History and Geography

Dynasties of
China Wu Zhao

Reader

Emperor Taizong

Mongol invasion and rule

Shihuangdi's terracotta army

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 Dynasties of
China
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 The First Emperor. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Chapter 2 The Han Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 3 Wu Zhao . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 4 The Tang Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Chapter 5 The Peddler’s Curse. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Chapter 6 Town and Country . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Chapter 7 The Mongol Invasions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Chapter 8 Kublai Khan and Marco Polo. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Chapter 9 The Forbidden City . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Chapter 10 The Last Dynasty. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
 Dynasties of China
Reader
Core Knowledge Sequence History and Geography 4
Chapter 1
The First Emperor
The Emperor’s Clay Army In the
The Big Question
spring of 1974, some villagers in
What were some
central China needed a new well. of the things the
The well diggers’ muscles ached as first emperor did to
they dug deeper and deeper into unite China?

the reddish soil, looking for water.

At twelve feet down they hit something—but not water.

It was a head! Not a human head, but a life-sized head made of

terracotta, or clay. The face startled them because it looked so real, but
it clearly came from an earlier time. The workers
kept digging and they eventually uncovered Vocabulary
the complete figure of a Chinese warrior buried terracotta, n. baked
or hardened brownish-
for more than two thousand years. red clay

Archaeologists rushed to the site of the well. emperor, n. the ruler

of an empire
They carefully dug up the whole area. They
found more clay soldiers, then still more, and jade, n. a hard
mineral, usually green,
clay horses, too. In all, they found a whole that can be made
army of life-sized soldiers and horses—about into jewelry or small
figurines
seven thousand of them!

2
These life-sized soldiers were part of the vast clay army that guarded the entrance to the
tomb of China’s first emperor. Chinese emperors believed that they would enter an afterlife
that would be like their life on Earth. So they buried their most valuable possessions with
them—precious silks, priceless objects of jade or bronze, and musical instruments.

3
Each warrior had his own personality. Some
Vocabulary
seemed angry, while others appeared
crossbow, n. a
cheerful. The soldiers wore armor made of type of weapon
clay. They carried real weapons—bows and that shoots arrows
when the trigger is
arrows, swords, spears, and crossbows. released

Guardians of the Tomb

The clay army stood in silent formation, guarding the tomb of the
first emperor of China. Alert and ready for battle, they were to
protect the emperor from evil spirits and robbers. If a robber did
manage to break in, he might not escape in one piece—the clay
army surrounded the tomb.

Over seven hundred thousand workers built the first emperor’s

tomb and created his army of clay. And it took them almost

Figures such as this archer were part of the army created for the tomb of Shihuangdi,
China’s first emperor. Shihuangdi ruled from 221–210 BCE.

4
forty years to do it. The emperor did not want anyone to know
about the tomb and its contents. So after he died, many workers
in the underground tomb found that they could not get out. Walls
and doors sealed them inside the tomb forever. They were buried
alive to keep the emperor’s secret.

Uniting the Country

The first emperor frightened everyone. Named Zheng (/jung/)

at birth, the emperor came from the northwest Chinese state of
Qin (/chin/).

When Zheng was a young boy, China was not a single unified
country as it is today. Instead, many separate states existed, and
they fought one another. Zheng became king of the state of Qin
when he was thirteen—probably not too much older than you are
now. To keep his power, he had to fight wars with his neighbors.
After ruling as king for twenty-five years, he defeated all the other
states.

In 221 BCE Zheng declared himself emperor of all of China and

took the name Shihuangdi (/shur*hwong*dee/), meaning First
Supreme Emperor. Shihuangdi established the Qin dynasty,
named after his home state.

Shihuangdi had to be very tough to hold the new country

together. His old enemies still hated him, so he commanded that
all the weapons in the empire be brought to the capital city. He
melted the weapons down and turned them into harmless bells
and twelve enormous statues that he placed inside his palace.

5
Shihuangdi struggled to unite the many different states into one
nation. Each of the old states had its own particular kind of writing,
calendar, and system of weights and measures. This caused great
confusion. How could you understand a written command from
the emperor if you did not use the same kind of writing as he did?
Even the money was different all over China. Some places used
coins in the shape of knives, while others used coins shaped like
shovels or fish or small scallop shells. Which one was the most
valuable? And if you and your neighbors measured out grain
differently, who decided which was the right amount?

Shihuangdi decided to remove these differences. He insisted

that all people use the same written language so that everyone
in the empire could understand each other. Shihuangdi declared
that all coins must be round with a square hole in the middle.

Here you can see different kinds of money used before Emperor Shihuangdi made
everyone use the same round coins.
6
This was done so that coins could be strung together. The emperor
established one calendar and one single system of weighing and
measuring goods that everyone had to follow.

Shihuangdi wanted to travel easily throughout his empire, so he

ordered the building of canals to connect the great waterways of
China. He also commanded that roads be built—four thousand
miles of them! Trees lining the roads provided shade for travelers.

A Cruel Ruler

Such improvements made life easier for the Chinese people. But
the emperor could also be very cruel. He hated crime, and people
who broke his laws were punished in horrible ways.

Shihuangdi hated any ideas that were different from his own, and
he hated it when scholars looked back on the past and said life was
better back then. He had every book of history, philosophy, and
literature in all of China collected and burned. He commanded that
four hundred monks be killed because they made a promise to him
that they could not keep. Even the emperor’s own son was upset,
and he told his father it was wrong to be so cruel. But you shouldn’t
talk back to your parents—especially if
Vocabulary
the parent is a tyrant! Shihuangdi became
tyrant, n. a leader
angry at his son and sent him far away, all who rules by cruel or
unjust means
the way to the northern edge of China.

The Wall Builder

Shihuangdi gave his son a job to keep him busy. He told him to
supervise the construction of a series of walls in northern China.
7
Some old walls were already standing.
Vocabulary
Shihuangdi wanted to connect some of
Ming dynasty, n.
these walls and build new ones. The wall a period of Chinese
building did not end with Shihuangdi. Later rule from the late
1300s to the
dynasties built more walls. The rulers of mid-1600s
the Ming dynasty built the last and most
elaborate ones. These Ming-dynasty walls are the ones that we
usually think of as the Great Wall of China. But the work began
many years earlier, and the Chinese honor Shihuangdi as the first
great wall builder.

Construction of the Great Wall of China began under the rule of Shihuangdi.

8
The Great Wall snakes through China’s mountains and deserts for
more than one thousand miles. Why in the world would anyone
need such gigantic walls? Shihuangdi ordered the walls to be built
to keep out the people who lived beyond the northern border
of China.

The Europeans called these northern people the Huns; the Chinese
called them the Xiongnu (/syoong*noo/). The Xiongnu were
nomads, which means they had no permanent homes and moved
from place to place. They moved around on their great herds of
horses, riding like the wind. They wandered the open grasslands,
called steppes (/steps/), in search of good grass for their horses to
eat. When they found a place where they wanted to stay briefly,
they would set up large tent-like houses called yurts that they
could take down quickly when they were ready to move.

In contrast, the Chinese at that time led

Vocabulary
settled lives. Most of them were farmers
barbarian, n. a
who lived in the fertile valleys of the Huang violent or uncivilized
He (/whang/huh/), or Yellow River, in the person

north and the Yangzi (/yang*see/) River

farther south. They rarely left their farms and villages. To the
settled Chinese, the nomadic Xiongnu seemed like barbarians.

The Xiongnu were fierce warriors. They would mount their swift
horses and swoop down on Chinese villages, raiding and stealing
from the people who lived there. Shihuangdi was determined
to protect China from these northern raiders, and so he started
building walls.

9
He sent three hundred thousand soldiers and workers—including
criminals who had to march hundreds of miles in chains—to the
northern border. Many died on the way. Once they got there, there
was no food. Half-starved, the men had to work anyway.

Searching for Immortality

In his later years the emperor became worried Vocabulary

about dying. Shihuangdi was determined to immortality, n.
find a magic potion that would help him live unending life

forever. He sent out several sea expeditions in search of islands

that were supposed to hold the secret to immortality. Of course,
the expeditions failed.

In his capital city, Shihuangdi set about building several palaces

and gardens for himself. The emperor became so fearful that he
slept in a different palace every night. He moved secretly, and no
one except his closest advisers knew where he was.

