Ancient China Jeopardy

Dynasties, the Great Wall, the Silk Road, and paper and printing: an Ancient China review for middle school. Free to copy; students buzz in on phones.

6 categories · 30 clues · Final Jeopardy · everyone buzzes in from their phone

For the classroom

Copies all 30 clues into an editor of your own. Free, no account needed.

Every clue on this board

This page is public, so anyone can read the answers — copy the board and swap a few clues before game day.

Rivers and Geography

$200
Called China's Mother River, this river is named for the color of the silt it carries.
What is the Yellow River?
$400
The longest river in China and in all of Asia, it flows east to the sea at Shanghai.
What is the Yangtze River?
$600
This cold, dry desert stretches across northern China and Mongolia.
What is the Gobi Desert?
$800
The world's highest mountain range forms part of China's southwestern border.
What are the Himalayas?
$1,000
The fine, wind-blown yellow soil that makes the river valleys of northern China so fertile is called this.
What is loess?

Dynasties

$200
A dynasty is a series of rulers who all come from this.
What is the same family?
$400
Chinese rulers claimed this approval from the heavens, which could be lost if they ruled badly.
What is the Mandate of Heaven?
$600
This dynasty, which ruled for about 400 years after the first emperor's dynasty fell, gave its name to China's largest ethnic group.
What is the Han dynasty?
$800
This early dynasty is known for its oracle bones, which carry the oldest known Chinese writing.
What is the Shang dynasty?
$1,000
The longest-ruling dynasty in Chinese history, it lasted about 800 years, and Confucius lived during its second half.
What is the Zhou dynasty?

The First Emperor

$200
The first emperor linked older walls to build an early version of this defense against northern invaders.
What is the Great Wall?
$400
The first emperor came from this state and dynasty, which may be the source of the English name China.
What is the Qin dynasty?
$600
So people across his empire could read the same characters, he made this the same everywhere.
What is writing?
$800
He ruled using this strict philosophy, which said people must be controlled with harsh laws and punishments.
What is Legalism?
$1,000
The first emperor united China in this BC year, ending the Warring States period.
What is 221 BC?

Confucius and Beliefs

$200
This black-and-white symbol stands for opposite forces kept in balance.
What is yin and yang?
$400
Confucius taught this duty of children to respect and care for their parents and ancestors.
What is filial piety?
$600
This belief system, linked to Laozi, teaches living simply in harmony with nature and the Way.
What is Daoism?
$800
This religion, founded in India, reached China along the Silk Road in the first century AD.
What is Buddhism?
$1,000
After his death, Confucius's students collected his sayings in this book.
What are the Analects?

The Silk Road

$200
Silk comes from the cocoons of these creatures, which feed on mulberry leaves.
What are silkworms?
$400
This animal, able to go days without water, carried goods across the deserts of Central Asia.
What is the camel?
$600
The Silk Road was not one road but a network of these, linking China to the Mediterranean.
What are trade routes?
$800
Centuries after ancient times, this merchant from Venice wrote about his travels to China along the Silk Road.
Who was Marco Polo?
$1,000
Sent west by an emperor in the 100s BC, this envoy's journeys helped open the Silk Road.
Who was Zhang Qian?

Chinese Inventions

$200
About 2,000 years ago, the Chinese invented this writing material, made from bark, hemp and rags.
What is paper?
$400
First made by Chinese alchemists, this explosive powder was soon used in fireworks.
What is gunpowder?
$600
This navigation tool with a magnetized pointer was first used by the Chinese.
What is the compass?
$800
This fine, thin white ceramic is so linked to China that in English it is often just called china.
What is porcelain?
$1,000
In 132 AD, the inventor Zhang Heng built a bronze device to detect these.
What are earthquakes?

Final Jeopardy — The Emperor's Army

China's first emperor, Qin Shi Huang, was buried near thousands of life-size soldier statues made of this baked clay.

What is terracotta?

How to run this board

This board covers the ground most ancient civilizations units spend on China: the rivers that cradled it, the dynasties from the Shang through the Han, the first emperor and his Great Wall, the teachings of Confucius, the trade routes of the Silk Road, and the inventions like paper and silk that spread west.

Dynasty order trips up many students, so write Shang, Zhou, Qin, Han on the board before you start and leave it up. It is not giving answers away; it is giving them a timeline to hang the clues on.

Teams by table group with one phone each keeps the pace brisk. For the Inventions column, accept either the invention or its use, and ask for the other half as a bonus.

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