Intro to Historical Chinese Geography
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- Опубликовано: 2 окт 2024
- An overview of the major rivers, mountains, and ancient cities that have shaped Chinese history for over thousands of years.
This is a remake of my first ever video on this channel, which was uploaded in February 2022, although I have added so much new material that it is essentially a completely new video. The original video has very poor sound quality since I did not know how to use a microphone properly back then. It is currently unlisted, although you can find it here:
• Introduction to Ancien...
Attributions: Maps were created using maps-for-free.... by ©OpenStreetMap www.openstreet...
Image Credits: Wikimedia Commons
#chinesehistory #china #geography #yangtzeriver #yellowriver #yangtze #beijing #luoyang #中国历史 #中国地理 #历史 #地理
It's so hard to find quality geography content that's not western oriented. Thank you so much for this.
Thanks, glad you liked it!
This is an invaluable resource to understand historical Chinese geopolitics, great work man
thanks, glad you've found it helpful! I'm working on more videos on Chinese geography too so looking forward to sharing more in the future.
I've been binging after work all week. This channel is a gem.
A
@@gatesofkilikienaaa
As a Taiwanese, I really wish our teacher had taught us this geography overview before diving into Chinese history. Even for me, this video helps clarify why many events unfolded the way they did. I learned a lot from it.
A marked improvement on the original video. Always happy to see the progression of your channel. Keep at it!
Thanks for all your support too! It's been a lot of experimenting this past year, and I've definitely learned a lot.
Fun notes on the yellow river.
It's course originally was mostly more northerly before the more recent millenia (This is why Anyang was the Shang captial for example).
It's changing course and intense flooding means that the central plains, despite it's immense farming wealth, has historically lacked major cities actually located within the plains. Instead all the major cities are found around the edge of the plains along mountainsides; Anyang, Luoyang, Kaifend, Xuchang etc. Even Xuzhou of Cao Cao, is located in a small hill region.
Indeed if you go through the big cities today in the plains a great many have no significant history marked from before the modern era. And even those that do were usually just regional hubs. Compare that to the Yangtze where most cities have existed as major cities for thousands of years.
The second fun thing of note is that the Bay of Bohai used to be far larger. The land Tianjin sits on didn't even exist 1000 years ago. When it was first founded Beijing may have been nearly coastal
在兩千年前，上海還在海底，廣州城建在海岸線旁
wow this was good. I've been looking for some more detailed explanations of Chinese history. Especially ones that consider Chinese culture/conciousness around it.
Glad you liked it! This is one of my main goals for the channel - make the stuff that I grew up reading in Chinese more accessible to an English-speaking audience.
One of the best videos I've ever seen on this platform. Not only on history and geography, but overall. This was a masterclass.
Informative, pleasant, well-paced. Thank you!
Glad you enjoyed it!
This is fabulous. I've always struggled to fully understand Chinese geography from a historical perspective, but you've presented this with great clarity. Many thanks!
I really like this, just wish it had even more in it, such as the Hetao plain, Min River, Pearl River, Liao River ans Liao Dong peninsula. Also some more mentions of Chengdu and Chongqing and historical Ba-Shu. Or how the Guangzhou and the pearl river delta connected China to the Maritime Silk Road. Still really good though.
Thanks for the feedback, and yes these are all topics I want to explore in a lot more detail in future videos. My thought is to have a few videos like this cover broader themes, but then really delve into detailed geography of specific regions after that.
@@gatesofkilikien If feasible these would be super interesting to watch. xie xie hen duo!
@@TukozAkiI'm assuming you're learning Chinese and trying to practise it...I'd like to point out that you can't directly translate English "thank you very much" directly into Chinese (hence xie xie hen duo) A correct way to say it would fei chang gan xie 非常感谢!
fei chang gan xie @@talamioros :-) Please is this perfectly fine in a non formal context, or can 'xie xie' induces something like 'a lot' or 'many thanks' depending on the locutor's intonation, or does a slightly shorter common expression than the above exists to show someone 'deeper' gratitude? (ps wo shi fa guo ren)
GatesOfKilikien, love the content, but please pause at the end of the sentences. Running the words all together makes comprehension more difficult.
