Early Chinese Civilization

Not long ago, in 1974, some modern Chinese farmers near the ancient city of Xian made a momentous discovery.  As the farmers were digging new wells to bring badly needed water to their village, they uncovered a life-sized figure of an ancient Chinese knight.  Soon the farmers began to uncover other life-sized figures lined up in a vast underground cavern.

News of this discovery spread quickly, and archaeologist launched a large-scale excavation.  As work progressed, they found row after row of knights, horses, servants, chariots, and weapons--thousands in all.  But who had created these sculptures?  And why were there so many?  Although scholars still cannot answer these questions, many believe that an early Chinese emperor, Shi Huangdi, had them made to help him in his conquests in the afterlife.  These sculptures provide just one example of the magnificent accomplishments of the ancient Chinese civilization.

Geographic and Cultural Features Helped Shape Chinese History

Paleolithic people lived near what is today the city of Beijing.  Later Neolithic developments along the Yellow River, or Huang He, resembled those in other parts of the world.  The people domesticated many kinds of animals, improved their tools and weapons, developed agriculture, and eventually settled in permanent communities.

Before continuing the story of China, however, it is helpful to do two things.  First, we must examine the geography of China.  Second, we must learn about the basic patterns of Chinese history.

The Physical Setting

Intersecting mountain ranges crisscross China.  The great mountain ranges of the west, northwest, and southwest slope down to high desert or semi-desert plateaus.  In the south the plateaus give way to a region of many low hills and valleys.  In the north the plateaus slope gradually down to the North China Plain, a coastal plain along the Pacific Ocean.  Much smaller than the plain that stretches across northern India, the North China Plain became the center of early Chinese civilization.

Look again at the map on this page.  Notice the range of mountains that cuts from west to east across the center of China.  This range separates the valley of the two greatest rivers of China--the Huang He and the Chang Jiang, or Yangtze River.  Known as the Qin Ling , it marks the boundary between North and South China.  The range also marks the boundary between the two major agricultural areas of China.  In the north, where relatively little rain falls, wheat is the principal crop.  In the center and south, where rainfall is more plentiful, rice is the leading farm product.

Throughout its history China has also been divided politcaly into two main sections.  The smaller and more important section lies along the seacoast and stretches inland up the valleys of the Huan He and Chang Jiang.  We call this region China Proper--the heart of China.

The second section surround China Proper with a great semicircle of regions, including Tibet, Xinjiang, Mongolia, Manchuria, and Korea.  At various times throughout their history, the Chinese conquered and ruled these regions, usually to protect themselves from attack.  On a few occasions, nomads from one or another of these3 outlying regions conquered and ruled China's heartland.

The Rivers of China

China has many rivers, but the Huang He, the Chang Jiang, and the Xi Jiang have played particularly important roles in its history.  The Huang He meanders for more than 2,9000 miles across China before emptying into the Gulf of Chihli.  The climate in the Huang He valley includes long, cold winters and short, hot summers.  Dust storms sweep across the valley in the spring.  Yet enough rain falls to nourish most crops.  More importantly, the region has extraordinarily fertile soil called loess.

Most rivers carry only 2 to 3 percent of their weight as silt, or moist soil carried as sediment in the river's water.  In contrast the Huang He carries between 10 and 40 percent.  The Chinese often call the Huang He the Yellow River because the loess gives the water a yellowish tint.

Early Chinese farmers in the Huang He valley built earthen dikes to protect their crops from periodic floods.  These dikes, however, caused the Huang He to deposit loess on the river bottom.  Over the years so much silt accumulated that the river level reached the top of the dikes.  Even moderate rains brought the Huang He to flood stage, sending torrents of water raging over the dikes and into the fields.  Successive generations of Chinese farmers responded to the threat of floods by building higher dikes.  As a result today the Huang He flows from 10 to 40 feet above the land outside the dikes.

The higher dikes did not end the flooding, however.  Every few years the Huang He still broke through the dikes, and the rampaging floodwater destroyed everything in its path.  The floodwater remained on the land until it evaporated--sometimes for as long as three years--because it could not drain back into the higher riverbed.  Such devastating floods led the ancient Chinese to nick-name the river "China's Sorrow."

The Chang Jiang, in central China, flows for 3,400 miles and cuts a deep channel.  In modern times large oceangoing ships have been able to navigate 600 miles upstream to the great city of Wuhan.  Smaller ships can travel as far as Chongquin, about 1,300 miles from the sea.

The Xi Jiang, in southern China, is more than 1,200 miles long..  Like the Chang Jiang, it forms an important commercial waterway.  Large ships can navigate the Xi Jiang as far as Zangwu, about 220 miles inland.

China's Isolation

Civilization in China developed in relative isolation from the civilizations of India and the West .  Great distances, the towering mountains of central Asia, and formidable deserts such as the Gobi made China almost inaccessible.  As a result, China developed and retained its own distinctive culture.  Although the Chinese did adopt some of the ideas and skills of other peoples, they probably owed less to outside influence than any other people in ancient times.

Until modern times China's only regular contact with foreigners was with the nomads for the dry lands to the north and northwest.  These people spoke their own languages and had their own tribal religions.  Usually the traded peacefully with the Chinese, exchanging livestock for grain and other agricultural products.  Sometimes, however, they organized bands of mounted warriors and attacked Chinese settlements.  The Chinese called these nomadic peoples "barbarians" and considered them culturally inferior.

Lack of contact with foreigners helped give the Chinese a strong sense of identity and superiority.  They regarded their land as the only civilized land and called it zhongguo, or the Middle Kingdom.  To the Chinese it represented the center of the world.  In their eyes other people could become civilized only by learning the Chinese language and adopting Chinese customs.  Even when outsiders overran China, as sometimes happened, the Chinese believed that the strangers would in time lose their identity and be absorbed into China's vast population.  "China," they said, "is a seas which salts all rivers that run into it."

Last Updated 4-30-00

This web site and all material on this web site are copyrighted by Austin Riley, 2000.