The Earliest beginnings

1) Political
a) Cities appear with warriors, administrators and priests as ruling classes
b) Rulers appeared when, in the building of canals, some body how to direct the work
c) Leaders gained power by fighting (metal weapons)
2) Intellectual
a) Planning for building canals
3) Religious
a) Modern humans
i) They were maybe ritualistic hunters thinking they honored an animal when they
killed it
ii) Sympathetic magic: belief that imitating a desired result will bring the result
iii) In cities the first priests appear as well as temples
iv) The causes for religion to appear were the economic demands and the social
complexity. Religion inspired a loyalty to the same cause in the people.
4) Artistic/religious
a) Early humans made the first cave drawings in southern France and Northern Spain
between 30000 and 12000 years ago
b) The themes of the drawing was game (maybe for hunting), like bison, bulls, ponies and
stags. They made an emphasis on movement.
5) Technology
a) Homo habilis
i) Used objects like bones, limbs, and stones with sharp edges as tools
b) Homo erectus
i) Developed hand axes picks and cleavers
ii) Also had uses for the fire
c) Neanderthal
i) They were skilled toolmakers and developed over 60 different specialized tools
ii) Started building shelters
d) Homo Sapiens
i) Charcoal sticks by mixing earth pigments with fat. They used feathers and bracken
as brushes
ii) 10000-7000/6000 B.C.E. years ago they also made tools from antlers and ivory like
fishhooks, bows and arrows.
iii) Between 9000 and 8000 B.C.E. the domestication of animals started in Iran with
sheep and goats.
iv) They also collected grains that they made flour with mortars and also had storage
pitas for the grain.
v) Some important crops around the world were wheat, , corn, sorghum, sugarcane,
soybeans, oranges, coffee, mango and potatoes.
vi) Pottery for storing grains or water.
vii) Also weaving baskets was useful for storing certain things.
viii) Weapons were optimized with the discovery of copper, a result of smelting,
(1) Daggers, battle axes, spears, slings, maces
 ix) Bronze was discovered from 3500-3000 B.C.E. as an alloy of tin and copper
x) The first canals were made in Mesopotamia
6) Economics
a) Long distance trade appeared in sedentary life (by 6500B.C.E.)
i) There wasn’t trade before because it wasn’t rentable
ii) It started with short distance gifts
b) Pillage started warfare and then one village attacked another
i) Stimulus to trade and technology
c) Villages needed surplus for being able to acquire metals.
7) Society/Social
a) Homo Habilis
i) Group cooperation
b) Homo erectus
i) Collective hunting, distribution of food and division of male and female labor.
ii) Use of language
c) Homo Sapiens
i) Trained to hunt and also shared
d) Wandering bands→ villages→ cities
i) Nomads
(1) No private property, people had similar functions, bands were united by
familiarity
ii) Villages
(1) Cohesion against invaders
(2) No specializations
iii) Cities
(1) Varied occupations
(2) Full time warriors, priests and administrators.
(3) Population increase in settlements
(4) First cities in Mesopotamia between the Tigris and Euphrates river
(5) 5 cities by 3200 B.C.E.
(6) Origins of cities brought civilizations with many issues
(a) Governmental, social and economic institutions. Problems of order,
security and efficiency
8) Additional information
a) Study of ancient cultures by archaeological artifacts and geological evidence
b) There are different approaches to history and there must be a balance to don’t be
biased.
c) The Leakey family was an important family of paleoanthropologists that found the
“Nutcracker Man” an advanced ape that walked on two legs

Mesopotamian Civilization
1) Political
a) Ruthless militias
b) For the first 900 years there was no unified government but many city states
 c) 2320 B.C.E. Sargon the Great wins 34 battles and rules Sumer and Akkad. Lasts 200
years
d) Hammurabi rules from 1792-1750 B.C.E.
e) From 1595 B.C.E. a dark age of 300 years with no unified government
f) Chaldeans became New Babylonians from 612-539 B.C.E. when they were conquered
by the Persians
2) Intellectual
a) Old Babylonians
i) Earliest “writing” 3200 BCE standardized pictures
(1) Cuneiform fully developed in 2500 B.C.E.
(a) Impressed on wet clay with a reed stylus with a triangular point.
