It's interesting to note how some great civilizations develop along a major river valley. China also seemed to find cohesion around the Yellow River Valley.

Sometime around 4000 BC, agriculture began around the southern bend of the Yellow River. Populations sowed millet, but sometime later, the Chinese began cultivating rice to the south, near the Huai River. These were a Neolithic, tribal people who used stone tools. We know also that they domesticated animals very early on, but they still continued as a hunter society as well. We know almost nothing about them for there are no records. Tribal warfare was common and that they may have had some form of ancestor worship, but these are mere guesses.

However, in the Chinese version of history, all begins with three legendary individuals who taught the Chinese the arts of civilization (around 2800-2600 BC):

Fu Hsi, the inventor of writing, hunting, trapping, and fishing;

Shen Nung, the inventor of agriculture and mercantilism;

Yellow Emperor (around 2700 BC), who invented government and Taoist philosophy.

The Three Cultural Heroes were followed by the Three Sage Kings:

Yao (around 2350 BC), Shun (around 2250 BC), and Yu (rule began in 2205 BC).

According to history (or to the legend) these Sage Kings ruled with perfect wisdom, clarity, and virtue. In the Chinese model of history, human events follow discernible cycles in which times of great virtue and wisdom are followed by times of decadence and decline (it looks somewhat similar to Hindu system of thought). Still, Chinese historians believed the Sage Kings rule was the most virtuous time in Chinese history.