Thursday, July 23, 2009

Religion

Religion

The Shang Dynasty is the second of the Three Holy Dynasties of Chinese historiography. It is said to have been founded by Tang the Great, the last ruler was the depraved King Zhou. Since all the events of this historical period, reported by sources written many hundred years later, cannot be taken seriously, many scholars at the end of the 19th century thought the Shang Dynasty to be purely mythical. Only the discovering of oracle bones at the begin of the 20th century and the deciphering of the incised inscriptions proved that at least the last part of the Shang was indeed a historical period.But the kings of Yin were not the centre of the Chinese world. Around them, many other cities and states (the ten thousand states, presented a world full of cultural diversity of which the state of the rulers at a city discovered at Erligang were dominating the ancient Central Plain for a certain time. Later, when the kings of Yin (known as the ruling house of Shang) entered history, they were only one royal house that had to fight for dominance with many other cities between modern Gansu and Shandong, Hebei and Jiangxi.
To Ms Huda:My sincere apologies for not finishing this question on time as i had some problem with it.I promise that this shall not happen again....

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

What happened c.1550 BCE


What cause the end of Shang civilization?

-The last King to rule the Shang civilization was killed at c.1150 BCE.Hence the dynasty of Shang ended. After that, the western Zhou dynasty ruled from 1027-771BCE. However the change or the dynasty did not result in ending the Shang civilization. Sadly at around 771BCE ,a group of people killed the Zhou king and his son had to move this capital eastward. Hence his dynasty was known as the Eastern Zhou dynasty(771-221BCE).

However, fighting between the people continued and hence the last 232 years of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was known as the period of Warring States.During the period, the northern part of China was broken up into several competing kingdoms. Finally, in 221BCE a prince managed to unite these kingdoms to form the first Chinese empire under the Qing Dynasty (221-206 BCE)


This is an picture of a oracle bone.It is used by priest to tell the future as giving answers to questions and their answers carved onto the bones.

Thursday, July 16, 2009

3 other occupations-History

History

Occupations

-Farmers
They farm to get their food, example: oats, vegetables, rice, grapes and carrots.They also can sell them, and earn money.

-Potters
They create items for people to use, now the items are called artifacts.

-Artists
Draws many paintings for different kinds of people, draw paintings about their Gods or a specific king or person.

3 pictures-history.







This pictures shows a majestic zebu bull,and its heavy dewlap and wide curving horns is perhaps the most impressive motif found on the Indus seals!As you can see,it is generally carved on large seals with relatively short inscriptions,the zebu motif can be found in the cities of Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa.

The hump bull is a recurring theme in many of the ritual and decorative arts in the Indus region,appearing on painted pottery and as figurines long before the rise of cities and continuing on later historical time.The zebu bull symbolize the leader among the herd.Who is strong and protects the herd.When it is carved in stone,it represents the top officials or a powerful clan of
Mohenjo-Daro







The male head is broken by a seated sculpture,it has a wavy and braided combed hair tied into a double bun on the back of the head and a plain fillet or headband with two hanging ribbons down the back!

As u can see,the upper lip is shaved and closely cropped and combed beard lines show the lower jaw.The almond shape eyes are framed by long eyebrows.The ears are made of a double curve with a central knob!





Seated male sculpture, or "Priest King"
It has a filler or ribbon headband with circular inlay ornament on the forehead and similar but smaller ornament on the right upper arm. Two ends of the fillet fall along the back and thought the hair is carefully combed towards the back of the head, there is no bun.At the back of the head may have held a sperately carved bun as is tradional on the other seated figures,or it could have held a more elaborate horn and plumed headdressIn the two ears there is a hole,a necklace or other head ornament wasd attached to the sculpture,the left shoulder is covered with a cloak decorated with trefoil circle and single circle designs that were originally filled with red pigment,Drill holes in the center of each circle indicate they were made with a specialized drill and then touched up with a chisel.The eyes are deeply incised and may have held inlay.the upper lip is shaved and a short combed beard frames the face,The large crack in the face is the result of weathering or it may be due to original firing of this object.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Recap questions for Page 23

Name:Mike Yap(38) Class:1E3 Date:14-7-09



1.What are primary and secondary sources
-Primary sources are Written evidence,pictorial evidence,Oral evidence and artefacts.Whilst Secondary sources are records of people who did not direct participate in or witness the events they described,examples:newspaper,history books and websites.


2.How does historians make sure that their resources are reliable?
-The evidence must be credible,consistent and can be corrobated.(The 3c's)


3.Why and when is it neccesary for historians to revise their interpretations of past events?
-To make sure they did not make any mistakes.And it can pass through the 3's to make it a fact.Hence they will need to revise their interpretations.