Evidence suggests Chinese civilization even more ancient
15:53, July 23, 2010
Objects from the Taosi ruins in Shanxi Province that suggest Chinese civilization began around 4200 B.C., 500 years earlier than scholars had previously believed, will be displayed in the Capital Museum from July 29 to Oct. 10.
The Capital Museum and the Archaeology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences will hold an archaeological exhibition containing the major achievements of the Archaeology Institute in the past 60 years and 70 percent of the content will be exhibited to the public for the first time.
It is generally believed that Chinese civilization began with the Xia Dynasty. However, recent archaeological discoveries at the Taosi ruins in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province suggest the elements that form a civilization, including written characters, bronze ware and cities, all emerged as early as the Yao Dynasty.
Wangwei, director of the Archaeology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the recent archaeological achievements at the Taosi ruins will be displayed in the exhibition, and as one of the projects that retraces the origins of Chinese civilization, those discoveries will "change history."
Source: Beijing Times, Translator: Ye Xin
China’s 5,000-Year Old Civilization Is No Bluff – Prehistoric Relics Provides New Evidence
The Capital Museum and the Archaeology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences will hold an archaeological exhibition containing the major achievements of the Archaeology Institute in the past 60 years and 70 percent of the content will be exhibited to the public for the first time.
It is generally believed that Chinese civilization began with the Xia Dynasty. However, recent archaeological discoveries at the Taosi ruins in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province suggest the elements that form a civilization, including written characters, bronze ware and cities, all emerged as early as the Yao Dynasty.
Wangwei, director of the Archaeology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said the recent archaeological achievements at the Taosi ruins will be displayed in the exhibition, and as one of the projects that retraces the origins of Chinese civilization, those discoveries will "change history."
China’s 5,000-Year Old Civilization Is No Bluff – Prehistoric Relics Provides New Evidence
United archaeologists from Shandong University and Chicago Field Museum of Natural History have recently come up with preliminary conclusions after 10 years of excavation and research at the Rizhao district in Shandong province. They believe that the remains of ancient monument, which have been excavated, could be the relics of a prehistoric country dating back to 4,200 or 5,000 years ago.
Furthermore, this ancient country is estimated to have had a population of around 63,000 and the area of the capital alone is estimated to be one thousand square kilometers.
This implies that the claimed 5,000-year history of the Chinese ancient civilization may have new scientific evidence. Scholars at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said that most people believe in China’s 5,000-year old history.
Lords Yao-Shun-Yu are usually accounted for the origins of Chinese civilization. However, the traditional view of archaeologists simply recognizes Xia Dynasty (2100 BC- 1800 BC) as the origin of Chinese civilization because the Erlitou Ruins unearthed in Henan province clearly show the existence of the Xia Dynasty.
If the Rizhao relics were confirmed as the ruins of an ancient kingdom, then these first-hand information and scientific materials will validate the significance of the 5,000-year old Chinese history.
The impact of ancient civilization on the northeastern Chinese landscape: palaeoecological evidence from the Western Liaohe River Basin, Inner Mongolia
The Western Liaohe River Basin in northeastern China is one of the cradles of ancient Chinese civilization. Archaeological records from this region indicate that human occupation began about 8000 years ago and that agriculture and pastoralism were important activities from an early stage. Very little is known, however, about the effects that these activities had upon the landscape. This paper presents the results of a palaeoecological study from a 3.6 m sedimentary sequence in a relict oxbow lake in the Western Liaohe River Basin of southeast Inner Mongolia. The 5400-yr sequence indicates that human activities had a noticeable impact on an apparently open landscape. Buckwheat cultivation began as early as 5400 cal. yr BP with intensification of agricultural activities from approximately 4700 cal. yr BP. Nitrophilous plants such as Solanum and Cerastium, and also Artemisia were growing in the region at certain times, linked with fluctuations in the δ15N record and probably indicative of increased pastoralism and unintentional/ intentional manuring. Burning was probably used for clearance of the steppe vegetation for agriculture with a close relationship apparent between increased influx of microfossil charcoal and the presence of buckwheat. Superimposed upon this record of human impact is also clear indication of three significant intervals of climate change between 2900 and 2600, 1200 and 600 and 600 and 30 cal. yr BP. The latter two are discussed in relation to the ‘Mediaeval Warm Period’ and ‘Little Ice Age’ apparent in sedimentary sequences across the Northern Hemisphere. Discussions are therefore made in terms of the impact that both climate change and ancient Chinese civilizations had upon shaping the present day landscape and vegetation.
