1.
History of China
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Written records of the history of China can be found from as early as 1500 BC under the Shang dynasty. Ancient historical texts such as the Records of the Grand Historian and the Bamboo Annals describe a Xia dynasty, with thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the worlds oldest civilizations, and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization. Much of Chinese culture, literature and philosophy developed during the Zhou dynasty. This is one of multiple periods of failed statehood in Chinese history, between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China, in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. In 221 BC Qin Shi Huang united the warring kingdoms and created for himself the title of emperor of the Qin dynasty. Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly, in the 21 centuries from 206 BC until AD1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite, the Scholar-officials. Young men were selected through difficult examinations and were well-versed in calligraphy and philosophy. What is now China was inhabited by Homo erectus more than a million years ago, recent study shows that the stone tools found at Xiaochangliang site are magnetostratigraphically dated to 1.36 million years ago. The archaeological site of Xihoudu in Shanxi Province is the earliest recorded use of fire by Homo erectus, the excavations at Yuanmou and later Lantian show early habitation. Perhaps the most famous specimen of Homo erectus found in China is the so-called Peking Man discovered in 1923–27, fossilised teeth of Homo sapiens dating to 125, 000–80,000 BC have been discovered in Fuyan Cave in Dao County in Hunan. The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to about 10,000 BC, Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BC. The earliest evidence of cultivated rice, found by the Yangtze River, is carbon-dated to 8,000 years ago, farming gave rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in Ningxia,3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BC have been discovered, featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and these pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese. Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BC, Dadiwan from 5800 BC to 5400 BC, Damaidi around 6000 BC, some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbols were the earliest Chinese writing system. With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC. Bronze artifacts have been found at the Majiayao culture site, The Bronze Age is also represented at the Lower Xiajiadian culture site in northeast China. Sanxingdui located in what is now Sichuan province is believed to be the site of a ancient city. The site was first discovered in 1929 and then re-discovered in 1986, Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu, linking the artifacts found at the site to its early legendary kings
2.
Dynasties in Chinese history
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The following is a chronology of the dynasties in Chinese history. For example, the conventional date 1645 marks the year in which the Qing dynasty armies replaced the preceding Ming dynasty according to the dynastic cycle, however, the Qing dynasty was established in 1636, while the last Ming dynasty pretender was not deposed until 1663. This change of ruling houses was a messy and prolonged affair, and it is therefore inaccurate to assume China changed suddenly and all at once in the year 1645. In addition, China was divided for short periods of its history, at times like these, there was not any single dynasty ruling a unified China. As a case in point, there is dispute about times in. In the Chinese historiographical tradition, each new dynasty would write the history of the dynasty which preceded it and this cycle was disrupted, however, when the Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty in favor of a republic. China Handbook Editorial Committee, China Handbook Series, History, Beijing,1982, 188-89, dynasties song sung to the tune of Frère Jacques that repeats the major Chinese dynasties in chronological order
3.
Lower Paleolithic
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The Lower Paleolithic is the earliest subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. It spans the time from around 3, the Middle Paleolithic followed the Lower Paleolithic and recorded the appearance of the more advanced prepared-core tool-making technologies such as the Mousterian. Whether the earliest control of fire by hominins dates to the Lower or to the Middle Paleolithic remains an open question. The Lower Paleolithic began with the appearance of the oldest stone tools in the world, roughly 3.3 million ago in eastern Africa, the Gelasian, some 2.5 million years ago, saw the appearance of the Homo genus, possibly developing from australopithecine forebears. Homo habilis is assumed to have lived primarily on scavenging, using tools to cleave meat off carrion or to break bones to extract the marrow, decreasing oceanic evaporation produced a drier climate and the expansion of the savannah at the expense of forests. Reduced availability of fruits stimulated some proto-australopithecines to search out new food sources found in the drier savannah ecology, Homo erectus appeared by about 1.8 million years ago, via the transitional variety Homo ergaster. Homo erectus moved from scavenging to hunting, developing the hunting-gathering lifestyle that would remain dominant throughout the Paleolithic into the Mesolithic, Homo erectus migrated out of Africa and dispersed throughout Eurasia. Stone tools in Malaysia have been dated to be 1.83 million years old, the Peking Man fossil, discovered in 1929, is roughly 700,000 years old. In Europe, the Olduwan tradition split into two parallel traditions, the Clactonian, a tradition, and the Acheulean, a hand-axe tradition. The Levallois technique for knapping flint developed during this time, the carrier species from Africa to Europe was undoubtedly Homo erectus. This type of human is more linked to the flake tradition. Many Mousterian finds in the Middle Paleolithic have been knapped using a Levallois technique, monte Poggiolo, near Forlì, Italy, is the location of an Acheulian littoral handaxe industry dating from 1.8 to 1.1 million years ago. The appearance of Homo heidelbergensis about 600,000 years ago heralds a number of new varieties, such as Homo rhodesiensis. Homo heidelbergensis is a candidate for first developing a form of symbolic language. Whether control of fire and earliest burials date to this period or only appear during the Middle Paleolithic is an open question, the hand-axe tradition originates in the same period. The intermediate may have been Homo heidelbergensis, held responsible for the manufacture of improved Mode 2 Acheulean tool types, in Africa, flakes and axes coexisted in Europe, sometimes at the same site. The axe tradition, however, spread to a different range in the east and it appears in Arabia and India, but more importantly, it does not appear in southeast Asia. Homo sapiens first appear about 200,000 years ago, control of fire by early humans Lomekwi, site of the oldest tools discovered The First People and Culture at Indiana University Bloomington
4.
Peking Man
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Peking Man, Homo erectus pekinensis, is an example of Homo erectus. Their age is estimated to be between 500,000 and 300,000 years old and they are thought to belong to an adult man, an adult woman and a young adult, with brain sizes of 1225 cc,1015 cc and 1030 cc respectively. These pieces were found at a level, and appear to be more modern than the other skullcaps. Most of the study on these fossils was done by Davidson Black until his death in 1934, pierre Teilhard de Chardin took over until Franz Weidenreich replaced him and studied the fossils until he left China in 1941. The original fossils disappeared in 1941, but excellent casts and descriptions remain, swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson and American palaeontologist Walter W. Granger came to Zhoukoudian, China in search of prehistoric fossils in 1921. They were directed to the site at Dragon Bone Hill by local quarrymen, immediately realising the importance of this find he turned to his colleague and announced, Here is primitive man, now all we have to do is find him. Excavation work was begun immediately by Anderssons assistant Austrian palaeontologist Otto Zdansky and he returned to the site in 1923, and materials excavated in the two subsequent digs were sent to Uppsala University in Sweden for analysis. In 1926 Andersson announced the discovery of two human molars in this material, and Zdansky published his findings, swedish palaeontologist Anders Birger Bohlin unearthed a tooth that fall, and Black placed it in a gold locket on his watch chain. A lower jaw, several teeth, and skull fragments were unearthed in 1928, Black presented these finds to the foundation and was rewarded with an $80,000 grant that he used to establish the Cenozoic Research Laboratory. Excavations at the site under the supervision of Chinese archaeologists Yang Zhongjian, Pei Wenzhong and these excavations came to an end in 1937 with the Japanese invasion. Excavations at Zhoukoudian resumed after the war, the Peking Man Site at Zhoukoudian was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1987. New excavations were started at the site in June 2009, the first specimens of Homo erectus had been found in Java in 1891 by Eugene Dubois, but were dismissed by many as the remains of a deformed ape. Contiguous findings of remains and evidence of fire and tool usage. The analysis of the remains of Peking Man led to the claim that the Zhoukoudian and this interpretation was challenged in 1985 by Lewis Binford, who claimed that Peking Man was a scavenger, not a hunter. Following the discovery of specimens of Lantian Man starting in 1963, the next year Lantian man was reclassified as a subspecies of Homo erectus. Franz Weidenreich considered Peking Man as an ancestor and specifically an ancestor of the Chinese people. Chinese writings on evolution in 1950 generally considered evidence insufficient to determine whether Peking Man was ancestral to modern humans. By 1952 Peking Man was considered by some to be an ancestor of modern humans
5.
