The story of the descendants of the Yellow Emperor

According to legend, more than 4,000 years ago, there were many clan tribes living in the Yangtze River and Yellow River basins in China, among which the most famous were Huangdi tribe, Yan Di tribe and Chiyou tribe. Huangdi tribe lived in the northwest of China, Shaanxi Province today, then moved eastward, and finally settled in the curved mountainous area around Zhuolu, Hebei Province, leading a nomadic life. Yan Di tribe is active in the Weihe River basin to the middle reaches of the Yellow River in Shaanxi Province. The Chiyou tribe, also known as the "Jiuli nationality", lives in present-day Shandong and Henan in the east of China. During the interaction of these three tribes, several major wars have taken place in the northern part of Hebei Province today.

After the Yan Di tribe entered the middle reaches of the Yellow River from the Weihe River basin, it had a long-term conflict with the Chiyou tribe. After being defeated by Chiyou, Emperor Yan fled to Zhuolu, Hebei Province, and took refuge in the Yellow Emperor tribe. Later, the two tribes joined forces to fight Chiyou in Zhuolu. Chiyou was defeated and killed by Huangdi tribe, and Huangdi won. This is the famous "Battle of Zhuolu" in history books.

The Yellow Emperor adopted a policy of appeasement to the members of Chiyou tribe, and the members of Chiyou tribe who stayed in the north joined the Yanhuang tribe. When other tribes heard that Chiyou had died, they admired the Yellow Emperor, and everyone supported him as the son of heaven. The Yellow Emperor established his capital in Zhuolu.

After defeating Chiyou, the Yan Di tribe fought for hegemony and had another big conflict with the Huangdi tribe. Yan Di and the Yellow Emperor fought another war in Hanquan (now Huailai, Hebei Province). As a result, Yan Di was defeated and surrendered to the Huangdi tribe. Later, their descendants developed from Hebei to the south, entered the Yellow River basin and settled in the Central Plains. After a long period of common life, common reproduction and mutual integration, they jointly formed the ancient residents in the Central Plains of China, laying a historical foundation for the later Huaxia people. In the long historical development process, due to the relatively strong power and high culture of Huangdi tribe, many inventions and creations of working people in primitive society were recorded in the name of Huangdi, who became the representative of Central Plains culture. Since then, this tribe has gradually developed, and residents of different ancestors living in the Central Plains consider themselves descendants of the Yellow Emperor. After the Spring and Autumn Period (770-476 BC), these residents called themselves Huaxia nationality, and after the Han Dynasty, they were called Han nationality. Later Han people regarded the Yellow Emperor as their ancestors and called themselves "descendants of the Yellow Emperor".

In the early years of the Western Zhou Dynasty (BC 1 1 century), Zhou Wuwang's younger brother Zhou Gongdan established Luoyi (now Luoyang City, Henan Province), and thought that the Central Plains was the center of the world, so it was called "Middle Earth". Huaxia people live in the Central Plains, so they call this area "China". Later, with the continuous integration of Huaxia and other ethnic groups, the activities of Huaxia continued to expand, and the highly developed Huaxia culture gradually spread to all parts of the country. "China" has gradually become the name representing the whole of China, and "descendants of the Chinese people" has a broader meaning.

At the initial stage of the integration of the Chinese nation, it was closely related to Hebei, an ancient land and its residents. The formation and development of the Central Plains culture, the ancestors of this land in Hebei, also made their own contributions. It is reasonable for us to call Hebei the cradle of China people.