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121-602: The Yellow River (Chinese: Huang He ) flows from the Tibetan Plateau to the Bay of Bohai over a course of 5,464 kilometers (3,395 mi), making it the second-longest river in Asia and the sixth-longest in the world . Its ancient name was simply He before that character was broadened to be used in reference to most moderately sized rivers. The River Map has thus always been understood to be particularly in reference to

242-532: A conclave of nobles met at Shen and declared the Marquis's grandson King Ping . The capital was moved eastward to Wangcheng , marking the beginning of the Eastern Zhou period. The Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC) was characterized by an accelerating collapse of royal authority, although the king's ritual importance enabled more than five additional centuries of rule. The Spring and Autumn Annals ,

363-669: A drastic eastward turn at its confluence with the Wei at Tongguan in Shaanxi . However, the official division for the middle reaches of the river run from Hekou in Togtoh County , Inner Mongolia , to Zhengzhou , Henan . The middle reaches are 1,206 km (749 mi) long, with a basin area of 344,000 square kilometers (133,000 sq mi), 45.7% of the total, with a total elevation drop of 890 m (2,920 ft), an average drop of 0.074%. There are 30 large tributaries along

484-719: A failed attempt to protect his realm's capital from the Later Tang . A similar proposal from the Song engineer Li Chun concerning flooding the lower reaches of the river to protect the central plains from the Khitai was overruled in 1020: the Chanyuan Treaty between the two states had expressly forbidden the Song from establishing new moats or changing river courses. Breaches occurred regardless: one at Henglong in 1034 divided

605-555: A language largely similar in vocabulary and syntax to that of the Shang; a recent study by David McCraw, using lexical statistics, reached the same conclusion. The Zhou emulated Shang cultural practices, possibly to legitimize their own rule, and became the successors to Shang culture. At the same time, the Zhou may also have been connected to the Xirong , a broadly defined cultural group to

726-472: A major flood of the regional center Sizhou and Pan's dismissal from court. Subsequently, the river's 1680 flood entirely submerged Sizhou and the nearby Ming Zuling tombs beneath Hongze Lake for centuries until modern irrigation and flood control lowered the water level enough to permit their excavation and the tombs' restoration. Between 1851 and 1855 , the Yellow River returned to the north amid

847-578: A major flood said to have lasted at least two generations amid storms and famines. Chinese legend traditionally places it during the third millennium BCE reign of the Emperor Yao . The River Map typically plays an important role in Yu the Great 's eventual successful control over the flooding waters c. 2200–2100 BCE. The personification or deity of the Yellow River holds the rank of count or earl ( bo ) in

968-452: A new channel and inundating most farmland, cities or towns in its path. The traditional Chinese response of building higher and higher levees along the banks sometimes also contributed to the severity of the floods: When flood water did break through the levees, it could no longer drain back into the river bed as it would after a normal flood, as the river bed was sometimes now higher than the surrounding countryside. These changes could cause

1089-548: A north–south extent of about 1,100 km (680 mi). Its total drainage area is about 795,000 square kilometers (307,000 sq mi). According to the China Exploration and Research Society, the source of the Yellow River is at 34°29′31″N 96°20′25″E  /  34.49194°N 96.34028°E  / 34.49194; 96.34028 in the Bayan Har Mountains near the eastern edge of

1210-484: A piece of land was divided into nine squares in the well-field system , with the grain from the middle square taken by the government and that of surrounding squares kept by individual farmers. This way, the government was able to store surplus food and distribute it in times of famine or bad harvest. Some important manufacturing sectors during this period included bronze smelting, which was integral to making weapons and farming tools. Again, these industries were dominated by

1331-747: A standard military tactic during the Warring States period . As the Yellow River valley was the major entryway to the Guanzhong area and the state of Qin from the North China Plain , Qin heavily fortified the Hangu Pass ; it saw numerous battles and was also an important chokepoint protecting the Han capitals of Chang'an and Luoyang . Major flooding in AD 11 is credited with the downfall of

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1452-478: A system of mutual duty between superiors and inferiors. In contrast, the Legalists had no time for Confucian virtue and advocated a system of strict laws and harsh punishments. Agriculture in the Zhou dynasty was very intensive and, in many cases, directed by the government. All farming lands were owned by nobles, who then gave their land to their serfs , a situation similar to European feudalism . For example,

1573-480: A turning point, as rulers did not even entertain the pretense of vassalage of the Zhou court, instead proclaiming themselves fully independent kingdoms. A series of states rose to prominence before each falling in turn, and in most of these conflicts Zhou was a minor player. The last Zhou king is traditionally taken to be Nan , who was killed when Qin captured Wangcheng in 256 BC. Duke Wen of Eastern Zhou declared himself to be "King Hui", but his splinter state

1694-435: A vigorous duke would take power from his nobles and centralize the state. Centralization became more necessary as the states began to war among themselves and decentralization encouraged more war. If a duke took power from his nobles, the state would have to be administered bureaucratically by appointed officials. Despite these similarities, there are a number of important differences from medieval Europe. One obvious difference

1815-401: Is continuously deposited along the bottom of its channel. The sedimentation causes natural dams to slowly accumulate. These subaqueous dams are unpredictable and generally undetectable. Eventually, the enormous amount of water needs to find a new way to the sea, forcing it to take the path of least resistance . When this happens, it bursts out across the flat North China Plain , sometimes taking

1936-453: Is not the eldest and hence not heir to the lineage territory has the potential of becoming a progenitor and fostering a new trunk lineage (Ideally he would strike out to cultivate new lineage territory). [...] According to the Zou commentary, the son of heaven divided land among his feudal lords, his feudal lords divided the land among their dependent families and so forth down the pecking order to