Zhoukoudian
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Zhoukoudian or Choukoutien is a cave system in Beijing, China. Dates of when Peking Man inhabited this site vary greatly,700, 000-200,000 years ago,670, 000-470,000 years ago and no earlier than 530,000 years ago. The Peking Man Site was first discovered by Johan Gunnar Andersson in 1921 and was first excavated by Otto Zdansky in 1921 and 1923 unearthing two human teeth and these were later identified by Davidson Black as belonging to a previously unknown species and extensive excavations followed. Fissures in the limestone containing middle Pleistocene deposits have yielded the remains of about 45 individuals as well as animal remains and stone flake and chopping tools. The oldest animal remains date from as early as 690,000 years ago, during the Upper Palaeolithic, the site was re-occupied and remains of Homo sapiens and its stone and bone tools have also been recovered from the Upper Cave. The crater Choukoutien on asteroid 243 Ida was named after the location, the caves are located in Fangshan District, southwest of central Beijing. Granger were led to the known as Dragon Bone Hill by local quarry men. Noticing some white quartz that was foreign to the area he immediately realised that this would be a place to search for the remains of primitive man. In 1926 Anderson announced the discovery of two human molars amongst this material and the following year Zdansky published his finding cautiously identifying the teeth as. Homo sp. Canis c. f. variabilis, commonly known as the Zhoukoudian wolf, were found at the Zhoukoudian cave system and archaeological site in 1934 and named by its discoverer, funding was granted and the Zhoukoudian Project commenced excavations in 1927 under the supervision of Chinese archaeologist Li Jie. That fall, a tooth was unearthed by Swedish paleontologist Anders Birger Bohlin for which Black proposed belonged a new species named Sinanthropus pekinensis. The following year Blacks excavations uncovered more fossils of his new species including teeth, a part of a juveniles jaw. These finds allowed Black to secure an extra $80,000 grant from the Foundation which he used to establish a research laboratory, Black stayed on at the Laboratory as honorary director while excavations continued at the site under Chinese paleontologist Yang Zhongjian, anthropologists Pei Wenzhong and Jia Lanpo. Conditions at the site were primitive, with scientists having to ride out to the excavation on mules and staying at caravansaries along the way. When the first skullcap was unearthed at the site in 1929, it was done by Pei, working in a 40-meter crevasse in frigid weather with a hammer in one hand and a candle in the other. A second skullcap is discovered close to the first in 1930, despite the conditions at the site eminent researchers continued to visit. French palaeontologist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin had been a visitor to the site since 1926. French archaeologist Henri Breuil visited in 1931 and confirmed the presence of stone tools and that same year evidence of the use of fire at the cave was accepted
6.
Middle Paleolithic
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The Middle Paleolithic is the second subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age as it is understood in Europe, Africa and Asia. The term Middle Stone Age is used as an equivalent or a synonym for the Middle Paleolithic in African archeology, the Middle Paleolithic broadly spanned from 300,000 to 30,000 years ago. There are considerable dating differences between regions, the Middle Paleolithic was succeeded by the Upper Paleolithic subdivision which first began between 50,000 and 40,000 years ago. Activities such as catching fish and hunting large game animals with specialized tools connote increased group-wide cooperation. Both Neandertal and modern human societies took care of the members of their societies during the Middle Paleolithic. Typically, it has assumed that women gathered plants and firewood. Anthropologists such as Tim D. Cannibalism in the Middle Paleolithic may have occurred because of food shortages, around 200,000 BP Middle Paleolithic Stone tool manufacturing spawned a tool-making technique known as the prepared-core technique, that was more elaborate than previous Acheulean techniques. Wallace and Shea split the core artifacts into two different types, formal cores and expedient cores, formal cores are designed to extract the maximum amount from the raw material while expedient cores are more based on function need. This method increased efficiency by permitting the creation of more controlled and this method allowed Middle Paleolithic humans correspondingly to create stone-tipped spears, which were the earliest composite tools, by hafting sharp, pointy stone flakes onto wooden shafts. The use of fire became widespread for the first time in human prehistory during the Middle Paleolithic, some scientists have hypothesized that hominids began cooking food to defrost frozen meat which would help ensure their survival in cold regions
7.
Upper Paleolithic
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The Upper Paleolithic is the third and last subdivision of the Paleolithic or Old Stone Age. Very broadly, it dates to between 50,000 and 10,000 years ago, roughly coinciding with the appearance of behavioral modernity, modern humans are believed to have emerged about 195,000 years ago in Africa. Although these humans were modern in anatomy, their lifestyle changed very little from their contemporaries, such as Homo erectus, about 50,000 years ago, there was a marked increase in the diversity of artifacts. In Africa, bone artifacts and the first art appear in the archeological record, between 45,000 and 43,000 years ago, this new tool technology spread with human migration to Europe. The new technology generated an explosion of modern humans which is believed to have contributed to the extinction of the Neanderthals. The Upper Paleolithic has the earliest known evidence of organized settlements, in the form of campsites, artistic work blossomed, with cave painting, petroglyphs, carvings and engravings on bone or ivory. The first evidence of fishing is also noted, from artifacts in places such as Blombos cave in South Africa. More complex social groupings emerged, supported by more varied and reliable food sources and this probably contributed to increasing group identification or ethnicity. By 50, 000–40,000 BP, the first humans set foot in Australia, by 45,000 BP, humans lived at 61° north latitude in Europe. By 30,000 BP, Japan was reached, and by 27,000 BP humans were present in Siberia above the Arctic Circle, at the end of the Upper Paleolithic, a group of humans crossed the Bering land bridge and quickly expanded throughout North and South America. Both Homo erectus and Neanderthals used the same crude stone tools, archaeologist Richard G. Klein, who has worked extensively on ancient stone tools, describes the stone tool kit of archaic hominids as impossible to categorize. It was as if the Neanderthals made stone tools, and were not much concerned about their final forms and he argues that almost everywhere, whether Asia, Africa or Europe, before 50,000 years ago all the stone tools are much alike and unsophisticated. These new stone-tool types have been described as being distinctly differentiated from each other, the invaders, commonly referred to as the Cro-Magnons, left many sophisticated stone tools, carved and engraved pieces on bone, ivory and antler, cave paintings and Venus figurines. The Neanderthals continued to use Mousterian stone tool technology and possibly Chatelperronian technology and these tools disappeared from the archeological record at around the same time the Neanderthals themselves disappeared from the fossil record, about 40,000 years ago. Settlements were often located in valley bottoms, possibly associated with hunting of passing herds of animals. Hunting was important, and caribou/wild reindeer may well be the species of single greatest importance in the anthropological literature on hunting. Technological advances included significant developments in flint tool manufacturing, with industries based on fine blades rather than simpler and shorter flakes, burins and racloirs were used to work bone, antler and hides. Advanced darts and harpoons also appear in period, along with the fish hook, the oil lamp, rope
8.
Pottery
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Pottery is the craft of making ceramic material into pots or potterywares using mud. Major types of potterywares include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain, the place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery. Early Neolithic pottery have found in places such as Jomon Japan. A clay body can be decorated before or after firing, however, prior to shaping processes. Kneading helps to ensure an even moisture content throughout the body, air trapped within the clay body needs to be removed. This is called de-airing and can be accomplished either by a called a vacuum pug or manually by wedging. Wedging can also produce an even moisture content. Once a clay body has been kneaded and de-aired or wedged, after shaping, it is dried and then fired. Clay ware takes on varying physical characteristics during the making of pottery, at sufficient moisture content, bodies at this stage are in their most plastic form. Leather-hard refers to a body that has been dried partially. At this stage the clay object has approximately 15% moisture content, clay bodies at this stage are very firm and only slightly pliable. Trimming and handle attachment often occurs at the leather-hard state, bone-dry refers to clay bodies when they reach a moisture content at or near 0%. It is now ready to be bisque fired, bisque refers to the clay after the object is shaped to the desired form and fired in the kiln for the first time, known as bisque fired or biscuit fired. This firing changes the body in several ways. Mineral components of the body will undergo chemical changes that will change the colour of the clay. Glaze fired is the stage of some pottery making. A glaze may be applied to the form and the object can be decorated in several ways. After this the object is glazed fired, which causes the material to melt
9.