Shihuangdi was a mysterious figure during his lifetime—and even

his death remained a secret. The emperor died while on his way
home from a long trip. Only a few advisers knew about it, and they
did not want anyone else to find out. The only problem was that
the emperor’s decaying body was beginning to smell! How could
they hide that? They came up with a plan to have a cart full of
rotten fish follow the emperor’s carriage until they got back to the
capital. That way people would think it was the fish that stank, and
not the recently deceased emperor!

10
Shihuangdi had boasted that his
Vocabulary
descendants would rule for ten thousand
generation, n. a
generations. But within just a few years period of time of
of his death, the Qin dynasty collapsed. about twenty-five
years
Another emperor emerged, and another
ruling family took over China and founded a new dynasty.

11
Chapter 2
The Han Dynasty
The Emperor with Seventy-two
The Big Question
Spots What sort of person do you
Why might the
think would be the founder of a new Chinese have wanted
dynasty? Someone from a rich and to protect their silk
powerful family? Not necessarily. The industry?

emperor Liu Bang (/lee*oh/bahng/)

was a poor, uneducated peasant.

Even as a young man, Liu Bang was unusual. His left thigh had
seventy-two spots on it, and it was said that a woman once saw a
dragon over his head while he slept. According to the Chinese, these
things indicated that he would achieve greatness one day.

A powerful warrior, Liu Bang took control of all of China and declared
himself the emperor of the Han (/hahn/) dynasty. This dynasty would
last for four hundred years.

12
Liu Bang founded the Han dynasty, which ruled for four hundred years.

13
Liu Bang lived in a grand palace in the capital city of Chang’an
(/chahng*ahn/). The emperor wanted his father to come live with
him. “Forget your old farm,” he told his father. “Come live here like
the richest man on Earth, in the most luxurious palace in all of
China.”

But his father wasn’t sure. He thought he would miss his old home
and small village too much. Have you ever had to move? Maybe
you felt sad leaving your old home. Well, Liu Bang’s father felt the
same way.

But Liu Bang was determined to get his father to move, so he had
an exact copy of his father’s village created near the capital. He
moved his father’s friends to the new place. He even moved the
cows and chickens from the old village so that his father would
feel right at home. Only then did Liu Bang’s father move.

But all was not peaceful in China. Shihuangdi’s walls had not
stopped the Xiongnu. They continued to pour over the walls and
into China. Liu Bang and the emperors who came after him made
war against the northern horsemen, but still the raiders came.
What could the Chinese do about them?

A later Han emperor, Wudi (/woo*dee/), had an idea. Maybe

other states would be willing to fight the hated Xiongnu. But the
Chinese didn’t know anything about other lands or other peoples.

China had always been isolated from the rest of the world because
of its geography. The Pacific Ocean lay to the east of China; to
the west lay the Himalayas, with some of the tallest mountains in

14
the world; to the north were vast steppes and the forbidding
Gobi (/go*bee/) Desert; and to the south lay more mountains
and jungles.

Because the Chinese were so isolated, they believed they were

the center of the world. They called their country the Middle
Kingdom or All Under Heaven. They had little interest in
exploring other places.

One day in 138 BCE, Emperor Wudi ordered Vocabulary

a court official by the name of Zhang official, n. a person
Qian to go out into the wilderness. Wudi who carries out a
government duty
commanded this official to find another

The Geography of China

N 70° E 80° E 90° E 100° E 110° E 120° E 130° E 140° E
50° N

Rive r
u
W E

Am
r
S
Almalyk
The Steppe
Hami
T
TAKLA
MAKAN DESE R T DE SER 40° N
G O BI
Anxi Beijing
Dunhuang
He ng

Luoyang
a
Hu

im Changan Kaifeng
H

ala
yas 30° N
China
Mt. Everest Yan
g zi R i v e r Hangzhou
PACIFIC
0 600 miles OCEAN

The Steppe The Great Wall

Forests The Silk Road
Mountains
Hainan Island

China’s geography varies greatly and kept it isolated from the rest of the world.

15
state that would help China fight the
Vocabulary
northern tribesmen. The explorer headed
tribesmen, n. the
west into central Asia. He discovered people who belong
amazing things, including the most to a tribe or a society

wonderful horses he’d ever seen.

Zhang Qian went as far as the state of Bactria (/back*tree*yuh/),

which is now called Afghanistan (/af*gan*ih*stan/). He asked the
people of Bactria to help the Chinese fight the Xiongnu. But they
said no.

Disappointed, Zhang Qian returned to China. He probably thought

he had failed in his mission. But his stories about the western land
fascinated the Chinese. People in China listened carefully when they
heard about the magnificent horses in Central Asia. In particular,

The Akhal-Teke horse, or Heavenly Horse, also known as the “sweats

blood horse,” was a prized possession in China. It was one of the first
horses to be brought to China from Central Asia.

16
they became interested in a horse known as a “sweats blood horse.”
This horse was viewed as special and exotic.

The Silk Road

As well as horses, the Chinese loved silk. Silk was a precious,

valuable fabric. Have you ever felt silk? It is very soft and beautiful.
The Chinese got silk by raising special worms, called silkworms.
They’d feed the silkworms mulberry leaves. In the springtime the
worms would spin a cocoon made of delicate threads. The Chinese
learned how to unwind those threads and weave them into a
beautiful fabric.

At that time, the Chinese were the only ones in the world who
knew how to make silk, and they wanted to keep it that way.
Silkworm eggs were not allowed out of the country. If you tried
to sneak them out, you would be punished with death.

Silk has been made and highly valued in China for more than six thousand years. These
illustrations show silk being woven. After the thread has been dyed, it is then dried.

17
But finished Chinese silk could leave the country, and when
foreigners saw the fabric they immediately wanted to trade for it.
The silk trade created wealth for China.

That was how the Silk Road began. The road was really a system
of trails that stretched thousands of miles across the mountains
and deserts of Central Asia. Traders traveled in groups called
caravans. Animals such as camels and yaks carried the silk. The
route led from one oasis to the next. The
caravan would stop at each oasis to rest in Vocabulary
the shade and get food and water before yak, n. an ox-like
animal that lives in
continuing on in the desert. Following this Asia
route, silk traders made it all the way to the
oasis, n. an area in
countries on the Mediterranean Sea. the desert where
there are water and
People of the Mediterranean world were plants
eager to buy China’s silk. Cleopatra, the
queen of Egypt, wore a silk gown to impress her guests. Silk was
so popular in Rome that the emperor had to forbid men from
wearing it so that there would be enough for the women.

Making Paper

The Han dynasty, founded by Liu Bang, lasted from 206 BCE to
220 CE, roughly the same period as the mighty Roman Empire.
But in many ways the Han culture was far more advanced than
that of Rome. The Chinese themselves look upon this dynasty as
a kind of golden time. They still call themselves the sons of Han.

One of the great achievements of the Han dynasty was the

invention of paper. The Chinese made paper by mashing together
18
a variety of ingredients including tree bark,
Vocabulary
hemp, rags, and fish nets.
hemp, n. a type of
Can you imagine not having any paper? plant, the fibers of
which are used to
What would you write on? Before paper make such things
was invented, the Chinese used the bones as rope, fabric, and
paper
of animals, strips of bamboo, or even
precious silk.

The invention of paper was a huge advance. It would be another

one thousand years before paper would appear in Europe.

19
Chapter 3
Wu Zhao
City of Foreigners In the year
The Big Question
638 CE, an imperial carriage hurried
Why might it be
through the countryside on its way said that Wu Zhao’s
to Chang’an, the capital city of China. rise to power was
an extraordinary
The carriage rocked and swayed as it achievement?
went. In the back of the carriage sat
a thirteen-year-old girl named Wu Zhao (/woo/jow/).

The young girl was going to live in the

Vocabulary
imperial palace. The emperor at that time
foreigner, n. a person
was Taizong (/tye*dzoong/) of the Tang who comes from
dynasty. another country

Can you imagine how Wu Zhao must have imperial, adj. relating
to an emperor,
felt? She had probably never been away from empress or empire
her home and her family before. However,
Wu’s mother had become a widow and had decided that her
daughter would be better off living in the palace.

20
Wu Zhao became the only woman to ever rule China as an empress.

21
Wu Zhao’s New Life

In the back of the carriage, young Wu Zhao must have been

excited and scared about her new life. The roads became crowded
as they approached the city of Chang’an, the largest and grandest
city in the entire world at that time. Merchants carrying luxury
goods from the Silk Road filled the streets leading to the capital.
The carriage came to a high wall. It prepared to pass through one
of the four great gates that led into the city.

