China

The easternmost of the great river civilizations of ancient times grew up along the banks of the Huang Ho (Yellow River) in China. Like the Nile, the Yellow River is rich in fertilizing silt (hence its name). Like the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, the Yellow River gives rise to disastrous floods, and as a result has received another name: China's sorrow. According to tradition the Emperor Yao employed the engineer Kung Kung to build dikes along the Yellow River to control flooding. Unfortunately the dams merely collected water until they burst, causing even more severe flooding. One tale tells of a flood around 2300 B.C. that lasted for an improbable thirteen years. Since dams failed, the Emperor Yu resorted to the use of building side channels and dredging. This controlled the floods more effectively, and Yu established the Hsia dynasty, which ruled from 2205 B.C. to 1766 B.C.

The very existence of the Hsia dynasty is debatable, though it is certain that, by this time, the Chinese had invented the arts of bronze casting, silk spinning, and writing. Written Chinese consists of thousands of ideograms, which probably originated as pictograms: “month” is a stylized Moon, “to shoot” is an arrow laid across a bow, “west” is indicated by a nesting bird.

The Chinese believed their land to be in between Heaven and Hell; hence they called China the Middle Kingdom. The Emperor ruled with the consent of the gods (particularly Ti, the Supreme Emperor of Heaven), and was said to possess the Mandate of Heaven.