Seeing the Light
China has an opportunity to use green power as a new kind of soft power. Because of its wealth and geography, only China is in a position to generate solar energy on a massive scale.
"Exchange the role of guest for that of host." That's one of the so-called 36 Strategies, a collection of ancient Chinese proverbs whose provenance is uncertain. The saying means that in order to gain the upper hand, you should put yourself in a position of action, not reaction, and reverse your fortunes. This aphorism once applied to infiltrating and outmaneuvering your foe during war. But Beijing can use it today to fight the world's common enemy: global warming.
During last December's climate-change talks in Copenhagen, China found itself on the defensive — and reacted with predictable intransigence. China, along with India, argued that the U.S. should bear responsibility for historic CO2 emissions and take the lead in reducing them. Washington in turn demanded that developing nations curb their rising emissions. The talks ended in an impasse. If this stalemate continues, another failure later this year in Cancún, Mexico, is all but certain.
During last December's climate-change talks in Copenhagen, China found itself on the defensive — and reacted with predictable intransigence. China, along with India, argued that the U.S. should bear responsibility for historic CO2 emissions and take the lead in reducing them. Washington in turn demanded that developing nations curb their rising emissions. The talks ended in an impasse. If this stalemate continues, another failure later this year in Cancún, Mexico, is all but certain.
Beijing can break the deadlock. China's rapid economic growth, which revolves around stimulus spending on infrastructure, is sustained by an electricity grid fed by fossil fuels. That has contributed to making China the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases (among which CO2 is the chief villain). China could act pre-emptively, and set an example for the U.S., the No. 2 emitter, or India (No. 3).
After Copenhagen, China pledged to reduce its emissions of CO2 per unit of economic growth from 2005 levels by up to 45% by 2020. But a quicker initiative would be to convert what Beijing views as a security problem into an environmental solution. In a word: Tibet. The region is most often associated with religion — and with tension. Yet it should be remembered that the Tibetan Plateau receives some of the strongest sunlight of any place on our planet other than the Sahara. Beijing should catch this sunshine. China is already the world's biggest maker of solar panels (as well as wind turbines) and has plans to turn northwestern Qinghai province into a base for solar power. But Beijing should think bigger — by harnessing the 2.5 million-sq-km Tibetan Plateau to create vast fields of solar panels. This would not only generate cheap, sustainable energy; it would also serve as a fresh engine of growth for China's western regions, which are still largely poor and marginalized, and be an alternative to expenditure on redundant infrastructure — an inefficient use of energy
China then has the potential to become the world's biggest exporter of solar power, particularly to the countries in its neighborhood. There's no question that much of Asia requires a new strategy to meet its escalating energy needs. For decades, energy from Pakistan to Thailand has been primarily generated by hydropower. Bhutan's main revenue earner is not tourism but its export of hydropower, most of which is supplied to India. Laos also provides significant hydropower to Thailand and China.
The sustainability of this key energy source is threatened, however. The Tibetan Plateau provides the glacial source of all Asia's major rivers: the Yangtze, the Mekong, the Irrawaddy and the Ganges, among others. But, as the glaciers retreat, the rivers they feed are drying up. In recent years, Nepal has faced constant power shortages due to a lack of water in its dams. Drought conditions in China's Guizhou and Yunnan provinces and in Vietnam are tied to the Mekong's predicament. Bangladesh is in a bad way, too, as the Brahmaputra recedes. For all these countries, solar power, radiating from China, can become an alternative, sustainable source of energy. China can be a good neighbor, help the environment, and make money — all at the same time.
