ASIATIC civilization is the product of “Mesopotamias”, of great alluvial plains where the natural fertility of the soil stimulated man’s agricultural vocation. Such was the case of Babylon in western Asia; such is the case of the “Central Plain” of China in eastern Asia.…In the same way that Egypt, according to Herodotus, is a “gift of the Nile”, the Central Plain is a gift of the Yellow River and its tributaries.