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Before looking at the archaeological or legendary prehistoric evidence of ChinaÕs people, letÕs examine her geography. This is the body of China, her foundation – earth – the base. Taoist fashion we believe that the body of China has had a huge impact upon the development of her unique culture. During this discussion we will also explore the impact of the EarthÕs geography upon the overall cultural development of our species.
China proper consists of three major river plains. The three rivers all roughly flow from west to east, draining into the western Pacific Ocean. The Hwang-ho, the Yellow River, drains the northern quarter of China. The middle half is drained by the Yangtze River while the lower quarter is drained by the Si Kiang, the West river.
Each river begins in the Kunlun Mountains, high mountains to the west that separate China from India. These are categorized as Ôhigh relief mountainsÕ, i.e. Ôless than 50% of the slopes are gentle and with local relief greater than 5000 feetÕ. They are the eastern extension of the Himalayan mountain range and are not easily penetrable due to their high relief.
China is crisscrossed by mountains going east/west and north/south. These crisscrossing mountains allow for many north-south rivers to feed into, becoming tributaries to the larger east-west rivers. This is especially true of the Yangtze River in the middle half of China. It and its tributary rivers contain over 20,000 miles of navigable water. The Yangtze River Basin defines central China and is its most productive agricultural zone. The Yellow River Basin in the North is drier and more unpredictable, while the West River basin in the south is very irregular and quite mountainous. The smaller and less rugged east-west mountain ranges, which separate the river basins, shrink towards the coast to become part of the alluvial Great China Plain. The coast of classic China is a relatively flat delta created by the merger of the two river deltas, the Yangtze and the Yellow river.
In the topography map of China seen below, it is easily seen that the Chinese river basins begin in the Himalayas and then empty out onto a common plain. It is this plain where the majority of the Chinese population has always lived. Note that while the river plains of the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers merge onto a common plain that the river plain of Si Kiang, of southern China, is separated by the Southern Uplands. Likewise it was separated from the major action of classic China.
Red indicates the high altitude mountains of the Himalayas, while green indicates the low altitude coastal plains.
The Himalayas define Asia. This rugged mountain uplift was presumably caused when the Indian sub-continent rammed into the Eurasian continent, some 40 million years ago. The high mountain ranges are the source of an abundant water supply. Indeed five major river valleys of world originate in the Himalayas. Starting from the west, the Indus river valley defines the western border the Indian subcontinent while the Ganges river valley defines the eastern border. Between the Ganges river valley and the Chinese river valleys is the Mekong river valley of Southeast Asia. Circling northward the merging river basins of the Yangtze and the Yellow River define classic China.
These rivers are shown in the map on the map below.
The Himalayas and her fingers also effectively isolate the civilizations of India, Southeast Asia, and China from each other, except by sea.
In terms of the crisscrossing mountains:
Let us introduce a little imaginary geology, which can be used as a mnemonic device, if nothing else. Millions of years ago the 4 land masses, i.e. the Chinese, European, Japanese and Indian tectonic plates, collided to form the mountain ranges that surround India and China, separating them from each other and the rest of the world. Visually it appears that the China plate crashed into the Eurasian plate prior to the coming of the Indian plate, creating a concentric set of mountain ridges, which initially completely surrounded the coastal plains of China. Then from the south the Indian plate crunched into this land mass creating the Himalayas with her Chinese Kunlun Mountain range and river valleys. Finally from the north, what we call the Japanese plate crashed into the Eurasian plate creating the high ridge called the Khingan Mountains. This sealed off ChinaÕs agricultural plain from the north. Between the Khingan Mountains and the Kunlun Mountains there is a break, which we call the Pass. More on this later.
We can extend this vision to include EurasiaÕs many mountain ridges and peninsulas and islands arcs.
Imagine waves of island arcs crashing and docking onto the Eurasian land-mass over long periods of time. Island arcs are formed in the collisions between tectonic plates. They are characterized by ridge and trough. Theoretically the ridge, or island arc, emerges from the subduction zone, while the colliding plate is taken under and consumed by the subduction zone. Japan is a classic island arc with their deep trenches to the west. Similarly the Philippines, the Indonesian islands and New Guinea are also island arcs. A few peninsulas appear to be island arcs that are docking. These include the Kamchatka, the Korean, and the Malay peninsulas in the East. In the West the Saudi Arabian peninsula could be considered part of the pattern. Many mountain ranges appear to be island arcs that docked long ago. These include the Greater Khingan in the East, the Altai, the Kunlun, and the Tien Shan in the middle and the Zagros mountains which surround the Caspian Sea, with its lower than sea level trough, in the west. See the map below for the fantasy pattern.