Wu Zhao saw amazing things. Roughly one million people lived

in Chang’an. Many of them were foreigners—Koreans, Japanese,
Arabs, Persians, Turks, Indians, and even Africans. Wu Zhao had
never seen so many different kinds of people. They looked
strange to her. They spoke languages she could not understand.
Everyone on the streets, even the Chinese themselves, dressed like
foreigners. Women wore tightly fitted dresses that followed the
fashions of Persia. Rich Chinese men wore
hats made of leopard skin. The music that Vocabulary
rose up in the streets was unlike anything shrine, n. a place
she had ever heard. In the two great city considered holy
because it is
marketplaces, merchants sold exotic associated with a
religious person or
goods—foods, plants, perfumes, medicines,
saint
fabrics, and jewels from foreign lands.
Buddhist religion, n.
As her carriage drove through the streets, also called Buddhism,
a religion originating
Wu Zhao saw many monasteries, temples, in India that is based
and shrines for the Buddhist religion that on the teachings of
Siddhartha Gautama
had come to China from India. She saw

22
houses topped with yellow roofs that were curved to guard against
evil spirits, which were believed to move only in straight paths.

The Imperial City

Wu Zhao’s carriage went up the Street of the Red Bird, a very wide
street that stretched 480 feet from one side to the other. At the
end of the street lay the walled Imperial City. The emperor lived
and worked within these walls, and only certain people could
enter this special city within a city. All others were forbidden to do
so. Even touching the wall was a serious crime. If you dared to put
your hand on the wall, you could be hit seventy times with a rod.

The guards at the wall allowed Wu Zhao’s carriage to pass through

the gate. They could tell immediately that the carriage belonged
to the emperor because it was painted a brilliant red, the same
color as the emperor’s court.

Inside the official court, seated on his throne, Emperor Taizong

issued commands that affected a large portion of Asia. He
ruled over a vast empire that included sixty million people.
Thousands of government officials scurried about the huge
rooms with marble floors, carrying out his orders and meeting
his every desire.

But Wu Zhao went to an even more secret part of the Imperial

City, the place where Taizong lived. Only the emperor and
members of his household could enter what was called the
Palace City. The emperor was the only grown man allowed inside
the Palace City; even the emperor’s sons had to leave when they
grew up.
23
Emperor Taizong is considered the co-founder of the Tang dynasty and one of China’s
greatest emperors.

24
Life in the Palace City

The emperor had one wife but many female companions, all of
whom lived in the Palace City. Wu Zhao was destined to be a
companion. This would be her new home. She had no idea of
what to expect.

Wu Zhao spent her days studying music and literature, and

learning to write beautifully. She dressed in gorgeous silk robes
and precious jewels. She and the other women in the palace
arranged and rearranged their hair and applied makeup. At that
time fashionable women painted eyebrows on their faces. The
eyebrows were drawn in different ways to create different moods.
One style was named “Distant Mountains,” and another was called
“Sorrow Brows.” “Sorrow Brows” was Wu Zhao’s style.

The emperor’s wife and his

companions walked in the
gardens and played games
together, including the
exciting game of polo, a
popular game on horseback
that had recently come to
China from Persia. While
riding at high speed, polo
players had to hit a ball with
a long stick or mallet. This sculpture from Tang China captures the
excitement of polo, a game that had been
brought from Persia to China.

25
Though the female companions enjoyed
Vocabulary
the games and luxuries of the Palace City,
nun, n. a woman
their lives were not free of worry. If any one who lives a simple,
of the women displeased the emperor, she religious life in a
religious community
could lose her privileges or even be sent of other women
away from the palace forever.
ruthless, adj. cruel;
without mercy or
In 649 CE, Emperor Taizong died, and
pity
according to tradition, Wu Zhao and the
other women in the palace had to shave their heads and move to
a Buddhist temple. They would have to live there as nuns for the
rest of their lives. Wu Zhao did not want to leave the luxury of the
palace. She swore she would find some way to return.

Wu Zhao had already caught the attention of Emperor Taizong’s

son, Gaozong (/gow*dzoong/). A year after Taizong’s death,
Gaozong, now the new emperor, commanded that Wu Zhao be
returned to the palace. When she returned, Wu Zhao grew her hair
back and never again left the imperial court.

Wu Zhao Turns Ruthless

Once Wu Zhao returned to the Palace City, she began to better

understand how to survive there. Survival for Wu Zhao meant
defeating her enemies, and this is what she set out to do. She
cleverly got rid of many of the people who did not favor her,
including the emperor’s wife and his favorite companions. She
secretly killed Gaozong’s infant daughter and then tricked him into
believing that his wife, the empress, had done it. She then became

26
Gaozong’s favorite companion. Later she became his wife and
empress of China.

Empress Wu grew very powerful. She even attended government

meetings with Gaozong, which a woman had no right to do in
China. Many at court feared her, but they could say nothing. The
empress sat behind a screen and whispered to the emperor what
he should do. An ancient Chinese historian described how she
decided everything, even matters of life and death while “the
emperor sat with folded hands.”

After Gaozong died, one of their sons and then another took
over as emperor, but the real power belonged to Empress Wu.
Superstitious and nervous about enemies, Empress Wu planted
spies everywhere. But the ghosts of her murdered rivals haunted
her. In time, she could no longer stand living in the palace in
Chang’an, so she moved the capital to a new location.

Empress Wu was all-powerful. She had

Vocabulary
everything except the official title of
resign, v. to step
emperor. But she wanted that, too. In down from or leave
690 CE a flock of bright red birds flew a job

through the room that held the emperor’s

throne. A phoenix, a bird very special to the empress, was also
rumored to have flown over the palace. To the empress it was clear:
Heaven had sent these birds to show that she should be the official
ruler of China. She made her son resign. Wu Zhao declared herself
the Holy and Divine Emperor, and the founder of a brand-new
dynasty. For the next fifteen years, Wu Zhao ruled as emperor—the
first and only time a woman would do so in Chinese history.

27
The Woman Emperor

Emperor Wu had to overcome the fact that she was a woman

in what was traditionally a man’s world. She worked hard and
became a successful emperor. She ran the empire very skillfully.
During her rule, China prospered.

Wu Zhao believed very deeply in Buddhism. She had many

temples built, and she ordered the creation of enormous rock
sculptures. Caves were hollowed out of
Vocabulary
rock walls; inside, artists carved giant
Buddha, n. the
statues of Buddha from stone. Some of name given to
Siddhartha Gautama,
the largest cave figures rise as high as a
the founder of
fifteen-story building. Buddhism

Buddhism became increasingly popular around the time of Empress Wu. These images of
Buddha were carved into caves in the countryside.

28
At eighty years of age, Emperor Wu grew weak and sick. Some
of her old enemies saw a chance to get rid of her at last. They
killed her closest advisers and put Wu Zhao under house arrest.
She died later that year, and the Tang dynasty once again took
control in China.

29
Chapter 4
The Tang Dynasty
Before and After Wu Except for the
The Big Question
fifteen years when Wu Zhao ruled
What great advances
as emperor, the Tang dynasty ruled happened during the
China for almost three hundred Tang Dynasty?
years, from 618 CE to 907 CE.

During the Tang dynasty, China was the biggest and richest country
in the entire world. It conquered other lands, including Korea, Iran,
and a large part of Vietnam. The Japanese were so impressed with
China and its culture that they copied much of it, even the written
language.

Poetry and the Arts

The Tang emperors loved the arts, especially

Vocabulary
poetry. Twenty-seven-year-old Xuanzong
calligraphy, n.
(/soo*ahn*dzoong/) became emperor in artistic handwriting
712 CE. He was skilled in music, poetry, and
the art of beautiful writing known as calligraphy (/kuh*lihg*ruh*fee/).
The new emperor surrounded himself with poets, including two of
the most famous poets in Chinese history: Li Bai (/lee*bai/) and
Du Fu (/doo*foo/).
30
Between 607 CE and 838 CE, Japan sent nineteen missions to the Tang court. Knowledge
and learning was the main goal of each expedition. For example, priests studied Chinese
Buddhism. Officials studied Chinese government. Doctors studied Chinese medicine.
Painters studied Chinese art.

31
Tang China’s artistic achievements include ceramic figurines such as this one. These
figurines were usually decorated with brightly colored glazes. Like the emperor’s
terracotta army, these figures were often included in tomb burials.

