The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BC, from the Shang dynasty. Ancient historical texts such as the Book of Documents mention and describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BC) before the Shang, but no writing is known from the period, and Shang writings do not indicate the existence of the Xia. The Shang ruled in the Yellow River valley, which is commonly held to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, Neolithic civilizations originated at various cultural centers along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River (excerpted from Wikipedia)
Recommended Reading
Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276Chinese Connoisseurship: The Ko Ku Yao Lun, The Essential Criteria of AntiquitiesThe Art and Architecture of China: 3rd editionThe China Trade: Export Paintings, Furniture, Silver and Other ObjectsThe Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting - from 1679-17011587, A Year of No Significance: The Ming Dynasty in DeclineThe Chinese Scholar's Studio: Artistic Life in the Late Ming PeriodSolomon Bard's in search of the past: A guide to the antiquities of Hong KongWood-Carvers of Hong Kong: Craft Production in the World Capitalist PeripheryChinese Civilization: A Sourcebook, 2nd EdThe Confusions of Pleasure: Commerce and Culture in Ming ChinaThe Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological PerspectiveSuzhou: Where the Goods of All the Provinces ConvergeChinese Arts and CraftsThe art of opium antiquesThe Canton Trade: Life and Enterprise on the China Coast, 1700-1845China on Paper: European and Chinese Works from the Late Sixteenth to the Early Nineteenth CenturyThe Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (History of Imperial China Book 5)Chinese Ancestor Worship: A Practice and Ritual Oriented Approach to Understanding Chinese CultureThe Emperor's Private Paradise: Treasures from the Forbidden CityThe Empress and Mrs. Conger: The Uncommon Friendship of Two Women and Two WorldsThe Archaeology of China: From The Late Paleolithic To The Early Bronze Age (Cambridge World Archaeology)Empress Dowager Cixi: The Concubine Who Launched Modern ChinaThe Golden Ghetto: The American Commercial Community at Canton and the Shaping of American China Policy, 1784–1844 (Echoes: Classics in Hong Kong Culture and History)Heaven in Conflict: Franciscans and the Boxer Uprising in ShanxiThe China Collectors: America's Century-Long Hunt for Asian Art TreasuresShanghai's Art Deco Master: Paul Veysseyre’s Architecture in the French ConcessionImages of the Canton Factories 1760–1822: Reading History in ArtSuperfluous Things: Material Culture and Social Status in Early Modern ChinaChina's Porcelain Capital: The Rise, Fall and Reinvention of Ceramics in JingdezhenThe Old Bridges in NingboGreat Books of China: From Ancient Times to the PresentChinese Middlemen in Hong Kong's Colonial Economy, 1830-1890 (Routledge Studies in the Modern History of Asia)China's Philological Turn: Scholars, Textualism, and the Dao in the Eighteenth Century (Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute, Columbia University)Ancient China: A Captivating Guide to the Ancient History of China and the Chinese Civilization Starting from the Shang Dynasty to the Fall of the Han DynastyThe Organization of Imperial Workshops during the Han DynastyCanton Days: British Life and Death in ChinaThe City of Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and the Early Modern WorldRoutledge Handbook of Early Chinese HistoryThe Zuo Tradition / Zuozhuan Reader: Selections from China's Earliest Narrative HistoryThe Compensations of Plunder: How China Lost Its Treasures (Silk Roads)The Missing Buddhas: The mystery of the Chinese Buddhist statues that stunned the Western art world