8th millennium BC
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In the 8th millennium BC, agriculture became widely practised in the Fertile Crescent and Anatolia. Pottery became widespread and animal husbandry spread to Africa and Eurasia, world population was approximately 5 million. C.8083 BC—Comet Hale–Bopp appears in the sky and it comes back in the 6th millennium BC. c.8000 BC—Upper Paleolithic period ends. C.8000 BC—Settlement in Franchthi Cave in Peloponnese, continues, first evidence of seed and animal stocking and obsidian trade with Melos. The settlement was occupied since 20,000 BC and abandoned in 3000 BC. c.8000 BC—Settlements at Nevali Cori in present-day Turkey are established. C.8000 BC—Asikli Hoyuk, Cappadocia, established, C.8000 BC—Settlements at Sagalassos in present-day southwest Turkey are established. C.8000 BC—Settlements at Akure in present-day southwest Nigeria are established, C.8000 BC—Settlements at Øvre Eiker and Nedre Eiker in present-day Buskerud, Norway are established. C.8000 BC—Settlements at Ærø, Denmark are established, C.8000 BC—Settlements at Deepcar near present-day Sheffield, England are established. C.8000 BC—North American Arctic is inhabited by hunter-gatherers of the Paleo-Arctic Tradition, C.8000 BC—Pre-Anasazi Paleo-Indians move into present-day Southwest United States. C.8000 BC—Plano cultures inhabit the Great Plains area of North America, C.7500 BC—Settlements at Sand, Applecross on the coast of Wester Ross, Scotland are constructed. C.7500 BC—Çatalhöyük, a very large Neolithic and Chalcolithic settlement in southern Anatolia, is founded, C.7500 BC—Cattle Period begins in the Sahara. C.7500 BC—Mesolithic hunter-gatherers are the first humans to reach Ireland, C.7570 BC—Bhirrana, the earliest Indus Valley site, is settled. C.7370 BC—End of the settlement at Jericho. C.7200 BC—Cayonu in southeast Turkey, the likely site of emmer wheat. C.7200 BC–5000 BC—Ain Ghazal, Jordan is inhabited, C.8000 BC—Glaciers form the rock formation in present-day New Hampshire, formerly known as the Old Man of the Mountain. C.7911 BC—Series of seven massive volcanic eruptions give volcanic skies, locations not known, but show in polar ice. One possibility is the Phlegraean Fields caldera near Naples, Italy, C.7640 BC—Date theorized for impact of Tollmanns hypothetical bolide with Earth and associated global cataclysm. C.7220 BC—Eruption of Mount Edgecumbe, Alaska, large outflow of fresh water from Black Sea into Aegean Sea
10.
Pengtoushan
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The Pengtoushan culture, dating 7500–6100 BC, was a Neolithic culture centered primarily around the central Yangtze River region in northwestern Hunan, China. It was roughly contemporaneous with its neighbor, the Peiligang culture. The two primary examples of Pengtoushan culture are the site at Pengtoushan and the later site at Bashidang. The type site at Pengtoushan was discovered in Li County, Hunan and this site is the earliest permanently settled village yet discovered in China. Excavated in 1988, Pengtoushan has been difficult to date accurately, cord-marked pottery was discovered among the burial goods. Analysis of Chinese rice residues which were Carbon-14 dated to 8200-7800 BC show that rice had been domesticated by this time, the size of the Pengtoushan rice was larger than the size of naturally occurring wild rice, however, Pengtoushan lacked evidence of tools used in cultivating rice. Although not found at Pengtoushan, rice-cultivating tools were found in sites associated with the Pengtoushan culture. List of Neolithic cultures of China Daxi culture Qujialing culture
11.
Peiligang culture
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The Peiligang culture is the name given by archaeologists to a group of Neolithic communities in the Yi-Luo river basin in Henan Province, China. The culture existed from 7000 to 5000 BC, over 100 sites have been identified with the Peiligang culture, nearly all of them in a fairly compact area of about 100 square kilometers in the area just south of the river and along its banks. The culture is named after the site discovered in 1977 at Peiligang, archaeologists think that the Peiligang culture was egalitarian, with little political organization. The culture practiced agriculture in the form of cultivating millet and animal husbandry in the form of raising pigs, cattle, the people hunted deer and wild boar, and fished for carp in the nearby river, using nets made from hemp fibers. The culture is one of the oldest in ancient China to make pottery. This culture typically had separate residential and burial areas, or cemeteries, the site at Jiahu is the earliest site associated with Peiligang culture. There are many similarities between the group of Peiligang settlements and the Jiahu culture, which was isolated several days travel to the south of the main group. Archaeologists are divided about the relationship between Jiahu and the main group, most agree that Jiahu was part of the Peiligang culture, pointing to the many similarities. The cultivation of rice, for example, was unique to Jiahu and was not practiced among the villages of the main Peiligang group in the north, also, Jiahu existed for several hundred years before any of the settlements of the main group. Prehistoric Beifudi site Jiahu symbols Liu, Li, the Chinese Neolithic, Trajectories to Early States. The Archaeology of China, From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age
12.
Jiahu
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Jiahu was the site of a Neolithic settlement based in the central plain of ancient China, near the Yellow River. It is located between the floodplains of the Ni River to the north, and the Sha River to the south,22 km north of the city of Wuyang. Most archaeologists consider the site to be one of the earliest examples of the Peiligang culture, settled around 7000 BC, the site was later flooded and abandoned around 5700 BC. The settlement was surrounded by a moat and covered a large area of 55,000 square meters. At one time, it was a complex, highly organized Chinese Neolithic society, home to at least 250 people, to date,45 residences have been excavated at Jiahu. Most of these are small, between four and ten meters, most of these were semi-subterranean and with a single room, however, some of these had additional rooms built on later. Rubbish pits and storage cellars were excavated, and nine pottery kilns were identified. Discovered by Zhu Zhi in 1962, extensive excavation of the site did not occur until the 1980s, most of the site still has not been excavated, although work is slowly progressing. The excavation of Jiahu burial sites and rubbish pits has been productive, zhangs team conducted excavation of portions of the site in seven stages, each stage took two to three years. A large portion of the Jiahu site was excavated in the first two phases of the project, between 1983 and 1987, zhang and his assistants published the findings of the first two phases in detail in the journal Antiquity. The distance would have represented a journey on foot of several days in the Neolithic era and this school of thought suggests that Jiahu and Peiligang represented separate, neighboring cultures that interacted and shared many characteristics. Other early Neolithic settlements in part of the world were much farther south. Archaeologists have divided Jiahu into three distinct phases, the oldest phase ranges from 7000 to 6600 BC, the middle phase ranges from 6600 to 6200 BC, and the last phase ranges from 6200 to 5700 BC. The last two correspond to the Peiligang culture, while the earliest phase is unique to Jiahu. The inhabitants of Jiahu cultivated foxtail millet and rice, while millet cultivation is common in the Peiligang culture, rice cultivation at Jiahu is unique, and tends to support the theory that Jiahu was a separate culture from the Peiligang grouping. On the other hand, difference in climate, moisture. Jiahu rice cultivation is one of the earliest found, and the most northerly found at such a stage in history. The rice was a kind of short-grained japonica rice, scholars had previously thought the earliest domesticated rice belonged to the long-grain indica subspecies
13.
Cishan culture
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The Cishan culture was a Neolithic culture in northern China, on the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains. The Cishan culture was based on the farming of broomcorn millet, the people at Cishan also began to cultivate foxtail millet around 8700 years ago. However, these dates have been questioned by some archaeologists due to sampling issues. There is also evidence that the Cishan people cultivated barley and, late in their history, common artifacts from the Cishan culture include stone grinders, stone sickles and tripod pottery. The sickle blades feature fairly uniform serrations, which made the harvesting of grain easier, cord markings, used as decorations on the pottery, was more common compared to neighboring cultures. Also, the Cishan potters created a variety of pottery forms such as basins, pot supports, serving stands. The Cishan culture also shared similarities with its eastern neighbor. However, the consensus among archaeologists is that the Cishan people were members of a distinct culture that shared many characteristics with its neighbors. The type site at Cishan is located in Wuan, Hebei, the site covers an area of around 80,000 m2. The houses at Cishan were semi-subterranean and round, the site showed evidence of domesticated pigs, dogs and chickens, with pigs providing the primary source of meat. The Cishan people hunted deer and wild boar, nuts, Celtis bungeana, wild apricots and pears, and various roots and tubers were foraged from the surrounding forests. Fish was also an important part of the diet at Cishan, specifically carp and herring from the nearby river, over 500 subterranean storage pits were discovered at Cishan. These pits were used to store millet, the largest pits were 5 meters deep and capable of storing up to 1,000 kg of millet. List of Neolithic cultures of China Dadiwan culture Prehistoric Beifudi site
14.