Incredible video. Loved you mixing of American slang and Chinese enunciation/pronunciation. So many Chinese history videos I've watched now make much more sense. Shay a shay.
Appreciate the feedback, and yes one of my goals for this channel is to make Chinese history more accessible in English. Chinese history has a lot of recurrent themes and "rules", so to speak, and they often could be applied to different time periods.
We don't learn about China's history in any of the western countries I've lived in and I think that's a bit of a shame. Interesting video, hope you make more like it.
Thanks, appreciate the support! And yes, my plan is to make more videos like this in the future, especially given how little of this information is available in English.
This is really, really good and gives someone like me, wanting to get a handle on why capitals, kingdoms, peoples and places are where they are in China. Thank you so much!🙏
Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!
Thanks for this video. As a student of classical Chinese, there is a lot of contextual knowledge we need in addition to learning characters.
Thanks, glad you've found it helpful! Yes there's definitely a ton of contextual knowledge like you said, and ancient writers typically assume the readers know them already.
As a Chinese born in China, I was surprised how well-made this video is. I have no complaints except that maybe you can mention why and how the deforestation took place (like due to climate change and population overgrowth, etc.). You are on the way to explain how the geography, economy, and social structures made China what it was in the past and what it is today. Keep up the great work!
I love this content, I really hope you keep it going. Would you consider doing a video on how geography affected the Taiping Rebellion? I read a book on it last year called God's Chinese Son and was blown away by the strangeness and complexity of that story.
Yes, and especially since the Taiping Rebellion affected such a large area, I'm thinking I'll start by covering the geography of individual regions, focusing more on the earlier time periods and then slowly working my way towards more modern periods. Southern China has a lot of micro-regions, although the general principles still tend to apply across time periods.
Oh man, thank you so much for this. As you know, a geographic understanding of an area is like...50% of the entire understanding of the history of the area, it influences EVERYTHING to the point where you think it's almost destiny how history played out because of the geography involved. I've always really lacked that with China and wanted to know more, so this is great. Understanding the core divides in Chinese history is so very important to understanding how and why stuff happened the way it did.
this is great love to see it
Thanks, glad you liked it!
That was really interesting - a helpful context for history and current events. Thanks.
Wow, YT normally suggests awful videos but this was an incredibly interesting video and really changed my perspective about what china really looks like.
Awesome video, man! This was super helpful, informative, detailed in the best way, and useful.
Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!
This was interesting and I feel like I learned a lot.
Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!
Fantastic introductory video. Subscribed immediately.
Would love to see more videos on how millennia of intensive agriculture and river flow manipulation made it progressively more difficult to manage the rivers in North China Plain and Yangtze.
Same here. Would be really interesting to know more on how river course changes, (especially the Yellow River) played a role in geopolitics at that time as well.
Yes definitely, I plan to delve into these topics a lot more in the upcoming videos, and depending on the time period the position of the lower course of the Yellow River definitely did alter the balance of power between the different regions.
Excellent! I've become quite enamored of Chinese history & this video explains so much that I had been confused about.
Definitely subscribed & looking forward to binging on all your posts.
Keep up the great work!
Great starter video for Chinese geography/history.
There's always the issue that because of location, the size of China tends to appear much less than it is.
And then, all the rivers and mountains and the mazes they have caused, it truly is extremely hard to even begin to understand the real complexities of Chinese geography, which in turn makes it very hard to understand the almost absurd level of complexities that Chinese history and especially warfare have had.
And it's not until you get a chance to see videos like "world's most narrow city" and similar places in China that you realise just how extreme the terrain conditions are in large regions. Pictures and descriptions simply does not convey it properly.
I enter, thru Thailand, I center, in Laos, and am interested in the elephant corridor, from east of L.P. Chang Mai, thru to Luang Prabang, and the NamKhan , east of the King’s Palace.
I’m in, as so much ,I’ve absorbed, reveals, how deep, is the insight.
Really interesting. The overview i didnt knew i wanted.