Du Fu was a very serious and hardworking young man who always

wanted to be a government official. Li Bai, on the other hand, took
life easier. He wrote:

Life in the World is but a big dream;

I will not spoil it by any labor or care.

Li Bai often got himself into trouble by fighting and drinking too
much alcohol. Eventually, Li Bai left the emperor’s court and became

32
a wanderer. According to legend, he died by falling into a river.
The legend says that while crossing a river in a boat, Li Bai saw the
moon’s reflection in the water and reached for it, trying to hug it.
He fell out of the boat and drowned while reaching for the moon.

An Era of Glory

During the Tang dynasty the country was bursting with creative
energy. Foreigners were more welcome than ever before, and the
mix of cultures and ideas made China an exciting place.

Tea became incredibly popular during the Tang dynasty. Everyone

loved to drink it. Tea was grown in China, and the merchants
who sold it became extremely rich. There was only one problem.
So much money was being used that China was running out of
coins. What do you think the Chinese did? Stopped buying things?

Tea made merchants in Tang China very wealthy.

33
No, that wasn’t the answer. Instead the
Vocabulary
merchants invented a kind of paper money
woodblock
that they called “flying money,” perhaps printing, n. a type
because the money flew so fast from one of printing in which
designs and patterns
person to the next. This was the first type are carved into a
of paper money in the world. woodblock and the
woodblock is then
dipped in paint or
A number of other inventions also took
ink and stamped on
hold. At the end of the Tang dynasty, the paper or another
surface
invention of woodblock printing led to
the creation of books. A worker would alchemist, n. a
person who tries to
carve words and drawings onto a wooden turn other metals
block, cover the block with ink, then into gold
press it onto a piece of paper. Presto—a charcoal, n. black
printed page! One worker could produce a chunks of burned
wood
thousand pages a day using this technique.
The oldest existing book in the world, the nitrate, n. a
chemical; often used
Diamond Sutra, is a Buddhist text that was as fertilizer
printed in China in 868 CE. Once again the
saltpeter, n. a type
Chinese outpaced the Europeans: hundreds of nitrate
of years would pass before printing was
invented in Europe.

An Explosive Discovery

An even more explosive discovery took place in China during

the Tang dynasty. For many centuries, Chinese scientists
called alchemists had tried to create gold and find the secret
to living forever. Their experiments eventually led them to
mix charcoal, nitrate, and saltpeter together. The results
34
surprised them—the mixture exploded! The Chinese
scientists had discovered gunpowder. A warning appears in
a Tang chemistry book: beware when mixing these ingredients
because the mixture might explode right in your face and
burn off your beard.

Under the Tang dynasty the Chinese used the gunpowder not for
warfare but for creating spectacular fireworks. It seems fitting that
the brilliant Tang dynasty should be remembered for giving to the
world the magnificent gift of fireworks.

Under the Tang dynasty, the Chinese used gunpowder not for warfare but for creating
fireworks.

35
Chapter 5
The Peddler’s Curse
The Pancake Prophecy One day in
The Big Question
the year 1125, a very strange thing
How did Emperor Hui
happened to Emperor Hui Zong Zong fall from power?
(/hway/dzoong/) of the Song
(/soong/) dynasty. He came upon a poor fish peddler
sitting in a doorway, eating a pancake.

The peddler offered to share his humble food Vocabulary

with the emperor. “Have a bite!” the peddler prophecy, n. a
said to Hui Zong. But Hui Zong was disgusted prediction about the
future
by the very idea that he, the great emperor,
would share a bite of such miserable food. peddler, n. a person
who travels from
He would not touch it. one place to another
selling goods
Hui Zong’s refusal hurt the peddler’s feelings,
and the peddler spoke a frightening prophecy. “A day will come,”
he said to Hui Zong, “when you will be glad to have even a pancake
like this.”

The emperor went on his way. But the fish peddler’s words hung over
him like a mysterious curse. Hui Zong was rich and powerful beyond
imagination. How could he be happy with just a pancake for a meal?
What a ridiculous idea!
36
In this silk painting, Emperor Hui Zong is shown drinking from a cup made of
precious stone.

37
Hui Zong decided to forget all about his meeting with the
peddler. He called for his paints, his brushes, and some paper.
Of all the Chinese emperors, Hui Zong stood out as the one who
loved art the most. Hui Zong filled his palace with beautiful
works of art. He collected six thousand paintings. He learned
to paint and write poetry himself. Whenever the business of
governing got too boring or too tiring,
Vocabulary
he sent his officials away so that he
academy, n. a
could paint a picture or write a poem. He distinguished place
where scholars go to
developed new ways to paint birds and
study
flowers, and new styles of calligraphy. He
canvas, n. a strong,
set up an academy of painting, and artists durable fabric made
from all over the country flocked to it. from natural fibers

“Mountain-Water” Painting

The painters during the Song dynasty (960–1279) did not use oil
paints, and they did not work on canvas. Instead, these artists
used water-based paints on paper and silk. Paint spreads rapidly
on those surfaces, so the brush strokes had to be done very
quickly and lightly. There could be no hesitation whatsoever.

To the Chinese, paintings of nature were the highest form of

art. The artists loved to paint rugged scenes with mountains,
waterfalls, and rivers. Indeed, the Chinese word for “landscape”
means “mountain-water.” The Chinese considered mountains
sacred places where spirits lived. Vertical scrolls with mountain
landscapes might reach as high as seven feet. Small round or

38
square paintings were sometimes
made to cover a fan or to be placed
in albums. Artists also loved to make
panoramic rolls, enormous paintings
that were kept rolled up in a box. You
would unroll the painting slowly, as if
following the artist in a journey across
the vast landscape or scene.

Hui Zong opened many painting

schools and promoted art and artists
within his court. The palace even had
an artist on call all night long just in
case the emperor wanted something
painted in the middle of the night. Artists in Song China became
known for their landscape
paintings.
Military Problems

Some officials in Hui Zong’s palace thought

Vocabulary
he spent too much time with his paintings
panoramic, adj.
and not enough time worrying about giving a wide view of
China’s military problems. Several foreign an area

tribes had moved across the northern

border and were fighting for control of northern China. Hui Zong
made a deal with one of the tribes, the Jurchen (/jur*chen/), to
fight on China’s side. Hui Zong thought that he had solved the
problem and went back to his paintings. But when the Jurchen
defeated China’s enemies, they turned against the Chinese.

39
Chinese soldiers used crossbows to defend their capital city but were unable to stop the
Jurchen from destroying it.

In 1126 the Jurchen attacked Hui Zong’s capital at Kaifeng

(/ky*fung/). Forty-eight thousand soldiers defended Kaifeng
with crossbows and flamethrowers. But the Jurchen had even
40
more powerful weapons. They brought in
Vocabulary
siege machines with movable towers that
siege machine, n. a
were so high they reached above the city type of weapon used
walls. The attackers propelled firebombs to break, weaken, or
destroy thick walls
over the walls into the city. during a siege

virtue, n. a high
The “Duke of Confused Virtues” moral standard

The siege of Kaifeng lasted for more than

a month. The Jurchen destroyed the city and captured Hui Zong.
They took off his fine clothes and made him put on a servant’s
robes. Then the captors made fun of him by calling him the “Duke
of Confused Virtues.”

The Jurchen sent Hui Zong to the far northeast as their prisoner.
The peddler’s curse had come true. The emperor’s power and
wealth had vanished like smoke. He had no pride left. How Hui
Zong yearned to see a simple Chinese pancake again! After nine
hard years, Hui Zong died, still a prisoner of the Jurchen.

The Jurchen thought they had captured all of Hui Zong’s family,
but one of his sons escaped from them. He fled to the south, set
up his own capital at Hangzhou (/hahng*joh/), and proclaimed
himself emperor. He made a deal with the Jurchen: the invaders
would control all of northern China, the area that had been the
center of all the previous dynasties, while the Song would be left
with the south. It was humiliating for the glorious Song dynasty,
now known as the southern Song dynasty, but the new emperor
had no choice.

41
Chapter 6
Town and Country
The Rice-Growing South The
The Big Question
southern part of China, controlled by
What was the
the Song dynasty, was very different difference between
from the northern part, controlled life in the countryside
by the Jurchen. The south was and life in the city
in southern China
hotter, wetter, and more humid. It during the Song
was a perfect place for growing rice, dynasty?
which grows best in standing water.