6th millennium BC
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During the 6th millennium BC, agriculture spread from the Balkans to Italy and Eastern Europe, and also from Mesopotamia to Egypt. World population was stable at numbers ranging between approximately 5 and 7 million. A massive volcanic landslide off Mount Etna, Sicily, caused a megatsunami that devastated the eastern Mediterranean coastline on the continents of Asia, Africa, C.6000 BC, The entire 6th millennium was a part of the Holocene climatic optimum. This was a period also known as the Atlantic period and was characterized by minimal glaciation. C.6000 BC, The Chalcolithic comes to the Fertile Crescent, first use of copper in Middle East. C.6000 BC, Fully Neolithic agriculture has spread through Anatolia to the Balkans, C.6000 BC, Junglefowl kept in India. C.6000 BC, Female figurines holding serpents are fashioned on Crete and may have associated with water, regenerative power. C.6000 BC, Equidae disappear from the Americas, C.5900 BC, Vinča culture emerges on the shores of lower Danube. C.5800 BC, Beginning of the Dadiwan culture in China, C.5800 BC, The Hassuna culture in Mesopotamia, with the earliest version of stamp seals. C.5760 BC, The volcano Puy de Dôme in France erupts, C.5677 BC, Cataclysmic volcanic eruption of 12, 000-foot high Mount Mazama creates Oregons Crater Lake when the resulting caldera fills with water. It is the largest single Holocene eruption in history of the Cascade Range, C.5600 BC, Beginning of the desertification of North Africa, ultimately leading to the creation of the Sahara desert. This process may have spurred migration to the region of the Nile in the east, C.5600 BC, Favored date of the Black Sea deluge hypothesis. C.5600 BC, The Red Paint People become established in the region from present-day Labrador to the state of New York,5509 BC, The Byzantine calendar dates the Genesis creation narrative to 1 September of this year. C.5500 BC, Beginning of the Cucuteni-Trypillian culture in the region of modern-day Romania, Moldova, C.5500 BC, Beginning of Tell Zeidan in Syria. C. 6th millennium BC, Beginning of Teppe Hasanlu in Iran, C. 6th millennium BC, Beginning of Zayandeh River Culture in Iran, including Sialk. C. late 6th and early 5th millennium BC, Beginning of Samara culture at the Samara bend region of the middle Volga, 5500–4800 BC, Samarra culture in Iraq. C.5500 BC, Beginning of the Xinle culture in China, C.5500 BC, Agriculture started in Ancient Egypt. C.5500 BC, Predynastic stage of Prehistoric Egypt, C.5450 BC, Volcano Hekla eruption
15.
Banpo
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Banpo is an archaeological site discovered in 1953 and located in the Yellow River Valley just east of Xian, China. It contains the remains of well organized Neolithic settlements carbon dated to 5600–6700 years ago. The area of 5 to 6 hectares is surrounded by a ditch, the houses were circular, built of mud and wood with overhanging thatched roofs. There appear to be communal burial areas, Banpo is the type site associated with Yangshao Culture. Archaeological sites with similarities to the first phase at Banpo are considered to be part of the “Banpo phase” of the Yangshao culture, Banpo was excavated from 1954 to 1957. The settlement was surrounded by a moat, with the graves, many of the houses were semisubterranean with the floor typically 1 meter below the ground surface. The houses were supported by poles and had steeply pitched thatched roofs. Currently, little can be said of the religious or political structure from these ruins from the archeological evidence, the site is now home to the Xian Banpo Museum, built in 1957 to preserve the archaeological collection. Banpo symbols Sanxingdui Cishan culture Nanzhuangtou Jiangzhai Yangguanzhai Allan, Sarah, The Formation of Chinese Civilization, An Archaeological Perspective, ISBN 0-300-09382-9 Chang, the Archaeology of Ancient China, ISBN 0-300-03784-8
16.
Yangshao culture
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The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the Yellow River in China. It is dated from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC, the culture is named after Yangshao, the first excavated representative village of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in Henan Province by the Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson. The culture flourished mainly in the provinces of Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi, the main food of the Yangshao people was millet, with some sites using foxtail millet and others broom-corn millet, though some evidence of rice has been found. The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture, small-scale slash-and-burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields, is currently a matter of debate, once the soil was exhausted, residents picked up their belongings, moved to new lands, and constructed new villages. However, Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised-floor buildings that may have used for the storage of surplus grains. Grinding stones for making flour were also found, the Yangshao people kept pigs and dogs. Sheep, goats, and cattle are found more rarely. Much of their meat came from hunting and fishing and their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. They may also have practiced a form of silkworm cultivation. Yangshao artisans created fine white, red, and black painted pottery with human facial, animal, unlike the later Longshan culture, the Yangshao culture did not use pottery wheels in pottery-making. Excavations found that children were buried in painted pottery jars, the Yangshao culture produced silk to a small degree and wove hemp. Men wore loin cloths and tied their hair in a top knot, women wrapped a length of cloth around themselves and tied their hair in a bun. Houses were built by digging a rectangular pit a few feet deep. Then they were rammed, and a lattice of wattle was woven over it, then it was plastered with mud. The floor was also rammed down, next, a few short wattle poles would be placed around the top of the pit, and more wattle would be woven to it. It was plastered with mud, and a framework of poles would be placed to make a shape for the roof. Poles would be added to support the roof and it was then thatched with millet stalks. There was little furniture, a fireplace in the middle with a stool, a bench along the wall
17.
Liangzhu culture
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The Liangzhu culture was the last Neolithic jade culture in the Yangtze River Delta of China. The culture was highly stratified, as jade, silk, ivory and lacquer artifacts were found exclusively in elite burials and this division of class indicates that the Liangzhu Period was an early state, symbolized by the clear distinction drawn between social classes in funeral structures. A pan-regional urban center had emerged at the Liangzhu city-site and elite groups from this site presided over the local centers, the Liangzhu culture was extremely influential and its sphere of influence reached as far north as Shanxi and as far south as Guangdong. The type site at Liangzhu was discovered in Yuhang County, Zhejiang, a 2007 analysis of the DNA recovered from human remains shows high frequencies of Haplogroup O1 in Liangzhu culture linking this culture to modern Austronesian and Tai-Kadai populations. It is believed that the Liangzhu culture or other associated subtraditions are the homeland of Austronesian speakers. The Liangzhu Culture entered its prime about 4000 ~5000 years ago, there are almost no traces of the splendid culture created by the Liangzhu people in the following years ever found in this area. Recent research has shown that the development of settlements was interrupted several times by rising waters. Some evidence implicates that the Taihu lake was formed as an impact crater only 4500 years ago, the culture possessed advanced agriculture, included irrigation, paddy rice cultivation and aquaculture. Houses were often constructed with stilts on rivers or shorelines, a new discovery of ancient city wall base relics was announced by the Zhejiang provincial government on November 29,2007. It was concluded the site was the center of the Liangzhu culture, a new Liangzhu Culture Museum was completed in 2008 and opened late in the year. The Liangzhu Ancient City is located in an environment on the plain of river networks between Daxiong Mountain and Dazhe Mountain of the Tianmu Mountain Range. This ancient city is said to be the largest city during this time period and its interior area is 290 hectares, surrounded by clay walls which had six city gates. Two gates were located in the north, east and south walls, at its center was a palace site that spanned 30 hectares and there was also evidence of an artificial flood protection design implemented within the city. Both of these constructions are said to be indicators of the social complexity developing in Liangzhu at the time, a granary may have been in place containing up to 15,000 kg of rice grain. There are numerous waterway entrances both inside and outside of the city, linking it to the river networks, inside the city were artificial earth mounds and natural hills. Outside of the area, remains are found for 700 hectares. 8 kilometers to the north various dam-like sites were found and are speculated to be an ancient flood protection system. The Liangzhu city-site is said to have settled and developed with a specific purpose in mind since this area has very few remains that can be traced back to earlier periods
18.
