Fun Facts About Ancient China With Pictures

Writing in Ancient China

The Chinese trace their writing to oracle bones from at least the Shang Dynasty. In Empires of the Silk Road, Christopher I. Beckwith says it is likely that the Chinese heard about writing from the Steppe people who also introduced them to the war chariot.

Although the Chinese may have learned about writing in this way, it doesn't mean they copied writing. They are still counted as one of the groups to develop writing on their own. The writing form was pictographic. In time, the stylized pictures came to stand for syllables.

Religions in Ancient China

The ancient Chinese are said to have three doctrines: Confucianism, Buddhism, and Taoism. Christianity and Islam arrived only in the 7th century.

Laozi, according to tradition, was the 6th century BCE Chinese philosopher who wrote the Tao Te Ching of Taoism. The Indian emperor Ashoka sent Buddhist missionaries to China in the 3rd century BCE.

Confucius (551-479) taught morality. His philosophy became important during the Han Dynasty (206 BCE - 220 CE). Herbert A Giles (1845-1935), a British Sinologist who modified the Roman version of Chinese characters, says although it is often counted as a religion of China, Confucianism is not a religion, but a system of social and political morality. Giles also wrote about how religions of China addressed materialism.

Dynasties and Rulers of Ancient China

Herbert A. Giles (1845-1935), a British sinologist, says Ssŭma Ch'ien [in Pinyin, Sīmǎ Qiān] (d. 1st-century BCE), was a father of history and wrote Shi Ji 'The Historical Record'. In it, he describes the reigns of legendary Chinese emperors from 2700 BCE, but only those from about 700 BCE onwards are in a genuinely historical period.

The record talks about the Yellow Emperor, who "built a temple for the worship of God, in which incense was used, and first sacrificed to the Mountains and Rivers. He is also said to have established the worship of the sun, moon, and five planets, and to have elaborated the ceremonial of ancestral worship." The book also talks about the dynasties of China and eras in Chinese history.

Maps of China

The oldest paper map, the Guixian Map, dates to the 4th century BCE. To clarify, we don't have access to a photo of this map.

This map of ancient China shows the topography, the plateaus, hills, Great Wall, and rivers, which makes it a useful first look. There are other maps of ancient China such as Han Maps and Ch'In Maps.

Trade and Economy in Ancient China

In the early years by the time of Confucius, Chinese people traded salt, iron, fish, cattle, and silk. To facilitate trade, the First Emperor instituted a uniform weight and measure system and standardized the road width so carts could bring trade goods from one region to the next.

Through the famous Silk Road, they also traded externally. Goods from China could wind up in Greece. At the eastern end of the route, the Chinese traded with people from India, providing them with silk and getting lapis lazuli, coral, jade, glass, and pearls in exchange.

Art in Ancient China

The name "china" is sometimes used for porcelain because China was, for a while, the only source for porcelain in the West. Porcelain was made, perhaps as early as the Eastern Han period, from kaolin clay covered with petuntse glaze, fired together in high heat so the glaze is fused and doesn't chip off.

Chinese art goes back to the neolithic period from which time we have painted pottery. By the Shang Dynasty, China was producing jade carvings and cast bronze found among grave goods.

Great Wall of China

This is a fragment from the old Great Wall of China, outside Yulin City, built by the first Emperor of China, Qin Shi Huang 220-206 BCE. The Great Wall was built to protect from northern invaders. There were several walls built over the centuries. The Great Wall that we are more familiar with was built during the Ming Dynasty in the 15th century.

The length of the wall has been determined to be 21,196.18km (13,170.6956 miles), according to the BBC: China's Great Wall is 'longer than previously thought'.