At Cancún, China should unveil an adjusted stimulus package whereby funds will be channeled into building a new grid to conduct solar energy. This way, Beijing can establish a new template for green development.
China's economic performance has dazzled the world, but it has also sparked fear about the country's escalating might. Now China has an opportunity to use green power as a new kind of soft power. Because of its wealth and geography, only China is in a position to generate solar energy on a massive scale. The world can then break away from the blame game of history vs. responsibility for greenhouse-gas reduction — and move forward. Everyone wins: China's western highland regions, the nation as a whole, much of nearby Asia and the global community. All Beijing has to do is change its mind-set — from being the guest to becoming the host.
DYNASTIES IN CHINA
XIA DYNASTY
XIA DYNASTY
Dates of the Xia Dynasty:
The Xia dynasty is thought to have run from the end of the third millennium B.C. to the middle of the second. The period of the Xia Dynasty is sometimes equated with Erlitou or Longshan cultures. Records of the Grand Historian and Bamboo Annals mention the Xia Dynasty.
Xia Population
The Xia under King Yu probably had about 13.5 million people, according to Duan Chang-Qun et al.
Xia Accomplishments
The Xia dynasty was the first to irrigate, produce cast bronze and a strong army. It used oracle bones and had a calendar. Xi Zhong is credited in legend with inventing a wheeled vehicle. He used a compass, square and rule. King Yu was the first king to be succeeded by his son instead of a man chosen for his virtue. This made the Xia the first Chinese dynasty.
Start of the Xia Dynasty
The Xia dynasty is thought to have been founded by Yu the Great, who was born in 2059 and considered a descendant of the Yellow Emperor. His capital was at Yang City. Yu is a semi-mythical figure who spent 13 years stopping the great flood and brought irrigation to the Yellow River Valley. Yu was the ideal hero and ruler, ascribed a mythical dragon birth. He became god of the soil.
The 17 Xia Dynasty Kings
•Yu
•Qi
•Tai Kang
•Zhong Kang
•Xiang
•Xiao Kang
•Zhu
•Huai
•Mang
•Xie
•Bu Xiang
•Jiong
•Jin
•Kong Jia
•Gao
•Fa
•Jie
Fall of the Xia Dynasty
The fall of the Xia is blamed on its last king, Jie, who is said to have fallen in love with an evil, beautiful woman and become a tyrant. The people rose up in rebellion under the leadership of Zi Lü, the Tang Emperor and founder of the Shang Dynasty.
HSIANG DYNASTY
We know of the Shang Dynasty (traditionally, c. 1766-1050 B.C.), because there is archaeological evidence from this Bronze Age civilization, including oracle bones and bronze artifacts. Legend says it began when T'ang overthrew the last and decadent Xia emperor, Chieh.
The Shang built city-states in northeastern China, around the Yellow River, for which reason they are called the Yellow River Civilization. Different city-states served as the capital for different rulers.
The Shang worshipped Shang Ti 'Lord on high', ruler or the heavens, gods, and mankind.
Farming improved during the period and spades, sickles, and stone ploughs were used, mostly for millet and wheat. There were usually well-watered fields, with no evidence of irrigation until the Chou Dynasty, but oracle bones suggest there might have been rice cultivation since there is a character for rice. There may have been cultivation of sorghum. The king announced when it was time to plant. There was a 12-month 360-day calendar with recognition of the need to adjust to the solar cycle by means of intercalary months.
The Chou (Zhou) dynasty followed the Shang.
CHOU DYNASTY
The Chou or Zhou dynasty ruled China from about 1027 to about 221 B.C. It was the longest dynasty in Chinese history. The Chou first coexisted and then fought with the earlier Shang Dynasty, living to the west of them in what is now Shensi Province, with a capital originally in Hao (Zongzhou).
