Chapter 16 section 2 GR

Guided Reading 16-2

Between 1500 and 1800, China remained a mostly (1)__________________ society. However, the Chinese (2) __________________ was changing. A long period of peace under the Qing dynasty and improvements in the food supply led to a large increase in (3) __________________. Despite the growth in trade and manufacturing, China did not develop the kind of commercial (4) __________________ that was emerging in Europe.

Chinese society was organized around the (5) __________________. The ideal family unit in Qing China was the extended family, with as many as three or four (6) __________________ living under the same roof. Beyond the extended family was the (7) __________________, consisting of dozens or even hundreds of related families. Women who had bound feet were more (8) __________________ than those who did not.

A new form of literature, the (9) __________________, arose during the Ming dynasty. The (10) __________________ Lotus depicts the corrupt life of a wealthy landlord in the late Ming period who cruelly manipulates those around him for sex, money, and power. (11) __________________, by Cao Xuegin, is generally considered even today to be China’s most distinguished popular novel.

The most outstanding example of Ming dynasty architecture is the

(12) __________________ in Beijing. The Imperial City includes a maze of private apartments and offices, as well as stately halls for (13) __________________ audiences and banquets and spacious gardens. Perhaps the most famous of all the arts of the Ming Era was blue-and-white (14) __________________. (15) __________________ admired the beauty of this porcelain and collected it in great quantities.