History  -  China`s   Heritage

When Europeans first read Marco Polo`s Travels they dismissed the accounts as pure phantasy. They could not believe there was a remote, pagan land that was vaster, richer, more populous and more sophisticated than their own. And with a history as long, eventful and productive as the combined histories of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome plus that of Europe up to the Renaissance.

The major difference is that China`s heritage is the pride and provenance of one people, who believed their emperor was the Son of Heaven and their land the centre of the entire universe.

The saga begins around 5000 BC, when neolithic Chinese built setlements in the fertile Yellow and Wei River valleys, where people lived in well-ordered, protected farming communities. During the next four millenia, the arts of war were developed and such peacetime skills as the production of silk and fine painted pottery, flood control and irrigation were mastered.

Read on the next page about the first verifiable dynasty, the Shang, 1766-1066 BC when writing was invented and the earliest cities developed > To next page <