Vocabulary: Ancient China

System of writing used simple drawings, or characters, for words or ideas.

• Pictograph

• Qin

• Bureaucracy

• Trans-Eurasian

Trails stretched across two continents, Europe and Asia

• Cultural diffusion

• Trans-Eurasion

• Silk Roads

• Han Dynasty

The new ruler of China came from the state of (chihn).

• Shi Huangdi

• Qin

• Confucianism

• Han Dynasty

A way of governing, officials chosen by the ruler ran offices; officials helped enforce the emperor's rule.

• Han Dynasty

• Cultural diffusion

• Bureaucracy

• Filial piety

One of Confucius' most important teaching, treating parents with respect.

• Filial piety

• Daoism

• Confucianism

• Legalism

A study of basic truths and ideas about the universe.

• Legalism

• Cultural diffusion

• Mandate of Heaven

• Philosophy

Historians call the pattern of the rise and fall of dynasties in China.

• Dynastic cycle

• Mandate of Heaven

• Filial piety

• Trans-Eurasian

Overland trade routes, traders carried silk and other goods on caravan trails.

• Bureaucracy

• The Great Wall of China

• Silk Roads

• Mandate of Heaven

When a ruler was bad or foolish, the people believed the approval of the gods would be taken away.

• Mandate of Heaven

• Philosophy

• Legalism

• Bureaucracy

Shang kings received messages from the gods to help people. Animal bones or turtle shells that has inscriptions scratched on it.

• Papyrus

• Filial piety

• Oracle bone

• Silk