(b) 500 characters with meaning depending on context
ii) Lunar calendar
(1) Useful for agriculture but it was not exact so they had to add a month
sometimes
iii) Multiplication, division, square roots, cube roots, reciprocals and exponential
functions.
iv) Theology, jurisprudence, astronomy, exact predictive science.
v) First law code “Code of Hammurabi” with 282 laws
(1) “eye for an eye” or “let the buyer beware”
vi) Invented division for actual day division based on the 12 (day, hour, minute,
second)
vii) Library in Nineveh that contained clay tables with virtually the entire Sumerian and
Old Babylonian literature and knowledge.
b) New Babylonians
i) Discovered 5 wandering stars that were planets (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn.
ii) Kept diaries of the night skies.
3) Religious
a) Old Babylonians
i) First they believed their gods were disembodied and later anthropomorphic
ii) Temples built as ziggurats (with steps) and were built by volunteers. Took around
5 years
iii) Priests lived in adjacent structures to the ziggurats.
iv) Gods had omnipotent power over the humans
b) New Babylonians
i) Gods lived in the heavens
ii) People could know what would happen by the movement of the planets (floods,
famine, or the fortune of the nation
4) Artistic/cultural
a) Narrative literature
i) Dialogues: they were for teaching and it showed 2 characters arguing opposing
sides.
ii) Proverbs: opinions
iii) Hymns and myths
 iv) Gilgamesh: poem about a king and his actions in a world governed by death
b) Bronze figures
c) In the dark age there were no remarkable happenings
d) The Assyrians celebrated war and slaughter
e) The Ishtar Gate and the Hanging Gardens were impressive constructions (the hanging
gardens were built by king Nebuchadnezzar II for his wife.)
f) There were effects on the Hebrew bible and religion
5) Technology
a) Wheel on 3200 B.C.E.
i) 2-wheel chariots and 4-wheel carts drawn by oxen
ii) Phalanx warfare
b) Irrigation
c) Drainage to combat salt buildup
d) Annual rotation of lands to conserve fertility.
e) Iron in 1400 B.C.E.
f) The New Babylonians invented bright colored brick
6) Economics
a) Sumer inhabitants had to rely on trade because of their lack of resources
i) Trade iron with Hittites
b) Cuneiform was invented for transactions and its use spread to all Asia
7) Society/social
a) The main cities were Uruk, Ur and Lagash
b) Because of irrigation a social structure was created because professional specialization
began
c) The schools in the temples were for priests and administrators
d) The temples were a “state within the state” with its own land and trade
e) 3 social ranks
i) Specialists: administrators, merchants, and artisans (depend on priests)
ii) Free farmers: they had bad land and usually how to go in debt with temples to
survive
iii) Slaves: they are believed to have a miserable life
f) Laws were for “men” meaning aristocrats. Normal people weren’t either men or
aristocrats
g) Individualism within the society
8) Additional Information
a) The change from Sumerians to Old Babylonians included a change in geography
(Akkad) and language. Happened gradually from 2000-1600 B.C.E

Egyptian Civilization
1) Political
a) 6 eras
 i) 3100 B.C.E. Archaic period: unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Tradition
attributes to Narmer being the first pharaoh
ii) 2770 B.C.E Old Kingdom: Zoser is the founder. The pharaoh had political and
religious power
iii) 2200 B.C.E. 1st intermedial period: Anarchy
iv) 2050 B.C.E. Middle Kingdom: eleventh dynasty
v) 1786 B.C.E. 2nd intermedial period: chaos and invasion of the Hyskos
vi) 1560 B.C.E. New Kingdom: Ahmose. Warfare and won more territory than they
could control. Corruption in the government. The pharaoh had even more power
because nobles obeyed him
b) Nubia: earliest kingship
i) 200 B.C.E. powerful queens
ii) 750 B.C.E. Kashta and Piankhy conquer all of Egypt becoming the 25 th dynasty
c) Stable monarchy in Ethiopia
2) intellectual
a) 3100 B.C.E. hieroglyphics: pictographic→ syllabic→ alphabetic
b) Calculate year with the Sirius star
c) In medicine the Egyptians discovered that diseases are natural, not coming from the
Gods. They started taking pulse, hearing the heartbeat and emphasizing on hygiene.
d) Surgery, setting fractures, suppositories, ointments, inhalants, and pharmacopeia of
herbal medical properties were also other important medicine advances.
e) In mathematics they marked the 360° on a circle. They also discovered pi, the ratio of
circumference to ratio
i) Developed formulas for finding the area of a triangle, volume of pyramids,
cylinders and hemispheres.
f) Meriotic hieroglyphs
3) Religious
a) Old Kingdom
i) Zoser built the first pyramid
ii) The pharaoh was the child of the Sun God so he married his sister to preserve the
blood.
