The Legend of the Xia The Dawn of Ancient China

The history of mankind reaches back thousands of years. China, washed by the waters of the Yellow River and the Yangtze, is no exception. In the north of this vast land, this empire of a thousand faces, men forged a nation. They tamed rivers and cultivated a land as smooth as silk. They raised the art of casting metals so high they could discourse with the gods. For these Chinese of the north, hardy and brave, the horizon was a potent symbol. From the horizon came the enemy. But the horizon also beckoned them to an ever greater empire. By unifying an immense territory, an emperor built a nation in his own image. His laws and his philosophy forged a heritage. And yet, where it all began, there was only earth and water. He takes the sky as his road, the earth as his chariot, the four seasons as his horses. He has the rain to clear his path, the wind to sweep away the dust. He makes the lightning his whip and the thunder his wheels. He soars above the clouds floating in the sky. He is the magnificent Feng Yi, god of the Yellow River. This endless yellow earth has traveled a long way. It is loess, fertile sedimentary dust carried by the wind from the deserts of Central Asia. Entire villages depend on it for their food. In winter, when the wind tries to rip this natural treasure from the hillsides, the peasants try to stabilize the soil. For the loess is as fine as it is soft. And the slightest gust forces it to continue a journey that it started a long time ago. Man settled here over 10,000 years ago. It's thanks to this yellow earth that civilization was born in China. It was everything, the primeval soil and the primary material for many innovations. No other civilization is so totally associated with the earth from which it was born. In stormy weather, the water that streams from the northern plateaus dissolves the loess. That is how this ancient alluvium gave its name to one of the world's greatest rivers, the Yellow River. China covers over 10 million square kilometers between the Yellow River and the Yangtze. It was there that Chinese civilization was born. It's the symbol of the ideal China in what it has of the most Chinese. And it was also, of course, the land on which the first farmers settled. Because this loess is an extremely fertile land. And it was on the banks of the Yellow River and its rivers that the first villages of farmers settled. Today, this landscape of northern China, irrigated by the Yellow River, looks like a large semi-desert plain, yellow, bordered by loess terraces. But around 6,600, 4,000 BC, you have to imagine, on the contrary, a vast leafy forest that covered almost all of northern China up to the border of Mongolia. From the time the first human communities settled here, they cleared the forests on these plateaus. This deforestation destroyed several thousand square kilometers of woodland. 3,000 years ago, trees and shrubs formed 80% of the region's landscape. Today, they account for only 5%. This is what the high plateaus looked like 5,000 years ago. Here in Huangling, the primeval forest was preserved by imperial decree. It is still forbidden to cut down these trees. For today's Chinese, this is a magical spot. It preserves the memory of the past. According to legend, trees were planted here by emperors from the first great dynasty, the Shang, more than 3,500 years ago. By sinking their roots in the loess, these plantations stabilized the water table and allowed the springs to remain plentiful, which is unusual on the high plateaus. The splendor of the first dynasties rested on wood. The civilization drew its vital force from wood. Its artists perfected their techniques thanks to wood. And it was from wood that the Shang built the first monumental tombs of their rulers. In 1928, a few kilometers from the city of Anyang in Henan province, archaeological expeditions made a series of discoveries that would revolutionize our knowledge of ancient China. For the first time, sumptuous tombs proved the power of the state in northern China 1,600 years before Christ. The digs quickly spread to cover the whole vast region. After the excavations, the sites around Anyang were carefully filled up. Professor Tang knows the exact location of one of the first tombs unearthed on the plain. This is the tombstone. This is the northern tomb. The northern tomb is 22.6 meters long. The depth of the tomb is 13 meters. Now it's 14 meters deep. It was 13 meters deep at the time. This is the direction it came from. These tombs have been dug many times in history. But just from the remains of the tombs, and from the structure of the tombs themselves, we can imagine what the British civilization of 3,000 years ago was like. The first explorers of the site had good reason to be amazed. They