Teaching Ancient China

Set of 65 bells (bianzhong), late 5th century BCE, Warring States period, bronze and lacquer, from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng, Leigudun Tomb 1, Suixian, Hubei, China. Hubei Provincial Museum. Photo © Larry Ball

New changes are coming

2025 brings new changes to ARTSQ—like all new landing pages for materials on the website! We always knew that we needed pages that would curate our materials in a particular way, and we decided to turn our attention to creating them this past Fall 2024.

The arts and material culture of ancient China

Our first new landing page is all about the arts of ancient China, from the Neolithic Period through the Zhou Dynasty. It includes art and material culture that helps us understand China’s earliest cultural development, characterized by the development of a writing system, bronze metallurgy, divination, and more!

Ancient China Resources

Designed to help educators and learners looking for materials about the art and material culture of ancient China that has been developed by experts in a fun, accessible way

If you go to the page, which you can find here, you will see that it is divided into three sections: Neolithic China, Shang Dynasty, and Zhou Dynasty. Each section currently includes relevant educational videos about jade cong and the Shang taotie motif, among others.

We also included short (but handy!) lists of important terms and concepts explored in the videos that we hope educators and learners find useful.

Coming soon!

We promised big changes in 2025, and so you will also soon find other types of materials on our pages like the ancient China one. Guided notes, slideshows, stickers, activities, and more will be available for educators and learners alike. We know how busy teachers are, so our hope is that these materials will help them prepare to feel confident in the classroom.

Let us know what you think!