Intro to Historical Chinese Geography

in this video I will give a brief overview of Chinese geography that could come in handy as you read Chinese history one of the hardest things about learning Chinese history is orienting yourself to the geography so in this

video I will try to demystify some of this and provide you with a framework for thinking about it it helps that despite its complexity the geography has not changed much from the beginning of

Chinese history to the present day and so once you learn the basic principles you can apply them across many different time periods the key geographical feature of China is just how isolated it

is from the rest of Asia in the west is the Tibetan plateau and the mountains of Central Asia which even to this day are nearly impassable to the north are the steps of Central Asia the Gobi desert

and more Mountains to the South are the mountains that form the spine of Mainland southeast Asia and to the east is the Pacific Ocean within the external constraints that by these outer boundaries are even more internal

constraints that separate the different regions of China from one another Northern China is dominant need to buy one large plane whereas the Northwest and south are mostly mountainous with many small river valleys a large number

of ancient civilizations lived in the entirety of this area during Neolithic times but the open plain in the north meant that over time it was easy for a fuel power to dominate the area after

which they could easily browbeat their smaller neighbors scattered around the many river valleys into submission until they reached the bigger outer boundaries they have nowhere else left to expand as much as the formidable outer boundaries

facilitate the unification and centralization the smaller internal boundaries also promoted regionalization and fragmentation ancient China was just too big to be easily ruled under one

government with pre-modern communication and transportation Technologies the mountains and rivers divide the land into many sub-regions some with very formidable natural barriers making it easy for Warlords to break off during

periods of weak central Authority but then no matter how politically fragmented the land would become because of the even bigger outer constraints set by the Tibetan Plateau gobia desert and

Pacific Ocean it will still only be a matter of time until one faction will grow powerful enough that it could probably be the other factions into a submission again unifying China as the famous opening sentence of the novel The

Romance of the Three Kingdom States the Empire long United must divide long divided must unite and to make matters worse much of the ancient Chinese economy was centered around intensive

agriculture to support as large of a population as possible along with high levels of political centralization that was unmatched in just about anywhere in the world until near modern times men

that when things fell apart they really fell apart seven of the 10 bloodiest conflicts in history were either conflicts within China or involve foreign invasions of China ancient China was not a place you would want to be

during chaotic times so what all this said let us look more closely at some of the major geographical features that played the important roles in Chinese history in the north as a Yellow River it flows through the North China Plain

where it is very going to flooding especially because they carry so much silt that gives it its characteristic yellow color because of the frequent flooding the course of the lower Yellow River has changed many times throughout

recorded Chinese history and flooding of the Yellow River has caused tremendous loss of life over this time but nonetheless the Yellow River was far more stable during earlier periods of Chinese history than more modern periods

when Upstream deforestation made the river far more unstable during the earlier time periods the North China plane along the lower Yellow River and especially the region between the northward bend of the Yellow River and

the mountains further to the north was consistently one of the wealthiest most densely populated parts of China prior to reaching the North China Plain the Yellow River also flows through the lowest Plateau named after the soft

yellow soil that gives the Yellow River its characteristic color the lowest Plateau is bounded by a few formidable mountain ranges including the tin Mountains and the taihan mountains nerdiest mountains are short by

important tributaries of the Yellow River the way Finn and lower rivers around which some of the earliest Chinese dynasties developed the great ancient Chinese capitals of changan

modern-day Xian and ruayang were located in these valleys a recurring theme for much of Chinese history has been the relationship between the valleys in the west and the plains to the east as a

general rule of thumb the big flat Eastern Area was wealthier and more culturally influential than the West whereas the West had oversized political and Military influence over the East due to its advantageous Mountain geography

and proximity to the Northwestern Frontiers during times of Peace the political interests of the more populated East could be a thorn on the side of the emperor space out of the less populated West but during times of

chaos the East with far fewer natural defenses was often hit very hard whereas the mountain valleys of the West were often well protected serving as secure bases for ambitious Warlords to conquer

the rest of China in the south is a Yangtze River the longest river in China and the third longest in the world for almost its entire length the Yangtze River flows through fairly Mountain her rings making the South much more

geographically fragmented than the North in ancient times there were also large expanses of marshes along the Yangtze making their planes immediately along the Yangtze River much less densely populated than those along the Yellow

River the Yangtze River has unique geographical advantages that facilitated the growth of a large centralized Empire it is highly navigable even taking into account the borderline treacherous

