1. Ancient China
古代中國
By: Daniel K and

2. Total area: 9,596,961 sq. km.
(about 3.7 million sq. mi.)
Map
Cities: Capital-Beijing. Other
major cities-Shanghai, Tianjin,
Shenyang, Wuhan,
Guangzhou, Chongqing,
Harbin, Chengdu.
Terrain: Plains, deltas, and
hills in east; mountains, high
plateaus, deserts in west.
Highest Point: Mount
Everest,8,850m(World’s
tallest mountain)
Population:1,338,612,968.
Locate in Asia

3. Background
 China is the oldest continuous major world civilization, the first
modern humans came to China are from Central Asia or India about
50,000 BC.
 China fell apart into three medium-sized kingdoms in 220 AD, so
people call this the Three Kingdoms period.
 China is know for making pottery solider, the Forbidden City, its
massive population, its ancient history, Chinese Cuisine, Hong Kong,
and more.
 China is also known for the Great Wall of China. The wall is about
5,500 miles long. The original part of the wall was built by the first
Emperor during the Quin Dynasty in 221 to 206 BCE. It was finished
during the Ming Dynasty.

4. Social Structure
 The social structure in Ancient China was divided up into six
groups. There is the Kings and other powerful leaders. Then
comes the nobles, they were the next highest ranking people
after the ruling family. They were very good to the king. They
fought along side his army provided soldiers , equipment, one
example was a chariot. Shang nobles lived in a life of luxury.
One thing that the nobles did for pleasure was hunt . Next on
the list was crafts people, they made up small social groups
which included workers of bronze , jade ,potters, and
stonesmen .The bronze workers had a really big job, they made
swords and decorated containers for the King and the Nobals.
The next people in the social structure were traders. The
traders ranked below crafets people and above farmers . They
traded goods but also used a shell called the cowrie as money .
Next on the list were farmers. Farmers were the biggest social
class they grew food like fruit wheat and nuts on a small section
of land owned by the Nobles. They didn’t even get to keep

5. Social Structure
 most of there crop most of it went to the Nobles,
they only got enough to feed themselves and their
family. Next on the social chain were slave’s they
were at the very bottom . They were slaved to the
ruler or people who had lots of money.

6. Housing
 Most of the people in Ancient China were not very
wealthy. They did not live in fully furnished
extravagant homes simply just what they needed .
The homes were made of mud brick which is
simply rammed earth. These houses had thatched
roofs and had a fire pit in the middle of the floor.

7. Wealthy Living People
 Poor people did not go to school, they worked on their
parents' farms, picking weeds and planting seeds. Even rich
girls did not go to school, only boys from rich families did.
 And of course, wealthy people have bigger house, and have
a lot of slave. They worked as servants in rich people's
houses. In fact, the Emperor owned hundreds of slaves, and
some of them worked for the government, collecting taxes or
building roads.

8. Food
 The main method of cooking are pan-frying, flash-frying,
deep-frying, steaming, stewing, and stir-frying. They use
black, dried Chinese mushrooms, sesame oil, pepper,
cinnamon, star anise, wine, chili peppers, garlic, fresh
ginger, and scallions.
 Chinese food are mainly rice, because there are a lot of
farms. People cooked rice by boiling it in water. Or they
made it into wine. Rice wine has been popular in China for a
long time.
 Another famous food in China was tea, by about 3000 BC.
Tea can classify into four categories, white, green, oolong
and black

9. Family Life
 In Ancient China life was very different then it is in Canada. If you
were born a boy you were lucky, if you were born the eldest boy you
were great . The oldest boy also became head of the household and
had all of his siblings move in with him. A boy was expected to marry
as soon as he came of age. Women on the other hand were
definitely not treated like royalty , they had no say in what they did.
They had to obey all men, especially their Father , then their
Husband and then their eldest son. Sometimes if a family was poor
they would sell one or more of their daughters, to become servants
to the rich. I Ancient China the last name was written first and the
first last ,this shows what family and heritage meant to the Ancient
Chinese.

10. Marriage
 In Ancient China the marriages were not based on if
the couple loved each other it was if the parents
thought it was okay . If there was a rich man he was
not allowed to marry a poor women, the parents
would set up the marriage and that’s the way it was
supposed to be. The wedding were set up in a plan
and had an order for each thing that occurred.

11. Childbirth
 In Ancient China it was believed that the husband
should carry his bride over a pan over burning coal to
ensure a successful labored . People in ancient China
believed that every thing a women thought a bought
would affect the baby . She could not gossip laugh
loudly, or sit on a crooked mat. They also believed that
food had to be cut properly straight and neat or that
would effect the baby and make it careless . Women
had to read nice poetry for a good baby. The Ancient
Chinese said that there was to be no construction done,
because that could lead to birth defects and or
miscarriage.

12. Childhood
 Kids in China don’t go to school, except rich people’s
son
 Chinese families traditionally valued sons far more than
daughters.
 Relationships within families were extremely formal in
Traditional China.
 A father could legally kill his children if they disobeyed
him. Marriages were arranged by parents, much of
which were decided when the children were infants.
Most brides and grooms did not see or know each other
until the wedding day.