(1) The pharaoh was also the chief priest.
b) Middle Kingdom
i) There was a democratization of religion meaning that anyone could attain
salvation if they kept a proper moral conduct.
ii) Religion went from simple polytheism to monotheism to polytheism again.
(1) The sun god was Amon or Re and they gave immortality to the state.
(2) Osiris was Isis husband and Horus dad and he appealed more for individuals.
He was the one that judged the dead
iii) Akhenaton worshipped Aton and forced people to believe in him
(1) Aton was the life giver, creator and was benevolent
iv) Tutankhamon changed to old ways
v) Religious psychology: builders believed that by participating they were achieving
their wellbeing
 c) In Nubia Kush rulers were buried in huge stone mounds with chambers that were
bigger than those on the pyramids
i) Napata, a Nubian city, became a religious center to worship Amon Re
d) In Axum King Ezana converted to Christianism in 450 C.E. to create a Christian Ethiopia
i) There were monasteries created in Ethiopia
(1) They were centers of knowledge and cultural transmission
(2) Monasteries were economically powerful
4) Artistic/cultural
a) Middle Kingdom
i) Short stories were invented
b) Pyramids were built with 25 million tons of knowledge
c) Pyramids were replaced by temples like the ones in Karnak and Luxor that had a
massive size
d) Also colossal statues of the pharaohs were made that measured from 75 to 90 feet in
height. Size meant power
e) Sometimes the Egyptians practiced nonrealistic sculpture. An example of this is the
Sphinx
i) There was also sculpture in relief which showed the profile of a person, the eyes
covered all the face, the torso was shown in front and the legs in profile.
f) During Akhenaton’s reign naturalistic art was practiced more with more realistic detail.
i) In the murals movement was shown. Akhenaton’s ideas were not lasting because
they were never really popular.
g) Nubians developed decorative pottery.
i) Both their stone pyramids and pottery were painted with geometric figures.
5) Technology
a) Before 3100 B.C.E. Egyptians wee already using stone and copper tools
b) Egyptians invented papyrus to write on
c) Today’s furniture was inspired in Egyptian furniture.
d) Egyptians also invented the precursors of some actual instruments like clarinets,
trumpets, flutes, oboes, harps and lutes and lyres
e) Nubian city, Maroë was the major iron working center. It was the first black industrial
cit south of the Sahara
f) In Axum they developed stone terracing
6) Economics
a) Egyptians had an agricultural economy with the main crops as wheat, barley, millet,
vegetables, fruits, flax and cotton
i) Theoretically all land was and of the pharaoh
b) Egyptians traded with Crete and Lebanon
i) Egypt exported gold from mines in Libya. They also exported wheat and fabric
ii) The main imports were silver, ivory and lumber.
c) There were the first factories to employ 20 people
i) Fabrics manufactured pottery, glass and textiles
ii) Industry of shipbuilding
d) Accounting and bookkeeping. Also issue orders and receipts
e) Egyptian currency was rings of copper and gold.
 f) The dealings of the poor were based mainly on barter.
g) The government was the largest employer of labor.
i) It was kind of a socialized nation with people working for the nation
ii) Anyway merchants could have their own businesses, craftsmen could own shop
and each time there were more independent farmers.
7) Social
a) The first people settled in the Nile because o the fertile soils and the floods.
b) Before 3100 B.C.E. there was settled farming.
c) There was stability and serenity because of the natural barriers the Egyptians has
(deserts and seas)
d) In the Middle Kingdom public works started with irrigation and drainage
e) During the 2nd Intermedial Period Egyptian society united against the invaders.
