China in the Ancient World

Date: 8000 b.c.e.-700 c.e.

Locale: East Asia

China in the Ancient World

Because of its vast north-to-south and east-to-west expanse, a wide variety of ecological factors contributed to the emergence of early human cultures in China. The existence of several broad phytogeographical zones, with their varying natural and domesticated flora, determined the type of life-sustaining staple crops on which Chinese farmers would become dependant.

Early cultures

Probably as a result of gradually warming post-Ice Age temperatures after about 7500 b.c.e., human populations of the Neolithic era were able to found and develop the earliest cultures in both northern and southern China. Warmer temperatures brought rainfall and extensive vegetation, including forests and grass, to the Liao River Valley. The Liao rises in eastern Manchuria and flows into the Bay of Bohai in northern China. This area would dry out considerably over time, marking the ecological border between nomadic peoples to the north and the southern agrarian groups.

The earliest agricultural pursuits in China involved cultivation of four major seed plants: wheat, millet, rice, and maize. The earliest archaeological sites showing evidence of plant cultivation are millet and rice plantations in the northern and southern regions respectively. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal remains in northern China revealed what may be the oldest evidence of millet cultivation anywhere in the world, going back as far as ten thousand years. People in this area probably combined rudimentary agriculture and hunting and gathering for subsistence. Some sites in northern China have yielded evidence of domestication of both pigs and dogs, while masses of wild animal bones and shells attest to continued hunting and gathering. In central Henan Province between the Yellow and Yangtze River valleys, two signs of early cultural practices were found: a bone flute and pieces of turtle shell bearing rudimentary carved inscriptions.

For many years, archaeologists assumed that the millet-based cultures of northern China developed much earlier than the rice-growing sites to the south. Although early radiocarbon dating proved that rice growing existed in Zhejiang Province (south of modern Shanghai) in the early sixth millennium b.c.e., later finds in the middle Yangtze valley pushed estimates of rice cultures back to the period between 8200 and 7800 b.c.e. At one site, archaeologists found ancient cord-marked pottery, including urns and bowls containing carbonized rice grains whose size and shape suggest domestication of rice, not mere gathering of grains from wild plants.

Archaeologists have relied on differences in human-made implements such as pottery and tools to study regionally distinct prehistoric cultures in China dating to about 5000 b.c.e. The transition from Paleolithic Age chipped and flaked stone implements to Neolithic Age ground and polished stone tools is considered to have been part of the general movement toward agriculturally based cultures. Use of pottery for storing harvests seems also to have been characteristic of early Neolithic cultures.

From the Liao River Basin southward to the coast of China opposite Hainan Island, archaeologists have traced at least seven regional Neolithic cultures between 8500 and 2500 b.c.e. In the north, there was a succession of three interrelated cultures: the Xinglongwa, the Xinle, and the Hongshan. Certain artistic motifs and materials that later became characteristic of more southerly areas of China may have originated here. These include carved jade and the dragon motif. Flat-bottomed pottery vessels evolved into red-patterned bowls and tube shapes by about 5000 b.c.e.

A better-known Neolithic culture was discovered in 1920 in Yangshao, Henan Province, near where the Wei, Jing, Luo, and Fen Rivers join the main northeasterly flow of the Yellow River to the Bay of Bohai. The Yangshao culture was made up of millet-farming communities. A thousand sites from the period between 5000 and 3000 b.c.e. have been excavated. Pottery remains are all reddish in color and are decorated with black or dark brown designs. Their shapes are more diverse than those of Xinle or Hongshan origin and include water bottles and jars. Tripods (ding) and ring stands (dou) are characteristic of easternmost sites only. Some discoveries suggest a connection between Yangshao art and shamanistic beliefs. For example, on one tomb, a figure, possibly a shaman, is depicted with a dragon on one side and a tiger on the other. Yangshao artistic representations of human figures were typically simple skeletal depictions, but signs of distinction between males and females were included.

