| A | B |
|---|
| Chang Jiang | also known as the Yangtze River |
| 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 | the king was chosen by heavenly order because of his talent and virtue |
| acupuncture | practice of inserting needles through the skin to treat illness or pain |
| merchants | lowest social class under Confucianism |
| bureaucracy | a group of appointed officials who are responsible for different areas of government |
| Beijing | capital of China |
| Liu Bang | a military leader who founded the Han dynasty in 202 BC |
| scholar-official | an educated member of the government |
| Confucianism | system of beliefs introduced by the Chinese thinker Confucius; taught that people needed to have a sense of duty to their family and community in order to bring peace to society |
| sundial | device that uses the sun to tell time |
| 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 joins two or more pictographs to represent an idea |
| Empress Wu | a female ruler of China |
| dynasty | line of rulers from the same family |
| aristocrat | noble whose wealth came from land ownership |
| pictograph | a character that stands for an object |
| Anyang | China's first capital |
| Wu Wang | led a rebellion against the Shang |
| Dao | the proper way Chinese kings were expected to rule under the Mandate of Heaven |
| filial piety | children's respect for their parents and older relatives, an important part of Confucian beliefs |
| Daoism | Chinese philosophy based on the teachings of Laozi; taught that people should turn to nature and give up worldly concerns |
| Legalism | taught that humans are naturally evil and therefore need to be ruled by harsh laws |
| Confucius | China's first great thinker and teacher wanted to bring peace to society; he urged people to treat others the way they would like to be treated |
| Laozi | ancient Chinese philosopher known as the "Old Master"; Daoism is based on his teachings |
| Hanfeizi | a scholar who developed the teachings of Legalism |
| Silk Road | a large network of difficult and dangerous trade routes that stretched 4,000 miles overland from western China to Southwest Asia |
