Introduction
Basic Facts about China

China is a vast country in Asia and one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. It has a long history and dynamic culture. Each year, it attracts millions of people from all over the world to visit, study, and work. As a beginner, we need to know some basic facts about China. What is the landscape of China? How and when did Chinese civilization emerge? What are its characteristics?

Geography

The People’s Republic of China is located in the eastern part of the Eurasian continent and to the west of the Pacific Ocean. With a vast territory of 9，600，000 square kilometers, China has very diverse landscapes and climates. Generally, the eastern and southern parts of China consist of fertile lowlands and foothills and are the center of China’s agricultural production, whereas the western and northern parts of the country are characterized by rolling plateaus, sunken basins, gobi, and deserts; thus, they have much lower agricultural potential.

Owing to the tremendous differences in latitude, longitude, and landscapes, temperature and precipitation within China are sharply diverse from region to region. With the Qinling Range as the dividing line, the southern region is warmer than the northern region. For instance, the northernmost area of China lies along the Heilongjiang River in the semi-cold-temperate zone, but its southernmost area, the Hainan province, has a tropical climate. Similarly, south of the Qinling Range is more abundant in rainfall, most of it coming with the summer monsoons, but to the north of the Qinling Range, rainfall is less frequent and more uncertain.

China is one of the countries with the most rivers in the world. The Yellow River and Yangtze River are the two longest rivers in China. The Yangtze River, which is approximately 6，300 kilometers long, originates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and flows eastward to the East China Sea. The Yellow River, which is 5，464 kilometers long, also originates from the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau but flows eastward to the Bohai Sea. China also has the longest engineered river in the world, namely, the Grand Canal, which runs from Beijing to Hangzhou to connect the Yellow River and the Yangtze River systems.

The Origin of Chinese Civilization

China has a huge population of 1.41 billion and is proud of its continuous civilization, the longest one in the world. Ancient Chinese people already wondered where human beings came from and when Chinese people emerged. Their answers were in the form of mythology. By contrast, modern archaeology has clarified doubts and revealed the origin of Chinese civilization through the scientific method.

Mythology

As in many other civilizations, ancient Chinese legends attribute the creation of human beings to deities, i.e., Fuxi（伏羲）（male）and Nüwa（女娲）（female）. They are regarded as husband and wife or brother and sister. An ancient Chinese pictorial stone（left）shows that they are hybrid creatures, half-human and half-snake. The legend continues to say that the two deities gave birth to human beings. In another version of the legend, the creator was Nüwa solo, who used clay to make human figurines and blessed them with life. As for the origin of Chinese people, the Yellow Emperor（黄帝）and the Red Emperor（炎帝）have been revered. The two figures are also believed to be cultural heroes, and many important inventions are attributed to them. For instance, the Yellow Emperor and the Red Emperor are said to have invented agriculture and Chinese medicine, respectively.

Archaeological Findings

According to modern archaeological research, many Neolithic cultures existed in pre-historic China. Those Neolithic cultures interacted with each other and jointly gave birth to Chinese civilization about 5000 years ago. Among those regional Neolithic cultures, Yangshao culture（仰韶文化）in the Yellow River valley and Liangzhu culture（良渚文化）around the Lake Tai in the Yangtze River Delta were arguably the two most famous.

A）Yangshao Culture. Yangshao culture was first excavated from Yangshao village, Mianchi county, Henan province in 1921. It mainly flourished in today’s Gansu, Shaanxi, Henan, and Shanxi provinces from 5000 B.C. to 3000 B.C. The tribes of Yangshao culture were at the dawn of civilization. Cultural remains show they cultivated millet and raised pigs, chicken, dogs, and cattle. They also practiced hunting and fishing to sustain their society. They lived in walled settlements and their houses were semi-underground. Wealth was perhaps equally distributed. They had excellent craft because they were able to produce very beautiful colored pottery with intriguing patterns. They were also able to make jewelry, refined stone tools, and even silk.

B）Liangzhu Culture. Liangzhu is a place in Yuhang, Zhejiang province. In 1936, archaeologists excavated a Neolithic cultural site there and named it Liangzhu culture. The culture flourished in the Yangtze River Delta, mainly around Lake Tai, from 3300 B.C. to 2300 B.C. Like the Yangshao tribes, Liangzhu tribes were also semi-agricultural and semi-hunting. They built a large-scale walled settlement. They cultivated rice. They made elegant jade objects, black pottery, and silk.

As a very conspicuous feature, Liangzhu culture placed great value on jade, judged by the large number and outstanding quality of the jade excavated from their tombs. Two types of jade were prominent for their ritual use, i.e., bi（璧）and cong（琮）. Bi was a circular ring used to worship heaven, and cong was an elongated square tube used to worship earth. Bi and cong from Liangzhu demonstrate the striking continuity of Chinese civilization: they were consistently and widely used in rituals of premodern China, and their usages were recorded in the Confucian canon The Book of Rites.

Two Distinctive Features

Inc. 2000 B.C., China entered its historical period. According to traditional accounts, a chief named Qi（启）claimed himself the King of China and built the Xia Dynasty（夏朝, c.2070 B.C.—1600 B.C.）. However, its last king, Jie（桀）, was a tyrant, so Tang（汤）overthrew Xia and established the Shang Dynasty（商朝，1600 B.C.—1046 B.C.）. Similarly, the last king of Shang, Zhou（纣）, was a tyrant; thus, Ji Fa（姬发）overthrew Shang and established the Zhou Dynasty（周朝，1046 B.C.—256 B.C.）. Together, Xia, Shang, and Zhou were called the Three Dynasties（sandai三代）, where Feudalism prevailed, especially in the Zhou period. In 221 B.C., a new system, centralized governance, was created by the First Emperor of China, and China entered its imperial era until 1911 when the last emperor abdicated his throne to make room for the new-born Republic of China, which was then replaced by the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Through its very long history, two features of Chinese civilization are very striking in contrast to all other major civilizations: the Chinese writing system and the highly centralized governance.

The Stable Evolution of the Chinese Writing System

In contrast to English, French, or other alphabetic writing systems in the world, Chinese writing system is unique. It is not based on an alphabet to indicate sounds; instead, it is based on square-shaped characters to denote meanings. In this way, the Chinese writing system has the advantage of transcending time and barriers of spoken language. Over the course of history, many script styles have been developed: oracle bone inscription, bronze vessel inscription, seal script style, running script style, cursive script style, and standard script style. Consequently, today’s modern Chinese script is derived from its ancestor, oracle bone inscription, and in some cases, they are even identical.

The Highly Centralized Governance

From 221 B.C.to 1911 A.D., China experienced an imperial system that lasted for more than 2000 years. Before 221 B.C., a feudal system had existed with the Western Zhou（1046 B.C.-771 B.C.）as its peak: the king enfeoffed various feudal lords to establish various feudal states, and in these domains, the various feudal lords ruled independently.

However, in 221 B.C., the Qin state unified all the Chinese states, and the king of Qin, Ying Zheng（嬴政）, claimed himself the First Emperor of China. He destroyed all the feudal domains and abolished all the feudal systems. In turn, he installed a centralized bureaucracy, divided China into many commanderies and counties, and appointed non-hereditary officials to help him to govern China. This approach was a radical departure from the old feudal system where the king relied on hereditary and autonomous feudal lords for governance. Later, despite many changes, the basic structure and institutions were adopted by all the succeeding dynasties.