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Science
The climate theory casting new light on the history of Chinese civilisation
Stephen Chen
Published: 1:30am, 24 Sep, 2019
Geologists compare plant and lake bed data to ancient written records to try to explain ups and downs in Chinese civilisation. Photo: Alamy
Scientists say they have found evidence beneath a lake in northeastern China that ties climate change and 500-year
sun cycles
to ups and downs in the 8,000 years of Chinese civilisation.
According to the study by a team at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing published in the science journal Nature Communications this month, whenever the climate warmed, Chinese civilisation prospered and when it cooled, it declined.
While historians have used various social and economic factors to explain changes over the millennia, Dr Xu Deke, lead author of the paper, and his colleagues said that while people played their part, their study indicated that cycles in solar activity influenced human activity.
“We just point out there is a natural constraint on human efforts,” Xu said.
Previous research linking Chinese history to climate relied on written records, but ancient texts contained only subjective descriptions of weather and social development. The records also go back only so far – writing in China was not invented until 3,600 years ago.
For this latest study, the team and its leader, Chinese Academy of Sciences professor Lu Houyuan, took plant and lake bed sediment samples to track climate change over the centuries and compared them with written records
They visited Lake Xiaolongwan in the Changbai Mountains in Jilin province and studied the spread of plant life such as oak trees to map the transitions between warm and cold climate phases in northern China.
By comparing the records and their research, the scientists found that the warmer the climate, the more prosperous the civilisation in terms of grain cultivation, animal domestication and human settlement.
Scientists say they have found evidence beneath a lake in northeastern China that ties climate change and 500-year
sun cycles
to ups and downs in the 8,000 years of Chinese civilisation.
According to the study by a team at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing published in the science journal Nature Communications this month, whenever the climate warmed, Chinese civilisation prospered and when it cooled, it declined.
While historians have used various social and economic factors to explain changes over the millennia, Dr Xu Deke, lead author of the paper, and his colleagues said that while people played their part, their study indicated that cycles in solar activity influenced human activity.
“We just point out there is a natural constraint on human efforts,” Xu said.
Dr Liu Yonggang, a Peking University scientist who studies ancient climate, said the researchers had provided important new information and perspectives.
Human societies have gone through temperature cycles such as the Medieval Warm Period (900- 1300) and Little Ice Age (1300-1870) Liu said, but most of that data came from Europe, not China.
The study left one big question. “Why do the sun’s activities vary every 500 years? Nobody can explain,” he said.
“We need to know more about the inner working mechanism of the sun, otherwise the future remains unpredictable.”
The climate theory casting new light on the history of Chinese civilisation
- Researchers say that when 500-year-long sun cycles brought warmth, communities flourished, but when the Earth cooled, ancient societies collapsed
Stephen Chen
Published: 1:30am, 24 Sep, 2019
Geologists compare plant and lake bed data to ancient written records to try to explain ups and downs in Chinese civilisation. Photo: Alamy
Scientists say they have found evidence beneath a lake in northeastern China that ties climate change and 500-year
sun cycles
to ups and downs in the 8,000 years of Chinese civilisation.
According to the study by a team at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing published in the science journal Nature Communications this month, whenever the climate warmed, Chinese civilisation prospered and when it cooled, it declined.
While historians have used various social and economic factors to explain changes over the millennia, Dr Xu Deke, lead author of the paper, and his colleagues said that while people played their part, their study indicated that cycles in solar activity influenced human activity.
“We just point out there is a natural constraint on human efforts,” Xu said.
Previous research linking Chinese history to climate relied on written records, but ancient texts contained only subjective descriptions of weather and social development. The records also go back only so far – writing in China was not invented until 3,600 years ago.
For this latest study, the team and its leader, Chinese Academy of Sciences professor Lu Houyuan, took plant and lake bed sediment samples to track climate change over the centuries and compared them with written records
They visited Lake Xiaolongwan in the Changbai Mountains in Jilin province and studied the spread of plant life such as oak trees to map the transitions between warm and cold climate phases in northern China.
By comparing the records and their research, the scientists found that the warmer the climate, the more prosperous the civilisation in terms of grain cultivation, animal domestication and human settlement.
Scientists say they have found evidence beneath a lake in northeastern China that ties climate change and 500-year
sun cycles
to ups and downs in the 8,000 years of Chinese civilisation.
According to the study by a team at the Institute of Geology and Geophysics in Beijing published in the science journal Nature Communications this month, whenever the climate warmed, Chinese civilisation prospered and when it cooled, it declined.
While historians have used various social and economic factors to explain changes over the millennia, Dr Xu Deke, lead author of the paper, and his colleagues said that while people played their part, their study indicated that cycles in solar activity influenced human activity.
“We just point out there is a natural constraint on human efforts,” Xu said.
Dr Liu Yonggang, a Peking University scientist who studies ancient climate, said the researchers had provided important new information and perspectives.
Human societies have gone through temperature cycles such as the Medieval Warm Period (900- 1300) and Little Ice Age (1300-1870) Liu said, but most of that data came from Europe, not China.
The study left one big question. “Why do the sun’s activities vary every 500 years? Nobody can explain,” he said.
“We need to know more about the inner working mechanism of the sun, otherwise the future remains unpredictable.”
