Original subtitles

The history of mankind reaches back thousands of years.

China. washed by the waters of the Yellow River and the Yangtze.

is no exception.

ln the north of this vast land. this empire of a thousand faces.

men forged a nation.

They tamed rivers and cultivated a land as smooth as silk.

They raised the art of casting metal so high.

they could discourse with the gods.

For these Chinese of the North hardy and brave.

the horizon was a potent symbol.

From the horizon came the enemy.

But the horizon also beckoned them to an ever greater empire.

By unifying an immense territory

an emperor built a nation in his own image.

His laws and his philosophy forged a heritage.

And yet. where it all began there was only earth and water.

This endless yellow earth has travelled a long way.

lt is loess - fertile sedimentary dust

carried by the wind from the deserts of Central Asia.

Entire villages depend on it for their food.

ln winter. when the wind tries to rip this natural treasure from the hillsides.

the peasants try to stabilise the soil.

For the loess is as fine as it is soft

and the slightest gust forces it to continue a journey

that it started a long time ago.

Man settled here over 10000 years ago.

lt's thanks to this yellow earth that civilisation was born in China.

lt was everything - the primeval soil and the primary material for many innovations.

No other civilisation is so totally associated with the earth

from which it was born.

ln stormy weather the water that streams from the northern plateaus

dissolves the loess.

That is how this ancient alluvium gave its name

to one of the world's greatest rivers - the Yellow River.

China covers over 10 million square kilometres

between the Yellow River and the Yangtze.

lt was there that Chinese civilisation was born.

(Speaks French ) The role of the Yellow River was fundamental.

lt was the cradle of civilisation in northern China

as the Yangtze was in the south.

lt shaped the entire landscape

of "yellow earth " China

with which the Chinese identify.

lt symbolises the ideal China

at its most "Chinese ".

And. of course. it was also where the first peasants settled.

as loess is extremely fertile.

lt was by the Yellow River and its tributaries

that the first villages appeared.

Today the North China landscape. irrigated by the Yellow River.

is like a great yellow semi-desert plain

lined with loess terraces.

But around 6600 to 4000 BC.

we must imagine a vast leafy forest

covering most of North China up to Mongolia.

From the time the first human communities settled here.

they cleared the forests on these plateaus.

This deforestation destroyed several thousand square kilometres of woodland.

3000 years ago. trees and shrubs formed 80% of the region's landscape.

Today. they account for only 5% .

This is what the high plateaus looked like 5000 years ago.

Here in Huang Ling. the primeval forest was preserved by imperial decree.

lt is still forbidden to cut down these trees.

For today's Chinese. this is a magical spot.

lt preserves the memory of the past.

According to legend. trees were planted here by emperors

from the first great dynasty. the Shang. more than 3500 years ago.

By sinking their roots in the loess.

these plantations stabilised the water table

and allowed the springs to remain plentiful -

which is unusual on the high plateaus.

The splendour of the first dynasties rested on wood.

The civilisation drew its vital force from wood.

lts artists perfected their techniques thanks to wood.

And it was from wood

that the Shang built the first monumental tombs of their rulers.

ln 1 928. a few kilometres from the city of Anyang in Henan province.

archaeological expeditions made a series of discoveries

that would revolutionise our knowledge of ancient China.

For the first time. sumptuous tombs proved the power of the state

in Northern China 1 600 years before Christ.

The digs quickly spread to cover the whole vast region.

After the excavations. the sites around Anyang were carefully filled up.

Professor Tang knows the exact location

of one of the first tombs unearthed on the plain.

(Speaks Mandarin ) This is a photo of Tomb 1 500 when it was first uncovered.

lt was taken from the south. looking northwest.

Let s look at this from this angle.

This is the entrance to the tomb.

This is the northern passage. over there.

The passage is 22.6 metres long.

From top to bottom. the tomb is 1 3 metres deep.

With the surface. it s 1 4 metres.

The actual depth is 1 3 metres.

lt goes from this side to that.

These tombs were robbed many times.

But from the items left behind

and the tombs internal structure.

we can imagine the magnificence of Shang Dynasty civilisation.

The first explorers of the site had good reason to be amazed.

They had discovered a huge cruciform tomb.

The longer arm stretched north-south for 82 metres.

and the shorter ran east-west for 53.

Building the monument must have been a colossal enterprise

requiring a solid grasp of abstract geometry.

The longest access ramp. sloping gently down to the heart of the tomb.

made it easy to transport the king's body inside.

ln the centre of the tomb was the king's final resting place.

This is where his sarcophagus was laid. together with that of the wife

he had chosen to accompany him on his final journey.

