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Wen | strange talk about history
Editor|Weird Talk History
"Xia Shang and Western Zhou, Eastern Zhou in two paragraphs" In our familiar dynasty songs, this is the opening sentence. Why is the Xia Dynasty called a dynasty? That's because since the Xia Dynasty, the mainland has entered the stage of civilization, and the "Shiji", which has both historical research value and literary value, also lists the Xia Dynasty as the beginning of the historical dynasty on the mainland, and has been recognized by later generations.
However, as the first dynasty of China, the Xia Dynasty has troubled us for many years, why? Regarding the existence of the Xia Dynasty, many people expressed doubts. What kind of dynasty was the Xia Dynasty? Let's explore it today.
The basis on which Yu established the Xia Dynasty
The reason why everyone is puzzled by the history of the Xia Dynasty is not only that the historical books do not record the Xia Dynasty in detail, but also that even archaeological discoveries have plunged scholars into controversy and debate. The ancient book "Bamboo Book Chronicle" recorded, "From Yu to the seventeenth dynasty, there were kings and no kings, and the age was 471. This sentence explains that the Xia Dynasty experienced a total of 17 emperors from Dayu to Huan, a total of 471 years.
Dayu's image in the painting
However, archaeologists in the Xia Shang and Zhou dynasty project at the end of the last century, set the beginning year of the Xia Dynasty at about 2070 BC, more than 4000 years ago, the age is relatively old, which adds a certain difficulty to our archaeological research, but with the development of archaeological technology, this is not the main factor that leads to the obscuration of the deeds of the Xia Dynasty.
Through repeated study of historical materials, it was found that there was a written description of the Xia Dynasty in the Book of Shang, which recorded the story of Dayu and Shang Tang destroying Xia. However, there is no direct record of the Xia Dynasty in the book, but only a few mentions of Shang Tang's defeat of Xiyi Xia.
Later generations found through the study of the excavated oracle bones that merchants called their place of residence "Dayi Shang", and Dayi was the capital of Shang. From this, it can be inferred that "Xiyi" is a place located in the west of the capital of the Shang Dynasty, and this place is the capital of the Xia Dynasty.
Battle of Makino
This does not mean that Xia and Shang are on an equal footing. Historically, Shang Yuan was a tribe under the leadership of Xia, but when the Xia Dynasty passed to the throne, he was obsessed with beauty and implemented tyranny, which led Shang Tang to raise troops to overthrow it. Therefore, the regime of the Xia Dynasty basically formed the prototype of a country because it had a dependent state as a barrier.
So what is the basis for Dayu to establish the Xia Dynasty? The Book of Poetry is also an important document for studying the history of the Xia Dynasty. Among them, there are records of the founding of Dayu. The poem tells that after Dayu ruled the water, he established a country, but does not mention the name of the country.
The myth of Dayu governing water is not isolated, it has its own system. Before Dayu controlled the water, there were records of his father Cang's failure to control the water, and after the success of the Dayu water control, a series of political constructions related to Yu were also recorded, such as the meeting of the auditor, the Wind Clan, the Rentu tribute, the acceptance of Zen concessions, the establishment of the Xia Hou Kingdom, and so on.
Dayu cures water
It can be seen from this that Dayu's water control is only an integral part of Dayu becoming a co-master. Therefore, from the mythological point of view, the myths of Cang and Yu are related to the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, which is a sacred description of the origin of the dynastic system by the ancient Chinese.
In addition, on the Shuyi Bell in the Spring and Autumn Period, a history of Shang Tang's attack on the Xia Hou clan is also recorded. And in many pre-Qin literature, there are also sayings about the "Xia Hou clan", and the Xia Hou clan is Dayu. From this we can deduce that the fact that Dayu established a state is definite, but there is no record of the name of the country.
This may be related to Dayu's origins, who originally belonged to the Xia Hou clan, and later generations gave the country the name "Xia" in order to distinguish it from the later Shang and Zhou.
Shuyi bell inscription
It is also recorded in the "Shiji Xia Benji" that Dayu ascended to the throne, and the national name was Xiahou, and his surname was Ji. These records reveal that after a series of investigations, Dayu Zhishui naturally obtained Emperor Shun's concession, ascended the throne, and established the country as Xiahou. In this way, the regime established by the Xia Houguo obtained proof of legitimacy.
In addition, mythology is also a reference for our study of history. Among the historical materials found are legends that Dayu assisted Emperor Shun in establishing the country's political system. In ancient times (three emperors and five emperors), the country's political system was not perfect, but by Dayu some new systems were proposed, which were optimized to a certain extent.
