The Ancient Chinese

A Civilisation Beside the Rivers

Far to the east, across mountains, deserts and seas, lies one of the oldest civilisations the world has ever known: ancient China. While the pyramids were rising in Egypt and great cities were growing in the Middle East, a remarkable culture was taking shape in China, and it would last, changing and growing, for thousands of years.

Like other early civilisations, China began beside great rivers. The most important was the Yellow River, named for the pale, dusty soil it carried. This soil was wonderfully fertile, and farmers could grow grains such as millet and, further south along the Yangtze River, rice. With plenty of food, villages grew into towns, towns into cities, and cities into a powerful civilisation. In this book you will meet the emperors, builders, inventors and traders of ancient China, and discover why their ideas still shape our world today.

The Age of Dynasties

China's long history is usually told through its dynasties. A dynasty was a line of rulers from the same family who held power, sometimes for hundreds of years, until they were overthrown or faded away and a new dynasty rose in their place.

One of the earliest we know well was the Shang dynasty, which ruled over three thousand years ago. The Shang were skilled at working bronze, a metal they cast into beautiful vessels and fearsome weapons. They also produced some of the earliest Chinese writing, scratched onto bones and turtle shells used to tell fortunes.

After the Shang came the Zhou dynasty, the longest-lasting of all. During its later years China broke into many small states that fought one another for power, a troubled time so violent it is remembered as the Warring States period. Yet out of this chaos came great thinkers, and eventually one ruler strong enough to unite the whole land.

The First Emperor

In 221 BCE, the ruler of the state of Qin (say "chin") finally defeated all his rivals and united China under a single government. He took a grand new title, Qin Shi Huang, meaning the First Emperor. China may even take its English name from his state of Qin.

The First Emperor was a powerful and ruthless ruler. He wanted everything in his empire to work the same way, so he ordered that everyone use the same money, the same weights and measures, and the same style of writing. He had new roads and canals built to tie the empire together. These changes helped turn many separate lands into one great nation.

But he was also harsh. He forced huge numbers of people to labour on his giant projects, and he punished those who disagreed with him. He became obsessed with living forever and searched everywhere for a magic potion to make him immortal. He never found one, of course, and when he died, he was buried in one of the most astonishing tombs ever made.

The Terracotta Army

When the First Emperor died, he was buried beneath a great mound, and around it he placed an army that has amazed the world ever since: the Terracotta Army.

This was not an army of living soldiers, but thousands of life-sized warriors made of baked clay, called terracotta. They stood in long ranks, complete with horses and chariots, and every single soldier had a different face, as if modelled on a real person. They carried real weapons and were arranged in battle formation, ready to guard the emperor in the afterlife.

For more than two thousand years they stood silently underground, forgotten. Then, in 1974, farmers digging a well in China stumbled upon them by accident. Archaeologists have since uncovered thousands of these clay soldiers, and they remain one of the greatest discoveries in all of history, a window straight into the world of ancient China.

The Great Wall

To protect China from raiders who attacked from the north, the First Emperor ordered that older walls be joined and extended into one mighty barrier. This was the beginning of the famous Great Wall of China.

Over many centuries, different dynasties added to the wall, repaired it and rebuilt it, especially the Ming dynasty, who built much of the impressive stone wall that visitors see today. Stretching across mountains, deserts and valleys, its many sections together run for thousands of kilometres, making it the longest structure ever built by human hands.

Building the wall was backbreaking and dangerous work. Countless labourers, soldiers and prisoners toiled to carry stone and earth across rugged country, and many died doing it. The Great Wall stands as a symbol of China itself: enormous, ancient and built through the effort of millions of people working together.

Silk and the Silk Road

The ancient Chinese discovered how to make one of the most precious materials in the world: silk. Silk is a soft, shimmering thread spun by silkworms, the caterpillars of a particular moth, as they build their cocoons. The Chinese learned to raise these silkworms, unwind their cocoons and weave the thread into beautiful, lightweight cloth.

For a very long time, China kept the secret of silk to itself, and people in faraway lands paid enormous sums for it. To carry silk and other goods westward, traders travelled along a network of routes that became known as the Silk Road. It was not a single paved road but many tracks crossing deserts and mountains, with goods passing from trader to trader across thousands of kilometres.

Along these routes travelled not just silk, but spices, gold, glass, horses and ideas. The Silk Road connected China with India, the Middle East and, in time, the Roman world. It carried inventions, beliefs and stories in both directions, making it one of the most important trade networks in history. You can read about other great traders and trade in The Age of Exploration.

Inventions That Changed the World

Ancient China was a land of remarkable inventors. Four of their inventions in particular went on to change the entire world, and are sometimes called the Four Great Inventions.

The first was paper. Before paper, people wrote on bone, bamboo, silk or clay. The Chinese learned to mash plant fibres into a pulp and press it into thin, smooth sheets, giving us a cheap, light material to write on. Later they invented printing, first by carving whole pages onto wooden blocks and inking them to make copies, allowing books and ideas to spread as never before. You can follow this story further in The Story of Writing and the Alphabet.

The Chinese also invented the magnetic compass, a device with a needle that always points north, which helped sailors and travellers find their way. And they discovered gunpowder, at first using it for fireworks and later for weapons. Other Chinese inventions included the wheelbarrow, the kite, cast iron and even early forms of paper money. Few civilisations have given the world so many useful ideas.

Thinkers and Beliefs

Ancient China produced some of history's most famous thinkers. The greatest was Confucius, who lived during the troubled Zhou period. Confucius taught that people should be honest, kind and respectful, that families should be loving, and that rulers should care for their people like a good parent. His ideas about good behaviour and respect for others shaped Chinese life for thousands of years and are still admired today.

Another important way of thinking was Daoism, which taught that people should live simply and in harmony with nature, following the natural flow of the world. Later, the religion of Buddhism arrived from India along the Silk Road and became very important in China too.

These beliefs were not just ideas in books. They affected how families lived, how children treated their parents, how rulers governed and how people understood their place in the world. Together they helped give Chinese civilisation its lasting character.

The Legacy of Ancient China

The dynasties of ancient China rose and fell over thousands of years, but the civilisation they built never disappeared. China grew into one of the largest and most advanced societies on Earth, and its ideas spread far beyond its borders.

We still use Chinese inventions every single day. Every time you read a book, send a paper letter, use a compass or watch fireworks light up the sky, you are sharing in the genius of ancient China. Its writing system, used for over three thousand years, is still written today, making it one of the oldest writing systems still in use. Its food, art, festivals and ideas are loved all around the world.

Above all, ancient China shows us how a civilisation can grow, invent and endure across an astonishing span of time. From farming villages beside a muddy river, the Chinese built an empire of emperors, walls, silk and ideas that helped shape the whole world.

What We Learned

We have travelled to the great rivers of the East to meet one of the world's oldest civilisations.

We learned that ancient China grew up along rivers like the Yellow River and was ruled through a long line of dynasties. We met Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor who united China and was buried with the astonishing Terracotta Army, and we explored the mighty Great Wall built to defend the land. We discovered the precious secret of silk and the Silk Road that carried it westward, and we marvelled at Chinese inventions such as paper, printing, the compass and gunpowder. Finally, we met great thinkers like Confucius whose ideas shaped Chinese life for thousands of years.

The dynasties are long gone, but the wonders and ideas of ancient China still echo around the world today.

Hungry for more ancient history? Compare China with another great early civilisation in The Ancient Egyptians.