2057-568: Is running to the sea with sufficient volume, 1.4 billion tons are carried to the sea per year. One estimate gives 34 kilograms of silt per cubic meter, as opposed to 10 for the Colorado and 1 for the Nile . Its average discharge is said to be 2,110 cubic meters per second (32,000 for the Yangtze), with a maximum of 25,000 and minimum of 245. However, since 1972, it often runs dry before it reaches

2178-481: Is that the Zhou ruled from walled cities rather than castles. Another was China's distinct class system, which lacked an organized clergy but saw Shang-descent yeomen become masters of ritual and ceremony, as well as astronomy, state affairs and ancient canons, known as ru ( 儒 ). When a dukedom was centralized, these people would find employment as government officials or officers. These hereditary classes were similar to Western knights in status and breeding, but unlike

2299-668: Is the second-longest river in China and the sixth-longest river system on Earth, with an estimated length of 5,464 km (3,395 mi) and a watershed of 795,000 km (307,000 sq mi). Beginning in the Bayan Har Mountains , the river flows generally eastwards before entering the 1,500 km (930 mi) long Ordos Loop, which runs northeast at Gansu through the Ordos Plateau and turns east in Inner Mongolia . The river then turns sharply southwards to form

2420-585: The 1332–33 flood or 1344 Yellow River flood during the Yuan dynasty , the 1887 flood during the Qing dynasty which killed anywhere from 900,000 to 2 million people, and a Republic of China era 1931 flood (part of a massive number of floods that year ) that killed 1–4 million people. The cause of the floods is the large amount of fine-grained loess carried by the river from the Loess Plateau , which

2541-479: The 1494 flood . The river flooded many times in the 16th century, including in 1526, 1534, 1558, and 1587. Each flood affected the river's lower course. The 1642 flood was man-made, caused by the attempt of the Ming governor of Kaifeng to use the river to destroy the peasant rebels under Li Zicheng who had been besieging the city for the past six months. He directed his men to break the dikes in an attempt to flood

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2662-560: The Bayan Har Mountains , and the Anemaqen ( Amne Machin ) Mountains in Qinghai. The river water is clear and flows steadily. Crystal clear lakes are characteristic of this section. The two main lakes along this section are Lake Gyaring (Zhaling) and Lake Ngoring (Eling), with capacities of 4.7 billion and 10.8 billion m (166 and 381 billion ft ), respectively. At elevations over 4,290 m (14,070 ft) above sea level they are

2783-462: The Gulf of Bohai , draining a basin of 752,443 square kilometers (290,520 sq mi) which nourishes 140 million people with drinking water and irrigation. The Yellow River passes through seven present-day provinces and two autonomous regions , namely (from west to east) Qinghai , Sichuan , Gansu , Ningxia , Inner Mongolia , Shaanxi , Shanxi , Henan , and Shandong . Major cities along

2904-467: The Late Miocene , Pliocene or Pleistocene , as a result of the Tibetan Plateau being uplifted. The river has long been critical to the development of northern China, and is regarded by scholars as a cradle of civilization . Flooding of the river has also caused much destruction, including multiple floods that have resulted in the deaths of over one million people. Among the deadliest were

3025-689: The Lo Shu Magic Square ", a companion piece to the River Map. Nevertheless, Legge finds it of interest in interpreting the I Ching . First of all, Legge notes that the little bright circles of the "Map" correspond with the "whole" ( yang ) lines of the I Ching and that the little dark circles of the "Map" correspond with the "divided" ( yin ) lines thereof. Certain places in modern China use Hétú ( 河图 ) as part of their proper place names. These include 河图镇 ( 岳西县 ), 河图镇 ( 保山市 ), and 河图乡 . Yellow River The Yellow River

3146-719: The Second Sino-Japanese War , Nationalist troops under Chiang Kai-shek broke the levees holding back the river near the village of Huayuankou in Henan, causing what has been called by Canadian historian, Diana Lary, a "war-induced natural disaster". The goal of the operation was to stop the advancing Japanese troops by following a strategy of "using water as a substitute for soldiers". The 1938 flood of an area covering 54,000 km (20,800 sq mi) took some 500,000 to 900,000 Chinese lives, along with an unknown number of Japanese soldiers. The flood prevented

3267-705: The Shaanxi loess plateau, it is referred to as 'river, my lord' ( 老爺河 , [lo˦˩˨ i˧ xɤu̯˧] ) in the Jin language. In Mongolian , it is called Šar mörön ( Шар мөрөн 'yellow river') or Khatan gol ( Хатан гол 'queen river'). The river is mentioned in the Kul Tigin stele as the 'green river' ( Old Turkic : yašïl ügüz , 𐰖𐱁𐰞𐰽𐰺𐰍). The Tibetan name is "River of the Peacock" ( Tibetan : རྨ ་ ཆུ , Wylie : rma.chu , THL : Ma chu ; 玛曲 ; 瑪曲 ; Mǎ qǔ ). The Yellow River first formed sometime during

3388-512: The Spring and Autumn period ( c.  771  – c.  481 BC ), power became increasingly decentralized as the authority of the royal house diminished. The Warring States period ( c.  481  – 221 BC) that followed saw large-scale warfare and consolidation among what had formerly been Zhou client states, until the Zhou were formally extinguished by the state of Qin in 256 BC. The Qin ultimately founded

3509-553: The Xia dynasty originated on its banks around 2100 BC; Sima Qian 's Shiji ( c.  91 BC ) record that the Xia were founded after the tribes around the Yellow River united to combat the frequent floods in the area. The river has provided fertile soil for agriculture, but since then has flooded and changed course frequently, with one estimate counting 1,593 floods in the 2,540 years between 595 BC and 1946 AD. As such,

3630-535: The Yangtze : one in the western headwaters of the rivers where they are closest to one another, another from the upper reaches of the Han River , and a third using the route of the old Grand Canal . Due to its heavy load of silt the Yellow River is a depositing stream – that is, it deposits part of its carried burden of soil in its bed in stretches where it is flowing slowly. These deposits elevate