Thanks, glad to hear you've enjoyed the video!
Im seeing your videos everywhere now! i love this content speaking on the geography of China. What an incredible geography! thanks for sharing this amazing historical info as well!
Glad you enjoy it! And it’s been very cool to see the channel grow over the past year too
my province Jilin has been omitted from this video😂
Yes sorry ;) I left out the northeast altogether to avoid overcomplicating things, although I do want to talk more about the region, including Jilin, more specifically in the future.
I've picked up a lot of this from my own reading of Chinese history, but it is still so helpful to have it all just clarified and put in one place. Like + subscribed
thanks, glad you've found it helpful!
I have some knowledge of Chinese history. This is a very good and pretty accurate presentation.
Thanks, glad to hear that!
Instant subscribe, what a little jewel of a channel
Just wanted to say I really enjoyed this video and your channel! I'm super fascinated by geography and Chinese history, and this just a really in-depth but easy-to-follow video on the topic.
Awesome! Thank you!
Thank you! I learned a lot. It explains well why things happened the way they did.
Chinese history always has been difficult for me to understand because the patterns driving the politics was not clear. But the geographical centers and internal waterways make it easy to understand the incentives of the rulers.
Honestly, that was amazing. I'm a geographer, and I really appreciate you teaching me this!
Thanks, I'm glad to hear you found it helpful!
（Traditional Chinese繁體中文）我覺得可以在本影片中的割據政權片段補充，例如：長江上游地區有蜀漢、成、前蜀、後蜀等政權；長江中游地區有南楚；下游地區有南吳、南唐政權；珠江流域有南漢；華北平原上有前燕、後燕政權；黃土高原上有後秦、北夏政權；河西走廊有前涼、後涼政權。
Empires set their capitals in Xi'an or Luoyang to control the middle plain when the Yellow river could bear the population.
Empires set their capitals in Nanjing when they lost the control of the North so they rely on Yangtze River to defend.
Empires set their capitals in Beijing when they have to take control of Manchuria, inner Mongolia and Tibet.
This is a very welcome introduction; it makes China's history more comprehensible. I like that you employ native Chinese pronunciations. One tiny point: the word 'loess' (the fine, wind-deposited soil) is from the German and pronounced in one syllable: /löss/ , very close to the English 'less.' There are extensive areas of 'loess' in Eastern Washington State and in Iowa, where they form soils renowned for their fertility.
Glad you've liked the video, and appreciate the feedback. I hadn't realized that "loess" comes from German, although the "oe" really should have given it away. The video I'm working on now also mentions the Loess Plateau, so I'll change the pronunciation for it. I've been learning to speak German anyway, albeit still not very well, so always enjoy the chance to use German words for stuff.
Would you be interested in making a video about modern chinese geography? That would attract a lot of viewers. I have watched your intro and north-south video 3 times already. Thanks, I appreciate your work
Well done. Hope you cover the ancient capitals of which I visited a few.
yes for sure - they're all very important cities and I plan to cover them in much more detail.
Easy subscribe. What a great and informative video!
Thanks, glad you've enjoyed it!
That's such a great idea ! This kind of information is extremely useful to process historical events and im very glad you made it. It truly helps.
An excellent video. I have always been curious about China's geography but never got around to further reading. This was very informative and well structured. Looking forward to more of your content!
I am a Westerner (US) with a special interest for history and geography. Thank you for making this, I've been getting bothered that I know virtually nothing about East Asian history.
recommend to see Aerial china ,you know a lot about China! Welcome!😊
Absolutely brilliant! I’ve searched high and low online for exactly this-a primer on the basic geographic structure of China and East Asia. This answers so many questions. Bravo!
Awsomwe work.Its very rare to find good objective contents on Chinese history in English.Makes your work that much more valuable❤
Thanks a lot, appreciate it!
13:17 do you have any source to backup your claim that the red river valley is wealthier than guangxi?
We learn these stuff in history class in Japan but what we dont learn is how to pronounce these Chinese letters, thanks!
Hoping for an in-depth video on the Sichuan basin some time!
