The history of China refers to the history of China from the emergence of Chinese civilization to the present. It is about 5,000 years from the Xuanyuan (also known as Gongsun Xuanyuan) period of the Yellow Emperor tribe; It is about 4600 years since the Three Emperors and Five Emperors. About 4 100 years since Xia dynasty; It is about 2240 years since the first unified centralized Qin Dynasty in China.

China has experienced many regime changes and dynasty changes. It was once the most powerful country in the world and attracted worldwide attention in economy, culture, science and technology. In prehistoric times, Emperor Yanhuang of China was honored as the humanistic ancestor of the Chinese nation.

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It is generally believed that Chinese civilization has two direct sources, namely, the Yellow River civilization and the Yangtze River civilization, and Chinese civilization is mainly the result of the exchange, integration and sublimation of these two regional civilizations. Some historians believe that in the history of human civilization, the definition of "historical era" is calculated from the time when characters were produced, and the previous period is called "prehistoric era".

There are legends in the history of China, such as "Fuxi created gossip" and "Cang Xie invented writing" in the period of the Yellow Emperor, but they are not documented. Modern archaeology has discovered the carved symbols of tortoise bones in Shang Dynasty more than 3,350 years ago (BC 1350), Wen Tao about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, and about 5,000 to 7,000 years ago.