The Yellow River and Chinese Civilization

Ge Jianxiong

Zhonghua Book Company

September 2020

65.00 (CNY)

Ge Jianxiong

Ge Jianxiong is a scholar, professor at Fudan University, research librarian at China Central Institute for Culture and History, and expert in historical geography, population history, and other fields. He has previously served as the director of the China Historical Geography Research Institute at Fudan University and the director of Fudan University Library.

Today, the Yellow River flows from west to east through nine provinces and autonomous regions in China, including Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, and Shandong. Historically, the lower reaches of the Yellow River also flowed through four provinces and municipalities: Hebei, Tianjin, Anhui, and Jiangsu. The total area of the alluvial plain in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is about 250,000 square kilometers. The present Haihe River system began to appear and form after the 3rd century CE, and the history of the Yellow River capturing the Huai River continued until 1947. Therefore, the historical area of the Yellow River basin was larger than it is today, with a total area of over one million square kilometers.

Throughout Chinese history, the Yellow River has enjoyed a paramount status. As early as the Han Dynasty, it was revered as the top of “The Four Rivers” (the four rivers believed to be the largest at that time: Yellow River, Yangtze River, Huai River, and Ji River). The Yellow River has been hailed as the great mother that nurtured the Chinese nation, and its basin is referred to as the cradle of Chinese civilization.

However, in recent years, with archaeological discoveries outside the Yellow River basin, such as in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the Sichuan Basin, the Liao River basin, and the Yanshan Mountain region, some have expressed dissenting views. They suggest that the historical significance of the Yellow River in early Chinese civilization should be rewritten or that Chinese civilization had more than one cradle. Some even argue that the Yellow River has brought only disasters to the Chinese people and that its drawbacks have outweighed its benefits, contending that the Yellow River is the root cause of Chinas backwardness and isolation in modern times.

If we respect historical facts and approach the topic without bias, we can conclusively state that based on scientific research, including archaeological excavations, these viewpoints are entirely unfounded. Particularly, the conclusions of the “Exploration of the Origins of Chinese Civilization” project, which was released in recent years, have provided clear answers to these doubts.

Geneticists have studied the commonalities in human genetic structures and the distribution process of these commonalities, proving that humanity originated in East Africa and migrated to China approximately 80,000 to 100,000 years ago. However, another undeniable fact is that a substantial number of ancient humans who existed 100,000 years ago and the relics they left behind have indeed been found in China. The identification of these ancient humans and their time period has been recognized by the international academic community. Therefore, there are only two possibilities: either all these ancient humans subsequently became extinct, making modern Chinese entirely descendants of ancient humans from Africa, or while modern Chinese are primarily descendants of ancient humans from Africa, some of the ancient humans native to China did not go extinct, with some of them assimilating into incoming populations.

As far as I am concerned, regardless of the ultimate conclusion, when exploring the process of the formation of the Chinese nation and civilization, the existence and activities of native ancient humans in China should not be neglected. For a simple example, when ancient humans from Africa migrated to China, why did they choose specific places to settle? Apart from the local natural conditions at the time, were there any factors or conditions left by the activities of native ancient humans? Therefore, discussing the influence of native ancient humans on Chinese history remains meaningful.

In archaeology, the time period roughly spanning from about 3 million years ago to 10,000 years ago is known as the Paleolithic era. There have been approximately 2,000 Paleolithic sites discovered within China, with nearly half of them located in the Yellow River basin. Up to now, the earliest ancient humans discovered in the Yellow River basin is the Lantian man, dating back to 700,000 to 1,150,000 years ago. They were found in Gongwangling, Lantian County, Shaanxi, between 1963 and 1964. Recent research even suggests that the age of the Lantian man may be even earlier. Following them are the Peking man, also known as the Chinese Homo erectus, dating back around 700,000 years ago, discovered in 1927 in the Longgushan Cave, southwest of Zhoukoudian, Beijing. There are also human fossils from the mid-Paleolithic period, ranging from 30,000 to 10,000 years ago, discovered in the Yellow River basin. Examples include the Dingcun man in Xiangfen County, Shaanxi, the Dali man in Tianshui Gou, Shanxi, the Xujiayao man in Yanggao County, Shanxi, and the Hetao man along the Salawusu River in Uxin Banner, Inner Mongolia. There are also slightly later human cultural relics such as the Sizhuyu Site in Shuozhou, Shanxi, the Xiaonanhai Cave Site in Anyang County, Henan, and the Xiachuan Site in Qinshui County, Shanxi. These sites are not only widely distributed and rich in content but also have a long duration and continuity. For example, the Zhoukoudian Site has discovered the Peking man from around 700,000 years ago as well as the Upper Cave man from the late Paleolithic period, which is 18,000 years ago.

Of course, important ancient human sites have also been discovered outside the Yellow River basin. For instance, the earliest fossils of Yuanmou man in China were discovered in Yuanmou County, Yunnan, dating back approximately 1.7 million years. The ancient humans of Hexian County, Anhui, have a history of 300,000 to 400,000 years. Additionally, there are other ancient human sites such as the Maba man in Shaoguan, Guangdong, the Changyang man in Changyang, Hubei, the Liujiang man in Liuzhou, Guangxi, the Ziyang man in Ziyang, Sichuan, and the Zuozhen man in Tainan, Taiwan. However, except for Yuanmou man, the others are all later than Lantian man and Peking man, and in terms of quantity and continuity, they cannot compare to those from the Yellow River basin.

Therefore, although other regions are also the birthplaces of ancient Chinese, the Yellow River basin is undoubtedly the most significant and important one, with a much larger historical role to play.