Deck 3: China in Antiquity

Question 1

What supernatural beliefs did people hold in the early stages of Chinese civilization? How did they compare with those held by the people of Egypt? Support your views with specifics.

Answer 1

Answer not provided.

Question 2

Identify the following terms.
Yellow and Yangtze Rivers

Answer 2

Answer not provided.

Question 3

Identify the following terms.
Xia Dynasty

Answer 3

Answer not provided.

Question 4

Identify the following terms.
Anyang

Question 5

"Without Confucius,China would not be China." Discuss critically.

Question 6

"The Qin Dynasty,although brief,marked a major departure from the ideas,policies,and condition of China during the last centuries of the previous dynasties." Discuss,pro and con.

Question 7

Why has the Shang Dynasty traditionally been referred to as "China's Mother Culture"? How is this tied to the diffusion hypothesis? What recent evidence has caused the traditional position to be questioned?

Question 8

What were the major tenets of Confucianism,Legalism,and Daoism,and what role did each play in political and philosophical debates during the Zhou Dynasty? What innovative contributions to Chinese political,economic,and social development were made by the Zhou Dynasty? Give specific examples.

Question 9

Identify the following terms.
Gobi Desert and the Tibetan Plateau

Question 10

Did gender and class significantly influence one's life opportunities in ancient China? Would you have preferred to be a male or a female? Show why,giving examples.

Question 11

Identify the following terms.
Shang Dynasty

Question 12

Identify the following terms.
Yangshao and Longshan cultures

Question 13

Identify the following terms.
Fu Xi,Shen Nong,and the Yellow Emperor

Question 14

How did geography and climate influence the early development of Chinese civilization? Were those influences greater than those of governmental and economic developments?

Question 15

Comparing China with India,what were the factors that led to Chinese political unification for much of its history in contrast to India,where fragmentation was more often the norm?

Question 16

"The Chinese follow Confucianism in public and Daoism in private." Discuss,pro and con.

Question 17

What was especially notable about ancient Chinese language? How did it retain its earlier form and still serve to unify the elite in the various parts of China?

Question 18

What is meant by the term "hydraulic societies"? How is it tied to the idea of Oriental despotism? Why is the term specifically applicable to the Qin Dynasty? What recent arguments have been put forth challenging this assumption?

Question 19

Compare and contrast the concepts of Confucianism and Legalism.Why did the latter become so important in the Qin dynasty? Would the Qin have survived longer if it had followed the Confucian path? Why or why not?

Question 20

Identify the following terms.
Xinjiang corpses

Question 21

Identify the following terms.
Mandate of Heaven

Question 22

Identify the following terms.
silk

Question 23

Identify the following terms.
Mencius

Question 24

Identify the following terms.
oracle bones

Question 25

Identify the following terms.
"the old hundred names"

Question 26

Identify the following terms.
the Analects

Question 27

Identify the following terms.
Confucius

Question 28

Identify the following terms.
Zhou Dynasty

Question 29

Identify the following terms.
the Silk Road

Question 30

Identify the following terms.
Legalism

Question 31

Identify the following terms.
yang and yin

Question 32

Identify the following terms.
"the Hundred Schools"

Question 33

Identify the following terms.
"well field system" and "big rat"

Question 34

Identify the following terms.
Yi Jing/Book of Changes

Question 35

Identify the following terms.
Tian or T'ien

Question 36

Identify the following terms.
"human-heartedness"

Question 37

Identify the following terms.
Xian

Question 38

Identify the following terms.
Diffusion Hypothesis

Question 39

Identify the following terms.
Rites of Zhou

Question 40

Identify the following terms.
veneration of ancestors

Question 41

Identify the following terms.
wu wei

Question 42

Identify the following terms.
Sima Qian

Question 43

Identify the following terms.
Dao de Jing

Question 44

Identify the following terms.
Fu Xuan

Question 45

Identify the following terms.
Qin Shi Huangdi

Question 46

Identify the following terms.
Xian's terra-cotta army

Question 47

Identify the following terms.
Daoism

Question 48

Identify the following terms.
eunuchs

Question 49

Identify the following terms.
Lao Tzu

Question 50

Identify the following terms.
Qin Dynasty

Question 51

Identify the following terms.
filial piety

Question 52

Identify the following terms.
Xianyang

Question 53

Identify the following terms.
Xiongnu

Question 54

Identify the following terms.
"loess"

Question 55

Identify the following terms.
the Bao-jia system

Question 56

Identify the following terms.
the five relationships

Question 57

Identify the following terms.
Nu Wa

Question 58

Identify the following terms.
Great Wall

Question 59

Identify the following terms.
Hydraulic Societies

Question 60

Identify the following terms.
Period of Warring States

Question 61

The idea of the Mandate of Heaven was

A) introduced in the Bhaghavadgita.
B) borrowed from Tibetan nomads in the fifth century B.C.E.
C) introduced by the Zhou dynasty and it served to legitimize its power.
D) contained in the Rites of Mao.
E) a concept that last only a short time in Chinese history.

