The whole of China is divided into two large parts: the western one, covered by the highest mountains in the world - the Himalayas, Kunlun and Tien Shan, and the eastern one, where the main part of the territory is lowlands and coastal regions. Almost all of China's rivers flow to the east and form a wonderful mild climate that is suitable for agriculture. Autumn in China is warm and dry, and in summer monsoons blow from the ocean, bringing a huge amount of rainfall. The soil was alluvial and contained river silt.
The origin of Chinese civilization
The origin of Chinese civilization took place in the lower valley of the Yellow River (Yellow River), which several millennia ago flowed much farther south - 450 km than now. The length of the Yellow River is 4000 km and its entire valley became a place for the development of civilization. It changed its course several times, obliterating cities and tribes from the face of the earth. In Chinese literature, there is a poetic name for the Huang He - "River, breaking the heart."
The modern English name for China, China, is most likely derived from the imperial dynasty of Qin (pronounced "chin"). Under the rule of this particular dynasty, the country became unified. The "unifier" was the emperor Qin Shi Huang (259–210 BC), the indestructible imperial period lasted until 1912.
Natural features
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China has a huge amount of fossils and a fairly diverse flora and fauna. In ancient times, almost the entire area was covered with forests. This was the main difference between China from Mesopotamia and Egypt and, perhaps, was the reason that the ancient Chinese began to settle the river not from the mouth, as usual, but from the middle.
But the conditions for agriculture there were difficult. The fact is that in China there are significant seasonal fluctuations in the climate, and snow rarely fell in winter. In the summer, the region suffered from intense heat. The forest also became a rather unexpected problem - violent floods tore out trees that settled to the bottom and raised its level over time - that is why the Yellow River changed its course so often and that is why the spills were so catastrophic. And of course, it took very serious efforts from all Han Chinese tribes to manage this kind of spill. As elsewhere, irrigation work required the unification of tribes, the development of tools and the creation of a state.
In addition, in China, the problem with clothes was solved in a very original way. Typically, people grew plants from which to make fiber. In China, since ancient times, silkworm caterpillars have been bred. For this, a mulberry tree is grown, whose leaves are fed to caterpillars, the pupa was then killed with steam, the cocoon was moistened with salt and dried. Then they simply unwound onto a wooden frame.
As you know, silk and tea became the main export products in later China - by the 10th century BC. e. all European countries fought for Chinese silk. Do you think it was easy? The Great Silk Road connected the entire continent together and allowed the exchange of cultures and knowledge to begin. But it still had to be laid. And later provide parking lots, guides …
The most ancient civilization in the world?
China is often referred to as one of the most ancient civilizations in the world. Some historical sites created at the dawn of Chinese civilization, scientists date back 6000 BC. e.
The great silk road
It is believed that the Chinese history has 7 millennia, i.e. it originated in the 5th millennium BC. e. A third of it is occupied by the era of ancient Chinese civilization, the beginning of which is lost in the III-II millennium BC. AD, and the end falls on the collapse of the Han Empire (220 AD). China found itself isolated and its culture was very peculiar.
Even the harsh need to pave a trade route for silk could not find a shortcut to China, and travelers skirted it from the north, passing through one of the most dangerous deserts on the planet - the Gobi. The sea route was opened, and the ancient chronicles talk a lot about the great Chinese fleet, but, nevertheless, even with the Indus, the connection of ancient China has not been found.
Just like in the rest of the world, China goes from bone and stone to copper and bronze, and this happens somewhat later than in Mesopotamia.
China also had a wonderful clay - kaolin. In addition to its good technological properties, it was still white, and after the invention of the potter's wheel, ceramics became widespread. In the XX century in Yangshao (a city in Henan province, Mianchi county), painted ceramics were discovered, which were dated to the 5th – 4th millennia BC.
It is interesting that a significantly different worldview and religion was formed in China than in Egypt, Mesopotamia or even India. Firstly, the priests did not acquire an overwhelming influence on society, and secondly, rational consideration dominated in life situations (maybe because of this, Chinese medicine received such a significant development back in the III millennium BC.?) Thirdly, ethics has always had priority over all aspects of life, including over the priests. The Chinese did not try to change nature for themselves, as did their Western colleagues, but proclaimed the need to live in harmony with it.
Chinese kites ("paper birds", "Aeolian harp") were invented about 3000 years ago. Initially, they were used not for entertainment purposes, but for the military. Snakes were launched into the air to intimidate the enemy in battle. Marco Polo (1254-1324) noted in his diaries that with the help of kites sailors predicted the success of the voyage.
By the way, already by the 500th years BC. e. China has developed underground veins. They mined coal from mines up to 50 m deep (!), Natural gas, salt. The gas could be burned, and the first gas pipelines were made of bamboo at a distance of "a day's journey" from the source.
