Ancient China: Dynasties and Wonders

What this quiz asks

• Early Chinese dynasties such as the Shang grew up along which river, often called China's 'Mother River'?
• Shang kings had questions carved on ox bones and on shells like this animal's, then cracked them with heat. What are these objects called?
• The sayings and conversations of Confucius were collected by his followers in which book?
• The name Qin Shi Huang, taken by the ruler who unified China, means roughly what?
• The Qin dynasty, which unified China in 221 BCE, lasted less than 20 years.
• Which dynasty followed the Qin and ruled China for about four centuries?
• Select ALL of these that Qin Shi Huang standardised across his empire.
• Were walls against northern raiders already being built by rival Chinese states before Qin Shi Huang unified China?
• Early frontier walls, such as those of the Qin, were built mostly from what?
• Which Han envoy's journeys to Central Asia in the 2nd century BCE helped open the Silk Road?
• The name 'Silk Road' was coined in 1877 by a geographer from which country?
• The Zhou justified overthrowing the Shang with which idea, that heaven grants the right to rule only to a just ruler?
• Select ALL of these thinkers who came from ancient China.
• The famous brick-faced stretch of the Great Wall at Badaling, near Beijing, was built by the Han dynasty.
• The Tang capital Chang'an, one of the largest cities of its age, stood on the site of which modern city?
• Under which dynasty did China's imperial examinations for government officials first become a formal system?
• In which year were China's imperial civil-service examinations finally abolished?
• Who was the only woman to rule China as emperor in her own right, founding her own short-lived Zhou dynasty?
• Order these dynasties from earliest to latest.
• The last Shang capital, Yin, where thousands of oracle bones were dug up, lies near which modern city?