China

Question 1

What do you know about the Shang Dynasty?

Answer 1

1. The dynasty would often do human sacrifice to stop the flooding of the Yellow River
2. First Chinese Dynasty to develop an irrigation system
3. First Chinese Dynasty Ever
4. Settled on the Yellow River
5. Lasted for 550 years

Question 2

What do you know about the Zhou Dynasty?

Answer 2

1. Expanded China to the Yangtzi River
2. Was the first Chinese Dynasty to establish a feudal system (feudalism)
3. Longest Dynasty in China’s history
4. Decentralized their government, so the emperor of China had very little power
5. Forced everyone to use the same language, in order to bring about cultural unity

Question 3

What do you know about the Period of Warring States?

Answer 3

1. Lasted 300 years
2. A violent period of China’s history where lords were at war with other lords
3. Three ideas came out of this period: Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism. These ideas were attempts to stop the violence

Question 4

What do you know about the Qin Dynasty?

Answer 4

1. First dynasty to be legalist
2. Was the first to begin construction on the Great Wall of China
3. Constructed the Terracotta Army
4. Lasted only 15 years
5. Ended human sacrifice
6. Forced people to write pictographs the exact same way
7. Dynasty ended when the Emperor accidentally killed himself drinking mercury

Question 5

What do you know about the Han Dynasty?

Answer 5

1. Was the first Chinese Dynasty to adopt Confucianism
2. Was the first to construct Confucian schools so that (rich) parents could send their kids to learn about Confucianism
3. Was the first to give Civil Service Exams to determine who would work for the government
4. Developed steel, paper, and the compass
5. Used the silk road extensively (alot) to sell their silk and porcelain
6. Expanded the Great Wall

Question 6

What were the reasons for Han Decline?

Answer 6

1. Government corruption
2. Rich people would avoid paying their taxes
3. Han-Xiongnu War: Although the Han won the war, they went broke trying to defend themselves, leading to the collapse of the government

Question 7

What do you know about the Three Kingdoms Period?

Answer 7

1. The deadliest, most violent period in Chinese History

Question 8

What do you know about the Sui Dynasty?

Answer 8

1. They re-introduced legalism into China
2. They constructed granaries to store food for times of drought when you couldn’t grow any food
3. They constructed the Grand Canal, which connected the Yellow River and the Yangtzi River

Question 9

What do you know about the Tang Dynasty?

Answer 9

1. Re-established Confucianism
2. Re-introduced Confucian schools
3. Re-introduced Civil Service Exam
4. Invented fireworks, which eventually led to gunpowder
5. The Tang were very militaristic, placing a very big importance on the military
6. Most land of any Chinese Dynasties
7. Started the practice of footbinding

Question 10

What do you know about the Song Dynasty?

Answer 10

1. Smallest military of any Dynasty
2. Largest bureacracy of any Chinese Dynasty
3. Lost 1/2 of its size (compared to the Tang) because the military couldn’t defend itself
4. Continued the Civil Service Exam
5. Continued Confucian Schools
6. Continued Footbinding
7. Discovered woodblock printing

Question 11

Why did the Song Dynasty Decline?

Answer 11

1. High Taxes
2. government corruption
3. Conquered by Mongols

Question 12

What do you know about the Yuan Dynasty?

Answer 12

1. It was the only dynasty not controlled by Chinese people
2. They relied heavily on trade, especially the silk road
3. Non-Chinese people were the only ones allowed to work for the government
4. Eliminated the Civil Service Exam
5. Made it illegal for Chinese people to learn Mongol language
6. Largest dynasty in history ever
7. Made it illegal for Chinese people to marry Mongol people

Question 13

Why did the Yuan Dynasty decline?

Answer 13

1. Government corruption led to inefficiency in the entire Chinese economy, leading to massive food shortages. These food shortages caused mass starvation in China.
2. While there was mass starvation happening in China, a disease appeared in China called “The Black Death”. This disease is also referred to as the Bubonic Plague. It would eventually spread to Europe.

Question 14

What do you know about the Ming Dynasty?

Answer 14

1. The Ming Dynasty was started by Zhu, a guy who lost most of his family to the disease and starvation that took over China in the last decade of the Yuan Dynasty.
2. As Emperor, Zhu passed laws that forced any scholar-gentry (Confucian government workers) caught of corruption to face public beatings on their buttocks.
3. Zhu also passed laws saying that the only women who could be in the Emperor’s harem were those from poor families. This resulted in a huge increase in women in the harems.
4. Zhu brought Confucianism back to China, bringing back the Civil Service Exam and the schools which prepared students for the exam.
5. Zhu made it more difficult to pass the exam and created extra Civil Service Exams for positions in government which were more important.

Question 15

Who is Zheng He?

