A great flood may have helped ancient Chinese civilisation expand southward, geologists say

Name: China on high alert ahead of flood season and rising Yangtze River levels
Uploaded: 2022-07-15T13:33:04.000Z
Duration: 1 min 57 s
Description: China on high alert ahead of flood season and rising Yangtze River levels

Researchers say they have found new evidence supporting a 4,000-year-old legend about the founder of China’s first dynasty

Cave samples show climate around the Yangtze River became wetter around 2,300 BCE, leading to floods that might have sped up the collapse of southern tribes

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Chinese researchers say new geological evidence suggests an ancient legend about a great flood might have some historical basis. Photo: Weibo

Zhang Tong

Published: 9:33pm, 15 Jul 2022

Researchers say they have found new geological evidence suggesting an ancient Chinese story about a great flood is not a legend, and the deluge might have unexpectedly helped Chinese civilisation expand.

About 4,200 years ago, deadly floods hit China’s two longest rivers, the Yellow and the Yangtze. But according to the researchers, cave records suggest the damage to the Yangtze region was far worse than that in the Yellow River plain, known as the cradle of Chinese civilisation, allowing northern conquerors to spread into the south.

According to Chinese legend, Yu the Great – founder of China’s first dynasty, the Xia – defeated the flood by building massive water management facilities. He and his army then went on to conquer southern China, which was ruled by three united tribes known as the Sanmiao.

“It is plausible that Yu took advantage of the climate transition to expand southward and defeat the Sanmiao tribe,” the researchers said in a paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Quaternary Research in May.

Climate change and geological elements “play an important role in cultural development”, said the team led by Professor Tan Liangcheng with the Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences in Xian.

Tan’s team analysed stalagmite samples from Remi Cave in the central Chinese province of Hunan near the middle reaches of the Yangtze River.

The samples showed that in south-central China, rainfall decreased gradually between 3,600 BCE and 2,300 BCE, before the trend reversed with conditions in the region gradually becoming wetter.

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China on high alert ahead of flood season and rising Yangtze River levels

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