The Origin of the Han people

This is exactly what I had been looking for and found this in the Korean History project : Korea in the eye of the Tiger, mentioned in my previous blog by William Caraway. Isn't it amazing!

The following is a small extract from the chapter on The cradle of Civilisation , which mentioned the origin of the Chinese Han populace;

East Asia's Neolithic tribes lived in a hostile world, battling both natural enemies and rival clans, a world where warfare was a very important part of life. During the second millennium BC, most of China's small tribal states scattered between the middle Yellow River basin and the Shandong Peninsula were highly aristocratic societies ruled by men who mixed brute force with religious legitimacy to buttress their principal claim to ruling authority. These were not "states" in any modern sense, merely the extended power and influence of a ruling clan over a particular piece of territory. Territorial boundaries were likely defined by local geographic features such as rivers and streams, valleys, ridge lines and mountains, and the size of any particular kingdom was probably anything a clan decided to claim and defend. Few of these tribal states shared a common frontier and most military confrontations between clans frequently occurred in the "no man's land" between settlements.

In the time around c. 2,700 BC., four clan societies lived across the North China Plain: the Xia, Jiang, Li and Yi. Out of this chaotic period of inter-tribal warfare came one of the China's greatest legendary figures.

Gongsun, also called Xuan Yuan Shi, used his military knowledge of mountains, rivers, marshes, and plains to lead his clan from Shandong Province in numerous victorious battles against several tribal leaders. Gongsun and his brother, a powerful clan leader in his own right, shared dominance over a large territory. In 2,698 BC, Xuan Yuan led an alliance between the Xia, Jiang and Yi clans against the nine united tribes of the Li clan led by the belligerent Ji You. Armed with wooden spears and bows and arrows, Xuan Yuan's troops overwhelmed the stronger and more numerous Li warriors at Zhoulu in the Sanggan River valley in northwest Hebei Province. After three days and nights of vicious fighting, "with blood being shed all over an area of one hundred leagues," Ji You lay dead on the battlefield. In honor of his victory, the tribal chieftains anointed Xuan Yuan the "Son of Heaven" and leader of the united clans. He is best known as Huang Di, the "Yellow Emperor." Xuan Yuan's brother is known as Yan Di, the "Fire Emperor."
Huang Di left the flat, flood-prone plains near Shandong Province for higher terrain of the Yellow River basin to the west, where he established his capital at Xinzheng, just south of Zhengzhou in Henan Province. With strictness and impartiality, he successfully kept the lands under his control in good order and maintained the prosperity of his subjects among the united clans for many years. Out of a desire to create a melting pot of mixed blood people in his domain, he prohibited men and women from marrying within their own tribe. The resulting merging of bloodlines produced the ancestors of an ancient nationality known as the Hua Xia, "the middle states people," predecessors of the great Han nationality to which the majority of the Chinese people belong. Huang Di and Yan Di are still regarded as the illustrious ancestors of the Chinese race.

This project is a must read for those who likes watching period drama from Hong Kong TV.
If you prefer to search the project by timeline go to this page. When I was watching those period drama I wasn't able to relate them to the country of our present time. Now I had some idea, the names are so different in ancient period. China is really the central state as it's chinese name implies where all the wars and events of the world intersect at some point in time.

Geez, this is so interesting but I need to get ready for my trip tomorrow and wake up at 6am. so reading three chapters at random is all I had time for.