The archaic age of China, as often happens when it comes to ancient civilizations, and in particular the period when these populations did not yet know writing, is shrouded in a thick blanket of mystery and much of what we know of the first millennia of Chinese history is mainly derived from archaeological reconstructions.
To complicate matters enormously a series of fires and pyres that around the second century BC. led to the destruction of a huge slice of the history of those peoples. On the historiographical level, China has its own analytical tradition that begins in the second century BC. with Sima Quin , an author who, according to tradition, to continue to do his work, chose emasculation, anecdotal aside, Sima Quin is mainly known for being the first Chinese "historian", and in his works he would have written centuries of oral tradition, leaving to posterity an immense documentary collection regarding the archaic age and this makes him, the Herodot of Chinese historiography and just like Herodotus Sima Quin also had a very descriptive vision of "history", in his writings he also gave a lot of space to numerous foreign peoples, in fact tracing the "international" profile of China during his time and in past eras .
The narration of Sima Quin starts from 3500 BC. in an age that he calls of the three august and five emperors , it is an era in which history and mythology are intertwined in a very strong way, similarly to what happened in Egypt in the pre-dynastic age and if we consider that the first "dynasty" subsequent to this era is that of Xia whose presence is attested around 2100.a.c. we find ourselves having a pre-archaic age of about 1300/1400 years.
In any case, according to the reconstruction provided by Sima Quin, it is with the Xia dynasty , or rather, the Xia people, since at this stage we do not have a real ruling house, in the " modern sense "And" European "Of the term, the crown in fact has no real political power, but the king is a more religious figure, in fact his task is relegated to the performance of religious practices and ceremonies, which have nothing to do with the political administration of cities.
During the Xia dynasty, according to tradition, the first form of state would have developed in China, and it is also in that period that the positions of government would have affirmed and the hereditary succession would have been consolidated in ways that would have come at least until the foundation of the first. Chinese empire, around 220 BC with the rise of the Qin dynasty following a long period of civil war and military disorder. However, between around 2100 and 1600, the Xia dynasty progressively extended its power along the valley of the Yellow River conquering the regions of Henan, Shandong, Shanix, Hubei and Hebei which more or less corresponds to the central-northern belt of China, immediately south-east of Mongolia . Chinese society at this stage has a very vague order, it is presumable that, given the proximity to the Yellow River, agriculture was one of the main activities, followed by crafts and livestock.
The story of Sima Quin seems to be confirmed by some archaeological finds in the site of Erlitou , present day Yanshi in the Henan region , probable place of origin of the Xia civilization, in particular the discovery of the foundations of some buildings dating back to around the second millennium, seem to be tangible proof of the advanced level of social development of the Xia society, since to carry out public or private works of that magnitude the presence of many construction workers is required, u free men or slaves is indifferent, and these workers must somehow be fed and this implies the presence of a class of peasants engaged in non-subsistence agriculture, therefore it is necessary that there is a fiscal system of taxation and an administrative apparatus, both identifying a level of development of the company quite advanced.
Unfortunately, Sima Quin's narrative does not provide us with much information on how the Xia dynasty fell into decline, and archeology has not yet been able to find clues that can explain what happened, what we know is only that, starting from 1600 circa and until circa 1040, the epicenter of Chinese civilization moves to the court of the Shang dynasty also known as the Yin dynasty which resided in the northeastern area of China and which in these six centuries would have controlled the valley of the yellow river.
As for the Xia, the Shang also have an economy based mainly on agriculture, but unlike their predecessors, it seems that in this era the breeding was practiced in a much more extensive way, we also know that it is during the Shang dynasty that Chinese society takes two important steps forward, on a technical level will be the first (in the East) to enter the age of leagues managing to work the bronze , and as happened also for Sumerians and Egyptians, the transition to the Bronze Age coincides with the introduction of the first forms of writing and the production of the first ornamental ceramics .
According to Sima quin, in this period the capital was moved several times and around 1350 it was moved for the last time to the city of Yin-Xu, it is very likely that this change of capital is due to a change at the top of power and that the Shang and Yin dynasties are actually two separate dynasties, as were separate peoples Assyrians and Babylonians, if they shared language and divinity, according to other hypotheses instead the two names indicate the first and last capital of this people. We will probably never know, but what we do know is that the transfer of the capital brought great luck to the kingdom and the last two centuries are considered a sort of golden age of the Shang-Yin dynasty .
In 1056 following the battle of Muye the Zhou dynasty would emerge, an ancient people, originally from the easternmost part of the kingdom, who had always enjoyed a certain territorial autonomy and who, in a sense, had been fighting for centuries against the reigning dynasty of the Shang-Yin, the rivalry between the two peoples it would vanish with the fall of Shang in the battle of Muye, thus marking the beginning of a new phase in Chinese history.
The kingdom of the Zhou is considered by some to be the longest-lived of the reigns of archaic China, lasting for over eight centuries, or until the middle of the third century, while according to others, the fragmentation of the kingdom starting from the fifth century would mark the end of the dynasty. In any case, during this era we are witnessing the maximum expression of Chinese classicism , the Zhou kingdom would have given birth to personalities of the caliber of Confucius and Laozi founders respectively of Confucianism and Taoism, two philosophical cults that represent the foundations of all Chinese thought and culture, a bit like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle represent an important piece in the cultural foundations of Western Europe.
As I anticipated above, in the last two centuries the Zhou kingdom has been anything but united, and the dynasty will break up into three different independent states, these will be the Han state , the Wei state and the Zhao state and subsequently these three kingdoms would have further fragmented giving rise to seven principalities, Han , Zhao , Wei , Yan , Qin , Qi and Chu , which would have been perpetually at war with each other for over two centuries, from the split of the Zhou state to the triumph of the Qin over all seven kingdoms . This phase of military anarchy and political instability is called the Age of Warring Kingdoms and following the triumph of the Qin, China would be reunified and revolutionized with the creation of the first Chinese empire.
Traditional hierarchical institutions and political offices are upset and the king who until then had performed mainly ritual tasks, with the rise of the Qin becomes the main depositary of political and military power.