pre-Qin period 先秦时期

The pre-Qin period refers to the long period before Emperor Qinshihuang's unification of ancient China.

About 1 700 000 years ago, the ancestors of the Chinese people lived in present-day Yuanmou County, Yunnan Province. This period is now generally considered the beginning of primitive society in China. About 2070 BC, the Xia Dynasty came into being. This was China’s first dynasty and it lasted for more than 400 years.

Succeeding the Xia was the Shang Dynasty (also called the Yin Dynasty for changing its capital several times and finally in Yin, today's Anyang city, Henan Province). The Shang Dynasty was a great power in the world which lasted over 500 years. This dynasty bestowed upon its posterity a great heritage of artifacts such as extremely precious inscriptions on bones, tortoise shells and bronze wares.

The third kingdom was the Western Zhou Dynasty, with Hao as its capital (today's Xi'an city, Shaanxi Province). Later as its capital fell into the hands of the minority invaders, the Western Zhou had to move its capital eastward to today’s Luoyang city, Henan Province hence called the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. From the Western Zhou to the Eastern Zhou Dynasties, they altogether existed about 800 years. The Eastern Zhou was later divided by historians into distinct periods: the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC) and the Warring States Period (475 - 221 bigger states. By way of reforms, these seven states developed into the feudal society, which paved the way for the later unification of China under the Qin Dynasty.

When the ancient Egyptian, Babylonian and Indian civilizations were progressing, the ancient Chinese civilization in the Xia, Shang and Western Zhou dynasties was already in full bloom. When the Greek and Roman city-states were in their heyday, the thought and culture of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods were flourishing in ancient China. With a broad view of the ancient world civilization, one way finds that the two stars of civilization - one in the East, the other in the West - were shining at the same time. This gradually developed into two centers of world civilization.