f) There were group dynamics in building pyramids. “team accomplishment”
g) There were 5 social classes
i) Royal family
ii) Priests
iii) Nobles
iv) Middle class: scribes, merchants, artisans and wealthy farmers
v) Peasants
vi) Sometimes there were slaves who were despised but were able to0 gain rights
(1) The gap between the rich and the poor was extreme
h) Polygamy was allowed but most people practiced monogamy
i) Women were allowed to inherit, engage in business and even rule
8) Additional information
a) The Old Kingdom was a non-militaristic society. Each local area had its own militia
b) The New Kingdom was more prepared for wars and owned a professional army

The Hebrew and Early Greek Civilizations

1) Political
 a) Hebrew
i) Hebrews fought to enter Canaan but gained very little
ii) 1025 B.C.E. there was a change from different tribes to united people
iii) David achieved victories against the Philistines
iv) Judah and Israel were easily conquered
v) Deuteronomic code: Hebrew laws
(1) Judges can’t accept gifts
b) Minoans
i) They had a bureaucratic monarchy with the king as an absolute leader
c) Mycenaean
i) Take over Minoans in 1600B.C.E.
ii) 1250 B.C.E. war against Troy
iii) The king was called Wanax
iv) It was a bureaucratic monarchy that was highly centralized
v) Kings had ostentatious graves
2) Intellectual
a) Linear B was the early form of writing that spread from mainland Greece to the island
of Crete
b) The Mycenaean also had a system of weight and measures
3) Religious
a) Hebrew
i) Worship Yahweh
ii) The Ark of the Covenant” is the biblical name for the chest that carried the stone
tablets Yahweh had given to Moses.
iii) Judaism
(1) At first they were polytheists and then they adopted monolatry
iv) At the beginning Yahweh was not omnipotent, he was capricious and irascible
v) Transcendent theology: god is outside of nature so humans rule on nature so they
have to be ethical
vi) Ethical commandments
vii) Rituals
(1) Feasts and sacrifices
(2) Also prohibitions like working on the 7th day
viii) Prophetic revolution: prophets with urgent messages
(1) Monotheism; Yahweh rules over the universe, there were no other gods
(2) God is righteous and only wills well for everyone. All the badness comes from
humanity
(3) Subjects to God should be ethical more than anything else like sacrifices
ix) Postexilic stage: writings on lat things
(1) God will send a Messiah to lift Jews to greatness and 1000 years of peace
(2) Last judgment
(3) Jesus became the Messiah for Christians while Jews still wait
b) Minoans
i) Matriarchal religion: a goddess rules the universe
(1) She was the source of both good and evil
 (2) Mortals had to make sacrifices to her and her animals
(3) The ones that controlled rites were priestesses and not priests.
c) Mycenaean
i) They invented the Greek gods like Zeus, Thera and Poseidon but their roles were
different.
4) Artistic/cultural
a) Hebrew
i) Jerusalem was a splendid city
ii) There were no sculptures or paintings
iii) Hebrews wrote the Old Testament and the Apocrypts
(1) In the old testament there were military narratives, thanksgiving prayers,
battle hymns, prophetic exhortations with emotional vigor
iv) Song of songs, book of Job: the universe is greater than good and evil
v) Book of Ecclesiastes, Maliachi
b) Minoans
i) Stone theaters were there were represented processions and music
ii) Paintings: delicacy, spontaneity, naturalism to express the delight of the individual
beauty.
(1) Fresco murals and painted reliefs
iii) Their sculptures were of reduced size.
iv) They also carved gems, worked in gold and bronze and made ceramic objects
c) Mycenaean
i) Had a less elegant art
ii) There was a dark age from 1100 to 800 B.C.E.
5) Technology
a) Minoans built stone roads 11 feet wide.
b) They invented the principles of modern sanitary engineering.