Shennong
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Shennong, also known as the Wugushen or also Wuguxiandi, is a deity in Chinese religion, a mythical sage ruler of prehistoric China. Shennong has at times been counted amongst the Three Sovereigns, a group of deities or deified kings said to have lived some 4,500 years ago. Shennong has been thought to have taught the ancient Chinese not only their practices of agriculture, Shennong can also be taken to refer to his people, the Shennong-shi. Since shì can mean both clan and surname and serve as a masculine honorific like mister or sir, it is used in reference to his people. The Han Chinese regarded them both as their joint ancestors, the sacrifice of cows or oxen to Shennong in his various manifestations is never at all appropriate, instead pigs and sheep are acceptable. Fireworks and incense may also be used, especially at the appearance of his statue on his birthday, lunar April 26, under his various names, Shennong is the patron deity especially of farmers, rice traders, and practitioners of traditional Chinese medicine. Many temples and other dedicated to his commemoration exist. However, Shennong, both the individual and the clan, are important, in the history of culture—especially in regards to mythology. Indeed, Shennong figures extensively in historical literature, sima Qian mentions that the rulers directly preceding the Yellow Emperor were of the house of Shennong. Sima Zhen, who added a prologue for the Shiji, said his surname was Jiang, Shennong also features in the book popularly known in English as I Ching. Here, he is referenced as coming to power after the end of the house of Paoxi, also inventing a bent-wood plow, a rake, teaching these skills to others. Another reference is in the Lüshi Chunqiu, mentioning some violence with regard to the rise of the Shennong house, the Shénnóng Běn Cǎo Jīng is a book on agriculture and medicinal plants, attributed to Shennong. Research suggests that it is a compilation of traditions, written between about 200 and 250 AD. As noted above, Shennong is said in the Huainanzi to have tasted hundreds of herbs to test their medical value and this work lists the various medicinal herbs, such as lingzhi, that were discovered by Shennong and given grade and rarity ratings. It is considered to be the earliest Chinese pharmacopoeia, and includes 365 medicines derived from minerals, plants, Shennong is credited with identifying hundreds of medical herbs by personally testing their properties, which was crucial to the development of traditional Chinese medicine. Legend holds that Shennong had a transparent body, and thus could see the effects of different plants, Tea, which acts as an antidote against the poisonous effects of some seventy herbs, is also said to have been his discovery. Shennong first tasted it, traditionally in ca.2437 BC, from tea leaves on burning tea twigs, after they were carried up from the fire by the hot air, Shennong is venerated as the Father of Chinese medicine. He is also believed to have introduced the technique of acupuncture, Shennong is said to have played a part in the creation of the guqin, together with Fuxi and the Yellow Emperor
19.
Yellow Emperor
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Huangdis cult became prominent in the late Warring States and early Han period, when he was portrayed as the originator of the centralized state, as a cosmic ruler, and as a patron of esoteric arts. A large number of texts – such as the Huangdi Neijing, a classic, and the Huangdi Sijing. To this day the Yellow Emperor remains a powerful nationalist symbol, in the Warring States period, the term di on its own could also refer to the deities associated with the five sacred mountains and colors. Huangdi, the di, was one of the latter. The correlation of the colors in association with different dynasties was mentioned in the Lüshi Chunqiu, the character huang 黄 was often used in place of the homophonous huang 皇, which means august or radiant, giving Huangdi attributes close to those of Shangdi, the Shang supreme god. The Records of the Grand Historian, compiled by Sima Qian in the first century BCE, gives the Yellow Emperors name as Xuanyuan. Third-century scholar Huangfu Mi, who wrote a work on the sovereigns of antiquity, commented that Xuanyuan was the name of a hill where Huangdi had lived, qing-dynasty scholar Liang Yusheng argued instead that the hill was named after the Yellow Emperor. Xuanyuan is also the name of the star Regulus in Chinese and he is also associated to the broader constellations Leo and Lynx, of which the latter is said to represent the body of the Yellow Dragon, Huangdis animal form. Huangdi was also referred to as Youxiong and this name has been interpreted as either a place name or a clan name. According to British sinologist Herbert Allen Giles, that name was taken from that of hereditary principality. William Nienhauser, a translator of the Records of the Grand Historian, states that Huangdi was originally the head of the Youxiong clan. Rémi Mathieu, a French historian of Chinese myths and religion, translates Youxiong as possessor of bears, ye Shuxian has also associated the Yellow Emperor with bear legends common across northeast Asia people as well as the Dangun legend. In Han-dynasty texts the Yellow Emperor is also called upon as the Yellow God, certain accounts interpret him as the incarnation of the Yellow God of the Northern Dipper, another name of the universal god. According to a definition in apocryphal texts related to the Hétú 河圖, as a cosmological deity, the Yellow Emperor is known as the Great Emperor of the Central Peak, and in the Shizi as the Yellow Emperor with Four Faces. His Records of the Grand Historian begins with the Yellow Emperor, throughout most of Chinese history, the Yellow Emperor and the other ancient sages were considered to be real historical figures. Their historicity started to be questioned in the 1920s by historians like Gu Jiegang, Yang Kuan, a member of the same historiographical current, noted that only in the Warring States period had the Yellow Emperor started to be described as the first ruler of China. Yang thus argued that Huangdi was a transformation of Shangdi. Also in the 1920s, French scholars Henri Maspero and Marcel Granet published critical studies of Chinas accounts of high antiquity, most scholars now agree that the Yellow Emperor originated as a god who was later represented as a historical person
20.
Hmong people
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The Hmong/Mong is an ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, Myanmar and Thailand. The Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in China, the Hmong began a gradual southward migration in China in the 18th century due to political unrest and to find more arable land. This CIA operation is known as the Secret War, which occurred during the Vietnam War, following the war, hundreds of thousands of Hmong refugees fled to Thailand to seek political asylum. Thousands of these refugees have resettled in Western countries in two separate waves, the first wave resettled in the late 1970s, mostly in the United States, but also in Australia, France, French Guiana, Canada, and Argentina. Others have returned to Laos under United Nations-sponsored repatriation programs and those who resisted resettlement in the West actively fought against government officials to be left alone in Thailand. The remnant from the first wave managed to ask for protection from Wat Thamkrabok and this second wave, an approximation of 15,000 Hmong refugees including children at Wat Thamkrabok, resettled mainly in the U. S. since Summer 2004. Hmong people have their own terms for their subcultural divisions, Hmong Der and Hmong Leng are the terms for two of the largest groups in the United States and Southeast Asia. In the Romanized Popular Alphabet, developed in the 1950s in Laos, the final consonants indicate with which of the eight lexical tones the word is pronounced. White Hmong and Leng Hmong speak mutually intelligible dialects of the Hmong language, with differences in pronunciation. One of the most characteristic differences is the use of the voiceless /m̥/ in White Hmong, voiceless nasals are not found in the Leng Hmong dialect. Hmong groups are named after the dominant colors or patterns of their traditional clothing, style of head-dress. The Hmong groups in Laos, from the 18th century to the present day, are known as Black Hmong, Striped Hmong, White Hmong, Leng Hmong and Green Hmong. In other places in Asia, groups are known as Black Hmong, Striped Hmong, Hmong Shi, Hmong Pe, Hmong Pua. These include the Flower Hmong or the Variegated Hmong, so named because of the bright colorful embroidery, many Hmong people migrated from Laos to Thailand following the victory of the Pathet Lao in 1975. While some ended up in camps, others settled in mountainous areas becoming one of the ethnic groups in Thailand referred to as Hill Tribes in that country. Since 1949, Miao has been a term for one of the 55 official minority groups recognized by the government of the Peoples Republic of China. The Miao live mainly in southern China, in the provinces of Guizhou, Hunan, Yunnan, Sichuan, Guangxi, Hainan, Guangdong, according to the 2000 censuses, the number of Miao in China was estimated to be about 9.6 million. The Miao nationality includes Hmong people as well as culturally and linguistically related ethnic groups who do not call themselves Hmong
21.
Chinese sovereign
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Chinese sovereign is the ruler of a particular period in ancient China. Several titles and naming schemes have been used throughout history, the characters Huang and Di had been used separately and never consecutively. The character was reserved for mythological rulers until the first emperor of Qin, who created a new title Huangdi for himself in 221 BCE and this title continued in use until the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911. From the Han Dynasty, the title Huangdi could also be abbreviated to huang or di, the former nobility titles Qing, Daifu and Shi became synonyms for court officials. In principle, the title of emperor was transmitted from father to son via primogeniture, however, there are many exceptions to this rule. For example, because the Emperor usually had many concubines, the first born of the empress is usually the heir apparent, however, Emperors could elevate another more favoured child or the child of a favourite concubine to the status of Crown Prince. Disputes over succession occurred regularly and have led to a number of civil wars, in the Qing dynasty, primogeniture was abandoned altogether, with the designated heir kept secret until after the Emperors death. Of the San Huang Wu Di, the three first of them were called 皇 and the five last were called 帝, which can translate as either emperor, demigod human, or a superhuman. This title may have used in the Shang and Xia dynasties. The king was the Chinese head of state during the Zhou Dynasty and its use during the Xia and Shang is uncertain but possible, the character has been found upon oracle bones. It was abolished under the Qin and, after that, the term was used for royal princes. The title was given to members of the Emperors family. A poem from about 2,500 years ago said 普天之下, 莫非王土. 率土之賓, 莫非王臣 which roughly translates as Under the sky, nothing isnt the kings land, the Son of Heaven was a title of the Emperor based on the Mandate of Heaven. The Son of Heaven is an emperor who rules tianxia comprising all under heaven. The title was not interpreted literally, the monarch is a mortal chosen by Heaven, not its actual descendant. The title comes from the Mandate of Heaven, created by the monarchs of the Zhou dynasty to justify deposing the Shang dynasty and they declared that Heaven had revoked the mandate from the Shang and given it to the Zhou in retaliation for their corruption and misrule. Heaven bestowed the mandate to whoever was best fit to rule, the title held the emperor responsible for the prosperity and security of his people through the threat of losing the mandate. Unlike the Japanese emperor for example, Chinese political theory allowed for a change of dynasty as imperial families could be replaced and this is based on the concept of Mandate of Heaven
22.