Waters through the Three Gorges it also rarely flooded at least before heavy deforestation took place in recent centuries its many tributaries expanded the Yangtze River Network even more in

the mountainous Southwest the mean tour and darling Rivers have long served as major transportation routes within this isolated region in the center and flowing from the north is a Han River

the longest tributary of the young sea the Han river flows into the Yang sea at the modern day city of Wuhan and where the Han in the city's name came from in ancient times the unique den of the Han

River and its tributaries allow for almost continuous water transportation from the Yellow River to the young C following into the young Sea from the south are the Xiang and Gan Rivers these two rivers originate in the mountains in

Far Southern China and have served as the main routes for the ancient Chinese Dynasty's expansion to the Deep South additional tributaries also leave from the young scene to the mountains of the far Southwest which to this day are

still some of the most remote regions in China the mountains along the Yangtze divide its course into three regions a downstream region centered around the Yangtze River delta and especially the city of Nanjing a mainstream region

centered around the Han and Xiang rivers and an upstream region in the southwestern mountains much of Southern Chinese history involved the balance of power between these three regions as you may have noticed by now it was much

easier to travel East-West along the axis of both the yellow and Yangtze Rivers than to travel north south between their watersheds and this gives way to the biggest Chinese geographical divide of them all the Divide between

North and South this was the most common divide during times of division the main boundary between North and South lies in a line formed by the shin Mountains and the Hawaii River North of this line the

climate is much colder and drier it snows in the winter and wheat is currently the main stable green south of this line the climate is much warmer and wetter it rarely snows in the winter and rice has traditionally been the main

staple grain the Hawaii River has been the third most important river in Chinese history in ancient times they'll flow directly Eastward into the sea but since the 12th century because of constant Southwest flooding of the

Yellow River the Hawaii was forced to flow Southward so that it is now a tributary of the young sea so Hawaii has a number of historically important tributaries from the north the most important of which are the river which

no longer follows its ancient course because of the Yellow River messing things up the yin and the rule during centuries of unification the Hawaii River and its tributary serve as major trade routes and during centuries of

division it often marked the frontier between North and South the flat densely populated plain between the Hawaii and yellow Rivers is known as the Central Plains Oregon Chinese

has as many different meanings in many different contexts but for the purpose of this video we will use the most common geographical definition which is the flat Central area between the yellow and white rivers that link the

peripheral mountainous regions to one another because it was located at the intersection of so many different regions with no natural defenses during times of War it was a central Arena where the Warlords duked it out for

control of China strategically the most important city in Jun has long been shujo making it one of the most fought after cities in China although if you were to be a Chinese warlord Jung Yang

would happen one of the last places on the map you will want to start out on since you will be immediately surrounded by enemies with nowhere to hide Tao Tao the famous warlord in the novel The Romance of the Three Kingdoms was the

only warlord to ever start out in the central plains and from there successfully conquered the rest of northern China and even he ran out of steam afterwards trying to conquer the South in ancient times traveling to the

south from was difficult because of the large north-south distances involved one popular route was to take advantage of the northward band of the Han River and its tributaries and for this reason the

city of xiangyang located on the Han River was one of the most strategically important cities in Chinese history there are no major natural north-south waterways on the coastal plains so an

artificial one the Grand Canal was built kaifung the fabulously wealthy capital of the northern Song Dynasty from the 10th to 12th centuries developed as a

Transportation Hub along the canal a third route between North and South was from the way River Valley through various mountain passes in the tin mountains to the Han River and from

there through the taoba mountains to the Basin around modern day Chengdu this rail was notoriously Steep and difficult in ancient times many segments especially through the tin mountains

were made up of wooden planks attached to the side of the mountains like these the city of hanrung or literally middle of the Han has long been the primary city along this route and served as a

strategically vital link between the Northwest and the Southwest now let's move on to the northern Frontier in the north separating the rest of China from the steps are a long line of mountains

the yin or Shadow mountains to the west and the Yen mountains to the east not only do these two mountains form an easily defensible Frontier against the nomadic tribes further north but they

also roughly marked the 400 millimeter rainfall Line North of which rainfall is so sparse that settled agriculture could not be supported and the way of life centered around pastoralism the earlier

iterations of the Great Wall were built on top of these mountains south of the Great Wall the economy was based almost all unsettled agriculture which a Chinese dynasty could control relatively easily north of the Great Wall the

economy was based almost all on pastoralism which made it hard for most Chinese dynasties to control the most important city along the Great Wall is Beijing which protected the narrow gap

between the Tai Hong Mountains and the Sea if Beijing were to fall then the nomads could ride to the North Bank of the Yellow River within weeks to devastate one of the core regions of the Empire during the winter when the Waters

