Youchao - The First Architect 建筑始祖有巢氏 | Myths of China E04 [Captions Available]

So we have an eagle to thank for the houses we live in today? How did that happen? Hello hello and welcome again to the Chainsmoking Writer's channel. And in case you didn't know, that's me, Api Ngor, the Chainsmoking Writer. Today we are going to talk about the first architect, the first person that gave us houses. So we're still at roughly around the Paleolithic to the Neolithic ages of human development, human history. And at this time, our early ancestors were still very much at the whims of the elements and the multitude of predators out there in the wild. And all they could do was basically, if they are lucky, they would find some caves and they would stay in those caves and make simple barriers to protect them from whatever might be coming in. But for most of the time, most of these early peoples would be sleeping out in the open. And mind you, this was at a time that people have not really mastered the art of fire. If they were lucky, they might find some embers or things like that left over from forest fires or lightning strikes. But for majority of the time, they will be sleeping out in the open and without any form of protection from any predators that might come in the night. Now, to our story. Now, it was at this time, it was said that a man was born in the area around Cangwu Mountains, which is in today's roughly Ningyuan province, Ningyuan County, Jiuyi Mountain in China. And as with all myths, there are some magical elements to it. So, this man had a chance encounter with a deity and he came to possess a superior intellect and a very good instinct for things and nature. So, on one of his hunting trips, this man managed to shoot an eagle with his flint arrow. And although the eagle was injured, it did not fall out of the sky. Instead, the eagle tried to escape and it flew. I mean, these days, the birds were huge things. I mean, they would be considered monsters today. I mean, you most probably have seen some videos on YouTube or Facebook where there's these big birds of prey picking up little ships and even little human beings. So, imagine that's like the normal size of the birds back then. But, back to the story. So, this eagle started flying away and tried to escape and the man was like, no, no, no, I'm not gonna let you escape, man. It's like a lot of effort to hunt and I gotta feed the tribe. So, he chased. He chased after the wounded bird, the eagle was like a long chase. He followed it all the way up into a mountain and finally the eagle landed in its nest, which was like on top of a very tall tree. So, as you know, eagles, they nest on top of tall trees. If you didn't know, now you do. So, this eagle flew into the nest and hid there. The man started climbing up the tree and tried to grab it from the nest and bring it back to the tribe. As he was climbing up the tree, it started to rain and the rain became a storm. It was like drenching down and it was miserable, basically. So, the man couldn't climb up because it's wet and slippery. So, the man had to come back down to the ground and wait there for the rain to stop so he can go back up again. It was there, under the tree, being drenched, feeling miserable and cold. He looked up and he saw the eagle's nest, this big structure in the tree. The eagle was snug and comfortable, protected from the elements, comfortably hiding out there, as comfortable as can be with a bloody arrow sticking out of his body. But still, you get the point. The man was there looking up at it and he was thinking like, well, isn't that wonderful? There's the eagle up there, snug and comfortable. Here I am, drenched, cold, miserable. He was like, you know, isn't the eagle much smarter than us humans? It knows how to build a dwelling for itself and protect itself from the elements, and even protect itself from hunters like me. So, the man was thinking like, why can't we humans do that as well? So, as soon as the rain stopped, this man scurried up the tree to look at the nest and to study its structure and how it was built. I mean, we don't know if he still managed to grab the eagle and bring it back to the tribe for food. Who knows? Maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But the point is, he was more interested in studying how to build this shelter. Once he was sufficiently satisfied that he had a general idea of how this structure is constructed, he went to gather branches, sturdy branches and wood from around the area, logs and branches from around the area. He found another tree nearby and carried these logs and branches up there and started tying it to the main trunk and slowly building out from it into a kind of platform that became the floor of the whole structure. He started erecting vertical beams, vertical pillars on the side and started covering the whole thing with leaves and branches and twigs. It was like the first tree house. He went inside the structure to test out the strength and stability of it. He found that it was cooling and it was more comfortable. I mean, definitely it was safer than sleeping out in the open where you don't know when you're going to be eaten. It's more comfortable than sleeping in dang dark caves. He was ecstatic. He was happy at what he had created, what he had discovered. As usual, he ran back to the tribe and he taught his tribesmen how to build the same kind of structures. From this main idea, there were several offshoots that came from it. One of which was the ability to use fibres from the trees and leaves to make clothing for themselves, which would most probably