The Birth of China - Farmers of Rice and Millet (7000 BCE - 5000 BCE)

In the second episode of our series examining China's early history, we watch the slow development of China's earliest neolithic communities, charting the emergence of its first agriculturally dependent cultures, along with increasing signs of social complexity and ritual practises.

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#China #History #neolithic

The following music was used for this media project:
Music: Temple Of Heaven by Rafael Krux
Creative Commons 4.0 License.

[TheHistocrat]

Sources for today's episode (in order of appearance):

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[TheHistocrat]

Minor correction folks, I mistakenly say at 0:46 that the woman was holding the bone of a stork. As noted elsewhere this would actually have been the bone of a crane, apologies for the mistake.

[Rosegoldshawwty]

Ancient Native American history and ancient Chinese history have always been fascinations of mine that aren’t typically covered. This is perfect for me

[Strattios]

Hey, I'm not sure if you have read it, but the book Farmers of Forty Centuries by F. H. King is a must read. In 1900, the author, a British Agriculturalist, traveled China, Japan and Korea. One of his notes is how farmers harvested ripe grains by pulling the plant from the soil. They'd rinse, cut off and dry the root ball. This explains many points about farming. One, lack of grain harvesting tools. They just used a knife, not a scythe or sickle. No roots in soil meant less need to till the soil. And the roots were used for cooking fuel. Fast and hot, which is believed to be a reason wok cooking became prominent. I recommend the Dover Publications version as it has many of his original photos.

[Strattios]

I love when less covered eras get detailed videos. Thank you 🙏

[danyelnicholas]

0:51 those amazing early flutes were made of crane shinbone, not stork. It is significant, because the crane was probably an important totem, traces of which survive to this day in a specific affinity between cranes and Confucian scholars.

[brandonwinstead]

Ancestor: *invents tilling fields*
Ancestors ankles: "excuse me wtf"

[v_wegs]

Commenting for the algorithm, as this one is seriously underrated and the next episode comes out this week

[Replicaate]

I always wondered how much the distant folk memory of these ancient cultures influenced the much later dynastic historians' accounts of the Xia Dynasty and Five Divine Emperors. Also, the music in this episode is particularly lovely, really sets the scene of Neolithic asia.

[samuelleandro]

I'm not even that interested in Chinese history, yet here I am learning about its pre-history. Amazing channel.

[jamescody]

Your videos are great quality TheHistocrat, especially with the muck on YouTube these days. I love the smooth, academic, researched fully referenced anthropology. I'm midway through, looking forward to seeing more of this series!

[MrTaxiRob]

48:50 it could be plague that kept life expectancy low in sedentary cultures. Besides faster transmission, they were living closely with their livestock often in the same structures. I'm guessing most acute respiratory diseases wouldn't leave any evidence in skeletal remains, either.

[compactwoodhplcladding]

Fantastic content. As a Chinese, I actually think that all human beings have one ancestor.

[Kristen-wdwi]

I have been waiting eagerly for this since finishing the first episode when it came out last year. Thank you so much for this! Appreciate all your effort ❤

[levitatingoctahedron]

22:10 I think it's funny how childrens toys don't seem to exist in the minds of many archaeologists.

[johnnyexponential]

Great stuff, Charles! Fascinating and just at the right time too. Thanks!

[DinoFuzz]

Your videos are amazing. I always get excited when I see an upload. I legit watch them over and over 😅

[dermeistefan]

Always happy to see an upload from you.

[exotictastertherd]

Yes happy to see an upload! Thanks to all involved.

[TomFynn]

In 1755 Samuel Johnson published the first dictionary of the English language. At that time, the first Chinese dictionary was already 2000 years old.