dynasty

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Did the ancient Chinese have different types of dynasties, and what timeline did they exist in?

How am I going to present my work: I will pick three dynasties in chronological order from oldest to most recent and present it in a timeline. I will include a description of key facts on each dynasty, such as duration, leaders such as Kings or Emperors, famous warriors and any famous attributes or discoveries of each dynasty.

Role: I am a historian and my job is to present a timeline of historical and cultural impactive dynasties and show to the younger generations of historians.

Factual questions:

Was there more than one type of dynasty?
What was their purpose?
What time period did it last?
Debatable questions:
Was the life of a king good?
Did they have to be warriors?

Ancient Chinese Dynasties

According to the Oxford dictionary, a Dynasty is a line of hereditary rulers of a country, or a succession of people from the same family who play a prominent role in business, politics or another field’. In the history of China, there have been many dynasties that have impacted greatly upon the country and its civilisation. For example, cultural influence from the introduction of the Chinese Zodiac calendar which is still used in modern times. Other historic dynasties were known for modernising warfare including the weapons and defence of their time, or others which were known to unite the warring states of China and building famous historical artefacts such as the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Warriors. Since the first recorded history of ancient China, there have been 83 dynasties and 559 emperors. The first known dynasty was the Xia Dynasty lasting 630 years from 2205BC-1575BC. The longest ruling was the Zhou dynasty, lasting 867 years from 1122-255 BC, whilst the Qin Dynasty was the shortest ruling, lasting 15 years from 221 BC to 206 BC.

The Xia Dynasty 2205BC – 1575BC

Before any known or recorded Chinese dynasties, it is believed that there were three Sovereigns that had God-like powers that helped create humanity and invented things like hunting, fishing, writing, medicine, and farming. After the Three Sovereigns came the Five Emperors, who ruled until the beginning of the Xia Dynasty. The Xia Dynasty (pronounced shi-a) is believed to be the first dynasty in ancient China. Because of a lack of physical evidence and artefacts, many historians still debate if the dynasty was real or just a legend, but mainly believed to have started in 2205 BC through to 1575 BC. The Xia dynasty was created by King Yu The Great, who showed great ability and made a name of himself by building canals to stop floods after his father, Gun failed. Most people during the Xia dynasty were farmers. Everyday tools were made from stone and bone but they were also responsible for inventing bronze casting.

When Yu died his son Qi took over, marking the start of a dynasty where the leaders came from the same family and the descendants of King Yu the Great would rule for the next 600 years. There were seventeen rulers of the Xia dynasty, some were viewed as unselfish rulers like King Yu because they cared for their country and its people over themselves. Others were called evil tyrants such as the last ruler King Jie, who was a cruel and oppressive ruler and was overthrown by the Shang Dynasty.

Chinese Zodiac Calendar

The Xia Dynasty is believed to be the first dynasty to introduce the Chinese Zodiac Calendar. This was based on a myth about the Jade Emperor and 13 animals, the rat, ox, tiger, pig, rooster, dog, sheep, rabbit, monkey, horse, dragon, snake and cat. There are many varying stories and legends of the Zodiac animals, but one is when the Jade Emperor gathered the animals to race against each other and whoever won would be put first on the calendar, then in order of finishing. As the cat and the rat didn’t know how to swim, before the race started they both made a plan to ride the ox since he was big and able to walk through the river. They asked the ox who agreed, so they both hopp¬ed on for a ride across. During the race the ox was in the lead with the cat and rat on his head, the rat wanted to win so he pushed the cat off the ox and the cat fell in the river and hissed as she realised she had no chance of winning. The ox was about to pass the finish line until the rat lept off to the finish line, “I got played by a rat!” the ox said as he came in second. The tiger came third as he was swimming underneath the water. The rabbit was in fourth as he hopped easily along the rocks to get across but he worried if he didn’t pick up his pace he would lose his spot. He slipped backwards into the river and saw a log float towards him heading in the direction to the finish line so he then hoped on the log to get across faster. The Jade Emperor was confused why the dragon wasn’t coming first and then he saw the dragon in the air majestically flying towards the finish line. The Jade Emperor asked what took him so long which he replied “I saw a village in need as the crops caught on fire and I couldn’t just leave them there, so I went over and blew it out myself. But I had to be careful so I didn’t set on fire more myself, I then saw the rabbit in need so I blew over the log and helped him get to the finish line, it’s more important to help others then your own.” The Jade Emperor nodded and replied “very well good job”, and the dragon came fifth. As they finished their conversation the horse galloped across the river, but as he was about to cross the line he saw something slither in the grass and jumped back when he realised it was the snake. He lost six places because of his fear so he came in seventh as the snake came in six. In the distance, they could see a raft with a rooster, monkey and a sheep working hard to finish together. They let the sheep come in eighth since she formed the group, the monkey in ninth and the rooster in tenth. Then came the dog all soaked and using all his might to get up on the bank to finish eleventh. The pig who stopped for food on the way didn’t really care and finished last. In the end, the cat didn’t make it to the finish line, so now the cat doesn’t like the rat anymore. The importance of this culture story is that each animal has its own personality and people in the same Chinese Zodiac sign also share these traits.

