Shang Dynasty Chinese spoke a Hmong-Mien

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hmong-Mien_languages

"The Han Chinese seem to have been restricted to the upper Yellow River valley during the Zhou dynasty. They may have been recent immigrants there; if so, it is debated who the rice-farming people of the Shang dynasty were. One possibility is Hmong-Mien; there is some circumstantial evidence that they may have been the originators of rice agriculture[1], although of course the Shang may not have left any linguistic descendants. Indeed, Chinese legend portrays Hmong-Mien people as being one of the founders of China. Japanese excavations of early "Chinese" cities such as Pengtoushan have found evidence that these may have been ethnically Hmong-Mien; one line of argument is palynologic evidence of Liquidambar, which is used for 'spirit posts' in Hmong-Mien villages.

If Hmong-Mien was once this widespread, most of the diversity has been lost. The current languages would be the only branch of that family to have survived, as if the Indoeuropean languages were represented today only by Celtic."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shang_dynasty

This article also says that the toppling of The Shang dynasty by the Zhou was associated with a migration. This begs the question of where Old Chinese, and Sino-Tibetan languages as a whole originated. Did the Zhou come from Tibet?

1-Were there entity called Han-Chinese during the Zhou dynasty? Its developed after the Han dynasty.

2-Since the Zhou people had already established the Zhou dynasty as its the overlord of all other vassal states of China.

How could they be restricted to upper yellow river valley, since they are in Zhou dynasty, their own time?

Its where their early centre, they moved to central plain during its second kings time.

misconceptions, confusions in this statement.

what has originator of rice agriculture to do with the Shang, simply because the Shang had rice farming? then what about other important farming crops the Shang produced? The Shang centred in Henan province of middle reach of yellow river,in the north along the yellow river cultures, they developed their agriculture mainly based on grain,millet etc, which were crops more adapted to the yellow river environment of northern China.

often called "grain culture", as compared to "rice culture" which was developed by the cultures along the Yangtze river to the south. clearly, author of this article seem not aware of such difference.

Then if one can speculate Shang's identity by their farming crops, then one need to as least incorporate aspect of the "grain culture" of the north.

if the Shang was a Hmong-mien speaking community, then why todays Miao and Yao ethnic groups of China(and beyond) are not the linguistic descendants of the Shang? this is contradictory statement as its contradictory to say "Han-Chinese were restricted.... during Zhou". misconceptions, and confusions.

What does this fact has to do with identity of Shang people? accepting early Hong-mien people's contribution to Chinese culture is one thing, but claim Shang dynasty is Hong-mien is another. Does accepting the former make the later an affirmative?

by Japanese excavations?

It should be "Chengtoushan", not "pengtoushan", which is dated 4000bc-2800bc.

the Miao people believe they are descendants of ChiYou group which occupied middle reaches of Yellow river. they migrated to middle reaches of yangtze river after defeats by Huang-Yan alliance.

"chengtoushan" site is in Hunan province, to the south of middle reaches of Yangtze river, but Shang dynasty site are in Henan province(middle reaches of yellow river), how does chengtoushan might be Hong-mien prove that Shang were Hong-mien? because chengtoushan has earliest evidence of rice farming activities? and Shang had rice production as well?

Zhou originated in ShannXi province. How can one assume Zhou without even know zhou history?

Obviously, whoever wrote this article neglected existence of Xia dynasty who became first kingdom in the central plain(Henan province, erlitou site believed to be Xia centre), if one intends to restricted Han-Chinese to upper yellow river valley in order to make argument Shang was Hmong-mien then what would be the impact or place of Xia dynasty? Its founder Yu was descendants of Huangdi, whom Han-Chinese regard as ancestor.

MiaoDiGou type of YangShao culture already spread to much of northern and central China, its influence reached westwards to GanSu province, northwards to inner-mongolia, north-eastwards to Liaoning, eastwards to Henan, southwards to middle reaches of yangtze river. 

what would be the impact of YangShao, especially MiaoDiGou type culture? 

Now, besides Shang, one needs to argue both MiaoDiGou and Xia dynasty were Hmong-mien speaking people, if it was indeed that widespread, Which nevertheless remain as an option.(in other words, "room for speculation")

But claim MiaoDiGou or Xia was ethnically Hmong-mien would be conflicting with both Miao and Han-Chinese legends and records.