Chapter 8: Ancient China
Chapter Objectives
Analyze the geographic, political, economic, religious, and social structures of ancient Chinese civilization.
Lesson 1: Geography Shapes Life in Ancient China
- Analyze the physical features, including the river systems, mountain ranges, and deserts, that characterized ancient China.
- Describe the development of the earliest Chinese civilization, the Shang Dynasty.
- Describe the Zhou Dynasty, which followed the Shang Dynasty.
- Language Objective: Use structural and context clues to define words and gain a deeper understanding of the information.
Lesson 2: China’s Ancient Philosophies
- Analyze the philosophy of Legalism—what it was and why it came about.
- Describe key details about the life of Confucius and his teachings.
- Describe key details in the life of Laozi and the philosophy of Daoism.
- Language Objective: Categorize information to better understand China’s belief systems.
Lesson 3: The Qin and the Han
- Summarize how China became unified under the Qin Dynasty.
- Explore the political contributions of the Han Dynasty.
- Describe daily life in Han China.
- Language Objective: Use sentence context to choose the correct dictionary definition for multiple meaning words.
Lesson 4: The Legacy of Ancient China
- Explore the contributions and impact of the Silk Roads on Chinese culture and history.
- Trace the influence of ideas such as Confucianism and Daoism in Chinese history.
- Describe the many contributions of the ancient Chinese to our world.
- Language Objective: Formulate, ask, and respond to questions to demonstrate understanding.
