Ch 1 - In the Beginning

The Cradle of Civilization

Mythology and geology provide clues to China's ancient history and the formation of the Xia Dynasty among the mountains and valleys of the middle Yellow River basin.

East Asia's Neolithic tribes lived in a hostile world, battling both natural enemies and rival clans, a world where warfare was a very important part of life. During the second millennium BC, most of China's small tribal states scattered between the middle Yellow River basin and the Shandong Peninsula were highly aristocratic societies ruled by men who mixed brute force with religious legitimacy to buttress their principal claim to ruling authority. These were not "states" in any modern sense, merely the extended power and influence of a ruling clan over a particular piece of territory. Territorial boundaries were likely defined by local geographic features such as rivers and streams, valleys, ridge lines and mountains, and the size of any particular kingdom was probably anything a clan decided to claim and defend. Few of these tribal states shared a common frontier and most military confrontations between clans frequently occurred in the "no man's land" between settlements.

The clan concept of private ownership was a dominant feature of this period and many households of the time acquired significant private possessions;   tools, weapons, utensils, animals, crops and land. Any clan which desired to expand its food supply, its animal herds, even its lands did so by force. Tribal states expanded to the extent they could field a military force strong enough to take and hold new territory. Likewise, weak tribal states that could not defend their territory lost ground to stronger claimants. Despite the small populations involved, it did not take armies numbering in the millions to fight a war. Many clan wars were quite likely fought with fewer than 1,000 warriors. In fact, a well-organized, heavily armed force of less than 500 men could effectively conduct highly sophisticated warfare.

Tribal unity and development centered around memories of a tribe's military victories and cultural advances. Valiant and heroic warriors enjoyed tremendous respect within their tribe and frequently became clan leaders. Some clans elevated their status and power to great heights only to see it wither and die in a single generation. Their remarkable deeds and all traces of their existence withered and decayed, blown away by the winds of time, never again to be seen. A number of Chinese histories written during the middle of the first millennium BC record events from the second millennium BC. However, since no written records dated earlier than 1,400 BC are known to exist, the recorded deeds and exploits of this period should be considered somewhat suspect.

Occasionally, some clan marshaled the strength and determination to dominate a large geographic region and force obeisance from, or extinguish, weaker clans. Frequent territorial clan wars broke many of the narrow limits between the different clans. In an effort to protect their interests and defend the growing power and status of their small kingdoms, tribal chieftains often formed alliances for mutual protection. In the time around c. 2,700 BC., four clan societies lived across the North China Plain:   the Xia, Jiang, Li and Yi. Out of this chaotic period of inter-tribal warfare came one of the China's greatest legendary figures.

Gongsun, also called Xuan Yuan Shi, used his military knowledge of mountains, rivers, marshes, and plains to lead his clan from Shandong Province in numerous victorious battles against several tribal leaders. Gongsun and his brother, a powerful clan leader in his own right, shared dominance over a large territory. In 2,698 BC, Xuan Yuan led an alliance between the Xia, Jiang and Yi clans against the nine united tribes of the Li clan led by the belligerent Ji You. Armed with wooden spears and bows and arrows, Xuan Yuan's troops overwhelmed the stronger and more numerous Li warriors at Zhoulu in the Sanggan River valley in northwest Hebei Province. After three days and nights of vicious fighting, "with blood being shed all over an area of one hundred leagues," Ji You lay dead on the battlefield. In honor of his victory, the tribal chieftains anointed Xuan Yuan the "Son of Heaven" and leader of the united clans. He is best known as Huang Di, the "Yellow Emperor." Xuan Yuan's brother is known as Yan Di, the "Fire Emperor."

Huang Di left the flat, flood-prone plains near Shandong Province for higher terrain of the Yellow River basin to the west, where he established his capital at Xinzheng, just south of Zhengzhou in Henan Province. With strictness and impartiality, he successfully kept the lands under his control in good order and maintained the prosperity of his subjects among the united clans for many years. Out of a desire to create a melting pot of mixed blood people in his domain, he prohibited men and women from marrying within their own tribe. The resulting merging of bloodlines produced the ancestors of an ancient nationality known as the Hua Xia, "the middle states people," predecessors of the great Han nationality to which the majority of the Chinese people belong. Huang Di and Yan Di are still regarded as the illustrious ancestors of the Chinese race.

China's vast loess plateau covers nearly 43,000 km2, rising from the western edge of the North China Plain and stretching across Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, and Gansu Provinces. The loess plateau is home to a unique landform found nowhere else on earth known as tai yuan, a kind of tableland or mesa on a plateau. Tai yuan represents the original state of the loess plateau before it was totally carved up by erosion, becoming qian shan wan he, "thousands of hills and ten folds more gullies." These flat mesas are ideal for agricultural production and community activities and afford unrestricted travel and communication between villages. The steep slopes along two sides of a tai yuan make it nearly impossible for an army to successfully attack a defender secured on top and the easily defended narrow approaches to the tai yuan give it an excellent defensive advantage. The tai yuan landforms c. 2,700 BC. must have been far more extensive and better connected than they are today.

Blessed with the favorable security of flat, high terrain, Huang Di's society prospered through generations of successors. With the arrival of walled-towns, communities no longer had to rely solely on the tai yuan for protection. Huang Di's descendants gradually moved away from the plateau, carrying with them the seeds of superior political and cultural skills learned over several hundred years of uninterrupted practice that eventually gave birth to the flower of early Chinese civilization. The middle Yellow River basin that extends westward from Zhengzhou into the Wei River valley near the present city of Xi'an is known as the "cradle of Chinese civilization." Virtually all of China's major dynasties and much of its native culture emerged from this region.

