Early China, Shang-to Zhou

 The Chinese like many other early civilizations depended on rivers for their livelihood. The Haung He and Yangizi rivers were their prime outlets for �civilized development.� Being the river valley around the Haung He was dyer and less hospitable then the South, civilization naturally developed here first to cope with its harsher conditions. Only latter do we see civilization develop in the more arable and wetter environment of the South. Once the Southern Area around the Yangizi River was settled, rice began to be cultivated on a large scale which allowed for a huge population boom. The first dynasty of China however, the Shang developed entirely in the North and was based around city states and bronze wielding warrior culture. This aristocracy of warriors controlled a vast amount of people in charge of irrigation based agriculture with its primary source of water spawning from the Haung He. In essence the Shang came to power out of a need to organize such irrigation efforts. The cities of the area weren�t cities in what we perceive them as but rather simple administration centers that housed the elite. The majority of the people lived on feudalistic agriculture estates and their lives depended on the land. They congregated in the cities states to be hosts to religious propaganda. Latter when we see the rise of the Zhou, we see the complication of political and religious organization. The government though still based around City states also develops a complex bureaucratic government with a head emperor and a royal family. The emperor is in power because of the �Mandate of Heaven,� which gives him the authority set down by the gods to rule the Zhou and all its peoples as long as he rules virtuously. In the Zhou period the development of Confucianism and Daoism sparks the religious divide of the day. Confucianism sides with the hieratical government to maintain order while Daoism strives to represent the individual. Thus there is a balance and society is rather harmonious and content during the Zhou period which is the longest existing dynasty of Chinese history. Eventually the City States begin to fragment and the Zhou decline yet by the end of it all they have left a huge impact upon the area.

 

So this is my simple understanding of early China. Would someone like to elabarotate more on the topic of Early China. I would like to increase my knowledge of it.

 

With much apperciation,