Early China Vocabulary

military commander exercises power by forces

• warlord

• aristocrat

• tenant farmer

• ancestor

a member of the upper class of society, usually of hereditary nobility

• warlord

• ancestor

• aristocrat

• civil servant

person that someone is descended from

• ancestor

• aristocrat

• tenant farmer

• warlord

a symbol in a writing system based on pictures

• pictograph

• ideograph

• hieroglyph

• cuneiform

a symbol in a writing system that represents a thing or idea

• pictograph

• ideograph

• hieroglyph

• cuneiform

group of non-elected government officials

• hereditary

• civil service

• bureaucracy

• acupuncture

having title or possession by reason of birth

• hereditary

• nobility

• bureaucracy

• ancestor

the belief that the Chinese king's right to rule came from the gods

• hereditary

• filial piety

• Mandate of Heaven

• God's Divine Power

system of beliefs which describes the way a king must rule

• Dao

• Shang

• Zhou

• Qin

study of basic ideas about society and right and wrong

• philosophy

• religion

• filial piety

• Dao