42
Southern China had the perfect climate for growing rice.

43
Peasants did all the work of planting and harvesting the rice.
At dawn a drum sounded to call the workers to the fields. They
did not have fancy equipment. Simple plows and hoes were all
that they used. The plows were pulled by the men themselves
or, if the men were lucky enough to have them, by water buffalo.
The peasants labored hard in the fields, especially from June to
September.

Rice became the most important part

Vocabulary
of the Chinese diet during the Song
ton, n. a unit of weight
dynasty. The residents in the capital city equal to two thousand
pounds
of Hangzhou, a city numbering over one
million people, ate about 220 tons of rice every single day.
In Hangzhou you could buy many different kinds of rice. Some
of the varieties included white rice, rice with lotus-pink grains,
yellow-eared rice, rice on the stalk, pink rice, yellow rice, and
old rice. All these different kinds of rice had to be grown and
harvested. It’s no wonder the poor peasants had to work so hard!

City Pleasures

Many peasants left their fields and villages and moved into the
city. The city amazed them. Peasant life was difficult and offered
few pleasures. Hangzhou, by contrast, throbbed with constant
activity.

Entertainers performed on the street corners and in areas of the

city called “pleasure grounds” that were set aside near the markets
and bridges. Here, performers of all sorts captivated audiences.

44
Puppet shows were one form of entertainment available in the city of Hangzhou.

In the image you can see lively street Life in a Song city.

45
You could stop to watch puppet shows
Vocabulary
and shadow plays; listen to music and
vendor, n. a person
storytellers; delight in jugglers, acrobats, who sells something,
tightrope walkers, and animal acts; and usually on the street;
a peddler
gasp as strongmen lifted huge blocks of
stone to the sound of a drum roll. wares, n. goods for
sale

City Streets horoscope, n. a

prediction about
a person’s future,
In the marketplaces and fancy shops, you usually based on
could buy anything you wanted—pet when a person was
born and such things
cats, crickets in cages, even false hair. All of as the alignment of
Hangzhou echoed with the noise of street stars and planets
vendors. They beat on pieces of wood or porter, n. a person
metal or cried out to attract customers. hired to carry or
transport goods
Their wares included tea, toys, food,
horoscopes, honeycombs, and sugarcane. Some vendors sold
“mosquito smoke,” a powder for getting rid of the mosquitoes that
loved the humid air of Hangzhou.

Porters rushed through the streets carrying goods that hung from
long poles balanced on their shoulders. Enclosed chairs were also
suspended from poles, and wealthy women, dressed elegantly in
silks and gold brocade, rode inside them.

People in Hangzhou loved to eat and drink. Teahouses, bars, and

restaurants crowded the streets, and pleasure boats serving food
floated on a lake in Hangzhou.

46
City on the Water

Water was everywhere in Hangzhou. The city lay between a large

artificial lake in the west and a river in the east; twenty or more
canals crisscrossed the city. Northern China was very dry, and the
people who lived there rarely took baths. But southern China could
not have been more different. The inhabitants of Hangzhou loved
to bathe. Government officials got a day off every ten days just so
they could take a bath. As a result, the Chinese word for bath also
meant a ten-day period of time. The rich had their own rooms for
bathing, but ordinary people flocked to public bathhouses. There
may have been as many as three thousand of them in the city.
Though the Chinese did not have toothbrushes at that time, they
did wipe their gums with a handkerchief after eating. And they
were the first people in the world to use toilet paper.

The Scholars

Amid the crowds strolling on the bustling streets of Hangzhou

were men wearing special caps with long “ears.” Only scholars
had the right to wear these caps, and the only way to become
a scholar was to pass a very difficult series of exams given by
the government. The exams tested students’ knowledge of the
teachings of Confucius, as well as other subjects. There was even
a poetry exam. Generally, no more than four or five hundred
students out of four hundred thousand would pass these exams,
called jinshi.

47
 Confucius was a teacher and a philosopher. He believed in the power
of education and promoted what were called the Six Arts: archery,
calligraphy, mathematics, music, chariot-driving, and ritual, or cultural
traditions. However, Confucius believed how a person behaved was
the most important thing of all.

The scholars were the most honored and

Vocabulary
respected people in China; they formed
ritual, n. an act or
an elite group and had many privileges. series of actions
Over the years more and more young done in the same
way in a certain
men wanted to become scholars, and the situation, such as a
demand for education increased. The Song religious ceremony

emperors opened many new schools. elite, adj. having

more talent, wealth,
However, most children, whether they lived
power, or privilege
than everyone else

48
in the countryside or in the city, did not go to school. Only the
children of elite families were educated.

Flammable City

Hangzhou was a crowded city. Its houses, made of wood and

bamboo, rose up to five stories high. They were built one right
next to the other. Lamps and lanterns with live flames provided
light, but if one was dropped, it could mean disaster. From time
to time, fires swept through huge sections of the city. One time,
a fire raged for four days and nights, destroying more than
58,000 houses and killing many people.

Despite the threat of fire, people of Hangzhou thought they were

safe behind their walls. But far to the north, beyond the land of the
Jurchen, fresh trouble was brewing. For twenty years a nomadic
leader from the Mongolian steppe had been fighting with the
other northern tribes to unite them all under his rule. By the year
1206 this powerful and ruthless warrior had succeeded. He was
feared by all and was given the title Chinggis Khan (/chin*giss/
kahn/), which meant universal ruler. You may have seen his name
also spelled Genghis Khan. He now looked south to China and saw
a country that in one part, the north, was under the control of the
Jurchen, and in the other part, the south, was under the Song.
He decided to pounce on China.

49
Chapter 7
The Mongol Invasions
A Frightening Trip In the year 1207,
The Big Question
Jurchen ambassadors from northern
What made the
China traveled a long distance north Mongols such
to the land of the Mongols. The fearsome warriors?
ambassadors came to announce to
the Mongols and their leader, Chinggis Khan, the name
of the new emperor of North China.

The ambassadors must have been terrified. They had heard about
the fierce Mongols. Chinggis Khan had boasted that nothing made
him happier than killing his enemies, stealing their property,
and riding their horses. The Mongols lived on the vast open grassland
of Mongolia in tents called yurts. They raised cattle, sheep, and
horses. They looked down on the northern Chinese farmers and city
dwellers as being soft and weak.

Chinggis Khan lived in a tent decorated with Vocabulary

rich fabrics and golden plaques. He sat on a plaque, n. a
decorative tablet,
throne made of the skins of pure white horses, usually made
animals considered sacred by the Mongols. to celebrate an
individual or an event

50
Chinggis Khan, also called Genghis Khan, was emperor of the Mongols.

51
When the ambassadors told Chinggis Khan about their new
emperor, they hoped that he would offer respectful words and
congratulations. Instead, he spat on the ground, jumped on his
horse, and rode away. The ambassadors went home shocked
at this terrible sign of disrespect. Worse was to come, however.
Chinggis Khan was planning a war against the Jurchen.

The world had never seen warriors as fearsome as the Mongols. Their
children learned how to ride a horse before they could even walk.
Then they were taught to shoot with a bow and arrow. The Mongols
designed a powerful bow that could shoot arrows hundreds of feet.

Mongols learned at a young age how to shoot a bow and arrow while on horseback.

52
Because the Mongols rode so well, they could shoot an arrow with
great accuracy while galloping at top speed.

The Mongols trained themselves to endure great hardships.

They could go without food for a long time. If they ran out of
water, they did not panic. Instead, they would just make a small
cut in their horse’s leg and drink its blood.

The sight of the Mongol attackers must Vocabulary

have been terrifying. One historian living locust, n. a large
in this time period wrote that the Mongols grasshopper-like
insect; in large
appeared “more numerous than ants or swarms they can
locusts.” And now they were headed cause widespread
crop damage
toward China.

Terror from the North

The northern Chinese under the Jurchen thought they were safe
because their towns had walls around them. But they were wrong.
The Mongols thought up a cruel plan. They rounded up farmers
and anybody else they caught outside the walls of a town. They
forced these captives to march in front of the army, so when the
defenders fired at the Mongols, they’d hit their own people first.

The Mongols destroyed ninety cities in northern China, including

what is now Beijing. A foreign ambassador saw the terrible
destruction of the city. He reported that a huge pile of bones lay
outside the walls of the city. Almost every single person was killed,
sixty thousand all told, and every building was burned to the
ground. The ruins of the city burned for more than a month.

