World History I

Chapter 9: China: Imperial Unification and Perfecting the Moral Order
722 BCE-618 CE

40: Mon, Feb 5, 2024

Please read the chapter and take the quiz by midnight on Sun, Feb 4, 2024.
Please also post in the forum for the day a short essay in response to this question:

In this period, we begin to see a more complex range of resources—some that are continuing from earlier eras (e.g., geographic constants); others that are legacies of earlier times; and yet others that are created by what we might consider capital or infrastructure programs. All of them were available to the people, but in China particularly, they provided particular and focused leverage for the government. How did the Chinese state from the Qin, Han, and Sui dynasties (and those intervening periods of transition between them) identify, control, and deliberately enhance resources—both physical and intellectual—for their own age and the ages to come? You might want to consider:

• Military enhancements (e.g., the Great Wall).
• Transportation (e.g., the Silk Road and the Grand Canal)
• Appropriation and management of local crafts and industry (e.g., iron, silk, salt)
• Standardization of writing (under the Qin, but with later consequences)
• Standardization of weights and measures (also under the Qin, but with later consequences)

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