Early Chinese society had three main social classes: landowning aristocrats, farmers, and merchants.

• A social class includes people who share a similar position is society.

• Families who owned large land estates.

• They lived in large houses with tile

roofs, courtyards, gardens, fine furniture, and silk hangings.

• Each aristocrat eventually divided his land among his sons, his next generation.

• They depended on the peasants who farmed their estates to make them rich.

Foot Binding Video

• 9 of 10 Chinese were farmers

• Lived in simple houses inside village walls.

• Farmed the land of the aristocrats.

• Grew wheat, rice, and millet.

• Gave part of their crop to the aristocrats for use of the land.

• Paid taxes and worked one month each year building roads and helping on other government projects.

• In wartime, they served as soldiers.

• Ranked above the merchants.

• Included shopkeepers, traders, and bankers.

• Lived in towns and provided goods and services to the landowners.

• Many became rich but still were looked down on by aristocrats and farmers.

• Not allowed to hold government positions because Chinese leaders believed officials should not be concerned with money.

Older sons raised crops to provide food for their parents.

Practiced filial piety: children had to respect

their parents and older relatives.

Head of the family was the

oldest male.

Farming families were large and children worked

the fields to help their parents.

Chinese families took care of those in need –

the aged, the young,

and the sick.Basic building blockof Chinese society

Respected because they grew the crops.

Were able to go to school.

Could run the Government

Fought in wars

Roles were seen as more important

than the roles of women.

Women raisedchildren and cared for

the household.

Ordinary women could not hold

government posts.

Women in the royal courts could

influence government decisions.

Main Idea:Three Chinese philosophies,

Confucianism, Daoism, and Legalism grew out of

a need for order

• Violence was common after the fall the Zhou Dynasty.

• During the Period of the Warring States, whole villages of men, women, and children were slaughtered.

• Many Chinese began looking for a way to restore civil order and create a peaceful society.

Chinese thinkers developed 3 major theories about to create a peaceful society: 1. Confucianism 2. Daoism 3. Legalism

• Confucius was China’s first great thinker.

• He wanted to bring peace to China and restore civil order.

• Believed that people needed to have a sense of duty.

• Taught that duty meant a person must put the needs of family and community before his or her own needs.

• Taught that each person owed a duty to another person.

• Duty was based on Confucius 5 key relationships.

1. Husband to wife: Husbands should be supportive and wives should be obedient.

2. Father to son: A father should loving and a son should honor him.

3. Brother to brother: Older brothers should be gentle and younger brothers should be respectful.

4. Older to Younger: Older people should be considerate and younger people should listen and be respectful.

5. Ruler to subject: A ruler should be fair and honest and a subject should be loyal.

• Believed that if each person would do his duty, society as a whole would do well.

• He urged people to be good and to seek knowledge.

• Believed the best way to behave was to follow the Silver rule: “ What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others.”

• Said, “Measure the feelings of others by one’s own” and “Within the four seas all men are brothers.”

Confucianism was one of the firstChinese philosophies.

Confucius predicted that trouble would result whenever a bad

example was set.

• Confucius believed that order everywhere could not be maintained unless it existed first in the family and then between families.

• He used Chinese respect for tradition and urged that it be taught to the people through indoctrination.

• Moral ideas were driven into the people by every means until they became habits in daily life.

• Indoctrination was done in temples, theatres, homes, schools, and through proverbs, and literature. Toys too!

Confucius• Believed that peace would result if people followed his five ways to civil order:

• 1.Jen: Respect for oneself and others. Goodness, love, and a feeling of humanity toward others. The Siver Rule.

• 2. Chun-tzu: Having manners and showing righteousness in the character. Being a gentleman.

• 3. Li: Being truthful and honoring the 5 key relationships. Honoring family and leaders.

• 4. Te: Having wise leaders of good character devoted to common good of all.

• 5. Wen: Developing the arts of peace, music, art, and poetry, as opposed to the arts of war. Being cultured.

• Traveled throughout China trying to persuade government leaders to follow his ideas.

• Taught that: “All men with a talent for governing, should take part in government.”

• Few leaders listened during his lifetime.

• Gained many followers who continued his teachings after his death.

• Teachings were written down in the Analects.

Quotes from the Analects:1. “True virtue rarely goes

with artful speech.”2. “Behave in such a way

that your father and mother have no anxiety about you, except concerning your health.”

3. “He does not preach what he practices till he has practiced what he preaches.”

4. “A good man does what is right, a bad man does what pays”.

• A philosophy that promotes a peaceful society.

• Based on the teachings of Laozi, also called the Old Master.

• Supposedly lived during lifetime of Confucius but scholars aren’t sure he was a real person.

• Teachings became popular between 500 B.C. and 300 B.C.

• Ideas of Daoism are written in the Dao de Jing which means The Way of the Dao.

• Like Confucianism, Daoism tells people how to behave.

• Daoists believed that people should give up worldly desires and turn to nature and the Dao.

• The Dao is the force that guides all things.

While Eeyore frets and Piglet hesitates and Rabbit calculates and owl pontificates, Pooh just is.

the tao of pooh

Winnie the Pooh Video

• Taught that people were naturally good.

• It is the opposite of Confucianism because followers of Confucius taught that people should work hard to improve the world.

• Daoism taught people to give up their concerns about the world, seek inner peace, and live in harmony with nature.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68S0FEcv6CY

• Hanfeizi taught that humans were naturally evil.

• Believed that people needed harsh laws and stiff punishments to force them to do their duty.

• Disagreed with the idea that honorable men could bring peace to society.

• Believed that a ruler must be strong to keep order in society.

Developed by a scholar

named Hanfeizi.

• Aristocrats favored Legalism because it favored force and gave them power over the people.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68S0FEcv6CY

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68S0FEcv6CY

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=93yNjmi9gT0