53
The battles fought by Chinggis Khan and his armies were legendary. Many, like this one,
are still shown by illustrators today.

It took the Mongols about twenty years to defeat the Jurchen and
conquer all of northern China. Chinggis Khan did not live to see
the end of this war. He died in 1227. The Mongols did not want
anyone to know that he had died. They took his body to a secret

54
place and buried him with a huge treasure. A thousand horsemen
rode over the grave site repeatedly to wipe out any trace of the
digging. People have looked and looked, but to this day no one
has found the tomb of Chinggis Khan.

The sons and grandsons of Chinggis Khan spread terror throughout

Asia and Europe. They created an enormous land-based empire.
It stretched all the way from the Pacific Ocean to eastern Europe.
For more than one hundred years, a group of Mongols, called the
Golden Horde, ruled Russia. The Mongol conquest of Russia was
ruthless. In one town a monk wrote, “No eye remained open to
weep for the dead.”

The Song Dynasty Falls

It had been Chinggis Khan’s dream to conquer all of China; his

grandson Kublai Khan (/koo*blah/kahn/) set out to realize that
dream. He unleashed his powerful army against the southern
Song dynasty and its people.

The Mongols ran into all sorts of problems in southern China.

First of all, it was just too hot for them. The northern men, as well
as their horses, were used to colder weather, and they found it
difficult to fight in the heat and humidity. Mosquitoes bit them,
spreading disease to which the Mongols had no resistance.
Many of the Mongol warriors got sick.

The Song had a strong navy and amazing weapons, such as

flamethrowers, rockets, and catapults that could hurl bombs.
Still, the Mongols proved what determined warriors they were.

55
Chinese Empire of the Mongols

Russia

Amur
River
Aral Sea
ASIA
T
SE R
G O BI D E
Chinggis Khan Dadu

e
gH
China an
Hu Hangzhou
r

m Chengdu
Hi
iv e

R al er
us aya
s Yan g zi R i v
Ind

Xijiang River
India

Arabian South
Sea China
Bay of Bengal Sea

0 1,000 miles
N

W E

S The Great Wall The Grand Canal

INDIAN OCEAN Extent of Mongol Control in Region

This map shows the area of the Empire of the Great Khan in and around what is now China, at
its height in the late 1200s. After Chinggis Khan died, his children divided the Mongol Empire
into four parts, and this was the largest one.

They built a navy of their own and developed artillery that could
fire enormous hundred-pound rocks. The Mongols defeated one
city after another, until they finally captured the capital city of
Hangzhou and the five-year-old child emperor of the Song.
56
The mighty Kublai Khan had the young emperor brought to him.
Everyone trembled at the thought of what the great emperor,
or khan, might do to the helpless boy. The Mongols could be
extremely cruel to their prisoners.

But Kublai Khan was not as cruel as his uncles and his grandfather.
He had studied Chinese customs and admired many things about
the Chinese. When the young emperor was brought before him,
Kublai Khan took pity on him. He ordered that the child not be
harmed and sent him away to live the quiet life of a Buddhist priest.

57
Chapter 8
Kublai Khan and
Marco Polo
The Great Capital Once Kublai Khan
The Big Question
conquered China, he decided to
Why might the
build a new capital city for himself. development of the
On the site of Beijing, he built a city postal service have
and called it Dadu (/dah*doo/), or been considered
one of Kublai
“great capital.” Khan’s greatest
achievements?
A bodyguard of twelve thousand horsemen
protected the khan’s family day and night. If any visitors thought they
could attack the emperor, they got a surprise when they walked into
the grand hall where he met the guests. There seemed to be tigers
on a platform near the emperor. If you were brave enough to walk
up to these tigers, you would see that they were actually mechanical
models. The emperor had very clever inventors and builders working
for him.

Some of the Mongols missed their old way of life and the grasslands of
Mongolia. To make the Mongols happy, Kublai Khan ordered that huge
yurts be put up in the gardens of the Imperial City. These new yurts
were different from those their families and ancestors had lived in—they
58
Kublai Khan built a city on the site of what is now Beijing.

59
had magnificent furniture inside. Kublai Khan
Vocabulary
even sent men up north to collect grass from
observatory, n. a
Mongolia. They planted the grass on an altar building or room
in the emperor’s palace. used to study
the weather or
Kublai Khan was very interested in science. astronomy

He built a tall building in the Imperial astronomer, n. a

scientist who studies
City as an observatory. He also invited a
the stars, the planets,
famous astronomer from Persia to Dadu. and other features of
outer space
The astronomer brought instruments for
observing the sun, moon, stars, and planets. heavenly bodies, n.
objects found in the
He also brought a very special gift to Kublai sky, such as planets
Khan. For a long time, the astronomer or stars
had made careful observations of the postal system, n.
movements of the heavenly bodies. He an organization,
usually run by
used these observations to calculate a new the government,
accurate calendar, which he gave to Kublai responsible
for sorting and
Khan. The Chinese called it the Calendar of delivering mail
Ten Thousand Years.

The Postal System

One of Kublai Khan’s greatest achievements was the creation

of the postal system. Kublai Khan wanted to keep tight control
of the country, so he needed to be able to send and receive
information quickly. He ordered that new roads and more than
1,400 postal stations be built throughout China. From one station
to the next, horsemen galloped at top speed, carrying mail
pouches. They had strands of bells wrapped around their bodies,
so they made a loud noise as they sped down the roads. Other
60
travelers had to get out of their way. As the rider approached a
postal stop, the men inside the station would hear the bells and
quickly get a fresh horse ready. The mail carrier would then jump
onto the new horse and head for the next station. On a good day
a message might travel 250 miles. Fifty thousand horses were used
in this postal system.

Marco Polo

The government allowed foreign travelers and merchants to

stay at the postal stations, which were a little like hotels. One
foreigner from Europe who became famous for his visit to
China was an Italian named Marco Polo. Around 1300 he wrote
a very popular book that described the wonders of China in
Kublai Khan’s time.

Polo said that Kublai Khan’s

palace was “the greatest
and most wonderful that
ever was seen.” He claimed
it had four hundred rooms,
with a dining hall where
six thousand people could
sit down for a banquet.
Polo was amazed at the
decorations. He wrote that
gold and silver covered There are many tales and paintings that tell of
Marco Polo’s meeting with Kublai Khan. The truth
all the walls, along with is we do not really know for sure that Marco Polo
met Kublai Khan though we do know Marco Polo
gorgeous carvings of lions spent many years in China.

61
and dragons. Paintings of war scenes also hung on the walls. Near
the palace stood the khan’s treasure houses, holding gold, silver,
precious stones, and pearls.

Taxing Times

As time went on, the government needed more and more money.
Kublai Khan hired foreign officials to think of new ways to tax the
people. The Chinese hated these taxes.
It made them especially angry to have Vocabulary
foreigners in charge of the taxes. One of tax, v. to require
people to pay
the foreign tax ministers was particularly money or goods
evil. Some people believed Kublai Khan to support the
workings of the
had been bewitched by this man’s spells. government
Chinese officials working in the palace
plotted against him. One night they lured him out of his house
and killed him. But what would they tell Kublai Khan? Advisers
convinced the khan that the tax minister had been stealing from
him. Angry, Kublai Khan ordered the foreigner’s body to be hung
in the marketplace for all to see.

Though the Chinese did not like it, Kublai Khan kept raising taxes
anyway. He had to. He needed money to pay for his palace, his
officials, and his luxurious way of life. He was also fighting wars in
far-off places, and those wars cost a lot of money. In earlier times
the Mongols had won almost every war, but now they were losing
battles. They tried to conquer the Vietnamese people, who fought
so bravely that the Mongols had to give up.

62
The Mongols also tried to invade Japan. Their invasion became
one of the most famous events in all of history. Kublai Khan sent
a huge fleet of ships to land on Japan.
A powerful typhoon suddenly started when Vocabulary
the ships were at sea. The high winds and typhoon, n. a windy
storm with heavy
waves completely destroyed the Mongol rain; a hurricane
fleet. The Japanese believed that the
typhoon had been sent on purpose by their gods to destroy the
Mongols and save Japan. They called the typhoon kamikaze
(/kah*mih*kah*zee/), “the divine wind,” because they thought
it came from heaven.