Around the royal remains.

the archaeologists found hundreds of bronze objects.

vases. pottery items and various utensils of jade.

These were intended to serve the deceased in the afterlife -

though some of the jade items were used to put victims to death

during human sacrifices.

ln the past 70 years.

archaeologists have unearthed 1 1 tombs built on the same plan.

Almost all had been robbed. but most still held some fabulous treasures.

By returning deep into the earth.

the first kings were merging with the matrix of their universe.

the soil in which their traditions and their art of living were rooted.

3600 years ago. near the city of Chengzhou.

fields of millet. wheat and soy covered the banks of the Yellow River.

Further north. the traveller entered barbarian lands

populated by pastoral nomads.

who were trading partners of the " yellow-earth" peasants.

But the yellow earth is more than a source of abundant crops.

lt bears the imprint of China's past.

lts many qualities were quickly exploited by craftsmen and builders.

Loess conditioned the evolution of Chinese civilisation.

Firstly. it s fertile soil.

so that s where the cultivation of millet developed.

North China grows millet. unlike the greener. more humid south.

which grows rice.

But loess is not only good for agriculture.

it is also the raw material that dominates the landscape

and peasants use it today as they did in the past.

Chinese architecture has used it from the beginning.

Loess. sometimes mixed with clay.

is used for building peasant houses.

but also royal palaces

or the walls of the first fortified cities.

lt is. together with wood.

the primary material of Chinese architecture.

3600 years ago. Chinese peasants made a discovery -

packed down and compressed.

the fine loess particles formed a mass as solid as stone.

That was providential. because at nightfall.

elephants. rhinos and other wild animals would come out of the forests

to devastate crops and slaughter cattle.

To this day. farmers on the high plateaus of northern China

use this method to build the walls surrounding their fields.

The earth is painstakingly packed inside a wooden frame.

lt dries as hard as brick.

This construction technique. which the Chinese call banzhu.

wasn't used only for domestic structures.

These earth walls in the modern city of Zhengzhou.

on the banks of the Yellow River. are over 3000 years old.

They seem impervious to time and weather.

lt is estimated that every layer of loess in these walls was 1 0 centimetres thick.

To build some sections. the masons laid over a hundred layers.

lt's difficult to imagine the patience and skill required

to build this huge structure.

The wall is 7 kilometres long. 9 metres high and 20 metres wide.

This titanic fortification protected the heart of the royal city.

capital of the Shang.

To build it. 1 0.000 workers laboured in continuous shifts

every day for 1 8 years.

lt demonstrates the power and sophistication of a civilisation

that already had a pictographic writing system

and highly developed methods of foretelling the future.

lt was also making its first astronomical observations.

ln the course of their 500-year reign.

the Shang kings laid the basis of a conquering state.

The Yinxu Museum houses the sacred relics of a dynasty

whose entire authority was symbolised in the art of working bronze.

These bronze vases testify to past greatness.

They are the messengers of a people who quickly learned how to take advantage

of the tin and copper deposits around the Yellow River.

No other ancient civilisation reached the level of perfection

attained by Shang craftsmen.

ln casting these ceremonial vases.

they were simultaneously serving their gods and their king.

The Shang kings commissioned the vases to reinforce their power

and reaffirm their relationship with the heavens.

The taotie. complex arabesques that decorate the vessels.

reveal the relationship the Shang had with their gods.

The intricate patterns and angular projections

form the stylised face of their deities. simultaneously feared and worshipped.

To tame their universe and transform it to their own image.

the Shang refined alloys.

Metalwork was at the heart of their material and spiritual development.

Metallurgy marks a crucial stage in the development of civilisation.

because with bronze the Bronze Age is born.

together with writing. the centralised state.

the first cities emerging from the Neolithic era.

a whole set of constructions and social structures

that mark a defining moment in Chinese civilisation.

And it is through the mastery of metallurgy

that Chinese rulers will acquire the strength and power

that will allow them to extend their territory.

to make war on each other.

and spread their civilisation.

Of course. this civilisation of bronze

settled in proximity to copper and tin mines

which were used to make alloys.

but also in places where loess could be used to make moulds

for casting those large bronze vessels.

Water and wood were also needed for the development of metallurgy.

Looking at the map.

we see that those first centres of bronze civilisation

match areas rich in minerals. water and raw materials.

Japanese scientists have rediscovered the methods of the Shang sculptors.

Using Shang techniques and materials.

they have revived an art that is 3600 years old.

They found the secret of making the bronze vases known as ding and lei,

which stand almost a metre high and weigh over 1 20 kilos.

