Ancient India vs. Ancient China. India Geography North China South Asian Plain of Indus Huang He (Yellow River) Periodic flooding=renewal of fertile soil.

Ancient India vs. Ancient China

India Geography North ChinaSouth Asian Plain of Indus Huang He (Yellow River)

Periodic flooding=renewal of fertile soil

Humid subtropical climate=difficulty storing food

Himalaya Mts.=shielded from winter cold and invasions

Monsoons and snowmelt=abundant water supply and maritime trade (later)

Passes in northwest=contact with Middle East

Floods carry loess=renewal of soil fertility

Much mountainous and semidesert land=settlement only along rivers

Violent flooding=dike building for control

Mountain, desert, and jungle barriers=cultural isolation=unique/homogeneous culture

Climate split between arid, cool north and wet, warm south

India Political Patterns China

Centralized gov’t evident in prominence of logically planned cities with public buildings and services

Small feudal kingdoms later unified by Zhou Dynasty

Expansion from ShangZhouQin

Highly centralized autocracy and unification later under the Qin Dynasty

Dynastic Cycle and idea of Mandate of Heaven

Mandate of Heaven

India Social/Economic China

Trade with Mesopotamia, South India, and Afghanistan

Uncertainty about how society was organized; small republics, rule by priests, or early form of caste system(Minimal evidence=little definite knowledge)

Undecipherable writing

Elaborately planned cities, standardized weights and measures, architectural design

Unlike other civilizations, it produced no palaces, temples, elaborate graves, kings, or warrior class

King, aristocratic ruling class, and bureaucracy made up of warrior families

Peasant farmers and slaves

Artisan/craft workers

Merchants

Patriarchal

Impressive cultural continuity into modern times

India Religious China Importance of

fertility=worship of mother goddess

Clay tablet images of gods=prototypes of Hindu deities?

Clay animal figures=great respect for livestock such as cows?

King worshipped as mediator between people and gods=ruler was “son of heaven”

Early written language with oracle bones as early documents

Early worship of dead royalty set pattern for ancestor veneration

Confucianism=secular belief in ethical conduct and social harmony

Taoism=philosophy focusing on living in harmony with laws of nature

Interactions/technologyDecline of Indus valley due to change in geographic patterns

shifted people east

Aryans migrate from Central Asia into northwest India (modern day Pakistan) bringing language and cultural traditions including the Vedas, caste system, and beliefs that would become Hinduism

China is isolated due to geography=lack of outside contact=self-sufficiency, unique culture, ethnocentrism (middle kingdom)

Gradually populations move to warmer, wetter climates that can sustain bigger populations on rice

Crossbow, horses and the chariot from Central Asia will become essential to military victories

Bronze used in weapons and religious vessels