These defeats made the Chinese realize that the Mongols were
not unbeatable. Some Chinese took up arms and revolted against
Kublai Khan. When Kublai Khan’s army put down these revolts,
the Chinese people grew even more resentful.

A Famous Name

As he grew older, Kublai Khan grew very sad. His wife died, and
then his favorite son, who was next in line to become emperor,
died as well. Kublai Khan became ill. Still, he did not die until he
was eighty years old. Like his grandfather, Chinggis Khan, Kublai
Khan was buried in a secret place. Even today, no one knows
where Kublai Khan is buried.

63
Chapter 9
The Forbidden City
The Not-So-Handsome Emperor
The Big Question
There is probably only one man in
How did the Manchu
all of Chinese history who is famous gain control of China?
for not being especially handsome.
His name was Zhu Yuanzhang (/joo/yoo*ahn*jahng/),
and he was born in the year 1328. After he reached
adulthood, many artists painted portraits of him.

He had a pockmarked face and a large jaw that stuck out. But the
little boy with the large jaw grew up to become emperor of China.

Zhu Yuanzhang came from a very poor family of farmers. His parents
owed money to their landlords and had to move a lot when they
could not pay the rent. Zhu Yuanzhang never knew a real home.

When Zhu Yuanzhang was a teenager, the Huang He changed its

course and overflowed. Waters flooded all the fields and destroyed
the crops. People starved to death. Disease broke out and killed many
others. Both of Zhu Yuanzhang’s parents died. At sixteen years of age,
Zhu Yuanzhang was an orphan. Desperate, he went to a Buddhist
monastery to ask for food and a place to live. But the monks there
were very poor themselves. The monks had no choice but to send
Zhu Yuanzhang, and people like him, out to beg for food and money.
64
Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming dynasty, which lasted for more than 250 years.

65
The Huang He, or Yellow River, is sometimes called “China’s Sorrow” because of the
destruction it causes when it floods. Zhu Yuanzhang became an orphan when the river
flooded in the 1300s.

The Rebel

For years, Zhu Yuanzhang traveled around the country begging.

He saw scenes of terrible poverty and suffering. People blamed
the Mongol government for their troubles. The poor got so angry
that they formed bands of rebel fighters. They stole food and
attacked government troops.

Zhu Yuanzhang joined a rebel group and eventually became

one of its leaders. When the commander of the rebels died, Zhu
Yuanzhang became the new commander. In 1368, Zhu Yuanzhang
sent a huge army to attack the Mongol emperor. The Mongol
emperor fled back to Mongolia, and Zhu Yuanzhang proclaimed
the beginning of a new dynasty, the Ming, which meant brightness.

66
Zhu Yuanzhang knew that he had a bad temper and that he could
sometimes be cruel. He gave an order saying that he would let
people write letters telling him what they did not like about the
government. Zhu Yuanzhang promised not to get mad. But when
he read some of the letters, he forgot his promise. One letter made
him so angry that he ordered the author to be brought to the
palace in chains and thrown into prison.

Because he had been poor himself, the emperor made laws

to protect poor farmers from rich and powerful nobles. Zhu
Yuanzhang made it a crime to take land from poor people.
If you did, the emperor would have your nose cut off.

Zhu Yuanzhang ruled for

thirty years. He made China
a strong nation again. When
one of Zhu Yuanzhang’s sons,
Zhu Di (/joo/di), became
emperor, he decided that
China needed a magnificent
capital to display its great
wealth and power. He
ordered that the old buildings
that Kublai Khan had put up
be torn down. In their place
he ordered a new Imperial
City to be built. At the center
of the Imperial City, Zhu Di Ming emperor Zhu Di built the Forbidden City
wanted a splendid residence as a residence for himself and his family.

67
for himself and the imperial family. The emperor gave this
residence a frightening name: The Forbidden City.

The Forbidden City

Amazingly, the Forbidden City survives today. You can stand

in places where the emperors’ officials made their reports and
imagine how they looked and felt. If officials had bad news to give
the emperor, they trembled. Before they
Vocabulary
could speak to the emperor, officials had to
kowtow, v. in
kowtow, which means they had to kneel Chinese culture, to
kneel and touch
down nine times and touch their forehead to
your forehead to the
the floor each time. It showed that they had ground nine times as
a sign of respect
complete respect for the emperor.

The Forbidden City is surrounded by waterways.

68
The Admiral of the Western Seas

Zhu Di wanted to find out about other countries. He called for one
of his most trusted soldiers, Zheng He (/jung/huh/), and named
him Admiral of the Western Seas. He told Zheng He to build a
fleet of ships to explore the world. The fleet included more than
three hundred ships and a crew of almost 28,000 men. It was like
a floating city.

The Chinese had invented the compass many centuries earlier,

so they were able to navigate great distances on the open sea.
On one voyage, Zheng He went all the way to the eastern coast
of Africa. The rulers of eastern Africa heard that Zhu Di was
fascinated by exotic animals, so they gave Zheng gifts of animals
for the emperor. Zheng He
returned with lions, leopards,
camels, zebras, rhinoceroses,
and giraffes. The emperor’s
officials were so amazed
when they saw the giraffe
that they bowed down
before it.

Eventually, officials
persuaded the new emperor
that the voyages cost too
much money. To make
sure that others did not Explorer Zheng He brought back from Africa
animals, such as giraffes, as gifts for the Ming
go on expensive journeys, emperor.

69
the officials took Zheng He’s log books,
Vocabulary
or detailed records of his travels, and
log book, n. a
destroyed them. Nevertheless, Zheng He journal to keep
became famous for his voyages. He is track of daily events,
especially when
considered one of the greatest explorers traveling
in history.

An Era of Hard Times

The other Ming emperors did not accomplish as much as Zhu

Yuanzhang and Zhu Di. But they excelled at spending money,
often on foolish things. The Ming emperors refused to save money
by cutting back on luxuries. This was all the more problematic as
many people were going hungry and poverty was increasing.

The situation got much worse in the 1620s, when the climate
changed. The weather got colder for a while. Lakes that never
had ice before suddenly froze solid. The summer growing season
shrank. People starved. Rebellions broke out. One group of rebels
broke the walls holding back the Huang He. Floods then killed
hundreds of thousands of people.

The Coming of the Manchu

Eventually, a large rebellion broke out in northern China. The Ming

dynasty first fell into the hands of Chinese rebels who captured
Beijing. Then, incredibly, a Ming general opened the gates of
the Great Wall and invited the Manchu to invade China. Over a
number of years, the Manchu conquered China. The Manchu set
up a new dynasty called the Qing (/ching/) dynasty.

70
The Manchu turned out to be very strict
Vocabulary
rulers. They made it illegal for any Chinese
queue, n. a short
person to own any weapon. They insisted braid of hair worn at
that all the Chinese be loyal to them. They the back of the neck

thought of a way for all Chinese men to

prove their loyalty. For a long time, it had been fashionable
for Manchu men to braid their hair in a queue. Chinese men,
however, did not like that style. The Manchu emperor issued an
order: in ten days all Chinese men had to start growing a queue.
If a man did not grow one, that meant he was disloyal to the new
government and he would be killed. Being forced to wear queues
made the Chinese furious. They felt that they had lost control of
their own lives.

The Manchu took over China and established the Qing dynasty.

71
Chapter 10
The Last Dynasty
The Emperor Who Possessed All
The Big Question
Things The Qing dynasty began in
What brought
1644 and lasted all the way to 1912. about an end to two
During much of this time, China thousand years of
enjoyed peace and prosperity. The rule by emperors in
China?
Manchu encouraged learning but
also supported farmers.

One of the finest Chinese emperors was

Vocabulary
Qianlong (/chee*yen*loong/). Even as a child,
prosperity, n. success
Qianlong showed great talent. His family gave or wealth
him a strict education because they knew
that, one day, he would have great responsibility. He had to start his
lessons at five o’clock in the morning and study until the sun went
down. He had breaks to practice archery and horse riding.

The habits that Qianlong formed in childhood helped when he

became emperor at the age of twenty-four. He rose early every
morning and finished a lot of government business before breakfast,
which he ate at seven o’clock. He had free time in the afternoon for
the activities he really loved. He enjoyed painting pictures and writing
poetry. In his lifetime he wrote more than 42,000 poems. He also
72
Qianlong was the fourth emperor of the Qing dynasty.

73
loved walking in his gardens. He had a beautiful garden, called the
Paradise of Countless Trees, where delicate willows bent over fish
ponds and fruit trees flourished.

