Abstract: Yan and Huang are the ancestors of Chinese culture, which is the consensus formed in the development of Chinese culture for thousands of years. All kinds of things and events in the Yan and Huang periods recorded in ancient Chinese documents mostly belong to the period from the beginning of humanism to the formation of China's state. According to archaeological findings, research results and literature records, Shennong and Yan emperor belong to two historical periods. Yan emperor period (in a narrow sense) is equivalent to the period from 4000 BC to 3000 BC, which is the origin stage of Chinese civilization. Huang emperor period (the five emperors period) is equivalent to the period from 3500 BC to 2000 BC revealed by archaeology. It can be divided into three periods in the formation of Chinese civilization: the early, middle and late periods, which respectively refer to Huang emperor period, Zhuanxu and Ku emperor period, and Tang-Yao and Yu-Shun emperor period. As for the formation process of Chinese civilization, firstly, there was no "crown" or "ancient civilization" in small areas; secondly, there was a certain "kingship", but still lack of effective management mechanism, which was still the "kingdom of ancient civilization" with the characteristics of small areas; the state management system of "kingdom of civilization" was eventually formed with the core possessing characteristics of central plains culture, and the characteristics of the kingship and the royal family, which has a preliminary comprehensive social management system. "Hongshan civilization", "Liangzhu civilization" and "Taosi civilization" are respectively the representatives in the three periods of Chinese civilization formation.