Great Flood (China)
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People left their homes to live on the high hills and mounts, or nest on the trees. According to mythological and historical sources, it is dated to the third millennium BCE. Archaeological evidence of an outburst flood on the Yellow River has been dated to about 1920 BCE, the story of the Great Flood plays a dramatic role in Chinese mythology, and its various versions present a number of examples of the flood myth motif around the world. For example, the flood usually results from natural causes rather than punishment for human sin. Another key motif is the development of civilization and bettering the human situation despite the disaster of the deluge. These and other developments are integral to the narrative, and exemplify a wider approach to health and societal well being than emergency management of the flood. It was during the reign of Emperor Yao that the Great Flood began, a flood so vast that no part of Yaos territory was spared, and both the Yellow River and the Yangtze valleys flooded. The alleged nature of the flood is shown in the following quote, According to the main mythological tradition, Guns plan of flood control was through the use of a miraculously continuously self-expanding soil, Xirang. Gun chose to obtain the Xirang by stealing it from the Supreme Divinity, which he did, however, the Supreme Divinity became quite angered at this importunity. Year in and year out, many times, and to great extents, Gun applied the magical Xirang earth in attempt to block and barricade the flood waters with dams, dikes, however, Gun was never able to abate the problems of the Great Flood. Even after nine years of the efforts of Gun, the continued to rage on. Gun insisted on staying the course with the dikes, insisting that despite the overwhelming failure so far that the work even harder and to continue to build more. Not only that, but Gun questioned the legitimacy of Shun as a due to his modest background. After the solemnities of his accession to power, the first thing Shun did was to reform the calendar. Shun then went to Mount Tai as the beginning of his tour of inspection of the flood-ravaged realm, here, at Taishan, he met with the princes of the eastern regions, and, after certain religious ceremonies, he standardized weights, measures, and ritual. One of these was to divide the empire into twelve administrative units and this was doubtlessly a useful expedient in the face of the rising and unpredictable flood waters. Another of Shuns acts was administrative reform, with Guns overwhelming failure to control the flood waters and his questioning of the legitimacy of Shuns rule, he became labeled as an intransigent. Accordingly, as part of his reforms, Shun had Gun banished to Feather Mountain
23.
Yu the Great
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The dates proposed for Yus reign predate the oldest known written records in China, the oracle bones of the late Shang dynasty, by nearly a millennium. No inscriptions on artifacts from the era of Yu, nor the later oracle bones, make any mention of Yu. The lack of anything remotely close to documentary evidence has led to some controversy over the historicity of Yu. Many of the stories about Yu were collected in Sima Qians famous Records of the Grand Historian, Yu and other sage-kings of Ancient China were lauded for their virtues and morals by Confucius and other Chinese teachers. Yu is one of the few Chinese rulers posthumously honored with the epithet the Great, Yu was said to have been born at Mount Wen, in modern-day Beichuan County, Sichuan Province, though there are debates as to whether he was born in Shifang instead. Yus mother was of the Youxin clan named either Nüzhi or Nüxi, when Yu was a child, his father Gun moved the people east toward the Central Plain. King Yao enfeoffed Gun as lord of Chong, usually identified as the peak of Mount Song. Yu is thus believed to have grown up on the slopes of Mount Song and he later married a woman from Mount Tu who is generally referred to as Tushan-shi. They had a son named Qi, a literally meaning revelation. The location of Mount Tu has always been disputed, the two most probable locations are Mount Tu in Anhui Province and the Tu Peak of the Southern Mountain in Chongqing Municipality. During the reign of king Yao, the Chinese heartland was frequently plagued by floods that prevented further economic, Yus father, Gun, was tasked with devising a system to control the flooding. As an adult, Yu continued his fathers work and made a study of the river systems in an attempt to learn why his fathers great efforts had failed. Instead of directly damming the rivers flow, Yu made a system of canals which relieved floodwater into fields. The dredging and irrigation were successful, and allowed ancient Chinese culture to flourish along the Yellow River, Wei River, the project earned Yu renown throughout Chinese history, and is referred to in Chinese history as Great Yu Controls the Waters. In particular, Mount Longmen along the Yellow River had a narrow channel which blocked water from flowing freely east toward the ocean. Yu is said to have brought a number of workers to open up this channel. In a mythical version of story, presented in Wang Jias 4th century AD work Shi Yi Ji, Yu is assisted in his work by a yellow dragon. Another local myth says that Yu created the Sanmenxia Three Passes Gorge of the Yangzi River by cutting a mountain ridge with a divine battle-axe to control flooding, traditional stories say that Yu sacrificed a great deal of his body to control the floods
24.
Yellow River
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The Yellow River or Huang He is the second-longest river in Asia, following the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of 5,464 km. Originating in the Bayan Har Mountains in Qinghai province of western China, it flows through nine provinces, the Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers and a north–south extent of about 1,100 km. Its total basin area is about 742,443 square kilometers and its basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization, and it was the most prosperous region in early Chinese history. Early Chinese literature including the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu dating to the Warring States period refers to the Yellow River as simply 河, the first appearance of the name 黃河 is in the Book of Han written during the Eastern Han dynasty about the Western Han dynasty. The adjective yellow describes the color of the muddy water in the lower course of the river. One of its older Mongolian names was the Black River, because the river runs clear before it enters the Loess Plateau, in Mongolia itself, it is simply called the Šar Mörön. In Qinghai, the rivers Tibetan name is River of the Peacock above sea level they are the two largest plateau freshwater lakes nationwide, flowing east at the eastern edge of the Amne Machin Mountains, the Yellow River enters Maqu County in Gansu. Here, the river skirts through the peat bog known as the Zoigê Wetlands. Flowing now along the edge of Amne Machin, the river reenters Qinghai. The valley section stretches from Longyang Gorge in Qinghai to Qingtong Gorge in Gansu, steep cliffs line both sides of the river. The water bed is narrow and the drop is large, so the flow in this section is extremely turbulent. There are 20 gorges in this section, the most famous of these being the Longyang, Jishi, Liujia, Bapan, the flow conditions in this section makes it the best location for hydroelectric plants. The Yellow River exits Qinghai for the second and final time in these gorges, downstream from the Yanguo Gorge, the provincial capital of Lanzhou is built upon the Yellow Rivers banks. The Yellow River flows northeasterly out of Gansu and into Ningxia before the Qingtong Gorge, after emerging from the Qingtong Gorge, the river comes into a section of vast alluvial plains, the Yinchuan Plain and Hetao Plain. In this section, the regions along the river are mostly deserts and grasslands, the Hetao Plain has a length of 900 km and width of 30 to 50 km. It is historically the most important irrigation plain along the Yellow River, the Ordos Loop formed by an enormous twist of the Yellow River, beginning at Zhongning County in Ningxia and ending with a drastic eastward turn at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi. However, the division for the middle reaches of the river run from Hekou in Togtoh County, Inner Mongolia, to Zhengzhou. The middle reaches are 1,206 km long, with an area of 344,000 square kilometers,45. 7% of the total, with a total elevation drop of 890 m
25.
