Central Plain (China)

The Central Plain, or Zhongyuan or Chungyuan

(Chinese: ; pinyin: Zhngyun), refers to the area
on the lower reaches of the Yellow River which formed
the cradle of Chinese civilization. It forms part of the
North China Plain.
In its narrowest sense, the Central Plain covers modernday Henan, the southern part of Hebei, the southern part
of Shanxi, and the western part of Shandong province. A
broader interpretation of the Central Plain's extent would
add the Guanzhong plain of Shaanxi, the northwestern
part of Jiangsu, and parts of Anhui and northern Hubei.
Since the beginning of recorded history, the Central Plain
has been an important site for Chinese civilization.
In the pre-Qin era, present-day Luoyang and its nearby
areas were considered the Center of the World, as
the political seat of the Xia Dynasty was located around
Songshan and the Yi-Luo river basin.
Inscriptions on some bronze objects from this era contain references to the 'Central States' (Zhongguo), 'Eastern States', or 'Southern States'. This indicates that the
Central Plain, which was referred as the 'Central States'
in these inscriptions, was considered to occupy the center
of the world.
In a broader context, the term Zhongyuan refers to
Chinese civilization and China proper, regions directly
governed by centralized Chinese governments and dynasties. However, when used to describe the Chinese civilization, Zhongyuan often connotes Huaxia and Han Chinese cultural dominance.

See also
North China Plain
Yellow River Delta and Bohai Sea
Yangtze River Delta
Pearl River Delta

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