| A | B |
|---|
| Chang Jiang | also known as the Yangzi |
| Great Wall | a barrier that linked earlier walls near China's northern border |
| Huang He | also known as the Yellow River |
| Shi Huangdi | first emperor |
| Qin | shortest dynasty |
| mandate of heaven | idea that heaven chose China's ruler |
| acupuncture | practice of inserting needles through the skin to treat illness or pain |
| Yuan | a dynasty ruled by the Mongols |
| Forbidden City | huge palace complex that common people were not allowed to enter |
| Wudi | this emperor made Confucianism the official government philosophy |
| merchants | lowest social class under Confucianism |
| bureaucracy | a body of unelected government officials |
| Beijing | capital of China |
| Liu Bang | this peasant became an emperor of the Han dynasty |
| scholar-official | an educated member of the government |
| Confucianism | teaches the importance of ethics and moral values |
| Neo-Confucianism | taught proper behavior as well as emphasized spiritual matters |
| sundial | device that uses the sun to tell time |
| isolationism | policy of avoiding contact with other countries |
| one-child policy | modern government policy that limits the number of children a family may have |
| porcelain | a thin type of pottery |
| Kublai Khan | an emperor of the Yuan dynasty |
| compass | uses the Earth's magnetic field to show direction |
| Zhou | longest dynasty |
| Grand Canal | manmade waterway that linked northern and southern China |
| People's Republic of China | China's modern name |
| Zheng He | led grand sea voyages during the Ming dynasty |
| gunpowder | mixture of powders used in guns and explosives |
| Genghis Khan | organized the Mongols into a powerful army |
| seismograph | device that measures the strength of earthquakes |
| ideograph | a character that is a drawing of an idea a word represents |
| radicals | small drawings that are used to make up characters in Chinese |
| Empress Wu | a female ruler of China |