had discovered a huge cruciform tomb. The longer arm stretched north-south for 82 meters, and the shorter ran east-west for 53. Building the monument must have been a colossal enterprise, requiring a solid grasp of abstract geometry. The longest access ramp, sloping gently down to the heart of the tomb, made it easy to transport the king's body inside. In the center of the tomb was the king's final resting place. This is where his sarcophagus was laid, together with that of the wife he had chosen to accompany him on his final journey. Around the royal remains, the archaeologists found hundreds of bronze objects, vases, pottery items, and various utensils of jade. These were intended to serve the deceased in the afterlife, though some of the jade items were used to put victims to death during human sacrifices. In the past 70 years, archaeologists have unearthed 11 tombs built on the same plan. Almost all had been robbed, but most still held some fabulous treasures. By returning deep into the earth, the first kings were merging with the matrix of the universe, the soil in which their traditions and their art of living were rooted. 3,600 years ago, near the city of Qingzhou, fields of millet, wheat, and soy covered the banks of the Yellow River. Further north, the traveler entered barbarian lands populated by pastoral nomads, who were trading partners of the Yellow Earth peasants. But the Yellow Earth is more than a source of abundant crops. It bears the imprint of China's past. Its many qualities were quickly exploited by craftsmen and builders. It is also the raw material that dominates the landscape, and can be used by the inhabitants, the peasants of the region, today as well as yesterday. It is the material that has been used in Chinese architecture since the beginning. It is with clay, sometimes mixed with clay, that houses are built, the houses of the peasants, but also the palaces of the kings, or the houses of the first fortified cities. It is with wood, the essential raw material of Chinese architecture. 3,600 years ago, Chinese peasants made a discovery. Packed down and compressed, the fine loess particles formed a mass as solid as stone. That was providential, because at nightfall, elephants, rhinos and other wild animals would come out of the forests to devastate crops and slaughter cattle. To this day, farmers on the high plateaus of northern China use this method to build the walls surrounding their fields. The earth is painstakingly packed inside a wooden frame. It dries as hard as brick. This construction technique, which the Chinese call banju, wasn't used only for domestic structures. These earth walls in the modern city of Zhengzhou, on the banks of the Yellow River, are over 3,000 years old. They seem impervious to time and weather. It is estimated that every layer of loess in these walls was 10 centimetres thick. To build some sections, the masons laid over a hundred layers. It's difficult to imagine the patience and skill required to build this huge structure. The wall is 7 kilometres long, 9 metres high and 20 metres wide. This titanic fortification protected the heart of the royal city, capital of the Shang. To build it, 10,000 workers laboured in continuous shifts every day for 18 years. It demonstrates the power and sophistication of a civilisation that already had a pictographic writing system and highly developed methods of foretelling the future. It was also making its first astronomical observations. In the course of their 500-year reign, the Shang kings laid the basis of a conquering state. The Yingxu Museum houses the sacred relics of a dynasty whose entire authority was symbolised in the art of working bronze. These bronze vases testify to past greatness. They are the messengers of a people who quickly learned how to take advantage of the tin and copper deposits around the Yellow River. No other ancient civilisation reached the level of perfection attained by Shang craftsmen. In casting these ceremonial vases, they were simultaneously serving their gods and their king. The Shang kings commissioned the vases to reinforce their power and reaffirm their relationship with the heavens. The Taoti, complex arabesques that decorate the vessels, reveal the relationship the Shang had with their gods. The intricate patterns and angular projections form the stylised face of their deities, simultaneously feared and worshipped. To tame their universe and transform it to their own image, the Shang refined alloys. Metalwork was at the heart of their material and spiritual development. Bronze age, writing, the formation of a centralised state, the first cities from the Neolithic, a whole set of constructions, a social structure that marks a decisive step in Chinese civilisation. It is also through the mastery of metallurgy