Abacus

Abacus is a device for math calculations. It is the Fifth Invention of Ancient China, the abacus can perform addition, subtraction, division and multiplication; it can also be used to obtain square roots and cubic roots. It was invented during China's middle ages, during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). 

A

Bronze

Bronze was used for containers, weapons, and musical instruments. The Chinese were among the first to mix tin and copper to make bronze. The Bronze Age started around 1700 BCE in ancient China. This is when men learned how to mine copper and tin to make bronze weapons. Bronze is a combination of 10% tin and 90% copper. 

B

Confucius

Confucius was the first private teacher in ancient China. His students paid to study with him. Confucius did not limit his students to the children of nobles or government officials. He was willing to teach anyone who wanted to learn. Confucius had very strict ideas of how people should behave to develop moral character. 

C

Dragons

Dragons were nice guys. They were caring and looked after things. There were different dragons to guard, the wind, the rain, the rivers, and precious metals.

That's why huge paper dragons and gorgeous pottery dragons are seen so often in Chinese art.

D

Education

You could not change your place in life. Whatever your father was, you were, and boys were taught by their fathers. The only exception, for boys only, would be to join the military, and that was not usually a move up. Girls were taught by their mothers how to be a good wife and mother. Sons of nobles could learn from a tutor, who taught small groups of privileged boys. Tutors were paid. One such teacher was Confucius. 

E

Foot Binding

Foot binding began in Shang times. Whenever it started, it was a barbaric practice. Young girls, between the age of 5-7, to modify the shape of their feet, had their toes tucked under their feet, and then had their feet wrapped in long pieces of cloth to hold their toes in place. The heel and the tip of the toes were actually touching. This broke the bones in their feet, and was very painful. Foot binding continued for thousands of years. It was finally made illegal in the early 1900s in modern times. Still, some people practiced foot binding anyway. There are women alive today who had their feet bound as a child.

F

Great Wall of China

Great Wall of China was built to protect China from invasions and raids. It is a myth that it can be seen from space because it is such a large structure. Qin put over 3,000 people to work building the wall, it took a little longer than he had originally thought it would to build. It took over 1700 years! Emperor after emperor followed Qin's lead and forced people to build the wall. By the time the wall was done, it was 3700 miles long

G

Hans Tombs

Hans tombs. Hans buried little clay models of their home and their belongings in their tombs. There were little bronze oil lamps, little figures, and little pieces of furniture. The Han people wanted to be comfortable in their afterlife. These tomb goods tell us a great deal about daily life in Han times.

-The Han tombs were mainly made of brick and stone. They were placed deep in the earth so that they would not become rotten and thus be destroyed.

-The discoveries in these tombs provide a firsthand look at some of the materials and advance our studies of the Han Dynasty.

H

Instruments

Instruments were very different from any other culture's. One very long flute-like instrument has a bell at the end. Other flute-like instrument has a wind chime hanging from it. Other instruments have two strings, some three strings, some four strings. An luo is a mounted gong with a padded stick that you use to hit the gong in various places, with varied strength, to get various sounds. Chinese instruments produce a unique sound.  

I

Jade

Jade is a greengmstone that the Chinese believed brought protection. Nephrite jade was the very first of these materials discovered in China, and was the traditional jade used and carved since ancient times. Nephrite was so important that the traditional deposits in China are now all but depleted.

J

Kites

Kites that are homemade usually are made of wood and paper or cloth. Homemade para-wing kites are usually made of Mylar. (A form of polyester)

The kite has been claimed as the invention of the 5th-century. the were used in the military. the kites were used for different messages messages Chinese military attached bamboo pipes to the kites.

K

Lacquer

Lacquer, a varnish or protective coating was first made from the sap of the lacquer tree. A liquid made of shellac (a resin secreted by the female lac bug, on trees in the forests of India and Thailand.) dissolved in alcohol, or of synthetic substances, that dries to form a hard protective coating for wood, metal, etc.

L

M

Middle Kingdom

Middle Kingdom or Middle Country, Mandarin Zhongguo, Chinese name for China. It dates from c.1000 BC, when it designated the Chou empire situated on the North China Plain. The Chou people, unaware of high civilizations in the West, believed their empire occupied the middle of the earth, surrounded by barbarians (a member of a community or tribe not belonging to one of the great civilizations.)

New year

New Year festival are thousands of years old and are steeped in legends but it is unclear when the beginning of the year was celebrated before the Qin Dynasty. A small scale Spring Festival is said to have been celebrated as early as at the time of the legendary sage-emperors Yao and Shun.

Oracle

oracle bones represent one of the earliest extant forms of writing in China. Recorded in these inscriptions are accounts of important national events and the daily life of the royal household in the late Shang dynasty (about 1300 B.C.) The first discovery of oracle bones was in 1899. During the year 1928 through 1937 nearly 25000 tortoise shells and animal bones were uncovered in archaeological field at hsiao-tun village in Henan province, China. They were used in as a form of divination in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. The word oracle means a person most likely a woman that can read cracks on bones.

O

Painting

Painting, in ancient times was done on silk. However, after the invention of paper in the 1st century, silk was gradually replaced by the new and cheaper material. This art has been for almost 2,000 years.

P

Qin

Qin Dynasty established the first empire in China, starting with efforts in 230 B.C. during which they engulfed six Zhou Dynasty states. The empire existed only briefly from 221 to 206 B.C., but the Qin Dynasty had a lasting cultural impact on the dynasties that followed.

-Qin dynasty was the first imperial dynasty of China.

-Their reign lasted only 15 years, from 221 BC to 206 BC.

-Independent states system was abolished when Qin dynasty came to power. he standardized weights and measures and he insisted that the round coin with square hole. Also one of the Seven Wonders of the World, Great Wall of China was built under his order.

Q