of the Yellow River usually froze decoding Theory right even further south to the southwest of Beijing is Taiwan located in the dead center of the highlands of modern day shanxi Province from which you control The High Ground

overlooking the surrounding regions Beijing and taibian work as a pair to defend the rest of China against nomadic invasions as recently as the Japanese invasion of China in 1937 the Japanese

captured Beijing then known as baipin quite easily but before dika marched further south they had to first fight through the mountains of shine sea Province to capture taiban in order to

secure their flank further to the West a thin long strip of decently low-lying arable land sits between the Italian mountains which marked the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau in the Mongolian

steps this is known as the khresi corridor or West River Corridor since it is located west of the bend of the Yellow River and was a key bottleneck along the Silk Road linking China with a

rest of Asia now moving to the Deep South there are a series of East-West mountains with the most prominent Peaks known as the nylin in English the southern mountains or wooling in English

the five mountains to the people in the early Chinese dynasties living in the north the wooling might as well as have been the edge of the world the lands south of the wooling were collectively known as lingnan or south of the

mountains inhabited by countless Barbarian tribes whose Customs they knew little about the ruling separated the Watershed of the Yangtze River from that of the Pearl River after the region was

first conquered by the Qin dynasty around 200 BC a canal known as the linchu was stuck connecting the Xiang River to a tributary of the Pearl River known as the Lee River where the famous

Landscapes of guilin are located this became the major route from the rest of China to lingnan and by extension Guangzhou would soon grew to become the major city in lingnan over the ensuing

centuries more mountain roads were carved through the mountains although these mountainous regions remain very remote to the present day the Eastern parts of modern day Guangdong Province eventually became heavily synthesized

whereas the western parts of lingnan the modern day guangxi autonomous region has large populations of non-hunt Chinese minorities Northern Vietnam was also part of lungan and under Chinese rule

for 1100 years to 980. in ancient times the Red River Valley in Northern Vietnam was one of the wealthiest most populated regions of lignan and separated from their lands further north by many Remo

mountain ranges there were many reasons why Vietnam was able to eventually gain its independence from China but one very obvious reason was simply that Northern Vietnam was significantly wealthier and more populated than the regions

immediately to its North which even to this day lack behind the more economically developed parts of China when rebellions took place in Vietnam ancient Chinese armies had to travel tremendous distances through sparsely

populated lands just together in the very early days of Imperial Chinese history around 200 BC the north centered along the Yellow River was the political cultural military and economic Center of

China the rest of Chinese history however has essentially been a continuous process of the north becoming poorer and poorer and the South becoming richer and richer this was largely because the north has been periodically

Shattered by cataclysmic Wars each time resulting in large-scale migrations to the South whereas the South has generally enjoyed much more stable growth the repeated flooding of the Yellow River has also severely damaged

the economy of the North China Plain this pattern is a major factor why so much of earlier Chinese history such as the events in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms involve northern China but more

modern Chinese history overwhelmingly involves the Yangtze and the far south nowadays Southern China as a whole is much more economically developed than the North although the north still holds oversized political and Military

importance part of this is historical in traditional Chinese Consciousness there has long been a strong sense that only when a regime has controlled the north especially zhongwen could a really claim

authority over all of China and part of this is simply geographical the northern Frontier needs to be defended and the open terrain of the north still creates one huge economic cultural and Transportation Hub that serves as a

connecting piece for the rest of China for northern China the core regions were initially around the Yellow River and the central plains oriented in an East-West axis a recurring theme for the first two-thirds of Chinese history

involved the tensions between East and West along this axis But as time went on more and more of the population and wealth shifted towards the southeast after 1000 A.D the Northwest around

Xi'an which had previously been the capital of so many Chinese dynasties has been mostly a Backwater living off of his former glory as the Northwest Decline and the South became more

important the East-West access that had previously dominated Chinese politics was replaced by a north-south axis with a North centered around Beijing especially since the ruling Elites of

the Mongol un Dynasty and the Manchu Qing Dynasty relied on beijing's Northerly location to maintain their ties with their Orange original Power basis goods from all across Southern China were shipped down the Yangtze

River and then up the Grand Canal to Beijing the closer we are to the modern day the more important this north-south access would become this Corridor is still relevant today with a political

Center of China located in Beijing but its economic heart in Shanghai that is it for now I hope this video can give you a brief overview of historical Chinese geography and help you Orient

yourself as you learn more and in the future I plan to create many more videos on historical Chinese geography to discuss these geographical features and strategic cities in much more detail