It is impossible to understand the Chinese psyche without knowing the two great rivers: The Yellow River and the Yangtze River.[1] For thousands of years, they have been the economic lifelines of Chinese people as well as inspirations for poets and artists. Together with a man-made wonder, the Great Wall, they shaped the unfolding of Chinese history and the evolvement of Chinese culture.
The Yellow River, at the estimated length around 3,395 miles (5,464 kilometers) and a drainage area about 307,000 square miles (795,000 square kilometers), is the second longest river in China. Originating in Qinghai Province, the upper reach of the Yellow River flows eastwards along the northern slope of the Bayankhar Mountain,[2] gathering water from tributary sources. As it approaches lower elevations, it creates numerous gorges and waterfalls with tremendous power. Li Bai 李白 of the Tang Dynasty wrote: 君不見黃河之水天上來，奔流到海不復回 “Do you not see water of the Yellow River descending from heaven, rushing toward the ocean, never to return?”
At the city of Lanzhou, the Yellow River takes a northerly turn toward Ordos Plateau of the Inner Mongolia.[3] It then loops around, flowing southward to Sanmenxia near Xian.[4] This horseshoe shape loop, known as Hetao (“river loop”)or Ordosloop, makes up the middle reach of the river.[5] The northern section of Hetao, the Ordosbasin, was the home of the embryonic Chinese culture—the Hetao culture during the late Paleolithic age.[6]
In the southern part of the Loop, the Yellow River runs through the Loess Plateau, joining two of its largest tributary rivers, the Wei River and the Fen River.[7] The land is covered by thick layers of loess, yellow-colored silt, accumulation of windborne clay sediments since ancient time.[8] The color of the soil gave the river its name; its richness sustained thousands of years of civilization. All the while, it is subjects to erosion and environmental damages.
In its lower reach, the Yellow River passes through the Central Plain[9], where the concept of China as “the Center of the World” originated, carrying large amount of loess in its current. The depository of sediments accumulates and raises the riverbed above the ground level of surrounding areas. Throughout the history, the river flooded near sixteen hundred times and changed its route significantly over twenty times. There is a saying 三十年河東，三十年河西 “Thirty years on the east of the river; thirty years, west of the river,” referring to the unpredictability of the Yellow River—just like all things in life.
An agriculture lifeline, a transportation artery and a channel for cultural exchange, the Yellow River, with its temperamental nature, has also caused numerous economic and political challenges for governing authorities throughout the history of China. It cradled Chinese civilization but also destroyed lives. Like a powerful matriarch, the Yellow River is loved, respected, and feared by Chinese people.
[1] The Yellow River—黃河 (Huang He [ɦwɑŋ xə]); the Yangtze River—揚子江 or Chang Jiang 長江, meaning “Long River”.
[2] Bayankhar or Bayan Har Mountain—巴顏喀喇山.
[3] Lanzhou 蘭州; Ordos Plateau 鄂爾多斯臺地.
[4] Sanmenxia 三門峽; Xian 西安.
[5]Hetao 河套. Yellow_River_Geography_chinahighlights, Geographical map of the Yellow River
[6] In 1922, French Jesuit priest and naturalist Émile Licent (Chinese name 桑志華) carried out research along the Salawusu (or Xarusgol) River 薩拉烏蘇河 in Inner Mongolia near today’s Wudinghe town 無定河鎮 and found a fossilized front tooth of a child. In the following year, with his fellow Jesuit and paleontologists Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, Licent conducted a twelve-day excavation at Shuidonggou site 水洞溝遺址 in today’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region 寧夏回自治區. Their findings include artifacts of the late Paleolithic age and animal fossils. They called the inhabitants Hetao people and their culture Hetao culture.
Émile_Licent_Wiki
薩拉烏蘇遺址_zh-tw_Wiki (中文繁體),
Salawusu_de_Wiki (auf Deutsch)
Pierre_Teilhard_de_Chardin_Wiki
水洞溝遺址_zh-tw_Wiki (中文繁體),
Shuidonggou_de_Wiki (auf Deutsch)
[7] Loess Plateau is known in Chinese as Huángtǔ 黃土 (the “Yellow Earth”) 高原; the Wei River渭河; and the Fen River汾河. Loess_Plateau_Wiki
[8] Loess_Wiki
[9] the Central Plain 中原