Answer 15

Zheng He was a Chinese explorer and admiral who was in charge of leading hundreds of Chinese ships to India, the Middle East, and Africa for the purpose of exploring the area. Zheng He brought back giraffes and Camels.

The Scholar-Gentry (Confucian government workers) did not like Zheng He, and thought that he was wasting his time. The scholar-gentry were able to convince the Emperor that Zheng He was wasting his time. After Zheng He’s expeditions, China closed itself to the world, never to explore again.

Question 16

Why did the Ming Dynasty decline?

Answer 16

1. Like many dynasties before it, Government Corruption was a major factor in the decline of the Ming Dynasty.
2. Many of the laws that were passed when Emperor Zhu first became Emperor to make China less corrupt were erased by future emperors who thought the rules were stupid and pointless.

A new dynasty would begin, in the hopes of bringing back China to its former greatness. Unknown to the people, this new dynasty, the Qing Dynasty, would be the last Dynasty in Chinese history.

Question 17

What were the major accomplishments of the Qing Dynasty?

Answer 17

1. The first dynasty to be ruled by the “Manchu” People.
2. 2nd largest Chinese Dynasty ever (the first largest Chinese dynasty was the Tang)
3. Continued the Confucian bureaucracy and Confucian schools
4. Lowered taxes and tried to create incentives for more trade

Question 18

How were the Mongols and Manchus different?

Answer 18

1. Manchu people are people who are of mixed Chinese and Mongol ancestry
2. They were similar to Mongols because they were outsiders (not technically 100% Chinese)
3. DIFFERENT FROM MONGOLS because they were wannabe Chinese people– They pretended like this was an ordinary Chinese dynasty that was ruled by an ordinary Chinese group

Question 19

What were the Opium Wars?

Answer 19

The Opium Wars were wars fought between the British and the Chinese(Qing Dynasty). The British wanted to sell opium to China but China didn’t want them to.

Both Opium Wars resulted in British victories

Question 20

What was the Taiping Rebellion?

Answer 20

Started in Southern China, a Christian prophet named Hong, who thought he was the 2nd coming of Jesus Christ. He wanted to overthrow the Confucian system and overthrow the Qing Dynasty. He failed.

Question 21

What was the self-strengthening movement

Answer 21

It was a movement in China during the late 1800s (Qing Dynasty) to counter the influences of Europe

Question 22

What was the Boxer Rebellion?

Answer 22

An attempt by people in China(Qing Dynasty) to get rid of European influence that was secretly supported by the Qing Dynasty.

It failed because the western powers (Like England, France, Germany, and the USA) sent in their armies to force China into submission.

Question 23

What caused the Qing Dynasty to collapse?

Answer 23

The people felt that the Qing Dynasty wasn’t strong enough to fight back against European western powers like England, France, Germany, and USA. China was so weak, that Japan had invaded it and controlled 1/3 of China.

The person that led the revolt against the Qing Dynasty was Sun Yat-sen. He succeeded at overthrowing them and was elected President of China in 1911.

Question 24

Who was Mao Zedong?

Answer 24

Mao Zedong was a person who wanted China to break away from European control but disagreed with Sun Yat-sen on how to accomplish their independence.

Mao Zedong was communist and believed that communism would be best for China and established the Communist party in China

Question 25

Who was Sun Yat-sen?

Answer 25

Sun Yat-sen was a nationalist who supported the creation of a liberal democracy like the United States and England.

Sun would go on to create the Guomindang, which was a nationalist party that intended to create a liberal democracy. He died in 1925 and leadership of the Guomindang went to Chiang Kai-Shek

Question 26

How did the Communist party and Nationalist party treat each other?

Answer 26

The Communists and Nationalists hated each other but they put aside their differences to fight the Japanese together, who had invaded China.

Question 27

Who’s side did Mao Zedong (communist) and Chiang Kai-Shek (nationalist) take during World War II?

Answer 27

They sided with the Allies (like the USA) against the Japanese and Germans.

Question 28

What was the rape of Nanking?

Answer 28

It was when Japan attacked a city and allowed their soldiers to rape and kill over 300,000 Chinese people in Nanking. No one was spared.

Question 29

Who ended up controlling China after World War II?

Answer 29

The Communists ended up beating the Nationalists. The Communist Party, led by Mao Zedong, turned China into a Communist country.

Mao Zedong forced the Nationalists, who were led by Chiang Kai-Shek, to an island called Taiwan.

Taiwan was under British control until 2000. They are still a liberal democracy but China is, currently, trying to force them into Communism.

Question 30

Who is the current President of Communist China and what makes him different from other Presidents?

Answer 30

The President of China is Xi Jinping

What makes him special is that he changed China’s communist constitution to allow him to be President for life, making him much more similar to an ancient Chinese Emperor than President.