Abstract The “Five Emperors Era”has been regarded by many scholars as one of the most important evolutionary stages in prehistoric China,since it marks the establishment of Longshan chiefdom-like societies and the origins of ancient civilizations in the middle-lower Yellow River valley. However,its historical authenticity and ages have been debated. In this paper,we attempted to address these issues from the perspective of human-environment relationship. Firstly,we analyzed and compared the political landscapes and social features of possible “Five Emperors Era”recorded in historical texts with those revealed by the archaeological evidence. It was found that both of them revealed a similar political landscape characterized by tens of thousands states competing each other and a similar social evolutionally stages with comparable ages. We then reconstructed the climatic background of the “Five Emperors Era”,and found that it occurred during a pronounced climatic deterioration around 4.5～4.0 ka BP. Comparison with climatic records from other parts in the northern hemisphere indicates that such climatic anomaly has a significance of at least hemisphere scale. Based on such findings,the mechanism behind the emergence of the “Five Emperors Era”is suggested as that climatic change beginning around 4.5 ka BP resulted in resource stress,and then stimulated the conflicts and warfare between different communities,which lead to the emergence of Longshan chiefdom-like societies. Such finding indicates that the “Five Emperors Era”truly exists and its age is most probably at 4.5～4.0 ka BP.
About author: Wu Wenxiang,born in 1968,is an associate researcher in the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research,Chinese Academy of Sciences. He is mainly engaged in researches on global changes and environmental archaeology. E-mail: wuwx@igsnrr.ac.cn.
Cite this article:
Wu Wenxiang,Ge Quansheng. Historical authenticity and age of the “Five Emperors Era” from the perspective of human-environment relationship[J]. JOPC, 2015, 17(2): 275-284.
Wu Wenxiang,Ge Quansheng. Historical authenticity and age of the “Five Emperors Era” from the perspective of human-environment relationship[J]. JOPC, 2015, 17(2): 275-284.
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