Editing History of China (section)

===Bronze Age===
{{see also|List of Bronze Age sites in China}}
[[File:Huang_Di.png|thumb|Map of tribes and tribal unions in Ancient China, including the tribes led by the [[Yellow Emperor]], [[Emperor Yan]] and [[Chiyou]].]]
Bronze artifacts have been found at the [[Majiayao culture]] site (between 3100 and 2700&nbsp;BC).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/landscapessociet00mart |title=Landscapes and Societies: Selected Cases |publisher=Springer |year=2010 |isbn=978-90-481-9412-4 |page=310 |url-access=registration | chapter=Holocene Environmental Changes and the Evolution of the Neolithic Cultures in China |last1=Mo |first1=Duowen |last2=Zhao |first2=Zhijun |last3=Xu |first3=Junjie |last4=Li |first4=Minglin |doi=10.1007/978-90-481-9413-1_19 |editor-first=I. Peter |editor-last=Martini |editor-first2=Ward |editor-last2=Chesworth}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Higham |first=Charles |title=Encyclopedia of Ancient Asian Civilizations |publisher=Infobase  |year=2004 |isbn=0-8160-4640-9 |page=200 |author-link=Charles Higham (archaeologist)}}</ref> The Bronze Age is also represented at the [[Lower Xiajiadian culture]] (2200–1600&nbsp;BC)<ref>{{Cite book |title=Leadership Strategies, Economic Activity, and Interregional Interaction: Social Complexity in Northeast China|author-link=Gideon Shelach-Lavi| last=Shelach |first=Gideon |page=89 | doi= 10.1007/0-306-47164-7_5 |isbn=978-0-306-47164-3 | publisher=Springer | year=2002}}</ref> site in northeast China. [[Sanxingdui]] located in what is now [[Sichuan]] is believed to be the site of a major ancient city, of a previously unknown Bronze Age culture (between 2000 and 1200&nbsp;BC). The site was first discovered in 1929 and then re-discovered in 1986. Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the [[state of Shu]], linking the artifacts found at the site to its early legendary kings.{{sfn|Bagley|1999|p=135}}<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Rawson |first=Jessica |title=New discoveries from the early dynasties |url=http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/new-discoveries-from-the-early-dynasties/91579.article |access-date=3 October 2013 |magazine=[[Times Higher Education]]}}</ref> The graves at Mogou revealed a high level of [[Prehistoric warfare|violence]] in the [[Qijia culture]].<ref>{{cite journal |title=Skeletal evidence for violent trauma from the bronze age Qijia culture (2,300-1,500 BCE), Gansu Province, China |journal=International Journal of Paleopathology |date=December 2019 |volume=27 |pages=66-79 |url=https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1879981718301712}}</ref>

{{anchor|Iron Age}}
[[Ferrous metallurgy]] begins to appear in the late 6th century in the [[Yangtze]] valley.<ref name="Higham">Higham, Charles. 1996. ''The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia''{{Page needed|date=November 2011}}</ref> A bronze hatchet with a blade of [[meteoric iron]] excavated near the city of [[Gaocheng District|Gaocheng]] in [[Shijiazhuang]] (now [[Hebei]]) has been dated to the 14th century&nbsp;BC. An Iron Age culture of the [[Tibetan Plateau]] has tentatively been associated with the [[Zhang Zhung culture]] described in early Tibetan writings.