3751-590: The Yellow River and defeated King Zhou of Shang at the Battle of Muye , marking the beginning of the Zhou dynasty. The Zhou enfeoffed a member of the defeated Shang royal family as the Duke of Song , which was held by descendants of the Shang royal family until its end. This practice was referred to as Two Kings, Three Reverences  [ zh ] . According to Nicholas Bodman, the Zhou appear to have spoken

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3872-643: The Yushu Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture . The source tributaries drain into Gyaring Lake and Ngoring Lake on the western edge of Golog Prefecture high in the Bayan Har Mountains of Qinghai . In the Zoige Basin along the boundary with Gansu , the Yellow River loops northwest and then northeast before turning south, creating the " Ordos Loop ", and then flows generally eastward across the North China Plain to

3993-602: The celestial bureaucracy and is accordingly known as He Bo. In some accounts, he is involved in providing the River Map. Houtu ( 后土 ) is a male, female, or non-gendered divinity depending on the source, although the image of a Sacred Mother Earth deity is now common. Houtu is worshiped in Chinese popular religion , with her birthday on the 18 day of the third month of the Chinese lunar calendar . Sacrifice and prayer to Houtu are believed to be efficacious for problems of weather, reproduction and family, wealth, and boating safety on

4114-428: The "second sage" of Confucianism; Shang Yang and Han Fei , responsible for the development of ancient Chinese Legalism ; and Xunzi , who was arguably the center of ancient Chinese intellectual life during his time. The state theology of the Zhou dynasty used concepts from the Shang dynasty and mostly referred to the Shang god, Di , as Tian , a more distant and unknowable concept, yet one that anyone could utilize,

4235-421: The 'Earth Suspended River' . At Kaifeng , Henan, the Yellow River is 10 meters (33 ft) above the ground level. Tributaries of the Yellow River listed from its source to its mouth include: The lower reaches of the Yellow River have no tributaries. The Yellow River is notable for the large amount of silt it carries—1.6 billion tons annually at the point where it descends from the Loess Plateau . If it

4356-483: The 11th century reigns of the Renzong and Shenzong emperors, when the river repeatedly broke its levees and migrated north and west, officials battled over whether expensive measures should be taken to return the river to its former channels. The Shenzong emperor ultimately decreed that the river be allowed to remain in its new course. Traditional flood control techniques made use of levees , revetments to absorb

4477-530: The 1970s, and until recently, the river frequently did not reach the sea. Since 2003, China has been working on the South–North Water Transfer Project to alleviate the strain on the river's water supply. When the Yellow River was still somewhat clear, it was simply referred to as 'the river' ( 河 , Old Chinese : *gâi ). Observations made at the Yumenkou gorge, where the river leaves

4598-506: The Bayan Har Mountains and ending at Hekou Town ( Togtoh County ), Inner Mongolia just before it turns sharply to the south. This segment has a total length of 3,472 kilometers (2,157 mi) and total basin area of 386,000 square kilometers (149,000 sq mi), 51.4% of the total basin area. Along this length, the elevation of the Yellow River drops 3,496 meters (11,470 ft), with an average grade of 0.10%. The source section flows mainly through pastures, swamps, and knolls between

4719-512: The Confucian chronicle of the early years of this process, gave the period its name as the Spring and Autumn period . The partition of Jin during the mid-5th century BC is a commonly cited as initiating the subsequent Warring States period . In 403 BC, the Zhou court recognized Han , Zhao , and Wei as fully independent states. In 344, Duke Hui of Wei was the first to claim the title of "king" for himself. Others followed, marking

4840-462: The European equivalent, they were expected to be something of a scholar instead of a warrior. Being appointed, they could move from one state to another. Some would travel from state to state peddling schemes of administrative or military reform. Those who could not find employment would often end up teaching young men who aspired to official status. The most famous of these was Confucius , who taught

4961-718: The Japanese Army from taking Zhengzhou , on the southern bank of the Yellow River, but did not stop them from reaching their goal of capturing Wuhan , which was the temporary seat of the Chinese government and straddles the Yangtze River . In 1954, the People's Republic of China announced its General Plan to Fundamentally Control Yellow River Flood Disasters and Develop Yellow River Waterworks. It sought to address both flooding risks and to convert rainfall-fed fields of

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5082-482: The Jinshan Valley. The abundant hydrodynamic resources stored in this section make it the second most suitable area to build hydroelectric power plants. The famous Hukou Waterfall is in the lower part of this valley on the border of Shanxi and Shaanxi . In the lower reaches, from Zhengzhou to its mouth, a distance of 786 km (488 mi), the river is confined to a levee -lined course as it flows to

5203-579: The Luoshu. Another interpretation of the River Diagram has to do with the 5 elements ( wuxing ) and the 5 Asian cardinal directions . Anyway, according to James Legge the earliest versions appear to no longer be extant, with received versions going back only to Song dynasty (early Twelfth Century); concluding, "If we had the original form of 'the River Map,' we should probably find it a numerical trifle, not more difficult, not more supernatural, than

5324-506: The North China Plain to irrigated agriculture. Construction began in earnest in 1957. From the 1970s to the 1990s, the dry-up trends accelerated, with the Yellow River failing to reach its mouth for an average of approximately 180 days per year in the 1990s. In 1997, the Yellow River did not reach the sea for 226 consecutive days. The Yellow River basin has an east–west extent of about 1,900 kilometers (1,180 mi) and

5445-468: The River Map and then used it to devise the trigrams that comprise the later I Ching . Yellow River floods were a constant occurrence throughout ancient, medieval, and early modern Chinese history , sometimes covering entire provinces and even shifting between the north and south sides of the Shandong Peninsula . The Great Flood was a foundational myth of Chinese culture concerning

