一般上古时代是指文字记载出现以前的历史时代。对世界各地上古时代的定义也因此不同。在中国上古时代一般指夏以前的时代。在两河流域和埃及一般指公元前5000年以前的历史时代。因为上古时代没有当时直接的文字记载，那个时候发生的事件或人物一般无法直接考证。这些事件和人物也往往带有神话色彩。
中国上古时代传说的帝王有：炎帝，黄帝，少昊，颛顼，帝喾，帝挚，尧和舜。

上古八大姓是指姜、姬、姚、嬴、姒、妘、妊、妫。姓，源于母系社会，同一个姓表示同一个母系的血缘关系。因此，上古八大姓，都从“女”旁，表示这是一些不同的老祖母传下的氏族人群。另一说法是：姬、姜、妫、姒、嬴、姞、妘、姚。

起源

嬴，起源于少昊金天氏。
姜，起源于炎帝神农氏。
姬、姞同源，都是起源于黄帝轩辕氏。
妫、姚同源，都是起源于帝舜。
姒，起源于大禹。
妘，起源于帝喾高辛氏。

Neolithic times

The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to between 12,000 and 10,000 BC.^[7] Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BC.^[8] The Peiligang culture of Xinzheng county, Henan was excavated in 1977.^[9] With agriculture came increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and administrators.^[10] In late Neolithic times, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a cultural center, where the first villages were founded; the most archaeologically significant of those was found at Banpo, Xi'an.^[11] The Yellow River was so named because of loess forming its banks gave a yellowish tint to the water.^[12]
The early history of China is made obscure by the lack of written documents from this period, coupled with the existence of accounts written during later time periods that attempted to describe events that had occurred several centuries previously. In a sense, the problem stems from centuries of introspection on the part of the Chinese people, which has blurred the distinction between fact and fiction in regards to this early history.
By 7000 BC, the Chinese were farming millet, giving rise to the Jiahu culture. At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000-5000 BC have been discovered "featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods and scenes of hunting or grazing." These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese.^[13]^[14] Later Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture around 2500 BC.

List of Neolithic cultures of China

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The Neolithic
↑ Mesolithic
Europe Boian culture Cernavodă culture Coțofeni culture Cucuteni-Trypillian culture Dudeşti culture Gorneşti culture Gumelniţa–Karanovo culture Hamangia culture Linear Pottery culture Malta Temples Petreşti culture Sesklo culture Tisza culture Tiszapolgár culture Usatovo culture Varna culture Vinča culture Vučedol culture Neolithic Transylvania Neolithic Southeastern Europe China Tibet Korea South Asia Mehrgarh
farming, animal husbandry pottery, metallurgy, wheel circular ditches, henges, megaliths Neolithic religion
↓ Chalcolithic

This is a list of Neolithic cultures of China that have been discovered by archaeologists. They are sorted in chronological order from the earliest founding to the latest and are followed by a schematic visualization of these cultures.