The principal rice-growing Neolithic cultures were the Majiabang and Hemudu cultures near the mouth of the Yangtze, the Daxi culture in the central Yangtze River valley, and the somewhat later Dapenkeng culture. The latter ran along the southeast coast of China from points on and opposite Taiwan to the region opposite Hainan Island in the south. All flourished between 5000 and about 2500 b.c.e.

Archaeological investigations of these closely associated cultures show not only cultivation of rice but also dependence on freshwater plants such as water chestnuts and lotus seeds. The Daxi culture zone, with remains of storage facilities and extensive village walls, was perhaps the most advanced in terms of systematic village agricultural organization. The Daxi sites also contain the most extensive examples of Neolithic polished stone tools, including slate sickles. Some distinct pottery shapes, including tall, thin-stemmed stands for flat dishes decorated with black or brown bands were possibly for ceremonial use.

By contrast, Dapenkeng culture seems to have been less developed than the Yangtze communities. Pottery remains are coarse, and decorative effects are limited to cord markings. A main argument underlining the importance of Dapenkeng culture is the probability of linkages between this segment of southern coastal China and areas of linguistically distinct Malayo-Polynesian groupings.

Longshan culture

Discovery in the l930’s of significant archaeological remains in the Shandong and Henan areas provided important clues linking Neolithic cultures to the early Bronze Age Shang civilization. Chinese tradition refers to what archaeologists call the Longshan culture as wan guo, or “ten thousand states.” During this period, because of the existence of so many community sites, a pattern of stratified societies emerged, with distinctions between “common” and “privileged” elements. Excavations of graves suggest that a “leader” class took on combined religious, political, and military roles, and that its status was symbolized through association with a variety of increasingly intricate ritual objects.

This period also yielded the first remnants of lacquerware, utilitarian and ritual objects coated with the glossy, resinlike substance drawn from the lacquer tree. Ritual jades ranged from axes to shamanistic objects engraved with depictions of animals. Elements of what would become a structured writing system also appeared for the first time in the Longshan culture.

Apparently religious political elites maintained separate residence complexes in Longshan communities. At some point, groups of elites organized to politically and militarily subject other communities, creating a mixed historical and mythological dawn of dynastic “states” over broader areas associated over time with the geopolitical identity of China. These early communities, called the Xia Dynasty (c. 2100-1600 b.c.e.), are known to the Chinese primarily through heroic epics rather than historical accounts. Historical record keeping, or something approximating it, would not begin until the end of the second millennium b.c.e., during the Shang Dynasty (1600-1066 b.c.e.).

The first traces of the Shang period were found in the late 1930’s at the Anyang excavations in northern Henan Province. Excavations at Anyang and in sites along the Huan River uncovered important bronze artifacts, sacrificial burials, and large burial-shaft tombs. Perhaps the most important “new” evidence for the evolutionary progress between Neolithic and Bronze Age cultures came from inscribed oracle bones. These were assumed to be the forerunners of the characters used in the Chinese writing system.

Origins of Chinese writing

A number of theories exist concerning the origins of what would become a very developed system of Chinese writing. One of the earliest sites where archaeologists unearthed pottery and shards covered with marks that may have had symbolic meaning was Banpo, a Yangshao culture site in the Wei River valley. Radiocarbon dating places these near 4773 b.c.e. Markings on burial urns are mainly simple horizontal, vertical, or slanting strokes. Only a few more complex markings were found. These and other discoveries left archaeologists divided as to whether these markings represented only very rudimentary symbolism at the most, or an early form of Chinese characters.