Yes, one of these days I'll get to making one on the region, although I have to get through other places like Xi'an, Luoyang, Nanjing, etc. first.
This is incredibly easy to understand and seemingly (as an non-educated person in this topic) incredibly usefull to learn about Chinese history, the conditions of local folk and to understand the thought process of the people in power. I have been seeing all your videos and they all awesome, great work and thanks a lot for bringing this knowlege with this quality for free!
Thanks, great to hear they've been helpful! I know Chinese history can be such a hard nut to crack for non-Chinese speakers for a variety of reasons, so hopefully these videos can help make some of that easier.
Very useful primer. However I think omitting how the yellow river has alternated between draining to the north and to the south of Shandong peninsula is a mistake, because thats a significant geopolitical change each time it happened.
Glad you've found it helpful, and yes I agree. There's a picture on Wikipedia that shows the different drainage patterns and I was initially going to include it in the video, but took it out right before the final cut. IIRC it was to prevent the video from becoming too technical, but in hindsight I wish I had included it. The feedback I've gotten on this and a few other videos made me realize it's actually a much more engaging topic for you guys that I had initially thought, so I'll think of ways to mention this topic more in future videos.
Fantastic lesson in China’s internal geopolitical dynamics
Cheers from Barcelona ✌️
Thanks! And I loved Barcelona when I've visited too. For me it's one of the few European cities with a bit of everything: history, modernity, weather, nature, sports, etc, and not too big or too small either.
many thanks... that was very helpful. i have to watch it again to fully absorb its details
Much love and respect from Palestine
Thanks, glad it was helpful! Yes I try to be very focused and efficient in my videos, especially since I hate to unnecessarily take up peoples' time
Thank you for a great video. I work with many 1st Gen Chinese and I am eager to know about their homeland. ❤
Your written English is really beautiful! Cheers!
Thanks, appreciate it!
I studied history at one of the best universities in the world, listened to lectures by 易中天 and other famous professors, read most of the historical texts you refer to in your videos, even read countless academic papers, and I can decisively say that your videos are better than literally anything else out there! It’s a truly valuable resource for getting people up to speed rapidly.
Chinese academics are often extremely biased towards established narratives; and Western academics are usually either super niche or somewhat clueless. Yours is the only resource I’ve seen which is concise, impartial, and accurate.
What’s the best way to support you and help you continue to make new / better content?
Thanks so much for your support, and yeah one of my main goals for these videos is to combine Chinese with western historiography. Like you said Chinese historiography, as rich in information as it is, tends to repeat certain narratives over and over again, whereas Western historiography, as much as the research methodologies are excellent, tends to gloss over a lot of things that I consider quite fundamental, like geography or a basic narrative history. It's one thing if records on all those things are lost, but given how rich the Chinese historic records are, I feel like all the fancy Western analytical techniques still need to be done in the setting of a good grasp of narrative history first, which also requires knowing geography.
I appreciate your wanting to help the channel grow too, and I think right now being able to get your feedback on upcoming videos would be extremely helpful, especially since you're knowledgeable with both the Chinese and non-Chinese approaches to Chinese history. I'm experimenting with expanding the scope and improving the production techniques of the upcoming videos, so there will be trial and error involved.
Wow, I think this is the first time I've ever really seen a map of China that was keyed to elevation. It makes so much more sense. I've long felt that geography has more influence on people's regional cultural and ethnic identities than any other factor, and natural geographical boundaries make the most effective political boundaries, as a result. As you can imagine, there is not a lot of education in the West concerning Chinese history below the university level, although there really ought to be, since Chinese culture has diffused so widely and is the basis for so many aspects of other Asian cultures, and China's influence in the world, as powerful as it has always been, has never been more prominent than it is in the modern era.
When I see videos of the Chinese countryside, I long to travel there and see its beauty for myself. Seeing this map puts a lot of things into perspective.
welcome to china!
Such a great video. Very informative! Keep up the great work!!!
Thank you! Will do!
Please add the rest of modern regions like Inner Mongolia Tibet and qinghai
Thanks for combining history and geography in such a coherrent way. Learned so much about how China became what it is today. Going to check out more of your videos.
