Editing Han Chinese (section)

=== Genetic continuity between ancient and modern Han Chinese ===
The Hengbei archaeological site in Jiang County, southern Shanxi was part of the suburbs of the capital during the Zhou dynasty. Genetic material from human remains in Hengbei have been used to examine the genetic continuity between ancient and modern Han Chinese.<ref name="HC" />

Comparisons of Y chromosome [[single-nucleotide polymorphism]]s (SNPs) and [[mitochondrial DNA]] (mtDNA) between modern northern Han Chinese and 3000-year-old Hengbei samples reveal extreme similarity, confirming genetic continuity between ancient Hengbei inhabitants to present-day northern Han Chinese. This shows that the core genetic structure of Northern Han Chinese was established more than three thousand years ago in the Central Plains Area.<ref name="HC" /><ref>[[Genographic Project#Geno 2.0 Next Generation|Reference Populations - Geno 2.0 Next Generation]]. (2017). [[Genographic Project|The Genographic Project]]. Retrieved 15 May 2017, from [https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations-next-gen/ link.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170207031612/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/reference-populations-next-gen//|date=7 February 2017}}</ref> Additionally, these studies indicate that contemporary northern and southern Han Chinese populations exhibit an almost identical Y-DNA genetic structure, indicating a common paternal descent, corroborating the historical record of Han Chinese migration to the south.<ref name="HC" /> However, a study of [[mitochondrial DNA]] from Yinxu commoner graves in the [[Shang dynasty]] showed similarity with modern northern Han Chinese, but significant differences from southern Han Chinese - indicating admixture on the matriline.<ref>{{Cite conference |last1=Zeng |first1=Wen |last2=Li |first2=Jiawei |last3=Yue |first3=Hongbin |last4=Zhou |first4=Hui |last5=Zhu |first5=Hong |year=2013 |title=Poster: Preliminary Research on Hereditary Features of Yinxu Population |url=https://www.academia.edu/5297877 |conference=82nd Annual Meeting of the American Association of Physical Anthropologists}}</ref>

About 2,000 years ago, between the Warring States period and Eastern Han dynasty, the northeast coastlines of China faced an eastward migration from the Central Plains, shaping the genetic structure of local populations to the present. These populations also have more southern East Asian ancestry compared to their predecessors.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Wang |first1=Baitong |last2=Hao |first2=Daohua |last3=Xu |first3=Yu |last4=Jin |first4=Li |date=2024 |title=Population expansion from central plain to northern coastal China inferred from ancient human genomes |journal=iScience |volume=27 |issue=12 |doi=10.1016/j.isci.2024.111405 |pmid=39697594 |pmc=11652891 }}</ref>