The secret was in the loess that's used to make the huge moulds.

Master Mitsuru Kashi has re-created the art of transforming loess into clay.

Once the loess is mixed with water and kneaded.

it accepts the exact imprint of the original moulding.

The plates fit to the millimetre.

To put it all together requires hours of patient work.

(Speaks Japanese ) The imprint is very precise.

lf we d used Japanese soil. the lines would be broken.

The higher clay content

makes the imprint as sharp as the original

without a single broken line.

Only the fine. silky yellow earth of the high plateaus

permitted such exquisite precision.

Delicate arabesques covered each piece

like a negative imprint of the cosmology of Northern China.

The fertile soil that allowed civilisation to take root

and grow on the banks of the Yellow River

also served art and religion.

ln this bronze lei. the ruler would offer wine to the gods.

symbolising his union with the celestial forces

whose favour he was trying to win.

Today. Japanese craftsmen are trying to revive this art.

The mould is fired for eight hours.

then the sculptors pour in molten metal heated to over 1 000 degrees Centigrade.

Only yellow-earth moulds can tolerate such a high temperature without cracking.

When the metal is poured. the inside of the mould becomes as hard as rock.

imprinting every detail on the metal.

The craftsmen have to use chisels on the mould to get the vase out.

The mould is used only once.

Each piece was unique and priceless.

lt transmitted the message of the gods.

When they saw it shining in the sun.

worshippers were subdued and apprehensive.

for the face of the god glowed with a thousand flames

that proved his presence.

During lengthy rituals. the cavernous sound that came from the vase

refocused worshippers' attention.

ln the same period. priests developed complex methods of divination

by engraving occult signs on bones.

Messages to the gods were everywhere.

and people and sovereigns alike prayed for their help.

Bronze was primarily the material of the elite.

lt was the symbol of power and ritual.

So it was a very important reflection of society.

During the Shang Dynasty.

in the time of Anyang. their last capital.

bronze was used exclusively to make weapons

or ritual pieces used in ancestor worship.

The dragon stares into eternity.

This vase. called Sigon by believers.

contained wine offerings made to the gods during lavish ceremonies.

The ruler regularly summoned dancers and priests to huge banquets

in honour of the gods.

There the bronze became an intermediary between him and the divine.

This exclusive relationship determined the fate of the kingdom.

But only the prince could hear the voices that told him which path was correct.

and whether the rains would be propitious for the harvest.

As part of the ritual.

dishes and wines were brought from the four corners of the kingdom.

The king offered them to the gods.

then ate the sacrificial food to reinforce his spiritual power.

The people watched through incense smoke

as hundreds of dancers honoured the gods and their king.

The bronze vessels from Shang tombs

contain all the magic of these religious ceremonies.

They are also witnesses to a vanished world.

The fauna from the high-plateau forests feature in slow procession -

rhinos. elephants...

So do mythical monsters. their gaping mouths devouring humans.

The bronzes were worshipped by the Shang.

but they also reflect their fears -

for dark clouds often overshadowed their lives.

( NOCTURNAL FOREST NOlSES )

The Shang knew that war was part of daily life.

( STRUCK BELL )

And bronze wasn't used only for ritual objects.

( STRUCK BELL )

The art of war would play a very important role

in the Shang period. in the Bronze Age.

And bronze. this noblest of materials.

would be used to make weapons

and every kind of military item.

To make chariots. for instance. symbols of power and royalty.

When archaeologists first excavated ancient Chinese cities.

they were surprised to discover thousands of moulds.

in clay or stone. for arrowheads. spearheads...

moulds that allowed the mass production of an entire arsenal.

The bronze culture was abandoning ceremonies to honour the gods.

Religious ritual was giving way to war.

These near-industrial production methods

allowed various kingdoms to raise huge armies.

Greed. lust for power. ancient hatreds led to horrific wars.

China sank into a permanent state of war that would last 1 000 years.

Three thousand years ago.

the Shang Empire was attacked by its Chou neighbours and collapsed.

The city of Anyang was sacked.

The great kingdoms were now split into tiny. independent rival states.

And yet. in this chaos. rival courts competed in creativity.

Out of the void. new representations of the universe emerged.

lt was the age of Confucianism and Taoism.

On vases. human beings replaced the gods.

Women collect mulberries. musicians play their instruments.

women dance while men prepare for war.

( DRUMBEAT )

( DlSTANT SHOUTS. CLANK OF METAL )

From 650 BC. chronic instability turned into terror.

Ruthless adventurers replaced aristocratic warriors.

skirmishes gave way to full-scale battles.

Cities burned and blood flowed.

