Long ago before the existence of any dynasties, there was a period known as the Predynastic Period. The first dynasty was the Hsia Dynasty which many people think only survived because of the Bronze Age. Then in 1600 B.C the next dynasty named the Shang Dynasty came into power. The Shang was one of the more powerful and warlike groups. In the end, they picked one too many fights and lost to the Zhou. The Zhou were much like the Shang. They believed in a religious status-quo, but their people believed that they had supernatural powers and they worshiped their ancestors (veneration of ancestors). The Zhou had a fairly successful rule until their power completely evaporated and led to the Warring States Period. This period was mostly civil wars that were an outcome of the downfall of the Zhou. Then a group called the Qin came in and conquered all of China, partly because they had iron weapons and chariots. The Qin Dynasty was the time period in which the Great Wall of China was built. The leader at this time died under mysterious circumstances which led to the Han Dynasty. This dynasty brought back stability and they were the first Chinese people to write down history.
China's organized government was really put into play around 1800 B.C. The country was combined into an empire that of course was ruled by an emperor. Each emperor was in charge of many smaller kings that were in charge of lots of even smaller lords. The lords were in charge of taxes and things of that sort. Later on, the Mongols invaded and overtook the government. In the 1300's, China took back the country due to the Mongols dying of the plague and they reestablished the old government. It was a legalistic government.
As far as the geography of ancient China goes they were a very protected civilization. On one side they had the Himalayas which is an almost impassable barrier. They also had two of the world's largest deserts surrounding them. Along with that, they had the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers flowing through the country providing transportation, fresh water, food, and fertile soil.
To the Chinese all throughout history, family was a very important thing. To an extent, it was part of their religion. Even when people grew up and had families of their own it was not uncommon for them to live not only in the same neighborhood but sometimes even the same house as the rest of their family. An important thing was filial piety which was a respect for ones elders.
Throughout history, China went through three main religions. The first of which was Taoism, in this religion people are supposed to be one with nature. The second was Confucianism, this religion was based on people having high honor and politeness. The third religion was Buddhism, this religion is thought to be the rebirth of people until they live a proper life and enter nirvana. Confucianism was a special case though, because it wasn't actually a religion. It was a philosophy.
China's influence on writing was large. They developed the first East-Asian writing. They also developed multiple styles of writing. They also had a special kind of writing called logograms. That was a kind of writing in which the symbols represented the meaning of the word. These symbols could also be called pictographs or ideographs.
One of the greatest things that China ever invented is the compass. The compass is widely used for navigation. Another very good invention is gunpowder. We all know that gunpowder is very important for many reasons including protection. The third invention that we think is very important is proper paper. Without proper paper, we would not have many things including written history.
China had a medium influence on math. One thing that they did was invent their own number system. They used bamboo sticks to show numbers as shown above. Another major thing was that a man from China invented an algorithm that found the correct sequence of PI.
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