Peace from Sweden!
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
This is so useful. I'm glad to find a discussion of the geography as the main topic. It brings together everything I've learned about China and its history in a coherent and historical whole.
Great video. Your explanation as to why the cycle of collapse and reunification has repeated so many times was particularly enlightening.
thanks, great to hear you've found it helpful!
fascinating. very much enjoyed this video. thanks for posting. subscribed with bells on.
Appreciate it, thanks for the sub!
This is the sort of thing I’ve been looking for for years, thank you my friend!
Glad I could help! I’ve noticed too there’s just not a whole lot of resources on these things in English, so thought I’d do what I can to contribute.
@@gatesofkilikien well you’ve earned a subscribe from me 😊
very well made video, keep up the great work!
Thanks, will do!
Nice video. The Algorithm brought me here and it looks like it's done a good job. You've earned my sub and I look forward to watching your other content on Chinese Geography.
Thanks and welcome aboard! The algorithm gods really smiled on my channel this week, although I'm also quite glad I got to slowly work through a lot of kinks over the past 1.5 years while the channel was still much smaller.
Wonderful and unique perspective on Chinese history. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the support!
A masterpiece
Thanks!
This is a great video because people in the west don't talk about Chinese history in any more depth than a news paper. Great vid!
Super interesting how geogrphy and history are almost analogues of each other. Human history is like a geogrphy playing itself out through time ...
Yes definitely, and one of my main goals for this channel is to show how closely intertwined the two fields are.
Very important video, should be required viewing before reading Kingdom.
Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!
This what is have always wanted to know. Thanks for your great work.
That's was a really clear overview! Thank you for this! Are you planning to eventually do a video on China's historical place in the world economy and the Great Divergence by the way? I'd be really interested to learn more about this and maybe there are more of us
Thanks! Yes eventually I want to get more into economic topics and how China interacted with the rest of the world, like for example with the 16th Century Spanish silver trade.
@@gatesofkilikien¡Qué honor que mi pueblo llenó a China con plata en vez de con drogas como hicieron los británicos!
What an honour that my people filled China with silver, and not opium!
@@SiGa-i1rsi, pues tuvieron intencion de invadir, igual que harian despues los britanicos. ¿Te enorgullece como trataron tus antepasados a los Incas?
@@catsnads01 El orgullo es pecado. Tengo gozo no orgullo por ser español. Me gusta que mi pueblo aplastó el Imperio incaico porque puso fin a su pràctica satánica de sacrificar a los hombres y hasta niñas. Si Dios permite aprenderé quechua, aymara, pukina si fuera posible, y también náhuatl, maya, Lakota e Inuit. Soy hondureño. Algunos primos son medio nativos porque los españoles nos mezclamos con razas consideradas hermanas descendiendo de Adán. Aquí en Camboya tengo hija medio jemer. Je je...
@@catsnads01 Por supuesto querían invadir pero España estaba ocupada defendiendo Europa del Islam, descubriendo la mitad del mundo y más. Lograron conquistar parte del norte de Taiwán, y durante la Unión ibérica, Macau era del emperador español. Ve el vídeo "A Spanish conquistador puts accusers of genocide in their place (con subtítulos)." Yo soy aquel.
What a great video, it really helped get China clear in my mind where previously it had been somewhat murky. Of course all the boundaries you mention at the start of the video no doubt backfired many times - once the outer defences were taken the interior was basically wide open for attack.
Very interesting and informative.
Glad you enjoyed it
I've been looking for a video on this topic for some time now. Great video! Can't wait for more!
Awesome! Thank you! There's a lot of intricacies to Chinese historical geography, and this video is just meant as an overview. Looking forward to posting more as well.
love it, i was suprised when i looked at the subscriber count, this is like big channel videos, thanks for the great video
Glad you enjoy it! I spent most of this past year working through kinks, looking forward to growing it more over the coming years.
Thank you, nice and clear :)
Glad you liked it!
This video puts all the knowledge I gained from "Total War: Three Kingdoms" into perspective!