13. Ancient Chinese Childhood To
Canadian Childhood
 Canadian and Ancient Chinese childhood are very
different from each other. In Ancient China you did
what the man said that is sort of what it was like in
the thirties and forties but not as extreme. Women
might have been just wives and mothers who
cleaned up the house ,took care of the children and
had dinner on the table by five but they were not
dirt cheap. Women were respected they may not
have been allowed to vote but they were not sold
into slavery for money. Women in Canada also din
not have to obey their eldest son boys were not as
special as they are in Ancient China, they were just
the same as boys.

14. Education
 Most kids in ancient and medieval China never got a
chance to go to school at all. They had to work hard in the
fields, planting rice or millet, weeding the vegetables,
feeding the chickens, or taking care of their little brothers
or sisters. Except rich people’s son. And boys worked very
hard in school, because school prepared you to take the
government tests, and whoever scored highest on the
tests could get a good job in the Chinese government. In
order to give jobs fairly to the smartest men, only the test
scores counted, they don’t care who your father was, or
how rich you are, or how good a fighter you were.

15. God
 In Ancient China the people did not just believe in
one god they believed in many. For example: Kwan
Yin the goddess of compassion, Lei Kun the god of
thunder, and Kuan Ti the god of war were just
some of the many gods that the ancient Chinese
believed in. These are some that they prayed to.
They also prayed to their passed ancestors they
believed that once their family members died they
would turn into gods.
 For example different people prayed to different
Gods fishermen prayed to Sea God and farmers
prayed to the Sun God.

16. Religion
 There were three ideologies that became important in
Chinese religion. They are Taoism , Confucianism and
Buddhism.
 Around 1200 AD a new multiculturalism came to China.
There are some different faiths and encouraged
Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus and Tibetan lamas
to all come debate each other at his court in China.
 Buddhism remains the largest organized religion in
China since its introduction in the 1st century.

17. Clothing
 People in China generally wore tunics, it is a kind of long t-
shirt. Women wore long tunics down to the ground, with
belts, and men wore shorter ones down to their knees. In
the winter, when it was cold, people wore padded jackets
over their tunics, and sometimes pants under them. In
early China, poor people made their clothes of hemp or
ramie. Rich people wore silk.
 Most people in China, both men and women, wore their
hair long. People said that you got your hair from your
parents and so it was disrespectful to cut it.

18. Art and Music
 Art and music was very important to children in ancient
China because most of the art was writing and for the
children there they needed to write the complicated
symbols which take a long time to learn. The art work
documented the senery around them and the battles that
took place.
 People played music for the lovely sound it gave.
most of the time though people played for the king and
what was interesting is it was mostly girls that played the
music.

19. Festivals
 There is only really one big festival in Ancient China
and in modern China as well, which is Chinese new
year. All your member in the Chinese family will
gather and celebrate from January to February by
eating and celebrating with their families . Children
were given red envelopes from family members
containing money. The ancient Chinese would light
off fire crackers to scare away the monsters. The Red
simple in the top right was put on everybody's door
wishing a better new year.

20. Conclusion
 Many things happened in ancient China some things
were separated by gender. Riches jobs. There were
things that now if someone were to look at it we would
say that they were crazy, like the husband married he
would first carry his bride over a hot pan of coal for a
safe labour, or that if a family was poor they would sell
their daughter to rich people for servants. That shows you
how they respected women.
 Ancient China is really interesting, there are a lot of
differences between other countries, and different culture.

21. Information Bibliography
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/18902.htm
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_social_classes_in_a
ncient_China
http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/china/architecture/chineseho
uses.htm
http://civilizations.tripod.com/family_life.htm
http://www.babyzone.com/pregnancy/labor_birth/birthing_traditio
ns/article/childbirth-traditions-china
Books
Blunden, Elvin. Cultural Atlas of China. Prints in Spain 1983.
Revised Edition. By Fournier A. Graphics SA Victoria.
Larousse, Kingfisher chambers inc. The Ancient World. Prints in
Hong Kong 1995.

22. Picture Bibliography
 www.eyehook.com/free/dragons.html
 www.flickr.com/photos/kungpaochicken/348618458/
 www.flickr.com/photos/gginguene/78789459/
 http://www.duhaime.org/LawMuseum/LawArticle-367/Crime-and-Punishment-in-
Ancient-China.aspx
 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:56ba16ce08d05...
 flickr.com/photos/jamesjin/58684412/
 www.flickr.com/photos/bigberto/2680751025/
 www.flickr.com/photos/kankan/83154603/
 commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:School_Shangh...
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_marriage
 http://factsanddetails.com/media/2/20080225-filail%20piety%20Ma%20Hezhi.jpg
 www.molon.de/.../Shanghai/YuYuan/img.php?pic=10
 http://mentalproduce.blogspot.com/2007_09_01_archive.html
 www.crystalinks.com/chinamythology.html
http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/Festivals/7
8322.htm