Discoveries from a later Yangshao culture (dated at 4682 b.c.e.) at Jiangzhai in Shandong Province provided further clues as to the origins of characters. Graphlike markings on pottery remnants resemble symbols on later oracle bones from Anyang. It is generally recognized that the Shang culture was the first to devise characters with specific meanings, used primarily in divination practices. Paleographers use the technical term “zodiographs” to describe early Shang characters in which a single inscribed element typically had a single presumed meaning. Tying one character to one word limited such writing considerably. Therefore, specialists looked for progress through two other phases that eventually contributed to more sophisticated use of writing in China, the multivalent and determinative stages. In the former, the practice of “rebus” used essentially identical characters that take on nearly identical or sometimes totally different pronunciation and meaning that emerges only in context. Following this stage, possible ambiguities were lessened by attaching a variety of “determinative” subgraphs to main characters, thus changing both pronunciation and meaning. By the time of the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.e.-220 c.e.), most of the rich classic Chinese literature that had evolved over earlier centuries was recorded in such compound characters. Han lexicologists made clear distinctions between words symbolized by compound characters, or zi, and lingering use of single unit zodiographs, or du ti.

Major dynasties

From their first capital near what later became Sian in northern China, the Zhou, successors to the loosely structured Shang governing system, held sway over the extensive plains area between Manchuria and the Yangtze. The longevity of the Zhou Dynasty (1066-236 b.c.e.), lasting eight centuries (and longer in some areas), is somewhat misleading. In 1045 b.c.e. during the first long period known as the Western Zhou, Chinese tradition assigned almost cosmic significance to a rather local military conflict between Shang dynastic forces and Wuwang (son of the first Zhou ruler) at Muye. The event was eventually viewed as the mandate of heaven because it ended one form of rule and established another. The third Zhou king, Gongwang, wrote memoirs on early Zhou government. These survive as the Shujing (compiled after first century b.c.e.; English translation in The Chinese Classics, Vol. 5, Parts 1 and 2, 1872; commonly known as Classic of History), perhaps the earliest landmark of classical Chinese literature.

Despite succession struggles after Wuwang’s death, Zhou conquests spread rapidly in the central Taihang Mountain area east of the Qin River, a main tributary of the Yellow River. With time, a series of conquests south of the Yellow River and even westward up the Wei River made a third generation of Zhou kings holders of unparalleled political and military force in early Chinese history. A traditional adage associated with their early rulers, who gradually assumed powers that likened them to emperors, was, “Make pliable those distant and make capable those near. Pacify and encourage many countries, large and small.” The Classic of History credits (whether accurately or not) Muwang (r. 956-918 b.c.e.) with the first systematic code of law to be applied throughout the diverse conquered territories of the Zhou. Muwang’s son Gongwang (r. 917-900 b.c.e.) had bronze inscriptions cast proclaiming his responsibility for settling land disputes and generally reforming China’s land tenure system.

The second main period of Zhou history is known as the Eastern Zhou (770-256 b.c.e.). By about 800 b.c.e., Zhou imperial authority had been challenged by what became separate states, especially in northern China and on the coastal plains of the Yangtze. Some, such as the Wu and Yue, became almost as important as the presumed imperial state. Two other states, Jin and Qin, intervened at a time when the Zhou rulers were near to losing their hold over their Wei River provinces and helped install Yi Jiu, who took the name Pingwang, in safer territories farther east. Although Pingwang was recognized as the first Eastern Zhou ruler (r. 770-720 b.c.e.), warfare that had begun around 800 b.c.e. never really stopped, making the Eastern dynastic line much less significant than its western predecessors. As the Eastern Zhou entered what Chinese tradition called the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 b.c.e.), “protector” states such as Qin, Qi, and Chu, but particularly Jin, seized on the possibility of expanding their own territorial influence. Qin’s ruler Mu Gong, for example, absorbed at least twelve other states in an attempt to extend the influence of his realm back into western territories that had formerly been Zhou.

The complicated period of the Warring States (475-221 b.c.e.) was characterized by a further breaking down of domains that had long since fallen away from Zhou dynastic controls. Qin ascendancy between about 350 and 294 b.c.e. failed to restore the Wei core zone to any identifiable government structure, while alliances encouraging Qin’s main rival state Qi created a number of short-lived claims of unified rule. Experts note that, in contrast to earlier concerted Zhou efforts to legislate major institutional controls to support its claims to unified government, rulers in the period of the Warring States depended on sporadic successes by outstanding and able officials to impose taxes or laws. Such “reforms” lasted only as long as the individuals who sponsored them could hold on to power.

