Journey through the birth of dynastic China By Bai Shuhao and Zhou Lihua | chinadaily.com.cn | Updated: 2026-06-29 14:34

https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202606/29/WS6a4211dfa310986e2b46275f.html Rare relics reveal how kingdoms united distant communities with ritual and belief, Bai Shuhao and Zhou Lihua report in Wuhan, Hubei. On an ordinary day more than 3,000 years ago, a diviner posed a question to the gods: Would it not rain? The answer came in the cracks of a turtle shell. At the time, the land that is now China was warmer and wetter than it is today, rich with rainfall and fertile soil. But the question inscribed on that oracle bone — No rain? — betrayed a deeper anxiety.