Political System In Ancient China

China during the classical period, a span of time stretching from 1000 B.C.E.-500 C.E., was ruled by many families, each having their own dynasty. The very first dynasty of this period was the Zhou, coming into power after overthrowing the Shang. The last Shang emperor, Di Xin, had essentially abandoned matters of the state in favor of hedonistic activities, using tax money to fund them and therefore becoming very unpopular. This caused the Zhou uprising which led to the establishment of the Mandate of Heaven, a concept that not only allowed the Zhou to gain and maintain cultural power of the Chinese people, but led to widespread notions in Chinese society of the validity of autocracy and a need for extremely centralized government that would

Although the foundation of both empires was built upon political integration, their organization of government differed. The Han Dynasty’s centralized power and administration was based on a bureaucratic system while the Roman Empire’s imperial power was based on a one-man sovereign. In order to improve Chinese society, which was under tyrannical rule under the Qin Dynasty, the Han Empire centralized their government with the synthesis between an imperial family and the new scholar-gentry class under a bureaucratic system. By securing power to overthrow the Qin Dynasty, Liu Bang provided lands to those military supporters who helped with the task. From the land grants given, the royal families and supporters were entitled

One of the primary aspects of social structure in China was class. In the Classical Era, the Han and Qin dynasties ran China as a bureaucracy based on a person’s importance to society. One of the main reasons status did not pertain to the amount of wealth a person had is that during this time, China was an agrarian based society, which meant that farmers did

Agriculture helped set a hierarchy for these classical civilizations. For example, China categorized groups of people according to their ability, as opposed to India, by their status. China was divided into four main bands: scholars—included aristocratic people who studied to stay at a high rank and the bureaucratic scholarly elite—respected

Despite being the shortest ruling dynasty at fifteen years, the Qin dynasty served a vital role in the development of China’s civilization (51). The Qin dynasty was prefaced by a period of instability caused by an ineffective political system and war between several regions all vying to overtake the others. After the Qin kingdom rose as the victor, King Cheng established for himself the title of Shi huangdi, or emperor, and looked to create a political system that would prevent the empire from fragmenting again. To achieve such a centralized government, Shi Huangdi sacrificed his people’s intellectual freedom and lives and produced a connected and standardized China, whose efficiency and strength still impacts the vision

Some ancient civilization depend on rivers for their agriculture like Mesopotamian, Egypt, India, and China. Neolithic Mesopotamian and Chinese civilization learned to adjust to climate by using a systematic agriculture of farming and herding, living sedentary and developing a pottery, allowing the preparation and storing food and water. Over time other civilization such Indus Valley from India learned to predict a flooding of the river and use it to their benefit. Unlike the Canaanites society from Egypt in which believed to sacrifice an infant and child in the name of the earth god(Baalim)and goddess(Baalot) to ensure a prosperous harvest.

The Han Dynasty was the second imperial dynasty right after the Qin Dynasty, so there are major similarities between the two. One of those is the social structure of the country. The system consists of three tiers. Bureaucrats and government officials are on top, skilled laborers such as farmers and blacksmiths were the middle class, and servants and merchants were the bottom class. The country was ran by the Emperor and his/her royal family. Importantly the social class did not impact the wealth or power of each individual or family, it only indicated their status. This is how order was established throughout this civilization.

The Egyptian politics and economy was directed by the pharaoh’s government, and this may have been because of the irregularity and complexity of the Nile’s overflow. Thanks to its early unity along the river of Nile, the Ancient Egyptian civilisation didn’t have as much political issues such as the Zhou Dynasty. Meanwhile, the Zhou ruled through alliances, which means that the emperor would have not had direct control of all of Zhou’s territory. This is known as China’s feudal period, where supporters of the emperor were asked to provide troopers and tax revenues. The central government would then provide them with land in return. This weakened the emperor’s strength in government and in order to strengthen their power throughout Zhou, the emperors introduced a few methods. For example, they claimed a ‘mandate of heaven’, a concept that states there can be only one ruler at a time. Emperors of Zhou also tried to unite Zhou in cultural aspects, by means such as supporting and promoting the use of the Mandarin language. The Ancient Egyptian civilisation and the Zhou had their similarities in the fact that they both had a single ruler, but while Egyptian pharaohs had a firm hold of their society, the emperors of Zhou failed to do