The excavation of a battlefield near the city of Yinxu

revealed the fate of the vanquished.

lt unearthed 1 500 graves. with five skeletons in each one.

7 500 men had been beheaded.

The winner of the battle wanted to prevent their return from the next world.

For 400 years life in China was dominated by executions and deportations.

The mountains of southern China.

a huge contrast with the bare plateaus of the Yellow River valley.

The Qiang people here retain a folk memory of the ancient fighting.

for they were among its victims.

They were forced to flee from Henan to Sichuan.

a trek of several thousand kilometres. to seek a refuge in the mountains.

To quell their fear of a surprise attack.

the Qiang built high stone towers that guard the mountain passes to this day.

Thousands of years after the exodus. shamans still sing the tragic epic.

Their songs still echo in the mountains.

relaying the memory of a traumatised people.

( DRUMBEAT. MAN SlNGS )

( SlNGlNG CONTlNUES )

For 600 years. the Qin - the people of the most formidable warrior kingdom -

tested their valour against the barbarians on their western borders.

But from 230 BC. thanks to their mastery of iron.

they conquered all their neighbouring states.

So a new state - feudal. authoritarian and centralised - was born.

China united under one man. Shi Huangdi.

the first Emperor of China.

China under Mao was a closed society.

lnformation was closely guarded.

But on the 29th of March. 1 97 4

sensational news flashed around the world -

while ploughing his field in the Guangzhou valley.

not far from the tomb of Shi Huangdi.

a peasant had uncovered the most fabulous treasure

since that of Tutankhamen.

The area was well known to experts.

Who could miss this earth pyramid. covering more than a hectare?

But the site had never been explored.

and legend said that the tomb concealed treasure.

To the east of the tomb.

the plough had uncovered life-sized human figures.

First one. then two. then ten...

The ghost of the Emperor Shi Huangdi was everywhere.

He had ordered this vast mausoleum built to his own glory.

But... who was he. really?

ShiHuangdiis an extraordinary character

who has become a myth in his own right.

We know him from the writings of Sima Qian.

the great Chinese historian of the time.

who gave us his physical and moral portrait.

Even physically he was a unique character.

with a bulging nose. big eyes.

the chest of a bird of prey. the voice of a jackal...

He was also a tyrant.

with all a tyrant s traits and physical characteristics.

He is also described as a devourer of men.

the swallower of anyone contradicting him.

lndeed. those who opposed him tended to meet a violent death.

Likewise. ancient books.

Chinese classics that didn t meet his approval.

were consigned to the flames.

He was also a megalomaniac

who placed himself in the centre of the world.

After a few days of digging.

the archaeologists had to acknowledge the obvious -

awaiting them was an entire army in battle order.

Shi Huangdi had not embarked alone on his last journey.

Apart from the slaves sacrificed to serve him in the afterlife.

he was accompanied by a terracotta army of 8000 infantrymen.

plus horses.

Spearmen. archers. charioteers and officers

were keeping watch for all eternity.

Each figure was different - every face had individual features.

The Emperor's personal guard seemed to have been frozen for 2000 years.

awaiting orders to move into battle.

The archaeologists could only wonder.

what else might the Emperor's tomb contain?

The tyrant's megalomania was frightening.

And yet. there was one thing he feared.

ShiHuangdi was obsessed with death.

For instance. he sent emissaries to the lmmortals

who supposedly possessed the elixir of life.

Also. very early in his reign.

he forced over 700.000 people to build his future tomb.

which. to give you an idea.

had a volume greater than the largest Egyptian pyramid.

The tomb remains unopened.

We only have a description from the same Chinese historian

who gives a mind-boggling account.

The tomb is said to be an immense subterranean palace

that is also a microcosm of the world.

ShiHuangdi wanted to simulate the sky.

A ceiling was to depict all the stars. the heavens.

There were to be 1 00 rivers made from mercury.

furniture of extraordinary splendour.

and sophisticated booby traps

with crossbows automatically firing bolts

at the slightest attempt to enter the tomb.

This mausoleum hasn t yet been explored.

Probes have shown a high mercury content in the vicinity.

But for the time being.

perhaps to preserve the magic of this description.

only the burial site and the surrounding ditches

have been excavated.

The tomb itself retains all its mystery.

ln August 1 998.

archaeologists made a new discovery at the foot of the mausoleum.

Shi Huangdi left nothing to chance.

Beside his troops lay an armoury for their use.

The archaeologists expected to find only a few spears and arrowheads.

They discovered an entire arsenal.

As well as weapons. there was armour of exceptional quality.