And of course, this orderliness demanded a lot. For example, roads, whose length by the III century BC. e. reached 6.5000 km. Irrigation canals, as in Mesopotamia, have long been used not only for flood protection and irrigation of fields, but also as transport routes. In the 5th century BC. e. The Yellow River and Yangtze rivers were connected by a canal more than 400 km long. Two centuries later, a 200-kilometer canal was dug through the mountain range, which connected the north and south of the country. Another 200 years later, construction began on the "Great Canal" with a length of 2000 km. By the way, the width reached 30 meters, and the depth - 9 meters, not to mention the Great Wall of China …
Of course, all this could not function without its own writing.
History and writing
Unlike India, China was very worried about its history and began to write it down on oracle bones and tortoise shells in ancient times - even in the pre-Yin period, in the XIV-XI centuries. BC e. Later, bamboo strips were used as "paper" (and it was then that the custom of writing from top to bottom appeared) and silk, and then rice paper. China left behind many written sources that make it possible to restore not only the history of China itself, but also of neighboring countries. The Zhou Empire borrowed writing and continued it. By the 11th century, poetry began to be written on bronze vessels.
The first Chinese university was created 1200 years earlier than the European one - in the II century BC. e. in Luoyang. At first, 50 people studied there, and after 100 years - already 3000 people.
The last thing that needs to be said is why Chinese historians cannot be trusted. Well, firstly, at some point, the Chinese dynasties changed so quickly that the reigns of some emperors were numbered in months, and each of them tried to quickly leave their mark and their own interpretation of history. And, secondly, the emperor Qin Shi Huang, who in 221 BC. e. united China. He was also very worried about the history of his state and therefore announced that only books on the history of the Qin dynasty, as well as on medicine, agriculture and fortune telling, have the right to exist. And the rest should be burned.
As a result, the history of China was rewritten to please Shi Huang, and what was in the originals can only be guessed at from those very remaining books. At the same time, the dating of events was changed to an older one, which caused considerable confusion in research. Of course, some books remained unburned, but they were few. And the ban on the creation of libraries and the requirement for burning lasted for more than 50 years. And later, during the next - the Han dynasty - the emperors still prohibited the creation of libraries. And then they changed their minds and canceled the ban. And after a few decades, Emperor Wu-di introduced a system of state examinations for filling positions of administrative officials and established a state library. People traveled all over the country and collected the surviving books. In 26 BC. e. Emperor Chen-di issued a decree on the search for previously hidden books,and the first catalog of books in China was compiled and one of the first catalogs in the world. But it was too late …
Prehistoric period
Archaeological finds show that ancient humans of the species Homo erectus settled the territory of ancient China between 2.24 million - 250 thousand years ago. In the Zhoukoudian area near Beijing, the remains of the so-called Sinanthropus were discovered, dating back 550-300 thousand years ago. Sinanthropus knew how to make simple stone tools and make fire.
Approximately 70 thousand years ago, new people of the modern species Homo sapiens populated the Chinese plain, thereby displacing the Sinanthropus and their descendants. Earlier osteological confirmation of the existence of modern people in China (human remains from the Lujiang site) date back to 67 thousand BC. e.
China's statehood has a very long history. Legends, the origin of which historians attribute to the third millennium BC. e. brought to us the names of the first 3 rulers and 5 Chinese emperors.
According to modern historiography, the first dynasty of China was the Xia. Some Chinese scholars believe that the evidence of its existence is the excavation of urban settlements and graves near Erlitou in Henan province. This archaeological culture dates from 2070 to 1600 BC. e. Workshops for the manufacture of bronze vessels, ceramics, stamps with simple hieroglyphs were found in the settlements. Most Western scholars deny the existence of this dynasty..
Let's sum up
Human civilizations were born at once 4, and it happened in the region of 5-4 millennium BC. e. They originated in fertile places next to widely spreading rivers in a warm climate. Which determined the place of origin. These are Mesopotamia, Egypt, India and China. And only then did everything else appear. Among the undoubted advantages of Eurasia was its elongation along latitude, which made it possible to use already domesticated crops and livestock in all similar climatic regions.
It should be noted that there is evidence that all 4 civilizations communicated with each other. So, for example, individual words of Sumer and Egypt sound the same, although their languages are different, and the words are spelled completely differently. Amulets, shells and pearls, which certainly belonged to India, were found in the same Sumer. Indian ivory was also found there.
Little is known about the ties with China, but the penetration of crops, the cultivation and processing of which was known only in China, also speaks for itself.
There are two but! The origin of civilization does not mean that the first people were in these places. It is known that on the Arabian Peninsula or - even more so! - people appeared in Africa earlier. Finally, the last - it should not be assumed that the development of civilizations was determined only by geography and geology. This is undoubtedly the reason, and one of the most important, but not the only one.
E. Bardina