Ancient China

by Robert Nicholson, Claire Watts

Looks at the history and culture of ancient China through artifacts, beliefs, customs, crafts, and a representative folktale

Genres: History

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Meryem Matar · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story Ancient China was written by Robert Nicholson and Claire Watts. China is a massive country that was ruled by emperors. As the story opens, it talks about the Great Wall. It first started with an emperor called Qin Shi Huang Di. This emperor sent thirty-thousand men at the birth of the wall. Emperor after emperor, the Great Wall was developing and getting rebuilt until our time. The book then talks about the Forbidden City. Cities were built with walls surrounding them to protect from enemies. Inside the area where government officials lived and worked, there was the Forbidden City. IT is surrounded by a big wall and during night time, no one was aloud to enter except the emperor. Cities are divided by two: homes made by mud and thatch for poor people, and houses built around massive courtyards for rich people. Annual festivals were important events. Usually, people wore dragon costumes because they believed that dragons are signs for fun and excitement. Chinese houses had a curved roof because they believe that bad spirits could only travel on straight lines. These curved roofs are to protect the house from the bad spirits. For China, there were three great thinkers and two main religions. Buddha was an Indian man who developed the religion of Buddhism. He believed that people should free themselves from too much desires to have a happy life. Another was Kung-Fu-Tsu, a philosopher. He believed that people would not have a peaceful life if they don’t follow his rules written in the Analects. Finally, Lao-Tsu developed the religion of Taoism. He believed that people should live in harmony with nature. China’s main foods were noodles, root ginger, Chinese leaves, rice and bean curd. The meat they ate was ox, mutton, deer, pig and dog. As the story closes, the reader learns about clothes. Men and women had long hair and wore dresses. The front of women’s dress was opened a little. People cut their hair only if they lost a close family member. As one can see, Ancient China has a lot of interesting details.
This story was good enough to answer three questions. First, Buddha’s legacy was that he was a peaceful man and the founder of the religion of Buddhism. The important contributions to history he made was that he influenced half of Asia to Buddhism. Buddha’s achievements were that he taught people to free themselves from all of their desires to gain a peaceful life and live happily. He was also taught people how to make peace and believe in what ever they want, whenever they want. The belief that influenced the person is to keep people’s selves from always wanting more than what they have. This belief changed part of the world because India, China, and some other countries started believing on what Buddha believed. As one can see, one of China’s main religion was founded by a peaceful Indian person, Buddha.
I would recommend this book to archeologists because they are the ones who make this kind of research especially under the ground to find certain details about the world before. For the grade, I would recommend this book to everyone who is at least in fourth grade because this book is informative and can teach everyone about Ancient China. Finally, for a passion I would recommend it to people who love social studies and who want to be archeologists or some type of job in where they have to search to find information about the world a long time ago. As one can see, this book could be interesting to good workers who love reading.

[Hyun Young Jeong · Rating 4 out of 5]

The informational book Ancient China by Robert Nicholson and Claire Watts is a book that explains about one of the 4 earliest civilizations, ancient China. This book mainly explains about the society of ancient China, and many inventions Chinese have made. Chinese civilization first began around the Yellow River, where the soil is a rich yellow earth called ‘loess’. The ancient Chinese discovered that they could grow good crops on this land if it was kept well watered. They developed a system of terraces cut into the hillsides to make the most of the land. In the north, wheat was the main crop, and in the south, rice was grown in flooded fields. Peasant farmers provided most of the food of the Chinese empire but usually did not have enough to eat themselves. Sometimes, angry peasants rebelled against the rich landowners. Throughout the book, the authors teach the readers about many great Chinese inventions. First, the Chinese invented fireworks and rockets. Chinese scientists found a formula to make gunpowder. Second, the Chinese were the first civilization to make a compass. They discovered magnetism and made compasses that showed the direction of north and south. Third, Chinese made paper. This is considered as the greatest Chinese invention. Wood pulp, hemp, and other wasted materials were mashed up, mixed with water, rolled, stretched, and dried in the sun to form paper. Chinese also developed many philosophies, such as Confucianism, Daoism, etc. Chinese also developed Buddhism, which started in India. As one can see, ancient China was an agriculture-based society and invented many materials which we still use.

While reading this book, readers may have several questions. First, what would be a better title for this book? An appropriate title would be Ancient China: Their Achievements because the book explains about many achievements Chinese done, such as inventions and government systems. Second, how do the authors feel about this topic? The author describes the ancient Chinese as a well organized, great civilization. Readers can know that the authors admire and want people to know more about this civilization. Third, write an acrostic poem about this book.
A long time ago
Neither Jesus nor Allah was born
China, the big country
In the center of the large continent, Asia
Expanded their empire as time went by
Nobody could stop them
They also had great achievements
Created paper, compass, rockets, etc
Had many great philosophies
In conclusion
Nobody could stop them…
Ancient China!
As one can see, the book Ancient China contains many good facts about ancient China and the author appreciates this culture.

I would recommend this book to 7th graders and 8th grade ELL students. This book is short but informational, and the vocabularies used in this book are easy compared to other books which students learn in middle school. By this books, students that are not familiar with English would most likely to develop their reading and comprehension skills. Also, students that are interested in history, mainly ancient history, would like this book. This book has rich facts about the ancient Chinese civilization, which would help 7th graders, because in 7th grade, students learn about ancient China. As one can see, this book would suit for 7th graders and 8th grade ELL students because this book is short but contains rich facts.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Explore ancient China, what the lands where like, government, daily life, inventions, writing, religion, food, clothing, stories, and more. The book also explains what evidence has shown us these facts.

New Mexico Social Studies Standards:

- Strand: History; Content Standard I; 5-8 Benchmark 1-A New Mexico; Grade 6; 1
- Strand: History; Content Standard I; 5-8 Benchmark 1-B United States; Grade 6; 1
- Strand: History; Content Standard I; 5-8 Benchmark 1-C World; Grade 6; 1
- Strand: Geography; Content Standard II; 5-8 Benchmark 2-B; Grade 6
- Strand: Geography; Content Standard II; 5-8 Benchmark 2-C; Grade 6
- Strand: Geography; Content Standard II; 5-8 Benchmark 2-E; Grade 6
- Strand: Geography; Content Standard II; 5-8 Benchmark 2-F; Grade 6
- Strand: Civics and Government; Content Standard III; 5-8 Benchmark 3-C; Grade 6; 2
- Strand: Civics and Government; Content Standard III; 5-8 Benchmark 3-D; Grade 6
- Strand: Economics; Content Standard IV; 5-8 Benchmark 4-C; Grade 6

*Available at Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Libraries*