Huang Di's importance in Chinese history extends far beyond nation-building. According to legend, the "Originator of the Chinese Culture" taught his people to cultivate mulberry and raise silkworms, he taught them to cultivate hemp, weave textiles and make clothes, manufacture boats and wheeled carts, and build houses and palaces. He created a governing structure, introduced social reforms, and was also China's first patron of mathematics. The Chinese attribute many things in daily life to Huang Di, including cooking utensils, chopsticks, and brewing and drinking tea.

According to legend, Huang Di left his capital on a tour of his empire. After he arrived at the foot of Qiao Mountain in Shaanxi Province, about 200 km north of Xi'an, he set out a great feast for the leaders of all the tribes in his domain. That day a great yellow dragon descended from the sky and took Huang Di and his entire entourage, seventy people in all, to heaven. Those who missed the miraculous event gathered the emperor's yellow robes and buried them on the spot where he had ascended to heaven. A mausoleum for China's great Yellow Emperor rests on that site near Huangling city in Shaanxi province.

The legendary Tang Yao, also known as Tang Diyao, a fifth-generation descendant of Huang Di, became the first of China's three great sage rulers. As the "Son of Heaven" and leader of the united clans, Yao established a new capital at Pingyang in the Fen River valley in Shanxi Province c. 24th century BC. He is widely acknowledged as a model monarch in Chinese history, a man so loved by his subjects that news of his death left them to grieve as if they had lost their own parents. Confucius exalted Yao as an inspiration and perennial model of virtue, righteousness and unselfish devotion.

During Tang Yao's reign, the Xia clan occupied terrain long settled from the time of Huang Di near the base of Songshan mountain in Henan province. Further east, the Yu clan lived among the foothills beneath Taishan mountain on the Shandong Peninsula. Although separated by 200 to 400 km and with little contact, each of these major clans settled on high ground in close proximity to mountainous terrain. Perhaps the flat terrain and random flooding of the Yellow River made the North China Plain far less suitable for agriculture and permanent settlement than imagined.

Legend states that the committee of tribal chiefs recommended Shun (You Dishun), leader of the Yu clan in Shandong Province, as Tang Yao's successor to head the united tribes. Tang Yao accepted the chieftain's recommendation, bypassing his own son. Before passing the throne to Shun however, Tang Yao tested his strength and character by putting him deep in a large forest just before a thunderstorm to see how, and if, he would get out. The resourceful Shun kept clear of the wolves, tigers and leopards of the forest and got home safe and sound. As the second of China's three sage rulers c. 23rd century BC, Shun named his kingdom Yu and did many great things for his people during his decades-long reign. Confucius singled out Shun as a model of integrity and resplendent virtue.

According to the legend, the rampaging Yellow River regularly flooded during Shun's reign, washing away houses and inundating the low-lying plains. Shun's subjects unanimously recommended that Xia You take charge of harnessing the mighty river. depicted in numerous myths and legends as a selfless hero, Xia You accpeted the task without hesitation and immediately began surveying the rivers and mountains. It is said that his footprints were to be found beside almost all the major rivers of the country. Instead of letting different tribes control the flood waters separately, Xia You devised a coordinated plan that divided the country into regions. He also rejected the traditional method of trying to harness flooding by building dams and levees and took the innovative step of dredging the rivers;  first by opening the larger river channels to flush more water to the sea, then opening the smaller tributaries to channel water into the large rivers. It took 13 years of hard work, but he succeeded. Before Shun died, he passed over his own son and handed leadership to Great Yu, the Water Controller. It was said that, "but for Yu we should all have been fishes."

During the 23rd century BC, the time when Xia You ruled in China, the geology of the Yellow River was very different than today. After cutting its way around the Ordos Plateau and descending through the loess plateau between Shanxi and Shaanxi Provinces, the Yellow River emerged through a widening valley north of Luoyang in Henan Province carrying billions of tons of sediment from the heart of China southeast through the Huai River valley toward the sea.

According to the ancient Chinese text Huai Nan Zi, written c. 200 BC, a catastrophic geological event occurred some two generations before Xia You that caused "the sky-supporting column to buckle, and the land mass to rupture." The earliest known channel for the Yellow River across the North China Plain dates to the time of Xia You, a channel known as Yu Huang Gu Dao (King Yu's Course). Beginning in the valley north of Xin'an, the diverted river turned northward, following a fault line parallel to the Taihangshan mountain range. It emptied into the sea about 75 to 100 km southeast of the present site of Beijing. At the time, the Gulf of Bo Hai was actually a vast sea that extended over 150 km into the modern North China plain. TheYellow River continued its northerly flow for over a millennium, steadily pushing back the sea and expanding the North China Plain.

Xia You's kingdom, rooted in the Luo River valley stretching southwest from Luoyang, expanded eastward towards the Shandong Peninsula, then a stronghold of You Dishun's clan. Xia You also expanded his kingdom to the north, settling the fertile lands along the east bank of the Yellow River in northern Henan Province near Anyang. The rich agricultural resources of the North China plain, not to mention the numerous small tribal states that emerged in this region, supported Xia You's legendary westward expansion into the Yellow River basin and the Fen River valley to conquer Yao's stronghold. Legends also tell of Xia You's southern expeditions into the Yangtze River valley, a prosperous emerging region that no doubt attracted his attention as a potential resource to be plundered. After a 13-year odyssey, curiously the same time legends say it took him to control the Yellow River , Xia You returned north to consolidate his ruling authority over hundreds of competing tribes. He could not have known at the time that the newly organized society emerging in the fertile Huai River valley would eventually blossom into an empire that would topple his own domain four centuries later.