| A | B |
|---|
| loess | deposits of yellow silt |
| character | symbols that represent whole words in the Shang writing system |
| feudalism | the political system of exchanging land for loyalty |
| province | administrative region of a country |
| steppe | tall mountains, deserts and dry, treeless grasslands located in Northern China |
| oracle bone | the earliest evidence of Chinese writing found on animal bones and turtle shells used in ceremonies to find out about the future |
| filial piety | the expectation of showing honor and respect for one's parents |
| standardization | the process of making systems such as money, weights and measures, and writing the same for everyone |
| terrace farming | farming in raised levels to get better use of water when planting crops such as rice |
| Mandate of Heaven | an order given by the god Tian to the Zhou kings to rule over China |
| Confucianism | the ideas of the Chinese philosopher Confucius which are used as a guide for the way people should live |
| civil service | a part of a bureaucracy that oversees the day to day running of a government |
| dialect | a way of speaking |
| diviner | a person who could speak to the gods and to ancestors |
| Legalism | a way of governing that gives absolute power to the ruler |
| ambassador | a government representative |
| heritage | a set of ideas that have been passed down from one generation to another |
| virtue | a good quality |
| bureaucracy | a network consisting of appointed officials |
| Silk Road | the most heavily traveled trade routes that stretched 4,000 miles from the Han capital through the deserts and high plains of central Asia to the Mediterranean Sea |
| Confucius | Philosopher considered the most revered person in Chinese history |
| Xianyang | the old Qin capital |
| Shi Huangdi | Founder of the Qin dynasty and unifier of China |
| Wu Di | Han ruler who established a civil service administration to run the daily business of government |
| Ban Zhao | the most important remale scholar of the Han dynasty |