{insert Island Arc map}
Returning to our focus the Chinese river basin is enclosed from the west and south by the Kunlun Mountains and its extensions, while the Khingan Mountains to the north almost seal ChinaÕs northern border. Unfortunately and fortunately there were two gaps left, one on the eastern coast and the second, which we called the Pass. Hence the agricultural plain of China was almost entirely sealed off from the rest of the world by these by these rugged high relief mountain ranges. This insulation with a few holes for stimulation is why China developed an advanced and unique, culture and civilization. LetÕs examine these breaks.
In the hundreds of thousands of years since the aforementioned tectonic plate collisions, which created the Eurasia mountain ranges, there have been numerous Ice Ages, some longer and more intense than others. It seems that during the most intense of these Ice Ages that huge glaciers formed in the hollows of the mountainous land forms of Eurasia. These glaciers with their thaws and reformation, over these multitude of Ice Ages, eventually hollowed out huge plateaus above coastal China. Eventually these great glaciers grew enormous enough to burst through the mountain ranges that surrounded the Chinese Tectonic Plate. With the pulsation of these Ice Ages, Great Rivers followed the course of these ancient glaciers, which had burst through their mountainous barriers. Two of these great rivers were the Yangtze and the Yellow River of China, which merged to form the great river valley that sustained Chinese civilization.
{Picture of China and surrounding areas with the Plateaus}
Agriculturally these high plateaus, which surround the Chinese river valley, were doubly cursed. First the ancient glaciers had scoured of them of topsoil. Second they were subject to the rain shadow effect, which left them arid. The clouds forming over the ocean dropped all their moisture on the ocean side of the high mountains of the Himalayas leaving none left for the high plateaus to the north. Therefore while the Indian and Chinese river valleys were perfectly suited for agriculture, the high plateaus were wholly unsuited for agriculture.
Where the glaciers broke through, they left a huge gap. The rivers followed the glaciers. And humans follow rivers. Surrounding China from the coast in the south, through the east, to the coast in the north are high relief mountains, which are virtually impassable. However while China is surrounded by these huge mountain ranges, over twice as big as our largest California mountains, there are these breaks and dips in the range, which allowed rivers and humans to pass. While ChinaÕs mountain ranges are mostly impassable, these glacial breaks allowed for limited cultural interaction between the cultures, which formed in the different geographies.
{Picture of plateaus, rivers and passes}
To the north, west and south of the Chinese river basin are three large high plateaus, the Tibetan Plateau, the Mongolian Plateau, and the YŸnnan Plateau. Because of the aridity of these environments they are not and were not suitable for agriculture. Nomadic groups spawned in these plateaus would regularly raid and/or invade the rich China agricultural plains. This dynamic has fueled Chinese history, as we shall see. It will be seen that this nomad/farmer polarity is at the root of the Chinese political history, which is heavily linked with the Confucian/Taoist polarity - based as they are upon domination and cultivation respectively.
Now while each plateau has supplied its own cultural dynamic, the gap between the Mongolian Plateau and the Chinese River Valley has been the most significant. Between the two intersecting mountain ranges there is a gap, which is categorized as mere mountains, where the local relief is never above 5000 feet. This relative gap in the mountains is passable, and was regularly passed. We will call it The Pass.
While the Himalayas create a formidable natural border upon ChinaÕs western boundary, the high desert plateau to the north called the Mongolian plateau is only the only protection for ChinaÕs northern border. The Yellow River meanders through this high desert plateau and then finally breaks through to sweep down and fertilize ChinaÕs northern river plain. Just as the water breaks through at this point so do invading cultures. This area where the Yellow River meanders through the high desert and then breaks through to the North China plain is called the Ordos. This point of entry has leaked many invading cultures into ChinaÕs agricultural river plain. As such this area was where the Great Wall was built.
There is one other significant break. To the east of the Mongolian plateau are the Khingan Mountains. While the Himalayas define the western border of ChinaÕs river basin, the Khingan mountains roughly define ManchuriaÕs western border with Mongolia and separate Manchuria and China. There is only one point on the coast where there is no natural boundary. Naturally this spot was also an area of cultural leakage. Further this was the end of the great wall in the East and the site of continuous fortresses for thousands of years.