Ancient China video sneak peek, Xia Dynasty

China. It's big and it lasted a long time, but we've put it all into one video. Nope, no we haven't. That would not be right. This video will cover about the same amount of time as Ancient Egypt, so it's a long amount of time, but still ancient history. The geography of China had a lot of influence on its history and culture. Flights to China from the outside world were really hard to get back then. Really, really hard, since airplanes were not invented for a few thousand years after the time we're talking about. The Yangtze River and the Huanghe River, or the Yellow River, were the rivers in China that fostered early civilizations. To the north and west of those river valleys, there are gigantic deserts, and to the south, the Himalayan mountains. And of course, to the east, the Pacific Ocean, the largest ocean in the world. So, getting to and from China during ancient times from the west was extremely difficult, and often deadly, which isolated these civilizations from others' influence, trade, and sometimes invasions for thousands of years. The period of Chinese history this chapter will focus on is the Bronze Age until the Han Dynasty, so over 2,000 years. The Yellow River was not an easy place for early people to live. While the river's water was essential for crops and survival, it also brought destruction and sorrow with terrible floods. These floods were unpredictable, and sometimes made worse by early solutions to contain the river. The thing about floods, though, is they are far too large for anyone to fight alone. So, the river created a problem that needed people to work together, or dragons? Okay, before we get to the dragons, we should back up a bit. Like other civilizations, people began farming by the rivers, mostly growing millet near the Yellow River in the north, and mostly rice near the Yangtze River in the south. The Copper, Tin, and Bronze Ages of prehistory occurred and during the Bronze Age, dynasties began to govern people. A dynasty is a period of time where a family has the ruling power, often for many generations. And in China, the ruling dynasty was believed to have the Mandate of Heaven. The Mandate of Heaven was the idea that the dynasty in power was meant to be in power, as if a divine force had decided it. When a dynasty lost power, it was believed that they lost the Mandate of Heaven, and that new rulers earned it. Basically, it's the idea of whoever is in charge is supposed to be in charge, because they're in charge. The first dynasty, the Xia, is largely considered to be a myth by historians. Stories of the Xia are mostly about its most famous leader, Yi the Engineer. Yi wasn't the typical engineer that sat at a drawing board, measuring, calculating, and making models. Yi was a bit more hands-on. Stories of Yi include him teaming up with mermen river spirits, turning into a bear, taming and defeating monsters, one with nine heads, almost never seeing his wife, okay, some engineers probably do that, and subcontracting dragons to redirect the river and floodwaters. Anyone that's ever worked with dragons can tell you, they never make more coffee in the break room, they're always giving spoilers at the water cooler, and they're just terrible with paperwork. Now, stories of mythical origins of ancient cities are very common. Stories of gods and creatures and god creatures, founding cities and civilizations are found throughout the world. So, while the stories of the Xia may not be entirely factual, it's still a bit of a historical mystery. Bye for now, thanks for joining us.