China's Culture
Driton Z, Jenna C, Emma S
Culture
What is Culture? Culture is peoples way of life. It is how you live your life with other people, like your family. One of the main reasons culture is important to people is because, they need it to know how to live a daily life. For example, they need to know what to eat, what to wear, drink, etc. Culture impacted the River Valley Civilizations in 5 ways: religion, writing, architecture, innovations, and achievements. Religion impacted the River Valley civilizations, by it impacting what god or gods they worshiped. For writing, culture impacted how they communicate to others. For architecture it impacted how the civilization was presented to others. For innovation it impacted how the civilization grew, and advanced. Lastly for achievements, it impacted how the civilization grew and got stronger, and and how important they could be, or feel. In conclusion, the cultural developments during the River Valley Civilizations, made a huge impact on people.
China Photo Gallery
Mud and Straw Homes
Wooden Block
Silk Clothes
Water Clock
Tile Roofs
Oracle Bones
Buddha
Terracotta Army
Pictograms
Religion
Religion is a big part in culture. Religion a group of people that believe and worship the same person, or god. Religion determined most of daily life activities. One of the statues they worship is the master Kong statue and it was served as god, and it was practiced like a religion. They also practiced Buddhism, and Dowism. Another example about Ancient Chinese religion is they worshiped the gods of nature: the river god, the earth god, the rain god, and the sky god. A third example about how religion impacted culture, is they would have celebrations and festivals to worship their gods. Next, Lastly one more reason Ancient Chinese religion impacted the culture was, instead of China being forced what, who, or how many gods they were supposed to believe in, instead China had freedom, and people had a choice to who and what they would believe. In conclusion religion is a big part to culture because it impacts the rules of your everyday life.
Writing
In China, they wrote in pictographs. Pictographs date back about 3,500 years to the Shang Dynasty. Instead of writing it the way it sounded, they would draw simple pictures that represented the item or word. For example if the word was, tree, you would draw a vertical line. On the top and bottom, would be one line on each side, four lines or “branches” in total. These pictographs are what developed into the writing we have today. Over time, these symbols evolved, into the more complicated signs we have today.
Another form of writing, was the oracle bones, or dragon bones. The bones were made out of old animal bones, or turtle shells, and were used to communicate with the gods. First, a priest would carve a question onto the bone. Next, the priest would heat a bronze pin, and hold the hot pin to the bone. This created a pattern of cracks over the bone. The priest (who was usually a women) would then study the cracks to find the answer to the question. This is a part of their writing, because it helped them communicate with others. It also helps improve the way they lived, when their question was answered. For example, if the bone was to warn them about a big storm coming up, they would be able to prepare beforehand, without anyone getting injured or anything getting damaged.
Chinese writing, which dates back thousands of years, is the oldest form of writing still in use today. An official script of more simplified characters developed during the Qin dynasty, when China’s first emperor created a centralized system of writing. This script was further simplified during the third century. Later, two more styles of calligraphy developed-both of which incorporated a fluid writing style. Today, the chinese language includes about 50,000 characters, although most people can function a vocabulary of about 4,000 characters.
Writing in general was able to be taught in schools. This helped people become more advanced in writing, and that left more choices for jobs. With more people knowing how to write, the civilization became more advanced.
Wooden Block was the first printing press. It was used like a stamp. They would put ink onto the block, and then press it onto the paper. The wooden block had carvings of different letters and words, that would be stamped onto the paper. Having this tool, made communication with pothers easier.
Architecture
One part of their architecture, are the mud and straw houses they built. This was important, because it helped them sustain a civilization. As China became more advanced, these mud houses evolved into wood houses, with tile roofs. The riched moved into these more advanced homes, and the poor moved into the mud and straw houses.
Another thing they built, were the first city walls they build around their city. They had these walls for protection from invaders, and when they were under attack. Since the merchants and craftsmen were hardly considered men, in times of war the were not taken inside the protective city walls, They were left to fend for themselves as best as they could.
The grand canal connected a series a waterways. At about 12,000 miles, it is the longest waterway in the world,made by people. The oldest section of the canal, known as the Southern Grand Canal, may have been built as early as 600 BC.
In 1190 a civil servant named Su Song presented the first water clock to an emperor of the Song dynasty. The clock had bells and a gong that rang every 15 minutes.
- The forbidden city contains 9,999 buildings. That number is a symbol for long life and long rule for the emperor. His thrones sits in the Hall of Supreme harmony. Outside the hall, 25,000 officials often gathered in the courtyard for orders.
Innovations in China
Achievements
Conclusion
Chinese culture impacted people's lives in many different ways. Five ways culture impacted on the River Valley Civilizations, are religion, writing, architecture, innovations, and achievements. First religion impacted on the River Valley Civilization by helping to build who really they should worship. For writing it impacted on the River Valley Civilizations by it impacting how you communicate more better. For architecture it impacted on the River Valley Civilizations by it impacting of how your city looks like. For innovations it impacted on the River Valley Civilizations by impacting on how Chinese civilization grew. Lastly for achievements it impacted on the River Valley Civilizations by how proud that city you live in is proud of things that happened. Culture had a such of a big impact on the River Valley civilizations because, culture is something that people need for their daily life, like what to wear, eat, sing, play, what kind of music to listen to, etc. All of the five ways that form culture which is, religion, writing, architecture, innovations, and achievements, help people have a fun and not boring life. Culture is your everyday life.