The Formation History of the Chinese People

Summary:：Modern Chinese people originated from Homo sapiens who migrated from Africa around 40,000 years ago. Northern and southern populations developed distinct genetic traits. Over time, northern groups expanded southward, while southern groups migrated to Southeast Asia and the Pacific, contributing to today's diverse Chinese population.

In 2017, researcher Fu Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences sequenced the genome of the Tianyuan Cave Man from Fangshan, Beijing, confirming that the ancestors of modern East Asians were already living in China as early as 40,000 years ago.

But this raises another question: what happened to the ancestors on Chinese soil from 40,000 years ago until now?

This question isn’t easy to answer. From the mythical era of the Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors to the documented history of China, there are still large gaps in our understanding of early Chinese history. Even a quick glance at the Twenty-Four Histories reveals the frequent migrations, intermarriages, and assimilation among ethnic groups in China. Before the advent of written history, it is likely that many similar events shaped the history and identity of modern Chinese people.

Is it possible to use biological research methods to help uncover China's prehistorical past?

In early 2021, several new studies provided fascinating insights.

On May 14, 2020, Fu Qiaomei published a paper in the journal  Science. Her team painstakingly gathered nearly 300 ancient human remains from the past 10,000 years, found in places like Shandong, Inner Mongolia, and Fujian, and successfully sequenced 26 complete genomes.

By comparing these genomes, scientists discovered that by 8,000 to 9,000 years ago, there were already distinct genetic differences between ancient northern and southern Chinese. The northern Chinese shared more genetic similarities with Siberians, while southern Chinese were closer to Austronesian people living in Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands.

Around the same time, our ancestors in northern China were domesticating millet, and those in the Yangtze River basin were cultivating rice, marking the start of agricultural productivity and population growth. This suggests that, perhaps 40,000 years ago, after humans migrated from Africa and spread across China, they settled near two major rivers, leading to the development of agriculture and distinctive genetic traits.

However, there was still ongoing genetic exchange between northern and southern populations. Scientists found southern genetic traits in ancient northern genomes and vice versa, demonstrating that over time, the genetic differences between modern northern and southern Chinese have become minimal.

What changes occurred in these two populations over the next few millennia?

Let’s first look at northern China. Fu Qiaomei’s research revealed that over the past few thousand years, northern Chinese genomes gradually migrated southward, largely replacing the genomes of the original southern populations. This suggests that ancient northern Chinese might have migrated south in large numbers, intermarrying and living alongside southern populations until they became one.

This finding has also been supported by further research. On February 22, 2021, Professor Wang Chuanchao of Xiamen University and Professor David Reich of Harvard University published a paper in Nature. Their team analyzed 166 genomes of ancestors from East Asia, dating between 1,000 and 8,000 years ago. One key conclusion was that Tibetans and Han Chinese share common northern ancestors.

About 5,000 years ago, ancestors living in the upper Yellow River region—today’s Gansu and Qinghai—became the forebears of both the Tibetan and Han peoples. As they expanded with their agricultural advancements, they spread westward to the Tibetan Plateau, becoming the ancestors of modern Tibetans, while also spreading eastward and southward to form today’s Han Chinese.

What about the original southern Chinese? They didn’t just disappear.

Fu’s research found that the genetic traits of ancient southern people, discovered on small islands along the Fujian coast (the so-called “Liangdao Man”), are abundant among the indigenous Taiwanese and Southeast Asian populations. This suggests that as northern Chinese moved south into the Yangtze and southern regions, ancient southern populations similarly migrated southeast, using Taiwan as a stepping stone to Southeast Asia and the Pacific.

This finding is further supported by Wang’s paper, which also identified another major migration direction. Some ancient southern Chinese migrated southwest, across the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau, becoming the ancestors of ethnic groups like the Dai and Zhuang people, and even further into the Indochina Peninsula.

In summary, the history of modern Chinese people stretches back at least 40,000 years, possibly even longer. Several key moments help us piece together this long history:

1. The First Phase: 50,000 to 10,000 years ago 

A group of Homo sapiens left Africa, likely following a path through the Middle East, India, and Southeast Asia into China, expanding northward by 40,000 years ago. Along the way, these ancestors likely intermingled with other human species, such as Neanderthals and Denisovans, leaving traces of their genes in modern humans.

2. The Second Phase: 10,000 years ago

Ancestors settled in the Yellow River and Yangtze River basins, domesticating crops and witnessing simultaneous surges in productivity and population. Northern people expanded to the Tibetan Plateau and throughout central China, while southern people either integrated with northern populations or migrated southeast and southwest to become the ancestors of Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders.

3. The Third Phase: 3,000 to 4,000 years ago 

With the advent of written records, China entered its historical era. By 841 BCE, the Republic of Western Zhou began the first exact dating in Chinese history. From this point onward, Chinese collective memory has remained uninterrupted.

As this description shows, many questions remain about the formation of modern Chinese people. For instance, what occurred between 40,000 years ago, when Homo sapiens first settled in East Asia, and 10,000 years ago, when northern and southern populations diverged? What caused the ancestors to move from south to north, then north to south, and even further? These questions regarding our origins await further research.