Yangtze
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The Yangtze River, known in China as the Cháng Jiāng or the Yángzǐ Jiāng, is the longest river in Asia and the third-longest in the world. The river is the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country and it drains one-fifth of the land area of the Peoples Republic of China and its river basin is home to one-third of the countrys population. The Yangtze is the sixth-largest river by volume in the world. The Yangtze River plays a role in the history, culture. The prosperous Yangtze River Delta generates as much as 20% of the PRCs GDP, for thousands of years, the river has been used for water, irrigation, sanitation, transportation, industry, boundary-marking and war. The Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River is the largest hydro-electric power station in the world, in recent years, the river has suffered from industrial pollution, agricultural run-off, siltation, and loss of wetland and lakes, which exacerbates seasonal flooding. Some sections of the river are now protected as nature reserves, a stretch of the upstream Yangtze flowing through deep gorges in western Yunnan is part of the Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In mid-2014 the Chinese government announced it was building a transport network, comprising railways, roads and airports. Because the source of the Yangtze was not ascertained until modern times, Yangtze was actually the name of Chang Jiang for the lower part from Nanjing to the river mouth at Shanghai. In modern Chinese, Yangtze is still used to refer to the part of Chang Jiang from Nanjing to the river mouth. Yangtze never stands for the whole Chang Jiang, Chang Jiang is the modern Chinese name for the lower 2,884 km of the Yangtze from its confluence with the Min River at Yibin in Sichuan Province to the river mouth at Shanghai. Chang Jiang literally means the Long River, in Old Chinese, this stretch of the Yangtze was simply called Jiang/Kiang 江, a character of phono-semantic compound origin, combining the water radical 氵 with the homophone 工. Krong was probably a word in the Austroasiatic language of local peoples such as the Yue, similar to *krong in Proto-Vietnamese and krung in Mon, all meaning river, it is related to modern Vietnamese sông and Khmer kôngkea. By the Han Dynasty, Jiang had come to any river in Chinese. The epithet 長, means long, was first formally applied to the river during the Six Dynasties period, various sections of Chang Jiang have local names. From Yibin to Yichang, the river through Sichuan and Chongqing Municipality is also known as the Chuan Jiang or Sichuan River, in the Hubei Province, the river is also called the Jing Jiang or the Jing River after Jingzhou. In Anhui Province, the takes on the local name Wan Jiang after the shorthand name for Anhui. And Yangzi Jiang t 揚子江s 扬子江, p Yángzǐjiāng) or the Yangzi River, the name likely comes from an ancient ferry crossing called Yangzi or Yangzijin
26.
Nine Tripod Cauldrons
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The Nine Tripod Cauldrons were ancient Chinese ritual cauldrons. They were ascribed to the foundation of the Xia by Yu the Great, at the time of the Shang Dynasty during the 2nd millennium BCE, the tripod cauldrons came to symbolize the power and authority of the ruling dynasty with strict regulations imposed as to their use. Members of the gentry class were permitted to use one or three cauldrons, the ministers of state five, the vassal lords seven, and only the sovereign Son of Heaven was entitled to use nine. However, by the time Qin Shi Huang had eliminated the other six Warring States to become the first emperor of China in 221 BCE, the whereabouts of the nine tripod cauldrons were unknown. Sima Qian records in his Records of the Grand Historian that they were lost in the Si River to where Qin Shi Huang later dispatched a thousand men to search for the cauldrons, thereafter he cast the metal into nine large tripod cauldrons. Legend says that each ding weighed around 30,000 catties equivalent to 7.5 tons, the Xia Shu section of the Book of Documents contains the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu that describes the rivers and mountains of the Nine Provinces. After Tang of Shang overthrew Jie of Xia, the nine tripod cauldrons were moved to the Shang capital at Yan, later, when the Shang king Pan Geng moved his capital to Yin, the cauldrons again went with him. Following the overthrow of the Shang Dynasty by the Zhou Dynasty, the power of the Zhou royal family began to decline at the start of the Eastern Zhou Period in 771 BCE, with each vassal state clamoring for kingship. At the time of King Ding of Zhou, King Zhuang of Chu inquired for the first time regarding the weight of the only to be rebuffed by the Zhou minister Wangsun Man. Asking such a question was at time a direct challenge to the power of the reigning dynasty. King Qingxiang of Chu, along with the king of the State of Qi also sought possession of the treasures as did the states of Wei and Han. The last Eastern Zhou monarch King Nan of Zhou dealt with all these rival claimants by playing them off against one another, after the overthrow of Zhou and the foundation of the new Qin Dynasty, the Nine Tripod Cauldrons disappeared. Theories as to their fate abound with no agreement amongst scholars. According to historical records, both Qin Shi Huang and Emperor Wen of Han searched for the nine tripod cauldrons in the Si River but with no success. Later emperors time and again recast the cauldrons, the most well known examples being Wu Zetian in 696 CE, in 2006, the National Museum of China in Beijing cast Nine Tripod Cauldrons which are now on permanent display as a tourist attraction. Baopuzi mentions Records on the Nine Cauldrons, a description of the vessels commenting on their protective function. In all Chinese speaking societies, if someone commented on someones words as having the weight of nine tripod cauldrons and it meant that the person was very trustworthy and would never break their promises. Imperial Seal of China Tablet of Destinies This article is based on a translation of 九鼎 九鼎 in the Chinese Wikipedia
27.
Nine Provinces
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Province is the word used to translate zhou – since before the Tang dynasty, it was the largest Chinese territorial division. The Rongcheng Shi bamboo slips from the Chu state has the earliest interpretation of the Nine Provinces, the Nine Provinces, according to the Rongcheng Shi, are Tu, Jia, Zhang, Ju, Ou, Jing, Yang, Xu, and Cuo. The most prevalent account of the Nine Provinces comes from the Yu Gong or Tribute of Yu section of the Book of Xia, collected in the Book of Documents. It was therein recorded that Yu the Great divided the world into the nine provinces of Ji, Yan, Qing, Xu, Yang, Jing, Yu, Liang, and Yong. The geography section of the ancient Erya encyclopedia also cites nine provinces, in the Clan Responsibilities section of Rituals of Zhou, the provinces include You and Bing but not Xu and Liang. The Lüshi Chunqiu Initial Survey section mentions You but not Liang, the Lüshi Chunqiu contains the following passage on the location of the nine provinces and their general correspondence with the states of the time, Yu province, ie. Zhou, lies between the He River and Han River, jin in Ji Province is between the two rivers. Yan Province is between the He River and Ji River, and is Wei, lu is at Xu Province, on the Si River. Yang Province, or Yue, is to the southwest, jin Province is in the south and forms Chu. Yong Province, that is Qin, is to the west, Yan occupies You Province in the north. The words Nine Provinces do not appear in any ancient oracle bone inscriptions, some suggest the name Jiuzhou, which came to mean Nine Provinces, was actually a place, or the divisions were within Shandong. Later on, Zou Yan, an adherent of the Taoist Yin and Yang School, according to him, the nine provinces in the Book of Documents were only minor provinces, which combined to form the Red County / Divine Province, i. e. China. Nine such provinces then form another medium nine provinces surrounded by a sea, there are nine such medium provinces, which were surrounded by a Great Ocean, forming the Greater Nine Provinces. They all include Shenzhou, which led some scholars to suggest they are the names of the Greater Nine Provinces, according to the Forms of Earth section of the Huainanzi, outside the Greater Nine Provinces are the Eight Yin, the Eight Hong, and the Eight Ji. Geographic knowledge from increasing contact between the Han dynasty and its neighbours proved the theory false and it lost popularity, by the time of the Three Kingdoms period the Nine Provinces had expanded into thirteen provinces together with a central administrative region. Twelve Provinces Eighteen Provinces Four Seas Huaxia Tianxia Nine Tripod Cauldrons Shan Hai Jing What were the ancient 9 provinces
28.
