Page 133 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

Chinese Traditional History: Neolithic to Qin Empire
Zachary Brigmond

China boasts a civilization dating back to ancient time. In fact, Chinese civilization is a
crucial part of the ancient period of human history, stretching back thousands of years. In these
first thousand years, China made many developments in progressing their civilization and
forming a distinct culture that persists to this day. However, to better understand China’s ancient
history, it is best to establish the geography of modern China in relation to ancient China.

Modern China reaches from the coast of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea in the
east to the Tibetan Plateau in the west bordering present-day India and Pakistan. Its northern
border stretches to the southern edge of the Gobi Desert bordering present-day Mongolia, while
its southern border stretches to the South China Sea and borders present-day Vietnam. These
borders make China an enormous nation; China is roughly 25 percent larger than the forty-eight
states of mainland United States combined. China is a diverse nation in relation to its geography,
consisting of miles of desert, mountain ranges, steppes, plains, coastlines, forests, and jungles.
However, while the geography of China is extremely diverse, the population of China is equally
diverse. Modern China boasts a diverse population of Han Chinese, Tai ethnic groups, a few
Turkic ethnic groups, Burmic, Manchu, Tibetan, Mongolian, Miao-Yao, Korean, Mon-Khmer,
Tajik, Bai, and the Tujia. This diversity in both geography and population has been a major
factor in both modern and ancient times although the size of the country has changed in the flow
of history.1

China has not always been an enormous juggernaut of a nation. Ancient China was
significantly smaller, consisting primarily of the Chinese plains that contain fertile lands
replenished by the silt of the Yellow River, along with cultures forming in the Loess Plateau,

1Dr. Larry Israel, “TC1GEOLANG”, Lecture, 2018.

132