The myth of the opening of the sky and the earth

　　Our great motherland has a very long history. According to the ancient tradition, from the legendary Yellow Emperor to the present, there are about 4,000 years of history, which is usually called the "5,000 years of history".

　　In the 5,000 years of history, there are many moving and meaningful stories. Many of them have been written down. As for the ancient period before 5,000 years ago, there are no written records, but some myths and legends have been passed down.

　　For example, where did our human ancestors come from? In ancient times, there is a myth that Pan Gu opened up the world, saying that before the opening of heaven and earth, the universe is just a chaotic mass of gas, there is no light, no sound. At this time, out of a Pan Gu, with a large axe to this chaos split open. The light gas floated upward and became the sky; the heavy gas sank downward and became the earth.

　　After that, the sky was higher by one ten foot every day, the earth was thicker by one ten foot every day, and Pangu himself grew taller by one ten foot every day. So after 18,000 years, the sky is very high, very high, the ground is very thick, very thick, of course, Pan Gu's also became the top of the sky and the earth giant. Later, after Pangu's death, his body parts became the sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers, grass, and trees.

　　This is the myth of the opening of the sky and the earth.

　　After all, the myth is just a myth, and now no one will believe that there is such a thing. But people like this myth, when talking about history, often say from "Pan Gu opened up the world". This is because it symbolizes the greatness and rich creativity of mankind in conquering nature.

　　So, where should the history of mankind begin? Later, science developed, and the fossils excavated from the ground proved that the earliest human ancestor was an ape transformed from an ancient ape.

　　Our scientists have excavated many fossilized bones and relics of apes in various parts of our motherland, and we can see that the earliest primitive man in our motherland is more than one million years old. For example, the Yuanmou apes found in Yunnan are about 1.7 million years old; the Lantian apes unearthed in Shaanxi are about 800,000 years old; and the famous Beijing apes are 400,000 to 500,000 years old.

　　Here, we will start with Beijing apes. The Beijing apes lived in the area of Zhoukoudian. At that time, the climate in northern China was milder and wetter than now. There were woods, shrubs, and rich weeds growing up and down the mountains. Fierce tigers, leopards, wolves, bears, and other wild animals haunted the woods and mountains. Elephants, rhinoceros (yin xī) cattle, and plum deer also grew there.

　　Apes are not as strong as these fierce beasts, but what makes them fundamentally different from any animal is that apes can make and use tools. Such tools are very simple, one is a wooden stick, and one is a stone. Wooden sticks, in the woods, are abundant, but it is cut and sharpened by people; stone, is smashed by hand, although very rough, after all, is a human-made tool.

　　They are using such simple tools to collect fruits and dig the roots of plants to eat. They also use wooden sticks, and stone tools to fight with wild animals, and hunt for food.

　　But, after all, this tool is too rudimentary, their access to food is very limited, rely on the strength of a single person, and can not live on, so they had to live in group life, common labor, common against the beast attack. This kind of crowd is called the primitive crowd.

　　Hundreds of thousands of years have passed, and the apes have evolved in the hard struggle. In the cave at the top of Zhoukoudian Dragonbone Mountain in Beijing, the remains of another kind of primitive man were found. The appearance of this primitive man is no different from that of modern man. We call them "cavemen".