Emperor," actually from another world?
province of Sichuan evidence of the fifth ancient civilization, as Japan's Kyodo News first reported on October 28, 1996. The evidence is an earthen stage, unearthed during a joint archaeology project and estimated to date back 4,500 years. It was found among the remains of an ancient castle near the banks of the Yangtze River, 56 miles (90 km) southwest of the city of Chengdu. The archaeologists involved in the excavation project explain that the earthen stage, pointing to an advanced knowledge of construction techniques by those who built it, reinforces the possibility of a fifth civilization. The world's four oldest known civilizations are Mesopotamia, Egypt, Indus and China's Yellow River. Carbon isotope analysis on earthenware found at the excavation site was used to help identify the age of the castle and stage.
Emperor," Huang-ti (27th century B.C.), who, it is said, lived in those misty reaches of time
before the Shang dynasty.
Around the 4th or 3rd millennium B.C., in the New Stone Age, great changes occurred in the lives of the ancient Chinese. Larger numbers of people began living together at settled places, cultivating land, and domesticating animals. These people made polished stone tools and built shelters in pit dwellings and beehive huts that were covered with reed roofs. Such villages were found mostly in the area of the great bend of the Huang He on the North China Plain. Despite its severe winters, this area was well suited to agriculture. In fact, it closely resembled the other cradles of ancient civilizations, such as the valley of the Nile in Egypt. As we will see, this is an important fact, because there are other striking similarities between the ancient civilizations.
According to Chinese tradition, the Chinese people originated in the Huang He (Hwang Ho or Yellow River) valley. The legends tell of a creator, P'an Ku, who was succeeded by a series of heavenly, terrestrial, and human sovereigns. Rice was grown in eastern China circa 5500 B.C., and about five centuries later an agricultural society developed in the Huang He valley.
developed by 2000 B.C., was a complex system of picture writing using forms called ideograms, pictograms, and phonograms. Such early forms of Chinese became known through the discovery by archaeologists of oracle bones, which were bones with writings inscribed on them. They were used for fortune-telling and record keeping in ancient China. In 1899 a small group of Chinese scholars and antiquarians collected quantities of inscribed bones from the fields around Hsiao T'un. Five years passed before enough symbols could be deciphered to reveal the true nature of the "dragon bones." They were a record of a people who called themselves Shang, and ruled lands surrounding Anyang some four thousand years ago. The objects embedded in the fields of Hsiao T'un came not from dragons but from tortoises and cattle. Shang kings desired to glimpse into the future, and their diviners inscribed the royal inquiries on a carefully scraped and polished tortoise shell or ox blade or leg bone.
developed hierarchy consisted of a king, nobles, commoners, and slaves. The capital city was Anyang, in north Henan Province. Some scholars have suggested that travelers from
Mesopotamia and from Southeast Asia brought agricultural methods to China, which stimulated the growth of ancient Chinese civilization. If so, there may be a direct connection with Sumer. The Shang peoples were known for their use of jade, bronze, horse-drawn chariots, ancestor worship, and highly organized armies. A significant aspect of China is its long cultural and national history. The Chinese people have shared a common culture longer than any other group on Earth. The Chinese writing system dates back almost 4,000 years.
Thebes, consisted of thousands of papyrus scrolls. Among the most important libraries in the
ancient Near East was the palace library of Ashurbanipal (668?-627? B.C.) at Nineveh in
Assyria. This early type of national library, collected "for the sake of distant days" consisted of
over 30,000 clay tablets. Early librarians were usually priests, teachers, or scholars. The first
known Chinese librarian was the philosopher Lao Tse, who was appointed keeper of the royal
historical records for the Chou rulers about 550 B.C. There is a definite connection between Lao Tse and the Yellow Emperor.
When men first learned to write, "all spirits cried in agony, as the innermost secrets of nature were thus revealed."
Under Huang-ti's rule, his ministers, Tai-mao and Li-shou devised a sexigesimal based number system and corresponding arithmetic. The Chinese believed that numbers had philosophical and metaphysical properties. The Chinese used numbers "to achieve spiritual harmony with the cosmos." They believed Man's "existence depended upon numerically specified actions and obligations."
Early Chinese math was presented in a literary form. There was no use of algebraic notation. The digits in their base 10 systems were ciphered and they were written vertically on bark, bamboo, silk, and paper. The traditional Chinese numeral system was a multiplicative grouping system, although a later system, called scientific Chinese numerals was a positional system
The knowledge of the four useful branches of military knowledge concerned with (1) mountains, (2) rivers, (3) marshes, and (4) plains; and enabled the Yellow Emperor to vanquish four several sovereigns (Napoleon had similar beliefs about the art of war). Ancient Chinese writings confirm that the Yellow Emperor was responsible for the invention of warfare.
In the LIU T'AO it is mentioned that Huang-ti "fought seventy battles and pacified the Empire." Ts'ao Kung's explanation is, that the Yellow Emperor was the first to institute the feudal system of vassals princes, each of whom (to the number of four) originally bore the title of Emperor. Li Ch'uan tells us that the art of war originated under Huang-ti, who received it from his Minister Feng.
Huang-ti, or the Yellow Emperor, is referred to as the "Originator of the Chinese Culture," and all people of the Chinese race regard themselves as descendants of Yan Di and Huan-ti.
Huang-ti was also known as Xuanyuan Shi as he lived at the Xuanyuan Hill. A clan leader towards the end of China's primitive society, Huang-ti Di was the full brother of Yan Di with whom he shared the country. He formed an alliance with Yan Di in later years against the invasion of Chiyou, the chieftain of the Jiuli Tribe. A decisive battle was fought at Zhuolu in the northwest of the present Hebei Province. Legend goes that at the beginning of the battle, Chiyou sneezed out a thick fog all over the place which lasted three days, and the soldiers of Huang-ti could not tell their directions. Fortunately Huang-ti led his men out of the fog by the "compass chariot" he had invented and won complete victory.
The alliance of Huang-ti and Yan Di split after Chiyou was defeated because, it was said, Yan Di intended to infringe upon the various tribes and seize the leading position of the alliance while the chieftains of the tribes preferred to obey Huang-ti. As a result the two leaders fought at Banquan. After three fierce battles, Huang-ti won victory and was made the "Son of Heaven" by the tribe chieftains.