Surprisingly, the political fragmentation of the centuries that saw Zhou ascendancy disappear and warring factions rise did not prevent China from experiencing major periods of cultural productivity. Several of the best known classical scholars, including Confucius, who wrote the Lunyu (later sixth-early fifth centuries b.c.e.; The Analects, 1861); Laozi, the founder of Daoism and the presumed author of the Dao De Jing (possibly sixth century b.c.e., probably compiled late third century b.c.e.; The Speculations on Metaphysics, Polity, and Morality of “the Old Philosopher, Lau-Tsze,” 1868; better known as the Dao De Jing), and the philosopher Mencius, who wrote Menzi (early third century b.c.e.; The Works of Mencius, 1861; commonly known as Menzi), all lived just before or during these politically troubled centuries. Although Chinese tradition has assigned extremely early origins to major traditional texts such as the Shujing, said to have been composed about 3000 b.c.e., most written classics were compiled in book form only after the period of the Warring States. The Shijing (traditionally fifth century b.c.e.; The Book of Songs, 1937), a collection of more than three hundred poems presumed to be from the Western Zhou period, devoted to extolling heroes from earlier periods, is another example. Compilations drew, of course, on orally transmitted versions that might or might not have reflected the original teachings of ancient masters.

Han and Tang China

By the time of the Han Dynasty (206 b.c.e. to 220 c.e.), many features characteristic of later Chinese periods had taken form. These included state adoption of Confucianism and major territorial expansionist policies, particularly under Emperor Wudi (r. 140 to 87 b.c.e.). Wudi’s rule reached as far as Sinkiang and Central Asia in the west, northward to Manchuria and Korea, and southward to Annam (Vietnam).

Another feature of the Han period was the development of state-run civil service examinations to recruit what became an almost elitist body of imperial bureaucrats. A high degree of centralization enabled Han rule to survive a short-lived usurpation of power in 8 c.e. that sought to install a Xin dynastic succession. Return of the Han in 25 c.e. marked the beginning of the Eastern Han period (25-220 c.e.), when the capital moved eastward to Luoyang. Eventual weakening of Han control over such vast territories ended in the division of China for some 350 years into smaller units, beginning with the Three Kingdoms period (220-280 c.e.). Reunification came only under the forceful leadership of Yang Jian, an official from the north who used nomadic cavalry to establish a capital at Chang’an (and later at Anyang) and to bring extensive territory under the sway of the Sui Dynasty (581-618 c.e.). The Sui attempted to broaden support for their religious leadership by patronizing both Buddhism and Daoism. By this date, however, any power hoping to rule inland provinces of China in particular had to cope with possible encroachments by Central Asiatic Turks, some of whom were poised to penetrate the Great Wall. By 615 c.e., the last Sui emperor, Yang Guang, was defeated by Eastern Turks.

The Turks helped a new and long-lived conquering dynasty, that of the Tang (618-907 c.e.), take over many key governing structures established by the Sui (including a major reworking of the Grand Canal to link the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers). The Tang period would mark a return of central imperial control over large reconquered areas (including Korea and Tibet) and a flourishing of state-sponsored artistic creation. Perhaps the most famous remaining examples of Tang painted sculpture are the impressive collections of equestrian statues rediscovered in the mid-twentieth century.

Bibliography

Harper, Donald. Early Chinese Medical Literature: The Mawangdui Medical Manuscripts. Vol. 2. London: Kegan Paul, 1997.

Keightley, David N., ed. The Origins of Chinese Civilization. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983.

Loewe, Michael, and Edward L. Shaughnessy, eds. The Cambridge History of Ancient China from the Origins of Civilization to 221 b.c.e. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Shaughnessy, Edward L. Before Confucius: Studies on the Creation of the Chinese Classics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1997.