I keep forgetting that china the country isn't really a nation state in the European sense but more accurately a civilisation.
Yes, you can definetly see how much more important "cities" as a power base were throughout Chinese history whereas cities were not really relevant to politics in Europe (not including the greeks) until the early modern period
I subscribed with this channel AND my cell phone channel.
Haha thanks, appreciate all of your support!
This is a brilliant overview of Chinese geography. Made me understand the geography in the romance of the 3 kingdoms much much better.
Very nice video. I have been following the horrible floods of Aug 2023, and just the topographic map clarified the issue. The entire Yellow River plain seems to be the flat outwash through the gorge. You inspired me to look up more detailed geologic and geomorphic maps. Thanks!
Also "loess" is a one-syllable word from German "löss" (or "löß").
I am looking forward to checking out other videos from you, as you give concise, clear presentations.
Fantastic. Very helpful in helping me appreciate Chinese history. 多谢地理老师 。
Thanks, appreciate the kind words too, and glad you found the video helpful!
Ok I'm going to be binge-watching all the rest of your China videos now!
Thanks, glad you've enjoyed this video!
I Love China and Chinese history! This is really a very much appreciated and needed help, great Video and thank you ^^
Thanks, glad you found it helpful!
Babe, wake up! I found a new history channel to binge!
Thanks, enjoy!
The Huang He or Yellow River has to be the most variable pattern river I ever know, it changed course like multiple times as it switched the river mouth from north to south and vice versa.
AMAZING WORK! love the geopolitic stuff myself!
one thing tho... why does Imperial coastal fleet never materialize? I mean, both Beijing and Nanking is coastal cities(close to it, at least). sure, there's no north-south river route, but there's north-south route there through the coast. and it's not like coast is as stormy as open sea. aside from tides and wave there's hardly any difference between coast and river waterways, no? (fyi, yes, I failed natural science or oceanology or the sort) not to mention both of these cities are wealthy. thus, a few investment to ship would definitely worth it. and it's not like chinese is unfamiliar with ship since they already use those to utilize Yangtze and Yellow highway (river, actually). if there's such fleet, even going all the way to Guangzhou from Beijing is possible with ship, bypassing all the mountainous terrain.
Thanks, glad you've liked it!
I want to discuss the fleet issue in future videos, especially part 2 of the Grand Canal video about the Yangtze --> Beijing Grand Canal. Basically it was a combination of political conservatism, fear of piracy, and the entrenched interests of the people already living more inland and along the Grand Canal to keep things that way. But with that said there were also periods when fleets were built to serve specific purposes.
recommend to see Aerial china ,you know a lot about China! Welcome!😊
Thank you. This video is interesting and helpful.
Thanks, glad you liked it!
Absolutely brilliant. Extremely helpful in trying to grasp so many things about such a large and ancient land.
Thanks, glad you've found it helpful!
This was positively amazing though, thank you!
Thanks, glad you've liked it!
hank you! As a Chinese and have spent some time in studying Chinese History and Geography, I still find this video very useful, clear, concise and to the point. Great Work!
Very well done. I will use it in my intro course to Chinese historical archaeology.
Wow this explains a lot. I will need to watch it again. Thanks for making it. Great idea.
Thanks for the kind words, glad it was helpful!
Perfect, as a westerner I think i know very little of the history of east asia in general, this will help put places and geography in account when learning new events, thanks!
哇噢！这个讲得真不错 :) 深入浅出得覆盖了很多话题
油管上的观众真幸运，能看到你总结的这些内容
谢谢，我也多年来觉得英文网络上关于中国叙事史和地理的资料奇缺，所以希望能通过油管给世界各地的观众介绍一些这方面的内容。
Ive Bookmarked a video of this channel half a year ago, and am now regretting not checking it out earlier as im bingewatching your content.
Great, this is really core information and although packed densely you learn and understand a lot in a comfortably short time. Compliments sent out!
That map is gorgeous, though.
Thank you for the amazing video!
8:26 Now it makes more sense when Cao Cao says "XUZHOU WAS MINE IN THE FIRST PLACE! MINE!!" in Three Kingdoms ep.21