For example, Dayu asked people to measure the land comprehensively. According to the "Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Overseas Eastern Classic", Dayu ordered his subordinates to measure the territory of the world. Not only that, Dayu learned about mountains, transportation, minerals and properties in the process of water control.
Map of the territory of the Xia Dynasty
According to the "Classic of Mountains and Seas and the Book of Zhongshan", Dayu made statistics on the mountains in China, and there were 5,370 famous mountains in the world, and the residence area was 64,56 li. The treasures in it can be used as the country's finances and lay the material foundation for the founding of the country.
Secondly, the heirloom documents and excavated documents also recount that Dayu established a unified political division and taxation system for Emperor Shun for the first time. There is a record in the Yugong that Dayu divided the Kyushu region based on the high mountains and rivers. In addition to dividing Kyushu, Dayu also established a tribute system based on local properties and land fertility. It is precisely because of these systems that there is a grand scene in "Yugong", where the country is prosperous and stable, and the outside world comes to congratulate all around.
However, the discovery of these documents still does not allow us to confirm with certainty that Dayu had completed geographical investigation and political system construction in the era of Emperor Shun. Therefore, we do not make a conclusion about the truth of this issue, but regard these contents as myths.
Ruins of Yuwangcheng
However, the description of the Sui Gong Lu of the Zhou Dynasty and the "Classic of Mountains and Seas" and "Yugong" can at least show that the Zhou people believed that Dayu laid the basic system for unifying the country. Because it has a unified geographical division, it establishes a reasonable tribute relationship between the Son of Heaven and the local princes. These systems not only ensured that the Son of Heaven controlled the world's various property resources, but also respected the interests of local princes.
The cultural superiority of Dayu's method of governing the country was also affirmed. This is much more perfect than the legendary state system of the earlier Five Emperors era. It is natural that after Dayu accepted Zen concessions, the "Xia Hou Kingdom" governed by him would largely follow these systems.
In addition to the discovery of these systems and cultural civilizations, for a long time, the so-called 400-year-old Xia Dynasty has not excavated any sites. We often say Yao Shunyu soup. Long before Yu, the legend of Yao appeared. And the ancient history and legend of Emperor Yao was stripped of myths and legends due to the discovery of the archaeology of the Tao Temple and the unearthing of the bamboo script Wen Yao, and the myths and legends became historical facts.
Excavation site of the Tao Temple site in 1984
However, regarding the relationship between Tao Temple and Emperor Yao, due to the lack of systematic evidence, it is not yet conclusive. However, whether from the perspective of time, space or unearthed cultural relics, the consistency between the Tao Temple and the Yao gear and cogging is relatively high, and the leader of the archaeological team of the Tao Temple site also summarized in very rigorous words that the Tao Temple site is the most likely to be the Yao capital Pingyang.
After the discovery of the Tao Temple site, many scholars speculate that in fact, Chinese civilization may have appeared earlier than we think of the Xia Dynasty. This speculation stems from the discovery of the Liangzhu civilization in the Jiangsu and Zhejiang areas of the mainland. And Liangzhu is an ancient city with a close relationship with the Xia Dynasty.
The Liangzhu site in Zhejiang has also been successfully applied, which also means that our country's civilized society has been internationally recognized, and it has also become a testimony to the existence of the Xia Dynasty. According to historical records, the Liangzhu civilization at that time was very prosperous, and all aspects of people's production and life were developed. But why did such a prosperous civilization suddenly disappear?
Zhejiang Liangzhu Cultural Site
The most recognized are the following two theories: First, there was a war between Liangzhu and the Xia Dynasty, and because of the defeat of the war, it was replaced by the regime and people of the Xia Dynasty. After the defeat, the people of Liangzhu had to relocate, thus causing the disappearance of civilization. Second, because the Liangzhu civilization suffered a huge flood disaster, and our archaeologists also found traces of water washing on the site during the exploration of the Liangzhu site. This also shows that the sudden disappearance of the Liangzhu civilization is most likely related to the flood disaster.
Mysterious ruins of the Xia Dynasty
The discovery of both the Yao Emperor site and the Liangzhu site confirms that the Chinese civilization already had some national organizational forms in an earlier historical stage. So why are the ruins of the Xia Dynasty so difficult to find?
Our scholars have found some clues related to the Xia Dynasty in the Erlitou culture of Henan Yanshi, which is somewhat similar to the Tao Temple site, all of which coincide with the time, space, and excavated cultural relics and documents.
Ritual artifacts unearthed from the Erlitou culture
It is confirmed that before the emergence of the Shang culture, there was another dynasty with a highly developed civilization in the Central Plains, but no historical materials directly related to the Xia Dynasty have been found in the Erlitou culture, such as self-evident writings. And the Erlitou site is far from reaching the length of the Xia Dynasty's reign in terms of time.
