hello my name is Kylie and welcome to ancient history the ancient Chinese part
1 in this video you will learn about the period in history in which the ancient
Chinese existed and a little bit about each of the first three Chinese
dynasties are you ready to blast into the past ready let's go the ancient
Chinese culture is one of the oldest and longest lasting in our world's history
it took up a large portion of what is today China on the continent of Asia if
you look at a modern map of Asia ancient China began along the eastern part of
the continent what makes ancient China different from
most of the other ancient civilizations around the world is that it is
continuous or ongoing this means ancient China developed into the modern country
of China we have today historians are people who study history they often
can't agree on when an ancient cultures time period begins and ends for our
video we will discuss ancient Chinese civilization and cultures from 2020 BC
to about 246 BC the earliest written records from the ancient Chinese culture
go back all the way to 2020 BC ancient Chinese history is broken up into time
periods called dynasties each dynasty lasted as long as a particular family
ruled and was named after them we'll take a brief look at the first three
Chinese dynasties the Chia dynasty 2,000 BC to 1600 BC the shang dynasty 1600 BC
to 1046 BC and the zhou dynasty 1046 BC to 256 BC the first ancient Chinese
dynasty was the Chia dynasty which lasted about 500 years during this time
ancient China had 17 Emperor's an emperor is similar to a king they ruled
over all parts of the government the people the army and land the Chia people
were mainly farmers and knew how to make clay pottery bronze tools and weapons
and silk silk is one of my favorite fabrics and it is a fabric made from the
cocoons of silkworms and is still prized for its beauty strength and smoothness
what we now know about the Chia dynasty comes from written records that were
found dating all the way back to the period when the second dynasty the shang
dynasty existed some historians actually don't think that she had people were
real and that they were made up by the shang people as sort of a myth or
folktale historians who do believe they existed however use artifacts dating to
the Chia time period as proof that they existed an artifact is an object like a
bowl tool or other item found from a time in history it's an interesting
debate or argument historians continue to do research and
learn new things about these people each day the second Chinese dynasty was the
Shang Dynasty the Shang Dynasty lasted over 600 years and was led by 30
different emperors during this time the Chinese people lived mainly in small
villages that were organized along the yellow or Huang River the Shang Dynasty
started as a large family clan this is a group of families that are related and
often thought of as one big family think of all of your aunts uncles and your
cousins it can include a lot of family groups
historians know about the shang dynasty because they left a written record on
bones turtle shells and even some human bones of their own ancestors these bones
were known as oracle bones and were used as a kind of fortune-telling tool this
dynasty also invented a new way to make bronze objects and they were
especially good and making bronze tools and weapons
eventually the shang dynasty was taken over by the next family and the zhou
dynasty began in 1046 BC the third and last dynasty we'll examine today in this
video is the show dynasty this dynasty lasted longer than any other Chinese
dynasty from 1046 BC to 256 BC which is 790 years because they were battling a
group of people from the north called Mongolians they started what became the
Great Wall of China it started as large mounds of dirt and
rock to help protect them from the invading armies the show also began to
use iron which is stronger than bronze this helped make stronger weapons and
better farming tools they also began a form of government that was very
organized the wealthy owned the land and allowed peasants or poor people to farm
it the government created sections of land in a pattern of Chinese symbol of
water that looks very much like a tic-tac-toe board the square in the
middle was farmed for the government so they could save up some of the crops for
times of war or disaster it's always fascinating to learn about
ancient cultures in this video you learn some interesting facts about the ancient
Chinese cultures can you think of any similarities to our modern world what
are some differences you can think of to learn more about ancient Chinese art in
religion watch ancient history the ancient Chinese part - if you would like
to learn more about other ancient cultures check out all of our other
history videos and learning games remember to think about the past and
connect it to the present and to always be clever