The Dawn of Chinese History : the Pre-Qin Period

The pre-Qin period refers to the long period before emperor Qinshihuang's unification of ancient China.

About 1,700,000 years ago, ancestors of Chinese lived in present-day Yuanmou County, Yunnan province. This period is now generally considered the beginning of primitive society in China. About 2070 BC, Xia Dynasty came into being. This was Chinese first dynasty and it lasted for more than 400 years.

Succeeding Xia was Shang Dynasty, which also called Yin Dynasty, because of changing its capital several times and finally in Yin, today's Anyang city, Henan province. Shang Dynasty was a great power in the world which lasted over 500 years. This dynasty bestowed to its posterity a great heritage of artifacts such as extremely precious inscriptions on bones, tortoise shells and bronze wares.

The third kingdom was Western Zhou Dynasty, with Hao as its capital, which today is Xi'an city, Shaanxi province. Later as its capital fell into the hands of the minority invaders, Western Zhou had to move its capital eastward to today's Luoyang city, Henan province, hence the name of Eastern Zhou Dynasty. From Western Zhou to Eastern Zhou Dynasties, they exists about 800 years. Eastern Zhou was later divided by historians into distinct periods: the Spring and Autumn Period (770 - 476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475 - 221 BC). During the Spring and Autumn Period, China was split into many small rival vassal states. By the time of the Warring States Period, these small states coalesced into seven powerful bigger states. By way of reforms, these seven states developed into the feudal society, which paved the way for the later unification of China under Qin Dynasty.

When the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Indian civilization were progressing, ancient Chinese civilization in Xia, Shang, Western and Eastern Zhou dynasties was already in full bloom. When Greek and Roman city-states were in their heyday, thought and culture of the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period was flourishing in ancient China. With a broad view of ancient world civilization, one may find that the two stars of civilization - one in the East, the other in the West - were shining at the same time. This gradually developed into two centers of world civilization.