5566-509: The River Plan is proven "beyond a reasonable doubt" to be a magic square . He connects it to the mingtang halls of worship, saying that they share a division into 9 fields: these in turn are correlated with the 9 celestial objects—the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, Rahu , and Ketu —introduced from and according to Indian astronomy . Other sources emphasize these points for

5687-591: The Shang kings. Nobles of the Ji family proclaimed Duke Hui of Eastern Zhou as King Nan's successor after their capital, Chengzhou, fell to Qin forces in 256 BC. Ji Zhao, a son of King Nan, led a resistance against Qin for five years. The dukedom fell in 249 BC. The remaining Ji family ruled Yan and Wei until 209 BC. During Confucius's lifetime in the Spring and Autumn period, Zhou kings had little power, and much administrative responsibility and de-facto political strength

5808-400: The Shang's large scale production of ceremonial bronzes, they developed an extensive system of bronze metalworking that required a large force of tribute labor. Many of its members were Shang, who were sometimes forcibly transported to new Zhou to produce the bronze ritual objects which were then sold and distributed across the lands, symbolizing Zhou legitimacy. Western writers often describe

5929-465: The Shang. Zhou rulers introduced the Mandate of Heaven , which would prove to be among East Asia's most enduring political doctrines. According to the theory, Heaven imposed a mandate to replace the Shang on the Zhou, whose moral superiority justified seizing Shang wealth and territory in order to return good governance to the people. The Mandate of Heaven was presented as a religious compact between

6050-551: The Western Zhou. During the Western Zhou (1045–771 BC), King Wu maintained the old capital for ceremonial purposes but constructed a new one for his palace and administration nearby at Haojing . Although Wu's early death left a young and inexperienced heir, the Duke of Zhou assisted his nephew King Cheng in consolidating royal power. Wary of the Duke of Zhou's increasing power, the "Three Guards", Zhou princes stationed on

6171-477: The Yellow River Basin by the south dike of the Yellow River. The total drop in elevation of the lower reaches is 93.6 m (307 ft), with an average grade of 0.012%. The silts received from the middle reaches form sediments here, elevating the river bed. Excessive sediment deposits have raised the riverbed several meters above the surrounding ground. That is why this part of the river is called

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6292-473: The Yellow River Map go back to earliest stages of the recorded history of Chinese culture. Fu Xi or Fuxi was a half- snake deity and protoplast who has appeared with his sister Nüwa in accounts of the creation of humanity and invention of civilization since at least the Zhou dynasty. Among the stories told about him is one in which, inspired by spider webs and other natural phenomena, he created

6413-474: The Yellow River and sometimes taken as a diagram of its course or the forces acting upon it. The concept of the Yellow River Map has a contextual apparatus associated with ancient Chinese cosmology . Various myths or legends are connected with the idea of mapping, involving correspondences between the earth, the sky, and/or abstract diagrams. The idea of a simple division of a flat/square earth into

6534-521: The Yellow River has been considered a blessing and a curse throughout history, and has been nicknamed both "China's Pride" and "China's Sorrow". The Yellow River's basin presently has a population of 120 million people, while over 420 million people live in the immediate provinces which rely on it as a water source. The basin comprises 13 percent of China's cultivated land area. The area receives very uneven rainfall, only 2 percent of China's water runoff —water and sediment flow has decreased five-fold since

6655-421: The Yellow River is 3.91 billion tons in 1933. The highest silt concentration level was recorded in 1977 at 920 kg/m (57.4 lb/ft ). These sediments later deposit in the slower lower reaches of the river, elevating the river bed and creating the famous "river above ground". From Hekou to Yumenkou, the river passes through the longest series of continuous valleys on its main course, collectively called

6776-543: The Yellow River shifted completely south of Shandong Peninsula and flowed into the Yellow Sea . By 1194, the mouth of the Huai had been blocked. The buildup of silt deposits was such that even after the Yellow River later shifted its course, the Huai could no longer flow along its historic course, but instead, its water pools into Hongze Lake and then runs southward toward the Yangtze River . A flood in 1344 returned

6897-532: The Yellow River south of Shandong. The Yuan dynasty was waning, and the emperor forced enormous teams to build new embankments for the river. The terrible conditions helped to fuel rebellions that led to the founding of the Ming dynasty . The course changed again in 1391 when the river flooded from Kaifeng to Fengyang in Anhui . It was finally stabilized by the eunuch Li Xing during the public works projects following

7018-457: The Yellow River, arranged according to the first year of operation (in brackets): As reported in 2000, the 7 largest hydro power plants (Longyangxia, Lijiaxia, Liujiaxia, Yanguoxia, Bapanxia, Daxia and Qinglongxia) had the total installed capacity of 5,618 MW. The main bridges and ferries by the province names in the order of downstream to upstream are: Shandong Zhou dynasty The Zhou dynasty ( [ʈʂóʊ] ; Chinese : 周 )

7139-413: The Yellow River. According to one account, when Yu the Great was attempting to channel the Yellow River and so avoid its flooding, he began by trying to open it to the west towards the mountains and away from the sea. Observing this, Houtu is said to have created and studied the River Map, after which she sent divine messenger birds to Yu to tell him to open up the river to the east instead. Yu's new dredging

7260-588: The Zhou expanded to the north and the northwest at the expense of the Siwa culture . When King You demoted and exiled his Jiang queen in favor of the commoner Bao Si , the disgraced queen's father the Marquis of Shen joined with Zeng and the Quanrong. The Quanrong put an end to the Western Zhou in 771 BC, sacking the Zhou capital at Haojing and killing the last Western Zhou king You . With King You dead,