Xia dynasty
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The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese history. It is described in ancient historical chronicles such as the Bamboo Annals, the Classic of History, according to tradition, the dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors gave his throne to him. The Xia was later succeeded by the Shang dynasty, the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project concluded that the Xia existed between 2070 and 1600 BCE. The first documentary reference to the Xia dates from more than a years later. Therefore, despite efforts by Chinese archaeologists to link the Xia with Bronze Age Erlitou archaeological sites, the Xia dynasty was described in classic texts such as the Classic of History, the Bamboo Annals, and the Records of the Grand Historian by Sima Qian. According to tradition, the Huaxia were the people of the Han Chinese. Traditional histories trace the development of the Xia to the legendary Three Sovereigns, according to ancient Chinese texts, before the Xia dynasty was established, battles were frequent between the Xia tribe and Chi Yous tribe. The Xia tribe slowly developed around the time of Zhuanxu, one of the Five Emperors, based on this, tradition ascribes the ancestry of the Xia clan to Zhuanxu. Gun, the father of Yu the Great, is the earliest recorded member of the Xia clan, when the Yellow River flooded, many tribes united together to control and stop the flooding. Gun was appointed by Emperor Yao to stop the flooding and he ordered the construction of large blockades to block the path of the water. The attempt of Gun to stop the flooding lasted for nine years, after nine years, Yao had already given his throne to Shun. Yu was highly trusted by Shun, so Shun appointed him to finish his fathers work, Yu was dedicated to his work. People praised his perseverance and were inspired, so much so that other tribes joined in the work, yus success in stopping the flooding increased agricultural production. The Xia tribes power increased and Yu became the leader of the surrounding tribes, soon afterwards Shun sent Yu to lead an army to suppress the Sanmiao tribe, which continuously abused the border tribes. After defeating them, he exiled them south to the Han River area and this victory strengthened the Xia tribes power even more. As Shun aged, he thought of a successor and relinquished the throne to Yu, yus succession marks the start of the Xia dynasty. As Yu neared death he passed the throne to his son, Qi, instead of passing it to the most capable candidate, the Xia dynasty began a period of family or clan control. It is believed that Zhenxun was one of the capitals of the dynasty, jie, the last king, was said to be corrupt
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Xiang of Xia
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Xiang is the name of a ruler of the semi-legendary Xia Dynasty who is said to have reigned during the 3rd millennium BC. He was the ruler of the Xia Dynasty. Xiang had been preceded on the throne of Xia by his father Zhong Kang, Xiang got his throne in the year of Wuxu and set his capital in Shangqiu. In the first year of his reign, he sent troops against the Huai Barbarians, in the third year, he sent troops to the Feng Barbarians and Huang Barbarians. In his 7th year, the hordes of Yu came to make their submission, while in the 8th year, Han Zhuo also sent his son Jiao against Ge. In his 9th year, Xiang moved his court to Zhenguan, in the 15th year, Xiangs vassal, Xiangshi duke of Shang, prepared carriages and horses, and removed to Shangqiu. In the 20th year, Han Zhuo conquered Ge, in the 26th year, Han Zhuo ordered his son Jiao to fight in Zhenguan. In the 27th year of Xiangs reign, Jiao attacked Xia at Wei in Zhenxun, in the 28th year of Xiangs reign, Han Zhuo ordered his son Jiao to kill Emperor Xiang. At that time, Xiangs wife, Queen Ji was pregnant and she escaped and hid in Youren. The prime minister of Xia, Mi, fled to Youge, later, Ji gave birth to a boy named Shao Kang. 19 years later, Shao Kang, heir to the throne of Xia, in the following years, Shao Kang and Mi led the forces of Zhenxun and Zhenguan to fight against the renegade Han Zhuo. Shao Kang sent Ru Ai to fight Jiao in Guo, and he also sent his son Zishu to recover Ge. Finally, forty years after Xiangs death, Mi executed Han Zhuo, Shao Kang returned in triumph to the Xia capital and took the throne, and all the former Xia vassals came to do homage
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Shangqiu
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Shangqiu, formerly romanized as Shangkiu, is a city in eastern Henan province, Central China. It borders Kaifeng to the northwest, Zhoukou to the southwest, an ancient city with a rich history, Shangqiu was also the first capital of the Shang dynasty. Its population was 7,362,975 inhabitants at the 2010 census whom 1,536,392 lived in the area made up of Liangyuan. Once merely a village, Shangqiu has grown significantly in recent years. It is important geographically because it lies at a junction of major railways. The history of Shangqiu is closely related to the beginning of Chinese history. Tradition dates back to the Three August Ones and Five Emperors periods, the son of Emperor Ku, Qi, who helped Yu the Great to control floods, was enfeoffed the area of Shang, who also became the ancestor of the ancient nationality of Shang. It is said that the Shang people first started trading with neighboring countries by shipping the goods with ox wagons, since then, people doing business are called Shang people, which is still the case now, although people are not likely to know the origin of the words. Shangqiu was also one of the capitals defended by the Xia emperor Xiang. The thirteenth generation grandson of Qi, Tang overthrew the ruling Xia Dynasty and founded the Shang Dynasty, around the 11th century BC, the Shang Dynasty was replaced by the Zhou Dynasty. The royal descendants of Shang Dynasty were enfeoffed the area of Shangqiu, the city was the southern capital of the Northern Song dynasty under the name Nanjing. The Song court had retreated south to the city from their capital in Kaifeng. The court moved to Shangqiu because of its importance to Emperor Taizu of Song, the founder of the dynasty. The symbolism of the city was meant to secure the legitimacy of the new Emperor Gaozong. The capital was moved in 1128 to Yangzhou, and finally to Hangzhou in 1129. Under the Republic, Shangqiu was considered a key city in eastern Henan owing to its position along the Lunghai Railway between the port of Haizhou on the East China Sea and Lanzhou in central China. It was known at the time as Kweiteh, Kwei-teh, or Kuei-te and had both a Catholic diocese and an Anglican mission, the later of which ran St Pauls Hospital and it changed hands frequently during the fighting among the Chinese warlords in 1927. Shangqiu is the easternmost prefecture of Henan province and its administrative area ranges in longitude from 114 °49′ E to 116° 39′ E and in latitude from 33° 43′ N to 34° 52′ N, covering 10,704 square kilometres
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Erlitou culture
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The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1750 to 1530 BC. The culture was named after the site discovered at Erlitou in Yanshi, the culture was widely spread throughout Henan and Shanxi and later appeared in Shaanxi and Hubei. Chinese archaeologists generally identify the Erlitou culture as the site of the Xia dynasty, the Erlitou culture may have evolved from the matrix of Longshan culture. Originally centered around Henan and Shanxi Province, the spread to Shaanxi. After the rise of the Erligang culture, the site at Erlitou diminished in size, discovered in 1959 by Xu Xusheng, Erlitou is the largest site associated with the culture, with palace buildings and bronze smelting workshops. Erlitou monopolized the production of bronze vessels, including the earliest recovered dings. The city is on the Yi River, a tributary of the Luo River, the city was 2.4 km by 1.9 km, however, because of flood damage only 3 km2 are left. The site is divided into four phases, each of roughly 50 years, during Phase I, covering 100 ha, Erlitou was a rapidly growing regional center with estimated population of several thousand, but not yet an urban civilization or capital. Urbanization began in Phase II, expanding to 300 ha with a population around 11,000, a palace area of 12 ha was demarcated by four roads. It contained the 150x50 m Palace 3, composed of three courtyards along a 150-meter axis, and Palace 5, a bronze foundry was established to the south of the palatial complex that was controlled by the elite who lived in palaces. The city reached its peak in Phase III, and may have had a population of around 24,000, the palatial complex was surrounded by a 2-meter thick rammed earth wall and Palaces 1,7,8,9 were built. The earthwork volume of rammed earth for the base of largest Palace 1 is 20,000 m³ at least, Palaces 3 and 5 were abandoned and replaced by 4200 m2 Palace 2 and Palace 4. In Phase IV the population decreased to around 20,000, Palace 6 was built as an extension of Palace 2, and Palaces 10 and 11 were built. Phase IV overlaps with the Lower phase of the Erligang culture, around 1600 to 1560 BC, about 6 km northeast of Erlitou, Eligang cultural walled city was built at Yanshi, which coincide with an increase in production of arrowheads at Erlitou. This situation might indicate that the Yanshi City was competing for power, production of bronzes and other elite goods ceased at the end of Phase IV, at the same time as the Erligang city of Zhengzhou was established 85 km to the east. There is no evidence of destruction by fire or war, but during the Upper Erligang phase all the palaces were abandoned, and Erlitou was reduced to a village of 30 ha. A major goal of archaeology in China has been the search for the capitals of the Xia and Shang dynasties described in traditional accounts as inhabiting the Yellow River valley. The discovery of writing in the form of bones at Yinxu in Anyang definitively established the site as the last capital of the Shang
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Bu Jiang
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Bu Jiang was a king of ancient China, the 11th ruler of the semi-legendary Xia Dynasty. Bu Jiang was a son of King Xie of Xia and his consort and thus a grandson of King Máng and his consort is unknown, and it is possible that he had concubines. His son was King Kǒng Jiǎ and his nephew was Jin of Xia, Bu Jiang is widely regarded as one of the wisest kings of Xia. According to Bamboo Annals, on the 6th year of his regime, in the 35th year of his reign, his vassal state of Shang defeated Pi. In the 59th year of his regime he passed his throne to his younger brother Jiong,10 years later, Bu Jiang died
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