An Exploration Of The Vicissitudes Of The Ecological Environment Of The Middle And Lower Reaches Of The Yellow River And The Rise And Transmutation Of The Xia Dynasty

At present, matters about the environment, which correlate closely with the subsistence of human beings, arouse more and more social attention. However , the evolution of the ecological environment is quite a drawn out and gradual process, which needs to be observed and studied over a long time. That result of our exploration and modeling of the original appearance of the prehistoric and historical ecological environment its evolutionary rule and impact on human being society will undoubtedly help to realize the ideal of a harmonious development of human and nature. Nevertheless, although the synthetic research has begun in China, it is rather undeveloped. This dissertation makes the best of the information and progeny of history, such as historical geography, archaeology, environmental archaeology, ecology, systematically probes into the vicissitude of the ecological environment of the middle and lower reaches of th Yellow River, and aims to clarify the practical influence of the ecological environmental conditions on why the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River region could become the center of the earliest civilization of China and the Xia Dynasty , which was the first dynasty in Chinese history .The first chapter of this dissertation discusses the basicresearch material on the ecological environmental history of the pre-history and the Xia Dynasty, emphasizes the significance of widening the scope of study and developing a mul-ti - disciplinary systematic approach. In order to let people systematically andintegrally understand the vicissitude of the ecological environment of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the second chapter traces the outline of the vicissitude of the ecological environment before the Holocene epoch of the Quaterary period from the Palaeozoic era and the Mesozoic era to the Tertiary period of the Cenozoic era, also discusses the accumulation of loess, which was the groundwork of the ecological environment of this zone in the Pleistocene e-poch of the Quaterary period, forming the Yellow River and hosting, the Palaeolithic cultures created by Homo sapiens.From the Neolithic age on, 8500 to 3000 years ago, "the Yangshao Warm Period" when climate became to get warmer began to appear in our country. During this period of about 5500 years, with the revolution of the Neolithic age, the origin and development of the millet agriculture, the forming of the civilized center position, and the rise of the Xia Dydnasty, the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River region became the center stage of Chinese earliest civilization. The third chapter particularly discusses the appearance of the ecological environment in the Neolithic age; expounds the importance of the favorable ecological environment on facilitating the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River region becoming the center stage of Chinese civilization, according to the origin and development of the millet agriculture, Dayu's water - control, etc.The fourth chapter considers systematically the ecological environment of the Xia Dynasty and its change. It not only demonstrate that Xia Xiao Zheng had been the calendar of the center region of the Xia Dynasty but also studies its content about the ecological environment. Lastly, from the research on the gradually deteriorating ecological environment, especially due to the extensive drought of the last year of the Xia Dynasty, climate abnormity, etc, the dissertation believes that the deteriorated ecological environment was the importantreason of the Xia Dynasty' s destruction. In conclusion, this dissertation systematically probes for the first time into the prehistoric and the Xia Dynasty vicissitudes of the ecological environment of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River and connects the environmental background of "the Yangshao warm period" with the formation of the prehistoric center of civilization in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River region and the foundation and con-tabescence of the Xia Dynasty. It also ex...