Ancient China Vocabulary

a story handed down from earlier times

• Ancestors

• Legend

• Oracle bones

• Characters

deceased relatives who lived longer ago than grandparents

• Oracle bones

• Standardized

• Ancestors

• Characters

 bones or shells used to answer questions about the future

• Oracle bones

• Standardized

• Characters

• Tyrant

symbols used for writing

• Standardized

• Virtues

• Tyrant

• Characters

made the same (ex/ writing, money, language …)

• Virtues

• Standardized

• Mandate of Heaven

• Tyrant

a ruler who controls through cruelty

• Peasant

• Virtues

• Mandate of Heaven

• Tyrant

right actions or thinking

• Virtues

• Mandate of Heaven

• Peasant

• Feudalism

the right to rule granted by the gods

• Peasant

• Mandate of Heaven

• Feudalism

• Philosophers

the common people who farmed the land

• Filial piety

• Philosophers

• Feudalism

• Peasant

the political system of exchanging land for loyalty and protection

• Philosophers

• Feudalism

• Confucianism

• Filial piety