In Qianlong’s time, China became very rich

Vocabulary
and powerful. European nations eagerly
porcelain, n. a type
paid high prices for China’s silk, porcelain, of fine pottery
tea, artworks, and other objects. The
Chinese would not accept foreign money. They demanded to be
paid in silver.

China was willing to sell its

products to the Europeans,
but it was not yet interested
in buying European products
in return. Many Chinese
believed that China made
the best of everything and
did not need anything that
Westerners produced. Only a
few Europeans were allowed
to enter China—and only then
during certain times of the year.
The emperor made it illegal to
teach the Chinese language to
foreigners or to send Chinese
books outside the country.

Great Britain became the Qing porcelain, such as this vase, was in
high demand in Europe, but the Europeans
biggest customer for China’s had very little that China wanted in return.

74
tea and porcelain. It annoyed the British that the Chinese were
unwilling to buy their goods, especially when the British were
spending so much money in China. In 1793 a British ambassador
named Lord Macartney traveled to China with eighty-four
assistants and advisers to meet with the emperor. They brought
six hundred crates of British goods to show the emperor what
marvelous products they made.

Qianlong received Lord Macartney politely. He invited the

Englishman to a great banquet and took him on a tour of the
private imperial garden. But whenever Macartney tried to discuss
business, Qianlong changed the subject.

Finally, the Chinese hinted to the British that it was time to

leave. The British told Qianlong’s officials that they had not yet
completed their business. The officials handed over a letter from
the emperor. The emperor wrote, “We
possess all things. I set no value on objects Vocabulary
strange or ingenious, and have no use for ingenious, adj.
clever
your country’s manufactures.”

The British were stunned, but they could not argue with the
emperor of China. They had to leave.

The Opium Wars

China thought it could remain isolated from Europe and the

Western world. But the world was changing. The nations of Europe
were growing richer and more powerful. They wanted to have
influence over China, and they wanted to sell their goods there.
China would not remain isolated for long.
75
The British eventually began selling a few goods to the Chinese,
including a drug called opium from India. Opium is a very
powerful and very addictive painkiller. Becoming addicted is
exactly what happened to many people in China. One Chinese
official wrote that opium was “worse than an invasion of wild
beasts.” It destroyed Chinese lives and families.

The Chinese government tried to stop the drug trade, but the
British became angry. They were making too much money from
opium. They refused to stop selling it. The British sent warships
to force the Chinese to buy opium and other goods. This led to a
series of bitter defeats for the Chinese. Whether they wanted to or
not, the Chinese now had to open their doors to foreign traders.

In 1860, British and French soldiers burned the emperor’s summer

palace to the ground and stole many of its treasures: precious
furniture, jewels, porcelain, and silk robes.

The British sent warships to China.

76
The Empty Throne

The great days of the Chinese empire were gone. Life became
more difficult in China in the 1800s. The population got so big that
the Chinese ran out of land for farming. There was not enough
food to feed the growing population, and there were not enough
jobs either. Many people left the country to find work in other
parts of Asia, in South America, and in the United States.

Some Chinese settled in Hawaii to work the sugarcane fields.

When gold was discovered in California in 1848, thousands of
Chinese men sailed to the United States to work in the mines.
They also helped build railroads in the American West.

China’s ancient way of government barely

Vocabulary
lasted into the 1900s. A series of rebellions
republic, n. a kind
changed the country forever. Finally, in 1912 of government in
the last emperor of China stepped down which people elect
representatives to
from the throne. China became a republic rule for them
with an elected government. After more
than two thousand years of rule by emperors, the Chinese throne
was empty.

77
Glossary
A H
academy, n. a distinguished place where heavenly bodies, n. objects found in the sky,
scholars go to study (38) such as planets or stars (60)
alchemist, n. a person who tries to turn other hemp, n. a type of plant, the fibers of which
metals into gold (34) are used to make such things as rope, fabric,
and paper (19)
astronomer, n. a scientist who studies the
stars, the planets, and other features of horoscope, n. a prediction about a person’s
outer space (60) future, usually based on when a person was
born and such things as the alignment of
B stars and planets (46)

barbarian, n. a violent or uncivilized

person  (9)
I
immortality, n. unending life  (10)
Buddha, n. the name given to Siddhartha
Gautama, the founder of Buddhism (28) imperial, adj. relating to an emperor, empress
or empire  (20)
Buddhist religion, n. also called Buddhism, a
religion originating in India that is based on ingenious, adj. clever (75)
the teachings of Siddhartha Gautama (22)
J
C jade, n. a hard mineral, usually green, that can
calligraphy, n. artistic handwriting (30) be made into jewelry or small figurines (2)
canvas, n. a strong, durable fabric made from
natural fibers (38) K
kowtow, v. in Chinese culture, to kneel and
charcoal, n. black chunks of burned
touch your forehead to the ground nine
wood (34)
times as a sign of respect (68)
crossbow, n. a type of weapon that shoots
arrows when the trigger is released (4) L
locust, n. a large grasshopper-like insect; in
E large swarms they can cause widespread
elite, adj. having more talent, wealth, power, crop damage (53)
or privilege than everyone else (48)
log book, n. a journal to keep track of daily
emperor, n. the ruler of an empire (2) events, especially when traveling (70)

F M
foreigner, n. a person who comes from Ming dynasty, n. a period of Chinese rule
another country  (20) from the late 1300s to the mid-1600s (8)

G N
generation, n. a period of time of about nitrate, n. a chemical; often used as fertilizer (34)
twenty-five years (11)
nun, n. a woman who lives a simple, religious
life in a religious community of other
women (26)

78
O S
oasis, n. an area in the desert where there are saltpeter, n. a type of nitrate (34)
water and plants (18)
shrine, n. a place considered holy because
observatory, n. a building or room used to it is associated with a religious person or
study the weather or astronomy (60) saint (22)
official, n. a person who carries out a siege machine, n. a type of weapon used to
government duty (15) break, weaken, or destroy thick walls during
a siege (41)
P
panoramic, adj. giving a wide view of an
T
area (39) tax, v. to require people to pay money or
goods to support the workings of the
peddler, n. a person who travels from one government (62)
place to another selling goods (36)
terracotta, n. baked or hardened brownish-
plaque, n. a decorative tablet, usually made red clay (2)
to celebrate an individual or an event (50)
ton, n. a unit of weight equal to two thousand
porcelain, n. a type of fine pottery (74) pounds (44)
porter, n. a person hired to carry or transport tribesmen, n. the people who belong to a
goods (46) tribe or a society (16)
postal system, n. an organization, usually run typhoon, n. a windy storm with heavy rain;
by the government, responsible for sorting a hurricane (63)
and delivering mail (60)
tyrant, n. a leader who rules by cruel or unjust
prophecy, n. a prediction about the means (7)
future  (36)
prosperity, n. success or wealth (72) V
vendor, n. a person who sells something,
Q usually on the street; a peddler (46)
queue, n. a short braid of hair worn at the virtue, n. a high moral standard (41)
back of the neck (71)
W
R
wares, n. goods for sale (46)
republic, n. a kind of government in which
people elect representatives to rule for woodblock printing, n. a type of printing
them (77) in which designs and patterns are carved
into a woodblock and the woodblock is
resign, v. to step down from or leave a then dipped in paint or ink and stamped on
job (27) paper or another surface (34)
ritual, n. an act or series of actions done in the
same way in a certain situation, such as a Y
religious ceremony (48)
yak, n. an ox-like animal that lives in Asia (18)
ruthless, adj. cruel; without mercy or pity  (26)

79
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Core Knowledge HISTORY AND GEOGRAPHY™

Series Editor-In-Chief
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Yongguang Hu, PhD, Department of History, James Madison Emperor Hui Tsung (r.1100–26) taking part in a festival in which
University he drinks from a cup made of precious stone, from a history of
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CK HG™
Core Knowledge History and Geography
Dynasties of China
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What is the Core Knowledge Sequence?

The Core Knowledge Sequence is a detailed guide to specific
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History and GeoGrapHy

For which grade levels is this book intended?
Dynasties of
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Reader
Wu Zhao
In general, the content and presentation are appropriate for
Emperor Taizong

Mongol invasion and rule

readers from the upper elementary grades through middle school.
For teachers and schools following the Core Knowledge Sequence,
Shihuangdi's terracotta army

this book is intended for Grade 4 and is part of a series of Core

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