be a cooler alternative than wearing skins and furs in the summer. Another discovery they made after they moved up into the trees was that there were fruits and berries that were growing much higher up in the canopy of the woods. They were tasty and delicious. This was an additional source of sustenance for the people at the time. Of course, the people were grateful to this man for giving them a new way of living, a safer and more comfortable way of dwelling. They made him the chief of the clan, and they gave him a name. They called him You Chao, which literally translated means having a nest or nest owner. Therefore, the name You Chao. He continued leading the people and making more contributions and improving the standard of living for his tribe. Very soon, his reputation grew. He was made the supreme chieftain of all the tribes around the area, or he's like the regional chieftain of all the tribes in the region. They gave him a title, which basically means king of nests or the nest king. In his time as supreme chieftain, apart from these physical inventions and discoveries, he also made some societal changes in terms of habits and traditions. For one, the most important one was he implemented a complete ban of marriages between siblings and close relatives. Mind you, we are still in the Neolithic, early Neolithic age, or maybe even the late Paleolithic. It was still a common thing. What You Chao did was that he implemented a complete ban on marriages between siblings and close relatives. Instead, he came up with the idea that partners could only be found from outside of an individual's tribe or clan. What came out of this was the system of group marriages, in which the men from tribe A would basically gather together and go to tribe B, and they would stay the night in the tribe and consummate the relationship. In the morning, the men would leave and go back to their own tribes, while the women of tribe B would be barred from leaving the tribal settlement for life. They would give birth to children if they got pregnant, and they would raise the children on their own. This was still pretty much a matriarchal system, where children would know their own mothers, but they would not know their fathers. So this system of inter-tribal group marriages was a giant step. It might not seem like a big thing today, but it was a giant step in the advancement of society and civilization, as opposed to the older consanguineous marriage system. In today's context, it would be unimaginable to think of marriages between close relatives, but this was not a concept that early humans had. What Yau Chau effectively did was really, I guess you could say that he improved the DNA diversification among the population, and greatly improved the chances of humanity's survival and propagation through the ages. There are a few versions of what happened to Yau Chau in his later days. One version says that he was betrayed by one of his trusted lieutenants, and his position was usurped, while he himself, was killed in the rebellion. Other versions or other tellings of the same story say that Yau Chau managed to live to the right old age, and peacefully passed his position of power down to the next generation of leaders. We wouldn't know. These stories are 90% myths and 10% stories. So that's that. And now for bonus facts and trivials. According to archaeological records, the early Chinese ancestors settled in an area that was unsafe, to say the least. They were frequently picked off by predators and stuff like that. So a lot of these early ancestors, they started migrating north to safer regions. In the north, they were inspired by ground burrowing animals, like moose and rats and creatures like that. They started making holes in hillsides or even into the ground itself, to make cave dwellings or crypt dwellings. Crypt dwellings meaning underground homes. So what they would do, they would dig out a hole and they would maybe make a roof to shelter them against the elements. That was one way, one of the early developments of human dwellings. But the problem is, it gets really, really cold in the north. So a lot of these people, rather than brave the cold, they would rather stay in the south, where it was generally more dangerous, due to predators and venomous animals and the variety of ways you could die. Further archaeological records show that the earliest man-made dwellings in China were built around 6,000 to 7,000 years ago, around the Neolithic period. So some of them were, like I mentioned earlier, the cryptic and the cave dwellings found in the north. While in the south, you have stilted houses. So what happens was that the people would erect vertical logs, sturdy logs, and they would build a platform on it, which would serve as the floor of the dwelling. Then they would cover the structure with leaves and reeds and stuff like that. The humans would live in the dwelling, while the empty area under the floor was used to keep domesticated animals and stuff like that. So these were buildings and the very early dwellings that men built for themselves 6,000 to 7,000 years ago. Well, I hope that was interesting for you. Now if you feel that I've earned the privilege of your time, please, please, please, I beg you, hit the like button. If you like more content like this, and more stories like this, remember to subscribe to the channel and hit the bell icon so that you get notified whenever a new video comes out. And if you'd like to connect with me on my website or other social media platforms, the links are all in the description below. And I hope to see you again soon. See ya!