Every nation has this distinct place or object, which symbolizes its origin. For the Chinese people that symbol is undoubtedly the Yellow river.
Similarly to most ancient tribes, cities and civilization in general emerged from places that are close to running water. Water is essential for basic survival and it was thousands of years ago when rivers were most valued and vastly populated. Yellow river was sacred to ancient Chinese and there are historical records that prove its immense value to these people.
Despite the immense number of different cultures and languages found on the territory of present China, the nation managed to keep everything based on one idea and one language. Around 4000 BC the area around the Yellow river became a valuable agricultural source of food. It later expanded further away from the water, as new technologies were introduced and adopted by the farmers. Farming involved most of the population, long before the industrial revolution, and new crops that came through the established trade routes from the Americas and Europe.
Before the introduction of rice, almost every Chinese had a millet farm to take care of. When later rice was available, it became the main crop culture for many years ahead. The first rice fields are believed to be near the Huai River, which emerges from the Tongbai Mountain. For steady period of time, the Chinese used stone tools to harvest the crops. Domestication of animals was a fact, proven by Neolithic evidence found by archaeologists. Ancient Chinese people were also good hunters yet it is not absolutely clear whether they spend more time and effort in hunting or in domesticating animals.
A turning point in history -when tribes were torn apart by constant acts of warfare - is considered to be the period when the Hsia Dynasty (2205-1766 BC) came into power. Archaeological evidence from that period is very little. However, mythological data is prolific and linked to found evidence which makes facts undistinguishable from fiction - hard for the historians to swallow.
Under the Shang dynasty the first written evidences from Chinese history were found. These first writings were actually prophesies for the future and do not carry any factual information about the actual life during that period. However, records mention the names of kings and because of that the Shang dynasty was proven not to be just a myth, as most Western historians claimed.
The first of the ruling dynasties is believed to be Chin, back in 221 BC. The family initiated the building of the Great Wall. The wall was a symbolic barrier the Chinese put between them and the “barbarians” – it is how all the outsiders were called – and this same isolation continued for almost two millennia.
Apart from the writing, ancient Chinese invented many other things that practically changed the world. The best known inventions are the paper and silk. Gunpowder had changed the way military strategy was made and we all know that navigation is nothing without a compass – invented in the 2nd century BC.