In 722 B.C., the Chou dynasty capital moved east to Luoyang (in modern Henan Province). Its empire was a proto-feudal one with at least 20 "feudal" lords maintained by an extended family network. By 771 B.C., the power had shifted, and so the earlier period is now referred to as the Western Chou (Hsi Chou) dynasty and the later period, the Eastern Chou (Tung Chou), which is itself divided into a Spring and Autumn period and a Warring States period.
By the Spring and Autumn period, the power of the king had waned and was split among five hegemons, with the king more a figure head in charge of ancestor worship than an administrator.
During the Chou dynasty in China, ox-drawn ploughs, iron, horseback riding, coinage, chopsticks, and the crossbow were introduced. Roads, canals, and major irrigation projects were developed. The philosophies of Confucianism and Taoism also emerged.
- Confucianism - Confucianism is a system of social and political morality. Whether it is a religion depends on what religion means to you. Confucianism stressed honoring one's ancestors (like ancient Roman religions) and had a form of the Golden Rule.
- Taoism - Lao Tzu.--Meanwhile, other influences had been helping to divert the attention of the Chinese people from the simple worship of God and of the powers of nature.
The philosophy associated with the name of Lao Tzu, who lived nobody knows when,--probably about B.C. 600--which is popularly known as Taoism, from Tao, the omnipresent, omnipotent, and unthinkable principle on which it is based, operated with Confucianism, though in an opposite direction, in dislimning the old faith while putting nothing satisfactory in its place. Confucianism, with its shadowy monotheistic background, was at any rate a practical system for everyday use, and it may be said to contain all the great ethical truths to be found in the teachings of Christ. Lao Tzu harped upon a doctrine of Inaction, by virtue of which all things were to be accomplished,--a perpetual accommodation of self to one's surroundings, with the minimum of effort, all progress being spontaneous and in the line of least resistance. Such a system was naturally far better fitted for the study, where in fact it has always remained, than for use in ordinary life.
QIN DYNASTY
The Qin or Ch'in (likely origin of "China") existed during the Warring States Period and came to power as an imperial dynasty (221-206/207 B.C.) by unifying China under its first emperor, Shi Huangdi (Shih Huang-ti).
The Qin were militarily superior and used cavalry for the first time in China. The government of China was Legalist, a system that held the power of the state and its monarch's interests paramount. This policy led to a strain on the treasury and, ultimately, the end of the dynasty.
The Qin is described as a police state with the government holding absolute power. Private weapons were confiscated. Nobles were transported to the capital. The Qin standardized weights, measures, coinage -- the bronze round coin with a square hole in the center, writing, and chariot axle widths. The Great Wall (868 km) was built to keep out northern invaders. An army of 6000 terra cotta soldiers (or servants) was put in a tomb to protect (or serve) the dead emperor Shi Huangdi, who had ruled for 37 years.
The Han Dynasty was divided into two periods, the earlier, Western Han Dynasty, from 206 B.C. - A.D. 8/9, and the later, Eastern Han Dynasty, from 25-220. It was founded by Liu Bang (Emperor Gao) who moderated the excesses of the Qin. Gao maintained the centralized government and started an enduring bureaucracy based on intellect rather than aristocratic birth. This was part of the switch from Taoism to Confucianism (under Emperor Wu [140–87 BC] who established the Silk Road). By the end of the Western Han, there were 3000 scholars enrolled in the academy for the imperial bureaucracy. The Han established the capital at Chang'an (today's Xi'an) as a part of the Silk Road, through the Gansu corridor. The empire of the Han extended into Mongolia, Vietnam, and Korea, and the population of China increased to 50,000,000. China's greatest historian, Sima Qian, lived during this period. Hou Hanshu (History of the Later Han) records a Roman embassy from Emperor Antoninus Pius to the Chinese Emperor Huan.
Shi Huangdi's son replaced him, but was overthrown and replaced by the Han Dynasty in 206.
Qian Han is another name for Western Han and Hou Han is another name for Eastern Han.
