China is a vast country the size of Europe. Two-thirds of China's total area is mountainous, with a topography that is high in the west and low in the east. The west of China is composed of many mountain ranges with altitudes exceeding 5,000 meters, among them the highest Himalayas are 8,848 meters above sea level. The east gradually drops to a plain below 50 meters above sea level. The Yellow River originates from the Bayan Har Mountain with an altitude of 5,369 meters, located in Qinghai Province. This second longest river in China crosses the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, Loess Plateau, Inner Mongolia Plateau, and North China Plain from west to east, and finally flows into the Bohai Sea. Its drainage area reaches 795,000 square kilometers, covering Qinghai, Sichuan, Gansu, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan and Shandong nine provinces.
Millions of years ago, east of the Taihang Mountains in central North China (box in map below) was the ocean. The North China Plain (the upper two thirds of the green area below) was formed by the accumulation of sediment from the Yellow River over millions of years. The middle section of the Yellow River flows through the Loess Plateau, carrying a large amount of sediment. It transports 1.6 billion tons of sediment downstream every year, about a quarter of which remains on land, and the rest washes into the Bohai Sea. The silt deposited in the lower reaches of the Yellow River gradually raises the riverbed. Every once in a while, the Yellow River will change its course due to the blockage of large amounts of sediment. Wherever the terrain is low, that's where the diverted river will flow, bringing sediment with it. For millions of years, sediment from the Yellow River has filled the low areas back and forth, created the vast North China Plain, which is larger than the area of Britain. Today, the Yellow River is still reclaiming land from the sea and constantly pushing the coastline eastward. Scientists estimated that the Bohai Sea will be filled in within a few hundred years, further expanding the North China Plain.
Archeology has discovered that eight thousand years ago, people already lived in this land created by the Yellow River. The North China Plain, the birthplace of Chinese civilization, has always been the most densely populated, economically and culturally prosperous region in China due to its fertile soil, temperate climate, and abundant rainfall brought by the Pacific monsoon, making it suitable for agriculture. The Yellow River nourishes the people living on this land, but it also brings them disasters. As the riverbed rises, people need to constantly strengthen the river embankments to protect farmland and settlements on both sides. As a result, the riverbed gradually rises above the ground, and in some areas is even 5-10 meters above the ground, turning the river into a hanging river. Once the embankment breaks, it will cause a devastating disaster, washing away everything in its path. Historical records show that in the past 2,500 years, the Yellow River burst and flooded 1,593 times, and had major diversions 26 times. Every time the Yellow River bursts and floods, tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands or even millions of people are killed and displaced. The Yellow River flood of 1897, due to domestic unrest and disrepair, killed two million (some say seven million) people. River management has never stopped since ancient times. Perhaps no other populace in the world experiences such a complex love-hate dynamic with their mother river as the Chinese. They express gratitude for her nourishing while harboring resentment for her harshness. But it is precisely with her rugged character that the Yellow River has cultivated the perseverance, tenacity, hard work, and resilience of the Chinese people.
Chinese parents tend to use strict discipline to train children so that they can learn to face the severe challenges of life. This is not unrelated to the fact that they themselves grew up under the temper of the Yellow River. Westerners who embrace individualism emphasize protecting children's independence and individuality. Chinese parents pay attention to cultivating children's perseverance, endurance and team spirit. Such education is closely related to their harsh living environment. In front of the Yellow River, individuals are insignificant. Controlling the Yellow River relies on collective strength. Therefore, Chinese philosophy emphasizes collectivism and teamwork. Western philosophy conceptualizes individuals as independent actors, giving precedence to personal interests over collective concerns. Chinese philosophy perceives individuals as interconnected and interdependent members of society with a common destiny and shared interests and responsibilities. This prioritization of collective concerns over individual interests is influenced by their shared burden imposed by the Yellow River.
The fertile, rich and troubled land of the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River makes the people living on this land not only enjoy the blessings of the Yellow River, but also face the challenges it brings. This paradox has nurtured the dialectical thinking of the Chinese people. The Chinese do not perceive things in stark black and white terms like many Westerners often do. They recognize that opposing qualities juxtapose in all things, akin to the natures of the Yellow River, and that good fortune and misfortune hinge on each other. This awareness empowers them to approach the complexities of life with composure, remain vigilant during peaceful times, and discern opportunities within challenges. Chinese philosophy opposes simplistic and extreme thinking like individualism, feminism, Darwinism, unipolarism, hegemonism, and zero-sum game, and believes that harmony, balance, moderation and mutual benefit are the laws of nature in which diverse things complement each other and coexist like the two sexes. The Chinese adhere to the doctrine of the mean, seeking balance in oppositions and harmony in differences. This seemingly meek position allows them to live in harmony with an environment that is both contradictory and integrated. The Confucian stance against forming parties and taking sides, and the Chinese people's refusal to engage in Western-style partisan politics, these are all due to the wisdom given to the Chinese people by the Yellow River. (See Philosophies that Separate Two Worlds.)
Managing China's huge population and making them act in a unified manner to carry out large projects like regulating the Yellow River, which involves vast areas of land, huge amounts of manpower, enormous resources, comprehensive planning, and the joint efforts of the whole country, require a unified, centralized government with strong planning and organizational capabilities. The Chinese people's special emphasis on political stability is also related to river management, which demands a stable and efficient government. In fact, China's state power was born out of the need to control the Yellow River. Dayu, the founder of the Xia Dynasty (about 2070 BC - about 1600 BC), the first dynasty recorded in Chinese history, was the organizer who led the people to regulate the Yellow River. With thousands of years of experiences, the Chinese have mastered the way of mobilizing and organizing the masses, and trained themselves into the most organized, disciplined, and well-managed people, making this nation extremely resilient, able to face its most severe challenges. The Western political model based on individualism and partisanship, in which different interest groups fight against each other and take turns in power, may serve the special interests, but does not in line with China’s reality.
In summary, the character, thought, culture, and political framework of the Chinese nation are inextricably intertwined with the Yellow River. This influential river shapes the people under her nurture to embody qualities of magnanimity, generosity, kindness, solidarity, resilience, and sophistication - reminiscent of the attributes of their mother river. A nation that has withstood such severe challenges for many millennia and continuously defeated them is invincible and cannot be underestimated. (See Understanding China: Geography, Confucianism, and the Chinese-Style Modernization.)