7381-428: The Zhou people and their supreme god in heaven. The Zhou agreed that since worldly affairs were supposed to align with those of the heavens, the heavens conferred legitimate power on only one person, the Zhou ruler. In return, the ruler was duty-bound to uphold heaven's principles of harmony and honor. Any ruler who failed in this duty, who let instability creep into earthly affairs, or who let his people suffer, would lose

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7502-648: The Zhou period as feudal because the Zhou's fengjian system invites comparison with European political systems during the Middle Ages . There were many similarities between the decentralized systems. When the dynasty was established, the conquered land was divided into hereditary fiefs ( 諸侯 , zhūhóu ) that eventually became powerful in their own right. In matters of inheritance, the Zhou dynasty recognized only patrilineal primogeniture as legal. According to Hsi-Sheng Tao, "the Tsung-fa or descent line system has

7623-550: The Zhou period clearly intoned this caution. The Zhou kings contended that heaven favored their triumph because the last Shang kings had been evil men whose policies brought pain to the people through waste and corruption. After the Zhou came to power, the mandate became a political tool. One of the duties and privileges of the king was to create a royal calendar. This official document defined times for undertaking agricultural activities and celebrating rituals. But unexpected events such as solar eclipses or natural calamities threw

7744-517: The baron of Li Rong ( 驪戎男 ), after being defeated by Jin , married his daughter Li Ji off. According to historian Li Feng , the term "Rong" during the Western Zhou period was likely used to designate political and military adversaries rather than cultural and ethnic "others". Cultural artifacts of the Western Rong coexisted with Western Zhou bronzes, indicating close bonds between the Rong and

7865-595: The border between Shanxi and Shaanxi , turns eastwards at its confluence with the Wei River , and flows across the North China Plain before emptying into the Bohai Sea . The river is named for the yellow color of its water, which comes from the large amount of sediment discharged into the water as the river flows through the Loess Plateau . The Yellow River basin was the birthplace of ancient Chinese civilization . According to traditional Chinese historiography ,

7986-420: The course in three and repeatedly flooded the northern regions of Dezhou and Bozhou . The Song worked for five years futilely attempting to restore the previous course – using over 35,000 employees, 100,000 conscripts, and 220,000 tons of wood and bamboo in a single year  – before abandoning the project in 1041. The more sluggish river then occasioned a breach at Shanghu that sent

8107-411: The doctrine of the Mandate of Heaven while accommodating important Shang rituals at Wangcheng and Chengzhou . Over time, this decentralized system became strained as the familial relationships between the Zhou kings and the regional dynasties thinned over the generations. Peripheral territories developed local power and prestige on par with that of the Zhou. The conflicts with nomadic tribes from

8228-492: The earlier oracle bone and bronze scripts . By the dynasty's end, an immature form of clerical script had also emerged. According to Chinese mythology , the Zhou lineage began when Jiang Yuan , a consort of the legendary Emperor Ku , miraculously conceived a child, Qi "the Abandoned One", after stepping into the divine footprint of Shangdi . Qi was a culture hero credited with surviving abandonment by his mother three times, and with greatly improving agriculture, to

8349-460: The eastern plain, rose in rebellion against his regency. Even though they garnered the support of independent-minded nobles, Shang partisans, and several Dongyi tribes, the Duke of Zhou quelled the rebellion, and further expanded the Zhou Kingdom into the east. To maintain Zhou authority over its greatly expanded territory and prevent other revolts, he set up the fengjian system. Furthermore, he countered Zhou's crisis of legitimacy by expounding

8470-424: The energy of the water, overflow basins, drainage canals and polders . Treatises on traditional flood control techniques were written by officials such as Pan Jixun , who argued that joining branches of the river increased the water's power and this in turn increased its ability to flush sediment. The difficult situation around the confluence of the Yellow River, the Huai, and the Grand Canal, however, still led to

8591-491: The floods that provoked the Nien and Taiping Rebellions . The 1887 flood has been estimated to have killed between 900,000 and 2 million people, and is the second-worst natural disaster in history (excluding famines and epidemics). The Yellow River more or less adopted its present course during the 1897 flood . The 1931 flood killed an estimated 1,000,000 to 4,000,000, and is the worst natural disaster recorded (excluding famines and epidemics). On 9 June 1938, during

8712-476: The following characteristics: patrilineal descent, patrilineal succession, patriarchate, sib-exogamy, and primogeniture" The system, also called "extensive stratified patrilineage", was defined by the anthropologist Kwang-chih Chang as "characterized by the fact that the eldest son of each generation formed the main of line descent and political authority, whereas the younger brothers were moved out to establish new lineages of lesser authority. The farther removed,

8833-456: The ice dams before they become dangerous. Before modern dams appeared in China, the Yellow River used to be extremely prone to flooding. In the 2,540 years from 595 BC to 1946 AD, the Yellow River has been reckoned to have flooded 1,593 times, shifting its course 26 times noticeably and nine times severely. These floods include some of the deadliest natural disasters ever recorded. Before modern disaster management, when floods occurred, some of

8954-427: The imperial Qin dynasty in 221 BC after conquering all of China . The Zhou period is often considered to be the zenith for the craft of Chinese bronzeware . The latter Zhou period is also famous for the advent of three major Chinese philosophies: Confucianism , Taoism and Legalism . The Zhou dynasty also spans the period when the predominant form of written Chinese became seal script , which evolved from

9075-576: The importance of the Di troops. King Xiang of Zhou also married a Di princess after receiving Di military support. During the Zhou dynasty, the origins of native Chinese philosophy developed, its initial stages of development beginning in the 6th century BC. The greatest Chinese philosophers, those who made the greatest impact on later generations of Chinese, were Confucius , founder of Confucianism , and Laozi , founder of Taoism . Other philosophers of this era were Mozi , founder of Mohism ; Mencius ,