Question 62

According to the Zhou concept of the Mandate of Heaven,

A) the king was expected to rule in a compassionate and effective manner because he was selected by the gods to rule in order to maintain the order of the universe.
B) the king, as a god, was the arbiter of the use of power on earth.
C) the gods ruled that all must obey the king without question.
D) the chief priest was the supreme ruler.
E) territorial chieftains chose kings from the members of the Grand Assemblage.

Question 63

During the Shang dynasty,the Chinese

A) made major advancements in developing stainless steel castings.
B) achieved renown for their bronze casting achievements.
C) used a highly sophisticated written alphabet.
D) developed cuneiform writing.
E) seized power from the Qin.

Question 64

What "modern" idea was advanced by Confucius over two thousand years ago?

A) To the victor go the spoils.
B) A virtuous government will sadly but inevitably make its people corrupt.
C) Government depends on the will of the people.
D) Barbarians must not be accepted but crushed by military power.
E) Political democracy is the only form of government.

Question 65

The legendary "three sovereigns" of prehistoric China were

A) Fu Xi, Ling Pioa, and Shong Tui.
B) Shen Nong, Ling Pioa, and Shonh Tui.
C) Fu Xi, Shen Nong, and Huang Di.
D) Ling Pioa, Shong Tui, and Huang Di.
E) Chiang, Deng, and Sun.

Question 66

The "well field system"

A) was an animistic belief designed to protect the health of the land.
B) allowed peasants plots of their own to work, as well as working the lands of their lords.
C) was developed only in the first century, in response to the rise of socialist thought.
D) was a water-diversion system which insured that every farm had the amount of water it needed.
E) was originally developed by Aryan invaders to improve agricultural productivity in western China.

Question 67

Which of the following was true about Shang government?

A) The government was ruled by a king so powerful that he needed only a handful of officials to administer all of China.
B) The king had an army of two million soldiers to help him govern.
C) The territorial divisions of the empire were under the control of subordinate rulers who came from the Japanese islands.
D) The king was viewed as an intermediary between heaven and earth.
E) The local chieftains were responsible for defending the empire.

Question 68

Shang dynasty rulers

A) were the descendants of raiders from the Indian subcontinent.
B) were quickly ignored by government officials and the people as soon as they died.
C) had little real power after the first year of their reigns.
D) were often buried with hundreds of their retainers.
E) were finally overthrown by a Mongol dynasty about 200 B.C.E.

Question 69

The lengthiest dynasty in Chinese history was the

A) Shang.
B) Qin.
C) Zhou.
D) Han.
E) T'ang.

Question 70

Which of the following is not a true statement?

A) All evidence indicates that the first agricultural villages in China developed only along the Pearl River.
B) Ancient Chinese villages evolved over thousands of years to form the first unified state under the Qin.
C) Chinese topography caused its civilization to develop apart from advancements in other parts of Asia.
D) Nomadic attacks from the north were an ongoing factor in the development of China.
E) Early Chinese literature was didactic and elitist.

Question 71

The term "the Dao" in China means

A) intellectual brilliance.
B) the Way.
C) karma.
D) incredible beauty.
E) the How.

Question 72

The Shang dynasty

A) came to power immediately after the Han dynasty.
B) was the only one in ancient China to master the widespread use of steel and the printing press.
C) established its capitals at Lhasa and Samarkand.
D) was the first to employ over half of its people in various types of heavy manufacturing.
E) equipped its army with two-horse chariots.

Question 73

Identify the following terms.
Confucian Classics

Question 74

In ancient China,aristocrats

A) often were required to work on dikes to protect the irrigation system.
B) performed physical labor for others, for two weeks at a time, two times each year.
C) often served as government officials in peace and war.
D) served only as bureaucratic advisors.
E) rarely played any political or military role.

Question 75

The beginnings of civilization in China were

A) delayed by the marauding raids of the Xia.
B) under the political organization of the Qin.
C) the result of a concentrated development of Kunming bureaucratic arrangements.
D) came from the Shang dynasty's exploitation of the nomads.
E) possibly first experienced under the Xia dynasty.

Question 76

Ancient Chinese villages were organized on the basis of

A) nuclear family units.
B) race.
C) clans.
D) phratries.
E) religion.

Question 77

Ancient Chinese civilization originated in the valleys of the

A) Yellow and Yangtze rivers.
B) Yangtze and Mekong rivers.
C) Indus and LuMai rivers.
D) Lo Min and Hainan rivers.
E) Nanjing and Hunan rivers.

Question 78

Identify the following terms.
blast furnaces and cast iron

Question 79

Which of these ancient civilizations survived,intact,until the twentieth century?

A) Egyptian.
B) Aztec.
C) Hittite.
D) Chinese.
E) Aryan.

Question 80

The benevolent monarchy described in the Rites of Zhou

A) endured in practice throughout the dynasty's long reign.
B) continued to grow in significance as the dynasty developed.
C) degenerated, in practice, into a fractious arrangement of despotic and exploitive local rulers.
D) reflected the enhancement of the intelligence and morality of the Zhou rulers.
E) in time, developed into a highly centralized structure.