that the Chinese rulers will acquire the strength and power that will allow them to expand their territory, or even enter into conflict with each other and expand their home of civilisation. Of course, this bronze civilisation was established near mines, copper mines, tin mines, which were used to make this alloy, but also in places where the alloy could be used to make moulds used to sink these large bronze containers. It also required the presence of water and wood for this metallurgy to develop. If you look at the map, you can see that these first homes of the bronze civilisation correspond to areas rich in ore, water and raw materials. Japanese scientists have rediscovered the methods of the Shang sculptors. Using Shang techniques and materials, they have revived an art that is 3,600 years old. They found the secret of making the bronze vases known as ding and lei, which stand almost a metre high and weigh over 120 kilos. The secret was in the loess that's used to make the huge moulds. Master Mitsuru Kashi has recreated the art of transforming loess into clay. Once the loess is mixed with water and kneaded, it accepts the exact imprint of the original moulding. The plates fit to the millimetre. To put it all together requires hours of patient work. The clay is beautifully reflected. Japanese clay tends to crack a bit. That's because there's a lot of clay in it. The reflected clay just slides off. It doesn't crack. Only the fine, silky yellow earth of the high plateaus permitted such exquisite precision. Delicate arabesques covered each piece like a negative imprint of the cosmology of northern China. The fertile soil that allowed civilization to take root and grow on the banks of the Yellow River also served art and religion. In this bronze lei, the ruler would offer wine to the gods, symbolising his union with the celestial forces whose favour he was trying to win. Today, Japanese craftsmen are trying to revive this art. The mould is fired for eight hours. Then the sculptors pour in molten metal heated to over a thousand degrees centigrade. Only yellow earth moulds can tolerate such a high temperature without cracking. When the metal is poured, the inside of the mould becomes as hard as rock, imprinting every detail on the metal. The craftsmen have to use chisels on the mould to get the vase out. The mould is used only once. Each piece was unique and priceless. It transmitted the message of the gods. When they saw it shining in the sun, worshippers were subdued and apprehensive, for the face of the god glowed with a thousand flames that proved his presence. During lengthy rituals, the cavernous sound that came from the vase refocused worshippers' attention. In the same period, priests developed complex methods of divination by engraving occult signs on bones. Messages to the gods were everywhere, and people and sovereigns alike prayed for their help. The dragon stares into eternity. This vase, called Sigon, is a symbol of the gods' power and ritual. It is a reflection of the society that is extremely important. Bronze, in the time of the Shang, or the time of Danyang, their last capital, is reserved for the manufacture of weapons or for bronze rituals used in the cult of the ancestors. The dragon stares into eternity. This vase, called Sigon by believers, contained wine offerings made to the gods during lavish ceremonies. The ruler regularly summoned dancers and priests to huge banquets in honor of the gods. There, the bronze became an intermediary between him and the divine. This exclusive relationship determined the fate of the kingdom. But only the prince could hear the voices that told him which path was correct and whether the rains would be propitious for the harvest. As part of the ritual, dishes and wines were brought from the four corners of the kingdom. The king offered them to the gods, then ate the sacrificial food to reinforce his spiritual power. The people watched through incense smoke as hundreds of dancers honored the gods and their king. Bronze vessels from Shang tombs contain all the magic of these religious ceremonies. They are also witnesses to a vanished world. The fauna from the high plateau forests feature in slow procession, rhinos, elephants. So do mythical monsters, their gaping mouths devouring humans. The bronzes were worshipped by the Shang, but they also reflect their fears, for dark clouds often overshadowed their lives. The Shang knew that war was part of daily life, and bronze wasn't used only for ritual objects. When archaeologists first excavated ancient Chinese cities, they were surprised to discover thousands of moulds in clay or stone for arrowheads, spearheads, moulds that allowed the mass production of an entire arsenal. The bronze culture was abandoning ceremonies to honor the gods, Religious