9196-501: The lesser the political authority". Ebrey defines the descent-line system as follows: "A great line (ta-tsung) is the line of eldest sons continuing indefinitely from a founding ancestor. A lesser line is the line of younger sons going back no more than five generations. Great lines and lesser lines continually spin off new lesser lines, founded by younger sons". K.E. Brashier writes in his book "Ancestral Memory in Early China" about

9317-623: The main outlet north towards Tianjin in 1048. In 1128, Song troops under the Kaifeng governor Du Chong ( 杜 充 , Dù Chōng , d.   1141) breached the southern dikes of the Yellow River in an effort to stop the advancing Jin army. The resulting major river avulsion allowed the Yellow to capture the Si and other tributaries of the Huai River . For the first time in recorded history,

9438-436: The mandate. Under this system, it was the prerogative of spiritual authority to withdraw support from any wayward ruler and to find another, more worthy one. In this way, the Zhou sky god legitimized regime change. In using this creed, the Zhou rulers had to acknowledge that any group of rulers, even they themselves, could be ousted if they lost the mandate of heaven because of improper practices. The book of odes written during

9559-417: The manner of the Xirong and Rongdi (see Hua–Yi distinction ). Ju's son Liu , however, led his people to prosperity by restoring agriculture and settling them at a place called Bin , which his descendants ruled for generations. Tai later led the clan from Bin to Zhou, an area in the Wei River valley (modern Qishan County ). The duke passed over his two elder sons Taibo and Zhongyong to favor

9680-433: The middle reaches, and the water flow is increased by 43.5% on this stage. The middle reaches contribute 92% of the river's silts. The middle stream of the Yellow River passes through the Loess Plateau , where substantial erosion takes place. The large amount of mud and sand discharged into the river makes the Yellow River the most sediment -laden river in the world. The highest recorded annual level of silts discharged into

9801-426: The modern Loess Plateau , indicated the river changed to muddy sometime between 367 BC and 165 AD, according to chronicles' records. The alternative names 'murky river' ( 濁河 , *drôk-gâi ) and '(muddy) yellow river' ( 黃河 , *gwâŋ-gâi ) were attested in 145 BC and in 429 AD respectively. The name Yellow River fully replaces Murky River by the end of Tang dynasty , for unclear reasons. In

9922-588: The nobility who directed the production of such materials. China's first projects of hydraulic engineering were initiated during the Zhou dynasty, ultimately as a means to aid agricultural irrigation. Sunshu Ao , the Chancellor of Wei who served King Zhuang of Chu , dammed a river to create an enormous irrigation reservoir in modern-day northern Anhui province. For this, Sunshu is credited as China's first hydraulic engineer. The later Wei statesman Ximen Bao , who served Marquis Wen of Wei (445–396 BC),

10043-509: The north and the northwest, variously known as the Xianyun , Guifang , or various "Rong" tribes, such as the Xirong , Shanrong or Quanrong , intensified towards the end of the Western Zhou period. These tribes are recorded as harassing Zhou territory, but at the time the Zhou were expanding northwards, encroaching on their traditional lands—especially the Wei River valley. Archaeologically,

10164-472: The northeast across the North China Plain before emptying into the Bohai Sea . The basin area in this stage is only 23,000 square kilometers (8,900 sq mi), a mere 3% of the total, because few tributaries add to the flow in this stage; nearly all rivers to the south drain into the Huai River , whereas those to the north drain into the Hai River . The Huai River Basin, for example, is separated from

10285-486: The northern Loess Plateau , modern Ningxia and the Yellow River floodplain. The military prowess of Zhou peaked during the 19th year of King Zhao 's reign, when the six armies were wiped out along with King Zhao on a campaign around the Han River . Early Zhou kings were true commanders-in-chief King Zhao was famous for repeated campaigns in the Yangtze region, and died on campaign. Later kings' campaigns were less effective. King Li led 14 armies against barbarians in

10406-597: The officers who had their dependent kin and the commoners who "each had his apportioned relations and all had their graded precedence"" This type of unilineal descent-group later became the model of the Korean family through the influence of Neo-Confucianism , as Zhu Xi and others advocated its re-establishment in China. There were five peerage ranks below the royal ranks, in descending order with common English translations: gōng 公 "duke", hóu 侯 "marquis", bó 伯 "count", zǐ 子 "viscount", and nán 男 "baron". At times,

10527-458: The opposite view of the Shang's spirituality. The Zhou wanted to increase the number of enlightenment seekers, mystics, and those who would be interested in learning about such things as a way to further distance their people from the Shang-era paradigm and local traditions. Having emerged during the Western Zhou, the li ritual system encoded an understanding of manners as an expression of

10648-433: The others and Chinese society in sometimes unusual ways. The Mohists for instance found little interest in their praise of meritocracy but much acceptance for their mastery of defensive siege warfare; much later, however, their arguments against nepotism were used in favor of establishing the imperial examination system. The Zhou heartland was the Wei River valley; this remained their primary base of power after conquering

10769-510: The others were Confucianism as interpreted by Mencius and others, Legalism , Taoism , Mohism , the utopian communalist Agriculturalism , two strains of the School of Diplomacy , the School of Names , Sun Tzu 's School of the Military , and the School of Naturalists . While only the first three of these would receive imperial patronage in later dynasties, doctrines from each influenced

10890-573: The point where he was granted lordship over Tai , the surname Ji , and the title Houji "Lord of Millet ", by the Emperor Shun . He even received sacrifice as a harvest god . The term Houji was probably a hereditary title attached to a lineage. Buzhu —Qi's son, or rather that of the Houji —is said to have abandoned his position as Agrarian Master ( 農師 ; Nóngshī ) in old age and either he or his son Ju abandoned their tradition, living in

11011-483: The political system created by the Zhou royal house survived in some form for several additional centuries. A date of 1046 BC for the Zhou's establishment is supported by the Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project and David Pankenier, but David Nivison and Edward L. Shaughnessy date the establishment to 1045 BC. The latter Eastern Zhou period is itself roughly subdivided into two parts. During