The Erlitou culture was divided into four phases in chronology, and experienced the transformation of tribes, palaces, handicraft workshops to bronze ceremonial musical instrument groups, and gradually expanded in scale. As a result, the Erlitou culture has shown signs of cross-regional integration. The so-called cross-regional integration shows that China is no longer a Neolithic era linked by blood, but a mature national society organized by administrative divisions.
The Erlitou culture is only as old as 1750 BC, and this time is less than two hundred years after the emergence of Zhengzhou Mall and Yanshi Mall. It can also be inferred from this that regardless of whether self-evident texts directly related to the Xia Dynasty have been unearthed in the Erlitou culture, they can only be regarded as sites in the middle and late Xia Dynasty.
Neolithic jade
Our archaeologists also define our Erlitou cultural site. And this also shows that the current materials can only prove half of the history of the Xia Dynasty, and the other half has not been found so far. So is there a possibility that the current mystery caused by the errors in historical books such as the "Bamboo Book Chronicle"?
Is it possible that the Xia Dynasty originally had only 200 years of national Zuo, and its founding date was originally around 1750 BC? If we extrapolate from this hypothesis, then there will be another series of knock-on effects. For example, Dayu's survival years have a time difference.
According to the records of Dayu in the literature, he and Yao Shun's contemporaries obtained the status of tribal leader from Emperor Shun by controlling floods, and we are also familiar with the story of Dayu's "three passes through the house without entering". And Yao Shun's survival date is obviously no later than around 1750 BC.
Shun Emperor image
In fact, archaeologists have also confirmed that the Taosi site declined in 2000 BC and became an ordinary settlement in 1900 BC, so there is a time difference of nearly 200 years between Taosi and Erlitou.
The second is evidence of the Great Flood. According to the demonstration of the phased research results of the Youth Program of the National Social Science Foundation, around 1900 BC, there was a catastrophe in early China, characterized by a sharp decline in population. From the Longshan period to the Erlitou era, the total number of settlements in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River plummeted from 1,669 to 180.
Archaeologists determined based on the flood traces left in the settlement that the culprit of this great change was the historical record of the flood. The time node of the Great Flood and the Erlitou cultural site also have a time difference of more than 100 years. Therefore, some scholars have tried to make up for this missing one or two hundred hours.
Tribal restoration during the Xia Dynasty
The Xinping culture and Henan Longshan culture before Erlitou are also counted as Xia culture, which extends the upper limit of the time limit of Xia culture to the end of Longshan culture around 1900 BC.
However, it cannot be ignored that the Erlitou culture was not directly developed from the Longshan culture, because archaeological discoveries have found that the lower-level daily pottery and small burial customs found in the Erlitou site come from the Longshan culture. The beard comes from the Longshan culture in southern Jinnan, and the symbols such as the character chen on the jade pottery bottle come from the Liangzhu culture.
These confirm that the Erlitou culture is created by different ethnic groups. And this also shows that Erlitou was the core capital of the Broad Region Dynasty at that time and the center of national civilization. So before 1750 BC, when the Erlitou culture rose, what was the scene of the Chinese land?
Yongsan cultural vessels
According to archaeological findings, in addition to the two super settlements of Tao Temple in southern Jinnan and Shiji in northern Shaanxi, the land of China is still full of ten thousand states. The vast majority of territorial organizations belong to chiefdoms, large and small. There was no dynasty as wide as the Erlitou culture.
Professor Xu Hong, a famous archaeologist, concluded in his work: In the 1200 years around 2000 BC, that is, the early Xia Dynasty, various groups in the Central Plains discovered by archaeology did not belong to each other and wars were frequent. Archaeology does not see the dynastic atmosphere corresponding to the handed down documents.
This also means that although Dayu Zhishui allowed him to obtain the status of tribal leader and lay the foundation of the family world, the regime he established still could not go beyond the model of chiefdom governance, and the Dayu regime was not fundamentally different from the world in the Yao Shun era, and what Dayu established was not a dynasty, but still a Fang state linked by the blood of the Xia Hou clan.
Ruins of Shiji in northern Shaanxi
So why do documents since the Zhou Dynasty refer to Dayu and Qi as the founders of the Xia Dynasty? That's because the Xia Dynasty was in a transitional period between state civilization and national civilization, and it was difficult to define its national attributes. However, Dayu has rightfully become the founder of dynasties in recorded history for his merits in water control, and has been respected by everyone. Therefore, when later generations trace the lineage of the Xia Dynasty, they will arrange them in order starting with Dayu for future research.