Chinese Zodiac Calendar and Animals

Source: https://internchina.com/chinese-zodiac-animal-of-the-year-calculated-by-the-lunar-calendar/
Source: https://community.travelchinaguide.com/forum2.asp?i=71298

Shang Dynasty 1600BC-1046BC

King Jie from the prior Xia dynasty wasn’t very popular as he only cared for himself. A high-ranking warrior named Tang was very strong and gathered enough of the army and civilians to help overthrow King Jie from his power and became the new ruler. With him begun the new Shang dynasty. The Shang dynasty was the first dynasty with physical historic evidence, unlike the Xia Dynasty which was based on myths and historical theories. It started in 1600BC to 1046 BC and was the start of the bronze age. The Shang dynasty was in the yellow river valley in northeast China. King Tang was known as a compassionate ruler and had support from 40 smaller kingdoms, successfully ruling for 17 years. As King Tang did not have any sons to succeed the throne, the Kingship was passed to his aide. But as his aide wasn’t skilled to be a leader, the Dynasty fell in strength over time. The last king of Shang, Zhou was named the “mad” king and he was known as the worst king ever in China because he was similar to King Jie as only cared for himself and not his people and he only used his assistants for own personal use such as wine and drinking. In the end, the Shang gained power by strength, wisdom and compassion but fell due to poor leadership similar to the Xia Dynasty.

The Shang dynasty was known for their inventions in warfare defences and weapons, and knowledge and wisdom compared to most other civilisations at the time.

Shang Dynasty Inventions and Warfare

The Shang Dynasty was known for their inventions and knowledge, which were mainly for war and defending their state. They invented daggers, some were weapons made from bronze, or made from jade and used for decorations or ceremonies such as funerals. They would use daggers to surprise an enemy in an instant or when trying to assassinate a target. They called it a dagger axe because you could hold it and use it like an axe. As they were good with wood, the Shang dynasty also invented chariots. A fully decorated chariot would be covered by bronze ornaments and bronze screws to keep it together. A chariot would normally have three people in it, one driving and the other two would be using a long sword to attack the opposing enemies. Or two people both driving and using their other hand to attack, but this would be risky since you would have less control of the horse.

The Shang dynasty didn’t just make warfare items, using their knowledge they also made household items and other medicine to cure illness and stress. They invented the teapot which we still use today, it was made from bronze and could also be used for wine in special occasions. The Chinese would only use small bowled-shaped cups to drink tea and would also put medicine in the tea if they were feeling ill. They also invented acupuncture which was sharp small pin-like objects made from stone, inserted into certain parts of the body to help relieve muscle stress before or after a war. But there biggest and most popular invention was the chopsticks although it was used in the Xia dynasty, the Shang dynasty changed the chopsticks so both sticks would have equal lengths and made it more common to china. It was originally made to dip vegetables into soup and other liquids such as sauces since it was hard to do it with a spoon. Back when the mad king Zhou was alive, he wanted his craftsman to use elephant trunks since it was very luxurious at that time. The Shang dynasty then introduced it to other oriental counties such as Japan and Korea.

Pictures of bronze daggers, jade daggers, axe daggers, chariots, teapots and cups, and acupuncture chopsticks.

Qin Dynasty 221BC – 206BC

Due to the fall of the Shang dynasty, a man named Qín Shǐ Huáng rose up and started the next dynasty named the Qin dynasty (pronounced chin). It was the shortest of all the 83 dynasties, starting at 221BC to 206 BC. But it was one of most important ones for Chinese history and had a cultural impact on the following dynasties. The Qin dynasty was located on the Min River in Sichuan and was the first dynasty to introduce the Emperor of China who was Qín Shǐ Huáng. He always killed anyone who he thought was a threat to the dynasty including his parents and kids. There were many times where people tried to kill him and that was his greatest fear of betrayal. But he would always blame the guards for not being there when is trying to be assassinated. In the end, he was an effective leader, if it wasn’t for him China wouldn’t be the same today, he made a lot of things in is time as emperor, he did good things such as uniting the warring states which was a big war between the dynasties fighting over land. He also did bad things such as killing innocent kids because he thought it would be a treat to his royalty. When Qín Shǐ Huáng died two of his advisors tried rising to the throne which started a war that leaded them both to death, and the qin son died in the war which result to the end of the qin dynasty. Then started the Han dynasty.

Qin Dynasty Historic ITEMS??? Great Wall of China and Terracotta Warriors

The Qin dynasty was also known for there During this dynasty, they started to build the Great wall of china to defend Genghis khan and Mongolia to attack it took 200 years to build and it was longer then the dynasty itself it then was finished by the Qing dynasty. This was also the year China invented the terracotta warriors which was for the afterlife of king Qín Shǐ Huáng so he wouldn’t be alone when he died and so he could send wars when he was dead. The terracotta warriors were originally painted but the paint then dried of and all you can see is the terracotta. Each warrior was unique, there were a different types of warriors such has archers swords men and defenders.

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