Meaning of Central Plain | Babel Free

Definitions

The region on the lower reaches of the Yellow River which formed the cradle of Chinese civilization.

Equivalents

Examples

“ASIATIC civilization is the product of “Mesopotamias”, of great alluvial plains where the natural fertility of the soil stimulated man’s agricultural vocation. Such was the case of Babylon in western Asia; such is the case of the “Central Plain” of China in eastern Asia.[...]In the same way that Egypt, according to Herodotus, is a “gift of the Nile”, the Central Plain is a gift of the Yellow River and its tributaries.”

“Within the larger sphere of eastern Asia the Chinese people as we know it today is better defined by language and culture than in anthropological terms. In general a distinction of the physical type may be observed north and south of the Yangtze river, a boundary which corresponded in early times to a cultural division between the relatively advanced civilisation of the Central Plain and the more primitive south.”

“The meeting point of the plateau and the plains is just east of the first great bend of the Yellow River. Significantly, it is at the central meeting point that we have the coalescence of the three cultures which produced the developed Shang culture. This area, known to the Chinese as Chung Yuan, or central plain, has always been the heartland of the “Middle Kingdom.””

“The bronzes from a tomb of the Western Zhou at Yiqi, Tunxi, also have some of their own peculiar designs, such as a gui with a weaving pattern commonly seen on bamboo-woven articles of south China, but rarely encountered in the Central Plain.”

The Wonder of Chinese Bronzes

“"In fact, the settlers of today's northwest China attempted to explore every way they could. When their eastbound march was thwarted by the early Central Plain dwellers, they simply found their way to the sparsely populated southern territory [because it was] easier and less hostile."”

““Wow, 1200 B.C. people are doing stuff like that and we think we’re so technically evolved,” she said. “It’s kind of humbling, actually.” Although there is evidence of bronze works at that time in China’s Central Plain, some 750 miles (1,200 kilometers) away, none come close to being this elaborate.”

“"It is possible that when barley was introduced from western Eurasia into the Central Plain of China, it came with the knowledge that the grain was a good ingredient for beer brewing," Wang told Live Science. "So it was not only the introduction of a new crop, but also the knowledge associated with the crop."”

CEFR level