No one had ever seen anything like it.

lt was made of stone.

(Speaks Mandarin ) Each slate plate is different. This one is for this part.

Every plate is carefully polished.

We did a test using tools we think were used at the time.

lt would take one person 1 00 days to make one suit.

According to our initial estimates.

if this 1 3.000-square-metre tomb is full of armour

there ll be over 5000 suits

that would take one person over 3000 days to make.

3000 days makes around 1 0 years.

A complete suit of the armour has 61 2 slate plates.

each one made to fit perfectly.

Each finely polished piece is only 8 millimetres thick.

The suit is held together with bronze chains.

Of course. no warrior of the time wore stone armour.

The emperor's real soldiers wore iron and leather.

But he wanted to be certain that the armour of his entombed warriors

would be impervious to time and the elements.

Only a terracotta army. immortal and subterranean.

could wear such splendid armour.

The fixed gaze of these 8000 men radiates imperial power.

for Shi Huangdi founded an imperial nation named after the Qin.

China was born.

The emperor proclaimed laws.

unified the system of weights and measures.

revised writing and introduced income tax.

ln the north. hundreds of thousands of workers began a mammoth project -

a great wall over 2400 kilometres long.

designed to hold back the hordes of barbarian horsemen.

China became "the country at the centre of the world" -

Zhongguo. the Middle Kingdom.

According to legend.

Shi Huangdi also had a colossal dam built on the Guanzhong plain.

lt was called Zhengguoqu.

Professor Qing. from the University of Shaanxi.

has surveyed the plain metre by metre.

He has gone up the river and travelled back in time.

(Speaking Mandarin ) We re standing here.

The southern side is lower. lt then goes up gradually.

On the map it shows the course of the river.

On this spot. Professor Qing found what appear to be man-made earth mounds.

The material used in them resembles loess.

For him. there's no doubt they were built using the banzhu method

2000 years ago.

and that they are the remains of a huge dam.

Across the river is the Zhengguoqu Dam.

This is one section.

After more than 2000 years. the riverbed no longer exists.

ln the olden days. the dam stretched from the east bank to the west.

lt cut across the river.

lt started there. passed where l m standing.

and expanded over there.

till it reached the bottom of the hill.

The hill over there.

The whole dam was 2650 metres long.

So legend proves to be true.

Shi Huangdi tamed the rivers and built canals.

( DRAMATlC MUSlC )

To build this dam. thousands of people must have been mobilised.

lt must have stretched over 21/2 kilometres.

and it must have risen tens of metres high.

The compressed-earth dam wall created a lake

whose waters irrigated the whole plain.

lt was the quality of the loess. as well as the use of iron tools.

that made it possible to build this gigantic monument.

The soil of the first Chinese peasants.

who lived many centuries before Shi Huangdi.

was still used in building his imperial monuments.

Shi Huangdi. China's first emperor. established a 1 000-year civilisation

based on an autocratic and theocratic state.

lt would last till the middle of the 20th century.

But what legacy did Shi Huangdi pass on to his successors?

This first emperor created a new order out of the chaos.

He created the administrative structure of the future China.

He organised it into provinces and districts

and he standardised the writing system.

the roads. and the weights and measures.

So he put in place all the fundamental elements

of a new phase of civilisation.

which was then carried forward by the next dynasty. the Han.

and then by other dynasties.

So we have there the seeds of the principal foundations

of Chinese civilisation to this day.

From then on. China was unified from north to south.

from the green mountains of Sichuan to the arid plateaus of the north.

And a good part of China's epic history was written thanks to its yellow earth.

Today. China has over a billion people.

And some modern Chinese have returned to the yellow mountains of the north

to plant trees.

Entire villages regularly plant apricot trees on the high plateaus

because they can survive the region's harsh weather.

ln the bitter cold. with fierce winds trying to blow away their yellow earth.

these men. women and children are fighting to return this barren landscape

to what it was thousands of years ago.

Their tools are still primitive.

But a few shovels are enough.

for the power of the people lies above all in their common will.

And who knows?

Maybe one day these mountains will be covered in blossoming trees.

4000 years have passed.

4000 years of development. war. dictatorship and revolution.

Chinese civilisation today is at once removed from. and close to. its past.

Even with its face set resolutely toward the future.

China still encounters the memory of ancient times every step of the way.

But China's strength lies in its ability to unite

to overcome the obstacles.

4000 years of turbulent history

have taught the Chinese to close ranks in the face of adversity.

lt's as if the magic of time has allowed an entire people

to acquire the qualities of the earth in which their roots are planted...

the ageless yellow earth.

Subtitles SBS Australia 2007