6) Economics
a) Hebrew
i) Agriculture and taxing in times of king David
b) Minoans
i) They traded across the sea with the use of ships
ii) The king was the chief entrepreneur
iii) Worked on pottery, textiles and metal goods
iv) There were both private enterprise and private agriculture
v) Everything (trade and agriculture for example) was closely supervised and taxed
c) Mycenaean
i) Trade as far as Britain and Egypt
7) Society/social
a) Hebrew
i) Solomon forced Hebrews to work for Phoenicians
ii) Hebrews had an ethical treatment only with other Hebrews
iii) If a slave had served for 6 years, he was freed and given provisions to start a new
life
iv) Every 7 years any debtors were liberated from their debts
 v) The only ones that could learn were the scribes
vi) Houses were spacious with 6-8 rooms but it is still not known how many families
live in them
b) Minoans
i) Women were equal to men
(1) Some women even boxed or were bullfighters
ii) For fun they danced, run races, and boxed
c) Mycenaean
i) They has a slave system
ii) They were a more warfaring civilization so cities were on hills and fortified
iii) They also were devoted to athletics
8) Additional information
a) The Diaspora (spread of Jews throughout the world) is the reason for their existence
up to modern times
b) The Mycenaean are a mixture of mainland Greeks and the Minoans they conquered
c) The Minoans had a progressive outlook
d) The Mycenaeans and Minoans are important because they are the earliest civilizations
in Europe

Ancient Indian Civilization

1) Political
a) The tribes were leaded by a chieftain or kung called a raja who leaded warrior to battle
 b) 400 B.C.E. there was a struggle that caused the unification of Northern India
c) Chandragupta ruled from 323 B.C.E. to start the Maurya dynasty
i) The government send spies among the common people
d) Ashoka rule from 273-232 B.C.E.
2) Intellectual
a) There were scripts in seals
b) Sanskrit had 14 vowels and 35 consonants
c) In the quest for knowledge the Upashinads were written which encouraged
conceptual reasoning
i) According to it evil was the fruit of ignorance. This means that the pursuit of
wisdom was the pursuit of good
ii) The ideals of the Upashinads are
(1) Supreme reality of the World Soul or Absolute being
(2) Impermanence and illusory character of the material world
(3) Cycle of rebirth of individual souls
(4) Possibility of gaining serenity by escaping this cycle and unite with the
Absolute Being
iii) Evil is because of material things
(1) Material things are an illusion or veil to reality
(2) the soul must penetrate this veil to escape suffering, physical death is not an
escape because the soul remains
iv) Karma and dharma. The goal is to not create any karma to break cycle and reach
nirvana, the union with Brahman
(1) Atman (humans) are a fragment of Brahman so they have the chance to unite
with Brahman
d) Medicine: remedies, dissection and delicate operations. They also understood human
anatomy and embryology
e) Astronomy: in India they discovered that the Earth revolves.
f) Math: worked with the square and cubic root, decimal system and the zero. They also
invented the Arabic numbers
3) Religious
a) Indus Valley Civilization had fertility cults
b) Indo Aryans: Gods: deva, forces of nature or personifications. They were immortal as
long as they drank the soma juice
c) There were no images or temples but people made sacrifices to the gods expecting a
reward
i) Each god had very specific roles
ii) Indra was one of the most popular gods. Agni was the “mouth” of the gods. It was
a fire were sacrifices were throw in so they reached the gods
d) It was believed that the just would go to the “World of Fathers” and the unjust to the
“House of Clay”
e) There were people who practiced ascetism and meditation.
f) By 700B.C.E. they worshipped cattle and believed in rebirth and reincarnation
g) BUDDHISM
i) Siddhartha Gautama was a prince that escaped and lived teaching his revelations
 ii) He believed there was only matter, not soul and that everything, even the gods
were in constant change.
iii) Desire is the cause of suffering
(1) Self is an illusion so self satisfaction and self exaltation cause frustration
iv) Buddhist monks live on charity
v) 2 schools
(1) Hinayana: thought about personal salvation and thought they could achieve
nirvana in 3 lifetimes
(2) Mahayana: believed on redemption on human race
vi) Buddhism grew in Sri Lanka, Burma, Kashmir, Nepal, Macedonia, Syria and Egypt
vii) In 250 B.C.E. Buddhist monks unite to decide which basic texts are authentic
h) Ashoka enforced religious tolerance
i) Four Vedas (oral tradition), the sacred books
4) Artistic/culture
a) Indus Valley Civilization
i) They made pottery. Also they made terracotta humans and divine figures
ii) Copper and bronze vessels as well as gold and silver ornaments
iii) Also made anatomically perfect torsos
b) Indo-Aryans
i) Vocal and instrumental music: flutes, drums, cymbals, lutes and harps
ii) Wrote the Hymn of creation
iii) Mahabharata and Ramayana
iv) Buddhist scriptures are the oldest in India
5) Technology
a) Indo-Aryans made the wooden plow and iron weapons in 800 B.C.E.
