China 2500 BCE

What is happening in China in 2500BCE

Over the past millennia, farming cultures in China have been becoming more and more complex.

Civilization is emerging in Ancient China

In the Yellow River region of China, farming, based on millet cultivation, is the backbone of the economy, and small towns and villages dot the landscape. The larger settlements are surrounded by thick beaten-earth walls, an indicator of endemic warfare. Elaborate burials for the elite suggest that the region is home to competing chiefdoms, ruled by warlike aristocracies. Even at this ancient period of China’s history, pottery shards carry inscriptions which include composite ideographs, conveying simple meanings. These show that the Chinese system of writing is gradually developing. The long history of China’s civilization is dawning.

The expansion of rice farming in southern China

In the Yangtze region, wet-rice cultivation predominates. As in the north, farming villages have become established here, often on lake sides where paddy fields can most easily be laid out.

In the hills and forests to the south of the Yangtze region, tribal peoples such as the Tai live lives largely based on hunting, gathering and fishing. Wet-rice cultivation is gradually penetrating this region as well, and farming settlements have reached the south China coast.

Next map, China in 1500 BCE

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Ancient East Asia

Ancient Chinese civilization

Early Civilizations (Premium resource)