Yangtze River History – Xia and Shang Dynasties

Yangtze River History – Xia Dynasty

In Xia Dynasty, the people who mainly lived in Yangtze River Three Gorges area were Ba people. There are many works in history recorded some information about the Ba people, and the earliest one was which wrote in Warring States Period. From some ancient works, we can get the conclusion: as early as in Xia Dynasty, the Ba people who lived in Yangtze River Three Gorges area have closely connected with the people who lived in the central plain of China.

About the origin of Ba people, it was recorded in most documents that the ancestor of Ba people was "Linjun". Some archeology data have proved the Linjun Ba people ever lived in Yangtze River Three Gorges area. For example, the censer stone relic which was found in Changyang is a very typical Ba people relic who lived in Xia and Shang Dynasties. From the relic stratum, archeologists have unearthed some culture relics, which includes in Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties. It proved that the Linjun Ba people lived in Xia Dynasty.

In Xia Dynasty, there were many primitive tribes ever lived in Yangtze River Three Gorges area. It was recorded in some ancient books that in ancient times, there were several primitive tribes ever lived in Three Gorges area. We can get the conclusion from some archeology data that the relics of Xia Dynasty which was found in Three Gorges were relics of early period Ba people.

Yangtze River History – Shang Dynasty

As for Ba people have lived in Three Gorges areas in Xia Dynasty, it got greater development in Shang Dynasty. In Shang Dynasty, the Ba people strengthened the relationships with other nationalities which lived in its four sides. In recent years, the archeologist largely researched and unearthed the Chenggu Baoshan Relic in the upstream of Han River and found large amount of potteries. And most of these potteries were similar with the potteries which were found in Three Gorges area in the same period in the shape and style. From this, the archeologists thought that this relic belonged to Ba culture, and this area was political, economy, military and culture center of Ba people in Shang Dynasty.

In recent years, the archeology also got some information from ancient data: there are some small bronze wares and copper slag in Xia Dynasty culture accumulation layer in the Tang Fangping Relic, Wangzhou County; and also found some small bronze wares in Xia and Shang Dynasties Relics in Three Gorges area. All of these showed that the working people in Yangtze River Three Gorges Areas have begun to smelt bronze wares in Xia and Shang Dynasties.

On economic aspect, except the fishing and hunting, there appeared paddy field planting techniques. The paddy field relic which was found in Shang Dynasty Culture Layer in Zhongbazi Relic, Wanzhou County is the earliest paddy rice relic in Yangtze River area among unearthed.

These relics of Xia and Shang Dynasties were important data for researching Yangtze River History.