b) Under Chandragupta they made public irrigation and roads
6) Economics
a) Indus valley civilization
i) had an agricultural foundation based on cotton
ii) Trade
iii) Domesticated cattle, buffalo, goats, pigs, asses, foul
b) Indo-Aryans
i) They were pastoral people with sheep, goats, horses and cattle
ii) Used cattle as currency
c) Under Chandragupta’s rule the state controlled the mines, forests, pearl fisheries,
operated farms, shipyards and arsenals.
i) Also he employed poor women to work
7) Society/ Social
a) Indus valley civilization
i) The two main cities were Mohenjo Daro and Harappa
ii) Fortified cities
iii) There were 3-story house, some had bathrooms
iv) There were public baths at Mohenjo Daro
b) Indo Aryans
i) For fun they danced and gambled (national pastime)
 ii) The basic social unit was a patriarchal family. Polygamy was allowed but it was
rare
iii) Women were subordinated but not humiliated as they would be later in history
iv) In case of crime the individual or the family would receive an economic
compensation
v) If there was a debtor who owed for too long without paying he would be enslaved
to the creditor
vi) Competition for authority during this time caused intellectual advance
vii) Varna
(1) Brahman: priests
(2) Kshatriya: warriors
(3) Vaishya: herdsmen, artisans, merchants
(4) Shudra: servants, menial laborers
(a) There was a rivalry between Brahmans and Kshatriyas.
(b) A descendant of a Shudra could e wealthy, even king
(c) Not all Brahmans are priests
(d) People respected the castes in hope to being reborn in a higher one
viii) There was racial pride and Aryans didn’t want to pollute their blood
ix) Facilities for sick
8) Additional information
a) People depend on the monsoons to bring water to the crops
b) Dharma: faithful performance of one’s assigned role in his/her caste
c) Karma: merits or demerits according to one’s actions
d) Ashoka made pillars with exhortations to moral conduct and were adorned with
animals on the top

Ancient Chinese Civilization

1) Political
a) Xia Dynasty 2200-1750 B.C.E.
 i) No archaeological evidence
b) Shang Dynasty 1750-1100 B.C.E.
i) The king held the religious, political, economic and social functions
c) Zhou Dynasty
i) King Wu rebels against Shang dynasty
ii) Created the mandate of heaven or tianming.
iii) King administered the region surrounding the capital but the lands that were
farther away were administered by appointed officials
2) Intellectual
a) Yangshao
i) Symbols in pottery: basis for later Chinese writing
b) Shang
i) Ideographic system of writing
(1) Communication of divine and human world. (oracle bones)
ii) 1400 B.C.E. recorded eclipses
iii) Decimal system
iv) Attempted to discover:
(1) Basis of human society
(2) Underlying principles of good government
(3) Define principles underlying natural material universe for illuminating
problems of war existence
(4) Rules for stabilizing society and better the individual
c) 3 schools: Confucianism, Daoism and Legalism all trying to understand political chaos
i) Confucianism
(1) Confucius (551-479 B.C.E.) his teachings are in the Analects.
(a) Knowledge is the key to happiness and successful conduct
(b) Moral laws governing human interaction are the same as the laws
governing the physical universe
(c) The full development of an individual’s personality occurs in the
community.
(d) Human is naturally cooperative so there is an importance in hierarchal
relationships.
(e) “Rectify names”: obligations in conformity with duties according to
position
(i) Ruler to subject
(ii) Father to son
(iii) Husband to wife
(iv) Elder brother to younger brother
(v) Friend to friend
(f) The state is for the people and the government should be of talent, not
birth
(g) Harmony is achieved by combining efforts of people at the top and on the
bottom
(2) Mencius (373-288B.C.E.) his teachings are in The Mencius
(a) Human nature is essentially good
 (b) Through education the corruptive effects of society are counteracted
(c) When a ruler is a tyrant people can overthrow him
(3) Xunzi (300-237B.C.E.) his teachings are in the Xunzi
(a) Human is evil and born with desires. You have to put chains (laws and
institutions)
ii) Daoism:
(1) Daodejing (the way of the power)
(a) Exalts nature and depreciates human nature
(b) Romantic, mystic and anti-intellectual
(c) Perfection of nature and people would be better without the art of
civilization living in ignorance
(d) Wealth creates avarice and laws create criminals.