11132-474: The population might initially die from drowning and many more would suffer later from the ensuing famine and spread of diseases. In Chinese mythology , the giant Kua Fu drained the Yellow River and the Wei River to quench his burning thirst as he pursued the Sun. Historical documents from the Spring and Autumn period and Qin dynasty indicate that the Yellow River at that time flowed considerably north of its present course. These accounts show that after

11253-540: The present course of the Yellow River include (from west to east) Lanzhou , Yinchuan , Wuhai , Baotou , Luoyang , Zhengzhou , Kaifeng , and Jinan . The current mouth of the Yellow River is located at Kenli County , Shandong. The river is commonly divided into three stages. These are roughly the northeast of the mountainous Tibetan Plateau , the Ordos Loop and Loess Plateau , and the North China Plain . However, different scholars have different opinions on how

11374-441: The rainy season from July to October, when 60% of the annual volume of the river flows. Maximum demand for irrigation is needed between March and June. In order to capture excess water for use when needed and for flood control and electricity generation, several dams have been built, but their expected life is limited due to the high silt load. A proposed South–North Water Transfer Project involves several schemes to divert water from

11495-502: The rebels, but destroyed his own city instead: the flood and the ensuing famine and plague are estimated to have killed 300,000 of the city's previous population of 378,000. The once-prosperous city was nearly abandoned until its rebuilding under the Kangxi Emperor in the Qing dynasty . The question of how aggressively flooding should be controlled, and whether it should be steered back to its original channels when it migrated,

11616-477: The regions along the river are mostly deserts and grasslands, with very few tributaries. The flow is slow. The Hetao Plain has a length of 900 km (560 mi) and width of 30 to 50 km (19 to 31 mi). It is historically the most important irrigation plain along the Yellow River. The Ordos Loop formed by an enormous twist of the Yellow River, beginning at Zhongning County in Ningxia and ending with

11737-455: The river passed Luoyang , it flowed along the border between Shanxi and Henan Provinces, then continued along the border between Hebei and Shandong before emptying into Bohai Bay near present-day Tianjin . Another outlet followed essentially the present course. The river left these paths in 602 BC and shifted several hundred kilometers to the east. Sabotage of dikes, canals, and reservoirs and deliberate flooding of rival states became

11858-693: The river skirts through the high-altitude peat bog known as the Zoigê Wetlands and makes a sharp turn towards the northwest forming the border between Maqu and Zoigê County in Sichuan . Flowing now along the northern edge of Amne Machin, the river reenters Qinghai and gradually curves north towards the Longyang Gorge at Xinghai . The valley section stretches from Longyang Gorge in Qinghai to Qingtong Gorge in Gansu. Steep cliffs line both sides of

11979-517: The river's mouth to shift as much as 480 km (300 mi), sometimes reaching the ocean to the north of the Shandong Peninsula and sometimes to the south. Another historical source of devastating floods is the collapse of upstream ice dams in Inner Mongolia with an accompanying sudden release of vast quantities of impounded water. There have been 11 such major floods in the past century, each causing tremendous loss of life and property. Nowadays, explosives dropped from aircraft are used to break

12100-501: The river. The water bed is narrow and the average drop is large, so the flow in this section is extremely turbulent and fast. There are 20 gorges in this section, the most famous of these being the Longyang , Jishi, Liujia , Bapan, and Qingtong gorges. The flow conditions in this section makes it the best location for hydroelectric plants. The Yellow River exits Qinghai for the second and final time in these gorges and enters Gansu for

12221-423: The riverbed which flows between natural levees in its lower reaches. Should a flood occur, the river may break out of the levees into the surrounding lower flood plain and take a new channel. Historically this has occurred about once every hundred years. In modern times, considerable effort has been made to strengthen levees and control floods. Below is an incomplete list of hydroelectric power stations built on

12342-413: The ruling house's mandate into question. Since rulers claimed that their authority came from heaven, the Zhou made great efforts to gain accurate knowledge of the stars and to perfect the astronomical system on which they based their calendar. Zhou legitimacy also arose indirectly from Shang material culture through the use of bronze ritual vessels, statues , ornaments, and weapons. As the Zhou emulated

12463-491: The sea. The low volume is due to increased agricultural irrigation, increased by a factor of five since 1950. Water diverted from the river as of 1999 served 140 million people and irrigated 74,000 km (29,000 sq mi) of land. The Yellow River delta totals 8,000 square kilometers (3,100 square miles). However, with the decrease in silt reaching the sea, it has been reported to be shrinking slightly each year since 1996 through erosion. The highest volume occurs during

12584-592: The second time just before Liujia Gorge. Downstream from the Yanguo Gorge, the provincial capital of Lanzhou is built upon the Yellow River's banks. The Yellow River flows northeasterly out of Gansu and into Ningxia before the Qingtong Gorge. After emerging from the Qingtong Gorge, the river comes into a section of vast alluvial plains , the Yinchuan Plain and Hetao Plain . In this section,

12705-434: The short-lived Xin dynasty , and another flood in AD 70 returned the river north of Shandong on essentially its present course. From around the beginning of the 3rd century, the importance of the Hangu Pass was reduced, with the major fortifications and military bases moved upriver to Tongguan . In AD 923, the desperate Later Liang general Duan Ning again broke the dikes, flooding 1,000 square miles (2,600 km ) in

12826-456: The social hierarchy, ethics, and regulation concerning material life; the corresponding social practices became idealized within Confucian ideology. The system was canonized in the Book of Rites , Rites of Zhou , and Etiquette and Ceremonial compiled during the Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD), thus becoming the heart of the Chinese imperial ideology. While the system

