A History of East Asia From the Origins of Civilization to the Twenty-First Century

This chapter relates the legendary origins of the modern East Asian nations, and the importance of those legends to modern national identities. It then reconstructs the somewhat different story of the origins of Bronze Age civilization in East Asia based on the archeological evidence, starting in the Central Plain of what is today north China. As a fundamental feature, the languages of East Asia are discussed. This chapter argues that it was widespread shared regional use of the largely non-phonetic Chinese written characters, despite great linguistic diversity, that gave East Asia much of its cultural coherence and distinctiveness, as well as much shared vocabulary.