(2) Laozi (6th century B.C.E. it is not sure if he is real)
(a) If people follow intuition then they’ll live in harmony
(b) There has to be a wise and benevolent ruler who only promotes people’s
happiness
(c) Non retaliation for injury, efficacy of love in human relations and
egalitarianism (social equality)
(3) Zhuangzi (4th century B.C.E.) his teachings are in The Zhuangzi
(a) People must not serve in the government but rise above the surroundings
to cultivate inner power.
(b) Recommends breath control and dietary practices. Power of mind to
achieve self transcendence.
(4) Women are stamina and men are strength
(5) Transformed in religious with a priest, temple and rituals
iii) I-ching (Book of Changes)
(1) The universe is in constant change with 2 complementary forces the yin and
the yang
(a) Yin: female, soft, cold, dark, small
(b) Yang: male, hard, hot, light, large
(i) Each contains elements of the other and together they form harmony,
they are cooperative
iv) Legalism
(1) Concerned about chaos and had a harsh view of human nature.
(2) People are motivated by fear and punishment
(3) Preference for simple agrarian society
(4) Complete submission to ruler, the wealth of the state is more important than
the wealth of the individual
d) In the Zhou dynasty mathematicians designated a place for the zero
3) Religious
a) Yangshao
i) Fertility cults
b) Longshan
i) Ancestor worship
c) Shang
 i) Bronze religious implements like tripods, libation bowls, drinking cups, masks of
taotie animal.
ii) Power manifested by ritual obligations called li.
iii) Moral disposition expressing eternal truth: truth and goodness
d) Zhou
i) Many deities local spirits and nature gods as well as divinities like Earth and
Heaven
ii) Human sacrifices disappear to leave place for offerings of animals, agricultural
products and liquor. Sometimes they prayed but it wasn’t necessary
iii) Tian=Heaven: universal moral law
iv) Rituals to Earth were made on mounds or temples
4) Artistic/cultural
a) Shang
i) Lacquer cups filled with jiu or sake
ii) Art representing animals, not humans
b) Zhou
i) Abstract forms
ii) Brush paintings on silk fabric
iii) People believed that music was the audible expression of natural order
5) Technology:
a) Food cultivation and pottery
b) Yangshao
i) Slash and burn agriculture: cultivate millet
ii) Hoes for digging and also spin silk
iii) Tripods and steamers. Houses of timber and wattle
c) Langshao
i) Walls to defend invaders made of stamped earth
d) Shang
i) Sophisticated bronze technology and used chariots in war
ii) Made bamboo arrows with bronze tips.
iii) Armor of leather sometimes with wood slats
e) Zhou
i) Work in jade
ii) Compass for rituals
iii) Hoeing and cultivation in rows for more productivity
iv) Iron plow with a curved moldboard that could be taken by only one ox
v) Irrigation
vi) Iron indistinguishable from steel
vii) Trace harness (400 B.C.E) and collar harness (300 B.C.E.) so it was easier for the ox
to distribute weight and move easier
viii) Kites invented between 500-400B.C.E.
(1) Helped military units to communicate
(2) Fishermen to carry the hook and bait away from the boat
(3) Monks to meditate on air currents
6) Economics
 a) Yangshao
i) Domesticate pigs, dogs, chicken, cattle, sheep and goats
b) Zhou
i) They had a market economy which caused competition
ii) Increase in private ownership
(1) Taxation with 20% of the crops
7) Social
a) Longshan
i) Permanent settlements
ii) Start of wars in China when people started storing wealth and people started
stealing
iii) The start of specializations started with institutionalized violence
b) Shang
i) Education was vital to learn writing
(1) Writing became a cultural adhesive
ii) No private property
iii) Seeking truth was a matter of ethics, not science
iv) Family was the basic social unit
c) Zhou
i) Aristocratic society. Ranks were according to the value of the individual to the
commonwealth
(1) Scholars
(2) Farmers: necessary for life
(3) Artisans: useful but not necessary
(4) Merchants: don’t produce
(5) Soldiers, beggars, thieves: destroy or steal what others produce
(a) Based on individual talent and not birth
ii) Because of competition individuals could grow
iii) Wheat was added to the diet of rice and millet which cause a population jump
iv) Men dressed with gowns that went below the knee and used a black cap after they
were 16
v) The color for mourning the dead was white
vi) Girl adulthood started at the age of 15 and they were distinguished by their
hairpins
8) Additional information
a) The walls built North and South were for protection against the Mongols