12947-485: The south, but failed to achieve any victory. King Xuan fought the Quanrong nomads in vain. King You was killed by the Quanrong when Haojing was sacked. Although chariots had been introduced to China during the Shang dynasty from Central Asia, the Zhou period saw the first major use of chariots in battle. Recent archaeological finds demonstrate similarities between horse burials of the Shang and Zhou dynasties with

13068-566: The steppe populations in the west, such as the Saka and Wusun . Other possible cultural influences resulting from contact with these Iranic people of Central Asia in this period may include fighting styles, head-and-hooves burials, art motifs and myths. The Zhou army also included "barbarian" troops such as the Di people . King Hui of Zhou married a princess of the Red Di as a sign of appreciation for

13189-693: The three stages are divided. This article mainly adopts the division used by the Yellow River Conservancy Commission . The Yellow River derived sediments have been transported out of the Bohai Sea, all way to the North Yellow Sea and South Yellow Sea, and formed a Distal Depocenter around the Shandong Peninsula. The upper reaches of the Yellow River constitute a segment starting from its source in

13310-404: The tsung-fa system of patrilineal primogeniture: "The greater lineage, if it has survived, is the direct succession from father to eldest son and is not defined via the collateral shifts of the lesser lineages. In discussions that demarcate between trunk and collateral lines, the former is called a zong and the latter a zu, whereas the whole lineage is dubbed the shi. [...] On one hand, every son who

13431-649: The two largest plateau freshwater lakes nationwide. A significant amount of land in the Yellow River's source area has been designated as the Sanjiangyuan ("'Three Rivers' Sources") National Nature Reserve , to protect the source region of the Yellow River, the Yangtze , and the Mekong . Flowing east at the eastern edge of the Amne Machin Mountains, the Yellow River enters Maqu County in Gansu . Here,

13552-570: The very basic 3x3, (9-square) grid is historically attested in literature as early as the Tian Wen ' s "Heavenly Questions", together with a suggested corresponding mapping solution for a round heaven/the sky (Hawkes, 136–137 [notes to Tian wen ]). This text from the Chu Ci dates to pre-221 BCE. This basic grid is associated with the plan of Yu to control the Great Flood of China . Myths of

13673-488: The west of the Shang, which the Shang regarded as tributaries. For example, the philosopher Mencius (372–289 BC) acknowledged that King Wen of Zhou had ancestry from among the Xirong, as King Wen's descendants, the Zhou kings, claimed descent from Hou Ji , a legendary culture hero possibly related to the Xirong through his mother Jiang Yuan . Additionally, the late 4th-century BC Zuo Zhuan comments that

13794-614: The younger Jili , a warrior in his own right. As a vassal of the Shang kings Wu Yi and Wen Ding , Jili went to conquer several Xirong tribes before being treacherously killed by Shang forces. Taibo and Zhongyong had supposedly already fled to the Yangtze delta, where they established the state of Wu among the tribes there. Jili's son Wen bribed his way out of imprisonment and moved the Zhou capital to Feng (present-day Xi'an ). Around 1046 BC, Wen's son Wu and his ally Jiang Ziya led an army of 45,000 men and 300 chariots across

13915-495: Was a royal dynasty of China that existed for 789 years from c.  1046 BC until 256 BC, the longest of all dynasties in Chinese history . During the Western Zhou period ( c.  1046  – 771 BC), the royal house, surnamed Ji , had military control over ancient China . Even as Zhou suzerainty became increasingly ceremonial over the following Eastern Zhou period (771–256 BC),

14036-457: Was a success, the flood waters drained into the eastern sea , and Yu's former dredging project toward the west was named the "River Wrongly Opened". In this story, Houtu and the River Map were key to the successful engineering solution to the flood problem. The River Map is attested to in the Gu Ming section of the Book of Documents , one of its "new text" sections. Supposedly, the River Map

14157-559: Was a topic of controversy in the imperial court. Rival cliques made arguments based on budgetary, technical and strategic criteria. Geographer Charles Greer identifies two competing schools of thought on how to control the Yellow River. One, which he identifies as Confucian , advocated containing the river between higher levees, thus maximizing the amount of river basin land that could be cultivated. The other, which he associates with Taoism , favored lower levees separated by as much as 5-10 kilometers. In one particular long-running debate during

14278-521: Was fully disassembled by 249. Qin's wars of unification concluded in 221 BC with Qin Shi Huang 's annexation of Qi . The Eastern Zhou is also remembered as the golden age of Chinese philosophy: the Hundred Schools of Thought which flourished as rival lords patronized itinerant scholars is led by the example of Qi's Jixia Academy . The Nine Schools of Thought which came to dominate

14399-499: Was initially a respected body of concrete regulations, the fragmentation of the Western Zhou period led the ritual to drift towards moralization and formalization in regard to: The rulers of the Zhou dynasty were titled wang ( 王 ), which was also the term used by the Shang rulers, normally translated into English as 'king'. In addition to these rulers, King Wu's immediate ancestors— Danfu , Jili , and Wen —are also referred to as "Kings of Zhou", despite having been nominal vassals of

14520-599: Was put on display during the Zhou dynasty . However, this has also been interpreted to mean a depiction of the 8 trigrams ( bagua ). This incident is recorded to have been during the reign of the Zhou Kangwang , who reigned either about 1020–996 BCE or 1005–978 BCE. The I Ching cites the River Map and the Luoshu. One way of analyzing the Yellow River Map is by comparison with the Luoshu . Wolfram Eberhard says that

14641-539: Was the first hydraulic engineer of China to have created a large irrigation canal system. As the main focus of his grandiose project, his canal work eventually diverted the waters of the entire Zhang River to a spot further up the Yellow River . The early Western Zhou supported a strong army, split into two major units: "the Six Armies of the west" and "the Eight Armies of Chengzhou". The armies campaigned in

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