ritual was giving way to war. These near-industrial production methods allowed various kingdoms to raise huge armies. Greed, lust for power, ancient hatreds led to horrific wars. China sank into a permanent state of war that would last a thousand years. Three thousand years ago, the Shang Empire was attacked by its Zhou neighbors and collapsed. The city of Anyang was sacked. The great kingdoms were now split into tiny, independent, rival states. And yet, in this chaos, rival courts competed in creativity. Out of the void, new representations of the universe emerged. It was the age of Confucianism and Taoism. On vases, human beings replaced the gods. Women collect mulberries. Musicians play their instruments. Women dance while men prepare for war. From 650 BC, chronic instability turned into terror. Ruthless adventurers replaced aristocratic warriors. Skirmishes gave way to full-scale battles. Cities burned and blood flowed. The excavation of a battlefield near the city of Yingshu revealed the fate of the vanquished. It unearthed 1,500 graves with five skeletons in each one. 7,500 men had been beheaded. The winner of the battle wanted to prevent their return from the next world. For 400 years, life in China was dominated by executions and deportations. The mountains of southern China. A huge contrast with the bare plateaus of the Yellow River Valley. The Cheng people here retain a folk memory of the ancient fighting, for they were among its victims. They were forced to flee from Henan to Sichuan, a trek of several thousand kilometres to seek a refuge in the mountains. To quell their fear of a surprise attack, the Cheng built high stone towers that guard the mountain passes to this day. Thousands of years after the exodus, shamans still sing the tragic epic. Their songs still echo in the mountains, relaying the memory of a traumatised people. CHINESE SONG The Cheng, the people of the most formidable warrior kingdom, tested their valour against the barbarians on their western borders. But from 230 BC, thanks to their mastery of iron, they conquered all their neighbouring states. So a new state, feudal, authoritarian and centralised, was born. China united under one man, Shi Huangdi, the first emperor of China. The horseman is not of this world. He feeds freely on pink mists. His body dissolves as his spirit freezes. His words speaks the silence of the immortal. Enemy of vulgarity, he flees the multitude. Friend of the solitary, he seeks the mountain. If sometimes the Sphinx is... China under Mao was a closed society. Information was closely guarded. But on the 29th of March, 1974, sensational news flashed around the world. While ploughing his field in the Guangzhou Valley, not far from the tomb of Shi Huangdi, a peasant had uncovered the most fabulous treasure since that of Tutankhamun. The area was well known to experts, who could miss this earth pyramid covering more than a hectare. But the site had never been explored and legend said that the tomb concealed treasure. To the east of the tomb, the plough had uncovered life-sized human figures. First one, then two, then ten. The ghost of the emperor Shi Huangdi was everywhere. He had ordered this vast mausoleum built to his own glory. But who was he really? He was a tyrannical character with external signs and features. He was described as a man-eater worthy of any contradictor. Anyone who opposed him would die a violent death. This is how the old books ended. It was also a megalomaniac, someone who wanted to be at the center of the world. After a few days of digging, the archaeologists had to acknowledge the obvious. Awaiting them was an entire army in battle order. Shi Huangdi had not embarked alone on his last journey. Apart from the slaves sacrificed to serve him in the afterlife, he was accompanied by a terracotta army of 8,000 infantrymen, plus horses. Spearmen, archers, charioteers and officers were keeping watch for all eternity. Each figure was different. Every face had individual features. The emperor's personal guards seemed to have been frozen for 2,000 years The archaeologists could only wonder what else might the emperor's tomb contain? The tyrant's megalomania was frightening and yet there was one thing he feared. He summoned over 700,000 forced laborers to build his future tomb, which is larger than the Great Pyramid of Egypt. The tomb itself has not yet been opened. We know the description from this Chinese historian who tells a story that makes us dream. This tomb is designed as a huge underground palace but also as a microcosm of the world. We would have wanted it to represent the sky. There would have been a vault with a representation of the stars of the celestial world but also the 100 rivers made of mercury, real estate systems of extraordinary wealth, very sophisticated