Grade 7 Lesson at a Glance: Chapter 8, Lesson 2

Houghton Mifflin Social Studies
Across the Centuries

Lesson at a Glance
Chapter 8, Lesson 2, The Flowering of Chinese Culture (pp. 202-208)

The Big Idea
Framework Concept: Culture Following the Sui, the Tang and the Song dynasties ruled over a brilliant cultural flowering of Chinese civilization.

Ask students about the reasons for other cultural flowerings they have studied, such as those of ancient Egypt and Athens, Gupta India, or Abbasid Baghdad (e.g., stable food supplies, conformity of belief systems, well-tended governments, etc.). Tell students that in China, following on Sui governmental reforms, the Tang and Song dynasties presided over a cultural flowering, too. Create a word web with students about the many factors involved when a region's cultural institutions produce a quantity of high-quality work.

Lesson Outline
Use the Lesson Outline to preview the content of the lesson. You may wish to print it for your students as a guide during reading.

Check for Understanding

Have students take the role of foreign spies in Tang or Song dynasty China. They must write a brief report for their home government telling them what makes China such a wonderful place, and which things about it they would like adopted in their home country and why.
Using the map on page 205, have students create one of three travel brochures:
1. A trip on the Silk Road for merchants
2. A voyage on the Grand Canal for bureaucrats
3. A visit to the new rice paddies of southern China for farmers
Make sure their brochures reflect accurately China's landforms, rivers, and major cities, as well as technological, agricultural, or economic advances and how they might affect the travelers.

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