about Chinese civilization
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China is a vast country with a huge range of terrains and climates within it. As well as the country’s sheer size, geographical features such as mountain ranges, deserts and coastlands have all helped shape Chinese history. Above all, the great river systems of China, the Yellow River to the north and the Yangtze to the south, which have given Chinese civilization its distinctive character.
The Yellow River region
The civilization of ancient China first developed in the Yellow River region of northern China, in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. A large part of this area is covered by loess soil. This very fine earth has blown in from the highlands of central Asia over thousands of years, and makes one of the most fertile soils in the world. In ancient times, the main crop in northern China was millet, a highly nutritious food still grown in many parts of the world as a major crop.
The Yangtze Valley region
To the south, the great Yangtze valley, with its warm, wet climate, was the first area in the world where rice was grown, sometime before 5000 BCE. From this region rice cultivation spread far and wide across southern China and into south-east Asia.
Rice is one of the most nutritious plants known to humans – three or four times as nutritious as wheat. This means that, other things being equal, a much larger number of people can be supported from the same area of land with a rice crop than with a wheat crop.
Between the rivers
Away from the great river valleys, hills, forests and swamplands covered much of China at this time. These would later be covered by dense populations of farmers, but in ancient times these regions were home to many small groups of people who practised some farming, but who also hunted animals and gathered plants for a living. The hilly or swampy landscapes of these regions were not really suited for intensive farming; it would not be until pressure of population elsewhere encouraged landowners and peasants to make the investment needed to prepare the land sufficiently for cultivation. This would involve clearing forests, terracing hillsides and draining lakes and marshes.
The Yellow River region
The civilization of ancient China first developed in the Yellow River region of northern China, in the 3rd and 2nd millennia BCE. A large part of this area is covered by loess soil. This very fine earth has blown in from the highlands of central Asia over thousands of years, and makes one of the most fertile soils in the world. In ancient times, the main crop in northern China was millet, a highly nutritious food still grown in many parts of the world as a major crop.
The Yangtze Valley region
To the south, the great Yangtze valley, with its warm, wet climate, was the first area in the world where rice was grown, sometime before 5000 BCE. From this region rice cultivation spread far and wide across southern China and into south-east Asia.
Rice is one of the most nutritious plants known to humans – three or four times as nutritious as wheat. This means that, other things being equal, a much larger number of people can be supported from the same area of land with a rice crop than with a wheat crop.
Between the rivers
Away from the great river valleys, hills, forests and swamplands covered much of China at this time. These would later be covered by dense populations of farmers, but in ancient times these regions were home to many small groups of people who practised some farming, but who also hunted animals and gathered plants for a living. The hilly or swampy landscapes of these regions were not really suited for intensive farming; it would not be until pressure of population elsewhere encouraged landowners and peasants to make the investment needed to prepare the land sufficiently for cultivation. This would involve clearing forests, terracing hillsides and draining lakes and marshes.
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Chinese civilization, as described in mythology, begins with Pangu, the creator of the universe, and a succession of legendary sage-emperors and culture heroes who taught the ancient Chinese to communicate and to find sustenance, clothing, and shelter. The first prehistoric dynasty is said to be Xia, from about the twenty-first to the sixteenth century B.C. Until scientific excavations were made at early bronze-age sites in 1928, it was difficult to separate myth from reality in regard to the Xia. But since then, and especially in the 1960s and 1970s, archaeologists have uncovered urban sites, bronze implements, and tombs that point to the existence of Xia civilization in the same locations cited in ancient Chinese historical texts. At minimum, the Xia period marked an evolutionary stage between the late neolithic cultures that followed the settlement of nomadic tribes in the fertile valleys of the Yellow Riverand the subsequent first Chinese urban civilization of the Shang dynasty.
Thousands of archaeological finds in the Huang He (Yellow River), Henan Valley --the apparent cradle of Chinese civilization--provide evidence about the Shang dynasty, which endured roughly from 1700 to 1027 B.C. The Shang dynasty (also called the Yin dynasty in its later stages) is believed to have been founded by a rebel leader who overthrew the last Xia ruler. Its civilization was based on agriculture, augmented by hunting and animal husbandry. Two important events of the period were the development of a writing system, as revealed in archaic Chinese inscriptions found on tortoise shells and flat cattle bones (commonly called oracle bones or), and the use of bronze metallurgy. A number of ceremonial bronze vessels with inscriptions date from the Shang period; the workmanship on the bronzes attests to a high level of civilization.
The study of the heavens was one of the central features of the Chinese civilization and the resulting calendar was a sacred document, sponsored and promulgated by the reigning monarch. For more than two millennia, a Bureau of Astronomy made astronomical observations, calculated astronomical events such as eclipses, prepared astrological predictions, and maintained the calendar. After all, a successful calendar not only served practical needs, but also confirmed the consonance between Heaven and the imperial court.
Thousands of archaeological finds in the Huang He (Yellow River), Henan Valley --the apparent cradle of Chinese civilization--provide evidence about the Shang dynasty, which endured roughly from 1700 to 1027 B.C. The Shang dynasty (also called the Yin dynasty in its later stages) is believed to have been founded by a rebel leader who overthrew the last Xia ruler. Its civilization was based on agriculture, augmented by hunting and animal husbandry. Two important events of the period were the development of a writing system, as revealed in archaic Chinese inscriptions found on tortoise shells and flat cattle bones (commonly called oracle bones or), and the use of bronze metallurgy. A number of ceremonial bronze vessels with inscriptions date from the Shang period; the workmanship on the bronzes attests to a high level of civilization.
The study of the heavens was one of the central features of the Chinese civilization and the resulting calendar was a sacred document, sponsored and promulgated by the reigning monarch. For more than two millennia, a Bureau of Astronomy made astronomical observations, calculated astronomical events such as eclipses, prepared astrological predictions, and maintained the calendar. After all, a successful calendar not only served practical needs, but also confirmed the consonance between Heaven and the imperial court.
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