protection systems with automatic arrows and this mausoleum has not yet been excavated. Surveys have shown that there was a very important mercury keeper nearby but for the moment, perhaps to keep the magic of this description, only the funerary park and the graves around it have been excavated. The tomb itself still holds all its mystery. In August 1998, archaeologists made a new discovery at the foot of the mausoleum. Xi Huangdi left nothing to chance. Beside his troops lay an armory for their use. The archaeologists expected to find only a few spears and arrowheads. They discovered an entire arsenal. As well as weapons, there was armour of exceptional quality. No one had ever seen anything like it. It was made of stone. A complete suit of the armour has 612 slate plates, each one made to fit perfectly. Each finely polished piece is only eight millimetres thick. The suit is held together with bronze chains. Of course, no warrior would be able The emperor's real soldiers wore iron and leather, but he wanted to be certain that the armour of his entombed warriors would be impervious to time and the elements. Only a terracotta army, immortal and subterranean, could wear such splendid armour. The fixed gaze of these 8,000 men radiates imperial power, for Xi Huangdi founded an imperial nation named after the Qing. China was born. The emperor proclaimed laws, unified the system of weights and measures, revised writing, and introduced income tax. In the north, hundreds of thousands of workers began a mammoth project, a great wall over 2,400 kilometres long, designed to hold back the hordes of barbarian horsemen. China became the country at the centre of the world, Zhongkuo, the Middle Kingdom. According to legend, Xi Huangdi also had a colossal dam built on the Guanzhong plain. It was called Zhongkuochu. Professor Qing, from the University of Shaanxi, has surveyed the plain metre by metre. He has gone up the river and travelled back in time. On this spot, Professor Qing found what appear to be man-made earth mounds. The material used in them resembles loess. For him, there's no doubt that they were built using the Banju method 2,000 years ago, and that they are the remains of a huge dam. So legend proves to be true. Xi Huangdi tamed the rivers and built canals. To build this dam, thousands of people must have been mobilised. It must have stretched over two-and-a-half kilometres. And it must have risen tens of metres high. The compressed earth dam wall created a lake whose waters irrigated the whole plain. It was the quality of the loess, as well as the use of iron tools, that made it possible to build this gigantic monument. The soil of the first Chinese peasants who lived many centuries before Xi Huangdi was still used in building his imperial monuments. Xi Huangdi, China's first emperor, established a 1,000-year civilisation based on an autocratic and theocratic state. It would last till the middle of the 20th century. But what legacy did Xi Huangdi pass on to his successors? With a division into prefectures, districts, the unification of writing systems, roads, the unification of weights, of measures. All the elements that founded a new phase of civilisation It was followed by the Han, the next dynasty, and other dynasties. But the main foundations of this civilisation From then on, China was unified from north to south. From the green mountains of Sichuan to the arid plateaus of the north. And a good part of China's epic history was written thanks to its yellow earth. Today, China has over a billion people and some modern Chinese have returned to the yellow mountains of the north to plant trees. Entire villages regularly plant apricot trees on the high plateaus because they can survive the region's harsh weather. In the bitter cold, with fierce winds trying to blow away their yellow earth, these men, women and children are fighting to return this barren landscape to what it was thousands of years ago. Their tools are still primitive, but a few shovels are enough for the power of the people lies above all in their common will. And who knows? Maybe one day these mountains will be covered in blossoming trees. Four thousand years have passed. Four thousand years of development, war, dictatorship and revolution. Chinese civilisation today is at once removed from and close to its past. Even with its face set resolutely toward the future, China still encounters the memory of ancient times every step of the way. But China's strength lies in its ability to unite, to overcome the obstacles. Four thousand years of turbulent history have taught the Chinese to close ranks in the face of adversity. It's as if the magic of time has allowed an entire people to acquire the qualities of the earth in which their roots are planted. The ageless, yellow earth.