What role does the Yangtze River play in the cultural and historical development of China?

When we talk about early Chinese civilization, we should not only talk about the Yellow River Valley, but only the Central Plains civilization, but at least the Yangtze River. Separately, the Yangtze River civilization and the Yellow River civilization do not make sense, the two are pluralistic and integrated. In this sense, the Yangtze River basin has a very important position and plays an important role in the origin and early development of ancient Chinese civilization.

I have talked about a truth before, and now I might as well mention it again, that is, some gentlemen of Shang and Zhou civilizations are called "Ding Qi Culture", and Mr. Jian Bozan thinks so. In the Shang and Zhou cultures, the two kinds of utensils occupy an important position, and we see from the Neolithic culture that the mustache is mainly found in the Yellow River Basin, and the Ding mainly occurs in the Yangtze River Basin. Of course, the expansion of the Shang and Zhou dynasties was mainly from the Yellow River basin to the Yangtze River basin, and the Yangtze River basin became the conquered, but what is interesting is that the ding, an ingredient in the culture of the conquered peoples, later became the ritual vessel of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

The mustache was originally its own thing, but it has become a general household utensil. In this way, the two are combined into a composite culture. Originally, there were no tripods or few places with mustaches, and there were basically no mustaches in the places where there were tripods, and they merged with each other in the Shang and Zhou dynasties, becoming a kind of tripod culture.

This incident vividly shows the process of Chinese culture gradually moving from multiple sources to integration or unification.

The source of the Yangtze River is a broad geographical unit, which includes the Kunlun Mountains to the Tanggula Mountains.

It is about 400 kilometers long from east to west and 300 kilometers wide from north to south, with a total area of more than 100,000 square kilometers. The Yangtze River has a long history, so what are the cultures of the Yangtze River Basin?

In the Yangtze River Basin, there are Wuyue Cultural Zone, Chu Cultural Zone, and Bashu in turn.

Yunnan Cultural Zone. Among them, the influence of Chu culture is the largest. The expansion of Chu culture was a major event in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Chu people went north to compete for the Central Plains, and the Chu culture also extended northward. In the Warring States period, Chu culture first developed greatly to the south, and then due to the Chu state.

The political center moved eastward, and then expanded eastward, entering the lower reaches of the Yangtze River and present-day Shandong Province, and the influence of Chu culture reached half of China.

Chu culture rose in the Yangtze River.

The rise of the Youchu culture was synchronized with the rise of the Chu State. In the early Spring and Autumn Period, the state of Chu began to become small and large, weak and strong, dominating the Jiang and Han dynasties, but the Chu people were not satisfied with this. In the thirty-fifth year of Xiong Tong, the king of Chu (706 B.C.), he threatened:

I have a good idea, and I want to observe the politics of China. China is the Central Plains, and its ambition to win the Central Plains is beyond words. Two years later, he established himself as king, and it was for King Wu of Chu.

King Wu of Chu switched to Hanshui.

In the west and east, the clear and peaceful Jianghan Plain was left for the Chu people.

Wuyue culture and its Chuhua.

Jiangdong in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River is roughly buffered by Taihu Lake, and there is Wu Kingdom in the north.

There is the country of Yue in the south. The Wu of the Eastern Zhou Dynasty was the Western Zhou Dynasty.

It is advisable to do so, or "Gou Wu."

The more it is, or "Yu Yue". Although Wu Yue is two countries, the aborigines are one family. The territory of Wu was mainly in the northern part of the Taihu Plain and the hills of Ningzhen, and extended to most of the hills of southern Anhui, part of the plains of northern Jiangsu, and some places in Huainan.

The territory of the Yue Kingdom is mainly based on the Ningshao Plain and the southern part of the Taihu Plain, that is, the Hangjiahu Plain, and extends to the mountainous areas of western Zhejiang and southern Anhui. Sometimes, the Yue people went west from the Hangjiahu Plain, crossed the Yangtze River, and infiltrated Huainan.

Bashu-Yunnan culture.

Located in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, Ba and Shu have been in a rather closed state for a long time because of the geographical environment of high mountains and dangerous waters, and there is still no major change in the cultural outlook here until the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. Later, the confrontation between Qin and Chu brought an opportunity for accelerated development of culture in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River. The capital of Shu in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period should be within the jurisdiction of present-day Chengdu.

Here, "the land is called Tianfu", according to the Jin people Chang Xuan's "Huayang Guozhi Shu Zhi" record, "its treasures are jade, gold, silver, pearls, blue, copper, iron, lead, tin, ochre, chalk, brocade, embroidery, Zong, rhino, elephant, felt, ear hair, Danhuang, empty blue, mulberry, lacquer, hemp, silk cymbals." "In short, there is an abundance of products.

The Yangtze River culture is an important part of Chinese culture, and the center of cultural improvement has moved southward many times in history, so that the Jiangnan region has preserved and continued the backbone and essence of traditional Chinese culture, and has become the common cultural matrix of the Yangtze River Delta region, which embodies the spiritual characteristics of openness, innovation and inclusiveness. At the same time, the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta are close to each other in terms of geography, close proximity and cultural communication, forming a unique and charming representative of the Yangtze River culture - Jiangnan culture. The Yangtze River Delta, which is in the leading position of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, has been relatively stable in the traditional culture of Hongqing Code in China, and there are no big ups and downs, which has a lot to do with its geographical environment and natural conditions, including the unique diligence and hard work of Jiangnan people, deep cultivation, advocating literature and virtue, attaching importance to education, attaching importance to practice, developing commodity economy, and pragmatic character and entrepreneurial tradition.

In the future Yangtze River Delta leading the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, whether it is corporate culture or institutional innovation, we can draw nourishment from the traditional Yangtze River culture, find the way forward, and gradually form a representative and identity Yangtze River cultural community.

Because the cities in the Yangtze River basin are all in the south, they are better than the search for leaks in terms of economy and environment, and the products are abundant, and they are purely suitable for living, which is better than the development of the cities in the Yellow River basin in the north.