There was many dynasties and empires to come about between 200 BCE and 600 CE. One specific dynasty was the Han dynasty. This dynasty was involved in the unification of China. This dynasty was formed by Lia Bang and lasted from 206 BCE to 220 CE, with an interruption phase from 9 CE to 23 CE.The Han dynasty was between decentralized and centralized. Han Wudi was the greatest emperor of this dynasty, who pursued centralization and expansion. There was constant attacks from Xiongnu nomads of C. Asia; however, Han Wudi briefly came to control Xiongnu. Wang Mang, the regent for a two year old emperor, took power himself. He tried to redistribute land, but the wealthier people that did not want to get some of their land taken away assassinated him. In the later Han dynasty, emperors manage with struggles to control resentment. Another succession to come about was the Roman empire. The Roman empire started out as a republic, but soon Julius Caesar Seized Rome in 49 B.C.E. Julius Caesar centralized control but was eventually assassinated in 44 B.C.E. After Julius came Octavian, who ran a monarchy that was disguised as a republic. Octavian continued expansion and integration of the empire. There was an extreme amount of poor people; in fact, one third of the population was in slavery. One of the only things that was attempted was giving them bread and circuses to distract them. There was no policy developed for them. The Roman empire went through many rulers. Although these

There were many Chinese dynasties that rose and fell throughout China’s history. The history of China, in a way, is a history of battles and wars. These wars were so important that they changed the structure of Chinese culture both then and now. Three dynasties that rose and fell during ancient China were the Han, the Tang, and the Song. The rise and fall of these great dynasties form a link that runs through Chinese history.

The origins of tea are rooted in China (Food Timeline). According to legend, the beneficial properties of tea were first discovered by the Emperor Shen Nung in the year 2737 B.C. He drank only boiled water for hygienic purposes, and one day while he drank a breeze rustled the branches of a tree and a few leaves fell into his cup. Creating the first cup of tea. It is challenging to know whether or not the emperor was real or just a part of the spiritual and cultural development of ancient China. China was not unified as an empire until the third century, so it is unlikely emperors existed back then. One thing that is known is that tea was popular in China thousands of years ago. The first written reference of tea is in the third century B.C. A famous surgeon recommended the beverage to patients to increase concentration and alertness. Tea was first written as “tu” in ancient texts. This caused a good deal of confusion because the same Chinese character was used for both tea and Chinese sow thistles. Between 206 B.C. and A.D. 220 a Han Dynasty emperor ruled that when referring to tea, the characters should be pronounced as “cha”. From here on, tracing tea’s history became easier because tea acquired its own individual character (Food Timeline).

The Sui, Tang, and Song Dynasties of China each offer numerous examples of how the past can influence the future. Ideas that were new at the time have become common-place in today’s world. And these Dynasties evolved to be very different from the ones that had come before.

Chinese Dynasties: 1. Shang: Also called Yin, dynasty that was China's earliest historically verifiable state 1766 B.C. to 1122 B.C. A. Reason's for Rise: Unlike the early accounts of history by the Chinese, there is archaeological evidence of the Shang, who built their cities in northern China around the eastern parts of the Yellow River. For this reason they are called the Yellow River civilization. They were a bronze age people; bronze-working seems to have entered China around 2000 BC (about one thousand years after its invention in Mesopotamia). B. Territorial Location & size at height of power (map): The Shang ruled the area from the North China Plain northward into present-day Shantung Province and westward to the tip of Honan

Even though the Qin Dynasty deprived the civilization of education, it created a strong bureaucratic system that limited feudal power and developed a cooperative population. Each Warring state followed a different political system, before it was conquered by Qin. The First Emperor, Qin Shi Huang, felt it was necessary to legitimize his power to unify the city states and for a cooperative population. In the Qin Dynasty, “the institution of emperor had a special meaning in China as the repository of imperial legitimacy” (Feng 2013, 249). In other words, the first emperor was given the title of being a “mythical ruler” that had godly powers and is the righteous leader of the empire based on the Mandate of Heaven

This Fresco depicting a brothel scene is from Pompeii was pictured by Mario Laporta. This piece of art reflects the hidden part of Rome. These women were interacting with many men. It shows how they were viewed and how the men who visited them thought of them. It also showed how Rome was not shy to these pictures. It gave a hope to future patrons of what they hope to gain from their visit. What this showed is that prostitution was not negatively looked at, but widely accepted